We can argue about what is “squandered” or not, but ultimately it’s a subjective word.

To the point of Dems being controlled opposition and relating your example of the ACA: single payer was always an option and one that people were interested in, but capital interests (whom both parties serve) decided it wasn’t going to happen. Then an “American” solution was devised (ACA) which attempted to improve some things. So we got neither of the supposed benefits of either model, and instead ended up with more of a convoluted system that has the alleged benefits of neither. Ultimately it did nothing to alter the course of the healthcare system at large, and here we are in 2025 and the system remains as a tool to extract profit from sick people. People still choose between medicine or rent or food in this country.

Sure ACA doesn’t allow the pre-existing condition thing that insurers did for a long time. But the mandate to get people insured made dollar signs pop into the eyes of capitalists. Overall, they saw a situation where they came out ahead, so that’s what they allowed to happen.

These laws are passed in the interest of capital first, politics second, and common people third. It’s the common trends of agency capture, lobbying, campaign donations, regulatory mingling, privatization, and many other practices that exemplify this as the de facto standard that both of the major parties participate in. And this is how they pave the way for fascism - by encouraging and playing along with the ongoing fusion of state and capital. Both parties drop bombs on brown kids, both build cages and walls (literally and figuratively), both seek to extract wealth from the rest of the world, both subsidize private industry, and both are completely fine with the wealthy and powerful dictating or influencing almost every aspect of our lives in pursuit of profit.

So yeah, it’s squandered opportunity in my eyes because in the grand scheme of things Democrats seek to appease an advantaged class (not you and me) to the detriment of a disadvantaged class.

And I know you’ll be looking around for an example here and there to defend these politicians - save your energy. You need to look at the common trajectory of both of these parties. You can find examples of Republicans doing a good thing or two here and there as well. But again, when the chips are down they’ll all side with the forces that wanna squeeze every drop of blood from every turnip in this world. When tensions rise they might throw you a bone or two to keep you quiet and going to work - after all, someone’s gotta build those bombs and guns and it sure as hell isn’t gonna be them.

Apologists forget that Dems held majority at various times and squandered it.

They had their time to be good people and do the right things. Instead they paved way for fascism in their service to capital.

Everyone complaining about the various things the Dems do is reflective of people seeing them for the farce that they are. In essence, they are controlled resistance - a black hole to swallow up progressive movements and snuff them out before it threatens anything economically.

Isn’t “nothing will fundamentally change” what he said to the donors at a private event? Mission accomplished I guess…

We don’t need more false choice though. This would be a another bourgeois party. The cards might be shuffled a bit and the rhetoric might change but it’d still be playing the same game with the same cards. It’s still a game of “choose your favorite faction of rich people” despite the tweaks in messaging. There will still be an assurance of “nothing will fundamentally change” to the owners and donors.

Lol no.

You’ve never worked construction, at least not on the GC level. You’d be flabbergasted by how much human input and decision-making there is in any building. Constant discussions about constructibility, safety, value, coordination, and on an on. A lot of these discussion lean on experience of the construction team. Robots can’t replace experience of construction workers period. There’s far too many variables that robots or people who have never been “in the field” can’t account for.

Some parts of construction have been helped by automation (see layout robots, CNC cabinetry fabricators, etc.) but that’s drop in the bucket of a massive industry. The human element will not be removed from construction.

That’s right, I’m gonna make them cart my ass off to the gulag if they want it so bad. I’m not kneeling to these chucklefucks for a second.

Elon Musk is a fascist.

Trump is a fascist.

Maybe this is some conspiracy shit I’m about to say, but maybe we should look at the common denominators here? Fill in the blanks with your topic of choice.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans have a shared interest in __________.

In the US, cops are legally allowed to just ignore you.

There was a case in Colorado I believe where an estranged husband kidnapped his kids from their mom. The mom went to the police but they kept brushing her off. After while the dad showed up to the station with a gun, promptly got killed, and then the kids were discovered dead in his car.

