In the wake of Georgia's election: Appeal to the Patriotic Americans

I disagree, but that’s a different thread, I think.

 

Both had remarkable charisma; iirc Hitler had majority German support for a time.

 

I was young when the Nazi death camps were found, but I can still remember those horrible pictures.

 

It would have been easier because it would have involved no time, money or effort. Pretty straightforward.

 

It would have also involved a lot more deaths.
Again though, this isn’t a Covid thread.

 

Lol...I doubt you'd be saying the same thing if the repubs had won it all?
And you can thank trump for losing you the Senate, if the count holds.

 

I have to repeat:

Most Democratic voters are decent people, but also the deceived ones.
People, who were convinced by the (fake) scholars, the schools, the universities, the mainstream media:

 

While I sincerely appreciate your objective summary of this nation from your unique viewpoint as a thoughtful outside observer who doesn’t necessarily have a pony in the race, I think the issue before us now is that the political philosophy that appears to be gaining momentum is the one that seeks to destroy — or at least seriously diminish — all that you have correctly noted above: Free speech is already feeling for the ropes, responsible adult gun owners already have to fight tooth and nail to maintain their crumbling rights, and income inequality (now blithely called “economic justice”) is front-and-center of the new new global SJW religion of wokeism. Their holy trinity: Confiscatory taxation, open borders, and the disarming of responsible adult citizens. The policy positions offered by the incoming statist cabal will, in the words of Mr. Biden’s former boss, “fundamentally transform America,” and not in a way you or I will necessarily find appealing. Speaking of the former boss, his spiritual mentor The Rev. Jeremiah Wright summed it up perfectly in one sentence: “God d**n America.”

So, sorry but these are not the fringes. These are the fundamental principles that once defined the freest, most prosperous, most innovative, most productive experiment in self-rule the world had ever known.

The progressive wing simply thinks all the virtues you listed above are actually vices. We are simply too free. We the great unwashed, the deplorables, need to be told what kind of car we can drive (not petrol), how many bullets we can put in our guns (no more than three), how much energy we can use to heat and cool our homes (just enough to keep the pipes from freezing), what kind of bulbs we can put in our lamps at home (not the good ones any more), what kind of smoke we can inhale (ganja fine, tobacco NO!), even how many damn ounces of soda pop we can buy at one time (32 says Uncle Mike Bloomberg).

I’m not shedding a tear over Trump, but the radical leftists are about to be given the keys to the family car and a handle of Jim Beam...

Put simply: You WILL state your pronouns. Do not make me show you what happens when you refuse.

 

Political deadlock is the best thing that can happen to free people.

 

Putting aside your fantasy about stolen elections, part of the reason two Dems took GA's Senate seats is because of the radicalization of the GOP, now the POT. Some are beginning to regret their mistake of backing the worst prez in American history.

Republicans turn on Trump after Georgia loss
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/06/republicans-turn-on-trump-georgia-loss-455305

"Democrats have pulled off at least one Senate win in Georgia, with another likely to follow. And Republicans are pointing a frustrated finger at Donald Trump.

With control of the Senate at stake in the state’s two races, the president chose to spend weeks peddling baseless claims that Georgia’s electoral system was rigged, fueling an online movement to boycott Tuesday’s election. He demonized the state’s Republican leaders and fractured the local GOP. He ignored calls from his allies to rally in the state sooner. His support for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue mainly came in the form of the occasional tweet and two rallies, including one on Monday. He blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for not heeding his calls for boosted stimulus checks."

Repubs are starting to eat their own. It's going to get ugly as they begin to comprehend the damage Trump has done to their party..........and the country.

So when Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Loeffler early on Wednesday — and with Democrat Jon Ossoff having a good chance of toppling Perdue — Republicans were quick to blame Trump.

 

Example 42 of the mind of a trump supporter.
Scary place

I am glad y’all were removed from power.

 

Godwin’s law. You lose.

 

Noted you did not actually address the poster’s argument, nor the topic, which is not the poster. Fallacy, straw man; fallacy, ad hominem.

 

Meanwhile China's one party meritocracy is relentlessly setting and achieving its successive 5 year plans, has eliminated absolute poverty for 1.5 billion people, created a middle class bigger than the entire US population, on the way to creating a "moderately prosperous socialist society in all respects".....which means the eradication of poverty for ALL.

Your "freedom" ...with half the population living in chronic financial stress, with black poverty and incarceration rates double and five times respectively that of whites, makes me puke.

Hope you enjoy the riots in the Capitol, reminiscent of the 'free democracy' mob who stormed the HK Legislative Council last year.

 

The "deceived ones"?
Both sides are deceived by the current vested-interest-serving, neoliberal, neo-Keynesian monetary orthodoxy.

Problem is the entrenched poverty, soaring inequality, shrinking middle class, flat working class wages, and near 50% of the population living in chronic financial stress. Plus black poverty and incarceration rates that are 2 and 5 times respectively those of whites. Not a pretty picture....which is the reason for the political hyper-partisanship.

