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

[Tami]

Editorial | The Last Days of Pompeo [That headline alone is worth some kind of award]

Mike Pompeo chose to end his term as secretary of state with a tour of solidarity with Israel’s extreme right, while spitting on decades of pre-Trump U.S. foreign policy, on the norms of international law and on justice. On Wednesday he came across more like an extremist leader of the Yesha Council of settlements than as the foreign minister of the superpower. It’s a good thing that this will presumably be his last official visit. It’s a good thing that he will soon leave office.

On Thursday morning, after his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo announced that the State Department will regard the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as antisemitic and called the movement a “cancer.” With that, the secretary of state embraced the false propaganda of the Israeli government, according to which anyone who supports a boycott of the settlements or of Israel over the occupation is an antisemite. This dangerous position constitutes an anti-democratic silencing of free speech.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Republicans love to shatter the Democratic alliance since they know they'll have an easier time against them apart then as a group. Divide and conquer worked against Hillary, not against Biden. Having a big tent is something to be proud of since multiculturalism is a strength, while the GOP is ashamed of groups like the Log Cabin Republicans, who have disappeared over the last few years. What keeps Republicans in line is they toe the line with leadership, they love a leader and whoever's at the top of the pyramid they'll debase themselves for their favour, even if it's Trump.

Democrats rely on the coalition for survival, because without everyone working together the GOP steam rolls everything. Democrats might outnumber Republicans, but their inner groups can't do this on their own. That's why it's important that in-fighting isn't successful. It's not that we like politicians like Manchin but we need their vote when it counts.

How? Biden won by a landslide and it's not like the Democrats are getting destroyed in congress. They lost a few seats, they didn't get reduced to a dozen people.

They actually did take a big hit in Congress. On the Senate side they were expected to take a 1 seat or tied majority with VP being tie breaker. They have a shot because of runoffs but if you just went by straight vote the night of they would be 49-51 in the minority with Mitch in control. This is nothing to say for Susan Collins who had been pegged dead for 2 years all of a sudden dramatically preserving her seat. In the House they completely failed to perform by nearly every metric. They thought they were going their majority. Democrats as of now are likely to lose 9-10 seats while Republicans only lost 3. And 2 of the seats the Republicans lost were mostly the result of a redrawing of districts in NC that pretty much all but guaranteed Democrats win. So in all Democrats got 1 competitive house seat. A huge chunk of the gains from 2018 were wiped. This effects gerrymandering, so Republicans will be able to build even more of an advantage there for 10 years.

[Godzilla2099]

So the GOP is just going all in with this one huh? This is the hand they decided to play?

This lady's BS is dangerous. This is no different than shouting "fire" in a theater. Its beyond obvious they don't have a shred of valid evidence. If they did, Trump would be screaming it from the roof tops and going all caps lock on Twitter.

All this administration is trying to do at this point is start a Civil War.

[skyvolt2000]

And what "too far left" policies is that?

I'll use my city (Dallas).

Funny South Dallas does NOT have a major grocery store in that community.

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburne...-food-deserts/

Sanders, who was one of the first black students at SMU, isn’t blind to how the deep divides between northern and southern Dallas play out in terms of nutrition. She was willing to drive 12 miles each way to Uptown because, while there were other grocers in between, the variety of fresh produce and extensive salad bar couldn’t be found near her house.

Other areas of town have the opposite problem. Drive from the Snider Plaza Tom Thumb in Highland Park toward Mockingbird Station, a distance of just under two miles. There is a Kroger grocery store at Mockingbird and Greenville. Now, drive less than a mile down Mockingbird and you’ll find another Tom Thumb. A left on Greenville is just a mile away from yet another Tom Thumb and a Central Market, which is just across Lovers Lane.

