Big Picture American Politics

[Saulaac]

Sometime during 2020, I stumbled upon the Event 201 workshop (https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/tabletop-exercises/event-201-pandemic-tabletop-exercise) which took place in 2019. Around this time I also read the 2010 Rockefeller pdf (https://archive.org/details/scenarios-for-the-future-of-technology-and-international-development-rockefeller-foundation-2010/page/n1/mode/2up) about global scenarios, and the "Lockstep" scenario seemed to ring a certain bell with regards covid. Not a big bell necessarily, as coincidences do happen, but a bell nonetheless.
In this dog eat dog (or human eat bat) world, it was certainly a rollercoaster experience trying to follow the media and work out what was going on.

SGR and Lisna, your discussion reminds me of the journalist Steve Connor, who passed away in 2017 due to illness. He worked 18 years as science editor of The Independent and was described as a giant of British science journalism, a warrior for truth, and "a dog with a bone" who delivered scoop after scoop with an absolute refusal to compromise his standards (https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42243173). I do wonder how he would have reported on covid, had he been alive. Would this respected mainstream reporter have found himself in a compromised position, with all the knowledge he had acquired during his career?

[Psy-Fi]

Palestinian American doctor explains why he walked out of meeting with Biden and Harris

[jimmy jazz]

Palestinian American doctor explains why he walked out of meeting with Biden and Harris

People are starting to hate Genocide Joe more than Trump lol.

[Psy-Fi]

House Democrats pitch renaming federal prison after Trump in response to GOP airport proposal

Washington — After a group of House Republicans proposed renaming Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia after former President Donald Trump, a few of their Democratic colleagues responded by introducing their own bill that would bestow his name on a federal prison.

[DJChameleon]

People are starting to hate Genocide Joe more than Trump lol.

I currently do and I'm voting for Trump. Mostly because it doesn't matter in NY state. The states electoral votes will go to Biden anyways. I'm not in a swing state.

[Lisnaholic]

^ TBH I find that a puzzling choice, DJ.

Trump's company has been found guilty of extensive tax fraud in NY, which means he has robbed NY of millions in tax revenue, while at the same time leeching off NY's various grants:-

The way Donald J. Trump tells it, his first solo project as a real estate developer, the conversion of a faded railroad hotel on 42nd Street into the sleek, 30-story Grand Hyatt, was a triumph from the very beginning.

The hotel, Mr. Trump bragged in "Trump: The Art of the Deal," his 1987 best seller, "was a hit from the first day. Gross operating profits now exceed $30 million a year."

But that book, and numerous interviews over the years, make little mention of a crucial factor in getting the hotel built: an extraordinary 40-year tax break that has cost New York City $360 million to date in forgiven, or uncollected, taxes, with four years still to run, on a property that cost only $120 million to build in 1980.

The project set the pattern for Mr. Trump's New York career: He used his father's, and, later, his own, extensive political connections, and relied on a huge amount of assistance from the government and taxpayers in the form of tax breaks, grants and incentives to benefit the 15 buildings at the core of his Manhattan real estate empire.

Since then, Mr. Trump has reaped at least $885 million in tax breaks, grants and other subsidies for luxury apartments, hotels and office buildings in New York, according to city tax, housing and finance records. The subsidies helped him lower his own costs and sell apartments at higher prices because of their reduced taxes.

Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has made clear over the course of his campaign how proud he is that "as a businessman I want to pay as little tax as possible."

While it is impossible to assess how much Mr. Trump pays in personal or corporate income taxes, because he has refused to release his tax returns, an examination of his record as a New York developer shows how aggressively he has fought to lower the taxes on his projects.

Mr. Trump successfully sued the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch after being denied a tax break for Trump Tower, his signature building on Fifth Avenue. Two decades later, in a lawsuit that spanned the administrations of Mayors Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg, he won a similar tax break for Trump World Tower, a building on First Avenue with some of the city's highest-priced condominiums in 2001.

