Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Zen]

Makes me wonder if your brain is too hard-wired one way can you understand the 'opposite'?

Speaking for myself; I do understand where some of the chaps with diametrically opposite views to mine, are coming from.
Simply because, up until my late teens I would to an extent, have held comparable views.

As to your "hard-wired" question;
Biology informs everything.

[BryanM]

https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/ ... 93282?s=19

"You will not replace us" has taken on an entirely new, and totally woke, meaning.

The real planks in the plan seems to be:

Replace everyone with robots.
Move to lovely New Zealand to avoid being bothered by global warming.
Become immortal.
Sex with everything, and if the lovely sheep of New Zealand aren't enough they can replace women with androids.... and maybe the sheep.

You'd assume this was a zany joke, but seriously. New Zealand has banned foreigners from buying homes last month because all the rich bastards who want an escape plan have been pushing the prices up into the stratosphere there.

[Domino]

Non-starter. It's definitely not the worst place in the cuntry... or HQ2 top 20 (Atlanta and your state's very own Miami top it in violent crime). Anyone bringing a business here knows if it's in The Loop or the North Side where it's white and safe, those numbers dramatically fall. I know I'll probably get shot after pointing that out, but this place is like North & South Korea (which actually points to much larger problems beyond the scope of this thread thankfully).

Oh I know it isn't the worse place in the country, however, image sells. People don't think of Miami as crime, they think of the vacation spots, nightlife, and spanish-only spots. But Miami is also pretty shitty if you are poor, since crime is just as bad as the cities up north.

There's a laundry list of things that people think of when they mention Florida.... yet I'm sure Amazon would have been just fine looking past all of that if it meant dough. I get what you're saying - it's the image, not the actual numbers that matter, but if that were the case Chicago would not have a number of financial institutions per capita comparable to Manhattan.

Yes, being the Third Largest City in the county does have its benefits. Also, location within the US.

[Rob]

where it's white and safe,

[GaijinPunch]

Oh I know it isn't the worse place in the country, however, image sells. People don't think of Miami as crime, they think of the vacation spots, nightlife, and spanish-only spots. But Miami is also pretty shitty if you are poor, since crime is just as bad as the cities up north.

I don't think anyone would rank Miami as a proper vacation spot, a la Honolulu or the like (which is ironic as Honolulu has it's fair share of meth heads and ice factories). Anyone my age +/- 5 years know that Miami was built on South American cocaine, and the violence that came with it.

There's a laundry list of things that people think of when they mention Florida.... yet I'm sure Amazon would have been just fine looking past all of that if it meant dough. I get what you're saying - it's the image, not the actual numbers that matter, but if that were the case Chicago would not have a number of financial institutions per capita comparable to Manhattan.

Yes, being the Third Largest City in the county does have its benefits. Also, location within the US.

Not sure what you're getting at here. The location kinda sucks ass until global warming eats the coasts. It's land-locked with in-human winters. However, it's generally considered the second city due to population density (probably, but not too big of a sticking point). Chicago has always had it's own identity... part of that is trend setting in the financial markets. (It is the birth place futures' trading, after all). If you wanna talk about things that will quantifiably scare businesses off, look at the state's reputation of corruption. I'm somewhat new here, but I do believe Rahm is the first governor to end his term not going to prison.

where it's white and safe,

I guess I'm off my game tonight. Is that meme worthy?

[Mischief Maker]

You bet on the wrong horse, Julian Assange!

[BryanM]

[Mischief Maker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHjikwXHVC8

[quash]

https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/ ... 52352?s=19

On today's episode of "If a Republican said this"...

[BryanM]

"The government" doesn't need nukes to subjugate its own people. That's retarded. We have cops for that. If they're not enough, just buy more of them.

A glass of water and a biscuit a day is all they cost, after all.

[quash]

This is what happens when you allow self proclaimed CIA assets to take office. The future is so bright, I'm gonna need sunglasses.

[Specineff]

Behold! Coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to head the EPA!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/clim ... r-epa.html

[Ed Oscuro]

Like EmperorIng I know that staying out of this thread is good for me...still, every now and then I try to come in and shake things up a bit.