In the wealthier and whiter segments of Dallas, residents drive past big box grocery stores full of fresh produce and affordable food so that they can get to another big box grocery store that they prefer. But in large swaths of Dallas, this is not the case. In 2018 the Department of Agriculture identified 88 separate food deserts in Dallas County. Over half of them were in three southern portions of Dallas. In these areas, the best option for food is often a corner or dollar store, which are both more expensive and less nutritious than the grocery stores that are on every other block in North and East Dallas.

A study by the University of Texas system found that residents in a South Dallas ZIP code had a life expectancy of 26 years fewer than those who lived in East Dallas. Those ZIP codes are just two miles apart.

“When your ZIP code can literally determine your life span, that’s a problem,” Sanders says.

Data from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) retailer data shows that more than 82 percent of all SNAP benefits were spent at supermarkets or supercenters, even though they only make up 14 percent of the locations that accept SNAP and are rarely located in the food deserts where residents are more likely to use the benefits.

Everybody READ this statement

In 2016 the City Council offered $3 million to any grocery store willing to sell healthy food in a Dallas food desert. There have yet to be any takers. In the meantime, a Costco opened in near Lake Highlands, and two new Central Markets have opened in Preston Hollow.

That was 4 years ago. The city is GIVING away money.

Many of the areas that suffer from a lack of healthy food also lack affordable and practical transit.

He has worked with grocery stores for location studies and has seen the prejudice firsthand. “Everybody has a profile of customers they want to serve,” he says. Once, while making a presentation about how a store could market to an audience of color, a grocery executive responded, “I am not sure we want that kind of customer.”

Shopping
We had a WAL-MART closed. Because Wal-Mart chose to close it than FIRE the few employees who were stealing from it.

Because NO ONE believed that Wal-Mart in a black area was NOT making money.
Because here is who was around that Wal-Mart
A MAJOR hospital
Over 50 medical doctors, clinics, rehab, dentist, cancer treatment and more.
A car dealership
2 Dallas schools
3 of the BIGGEST mega churches
5 midsized churches
4 apartment complexes
Sams, Home Depot, Game Stop, Costco, Target, Chili's, Popeyes, Scholsky, Sonic, Sprint, Office Depot, Bank of America, COmerica, Chick Fila and Conn's.
Here is the kicker....
ALL WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE. At most 20 minutes.
Lets not forget it was located off of 2 MAJOR highways.
With a busy bus line.
EASY to get into and park.
Near a mall (that is just not remodeling) and another mega church.

And we got told it was not making money. No other Wal-Mart in Dallas had all that.

Cash Saver-FUNNY only black areas have these stores that charge you tax and an ADDITIONAL 10% fee to shop there. Their excuse is other stores charge higher.
So why is a 99 cent loaf of bread $1.08 (with tax) at Kroger, Target, Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart yet $1.17 at Cost Saver?

[Godzilla2099]

@skyvolt

I'm not for a second disagreeing with you in regards of prejudice (I come from a multi-racial family) but I think you're only looking at this picture from one angle.

During College Years, I'd work making deliveries to these stores. African Americans were peeved at Walmart for placing their particular hair products in locked cases. Back in those days, I'd get really upset hearing those stories (still sad today) but when I spoke with the managers they showed me reports of the most stolen items. Those hair products dominated the list. That decision wasn't based on racism, it was because its an item that gets stolen all the time and their store lost money.

All I'm saying is that I try to look at both sides of the story now. I lived in Harlem while my wife was finishing her residency there. Never had a bad experience there. In our 4 years there, overall the residents were great with us (I'm half white and she's from China). Many stores were smaller businesses but there were a few major chains popping up (DSW, Olive Garden, and Whole Foods). Bottom line, Harlem was in much worse shape than it used to be, but things are cleaning up which is why those businesses opened.

But at the same time if I'm a business owner I'm not going to open shop in an area known for higher crime and a chance that my store will be looted if somebody got shot. I'm not risking my life's income on a bet like that. Especially these times.

