Return of the Naruto Community Derail Thread: Part Two!

I mean yeah, a lot of us non-Republicans aren't surprised, but then you look at a Republican person you know and are like "Do you feel bad for what your party is? I legitimately hate to say 'I told you so.'"

And then from a legal perspective, it's like - "Federalist Society. Is there no limit to your attempt to rewrite the country? Do you have any scruples?"

Voter suppression and gerrymandering have really been pissing me off the last few years. Georgia will sure have some fun next month.

And now midterm election is less than a month away. Gotta be one hell of a tense month.

Oh right, you're in Georgia? I just heard about your state's voter suppression issue.

The US has a decently high percentage of registered voters who actually do vote, but a significantly lower percent of eligible voters who are actually registered to vote, because voter suppression included removal of past voters from registry, discouraging people from voting, making it illegal to vote when it shouldn't be (for example, the woman who served her previous jail sentence, wasn't aware she couldn't vote, and then cast an otherwise legal vote, and was sentenced to 5 more years in prison for voting).

And who's doing that suppression? When was the last time anyone ever heard about suppression of mostly white votes? Or Democrats limiting access to voting? Or a federal push to increase US voter engagement?

No, I'm in Alabama right now. I have to say, once you've lived here awhile you can see why Jeff Sessions is so keen on keeping marijuana illegal. A lot of young black guys here smoke it, so he's probably really keen to get them a felony conviction when they're young so they can't vote. I've only been to Georgia once and was just passing through at the time.

Also yeah I have to say, I watch mostly liberal news so I'm aware of the bias in what they present, so I'm curious. Does anyone know of any examples of Democrats suppressing votes? I figure they must do gerrymandering of their own even if not to the same extent, but I've never heard of voter suppression tactics from them. I guess it probably doesn't benefit them as much, though. I mean, I don't really believe that Democrats are fundamentally better people, so it makes me wonder what unethical crap they get up to.

If you want a place where smoking marijuana is just as likely as smoking cigarettes, England is number 1 for that. It stinks of weed everywhere.

Once upon a time when I was much younger, I was in a parking lot with my mom and she said 'Man, it really smells like pot here' and I asked 'why do you know what pot smells like?' That was fun.

Also it's not really smelling it so much as seeing people sell hash bricks at work.

It is amazing people defended Kavanaugh's conduct or his nomination after that shitshow of an "investigative trial" where he went "THEM DEMOCRATS ARE OUT TO GET ME! IT's ALL A PLOT BY EVIL Bill and HILARY!!1!"

It's amazing that something like 40% of the population that votes is stupid enough to buy Kavanaugh's bullshit and see him as "The real victim!!1"

I mean, I've always heard that the reason Gerrymandering is tolerated in the US (unlike most other democratic countries, where drawing districts is done by non-partisan organizations) is because both parties are guilty of it, so none of them have the motivation to stop it.

But Voter Suppression isn't gonna be a thing the Democratic will have incentive to do unless they find a way to suppress the votes of White Men- which is notoriously the most difficult demographic to suppress the rights of.

That's another thing. In a country where there's even a pretence to keeping the Supreme Court non-partisan, a speech like the one he made would, entirely by itself, be enough to disqualify Kavanaugh from the position. If you can't even manage to pretend to be non-partisan during your Job Interview for a position that's supposed to be as far as from partisan politics as it's possible to get, you don't deserve the job.

Edited by Gilphon on Oct 11th 2018 at 5:49:45 AM

I don't think I'd call that stupidity. There's a lot of other words I'd choose, though.

And yeah, gerrymandering is something both parties do but so far as I'm aware the Republican party is worse about it for the same reason they're more into voter suppression: It's often targeted at minorities who can't do as much about it.

Hmm, I have a feeling that the very recent stock plunge will be an advantage for Democrats.

you'd be surprised. Massive Fucking Assfaces can block out the world burning in front of them because the people reporting on the wildfire are fake news sites who aren't credible.

Source: a dude who lives in a hyper right-wing environment.

On a tangent- I have a really bad ethics teacher and he has said many bad things, but today he mentioned how he agrees to the treatment of Muslims in China.

Like.

Wow, fuck off.

Edited by mrsunshinesprinkles on Oct 15th 2018 at 11:07:29 PM

I'm starting to worry the Democrats will piss away this opportunity to do good, like usual.

Also, plenty of people who make bullshit claims of being enlightened or tolerant or what have you continue to willfully discriminate against others, especially everyone discriminating against Muslims, or anti-theists discriminating against religious people, or everyone against black people, or against immigrants, etc. It's like they only want "equality" in as much as it helps them.

Which is why I'm thinking that 53% of white women who voted for Trump might go up for the number who vote for his surrogates next month.

So some group has been mailing bombs to the individuals Trump has been calling his enemies - the Obamas, Clintons, Eric Holder, Kamala Harris, Maxine Waters, news outlets, etc.

To the non-Americans, do you all ever encounter stuff like this?

I'm Canadian. A major part of our culture is looking South with smug moral superiority while also secretly, shamefully wishing that we could be important enough to be have to the target of political terrorists too.

Like, they was this one crazy guy who wandered up to the Parliament Buildings with a gun a few years ago. Nobody was hurt, but the Media pounced on the idea that there had been a attempted 'terrorist' attack on Parliament with with an energy that best described as glee.

But that's the closest thing up here that's even remotely comparable that's happened within my lifetime.

My sister moved to Canada. I think she's secretly bored of it because she only talks about American politics and how Canada is so much better, honestly.

Boredom isn't the word for it- to me, at least, it's more about having enough distance from the whole mess the I can be darkly entertained instead of terrified.

Disgust and disappointment are better words than terror.

I once thought about moving to Canada. After an extended stay in Buffalo, however, I figured that I can't put up with excessive cold and snow. XP

Man, 'murica is a mess right now. Have you guys though of maybe doing something about it?

American values suggest that the two ways to deal with dissatisfaction are by voting, or if it's by tyrannical government suppression, by armed resistance.

However, the Republican party has a history of restricting voting rights for minority people, and the Democratic party is often too unwilling to do much about it.

As for armed resistance, that has never been an actual option, just a hypothetical used to placate white gun nuts while everyone else actually gets suppressed. If a minority actually has a gun, even under their right, they might just get shot and killed for it.

So any actual progress is incredibly incremental and slow.

And now a white man shot up a synagogue, shot at police, and of course was taken in alive without injury.

Warning: Rambling ahead.

I was once again reminded something is seriously wrong with my family when my mom called my little brother "fucking son of a bitch." And she is a smart woman too, being an university professor and all.

Few weeks ago my little brother was diagnosed with ADHD. The problem is that he is now using it as an excuse for all the ungrateful and toxic words and actions from him.

As someone who once aspired to be a clinical psychologist, seeing someone using mental disorder to justify his action disgusted me. He's an irresponsible, extremely self-centered, and entitled little shit and that's not something caused by ADHD.

Honestly? At this point if my parents decide to disown him, I'd tell them to go for it. Jesus freaking Christ.

Dude... that's messed up all around.

Also, did your mom just call herself a bitch?

Yeah. I guess either it was always this bad or I just grew more perceptive, but turns out my family wasn't all big happy family. I'd be lying if I had no part in this.

Heh, that was the very thought that went through my head, as well as the fact that it also made me a son of a bitch. I didn't dare to say it to mom's face though, because she'd given me one hell of evil eyes. XD