Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Bananamatic]

he didn't throw all the antifa in concentration camps yet so no

[BryanM]

Hope Mélenchon can pull through to the second round today. And Corbyn won't get slaughtered in a couple months. Pessimistic enough for yet another "thanks, Hollande" and "thanks, Tony" moment.

White House Correspondents' Dinner minus the White House in a week. Personally would rather be living in the alternate reality where this one was a Festivus style holiday where their misdeeds are condemned, instead of celebrated.

Shattered is out, if you need to dig even deeper into the political malpractice that was 2016. You get all the hard hitting stuff, like the answer to the mystery of why they didn't campaign in Michigan.

See the games of telephone, with everything having to go through Abedin.

Spoiler

The answer that came back was that Hillary wanted to do the interview with "Brianna." Palmieri took this to mean CNN's Brianna Keilar, and worked to set up the interview, which aired on July 7th of that year.

Unfortunately, Keilar was not particularly gentle in her conduct of the interview. Among other things, she asked Hillary questions like, "Would you vote for someone you didn't trust?" An aide describes Hillary as "staring daggers" at Keilar. Internally, the interview was viewed as a disaster.

It turns out now it was all a mistake. Hillary had not wanted Brianna Keilar as an interviewer, but Bianna Golodryga of Yahoo! News, an excellent interviewer in her own right, but also one who happens to be the spouse of longtime Clinton administration aide Peter Orszag.

Purity purges and spying on underlings.

Spoiler

This traced back to 2008, a failed run that the Clintons had concluded was due to the disloyalty and treachery of staff and other Democrats. After that race, Hillary had aides create "loyalty scores" (from one for most loyal, to seven for most treacherous) for members of Congress. Bill Clinton since 2008 had "campaigned against some of the sevens" to "help knock them out of office," apparently to purify the Dem ranks heading into 2016.

How they view voters as dumb cattle to be corralled by the tricks of our Randian Supermen Overlords.

Spoiler

The Clinton campaign in 2016, for instance, never saw the Bernie Sanders campaign as being driven by millions of people who over the course of decades had become dissatisfied with the party. They instead saw one cheap stunt pulled by an illegitimate back-bencher, foolishness that would be ended if Sanders himself could somehow be removed.

"Bill and Hillary had wanted to put [Sanders] down like a junkyard dog early on," Allen and Parnes wrote. The only reason they didn't, they explained, was an irritating chance problem: Sanders "was liked," which meant going negative would backfire.

Hillary had had the same problem with Barack Obama, with whom she and her husband had elected to go heavily negative in 2008, only to see that strategy go very wrong. "It boomeranged," as it's put in Shattered.

The Clinton campaign was convinced that Obama won in 2008 not because he was a better candidate, or buoyed by an electorate that was disgusted with the Iraq War. Obama won, they believed, because he had a better campaign operation – i.e., better Washingtonian puppeteers. In The Right Stuff terms, Obama's Germans were better than Hillary's Germans.

I personally don't plan on reading it. If you look directly into the Sun, your eyes will melt.

antifa

Can you believe there are threads online of people complaining about militant hippy warrior women?

[EmperorIng]

I already can see history repeating itself in regards to Mélenchon: his supporters will not want to support the "banker" Macron, so they will just not vote and give Le Pen the keys to the car.

Not that I find Mssr. Macron to be "bad" given the choices (though I am starting to get suspicious of the "drastic cuts to government spending" types) but he inspires less people, which is less than Mélenchon who at least inspires a small number of people. He may end up pulling an "Obama" of being a socially left-of-center economic centrist riding a wave of youth and personality though. I am sure that's what he's banking (ha) on.

My gut is that Corbyn is finished after June. May is far more clever than he is, and everyone hates him.

