Election fallout
POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Thursday, January 9, 2025 04:34
VIEWED: 11920
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Quote:When I designed a safety shutdown system, it was built on a cleared field, even if in the middle of another petrochemical plant, and than it was slowly warmed up and started at a low production rate. This American system cannot be redesigned because there is no empty or cleared place to build it, unless you shutdown the old system for a few years while the new is being constructed. Neither party would allow that shutdown. They want either teeny-tiny incremental changes or instantaneous huge changes. But no engineer, maybe not even God, can redesign and build a plant either a little bit or a lot while it is in full production.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
An "economic system" developed but not designed, but it COULD be designed by writing the laws using the POLITICAL system ... which is one of the reasons why the economic elite are so focused on controlling the political system (and the media, because democracies are subject to mass changes of opinion). For example, laws could abolish The Fed, or require 100% capitalization of banks, or do away with stock ownership, or require cooperative ownership, or eliminate "corporations as people", or put businesses and people on the same tax playing field. So you see how the political system COULD, in theory, completely re-design the economic system, taking into account the frailties of human social behavior.
So, put your thinking cap on. You've designed systems. So design a political and economic system that achieves the goals that you set out to achieve: That no American goes hungry or homeless or without medical care. Build in the required sensors and feedback loops to ensure it doesn't go off the rails. Make it durable and flexible, able to withstand natural and social shocks and outside interference.
Neither political party has Godlike powers to redesign this American system and get reelected every two years until the new system is running smoothly. Long before the big changes go into operation, the voters will throw out a party that tries. If the Constitution allowed elections no more often than every four years, it might be possible. But elections every two years makes it impossible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-term_Parliaments_Act_2011
My fear is that both parties will rush to draw the wrong lesson from this close election. The Republicans will conclude that just a little bit more overt racism (but less tweeting about it) will carry the day the next time. They will see the exit polls that called for a “strong national leader,” and they will replace the childish and whiny Trump with someone who projects even more authoritarian determination. They will latch on to the charge that democracy is a rigged game, and they will openly despise its rules even more than Trump has.
The Democrats, for their part, might look at this near-death experience, and, as they sometimes have in the past, conclude that moving left, including more talk of socialism and more social-justice activism is just the tonic they’ll need to shore up their coalition. Some Democrats tend to believe that almost every election confirms the need to lurch to the left, when in fact the 2020 election should be a reminder that Trump would have beaten anyone left of Biden.
More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201104223730/https://www.theatlantic.com
/ideas/archive/2020/11/large-portion-electorate-chose-sociopath/616994/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:But nothing prevents us from thinking about and discussing what a system should look like.
SECOND When I designed a safety shutdown system, it was built on a cleared field, even if in the middle of another petrochemical plant, and than it was slowly warmed up and started at a low production rate. This American system cannot be redesigned because there is no place to build it, unless you shutdown the old system for a few years while the new is being constructed. Neither party would allow that shutdown. They want either teeny-tiny incremental changes or instantaneous huge changes. But no engineer, maybe not even God, can redesign and build a plant either a little bit or a lot while it is in full production.
IF we're going to aim for incremental changes, then it pays to have a goal or vision in mind, otherwise you'll just get blown all over the map.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:You are talking science fiction. What you do to create this beautiful new future is set aside a state, maybe Montana or Texas, clear the people off and begin again. Or go to the stars, transform a planet into another Terra and begin building a new government. Or write a novel, with plenty of details about the government of Mars. I think Kim Stanley Robinson wrote those books.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:But nothing prevents us from thinking about and discussing what a system should look like.
SECOND When I designed a safety shutdown system, it was built on a cleared field, even if in the middle of another petrochemical plant, and than it was slowly warmed up and started at a low production rate. This American system cannot be redesigned because there is no place to build it, unless you shutdown the old system for a few years while the new is being constructed. Neither party would allow that shutdown. They want either teeny-tiny incremental changes or instantaneous huge changes. But no engineer, maybe not even God, can redesign and build a plant either a little bit or a lot while it is in full production.
IF we're going to aim for incremental changes, then it pays to have a goal or vision in mind, otherwise you'll just get blown all over the map.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:No, that's idiotic. History tells us that change is possible because systems HAVE BEEN changed, deliberately and by human action. If it were impossible to change systems, we would still be living in tribes, or under monarchies.
SECOND You are talking science fiction. What you do to create this beautiful new future is set aside a state, maybe Montana or Texas, clear the people off and begin again.
Why are you arguing against change?
Anyway, I gotta go. It's been fun.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:There is change and then there is CHANGE. Walmart and Amazon and Apple and Ford's model T changed things, but founders of those companies didn't need government permission to exist. Then there is the 13th Amendment. That really CHANGED things for the BETTER, but it was done over the objections of every slave holding state government and only could have happened because most of the slave holding states did NOT have a vote since they had withdrawn from the Union. Read the whole article; don't stop after one paragraph: www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:No, that's idiotic. History tells us that change is possible because systems HAVE BEEN changed, deliberately and by human action. If it were impossible to change systems, we would still be living in tribes, or under monarchies.
SECOND You are talking science fiction. What you do to create this beautiful new future is set aside a state, maybe Montana or Texas, clear the people off and begin again.
Why are you arguing against change?
Anyway, I gotta go. It's been fun.
