USA Politics (redux)

Started by bhodges, November 10, 2020, 01:09:34 PM

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Florestan

Quote from: BasilValentine on November 11, 2020, 11:02:10 AM
Trump has attempted to turn the U.S. into a banana republic

Seriously now, I am a disinterested third party from another country (I borrow this apt phrase from another poster) --- with a twist: I was born and raised in a country named the Socialist Republic of Romania which was a Communist dictatorship ever since it was proclaimed (December 30, 1947) until it fell (December 22, 1989). I know from personal experience exactly and precisely what a dictatorship is and looks like, and how a dictator behaves. With all due respect --- and actually very fortunately and very good for them --- not a single any other GMGer currently active can say that, with one possible exception (member pi2000). As such, it is my firm conviction that neither was Donald Trump a dictator nor did he try to become one, and that at no time between January 20, 2017 and January 20, 2020 did the USA have the slightest resemblance to a dictatorship in the making, let alone a full-fledged one.

Quote
I understood Todd's post as it was intended and agree that it wasn't trolling. It was just a dry way of asking for specific information.

Why Todd's post was considered trolling is beyon me, too. Maybe it was a misunderstanding.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: Handelian on November 11, 2020, 11:25:27 AM
Excuse me, but I seem to remember Democrats obstructing Trump in every way when he was elected. Why the double standards?

Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.  ;D ;D ;D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Handelian

Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 11:50:51 AM
Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.  ;D ;D ;D

All double standards and self righteousness are fair in politics!  ;D

Florestan

Quote from: Handelian on November 11, 2020, 12:09:12 PM
All double standards and self righteousness are fair in politics!  ;D

We Romanians have a saying; politics is a whore. ;D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

71 dB

Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 11:42:01 AM
Seriously now, I am a disinterested third party from another country (I borrow this apt phrase from another poster) --- with a twist: I was born and raised in a country named the Socialist Republic of Romania which was a Communist dictatorship ever since it was proclaimed (December 30, 1947) until it fell (December 22, 1989). I know from personal experience exactly and precisely what a dictatorship is and looks like, and how a dictator behaves. With all due respect --- and actually very fortunately and very good for them --- not a single any other GMGer currently active can say that, with one possible exception (member pi2000). As such, it is my firm conviction that neither was Donald Trump a dictator nor did he try to become one, and that at no time between January 20, 2017 and January 20, 2020 did the USA have the slightest resemblance to a dictatorship in the making, let alone a full-fledged one.

I understand what you mean and yes, the US has been nothing like Socialist Republic of Romania. That said, countries are not 0 % democratic or 100 % democratic. It's a scale. One country can be 78 % democratic, the next 81 % democratic and then one is only 26 % democratic and so on. Trump's actions pushed the US to less democratic direction. How much? Hard to say, but the direction is clear.
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Florestan

Quote from: 71 dB on November 11, 2020, 12:35:30 PM
I understand what you mean and yes, the US has been nothing like Socialist Republic of Romania.

Thanks for conceding my point.


Quotecountries are not 0 % democratic or 100 % democratic.

Okay. What's your estimation of Finland?

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

71 dB

Quote from: Brewski on November 11, 2020, 03:47:45 AMYou know, listening to some Mozart puts me in a good mood. I recommend it.

-Bruce

My plan for 2020 was to listen to a lot of Mozart, but I haven't listened to Mozart much and the year is ending in just 50 days...  :P
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Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
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Gurn Blanston

Quote from: Handelian on November 11, 2020, 11:25:27 AM
Excuse me, but I seem to remember Democrats obstructing Trump in every way when he was elected. Why the double standards?

But you don't recall the Republicans obstructing Obama in every possible way during his terms, especially the second? It the point of holding his SCOTUS nominee hostage for nearly a year and refusing to allow it to come to a vote?

Or Mitch McConnell saying that the proudest moments of his career came from obstructing every step Obama took?

I'm a long way from condoning this, I think it is shit. However, it is not one side always eating the shit sandwich, it goes both ways. At the very least I can say that the Dems obstructed T***p for political reasons, not the same ones the Reps had for obstructing Obama.

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: 71 dB on November 11, 2020, 12:45:42 PM
My plan for 2020 was to listen to a lot of Mozart, but I haven't listened to Mozart much and the year is ending in just 50 days...  :P

Well, you damn sure better get started. I've been holding up your end for now, Poju, but you need to see the team through December!  :D

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Florestan

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on November 11, 2020, 12:47:49 PM
I can say that the Dems obstructed T***p for political reasons, not the same ones the Reps had for obstructing Obama.

