That's stopping at the antithesis step though. Those haven't fully evolved into synthesizing the two into a coherent mature outlook.
US Politics
- Thread starter Nick 0208 Ldn
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That's stopping at the antithesis step though. Those haven't fully evolved into synthesizing the two into a coherent mature outlook.
Wasn't there a racism thread? Anyway:
The racism thread was moved to the general.
Russian-Style Kleptocracy Is Infiltrating America
When the USSR collapsed, Washington bet on the global spread of democratic capitalist values—and lost.
"In the dying days of the USSR, Palmer had watched as his old adversaries in Soviet intelligence shoveled billions from the state treasury into private accounts across Europe and the US. It was one of history’s greatest heists.
Washington told itself a comforting story that minimized the importance of this outbreak of kleptomania: These were criminal outliers and rogue profiteers rushing to exploit the weakness of the new state...
The collapse of communism in the other post-Soviet states, along with China’s turn toward capitalism, only added to the kleptocratic fortunes that were hustled abroad for secret safekeeping. Officials around the world have always looted their countries’ coffers and accumulated bribes. But the globalization of banking made the export of their ill-gotten money far more convenient than it had been—which, of course, inspired more theft. By one estimate, more than $1 trillion now exits the world’s developing countries each year in the forms of laundered money and evaded taxes.
As in the Russian case, much of this plundered wealth finds its way to the United States. New York, Los Angeles, and Miami have joined London as the world’s most desired destinations for laundered money. This boom has enriched the American elites who have enabled it—and it has degraded the nation’s political and social mores in the process. While everyone else was heralding an emergent globalist world that would take on the best values of America, Palmer had glimpsed the dire risk of the opposite: that the values of the kleptocrats would become America’s own. This grim vision is now nearing fruition.
The contagion has spread remarkably quickly, which is not to say steadily, in a country haunted since its founding by the perils of corruption.
But nestled in the Patriot Act lay the handiwork of another industry’s lobbyists. Every House district in the country has real estate, and lobbyists for that business had pleaded for relief from the patriot Act’s monitoring of dubious foreign transactions."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/
When the USSR collapsed, Washington bet on the global spread of democratic capitalist values—and lost.
"In the dying days of the USSR, Palmer had watched as his old adversaries in Soviet intelligence shoveled billions from the state treasury into private accounts across Europe and the US. It was one of history’s greatest heists.
Washington told itself a comforting story that minimized the importance of this outbreak of kleptomania: These were criminal outliers and rogue profiteers rushing to exploit the weakness of the new state...
The collapse of communism in the other post-Soviet states, along with China’s turn toward capitalism, only added to the kleptocratic fortunes that were hustled abroad for secret safekeeping. Officials around the world have always looted their countries’ coffers and accumulated bribes. But the globalization of banking made the export of their ill-gotten money far more convenient than it had been—which, of course, inspired more theft. By one estimate, more than $1 trillion now exits the world’s developing countries each year in the forms of laundered money and evaded taxes.
As in the Russian case, much of this plundered wealth finds its way to the United States. New York, Los Angeles, and Miami have joined London as the world’s most desired destinations for laundered money. This boom has enriched the American elites who have enabled it—and it has degraded the nation’s political and social mores in the process. While everyone else was heralding an emergent globalist world that would take on the best values of America, Palmer had glimpsed the dire risk of the opposite: that the values of the kleptocrats would become America’s own. This grim vision is now nearing fruition.
The contagion has spread remarkably quickly, which is not to say steadily, in a country haunted since its founding by the perils of corruption.
But nestled in the Patriot Act lay the handiwork of another industry’s lobbyists. Every House district in the country has real estate, and lobbyists for that business had pleaded for relief from the patriot Act’s monitoring of dubious foreign transactions."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/
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When you think about it, America isn't much different.
Knew someone would bite.
The richest 0.00025 percent owns more wealth than bottom 150 million Americans
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/ri...ns-wealth-bottom-150-million-americans-study/
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/ri...ns-wealth-bottom-150-million-americans-study/
Clearly it's because they've earned all that money by working harder than everyone else. They didn't rely on anyone or government benefits to get to that point.
the term merit, from a semantic pov, probably goes beyond 'working hard' which means your first sentence could be countered easily (e.g. 'they work smarter'). not that i would disagree with the notion that inequality got out of control though.
Oh I'm just talking a bit of shit. There's no chance they worked 10,000% harder or whatever the number is when comparing income. Smarter? That depends on how you categorize that. To me, the real smart ones are the ones making scientific discoveries and breakthroughs, yet being a scientist is not a billion dollar profession. It takes hoards of working class folks and the ideas of many people for someone to become that rich. Everyone plays a part. They deserve more than just a fecking "job".
if poors were smart they'd be born rich
It's a good thing that he was not wearing a tanned suite while saluting. Their heads would have exploded.
This season of SNL is incredibly dull tbh.
God that was unfunny.
Anytime I see an SNL skit I wonder how is that popular over in America.
no one under 30 watches snl
Pelosi condemns Rep. Ilhan Omar for ‘anti-Semitic tropes’
Can't see what is wrong in what she as said.
Can't see what is wrong in what she as said.
I'm not sure but I think it's considered anti-semitic to suggest Jewish people are rich or engage in corruption or something like that.
this is one of the most insane controversies in recent memory. everyone who is mad at her is a bad person
look at the comments on the apology she just posted. theres no point in even apologizing. dont give in to these people
They may well be bots.
@Red Defence posted this in the Trump thread but could well be relevant here:
She didn’t even criticize Jewish people. She criticized Israel, and by that, the government of Israel. And she was completely right too. Pelosi is just bent over for those cnuts.
