The Obama pool

Gonna start a pool. There's no pot, it's just for A) shits and giggles, and B) to hopefully provoke a more serious discussion.

Right then: racism is still rife in the US, the UK and rather a lot of other countries in the global north. Divide and rule has it's claws in deep. Barack Obama is the US's first non-white president (he's not black btw, he's mixed-race.) Not everybody is gonna take kindly to having a man of mixed ethnicity running a country where a not inconsiderable number of people still feel that racism is a god-given right.

So, how long until some zealous nutjob shoots him? It doesn't have to be fatal, but the bullet does have to come within one metre of his skin. I'm gonna say 12 months. Any other takers?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by arie on August 24, 2009 at 4:13am

good post!

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Permalink Reply by Raine on June 23, 2009 at 1:32pm

Fuck assassination. Obama's car is equipped with blood. No kidding. A new car was designed for him- I'll say it again- equipped with blood. That is an epic way to try to prevent assassination.

I give him another year or so. His ratings are already dropping. If his plans don't come through soon, he is a goner. A pity, in my opinion. I really like the guy (or I like him better then Biden, at the very least).

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Permalink Reply by Raine on June 24, 2009 at 1:02am

Obama is allegedly a socialist. Hitler was basically a fascist. Not gonna happen.

Besides, we have already seen what happens to America without government control, and may I be the first to point out that it sucks. With Obama's policies we certainly won't have instant gratification (especially with the absolutely delightful reactionary attitude of Republicans) but it is at least worth a try.

Consider the only plausible alternative- McCain/Palin. Eew. Rabid conservatism meets Christianity. Belief in ghosts and supporting abstinence only education? There is only so much America can take.

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Permalink Reply by Raine on June 24, 2009 at 11:16pm

Fascism is about the government. Socialism is about the people.

And I'm talking about how the banks wouldn't have failed in the first place if there was more regulation. Which didn't happen because people were far to worried about some government control destroying their profits. Which is what republicans love. Deregulation.
And if the reactionaries are the clueless center, then it must be the republican party. All they can say is 'No' and filibuster the hell out of things, without providing alternative solutions. Ignoring solutions isn't solving them. Putting them out of the way isn't solving them. These are important issues and they need to be fixed now. Besides that, the republicans have had their turn. It is time to give the democrats a shot.

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Permalink Reply by Raine on June 27, 2009 at 3:25am

With completely different goals and purposes.

It was the deregulation of the stock market that led to this recession. It was the deregulation that let these banks fail again and again and again in the first place. When the banks did begin failing, people began losing confidence in them. Banks can only exist if people have the confidence that they will survive. If people don't have confidence, the banks deflate, and it is the 1930s all over again.

And no one voted for Obama because they understood his policies and liked them, or because they just hated McCain's policies that much. The fact that Obama won in a landslide just means nothing. Riiiight. People voted for him because they wanted the change he promised. The change that republicans are doing whatever they can to stop, to delay, and to unnecessarily oppose.

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Permalink Reply by Raine on July 1, 2009 at 8:14pm

Socialism focuses on distribution of wealth, which is a big difference from the confinement of it.

Yes, the economy goes though business cycles, but when it falls so far it is a big problem. The less regulation, the more likely there is to be problematic trades that lead to bigger declines, longer recessions, and more pain for the people. And I never said that banks only need confidence to survive. But that is certainly a major factor when things are in decline.

Obama won by an extremely clearly defined margin. It also happened to be a good sized margin. And as a person who didn't vote for him, how the hell would you actually know why the people that voted for him did? To you, the policies of the McCain/Palin ballot were much more attractive but it is obvious that many more people like Obama/Biden's, or even just hated McCain that much. Either are really, really good reasons to vote for Obama. Maybe you think he is another Karl Marx, but clearly many others don't, or they don't care.

Permalink Reply by Herb ☭ on July 3, 2009 at 12:31am

As a self-proclaimed anarcho-socialist, I find accusations of Obama being a socialist rather offensive.

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Permalink Reply by arie on August 24, 2009 at 4:20am

socialism is great until you run out of other peoples' money.

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Permalink Reply by Raine on July 4, 2009 at 12:29am

You are thinking more of communism then you are of socialism. Moderate socialism really isn't as bad as many people think, but because of associations with communism it tends to get a damn bad reputation.

Too much regulation does hurt the economy. But basic regulation stops this pain now from happening, and the pain in the future from hurting as much.

As a person who knows people who voted for Obama, and as a person who would have done so herself, I'd like to note that a few people who were interviewed doesn't mean shit. I know many people that disagree strongly with Obama, but who supported him because his ideas at least resembled theirs, as opposed to McCain. Because they wanted change. I myself don't agree with Obama a lot of the time- but I believe that he will be the change that we do need. And we DO need change, because if we didn't we wouldn't be so royally fucked right now. If people voted for him simply because he was a democrat (or rather, just not a republican), for that you can't blame them either. McCain, as much of a 'maverick' as he claims to be is a republic. Still a republican. He still has many of the same ideas that simply don't mesh with more liberal ideas. At all. Whereas, Obama's at least kind-of do mesh. Besides, they were just doing what republicans always do: they voted as a block. Just as republicans vote for 'their people' in a block. Just like what they are doing in Congress now. Who cares if it makes sense? They sure don't.

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Permalink Reply by Raine on July 8, 2009 at 10:57pm

Socialism can lead to communism. But then, republics can lead to dictatorships. So what? Moderate socialism has been proven to work perfectly well in many countries, including Sweden, Canada, France, Norway, and the Netherlands all of which have higher standards of living then the United States. The ever expanding gap between the rich and the poor is a problem fed by capitalism, and is one of the reasons that the American standard of living has dropped in recent years.