Coup in Washington DC

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Mitlov, Jan 6, 2021.

  1. Flying Crane

    Flying Crane Well-Known Member

    Here is a picture of my cat. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity. We call him “the king of contortion sleeping”. 5CF9325E-F707-4911-9F7C-4DB310CF7139.jpeg
     
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  2. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    Cat actually belongs to my neighbour three doors down, but he lives with his sister so has taken to coming round to get some alone time during lockdown.

    your cat is very cute. Does he do the "tickle my tummy thing?"

    I dont have any pictures of what happens when I tickle Cat's tummy because it is hard to take a photo when a cat attaches itself to your hand with the claws of all four feet and a mouthful of needle sharp teeth.

    :)
     
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  3. Flying Crane

    Flying Crane Well-Known Member

    My other cat does the “rub my belly” thing. He will throw himself down in front of me no matter where I am walking (including up and down the stairs) and flop onto his back, waiting for a belly rub.
     
  4. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award



    This is probably the most moving speech I've heard from a current politician, who would of thought I would ever say that about Arnie!
     
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  5. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    The whole serco fiasco was the most vulgar display.

    Frankly, this past year has pushed me from a moderate position to an extreme one: we fundamentally need to reform our democracy to be localised and confed/federalised with a focus on ensuring that peoples basic needs are met, their voices are heard, rule of law is clear and maintained and those we elect are held accountable for their actions.

    It might not sound extreme but it is extreme in the face of the UKs current politic system holding power so far from it's people and only returning it to people in the form of referendum as part of a political ploy.
     
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  6. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Correction - past politician. He hasn't been in office for years. I know, he was my Governor. I admit I voted for him. I admit I was very disappointed in him in that office. But this clip, this reminds me why I did vote for him.
     
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  7. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

    We need people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney to retake their party. Even after Trump leaves office, if this violent populism is not repudiated, we will have more attacks like the siege on the US Capitol, and the next one may be more successful.

    I will not post the video here, but anyone doubting just how violent this mob was, needs to look up the video of the Capitol Police officer being crushed in a door by this mob, blood coming out of his mouth as he screams in agony, and the mob is ripping his gear off him. One of the mob filmed the assault and posted it online; CNN has now posted the video.
     
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  8. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    Sorry your correct, I knew he wasn't the governor anymore, but assumed he was still involved with politics. He's a very personable guy, who I've heard tried to do a lot of bi-partisan work whilst I'm office.
     
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  9. Kemposhot

    Kemposhot Valued Member

    Personally, I’ve always been fond of moderate Republican Governors. Arnold was like this. As was former NY Governor George Pataki, or current MA Governor Baker. Having a 2 party system in state government forces both sides to compromise and work together to deliver results.
     
  10. Grond

    Grond Valued Member

  11. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

  12. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Ha! Which Serco fiasco?

    Definitely the post-Blair adoption of consultancy firms and bringing the private sector into public services has been an unmitigated, and expensive, disaster. But it helps to keep costs off the books and reduce transparency, so politicians love it.

    I don't think that smaller power centres will necessarily help though. People's lives could end up being even more miserable, and the country ending up even more geographically unequal, if small fiefdoms are allowed to write their own rules.

    All institutions eventually end up existing to serve the institution itself, rather than the purpose with which it was created. One of my favourite ideas from anarchist thought is the constant dissolution and creation of institutions necessary for society to function, in order to prevent institutions developing an internal culture and becoming... institutionalised.
     
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  13. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    I'm not a fan of the trotskyist focus on forever revolution (probably because that became and institution hahaha)

    But constantly dissolving and creating institutions causes instability and instability isnt great for peoples well beings.

    The point of a good federal system is to root out corruption. It's worked surprisingly well for the US, integration and even the discovery of corruption in Ferguson was due to a decent federal system.

    But my thoughts on localised democracy are complex, certainly if power was taken out of unaccountable politicians hands and closer to the people, the better for everyone:
    for example not allowing politicians to drop the freedom of movement restrictions from the EU in the UK from A2 and A8 countries (eastern europe) before even the rest of europe or even germany (which is right next door and has historic ties).
    This caused our population to have resentment, especially from deindustrialisation, because the government wanted cheap labour.
    Fast forward and we get Brexit because people cant trust our government to do the wanted thing so they take away their option entirely.
     
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  14. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    I think it depends how it is done. Juries are a great example of it working well.

    Federal systems are hit-and-miss though. Taking recent examples you can see how institutional inertia continually leads law enforcement and intelligence agencies to overestimate the threat from ethnic minorities, environmental groups and left-wingers while disastrously underestimating the threat from right-wingers, veterans, police officers etc...

    Local democracy is a great idea, as long as it can be protected.
     
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  15. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

  16. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

  17. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

  18. Grond

    Grond Valued Member

    I was listening to Howard Stern go off on the rioters and he made a great point. Trump is giving the same defense that Charles Manson did at his trial. He wasn't there at Roman Polanski's home, he didn't kill Sharon Tate. All he did was sit around the campfire preaching about revolution and the coming race wars.

    Whatever. Let them storm again, I hope a bunch of these kooks get shot trying and it sends a message. Blue lives matter huh? Then they deserve the right to mow down crazy horned buffalo men storming the gates.

    As a pacifier, it's not like me to feel this way, but I'm angry as hell and I have a feeling Trump can still make this all worse by pardoning anyone involved.
     
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