It went to the courts, and courts came back with “yeah they don’t HAVE to help you.” Of course this is overly simplified, but there’s case law in at least part of the country now that allows cops to ignore anyone at their discretion because they’re on dinner break or just not feeling it.

Also in the US, cops can tear your car up on a minor traffic stop because they “smelled” something. If they search your vehicle for whatever reason, they can decide they want to throw all you stuff out on the road, cut open your upholstery, take door panels off, etc. And if they don’t find anything? “Have a good day sir, get your shit off the road it’s a public safety hazard.” Then drive off leaving you to pick up their mess. And yes it has happened, and no not just once.

There was a case in New York where a guy was going around stabbing people. Cops posted up looking for him of course. Guy on the subway got stabbed nearly to death, a bystander tried to help the victim and took the criminal off-guard. Cops came in from the operators cab and subdued the criminal. They were watching the whole thing from the operators window and didn’t help the victim until they saw an opening created by the bystander. Literally watching a guy on his way to getting stabbed to death and only decided to intervene when they felt like it.

Also the Uvalde school shooting. Just hanging out in hallways while kids get shot, waiting for the danger to clear.

Also George Floyd but at least some amount of justice has been served there. But I’m highly skeptical it would have came to that if the case wasn’t as well-known as it was. Shit happens all the time. They have a term they love to bust out for minorities who are acting out of line. “Excited Delirium”: look it up.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. They “can” help, but totally not a requirement.

Umm… eBay was around before amazon and was largely successful. So no, he isn’t a ground-breaker, nor am I suggesting eBay was either. And yeah you can talk about differences between their platforms but my point still stands.

All of these types “stand on the shoulders of giants” as they say. Except the giant is the taxpayer money that created the fertile ground that allowed their wealth in the first place. (E.g. the internet) And when they’re sufficiently successful, they love pulling up that ladder you and I and everyone else paid for.

Private profits, public losses. Same as it ever was.

America’s darling Jeff Bezos exploited a flaw in his book suppliers policies to gain an unfair edge on competitors in the early days of Amazon. Best business man ever: give him the key to the city and a dick-shaped rocket ship.

He also got rich daddy and rich friend money to get money for his totally original and non-derivative idea of “selling things online”. Maybe that’s where this guy went wrong? No rich daddy?

OH SAY CANNN YOUUU SEEEE

Aww baby needs attention so he found a place to troll in… Everybody look at this guy, see how edgy he is?!

Sorry I’m not an expert in MLK, but I know enough to see through the bullshit.

Perhaps the whitewashed, watered down MLK would beg to differ. He’s been reduced to like three quotes for people to slap on their Facebook profiles; for companies to paste on their messaging in February; to be trotted out once a year like Weekend at Bernie’s so people can feel the warm fuzzies inside and ignore actual, real-world racism and violence that is happening right now.

It’s like anytime someone mentions anything above a megaphone and a cardboard sign there’s always one of you that comes out of the woodwork and is like “MLK… Checkmate 😎”. As another commenter said, MLK was not the civil rights movement of his time. The reason he is the poster child for that movement in that era is specifically because his personal convictions about non-violent protest are safe for the system as it is.

Slavery can still exist, albeit in a different form. (Not chattel slavery) Racism can still exist, albeit in different forms. People who are victims of these systems are dismissed out-of-pocket because that’s the goal: the system never wanted to change, and by making MLK the summation of “the civil rights movement” in the eye of the public, they infused passivity into the discourse. They tell you to make your signs, and get your megaphones, and write your blog posts because that’s what is safe for the system to continue on as it has always been.

The pitfalls of our current systems preclude us getting to the point of utilizing space to any meaningful extent. Better to forgo the hypothetical Star Trek romanticized fiction and just fix what we have here; then maybe we can think about that stuff.

At this stage, the mere mention of any such possibility is a distraction from the gravity of the situations we face. It’s a mere tool to keep the apple cart going, while people are literally dying from our own collective hubris.