The state of democracy in America

Discussion in 'Politics' started by VicBee, Sep 10, 2023.

  1. VicBee

    VicBee

    Interrelated or too complicated for you to process. The only interrelation is they come from the same region. The poor souls trying to make their ways to the US illegally may look the same as the thugs processing drugs but they aren't. They're actually also victims of the drug cartels who terrorize them out of their countries.
    But something tells me that, again, you don't give two shits, because your issue is with too many brown Spanish speaking people invading the land your kind also emigrated to probably less than 200 years ago.
     
    #21     Sep 14, 2023
  2. You should read Don Winslow's Cartel trilogy, which he researched for several years before putting pen to paper. The three books, comprising just over 2,000 pages are an amazing read. Fiction, but everything describing the drug cartels has actually happened. The horrific scenes he describes have all been documented; he just changed the names , and exercised poetic license for dialogue and story lines. Especially in the last installment of the series, Winslow goes into the issue of the losing battle of keeping drugs from entering the US. A sturdier border would do nothing. It's an eye-opener. And, just to repeat, an amazing read. I was riveted from start to finish.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2023
    #22     Sep 14, 2023
    VicBee likes this.
  3. Bugenhagen

    Bugenhagen

    And prisons know how drugs come in but they also can't prevent it.

    Amercians want drugs, they are on average not victims in the true sense. In Colombia the people have very limited problems with drugs because the desire to take drugs is relatively low despite them being easily available. It's even not illegal to have up to a gram of cocaine on you.

    So why is America such a pain in the ass to everybody else hoovering up all the drugs?
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2023
    #23     Sep 14, 2023
    Frederick Foresight likes this.
  4. That's the thing. It is more of a demand problem, whereas authorities are too preoccupied with the supply problem. Addressing the demand problem requires a lot more introspection of the systemic issues that need addressing. Focusing exclusively on the border is the kind of first-order thinking that Trump is known for. And Trump hasn't ever seen a problem that he couldn't make worse.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2023
    #24     Sep 14, 2023
    VicBee and Bugenhagen like this.
  5. Bugenhagen

    Bugenhagen

    Could it be also a cycle of criminalisation designed to incarcerate as much as the population as possible that is uniquely Amercian?

    The way losing your voting rights with a record happens to Amercians but not other democracies?

    Amercia which happened to be 2nd to last to give up apartheid and kept on with redline policies etc. A bit of gerrymandering sans maps?
     
    #25     Sep 14, 2023
  6. Certainly doesn't help, especially with the privatization of prisons, which have an incentive to maximize incarceration and the lobbies that promote it.

    Fortunately, that's now down to just two states, which are 2 states too many:

    On the plus side, as of 2018, most U.S. states had policies to restore voting rights upon completion of a sentence. Only a couple states — Iowa, and Virginia specifically — permanently disenfranchised a felony convict and 6 other states limited restoration based on crimes of "moral turpitude."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement_in_the_United_States#:~:text=As of 2018, most U.S.,Supreme Court in Richardson v.

    I'm not sure I understand.
     
    #26     Sep 14, 2023
  7. Bugenhagen

    Bugenhagen

    As of 2018 but going on memory here looking it up a few weeks ago in a chat with a friend it was 31 states in 2000 had perminent disenfranchisement?

    In 2000 disenfranchised black males account for 35 percent of all barred from voting because of felony convictions.

    Using the stopping an ocean liner changing course inertia analogy with society, states are finally getting on a better track but it's going to take a long time to see a drop in demand.

    In any case, I'm in jail myself today as I put in a kitchenette in the forge at a counter height that was comfortable for me and the wife who picked out the laminate is cross it "looks weird". :) I cook the dinner a lot but have been wasting a time leaving the forge just to do that. She can f-off, six feet tall herself, I thought she would appreciate it. :)
     
    #27     Sep 14, 2023
    Frederick Foresight likes this.
  8. Indeed. And that's why I think many on the Right have "issues" with CRT; they just want to say, "Look! All better!"
     
    #28     Sep 14, 2023
    Bugenhagen likes this.
  9. Bugenhagen

    Bugenhagen

    I dot know if you had it in Canada but the UK show Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister taught everybody about mandarins in the civil service, the real deep state in a way who were capable of engineering society over decades.
     
    #29     Sep 14, 2023
  10. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    timestamped:

     
    #30     Sep 14, 2023
    Frederick Foresight likes this.