Current Affairs Donald Trump POS: Judgement cometh and that right soon

[abelard]

Here, let me help you:

http://nypost.com/2017/01/10/how-venezuelas-corrupt-socialists-are-looting-the-country-to-death/

is this the only article you guys have read?

you're not wrong (though i would hardly be shocked if some of the details in that story don't entirely hold up), but it is more complicated than you care to acknowledge.

Chavez came to power pledging to invest Venezuela's oil wealth in the Venezuelan people, as opposed to more conventional destinations like Miami real estate. Actually, his predecessor promised more or less the same thing, but then about-faced immediately after taking power, cutting taxes on the rich, reducing public services, attacking unions, selling off state assets to cronies - the usual formula.

Chavez, on the other hand, was sincere to a surprising extent, and even the OAS, which is prone to fainting at the lightest whiff of 'socialism,' had to acknowledge that he made real progress on things like reducing inequality, improving access to health care and education, or lowering child poverty. This is why he still has a core support base among the poor (Madura, much less so - it's important not to conflate them), and why he kept winning elections, which, again, his opponents had to concede were mostly fair by Venezuelan standards, albeit less so each time.

On the other hand, he was undeniably a demagogue with an authoritarian streak, increasingly willing to use the state to serve personal ends and to repress his enemies. In the end, like Castro, he was really not much more than a standard-issue caudillo ("strongman," perhaps), with the usual accompanying clientalism and patronage networks, but more grandiose ideological pretensions. Both failed to accept that changing the substance of their countries' politics was limited without also changing the structure.

And both ultimately failed to overcome deep-seeded structural economic dependency, Chavez with oil and Castro with Soviet-subsidized sugar. I'm not sure Venezuela would be dramatically better off under a different leader, given its singular dependence on a sole commodity whose value has collapsed.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/post-chavez-venezuela-enters-downward-spiral/

Still, conservatives should ask themselves why they only care about corruption in countries that make an effort to reduce poverty, illiteracy, inequality, malnutrition, preventable disease etc.

If you're genuinely upset by corruption, and not just acting out vestigial Cold War flag-waving "support the home team/U-S-A U-S-A!!!" impulses, then write your Congressman about what's happened in Brazil too:

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/30...-of-dilmas-impeachment-and-temers-corruption/

"Even more significant is the growing evidence of the full-scale corruption of Dilma’s installed replacement, Michel Temer. In just over 30 days since his installation, Temer lost three of his chosen ministers to corruption. One of them, his extremely close ally Romero Jucá, was caught on tape plotting Dilma’s impeachment as a way to shut down the ongoing corruption investigation, as well as indicating that Brazil’s military, the media, and the courts were all participants in the impeachment plotting.


A key investigation informant, former senator and construction executive Sérgio Machado, has now said that Temer received and controlled 1.5 million reals in illegal campaign funds, while a separate informant last week said Temer was the “beneficiary” of 1 million reals in bribes. And Temer is now banned by a court order from running for any office for eight years due to his own violation of election laws. Remember: This is who, in the name of fighting “corruption,” Brazil’s elites installed in the place of the elected president.


Meanwhile, Temer’s political party, PMDB, is almost certainly the most corrupt in this hemisphere. Its president of the lower House, Eduardo Cunha — who presided over Dilma’s impeachment — is now suspended by the Supreme Court, and the House’s Ethics Commission just voted to expel him entirely because he lied about bribe-filled Swiss bank accounts he controls. The same construction executive, Machado, testified that three of PMBD’s key leaders — including Jucá — were paid a total of 71.1 million reals in bribes. Meanwhile, two key Temer allies from the center-right PSDB that Dilma defeated in 2014 — Temer’s Foreign Minister José Serra and Dilma’s 2014 opponent Aécio Neves — are now both targets of the corruption investigation."

Or for that matter, Israel:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-corruption-allegations-against-benjamin-netanyahu

 

[Number_25]

I led to believe that snowflake is sometimes used as a homophobic slur.

As a result we'd like this not to be used.

In defence of these utterly contemptible morons, it is my genuine belief that no homophobia was meant.