Just as I said: Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi..
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

drogulus

Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 10:19:46 AM
What are those exact vulnerability and security risks to nation? Does the article name them?




     Trump doesn't know anything about sources and methods, and if he did he wouldn't care. It's not just what you reveal about information about a hostile nation, it's what the information reveals about the means used to get it. I would hope that no details about which sources and which methods appear in the news. It should be stuff, or possibly things.
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71 dB

Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 12:44:23 PM
Thanks for conceding my point.

You're welcome.

Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 12:44:23 PMOkay. What's your estimation of Finland?

99.999 %  ;D Well, perhaps a little lower than that, but Finland is one of the most democratic/least corrupt* countries in the world.

* Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) puts Finland at place 3 (2019) behind Denmark and New Zealand sharing the first place. The US is at place 23 and Romania 70. Somalia is considered the most corrupt of all countries.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

71 dB

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on November 11, 2020, 12:49:00 PM
Well, you damn sure better get started. I've been holding up your end for now, Poju, but you need to see the team through December!  :D

8)

Well, I did discover Haydn's Op. 20 last summer and that's not far from Mozart... ...maybe Mozart's Requiem could be proper listening to honour those who have died because of Covid-19?
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Florestan

Quote from: 71 dB on November 11, 2020, 12:59:09 PM
99.999 %  ;D Well, perhaps a little lower than that, but Finland is one of the most democratic/least corrupt* countries in the world.

Well, we Romanians have a saying: "Every Gypsy man sings the praises of his own hammer!".
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

BasilValentine

Quote from: Handelian on November 11, 2020, 11:25:27 AM
Excuse me, but I seem to remember Democrats obstructing Trump in every way when he was elected. Why the double standards?

If you are referring to the transition period for the Trump administration and the handover, this is nonsense. The Trump administration was unprepared to take power and as a consequence hundreds of Obama administration officials had to stay in their jobs while the incoming incompetents tried to get their act together. They were coddled and assisted the whole way.

drogulus

     
Quote from: 71 dB on November 11, 2020, 12:35:30 PM
I understand what you mean and yes, the US has been nothing like Socialist Republic of Romania. That said, countries are not 0 % democratic or 100 % democratic. It's a scale. One country can be 78 % democratic, the next 81 % democratic and then one is only 26 % democratic and so on. Trump's actions pushed the US to less democratic direction. How much? Hard to say, but the direction is clear.

     You are not an absolutist, so you may not recognize the kind of argument that treats categories as entirely distinct entities in themselves. Is Putin a dictator, or Duterte? Does the category of illiberal democracy "exist", or is it shorthand for a set of characteristics often found together, as is the case with fascism, if that's what fascism is. What form of government does Hungary have, as differentiated from what is practiced there?

     Next: The problem of universals, threat or menace?
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Florestan

Quote from: drogulus on November 11, 2020, 01:47:27 PM
  Is Putin a dictator

Yes.

QuoteWhat form of government does Hungary have

Republic.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

drogulus

Quote from: BasilValentine on November 11, 2020, 01:40:41 PM
If you are referring to the transition period for the Trump administration and the handover, this is nonsense. The Trump administration was unprepared to take power and as a consequence hundreds of Obama administration officials had to stay in their jobs while the incoming incompetents tried to get their act together. They were coddled and assisted the whole way.

     Yes, just as Obama was set up for success by the Bush people, Trump was by the Obamans. It's the way it's been done going back as far as anyone remembers.

     
Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 01:06:04 PM
Well, we Romanians have a saying: "Every Gypsy man sings the praises of his own hammer!".

     Is that what you do?
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Karl Henning

The Sweaty Clown Car Goes to Court:

"Kallman claims they were forcing observers to stand 20 feet away. The judge asks him for evidence of that. Kallman quickly retreats from the 20-feet claim.

Perfect:  The ultimate goal is illusory—Biden has won the election free and fair, and nibbling at such large margins is a flea convinced he's going to swallow the lion.

The short-term strategy gets laughed of court—anecdote may pass for "evidence" on Fox & Friends, but not to a judge.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

drogulus


    Trump is ill-suited to be a dictator for the same reasons he is ill suited to be leader of anything other than his own rather dubious enterprises that were built to contain him. His admiration and desire to emulate dictators and not quite-tators is pronounced, though.
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