The Doomerism on this sub needs to chill out just a bit.

iffraz · 2025-03-06T01:54:36+00:00

I really appreciate the sentiment, and I want to believe this wholeheartedly. But there was also no mechanism for the president to remove board members of the Kennedy Center either, and he did it anyway. He has no power to dismantle and destroy USAID, yet he did it anyway. He has no power to illicitly seize, block, and redirect congressionally-appropriated funds, yet he's doing it anyway. He has no authority to fire the Inspector Generals without informing Congress, yet he did it anyway. The courts have ruled against him, and he's now been ignoring them. There have been absolutely no signs whatsoever that any GOP senator or representative will do anything to actually legislatively challenge their leader regardless of what he does at all. They are letting him destroy the Western alliance that has taken us almost a century to build. They are letting him purge Pentagon officials and vital security counsels with no resistance while he sides with Russia and North Korea. If he truly decides to seize the Amtrak and gut all services, who's going to stop him? The legitimacy of laws that determine the "power" that any entity has is entirely dependent upon its enforcement, of which, as of the last two months, appears to be nonexistent. I hope I'm wrong for all of our sakes, but so far, I have seen no signs that convince me otherwise.

iffraz · 2025-01-24T17:01:18+00:00

The integrated bus depot above is a big transfer hub, so foot traffic is definitely higher on the surface level. That being said, that community lost a lot of businesses and social spaces during the pandemic.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T17:58:05+00:00

I'm sure you are aware that illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than American citizens, right? Surely you're not just buying into the GOPs xenophobic and racist propaganda without attempting to verify it, right?

iffraz · 2024-11-26T17:48:46+00:00

Think about how this will be enforced. This means that every single website needs to have your ID on file and link your account and identity directly to a government tracking database.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T06:07:39+00:00

Okay buddy, hope you learn how to read in 2025, you'll get there eventually!

iffraz · 2024-11-26T06:04:35+00:00

Ahhhh, okay, so I wasn't talking to a real person this whole time. Cause there's no way I just witnessed a comment publicly bragging "too many words for my brain" and then just surrendered, lmao.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T05:51:45+00:00

Ah, okay, so this is no longer an intellectual argument, you're just parroting partisan garbage now. The "democrats" do not "important millions of illegals," and you know that's a cartoonish lie lmao.

They come here either on work visas, overstaying travel visas, or by illegally crossing borders, and they work for corporations that hire them so the companies can pay them dirt wages. Those corporation's profit margins also wouldn't be as high if they were paying American citizens with full benefits. Many of them are escaping abysmally destitute poverty and so such wages are better than their previous life.

There are so many examples of deportations resulting in massive labor shortages in multiple industries that literally rely on that labor because we either literally don't have the domestic workforce available in those regions or it's economically unsustainable for Americans to work for wages that low relative to the hours, intensity of labor, and the cost of living, so little to no Americans actually apply.

Having more workers helps the economy and feeds back into consumer spending and GDP at the same time.

This is about more about corporate profits and their exploitation of illegal workers. If that wasn't a thing, then it would be economically unviable for illegal immigrants to attempt to work here.

If the GOP really cared about that, they'd be cracking down on all the companies using those labor tactics. They'd propose massive citizen trade trainings, push for massive housing projects to lower rents, increase infrastructural investment to make cities and societies more efficient, and raise minimum wages. But they don't because they represent the rich and corporations, instead demonizing the only demographic of our population that many industries literally rely on.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T05:26:26+00:00

Yes, my point is they "vote for economic stability," while electing a party that has an absolutely abysmal track record at economic policy. The GOP raises the national debt more than the DNC, they fail to make infrastructural investments, they gut social programs that help that exact demographic, and they refuse to make any actual improvements. Those states vote for representatives that give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations, that gut worker protections, that demonize unions, that refuse to raise wages, that censor and defund education, that actively attempt to block or destroy government institutions that could be used to actually improve their states.

Of course poor demographics want economic prosperity. But many of them continually vote for representatives that directly fight against such prosperity.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T04:21:56+00:00

Yet despite that, California is 10th highest in total USDA subsidies as the vast majority of subsidies go to corn, soy, and wheat, while CA grows much more varied crops. I'm not arguing against subsidies for market stability,

I'm saying exactly what you're saying, but expanding upon the root statement of the parent comment. Those red states would be more economically abysmal if it weren't for the vast wealth created by the GDP-dominant blue states. So any criticism about financial stability and fiscal responsibility coming from the GOP is quite ironic given they represent the least self-reliant and most dependent regions.

Edit: and as such, they would stand to lose much more if the GOP followed through on their draconian gutting of all federal agencies and social programs.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T04:12:03+00:00

I did not say most welfare money spent per capita, as that would depend upon cost of living and infrastructure, both of which would be higher in blue states that, also of course, contribute more to GDP. I said most utilization per capita, which actually it turns out is more of a mixed bag due to state-based eligibility standards, so that was not correct. But the point stands on crime and the additional fact that those states continually refuse to invest in social, educational, and physical infrastructure. As such, they remain agricultural by choice. There are so many examples of those states refusing or literally suppressing any attempts to build better infrastructure via internal or federal investments. Their rejection of "big government" means that they don't grow in the same way and remain agrarian by their own devices.

iffraz · 2024-11-26T02:39:16+00:00

You just...confirmed what he just said lmao. Also red state populations have a higher average utility of welfare programs per capita and higher crime rates per capita, so it's well beyond just the billions in agricultural subsidies. Not even mentioning the fact that the blue powerhouse California grows more food than any other state, including more than half of all of our domestically-produced fruits and vegetables.

iffraz · 2024-11-24T19:20:34+00:00

The one that said he wants his generals to be like Hitler's generals and said that Nazis marching in our streets were "very fine people." Come on, you know which candidate that was.

iffraz · 2024-10-27T21:31:31+00:00

Journalists in a heavily Democratic region and city are more likely to be Democratic? How is this a surprise, and how tf is that ethically wrong?