[skyvolt2000]

But refuse to acknowledge how important they are to accomplishing political goals. Please don't confuse not agreeing with not listening. Which is true, however, this insistence that every faction and race are of one mind is not compelling, and moving the goal posts. Black people are in every faction in the Democratic party, and the party needs them all - not just the leftists. Part of being in a coalition is working with the coalition, even the Justice Democrats are a coalition unto itself.

And who is "we"?

The group of black folks who tend to think all black folks are a monolith and if you don't follow the narrative they set-you are the enemy or traitor.

Defund the police to them is GETTING RID OF ALL OF THEM.
Defund the police to some blacks mean training and everything else.

Black on Black violence-cancel culture comes after you if you bring that up (ask Tre Forte on CBS's Love reality show)
Black on Black violence-some blacks understand it's an issue and helps fuel the folks on FOx News and so on.

The ones who act like Trump followers. You can toss facts in their face and they won't listen.

That is why stuff can't get solved. We are not a monolith. Yet you can't get them to understand that.

My school district gets bashed for not helping black children. By those same folks.
Yet every collegiate, Boys only, Girl only and magnet school (except ONE) is in a black neighborhood.
Most scholarships (non athletic) black schools.
Among the top 100 schools in the nation-black schools.
Before the pandemic black kid test scores went up for 7 straight years.
Black BOYS walked out of their school and demanded it be fixed. The school got fixed.

But we don't care about black kids.

[Tami]

To soften the blow of defeat Fox's Geraldo proposes naming the vaccine after Trump. "It would be a nice gesture to him and years from now it would become kind of a generic name. Have you got your trump yet, I got my trump, I'm fine. I wished we could honor him in that way."

Twitter Link

[Frobisher]

Twitter Link

They know “trump” already means fart, right?

[PwrdOn]

@skyvolt

I'm not for a second disagreeing with you in regards of prejudice (I come from a multi-racial family) but I think you're only looking at this picture from one angle.

During College Years, I'd work making deliveries to these stores. African Americans were peeved at Walmart for placing their particular hair products in locked cases. Back in those days, I'd get really upset hearing those stories (still sad today) but when I spoke with the managers they showed me reports of the most stolen items. Those hair products dominated the list. That decision wasn't based on racism, it was because its an item that gets stolen all the time and their store lost money.

All I'm saying is that I try to look at both sides of the story now. I lived in Harlem while my wife was finishing her residency there. Never had a bad experience there. In our 4 years there, overall the residents were great with us (I'm half white and she's from China). Many stores were smaller businesses but there were a few major chains popping up (DSW, Olive Garden, and Whole Foods). Bottom line, Harlem was in much worse shape than it used to be, but things are cleaning up which is why those businesses opened.

But at the same time if I'm a business owner I'm not going to open shop in an area known for higher crime and a chance that my store will be looted if somebody got shot. I'm not risking my life's income on a bet like that. Especially these times.

I think everyone is looking at both sides, it's just that they're not balanced at all. On one hand, you have a entire group of people that has suffered 400 years of the worst oppression and exploitation, and on the other hand, a couple of stores got burned down. And lest we forget, white people have rioted far worse over far less, and when they start burning buildings, they do it with the people still inside. Yet somehow after four years of all these gun toting, covid spreading, MAGA hat chuds popping out of the woodwork and peeling that veneer of civility off of white suburban communities, you still never heard about black people expressing doubts about opening up businesses or, more likely honestly, having to work jobs serving these types of people who wish nothing but harm on them.

Besides, the wave of gentrification we see these days shows that a model of "economic development" that centers around fancy coffee shops and luxury stores isn't really sustainable or desirable anyway, especially because these areas are often just small disconnected islands of wealthy transplants, who have to walk through bad areas and confront how the other half lives in order to visit their friends on the other side of town.

[The no face guy]

And what "too far left" policies is that?

One's from the 70's that caused mass stagflation, and brought in the era of classical liberalism under Reagan & Thatcher, whose remedy brought mass inequality. We want to avoid both of these.