What's Really Driving the Latest Attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar
"It should be pointed out that Rep. Omar has been relentlessly hazed because she is a Somali Muslim and critical of Israeli policy toward their Palestinian semi-chattel. One of her critics is close to the hate figure Frank Gaffney, purveyor of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories of the sort the Nazis used to circulate about Jews.
The critic who provoked the Benjamins tweet, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, ironically charged that Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and Tom Steyer, prominent wealthy Jewish-Americans, were trying to “buy” the election.
That charge really is anti-Semitic since he is attacking them on no other grounds than that they are Jewish. A critique of Israel West Bank policy on the other hand is no more anti-Semitic than a criticism of Nigeria is anti-Black.
She may be wrong about the motives of some of her opponents. The anti-Palestinian politicians in the United States may have come by their determination to keep millions of displaced people stateless and without basic human rights honestly. That is, many may just be racists who believe that brown people should be kept down.
Nor should consideration of the Israel lobbies only focus on money. Their propaganda techniques, for instance of equating any criticism of Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank to terrorism, are also extremely effective.
But it certainly is the case that many American politicians are funded by the Israel lobbies, coordinated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the shocked protests to the contrary by the Washington elite are disingenuous or propaganda."
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-crucial-caveat-to-ilhan-omars-comments-about-israel/
"It should be pointed out that Rep. Omar has been relentlessly hazed because she is a Somali Muslim and critical of Israeli policy toward their Palestinian semi-chattel. One of her critics is close to the hate figure Frank Gaffney, purveyor of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories of the sort the Nazis used to circulate about Jews.
The critic who provoked the Benjamins tweet, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, ironically charged that Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and Tom Steyer, prominent wealthy Jewish-Americans, were trying to “buy” the election.
That charge really is anti-Semitic since he is attacking them on no other grounds than that they are Jewish. A critique of Israel West Bank policy on the other hand is no more anti-Semitic than a criticism of Nigeria is anti-Black.
She may be wrong about the motives of some of her opponents. The anti-Palestinian politicians in the United States may have come by their determination to keep millions of displaced people stateless and without basic human rights honestly. That is, many may just be racists who believe that brown people should be kept down.
Nor should consideration of the Israel lobbies only focus on money. Their propaganda techniques, for instance of equating any criticism of Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank to terrorism, are also extremely effective.
But it certainly is the case that many American politicians are funded by the Israel lobbies, coordinated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the shocked protests to the contrary by the Washington elite are disingenuous or propaganda."
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-crucial-caveat-to-ilhan-omars-comments-about-israel/
I think it's a tricky one because legitimate, fair criticisms of the Israeli state can often quickly devolve into anti-semitic nonsense with the usual tropes regarding money etc being brought out.
But it's patently mental for anyone to think that simply criticising Israel's influence on the US, and that citing that this might be down to, err, money, is somehow anti-semitic. Lobbying is a thing and it's fairly obvious that those with pro-Israel views are going to want to gain the favour of the world's most prominent superpower. And if you are alleging corruption, then there's a fairly decent chance money is going to be involved. Considering most corruption tends to be, in some way, financial.
Politicans need to stay offline, it doesn't help them at all.
It helped AOC. In fact it made her.
Yeah I guess your right although I'm in the minority that more she tweets the more I get a meh about her.
AOC seems smart (from the little I've seen of her). On this issue at least, Omar doesn't. There are thoughtful, nuanced ways to go about criticizing the role of AIPAC in helping to shape American foreign policy in that part of the world, but a blunt reflexive reference to "the benjamins" isn't it. With her previous comment on how Israel "hypnotized the world" she's leaving herself open to the attack-dogs from the opposing party.
Mostly her own party, actually. 2 heavily circulated ones being from Pelosi/rest of the leadership and Chelsea Clinton.
Sure, the Democrats are heavily divided over this issue, which of course plays into the others' hands.
I wouldn't say divided. Pelosi's letter was co-signed by the entire House leadership. In the senate, half the Dem senators including their leader voted for a bill that criminalises support for BDS (ignoring the first amendment implications).
I'd say there's a small pro-Palestine wing (Sanders and Feinstein, maybe Warren and Merkley in the senate and a handful in the house) and a dominant consensus pro-Israel.
I was thinking more in terms of the general public who identify with the Democrats - polls show them split roughly 50-50 on the question of sympathy for Israel, in (ever-growing) sharp contrast with Republicans. This will surely be reflected more and more in the party's representatives in the coming years. So making Israel - a topic that most Americans probably aren't particularly passionate about relative to the major domestic issues - a major 'issue' seems a cost-free way for Republicans to have their rivals at each others' throats.
AOC it seems has pretty much given up on foreign policy after the her "I'm not the expert on geo politics" when talking about Israil and Palestine which could be said to be a smart move but does feck help to the Palestines and the idea of international solidarity. Which ok is fine for a liberal like Warren but for a socialist its bad politics.
You're right about the base, though the Democratic party is excellent at not responding to a changing base.
I'm not sure how much it will be relevant in actual elections as a way for the Republicans to corner free wins- Dems can probably get enough momentum to primary Omar who is the perfect target* for this, but probably not much beyond that. Most other Dems have scrambled to condemn her, and even though the base is changing I don't think people care enough. For example Kamala Harris is very pro-Israel, right from childhood, including off-the-record AIPAC speeches and support for Netanyahu, and I don't think it's been an issue for her one bit. There'll be some noise when they make the official 2020 platform, that's about it.
*newly elected, somewhat left of the party mainstream on economic issues, visibly Muslim, and bad language in the past.
Also did people learn nothing from Trump. Never never apologise because within 2 weeks everyone will have forgotten.