I suggest addressing the real cause of the hyper-partisanship, namely, a systems failure, which is the failing neo-liberal, neo-Keynesian economic orthodoxy.... time to establish a combination of 'libertarianism'** which is confined to the private sector, and 'socialism' which is confined to the public sector...see MMT:

Bond investors see through central bank lies and expose the fallacies of mainstream macroeconomics – Bill Mitchell – Modern Monetary Theory (economicoutlook.net)

(the above is a link)

** a "free people" need to accept rule of law, because everyone has his own idea of "freedom" calculated to serve his OWN interests, the libertarian fantasy.

 

I lived in Beijing for five years, have done business in the PRC for almost three decades, have travelled to nearly every corner of the country, am functionally fluent in the language, and can speak with authority about conditions on the ground. Everything you just posted above is wrong. I will correct it for you here:

Meanwhile China's one party plutocracy is relentlessly setting and achieving new heights of corruption and obscene wealth for the politically-connected while the average Chinese citizen has no rights to speak of and is completely subservient to the state; has successfully raised the poverty line to a whopping $400/yr. for 1.5 billion people; created a "middle class" half the size of the US population (and one sixth of the Chinese population) earning up to $13,000/yr. for a 6-day 54-hour work week; on the way to creating a "moderately prosperous society solely due to the ruling elite's embrace of capitalism and the West's insatiable appetite for affordable consumer goods".....which means the eradication of poverty for some, while rural dwellers exist on a bag of rice per week and have been known to kill and eat rats with a side of grass salad, with a bonus watermelon on national holidays. The state brutally controls nearly every aspect of Chinese life: They run all media, heavily censor and even spy on foreign journalists, regulate the content of books, movies, music, imprison artists who make art deemed unacceptable to the Ministry of Culture (see Cui Jian and Ai Wei Wei). They determine what you can and cannot view on the internet. The state tortures dissidents, Muslims, Falun Gong, "disappearing" critics to squalid jail cells where the occupant is unable to sit, stand, or lie flat and whose only company is their own excrement for days on end. The state decides when the heat goes on in winter (even in luxury apartments like mine in the expat districts), and how much hot water you can use. Municipal water is infested with parasites and full of clay sediment giving it a gray-ish slimy feel to the touch and a putrid odor. You do not drink it even after boiling. Bottled water is only slightly better. The air is poison, filled with industrial ash, dirty diesel exhaust, heavy metals, and coal smoke from home cooking and heating (over 10 million in Beijing alone burn coal on a daily basis). On the really bad days, you can literally taste the air -- a curious blend somewhere between medicinal and metallic. Women are second-class citizens, losing everything if on the other side of a divorce, girls from rural districts as young as nine years old are sold as sex slaves for a few hundred dollars to "entertain" the plutocrats and the party elite; The state even determines where a citizen may live, with permission needed (sometimes through a bribe) to move from a poverty-stricken rural district to better opportunities in a city; Capital executions account for about 55% of the global total per annum -- and the "execution van" (a mobile death chamber) is a unique invention of the PRC: there are 46 capital offenses including drug dealing, sabotage, treason, homicide, robbery, rape, possession of firearms, arson, advocating "separatism," providing substandard weapons to the military, rioting... Oh, and in Beijing alone, they had nine deaths from Wuhan CoViD. NINE. In a city of 25-30 million. I have some nice swamp land for sale in Florida for anyone who believes that number. Add five or six zeros....

You might want to see a doctor about that.

Not sure how that's relevant. But the criminals rioting at the Capitol will be brought to justice. We won't sentence them to death like your heroes in Beijing, however. Sorry about your luck.

 

Thank You for this, it is the absolute truth. I've been to China several times on business and can attest to much of what you describe. It is a stark set of contrasts there between the citizenry and the oligarchy (I'm not sure that aptly describes corporate China, some of what I witnessed more closely resembled the Mafia) Similarly the contrasts between natural beauty and urban filth are shocking. It is the filthiest country I've ever visited but has some of the most stunning natural landscapes. I was told most citizens aren't allowed in those areas and many have never seen them.This is really hard to wrap your head around but those politics are coming here just like their virus but more destructive.

 

It is easy for "armchair" socialists to sing its praises especially if they've never set foot in places like Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the PRC. I spent some time in Seoul when I was living over there and got to peer into the North across the DMZ through a telescope. It was stunning to see whole cities where not even a pedestrian could be seen on the street. Communism/socialism/statism is GREAT for the people at the top...

But back to China, I absolutely love the Chinese people. The CPC? Not so much. My company actually did some government contracting so I need to be careful, but I witnessed firsthand the way things work there. They don't even try to hide the bribes... or the demands for them. Or the golf packages to Vegas and will you send a letter to your government so my son can go to Stanford? And the prostitutes. My god they are everywhere... at the mall, at the post office, the hair salon... Step out of a taxi in ChaoYang or SanLiTun and there's like three of them... I'd show my wedding ring and they'd say "Your wife shopping? 15 minutes!" Why do so many girls and women have to sell their bodies in a "workers paradise" ?? So sad...