 

[Clint Planet]

You've lost a lot of respect and credibility posting that tweet. Dog-whistle racism that blaming the victims of hate crime for a rise in hate crime? Really?

 

[TheFinnFan]

I led to believe that snowflake is sometimes used as a homophobic slur.

As a result we'd like this not to be used.

Ive just recieved a warning cause of using word snowflake. In me previous post I definitely didnt refer to sexual minorities and I think the Mod that gave the warning knows that. Im a bit baffled here.

Is the conclusion that I cant call these anti democratic protestors snowflakes but at the same time ive been bombarded with names way worse than that.
Strange.

 

[abelard]

11 black males have been killed in Chicago alone since the start of the year, why are none of them household names?

I'm sure they were all good boys, turning thier life around, aspiring rappers etc etc.

From "why is nobody talking about 'black on black' violence to 'they deserved to be murdered because they were probably criminals anyway' in two posts. Impressive.


http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...Shooting-on-Chicagos-West-Side-409577715.html
Two teens were killed and a 65-year-old woman was injured in a shooting in broad daylight Tuesday afternoon on Chicago's West Side, according to police.

The shooting happened at 12 p.m in the 3400 block of West Fulton in the city's East Garfield Park neighborhood.

Police said two boys, ages 16 and 17, were standing outside a building on the block when someone in a black SUV opened fire.

The 17-year-old was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head, while the 16-year-old was taken to Stroger Hospital with wounds to the head, back and arm. Both were pronounced dead.

Lillie Turner, 65, was sitting in her living room, planning to go get the mail, when she and her daughter heard a barrage of gunshots outside.

"My mama was getting ready to put her clothes on. She was bent over tying her shoe and all of a sudden when she raised up, that's when they started shooting," Turner's daughter Fran Wilkerson said.

"I was trying to duck down," Wilkerson said, adding that there were more gunshots than she could count. "My mama was trying to duck down. But by the time she ducked down she was shot, and I didn't know she was shot until she showed me her leg and she started bleeding."

Turner was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg and was listed in stable condition.

"We're just glad that she's ok and it didn't go the other way like if she had opened up that door," Wilkerson said. "We don't know what would have happened."

The identities of the boys killed in the shooting were not immediately available. No one is in custody and authorities continue to investigate

 

[Clint Planet]

is this the only article you guys have read?

you're not wrong (though i would hardly be shocked if some of the details in that story don't entirely hold up), but it is more complicated than you care to acknowledge.

Chavez came to power pledging to invest Venezuela's oil wealth in the Venezuelan people, as opposed to more conventional destinations like Miami real estate. Actually, his predecessor promised more or less the same thing, but then about-faced immediately after taking power, cutting taxes on the rich, reducing public services, attacking unions, selling off state assets to cronies - the usual formula.

Chavez, on the other hand, was sincere to a surprising extent, and even the OAS, which is prone to fainting at the lightest whiff of 'socialism,' had to acknowledge that he made real progress on things like reducing inequality, improving access to health care and education, or lowering child poverty. This is why he still has a core support base among the poor (Madura, much less so - it's important not to conflate them), and why he kept winning elections, which, again, his opponents had to concede were mostly fair by Venezuelan standards, albeit less so each time.

On the other hand, he was undeniably a demagogue with an authoritarian streak, increasingly willing to use the state to serve personal ends and to repress his enemies. In the end, like Castro, he was really not much more than a standard-issue caudillo ("strongman," perhaps), with the usual accompanying clientalism and patronage networks, but more grandiose ideological pretensions. Both failed to accept that changing the substance of their countries' politics was limited without also changing the structure.

And both ultimately failed to overcome deep-seeded structural economic dependency, Chavez with oil and Castro with Soviet-subsidized sugar. I'm not sure Venezuela would be dramatically better off under a different leader, given its singular dependence on a sole commodity whose value has collapsed.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/post-chavez-venezuela-enters-downward-spiral/

Still, conservatives should ask themselves why they only care about corruption in countries that make an effort to reduce poverty, illiteracy, inequality, malnutrition, preventable disease etc.

