The General US Politics Thread

And here's the Washington Post analysis of the study that was linked in that article for reference.

Wealth concentration returning to ‘levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,’ according to new research

Which as John Oliver noted in an episode from a while back, is just a tad ominous, considering what followed the Twenties.

Edited by M84 on Feb 11th 2019 at 8:10:38 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised

Uh-oh.

I liked it better when Questionable Casting was called WTH Casting Agency

The new tens' been a repeat of the pre-WWII era for a while now: rise of fascist political leaders, increase in racial hatred and intolerace, the works.

Not that that isn't concerning, but I don't find it particularly surprising, eithet.

While history does repeat itself,so you'll probably get a recession but it won't be anywhere near as bad as the 20's boom and bust depression

New theme music also a box

Polls show Virginians are divided on Ralph Northam. The jury’s still out on Justin Fairfax.

The thing that caught my eye is Roughly 58 percent of African Americans polled said Northam should remain in office, compared to 46 percent of whites who said the same.

For some reason I was expecting that...

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Here's my question about the poll: does it distinguish between Republicans and Democrats? I would expect a substantial portion of Republicans to answer "yes" to any question about whether a Democratic politician should leave office, regardless of the reason, and obviously more whites than blacks are Republicans.

Much more meaningful would be the ratio of white Democrats to black Democrats who still support him. The article doesn't seem to mention this, although I didn't delve deeply into it.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 11th 2019 at 9:48:56 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

This poll has more. Seems like partisanship is indeed the dominating factor, although I notice that numerically his support among African Americans is stronger than among Democrats.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

The Post's paywall won't let me read that, unfortunately.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

The usual 538 article on presidential candidates, this time on Amy Klobuchar. She is one of my favourites, coming from a Midwestern state, strongly overperformed in elections multiple times and has a pragmatic, relatable personality from what I've seen.

Only problem is her supposed treatment of staff members, but it's unclear how much of that is from her being a tough boss or actual mistreatment; relatively small baggage anyway.

Life is unfair...

If it's actual mistreatment, that's a problem.

Disgusted, but not surprised

It says that most Democrats want Northam to stay and most Republicans want him to go. And that his support among African Americans is stronger than among Democrats in general but only by few percent.

I am thinking that this is yet again mostly a matter of partisanship, but the deviation between Democrats vs. African Americans might have a different reason. Perhaps whites care more about the optics (if you want to be negative: virtue signaling) while African Americans are more interested in policy matters (such as Northam continuing his predecessor's project to restore felons' voting rights, which is a rsce issue as black people disproportionately end up in jail)?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I think a lot of black people in Virginia might think that Northam is the best they are going to get in Virginia.

Which if true is kind of sad.

Disgusted, but not surprised

There may be a sense among black voters that if you're going to have a white guy in the governor's office, you can't afford to be too picky given the state's history. Better someone that you know is trying to work for you now than someone you know will try to work against you, which is what will inevitably happen if the Republicans regain the office.

Slightly ninjaed.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 11th 2019 at 10:11:02 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Maybe the black community in the state generally accepted his apology?

Was it mentioned that if he stepped down the black lieutenant governor would step in for the time?

Either way, I'm actually not particular surprised more white people (considering party affiliation or not) want him gone.

The lieutenant governor has his own problems, specifically sexual assault claims. The rabbit hole seems to continue indefinitely.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Huh, did not hear about that.

And the Attorney General also did blackface. Something's rotten in the state of Virginia, it seems. This is not to say that any other part of the country is necessarily better, but it is interesting to note.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer

The Attorney General also offered up his own past blackface shenanigans. Though he did it and apologized on his own initiative.

Personally, I'd prefer if Northam and Fairfax resign and the Attorney General stay if the public wants him to.

But of course, considering the data I think it's clear that Northam isn't leaving, which is offensive but acceptable. In situations like this, it's the opinions of African-Americans that should be supreme as a rule, and they have spoken.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

I honestly did not expect so much African-American support for Northam in spite of his scandal. What are his odds of staying in office right now?

@Physical Stamina:

I just watched this video you're talking about, and... well, while it's not perfect, I wouldn't call it "whining about feminism" so much as him pointing out inconsistencies in the trailer ^note Some examples: They tout "diversity", but one of the characters whose concept art they're showing off looks more like a caricature of "diversity" (best I could describe is that someone thought giving a female character dark skin, a gangster-like look, mohawk-like hair and arm tattoos fits under "diversity"), and the writers for the show are "100% female" by their own admission (in short, probably Broken Aesop before the show even started). They try to spin the show as doing something original, but the only description that they provide in the trailer is just "four girls going to a school to become 'guardians'", a formula which is not original at all., criticizing the Anvilicious nature of the trailer itself (it's the first one, too), and also showing that said trailer was so badly received on Youtube that the creators disabled both the comments and the like/dislike feature (the provided screenshot showed a net negative number). He then goes on to say that just because this first trailer is bad doesn't necessarily mean that the show itself will turn out to be bad, it's just that it's not making a good first impression... and admits that maybe he's wrong about the trailer being bad anyway.

I am quite perturbed by him throwing around the "SJW" label in an obviously negative way, but who's to say that he's indeed misusing it to refer to all feminists and the like? Hell, I probably (though not necessarily) would've used "SJW" to label all Moral Guardians and any other people or shows that tout Anvilicious messages if I had been the sort to do Youtube videos like he and many other people do.

Edited by MarqFJA on Feb 11th 2019 at 9:15:31 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Marq, those are dogwhistles. He's using dogwhistles. And I honestly don't trust anyone who throws around 'SJW' negatively to tell anyone what is and isn't acceptable diversity.

Also, I feel as if this belongs in another thread? Politics in Media, perhaps?

Edited by AzurePaladin on Feb 11th 2019 at 1:17:36 PM

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer

As this video rightly points out, SJ Ws are in a way a conspiracy theory. Meaning the Anti-SJW movement has build a Feindbild for itself which they can use as an excuse to vent their racism and sexism, under the guise of being "rational".

Just to get an idea how far removed Sargon and consorts are from being rational.

And here lies a logical problem: Just because such terms are most frequently used as dogwhistles to disguise actual bigotry under a veneer of respectability doesn't necessarily mean that every case of random John or Jane Doe on the street using the term is also a case of dogwhistling. Because, you know, they might actually be using them to mean something that is only tangentially similar to what the actual dog-whistlers mean. After all, dog-whistles are code words; the concept itself relies on only the genuinely bigoted people being aware of what it actually stands for, while also banking on the visible meaning to attract more numerous masses of unwitting non-bigoted people to support what looks like a reasonable cause to them.

Even if this someone is using it to denote fringe extremists like radical feminists?

Perhaps... which ironically reminds me that I completely forgot to follow up on the discussion that I had started there a few weeks ago (good thing I bookmarked one of my posts to make sure I don't lose track of it, since the thread was moving so fast and mine wasn't the only topic being discussed).

This of course depends on on assuming that everyone who uses "SJW" in a negative way form a monolithic group with little to no variability in how they use the term. I hope you can clearly see the logical fallacy in that.

Edited by MarqFJA on Feb 11th 2019 at 9:34:07 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

This is exactly how he gets you. By seeming very reasonable and agreeable on the surface and making these arguments.

Don't fall for it, he's coming from a place of malice and trying to trick you.

Oh really when?