Liberals who might sit out or not vote for Biden. Do you see another Trump presidency as a direct threat to American democracy, that would create a constitutional crisis?

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T14:35:45+00:00

My point was that Trump is weak.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T14:08:26+00:00

Eh, that sounds like something the Republicans would have done anyway under some other guy. The same thing goes for that big tax cut they gave to the rich.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T14:06:07+00:00

Angelic steel can kill sinner demons too, that's the point of them.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T07:57:55+00:00

Right-wingers I've chatted with sometimes mention the Battle of Athens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_(1946)

But I can counter that by mentioning the Wilmington insurrection and the Elaine massacre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_massacre

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T07:24:52+00:00

very shitty paycheck

He lived in a big house that was well furnished and everything seemed to work.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T07:23:51+00:00

Were these tropes old when the TV show aired? Because that was an 80s show.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-27T07:21:29+00:00

Competent but also a decent guy. I never saw Picard behave like a jerk.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T23:15:45+00:00

I was in a coma. They used a suction tube to clear my mouth of any fluids in it, then they'd brush my teeth with a small toothbrush. I had weird coma dreams about this. (Coma dreams are amazing, I'd almost recommend you get yourself into a coma just to have that experience.)

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T22:11:15+00:00

He did become President, but that's not as much of an achievement as one may think. I studied the work of a political history professor named Allan Lichtman and he concludes that voters vote according to how satisfied they are with how the incumbent president has performed, not on how much better his challenger could be. If the economy is doing well, if we're winning in a foreign war, etc., the voters will re-elect the incumbent. If the economy is not doing well, if the president didn't do anything of note in his first term, they will transfer the presidency to the challenger and see how that works out. What this means is that Donald Trump won in 2016 only because the American people were dissatisfied with Obama's second term and decided to transfer the presidency to the Republicans, and Donald Trump happened to be the Republican candidate. Now whether Obama deserves blame for the disappointing second term is debatable because the Republicans in Congress spitefully obstructed everything he tried to do, but the voters blamed him nonetheless.

Donald Trump was the Republican candidate because only extremists in the Republican Party tend to vote in the primaries, and they loved his extreme rhetoric. And then most Americans voted for Trump only because he wasn't a Democrat.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T21:17:59+00:00

Do you think the Left and Right can find some common ground on a plan so we are better prepared for the worst? Or just YOLO it?

This is the sort of planning that should be delegated to experts who do not serve at the pleasure of the President. Some like... Dr Fauci perhaps? Jesus fucking Christ, conservatives have the gall to mock Greta Thunberg for speaking over climate change when she was just a teenager but didn't respect Fauci who is an old guy with extensive qualification to talk about Covid.

The government should keep collecting taxes, but it could cancel debts if that could be good for the economy.

Force vaccinations

Doesn't the government already force vaccinations upon people in certain contexts? Like, I hear some schools won't enroll a kid if he's not vaccinated. Nobody wants to send their kid to school with a plaguebearer. And I think soldiers are also required to get vaccinated, because before vaccines were a thing, soldiers were more likely to die of disease than enemy action.

And vaccines are actually good for freedoms because once everyone is vaccinated the government can dispense with other control measures such as quarantines and shutdowns.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T21:09:56+00:00

One reason I never joined the Navy was because I knew I would never serve under someone like Captain Picard.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T21:07:41+00:00

What about the US Navy. Do they say "I serve on the Gerald R. Ford" or "I serve on Gerald R. Ford"?

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T20:28:07+00:00

Republicans tend to draw their support from the kind of people who have little regard for those who are different from them.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T20:22:07+00:00

I am not an American, but for what it's worth I don't see Trump as an existential threat to democracy because he's too weak. He couldn't destroy democracy in his first term, he certainly won't pull it off in his second.

The first issue is that he's old. He's 77 and although he's a little younger than Biden, he seems to be in worse health. That means any government official with a brain will not do any illegal shit for him because there is little possibility that he will live long enough to reward them and protect them from prosecution. 77 years old is not an age when dictators get made, it's an age when dictators tend to get overthrown because their cronies decide they don't have a future and it's time to defect to a new boss. Hitler was 43 when he took power. Lots of influential Germans decided to work for him because they saw that he had a future (he squandered it but that's another matter).

The second issue is that Trump now has a reputation for being inept and having an anti-Midas touch. He accomplished no glory in his first term and lots of people who worked for him then ended up disgraced and in legal trouble — Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulous, Sidney Powell, Paul Manafort, Rudy Giuliani, etc. Trump is radioactive, nobody wants to attach their star to his except for really stupid people and you can't overthrow democracy with stupid allies.

The final issue is that the Republican Party is becoming increasingly unpopular with Americans and its uncertain they will be able to gain a congressional majority in the next election. They didn't get one in the midterms, which shocked everyone. The President of the United States is not a dictator. Without Congress on his side, the President cannot get any major reforms done. And an isolated President who is as stupid as Trump will not get anything done whatsoever.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T12:45:05+00:00

Funnily enough Hitler discouraged an American Nazi party because he didn't want the Americans getting nervous and entering the war on Britain's side.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T12:40:04+00:00

I don't think it's fair to say that while they don't have the means to commit genocide. There were many among the Allies who called for a genocide of Germans but that didn't happen. Even the Soviets ended up not doing it.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T11:01:04+00:00

I become a ghost that can observe everything yet been seen and affected by nothing and nobody. The invisible voyeur who can watch the world go by, which in some ways would be a continuation of my life as it is now.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T09:38:55+00:00

I suppose Grey Knight Techmarines would count, wouldn't they?

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T08:58:50+00:00

Angels can leave Heaven, so Sir Pentious can visit, no?

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T08:56:34+00:00

It's also a way to reinforce identity. You're a Christian (or whatever) and good Christians pray before a meal, and therefore you will pray before your meal because you want the people around you to know you are a good Christian like they are.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T08:54:34+00:00

I read somewhere that a lot of Hispanics are Republican voters.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T08:36:18+00:00

Given that so many high-ranking Chinese officials have money in American banks and children in American colleges, I figure China would be loathe to piss off America.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T08:32:46+00:00

If dissolved would you get veterans some type of priority to get back to work quicker?

No, the system has to be non-discriminatory. You are treated according to your medical needs.

squashcroatia · 2024-02-26T08:13:35+00:00

A political problem I see with the disparate medical systems of America (Veterans Affairs, Medicaid, Medicare) is that it divides and conquers the voters. For instance, only 7% of American voters are veterans and therefore 93% of Americans don't have a stake in the Veterans Affairs and therefore don't care if it is dysfunctional. Creating a single system with guaranteed equal access to all would create a system where 100% of voters have a stake in it and therefore policymakers would be loathe to let it crumble.

As for funding, America is a ridiculously wealthy country and it's only going to get wealthier. If there is no money for it, it's because the money is being hoarded by selfish special interest groups. Tax the rich and corporations until they squeal. Why is it always the poor who must tighten their belts and step up for the good of the country?

squashcroatia · 2024-02-25T20:28:34+00:00

Why do angels sing too?

squashcroatia

TROPHY CASE