Latest on the laugh train is the Dem propaganda machine (aka DailyKos, any assorted news magazine site, newspapers) moaning about how much Sanders is "hurting" the Democratic party based on the candidates he chooses to endorse, like that Omaha, NE mayoral candidate who is "beyond the pale," because he describes himself as "pro-life," but agreeing with Sanders on about everything else. This is a total affront especially after Sanders gave a "he's ok I guess" endorsement of local Clintonite Joel Ossof running in Georgia, which clearly made him "lose" the special election despite winning 28% more of the vote than his closest competitor.

lol, heaven forbid you try to attract some of those Trump-country voters by focusing on the things they like (education, healthcare, economy) instead of loudly parroting identity politics and wedge issues ("not pro-choice ENOUGH!") that will get half of the electorate to hate you no matter what. If you listen to the voices in the media machine, it seems as if the latter strategy is the "correct" strategy for "rebuilding the Democratic coalition" - purity tests for all!* Am I wrong or didn't Sanders perform pretty well in the Republican Great Plains? Must be remembering things wrong!

*except the management

[Rob]

[system11]

My understanding of the Le Pen situation, such as it is, is that the party used to be an actual far right one under her father - complete with a lot of less than pleasant supporters.

Le Pen herself doesn't seem to be of the same attitude and has reformed the party, but much of the stigma and some of the supporters remain. Her policies look like a mixture of left and right, even the BBC had a small piece on "is Le Pen really far right?" I think she probably should have started a completely new party many years ago, because the history of the 'Front Nationale' will always hold back anyone attached to it regardless of their actual views.

Someone from France can probably correct the above a bit.

Ultimately it doesn't matter, the obviously artificial En Marche! led by the establishment darling Macron, will end up in power. A manufactured party if ever I've seen one, came from nowhere on a pro-EU centrist stance to walk straight into the second round.

On another note, what the fuck is Trump doing? What a shambles - I'll admit I actually believed he was going to at least stand behind the less interventionist rhetoric of his campaign, but no - it's already in the trash.

[EmperorIng]

I'm not sure if the outcome is so foreordained at this point. You now have it between

Macron "I promise to cut social programs and enforce austerity! Immigrants are not the enemy!"
and
Le Pen "No cuts to social programs and no austerity! By the way, Islam is the enemy!"

Which is going to make a number of people likely say "You know that mademoiselle makes a lot of sense"

[BryanM]

I think she has maybe a 20% shot.

Macron's numbers might be soft in a way similar to early 2015 Clinton's were, but the second round is coming up soon and the gap is so huge.

On another note, what the fuck is Trump doing? What a shambles - I'll admit I actually believed he was going to at least stand behind the less interventionist rhetoric of his campaign, but no - it's already in the trash.

small lol

I know we disagree on almost everything, but I still can't fathom what sort of world model those who thought he wouldn't be another Bush, ascribe to. Trump is a capitalist. Why would a capitalist do something that'd make themselves lose money?

I guess it might be that division in world view between a materialist/non-materialist. The materialist would see that the sociopathic rich fellow has no material reason to go against his history and suddenly start being Santa Claus or a humanitarian. The non-materialist might believe that ephemeral things like honor or empathy can be innate qualities that don't require a material demonstration to prove they're something one possesses. A strange view of caring about personality divorced from actions: "Jimmy seemed like such a nice man, how could he possibly be a mass murderer?"

I'd be content if we don't drive Iran back into the ground again. If we don't put troops on the ground in Syria, that'd almost be a miracle by this point.

Whether Le Pen is an Obama-esque fraud or not, I personally have no idea. Not being french and all. It's hard enough keeping track of our own pokemon.

Latest on the laugh train is the Dem propaganda machine (aka DailyKos, any assorted news magazine site, newspapers) moaning about how much Sanders is "hurting" the Democratic party based on the candidates he chooses to endorse

Poor Sanders gets it from both ends these days. Guys like Jimmy Dore are on his case for going on the Unity tour with Tom Perez, like he's a sell out and wasting his time. While in the old guy's mind the following calculation is taking place:

* I get to speak my message to more people and make the democrats pay for it.

Shouting into an echo chamber is such a useless endeavor.

Clintonite Joel Ossof running in Georgia

How much did they pour into this guy's race again? Way over a million? While giving a few thou at best for the other races this year?

The entire party exists to prop up an elite few. Maybe pour some money into a couple cities that the Leaders have to live in, to make'em less of a shit hole. Everything else, exists to be exploited or left to rot.

I wonder how minor the transgressions have to be, to get that loyalty score of "7".

[Mischief Maker]

I really wish gamergate hadn't been parasitized by angry MRAs who wanted to make it all about their endless flame war with SJWs, because the original "gamers are dead" coordinated media blitz by game critics in defense of Zoe Quinn is a perfect analogy for what's happening to Bernie lately.

