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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| Pi wrote: | ^
You might want be careful what you wish for. Let’s abolish all national governments and have a majority rules world government with local representatives approved only by the world president. Still like it?
Every time this comes up thats what my US friends say to me
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To be clear, that's not what I'm referring to here – when I say abolish the presidency, I mean just run the country as essentially a parliamentary system via the two houses of congress.
But now you mention it, I'm not totally opposed to the idea of a democratically elected world government! Imagine if things like poverty, climate change, nuclear proliferation, food production and consumption, etc., were actually global issues that we were all responsible for. There are many good reasons to be cautious about such an idea – and I think there are plenty of instances of pluralism being a guarantor of certain safety nets, providing testing grounds for social progress, offering some protection for cultural difference, etc. – but the current global arrangement that we all take for granted isn't exactly much to write home about either.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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I feel sorry for sane, actual Christians being soiled by the fundamentalist nutters poisoning the US and beyond:
| Quote: | | Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Christian nationalist response to the 2020 election is that we’ve seen this movie before. The “stolen election” meme won’t bring Mr. Trump back into the Oval Office. But then, the birther narrative never took President Barack Obama out of office, either. The point of conspiratorial narratives and apocalyptic rhetoric is to lay the groundwork for a politics of total obstruction, in preparation for the return of a “legitimate” ruler. The best guess is that religious authoritarianism of the next four years will look a lot like it did in the last four years. We ignore the political implications for our democracy at our peril. |
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/opinion/trump-religion-authoritarianism.html
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In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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watt price tully 
Joined: 15 May 2007
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Great stuff: they played this on the Science Show on Radio National earlier today. Thanks for the link 👍👍👍😊😂😢
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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^ Which, of course, is how I know about it. 
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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Just another way in which the US executive is an authoritarian sociopath's dream: the ability to fire people at whim for doing their job properly.
Any other leader in any other country behaving this way would be deemed a dangerous authoritarian thug in a failed state. But because the drooling, fist-waving Khmer Rouge Hats look like us, they and their Dear Leader must really be harmless — regardless of what they do, say and wreck.
| Wired wrote: | In the eyes of all but one person, the Department of Homeland Security's “Rumor Control” website has been a runaway success. Created in the run-up to this month’s election by CISA, which oversees the Department of Homeland Security’s election-focused work, the website has been rapidly fact-checking and debunking all manner of conspiracies, misunderstandings, and outright disinformation circulating online.
The Rumor Control exercise proved an integral part of one of the most surprising aspects of this year’s presidential election: After Russia’s multifront attack in 2016 sparked four years of scrambling to protect and defend the 2020 campaigns, the US government and the nation’s secretaries of state managed to successfully navigate a fraught and complex election mid-pandemic without major foreign interference and without any serious allegation of fraud or hacking.
And yet, in the two weeks since the election, CISA’s Rumor Control efforts have increasingly had to fight an unexpected adversary: Donald Trump. The president’s Twitter feed continues to spew and amplify nonsensical counting and ballot conspiracies, often all in caps.
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CISA director Krebs didn’t back down from the unprecedented challenge. His own tweets and the Rumor Control site took on the president’s disinformation at first obliquely and then increasingly directly—even specifically referencing lies spread from the Oval Office. By last Thursday afternoon, as the Trump administration’s petty—and largely performative—purge of officials seen as insufficiently loyal spread across the government, Reuters reported that Krebs expected to be fired imminently.
And yet CISA pushed forward. Thursday night, the agency released a strong and remarkable statement signed by nearly every major player in the US election, including the US Election Assistance Commission chair, the presidents of the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors, as well as other security leaders. “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” they said together. In bold text, the statement continued: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
A flurry of further articles on Friday and over the weekend documented the collision path between Krebs and the president. After a quiet Monday when it appeared that perhaps CISA and the White House had reached a stalemate, the president announced on Twitter shortly after 7 pm Tuesday, two weeks to the hour after polls began closing on Election Day, that Krebs was terminated immediately. |
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-fires-christopher-krebs-cisa/
We're dealing with frogs on slow boil who have been bathing in toxins so long they will swallow anything. As clear as day this is a dangerous cult-like movement that's sucking in half a country and empowering despots and dangerous groups across the world, all the while damaging and destabilising the planet.
Never forget, these are the same forces whose fanatical adherents worked tirelessly to bring the world the chaos of Iraq, the GFC, Brexit, Trump, an unmanaged global pandemic and economic collapse, and now a rejection of fundamental democratic norms.
Just how destructive does this failed sub-culture have to get before people face reality? This is a scourge in just the same way any extremist group anywhere is a scourge, whether be Islamic fundamentalists, Christian imperialists, communist revolutionaries, Papist fanatics, Hindu nationalists or our own bat-eared Trump-adoring science and modernity haters.
The time for humouring this nonsense has long passed.
_________________
In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
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watt price tully
Joined: 15 May 2007
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^ It’s so f*cking gobsmacking that one blokes ego can harm so many people. Me of all people don’t like to use the Nazi analogy but the demonization of the “other” the pandering to the racists and rednecks through deliberate misinformation is eerily similar to pre WW2 Germany. Scary.
Hilary was understated when she used the term deplorable.
Listening to nurses in Republican states working in the coal face is heart wrenching.
How can people be so friggin’ stupid.
Imagine being Dr Anthony Fauci.
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Yes WPT.
The thing is, right-wingers have erected this huge myth that the governments of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were totally different to any other government anywhere ever. And it is just that: a myth.
What's more, it's a very useful myth. Right-wing governments such as Trump's can behave in as fascist a manner as they like without getting called out for it because they use the "never say Nazi" rule to shut down discussion.
I saw a right-winger defending Trump's attempt to corrupt the election by using the "no-Nazi" rule on this very forum just the other day. It is quite common.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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think positive
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005
Location: somewhere
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That’s the real fear for me, as some one who unashamedly loves the US, people believe this shit, people will believe anything if they want to, look at religion and footy clubs! It wouldn’t be a shame if he got corona and was out of action until Jan 21st, just how much damage can he do? He could have prevented the riots, but he more or less encouraged them, and what about policies? How hard is it to turn them over once the new government is in? I can’t believe people swallow his crap, people are worried Disneyworld will lockdown again for god sakes, when millions are sick and tens of thousands are dying every day. The misinformation is gobsmacking and downright scary. What will the cost be? In lives, jobs, unemployment, long term health,
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You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Don't stress Jo, the US will work it out. I really like the joint and plan to go back, they just don't do being told what to do well.
| Tannin wrote: | Yes WPT.
I saw a right-winger defending Trump's attempt to corrupt the election by using the "no-Nazi" rule on this very forum just the other day. |
You must have been drunk, there's no right wingers left on this forum.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Hey, I'm still here. 
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
Other people's perceptions are amazing, how they can latch onto you disagreeing with them and label you. 
If you're right wing I'm Elle McPherson. 
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| stui magpie wrote: | ^
Other people's perceptions are amazing, how they can latch onto you disagreeing with them and label you.
If you're right wing I'm Elle McPherson. |
How about we make a deal: I’ll become the VPT’s token right-winger for a year if you become ‘80s Elle Macpherson and date me.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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