US Politics: On Tear and Blood shed. A beautiful picture of a man with a Bible.

[Martell Spy]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

Yeah, the US health system is quite something to me. I did a graduate degree in Health Policy in the US and some of the problems in the system are things I haven't encountered *at all* in other countries.

Surprise Medical Bills is an excellent example ( still no federal legislation on this, btw)

We kind of sneaked up on it becoming a horror show of a system. It seemed like a good system when I was young, before 2000. In those days many people's Dads worked for one large company their entire lives at decent jobs. My Dad was a Boeing machinist and I had excellent healthcare up to the age of 18. (turned out to be when I needed it least though)

The healthcare system just got worse and worse as the 2000's went on. The ACA resolved some of the big problems, but not nearly all of them. And there was those 14 years or so where no politician was doing anything to fix things as the system degraded and had dire impact on some people's lives.

It's a lot like our higher education financing system. There are untreated problems and broken systems, then you add in both regular inflation and higher living costs of today. And you end up with these news stories of people getting sick and then getting ambushed with a million dollar bill. It's like a Stephen King story, perhaps The Running Man. If we continue to ignore these systemic problems in 20 years healthcare financial offices will be taking people's organs to cover the bills.

[Fez]

New Arkansas poll has Trump up only 47-45 over Biden; he beat Clinton there 60.5-33.5. I'm going to assume the poll had some methodological errors. But it could be off by quite a bit and still tell a bad story for Trump (of declining support everywhere).

This is on top of a Missouri poll showing Trump up only 51-43, when he had won 56.4-37.9 over Clinton. And a Tennessee poll showing Trump up only 51-42, when he had won 60.7-34.7 over Clinton.

Trump will win all these states. But if he's this weak in states this red, it suggests he's much weaker in actual swing states.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

14 hours ago, Zorral said:

As usual DMC didn't bother to even listen/look/read input that isn't of his own choosing.

Again, all we can say is, merkins are so fortunate that African American spirituality is so patient, so forgiving.

 

Cornel West is a great person, thanks for sharing the video. He is certainly no joke, and there is plenty of critical theory out there that addresses why white academics treat people like him so poorly--it has to do with the way he speaks. I love Cornel. He has had a lot of views about things I've disagreed with other time, but he's always adapted and changed with the times, reassessed old points of view.

P.S. His point that black people refuse to make a "black version" of the Klu Klux Klan after hundreds of years of abuse is so cogent. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

9 hours ago, Stannis Cool-Ranchus said:

Nobody in here seems to give a fuck what I say unless it's something you can all jump down my throat over, but I did just want to post what ultimately changed my mind and made me want to vote for Biden was Trump tweeting "when the looting starts the shooting starts." I mean Democrats will still do that do indigenous people in the third world who are interfering mining or forestry operations by large corporations, but seeing it happen to people back home for going after a Target hits me.

Anyway, for all y'alls screeching at me about how privileged I am for being in Europe, it was also the streamer Vaush right here who actually made the point I couldn't argue with. Anyway, you are all horrible and I hate you. But I love you too, and the theories on these boards are almost as interesting to read as GRRM's actual books and reading that shit keeps me sane. Good luck and goodbye forever.

Don't let 'em get you down. There's a few who will bully at you, but a lot of people here are pretty easy to talk with. Trump's a monster, he has to go. That's all we can focus on. 

[DMC]

44 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

He is certainly no joke, and there is plenty of critical theory out there that addresses why white academics treat people like him so poorly--it has to do with the way he speaks.

Ha!  Pointing out his faux-intellectualism has nothing to do with race, it has to do with the fact he commits the majority of his time acting as a mindless talking head that thinks knowledge amounts to putting together complicated sentences with big words rather than actually engaging in academic rigor.  He acquired his title through salesmenship, not scholarship.

[HexMachina]

14 hours ago, Zorral said:

As usual DMC didn't bother to even listen/look/read input that isn't of his own choosing.

Again, all we can say is, merkins are so fortunate that African American spirituality is so patient, so forgiving.

 

Isn’t this used for covering the pubic area in films and TV?...

[Centrist Simon Steele]

3 minutes ago, DMC said:

Ha!  Pointing out his faux-intellectualism has nothing to do with race, it has to do with the fact he commits the majority of his time acting as a mindless talking head that thinks knowledge amounts to putting together complicated sentences with big words rather than actually engaging in academic rigor.  He acquired his title through salesmenship, not scholarship.

