Politics & Stuff

[Stingray 9,441]

Pretty exciting for him tbh. Cannot have Clinton in office, she's bought by the media and the banks. I would much rather Cruz than Trump win the GOP, but obviously can't stand them both. Sanders is the only one I can stomach.

Sanders is probably the only candidate with some sane policies (tbf, the little I've heard from O'Malley wasn't all bad either) even if he's weak on foreign policies. Hillary you can just tell that there's nothing even remotely principled about what she's saying. 

The GOP is not even a political party at this stage. It's so far off the charts even the 'main stream' establishment wing basically consists of lunatics like Cruz. Trump is clown and what he's saying is beyond idiotic but I would take anyone, including Trump himself over corporate puppet Hillary. It would be a new low electing someone who is a war criminal even before becoming president. 

Tbh Trump checks all boxes on the psychopath inventory test, which is scary. If you want the expert in the field, check the articles of Robert Hare.

http://www.hare.org

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23834781

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist

Trump is the fire to the fuse that is the world right now....

Damned, i use the guy as a textbook case in my classes. Scary tbh.

[Spike 12,049]

I don't care for Bernie Sanders but every second, every minute I'd have him as President over the other candidates.

[Spike 12,049]

 

On Sanders

Immigration

Quote

As president, I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform that provides a roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring Americans living in this country. But I will not wait for Congress to act. I will take executive action to accomplish what Congress has failed to do and build upon President Obama’s executive orders to unite families.

I don't know what these means for me. I'm a Johnny Foreigner, does this change things for me?

Gun Control

Quote

I will take the following concrete steps to reduce gun violence: strengthen and better enforce the instant background check system; close the gun-show loophole; make 'straw man' purchases a federal crime; ban semi-automatic assault weapons which are designed strictly for killing human beings; and work to fix our broken mental health system.

This works for me.

Civil Liberties

Quote

I voted against the USA PATRIOT Act and against its subsequent reauthorizations. Terrorism is a serious threat and we must do everything we can to prevent attacks in this world, but I believe that we can do that without undermining our constitutional rights. Our civil liberties and right to privacy shouldn’t be the price we pay for security.

If this means I don't have to take my fucking shoes off in the airport again than okay. Fuck the TSA.

Foreign Policy

Quote

The test of a great and powerful nation is not how many wars it can engage in, but how it can resolve international conflicts in a peaceful manner. I will move away from a policy of unilateral military action and regime change, and toward a policy of emphasizing diplomacy, and ensuring the decision to go to war is a last resort.

I suppose that is good? I'm not a far of war but we'll see.

Taxes

Quote

The wealthy and large corporations must pay their fair share. As president, I will stop corporations from shifting profits and jobs overseas to avoid paying taxes. I will tax Wall St. speculators who caused millions their jobs, homes, and life savings. I will tell the billionaire class: You can’t have it all while kids in this country go hungry.

That is excellent. Fucking billionaires, hoarding money and having it rot in accounts. That shit needs to be spent for the trickle down effect to happen.

Jobs and Employment

Quote

As President, I will invest $1 trillion to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure to put 13 million Americans to work in good jobs, invest $5.5 billion to employ 1 million young Americans and provide job-training to hundreds of thousands of others, and create a Clean-Energy Workforce of 10 million good jobs through a 100% clean energy system.

Give me a damn job you geriatric bastard. 

 

 

 

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

On 1/26/2016 at 10:09 AM, Spike said:

A little complaint but something that annoyed me. I hate those coffee mugs that say 'White Tears'. Maaaaaan, really? That is pretty racist, I wouldn't drink out of a cup that said 'Black Tears' or 'Yellow Tears', so why the hypocrisy? Why do people have be like this?

Nobody should be reveling in the collective sadness/frustration/crying of an entire race. Schadenfraude for you.

 

I know man. 

I'm so disgusted at the race discussions in this country, and the overall race-tension that has been bubbling up now since the Trayvon Martin case. Since then, every couple of months, we have the Caucasian Cop shooting a young African American, The Oscar's saga (which was completely off the mark, like you mentioned), the Oregon Militia, Black Lives Matter, Ferguson Protests, White Privilege, and everything in between. 

It's clear the media at large is trying to drive us against one another, and it's working.

