All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[MiddleMan]

if we were to yank US forces out of the Pacific theater, North Korea is over the DMZ and into South Korea in 48 hours

so not being aholes globally is nice, but other folks are bigger aholes than us

[babyblob]

Does anyone know of this truck Driver strike that is going to happen at the end of the month because they are mad Trump lost? My aunt and her coven are going nuts about it and I guess it is on twitter.

[MiddleMan]

F em

I drive a box truck and deliver tires, I aint strikin' s***

[Farealmer]

Does anyone know of this truck Driver strike that is going to happen at the end of the month because they are mad Trump lost? My aunt and her coven are going nuts about it and I guess it is on twitter.

Started on 4chan. Appearently they want a whole lot more than just that on strike. We'll see if it happens.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Remember that US imperialism largely doesn't involve actually conquering and ruling overseas territories directly, though we still have a couple of those also. Instead, it largely involves using economic and diplomatic coercion to force countries to sign unfavorable trade deals that usually involve them opening up their markets to American companies, and if that doesn't work, instigating a coup to put a more friendly regime in place that will accede to our demands, and if THAT doesn't work, sending in the troops in the name of humanitarian intervention.

Dude, European Empires operated on this exact same premise. The British and European Empires opened up China in this exact same way. They illegally smuggled in opium and used that to open up China's markets and ports. The British did this in India as well for the longest time.

You don't really know a lot about Imperial History if you are going to gloss this fact.

But unlike European empires, the end goal of all this is NOT to conquer territory or subjugate local populations, we learned from their example that this is usually a lot more trouble than it's worth and can be horrendously costly, but rather simply to promote American business interests overseas.

With mass media and consumerism promoting an "American way of life" displacing and challenging the culture of local cultures, one can argue that the end result is the same. As is the whole concept of immigration, attracting the "best and brightest" to America but then indenture them in student loans and other fees and so on, all the while making the rest of the world depend on good relations with Americans so as to better insure the prospects of immigrants.

And that's not even considering what would happen if we were somehow forced to atone for the negative impacts of our historical misdeeds, what do you think would happen if we had to start paying out reparations or even giving back stolen land?

In the 19th Century, people asked themselves "what would happen if we ended slavery and made African-Americans equal to white men" too. Just because you can't imagine it now, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the idea. All big transformative ideas are hard to imagine until they happen.

if we were to yank US forces out of the Pacific theater, North Korea is over the DMZ and into South Korea in 48 hours

so not being aholes globally is nice, but other folks are bigger aholes than us

But that's a condition of America's involvement, and a self-fulfilling trap. America bombed North Korea into the Stone Age during the Korean War. More bombs dropped on NK then entirety of European Theater during World War 2. Modern day Pyongang had to be almost completely rebuilt. The US backed a South Korean dictator in that conflict who wasn't significantly better than the first Kim. Okay, South Korea became a democracy eventually but it wasn't by any means a result of US help and intervention. W. invaded Iraq on the idea that Saddam had WMD which he didn't have, and okay he took out one tyrant (and make no mistake, Saddam was a tyrant) but in the process he destabilized the region and that drove North Korea to build nuclear weapons and ICBMs to avoid another Saddam situation.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...hat-blue-wave/

AOC continues to get her narrative confirmed. This time she's got the Washington Post to directly back her against Moderate Dems.

[Powerboy]

Interesting though not the least bit surprising that the claims of election fraud the Trump team is making to the public and the media is not the same as the claims they are making in the courts because, in the courts, there are these things called evidence and perjury.

[GozertheGozarian]

F em

I drive a box truck and deliver tires, I aint strikin' s***

Can someone translate this into English?

[G. Boney]

Can someone translate this into English?

F em = Fuck them.

Not sure what else would need translating (even that didn't really need it lol)

[Hellion]

Nearly 80% of Americans say Biden won White House, ignoring Trump's refusal to concede: Reuters/Ipsos poll

I'm mathematically challenged and I know polling will never be an exact science, but I don't think the above 80% can be true if the Politico article mentioning a poll that 70% of Republicans believe Biden's victory is fraudulent is also true. If the votes for Trump are anything to go by, Republicans definitely make up more than just 20% of our population. Unfortunately.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Joe Biden reveals there is no need for any legal action and he is proceeding as normal like if Trump conceded the election. The slight dig at Mike is Biden showing he doesn't respect Pompeo and what he's doing.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I'm mathematically challenged and I know polling will never be an exact science, but I don't think the above 80% can be true if the Politico article mentioning a poll that 70% of Republicans believe Biden's victory is fraudulent is also true. If the votes for Trump are anything to go by, Republicans definitely make up more than just 20% of our population. Unfortunately.

The population of America is 330 million.

The Electorate in 2020 is about 160 million (maybe more before this is over), so it's a little less than half the actual population. Remember that 18 is the voting age, so a lot of babies/toddlers/children/teenagers are excluded, as well as of course those with a criminal record and felony (which by the way is not an accident).

Republicans constituted 71 million votes this Election. That's not even a quarter of the US Population (in fact by the time the final voting tally is compiled, the democratic electorate would approach that).

So 70% of 71 million, anyway you slice it, is not gonna be a significant number measured against 80% of 330 million.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Joe Biden reveals there is no need for any legal action and he is proceeding as normal like if Trump conceded the election. The slight dig at Mike is Biden showing he doesn't respect Pompeo and what he's doing.

That repeat of "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo" is amazing, it's basically putting that in air quotes

[SUPERECWFAN1]

That repeat of "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo" is amazing, it's basically putting that in air quotes

Biden is likely sending a slow message to hint Mike won't have that job in 2 months. Since Mike wanted to razz people , Joe Biden will send it back to him.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Biden is likely sending a slow message to hint Mike won't have that job in 2 months. Since Mike wanted to razz people , Joe Biden will send it back to him.

I mean it's a given that Pompeo won't have the job.

The real concerning news is that Trump has just purged top Pentagon officials and replaced them with henchmen.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/polit...gns/index.html

It looks like he's gonna start a war in the last two months of his Presidency or use the military for shenanigans. We talk about breaking stuff on the way out but handing Biden a war on his plate first day of January 20...