Prelude to the Apocalypse

[quash]

Furthermore, net neutrality is a red herring. The rug has already been pulled from under our feet. They couldn't pass the laws they wanted to in the US, so now we're giving jurisdiction to the UN.

Nobody finds it the slightest bit strange that Facebook is so intent on giving countries that barely have running water free internet via satellite? Because social media has never been used as a tool for recruiting terrorists and organizing uprisings... nope.

[BryanM]

Was gonna wait for Monday for this post... but today's medical episode... guess I'll do it a day early...

We're in the last few weeks of the election. So, a comprehensive FAQ on the matters that remain up in the air.

* Assange claims he'll release some kind of Clinton bombshell before the first debate in a couple weeks. How this will actually do anything is the realm of science fiction and fantasy writers. You can't get indicted unless you have a prosecutor that WANTS to indict. Since those appointments are made by the people who'd stand to lose if we got rid of corruption, why would they install someone who doesn't have their back? It's a child's fantasy within a fantasy.

* In the event Clinton has to bow out due to a miracle from God, I'm still very confused on who replaces her. Tons of wishful Internet People are all like "the DNC suspended the rules so it goes to the runner-up, Sanders!!!" but my brain and guts don't believe it for a second. They'll just put Kaine or Biden in there, who will get slaughtered like a lamb. Even if Trump whips out and wiggles his penis around, maybe makes it talk like a puppet, on national TV.

* Polling data indicates things are roughly tied with an edge to Clinton. Tomorrow will have the weekend poll dump (which is why I wanted to wait until then), so we'll have slightly more data then.

While hopefully I'll be enjoying the grimdark world of this new and exciting game called "Baroque" for the Playstation 2 over the next two weeks, I do still care about this just enough to be morbidly curious about what would happen if Clinton had to fold. That is a clusterfuck I would love to see, and would be the perfect cap to the end of this election and the end of all human life on the planet.

[Mischief Maker]

What are you talking about? Ronald Reagan, the greatest president in the history of ever, had Alzheimer's. This is gonna be great!

[BryanM]

Everyone knew Trump was just a salesman and his VP was going to be the REAL president. But no one realized the same thing was true of Hillary Clinton. Dadaduuuuum.

This is a very weird period in history. How often has this happened, anyway? President is just a salesguy, and the the VP is some unsellable monster only the elites want, who does the real job? It feels like Bush II has sealed this as standard operating procedure now. I... don't want to accept they innovated this technique out of thin air.

[Bitter Almonds]

$hillary IS dickless cheney!

[Ikaruga11]

I can't even begin to understand how anyone can still support Hillary after what has come to light over the past year.

[Mischief Maker]

I can't even begin to understand how anyone can still support Hillary after what has come to light over the past year.

Because I'm a Bernie Sanders voter who wants to actually see his legislation come to fruition. You think anything from Bernie would make it past Trump's veto stamp and Supreme Court nominees?

[Bitter Almonds]

$hillary will do a 180 on his policies the way she turned her back on Elizabeth Warren. She's a goldmansacks and military industrial complex puppet.

[quash]

You think they'll get past Hillary's or Kaine's?

[Bitter Almonds]

cain won't move for anyone unless there's a large sum of money or gift given to him.

[BIL]

Have you lads heard about this racist frog going about the internet? No I don't mean JAPJAC, I think his name is Pepe?

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/donald-trump-pepe-the-frog-and-white-supremacists-an-explainer/

[quash]

I think you've been mistaken. The Pepe I know would never associate with such an ideology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzu15ZezipE

[BIL]

Oh thank god! Yeah he seems okay. My grandma emailed me and I was worried about the meme attack.

[Mischief Maker]

$hillary will do a 180 on his policies the way she turned her back on Elizabeth Warren. She's a goldmansacks and military industrial complex puppet.

Okay, so you hate Hillary for her corporate connections, then why the hell are you supporting Gary Johnson who wants to eliminate all corporate taxes? Yes, really!

Does anyone actually take the time to look at the policies of these fucking politicians, or is it all about who you'd rather drink a beer and watch a football game with? For fuck's sake, Clinton is a weak enough candidate as it is without Koch brothers stooge Gary Johnson peeling 4% of the Bernie vote from her.

You think they'll get past Hillary's or Kaine's?

Yes. You know why I think that? Because we've got $15/hr minimum wage laws passed in New York and California due to progressive pushback, and now Clinton's hanging her hat on fight for 15. She can and has been influenced to move in the correct direction.

Gary Johnson, on the other hand? Opposed to any minimum wage at all.

[EmperorIng]

Opposed to any minimum wage at all.

