A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
VIEWED: 755368
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I've been having a conversation with you in the cinema thread for days now, lol.
Though my own viewpoint on politics and government has changed quite a bit from extremely paranoid in 2006 to borderline nihilistic in 2018, I still find the reactions of people regarding politics to be much more fascinating than most movies, sci-fi or otherwise.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:I think we might be living inside an incredibly entertaining movie ( World War Z or maybe World War T ) with Trump as Executive Producer. www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Though my own viewpoint on politics and government has changed quite a bit from extremely paranoid in 2006 to borderline nihilistic in 2018, I still find the reactions of people regarding politics to be much more fascinating than most movies, sci-fi or otherwise.
There is a sequel planned. It will be America swarming with even more zombies.
www.imdb.com/title/tt3234552/
I got that idea of comparing America to the movie World War Z from the following about Americans afflicted by a new, bizarre, terrible disease striking society:
The Strange New Pathologies of the World’s First Rich Failed State
https://eand.co/why-were-underestimating-american-collapse-be04d9e5523
5
You might say, having read some of my recent essays, “Umair! Don’t worry! Everything will be fine! It’s not that bad!” I would look at you politely, and then say gently, “To tell you the truth, I don’t think we’re taking collapse nearly seriously enough.”
Why When we take a hard look at US collapse, we see a number of social pathologies on the rise. Not just any kind. Not even troubling, worrying, and dangerous ones. But strange and bizarre ones. Unique ones. Singular and gruesomely weird ones I’ve never really seen before, and outside of a dystopia written by Dickens and Orwell, nor have you, and neither has history. They suggest that whatever “numbers” we use to represent decline — shrinking real incomes, inequality, and so on — we are in fact grossly underestimating what pundits call the “human toll”, but which sensible human beings like you and I should simply think of as the overwhelming despair, rage, and anxiety of living in a collapsing society.
Let me give you just five examples of what I’ll call the social pathologies of collapse — strange, weird, and gruesome new diseases, not just ones we don’t usually see in healthy societies, but ones that we have never really seen before in any modern society.
America has had 11 school shootings in the last 23 days. That’s one every other day, more or less. That statistic is alarming enough — but it is just a number. Perspective asks us for comparison. So let me put that another way. America has had 11 school shootings in the last 23 days, which is more than anywhere else in the world, even Afghanistan or Iraq. In fact, the phenomenon of regular school shootings appears to be a unique feature of American collapse — it just doesn’t happen in any other country — and that is what I mean by “social pathologies of collapse”: a new, bizarre, terrible disease striking society.
Why are American kids killing each other Why doesn’t their society care enough to intervene Well, probably because those kids have given up on life — and their elders have given up on them. Or maybe you’re right — and it’s not that simple. Still, what do the kids who aren’t killing each other do Well, a lot of them are busy killing themselves.
So there is of course also an “opioid epidemic”. We use that phrase too casually, but it much more troubling than it appears on first glance. Here is what is really curious about it. In many countries in the world — most of Asia and Africa — one can buy all the opioids one wants from any local pharmacy, without a prescription. You might suppose then that opioid abuse as a mass epidemic would be a global phenomenon. Yet we don’t see opioid epidemics anywhere but America — especially not ones so vicious and widespread they shrink life expectancy. So the “opioid epidemic” — mass self-medication with the hardest of hard drugs — is again a social pathology of collapse: unique to American life. It is not quite captured in the numbers, but only through comparison — and when we see it in global perspective, we get a sense of just how singularly troubled American life really is.
Why would people abuse opioids en masse unlike anywhere else in the world? They must
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Foreboding article.
The problem with thinking too deep on the subject uv the the future uv human sivilization iz that it leadz to many very unplezent possibilityz and few plezent wunz.
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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.7532020.com
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Quote:Here is one much less complicated, but it's still very unpleasant to think that the majority of voters will never understand the trick being played on them. If they can't understand the following article, there is no hope they can escape the complex problems mentioned in https://eand.co/why-were-underestimating-american-collapse-be04d9e5523
Originally posted by JO753:
Foreboding article.
The problem with thinking too deep on the subject uv the the future uv human sivilization iz that it leadz to many very unplezent possibilityz and few plezent wunz.
5 :
Let Them Eat French Fries
Paul Krugman, FEB. 4, 2018
www.nytimes.com/2018/02/04/opinion/let-them-eat-french-fries.html
In a now-deleted tweet, which has nonetheless already become notorious, Paul Ryan tried to hype the benefits of his massive corporate tax cut by celebrating the example of a worker who’s getting $1.50 more per week. That’s roughly the price of a small French fries at McDonalds.
Should we keep giving Ryan grief over that tweet? Yes, we should – and not just because it shows how out of touch he is. By highlighting the tiny tax cut some workers will get as if that were the point and main result of a bill that blows up the deficit by more than $1 trillion, he helps illustrate the bait-and-switch at the core of the whole G.O.P. agenda.
For tax cuts aren’t free. Sooner or later, the federal government has to pay its way. Even if you don’t think the budget deficit is currently a big problem, except under very special circumstances anything that reduces revenue will eventually have to be offset by later tax increases or spending cuts.
