American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

vocativ is real shit contendo

fresh out the box
look at watch

hmmmmm.

“I’m ready to make some tough concessions to get a deal,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the lead negotiator for Senate Democrats.

...

If Democrats insist on raising taxes, Ryan and other GOP leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have said they will simply let the sequester stay in place. But that strategy is likely to raise the risk of a shutdown in January and a fresh crisis over the debt limit later in the spring — which may explain why Cole is working hard to keep the door to taxes open.

“You can find revenue without raising taxes,” he said Wednesday. “Let’s leave a little helpful ambiguity in what I’m saying.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/beneath-conference-committees-sweet-words-lurks-old-sticking-point-taxes/2013/10/30/7bacafb8-418f-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story_1.html

so guys are you excited about Hillary breaking the partisan gridlock in Washington in 2016 or what

How about reform the immigration system, suddenly BAM millions of new American citizens paying new taxes! You know, the same people politicians are always blaming on mooching off the government?

I guess that would make too much sense?

no new taxes!

no more 47%ers living the lucky-duck life on food stamps (even if they do work minimum wage jobs)!

no more liberal judges making up the law!

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/188851-republicans-block-obama%E2%80%99s-dc-circuit-nominee

“They’ve admitted they want to control the court to advance the president’s agenda,” McConnell said ahead of the vote.

shocking. surely the GOP would never stoop to such tactics.

court packing to fill a vacant seat eh

Dems nominate crate of styrofoam peanuts to circuit court

Many Republicans have said they don't think the panel needs additional judges to handle the current case load. But Carney noted during the Bush Administration, Republicans voted to fill the same seats when the case load was half what it is today.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/ted-cruz-rafael-father-video-christian-tea-party

Ted's father:

speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."

reverend wright gop edition

can we send Ted Cruz back to Canada

as abhorrent as teddy dad is, it probably says something about the discursive climate that i read "outright Marxist" and thought "of course he thinks he's an outright marxist, why are we surprised about that part"

destroying all concept of god, that's pretty srs

All the Ron Paul-loving Jesus hippies I know (a significant portion of high school classmates went that way, so by know I mean "who show up on Facebook") are 100% into essential oils/alternative medicine bullshit, gluten-free paleo and Crossfit.

I've never completely grasped the connection between desire for absolutely unregulated capitalism and thinking Monsanto is going to kill us all - the strain seems to either point to absolute anti-intellectualism (unless those intellectuals are Chicago economists) - what do those egghead doctors know? - or conspiracist beliefs that Monsanto are really in the pocket of statists, turning us into sheeple.

trust no one, except Jesus I guess

I know quite a few liberals 100% into essential oils/alternative medicine bullshit, gluten-free paleo and Crossfit and loathe Monsanto.

Reminds me of the CEO of Whole Foods who is a big time Libertarian

I have a couple friends who would also fit this description. At one time, I would have regarded them as liberals, but they've recently been tipping into Ron Paul love.

It's all baffling to me.

It's like, I get how fear of the government, fear of GMOs, fear of traditional medicine, all this stuff is related. But I just don't see how you go from that to worshipping politicians who are outright racist and sexist.

How about reform the immigration system, suddenly BAM millions of new American citizens paying new taxes! You know, the same people politicians are always blaming on mooching off the government?

Oh, come on, we know poor (because they're all poor, of course) immigrants don't pay taxes. All they do is take and take and take and never contribute anything. Tell them to put in a hard day's work first, then we'll get back to them.

It's like, I get how fear of the government, fear of GMOs, fear of traditional medicine, all this stuff is related. But I just don't see how you go from that to worshipping politicians who are outright racist and sexist.

― Moodles, Friday, November 1, 2013 1:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

because they want to shrink the government

that's priority one for these people, all else falls by the wayside, consequences be damned

because reasons

"america is broke! goddamn unions. and stop handing out money to monsanto! and cell phones to poor people! i'm gonna go make kombucha!"

also half of them are unconsciously racist

I've never completely grasped the connection between desire for absolutely unregulated capitalism and thinking Monsanto is going to kill us all - the strain seems to either point to absolute anti-intellectualism (unless those intellectuals are Chicago economists) - what do those egghead doctors know? - or conspiracist beliefs that Monsanto are really in the pocket of statists, turning us into sheeple.

paranoia is paranoia, it doesn't necessarily have to be rational. but a lot of libertarians who are pro-unregulated capitalism envision perfect unregulated capitalism as a bunch of small hard working self-employed businessmen bartering with each other. monopolies are mostly the government's fault.

^ can't speak to percentages but ime this plays a fairly substantial role

xpost

had an unproductive fb dialogue with a "libertarian" the other day who was bitching about Soros, specifically for making a cool billion off shorting the pound back in 90s.

this is your 100%, free market laissez-faire fapfapfap capitalism at work, bro. dude wasn't going to hear it. Soros = evil.

yeah but Soros did 9/11

I have to admit that I've had trouble forgiving him for that

I think the healthy / anti-Monsanto libertarian thing makes sense in that a lot of those types feel they're "better" than all the regular fat sheeple who eat garbage and don't contribute to society, and therefore see nothing wrong with fleecing them with unfettered capitalism. It's their own fault for not having time or money or the intelligence to exercise and eat healthy.

The laissez faire unregulated free market always produces a large share of snake oil salesmen. Politics is an unregulated market, afaics.

xp ugh, you may be right, but if true that is more disgusting that i ever gave thought to

ftr it's possible to oppose some of monsanto's business practices while being honest about the fact that there's no evidence that GM food is harmful. i'd be 100x more sympathetic to anti-GMO protesters if they'd make an effort to acknowledge the latter point

yeah my position is that Monsanto is evil more because of the size/scope of their operation than anything else

Here in Europe we don't really do GM food because the public overwhelmingly do not want it.

Thank fuck all the friends I've got that are anti-Monsanto/InfoWars aren't that close and only need to be occasionally Snopesed rather than smacked upside the head for being classist, racist arseholes. Don't know any Paul people but friends who do have lived in Seattle and Texas. Is this an exurb/South/West kind of libertarian you're describing?

So if you buy 'organic' at a grocery store, does that guarantee it's not GM food? Cos if so then "no evidence that it is harmful" ok but my taste buds definitely sense a difference.

yes

Also "no evidence that it is harmful" not quite the optimal standard I should apply to sustenance.

yes

your taste buds probably sense a difference because you want to believe it tastes better. but if you like spending extra on food knock yourself out

imo the most compelling reasons to think GM food is harmful are ecological, not really medical/physiological.

yeah

although my view of the evidence there is that the benefit still far outweighs any risks, which are pretty equivocal afaik

tbf tho heirloom toms taste better than generic grocery store toms, and that's basically a fact.

imo the most compelling reasons to think GM food is harmful are ecological, not really medical/physiological.

I think there are compelling legal/political reasons that corporations should not be allowed to copyright DNA so there's that too

oh sure! I was only speaking to the so-called health risks

yeah that's part of what i meant by business practices xp

http://i.qkme.me/3uklhr.jpg

but if you like spending extra on food knock yourself out

Yeah, i guess i should save that money for something more valuable than the thing that fuels my body.

And yes, I've seen that episode of Penn and Teller.

Don't know any Paul people but friends who do have lived in Seattle and Texas. Is this an exurb/South/West kind of libertarian you're describing?

Ha, this is most definitely true. My formerly liberal friends who suddenly became libertarians live outside of Seattle. And of course, Ron Paul is from Texas and has a ton of stupid support down here.