Comments by "Meh Pluribus Unum" (@pluribus_unum) on "Democracy Now!"
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🗽🇺🇸 VOTE! 🇺🇸🗽
Even if you're not registered in these 20 states and DC -- you can REGISTER AND VOTE TODAY -- NOVEMBER 5th, 2024
CA, CO, CT, DC, ID, IL, IA, ME, MD, MI, MN
MT, NH, NV, NM, UT, VT, VA, WA, WI, WY
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@otmargreb6110 - The key distinctions between Social Democracy (what is erroneously called socialism by you here) in capitalist economies and actual Socialist economic systems [are] vast.
Social Democracy could be summed up as, capitalism with some important, and life-saving, limitations on the intrinsic cruelty it otherwise sure seems to engender.
With different degrees of social support, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, et. al., are capitalist economies -- albeit with massive state intervention in the markets -- with social democratic governmental policies regarding the provisioning of health care, education, housing, food, and employment.
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@jimcarrington6744 - Wrong.
The best things Democrats have passed are filibustered without allowing even debate by Republicans, but a simple read of any of the three versions of The For the People Act (2019, 2020 or 2021) they've passed makes clear that Democrats are passing legislation that the public demands.
Looking at things that have passed in the Senate, The American Rescue Act, the stimulus bills, The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act -- all represent massive reinvestment in American social democracy and widening of the social safety net.
In fact, they include landmark social democracy investments in a scale that we haven't seen since FDR and the New Deal.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, for example, "isn’t a stimulus bill; it’s not a singular response to a specific economic crisis. IIJA represents a longer-term patient approach to rebuilding American competitiveness through infrastructure."
In other words, addressing the damage of neoliberal economic policies and returning to investing in American workers, the national infrastructure and American competitiveness.
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@dexterramey8787 - It just isn't a factor, and the slow down wasn't because of Obama's comments.
"Some research has suggested that messages like these can affect how migrants think about making the journey, but no research has proved that it actually stops them from coming."
“It’s not that messaging has no effect,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy and legal aid group, said. “It’s just that the role of messaging as something that could potentially stop people from choosing to come in the first place — there’s no evidence."¹
... and ...
"The evidence of a widespread and sustained decline in undocumented migration to the United States is irrefutable. In a more fact-based era, this would be recognized as a major national accomplishment. Moreover, the steady decline in the population since 2010 refutes the recurrent argument that consideration by Congress of an earned legalization program or the DREAM Act, or even the establishment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — all of which occurred during this time-frame — invariably leads to increased undocumented immigration. In addition, as previously documented by CMS, the United States has turned a significant corner in immigration enforcement. The remaining US undocumented population has extremely long tenure, strong equitable ties, and firm roots in the United States."²
_____________________________________________
¹ The US is telling migrants “don’t come.” They might not be listening.: How much does Kamala Harris’s messaging about the border matter? by Nicole Narea, June 8th, 2021 - Vox
² The US Undocumented Population Fell Sharply During the Obama Era: Estimates for 2016 by Robert Warren, February 22nd, 2018 - Center for Migration Studies
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@joemendiuk5683 - According to the bible, God gave us the earth to care for, including each other. God even used quarantine and other anti-pandemic science.
Get vaccinated. Save lives. Maybe your own.
"...it is noteworthy that sometimes God commanded his people to act in ways that modern medical science’s progress in fulfilling that mandate¹ can finally explain. In Leviticus, God commands the priests to quarantine some individuals for some skin conditions (see Lev. 13, especially vv. 3, 5, 8, 45-46), to burn some moldy garments (see Lev. 13:52, 55), and to destroy the houses in which some molds were growing (see Lev. 14:43-45). This means he was in effect commanding the Israelites to practice medicine before they knew enough to understand the reasons for the practice."
"In fact, given the infrequency of miraculous healings to ordinary cycles of health and sickness in the Scriptures, it is clear that God generally exercises his providential care for his people through the world’s ordinary structures and processes. People generally reap the fruit of their ways, good or bad (see Prov. 14:14)."
- Mark Talbot
September 16, 2021
Center for Pastor Theologians
________________________________
¹ The mandate for humanity to "exercise dominion" over earth "by grasping its potentialities, patterns, and processes".
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@NPC-bs3pm - @BAVidmar17 is right, in fact.
"The United States often exacerbated these conflicts, deploying the U.S. Marines in Latin America whenever political uprisings seemed to threaten U.S. business interests or national security."