If you're genuinely upset by corruption, and not just acting out vestigial Cold War flag-waving "support the home team/U-S-A U-S-A!!!" impulses, then write your Congressman about what's happened in Brazil too:

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/30...-of-dilmas-impeachment-and-temers-corruption/
"Even more significant is the growing evidence of the full-scale corruption of Dilma’s installed replacement, Michel Temer. In just over 30 days since his installation, Temer lost three of his chosen ministers to corruption. One of them, his extremely close ally Romero Jucá, was caught on tape plotting Dilma’s impeachment as a way to shut down the ongoing corruption investigation, as well as indicating that Brazil’s military, the media, and the courts were all participants in the impeachment plotting.


A key investigation informant, former senator and construction executive Sérgio Machado, has now said that Temer received and controlled 1.5 million reals in illegal campaign funds, while a separate informant last week said Temer was the “beneficiary” of 1 million reals in bribes. And Temer is now banned by a court order from running for any office for eight years due to his own violation of election laws. Remember: This is who, in the name of fighting “corruption,” Brazil’s elites installed in the place of the elected president.


Meanwhile, Temer’s political party, PMDB, is almost certainly the most corrupt in this hemisphere. Its president of the lower House, Eduardo Cunha — who presided over Dilma’s impeachment — is now suspended by the Supreme Court, and the House’s Ethics Commission just voted to expel him entirely because he lied about bribe-filled Swiss bank accounts he controls. The same construction executive, Machado, testified that three of PMBD’s key leaders — including Jucá — were paid a total of 71.1 million reals in bribes. Meanwhile, two key Temer allies from the center-right PSDB that Dilma defeated in 2014 — Temer’s Foreign Minister José Serra and Dilma’s 2014 opponent Aécio Neves — are now both targets of the corruption investigation."

Or for that matter, Israel:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-corruption-allegations-against-benjamin-netanyahu

 

[ilikecheese]

Ive just recieved a warning cause of using word snowflake. In me previous post I definitely didnt refer to sexual minorities and I think the Mod that gave the warning knows that. Im a bit baffled here.

Is the conclusion that I cant call these anti democratic protestors snowflakes but at the same time ive been bombarded with names way worse than that.
Strange.

'Anti-democratic protesters'...LOL.

It is our constitutioanal right to protest. It's a foundation of our democracy.

 

[dandydan]

I led to believe that snowflake is sometimes used as a homophobic slur.

As a result we'd like this not to be used.

I always saw it as describing someone quick to take offence and oblivious to arguments based on fact and logic. Like kopites.

 

[Groucho]

Ive just recieved a warning cause of using word snowflake. In me previous post I definitely didnt refer to sexual minorities and I think the Mod that gave the warning knows that. Im a bit baffled here.

Is the conclusion that I cant call these anti democratic protestors snowflakes but at the same time ive been bombarded with names way worse than that.
Strange.

No mate, no name calling is acceptable. Please report instances.

 

[abelard]

Ive just recieved a warning cause of using word snowflake.

Not to challenge the idea that we no longer use it, but @TheFinnFan was no doubt being sincere
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/28/snowflake-insult-disdain-young-people

 

[TheFinnFan]

'Anti-democratic protesters'...LOL.

It is our constitutioanal right to protest. It's a foundation of our democracy.

They are protesting against elections that by Obamas own words were legitime and fair.

 

[dandydan]

From "why is nobody talking about 'black on black' violence to 'they deserved to be murdered because they were probably criminals anyway' in two posts. Impressive.

Projecting much?

 

[Clint Planet]

I always saw it as describing someone quick to take offence and oblivious to arguments based on fact and logic. Like kopites.

Why "snowflake"?

 

[dandydan]

You've lost a lot of respect and credibility posting that tweet. Dog-whistle racism that blaming the victims of hate crime for a rise in hate crime? Really?

Real "hate" crime? Or reported "hate" crime?
http://www.fakehatecrimes.org

 

[TheFinnFan]

No mate, no name calling is acceptable. Please report instances.

I would love to see the list of infracted posters in this thread.

I wont be reporting previous slurs against me because that would take all night but if I see words like racist, facist or such thrown against Trump or Trump supporters I will report every post.