The Political Thread 2021

Would be great if we could get rid of a tinpot dictator soon after getting rid of a would-be one.
It’d probably be too good though, wouldn’t it?

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When i look at duterte and his legions of bloodthirsty idiotic followers it is so cringe

All duterte has done is kill thousands of people

Then basically attempt to relieve the freedom of the press

Any opposition he has gets labled as communists then get executed by his team of killers/actual police

A bunch of mango farmers and children got gunned down by police because they wanted humane treatment

Instead they got shot up by police

How’s Italy doing? I’ve read that Conte is barely holding on- if he ends up on the outs does that expose Italy to having Salvini or someone like him stepping back in?

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Salvini isn’t doing so good lately, he and his party have been on a downward spiral but the populist right in general is still strong because Lega is only losing consent to Fratelli d’Italia, which is the other populist right-wing party (and if you know their origins that doesn’t really make things better).

The government is holding for now though, barely holding in is the state most Italian governments have been historically. And even if the government falls there will be discussions on whether a new government can be formed with whatever the situation will be in the parliament at that point. And even if it ends up with new elections the blessing and curse of the Italian system is that ruling is always complicated and always rely on keeping a parliamentary majority together, so who knows if the populist right will still be in the position to have a majority whenever we have the next elections, if they will be able to build a functioning coalition without falling into infighting, and for how long they’d be able to last before defections and breaking of alliances inevitably weaken their hold as it happens to every single government in this country.

Italian politics are fun.

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I mean geese took off the us. This is the official politics thread now right

There are gonna be so many people out of work if that $15 minimum wage thing goes through. It’ll be just the excuse a lot of companies need to lay people off, especially low skill workers. And you know companies like Wal Mart are loving this because it means less competition from mom & pops for them. So basically it’ll be another boon for corporations, as if there weren’t enough of them in 2020 between Trump handing them our money and people being locked in their houses relying on Amazon, telecoms, and big tech to bring them everything.

To me, the only viable solution is to figure out what the cost of living is in each county in the country and require that businesses pay a wage that would make meeting that cost of living. But mandating some arbitrary figure that will be way too much in some places and not enough in others is lazy and is just going to make an already bad problem even worse.

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https://twitter.com/YourAnonCentral/status/1353084401035272192?s=19

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This will only benefit big business. Small businesses won’t be able to pay this, big business will drop layoffs and everyone loses.

15$ minimum ain’t the solution.

What jobs actually pay 7.50$ anyway? My sister first job recent was McDonald’s and she was making 9.50$.

Peeps need to get off this nonsense already and find a real solution.

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That’s also a thing that varies state to state. PA is an “at will employment” state, which sounds like a nice thing but actually just means that your employer can fire you without justification whenever they want.

I don’t actually know what the solution to poverty is without some big systemic changes we’d never have the will to implement. But one big problem with setting pay by local cost of living is that you create poverty traps where people who live in the poorest places can never afford to go anywhere else.

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I almost forgot that America’s hilarious lack of a universal healthcare system like it exists in the rest of the developed world is just a way to make people ignore their equally hilarious lack of labour laws.

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Yeah Tennessee is a right to work state too. I thin the R2W this is absurd but as someone who comes from a family of teachers, unions can be almost as bad.

There is no real solution to poverty because there will always be people who are poorer than others. If everyone made $100k, $50k would be considered “poverty” because cost of living would be reflected by that. You do the Mao thing and kill all the poor, the lower middle class becomes the new poor. All you can really do is make being poor suck less. The idea I put forth in that last post is something I’ve thought a bit about and I realize it’s not perfect, but I think it makes more sense than a blanket $15/hr rate that will absolutely mean people get laid off especially in places like the town I grew up in.

:joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

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This is why I like Bernie even if I have issues with some of his politics. I have never once even so much as thought “Man, that Bernie is a real shitbag.”

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This issue is addressed in the video.

Small business should theoretically see an uptick in transactions via a larger base of potential consumers to allow them to pay 15.

The argument is paying people sub poverty level wages is exploitative in the same way as child labor, or indentured servitude.

However we now understand in the modern view that a businesses inability to survive absent of those more extreme examples is no excuse to continue those practices.

In short, if a business is not viable without exploitative practices, the business doesn’t deserve viability

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Sounds like some bullshit theoreticals with Amazon, Walmart and various other businesses simply existing.

Vid is full of the most cornball shit.

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Bernie has essentially been the same person he’s been since he got into politics 2000 years ago. What you see is what you get, and even if you don’t agree with his politics, he isn’t out to destroy the foundations of America like some Hugo Chavez-Joseph Stalin hybrid super soldier.

Similar reasoning is why I thought it was super funny that Republicans were trying to paint Biden as some radical leftist progressive AND STILL ARE EVEN AFTER THEY LOST. Biden has been the same fuddy duddy moderate Democrat for 2000 years like Bernie. Yeah, maybe that type of talk will work on a lot of the Republican base that regularly believe such hyperbole, but people can see through that garbage.

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If we’re being 100% honest about it Amazon/Walmart existence will eventually push out smaller businesses either way. Wage increase or not.

It’s a losing battle where the problem is really with those larger businesses ability to profit from anti labor practices

You’re not wrong, but then it’s silly to think bringing minimum wage to 15$ will fix that.

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