General News Thread

[Twelveseal]

Lol. The doom of a two-party system; binary choice, toss your vote, or don't use it.

Also, that suggestion about Trump, then Centrist, then Trump, then Centrist in an endless cycle made me realize...

Alex Jones for President.
How long before this is a Republican ticket?

[Tobias]

Can they? Belgium has repeatedly suffered terrorist attacks and had its citizens die under the eye of those police. Would stiffer paws have saved those lives? Who knows. But it’s pretty clear some of the US laws did avert some of the home grown terrorist plots here.

so again, its not so easy as simply picking a moral option and telling the people who died on your watch “to bad!”

again, it’s nothing so simple as “overwatch bad! Privacy good!” When lives are at stake. Do I agree with it? Maybe not but in a suburb of Dallas I’m not really in the immediate line of fire either. I understand where the president was coming from.

[I3uster]

do you think warrants are a generally good concept or no because this is pretty much what it boils down to

removing these regulations can make the work of law enforcement much more efficient, but removing highway speed limits also gets you to work faster

rules exist for reasons

[Twelveseal]

Also, yeah, the Reps have basically gone the route of a religious extremist group. They're just not actively violent on a large scale yet. To other American citizens, at least.

[Mcjon01]

Overwatch is bad though, don’t support Blizzard

[I3uster]

Also I think people should remember someone blew up the Boston Marathon will all the fancy surveillance in place.

[Tobias]

do you think warrants are a generally good concept or no because this is pretty much what it boils down to

removing these regulations can make the work of law enforcement much more efficient, but removing highway speed limits also gets you to work faster

rules exist for reasons

I literally said I don’t agree with the premise. However you don’t have to agree with something to understand it. I also recognize I didn’t have to deal with the burden of making such a soul crushing choice and am glad I didn’t have to.

[I3uster]

if i were in his shoes i would have made the choice that is expected of me i.e. the one that protects my citizens rights no matter if crazy patriotic fervor made them relinquish it to kill a guy who was not even a radical islamist but im more of a truth focused guy you know, one that thinks people vote for people based on expectation for them to do something, not to do nothing then hand it over to someone who makes it worse

he certainly didnt have problems authorizing drone strikes on civillians so idk maybe his heavy hearted compassion doesnt really go that far in the first place and your framing sucks

then again i guess a guy named husayn should be expected to make muslims bleed, SHIA JOKES FOLKS

[Trubo]

why do you trust them to tell the truth at this point

You might not agree with tobias but he's a good barometer of the party center. They don't give a shit about lying evidently (like when they said they'd reach out and made the most progressive party platform ever, good job Sanders, go home, ignore the Wallstreet guys that we promised jobs to) and their base believes it. The most comfortable of all political positions.

edit: i dont mean that youre lying toby i mean that youre buying it sorry if that came out wrong

I don't, but I misunderstood the point you were making last time so not much else to say here.

[SpoonyViking]

If things are done super exactly perfectly right, they get a little better each day.

Meanwhile, people die.

EDIT: also the idea that there is some grand rightward float to the country also does not seem supported by the facts. 20 years ago the idea that preexisting conditions wouldn’t be a central pillar of bankruptcy court was preposterous. 10 years ago the public option was to liberal for democrats. 6 years ago minimum wage advances to 15 bucks an hour was a fools errand.

Three years ago, no one thought nazis would publicly and proudly designate themselves as nazis, with your federal government tacitly endorsing their words and actions.

There's no right so intrinsic to the human condition it can't be revoked. Authoritarianism and demonisation of the Other have been a constant throughout history.

all of these are now settled law or permanent planks of Biden’s platform and he is oft viewed as to centrist. And I haven’t even gotten to gay marriage or THC legalization.

I forget, but wasn't he opposed to gay marriage?

[Pendant]

Toby must hate us all by this point.

[Tobias]

Nah. It’s always good to get a chance to test your theories by debating them. I rather enjoy the stimulation.

[Tobias]

I forget, but wasn't he opposed to gay marriage?

Hell no. As a matter of fact Biden essentially dragged Obama across the line of supporting gay marriage before Obama really wanted to.

[I3uster]

Yes he's on record not supporting and has a voting record to back it up in regards to DOMA but anecdotally he was on board before Obama so it's probably fine.

[Tobias]

Ah yes the old “20 years isn’t enough time to change your mind” premise.

[I3uster]

the late 90s were certainly not 2018 when it comes to homophobia but its also not the 60s

[Tobias]

Yes but they were twenty years ago. See again how I noted a few posts back how the idea that the country has some grand rightward drift that must be averted right now before calamity does not actually seem to be in touch with reality.

[I3uster]

For the record it's fine to say and assume that he's fine on gay rights now, as are the significant majority of the democratic party. I would just personally question his own statements that he was enlightened by the words of his father to never be a homophobe or whatever show he's pulling when he has been in political opposition of it.

like hes probably a stand up guy and obama is also probably fun to talk to but look at what you voted them in for man, they have a fucking job to do. no amount of heartaching about the pressure they were under is gonna change that. nobody peer pressured him to become arguably the most powerful man in the world like its some class president election and only one guy knows how to do public speaking

[Tobias]

I voted Obama in to fix the Great Recession and pass Obamacare. And he did those things. I’m quite pleased with his legacy. Sure he didn’t do everything I wanted and I didn’t agree with every one of his policies. But that’s politics. You give people 80% of what they want.


if it seems like a politician is giving you 100% of what you want he either is lying to you or can’t win an election. There isn’t a third option.

[Pendant]

Ah yes the old “20 years isn’t enough time to change your mind” premise.

This is something that is strange to me since it never took me 20 years to believe gay people should have equal rights. In fact, it never took me any "evolving", so you'll have to forgive me for not believing it is such a difficult thing to do.