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

[Jack Dracula]

Let's not forget the Iraq War no bid contract with Haliburton, Cheney company.

Yep, and nobody said jack-squat. No investigations. Nothing.

[Malvolio]

What kind of progressive president (who is a Person Of Color) speaks at a KKK eulogy?

Joe Biden did undoubtedly deliver a eulogy for KKK member Robert Byrd on July 2, 2010. President Obama and President Clinton also spoke at the funeral. A transcript can be found here:

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov...HxasSDkUsaCMIY

So let's point out a few things here. First of all, this is something that happened ten years ago. Secondly, Robert Byrd denounced the KKK and renounced his membership in it long before his death. But this guy wants to condemn Byrd, Biden, Obama and Clinton for it instead of using Byrd as an example of someone learning from his mistakes. Then put that together with someone who still hasn't answered for his post after almost five hours? I call shenanigans on this TROLL.

[DrNewGod]

So let's point out a few things here. First of all, this is something that happened ten years ago. Secondly, Robert Byrd denounced the KKK and renounced his membership in it long before his death. But this guy wants to condemn Byrd, Biden, Obama and Clinton for it instead of using Byrd as an example of someone learning from his mistakes. Then put that together with someone who still hasn't answered for his post after almost five hours? I call shenanigans on this TROLL.

Yup. The bait was smelly. Especially the elaborate discussion of how left he is. Troll.

[Robotman]

Angela Merkel gave her last ever New Years Eve address to the nation today.

Covid was the main theme, but she also reminded people how important it is to make serious efforts to stop climate change.


She said she would take the vaccine... "when it's my turn" which I found refreshing after seeing pics of young, healthy politicians like Marco Rubio and AOC using their privilege to get the vaccine early.

She also mentioned her conversations with the Turkish immigrant founders of BionTech, who told her that people from 60 nations work for their company, and how that proved to her that diversity is an important resource.

I have never voted for her party, but I will miss Dr. Merkel.

It’s amazing how the world has changed. who'da thunk it, the leader of Germany would become one of the most stalwart opponents of the current wave of fascism and racist nationalism consuming the world.

[Comics N' Toons]

So people aren't allowed to change for the better, got it.

Also, only Democrats should be held responsible for their past actions.

This is a favorite far right trope. Byrd spent one year of his youth in the KKK and the rest of his adult life against them yet conservatives remain quite about all the racists in the GOP.

So let's point out a few things here. First of all, this is something that happened ten years ago. Secondly, Robert Byrd denounced the KKK and renounced his membership in it long before his death. But this guy wants to condemn Byrd, Biden, Obama and Clinton for it instead of using Byrd as an example of someone learning from his mistakes. Then put that together with someone who still hasn't answered for his post after almost five hours? I call shenanigans on this TROLL.

Yup. The bait was smelly. Especially the elaborate discussion of how left he is. Troll.

The point was not largely about Byrd... yeah, he changed. Great! I think the bigger deal is that those individuals attended his funeral and apparently think highly of the man!

No. I'm not a troll and it wasnt bait. My whole post was to call attention to what a scumbag Biden is... moderates have no reason to be in politics except to prop up the status quo. But also, the irony of Obama speaking at the eulogy of a former KKK member. He didnt have to. Oh well. And no.. there's no excuse for racism. The fact that all of these individuals stick together means that they are ideologically similar. Does any of them even have an anti-racist agenda for the country? As far as being a leftist, yes I am. I could give you books by Marx, Gandhi, Kropotkin, David Graeber, Chomsky, Zinn and Emma G. but... you wouldnt read them. I got my politics from a homeless man named James Bond... I've been a leftist since I was 14. Thats 21 years thank you very much.

I just want Liberals to admit that their candidates are not actively trying to make our lives better... unless their names are Bernard Sanders. That guy is what we need more of!

[The Cool Thatguy]

The point was not largely about Byrd... yeah, he changed. Great! I think the bigger deal is that those individuals attended his funeral and apparently think highly of the man!

No. I'm not a troll and it wasnt bait. My whole post was to call attention to what a scumbag Biden is... moderates have no reason to be in politics except to prop up the status quo. But also, the irony of Obama speaking at the eulogy of a former KKK member. He didnt have to. Oh well. And no.. there's no excuse for racism.

