Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Iran War. When.

2021
3
6%
2022-2025
15
28%
2026-2030
7
13%
2031-2040
3
6%
2041-2050
0
No votes
Never
25
47%
 
Total votes: 53

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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Image

I wonder how hard that stuff is to get off.
Mischief Maker wrote:Jebansk
I feel like I missed a reference here.
BulletMagnet wrote:One more reminder to the "moderates" out there that you are willfully turning a blind eye to what a bunch of utter fools you're being played for.
Reading that article it comes across like he's a skeezeball who's trying to cover his ass by playing the crazies as well. "Don't worry, I haven't betrayed my fellow MAGA white hats, Qfrens, it's just fog of war psyoptics. Think mirror."
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

Sengoku Strider wrote:Reading that article it comes across like he's a skeezeball who's trying to cover his ass by playing the crazies as well.
Mind you, he's hardly the first, or even the most high-profile in very recent memory. Yet somehow the "states rights" diehards have almost to a man kept their whore mouths tightly shut.

EDIT: Then there's this insufferable pussy. Okay swing voters, how hard are you willing to work to pretend you still don't see the writing on the wall this time?
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

At least I have the good sense to project *my* doomy apocalypse perpetually 20 to 30 years out. (Gas is gonna run out, it's gonna be great. This physical reality is so alien to the world we've been groomed to believe is permanent, it's really impossible for us to even start accepting even the very possibility of it happening.)

It's kind of amazing how Mr.Oz manages to make me like him less and less every day. Oprah has inflicted many, many blights upon us all... such a terrifying woman.

I used to watch a lot of The McLaughlin Group and always actually liked Pat Buchanan. Contrasted with the slimey "young republican", the seemingly-clueless Brooks, and the "paralyzed evil voldemort guy", he was my favorite fictional character on the network. Hah... even the W character, man. They don't make characters like they used to.
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BIL
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BIL »

Ah man McLaughlin Group PWNed, many happy memories watching em with my grandma ;-;

I thought this was a sterling tribute from the Cum Town lads!
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

Republicans begging for commie moneys in Florida. Fuck.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by To Far Away Times »

Sengoku Strider wrote:Image

I wonder how hard that stuff is to get off.
Plot Twist: The rapture happened but because AR-15 welding, hate thy neighbor, Republican Jesus is so unchristian-like nobody noticed.
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

I think I want a constitutionality lawsuit on FEMA payments for Florida. Because of the lawsuit, we should pause any response in Florida while the case is pending. No need to file more cases or pause disaster money anywhere else--just Florida. I'm not punishing or singling out Florida, that's just where rhe lawsuit would be. No biggie. If constitutional, we could make a five year plan and disperse funds after the five years (starting work on the plan after the case is settled) structured as a loan to the state (no handouts) with interest--after we verify there's no fraud or waste.

The Republican administration should have a "bootstraps" plan in place and their own funding already, because they believe in that and obviously planned for this using entrepreneurship and fiscal responsibility. They also choose to live in the path of hurricanes. They made it happen.

If there's a humanitarian disaster, we could probably fund buses to take people to wealthy areas of Florida and retirement communities. They have money, maybe they can help the people. I see no harm in offering free busing for people to those places.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

BulletMagnet wrote:
Sengoku Strider wrote:Reading that article it comes across like he's a skeezeball who's trying to cover his ass by playing the crazies as well.
Mind you, he's hardly the first, or even the most high-profile in very recent memory. Yet somehow the "states rights" diehards have almost to a man kept their whore mouths tightly shut.

EDIT: Then there's this insufferable pussy. Okay swing voters, how hard are you willing to work to pretend you still don't see the writing on the wall this time?
Highly relevant:

Salon: How the GOP weaponized ignorance — and how “smart people acting like dopes” stay in power

Most mind-bogging quote:

There is a very nefarious side to ignorance, which is, what fills that void? In the case of Sarah Palin, her own campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, who was John McCain's campaign manager, when he finally sat down with her after she'd been selected, he came to the horrifying conclusion, and this is a direct quote, "She doesn't know anything." And it's true.

She had never heard of Margaret Thatcher. She thought that the queen of the U.K. commanded the armed forces. She didn't know who attacked us on 9/11. She thought it was Saddam Hussein. This was somebody John McCain chose to be one heartbeat away from the presidency.


