laverabe

If Poland were to suddenly surrender to Germany, everything would be “much better,” at least according to Donald Trump.

During an afternoon press conference Wednesday, the Republican presidential nominee urged the Eastern European nation to submit to the foreign power, claiming that any deal, no matter how dismal for Poland’s freedom, would have been better than the current state of affairs.

“Poland is gone. It’s not Poland anymore. You can never replace those cities and towns, and you can never replace the dead people, so many dead people,” Trump said. “Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have right now.

It's scary how few words I had to replace to make that work. Appeasement of a genocidal dictator does not have a good historical track record.

Just to save anyone else the search:

118th Congress (2023–2025) Majority Party: Democrats (47 seats) Minority Party: Republicans (49 seats) Other Parties: 4 Independents Total Seats: 100

I'd argue it doesn't have to be that way.

Lemmy is currently one of the few places online that can break free of media narratives because no corporation owns or runs it. It's all volunteers. It could be made into a great place for open policy discussion, that serves the public interest.

People are so used to the vitriol promoted by 24/7 corporate media that it will take a long time to change that, but you have to start somewhere. You have to chip away at their influence, otherwise things will only be worse in 20 years.

Guns are a lot like a drug addiction. They feel good at first for fighting off the British, but eventually everyone gets one and starts shooting each other. Trying to take them away is like trying to get a needle from a heroin addict.

Politically it's impossible because of the control money has in our elections. And even if they made all guns illegal overnight, you just sent 400 million firearms directly to the black market... bad things would happen.

Police are important too, no one really wants to live in a society where no laws are enforced, but I would agree that the source of violence really ultimately gets back to inequality and lack of democratic representation in representing the interests of those who have no power in the existing system.

Obviously that would start with getting money out of politics. People with opportunities and possibilities typically don't join gangs or kill thousands of people when they have stability in it's place. Most people want that, but can't due to a lack of representation in our government.

I actually agree with some of your point.

Banning guns doesn't seem to be a winning policy politically anyway. It would be the most direct resolution but those sort of ideas almost never work in theory because of peoples fear.

I think we should go even deeper into why gangs exist to begin with and it's simply economically advantageous to do crime versus the alternative exploitive minimum wage job. And that we need to address income inequality completely before any major gun policy changes can happen.

Although gangs aren't the only shooters (probably actually a minority for many mass shootings). What would you propose for people who are just crazy? Mental health funding, but really that comes back around to it being nearly impossible to prevent all mental health issues with 8 billion people. It seems a lot easier just to get rid of the guns.

I know I circled back there... I guess there really is no good solution, lol

I'd like that as well, but do you think there wouldn't be any public policy to improve peoples lives?

It seems like Biden has done really nothing but people in the US forget what it was like 4 years ago.

• Ended war in Afghanistan, first time US has been at peace since 2001 - at least direct involvement.
• Inflation Reduction Act which could very well have saved the fate of humanity if historians look back at our climate in 100 years. It was the largest climate investment in US history.
• Largest infrastructure bill in US history

As well as a few other things.

this is probably a really bad idea, but I feel like quality discussion only happens when minority opinions change those of the majority for the better of all.

I know this post is old but I encourage you to follow through on this, at least maybe starting a little smaller though ;) We need more young people in congress.

Like within realistic expectations. My first thought is renewal (hopefully permanently, at least until single payer) of the expanded healthcare marketplace subsidies that are set to expire next year if republicans gain a majority.

Would a public option be on the table if they gained a super majority?

I realize I'm in /c/antiwork so it goes without saying it'd be nice if we have universal healthcare without all this baloney money being siphoned to these criminal insurance companies. Just trying to help anyone out in a similar situation. ;)

If you make less than $103,000 / year (family of 3) and pay more than 9.5% of your household gross income on healthcare premiums, you will likely save thousands by using your state's healthcare marketplace. You are likely eligible because they fixed the family glitch, now the 9.5% applies to the cost for family rather than individual coverage as before.

Although the subsidies will likely end after 2025 if dems don't retain a majority in house/senate.

It could easily save you thousands of dollars a year... Like I'm 100% of it... Ask me how I know, lol. Please look into it. I think you have to wait til open enrollment in December? or when your healthcare renews annually. You might be able to do it immediately due to "hardship". I don't know the specifics of your situation but I'm pretty sure you and a lot of other people here would save a lot of money. I would talk with a healthcare_gov or your state agency agent, they get paid by the gov't to help you through it at no cost to you. You can also get a low HDHP and get your own HSA to essentially pay no taxes for medical expenditures. I hear fidelity is good, due to no fees.

Speaking of which, is there an active financial advice community on Lemmy (like that old site that should not be named) like /c/financialplanning or something like that?