Post AW7bRDrXTUbCh3sUvQ by wsrphoto@sfba.social
(DIR) More posts by wsrphoto@sfba.social
(DIR) Post #AW7VOr92Mu1fvoYECm by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-28T17:04:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
***** Why the Biden/McCarthy "debt deal" leads us further down the road to fascism *****One of the problems with "crisis politics" -- and this is working as intended really -- is that it makes it difficult for most people to look beyond the immediate crisis to 2nd, 3rd, and later effects.The "debt crisis" is a perfect example. The debt limit is a totally artificial and 100% *political* construct. It has nothing to do with macroeconomics or actual monetary policy. It is a political creation specifically to enable the kind of "hostage crisis" political malpractice -- almost always at the last possible minute because that's when the fear factor is highest.So everything gets funneled down to "do we avoid the debt crisis this time?", rather than what these continued manufactured events mean for our futures in the longer term.Increasingly, both parties are owned by their most radical factions. On the Right side it's outright racism, antisemitism, censorship, and fascism, and on the Left it's increasingly social policies out of step (whether one likes it or not) with the vast bulk of U.S. moderates (where federal elections are still decided), and their own forms of censorship (180 degrees away from the GOP form, but still censorship).This has pushed us into a place where the 2024 presidential election will most likely be between two elderly men, one a fascist, the other weakened by an obsolete sense that he can "negotiate" with a GOP that once upon a time wasn't fascist, but now very much is.Even if we put aside the lies and hype that came from both the GOP and the White House in this discussion (and indeed, both are guilty of these), the end result -- no matter how anyone tries to spin it -- is that the Democratic mantra of "well, it could have been worse" is just another way of saying that next time, the fascist GOP will indeed make it worse -- because they succeeded in making a lie of Biden's original "I won't negotiate over the debt limit" statement and other related utterances.Would the world actually collapse if the debt limit deadline passed? If you *really* think the federal government would risk riots in the streets over stopped social security payments or closed hospitals, I don't believe you fully appreciate that one way or another, we'd all push through. The markets would go wacko, but they'd recover. That's how they work. But we'd have likely broken the curse of these repeated manufactured nightmares, for as Franklin Roosevelt said so many years ago, it's fear itself that is the real enemy.And using fear as a weapon is what today's GOP is all about. By letting them succeed this time, we guarantee a far worse battle with them down the line, with more of their fascism shoved down our throats. This must end.I'll add that I don't enjoy these arguments. I despise spending my time this way. Today I ended up in a mutual block here on #Mastodon (with someone I've known for many years) as these arguments progressed. And frankly, these are very much the kinds of results that the GOP wants, and that Democrats are now letting them achieve. -L
(DIR) Post #AW7VnpvS2QXzOF6kaG by i_understand@mastodon.social
2023-05-28T17:08:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren The only solution I can think of, which seems incredibly remote as a possibility, is to mandate all elections be with proportional ranked choice voting and then, at that point, elect all representatives at large. Thus eliminating congressional districts and ensuring all people are represented.
(DIR) Post #AW7WU4aPv6sz1QPQuG by gulovsen@cryptodon.lol
2023-05-28T17:16:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren 💯
(DIR) Post #AW7XMusjhdlAqp84Uy by cmthiede@social.vivaldi.net
2023-05-28T17:25:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren The IMF says abandon the charade altogether, just what the end the fed folks want. Push the envelope and see what happens. Make Yellen expendable or blame the fallout on Biden. Sounds like they're leaving that decision to voters to decide in 2024 though.https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/debt-ceiling-eliminated-altogether-imf-chief-99643363
(DIR) Post #AW7YxWx3jo39IkAr4a by ericmacknight@mastodon.social
2023-05-28T17:44:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren The entire system is tilted in favour of small states; add in gerrymandered House districts, and we barely have a democracy. Having said that, nearly half the nation voted for a fascist ignoramus in 2020. More than half elected Nixon, Reagan (twice), G.W. Bush (twice), and Trump in 2016. So the problem is not ONLY structural; the essential problem is that ±50% of the American public is deeply conservative—to put it politely.
(DIR) Post #AW7ZA4fEDo3pKjobIG by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-28T17:46:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@boutell @i_understand It's not going to happen in the foreseeable future (and it's not at all clear that it should). So don't put too much thinking into it!
(DIR) Post #AW7ZKTCppVb2LSUX5M by i_understand@mastodon.social
2023-05-28T17:48:31Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren @boutell true enough.Although it's clear to me that it should. Thankfully rank choice voting is picking up in popularity and use.
(DIR) Post #AW7ZRFx7VKB1GdNQXY by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-28T17:49:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@i_understand @boutell I don't like ranked choice voting. Most people don't understand it and it tends to create lockout effects on genuine competition.
(DIR) Post #AW7bRDrXTUbCh3sUvQ by wsrphoto@sfba.social
2023-05-28T18:12:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren Congressional democrats don't have courage to abolish debt ceiling law, and democratic president doesn't have cojones to use 14th Amendment to declare debt ceiling unconstitutional and ignore it to continue operating government as normal. Latter would force republicans to challenge it. Courts would suspend it while under litigation. Let SCOTUS hear the case. Hard to see they'll overrule 14th Amendment.
(DIR) Post #AW7bqzkiYee8Seyc9Q by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-28T18:16:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wsrphoto Democratic leaders have all the backbone of a saturated sponge.
(DIR) Post #AW7ciy5IyXFUvSLImW by i_understand@mastodon.social
2023-05-28T18:26:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren @boutell I've never heard the second complaint, only the opposite of that actually.On the first, as more and more jurisdictions put it in place I expect that concern will diminish.As it is, Trump is counting on the growing list of Republican candidates to allow him to win even with70 percent of more of the primary voters voting against him. How is that better?
(DIR) Post #AW7cvF39iyhd1ABpaK by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-28T18:28:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@i_understand @boutell I don't like one party ballots in a general election, even when it's my party.
(DIR) Post #AW7dAIXD3C7CAYQVSi by i_understand@mastodon.social
2023-05-28T18:31:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren @boutell I think the whole top two system CA implemented is crazy. It just makes having multiple candidate worse as not only can the majority vote for a Democrat but get one they don't want... they can get a Republican even the majority of Republicans didn't vote for.
(DIR) Post #AW7maD8Ue0X8XgISfo by PeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyz
2023-05-28T20:16:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lauren @i_understand @boutell Runoff elections, then.
(DIR) Post #AW8tjeT7HkDUkxLsWW by empiricism@ecoevo.social
2023-05-29T09:11:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@laurenThe neo-liberal ("free market") economy is evidently not sustainable!Sooner rather than later, people will have to deal with the fall out of an economic model that isn't accounting for the damage it's causing to the Planet's biosphere.A new way of thinking, a paradigm shift in economic thinking is needed. Economists should either cooperate with ecologists & or get studying the subject.