Medium sized changes, smaller than the 13th Amendment and bigger than the iPhone, changes like Social Security and Medicare have to be rammed passed powerful objections and shouts of the Commies are coming. Social Security is 85 years old and people still vehemently object to payroll taxes for it. To change and improve Social Security enough so that the poor can retire on it will require going against the forces that want it shrunk to nothing. To expand Medicare so that the medical establishment will treat everyone, even those without money, will also require huge battles against American doctors and hospitals.
How does health spending in the U.S. compare to other countries?
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u
-s-compare-countries/#item-start
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Trump Plans to Barricade Himself in the Oval Office and Refuse to Come Out If Biden Wins
https://web.archive.org/web/20201106224947/https://www.vanityfair.com/
news/2020/11/donald-trump-no-concession
Donald Trump is taking it as well as everyone had expected, ranting and raving about all kinds of made-up fraud, demanding counts be stopped in one state and continued in others, and filing numerous lawsuits that stand little chance of holding up in court because they have no merit (and, in some cases, have led judges to believe the lawyers attached to them have recently suffered traumatic brain injuries). At this point a quasi reasonable person might say to himself, Okay, I’m going to cut my losses, salvage my last atom of dignity, and admit defeat. But obviously Donald Trump is not reasonable and has no dignity. So instead he’s decided he’ll keep fighting this thing well beyond the point that it’s hugely embarrassing to do so, and even after that fails, refuse to acknowledge that he lost and Joe Biden is going to be president.
Trump apparently thinks he can just go on being president even if he officially loses the 2020 race. According to CNN, Trump reportedly has not prepared a concession speech and “in conversations with allies in recent days has said he has no intention of conceding the election.” The decision to go full delusional has obviously been strengthened by staffers, such as Mark Meadows, who “have not attempted to come to terms with the president about the reality of what is happening” and have instead fed into his claims of fraud; Vice President Mike Pence, who’s been soliciting money for a legal defense fund; and his adult children, who’ve been spouting absurd conspiracy theories on Twitter as they watch the ultimate opportunity for nepotism slip away. While Trump has apparently admitted to some people that he knows the electoral math has no chance of working out in his favor, he has “maintained that a prolonged court battle and corrosive rhetoric about election fraud would sow enough doubt to allow him to refuse to accept the results.”
And while the majority of the president’s inner circle is more than happy to go along with this sad alternative reality, a few members have reportedly grown worried that, eventually, someone will have to explain to Trump that he’s not going to be president anymore—and at this point, it seems unlikely anyone will be able to get through to him short of slapping him across the face and screaming, “YOU LOST!” Yes, this is an actual thing allies of the president of the United States are actually grappling with:
It is a possibility the president did not consider in a serious way during the election, despite polls showing him with only a narrow path to victory, believing that looking past Election Day was bad luck. The delicate matter of a loss—and a potential post-presidential life—was not discussed widely among his team and was not raised often with the president, who believed adamantly he would win.
Now, people around Trump are working to identify who might be able to communicate to him the stark reality. There has been talk of potentially Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump, though their willingness to lead a difficult intervention wasn't clear.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I don't eat food or drink water anymore.
I draw all my nourishment from trumptard tears. They are so sweet and yummy!
Trump lost.
Get over it, snowflake!
Fuck your feelings.
Your tears are delicious.
https://twitter.com/copingmaga
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Quote:I'll file that with "golden showers" and all the other made up "stuff" you flog here.
Originally posted by second:
Trump Plans to Barricade Himself in the Oval Office and Refuse to Come Out If Biden Wins
https://web.archive.org/web/20201106224947/https://www.vanityfair.com/
news/2020/11/donald-trump-no-concession
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I'll file that with "golden showers" and all the other made up "stuff" you flog here.
How do you know that was made up? Do you have any evidence it didn’t happen?
Honestly: Sad to see you be an enthusiastic “truth teller” about COVID and then such a lazy thinker on Trump. Reason?
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Quote:And then there is BIG CHANGE, usually accompanied by the word "revolution"
SECOND You are talking science fiction. What you do to create this beautiful new future is set aside a state, maybe Montana or Texas, clear the people off and begin again.
SIGNYM: No, that's idiotic. History tells us that change is possible because systems HAVE BEEN changed, deliberately and by human action. If it were impossible to change systems, we would still be living in tribes, or under monarchies.
Why are you arguing against change?
Anyway, I gotta go. It's been fun.
SECOND: There is change and then there is CHANGE. Walmart and Amazon and Apple and Ford's model T changed things, but founders of those companies didn't need government permission to exist. Then there is the 13th Amendment. That really CHANGED things for the BETTER, but it was done over the objections of every slave holding state government and only could have happened because most of the slave holding states did NOT have a vote since they had withdrawn from the Union. Read the whole article; don't stop after one paragraph: www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment
Medium sized changes, smaller than the 13th Amendment and bigger than the iPhone, changes like Social Security and Medicare have to be rammed passed powerful objections and shouts of the Commies are coming. Social Security is 85 years old and people still vehemently object to payroll taxes for it. To change and improve Social Security enough so that the poor can retire on it will require going against the forces that want it shrunk to nothing. To expand Medicare so that the medical establishment will treat everyone, even those without money, will also require huge battles against American doctors and hospitals.
The Industrial Revolution harnessed a concentrated source of power - wood and coal, steam power- and turned it into making stuff
The French Revolution deposed the monarchy in France and, after a few Napoleanic twists and turns, instituted a modern nation-state.
The American Revolution, instituted democracy as a form of governance.
The Russian Revolution attempted to institute a fully socialist state,.
Mao's Cultural Revolution transmuted the Chinese culture.
Ya gotta think bigger, SECOND, MUCH bigger!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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