Hardkill

I don't even think that scientists and the medical community have gotten enough test results on the long-term negative effects of vaping.

I agree, especially after hearing your take on Why Bernie Sanders Lost. But I am surprised that Chomsky would make such a statement himself. I thought he was wiser, more shrewd, and at a higher level of conscious than most progressives are. Is it possible that he is not quite at solid stage Yellow himself or perhaps I am taking what he said out of context? Btw, what use are policy polls if they can't even convince enough members Congress or other politicians to pass new good laws? Or are they only useful for simply collecting data for political scientists and social science researchers?

Noam Chomsky says that Bernie is the most popular politician in the US simply because he has the most popular policies. He said in this vid down below that "Bernie would've won the Democratic Party nomination if it hadn't been for the Clinton-Obama shenanigans to keep the party from reflecting its popular constituency...." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP7mt_Ie04Y But why he say that when he is a stage Yellow thinker whom you would expect to know better than that?

Clarence Thomas also said in his opinion that the "landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered now that the federal right to abortion has been revoked." https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-justice-thomas-says-gay-rights-rulings-open-to-be-tossed.html I know you said that right-wing policies that do get enacted, particularly those that are far right, will inevitably get eliminated because of how unpopular, backwards, and authoritarian they are in general. So, then why haven't enough people been ever been furious with all of the far right economic policies that were enacted during the Reagan, Bush, and Trump eras?

Should I also stop listening to the mainstream cable news and network news channels, like MSNBC, CNN, ABC, and what have you who are also warning about the threat of Trumpism and the endangerment of other rights in America?

I can't help it when all of the fucking mainstream news channels and political Youtube channels and political Youtube channels, especially TYT, Secular Talk, and David Pakman keep sounding the alarm every single day about how our democracy is in great danger from MAGA and how our country could very well slide into fascism. Also, the progressive keep giving gloomy predications about how the Democrats are going to "bungle it up" in 2022 and 2024 and maybe even further in the future because of how weak and soft they are, and how disappointing, weak, and uncharismatic the Democratic leadership have been including Biden, Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer, while the Republican Party almost always has a stronger brand and almost always knows how to use their power ruthlessly. Pundits, donors, and the Democratic Party as a whole still cannot find any good replacements for Biden should he not run in 2024. My parents have been telling me that Desantis is probably going to be the next president which makes me even more depressed and hopeless. My dad says that he's getting sick and tired of the Democratic Party almost always put up these Democratic nominees for presidents who don't fight back hard enough and don't have enough appeal. He says that our only hope for Democrats in the future is find another impressive candidate on level of Clinton or Obama. Quite frankly, your original post on here has made me more worried. What can we do? You even said before about how approx. half of the country is poorly educated and has been stuck in a right-wing brainwashing alternative media echochamber that has rotted their minds, which does not bode well for future elections and how the alt-media echo chamber including FOX news, Breitbart, Alex Jones, Newsmax. OANN, etc. were only to be just as prevalent if not even more so. It's already scary enough that FOX news has been the most popular cable news channels in America for more than 2 decades. However, with the rapid rise of all of these extreme ring wing outlets out there and given how much each subsequent major election keeps revealing more and more and more how and under-developed the American population, I fear that the influence of the right wing media will become so profoundly frightening that it may one day take over all of the media and could end up brainwashing the vast majority of future generations of Americans. For the good of the country, this is why I really think that something must be done to stop all of these channels from corrupting and destroying the minds of countless Americans. Also, how will the Democratic party survive in the future if the Biden administration fails and the party doesn't ever find another political hero like Clinton or Obama who can save the party and save the country? Unfortunately, those exceptional people seem to show up out of nowhere only once in a generation. Even then, there's certainly no guarantee that another legendary savior will ever arise again.

There’s no real chance of Texas seceding from America. This psycho Neolithic fringe party I believe only represents a fraction of the Texas population, especially considering the fact that voter demographics of Texas as a whole has become increasingly less red since 2000. In fact, the state will inevitably turn purple after about a decade from now. It will then keep transitioning into a solid blue state for the next 10 years. Also, from what I understand the process of seceding from the USA is legally way too complicated and will require a great majority of legislatures from all of the others state, a great majority of those in both chambers of Congress and the vast majority of the great population in Texas and maybe the great majority of the voting population in all other states to agree to let the state of Texas break away from the whole country.

