Month Thirteen: Oil Barons | Dad, How Did You Meet Mom? | Barack Hussein Obama

[Tymon]

One of the conversations I regularly have when talking with my brother about Politics is that I dont even feel like Democrats winning is going to fix anything. Like certainly not make it worse than it is now, but are they actually going to do the very drastic things they need to do to ensure this shit never happens again? Are they going to pass amendments and laws to ensure checks and balances actually function? I mean the mess Trump has caused will take decades to fix if we even can fix it all.

Or are we just quietly counting down the days until Trump 2.0 comes in and shits up the place again.

This is something that the US isn't uniquely struggling with, albeit they are certainly the worst actor among power players geopolitically rn.

Most of the other big power players (UK, France, Spain, Germany, etc) are struggling mightily with ineffective government and the rise of the far right.

Talk to a Brit about the big problems facing the UK and you'll hear a familiar tale... government failing to address everyday people's problems by focusing on buzzword politics and catering to corpos and the rich. France has huge protests over corruption and failure to deliver on "progressive" promises.

The "world order" is fucked. Trump is the biggest, loudest, and most damaging figurehead speedrunning things, but reality is, there's very, very few places on the planet right now genuinely undergoing a progressive enlightenment.

A lot of uncomfortable conversations need to be had and a lot of powerful people need to look long and hard in the mirror. We all know that ain't gonna happen though.

[Tymon]

I think the most anyone can reasonably hope for is that they live out the rest of their lives in a deeply flawed, deeply unequal, but not actively self-sabotaging version of the USA. Or at least, not self-sabotaging THIS badly.

We're never getting UBI. Never getting single payer healthcare. We aren't getting ranked choice voting or abolishing the EC. Gerrymandering isn't going to get fixed or undone. Roe isn't getting re-codified. A lot of people are going to have fewer rights and more discrimination for the rest of their lives.

My vote will be going towards a hope we can avoid making things any worse. Anything better than that will only be cause for celebration.

[Melena]

I think the most anyone can reasonably hope for is that they live out the rest of their lives in a deeply flawed, deeply unequal, but not actively self-sabotaging version of the USA. Or at least, not self-sabotaging THIS badly.

We're never getting UBI. Never getting single payer healthcare. We aren't getting ranked choice voting or abolishing the EC. Gerrymandering isn't going to get fixed or undone. Roe isn't getting re-codified. A lot of people are going to have fewer rights and more discrimination for the rest of their lives.

My vote will be going towards a hope we can avoid making things any worse. Anything better than that will only be cause for celebration.

Well, Reaper is getting closer. Just got a notification that Rudy Giuliani is in the hospital in critical condition.

[arus2001]

I wouldn't complain if the Vulcans rolled up into orbit and told us we're being stupid shits. Then I'd ask to go with them.

Alas, we still need our World War 3 and a drunk to invent warp drives.

[Gredival]

I think the most anyone can reasonably hope for is that they live out the rest of their lives in a deeply flawed, deeply unequal, but not actively self-sabotaging version of the USA. Or at least, not self-sabotaging THIS badly.

We're never getting UBI. Never getting single payer healthcare. We aren't getting ranked choice voting or abolishing the EC. Gerrymandering isn't going to get fixed or undone. Roe isn't getting re-codified. A lot of people are going to have fewer rights and more discrimination for the rest of their lives.

The cynical neolib is me argues we wouldn't have needed to take the two steps backwards (Roe, the VRA) had people not gotten upset at how slow one step forward was going.

[Bombur]

One of the first things I learned about politics decades ago was that both the left and the right would be totally OK with the government becoming a totalitarian police state as long as their side controlled the police.

[Tymon]

There is no meaningful representation of totalitarian leftists by whatever measure you prefer to describe them as - tankies, anarchists, etc - in any branch of government nor any state in the US in any of their branches of government.

Far different story for the far right.

[Gredival]

I think he's referring to Maoism.

[Bombur]

I was thinking more of a world/history view rather than an american one.

[Mertron]

sure seems like trump offered fetterman a bribe to switch parties

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...lican-00904177

[Zealot]

Nothing a few more strokes can't fix.

[Athas]

Guess these things always seem obvious in hindsight.

[Anoat]

What does it even matter if he is D or R in name? He sides with R anyway, might as well not even count as a D seat

[Zealot]

It matters for Senate Majority Leader purposes.

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[Gredival]

What does it even matter if he is D or R in name? He sides with R anyway, might as well not even count as a D seat

He still votes with the Democratic party line 91% of the time.

[Krandor]

Yeah he is still a Democrat, just not the progressive one he campaigned as. And the 9% where he isn't voting in line with the party is the loud stuff like Israel or government shutdowns

[Andalusian girls]

will forever remain deeply funny he did become moderately more conservative after suffering extensive brain damage

[Tymon]

He is a single issue Senator and that issue is Israel, he is a radical Zionist and will defend Israel on any issue and side with whoever sides more with them. He has opinions on plenty of other issues that I agree with him on but he has zero passion or advocacy for any of them.

By all means prove me wrong but I haven't seen him move substantially right on any issue at all that doesn't have Israel tied to it either directly or indirectly. All of the confirmations he voted for and all of the stuff he's shacked up with the GOP on has been because of that.

The man flies multiple Israeli flags outside of his home and outside of his office. It's really all he cares about.

[Kaslo]

He still votes with the Democratic party line 91% of the time.

I hate those percentages, but they usually also include stupid procedural stuff like adjourning and recessing.

[Tymon]

Remember when politicians used to brag about having A+ ratings with various SuperPACs and lobbyist groups as if that's a thing to be proud of at all