A higher minimum wage can only really be sustained by places that can afford to have a higher minimum wage. You mentioned two of the most populous and moneyed states in your example. I don't think that is a coincidence.

For the a large swath of the country, doubling the minimum wage as a federal law is going to reek havoc on people. The poorest places in the country will actually be hardest hit, because there isn't enough money there to begin with.

In fact, Bernie Sanders never had a good answer for this likely outcome. The best he could say was that "Well, I never said some people wouldn't be affected negatively." It's like there's no contingency plans for some people: all or nothing.

I'm all for people making more money, but that's why minimum wages need to be proportional to the state's own resources as opposed to a federal law or mandate, which is something most naive "Fight for 15!"ers seem to miss ("If we give more people money their problems will go away!" seems to be the underlying assumption). Instead of arbitrarily raising the minimum wage and pleasing the small world of the online Warren cult, a far better bet is improving local economies and increasing job availability. This latter point - increasing the overall number of jobs - being the surest way to combat poverty.

But I think it doesn't matter to some people. What matters more is adhering to ideology, or (as is often the case with the loudest), being vaguely-motivated by a inarticulate notion of "justice."

I find the wording "moving in the correct direction" strange as it seems to imply that it's more important that an action is perceived as a "movement" and towards a "right" outcome, as opposed to asking what the consequences of that action is. That sounds like it is an issue of appealing to ideology more than what its results will be.

[BryanM]

I've already giving up on Baroque. It has this gauntlet-esque "starvation" mechanic which causes you to die even if you stand still. The time limit is about three minutes. I died in the first town because I wanted to identity who and where all the NPCs were.

If anyone has any suggestions for an action RPG roguelike on the PSX2 or PSP,,,,

In fact, Bernie Sanders never had a good answer for this likely outcome. The best he could say was that "Well, I never said some people wouldn't be affected negatively." It's like there's no contingency plans for some people: all or nothing.

It's not like he could point out the chance of the federal minimum wage becoming $15 four/five years from now as he advocates is 0% no matter how the dice fell. That it's really something to fully accomplish in the next 12-20 years, not tomorrow. He's a politician.

When will $15 not be "too much" for Mississippi? Ten years from now? Twenty? Fifty? Will humans even have jobs in fifty years?

We'll job our way out of having no money and no jobs by jobbing ourselves out. Job jobby job job jobs.

He's a politician.

Just another quibble that some of you've been poking my brain with. Bernie Sanders is now a part of the democratic party. He's not "independent"; that is merely what he was on the ballot as in his last election. Next election, he'll have the D and blue stripe next to his name.

The democratic party is terrible. Let us destroy it from within, together.

Job

[Mischief Maker]

Most of those campaign contributions go toward television ads.

Something tells me that figure doesn't account for the $3 billion plus in free airtime the media gave to Trump.

That would add more than $1,739,130 per delegate.

[BryanM]

That would add more than $1,739,130 per delegate.

Well I think technically if it would do anything, it would SUBTRACT from his expenditure. Since it's not out of his pocket or a direct ally's pocket. Meaning Trump spent -$1.7 million per delegate.

[quash]

Isn't that exactly the kind of thinking we need right now? Imagine if instead of pumping billions into government program/contracts that see little to no ROI, we let others pick up the tab.

[Bitter Almonds]

$hillary will do a 180 on his policies the way she turned her back on Elizabeth Warren. She's a goldmansacks and military industrial complex puppet.

Okay, so you hate Hillary for her corporate connections, then why the hell are you supporting Gary Johnson who wants to eliminate all corporate taxes? Yes, really!

Does anyone actually take the time to look at the policies of these fucking politicians, or is it all about who you'd rather drink a beer and watch a football game with? For fuck's sake, Clinton is a weak enough candidate as it is without Koch brothers stooge Gary Johnson peeling 4% of the Bernie vote from her.

You think they'll get past Hillary's or Kaine's?

Yes. You know why I think that? Because we've got $15/hr minimum wage laws passed in New York and California due to progressive pushback, and now Clinton's hanging her hat on fight for 15. She can and has been influenced to move in the correct direction.

Gary Johnson, on the other hand? Opposed to any minimum wage at all.

He'd eliminate the IRS hahah... and with those huge tax cuts also come large reductions in govt. expenditures. People love to harp on the "what's Aleppo?" moment, but we've also never seen this guy try to talk up any foreign military invasion and occupation. While the establishment is busy funneling tax payers' money in all these wars, he'd be more than happy to walk away from that shit (and this includes the "war on drugs").

https://www.johnsonweld.com/foreign_pol ... al_defense

https://www.johnsonweld.com/war_on_drugs

https://www.thenation.com/article/could ... er-of-gop/

I don't agree with everything they claim to support, but it's a hell of a lot more than I can say for either of those clowns.