You do not get to get what you want in politics, your will never get free education, a guaranteed income, full transgender rights, and a society that will make you feel completely secure, all things that I am for bty

You get into politics to fight to improve things, and most of the time it is the next generation that will reap the benefits, (though I concede sometimes there are big wins like Obama care)

Be wary of people who push identity politics and racial division, whether it be on the left or right. Obama and Biden win because they are masters of uniting people from different races, gender and income backgrounds, Trump lost because he stoked racial division, because he's relying on one dwindling demographic. Sectarianism is a losing man's game.

[Amadeus Arkham]

*deleted post*

[Godzilla2099]

I think everyone is looking at both sides, it's just that they're not balanced at all. On one hand, you have a entire group of people that has suffered 400 years of the worst oppression and exploitation, and on the other hand, a couple of stores got burned down. And lest we forget, white people have rioted far worse over far less, and when they start burning buildings, they do it with the people still inside. Yet somehow after four years of all these gun toting, covid spreading, MAGA hat chuds popping out of the woodwork and peeling that veneer of civility off of white suburban communities, you still never heard about black people expressing doubts about opening up businesses or, more likely honestly, having to work jobs serving these types of people who wish nothing but harm on them.

Besides, the wave of gentrification we see these days shows that a model of "economic development" that centers around fancy coffee shops and luxury stores isn't really sustainable or desirable anyway, especially because these areas are often just small disconnected islands of wealthy transplants, who have to walk through bad areas and confront how the other half lives in order to visit their friends on the other side of town.

I'm sorry but I can only partially agree to this. These people complaining aren't the ones that actually suffered. They weren't the slaves. Hell, many weren't around during the Civil Rights Movement. They're not genuine victims. They're milking it. One potential riot was because the police shot a guy in a city not far from where I live. They were called to a domestic disturbance (he either beat up his mom or girlfriend). He ran out chasing the police with a knife. The officer was running and fired his weapon in self defense.

Come on! You're going to riot for that piece of crap? If somebody like that got killed in my neighborhood, we'd be thanking the police for removing the danger.

I'm not saying there isn't genuine racism and despicable police (hell, when they shoved that poor old man down and walked over his bleeding body was beyond proof of that which disturbed me the most).

As for the MAGA Lunatics...I don't even know where to begin. What disturbs me more than our current president is that there are actually masses of people that buy his BS. I read emails from a 'Nigerian Prince' that sounded more convincing

[Revolutionary_Jack]

One's from the 70's that caused mass stagflation, and brought in the era of classical liberalism under Reagan & Thatcher, whose remedy brought mass inequality. We want to avoid both of these.

Luke Every Word is Wrong.jpg

This is the kind of propaganda conservatives spread out that becomes common sense ideas that even non-conservatives absorb even long after they've been disproven.

First of all, Stagflation is a result of the economic policies undertaken by the government of Richard Nixon, a Republican. .

As Paul Krugman writes

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/o...-stimulus.html

The stagflation myth
JUNE 3, 2009 4:46 AMJune 3, 2009 4:46 am
Via Dean Baker, Robert Samuelson declares — as a simple fact — that

Johnson’s economic policies, inherited from Kennedy, proved disastrous; they led to the 1970s’ “stagflation.”

Wow. I didn’t know that. Neither, as far as I know, did any economist who has actually studied the issue.

Seriously, this is a standard bit of conservative propaganda. Ever since Reagan, conservatives have been using the evils of stagflation to denounce liberal economic policies. Yet mainstream economics — even at Chicago — has never made that connection.

Stagflation was a term coined by Paul Samuelson to describe the combination of high inflation and high unemployment. The era of stagflation in America began in 1974 and ended in the early 80s. Why did it happen?

Well, the textbooks basically invoke two factors. One was a series of “adverse supply shocks”, mainly the huge runup in the price of oil. The other was excessively expansionary monetary policy, especially in 1972-3, which allowed expectations of inflation to become entrenched. (Ken Rogoff — a Republican, by the way — attributes that expansion to the desire of Arthur Burns to see Richard Nixon reelected.)

