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Politics 2016 (election edition)


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This gets into deeper civics for sure. Our country has been defined by the balancing between state and federal rule. Obviously the Civil War sets up the fed as supreme but they've wisely allowed the states certain autonomy.

 

The cannabis position is definitely an interesting conflict in some people's beliefs. Most hardcore, get-off-my-land guys have the same hypocrisy in their anti-federalist attitudes as they do in their extreme anti-tax positions, they aren't educated on the benefits they receive from the institution they oppose. If they had their way politically (and I'm talking extremists here) they wouldn't like the result.

 

As for consolidation fears isn't that where 3 branches, checks and balances comes in?

 

The irony in the rural tendency towards a radical right opinion on rights and taxes is that the agricultural sector of our country is generally one of the most federally subsidized entities we have. I wont get into the poverty and corporatization of it here, but if you hate waste the cattle industry is where waste is king.

 

It's a very poor use of land and water, arguably the most environmentally destructive way of making food. On a diet, culinary and cost level beef should be an occasional delicacy at higher cost, yet its cost is artificially kept low through government subsidy so it can be consumed with an unsustainable intensity.

 

Part of this is because the industry from field to whopper is iconically American. There is a lot of tradition and romance there. Again, I'm seeing some cognitive dissonance there from supposed fiscal conservatives.

 

Think a rancher'd be upset with me at this point?

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Tonight is President Obama's last State of the Union address.  Tomorrow many pundits and political candidates will dissect and parse every word and phrase and who applauded at what, etc.  But today I look back at the now 7 years of the Obama presidency.  You hear from the GOP candidates and the Right, what a disaster Obama has been and how he has ruined America, etc.  But in all honestly, whether you agree with his policies or not the country is in far better shape than it was 8 years ago.  I am not saying he has made it a shining utopia, but what we were looking at in when it took office in 2009 we as a nation are far better off.  All the GOP has is empty rhetoric and is trying to scare voters.  

 

I guess what I am asking, is a general assessment of the Obama presidency.  Take what you feel about the his policies out of the equation and critically look at the last 7 years.  What do you come up with?  

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Russia is gobbling up territory and trying to rebuild the USSR while reigniting the Cold War, China is building offensive military bases in contested waters and threatening its neighbors, Iran is on its way to building nuclear weapons while threatening the US and Israel, North Korea just tested a nuclear weapon, ISIS controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria, Libya is a disaster, the EU is crumbling, we're losing the war in Afghanistan, Europe is in the middle of a refugee crisis, etc.

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Russia is gobbling up territory and trying to rebuild the USSR while reigniting the Cold War, China is building offensive military bases in contested waters and threatening its neighbors, Iran is on its way to building nuclear weapons while threatening the US and Israel, North Korea just tested a nuclear weapon, ISIS controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria, Libya is a disaster, the EU is crumbling, we're losing the war in Afghanistan, Europe is in the middle of a refugee crisis, etc.

 

So I guess this begs the question, is this a result of the Obama presidency's foreign policy?  Or is this emblematic of the world in constant change?  I am not absolving the President of everything, but there is quite a lot you say there (some of it not exactly true, but whatever).  And of course you failed to actually answer the question, critically are we as a nation better off than 2008?   

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So the STOU last night.  Fairly good speech, lots of plans, nothing of it will get done.  Like the veiled shot at Trump.  Really the tone was interesting in comparison to the stump speeches of the GOP.  And kinda what I was trying to get at yesterday.  

 

What was really interesting yesterday was the backdrop of the capture of the 10 US sailors by Iran.  There were so many statements by the Right about how this shows the failure of the Obama foreign policy, Iran is testing a weak president, criticizing Obama for not mentioning this in the STOU, etc, etc.  BUt of course low and behold the sailors were released unharmed this morning, after some calls by Sec of State John Kerry.  And what is funny I don't see much praise, or even acknowledgement by the Right that this has even happened.  Hell as of this post (10:30 am on1/13/16).  On Marco Rubio's front page of his campaign site there still is a link to his interview on FoxNews demanding the release of the sailors.  You would think that with the way he was so passionate about their release he would at least post a message that they are glad they are home safe and unharmed.  Other GOP candidates have done the same thing.

 

I shudder to think, with the rhetoric coming out of the GOP, if this would have happened if Trump, et al were president.  Would cooler heads prevailed or would they have carpet bombed Iran and their families?    

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I enjoyed what I saw of the SOTU (didn't get to finish it this morning) but I'm a sap and always tend to get sucked in by those addresses.  I very much liked the not-so-veiled shots at Trump and Cruz. 

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Yea, carpet bomb them.  Good thinking.(Fucking crazy.) 

 

I watched the speech too. I will sincerely miss Obama for his excellent speaking ability.  The dude can really put one over.  There is no one running (I mean no one) who is going to be able to put across ideas and concepts as well as Barack.  Everyone else sounds like the constant clanging of a bell (that includes the two people I WOULD vote for.)

 

LouieB

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The SOTU address was a big topic of conversation with my 10-year-old kids. Living in Iowa, we're inundated with all things political these days. As we discussed the president, the candidates, and other topics, I became more and more frustrated with the 2-party system. It's not going away but it's so damn destructive. The more entrenched our society becomes in media (traditional and social) the more the parties turn every issue into a win/lose contest. Why compromise when that's harder to frame as win?

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The response is pretty concrete evidence that none of the Republican candidates will be able to win a debate against any of the Democrat candidates once the nominations are finalized.  Most of what Haley said was "we're going to do that, too, but better."

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Trump did go into a really good "China" fit where he says the name of the country dozens of times and then rattles off business jargon that connects to real trade issues, but in ways where the average person loses his train of thought.  It's kind of his Achilles heel really because it's the one thing that gets discussed where he actually knows enough that he gets hard to understand, as opposed to his more digestible "build a giant wall", "stop the Muslims from coming" statements.  If he makes it as far as the nomination his Dem opponent should bring up China.  He'll go off and the base will glaze over in confusion.

 

Rubio quit his "I'm a nice guy" bit and now looks like just as big of a douche nozzle as Cruz does- albeit a less creepy one.  Christie and Kasich still seem less insane but some pretty big pandering going on.  Everyone agrees that Obama has destroyed the constitution, but no one seems to point out how.  Somebody thought they could sink Christie with a grocery list of Common Core State Standards (education), Planned Parenthood donations, and Sotomayor support, which is a pretty weird grab bag of some vaguely liberal signifiers.

 

Also, Obama is to blame for everything Russia, North Korea, and Iran does.

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the lady fourth row up just to the right of the podium with the red sweater and scarf on is enjoying that way too much. 

 

She wakes up when they say DEAL FROM STRENGTH OR GET CRUSHED EVERY TIME which incidentally looks like when the 'clap along' light must've been lit.

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Iran and the US are exchanging prisoners.  5 americans freed from Iranian jails and 7 Iranians freed. //snark on Another failure of the Obama administration.  We should have bombed them into submission a long time ago. its the only diplomacy that works.  //snark off.

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