Not knowing 9/11 was Bin Laden in the year two thousand and fucking eight beggars the imagination. You're a right-wing politician. The name of the country's #1 foreign supervillain is one of the only adult-level facts you're required to know for your job.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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I continue to vehemently question just how much of the modern right's ignorance is genuine versus willful; sure, some people are so woefully uninformed that they truly internalize the utter nonsense people like Trump and his countless cocksuckers feed them, but for Ivy League-educated congresspeople to continue to insist that there are "unanswered questions" about the 2020 election, credentialed economists to still be hitching their wagons to "trickle-down" theory, and well-studied religious authorities declaring that Jesus actually told the poor to quit complaining and get a job, flying directly and blatantly in the face of all available verifiable evidence, and the legions of "suburban soccer moms" who are still somehow supposed to keep them in check inevitably following in lock step every single goddamn Election Day?

Sorry, but the vast, vast majority of these people aren't blithering idiots; if they were merely somehow unaware of the mountains and mountains of facts that render their stated worldview almost completely untenable it might be possible to educate and reason with at least some of them, but at this point I find it all but completely impossible to still believe that a very healthy majority of the Palins are simply not speaking or acting in good faith, and daring the rest of us to do anything about it. Unless there's a way to argue otherwise, as far as I'm concerned this isn't happenstance ignorance, it's deliberate spite, and every time a (...possibly) well-meaning type continues to insist that "reaching out" is the answer we get suckered one step closer to authoritarianism.

There's a reason the usual cast of characters around here have been so uncharacteristically quiet of late, despite all that's been happening; not only can't they even pretend to defend what their movement is doing, they don't want to, and more importantly they don't have to. They just need to sit back and let it happen, and they absolutely intend to do just that.
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

BulletMagnet wrote:I continue to vehemently question just how much of the modern right's ignorance is genuine versus willful[
Well, try some reference examples from your own life. How many highly intelligent people do you know that believe right wing or libertarian ideas? I can't even count the amount of highly successful and educated people I know, have known, or have done business with in my life that believe and support right wing and/or libertarian policy. I can't live with them and can't live without them. Fuck.

Almost everyone puts on a grin and stomachs bullshit at work sometimes; that's probably the best parallel for the minority of cynical politicians that know better.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

orange808 wrote:How many highly intelligent people do you know that believe right wing or libertarian ideas?
The thing is, I don't think most of them actually believe any of it; rather, they pretend to believe it because it allows them to "justify" otherwise-inexcusable and completely self-interested actions because, after all, even if they make no earthly sense whatsoever, you have no right to question my deeply-held and sincere beliefs.

Yes, everyone, regardless of politics or anything else, sometimes believes things that turn out to be wrong, but again, these people aren't complete and utter morons, there's no way the vast, vast majority of them don't know what utter bunk they're peddling (to wit, MM has posted this famous nugget right here on the forum countless times, and it's been highlighted heaven knows how often elsewhere, for years; how many people are fully aware of this but still "believe" in supporting it?); the actual issue is that they don't care, and far too many of the rest of us can't bring themselves to even consider that possibility, let alone how our own attitudes and behavior to that end should change.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

BulletMagnet wrote:Sorry, but the vast, vast majority of these people aren't blithering idiots; if they were merely somehow unaware of the mountains and mountains of facts that render their stated worldview almost completely untenable it might be possible to educate and reason with at least some of them, but at this point I find it all but completely impossible to still believe that a very healthy majority of the Palins are simply not speaking or acting in good faith, and daring the rest of us to do anything about it. Unless there's a way to argue otherwise, as far as I'm concerned this isn't happenstance ignorance, it's deliberate spite, and every time a (...possibly) well-meaning type continues to insist that "reaching out" is the answer we get suckered one step closer to authoritarianism.
There was a point where I honestly thought none of them believed it, they were just mouthing the empty words they had to mouth to avoid being primaried by their own voters. But then the Jan. 6th hearing stuff came out, and all these internal texts started showing up revealing that sure, there were adults trying to ride the storm without completely selling their souls, cynical operatives message-massaging and empty suits just blowing wherever the wind blew them. But then you see people like Ginni Thomas, who is sending the White House Chief of Staff videos about the Joe Biden crime family being arrested and put on a barge off Guantanamo Bay saying "I hope it's true."

This is a woman who has held a doctorate in law for 40 years and is married to a supreme court justice. That would be one of the kinds of people I would think wouldn't fall for any of this stuff. So now I dunno any more.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

To be fair, a doctorate of law has nothing to do with critical thinking skills and objective reality.

If anything, it teaches the opposite.