Hot on the heels of this new book "Shattered" comes another series of polls saying Bernie Sanders is comfortably the most popular politician in America, Trump is the most unpopular president since the 40s, yet somehow the Democratic party still ranks below Trump in popularity!

Well the geniuses in the Clinton wing seem to have only one tool at their disposal, and that's get their friends in the media to run nonstop coordinated hitpieces against Bernie accusing him of being a rapist frat boy and hope that distracts from the Hillary's failings. (In fact, not just Bernie, but THE GODDAMN VOTERS WHO SUPPORT HIM! The people whose votes they knew were going to be necessary in the general! Yet they made personal attacks against the voters anyway! YOU IDIOTS!) Perhaps I'm "mansplaining" here, but I think the outrage against Trump for "grab 'em by the pussy/I don't even wait" might not have fizzled so quickly if the media hadn't already spent the entire primary crying "sexist wolf!" against the most progressive senator in America.

And hot on the heels of all of that, the media has spent the past 100 days running a series of puff pieces about Chelsea Clinton. She's a wealthy heiress who wrote a children's book and encourages poor kids to drink a smoothie every morning. She's not that interesting as a person. We fucking KNOW she's gearing up for a run. But I look at the morning news sites today and see an article about how sexist the anti-Chelsea backlash is. This nonstop gaslighting is maddening, and it doesn't win you seats! Do you idiots WANT the Kochs to be able to convene a constitutional convention?

Meanwhile...

A little 2008 trip down memory lane.

Why did Obama break his promise to walk the picket line with workers whose right to collectively bargain was threatened? Why did he bail out the big banks without breaking them up then let cops crack the heads of peaceful occupy protesters? Why was he full-throatedly pushing for the TPP during the campaign while Hillary desperately tried to distance herself from it?

Well Obama is set to do his very first Wall Street speech for 400,000 smackeroos. Would you break a promise or two to get for nearly half a million dollars for an hour of your time, with the promise of more to come?

"What's with the fucking purity test, Bernie Bro?"

Edit: cleaned up some broken italics tags

[EmperorIng]

also lol at Tom Perez saying to that guy running as Omaha mayor: "you can't be pro-life and be a Democrat, it's non-negotiable" - cue the flood of media articles praising his principles... lol. I suppose Democrats can flip-flop on education, income inequality, taxes, foreign intervention, government spending and criminal justice, but some things are sacrosanct.

It's almost like they never want to win an election again. What is wrong with these people.

[Mischief Maker]

It's because of the establishment Dems' belief in "The Coalition of the Ascendant." Essentially that policy doesn't matter and the shifting demographics of the country will guarantee Democrats the presidency until the end of time because the Republicans are racist to their core. People are supposed to vote their demographics and only their demographics so Dems are free to sell out on economic issues then collect mad cash once out of office.

So when Perez puts everything on women's issues he's doubling down on that idiotic pipe dream. It's profitable to play dumb.

[BryanM]

The racial shift was always supposed to culminate with Texas becoming a battleground state on the presidential level in 2020. That modern republicans would out-awful themselves into non-existence. Even I bought into all that, ~10 years ago.

The horrifying truth is we've probably already passed the point where demographic changes could lock in destiny years ago. There's just been very little capitalization on it, and those gains led to less people feeling like they have to do the chore of voting for the liberal capitalist. So you stay at 50/50 equilibrium with people who are against clean air and water.

It's kind of depressing how the US elections hinge on how well a capitalist candidate does at tricking populists. "Hope and change" is a classic. "Everyday Joe Billionaire" - fucking hilarious. Hating immigrants despite making a fortune thanks to immigrants - lolwut.

Do you idiots WANT the Kochs to be able to convene a constitutional convention?

They were big backers of the democratic party takeover in the 90's, so, yes.

You can't get rid of the minimum wage and social security in the current system. There's still a drop of democracy left in it. So, they have to change the system.

Lest we enter another era like FDR's.

[BryanM]

Some updates on Obamacare.

Relying on private insurance companies to take care of us.. probably not a very realistic idea.

[Rob]

[Mischief Maker]

Relying on private insurance companies to take care of us.. probably not a very realistic idea.

