Respectful Politics Thread (Let's Just See)

[D'Snowth]

Surprised there was no mention of the official end of the North Korean war and North Korea agreeing to give up it's nuclear ambitions. While the details are yet to come out, this is BIG news.

I'm pretty sure I brought it up in the previous thread that got nuked, because Trump's supporters (and even the South Korean President, for some reason) are wanting him to get the Nobel Peace Prize for this, and now Trump wants it himself . . . and knowing him, I'm sure he'll find a way to get it, kind of like how he got himself a Purple Heart without ever having served a day in the military, simply because a vet just gave up his to him.

And yesterday President Trump announced his plan to lower the price of prescription drugs. If this is accomplished it would be a big boom for everyone. Well, everyone except big pharma.

Yeah, I don't see that happening. After all, he said his new tax bill would give American workers bigger paychecks and create more jobs . . . well, yeah, Walmart did give employees thousands of dollars in bonuses (that is, if they qualified for it), but at the expense of shutting down dozens of Sam's Club locations, which laid off thousands of other workers the very same day. And Walmart is creating a bunch of new jobs . . . over in India . . . so much for, "bringing jobs back to America."

On a somewhat related note, after the $#!++y job he did aiding Puerto Rico (which still has several areas without electricity, and the death total is untold thousands), I'm surprised Trump is even acknowledging the state of emergency in Hawaii at all - especially given it's Obama's home state. Of course, he's just now declaring the state of emergency over there, so we still have to wait and see if he actually does anything about it or not.

 

[jvcarroll]

I'm skeptical but hope it works. Healthcare insurance really needs to be addressed in this country in a non-partisan way so it isn't dismantled when the other political party takes power in the next elections. Look at where we rank worldwide compared to other countries who spend a fraction of the costs.

Agreed. Either way, it should be given a legitimate chance in the US in a state that gets to decide, not the insurance companies or politicians. My prediction, if it comes to fruition, is that there will be many great things and many problems, as with anything new. I just hope those problems are ironed out. Ultimately, this was something Roosevelt was working on last century. It's not some crazy liberal idea. We forget that.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, it seems once again, the official end to Net Neutrality has been pushed back, this time to June 11 . . . so I guess by mid-June it will be bumped to early August, then by early August, maybe mid-October, and . . . I don't know. Are they axing it, or not?

 

[LittleJerry92]

To be honest....

I feel like they're just trying to pull scare tactics on us.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Everyone desperately needs to read this article from the New York Times this weekend

"Liberals, You're Not as Smart as You Think You"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/12/...-youre-not-as-smart-as-you-think-you-are.html

The comedian Michelle Wolf landed some punch lines that were funny and some that weren’t. But people reacted less to her talent and more to the liberal politics that she personified. For every viewer who loved her Trump bashing, there seemed to be at least one other put off by the one-sidedness of her routine.

Liberals denounce “cultural appropriation” without, in many cases, doing the work of persuading people that there is anything wrong with, say, a teenager not of Chinese descent wearing a Chinese-style dress to prom or eating at a burrito cart run by two non-Latino women.

Pressing a political view from the Oscar stage, declaring a conservative campus speaker unacceptable, flatly categorizing huge segments of the country as misguided — these reveal a tremendous intellectual and moral self-confidence that smacks of superiority. It’s one thing to police your own language and a very different one to police other people’s. The former can set an example. The latter is domineering.

Discourses and theories once confined to academia were transmitted into workaday liberal political thinking, and college campuses — which many take to be what a world run by liberals would look like — seemed increasingly intolerant of free inquiry.

Champions of inclusion can watch what they say and explain what they’re doing without presuming to regulate what words come out of other people’s mouths. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that states had to allow same-sex marriage, the fight, in some quarters, turned to pizza places unwilling to cater such weddings. Maybe don’t pick that fight?

Even if liberals think their opponents are backward, they don’t have to gratuitously drive people away, including voters who cast ballots once or even twice for Mr. Obama before supporting Mr. Trump in 2016.

Without sacrificing their principles, liberals can come across as more respectful of others. Self-righteousness is rarely attractive, and even more rarely rewarded.

The president’s current approval ratings are at 42 percent, up from just a few months ago. Liberals are inadvertently making that outcome [another Trump win] more likely.