I don’t know what I’ll do if DeSantis becomes president in 2025. I am really scared of Biden becoming the next Jimmy Carter who lost re-election due to the perception of being too weak and having failed to control inflation and then Ron DeSantis becomes the new Ronald Reagan who shakes up the entire country for generations to come in a horrific way. DeSantis becomes president for 8 years like Reagan was president for 8 years. Then, after having a successful presidency, his Republican Vice President runs off of that success and becomes president from 2033-2037 like how GOP George H.W. Bush became right. Then, if the Democrats in 2036 still fail to find another charismatic presidential candidate like Clinton or Obama, the Republicans win another presidency for another 4 years. What if the Democratic never find another strong presidential candidate ever again or never take back the presidency by a lucky break ever again like Carter or Biden did?

Yesterday, I was talking with a friend of mine about what gonna happen when automation increasingly becomes the norm all around the world, particularly in 1st world countries. He believes that it will make poor even poorer as the rich get richer. My response to that was that it will momentarily make more poor people, but that more automation means more people are going to have no choice but to become more educated in order to learn how to operate new kinds of more advanced machinery, especially the kind that involved more automation. His response was that it was a liberal theory, I am living in a bubble, because the suffering is already happening and that many middle and working class people are not gonna get better educated when they end up living in a tent and worry about where next meal comes from. I said to him that he thinks that I am sounding idealistic, but that the thing conservatives don't accept is that given the trend history, things can never stay the same forever. He agreed with that, but said that automation is still gonna be a game changer labor force wise, he doesn't see rich lobbyists going "ok people need a living wage" hahhahaha, and that they already fight on hill they pick to die on to not raise minimum wage. He then went on saying that all of the current middle class even will be eating rats, while a taco bell meal will be 65 dollars. He also said that the rich and corporations aren't going to lift up and educate the poor. What are your thoughts on this?

Didn't Osho, who was a stage Turquoise being, have a cult of his own?

Didn't you read my posts on this thread? Look up the historical trend of the presidential elections and the US congressional elections for the states of Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Montana, and Idaho, starting from around the year 2000 and onward. You'll see how within each of those states the Democrats have kept increasing their vote share while the Republicans' margin of victory has kept declining since 2000. That's why both Georgia and Arizona shockingly already turned into purple states and look like they are on their way to becoming blue. This has been happening over the past two decades is not because the Democratic Party has done something to convince tons and tons of Democrats and liberals to moved from blue states to move in droves to these red and purple states. The reason this has been happening is because there have been many Democrats, many black people, many brown people, and many young liberal leaning people from the Northeastern states, West Coast, and urban areas of the Midwest who have been moving to these red and purple states due to financial reasons and cultural reasons. The red states are generally a lot more affordable to live in than blue states. Also, according to wikipedia, "since 1970, deindustrialization of cities in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, growth of jobs in the "New South" with lower costs of living, family, desire to reunite with specific Black cultures (such as the Gullah people), kinship ties, the perception of lessening discrimination and religious connections have all acted to attract African Americans to the Southern United States in substantial numbers." Nevertheless, I think that the Democratic Party should actually try really hard to persuade even a lot more Dems and Libs from the blue states to move to the red states. lol As, to your point about Republicans countering this by have more Repubs and Cons move from red states to blue states, unfortunately that's kind of been happening with Florida. The reason why that state has become more conservative and Republicans over the past few years is not just because of Trump and DeSantis. It also because of significant percentage of Cubans who have a great fear of socialism/communism, and the influx of conservative white retirees flocking from the Northeastern region and urban Midwest to Florida.

That's already been one of the root causes as to why the voter demographics in southern states including Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and even South Carolina have all have been shifting more towards Purple to Blue since around year 2000. Utah, Montana, and Idaho have also become increasingly less Red since 2000. According to wikipedia, due to The New Great Migration of blacks in America, which has been going on since the 1970s, "African American populations have continued to drop throughout much of the Northeast, especially from the state of New York and northern New Jersey, as they rise in the South." Many Latinos, Asians, and younger liberals have also been moving from the coastal and northeastern regions of the country to the Southern and more middle regions of the country.

I don't believe that chart is correct. Look, we need a new progressive reform era on the level of what Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, or JFK/LBJ did ASAP.

Do you have any reason to be optimistic that things will truly get better for our country in any meaningful way?