The tax breaks for those two projects alone totaled $157 million.

The tax break at the 44-story Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle came to $15.9 million.

No possible subsidy was left untapped. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr. Trump lined up a $150,000 grant for one of his buildings near ground zero, taking advantage of a program to help small businesses in the area recover, even though he had acknowledged on the day of the attacks that his building was undamaged.

"Donald Trump is probably worse than any other developer in his relentless pursuit of every single dime of taxpayer subsidies he can get his paws on," said Alicia Glen, Mayor Bill de Blasio's deputy mayor for housing and economic development, who first battled Mr. Trump when she worked in Mr. Giuliani's administration.

In seeking those subsidies, Mr. Trump is not that different from many other developers. But the level of subsidies he has received along with his doggedness in claiming them seem at odds with his rhetoric as an outsider candidate who boasts of his single-handed success and who has denounced what he calls the pay-to-play culture of politics and a "rigged" system of government.

Source: The New York Times

[DJChameleon]

^ TBH I find that a puzzling choice, DJ.

It's the same thing as throwing away my vote. Presidential votes don't matter in NY when it's always gonna lean democratic no matter what. I care more about the local smaller races. Assemblyman and Senate races.


People like to argue that the people upset with Joe Biden are just one issue voters and they are shouldn't be mad over one issue when he's supposedly done so much other good things. I can understand if this one issue was something smaller but I can't condone his unwavering support of Israel in the face of what they continue to do. He's taken 11 million dollars from Israel over his political career from PACs.

[Lexi Darling]

It's the same thing as throwing away my vote. Presidential votes don't matter in NY when it's always gonna lean democratic no matter what. I care more about the local smaller races. Assemblyman and Senate races.


People like to argue that the people upset with Joe Biden are just one issue voters and they are shouldn't be mad over one issue when he's supposedly done so much other good things. I can understand if this one issue was something smaller but I can't condone his unwavering support of Israel in the face of what they continue to do. He's taken 11 million dollars from Israel over his political career from PACs.

What makes you think Trump would have done anything differently? I have zero doubt in my mind that if he gets elected he's going to continue to support the genocide.

And once again I implore anyone who thinks Biden is the worse option to please look into Project 2025.

[Marie Monday]

It's the same thing as throwing away my vote. Presidential votes don't matter in NY when it's always gonna lean democratic no matter what. I care more about the local smaller races. Assemblyman and Senate races.


People like to argue that the people upset with Joe Biden are just one issue voters and they are shouldn't be mad over one issue when he's supposedly done so much other good things. I can understand if this one issue was something smaller but I can't condone his unwavering support of Israel in the face of what they continue to do. He's taken 11 million dollars from Israel over his political career from PACs.

it's not so much the one-issue thing, as that voting for trump over biden over this specific one issue is hypocritical. Trump wouldn't handle it any better in Biden's position, and his attitude towards Ukraine, another place where horrible things are going on, is much worse than Biden's

[DJChameleon]

What makes you think Trump would have done anything differently? I have zero doubt in my mind that if he gets elected he's going to continue to support the genocide.

And once again I implore anyone who thinks Biden is the worse option to please look into Project 2025.

Trump is a bit of a wildcard when it comes to this specific issue. His attitude towards Ukraine aside. He wouldn't completely back the genocide publicly like Biden is basically doing.

He said this right in front of the dang problem 4 years ago. Saw him say something similar in a recent interview but I can't find the clip.

My vote for him doesn't even count though in NY state. It's just a throw away vote. I'm not voting for him because I think he's better than Biden. I'm just protesting against Biden because I don't like how hard he's supporting Israel right now. There is a local Senator that is getting the same hate for similar reasons and he's up for re election. He's not getting my vote either. He voted to censure Rashida Tlaib when she was voicing her concerns back in October.


It's too late for Biden. He fumbled the ball and allowed for Trump to slide in easily. In important swing states there are voting blocks that helped Biden just squeak past Trump and they are not going to be voting for Biden. So sadly whatever is in Project 2025 will be coming. I need to look it up but I bet it's bad.