Maybe it's time for people to start jogging and stop eating industrial sludge. Could help a little.

Nah, they just need to stop blowing their chemo money on iPhones.

[BryanM]

Stephen Hawking is an idiot. Corbyn would have won.

Spoiler

--

Clinton's "blame everyone else" tour last week was a bit of a head scratcher. Why'd she do it, unless she's going to run again? And if she's running again, why has she turned her knives on the DNC of all people?

Oh, and it's taken 21 years, but someone finally read her book. And discovered she owned house slaves for us. Yay.

--

Obama wrote a biography of himself when he was in his 30's. Which is a little narcissistic when you think about it. It's obviously biased and has outright lies and distortions in it, to make it more exciting. (I don't really get why though. Isn't the tale of you sitting on a couch in your underwear, eating frosted flakes while watching Ghostbusters, for 20 years, compelling drama? Must be a generational gap...)

A depressing recounted event from his youth was when he refused to marry a girlfriend on the basis that she wasn't black; that she wasn't a good vessel for his political ambitions. The idea that Michelle is even a tiny bit of a prop, even as a mere possibility, is kind of gross.

Guess it should be expected that a politician's wife is a prop. Our current first lady is the proppiest of props, after all. It would just be nice if we could elect normal human beings instead of weird creepy lizard people to control society.

--

As for the republicans, they're doing their best to accelerate into the next economic crash like we talked about.

Economic crash. Bubbles bursting in air. Propped up speculation turning into piss, to rain down on top of all of us. It's coming. Get excited. Get hyped.

[Giest118]

So to save time, can anybody just tell me about the list of things Trump HASN'T fixed?

[GaijinPunch]

So to save time, can anybody just tell me about the list of things Trump HASN'T fixed?

Saving time would be the list of things he has fixed.

Here's that list:
1:
2:
3:

[Giest118]

But I was led to believe that Trump was Super Kami Jesus, Omni-God of Hyperbenevolence. Misery cowers before him. Problems commit suicide in his presence. He annihilates hunger wherever he steps. Where war once sat comfortably, it now doubles over in pain from fear-induced heart attacks at the mere mention of The Donald.

Are you telling me that this picture of him was a fabrication?

[Blinge]

My gut is that Corbyn is finished after June. May is far more clever than he is, and everyone hates him.

[BryanM]

To be fair, I, too, was beginning to think we were living in the sci-fi nightmare timeline where a single billionaire with his robot army, puts all the attractive women into breeding camps and everyone else into Running Man style death games. (Though suggesting any establishment Tory is "intelligent" is a bridge quite too far. Intelligence is not exactly something our corrupt system selects for.)

The YouGov poll was the only one that predicted his surge and the resurrection of Labour. The other polls had more or less the same data YouGov did - in the raw popular vote% it was nearly tied on average. But those numbers go through a demographics filter for their "final" prediction. That's based on what actual turnout looked like in the last couple elections. Which is great, unless a candidate comes along that appeals to people who completely fucking hate corrupt politicians. And suddenly the youth turnout rises to >70%.

It's a good thing that guys like this former staff member of Bill Clinton's administration has to write General Bullshit threads on Politico. You know, about how committing war crimes for profit that'd earn you the guillotine in a just, objective world, are totally okay as long as you lie and pretend there's no malice or profit motive behind them. They're afraid, but it's depressing it's just the little numbers in their bank accounts they fear for.

"Why vote for the terrorist sympathizer when you can elect a terrorist directly?" the Insane Media asks, with an eyebrow raised.

[Bananamatic]

So to save time, can anybody just tell me about the list of things Trump HASN'T fixed?

Saving time would be the list of things he has fixed.

Here's that list:
1:
2:
3:

1: the election

blumpf BTFO
it's over for him

[Mischief Maker]

I know it's petty, but man, that guy has never had good hair!

[BryanM]

Some very strange Insurance Company propaganda in Cali.

I know it's petty, but man, that guy has never had good hair!

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flip turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became The Pres and abolished welfare

In Queens New York I was born and raised
A rich man's playground is where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all beatin' some kids outside of the school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started making money in my neighborhood
I bought out all of their businesses til they all got scared
Dad said 'You're going it alone with a mil I have spare'

I whistled for my limo and when it came near
The license plate said "Pres" and it had a c*** in the mirror
If anything I wondered what the driver was on
But I thought nah, forget it, yo homes, Washington!