The appearance of stagflation was a win for conservative economics, but it was conservative monetary economics that was partly vindicated: Milton Friedman’s assertion that there is no long-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment turned out to be correct, and is now part of the standard canon.

But where is the Great Society in all this? Nowhere. The claim that stagflation proved the badness of liberal ideas is pure propaganda, which not even conservative economists believe.

PS: all this comes in the middle of a column whining about favorable press treatment of Obama. Did Samuelson complain equally about the loving treatment Bush received for several years after 9/11? Somehow I don’t remember that …

Likewise, Thatcher and Reagan did not bring back classical liberalism. What they brought into effect is neoliberalism, that's not the same thing at all as classical liberalism, and in terms of political art and economic era, neoliberalism is specifically the system of the '80s.

I recommend reading Paul Krugman's Arguments with Zombies among other sources.

You do not get to get what you want in politics,

People got the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, LGBT rights, Social Security. People have gotten what they wanted in politics before, and they will again. Precisely because supposed pragmatic posing hipsters like you were, rightfully, ignored.

Be wary of people who push identity politics and racial division,

In other words, you. Because right now you are the one pushing for division.

Obama and Biden win because they are masters of uniting people from different races, gender and income backgrounds,

They won because of the mobilization of the people, activism, and the will of the people. It wasn't Joe Biden who won Arizona and Georgia, or Michigan. It was the large numbers of Navajo, Hispanics, African-Americans and other activists who turned out to vote him in power.

Trump lost because he stoked racial division, because he's relying on one dwindling demographic. Sectarianism is a losing man's game.

Are you seriously morally equating the racist-fascist division sparked by Trump to inter-left disputes? Because that's what this rhetoric implies.

Look it's okay to be skeptical and pragmatic in politics. Contrary to belief, even leftists are like that. It's okay to have doubts about AOC and others. I disagree but I can understand the appeals of incrementalism and so on. It's okay for you to feel that. It's not at all okay however to discourse on history and stuff of which you know nothing about and have that false foundation, that unexamined false foundation, be a valid ground for your opinion.

[Amadeus Arkham]

JUST IN: Sen. Rick SCOTT has coronavirus.

It couldn’t have happened to a crazier looking guy.

[PwrdOn]

I'm sorry but I can only partially agree to this. These people complaining aren't the ones that actually suffered. They weren't the slaves. Hell, many weren't around during the Civil Rights Movement. They're not genuine victims. They're milking it. One potential riot was because the police shot a guy in a city not far from where I live. They were called to a domestic disturbance (he either beat up his mom or girlfriend). He ran out chasing the police with a knife. The officer was running and fired his weapon in self defense.

Come on! You're going to riot for that piece of crap? If somebody like that got killed in my neighborhood, we'd be thanking the police for removing the danger.

I'm not saying there isn't genuine racism and despicable police (hell, when they shoved that poor old man down and walked over his bleeding body was beyond proof of that which disturbed me the most).

As for the MAGA Lunatics...I don't even know where to begin. What disturbs me more than our current president is that there are actually masses of people that buy his BS. I read emails from a 'Nigerian Prince' that sounded more convincing

The oppression of black people didn't end with slavery, or with the end of Jim Crow, it continues up until the modern day, and I just don't understand this idea that they are somehow milking it to push a victim narrative because what would this accomplish exactly? If anything, every time that black people try to push any kind of agenda they get a much stronger backlash against it from racist whites. And the fact that people rioted over the death of a domestic abuser shouldn't be surprising, because it highlights exactly why the police are so mistrusted in the first place - they are called upon to fix a problem and instead of trying to calm the situation they immediately resort to lethal force and then pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Nobody is celebrating domestic violence here, but if you had cops going around gunning down every suspected wife beater, I can imagine that the MAGA crowd would not be too happy about that.