narad
Progressive metal and politics
Well, also under Roosevelt. What a pushover that guy was. Never would have happened under Trump.
Non political figure found guilty of crimes
- Thread starter StevenC
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CleansingCarnage
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The irony in this is that according to many issues Republicans vote on, Obama was a better conservative president than Trump was. He deported more people than any other president in history. He was also more pro-gun than Trump by way of technicality, since the only actions he took in regard to guns was to sign two laws that expanded carry rights on federal land, whereas the only action Trump took in regard to guns was to ban bump stocks. In spite of the clear difference in demeanor and rhetoric, Obama was much, much harder on immigration than Trump was. Another example from the Obama/Trump transition would be the "Muslim ban", which was a temporary expansion of a law restricting travel from those same 7 countries that Obama signed in 2015.
The reality is always more complex than the political rhetoric would lead you to believe. The truth is that every president in my lifetime has just been continuing business as usual, inheriting and carrying forth the policies of the previous administrations and executing them more or less without change. On several key areas of interest, there is essentially no significant difference between parties in terms of policy or execution, such as in foreign policy (particularly in regard to expeditionary war and "covert" actions or proxy interventions) and financial regulation. There is a throughline of bureaucracy that steams ahead in a machine-like fashion regardless of the elected officials in office, and deeply entrenched interests that are essentially futile to resist even for the president. You could consider this to be the "swamp" that Trump promised to drain - a promise which he utterly failed to deliver on, and realistically was probably incapable of even if he really did intend to.
Political rhetoric always follows the pattern of taking credit for everything "good" that happens, and blaming everything "bad" that happens on the other guy. Even when, as stated before, each administration is, for the most part, executing, expanding and carrying on the policies of the previous ones. Certain things that matter a lot have only headed in one direction for decades and no one has ever shown any sign of reversing direction. I remember when things like the Patriot Act were supposed to be a temporary expansion of state police power in the name of public safety, even though many people saw it as a gross violation of rights and the Constitution, and something that should have been unthinkable. It has only ever been extended past its sunset dates and significantly expanded ever since, with the justification morphing from "Islamic terrorism" to "domestic terrorism", essentially turning its apparatus against our own populous just the way many people predicted. I remember when Clinton worked with Republicans to deregulate banks in a way that allowed sub-prime mortgage fraud and credit default swaps, which turned into a black hole of financial liability that crashed the world markets, and then the Bush and Obama administrations seamlessly handed off a program to bail out the institutions responsible instead of helping the average Americans most affected, all while they both appointed the exact same CEOs straight from the banks they defrauded into offices and agencies responsible for overseeing financial policy. Again, nothing significant has changed in this regard, and we're approaching an economic and financial situation that, according to all metrics, is even more dire than it was in 2006/2007. Everyone is still up to the same old tricks.
The one major difference that I can see between administrations is in court appointees, which is obviously very important, but even then, when it comes to entrenching or expanding state or corporate power the courts always seem to find a way to reach a consensus in favor of it.
The major structural and institutional issues with our system combined with the fact that we just swap back and forth between one of two parties every 4-8 years means there's always a way to blame somebody else and defer any sense of accountability, and obfuscates the true levers of power operating uninterrupted behind the political theater.
I said earlier that I haven't had faith in the system since the financial collapse and I wasn't kidding. In my eyes, our systems and institutions are so corrupt and so captivated by entrenched interests (particularly corporate and financial ones) that the only conclusion I can see is that it will all continue to decline in functionality until the whole thing is no longer sustainable. I don't know how long that will take, but one thing I'm certain of is that things are going to get worse from here on out, accompanied of course by a hell of a lot of finger-pointing, political tension, continued rise in economic inequality, and, of course, violence and chaos.
Maybe I'm just melodramatic and pessimistic but I think these sentiments are beginning to become more commonplace. You tell me.
Buckle up!
Moongrum
Well-Known Member
I am by no means educated on this, and only commenting to learn more, but given how strong the GBP is, is that not a sign of how economically strong/stable the UK is? Otherwise investors wouldn't be buying that currency, right?
StevenC
Needs a hobby
The GBP is at a historic low. The country has been through a string of terrible economic moves. There was a hit from 2008 obviously, then 14 years of austerity, then voting for Brexit, then Brexit actually happening the same year as the pandemic, then Liz Truss tanking the economy seemingly on purpose.
