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2020 US candidates
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04-02-2020, 07:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-02-2020, 07:04 PM by Dānu.)
2020 US candidates (04-02-2020, 05:02 PM)mordant Wrote:(04-02-2020, 03:32 PM)Dānu Wrote:(04-02-2020, 03:14 PM)Tres Leches Wrote: It would be great if the flaws in the ways things are run in the US change but I don't have much hope that it will. There are too many people that believe other Americans who are in dire straits did something to deserve it. Could you provide some illustrations of what you mean when you say that thinking and institutional responses on these issues are still medieval in practical terms? While there are certainly going to be practical obstacles, particularly in democracies, as well as a spread from conservative to liberal amounts of change and thinking, I think any figurative Overton window on these issues has moved significantly over the past century. So I don't know what it is that you are referring to here.
Mountain-high though the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but Mâyâ.
Fear not — it is banished. Crush it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies. Vivekananda (04-02-2020, 07:03 PM)Dānu Wrote: Could you provide some illustrations of what you mean when you say that thinking and institutional responses on these issues are still medieval in practical terms? While there are certainly going to be practical obstacles, particularly in democracies, as well as a spread from conservative to liberal amounts of change and thinking, I think any figurative Overton window on these issues has moved significantly over the past century. So I don't know what it is that you are referring to here. There is still a great deal of stigma attached to having mental health problems. In general private insurance still tends to not cover mental health care as well as other types of health issues. Then there is the influence of big pharma and the tendency to try to medicate all mental health problems away rather than get at root causes of things like depression. It is not entirely, or even mostly, for most people, a simple "chemical imbalance" for which Magic Pills exist. For more on this, read most anything by Johann Hari on the topic. He's probably the best at arguing that particular case. My son had a diagnosed personality disorder which assessment we had to pay for out of pocket to a private provider. But when it came to getting him the services and aid that he needed to function and progress and manage his situation, he ended up getting funneled into the county mental health system in our area, where he had a doctor who was hostile to involving me as a parent / immediate family member and support person, and who simply wanted to medicate him until he conformed. When he did not respond, they escalated him to an older drug with a very narrow therapeutic window and then did not closely manage it. He overdosed -- whether entirely by accident or, more likely, part of some personal experimentation on this part, I'll never know -- and dropped dead at work of sudden cardiac arrest. So yeah I tend to see the mental health system as ham fisted, tone deaf and, sure, medieval. I have similar stories to tell about my son's biological mother, my first wife. The system seems structured to be over simplified for the convenience and economy of the providers, who mostly collect money without having any accountability for results. After our divorce, they turned my wife into a Thorazine zombie and put her to work cleaning offices in a state-run for-profit enterprise. I couldn't have spared her that even if I'd had the wherewithal at the time, since near as I can tell that's one of the better outcomes one can expect with her particular constellation of symptoms. If that's not a crude and inhumane state of affairs, I don't know what is.
04-05-2020, 09:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-05-2020, 10:00 PM by Dom.)
2020 US candidates
We need Yang and his money distribution just about now. Sending money to each household is a lot easier, faster and cheaper than the idiocy that they are trying to put in practice now, where it may be a couple of months before peeps get the money they need to get them through this. I should have joined the Yang gang. The man knows math and is down to earth and practical. @jerry mcmasters was right about that!
(04-05-2020, 09:57 PM)Dom Wrote: We need yang and his money distribution just about now. Sending money to each household is a lot easier, faster and cheaper than the idiocy that they are trying to put in practice now, where it may be a couple of months before peeps get the money they need to get them through this. I should have joined the Yang gang. The man knows math and is down to earth and practical. @jerry mcmasters was right about that! Jesus please us, @jerry mcmasters got two "you're right"s in one day!
On hiatus.
It's after midnight here, I've just turned back into a pumpkin.
Dom I've been thinking lately Yang shouldn't have dropped out. I think he felt bad about continuing to request money when he thought there was no legit path to victory which just shows he's new to politics, probably few other politicians would have that kind of consideration. But if he had just hung around, don't even have to spend money, just stay in even with no delegates...who knows, it would be unlikely and strange, but possible. Imagine Biden dying or deteriorating worse than he is, the DNC still finding Bernie unacceptable, Yang stepping into the gap. (04-01-2020, 01:12 PM)SYZ Wrote: I'm getting a strong impression that nearly 50% of people eligible to vote in the US don't really care which party is in power, or who their president is. They can't even get out of bed for one single day every four years. Mordant Wrote:It is not quite that simple. 1) In general, employers are not obliged to let workers vote... In Australia, employers by law must make time for employee voting. 2) There's a tendency in many states to close or understaff or restrict hours of polling places... Not in Australia, they'd be federal offences under the Electoral Act. 3) For example, to vote in New York's closed presidential primary, you must declare your party, but you must do it six months before the primary election day... What the actual fuck? 4) It was not rare for people to arrive at the polling place on election day to find that their declared party had mysteriously disappeared... Electoral tampering is a criminal offence here. I'm a creationist; I believe that man created God.
04-06-2020, 02:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-06-2020, 02:23 PM by Aegon.)
2020 US candidates (04-06-2020, 05:53 AM)jerry mcmasters Wrote: It's after midnight here, I've just turned back into a pumpkin. Yang's had some negative press this week. https://abcnews.go.com/US/andrew-yang-fa...d=69961672 Can't say I disagree with the critics, despite being a Yang fan. Minorities shouldn't need to put on a song and dance for white Americans not to harass and attack them. |
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