He is a legit academic. There's no way around it. He was ridiculously productive as an academic, and he shifted away from scholarly writing because he wanted to be an activist, which much of academia pushes against. He taught and researched at Harvard and Princeton FFS. He's written some of the most powerful takes on politics and race of the late 20th century. Jesus, this is a ridiculously uninformed take, even for you. 

[Zorral]

Yes, that is what a merkin is, a foney pubic expression.  Also its a brand of AmuriKa.

One expects such knee jerk white male intellectual dismissal and refusal as DMC's of black cultural inflection, proudly used by a black intellectual despite having been given 'white' academic, intellectual recognition by its whitest cultural institutions such as Princeton and Harvard. Instead of doing the grateful thing and couching his work in historically white academic mode of jargon intended to keep 'others' from understanding, and to make the issuer appear, at least in his own eyes, as superior. White people really hate it when black people who disagree with them just don't go away, but persevere in their work and public discourse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "new activists and activism" = BLM Protests, is not the answer to Dem Party prayers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-generation-of-activists-deeply-skeptical-of-democratic-party-resists-calls-to-channel-energy-into-the-2020-campaign/2020/06/13/cbacede6-ac47-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html

Though, the "old activists and activism" among our much earlier generation friends up in Harlem, ye olde Civil Rights Movement of the 50's - 70's -- they are all in for Biden. This is purely anecdotal and is one place, and one place that's historically special -- but by that description, also has a very long, multi-generational sharp memory and family knowledge of how things have worked out for African Americans in previous eras.

However, these are older, and even elderly, people. Though generally healthy, and certainly minds sharp as ever, many have ongoing conditions such as severe arthritis, others have been through chemo, and other immune suppressing rounds.  They are not demonstrating either, and are certainly practicing isolation, with the exception of each other, with whom they are neighbors, family, and have known all their lives. They gather now in the nice weather, masked, outdoors and at Distance, These are not only social. Being who they are, these inevitably turn into symposiums, essentially, on everything, but particularly these matters.  One of our white friends who has lived in this community, is a passionate socialist activist (from close by originally where the original Minneapolis protests began), and he's deeply disappointed that he's never made the least headway in shaking his friends loose to a more 'progressive' candidate.

[DMC]

8 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

Jesus, this is a ridiculously uninformed take, even for you. 

I'm aware of his CV, thanks.  I'm also aware many people - and not just Larry Summers - have complained how employs his academic positions in a rather unseemly manner to make money and simply advertise his own profile.  I'm also aware of his writings and credentials, and they are frankly not very impressive.  At least not from a pupil of Robert Nozick's.  I'm also very aware of his public image and how he portrays himself on TV, which I think in itself is offensive.  He presents a caricature of the angry black preacher, and he does (or at least should) know exactly what he's doing when he engages with people like Sean Hannity or even Bill Maher that are implicitly laughing at him.  He should tell them to fuck off, but instead he shakes their hands and basks in the publicity.

[DMC]

26 minutes ago, Zorral said:

One expects such knee jerk white male intellectual dismissal and refusal as DMC's of black cultural inflection,

Oh give me a fucking break.  My objection to West has nothing to with the fact he's black and I'm white, or his thoughts and ideas which I usually have little to no problem with in the slightest, usually whole-heartedly agree.  I also do retain some admiration for his willingness to stand up to Obama's neglect and evasion in addressing the grievances of the black community during his administration (albeit the cynic in my suspects that was just another way for West to retain his credibility). 

My objection is as an academic, which is what he presents himself as when he really isn't - or at least he's a lazy one.  An academic with as much publicity as he's gained over my entire adult life should be communicating their ideas and perspectives in accessible ways.  Instead for the past 20 years he goes on TV and rambles in ways that oftentimes incoherent even to himself, probably, if you asked him to articulate the same idea twenty minutes later. 

I very much understand the impulse to go off like that, and at times in my own writing I've divulged into over-intellectualizing and emotionalizing a point that could be demonstrated with, like, 10 percent of the words let alone the clarity of the language.  You know who's stopped me from that?  My advisor who would have been my chair if she didn't get a better job halfway through my diss.  She was at Princeton when he "worked" there and has a much more dismissive opinion of West than I do.  She's also a young black woman.  Well "young" being around my age...which I hope is still young.