Kansas Crimson

zsn wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:56 pm Adding Puerto Rico and DC as States would ensure and cement the irrelevance of the Republican Party. It would just accelerate something that is all but certain over the next decade - ie. we don’t have to wait until enough old, rural, white people die off. That’s the simple reason why we don’t have two more States.

if that's the case, then why don't dems make that a bigger part of their gameplan, or take the initiative when they've had the power?

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:02 pm

Cascadia wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:53 pm

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:37 pm trying to circle back to some initial discussion - if Puerto Rico really struggles with political stability and internal prosperity and operating in a global market, then why don't we focus our resources on that, rather than pimping freedom and independence in Taiwan instead?

and for that matter, in Ukraine instead?

I just think there's so much shit the US could be accomplishing, beyond arms brokering and antagonism disguised as diplomacy.

Republicans

well then, what are Dems doing to improve the lives of the Merican people?

or to keep tabs on the war machine?

They just passed a fairly substantial bill. Plus the infrastructure bill a while back.

Unfortunately Manchin is a piece of shit and is blocking other legislation.

As for the war machine. I personally don’t have a problem with the current aid to Ukraine (and others)

this is a couple years old, but still indicative of the current climate i’d imagine

https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/resea ... nse-budget

i’m sure with congress, there’s also the issue of loosing the military vote by cutting defense spending…even if it’s reasonable cuts

(kinda sounds like another issue we’re dealing with that involves weapons)

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:03 pm

zsn wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:56 pm Adding Puerto Rico and DC as States would ensure and cement the irrelevance of the Republican Party. It would just accelerate something that is all but certain over the next decade - ie. we don’t have to wait until enough old, rural, white people die off. That’s the simple reason why we don’t have two more States.

if that's the case, then why don't dems make that a bigger part of their gameplan, or take the initiative when they've had the power?

Good idea. It was definitely floated during the transition. However, practical matters come in the way, not the least of which is keeping two DINOs in the tent pissing out than vice versa. I think it’s prioritizing the ways in which to spend political capital.

Btw, the answer to your question “what have the Democrats done for the people” is “Heck of a lot more in just the past few months than the Republicans have done in the past 3-4 decades”

KUTradition wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:48 pm this is a couple years old, but still indicative of the current climate i’d imagine

https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/resea ... nse-budget

i’m sure with congress, there’s also the issue of loosing the military vote by cutting defense spending…even if it’s reasonable cuts

(kinda sounds like another issue we’re dealing with that involves weapons)

and yet...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/2 ... y-00048041

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 4:58 pm

KUTradition wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:48 pm this is a couple years old, but still indicative of the current climate i’d imagine

https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/resea ... nse-budget

i’m sure with congress, there’s also the issue of loosing the military vote by cutting defense spending…even if it’s reasonable cuts

(kinda sounds like another issue we’re dealing with that involves weapons)

and yet...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/2 ... y-00048041

i’m not sure what you want me to say

two of us have pointed out the political expediency of supporting the military

add to that, that the majority of Americans just don’t agree with you, and prefer to either maintain current spending levels or increase spending

those are the reasons why the situation is what it is

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 4:58 pm

KUTradition wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:48 pm this is a couple years old, but still indicative of the current climate i’d imagine

https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/resea ... nse-budget

i’m sure with congress, there’s also the issue of loosing the military vote by cutting defense spending…even if it’s reasonable cuts

(kinda sounds like another issue we’re dealing with that involves weapons)

and yet...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/2 ... y-00048041

Ridiculous. The amount of kickbacks that go into defense spending is outrageous.

so there's not many mainstream western media anyone reporting on it, but apparently some far right Ukrainian website that publishes hit lists has named...Roger Waters?

…some far right Ukrainian website…

sigh…

why the sigh?

you worried about that Pink Floyd show?

you know Sandy Hook was a false-flag operation, right?

paid actors, body doubles, and everything

I was just listening to Southampton Dock from The Final Cut earlier today...weird

KUTradition wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:54 pm you know Sandy Hook was a false-flag operation, right?

paid actors, body doubles, and everything

do you mean to imply that any evidence of far right extremism in Ukraine could only be fake news Russian propaganda?

even if it's coming from otherwise established western sources?

How are you able to criticize war as a problem created by for-profit entities in the student loan thread, then turn around and so stubbornly defend the for-profit war narrative here, to the exclusion of any other context, no matter how much evidence is presented?

https://www.politico.eu/article/wish-yo ... r-ukraine/

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/0 ... t-a25.html

ousdahl wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:17 pm

KUTradition wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:54 pm you know Sandy Hook was a false-flag operation, right?

paid actors, body doubles, and everything

do you mean to imply that any evidence of far right extremism in Ukraine could only be fake news Russian propaganda?

even if it's coming from otherwise established western sources?

How are you able to criticize war as a problem created by for-profit entities in the student loan thread, then turn around and so stubbornly defend the for-profit war narrative here, to the exclusion of any other context, no matter how much evidence is presented?

lol

i wasn’t defending anything

maybe i shoulda been clearer…stay away from far-anything sites

i wouldn’t trust a far-right ukrainian site anymore than i’d trust infowars or breitbart

talk about pushing a certain narrative…

twocoach wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:24 pm https://www.politico.eu/article/wish-yo ... r-ukraine/

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/0 ... t-a25.html

broken clocks, blind squirrels

KUTradition wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:12 pm

ousdahl wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:17 pm

KUTradition wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:54 pm you know Sandy Hook was a false-flag operation, right?

paid actors, body doubles, and everything

do you mean to imply that any evidence of far right extremism in Ukraine could only be fake news Russian propaganda?

even if it's coming from otherwise established western sources?

How are you able to criticize war as a problem created by for-profit entities in the student loan thread, then turn around and so stubbornly defend the for-profit war narrative here, to the exclusion of any other context, no matter how much evidence is presented?

lol

i wasn’t defending anything

maybe i shoulda been clearer…stay away from far-anything sites

i wouldn’t trust a far-right ukrainian site anymore than i’d trust infowars or breitbart

talk about pushing a certain narrative…

if we're supposed to stay away from far-anything sites, then why is it apparently so taboo to ask whether we're arming far-anything militants?

And not only appropriate, but expected, to so hastily dismiss those questions as just more bad guy propaganda?

from two coach's qusdahl link from the world socialist website, they refer to the Ukrainian site Myrotvorets, which apparently translates to "Peacemaker," and lists perceived enemies of Ukraine. It's been in a lot of hot water over the years for what's described as being a "death list" for politicians, journalists, bidnessmen, and anyone else on the wrong side of Ukrainian nationalism.

(There's even allegations the site has ties to NATO, but let's go ahead and dismiss that too as just more Russian propaganda.)

Pretty sure it's a far right nationalist site. But whether it's a far-anything is apparently no concern to entities such as mainstream western financial institutions, as I see it's at least mainstream enough to accept donations via Visa and Mastercard.

ok

let’s say i agree with all your points

now what?

KUTradition wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 4:24 pm ok

let’s say i agree with all your points

now what?

Now nothing. We laugh a bit that some Pink Floyd musician being a bit of a kook and shooting off his mouth enough has some foreign website wishing him ill will and then we move on with our day.