U.S. 2024 Presidential Election Season kicking off...so who are you betting on??

bdole said:
There are a lot of ideas and policies that are good, in theory. But the application can make or break them. For example, requiring an ID to vote doesn't sound too bad, does it? Sounds pretty common sense, right? Ok, but what if you require people to vote using very specific IDs (no student IDs, no native reservation IDs), and then close all the places you can get the required IDs in specific counties and neighborhoods, so that people who live there have to travel hours to the nearest place to get an ID. Not so fair anymore, is it?
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If everyone is given a valid ID when they turn 18, for no cost and no hassle, than yes require it for voting.

The issue is voting ID is NOT about voting ID. It's about using ID as a proxy to disenfranchise voters, who are typically poorer and therefore tend to vote more for a given party.

USA has a long history of this bullshit; reading comprehension checks to make sure you "understand" the ballot, at a time when a certain segment of the population wasn't allowed equal access to education to learn how to read, etc.

And to be perfectly clear there is historically only ONE party that does this shit. So when they say it's about "voting integrity" they are completely and utterly full of shit. It's about disenfranchisement.

Voting should be easy and mandatory but that would significantly benefit one party way more than the other so it will never happen because politicians are cunts.
 
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jackoffinthebox said:
Also election day should be a national holiday. And all workers required to be at work must be allowed an adequate time slow to be allowed to leave to vote.
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I prefer the Australian system on this one - not only does time have to be made, all citizens are REQUIRED to vote.
 
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Talked to one of my friends (well, acquaintances) from China over lunch today.

She is exuberant.

"The Taiwan Province will now be brought to heel within two years. And if Japan interferes we will solve that problem too!"

While I doubt they can do anything to Japan even their highly educated seem to think that "now is the time for Taiwan".
 
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zera said:
Talked to one of my friends (well, acquaintances) from China over lunch today.

She is exuberant.

"The Taiwan Province will now be brought to heel within two years. And if Japan interferes we will solve that problem too!"

While I doubt they can do anything to Japan even their highly educated seem to think that "now is the time for Taiwan".
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Funny how all the dictatorships and warhawks around the world are ecstatic at Trump being elected. All the countries trying to take over other countries are excited because Trump is going to let them: Russia, Israel, China.
 
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GirlLookingForFun said:
Well, you don't really owe your country anything to begin with. It's all just about the specific patch of dirt you were born on. No one decides where they were born. You have no obligation to help or do anything but look out for your own self when times are this bad
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I feel like this is different when you are an immigrant.
I've always wanted to find a way to repay Japan for saving my life.
 
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JohnOsaka said:
Let me break this thread cycle and say I'm ok with Trump being president again. And to be honest it feels like you guys never left 2004 with the takes.
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This entire thread is just people parroting Dem talking points back and forth to each other (I say this as an independent who despises both parties).

Don't really get the point of what this thread is even for anymore. Not worth reading at all since Keihan left.
 
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SugoiBoy said:
I mostly agree with this analysis:

https://newrepublic.com/post/188197/trump-media-information-landscape-fox
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I think this analysis overstates the role of the rightwing media.
Sure, they had an very important influence.

Then there was Trump. He is a demagogue. Harris should have focused on that, not on facism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue

And a demagogue manipulates people. Meaning that people let themselves be manipulated. They stop critical thinking. Trump asks: are you better of now? But people do not think critically about inflation: what was the cause of inflation? Biden? Or Covid? Or Putain's invasion causing energy prices to go up?
And they do not ask critical questions whether tariffs and deportations of millions will bring down inflation.

I found this conversation interesting:
https://www.persuasion.community/p/francis-fukuyama-on-trump-47
 
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Danbo said:
I don't get why this is even a thing. I mean it's not an embarrassing leaked sextape or something.
She looked great, did the photographs for the well known publication GQ. Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
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There's nothing to be ashamed of, except her husband is actively campaigning that this IS something to be ashamed of.

Thats why it's hilarious to me.

It's like when people who campaign against LGBT rights turn out to be gay or lesbian- there is an ultimate irony there and it's even sader as lgbt rights, nudity, everything- nothing wrong with it. But they campaign so hard against these things then turn out to be part and parcel of them.
 
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Durg50 said:
I genuinely didn't know why a policy of removing people that are somewhere illegally would be considered a bad thing.
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Yea, I get it. The "illegal" aspect of it is tough to contend with. 'They CHOSE to break the rules'. I agree that "it doesn't seem fair" but zooming out , it truly benefits us BOTH to just integrate them. We're already spending money to build prisons/camps and salaries of detention agents. We could simply spend that money on housing and social workers to facilitate integration. We could simply make them "legal" migrants with a snap of a finger like Trump did for those Haitians that are currently not "eating cats and dogs" in spring field.

