International Current Affairs (#BidenIn)

[wendybr]

2 hours ago, Edinburgh said:

Praise be .....

Pfffft!

[sonar]

One can only hope.....

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/new-york-attorney-general-looks-to-put-the-nra-out-of-business-20200807-p55jdw.html

[mack]

Their leader spent $13.5 million (USD) in 6 years on "travel consultants". Not even the actual travel.

[StringerBellend]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/german-nudist-chases-wild-boar-that-stole-laptop-berlin-teufelssee?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1wsWfbd66ME8UgrUICtHmcWwkdInBWHddTEzSpKNwvcbhvE5QbxC_a2GE#Echobox=1596809259

In European News

[MartinTyler]

2 hours ago, StringerBellend said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/german-nudist-chases-wild-boar-that-stole-laptop-berlin-teufelssee?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1wsWfbd66ME8UgrUICtHmcWwkdInBWHddTEzSpKNwvcbhvE5QbxC_a2GE#Echobox=1596809259

In European News

He was worried about his hard drive....

[StringerBellend]

Apparently an eyewitness said he hasn’t  seen anything like it since Vedran Janetevic running out of his area in the Sydney derby 

Edited August 7, 2020 by StringerBellend

[marron]

I would have said the same, if the guy didn't corner the pig, and it was then discovered that the pig had made off with the man's rubbish bag and that his laptop was actually still sitting safely on his picnic rug. And then when he was walking back to his spot he had tripped over someone and been charged with sexual assault. 

[StringerBellend]

the old it’s got my laptop excuse, If it was the UK I’d have assumed it was a Tory cabinet minister 

[pseudonym]

[wendybr]

Brilliant...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

[Cynth]

2 hours ago, wendybr said:

Brilliant...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

Wow. Fascinating and well written article, 

[pseudonym]

This is a bad take

[marron]

Ferguson's an idiot in general.

[Neverbloom]

not going to lie i know **** all about Harris but her being biden's running mate has stirred up a hornet's nest, apparently she was very mean to trump so she has that going for her

[marron]

also massive international news:

 

Tim Bailey axed from channel 10.

[mack]

Picking Kamala is two main reasons, shoring up the idpol focused white college educated women vote and trying to counteract some of the trump "Biden weak on crime" attacks based on her old job as a california attorney general. 

[Davo]

Plus during the Democratic primaries Harris landed a few blows over racism and bussing which the Republicans could use against Biden. Kinda neutralises that if on top of being VP to America’s first black president he also has a woman of colour on his ticket.

[EmMac]

On 08/08/2020 at 9:16 PM, wendybr said:

Brilliant...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

A fabulous article

From the article,

"COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs essential for tracking the disease. The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led the world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to a laughing stock as a buffoon of a president advocated the use of household disinfectants as a treatment for a disease that intellectually he could not begin to understand."

Sorry its so good I have to quote it again

"The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness."

Cult of the individual.....so true

 

[MartinTyler]

21 hours ago, marron said:

also massive international news:

 

Tim Bailey axed from channel 10.

Ripe for a logie then !!

[wendybr]

3 hours ago, EmMac said:

A fabulous article

From the article,

"COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs essential for tracking the disease. The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led the world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to a laughing stock as a buffoon of a president advocated the use of household disinfectants as a treatment for a disease that intellectually he could not begin to understand."

Sorry its so good I have to quote it again

"The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness."

Cult of the individual.....so true

 

Those quoted sections, especially the second,  jumped out at me too.

The idea that the "cult of the individual denies not only the community, but the idea of society" is such a threat to  human wellbeing, and must be fairly unprecedented in human history, I would think.

[mack]

It's hardly a new problem. Thatcher the evil witch believed "there is no society" in order to justify the moral emptiness of her horrendously destructive ideology of privatisation, smashing workers rights & organised labour and redistribution of wealth to the very top while slashing services & support for the lowest of citizens.

[wendybr]

10 minutes ago, mack said:

It's hardly a new problem. Thatcher the evil witch believed "there is no society" in order to justify the moral emptiness of her horrendously destructive ideology of privatisation, smashing workers rights & organised labour and redistribution of wealth to the very top while slashing services & support for the lowest of citizens.

You could be right, but surely it must be a fairly new phenomenon for many to assert their individual rights above those of their community. It is anti survival, I would have thought.

[MartinTyler]

1 hour ago, mack said:

It's hardly a new problem. Thatcher the evil witch believed "there is no society" in order to justify the moral emptiness of her horrendously destructive ideology of privatisation, smashing workers rights & organised labour and redistribution of wealth to the very top while slashing services & support for the lowest of citizens.

Whilst I wouldn't say that Thatcher was the reason for us emigrating, living through the Thatcher era certainly made our decision easier !!

[StringerBellend]

3 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

Whilst I wouldn't say that Thatcher was the reason for us emigrating, living through the Thatcher era certainly made our decision easier !!

My family emigrated due to the impacts of Thatcher, it wasn’t a political protest it was we have three boys and there are no jobs in Liverpool, the city is being left to rot 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/30/thatcher-government-liverpool-riots-1981

The yanks didn’t invent this just as they didn’t invent punk 

 

 

 

 

 

[StringerBellend]

1 hour ago, wendybr said:

You could be right, but surely it must be a fairly new phenomenon for many to assert their individual rights above those of their community. It is anti survival, I would have thought.

Nothing new it’s Thatcher again 

They see it as survival of the fittest 

[pseudonym]

I'd say that individualistic streak has been there for a while

Barry Goldwater, Ayn Rand, Reagan 

 

[wendybr]

5 hours ago, StringerBellend said:

Nothing new it’s Thatcher again 

They see it as survival of the fittest 

Yes....I know one side of politics asserts that sort of mentality.

But, I'm talking about at the level of the ordinary person, with many citizens simply asserting that their individual rights outweigh the overall good of the community.

Eg with protests against wearing masks, refusal to stay at home instead of socialising, during a pandemic etc.

Surely, societies haven't ever celebrated individual entitlement above the greater good?

 

[StringerBellend]

6 hours ago, wendybr said:

Yes....I know one side of politics asserts that sort of mentality.

But, I'm talking about at the level of the ordinary person, with many citizens simply asserting that their individual rights outweigh the overall good of the community.

Eg with protests against wearing masks, refusal to stay at home instead of socialising, during a pandemic etc.

Surely, societies haven't ever celebrated individual entitlement above the greater good?

 

I get what you are saying and yes it is different now in the Facebook, Insta era of narcissism. Also social media gives all the nutters a platform.

Trump is the first Twitter President etc. So I agree that the level or at least the visibility of it is different, I guess the style is different but the substance is the same.

But we have always had anti vaxxers for all example, people have voted down selfish what’s in it for me lines ever since I can remember. Your mate is just Miranda Devine with a MacBook Pro (sorry had to put that in)

I don’t think it’s really new just presented differently 

as for

”Surely, societies haven't ever celebrated individual entitlement above the greater good?”

Thatcher was individual entitlement over the greater good, and she got in for three terms 

[marron]

The bigger gap now I think is the point at which people seem to genuinely believe that some level of greater good is not going to help their individual situation.

And of course the belief that in a dog eat dog world they will not get eaten themselves.

[EmMac]

On 13/08/2020 at 7:14 PM, pseudonym said:

I'd say that individualistic streak has been there for a while

Barry Goldwater, Ayn Rand, Reagan 

 

Yes more Ayn Rand libertarian, than Thatcherism in my mind.