What irks me the most is how these Race Stories play out in the general mediasphere. You'll get both sides (Dems and Republicans) completely avoiding the issues at hand,  and nothing meaningful is achieved at the end of the story. (And these so called 'pundits'/figure heads that go on these big platforms to give such uneducated opinions continuously grinds my gears.) And with each passing story, one can only imagine the effects this is having on the young impressionable minds of fellow College students like myself, and those in High-School. After being labeled the 'color-blind' generation, it's been shown that our generation are just as 'racist'/hold stereotypical beliefs as the generation before us.

I don't frequent /r/news, but i know many young people who get their news from there, and whenever a race story comes to the surface, that place just becomes a cesspool for hate. But how many people are aware of this? And not just when it comes to r/news, but other message boards and major news outlets that spew nothing but blatant misinformation and hate? And that's for all race's by the way. There are message boards predominately for African-Americans who just want to blame all their troubles on the white-man, and are quick to call anybody out as a "c00n"/Uncle Tom who doesn't accept that the white-man is the embodiment of evil. 

It really is depressing to watch what's happening in this country. At least, for me that is. 

 

[CHOULO19 24,332]

1 hour ago, Stingray said:

Tbh Trump checks all boxes on the psychopath inventory test, which is scary. If you want the expert in the field, check the articles of Robert Hare.

http://www.hare.org

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23834781

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist

Trump is the fire to the fuse that is the world right now....

Damned, i use the guy as a textbook case in my classes. Scary tbh.

Yeah, I know that checklist. I once did an online test based on that and scored something like 35!  

In the case of Trump I do wonder how much of it is just show. After he's an actor, an entertainer and for the  most part he's giving people what they want. 

I can't seem to find it now but I recently saw a video compilation of Trump in the late 90s early 00s basically contradicting everything he's said since his nomination on guns, immigration, civil rights...etc. Basically he was a moderate democrat before running but he realizes that going full fascist is his best bet to winning the elections. 

[Spike 12,049]

17 minutes ago, Blue-in-me-Veins said:

 

I know man. 

I'm so disgusted at the race discussions in this country, and the overall race-tension that has been bubbling up now since the Trayvon Martin case. Since then, every couple of months, we have the Caucasian Cop shooting a young African American, The Oscar's saga (which was completely off the mark, like you mentioned), the Oregon Militia, Black Lives Matter, Ferguson Protests, White Privilege, and everything in between. 

It's clear the media at large is trying to drive us against one another, and it's working.

What irks me the most is how these Race Stories play out in the general mediasphere. You'll get both sides (Dems and Republicans) completely avoiding the issues at hand,  and nothing meaningful is achieved at the end of the story. (And these so called 'pundits'/figure heads that go on these big platforms to give such uneducated opinions continuously grinds my gears.) And with each passing story, one can only imagine the effects this is having on the young impressionable minds of fellow College students like myself, and those in High-School. After being labeled the 'color-blind' generation, it's been shown that our generation are just as 'racist'/hold stereotypical beliefs as the generation before us.

I don't frequent /r/news, but i know many young people who get their news from there, and whenever a race story comes to the surface, that place just becomes a cesspool for hate. But how many people are aware of this? And not just when it comes to r/news, but other message boards and major news outlets that spew nothing but blatant misinformation and hate? And that's for all race's by the way. There are message boards predominately for African-Americans who just want to blame all their troubles on the white-man, and are quick to call anybody out as a "c00n"/Uncle Tom who doesn't accept that the white-man is the embodiment of evil. 

It really is depressing to watch what's happening in this country. At least, for me that is. 

 

I know. Being angry at the past isn't going to change anything. Blaming people isn't going to change anything. Everyone knows that whites have done terrible things in the past but so has every race. There are millions of innocent people but no innocent races, we could sit here and debate who was worse to the other(s) but what does that achieve? It just scratches at old scars and brings hatred back to the surface. People should be looking toward the future to build a better future, not looking in the  past and getting angry. You'll never properly get rid of racism, culturalism, or any other ~isms because they are more than likely hard coded in our DNA. When you break it down to the core elements it is simply this: "those people across the river are slightly different to us and if we take advantage of them, we won't feel as bad as doing it to ourselves". Survival of the fittest if you will, the nature to stay with the familiar. However cultural and societal norms can and do change. Sadly it is becoming the norm to hate white people, even for past transgressions and for actions taken by other white people. It is just racism pure and simple. 