And those special circumstances – basically a depressed economy that needs a fiscal boost – don’t apply now, with the U.S. close to full employment.
So Ryan is patting himself on the back for giving a schoolteacher some French fries. What’s he planning to take away?
Well, we know the answer: Republicans constantly use the alleged dangers of budget deficits to argue for sharp cuts in social programs. You might have thought they’d lay off that rhetoric for a while after passing an unfunded $1.5 trillion tax cut, but in fact they barely paused; even at the height of the tax “reform” debate people like Orrin Hatch declared that we can’t “spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves.” Right now they’re dragging their feet on funding for community health centers, complaining about the cost.
So here’s how the bait and switch goes: pass a huge tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the rich, but gives ordinary workers a few crumbs — or actually a bag of fries now and then. Then point to the big deficits created by that tax cut as a reason social program essential to many ordinary families must be slashed. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It’s such an obvious scam that you might think either that its perpetrators would get embarrassed or that the public would get wise. But the first won’t happen. The second – well, we’ll see in November.
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https://eand.co/why-were-underestimating-american-collapse-be04d9e5523
In interestingly enough, the author lays the collapse at the feet of our particular brand of predatory capitalism - the kind both republicans AND DEMOCRATS love so wholeheartedly.
HAS IT NOT OCCURRED TO YOU BY NOW THAT IF YOU HAVE TO RESORT TO LOGICAL FALLACIES AND TROLLING YOUR SO-CALLED ARGUMENTS ARE LIES?
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Quote:You would not be correct on that. The GOP's ideal version of Capitalism has no universal healthcare and no taxes on the wealthy and no minimum wage. The Democrat's ideal version is the opposite. You can quibble about how far Congressional Democrats would dare to go when they write the law for their "ideal" version, but no matter how short or far a distance they go down the path to "ideal", they will be absolutely opposed by every force the GOP can bring against them. Need I add that since it takes 67 votes in the Senate, not 51, to get anything controversial and permanently done (not just for 10 years and then repealed), the Democrats will fall far short of "ideal".
Originally posted by 1kiki:
https://eand.co/why-were-underestimating-american-collapse-be04d9e5523
In interestingly enough, the author lays the collapse at the feet of our particular brand of predatory capitalism - the kind both republicans AND DEMOCRATS love so wholeheartedly.
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Quote:I invite you to find universal healthcare in their platform. http://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.democrats.org/Downloads/2016_DNC_Platf
The GOP's ideal version of Capitalism has no universal healthcare and no taxes on the wealthy and no minimum wage. The Democrat's ideal version is the opposite.
orm.pdf They 'believe' in universal healthcare, and will fight for better 'access', and maybe they might even fight for 'expansion' - but universal healthcare is not a goal. When it comes to taxes on the wealthy, democrats propose many little jiggers, but no overall reform of the tax system that might lead to fairness. And their plan for minimum wage is $15/ hr, plus some really vague promises to 'fight' or 'work for' higher wages by some unstated method. BTW, you can thank Bernie for bringing the three witches to that point.
Basically, there are a lot of vague statements about how much they 'care' and that they'll 'work' - but no actual plans.
darn cat is sitting in front of the screen
HAS IT NOT OCCURRED TO YOU BY NOW THAT IF YOU HAVE TO RESORT TO LOGICAL FALLACIES AND TROLLING YOUR SO-CALLED ARGUMENTS ARE LIES?
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Quote:I didn't recall that the GOP has brought legislation to repeal Minimum Wage.
Originally posted by second:Quote:You would not be correct on that. The GOP's ideal version of Capitalism has no universal healthcare and no taxes on the wealthy and no minimum wage. The Democrat's ideal version is the opposite. You can quibble about how far Congressional Democrats would dare to go when they write the law for their "ideal" version, but no matter how short or far a distance they go down the path to "ideal", they will be absolutely opposed by every force the GOP can bring against them. Need I add that since it takes 67 votes in the Senate, not 51, to get anything controversial and permanently done (not just for 10 years and then repealed), the Democrats will fall far short of "ideal".
Originally posted by 1kiki:
https://eand.co/why-were-underestimating-american-collapse-be04d9e5523
In interestingly enough, the author lays the collapse at the feet of our particular brand of predatory capitalism - the kind both republicans AND DEMOCRATS love so wholeheartedly.
I had only heard the GOP opposed to Inflation-causing Minimum Wage Increases.
When did they bring forth Bills to Repeal Minimum Wage?
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Wen havent they?
https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+to+repeal+minimum+wage&rlz=1C
AACAC_enUS730US730&oq=bill+to+repeal+minimum+wage&aqs=chrome..69i57.9844j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.7532020.com
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Quote:Are you just plain stupid beyond belief?
Originally posted by JO753:
Wen havent they?
https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+to+repeal+minimum+wage&rlz=1C
AACAC_enUS730US730&oq=bill+to+repeal+minimum+wage&aqs=chrome..69i57.9844j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Your linky produces no results which indicate GOP has brought forth any
Bills to Repeal Minimum Wage.
You seem just proving my point.
If you find one, post it.
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