America - The Official Thread

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Not being a butthead here.
I treat my 4 cats and 1 dog as family. I love them incredibly.
I also brush my dogs teeth 2-3 times a week. It does the same good for his oral health as it does for yours or mine. Less trips to the dentist is good right?

I 1000% agree that it is a horrible situation. My heart is deeply saddened for all those children.
 
Bouncing around YouTube last night I came across this video clip that is almost shocking in its affirmation of the dignity & grace that can be found in American political life. How very, very far the United States has fallen in a few short years under the toxic leadership of Donald Trump.

 
Biggles
Bouncing around YouTube last night I came across this video clip that is almost shocking in its affirmation of the dignity & grace that can be found in American political life. How very, very far the United States has fallen in a few short years under the toxic leadership of Donald Trump.

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A lot of people didn't like the man, but Obama was the best President we have had in a while. And he is far more of a man than Trump will ever be.
 
Jan 15th:
Washington Post
Democrats this week demanded a full investigation into whether Republican House members assisted rioters in the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, fueled in part by claims that at least one GOP lawmaker gave “reconnaissance” tours to groups the day before the attack.

On Thursday, one Republican lawmaker came out swinging to deny any involvement in that incident, although no Democrats have publicly named her. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a gun rights advocate with links to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, said the allegations have been falsely linked to her, leading to “death threats and hundreds of vile phone calls and emails.”

“You said that you could ‘confirm’ a Member of Congress gave Capitol tours to ‘insurrectionists’ and implied I was that Member of Congress,” Boebert wrote in a letter to Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), referencing an interview he gave MSNBC earlier this week. “Your comments are extremely offensive, shameful and dangerous.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/15/maloney-boebert-capitol-tour-riot/


HelplessOldfashionedAbyssiniangroundhornbill-size_restricted.gif



When you have supporters like Jenna Ryan, & a legislator in Derrick Evans who openly name themselves about illegally being inside the Capitol, I guess it's not surprising if Boebert is also dumb enough to attract a target to her back.
 
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Dotini
Dumb question: Why did the recent attempted insurrection at the Capitol not succeed?
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Simple answer:
Because they thought they could just walk in, and stop things...


Scary answer:
Had they better prepared themselves, it wouldn't have failed because trump ordered the military and the police to stay away and to allow them in....
 
R1600Turbo
A lot of people didn't like the man, but Obama was the best President we have had in a while. And he is far more of a man than Trump will ever be.
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Well, it's true that "a lot of people didn't like the man" ... they're the same people who voted for Trump. A less partisan view of Obama might be reflected in his reception, by all political factions in the Canadian parliament in 2016.

 
Biggles
Well, it's true that "a lot of people didn't like the man" ... they're the same people who voted for Trump. A less partisan view of Obama might be reflected in his reception, by all political factions in the Canadian parliament in 2016.

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While it isn't a stretch to assume a large number of those who voted for Trump didn't like Obama, it is a stretch to say that those who didn't like Obama voted for Trump. I'd wager plenty of those who didn't like policies implemented by and acts perpetrated by the Obama administration would never vote for Trump, indeed I'm one of them. I voted for Obama once and not a second time, not because I didn't think my vote for him mattered but because I wouldn't like myself if I did.

Was Obama well-spoken and generally respectful? Absolutely. Was he better than Trump? Yeah, though that's a spectacularly low bar. Are these the only things that matter? Uh...no.
 
I didn't vote for Obama, I didn't like how he perpetuated war in the Middle East. I sure as hell didn't vote for Trump either.

Was Obama a good president? Hard to say. In comparison to Trump, sure he was an excellent president but overall I'm not sure he was the greatest. I'd still take him over Trump though.
 
Joey D
I didn't vote for Obama, I didn't like how he perpetuated war in the Middle East. I sure as hell didn't vote for Trump either.

Was Obama a good president? Hard to say. In comparison to Trump, sure he was an excellent president but overall I'm not sure he was the greatest. I'd still take him over Trump though.
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Doesn't Dubya seem like a thoughtful and intelligent statesman now though?
 