The media focuses on race so much, so, so much. Wouldn't it be better if the news read: "Man murders child" as opposed to "Black man murders Latino child". The first simply comes across as a vile, terrible, violent act but the second is the same but with racial connotations and motivations. The 'black vote', who gives a fuck what the 'black vote' is. It should just be the 'vote'. BET, BET awards, what is up with all these exclusiveness?  I will always stand by my notion that everything should be awarded through merit and in this time and age it's more true than ever but all these little things add up and create a divide. 

I dunno it's all so difficult and touchy. Wigger, oreo, banana, people can't even appreciate different cultures without backlash. Stick to your own kind mentality still exists apparently and most people don't even realise it.

[Peace. 4,352]

53 minutes ago, Spike said:

 

On Sanders

Immigration

I don't know what these means for me. I'm a Johnny Foreigner, does this change things for me?

Gun Control

This works for me.

Civil Liberties

If this means I don't have to take my fucking shoes off in the airport again than okay. Fuck the TSA.

Foreign Policy

I suppose that is good? I'm not a far of war but we'll see.

Taxes

That is excellent. Fucking billionaires, hoarding money and having it rot in accounts. That shit needs to be spent for the trickle down effect to happen.

Jobs and Employment

Give me a damn job you geriatric bastard. 

 

 

In short, Sanders is saying : 'vote for me and everything will be great'. Spike, I know that deep down inside you, you know what such a thing means.

[Spike 12,049]

14 minutes ago, Peace. said:

 

 

In short, Sanders is saying : 'vote for me and everything will be great'. Spike, I know that deep down inside you, you know what such a thing means.

Yeah, I know. It won't change a thing, he wants to revolutionise the country. Impossible to do in two terms, let alone from ages 75 to 83. American politics has no balls, nobody will bite the bullet and really make a change that revolutionises that country. In 94 several politicians committed  political suicide by instating gun control laws that are still in affect to this day. Here they care more about how long they can stay in office, not what they can do. I'd rather someone come in, change everything for the better be hated for it (people hate change) than wanking about for nearly a decade.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Donald Trump has decided to have elocution lessons and the change is startling !

https://youtu.be/qUGT30gGtiI

[CHOULO19 24,332]

34 minutes ago, Spike said:

On Sanders

Immigration

I don't know what these means for me. I'm a Johnny Foreigner, does this change things for me?

Gun Control

This works for me.

Civil Liberties

If this means I don't have to take my fucking shoes off in the airport again than okay. Fuck the TSA.

Foreign Policy

I suppose that is good? I'm not a far of war but we'll see.

Taxes

That is excellent. Fucking billionaires, hoarding money and having it rot in accounts. That shit needs to be spent for the trickle down effect to happen.

Jobs and Employment

Give me a damn job you geriatric bastard. 

It's never just about what any candidate says, though, but what you think he/she will actually try to do and how much they can do it. After all, Obama did actually get elected on an anti-war agenda and his terms turned out to be two of the bloodiest and most violent in recent history. His global assassination campaign, his 'drone program' alone, is probably the biggest global terror campaign and one of the biggest violations to international law in history. 

Sanders, unlike Obama who was virtually unknown before running for president, has a long history of activism and politics so I would be more inclined to believe his belief in his agenda and his main agenda has been to break up the big banks. Now, I don't believe that Sanders will get elected, but in the unlikely scenario that he did, that agenda is simply unattainable in the US. 

On the other issues, Sanders who actually is independent and is not a democrat, will have no backing in either houses not to mention most importantly that every lobbying group will be working against him. SO I really doubt he can actually make any of that come true.

What Sanders might be able to do, though, if he is elected, is small changes like blocking the Keystone pipeline, consolidating LGBTQ rights, shrinking the wage gap for women, reinforcing planned parenthood...etc. Obviously not nearly the required change, but also undoubtedly better than having Ted Cruz in office. 

[Spike 12,049]

6 minutes ago, CHOULO19 said:

It's never just about what any candidate says, though, but what you think he/she will actually try to do and how much they can do it. After all, Obama did actually get elected on an anti-war agenda and his terms turned out to be two of the bloodiest and most violent in recent history. His global assassination campaign, his 'drone program' alone, is probably the biggest global terror campaign and one of the biggest violations to international law in history. 

Sanders, unlike Obama who was virtually unknown before running for president, has a long history of activism and politics so I would be more inclined to believe his belief in his agenda and his main agenda has been to break up the big banks. Now, I don't believe that Sanders will get elected, but in the unlikely scenario that he did, that agenda is simply unattainable in the US. 