We're also currently going through a cost of living crisis worse than the rest of Europe.
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
CleansingCarnage
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Gazpacho do be pretty good ngl
KnightBrolaire
Pickup Connoisseur
Cold tomato soup sucksYou..... don't like gazpacho?
Warm tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, however.
spudmunkey
Well-Known Member
Next time, make the grilled cheese out of Red Dog Toast (a savory, tomato-based French toast). Still the egg, but replace the milk with tomato soup, the cinnamon with paprika, and the sugar with salt (not in equal portions, just conceptually).Warm tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, however.
One tip: Use cheddar, not American). While I will always have a soft spot for American and even Kraft singles in a normal grilled cheese, it's not the right cheese for a sandwich made with Red Dog Toast as the bread:
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Hot gazpacho with garlic croutons sitting on a terrace in a quaint Madrid neighborhood on a really hot day is about as perfect a moment as I can imagine. Gazpacho is the most refreshing thing ever, and the best pick me up.
Yea its about that many approx. Trump gets in in 2016, goes on his world tour after his Executive orders (13848 and 13818 among others) and occupation is in place from about 2017.
thedocuments.info is a good resource for it although it could do with being updated a bit more often. Still, the info is solid
zappatton2
Well-Known Member
Personally, I very much enjoy the freedom (and I do purposely use the word "freedom") to go for strolls in a country with sane gun laws, so I don't have to wonder if the next dude I pass on the street is gonna include me in his general rampage 'cuz I strike him as "woke-looking".
Fun fact, violent crime in the States has been falling for decades, with the stark exception of mass shootings. So it's a little weird when Fox News amps up phobias about "out-of-control" crime, often tied to immigrants/refugees, and sells that message to a well-armed and already deeply paranoid viewership.
The thing that annoys me most is the 1 or 2 times per year when there is a shooting/stabbing in my city (like where some tweaker attacked a poor old lady with a knife while she's walking down the street minding her own business), people who feel like the second amendment should extend to Canada pounce at the opportunity to go "See?! Wouldn't have happened if a Good Guy™ with a gun was there to stop them!" You want those same tweakers to have access to guns??
How would the tweaker in question lawfully purchase a gun? In my state, the tweaker would have to go to sign up for a special class (In my case- multi day) and then petition the local police chief with federal and local forms as to why they want to lawfully own or carry a weapon, meet with the police in person and answer questions, pass a full background check, then wait to see if you get approved.
There are plenty of checks and balances in MA in my opinion. It's not a simple task here.
There are plenty of checks and balances in MA in my opinion. It's not a simple task here.
TedEH
Cromulent
In what universe was the US's COVID response a good thing? Half of the time Trump riled people up about it being fake or a conspiracy or peddling weird home remedies or riling up anti-vaxers, when he wasn't staring into the sun and speculating about the effectiveness of bleach injections. You still had huge outbreaks and states with no mitigation strategy when other countries had already started moving on and getting back to normal life.
You could cut both my hands off and I could still count the number of times I've had a gun pulled on me with said hands. As in zero. It's zero. Almost nobody pulls guns here because that would be insane.I can count the times I've had a gun pulled on me on two hands
KnightBrolaire
Pickup Connoisseur
Simple, they don't. Theft, private party sales, gun shows and 3d printing make gun laws about as useful as trying to collect water with a sieve.
Theft and 3D printing were exactly the scenarios I was thinking
Same way you get beer on Sundays in a dry county. You drive a city over and pick up a 6 (gun) pack.
Moongrum
Well-Known Member
I apologize, it was meant to be a joke/sarcastic, as if greater 5 times is not a lot. And it was at the expense of awakentheskies imagery that there's a bunch of people walking around all the time looking to shoot someone, so many foreigners have this image of the USA that I wanted to poke fun at this hyperbole.
I have never had a gun pulled on me, nor know anyone who has, but the USA is a place where everything and anything happens. I believe the USA has a gun problem, I'm anti-gun ownership myself.
Anyways, I just wanted to clarify because my joke seemed to miss given the emote/reactions I was getting on it, sorry everyone
TedEH
Cromulent
Haven't most of the big gun violence events that spark conversations like this been started with someone accessing an otherwise legal gun? It's always either "he took his dads gun" or "he was a perfectly responsible legal gun owner right up until the shooting".
I can't remember any instances of big notable shooting events where they were 3D printed.