"Conservative political elites often responded to these movements by inviting the military to take power, and the resulting conflict would eventually develop into civil wars in Guatemala (1960-1996), El Salvador (1980-1992) and Nicaragua (1979-1990). The United States played a central role in many of these conflicts, propping up military dictatorships and supporting them with logistical aid, money, training and weapons, even as many of them committed human rights atrocities. These conflicts generated huge surges in emigration from Central America, establishing the migration patterns that persist today."
"A final push factor—with a very important transnational history—is gang violence. MS-13 is now one of the largest gangs in the world, and has contributed to violent crime across the region. What many Americans don’t know is that MS-13 was founded in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles in the 1980s, within communities of Central American refugees who had fled civil wars. Many of these gang members were subsequently imprisoned in the United States, and then deported to Central America through a program that began under President Bill Clinton."
"There’s a reason why the U.S. government has failed for so many years to “control” the border: none of these policies have addressed the real reasons for migration itself. In migration studies, these are known as “push” and “pull” factors, the causes that drive migrants from one country to another.
Today, the countries sending the most migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border–especially the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador–are experiencing a combination of push factors that include poverty and inequality, political instability, and violence. And while the current situation may be unique, it is also deeply rooted in history."
- The Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Can't Be 'Solved' Without Acknowledging Its Origins by Julia G. Young - March 31st, 2021 - TIME Magazine (online)
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To wit:
1) "One problem, though: Peer-reviewed, largely overlooked research publi: shed in December [2021] shows that undocumented immigrants in Texas likely aren’t part of a crime wave. In fact, they’re much less likely to be arrested for serious crimes than are people born in the United States."
"Between 2012 and 2018, U.S.-born people were twice as likely as the undocumented to be arrested for violent crime in Texas and two-and-a-half times as likely to be arrested for drug crimes."
2) "It's too soon to declare victory over inflation, but from gas to chicken to big-screen TVs, there are, increasingly, signs that inflation's grip on American pocketbooks may be loosening."
"Gas prices are back to last year's levels, after spiking to a record high of just over $5 a gallon this summer. For perspective, a gallon of regular has fallen by almost 50 cents in just a month, making it about $10 cheaper to fill up an average SUV today than a month ago."
3) "The research shows that an increase in the absolute number of immigrants in a particular county from 2000–2010 results in corresponding economic gains—increased demand for locally produced goods and services, a corresponding inflow of U.S.-born individuals—that are reflected in the housing market."
"Importantly, the research finds that immigrants revitalize less desirable neighborhoods in costly metropolitan areas, opening up new alternatives for middle- and working-class Americans to buy homes, and immigration supports the housing market without exacerbating the nation’s worst affordability problems, because immigrants themselves tend not to settle in the most expensive places. Immigrants are also drawn to Sun Belt cities like Houston where housing has been consistently affordable."
4) "[Closing hospitals] cited high poverty and uninsured rates in rural communities, high rates of Medicare and Medicaid coverage, and declining populations. In each community, poverty rates were higher than state and national averages and median incomes were lower, and the population was shrinking."
"In all three case studies, respondents reported that, prior to the hospital closure, community residents with private insurance or other resources typically travelled to bigger, newer hospital systems outside the community, weakening the hospital’s payer mix and also reinforcing local perceptions – often based on anecdotal accounts from friends and family members — that the local hospital was of low or poor quality."
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@humanbean5547 - Nope. Thanks for the Polanski add, though.
While Herzog’s films have attracted great admiration they have also provoked a lot of criticism and the show boldly addresses this in a strand called ‘Controversies’. This consists of smaller screens showing either talking heads or relevant sections of the films under scrutiny accompanied by short wall texts discussing the problem at hand. The five charges against Herzog can be summed up as follows: exploiting people with disabilities, manipulating material for dramatic effect, beautifying horrific acts or events, looking at the world through a colonial gaze and, finally, the collaboration with Kinski; a mentally disturbed man who, some would say, should never have been put in front of a camera in the first place. The show presents and illustrates all these arguments as well as their counter-arguments, but leaves us to reach our own verdicts.
- The case for and against Werner Herzog by Emilie Bickerton 18 in Apollo Magazine, August 18th, 2023
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Citing witness accounts shared by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and journalists, OHCHR said that while raiding a Gaza City building where multiple related families were sheltering on Tuesday night, "the IDF allegedly separated the men from the women and children, and then shot and killed at least 11 of the men, mostly aged in their late 20s and early 30s, in front of their family members."
