World's 1st legal/regulated/taxed adult marijuana market

[sigbowls]

this would a good shitty corporation at least

[skell1ngton777]

you don't say..........?

[sigbowls]

i bet they will just sell drinks and weed

[titchbit]

k-street is so much more corrupt than anyone realizes.

i do US politics atm and i dont see how people could think k street's anything but corrupt

well you're one of the smart ones! most americans are dumb, ignorant, and arrogant (this is coming from an american) when it comes to the government. it's a deadly combo. most people think we have the best democracy in the world, that we "invented" democracy, that k-street is essential for democracy to work. it's an absolute joke. I hear someone say "best country in the world" or "it's a free country" at least once a day, as if other countries don't have democracies and aren't free.

[chekov]

jokes

studying your system has definitely made me give up hope for anything

[alphacat]

^ Any old fool can come up with a perfect system. It's the components of the system that (people) that fail. Always have, always will.

Perfect systems are useless in light of this, but doesn't stop people from trying.

[chekov]

yeah i know but there's just something about america's in particular that gets me down

[test_recordings]

Speaking of starfucks, they're going to be all over this I reckon

[sigbowls]

ill have my coffee with vodka and mj

that would never happen though

[mks]

yeah i know but there's just something about america's in particular that gets me down

Tell me something about your system that is not as depressing.

[titchbit]

yeah i know but there's just something about america's in particular that gets me down

Tell me something about your system that is not as depressing.

guns are illegal (assuming he's from britain)

[chekov]

ye that for a start^

it's just how inherently reactionary US politics as a whole is i think, like when obama had to ban federal funds from going to abortion clinics to get members of his own party to vote for obamacare, which was in itself a miserable compromise because pharmaceutical lobbyists killed any chance of it including a public option and all that shit that makes cheaper foreign alternatives to their drugs illegal

the uk's definitely going the same way with ukip somehow getting popular though, can't deny that. still got quite a way to go though imo

[titchbit]

this is what you get when one side (the democrats) completely pussies out on everything and gives in to the crazy teabaggers. One side is center-right (the Democrats) and the other is part of the extreme right. it's fucked.

US politicians may be reactionary, but the senate is designed to combat that, and it does way too good of a job. recently, there was a bill to implement universal background checks for people purchasing weapons. It's obviously a reaction to the Newtown shootings, but 90% of the American public supported it. About 90% of democrats voted for it, and only 10% of republicans voted for it. Didn't pass. Quite a democracy you got when 90% of the public supports something and it doesn't happen.

[chekov]

did it get filibustered or did it not even reach that stage?

[titchbit]

Yes it was filibustered (I'm 99% sure). The problem with the senate is that you need 60 votes in order to break the threat of a filibuster. You only need 50 to pass a bill, but they threaten to filibuster absolutely everything these days, so you effectively need 60 votes in order to pass anything.

Found this article: "Republican filibuster kills background-check compromise".

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/ ... omise?lite

[chekov]

ye i know, bring back the good old days when people actually followed through and gave 24 hour speeches cos they just hated civil rights that much

racists be lazy now

[EliteLennon117]

lobbying should be illegal imo. puts the power in the riches hands making this a government for the few and privileged not the people.

[chekov]

hard to regulate though cos the wealthy can always afford to pay for lawyers who can find loopholes in whatever regulation you try to enforce (unless i've misunderstood bare)

[Genevieve]

lobbying should be illegal imo. puts the power in the riches hands making this a government for the few and privileged not the people.

Making drugs or filesharing illegal didn't stop either. If you make lobbying illegal, it'll only be the WEALTHIEST of the wealthy who can compete in it, making monopolies even more powerful.

[titchbit]

yeah but then you could penalize people who do it. it wouldn't be called lobbying anymore, it would be called corruption. hopefully that would deter at least some people from doing it. and lobbying not only fucks the poor, it totally distorts the purpose of government and the actions of politicians. it is literally a softer form of corruption compared to taking bribes for instance.

another way to do it is to get rid of multiple terms. if politicians only had one term, then they would never have to worry about re-election, and lobbyists would then have no power over them. that's what it all comes down to - getting re-elected. and that's why the senate is so fucked - because there are no term limits. you can be a senator for 50 years if you keep getting re-elected.