I pulled up to the white house about seven or eight
And I yelled to the driver "Yo, homes fire you later!"
I looked at my kingdom I was finally there
To sit on my throne as The Pres with shit hair

[BryanM]

Death toll from the Grenfell fire looks like it'll be around 200, possibly more. Most of them children.

The event could have been mitigated at least somewhat by using fire resistant insulation panels. They would have cost £2 more than the panels used, for an increased overall cost of around £3,000. On a building that cost over £13,000,000. Sprinklers could have been installed for £200,000. The more you read about it, the worse it gets.

This kind of sociopathic policy value function always reminds me of those absurd hypothetical utility functions for robots. It's inhuman logic, an inhuman government.

The media there has since stopped calling Corbyn a weakling and has toned down the number of times they photoshop him next to Osama Bin Laden on the covers of newspapers, and are now complaining about him being too effective.

[Durandal]

Death toll from the Grenfell fire looks like it'll be around 200, possibly more. Most of them children.

The event could have been mitigated at least somewhat by using fire resistant insulation panels. They would have cost £2 more than the panels used, for an increased overall cost of around £3,000. On a building that cost over £13,000,000. Sprinklers could have been installed for £200,000. The more you read about it, the worse it gets.

This kind of sociopathic policy value function always reminds me of those absurd utility hypothetical utility functions for robots. It's inhuman logic, an inhuman government.

The media there has since stopped calling Corbyn a weakling and has toned down the number of times they photoshop him next to Osama Bin Laden on the covers of newspapers, and are now complaining about him being too effective.

I have a feeling the Grenfell situation wouldn't be out of place in an ancap image macro.

[Bananamatic]

I have a feeling the Grenfell situation wouldn't be out of place in an ancap image macro.

when your child slaves die in a house fire but the replacement costs less bitcoins than fire resistant insulation

[BryanM]

Those were the last special elections until the end of the year. 3 out of 4 of them outperformed Hillary by 15% on average.

The one all the money went into, did worse than her by a few percentage points. Check out his dank ads:

* Tweet. Ad of the century.
* Accountable. Classic Gil Fulbright strategy.

It was a great way for lanyards to pocket $30 million without having to actually do anything. In a better world it would have been spent educating and persuading people that austerity, wars of terror, and the banks are bad, so that even if you lost you'd have made a dent in public opinion. Which would've increased the odds of winning in the future... but that would be an investment against the donors' interests.

Next year contender Randy Bryce has a much better ad team. "I think it's time, let's trade places. Paul Ryan, you can come work the iron and I'll go to D.C."

Oh, and one of the threats Team Obama made to get Perez selected: He threatened to take away the Iowa delegation's privilege of holding the first caucus during a primary.

[Mischief Maker]

I hope Bryce can tread water in the deluge of money the Kochs will dump on him to protect Paul Ryan, their bottom bitch. I saw them take down Russ Feingold that way.

[BryanM]

California's annual attempt at single payer was ended today, 5 pm on a Friday, by a "longtime supporter of single payer".

Still not quite as evil as South Dakota republicans overturning the anti-corruption law the people passed there. Good thing we don't have a democracy, eh.

Reporter who got choke slammed and his glasses broken by the Trumpstaffel has a hot take on Jeremy Corbyn supporters. I... really need to stop looking at all these hot takes. Makes one welcome the forthcoming third impact.

I hope Bryce can tread water in the deluge of money the Kochs will dump on him to protect Paul Ryan, their bottom bitch. I saw them take down Russ Feingold that way.

Ah don't worry, the Democrats will beat him in the primary before it ever gets to the crushing in the general. They've already got lined up: a dorky technocrat that'll tell you the solution to everything is to go to college and unshackle the innovators, and his alter-ego, the folksy millionaire that advocates for 35% more bootstraps.

[Aliquantic]

California's annual attempt at single payer was ended today, 5 pm on a Friday, by a "longtime supporter of single payer".

Universal healthcare could never work across the whole of the US since it's such a big country... but you can't do it a single state at a time either since states aren't big enough to carry that burden. Perfect!