"The IDF then allegedly ordered the women and children into a room, and either shot at them or threw a grenade into the room, reportedly seriously injuring some of them, including an infant and a child," added the office, which has confirmed the killings at Al Awda building—also known as the Annan building—but not the other details.
UN Office Details Alleged IDF 'Summary Killing' of Gaza Men in Front of Families: OHCHR noted that reporting on the killings "raises alarm about the possible commission of a war crime." by Jessica Corbett on Dec 20, 2023 in Common Dreams
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@primusyshu941 - The democratic Republic whose true exceptionalism is that it's founded on shared values and ideals -- not a shared geography, history, an ethnicity, ideology, or religion.
We, the people, in order to form a more perfect Union...
Continuing to perfect, protect, and progress that Union is our unique inheritance and legacy.
What we do in these times to protect the Union will determine whether we remain a democracy.
We either support plutocratic and oligarchic white Christian nationalism ... OR We uphold the rule-of-law not the rule-of-man, educate future generations on the true meaning of the Great Melting Pot, the Separation of Church and State -- for the benefit and preservation of both -- as well as civic duties and common decency, and continue to perfect this 248yr old imperfect Union.
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Here's 30 years out-of-date military intelligence (not strategy) expert Scott Ritter peddling Putin's lies.
"On March 1st, Russia’s “First Channel” aired a news story about the war in Ukraine, which featured interviews with Scott Ritter, the U.N. Weapons Inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998, and American writer Gonzalo Lira, who argue that Russia is not targeting the Ukrainian population, unlike Zelenskyy, who wants to create an artificial humanitarian crisis in Ukraine."
Scott Ritter’s interview with Syrian journalist Richard Medhurst, featured in Russian “First Channel” story, was disseminated through [various Russian] platforms"
"The aforementioned videos contain three pieces of disinformation: 1. Even a week after the start of hostilities in Ukraine, the city of Mariupol was not captured by Russian troops. 2. Disconnecting Russia from SWIFT has not had any severe impact on the United States, and while the ruble continues to depreciate, the value of the U.S. dollar has been rising. 3. As of March 2nd, Russian hostile actions in Ukraine resulted in more than 2000 civilian casualties."
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@avae5343 - NATO isn't America and America isn't NATO.
If you want the US out of NATO, lobby for that.
It's more than NATO at issue, though. Since GW Bush, the US support for Ukraine had increased year over year under every President.
Under Obama the US began supplying 90% of Ukraine's security, defense, intel, and military aid.
Trump's extortion plot used an increase in the aid Obama was already delivering.
Biden and Congress have recognized the threat and, especially post-invasion, have made it possible for Ukraine to fight as hard, as well, and as long as they have.
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@padredemishijos12 - You are working to peddle the same lies, Tahuan.
Here's Ritter lying for Putin:
"On March 1st, Russia’s “First Channel” aired a news story about the war in Ukraine, which featured interviews with Scott Ritter, the U.N. Weapons Inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998, and American writer Gonzalo Lira, who argue that Russia is not targeting the Ukrainian population, unlike Zelenskyy, who wants to create an artificial humanitarian crisis in Ukraine."
"Scott Ritter’s interview with Syrian journalist Richard Medhurst, featured in Russian “First Channel” story, was disseminated through [various Russian] platforms."
"The aforementioned videos contain three pieces of disinformation: 1. Even a week after the start of hostilities in Ukraine, the city of Mariupol was not captured by Russian troops. 2. Disconnecting Russia from SWIFT has not had any severe impact on the United States, and while the ruble continues to depreciate, the value of the U.S. dollar has been rising. 3. As of March 2nd, Russian hostile actions in Ukraine resulted in more than 2000 civilian casualties."
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Hedges is a useful idiot for neo-nationalists because he's a progressive with a major dollop of lilywhite Puritan culture scolding.
"The physical and moral decay of the United States and the malaise it has spawned have predictable results. We have seen in varying forms the consequences of social and political collapse during the twilight of the Greek and Roman empires, the Ottoman and Hapsburg empires, Tsarist Russia, Weimar Germany and the former Yugoslavia. Voices from the past, Aristotle, Cicero, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Joseph Roth and Milovan Djilas, warned us. But blinded by self-delusion and hubris, as if we are somehow exempt from human experience and human nature, we refuse to listen." - Chris Hedges, 2020
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@p1randymarsh618 - The statistics show that higher tax revenues from many sources, when combined with transparency laws, oversight and audits, produces better standards of living. Republican tax policy is generally in denial of this reality and still uses the disproven "trickle-down" theory
The tax policies dominating Republican politics for five decades have produced a major decline across many metrics both in "red" states domestically, and consequentially the US internationally.
