Political Venting

Just tune it all out.

If ignorance is bliss, please, I'll take a dose of it.
Hoping you can all find some serenity in this chaotic world.
There's a wonderful video of some Special Olympics kids running a race.
One of them falls and struggles to get going. All of the others stop racing and rush back to their fallen racemate.
They all help and encourage their friend and journey to the finish line together as one.
That's my happy place right now.
Just for tonight I'm replacing venting with happy thoughts.
There are good people.
There are good outcomes.
Good night all.
Better tomorrows!

It's been a long time since I checked in here and I was surprised to find this conversation.

A couple of things, based on personal experience. Speaking as someone who's gone to as many protests as I could, I have seen no violence. A few people drive by & shout insults, as is their right. I have seen no evidence of paid protestors. I get newsletters from maybe a half dozen groups that are involved in what you might call "the resistance" and have never seen or heard anything about anyone wanting to hire protestors. Maybe I'm missing something but it kind of seems like I'd have run across an opportunity to get paid if that were a common thing.

On what went on in Minneapolis. From here (that would be the middle of the state, not the metro area) It really looked like a performance created to produce an effect. Maybe not the one they got. One retired law enforcement person I heard interviewed early on commented that it seemed, to him, that if you wanted to detain "the worst of the worst" it might be better to sneak up on them. Made sense to me. Instead, they had around 3000 people in paramilitary garb descend on the state. Wearing masks, no identification, in groups, etc. I'm going to attach a link to an article covering the most recent stats on "Operation Metro Surge". They did, indeed, get some people with criminal records. Most were people without any criminal record that's been tracked down yet. Beyond that, they did things like break down doors and drag people from their homes, Could be they did it to "the worst of the worst" but they also did it to people who were here legally, in some cases because they are citizens. They also dragged people out of their cars for a range of things. Including following their vehicles on public streets. In at least one case, a woman on her way to a doctor appointment, (She got hurt in the process.) I really don't think this was a bug, I think it was a feature. I think it's the actions of a bully, designed to intimidate. The thing I've probably gotten out of all this the most is a stronger recognition of how much I dislike bullies.

It's easy to go "all conspiracy theory" on all for this, for all sides. I guess it's what humans do when they try to make sense of things without accurate, trustworthy information. The Iran deal? IDK, seems like it works well for Netanyahu and Putin. And the rich oil guys in the US too. I have no idea what words coming from the administration they actually believe and which ones they just want us to believe. I just can't see a way this relates to "the greater good". Looks to me like it works best for the billionaire club (which might also be the Epstein club. Operation Metro Surge

scout86 said:

Looks to me like it works best for the billionaire club (which might also be the Epstein club.

Click to expand...

Naive Sideways would totally buy the line that the US has gone into Iran to prevent an imminent nuclear threat. This version of me would probs need to forget that Operation Midnight Hammer was a thing…!

Pragmatic Sideways would probably assume that this is about oil, like Venezuela was about oil. Which is a bit tragic, because (cough), that’s backfiring a wee bit with the way it’s playing out atm…

Cynical Sideways raises an eyebrow and thinks, “Whelp, that was one way to get the public and media to stop talking about the Epstein files…”.

I’m like you - I’m not sure there’s all that much distinction between Pragmatic me and Cynical me!

Either way, I’m not into bullies either. Threatening to destroy a country’s water supply if their government doesn’t capitulate to demands about their nuclear program? Threatening to bomb a country ‘back to the stone age’? Seems like a competition between Hegseth and Trump to see which one will be remembered by history as the most cruel and tyrannical. Is that as far as civilisation has got us? If so, let the robots take over.

People are so hurt and angry it seems so polarized that they are on a path to self destruction.. So sure their beliefs and opinions are right even if someone else is harmed. I saw 2 examples of this is in my small rural community. Democrats have been just as guilty. No one can seem to stop before speaking or acting. This scares me. Very much. If I could I would leave the US. The message I am hearing is either I am a victim or I am not going to change because I am busy trying to control other people so they change. Or possibly also I will not change till I die. I just want to cry.
.
.

I don't agree with war, because I've been to them. I do think action had to be taken against Iran. I am disappointed that other countries refuse to help with the strait of hormuz issue. Many countries were afraid Iran was going to set off a nuke in one of them, America did something about it, but they all refuse to just help secure that straight so ships can freely flow. Nobody is asking them to get involved directly, but indirectly, to ensure the world isn't in a fuel crisis. As a result, you now have Iran claiming they will impose a $1m tax on every ship to safely travel through it, otherwise they will sink it. Too much power to a country that affects the entire world.

Don't agree with war, yet something had to be done about the issue. I guess back seat driving always happens, whatever decision is made, and people everywhere have their opinion. Sanctions haven't worked in decades... so that was not the solution.