 

[jvcarroll]

Everyone desperately needs to read this article from the New York Times this weekend

"Liberals, You're Not as Smart as You Think You"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/12/...-youre-not-as-smart-as-you-think-you-are.html

OMG. This was weeks ago. Interesting reading. It's not "her liberal politics" that were offensive. She offended everybody. She insulted Rachel Maddow, CNN, Jake Tapper, Congressional Democrats, and Democrats for "not doing anything." The Republicans were roasted more, of course, because they're the ones in power and the President was too much of a wuss to attend and placed a woman, the very gender he's expressed little respect for -- his press secretary (not anyone with any substantial power) in his spot on the dais. And speaking of liberals, particularly, as a monolith is idiotic. I don't know two liberals that can agree on a radio station much less a political candidate or ideology. Most that I know argue for hours about minutia with each other more than argue with conservatives. But all of this comes from an academic - one often retained by Fox News to go after Democrats. While he does raise some good points this is pretty much an advertisement for his appearances on the network. I mean, who'd notice a professor actually agreeing with or supporting Wolf? But I am glad to see that the NYTimes is being shown to have conservative content. I'm going to compare Alexander to a popular liberal academic with whom I often disagree - Krugman. There's a wealth of knowledge in political academia, but they all seem to be hocking a book and tend to miss the forest for the trees. I remember Krugman speaking about San Francisco politics, of all things and, from the East Coast, wove together all of these unrelated statistics to prove a particular progressive point that really wasn't valid. The truth is, the easiest way to know that the weather is like right now is to open a window - not the weatherman. That's my little analogy. What I'm saying is that I seldom listen to professors when it comes to people unless they actually TALK to people and treat them as individuals. This is precisely what I, and other dems, neglected to do over the last election cycle. The truth is that, other than some really tasteless jokes, Wolf offended everybody - and that greatest offense was telling the truth, particularly about the press core (the very people who invited her). For that, she is still my hero of that evening. But, again, the thing Wolf made most clear to me is that we need to talk truth to power and to talk to each other more!!!

 

[CensoredAlso]

You're not implying a New York Times article is fake, are you?

 

[jvcarroll]

The truth is that Wolf's routine did little to reach across the isle, but she wasn't hired to to that. Still, a little bit would have helped. That's not what she does (and her standup is incredible). She did little to change anyone's mind about anything or to enlighten anybody. She's a comedian with no real political power. I with the Trump White House would hold the President and his staff as accountable for their statements as they do a little-known comedian who was hired to say "mean" things. Also, she did mention Flint still doesn't have clean water, but neither the media, nor conservatives, are repeating that part much. Kids and families are still dying slowly. Obama didn't do enough and Trump entirely dropped the cause and his promise! That's really where the focus should be - the two Presidents who should have done more. The one who's retired certainly has the time and probably should do something, but the one who's not is too busy crying about people being unfair to him while he and his administration malign war heroes like John McCain.

 

[jvcarroll]

You're not implying a New York Times article is fake, are you?

Ha! Is that what you read from that? The editorial page has all sorts of different opinions in it. Always has, But they pick the most interesting ones - not necessarily the most fact-based ones. It's the OPINION page, after all. Hard facts are for the body of the paper, not the editorials.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It's not "her liberal politics" that were offensive.

I think the writer meant she was praised more for her liberal politics than for her actual talent.

She's a comedian with no real political power.

Well that's another thing the article brought up, the arrogance that "comedy" would somehow beat Trump.

"mean" things.

Saying a woman "finally gets to go to prom" is indeed mean.

Also, she did mention Flint still doesn't have clean water, but neither the media, nor conservatives, are repeating that part much. Kids and families are still dying slowly.

I agree, that should have been a moment everyone could join hands on. But hey, maybe don't knock dirty water until you've tried it.

but the one who's not is too busy crying about people being unfair to him while he and his administration malign war heroes like John McCain.

I appreciate that so many are coming to McCain's defense, but it's exhausting trying to remember who we like or hate this week. Before Trump made his dumb comments, the US did not hate Putin. Before Trump made his dumb comments, McCain was a joke to the Democrats. Everyone is letting Trump dictate our thoughts, and it's getting more than a bit absurd.