A 50-year comprehensive study on tax cuts like Reagan's and Trump's showed they make the rich richer, increase income inequality, and do nothing for economic growth, while contributing to declining investment in research, education, infrastructure, health care, and as a result of that decline in national investment, they result in a decline in global competitiveness.
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@arkinyte13 - I understand you have your own metric for what is a progressive liberal, that's fine.
My point is, we should not lose sight of the history of progressive politics in the Democratic party as well as outside of it, and continue to leverage assets we have on hand today, and not trade-off what I see as the massive advantages of "additive" versus "reductive" political strategies.
In that spirit, I shared the fact about the number of members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in other words, elected Democrats and one Independent who identify as progressives, and the polling data from Pew and others that shows 15%-20% of Democratic voters call themselves liberal progressives (for added context, 25%-30% call themselves liberals, and 35%-40% call themselves moderates, 5%-10% call themselves conservatives, and 2%-5% call themselves very conservative).
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@arlandolittle7625 - Read up on the issue. In just one example, we made MS-13 in the U.S. and exported it back.
"A final push factor—with a very important transnational history—is gang violence. MS-13 is now one of the largest gangs in the world, and has contributed to violent crime across the region. What many Americans don’t know is that MS-13 was founded in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles in the 1980s, within communities of Central American refugees who had fled civil wars."
"Today, the countries sending the most migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border–especially the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador–are experiencing a combination of push factors that include poverty and inequality, political instability, and violence. And while the current situation may be unique, it is also deeply rooted in history."
"Conservative political elites often responded to these movements by inviting the military to take power, and the resulting conflict would eventually develop into civil wars in Guatemala (1960-1996), El Salvador (1980-1992) and Nicaragua (1979-1990). The United States played a central role in many of these conflicts, propping up military dictatorships and supporting them with logistical aid, money, training and weapons, even as many of them committed human rights atrocities. These conflicts generated huge surges in emigration from Central America, establishing the migration patterns that persist today."
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@skypie1 - No, you just haven't read the facts about the problems, nor the actual comments by the U.S. President and Vice President regarding the problems you ostensibly care so much about.
"The strategy groups the root causes of migration into five pillars, offering several approaches for each:"
1 - "Addressing economic insecurity and inequality;"
2 - "Combating corruption, strengthening democratic governance, and advancing the rule of law;"
3 - Promoting respect for human rights, labor rights, and a free press;"
4 - "Countering and preventing violence, extortion, and other crimes perpetrated by criminal gangs, trafficking networks, and other organized criminal organizations;"
5 - "Combating sexual, gender-based, and domestic violence."
"Taken together, the five pillars can be seen as the administration’s effort to address the structural fragility that is so often at the root of why people leave the Northern Triangle."
"The newly released U.S Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America (heretofore referred to as the “root causes strategy” or simply “the strategy”) is the Biden-Harris administration’s blueprint for addressing irregular migration from the region. With an introduction from Vice President Kamala Harris (who was asked to lead the administration’s efforts in the region in March 2021), the strategy focuses on the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. The strategy “lays out a framework to use the policy, resources, and diplomacy of the United States, and to leverage the expertise and resources of a broad group of public and private stakeholders, to build hope for citizens in the region that the life they desire can be found at home.” It aims to build a broad coalition that will include Congress, the governments in the region, the private and public sector, and civil society organizations, with the aim of creating tailored and coordinated solutions to both short-term and long-term causes of migration."
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@@nicolasl2868 - I understand now. Thanks for elaborating.
I agree, and I don't want to be a "moral beacon", in no small part due to all the history behind that phrase.
And, not to say it's enough by any means, but we did just do the most by any country ever on climate change, despite Republican servitude to unfettered fossil fuel greed.
I feel we shouldn't shy away from leading by example where and when we can because -- for example -- we are still heavily laden with all our national and international crimes against humanity, and must continue like Sisyphus rolling the "rock of reconstruction".
I hold out all the hope -- but admittedly little confidence -- that this recent white nationalist surge becomes a final homicidal and grotesque reflection of ourselves that will get my demographic, white Americans, to start a massive truth and reconciliation process for the genocide of the civilizations we "discovered", five centuries of slavery and the consequences that demand real reparations.
I'm glad that 18-25 year old white voters, for the first time in over 10 years, turned out to vote for country over complexion; as coming into the 2022 midterms, a majority from all age groups of white voters had chosen Trump over Clinton in 2016, and then Trump over Biden in even larger numbers in 2020.
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