Prelude to the Apocalypse

[quash]

It's the unceasing hero worship that gets me. I can almost understand if someone has a pet issue or two and thinks the guy is a shitty means to an end, but people can't leave it at that.

Off the top of my head, I disagree with Trump on torture, abortion, and marijuana.

None of those are worth taking the bullet we just dodged.

Possibly NSFW

https://youtu.be/g_I6mripDlA

Take a good look at that. Listen to the cries of "Allahu ackbar" and take a good look at who it's coming from. Do you want to send your (hypothetical, if applicable) kids into that? Do you want that on your doorstep?

[Satan]

I'd give god a 4/10 on a good day.

[Satan]

Just a hypothetical, what sort of atrocity and how many of these atrocities would it take for Trump's Christian supporters to demand a Muslim Final Solution?
No one in fundamentalist Christian America turned the other cheek after 9-11-2001.

[BryanM]

I thought a lot of them *did* want a Final Solution and that was kinda what all this was about.

.... our policy for the last 20 or so years hasn't been to work toward a Final Solution???

batman

The Joker is a crazy person and can't be culpable for his own actions. In fact, he'd quickly self destruct from someone putting a bullet in his head if left unprotected.

A little snip-snap to the neck would save tens of thousands of lives at the least, but getting to play hero in your underwear while making no real change for good is more important.

Batman is the greater evil.

[ED-057]

Even the ACLU is now jumping on board with the anti-Russian hysteria. The hypocrisy of the American left truly knows no bounds.

[system11]

It's complete bullshit, it's purely about attacking Trump through his people directly.

And everyone can see it.

Clearly the oath is in the context of speaking as part of the Trump campaign. He had legitimate business relating to his job, which involved speaking to someone in Russia along with people from 20+ other countries.

[Rob]

[Durandal]

Even the ACLU is now jumping on board with the anti-Russian hysteria. The hypocrisy of the American left truly knows no bounds.

Honest question, did anyone really care about Russian hackers before the Trump winning the election actually seemed like an actual possibility? Because I vividly remember it being primarily Chinese hackers who were snooping as usual around American servers, though I guess they've been written out in favor of the next villain of the week (given the nature of the evidence on the hack itself, the Chinese might as well have been pretending to be Russians and have been raughing their asses off for the past few months). Some fucking meme this is.

It sure would be nice if some forensic investigators found the hidden link that tied Trump directly to making illegal deals with Russia as men in black raided Trump Tower saying 'we gotcha now Trump' and made the impeachment happen (aside from the inevitable psychological shock and its ensuing unpredictable consequences amongst Trump voters who could only see something like an impeachment because of Russia as intentional sabotage by the establishment), but things are never that easy. It's as if the possibility of there being more than enough people who voted for Trump is worse than him winning through illegal help of a third party.

[Satan]

The Ruskies put Trump in is the dumbest Conspiracy Theory ever.

[Rob]

[BryanM]

When it comes to one outsider "changing" an election outcome theories, the Ross Perot helping Bill Clinton get in the door one probably has the most weight of any. (All the neoliberal garbage dismisses this one out of hand of course. Funny how that works.)

The implication being that there is only one democrat who won a presidential election in the last 40 years: Barack Obama.

"Fucking horrible" doesn't even begin to describe this performance. How can you blame the republicans or Russians when it's the democrats intentionally throwing these elections that let them do what they want to do?

The boogeyman is right beside you. He's got a great likable personality, so cuddly and harmless amirite.

[EmperorIng]

You're reminding me how fucking stupid and forced that endless torrent of LOL JOE BIDEN memes were a few months ago. JOE: I PEED ON THE RUG LOL OBAMA: LOL WUT JOE ME: HAHAHAH IMMA MISS THOSE TWO : SAD :

People with such awful senses of humor ought to be put in internment camps so as not to contaminate the whole. Along with people who watch Seth MacFarlane while I'm on the topic of "people more deserving of incarceration than currently promoted by the media."

[BryanM]

Since I'm a sheltered youth, the only one of those I saw was a repost from aGoodCartoon:

BIDEN: The White House is in good hands.

OBAMA: Is that a joke?

BIDEN: No, that’s a thing I just said out loud, to reporters. After meeting with Mike Pence. Who is a fucking monster.

OBAMA: But no, no, this is a meme where you are like an old codger who is a prankster– that’s how this is supposed to work. It’s wacky fun!