Your point is the same one I've seen countless Trump apologists make. The way you try to normalize Trump has not gone without notice either. So yeah, you're not terribly convincing.

You make such noise about the mistakes of the past while ignoring crimes present. Trollish, at best.

[Comics N' Toons]

It’s amazing how the world has changed. who'da thunk it, the leader of Germany would become one of the most stalwart opponents of the current wave of fascism and racist nationalism consuming the world.

Merkel was great and the things that Germany does for its citizens are wonderful.

[Mister Mets]

This is a favorite far right trope. Byrd spent one year of his youth in the KKK and the rest of his adult life against them yet conservatives remain quite about all the racists in the GOP.

I think it is absurd to suggest Byrd is defined by his KKK status, but there are two key points worth making.

The KKK is worse than the Republican party. One can think that there's an obligation for former members of the KKK to speak out against it as forcefully as Byrd did, but that mainstream political organizations aren't anywhere near as bad.

Byrd was not in the KKK for one year in his youth. He was there for a few years, and immediately rose to prominence because of his recruiting skills. He wrote a letter stating "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation." in the same year in which he was elected to the state legislature.

The point was not largely about Byrd... yeah, he changed. Great! I think the bigger deal is that those individuals attended his funeral and apparently think highly of the man!

No. I'm not a troll and it wasnt bait. My whole post was to call attention to what a scumbag Biden is... moderates have no reason to be in politics except to prop up the status quo. But also, the irony of Obama speaking at the eulogy of a former KKK member. He didnt have to. Oh well. And no.. there's no excuse for racism.

The idea that he changed can not be reconciled with the idea that it's wrong for major politicians to go to his funeral generations later.

If you want to say that he was so tainted it was the moral obligation of Democrats to shun him no matter how much he changed, you have to explicitly make that argument.

I do suspect that if he had been expelled from the Senate, there would have been one more Republican in the Senate during for at least the last decade of his tenure.

I also suspect most politicians think they're making the lives of Americans better, from Bernie Sanders to Mike Lee.

[Comics N' Toons]

Your point is the same one I've seen countless Trump apologists make. The way you try to normalize Trump has not gone without notice either. So yeah, you're not terribly convincing.

You make such noise about the mistakes of the past while ignoring crimes present. Trollish, at best.

I dont have to convince you or anyone. I'm proud to be Left of anything Democrat. My pointing out the mistakes of the past was to llustrate how we got here. And no... Trump deserves no defense. He doesnt need to be normalized. His destruction needs to be normalized. Anyway, I'll kindly show myself out. I've stepped into a nest of right wing vipers. I'll leave politics alone and move on to other topics.

[Kirby101]

If you think this is a nest of right wing vipers, you are left of Mao Tse Tung

[Farealmer]

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. After Donny lost we weren't going to get the usual suspects that come in here literally only to gloat. So I guess it was only a matter of time before new blood showed up with a new angle. All "take down the dems" with no way to address that a solid chunk of the country is red and isn't going to budge on that anytime soon. If Biden is too left for these people, Bernie is a pipe dream as long as the electoral college allows the rural areas to have more than their fair say.

[Tendrin]

The notion that this is a 'right-wing nest of vipers' made me laugh a lot.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Regardless of everything, happy new year to everyone.

Here's a toast to the 1.8 million people that didn't make it, and the vast percentage of the 345,000 (and counting) in USA that didn't have to die.

There's that line in a war movie THE BIG RED ONE, "surviving is the only glory in war".

It's not a war, but I feel like that today.

[Tendrin]

Regardless of everything, happy new year to everyone.

Here's a toast to the 1.8 million people that didn't make it, and the vast percentage of the 345,000 (and counting) in USA that didn't have to die.

There's that line in a war movie THE BIG RED ONE, "surviving is the only glory in war".

It's not a war, but I feel like that today.

I've been in as much lockdown as possible since *February* to protect my parents. It's exhausting.

[JackDaw]

If you think this is a nest of right wing vipers, you are left of Mao Tse Tung

I hope he doesn’t think that.

But I think few of us here are by “international standards” (opposed to American standards) left wing.

Let me give just a few examples of that...you rarely seen any opposition to inherited wealth here, any real desire to fundamentally change the tax system, and certainly no real desire to make the third world better off at the expense of the west.