dtjones

dtjones , 3 months ago

Why do people deny this? I think it is maybe somewhat difficult to see through the smokescreen but the timing of all this is what makes it so obvious. I am not a tiktok user but I've seen the pro-palestine content that is so prevalent there and just the sheer volume of it. The US was more or less fine with China harvesting our data for years before this, but suddenly now we have to ban it in 6 months?? It is entirely about Israel and anti-Israeli government sentiment.

dtjones , 3 months ago

It's also ironic how their goal is to "save democracy." If you can't vote the way you want to without losing that democracy, was it actually a democracy in the first place?

If you just even kinda agree with the above, we should all be furious that Dems are using this opportunity to hold voters hostage while they support genocide. Biden would course correct far faster if the base were as angry as the progressives, and then maybe we could all unite again.

dtjones , 4 months ago

I'm sorry you're being downvoted for this comment. What you're saying is absolutely true, the moderates just don't want to hear it.

It's the candidate's job to assuage voter's fears and convince people to vote for them. If Biden is too frail to do interviews, how is he going to do an election campaign? How is he even able to do this job? We have other people, why does it have to be Biden?

I liked how Jon Stewart put it - when the barbarians (Trump) are at the walls, you want Conan up there leading the charge, not a feeble old man who's afraid to appear in front of the public.

dtjones , 4 months ago

Right. And they dismiss these really valid concerns as right wing propaganda or both-sides-isms. Polls right now show Trump polling marginally better than Biden. Shouldn't this be sounding the alarms for more of us? Biden should be stomping Trump in polls but instead they're neck and neck. And this is the guy that they're determined to push.

I don't even agree that Biden is "the best we got" but somehow everyone is convinced of that. I have a sad theory that DNC strategists see Biden as the most viable candidate because he's a white male from a rust belt town. This profile lines up with many conservative voters that they think they need to win elections. This explains why they wouldn't run someone "woke" like Whitmer or Newsome or maybe Michelle Obama. In other words, there aren't any good ole boys left in the democratic party, or at least any popular enough to actually win (e.g., Joe Manchin).

From the perspective of an ordinary citizen though, Biden didn't win because of conservative voters. He won because of a large coalition of different kinds of people - moderates, women, minority races, and leftists. Biden has upset that coalition by not pushing harder for codified reproductive rights, his stance on Gaza, and a weak relationship with labor. I worry that while moderates will turn out, that has never been enough to win.

dtjones , 4 months ago

I agree that GB did an insane amount of damage to our country and Trump is the same way. But for all the damage that has been done, it doesn't feel like democrats have been able to achieve a comparable amount of good. I understand the mechanics on "why" they are unable to (a big tent coalition up against a unified party of fanatics) but it's for that reason that I might agree that Al Gore, despite his best intentions, may have been railroaded in his efforts to establish the US as a climate leader.

dtjones , 4 months ago

I feel like the undertone of this question is "clearly you don't know what the Dems have done, otherwise you'd feel differently." Maybe I'm way off base with that, but there isn't any legislation that Dems have passed during Biden's term that even comes close to undoing or reversing the damage of the Trump presidency. Feel free to argue your case, but I would put special emphasis on these points:

1. The repeal of Roe v Wade
2. The appointment of 3 conservative justices (which additionally led to the repeal of affirmative action)
3. An insurrection that has not resulted in any major convictions against Trump, his family, or his lieutenants
4. The death of a million+ Americans from a deadly pandemic that was politicized because of one man's massive ego/possible Russian ties
5. Massive inflation caused by huge bailouts and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, followed by shrink and greedflation. American corporations haven't shared any amount of the burden they caused. The Dems did pass a 15% minimum corporate* tax rate, but this is band aid on a much larger problem, because this tax rate will just be repealed in time. These companies need real punitive action/jail/anti-trust laws being used against them.

I'm sure I missed a couple, but it is asinine to think that anything Joe Biden has accomplished has "fixed," or even started to fix, any of these things.

dtjones , 4 months ago

Not a swifty but if she wasn't a billionaire, I don't think she would have less "political power." She is just that popular. I think the distinction between swift and your run-of-the-mill oligarch is that they specifically use their money and power to expand their political power (e.g., buying political party members, burying any dissenters). Could she do that? Probably, and that in and of itself is problematic. I think that this is maybe what you were saying though.

dtjones , 5 months ago

Failure on the battlefield has led Israeli commanders “to conclude that the freedom of more than 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza can be secured only through diplomatic rather than military means,” according to the Times.

I really hope this is signaling the end of this incredibly bloody conflict.

Also, the article headline is kind of a hot take. I skimmed to find where Israel admitted to "losing" but that doesn't seem to have happened. My guess is that this "revelation" was planned from the beginning.

dtjones , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

I would dispute your claim about there being a "circular firing squad." The firing definitely comes from a very specific direction. Politicians like Joe Biden run on progressive ideas (cancelling student loans, legalizing marijuana, healthcare reform, etc) and then all but drop those promises once they get into office. This is the real "backstabbing" in my opinion. These democratic politicians take massive donations from corporations, Israel, billionaires, etc. Who is going to get the most representation from these politicians? The voters or the donors? Four years later, liberals wonder why progressives aren't willing to jump in and vote for their guy again.

It's like a cycle. We get a blue wave thanks to young, minority, and progressive voter turnout, then those same voters become completely disillusioned after four years. Why? Personally I think it's because liberal (especially white middle class) voters subscribe to "vote blue no matter who," and it's been going on since well before Trump. They see the success of right wing candidates with total voter unity and think they can do the same thing with their superior numbers. However, these liberal voters get too invested with can we do this when they should be thinking about should we do this.

I personally think this mentality has given Democratic politicians a license to ignore their voters, because they essentially have a monopoly on votes from anyone who is not a crazy fascist. This in turn leads to the same repeated stalled progress and disillusionment. As long as Dems don't piss off their base too much, they can maintain this position forever while also providing a ton of value to their donors.

All of this has led me to believe that ranked choice voting may be the best thing we could do to turn our country around, because it would give third party candidates an actual shot and force Democrats (and maybe Republicans) to actually compete for votes because voters would feel more freedom to vote their conscience without pissing their vote away. If there are any initiatives in your state to put ranked choice on the ballot, please get involved.