America

[Donny osmond]

I think, this weather, we should have a thread about america, with apologies to Coco who seems a generally alright sort, and why it's perceived around the world as a deeply fucked up place.

Here's a pic doing the rounds on twitter about what happened in Charlotteville last night. It's 2017.



The circle of flaming torches is entirely made up of white people. Its hard to see clearly but in the middle of the circle is a small (7-9 folk) line of people, also white, with a banner that reads "VA against white supremacy". These brave souls are hiding their faces so the burning torch folks wont know who they are. It's 2017. 20-freakin-17.

Aside from judging all of America by this one, quite small, demo, we could ask how far are we in the UK away from slipping back into full dipshit thinking of times past? I worry that we're getting closer, with all the nationalism flying around and people willing to believe clearly made up crap like £350mill to the nhs and what not.

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[canta_brian]

Make America Great again

[Mikey Brown]

Every single person in America is a massive racist.

[Donny osmond]

Charlottesville would appear to be going right down the crapper, with unofficial armed militia having a free run of the streets.


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[morepork]

These people are scum. What sort of civilised society allows people to roam the streets with assault rifles chanting hate for other races. Fucking ridiculous.


Where is the fat orange baby in all of this? Not a peep.

[Donny osmond]

Speaking of other races, lets remember what happened when black america stood up for itself...



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[Donny osmond]

Compare and contrast

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[morepork]

He has to take ownership of this. This is ugly and must be dealt with now. No more bullshit. If he can't deal with it then he needs to step aside.

[Donny osmond]

I'd say this is his hurricane katrina moment but that actually didnt seem to be much of a moment for dubya so maybe anything is just manageable these days.

Just watched video footage of a car being driven into a crowd. If that isnt terrorism u dont know what is.... we'll just see how it's handled shall we.

Himself has tweeted about it... cant quite bring himself to condemn his core vote tho.



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[morepork]

Completely fucking bottled it. ~12 minutes in.

This is unacceptable. Any one that calls me a snowflake a libtard or any other little deflective buzzword needs to take a long hard look at themselves. This utter absence of anything resembling an appropriate response is unacceptable and indefensible. A nation of immigrants with institionalised racism incited from the very top. Fucking disgusting.

[Donny osmond]

After sandy hook and such I didnt think america could sink much lower but this is really really taking it down. Nazis walking the streets with automatic weapons unchecked and chanting "Seig Heil", the weakest possible comment from POTUS, on the back of months of tacit, or even open, encouragement from thea GOP.

Fuck America. Apologies to the millions of good guys left there but really, fuck America.

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[Digby]

My what a big signature he has

[WaspInWales]

My what a big signature he has

He has the biggest letters and the biggest signature...the best.

[WaspInWales]

Seems a bit of a piss poor way to organise things by having the vets, including a quite old fella just standing around for over 30 minutes waiting for his lordship and another 15 minutes while he waffles, just so they can have the honour of 'arguing over' who gets his pen.

Probably harsh to blame Trump for them having the stand the entire time, and they may have been stood there for a while before the stream started but some bright spark with people skills could've offered them a seat whilst they waited.

[Digby]

My what a big signature he has

He has the biggest letters and the biggest signature...the best.

So good it seemed he almost forgot he had a chance to use it in attempting to walk off without doing the actual signing. If could be an optical illusion I suppose, and it's a normal signature made large only by tiny hands

[cashead]

Your president is a pissbaby.

[WaspInWales]

Nice to see the WH trying their best to dig their wanker-in-chief out of yet another hole.

[Which Tyler]

[Coco]

No apologies necessary... Everyone has their own perception, understanding, and opinions on The United States of America, and its their right to have them.. I dont take it personal.

[caldeyrfc]

While it is right to point out what is bad in parts of US society I do think we are being a bit hypocritical, while we don't have people roaming the streets armed to the teeth with guns we do have some pretty nasty racist people living in this country

[Digby]

While it is right to point out what is bad in parts of US society I do think we are being a bit hypocritical, while we don't have people roaming the streets armed to the teeth with guns we do have some pretty nasty racist people living in this country

52% or so, so yep, we're hardly doing well.

[Stom]

I do think the majority of this racism is simply people being scared. They have no idea what they're going to do with their lives. They have no real job opportunities, mounting debt, a lack of universal healthcare, and a general feeling of stagnation. Immigrants and foreigners are a lightning rod for their fears. As are the metropolitan elite.

In the UK, two of those points are not so much of a problem. There is the NHS, and personal debt levels are nothing like the US. But people are still scared. That's what creates the opportunity for people like Farage or Trump to push through their ideology, and to manipulate people into doing things that only benefit Farage or Trump, etc.

It's the same here. People are scared. Outside of Budapest, which is thriving, there are no jobs, there are no opportunities, and people have no money. No wonder they are scared for their future. No wonder propaganda can eat its way into their mind and turn them into lackeys. But this is a different situation to the US or the UK. There are more factors here that the US or UK do not have to put up with.

So much of these issues, this racism, this violence, can be quashed with just a little bit of equality. The world has gone to shit with the lowering of corporation tax the world over, giant conglomerates sitting on billions of dollars of funds that could be used to help these people on the streets.

[Donny osmond]

While it is right to point out what is bad in parts of US society I do think we are being a bit hypocritical, while we don't have people roaming the streets armed to the teeth with guns we do have some pretty nasty racist people living in this country

Fair point there are parts of UK society that would make you think "fuck the uk" but we dont, currently, have police who arrest unarmed peaceful protestors of one colour but look the other way when another colour tool up and march the streets chanting seig heil. Before anyone puts words in my mouth, I'm not white washing any of the problems our police do demonstrate. We also dont have tooled up seig heil-ers being enabled at the highest levels of government. Yet. These things might be in the pipe line and, as you say, we've plenty to be ashamed of, but we arent there yet.

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[morepork]

While it is right to point out what is bad in parts of US society I do think we are being a bit hypocritical, while we don't have people roaming the streets armed to the teeth with guns we do have some pretty nasty racist people living in this country

Fair point there are parts of UK society that would make you think "fuck the uk" but we dont, currently, have police who arrest unarmed peaceful protestors of one colour but look the other way when another colour tool up and march the streets chanting seig heil. Before anyone puts words in my mouth, I'm not white washing any of the problems our police do demonstrate. We also dont have tooled up seig heil-ers being enabled at the highest levels of government. Yet. These things might be in the pipe line and, as you say, we've plenty to be ashamed of, but we arent there yet.

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I think you've been there in the past mate....hence the incredulity of it happening again here and now somewhere else. Fuck, NZ troops gunned down Samoans in Apia in 1929 after some spectacularly inept handling of health infrastructure. The fact that this shit is still happening in the USA should be proof positive that racial tension is still taught, and is a major factor in infrastructure shortcomings. The USA needs a leader different from the unmitigated fuckwit they have now. It's time to grow up, but the madness of the second amendment in this country needs balls, spine, and nuance to deal with, none of which the current administration possess.

[WaspInWales]

I knew it was the alt-left's fault all along.

*Can Trump get any more deranged?

* = Rhetorical question.