 

Hey. I want to ask a question of you. You just posted this. What are you going to do next?

 

OK, after reading some of your following post, I stand corrected (maybe...)

1. A 2016 Harvard study revealed 90% satisfaction with government in China. Harvard not capable of ensuring the accuracy of that figure? I intend to visit the country myself ASAP.

2. A European Economic research team has estimated China GDP will surpass the US by 2028 (earlier then previous forecasts because of better handling of the pandemic in China).

3. China does have to contend with "freedom of the individual" libertarian ideologues who are seeking to over-through the CPC at every turn, driven by Libertarianism, a front for self-interested maximization of access to resources, and flatly stating (for self-serving reasons) democracy is the best system. Obviously given today's riots in the Capitol, that is not a safe bet (and Churchill was just another self-serving imperialist, who resisted Indian democracy).

4. Western hypocrisy on human rights is egregious: eg no solution is offered for bringing a backward, illiterate Muslim mob of terrorists into the modern world (in Xinjiang), while tolerating black incarceration rates 5 times that of whites - and poverty rates double that of whites.

5. China's infrastructure development is outstanding: they poured more cement in 2010-13 than the US in the ENTIRE 20th century, built the world's largest high-speed rail network and are developing international links via Belt and Road eg the line to Europe.

No, but YOU need to study economics, to understand WHY our democracies are descending into hyper-partisan rabbles.

Not sure why that's relevant to the current hyper-partisan divide?? With half the US population living in chronic financial stress?

"It's the economy, stupid".

 

Wrong: your very own home-grown politics (unbalanced 'freedom of the individual' nonsense), is destroying the nation from within. Well done...

 

No "maybe" about it. China is a terrible place to live unless your name is Xi or Ma. Consequently, the latter apparently ran afoul of the former and has now been "missing" for a month or more. Even the plutocrats have to kiss the ring. OR ELSE.

LOL. A Harvard study.

And 99.9% of Iraqis voted for Saddam Hussein. You do realize that stating you are dissatisfied with the government in China can have disasterous, if not lethal consequences? Or wait, you don't actually... You need to live there for at least five years, learn the language, have candid conversations outside of the country with informed party members and stakeholders... get drunk with them and hold them as they weep over family members purged during the Cultural Revolution... Only then will you even develop a cursory understanding (such as mine) of the true China... and the TWO Chinas...

A meaningless figure. Go look at PER CAPITA GDP and purchasing parity, median income, adult literacy while you're at it... then get back to me. And China's "handling" of the pandemic (it created) is a farce. Nine dead in a city of 30 million... mathematically impossible. They have even admitted to fudging the numbers, and the Western media just choked it down and regurgitated CPC propaganda.

LOL. How terrible it is to want to be free...

I will grant you that the poverty is far more equally distributed in Communist China. And did you really just conflate the Uyhgur people with terrorism? Because Muslim! FFS even Limbaugh himself would not be that crass.

Solely due to the party elites' embrace of capitalism -- and simultaneous jettison of communist values -- and the corresponding insatiable western appetite for inexpensive consumer goods and galactic profit margins. "China: The modern dictatorship that Nike, Samsung, and Apple built." That's all dollars and euros. A few pounds and some yen... And Bill Clinton, of course.

Literally, the European, North American, and Australian consumer built those amazing railroads... well, and the French who actually did the building.

LOL. Get back to me after you've transacted $18 billion over three decades, kiddo. I could write your textbooks.

Most of our "poor" are far better off than 90% of the planet. Our poor are fat. You want to see real poverty? Go to the countryside in glorious workers paradise PRC where grown men are barely five feet tall and wear childrens' clothing, cutting extra holes in their belts so their pants stay up. BECAUSE THEY EAT RATS AND GRASS.

It sure is...

 

The comparison with China is flawed.
The ideology of the CCP is an extreme Chinese nationalism, while the radicalised Democratic establishment fiercely hates the USA.
Just take a look at the senior Democrats (from Barack Obama till "Rev." Warnock) cozying up to Louis Farrakhan!
And you cannot set up in any country a stable dictatorship, based on the hatred against the very same country!

Of course, you could still "divide and rule" for a while, pitting the different racial communities against each other (and all of them against the Jews), but very soon the State will nevertheless collapse in the civil war!

 

Not so fast. So you have transacted $18 billion over 3 decades?

And what particular insight does that give you into the false neoliberal, neo-Keynesian orthodox monetarist dogma that you are part of, the very dogma destroying our democracies?

Bill Mitchell – Modern Monetary Theory – Macroeconomic research, teaching and advocacy (economicoutlook.net)

Bond investors see through central bank lies and expose the fallacies of mainstream macroeconomics.

Go back to your self-serving economic dogma, and enjoy it while it lasts.

 

We had one party rule in 2016-2017 but not alot of Republicans supported Trump at that time so he still had a hard time getting much passed.