It is worth asking "why are you a Republican?" If the answer is "because Democrats want to steal our jobs" then it is worth considering why the Republicans lie to you, repeatedly about where the money goes: Paul Krugman has a nice and short article here about that issue. We have nothing but a pile of lies, which is so large that some parts of it rot in neglect, other parts are on fire, and all of it is toxic.

Of course some people with a (D) by their names have repeated the lie, but who is promising growth in shitty, dead industries; throwing 40-years-and-maybe-a-profit giveaways to foreign companies; arguing that it's absolutely vital to give tax giveaways to the people and corporations who do not need it? You know who that is.

So Rob said some things which I thought were interesting and worth another look:

The easy one: Us Dems are not sitting around thinking about ways to make ourselves poorer, hand our women off to foreigners, change the electorate as if Dems aren't the majority already, etc. That's fever dream material, and not based on reality. You say "but isn't that what it's about?" No, it's about keeping America from renouncing the world (and its opportunities), and from being stale. Even that most American of achievements, the atom bomb, was reliant on the research of immigrants (as well as foreigners who helped lay the theoretical frameworks needed). So was the development of the bomb's delivery system. Even today, read the names of authors on important academic papers and you find the fruits of diversity. How many great ideas came from people saying "get your filthy foreign influence out of here, MAGA?"

The issue here is simple balance. Saying that ethnic or racial strife is the cause of most of the world's troubles is a simplification (at best). What about the dictators, who put their own family interest ahead of "their people?" Dynasty-building has often been a winning strategy in genetics - which tends to require everybody but the king's family is cannon fodder. Evolution is a dynamic process and you should not blindly think that you "win" by killing off all genes but yours (or "I don't mean killing them, let's put them all in a fence somewhere else") . This kind of worldview ignores the kinder parts of human nature in favor of sheer bloodthirstiness and treachery, a view that always ends in tears. Knives in backs, also.

There's another part of Rob's argument which seemed to be an unspoken assumption - we shouldn't let "Them" in because doing that leads to Strife. Again: What of the Jews? Did they bring it on themselves to bring their culture and genes to Europe? If you know a minimal amount of history you realize that's not true. You realize that Hitler's solution, and all the other pogroms for that matter, were built on a whole series of lies and promises that did not bear fruit. And in the end, Hitler decided that His German People failed Hitler. If anything, they failed by being so gullible as to believe that all their problems were caused by a minority group in their country, rather than by all the predictable forces - unbridled greed and naked ambition to power at any cost. They failed by putting blind faith in an unstable madman whose major skill was in public relations.

What modern "leader" spends his days craving "loyalty," and making proclamations that people who fail do it because they do not have blind faith in the Cause? We report, you decide.

btw, not even Trump's judicial appointees buy his argument that randomly banning people you don't like on fake pretexts is in compliance with the Bill of Rights or due process, so I'm eagerly awaiting the next showdown between Jim Acosta and Trump

[ED-057]

Like EmperorIng I know that staying out of this thread is good for me...still, every now and then I try to come in and shake things up a bit.

Don't we all, Ed... Don't we all...

The issue here is simple balance. Saying that ethnic or racial strife is the cause of most of the world's troubles is a simplification (at best).

You realize that Hitler's solution, and all the other pogroms for that matter, were built on a whole series of lies and promises that did not bear fruit. And in the end, Hitler decided that His German People failed Hitler. If anything, they failed by being so gullible as to believe that all their problems were caused by a minority group in their country, rather than by all the predictable forces - unbridled greed and naked ambition to power at any cost. They failed by putting blind faith in an unstable madman whose major skill was in public relations.

Germany had big problems in the aftermath of WW1. Maybe that sizzling fuse was destined to lead to a bang no matter what. If hitler had scapegoated the trees, would the forests have been set ablaze?

People were duped by BS then, just as people are being played now (seriously, anyone talking about civil war breaking out in the US should be embarrased about being that heavily invested in the culture war drama) so that aspect of it remains the same. But on the other hand, I'd say most of the problems facing the US empire are of its own making and could (hypothetically) be mitigated. The headache sufferer simply needs to stop banging their head against the wall.

