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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 21st, 2023

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  • The Republicans will never reduce the debt because the only cuts that would make a difference are the ones that are the most popular with their voters. Couple that with tax cuts and the math just doesn’t work for deficit and debt reduction with a Republican government.

    Are they going to cut Social Security? No, too many older voters that depend on that income. Medicare? Nope, same thing.

    Will they cut the military? Of course not, they wouldn’t be able to virtue signal about how patriotic they are.

    They’ll surely cut the education and IRS budgets, but the education cuts wouldn’t make a significant difference and the IRS cuts actually increase deficits because then the IRS can’t go after the rich.

    The Democrats wouldn’t cut any of those things either, but if the Democrats increased taxes for top earners and top-earning corporations, and implemented a wealth tax, the increased revenue actually could reduce the deficit.


  • I’m not thrilled with the DNC either, but I’m not buying this whole idea that they are shooting themselves in the foot on purpose. The DNC does better when they win elections.

    In previous elections, the candidate that raised the most money was more likely to win. Also, a moderate Democrat won the last election. They made the decisions they made in this election cycle because they thought it was their best chance of winning.

    I don’t have access to the data that they have to determine whether the leftist that Lemmy wants on the ticket could actually win the general.

    I’d certainly like to believe that it’s just that simple and all the DNC needs to do is put up a pro-Palestine Democratic Socialist and the election is in the bag… I just don’t know if that’s the reality on the ground. If that is not the reality on the ground, are the leftists that stayed home still committed to their protest? Or is there a point at which they would admit that we haven’t had a true leftist on the ticket because a true leftist is not viable?

    I hope someone can put together some clear data to answer that question soon… I’m afraid that a pro-Palestine Socialist will get crushed by AIPAC funded attack ads about Marxism and supporting terrorism that will really stick with moderates, and that no matter how energized the base is it wouldn’t be enough to win the general.









  • No, I’m sure you’re right and children in Gaza are just born evil with rocket launchers in their hands. I’m sure their disposition towards Israel is in no way the fault of religious Zionists in Israel who describe them as animals and treat them as such. I’m sure Hamas and Hezbollah would still be able to convince the children of Gaza to sign up to to launch rockets at Israel even if those children had adequate access to food, water, trade, and sovereignty.

    Oh wait, actually that’s total bullshit that makes no sense and you know it. You know Israel is either fully or partially to blame for the conditions that make it so easy for terrorist groups to recruit these people. If a bunch of religious zealots showed up to take my land and kill my family, I’d be the first one to shove a rocket up your ass too.





  • The current extremist government in Israel knows exactly what they need to do to stop Hamas and Hezbollah from continuing to attack Israel, they just don’t want to. They’d rather continue to create the conditions for extremism so that these attacks can be used as justification to finish their genocide.

    At this point we know that if you keep an entire group of people poor and oppressed with no prospect of economic opportunity or achieving a viable state, they become easier to recruit into a terrorist group. What have they got left to lose? Why NOT grab a rocket and attack your oppressors? This is why international law doesn’t allow the creation of stateless persons…

    Israel could STOP settlement expansion into the West Bank, first and foremost. They could start complying with international law and internationally recognized borders. They could stop working AGAINST a two state solution.

    Maybe the Israelis could stop assassinating their own leaders when they work towards peaceful solutions. They could also stop radicalizing their own youth and defense forces to believe that the only solution is to exterminate the Palestinians.

    There is a whole range of things that they could do… I wonder why they don’t?


  • I think the stated position is that it’s tough to legislate a line there because it should be a decision that is made between the woman and her doctor.

    It might be possible to have legislation that draws a reasonable line while still largely recognizing a woman’s right to choose… The problem is trust. We’ve seen that conservatives have repeatedly tried to use this line as a way to effectively ban abortions. For example, by setting a ban on abortions after 6 weeks, they effectively ban abortion because a woman might not even know they are pregnant by that time.

    It’s the same thing with Voter ID. We’ve seen Republicans attempt to use that as a tool for voter suppression, even claiming in public to their supporters that Voter ID would swing the election to the Republican. Does anyone actually support the right of undocumented immigrants to vote? Of course not. We know it’s a bad faith position because if they really wanted to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting, they could just implement automatic voter registration and send people a free Voter ID. They won’t do that because their goal is voter suppression.

    Unfortunately this works the same with gun laws, conservatives are suspicious of any gun regulations, even the sensible ones that have majority support, because they’ve been told that Democrats want to take their guns and every regulation is a step down the slippery slope that ends with the feds going door-to-door to take their guns. So they don’t want any line to be drawn.