BIDEN: Maybe people wanting to believe in memes about cuddly politicians is a bad thing that we shouldn’t encourage though. Maybe it’s bad that people dull their brains with memes about how politicians who oversee flying robot death armies are actually adorable koalas, and gifs of dopey television shows about noble politicians that are divorced from reality. Maybe that kind of fantasy slowed people down from pushing for change, or for political realities to be addressed through more aggressive campaign messages that actually addressed people’s economic lives instead of playing to fantasies that not everybody has the economic luxury or ideological willingness to indulge in.

LESLIE KNOPE: You guys have been listening to Ron too much! Memes are great!

JOSIAH BARTLET: I’ve got a boner– you got any adderall?? Spring break forever!

[Mischief Maker]

It sure beats fucking Bill Maher setting off this "George Bush jr. wasn't that bad" meme.

No! He was just as bad. The only difference between his horrifically corrupt and incompetent administration and Trump's is that Bush jr at least made an attempt to wear the mask. Think Betsy DeVos is unprecedented when it comes to a person completely unqualified who buys an important seat in government? Well let me remind you of "Heckuva job Brownie" and Hurricane Katrina.

But he had that "gee shucks" charm while ordering torture.

It's worth noting that the second Bush jr. left office his vaunted ranch was put on the market. Guess his passion wasn't cutting brush.

[Satan]

G W Bush used an entire school full of kids as a human shield while 9-11 was going down. Fuck that guy.

[BryanM]

this "George Bush jr. wasn't that bad" meme.

FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS

Spoiler

It's almost like they're on the same team, or something. Suspicious.

[Durandal]

Why the Alt-Left Is a Problem, Too
Much of the media spotlight has been on the “alt-right.” But the “alt-left” provides a mirror image distortion: the same loathing of Clinton, rejection of “identity politics,” and itch for a reckoning.

[Satan]

The Left have been allowed to run away with themselves to the point where the right reacts and you wind up with an Alt-Right, almost by design. I'd wager the majority of the faces we see representing the left currently are paid provocateurs to make the Left look like a ridiculous proposition. No matter what the media try and sell us, especially in the UK, the elite want Trump and want Brexit. The queen herself is on record as being pro Brexit in a reported argument she's supposedly had with the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Any 18 yr old Chomsky reader will tell you that Democracy is the illusion of Democracy and any illusion required to maintain the greater illusion, and what we're experiencing is the illusion of opposition to Trump, the Alt-Right and Brexit.
It's funny, to me at least that the "1776! Red Pill, Woke As Fuck" Trump supporter is also a fan of British Fifth Columns like Piers Morgan and Milo Yiannopoulos and doesn't see they're being manipulated by the people Trump supposedly opposes.

I think you can tell that both sides are full of shit because neither side recognises the other has some good ideas.
That is not to say I'm a centrist because even that was hijacked by Clinton/Blair and their Nazi flavoured 'Third Way' - for this species ro progress we need to get beyond the current left/right, coke/pepsi paradigm before we address anything the left or right have to say. Or we're fucked.

[ED-057]

Why the Alt-Left Is a Problem, Too
Much of the media spotlight has been on the “alt-right.” But the “alt-left” provides a mirror image distortion: the same loathing of Clinton, rejection of “identity politics,” and itch for a reckoning.

This is like "damning with faint praise" only the opposite (praising with faint damnation?). The dude is trying to channel every other establishment moron, but seemingly by accident he correctly identifies everything that they are wrong about and a comprehensive roster of folks who have been busy pointing out said wrongness. That's a better boost for the alt-'s than they could have made themselves.

I think congratulations are in order for Eileen Jones and Mark Ames. Earned their spots on another prestigious hit list, they did.

In other news, so-called photographer is so afraid of a woman's body that he soils himself and runs out of the room screaming. But everyone else is misogynist, not him. Blurring the lines between neolib religious nuttery and old school traditional religious nuttery.

[BryanM]

SHUT UP EVERYONE, OBAMA'S GONNA TELL US WHAT TO DO
___

The Onion has a vid of Trump's address with snarky captions, but in our post-parody reality, it doesn't work. Doesn't help that they're owned by Fusion Media Group so their ability to perform political commentary is in the tanks.

You can soothe these harsh times by having your cute cat doodles turned into horrible eldritch abominations.

Fusion Media Group

This is owned by racist billionaire Haim Saban, a guy who thinks Keith Ellison is subhuman garbage and dictated that he'd lose last month.

For the people not paying attention to what the arms inside the puppet lead to.

[Mischief Maker]

Hey, if the man who made his fortune on the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers snaps his fingers, I say Democrats should fall in line! Winning elections be damned!