You’ve mentioned a number of times before about how devilry may win in the short-term but in the long-term it always loses. Yet, many corrupt politicians like Manchin, W. Bush, Cheney, Bill Clinton to some extent, Trump, etc. have never been punished by the criminal justice system for all of their crimes against humanity. The only punishments Trump has ever gotten was losing all of his social media platforms and losing the 2020 election despite every abominable thing he has done throughout his entire life. A lot of corrupt clergymen throughout history like the Borgia pope did countless despicable things and still lived a very long and free life without facing any accountability from anybody ever. There have been plenty of criminals who have committed some of the most heinous acts ever but never faced any justice by going to prison or even paying a heavy penalty throughout their entire lives. Numerous tyrants like Henry VIII, Putin, the North Korean Kim family, those in the House of Saud, never got their comeuppance for any of the atrocities they committed. So, could you please explain how devilry always loses in the end even if it may not always be so obvious?

At least that country seems like it has a promising stable future and has a much higher level of democracy, whereas ours is on the precipice of Armageddon. I honestly am losing so much reason have pride as an American. The USA is the most overrated country on planet and is becoming the worst 1st world country in the world to live in. Why should I even believe that the American dream is still very possible for me to achieve when the growing economic inequality and rise of authoritarianism throughout the country is only going to get continually worse for the next 2-3 decades?

I am seriously considering it. Though I don’t know how possible that would be for me.

Women have now shown themselves to be able to invent gadgets and doing logical problem solving just as well as men. So, wouldn't that actually mean that women in general have an overall greater intellect than men because they have shown themselves as intelligent as men are academically and intellectually plus they have naturally higher emotional and social intellegence than men?

This is absolutely crazy and frightening! It is looking bad now, but there have been varying opinions from many top economists. Some are saying that inflation will eventually come down by next year with a severe recession, some are saying that it will go back down to normal with a mild recession, and some others are saying that inflation may come down by some soft landing. I thought that polls were also showing that Trump has been losing a lot of steam from the GOP. After everything that has happened with the Republican Party since the 70s including the Nixon Watergate scandal and his resignation, the scandal and resignation of his first VP Spiro Agnew, the disastrous presidency of Bush jr. and the 20008 financial having been on the Republican Party's watch, and all of the devilry that Trump caused, having been banned from all social media platforms, and how much he damaged his own reputation and that of the entire GOP....I mean, if the majority of the electorate won't ever care about any of that, then does that mean our country could be electorally doomed for the next 2-3 decades? Could this also mean that we can even count on the younger generation of Republicans to replace the older generation Republicans as more evolved voters? Should progressives just totally give up on their crusade for a progressive era and the entire Democratic Party instead needs to actually shift even further to the right like the Clintonian Democrats did with the whole party in the 90s in order to compete with the GOP in the future? Or are we going to need some kind of nationwide movement like the civil right movements that succeeded in the past in order to stop the terrorism of MAGA and the GOP and save our democracy and avoid the disastrous consequences of climate change? Or do we need to let the GOP cause such untold suffering and profound horrors in our society for 20-50 years with their abominable fascist policies in order to make enough poor saps in America finally realize how dangerous and monstrous the Republican Party has become? Or can we only pray that the Democrats get a strong presidential candidate in the future like Bill Clinton, if not one who has historic levels of charisma like Obama despite the chances of that ever happening are probably very slim?

Economy is still very strong with a very tight labor market, but yeah inflation has been hurting democrats politically. But you did say before that enough people are now aware of Trump's con: You also said before that: You even told me before when I got worried about Trump being able to run again that:

I think that most Republican voters either still won't believe that Trump was behind it all and instead will keep believing the right-wing conspiracy theories that say that the insurrectionists were all Antifa or some other kind of extreme left wing organization. Even if most Republicans voters do end up finally believing that Trump was totally responsible for this, they may still may rationalize it in their minds as being justifiable because it was all for the greater good of the country and the GOP.

Of course, Fox News didn't cover it. Fucking scum of the earth. Tragically, Given that Fox News is the most popular cable news channel in the US and the rise of many other right-wing echo chambers out there that millions upon millions of other folks have been trapped in for years, I am worried that these public hearings won't even be disseminated to at least half of the people in America. Besides, virtually every conservative in America won't want to watch or acknowledge these public hearings. Also, I am not sure that a majority of swing and independent voters, who generally lean to the right, will seeing or realizing how dangerous the right-wing has gotten even if they watched these hearings. For some odd reason, most of these voters have in recent months been favoring the Republican Party more than Democratic Party even after everything abominable thing that Trump, his cronies, the right-wing terrorists, and so many other deranged Republicans have all already done over the past few years. Hopefully I am wrong.