I can't help but think that a big part of the reason other countries aren't willing and ready to help is the way things have been handled. In the world I move through everyday, if I ever want someone to help me, I try to avoid insulting them. I'm referring to things like the whole "NATO has never been there for us" thing. That's either a lie or the President is terribly misinformed, take your pick. Not the kind of thing that makes people ready and willing to leap to your aid. Then there's the way it was approached. No attempt at cooperation or anything like that, the US and Israel just start bombing. If I was the leader of another country, I guess I'd be hesitating to get involved because it's far from clear what's going to happen next and who's going to be orchestrating it. It's also not totally clear what's involved in reopening the strait.

I read an article recently (can't remember where, sorry) that quoted a US general (retired) who had been responsible for war gaming a scenario like this one and dealing with the question of how to open the Strait of Hormuz. He said the best plan they had come up with involved ground troops taking control of all the land on the Iranian side of the strait and holding it. He said that would be difficult. But I wonder if that wasn't planned out before drones were as big a deal as they are now. I don't know that. Whatever the case, it sounds like it's not an easy fix.This is one of those places where I wonder if the administration actually knows what it's doing. Either we "obliterated" the nuclear threat, or we didn't. Either we've destroyed their weaponry, or we haven't. Either we can do this on our own, or we can't. The administration keeps going back and forth on all that. Are they lying, confused, or something else? It's a big ask to ask people to follow leadership where those kinds of things aren't clear. (Past administrations have at least been able to construct lies that were convincing in the short term.)

I think action had to be taken against Iran. But as I've said before it wasn't Nato's fight. Nato is a Defensive force and us fighting Iran would have proved Putin right that Nato is an aggressive force. Trump has already bailed on Europe leaving us to deal with Putin alone. Also Russia and China are backing Iran. It could get messy. Well have to see how the situation plays out.

Trump seems to be doing a real good job of insulting his friends and allies at the moment. Frustrated that we are only prepared to go so far in the new world order etc... and won't jump to his every whim. America and Israel caused the problem. Why can't they sort it out? I mean as far as I know, alot more ships are now getting through and I know alot of troops have been sent there to occupy the islands (oil stations) etc... Iran has taken a "scorched earth" reaction to its neighbours and countries that helped in its demise. We didn't want to be involved in that, we've got other problems to worry about.

I was listening to Prof David Cay Johnston, and he was saying that about 65% of Americans are reading and writing at a 5th Grade level. 1 in 3 of those Americans are reading and writing at an 8-year-old level. So, they don't have the ability to engage in abstract thinking. They are stuck in concrete thinking. They are low information voters who often only read the headlines.

Robert Reich said that 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They work 2-3 jobs over 6-7 days. Then they pay rent and skip meals so their children can eat. They are one medical emergency away from homelessness. Many often can't get to vote, they can't miss a shift.

Both Reich and Johnston discuss in podcasts and articles how both Dems and Reps brought this about by conspiring together to use the neoliberalist "Poverty as a Policy Choice" for the last 50 years. Enough food for all citizens could have prevented the rise of Trumpism. I wonder what historians will write in 100 years. It is so infuriating.

I’m going to push back a bit on the claim about dumb Americans. Having difficulty reading does not translate to inability to think abstractly. Adults think abstractly about a variety of things, have careers and support their families without being highly proficient readers.

Also, time scarcity affects everyone’s ability to think critically, not just poor people’s.

There has been a movement toward policies that favor the market on both sides of the aisle, but their motivations vary—it hasn’t been a consolidated effort. Globalization and technology were major factors which contributed to the outcomes too.

Food (assuming you mean social welfare?) is not the *thing* that could have prevented Trump and other leaders like him. People from a wide range of income levels supported him who felt economic frustration, concerns about identity politics, distrustful of institutions as they had been run, and distrustful of media messages. People without college degrees were more likely to support him but living without a college degree does not equal lack of abstract thinking or poor.

The systems in place became overwhelmingly complex to navigate and Trump’s message was to simplify it all—for better or worse. It wasn’t a bipartisan evil plan against the poor, although policy decisions on both sides did exacerbate inequality. I don’t see those policy decisions as being coordinated but I do see how they contributed to people choosing leaders like Trump.

Good news is that Trump and Iran have a deal and Hormuz is open again. Trump did the right thing in telling them a deadline to bomb their infrastructure... Iran needed their infrastructure, it would have broke them without bridges and power. For all his issues, he is the master of the deal.

On the phone last Sunday and 1week later today 4/12/26 to the senators and congress members my state about trumps comments get the ... out of hormuz. Today he says he is going to block hormuz. Centrum to be there in the morning to begin. This is a psychiatric emergency that so many people support this him and this psychopathology. What happened to critical thinking. Does anyone glance at his posts on truth social. The entitlement. The rage. The lack of impulse control..Does anyone see how families friends relationships marriages have been torn apart by this how many people are traumatized by this over and over. Never mind if you had ptsd before all this. What about how HR 1 has torn apart healthcare medicaid snap etc..Does anyone hope to be a part of the future and able to say at our version of thr Nuremberg trials you should not have done this? Where is our moral compass our sense of agency sense of self control. Who has thr courage to be non compliant and non violent in trying to manage all this chaos. I still have some survivors guilt from my catastrophic illness. I never had moral injury. And I do not want that..
.
.