It's debateable whether Obama was a good President but he most certainly was presidential.

Those pleasantry qualities of leadership, decorum and tact, They all add up and it's something everybody had taken for granted until they went away.
 
Biggles
Well, it's true that "a lot of people didn't like the man" ... they're the same people who voted for Trump. A less partisan view of Obama might be reflected in his reception, by all political factions in the Canadian parliament in 2016.

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I didn't appreciate this enough when he was in office. I was BLINDED by my upbringing, Democrats were bad, a black guy in office is embarrassing, who let them vote anyways, tan suits, by eventual libertarian revolution which still labelled Obama as a big-money big-government bureaucrat, etc. I was selfish and didn't care about anybody else's story and couldn't comprehend the empathy that these leaders were showing because I thought it was all a political stunt. This wasn't real, these people were all too smart for that, they were out to get us and steal our tax money and give us speeding tickets and all that.

Then I started driving the speed limit and realized I was just an asshole. Thanks for posting this, I watched the whole thing and I'm pretty satisfied.
 
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You've got to be able to distinguish between the person & policies. I lived through a lot of US Presidents, Canadian & British Prime Ministers, so I've seen how that works.

Obama has what I would call "intellectual charisma". If you doubt that, as another example you can watch the reactions of British politicians to his speech addressing both Houses of Parliament in 2011.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-13547120

Obama was a rock star among political leaders (also, his timing on jokes was world class). It has struck me that he has that air of casual self-confidence that sometimes goes along with men from humble beginnings who rise to the indisputable top of their field. In interviews of Lewis Hamilton I've sensed that same kind of quiet, understated self-assurance.

Trump, on the other hand, is a man who started life with every material advantage, but seems to have spent his entire life as a grifter, a cheat & a conman. It's the only way he knows how to be. His deep sense of inadequacy constantly leads him to the most excruciating displays of inappropriate self-promotion & narcissism. His Presidency has undermined the status of the United States throughout the world.
 
Biggles
You've got to be able to distinguish between the person & policies. I lived through a lot of US Presidents, Canadian & British Prime Ministers, so I've seen how that works.

Obama has what I would call "intellectual charisma". If you doubt that, as another example you can watch the reactions of British politicians to his speech addressing both Houses of Parliament in 2011.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-13547120

Obama was a rock star among political leaders (also, his timing on jokes was world class). It has struck me that he has that air of casual self-confidence that sometimes goes along with men from humble beginnings who rise to the indisputable top of their field. In interviews of Lewis Hamilton I've sensed that same kind of quiet, understated self-assurance.

Trump, on the other hand, is a man who started life with every material advantage, but seems to have spent his entire life as a grifter, a cheat & a conman. It's the only way he knows how to be. His deep sense of inadequacy constantly leads him to the most excruciating displays of inappropriate self-promotion & narcissism. His Presidency has undermined the status of the United States throughout the world.
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Trump's inability to handle any sort of short-coming (he couldn't lose and if he did, he was the epitome of a sore loser) is what sent the country down this path from mid 2020 on. There was no way he could handle being told he was a failure (from who he's been around and how he was raised) so he just upped the ante every time.
 
"STOP ERASING OUR HISTORY!"

Trump’s executive order equates efforts to tell the full history of the United States, warts and all, as an attack on the Founding Fathers and the nation itself. The order claims that “many students are now taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but rather villains.” No evidence is presented for this hysterical rant. No objective research has been published to support these charges.
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Continued from the above is a thread detailing each of the involved's qualifications for their involvement in the commission.
 
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Yeah but something something critical race theory. Looks like I may have to change my sig. I wonder where critical race theory guy is now.
 
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In terms of how good of a president Obama was, I'll just say that he's a standard neoliberal. I don't think I can say that any neoliberal would be a great president regardless of who it is, but he was far from the worst. Other than Obamacare, it was mostly tweaks around the edges and business as usual, continuing our atrocious foreign policy and corporate bailouts, and of course, the flowery and over-calculated political rhetoric (hence, people referring to him as a very presidential sounding president). He's kind of like a 2.0 version of Bill Clinton.