[Durandal]

[quash]

So many things unraveling all at once. To think we haven't even yet been treated to the October surprise.

[Bitter Almonds]

Couldn't even respond to a soft pitch question about her penchant for suspicious secrecy from her own network, cnn.

[Mischief Maker]

Couldn't even respond to a soft pitch question about her penchant for suspicious secrecy from her own network, cnn.

As opposed to Trump who simply banishes news outlets from his press corps whenever they publish something that displeases him.

Sadly, instead of walking out in solidarity and subjecting Trump to a media blackout until he backed down, the remaining outlets now quiver in their boots over the Oompa Loompa's wrath. Chris Wallace even announced that he will not be on the "Truth Squad" during the debates. Good dog!

They need their funny klown footage to push advertising, even if they believe it's bad for the country!

[Bitter Almonds]

There you go. There's no "lesser evil" when it comes to these two clowns, which is reflected on this non-scientific poll and nationwide.

[Zerst]

Instead of arbitrarily raising the minimum wage and pleasing the small world of the online Warren cult, a far better bet is improving local economies and increasing job availability. This latter point - increasing the overall number of jobs - being the surest way to combat poverty.

To be fair, the idea of a "Local Economy" probably won't even exist in 5-10 years thanks to the internet economy.

In regards to the minimum wage, I think it's a pretty bad idea to raise it, but I understand that the drive is a reaction to the deathgrip employers have had on compensation since 2008.

I used to work for a Fortune 500 company that had a pay freeze since 2009, and in 2015 they had the balls to dish out a company-wide 2% pay cut for every position that wasn't in management, while their stock price was climbing to new highs.




The fact that you can see this (S&P) and still see companies roll out "the economy is bad" in 2016 as a justification for why STEM professionals shouldn't make more than $25k/yr should highlight the kind of people Sanders was courting, and why neither Trump nor Hillary are shaping up to be good alternatives.

[Mischief Maker]

There you go. There's no "lesser evil" when it comes to these two clowns, which is reflected on this non-scientific poll and nationwide.

No, Trump is worse.

But 25 years of nonproductive fishing expeditions by Republicans against Hillary has taught an entire generation to distrust her, though they can never put their fingers on exactly why, so there's no convincing you. Go vote for Gary "End Medicare and cut the EPA by 40%" Johnson to show your solidarity with the Koch Brothers.

[Bitter Almonds]

Nah, 25 years of being on the wrong side of history has taught some to not trust these two grifters, regardless of any investigations into their shenanigans. It's why she's struggling against another evil person.

Go vote for endless, trillion-dollar military invasions, occupations, and bombings of hospitals and civilians. Go vote for goldmansacks. Go vote to support coup d'etats in Latin America. Go vote for mass spying of US citizens. Go vote for the person who says will do one thing and will turn around and do the exact opposite to please her rich masters.

[quash]

I think it's hilarious that after all that's been brought to light regarding Hillary Clinton and the DNC, people still act like there's no reason to distrust her.

Gotta love the spin machine, too. If McCain had been caught fumbling towards a van huddled by Secret Service agents, there would have been calls for him to step down from nearly every talking head.

[BryanM]

I mean really, onerous time limits in dungeon crawlers are bullshit. Remember Dungeon Master? Did you starve to death in three minutes while picking out your party members in the ghost gallery? Of course not.

Stupid!

I for one refuse to legitimize such fundamentally revolting systems with my consent.

As opposed to Trump who simply banishes news outlets from his press corps whenever they publish something that displeases him.

Sadly, instead of walking out in solidarity and subjecting Trump to a media blackout until he backed down, the remaining outlets now quiver in their boots over the Oompa Loompa's wrath.

How is that any different from any other candidate?

I fail to see any fundamental difference whatsoever. You're just complaining about Trump being a better politician. Geez louise.

Giant media conglomerates want access. To get access, they serve as the propaganda lapdogs of their guests. Offering facts and opinions are anathema to them. Having an opinion leads to disagreements. Disagreement leads to anger. Anger leads to reduced revenue. Reduced revenue leads to suffering.

Which is exactly what America needs right now. Mecha Death Christ Hitler 2016.

I think it's hilarious that after all that's been brought to light regarding Hillary Clinton and the DNC, people still act like there's no reason to distrust her.

Most people don't know jack shit about that or that there are things called primaries.

Being literate doesn't get you laid. Unless you happen to be Bernie Sanders, I guess.