Reality is always negotiable.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Mischief Maker wrote:To be fair, a doctorate of law has nothing to do with critical thinking skills and objective reality.
It should have everything to do with logical, fact-based reasoning. After all, you need to know which gaps in knowledge to exploit, which truths to stretch, and by how much. A lawyer who isn't building their argument around the truth as best as they can ascertain it is working against themselves, because they won't be able to predict their opponents' arguments.
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BIL
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BIL »

You are both correct, in that the trick to effective advocacy is to 1) know the objective law 2) know the objective facts, and then 3) bend the truth to its absolute molecular shattering point and not one nano-pascal further, driving the resulting grotesque deep into your opponent's rectum.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Sengoku Strider wrote:A lawyer who isn't building their argument around the truth as best as they can ascertain it is working against themselves, because they won't be able to predict their opponents' arguments.
Unless, of course, you're in front of a judge as addicted to yeeeahhh fuck yooouuu yeeahhh as you are; again I ask, do you think for a second that she, along with her apologists, truly believes that her ongoing parade of ludicrous rulings, all of which have been repeatedly torn to shreds by both legal commentators and appeals courts, are legally sound, let alone "just" by any definition one could apply?
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

Symbols and bullshit... They're a phantom, a mask to rally allies, and a wall of bullshit to waste people's time and energy. A sword, and a shield.

At the end of the day, no one wants to be a victim and only the fash want to believe they're victimizers. Of course they think it's just: if you see a wounded gazelle struggling, you're supposed to eat it. That's all they exist for. Goombas exist to be squished, cattle exists to be harvested.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Weaponized ignoramus and former Zangief cosplayer sex cult thrall Marge is back, with hot new material:

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Democrats ‘Have Already Started the Killings’ of Republicans
“I am not going to mince words with you all,” Greene said at Donald Trump’s rally in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday night. “Democrats want Republicans dead, and they have already started the killings.” To support her claim, Greene cited a recent North Dakota crime story about an intoxicated man who allegedly “had a political argument with [a] pedestrian,” hit the pedestrian with a car, and then later claimed the pedestrian was “part of a Republican extremist group,” according to court documents. During her speech, Greene added that President Joe Biden “has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state.” “But under Republicans, we will take back our country from the Communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear,” Greene concluded.
^^ Super cool and not at all completely apocalyptic.

Image

You still gotta love the old favourites though.

BulletMagnet wrote:again I ask, do you think for a second that she, along with her apologists, truly believes that her ongoing parade of ludicrous rulings, all of which have been repeatedly torn to shreds by both legal commentators and appeals courts, are legally sound, let alone "just" by any definition one could apply?
Uh, did you ask me that before? Because ROFL no, I do not.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Sengoku Strider wrote:Uh, did you ask me that before?
Well, I meant "again" as in "here's another highly-educated and powerful individual 'believing' something totally ludicrous on its face in the defense of otherwise-indefensible actions, do you think this one really means it?"

To that end, it stands to reason why you or anyone else would be more willing to believe that certain individuals (i.e. Ginni Thomas) are more likely "legit into this shit" than others, though I would be interested to hear your thoughts on whether or not, from the leaders all the way down to the rank-and-file voters who keep electing them (again, in the immediate aftermath of Election 2020 around 70 percent of Republicans openly said they believed the election was stolen; two years later, amidst all of the developments since then, that number has not changed), whether or not the "true believers" are the genuine driving force behind the contemporary right's descent into proud, uncompromising rejection of objective reality when it suits them, as opposed to the ones who obviously know better but are so lacking in self-respect and personal integrity that they continue to deliberately play the fool.

Suffice it to say, if there existed an objective way to accurately gauge the percentages on either end of the equation, I would be incredibly eager to see them.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

All safe now. The cameras have put down the crime wave. Wait... Guess not.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/380 ... rime-rate/
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

Here's a nice dystopian video for your weekend. Please note that this a video about a lightbulb. An unlisted video. It has 2.25 million views.

You can re-watch this video you've already seen a thousand times, to remind yourself of simpler times. Back when this kind of thing was a joke.

Hoo... what's really cool about Eurobeat, is that if you have a playlist of these songs in any order, it sounds like it's one big very long song because they all have that same beat constantly repeating in the background. It just sounds like one singer bows out and another steps in to keep the madness going.

I suspect this could be used as a metaphor for society, somehow.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

BryanM wrote:Here's a nice dystopian video for your weekend. Please note that this a video about a lightbulb. An unlisted video. It has 2.25 million views.