Regardless, it's important to recognize that Obama's performance is what led up to Trump. This is what too many of the more centre-leaning Dems fail to understand, instead believing that Trump won by some crazy miracle or because Russia completely rigged the election. Again, this is not to say Obama was one of our worst presidents, but he was a president who did not change enough, especially at a time where vast change was very necessary. Americans regardless of political affiliation had a general sense that the politicians were doing enough for them and their concerns were ignored in favor of the status quo, which is why too many people were convinced by Trump's rhetoric and voted Republican for once, especially rust-belt manual laborers. To say that Trump won because of Hillary's failures is not totally complete; eight years of Obama also played a role.

I fear the same thing is phenomenon to happen under Biden. Based on many of his cabinet picks and his rhetoric in general, especially constantly praising the Obama era, it seems as if it will be mostly tweaks around the edges again. Even if with a democratic supermajority, Biden is still going to act as if he has to overcome Republican opposition, and preach about austerity. The $2000 stimulus checks being swapped for $1400 checks is one of the first bad signs. Unfortunately, the Left in America may be large enough in numbers, but lack the leverage to meaningfully influence Biden's policies. Too many Americans are going to have high hopes for Biden, he doesn't deliver on some of his promises, people then become disappointed and tired of his presidency, and another pseudo-populist Republican, whether it be Josh Hawley or Tom Cotton or even Don Jr becomes the next president. Maybe I'm wrong and Biden learns much change is needed and actually delivers, especially with Bernie as the budget chairman, but I don't exactly have the highest of hopes right now.
 
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Outspacer
Huh? I thought the math went: $600 + $1400 = $2000
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A $2000 check was promised originally, not a $600 check and then a $1400 check subsequently. Even with the $600 check being delivered a $2000 check was still promised, totaling $2600 in stimulus money. Unless I was wrong this whole time.
 
GranTurNismo
A $2000 check was promised originally, not a $600 check and then a $1400 check subsequently. Even with the $600 check being delivered a $2000 check was still promised, totaling $2600 in stimulus money. Unless I was wrong this whole time.
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I've not kept track of all the rhetoric, but since $2000 was what they were arguing for (when it ended up being $600) making up the difference seems logical, no?
 
GranTurNismo
A $2000 check was promised originally, not a $600 check and then a $1400 check subsequently. Even with the $600 check being delivered a $2000 check was still promised, totaling $2600 in stimulus money. Unless I was wrong this whole time.
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I believe the librul media has been saying "$2000" the whole time when actually under the attempted legislation we only would've received the extra $1400 stimmy. They would have to change the rules from the previous bill to make it a full $2000 this time totaling $2600.

Or we could do what Bernie is suggesting and give everyone $2000 a month for a while, or retroactively provide stimmy for the past 6 months that people have needed help.

It would come in pretty handy for my current situation because literally all of those thousands would immediately go right back into the general aviation industry as I'm finishing up some flight training to get myself a better job. That ain't cheap, especially when you haven't worked in months because of various factors including Covid destroying an entire industry.
 
Outspacer
I've not kept track of all the rhetoric, but since $2000 was what they were arguing for (when it ended up being $600) making up the difference seems logical, no?
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Given how measly the US's stimulus for working people is compared to other western nations, I would say no, it does not seem logical. Even $2600 ($3800 given in total in a timespan of nearly 3/4 of a year) would not be enough.
 
Keef
Or we could do what Bernie is suggesting and give everyone $2000 a month for a while, or retroactively provide stimmy for the past 6 months that people have needed help.
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If I was getting an extra $2,000 a month I'd buy so much useless stuff. I guess it would help the economy though since I'd just be blowing through it instead of saving it, which means someone, somewhere would be getting income.
 
GranTurNismo
Given how measly the US's stimulus for working people is compared to other western nations, I would say no, it does not seem logical. Even $2600 ($3800 given in total in a timespan of nearly 3/4 of a year) would not be enough.
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Yeah I'm not trying to address whether it's enough, it's obviously tiny compared to schemes elsewhere. Just that getting overall what was being argued for is logical.
 

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