Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Bananamatic]

Why didn't they just get a black candidate again instead of Biden if they want to beat Trump that badly? Blacks will never vote for whitey

[Mischief Maker]

Blacks will never vote for whitey

???

[BryanM]

Our generation would definitely vote for Jesse Ventura over these two ghouls, but you know how boomers are and how much "there's a cheeto in the white house" boomed up turnout for them in the primary. God knows it'll never end until it does.

I don't even know if dropping one more round of Trumpbux right before the election would matter. Humans are insane.

[Steamflogger Boss]

but you know how boomers are.

It's unreal how much they trust everything they hear on tv/news. Basically 100% unquestioned not that I have the biggest sample size but still.

[Bananamatic]

Blacks will never vote for whitey

???

In this political climate there will always be distrust towards whites from a certain percentage of blacks
you wouldn't lose any white voters since all the racists will vote Trump anyways

If Trump can get votes from certain demographics just by going full populism, why can't democrats do the same? You won't beat him with an old white man with a questionable past and dementia

[Bananamatic]

Everyone went silent despite all the shit going on, what could possibly be the reason?

[BIL]

I hope I ain't seen any of you rascally shumpers under the wheels of a fleeing SUV over my cornflakes this AM Denny's Theorem be some real shit

[kitten]

on wednesday, we passed 100k covid-19 deaths in the US. over a quarter of accounted deaths in the world. i've known two people afflicted, i spend the day talking to one of them who has faced a lot of stigmatization and difficulty in recovery. she was afflicted with covid while in isolation, for the record.

on thursday, i was comforting a friend of mine that i've rapidly become very close to in minneapolis who couldn't sleep because of the high frequency of gunshots on her street. she lived on a street adjacent to some of the worst damage that happened and was (rightfully) scared out of her mind. i didn't know what to say, we're both people who believe these riots are something that probably needed to happen and a natural result of so many pressures bubbling to the service, but it doesn't ease the immediate fear of being in the thick of it.

on friday, i woke up to pictures of that friend's usual shopping places burned down. then, i'm hit with the news of the body of an artist i admired and had known about for roughly 9 years being found dead in a river. longtime friend-of-a-friend. i spend the morning in a call with a friend sharing her art (mostly hard to find, now, she had been in online self-destruct for a long time) and mourning her death. the suicide was in no doubt partly due to the current political climate. i wonder with my history of suicidality if ongoing conditions are going to eventually do something to push me into the river.

that friday afternoon, the person i love and pledged to spend the rest of my life with more than 5 years ago, my best friend and roommate (most people just call us each others' wives) wound up in the emergency room from their workplace for symptoms that looked like a stroke (completely unprecedented symptoms that struck completely out of nowhere). before recognizing it as stroke symptoms, i asked them to put off going to the ER because of the price. after recognizing it as stroke symptoms but for several hours before discovering it wasn't a stroke, there was reasonable cause to believe they might die or permanently lose significant function and that my suggestion to delay might be something i pay for instilling hesitation about for the rest of my fucking life. my family had to help them to the hospital because i can't drive, even though they live further away and it cost a lot of time. while they're okay, now, we're still unsure of what happened and we're getting hit with hospital bills we can't afford to pay and are having to (internet) panhandle over.

on saturday, another friend of mine that i talk to on the phone for several hours a week (and have done so for about a year) was shot with a rubber bullet and teargassed in reno for protesting. she got pushed out of minneapolis into homelessness just a couple months ago - got an eviction notice right before the pandemic was declared, so it was still legal to push her out onto the streets. she's okay, but her living situation she rebounded into in reno after what happened offers her no privacy and her new roommates have an almost suicidal riot drive despite being weak, disabled, and marginalized people, themselves.

sunday, now. i've got a hospital appointment scheduled a week ago for an x-ray and some ultrasounds for health problems. feelin... bad. about. this. world.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Good thing the American health system is reasonable and affordable on wait...

Ugh, this is awful. Wish I could gib hugs

[Bananamatic]

Name one reasonable thing about America

[kitten]

Good thing the American health system is reasonable and affordable on wait...

Ugh, this is awful. Wish I could gib hugs

if it had been a stroke, she might be dead. that is the degree to which the both of us have instilled fear about receiving proper health care - that one of us can be showing symptoms of something that might literally kill us and the natural instinct is fear and hesitation of cost instead of rushing to receive potentially life-saving care. i didn't even realize slurred speech, confusion, and loss of motor control function were a sign of a stroke (she could not even stand, she was speaking like she'd been hit in the head), maybe because i'd never expect someone under 30 who had never shown signs to have one. she can't afford regular care to prevent things like this before they happen, either. we spend on luxury stuff like games and whatnot but that's because we don't go out, we don't have expensive vices, we live somewhere affordable and away from any community of "people like us" at risk of violence and discrimination in the fucking bible belt, and i budget us tightly and cook frequently. like, thank goodness it wasn't a stroke, but if it had been... i don't even know. i can't think about that for too long. i'd have probably killed myself. we still don't even know what it was or if it's a sign of something bad, but the CT scan and ekg came back without any abnormality, at least.