No doubt was Jackson an extremely racist slaveowner. However, his nationwide expansion of democracy to every white man in the country regardless of class, money, background, etc. was such a historic step forward for America that fundamentally changed all of society for the better right after the Jeffersonian era. I don't see how I am cherry picking dates and events, when each of those periods I mentioned in my first post all FUNDAMENTALLY REFORMED THE STRUCTURE OF ALL OF THE USA approximately every 10 to 30 years. Legalizing gay marriage in every state is definitely some kind of significant progress just like Obamacare and Dodd-Frank were too. However, all of those progressive wins along with every other positive smaller things that happened during the Obama era all together still didn't end up creating nearly as much progress for society as Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal did or as much as Wilson's New Freedom agenda, or as much as the New Deal programs did, or as much as the Great society policies did. That's one major reason why many people including many liberals, many black and brown people, and many poor people in the US have felt like Obama let them all down. By no means were TR (Teddy Roosevelt), Wilson, FDR, and JFK/LBJ perfect, but I don't think that most people have ever really believed or said that any of those guys let them down when it came to domestic affairs. It's only been hard conservatives who have hated everything those presidents did. I mean our country desperately needs to undergo some kind of progressive historic transformation on the level that each of those legendary presidents were each able to accomplish during their times as president in the 1900s. I know that this hasn't happened since around 1969 because no liberal president since then has ever had the votes that either TR, Wilson, FDR, or LBJ had with Congress. But isn't there some way that we can get those massive amount of votes in both chambers of Congress needed for some kind liberal or progressive president who would be able and willing to pass a flood of new laws that would make dramatic structural reforms for America that people like me are talking about?

I've just realized that according to US history, ever since the very beginning of America, there have been eras of fundamental social, political, and economic reforms that have occurred about 10 to 30 years. - (1789 - 1820s): George Washington became elected as the country's very first president, approximately 13 years after America officially gained complete independence and sovereignty. Also, a bill of rights was created in 1789 and then permanently ratified for all white citizens in 1791. Additionally, the Jeffersonian democracy movement began in the 1790s. This movement stressed the fundamental importance of American Republicanism for all white American citizens. By 1801, it dominated all of US politics and government until the 1820s. - (1825 - 1854): Jacksonian Democracy emerged in 1925, which was a nationwide movement that lead to universal white male suffrage over the next few decades. - (1865 - 1877): Occurred right after the Civil War ended. During this time the Union gradually readmitted all of the Southern states back into the US. Also, the US government enacted the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments in the US Constitution, which respectively abolish slavery, gave black and brown people a significant amount of citizenship rights and equal protection under the law, and gave black and brown people some basic voting rights. Additionally, the Republican Party promoted big government spending for the development of nationwide infrastructure and a national banking system. - (1890 - 1916): The Progressive era. Massive government reforms were made that addressed nationwide problems caused by widespread industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption. Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson were the three progressive presidents of the era. - (1933 -1938): The New Deal era. FDR's domestic policies resulted in transformative heroic government policies and programs that created much needed public work projects, tremendous amounts of financial reforms, and sweeping amounts of regulations for all of Americans right after the Great Depression. - (1964 -1969): The Great Society era. LBJ's progressive domestic polices during this period were as immense if not greater than FDR's domestic agenda. One of these policies include the historic 1964 Civil rights and voting rights act of 1965, both of which finally gave blacks throughout the entire country true full US citizenship and near full voting rights. Other Great Society laws that got passed by Congress during this time included Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act, policies that significantly addressed education, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, and more. There may have been other historic periods in the US history I didn't here that may that may have fundamentally reformed the country as well. Yet, since 1970, we haven't had another historic era of fundamental social, political, and economic reforms on the level of any of these above mentioned ones for 50+ years. Furthermore, it used to be the case that Congress and state legislatures enacted a new constitutional amendment at a minimum of every few years to about every 40 years at the most. It's now been 51 years since we had any new constitutional amendments added to the US constitution that would meaningfully improve the lives of all Americans. Plus, the kind of social, political, and economic issues that America is going through right now is really resembling that of what happened back during the Gilded Age, which right away led to the Progressive era at the turn of the 20th century. So, is it possible that a new kind of historic era of progressive government infrastructure reform could be coming sometime in the foreseeable future for America?

So, no progressive era soon?