Amongst those problems facing the US empire, is an inability to accurately perceive them, weigh their severity, and identify causes. If a person's worst fear is some vague notion that cultural or racial (and these two things are orthogonal btw) demographic shifts would cause their country/region to eventually become unfamiliar to them, this person must be very content or optimistic. You're supposed to lament the passing of "the good old days" when you become an old fart, not preemptively lament the future passing of the good current days. That's getting ahead of oneself.

But the squeaky wheel wing of the Dem party wont humor such a person and considers the mere idea to be blasphemy against the gods of political correctness and has formulated their own preemptive panic about a future dystopian fiction (something like handmaid`s tale, the holocaust, and slavery all rolled into one, I guess)

Meanwhile the fakenews is still fake, the empire is still crumbling, and the banksters still looting.

[quash]

Uh, hello? Congressman who wants migrant caravan in the country just nonchalantly suggested nuking constituents. Are we incapable of putting two and two together anymore?

[BulletMagnet]

Uh, hello? Congressman who wants migrant caravan in the country just nonchalantly suggested nuking constituents.

Just when I thought your trolling couldn't get any more fucking pitiful.

[FinalBaton]

As someone on the outside, I'd love to know : what do people see in the Democratic Party of recent years? (I've got to be honest, to my eyes Obama didn't seem to have done much as a prez, but I wasn't focused on US politics constantly so I might have missed some stuff). I'm legit curious. Maybe this will convince me that there is lots of good in their platform, who knows. Please write in one post what you love about them (can't speculate about a future candidate platform as, as we all know, these fuckers can't keep their promises).

[quash]

Joke: citizens threatening to kill elected representatives

Woke: elected representatives threatening to kill citizens

[Durandal]

Joke: citizens threatening to kill elected representatives

Woke: elected representatives threatening to kill citizens

At times I feel like I should add a list to my signature saying List of Things I Disavow and Don't Care to Have to Reestablish Again and Again.
With a giant bold font.

Please write in one post what you love about them (can't speculate about a future candidate platform as, as we all know, these fuckers can't keep their promises).

They're not the Republicans.
They also greatly satisfy my disappointment fetish.

[GaijinPunch]

As someone on the outside, I'd love to know : what do people see in the Democratic Party of recent years? (I've got to be honest, to my eyes Obama didn't seem to have done much as a prez, but I wasn't focused on US politics constantly so I might have missed some stuff). I'm legit curious. Maybe this will convince me that there is lots of good in their platform, who knows. Please write in one post what you love about them (can't speculate about a future candidate platform as, as we all know, these fuckers can't keep their promises).

They need to pull their heads out, for certain.

As for Obama, there's a laundry list of things he did. (Basically anything Trump is pushing for now is to undo something Obama did). One could argue out of spite. If you think he made the cuntry worse off I'd suggest your memory is short. 2008 was a nightmare for a lot of people - definitely for me, and luckily I had youth to weigh against the 30% or so of my savings being wiped out. Worth noting though, Obama's popularity rose in his second term which is quite rare. According to the Wikipedia link he is a part of the 2nd term curse. However he appears to have killed it his last year in office, leaving with a 59% approval rating. The same cannot be said about W by a long shot.

For the record, Bill seems to have finished on a higher note, but also kept it higher relatively for his 2nd term. Basically the religious right hated him for getting a blow job. For the most part of his 2 terms though, the dichotomy of American politics was not quite as pronounced. Also the internet was also just for nerds to masturbate to jpgs.

[Ed Oscuro]

Newt Gingrich declared, in 1986, that the country couldn't withstand $220 billion yearly deficits. And yet here we are. Gingrich, of course, along with certain other tricky operators, was one of the founders of today's Republican anger machine. In terms of accomplishments...

Clinton: Deregulated banks and tightened welfare as part of rightward shift in the party. Modern right wing fringe gets hyper after disasters at Ruby Ridge and Waco. Cameos in multiple Cruis'n racing games.
W: Went into office planning to invade Iraq. Bails out the banks by signing the TARP legislation in 2008. Plans to privatize Social Security by dumping the money in the stock market, a very wise move in the immediate aftermath of the dot-com crash. Fool me twice, you can't fool me again.
Obama: Along with Sen. Ted Kennedy, expands health insurance coverage to tons of people. Wags the finger at Syria over the red line. Tim Geithner (I think it was) prevails on argument not to prosecute offenders behind the Bear Sterns / Lehman Bros. collapses and similar risky business, but ultimately saves the banks - and General Motors, the biggest automaker at the time, for no permanent cost to taxpayers. Wife Michele Obama criticized for fashion sense, puts honey in everything.