You can re-watch this video you've already seen a thousand times, to remind yourself of simpler times. Back when this kind of thing was a joke.
I've never watched Tim & Eric, so I haven't seen that before. I watched that one first because who cares about light bulbs? It made the light bulb one so much better the first time.
Hoo... what's really cool about Eurobeat, is that if you have a playlist of these songs in any order, it sounds like it's one big very long song because they all have that same beat constantly repeating in the background. It just sounds like one singer bows out and another steps in to keep the madness going.

I suspect this could be used as a metaphor for society, somehow.
There was a period where I thought Eurobeat was the cheesiest music in existence.

https://youtu.be/aTJncWndUB8

You just made me watch that again which might've brought right back there TBH.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

Psh!

I'll see your programmable lightbulb dystopia and raise you my Headphones Rave dystopia!
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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More crickets from the Deep State obsessives. Almost as good as the "character counts" clowns tripping over themselves to continue to support Herschel Walker (as if he deserved consideration for the position even before the scandals, but, as always from these patriots, whatever).
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

Boston Dynamics recently made a statement that they promised they would never "weaponize" their robots, which reassured everyone that they already have. "Sounds like Google's promise to 'not be evil'", said everyone upon hearing this news. (Argh, I can remember the day Google went public and remarking on it negatively at work.)
Spoiler
Image
I've never watched Tim & Eric, so I haven't seen that before. I watched that one first because who cares about light bulbs? It made the light bulb one so much better the first time.
It makes me very happy to hear that.
There was a period where I thought Eurobeat was the cheesiest music in existence.
It is pretty good as a liminal soundtrack, no wonder it pairs so well for driving around.

The vaporwave scene is a curious beast. It reminds me of that internet definition debate on what is kusoge (a game culturally considered defective in a notable and entertaining way by its community. Ex. The Fist of the North Star fighting game where you can infinite combo by bouncing your opponent up and down off the ground like a basketball. Its fans love it.) - Vaporwave went from stealing cuts of other people's songs and playing them back at a slow pitch - "like drowning in a fountain at the mall" to basically just being j-pop/funk/disco.

... that still uses other people's music. Stripped down, few words, repetitive, liminal, just like Eurobeat.

... I just feel like mentioning someone made an album dedicated to gas station convenience stores....
Mischief Maker wrote:Psh!

I'll see your programmable lightbulb dystopia and raise you my Headphones Rave dystopia!
This makes me very sad. It might make you happy to know that I was unable to look away, my eyes locked to the video with my mouth agape the entire time.

I've spoken about our entertainment culture fragmenting; hell I'd talk about AI making like custom TV shows suited to a specific person as far back as highschool. Still, it hurts my heart to see us so isolated and broken as a people that it's come to this. Being alone together with other people, like in a bar or an MMO.

It has made me get more serious about expediting learning how to dance this year. Even crippled by my whiteness as I am, I'm only 13% as bad as what was on display here. A terrifyingly high number, I need to get a decimal point on some significant digits, there.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by vol.2 »

BryanM wrote:At least I have the good sense to project *my* doomy apocalypse perpetually 20 to 30 years out. (Gas is gonna run out, it's gonna be great. This physical reality is so alien to the world we've been groomed to believe is permanent, it's really impossible for us to even start accepting even the very possibility of it happening.)
I never wanna trample on a doomer's gloom, but don't you think electric vehicles will become a big enough share of the (at least US) fleet in 20-30 years that gas supply will be less relevant? Adoption is pretty good, and energy storage density is already past a 500 mile range in some models; in 5 years, that will be commonplace.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Mischief Maker wrote:Psh!

I'll see your programmable lightbulb dystopia and raise you my Headphones Rave dystopia!
You see dystopia, I see the holiday magic of Peanuts brought to life.

Image

Image
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

Well, that proves it. :mrgreen:

People that act racist probably are. Gotcha on tape. Hook. Line. Sinker. Goodnight.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

Hey, remember when people said Tulsi Gabbard was the next Bernie Sanders?

Well she just announced she's leaving the Democratic Party because it's too woke.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

Mischief Maker wrote:Hey, remember when people said Tulsi Gabbard was the next Bernie Sanders?

Well she just announced she's leaving the Democratic Party because it's too woke.
Great! Now, she can go hang out with Sarah Palin. They can both be "politicians" together. Politicians that hold no position in the government and can't win an election (to get one). :mrgreen:
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