i spent time wailing and sobbing that i might have basically killed her for not reacting sooner on the phone to our close friend in brazil (a country that is also Doing Great, Right Now), who i was giving updates to while i had to have some family help her to the hospital and other family come help me through this. did we spend too much on fun & games? did i make her afraid of care so much she couldn't self-diagnose what to do in time to save herself? were there signs of what meds she's been taking that i should have known about? so many things were running through my head about how this could have been prevented, all of which likely wouldn't have been there if health care in the US were fucking affordable. this fear, anxiety, and ignorance brought on by the premium of receiving care kills people regularly, i was worried i was about to yet another person with a sob story about a dead loved one brought on by it.

the really cool part of this whole thing is that i was high while it happened. i bake my own edibles, and had taken one earlier in the day. you know, waking up to one friend's neighborhood in shambles and a friend-of-a-friend turning up dead in a river will lead someone to a little self-medication. i was feeling great on the first and confident i was in control of this high and deserved some serious chill out time after a hellish week, so i took a second. then this shit happened. i don't know if you've ever done weed, but it has both an incredible capacity to relax and an incredible capacity to exacerbate paranoia, and i became real fucking paranoid when the person who is the foundation of my daily life was being sent to a hospital to possibly die there without me even seeing them. before anyone even thinks to accuse - no, she had absolutely nothing in her system when this happened and the most she's ever done is a little weed. she's the type to be afraid to drink more than two bottles, and both of us already very rarely even drink a small amount. this was one of the scariest days of my entire life.

this country is in a bad place. plenty of people protesting & rioting right now have been through much worse than i have and are doing it for any myriad number of reasons. racial inequality is a huge one and the obvious cork-loosener in this current riot epidemic, but the people who live here are fucking fed up and will continue to erupt until shit changes. there's an obvious and extraordinary capacity for things to be better than they are right now - you can only give power and privilege to so few a number of people before the rest of them are going to claw pieces back for themselves. the anger isn't directionless so much as it's so multi-faceted that the individual reasons get lost in a cloaking mist of rage. i want to be safe, i want those around me to be safe, but many of those i care for live in such poverty that their only outlet for change and potential for a safe future is participating in these protests. they let their anger be heard so that those in power become afraid of not easing it. getting shot to death by a cop is a lot less scary when you're going to die homeless, due to targeted violence, or from a lack of healthcare, anyway.

[Queen Charlene]

shit is getting insane. never thought this kind of thing would be going on in my lifetime. it's inspiring and terrifying. a lot more people are going to get hurt. the police are getting more and more insane across the country. i wouldn't be surprised if there is a huge body count after all of this.

life is effectively on hold...

also, god i'm so sorry about all of that, kitten. what a fucking shitty time this all is.

[orange808]

The supermanagers, generals, aristocrats (you're a fool if you think that term is misused or antiquated), police, and politicians are only interested in serving and protecting themselves.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Holy shit.

[To Far Away Times]

I think a sizeable number of Republicans were complacent with a Twitter Troll in the White House who maintained status quo and maybe let the country backslide a little bit, so long as he was hurting Democrats more than he was hurting Republicans.

The country has needed leadership now more than at any point since 9/11 and the White House is turning off the lights and Trump is hiding in a bunker while Obama is writing inspiring essays on bringing us together. Trump is scheduled to golf this weekend while millions are rioting and the U.S. accounts for 25% of the world's COVID-19 deaths.

Even the most die hard conservatives can't plug their ears and pretend not to see the difference in leadership.

Imagine how different things would be right now if we just had an average president in office. As shitty as he was, imagine even if we had George W. Bush in office right now.

That's how bad Trump has bungled this. It's a Hoover-esque response and that's pretty much going to be his legacy. When the times got tough, he was nowhere to be found.

[Mischief Maker]

Imagine how different things would be right now if we just had an average president in office. As shitty as he was, imagine even if we had George W. Bush in office right now.

You had me up until this point, but no. Fucking NO with this Bush jr. rehabilitation by liberals!

Am I the only one left in this goddamn country who remembers Bush jr's non-response to Hurricane Katrina? "Heckuva job Brownie" the unqualified asshole who Bush jr. put in charge of FEMA whose previous professional experience was raising Arabian horses? His cunt racist mother looking at people crammed into the Superdome for shelter and saying, "oh, this must be a big improvement for them over the filth their kind normally lives in."?

Am I the only one who remembers the massive financial crash that Bush jr. presided over, the biggest at the time since the great depression?

Am I the only one left who remembers that he called for an amendment to the constitution to make gay people permanent second-class citizens? (Hi Ellen!)

Let's get more contemporary, am I the only one who remembers that Bush jr. was a major force lobbying for Brett Kavanaugh to be put on the supreme court because Kavanaugh was part of the Brooks Brothers Riot (yes, riot) in 2000 to stop the recount of florida votes by threatening physical harm to the little old ladies trying to do the recount (which showed Gore actually won)?

And oh yeah, am I the only one who remembers Bush jr. getting us embroiled in a forever war in the middle east based on a Gulf of Tonkin-esque lie about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction, then had the balls to joke about it at the White House Correspondence Dinner?