On the other issues, Sanders who actually is independent and is not a democrat, will have no backing in either houses not to mention most importantly that every lobbying group will be working against him. SO I really doubt he can actually make any of that come true.

What Sanders might be able to do, though, if he is elected, is small changes like blocking the Keystone pipeline, consolidating LGBTQ rights, shrinking the wage gap for women, reinforcing planned parenthood...etc. Obviously not nearly the required change, but also undoubtedly better than having Ted Cruz in office. 

While I agree with you on everything there really isn't a wage gap in the conventional sense.

http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=hire_women

 

 

[CHOULO19 24,332]

18 minutes ago, Spike said:

While I agree with you on everything there really isn't a wage gap in the conventional sense.

http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=hire_women

 

 

Is that you in the video?

Yeah, but tbf, the wage gap does not have to compare likes for likes because the notion has come to include (while not scientifically accurate) the fact that women with the exact same qualification of men are less likely to get hired and once hired less likely to get promoted. Which makes total sense since the salary for a certain position is usually decided by company policies which do not have gender biases, but decisions to hire and promote are done by individuals who may have subconscious gender biases. 

[Spike 12,049]

Just now, CHOULO19 said:

Is that you in the video?

Yeah, but tbf, the wage gap does not have to compare likes for likes because the notion has come to include (while not scientifically accurate) the fact that women with the exact same qualification of men are less likely to get hired and once hired less likely to get promoted. Which makes total sense since the salary for a certain position is usually decided by company policies which do not have gender biases, but decisions to hire and promote are done by individuals who may have subconscience gender biases. 

 

What makes you think it is me? Is it the aggression or the abrasiveness? 

[CHOULO19 24,332]

1 minute ago, Spike said:

What makes you think it is me? Is it the aggression or the abrasiveness? 

Mostly the punchable face, but yeah, sure, the abrasiveness too...

[CHOULO19 24,332]

@Spike coincidentally I just came across this video that was uploaded today: 

 

[Spike 12,049]

1 minute ago, CHOULO19 said:

@Spike coincidentally I just came across this video that was uploaded today: 

 

Great video that further proves that it isn't as simple as the frothing morons would have you believe. There are activists out there that use the 'pay gap' as an argument when they don't even understand the complex dynamics of it. There are so many variables it is absolutely mind numbing, nice find on the vid N.

For example, an entry-level fry cook at MacDonalds is always going to urn the same wage, no matter the gender. It might change on state and location but if you, myself and two other women were working the frying machines and held the same 'position' at the establishment I'd wager that we'd all earn exactly minimum wage. 

 

[Kieran. 6,317]

Racism toward PoC = housing segregation, children shot in the park for a toy gun, foreign policies that describe every Muslim man that is "military age" is considered a 'militant' when killed in a drone strike

Racism towards whites = hurt feelings over a mug

just saying.

[Spike 12,049]

1 hour ago, Kieran. said:

Racism toward PoC = housing segregation, children shot in the park for a toy gun, foreign policies that describe every Muslim man that is "military age" is considered a 'militant' when killed in a drone strike

Racism towards whites = hurt feelings over a mug

just saying.

 

Come now, you don't need to resort to exaggerating what I meant and mocking it. You know I meant on a minor social scale and not foreign policies and economical issues. I don't even know why you are comparing the two, because I wasn't. You know very well I'm all for equality so why are you twisting my words so and making me look like a child comparing my minor social issue (which I stated was so) to yours? This isn't a competition who is persecuted the most. If I had my way neither would exist in the world.

It is as petty as the people complaining about the Oscars. It detracts from the real issues. Besides, you know it's not about the cup but the hypocrisy of it. How on earth can people stop bombing, killing, slaughtering and prosecuting each other when they can't even cut out the petty stuff?

I am not a PoC? Why aren't I a colour? I feel very coloured. I'm red when I'm hot, blue when I'm cold and green when I get sick. I get brown and red  from the sun and pale from lack of it. Aren't we all coloured at the end of the day? The term is nonsense.

I've experienced racism, I'll have you know. I've probably told you before but that doesn't matter, I'm not comparing it to the social injustices of the world but to me it was quite difficult; especially when I was 13 being bullied by a 17 year old. Racism from the smallest scale, to the largest is important and I don't know why you would be indifferent (or seem to be) to the former.

You are too damn smart to be taking what I say out of context like that. Ah, fuck it, it doesn't matter, I'm going to have a drink.