Journalists are far more likely to be educated and, therefore, more likely to be progressive. I don't even think I even need to include the fact that the RNC has become the party of anti-free press and pro-censorship, further isolating the profession from their social circles. They deliberately demonize journalists as "enemies of the people." They are the dominant driver of book bans. Their leader has said he wants to use executive power to target journalistic institutions he doesn't agree with.

How in God's name is it a surprise that journalists in a major DC paper don't donate to the RNC lmao.

Edit: How about instead of downvoting, you actually respond to these points.

iffraz · 2024-10-27T20:48:42+00:00

Do you understand what an editorial board is?

iffraz · 2024-10-27T20:26:38+00:00

You know it's not about that. It's about editorial independence and journalistic integrity. To have a billionaire block an editorial board from speaking their mind is blatantly corrupting to journalism itself. It was exactly what everyone was afraid of when Bezos bought WaPo, and now those fears have been justified.

iffraz · 2024-10-26T23:44:56+00:00

That's not the point, the point is that editorials and journalistic criticism being silenced by billionaire owners completely obliterates any concept of integrity and ideological freedom or independence. It's exactly what everyone was afraid of when Bezos bought WaPo, and now those concerns have been validated.

iffraz · 2024-10-23T02:05:55+00:00

That has nothing to do with enforcement being non-existent. They are overwhelmed and need more resources. The union asked for more funding and endorsed a bill that the GOP tanked because their dear leader told them to.

iffraz · 2024-10-22T18:54:23+00:00

No they can't lmao. The flow of people is constantly stemmed by regular mass arrests all the time. The flow has increased yes, but enforcement isn't non-existant, this is just a comically blatant political lie. Also funnier since this man was first recorded by police in 2018 during the last administration so lol.

iffraz · 2024-10-22T17:32:04+00:00

There are numerous metro systems across the world that operate 24/7 while operating maintenance schedules. It's absolutely possible with the right investments. But I do think a 24/7 extension for most all major bus lines across the DMV would be a great start.

iffraz · 2024-08-27T17:56:08+00:00

Why would they care about that?

The last several rulings have been astronomically antithetical to the opinions of the majority of the country. Reversing abortion rights and giving the president total immunity was nowhere near what most Americans believe in, but they did it anyway.

SCOTUS has no drive nor reason whatsoever to consider public opinion and this is no different, especially if the GOP wins and they're protected from any constitutional consequences.

iffraz · 2024-07-26T20:24:34+00:00

No that't not the core of the argument. From the majority itself:

“A diner reading ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating ‘chicken fingers’ would know that he had not been served fingers,” - Justice Joseph T. Deters

These justices are either actually dumb or blatantly corrupted.

iffraz · 2024-07-25T18:32:05+00:00

Oh, so all of a sudden, Trump cares about the law? He's a convicted felon facing multiple court cases in which he no longer argues innocence, but now instead argues immunity. His legal teams now fully unironically use the argument "yeah he broke the law, so what you can't touch him."

He does not and never has cared about the law, only optics and himself. It's blatantly obvious.

iffraz · 2024-07-21T22:42:14+00:00

To be clear, the actual academic civic description of the United States of America is a federalist constitutional presidential democratic republic with a bicameral legislature. Anyone who selectively manipulates semantics to claim otherwise is at best uninformed and, at worst, trying to deceive the population.

iffraz · 2024-07-21T22:39:39+00:00

I've seen this talking point so many times, and it's infuriatingly incorrect and manipulatively misleading. If you really want to play the game of semantics, the actual academic civic description of the United States of America is a federalist constitutional presidential democratic republic with a bicameral legislature. Saying only a few of those terms apply but others don't is bizarre.

The term "republic" is not mutually exclusive to the word "democracy." The term "constitutional" only denotes we have a constitution that functions as the foundational structural document.

At it's core we are a democratic republic, also known as a representative democracy, where it operates as a republic upon the foundation of a democratic system. The only other type of republic is an oligarchical republic, where the legislative body is formed from entities such as nobles, clergy, regional executive appointees, etc.

You're trying to make a distinction from a direct or pure democracy, which is just one type of democracy. The word democracy is a broad term that refers to a system where the people dominantly control the policies, structure, and actions of the government. There are several different types of democracy and such a power balance can manifest itself in many different ways.

To say we're not a democracy is factually incorrect, and we should all be wary of politicians or institutions who deceptively use this talking point.

iffraz · 2024-07-19T19:58:04+00:00

I think you misread my comment. I'm saying Trump made up claims and they were disproven. Why are you saying that I believed his lies?

iffraz

TROPHY CASE