[Lexi Darling]

Trump is a bit of a wildcard when it comes to this specific issue. His attitude towards Ukraine aside. He wouldn't completely back the genocide publicly like Biden is basically doing.

He said this right in front of the dang problem 4 years ago. Saw him say something similar in a recent interview but I can't find the clip.

My vote for him doesn't even count though in NY state. It's just a throw away vote. I'm not voting for him because I think he's better than Biden. I'm just protesting against Biden because I don't like how hard he's supporting Israel right now. There is a local Senator that is getting the same hate for similar reasons and he's up for re election. He's not getting my vote either. He voted to censure Rashida Tlaib when she was voicing her concerns back in October.


It's too late for Biden. He fumbled the ball and allowed for Trump to slide in easily. In important swing states there are voting blocks that helped Biden just squeak past Trump and they are not going to be voting for Biden. So sadly whatever is in Project 2025 will be coming. I need to look it up but I bet it's bad.

This is a slightly dated vid but it's pretty good overview.

And I'm not optimistic about Biden winning either. As people who stand to lose a lot under a second Trump term, the mister and I are making preparations as we speak. I'm actually meeting with my hormone doctor on Monday to ask what she might be able to do to help me continue my HRT in the event of a nationwide all-ages ban the likes of which has been propositioned by Trump.

[DJChameleon]

This is a slightly dated vid but it's pretty good overview.

And I'm not optimistic about Biden winning either. As people who stand to lose a lot under a second Trump term, the mister and I are making preparations as we speak. I'm actually meeting with my hormone doctor on Monday to ask what she might be able to do to help me continue my HRT in the event of a nationwide all-ages ban the likes of which has been propositioned by Trump.

I've never heard of an all ages ban. The thing they were upset about and constantly bringing up was underage treatments.

Which while I understand that sentiment, I'm against the government deciding what parents can allow for their own children.

[Lexi Darling]

I've never heard of an all ages ban. The thing they were upset about and constantly bringing up was underage treatments.

Which while I understand that sentiment, I'm against the government deciding what parents can allow for their own children.

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article277322158.html

[Marie Monday]

Trump is a bit of a wildcard when it comes to this specific issue. His attitude towards Ukraine aside. He wouldn't completely back the genocide publicly like Biden is basically doing.

He said this right in front of the dang problem 4 years ago. Saw him say something similar in a recent interview but I can't find the clip.

My vote for him doesn't even count though in NY state. It's just a throw away vote. I'm not voting for him because I think he's better than Biden. I'm just protesting against Biden because I don't like how hard he's supporting Israel right now. There is a local Senator that is getting the same hate for similar reasons and he's up for re election. He's not getting my vote either. He voted to censure Rashida Tlaib when she was voicing her concerns back in October.


It's too late for Biden. He fumbled the ball and allowed for Trump to slide in easily. In important swing states there are voting blocks that helped Biden just squeak past Trump and they are not going to be voting for Biden. So sadly whatever is in Project 2025 will be coming. I need to look it up but I bet it's bad.

yeah no if you want to protest Biden that's good but there are many better ways of doing that than voting trump. Also I wouldn't call trump's policy about these things wild card; he just doesn't give a shit about human rights and is very ready to support atrocities if is suits him. That's unambiguous and all you need to know

[Marie Monday]

I think one of the biggest parts in trump's success is the fact that he has somehow managed to present himself as human and relatable in a way that Hilary or Biden haven't. Like they're sneaky despicable politicians pulling hidden strings and exerting their power in a way thats detached from humanity, but he pretends that while he might be bad, at least he's upfront and bad in the way your asshole neighbour could be. It's the same reason why in many stories, the character we find most hateful is not necessarily the one that does the worst things, either because they come across as excessively cold and inhuman or petty and despicable (or both). In the case of trump, it's a ruse and falling for it is foolish