All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Gray Lensman]

McConnell is already taking his time having the Senate vote on a bill that would provide paid sick leave, testing and food security for citizens at risk for the Covid 19 virus. Trump has even agreed to sign it when it reaches his desk, the House has already voted for it, but McConnell is taking his time. SMH

I didn't realize that it had managed to get past Gohmert being a tool yet.

[Gray Lensman]

Well, we didn't need an emperor to prod us to conquer the world, our democratic government of for and by the people has somehow managed to do it anyway. And funny enough, because even though we have military bases and factories in all of these countries, because we never bothered to officially annex most of it as American territory, the people living there, though effectively living under the thumb of American policy, don't have any say in it! Fun how that works out for us.

The Iron Curtain, combined with the fear of a resurgent Germany in the post WWII landscape, is what enabled that to happen. I've heard that in parts of Europe, they say that the purpose of NATO is threefold. To keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.

[worstblogever]

We're about a single 500 point drop in the Dow Jones from the stock market being worse than when Trump took office.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

McConnell is already taking his time having the Senate vote on a bill that would provide paid sick leave, testing and food security for citizens at risk for the Covid 19 virus. Trump has even agreed to sign it when it reaches his desk, the House has already voted for it, but McConnell is taking his time. SMH

And this is why I’ve said that reclaiming the Senate is just as important as winning the presidency, if not more important.

[PwrdOn]

The Iron Curtain, combined with the fear of a resurgent Germany in the post WWII landscape, is what enabled that to happen. I've heard that in parts of Europe, they say that the purpose of NATO is threefold. To keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.

Well that doesn't really explain our presence in the rest of the world outside of where white people live now does it?

[Tendrin]

Donald Trump’s department of justice is seeking to drop charges against two Russian firms indicted by Robert Mueller, amid concerns they are seeking to exploit the process to obtain sensitive information, it has been reported.
The firms, Concord Management and Concord Consulting, were among 13 Russians and three entities charged by the special prosecutor in February 2018, claiming they tried to subvert the 2016 election and to support the Trump campaign.
“The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy,” Rod Rosenstein, then deputy attorney general, told reporters. “We must not allow them to succeed.”
Now, the New York Times has reported prosecutors are looking to drop the charges because they believe the firms are seeking to exploit the process.
Unlike the other firms charged, Concord fought the charges in court, the newspaper said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mueller-r...235300098.html

The Barr DOJ trying to sneak this by right now.

[Tendrin]

Well that doesn't really explain our presence in the rest of the world outside of where white people live now does it?

Are you going to argue against the cold war era policy of containment?

[PwrdOn]

Are you going to argue against the cold war era policy of containment?

Well how does that explain our military and economic hegemony over the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or Latin America?

[Tendrin]

Now watching my Bernie-follows on Twitter declare 'no way Washington voted for Biden! RIGGED!'.

And all I can do is shake my head.

[Tendrin]

Well how does that explain our military and economic hegemony over the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or Latin America?

...do you... not... know what the Soviets were doing during the cold war? It's not like we weren't horrible *before* that, what with the Monroe doctrine and everything, but much of the current status-quo is a byproduct of our 'winning' the cold war.

[PwrdOn]

...do you... not... know what the Soviets were doing during the cold war?

I mean, if our effective colonization of all these far flung territories was really to protect the people from the scourge of communism, why didn't we, you know, leave after the USSR fell?

[Tendrin]

I mean, if our effective colonization of all these far flung territories was really to protect the people from the scourge of communism, why didn't we, you know, leave after the USSR fell?

Us maintaining our empire is not the same as understanding how it wound up built in the first place. I'm not defending US empire. I'm just pointing out that it emerged from a specific set of circumstances that required world-wide engagement.

[Gray Lensman]

Well that doesn't really explain our presence in the rest of the world outside of where white people live now does it?

It's easy to extrapolate something similar to just about everywhere we have bases except for the Middle East. Japan and South Korea are both part of the policy of Containment, in addition to it extending the duration of the stay in the Phillipines (although we initially ended up there due to taking over from Spain after that war). I'd even say that being in Japan was similar to the 'keep them down' mentality shown towards Germany (and in the first few decades after WWII it's likely much of the rest of the world was OK with that).

That isn't to say the US didn't become a hegemonic empire, because we pretty much did.

[Tendrin]

It's easy to extrapolate something similar to just about everywhere we have bases except for the Middle East. Japan and South Korea are both part of the policy of Containment, in addition to it extending the duration of the stay in the Phillipines (although we initially ended up there due to taking over from Spain after that war). I'd even say that being in Japan was similar to the 'keep them down' mentality shown towards Germany (and in the first few decades after WWII it's likely much of the rest of the world was OK with that).

That isn't to say the US didn't become a hegemonic empire, because we pretty much did.

I mean, the middle east was super important to cold war containment strategies too so even that.

[PwrdOn]

Us maintaining our empire is not the same as understanding how it wound up built in the first place.

We built up our empire effectively covering the retreat of the British and French from colonies that they could no longer afford to occupy after WWII devastated their economies. The people in all of these areas of course wanted independence and self-determination, and in desperation turned to the natural enemy of their former colonial masters who promised them support, funding, and weapons if they would adopt a veneer of socialism to further the Soviets' own foreign policy goals. We of course interpreted this to mean some kind of grand international communist conspiracy that must be stopped at all costs, which meant propping up right wing despots in every part of the world that had NO popular support and were MUCH worse than their Soviet-backed counterparts, but because we managed to bankrupt the Soviets with a futile arms race, we declared ourselves the good guys all along. That doesn't mean any of this nonsense was ever true, though.