The reason you're hearing so many supposed lefties in the media talking wistfully about Bush jr. these days is because the Democratic party leadership is being infested by all the Bush jr. neocons who couldn't get a job in the Trump administration and therefore were made automatic members of the #resistance in good standing. Don't let them manufacture your consent!

[orange808]

Yeah. Bush could play story time with the kids and stare blankly into space while Dick Cheney and the rich kingmakers pulled the levers?

Kinda like Trump playing on his phone while the same crowd of elites pulls the strings?

Yeah. Imagine that.

You're horrified that Trump posts things on Twitter. Other than that, he's par for the course.

Next up, Joe Biden. A nice Dubuyah clone to sit around while the Democrats push an almost identical agenda--padded with sweet sweet lies during election season.

Yeah. Imagine that.

[To Far Away Times]

I'm far from absolving Bush Jr. of his many issues and war crimes. He should be in prison right now along with Cheney and the rest of them.

I'm just saying remember how bad he was, how many conservatives are embarrassed that they voted for him and won't admit it in public, and yet how much better that a terrible president like him would handle this crisis than Trump. Someone who could atleast string together a few sentences and have it appear somewhat genuine. Bush Jr. wouldn't be fucking off on Twitter during this.

Its not a high bar to clear, yet Trump is far below it.

And I think this is what does Trump in. People are pissed.

And yes, Joe "Patroit Act and Iraqi Oil War" Biden is basically Bush Jr. with a D before his name. =(

[Lags]

Personally I can't wait for vids of this ABSOLUTE UNIT in action.

[BIL]

DEFENDED THE WHITE WHALE





NAWWW NOT MUH VIDYA



Oh well that is ok then

I can't believe Cuck Island sometimes. WHICH ONE OF YOU REPORTED THESE YOUNG RETARDED BOYS (■｀W´■)



STOP THAT UNDERAGE DRINKING YOU LITTLE LIMEY CUNT (■｀W´■)

Personally I can't wait for vids of this ABSOLUTE UNIT in action.

I want to see him team up with SGT HAFTHOR



He gon bend his baton then bend the back of they neck up they own asshole

[Bananamatic]

Cities can be rebuilt but who the hell is going to reestablish their business in a place that just got burned down in a riot?

[CIT]

Cities can be rebuilt but who the hell is going to reestablish their business in a place that just got burned down in a riot?

How did that work where you’re from?

[BulletMagnet]

Even the most die hard conservatives can't plug their ears and pretend not to see the difference in leadership.

Oh, just you watch them. And I'll raise you one: a whole bunch of "centrists" will do it too.

[Bananamatic]

I don't think any of those protests really worked as the USSR fell apart on its own, same with the assassination of Heydrich during WWII, take out one nazi officer and get 2 villages burned to the ground
I also don't see the restaurant in the background burning, when you get invaded then fighting back is fair game, destroying the very place where you live while arguing that someone will rebuild it is plain retarded

[Vanguard]

while they're okay, now, we're still unsure of what happened and we're getting hit with hospital bills we can't afford to pay and are having to (internet) panhandle over.

I don't know from experience, but I'm told that most of the time you can get your hospital bills massively reduced by calling and threatening not to pay, or by refusing to pay until the debt gets sold off. I don't know the laws surrounding any of this, and it might tank your credit score - definitely do your research before you try anything - but it could be worth a shot.

Beautiful. Thanks for this!

[BIL]

I think Spaghetti-O's had the best one, but I'm waiting until they all come through.

Spoiler

The spirit of the Greatest Generation is still with them. ;-;7

Also, in Werner Herzog's superb Grizzly Man biopic of Timothy Treadwell, the director mused on his subject's encounters with what Herzog terms "the inexplicable magic of cinema."

I believe this is one such encounter.

Commiserations to anyone embroiled in insurance fuckeries, of any kind (medical/property/other). Many bitter experiences wrestling that bone away from snarling greedy curs. Cringing at "but they have insurance" blandishments. Yeah, I hope you step on a fucking nail you cunts.

[Bananamatic]

So how come the hong kong protests are basically already forgotten but the entire world has to care about america? Americans would never riot for France so why is it the other way around?

[Queen Charlene]

nobody's saying that you have to care, but the reason people care so much is because Black people are being killed by the state on the regular and the government is deploying military weaponry on its own citizens for the sake of protecting police brutality, going so far as to literally call on the US Military to "pacify" innocent civilians protesting blatant injustice, racism, and abuse of power.

it's pretty fucking insane, i don't blame the entire world for watching our country fall apart.

[Bananamatic]

Government is the easiest thing to blame, the issue is the violent culture and how gullible americans are, replacing the talking heads will do nothing if people won't change as the same people will vote with the same voting tendencies, not to mention you can't even come up with a single sane candidate

Cops are still people, if you have cultural violence issues then you'll likely have violent law enforcement and the worse is the crime, the less likely the police is to be "nice" because I don't see anyone sane joining the US law enforcement right now

[Lags]

Oof.