Politics Unfiltered

[the ollie reed fan club]

I haven't seen much of FoT's but Petyr Baelish is the best character.

[Spyder]

They are though. Politicians are as phony as hell. Cruz is no different.

Here's a good example. Rubio was very polished, and groomed to be the baby faced voice of the conservative movement. But he never looked comfortable doing it. His awkward water drinking in the GOP response to the SOTU is a perfect example of that. It wasn't until all was lost in the campaign, and he was getting pushed out by Trump that we saw the REAL Marco. That dude throwing jabs on the debate stage was the real Marco Rubio. He was quick and witty, yet a little crass and biting.

I guess I'm not questioning whether Cruz is a conservative or not...just that I don't think we're seeing the real Ted Cruz. I think that we are seeing a carefully crafted version of what he believes that a conservative candidate should act and talk like.

[lloyd mayflower]

The Republicans despite being politically opposite, remind of the current state of the Labour party here. They just cant seem to find and agree on a leader to get behind. And all the while the machine in power gathers strength. While Hillary is pretty well there and can now be concentrating on a campaign for the white house, the Republicans still have a lot of infighting and horse trading to even get in the race. That must take its toll.

[salvador]

This is not a gun law post, just a 2-Americas post.

Here is a website monitoring the stats of gun violence in Chicago. Another website claims that Chicago just had its 1000th shooting victim of 2016 where this site (below) says as of yesterday it's only 881.

According to the site 70.6% of all the victims were black and 25.3% hispanic and only 4.1% either white or other.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, if white people were getting shot like that every day the feds would have the army and national guard walking the streets - almost as if all the time in Iraq was just a training ground for America. If I was a betting man, I'd bet that we're going to see that in our lifetimes.

And the worst part is that Chicago is completely bankrupt because of public sector union pensions that are way way way underfunded and so taxes will have to be raised, which will just accelerate the flow of middle class whites out of the city and guarantee that the schools will never get the future funding they need.

http://heyjackass.com

[Spyder]

(04-23-2016 03:13 AM)lloyd mayflower Wrote:  The Republicans despite being politically opposite, remind of the current state of the Labour party here. They just cant seem to find and agree on a leader to get behind. And all the while the machine in power gathers strength. While Hillary is pretty well there and can now be concentrating on a campaign for the white house, the Republicans still have a lot of infighting and horse trading to even get in the race. That must take its toll.

That's very true. The one thing everyone can agree on is that Trump has succeeded in disrupting the political machine. The flow of money has gone from propping up a candidate, to stopping him from usurping their power. Win or lose, this election cycle will be examined and discussed for a very long time.

(04-23-2016 11:11 AM)salvador Wrote:  This is not a gun law post, just a 2-Americas post.

Here is a website monitoring the stats of gun violence in Chicago. Another website claims that Chicago just had its 1000th shooting victim of 2016 where this site (below) says as of yesterday it's only 881.

According to the site 70.6% of all the victims were black and 25.3% hispanic and only 4.1% either white or other.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, if white people were getting shot like that every day the feds would have the army and national guard walking the streets - almost as if all the time in Iraq was just a training ground for America. If I was a betting man, I'd bet that we're going to see that in our lifetimes.

And the worst part is that Chicago is completely bankrupt because of public sector union pensions that are way way way underfunded and so taxes will have to be raised, which will just accelerate the flow of middle class whites out of the city and guarantee that the schools will never get the future funding they need.

http://heyjackass.com

You started off strong, but then fell apart when you said..."if white people were getting shot like that..."

I'm struggling to respond to that without making this post very, very long...

The people "getting shot" in Chicago were also shooting back. They just happen to be the ones that didn't survive. Different cultures, and communities, differ in more than just their skin color. Perhaps that should be the focus of your post, and not the flashy stat-line.

Also, the National Guard have walked the streets in those communities on several occasions, and were told to go away...so to speak.

[salvador]

Spyder,

the point of my post wasn't about guns or even race but rather that there are 2 profoundly different life experiences/worlds happening right now within America.

The gravity of the stats in Chicago is almost too much to believe, no matter what the cause. And short of putting armed military on every street corner, it's hard to imagine a way of fixing the situation. (Long term, of course, it comes down to education and opportunity and fathers in the home and welfare to work and all that multi decade stuff that never happens.)

Politically speaking, I doubt that the people in those Chicago neighborhoods give a damn about the deficit or ISIS or who is on the supreme court.

[Spyder]

...or even their own lives. Never mind the lives of the community or future generations.

There are definitely 2 different America's...probably even more than that.

It comes down to a multi-generational culture of apathy toward fixing the problems from within. It doesn't matter how much education, money, or jobs that are thrown at them...they will only become more buried under the mountain of welfare, and less inclined to develop the internal fortitude needed to enact real change in the community.

The more that we help them, the more that we hurt them. If we REALLY wanted to enact change, and "help" them succeed, then we would stop enabling a menial lifestyle.

[salvador]

Speaking of Chicago being fucked:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-24...-1-billion

[the ollie reed fan club]

Credit to Warlord for calling Cruz ridiculously early.

[Spyder]

Sal,

This is a story from my hometown that follows similar narratives to what we were discussing. These kids went to the same high school that I went to, and had the same opportunities that I had. Neighborhood and home life are the only differences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZkDSXmhQe0