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

[Vakanai]

Well, yes. The U.S. Constitution has been called the greatest document of freedom of all time. Yet it enshrined enslaving a significant portion of the population. So even on our best day, human beings are still saying it's okay for some of us to enslave some of us. What does that say about human nature?

What it says about human nature is this - we're not that far removed from our baser barbaric instincts, but we are not beholden to them. We're flawed, but we can change. That even if we only snip away at parts of tyranny and enshrine others, eventually later generations will snip out the sins we enshrine. Our founding fathers were better than what came before, but were very wrong as well. We are better than they were, but we too are preserving our own ills. And with luck, future generations will be better yet.

But it does look quite bleak right now in the short term.

[Vakanai]

It'll be okay in blue states as they tend to have their own state laws that were aligned with the EPA's regulations but yeah red states could very well turn into hellscapes. And when that happens the people there will cry, "Why didn't the government protect us?" with out any sense that they are responsible for their plight.

I think everyone here knows that I'm very, very left of center by now, but I live in a red state. We're not all responsible for our plight, sometimes we get outvoted and just happen to be on the losing side.

[JackDaw]

It'll be okay in blue states as they tend to have their own state laws that were aligned with the EPA's regulations but yeah red states could very well turn into hellscapes. And when that happens the people there will cry, "Why didn't the government protect us?" with out any sense that they are responsible for their plight.

Do pollution, and other biohazards respect state (or national) boundaries?

[thwhtGuardian]

I think everyone here knows that I'm very, very left of center by now, but I live in a red state. We're not all responsible for our plight, sometimes we get outvoted and just happen to be on the losing side.

Well yeah, that goes without saying but you wouldn't be there crying about how could the government possibly have let this happen to you. You'd know how it happened and would there saying, "I've been trying to tell you guys this for years." it's no real consolation, I know, but I think it's a reality that has to occur before it gets better.

[thwhtGuardian]

Do pollution, and other biohazards respect state (or national) boundaries?

Water tends to be regional, so yeah I wouldn't be phased much here in Massachusetts if Arkansas kills their wetlands and fouls their drinking water. Same with air quality, they can have all the smog they want in Texas and I'm going to be breathing okay here. It's the benefit of the US being really big.

In the long run yeah, it's bad for the world's net health but hopefully it would be short term after the morons learn their lessons.

[ed2962]

Do pollution, and other biohazards respect state (or national) boundaries?

Well, according to Hershel Walker, sometimes the environment decides to get uppity...the good air in the US decides to visit China and that leaves opens spots for the Chinese bad air to come here.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

https://twitter.com/CalltoActivism/s...88482334081025

Well, that’s certainly good to know. Looks like cooler heads prevailed.

[AnakinFlair]

Okay, something I noticed on Twitter that I'm curious if anyone knows about. I have been seeing an increasing amount of posts that are WELL over the character limit. I'm talking posts that are several paragraphs long. And all of these posts are on accounts that have the blue checkmark. So I'm wondering- if you pay $8 a month, does that mean there are no character limits on your posts anymore?

[Username taken]

His policies are Trump’s, and he’s fully invested in Trumpism Minus Trump - as Trumpism has become the governing power and voting bloc of GOP at this time. The only real difference between him and Trump in substance is that he offers it be mildly less of a personal sideshow while still pursuing the same types of cruel but weakening policies Trump pursued.

DeSantis is in no way a moderate in actual policy and substance - he’s merely a moderate in presentation. Like Trump, he enacts persecution of others as the raison d’etre of his politics, uses a weak, regressive approach to international thought, treats sabotage of the education system as a major priority, and supports the most harmful and un-pragmatic aspects of current “conservative” thought regarding business and personal liberty.

His supporters are not “moderate” Republicans… and neither are you. They and you are more “quid pro quo” Republicans, willing to tacitly approve of and allow the same horrible and wasteful abuses of power that Trump does, just as long as a handful of policies that he and Trump both support get taken care of.

Like, I don’t usually read your stuff on this thread, because your posting style isn’t so much deceitful as it is painfully myopic and fantasist - you usually write things that basically go “If my personal selection of a small handful of hard right beliefs get policy support, isn’t it worth the cost of trading away every other policy to hard right ones as long as they’re quieter about it?” and an inability to analyze or empathize with facts that don’t comport with that fantasy, reflected in intellectually vacant and ethically dubious obfuscation and self-deception.

Exactly this.

If DeSantis is trying present himself as a moderate he's wasting his time.

He's a MAGA Republican. All this policies are extreme, so extreme that he's attacking private businesses.

Just because he doesn't rant and rave like MTG or Trump himself doesn't mean he's not MAGA.

[thwhtGuardian]

Exactly this.

If DeSantis is trying present himself as a moderate he's wasting his time.

He's a MAGA Republican. All this policies are extreme, so extreme that he's attacking private businesses.

Just because he doesn't rant and rave like MTG or Trump himself doesn't mean he's not MAGA.

Yeah, being able to string together more than a sentence without frothing at the mouth doesn't make you a moderate.

[Iron Maiden]

Okay, something I noticed on Twitter that I'm curious if anyone knows about. I have been seeing an increasing amount of posts that are WELL over the character limit. I'm talking posts that are several paragraphs long. And all of these posts are on accounts that have the blue checkmark. So I'm wondering- if you pay $8 a month, does that mean there are no character limits on your posts anymore?

It used to be that those who had the blue check mark were duly vetted celebrities to avoid people impersonating someone famous for malicious reasons. I know William Shatner was complaining about the $8 charge though!

[scourge]

Okay, something I noticed on Twitter that I'm curious if anyone knows about. I have been seeing an increasing amount of posts that are WELL over the character limit. I'm talking posts that are several paragraphs long. And all of these posts are on accounts that have the blue checkmark. So I'm wondering- if you pay $8 a month, does that mean there are no character limits on your posts anymore?

Yeah the stupid checkmark increases the character limit.
Fun thing though...not everyone paid for it. Musky was gifting/forcing it on a bunch of people. And some suspect he's giving his right-wing lunatic buddies free ones so their bigoted crap gets amplified more.

[Jack Dracula]

In other troubling news the Conservative majority in the Supreme Court just started gutting the EPA

It's starting with the end of protection for wetlands but it won't stop there and they're not even saying that quietly as Clarence Thomas said it out right, "The wetlands are just the beginning of the problems raised by the agencies' assertion of jurisdiction in this case."

I’d just like point out that Harlan Crow made his fortune developing real estate and historically wetlands have been a goldmine for developers due to their low purchasing cost. So, Thomas and company are throwing a pretty big bone to developers with this decision. Blatant corruption in evidence.

[thwhtGuardian]

I’d just like point out that Harlan Crow made his fortune developing real estate and historically wetlands have been a goldmine for developers due to their low purchasing cost. So, Thomas and company are throwing a pretty big bone to developers with this decision. Blatant corruption in evidence.

I wish I could say I was surprised

[Iron Maiden]

RE: The Supreme Court. I liked things better when Clarence Thomas just took up space for years and said nothing. Naturally he got more vocal when Trump's election led to a conservative majority.