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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#167726: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:47:59 AM

If a leftward shift in the Democratic Party is inevitable, I still don't have much confidence in Sanders' ability to make it work. I mean, so far he's been a textbook example of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! The movement might end up co-opted by people with far worse intentions, such as Tulsi Gabbard.

edited 20th Jan '17 10:50:01 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
carbon-mantis Collector Of Fine Oddities from Trumpland Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Married to my murderer
Collector Of Fine Oddities
#167727: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:48:56 AM

@Navy expansion, several weeks ago he was meeting with Naval staff and discussing a trillion dollar+ shipbuilding deal that would add something like 300 vessels to it. Rather cryptically said to be for future use in any Pacific engagements.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#167728: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:49:24 AM

[up][up] I don't think Sanders is ideal either in the same way as Corbyn isn't and wasn't ideal for Labor in the UK, and I really hope someone steps up who is better able to temper a progressive vision with practical realities in the next few years who can take up that mantle, but for now he's what we've got.

edited 20th Jan '17 10:50:36 AM by CaptainCapsase

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#167730: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:53:33 AM

[up] Welp, so much for Trump's promise to save the coal industry. China's a rather big consumer of American coal.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#167731: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:54:38 AM

[up][up] Well yes, obviously to confront China with. Apparently terrorists don't make a big "great enemy" to use as a boogeyman, since they tend to actually carry out visible and highly demoralizing attacks against your people rather than glaring at you menacingly like the Soviets did and occasionally carrying out military interventions halfway across the world.

edited 20th Jan '17 10:55:41 AM by CaptainCapsase

rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#167732: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:55:35 AM

Protesters clashing with police in DC.

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#167733: Jan 20th 2017 at 10:55:49 AM

And as Turkey is finding out, stopping them reliably is difficult.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#167734: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:00:07 AM

Surprised the quality is this bad.

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
Falrinn Since: Dec, 2014
#167735: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:00:51 AM

Honestly I always assumed his plan to save the coal industry amounts to "eliminate environmental regulations" and absolutely nothing else.

While that might slow (or even reverse) the slide in coal production for a time, ultimately automation and competition from natural gas and wind/solar will ensure that coal jobs never return to where they were in the past.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#167736: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:02:40 AM

Well, he also said to fix water issues in California. Coal-powered desal and pumping would do it.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#167737: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:03:27 AM

The military build up is partially stuff that started under Obama (or even Bush or Clinton), remember that military procurement is a snail's game. The other part is him greasing the palms of whatever company will play along.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#167738: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:04:22 AM

Re: the Democratic Party's shift leftward.

It'll probably happen, but it won't matter. They will still lose. They will lose the Presidency. They will lose more senators, more congressmen, more state seats, more town councilmen, what have you. If they move left, they will lose. If they stay in the center, they will lose. If they move to the right, they will lose as well, because why elect an imitator when you can get the real deal? The zeitgeist in America is fascist, reactionary, and anti-intellectual — that's something that can't be overcome by anything except the passage of time.

edited 20th Jan '17 11:05:38 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#167739: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:05:47 AM

[up][up] Partially, and it's also something that likely would've happened under any Republican, but Trump's extremely Hawkish stance on China and apparent willingness to lead us until a new cold war.

[up] Trump won because of apathy, disillusionment, and distrust of the center rather than because of a genuine popular appeal to his movement. Right before the great depression, the left and particularly the labor movement was thoroughly beaten down, dismantled, and neutered. While it took the worst economic crisis in history, it made a major comeback in a matter of years, and Trump just so happens to be fairly likely to repeat that particular economic feat.

edited 20th Jan '17 11:10:59 AM by CaptainCapsase

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#167740: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:08:14 AM

[up][up] Maybe the war is lost for a time. But that's not going to stop me from voting Democratic anyway.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#167741: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:09:43 AM

[up] Right before the great depression, it looked as if all was lost for the left in America, and perhaps that particular bit of history will repeat itself once again if Trump ruins the global economy, though I really hope it doesn't come to that.

edited 20th Jan '17 11:10:41 AM by CaptainCapsase

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#167742: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:11:18 AM

They're tear gassing protestors in DC.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#167743: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:12:41 AM

[up][up]But do we really have to wait for something that negatively affects white people as well in order for the country to go "Shit, maybe hippie, bra burning lady has a point"

Especially when there's just a good chance for the country to conclude "KKK was right. It's the colored/Muslim/gay/whoever people's fault. Get em!"

edited 20th Jan '17 11:13:13 AM by NoName999

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#167744: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:15:25 AM

[up] Until such a time as power is no longer concentrated into the hands of white Americans (who, if history repeats will reluctantly go along with such a leftwards shift due to a realization that they'll be the first ones against the wall if a revolution happens), that unfortunately seems quite likely.

edited 20th Jan '17 11:15:46 AM by CaptainCapsase

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#167745: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:15:28 AM

I wouldn't write off the Democrats quite yet, parties/movements have come back from tight spots before. It won't be easy, but this war has only just begun.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#167746: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:20:30 AM

[up] I don't think the modern democrats are likely to make a comeback; Trump most likely represents the beginning of a new party system to replace the current 6th party system that started with the Reagan revolution.

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#167747: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:26:02 AM

as someone from a country that suffered from six succesful military coups, you don't want to open that door, not even with Trump.
If the choice is between Drumpf starting a nuclear war with Chinanote  and a military coup ... I'll take the coup. At least I know I'll be on the winning side.
some journalists are wondering how to translate Trump, because his lack of vocabulary and awful syntax mean that, if you stay true to the text, his interviews will actually sound like they are done by a 9 year old.
Why should he sound smarter in French than he does in English?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#167748: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:26:30 AM

[up]It's because it will be hard that the Democrats will fail. When have they ever be able to fight a hard fight? Our position is honestly untenable. We lost, Trump is president, the GOP has a stranglehold on every level of American government, voter suppression is law and unassailable as such, and the achievements of the Obama presidency, the likes of which we will never see again, are going to be destroyed one by one. And against a populace that is powerless to unseat Trump unwilling to rid us of his ilk, the Democrats have pretty much no chance of capturing enough seats to reclaim any portion of the government, and even if they do, it will never be enough.

The Democrats will fail because they appeal to a better nature in Americans that doesn't exist and never existed. You can't promote compassion to a nation of violent barbarians.

edited 20th Jan '17 11:39:18 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#167749: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:47:50 AM

To lighten the mood a little, both Trump and Obama are going on vacation at the same time. Do you think Trump is just trying to o prove be can have a bigger better weekend off than Obama can?

edited 20th Jan '17 11:48:18 AM by sgamer82

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#167750: Jan 20th 2017 at 11:48:14 AM

If you can't beat them, infiltrate them. Have them switch to Republican, but keep their liberal ideals and slowly spread them through the party.


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