This might be getting too into the nitty gritty, but we already have Internment camps. Kids are Currently dying in those camps https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigrant-kids-keep-dying-cbp-detention

It might shock you to find out Slavery has NOT been fully abolished in the US. Slavery is Legal for "Criminials". Hmmm, we do have the most prisoners in the world even tho our population is 4 times smaller than China. Private Prisons are using captive migrants as cheap/slave (1$ a day) labor https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers (the other news links are pay sites, but u can google all this.)

Tacked on to all this, Private companies are breaking child labor laws and using HUNDREDS of thousands of migrant teens/kids as workers; and they are getting hurt on the job. (chemical burns, maimed by machines and death) https://www.theguardian.com/global-...mmigrant-child-laborers-killed-factories-osha

I don't say all this to defend Trump, I think Trump is Worse, but Is it "Right-wing" when a Democrat / Biden does it? Is it "Right wing" when Obama builds/Funds and uses the camps? (yes it is)

It costs us the same to be human to these people. (except maybe the Private prisons)
 
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Alice said:
I feel like this is different when you are an immigrant.
I've always wanted to find a way to repay Japan for saving my life.
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I guess that's valid!
I am grateful I am here in Japan as well, while I won't do anything with the intention of repaying Japan, I plan to do volunteer work when I have more time.
 
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ChumChumJim said:
Yea, I get it. The "illegal" aspect of it is tough to contend with. 'They CHOSE to break the rules'. I agree that "it doesn't seem fair" but zooming out , it truly benefits us BOTH to just integrate them. We're already spending money to build prisons/camps and salaries of detention agents. We could simply spend that money on housing and social workers to facilitate integration. We could simply make them "legal" migrants with a snap of a finger like Trump did for those Haitians that are currently not "eating cats and dogs" in spring field.

This might be getting too into the nitty gritty, but we already have Internment camps. Kids are Currently dying in those camps https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigrant-kids-keep-dying-cbp-detention

It might shock you to find out Slavery has NOT been fully abolished in the US. Slavery is Legal for "Criminials". Hmmm, we do have the most prisoners in the world even tho our population is 4 times smaller than China. Private Prisons are using captive migrants as cheap/slave (1$ a day) labor https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers (the other news links are pay sites, but u can google all this.)

Tacked on to all this, Private companies are breaking child labor laws and using HUNDREDS of thousands of migrant teens/kids as workers; and they are getting hurt on the job. (chemical burns, maimed by machines and death) https://www.theguardian.com/global-...mmigrant-child-laborers-killed-factories-osha

I don't say all this to defend Trump, I think Trump is Worse, but Is it "Right-wing" when a Democrat / Biden does it? Is it "Right wing" when Obama builds/Funds and uses the camps? (yes it is)

It costs us the same to be human to these people. (except maybe the Private prisons)
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The private prisons are especially horrible. Thanks to lobbying, I doubt they are going away anytime soon.
 
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turboman said:
I think this analysis overstates the role of the rightwing media.
Sure, they had an very important influence.

Then there was Trump. He is a demagogue. Harris should have focused on that, not on facism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue

And a demagogue manipulates people. Meaning that people let themselves be manipulated. They stop critical thinking. Trump asks: are you better of now? But people do not think critically about inflation: what was the cause of inflation? Biden? Or Covid? Or Putain's invasion causing energy prices to go up?
And they do not ask critical questions whether tariffs and deportations of millions will bring down inflation.

I found this conversation interesting:
https://www.persuasion.community/p/francis-fukuyama-on-trump-47
Click to expand...
I suspect many of Trump's supporters will actually be worse off four years from now. Yet, billionaires are bound to benefit from Trump 2.0.
 
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SugoiBoy said:
I suspect many of Trump's supporters will actually be worse off four years from now. Yet, billionaires are bound to benefit from Trump 2.0.
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Yeah, pretty likely. Even if Trump keeps all his promises and manages to strengthen the economy, it will result in a lot more dept....which will keep inflation high and hit the lower and middle class the most.
 
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Danbo said:
Yeah, pretty likely. Even if Trump keeps all his promises and manages to strengthen the economy, it will result in a lot more dept....which will keep inflation high and hit the lower and middle class the most.
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There is no way to strengthen the economy if he keeps all his promises. His top 2 promises, to deport all the illegals and to add 200% tariffs are both economy-crushing policies. I just can't understand why people don't see this and they think this can be good for the economy.
 
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Whoa! 😨

IMG_6910.jpeg
 
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