What is Trump going to do? Save Scottish culture?

[BryanM]

About the only highly positive things that can be said for the Democrats is they don't put in sociopaths that very loudly want to take another go at conquering Iran, and that John Kerry somehow managed to bungle the Syria invasion before it could even begin.

Though on that front, of course I don't trust the ones that go to those serial killer conventions and hand or receive serial killer of the year medals from their buddies.

Any other upcoming and obvious crisis they are less than worthless at mitigating. A sack of non-sentient potatoes would be more proactive opposition to them.

[quash]

Newt Gingrich declared, in 1986, that the country couldn't withstand $220 billion yearly deficits. And yet here we are. Gingrich, of course, along with certain other tricky operators, was one of the founders of today's Republican anger machine.

Paul Krugman, who you so reassuradely linked because he supposedly isn't full of shit, made this knee slapper of a prediction in 1998. Perhaps it's best we don't play this game.

[BryanM]

On the topic of the divisive "you're either for the things you claim to be for, or you're against them" line in the sand on the left that was drawn in 2015 and Paul Krugman - Krugman very much demonstrated he was full of shit when he began releasing hit piece after hit piece attacking policies he once advocated for. A disgusting creature that was lobbying for a lucrative job offer. I spit on his career.

Also can you Ben Garrison fans explain to me why he's drawing AOC as Michelle Obama? Is it just a "I'm doing the hack cartoonist thing where I draw my attractive opponent as if they were uglier" thing? Does he not know who AOC is? Has he ever seen a photograph of the woman? Does he know that Michelle Obama and AOC are two different people? Do the brain worms in his brain make AOC appear like that, to him and only him?

This is just baffling and science needs to be deployed to figure this out.

[maximo310]

Also can you Ben Garrison fans explain to me why he's drawing AOC as Michelle Obama? Is it just a "I'm doing the hack cartoonist thing where I draw my attractive opponent as if they were uglier" thing? Does he not know who AOC is? Has he ever seen a photograph of the woman? Does he know that Michelle Obama and AOC are two different people? Do the brain worms in his brain make AOC appear like that, to him and only him?

This is just baffling and science needs to be deployed to figure this out.

I'm sure Tina gives him a lot of excellent pointers on the anatomy of these weird creatures called "wo-men". Maybe that's what's inspired him to draw that recent comic of Trump riding the menstruation wave.

[Rob]

it is worth considering why the Republicans lie to you, repeatedly about where the money goes: Paul Krugman has a nice and short article here about that issue.

The chutzpah required to write an article lecturing whites about lying, self-serving Republicans.

Here's an example of a prominent media figure who has some degree of disdain for white people and uses his platform to spread his bile (but, of course, it's whites who are angry). He can barely contain his joy about "rural white Americans losing their country". If that wasn't clear enough, here's another message from Paul where poor white rubes are somehow a people apart from the "real America".

change the electorate as if Dems aren't the majority already, etc. That's fever dream material, and not based on reality.

The majority because of 50 years of mass immigration, so given those results it makes perfect sense for them to pursue maximum changing of the electorate. Democrats talk about and celebrate the changing demographics openly (whites becoming a minority is "the source of our strength", says Biden - certainly true if he's talking about the Democratic Party).

Even today, read the names of authors on important academic papers and you find the fruits of diversity.

Ideas do not need millions of legs beneath them to travel from place to place.

an unspoken assumption - we shouldn't let "Them" in because doing that leads to Strife. Again: What of the Jews?

I would call that an excellent case in point. The history of Jews in Europe has been one of endless conflict and atrocities, and assigning all blame to gullible Europeans and dictators is convenient for post-WWII narratives, but intellectually lazy. Today Jews overwhelmingly prefer (this is where the money, ink and activism goes) "multi-culturalism", using European and European-majority lands as holding pens for all people of the world, while non-Jewish Europeans, on average, do not agree with that use of their lands. That is a very fundamental disagreement - having a territory vs. not having a territory.

