55 replies to this topic

[Redezra]

Oh yeaaah~ that's right!

 

You get to be president~ Strategically, it's the better choice. At least you could be male, I'm very clearly female, and that's going to pit the rather large moderately sexist conservatives against us to begin with, while keeping the "gender equality" thing around~
 
Actually, come to think of it, that can also work for a "left" leaning Democrat pairing too. If you're agendered and I'm female, we can't lose either, right? xP I mean if one novelty gender/racial element is good, two can only be better!
 
Hmmm... as for platform, I dunno. I'd love to come at it from a purely rational governance direction, less ideology and/or private interests. An attempt to make government work at, you know, doing what is actually going to do good for the society at the time, as openly as possible, as opposed to... well whatever the hell it's doing now. But hey, I'm less about that and more about getting people to feel like they're a wave of grassroots upheaval that will truly change the nation for the better. Obama managed it, and it let him do whatever he wanted. I think we should aim for the same thing, and figure out what exactly we'd do afterwards

Suuuure. You just want to pull some puppetmaster and/or scheming vizier shit on me, don't you? ;P

 

One thing I've always thought would be cool to do is become president and have my first act be cutting the presidential salary to something like $40k/year plus health and dental. That'd certainly let people feel like they're part of some big change. It'd also be an interesting political move. Anyone who votes against me cutting my own salary looks suspicious and if it passes it puts pressure on congress to follow suit. I'd also want to drop the senate entirely, seeing as how it's completely unnecessary nowadays and only existed to get the smaller states to agree to join in the first place. That'd be a much trickier proposition, but if we managed that plus fixing the arrangement of districts and establishing proportional representation in the house the democratic process would be much better off. As part of moving over to proportional representation, we could also get rid of the electoral college and have things purely decided by the popular vote. Oh, and term limits. Can't forget term limits for congress and probably the supreme court as well.

 

As for the salary cut, I just thought of an interesting idea to help it work. If it fails the first time, I give a little speech about how it failed because the men and women of congress knew the eyes of the nation would fall on them next to follow the example if it passed. Then I take to social media and share a list of those who voted against it, thus making them look bad.

 

I do approve the hell out of this plan though :3

[Manoka]

 

The Civil Rights Act is what changed everything, of course. Interesting that it was LBJ, a Texan with some pretty racist tendencies himself, who pushed it through. But he saw which way the political winds were blowing. Many Democrats, like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms, became Republicans after the Civil Rights Act was passed. It marked the transition of the South from solidly Democratic to solidly Republican, as it has remained ever since. But its passage was the culmination of a long and slow process that began with the labor movement of the early 1900s and progressed right up through the Depression, WW2, and the fifties. Once upon a time the Republicans were the "liberals" and the Democrats the "conservatives," at least on social issues (the GOP has always been the more pro-business party). Their switch is arguably the defining story of American politics in the 20th century.
 
I wonder if we are going to see another fundamental shift soon. As the Republican party becomes more and more ultraconservative they simultaneously become more and more irrelevant. The Democrats have become the party of the Establishment now. That leaves a lot of room for a legitimate opposition party. You know, one that isn't crazy. It makes me think of that Chinese proverb about living in interesting times.

Actually the reason LBJ pushed it through was because it would have been seen as treason to JFK who truly believed in equality and fought for it. So he had no choice.


Also, america voted in a republican congress, imagine they vote in a democrat president 2 years later? That in itself must be a record.

 

LBJ didn't give a shit about JFK. He disliked the man intensely.

 

We are voting in Republican congresses now because of redistricting. In the most recent few congressional elections there have actually been more votes cast for Democratic candidates, but the GOP's stranglehold on redistricting in the early 2000s is paying its dividends. The electoral math does not look good for them for the presidency, however. Thus you have the Republicans with an advantage in Congress, the Democrats with advantage in the presidency. This is a complete reversal of the status quo from 1968-1992.

What are you basing this on?

 

Johnson was Kennedy's VP, he worked side by side with him. As President he designed the "Great Society" legislation upholding civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, and his "War on Poverty". Assisted in part by a growing economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during Johnson's presidency. 

[Infopowerbroker]

I'm late to this ball of yarn... It has definitely shifted topics a few times.

I started off by thinking about how Office of Management and Budget (OMB) puts out a bunch of mandates to facilitate recordskeeping and while these are not US Federal Laws, they often support the enforcement of laws within the Executive Branch (Think in this case, the FOIA)

Then, as I was building the foundation of what I was trying to say, I realized, I don't have to be that guy in the picture below.



Good luck, happy hunting, whatever your target/goal may be.

[Shokkou]

Ahem.
 
I believe we already had an arrangement to this effect, Red. I call dibs.

Redezra isn't some object you can claim ownership over. You've been replaced. Accept it. :v

[Redezra]

Well, we can't just replace Jorost~ 

 

Maybe we could make it a three way? You know what they say, it's not gay if it's a three way.

.... Wait that doesn't help with this situation at all.

[Shokkou]

lol

 

He can be my Secretary of Defense.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Ahem.
 
I believe we already had an arrangement to this effect, Red. I call dibs.

Redezra isn't some object you can claim ownership over. You've been replaced. Accept it. :v

 

Sure I can.