My teenage self owes a never ending debt of gratitude to the man who put Amy Jo Johnson on my TV set every afternoon.

[BryanM]

Kremlin outlet Vox talks a bit about a study on last year's campaign ads.

For a machine full of very stupid and incompetent people, their decision to put their SuperPAC in the hands of David Brock is like... intentional suicide. The money would have been more effectively spent throwing it into a hole and then setting it on fire.

It looks like the Healthcare fuckery is coming down in the coming weeks. I suppose it's possible that the republicans will take a page out of the democrat's playbook and use the Villain Rotation tactic to kill it, but why would they since they actually want to do this stuff.

Breaking his pledge not to cut Medicare should result in a complete thrashing in 2018, similar to what Obama suffered in 2010. An attack ad of Trump personally making the pledge, then breaking it ten seconds later; it's easy shit, it writes itself.

I still have faith in the democrats to somehow fuck it up. You think they're angling for eight years of Trump? They're aiming for 24 years of Trump.

What people often forget, that there's more than just one or two Trumps.

[quash]

All the Wile E. Coyote gifs in the world can't convey the sheer failure of MSNBC's releasing of Trump's tax returns... from 12 years ago. Which showed that he paid roughly a quarter of his income in taxes. Which was probably "leaked" by Trump himself to help run interference while he fights the Republicans over the healthcare bill (potentially tanking Rachel Maddow's career is just a nice bonus, in this case).

Of course, this has to happen right as the word starts getting out that the FBI is going to clear Trump of any connections to the Kremlin.

I can't handle all this winning. You may as well not even run a candidate in 2020 at this rate.

[Bananamatic]

[GaijinPunch]

I can't handle all this winning. You may as well not even run a candidate in 2020 at this rate.

[GaijinPunch]

non-meme form:

Things people give a shit about:
The disaster repeal of Obamacare
Libelous claims about Obama, sans proof
Microwave cameras
The crazy train

Things people don't give a shit about:
Trump's taxes

[BryanM]

Yeah... it's petty partisan nonsense from dumb people who think politics is like a football game and that you can "win" by scoring "points". History has never shown that to have any effect - what gets into power tends to stay in power. Like how the New Deal gave us sane democrats and sane republicans. Then when money took the power back during the Carter-Reagan era, it gave us insane democrats and insane republicans.

Russia = Birtherism/Benghazi
Trump's Taxes = Clinton's Emails (though the double standard in favor of the powerful is indeed annoying; we already know work is taxed more heavily than capital and that the guy the establishment hired is not going to bite the hand that feeds him.)

For those who don't want to be bogged down in the mire of nonsense... The town halls Sanders keeps having with Chris Hayes are both extremely heartening and extremely depressing, for a laundry's list of reasons. Latest one has a room full of West Virgina Trump voters applauding his entire platform. This is the stuff that people care about: things that impact their lives directly.

The biggest problem, tactically, with petty negative attack ads is it makes people who like the person you're attacking shut down and stop listening to anything else you have to say. That would be fine, if you got something for that in return. But you don't: people who hate the person you're attacking were already with you in the first place and now you spent your money on bringing yourself down.

One of the things Sanders always does when talking about Trump is to give the man his props where it is due, such as how he took on and overcame the republican and democratic establishments. Then later, when Trump voters said they don't believe he'll do X thing he said he'd do, and Sanders then asks "then why did you vote for someone who, in a sense, is lying to you" it starts to land home. Because he's not a shill trying to enact the day's twelve minutes of hate; he's just being fair.

Conservative culture warriors are comically wrong on their weird ideas of recovering ground in the culture war. But they are right that democrats could do much better in elections if they'd run candidates that didn't think poor white people are a bunch of hillbilly retards and actually cared about them a little.
___

Oh shit, today is the one year anniversary of when Donald Trump was elected president.

This should be a holiday: Trumpmas or the Ides of Trump or somethin' shit I don't know

[Mischief Maker]

https://youtu.be/bU3fapS7828

I asked [Bernie Sanders] if he thought the Democratic Party knew what it stood for. “You’re asking a good question, and I can’t give you a definitive answer,” he said. “Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.”

[BryanM]

It's more like they're sailing off on the lifeboats with their bags of money while the kids and women and poors all drown.

An interesting little thing that happened is some people threw a gender-swapped performance of the Trump-Clinton debates. Smug Professor went in thinking it would confirm Clinton was the victim of sexism. But in the end realizes he was, in fact, the true sexist all along.

Creepy smiling plastic man sure is creepy.

[CIT]

Well that was some great dealmaking! That'll teach those "all talk no action" politicians.