U.S. Politics

[LondonLax]

15 minutes ago, blandy said:

Sure. It was just an example of money being put towards helping the descendants of slaves improve their lives and their economic outlook. There's no reason Government couldn't do similar, as far as I can see. In the US there's huge inequality and effort to redress that, whether via compo for slavery in the past, or as part of a general package covering disadvantaged folk seems like a good thing, to my way of thinking. That's all.

Again, the details of what is being proposed are quite important when considering whether this is a controversial “extreme left government policy” that was being suggested or just conventional charitable/social welfare program. 

[blandy]

7 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

Again, the details of what is being proposed are quite important when considering whether this is a controversial “extreme left government policy” that was being suggested or just conventional charitable/social welfare program. 

Sure, again, absolutely.

I posted my little anecdote to say really that I'd heard an example of something like what you folks were discussing being done on a small scale, and it seemed less complicated than maybe some feared it might be. Of course some kind of reparations thing could be anything from a similarly relatively simple thing, to a much more complex thing. I'm not commenting on the idea or politics of it, or the rights or wrongs, just that it's entirely possible if the will is there and it needn't be complex, in some forms at least. Obviously it's much simpler to fund (say) community initiatives in each state, than to (say) have a means tested, individual payment, subject to tax, and caveats (you have to be born between these dates, in the USA or dependent territories and have no criminal record , and have a family lineage traceable to slavery and...etc.).

[il_serpente]

3 hours ago, CVByrne said:

They're certainly extreme. Why should people who got to college to get education to increase their earning potential have the debt they took out for that purpose be forgiven? What forgiven means is other tax payers paying off the debt for you. That's completely ridiculous and unfair to any working tax paying person who didn't go to College.

While reparations is the same. Why should working tax payers who had absolutely nothing to do with slavery have their tax money handed over to others on the basis of their skin colour. What about the internship of Japanese Americans during WW2. Reparations there. On and on. 

Government gets its money from taxing the population. 

The bolded bit is the fallacy in reasoning on the part of everyone who is adamantly against any form of reparations.  The vast majority of the taxpayers who are outraged about the possibility of reparations are whites who claim that they have no responsibility for what their ancestors did, while failing to acknowledge (or, in many cases being too dense to recognize) that their position in society- both economic and socially-  is directly tied to the benefits their ancestors derived from being slave owners and the long legacy of structural racism and discrimination that continued to give their families a leg up on descendants of slaves.  Minorities and more recent immigrants who actually would have a stronger argument against it are not the ones complaining the loudest.

[Davkaus]

53 minutes ago, Villaphan04 said:

I really really really hope it doesn't come down to Biden vs Trump again 

Was my initial thought, but then you look at his most prominent rival, De Santis, and it might somehow get even worse.

Biden should have stood down though. An (at the time) 82-86 year old who clearly can't plan a sentence in advance shouldn't be the president. And no it's no a stutter, he was nowhere near as bad 10-15 years ago. He's losing his marbles and he shouldn't be doing it as the leader of the USA. 

[LondonLax]

25 minutes ago, blandy said:

Sure, again, absolutely.

I posted my little anecdote to say really that I'd heard an example of something like what you folks were discussing being done on a small scale, and it seemed less complicated than maybe some feared it might be. Of course some kind of reparations thing could be anything from a similarly relatively simple thing, to a much more complex thing. I'm not commenting on the idea or politics of it, or the rights or wrongs, just that it's entirely possible if the will is there and it needn't be complex, in some forms at least. Obviously it's much simpler to fund (say) community initiatives in each state, than to (say) have a means tested, individual payment, subject to tax, and caveats (you have to be born between these dates, in the USA or dependent territories and have no criminal record , and have a family lineage traceable to slavery and...etc.).

I thought the whole point of the discussion was the philosophical politics of it though, rather than the bureaucratic details of the rollout.  

The idea of proposing a government benefit that is linked to your racial group would most probably be seen as controversial. 

[EvilChameleon]

11 hours ago, nick76 said:

Is this because Trump wouldn’t return to Twitter when Musk was so public about allowing Trump back on the platform when he brought it but Trump said no thanks?  So now Musk is backing DeSantis

It's funny you should mention that, because...

 

[blandy]

13 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

I thought the whole point of the discussion was the philosophical politics of it though, rather than the bureaucratic details of the rollout.  

I was replying to this, which seemed to me to be about the implementation/practicalities, rather than philosophical:

7 hours ago, LondonLax said:

How do slavery repatriations actually work in practice?

[LondonLax]

20 minutes ago, blandy said:

I was replying to this, which seemed to me to be about the implementation/practicalities, rather than philosophical:

It was in the context of a supposed policy from ‘radical left Democrats’. I was trying to get an understanding of what was being proposed and whether it was very radical.  

[EvilChameleon]

The reviews are in!

 

[nick76]

Key GOP House member blaming Trump for inflation, whatever next…

 

[nick76]

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by nick76

[MakemineVanilla]

This is truly scary:

 

[StefanAVFC]

41 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

This is truly scary:

 

It's terrifying from a bizarre perspective, but you know it isn't a real ad right?

[Seat68]

I take it is supposed to be a young Biden, it doesnt look real but if some kid did it on his laptop, fair play to him. Not scared by it as a deep fake its not accurate, the Tom Cruise one was scarier as it really looked like him.

[nick76]

On 24/05/2023 at 14:34, CVByrne said:

They're certainly extreme. Why should people who got to college to get education to increase their earning potential have the debt they took out for that purpose be forgiven? What forgiven means is other tax payers paying off the debt for you. That's completely ridiculous and unfair to any working tax paying person who didn't go to College.

While reparations is the same. Why should working tax payers who had absolutely nothing to do with slavery have their tax money handed over to others on the basis of their skin colour. What about the internship of Japanese Americans during WW2. Reparations there. On and on. 

Government gets its money from taxing the population. 

But…

she has a point…

[nick76]

 

[Rolta]

14 hours ago, nick76 said:

But…

she has a point…

She is an extremist equally as extreme as the ones trying to overthrow actual democracy. 

[Chindie]

15 hours ago, nick76 said:

 

Alex Jones arse will be playing a tune tonight.

[Xann]

[nick76]