 

As for presidential salaries, to be honest compared to what a person at that level of achievement would make in the private sector, $400k a year is chump change. I have no objection to high government officials being well remunerated — we live in a capitalist society, after all, and if we expect well qualified people we should expect to pay for them. If it were up to me we wouldn't live in a capitalist system, but that's a separate crazy rant...

 

Anyway the American presidency as it is currently set up is too limiting. All those annoying checks and balances. I would round up Congress and send them for re-education. Except for an elite few who would be chosen for a one-way mission to study the sun up close. Real close.

[Manoka]

 

Ahem.
 
I believe we already had an arrangement to this effect, Red. I call dibs.

Redezra isn't some object you can claim ownership over. You've been replaced. Accept it. :v

 

Sure I can.

 

As for presidential salaries, to be honest compared to what a person at that level of achievement would make in the private sector, $400k a year is chump change. I have no objection to high government officials being well remunerated — we live in a capitalist society, after all, and if we expect well qualified people we should expect to pay for them. If it were up to me we wouldn't live in a capitalist system, but that's a separate crazy rant...

 

Anyway the American presidency as it is currently set up is too limiting. All those annoying checks and balances. I would round up Congress and send them for re-education. Except for an elite few who would be chosen for a one-way mission to study the sun up close. Real close.

Not to mention, it means you have to have private money to run for president. It just means some rich guy who's got lots of money will have it even easier while joe blow has it even harder to become president. I actually say we boost the amount of money congress gets, so it's less of a risk. 

 

Not to mention, he has to live the rest of his life with a target on his back. He's going to need money to afford good security measures.

[Shokkou]

All of that just reaffirms my decision to make you SecDef, Jorost.

[Justavictim82]

Back on topic and relevant...
http://www.politifac...il-controversy/

[Manoka]

Back on topic and relevant...
http://www.politifac...il-controversy/

The point I'm seeing is, a stink was made about it by the democrats AND, Bush was actually brought to trial, while clinton has not yet. The fact they're trying to bring it to court may in fact just be in spite for how they treated Bush. Also, it was a handful of emails, compared to 10's of thousands, I think.

 

There's also the simple fact that internet news has exploded and is easier to make copies of things these days on reddits, forums like this, and even news websites, where old printing papers had a limit to what could be added to newspapers due to legitimate physical practicality, which isn't the same with today's mediums. In other words, media explosions are more common. Gangam style might not have made the news in the old days, but due to the speed and ease of electronic medium, everyone can see it, and that's why something that small exploded. Also, cat videos fall into this category. We're seeing the emergence of micro media, where news articles can be about dumb small things and it will actually catch on since you don't have to pay for a whole newspaper to get it. 

[Redezra]

Back on topic and relevant...
http://www.politifac...il-controversy/

So it's honestly not a big deal?

[Justavictim82]

Back on topic and relevant...
http://www.politifac...il-controversy/

So it's honestly not a big deal?

 

Of course it is.... if you are in the opposing party. American politics have become completely partisan. I am not talking Democrats and Republicans. I am talking Conservative and Liberal. They spend more time arguing about who is the better party/ideology than they do actually making policy. The last decade has become a grandstanding dick measuring contest and nothing more. 

[slimshadyinc]

Back on topic and relevant...http://www.politifac...il-controversy/

So it's honestly not a big deal?

 
Of course it is.... if you are in the opposing party. American politics have become completely partisan. I am not talking Democrats and Republicans. I am talking Conservative and Liberal. They spend more time arguing about who is the better party/ideology than they do actually making policy. The last decade has become a grandstanding dick measuring contest and nothing more. 

I think that you are spot on.

Jesus, when was the last time these people actually worked together?

I'm tired of the left vs right bullshit

I wish the rest of america was too....

Libertarians ftw!

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Nobody cares about deleted emails. Just like nobody (apparently) cares about the government spying on our online activity. You can never predict what is going to resonate with the public, so the media just keeps throwing these things against the wall to see what sticks. If something doesn't they move on to the next one. It's the 24-hour outrage cycle.

[Manoka]

Nobody cares about deleted emails. Just like nobody (apparently) cares about the government spying on our online activity. You can never predict what is going to resonate with the public, so the media just keeps throwing these things against the wall to see what sticks. If something doesn't they move on to the next one. It's the 24-hour outrage cycle.

Not everything we do is spied on, and not everyone is being spied on. I think that's the point a lot of people missed. 

 

The real problem with the NSA is that they have internal court judges who can decide if they can get warrants for taps, basically secretly, since it's classified information. That means, in theory, they could potentially tap anyone's phones and we wouldn't know they had approval to do so until some time after. That being said, only about 30% of their taps are done this way, and I doubt it's to spy on random people. But, out of all of this, it isn't that they're spying on everyone, which they literally can't do anyways, it's that they don't have a lot of overwatch, or second parties checking up on what they're doing. 

 

 

 

Maybe CIA or other groups should have to cross check with the NSA's judges to make sure it seems right, or what have you. 

 

There's a lot of potential for abuse. As of now, the suggestion is that 90% of people the NSA spied on were completely harmless, but you have to understand that many of them were the target's family members and friends, so they were connected to the target, they just weren't terrorists themselves. One has to do first do a probe, I.E. an investigation, to figure out if someone is guilty or not. Association is cause for investigation into your life. Your wife dies, 40,000 dollars mysteriously disappears from your account, you're a suspect, even though there's a 90% chance probability you're innocent. They will dig through your life and try to find out what you did, that's the way it is. Privacy is the first thing to go.