[Domino]

And that's a wrap for Florida! Republicans cleaned the house for the most part. The major statewide Governor/Cabinet roles went Red again except for one, Nelson is going to the retirement house, and most of these elections went with less than half a percent win for the Reds. This is important because, the percentages wins has been decreasing election year after election year. Perfect example was 2014 Gov Race, Scott won by 68k votes. For 2018, Desantis won with less than 34k (half than 2014) against Gillum. So many elections within FL had to go to recount mode, it's nuts. It's a sign of things to come on this very purple state. It's strange, the state is very purple but Republicans have a good hold in state politics. They will make the state go even red for the next four years (and the state supreme court is going red too, oh my).

Dems were only able to flip two House Seats, but lost badly otherwise. The only exception for the Dems is that they won a Cabinet seat in the State Capital via the Commissioner of Agriculture role. This is a under-rated win for the Dems. Commissioner of Agriculture controls conceal carry licenses (plus background checks), 420/weed management that's growing in the state (the new head of that department had been clear that she want the state to go full legal on weed), water management, consumer protection, more. Nobody talks about this seat, but it's a very powerful position within the state. Gun control folks are already behind her since her dept is going to put safer checks on personals buying a gun. In other words, Nikki Fried is the most powerful Dem in FL. If she plays her cards right, then she will become a power star in FL and the Dem party.

What to look for in Florida for the next four years? How many over one million ex-felons are going to register and actually vote since Amendment 4 passed. I do believe it will help the Democrats a lot more than Republicans (Repubs were not behind Amendment 4, but Dems were). How far-right Desantis is going to take his office to? He only won FL by less than 34k votes. If he piss off enough people, then he's gone by 2022.

[GaijinPunch]

What to look for in Florida for the next four years? How many over one million ex-felons are going to register and actually vote since Amendment 4 is going to pass. I do believe it will help the Democrats a lot more than Republicans (Repubs were not behind Amendment 4, but Dems were). How far-right Desantis is going to take his office to? He only won FL by less than 34k seat. If he piss off enough people, then he's gone by 2022.

I find this to be the one of the most interesting things this midterm, and a bit shocking that Florida is being so progressive about it... especially for the GOP winning as much as it did.

It's an important topic, and I think I know what side I am on, but it's still weird hearing it, being told your whole life that once you are a felon you are no longer able to vote. Such finality.

[Domino]

What to look for in Florida for the next four years? How many over one million ex-felons are going to register and actually vote since Amendment 4 passed. I do believe it will help the Democrats a lot more than Republicans (Repubs were not behind Amendment 4, but Dems were). How far-right Desantis is going to take his office to? He only won FL by less than 34k voters If he piss off enough people, then he's gone by 2022.

I find this to be the one of the most interesting things this midterm, and a bit shocking that Florida is being so progressive about it... especially for the GOP winning as much as it did.

It's an important topic, and I think I know what side I am on, but it's still weird hearing it, being told your whole life that once you are a felon you are no longer able to vote. Such finality.

I wasn't surprised that 4 got passed. I voted for it since it was a stupid process to begin with. Watch the first then minutes of this video and go to different parts, it's a trip. https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/12 ... ng-part-1/ You know something will pass when you have both the ACLU and the Koch Brothers behind Yes to 4. It's an utter waste to tax payers to do this process, and when Scott became Gov, he made the process even harder.

Does matter how many new voters FL will have, Dems will continue to lose if they don't increase their voter turnout percentage. There's more Dems than Repubs in FL by 300k, but Repubs vote in higher percentages. This is how they continue to win the majority of races here.

[BryanM]

It's been 18 years since Gore v Bush. Supposedly, demographic and cultural changes have favored the democrats during that period of time. A timespan of an entire generation. That they have not been able to improve beyond a dead tie would imply that their work over the last 18 years has actively decreased turnout there.

the Koch Brothers behind Yes to 4

With their words. In the dark where no one can hear them.

But not with their money.

Which is similar to their position on wars of aggression.