Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Mischief Maker]

Because I can't let anything go, that Project Veritas video "Progressive Hero" Tulsi Gabbard was citing to push legislation to help Trump flush ballots?

It's gone from "damning true footage" to "fancifal re-enactment" to "okay, fine, they paid me $10,000 to falsely smear Ilhan Omar."

[BryanM]

The Gravel Institute is attempting to be the anti-PragerU, a political propaganda outlet that the algorithm shows to normies. The idea is sound I guess, it's shitposting outreach instead of shitposting to the choir. The rude teens are certainly trying to do stuff.

Us grillers just watch cat videos these days. Lots of old Simpsons clips too. Remember how you could pick out any random 20 seconds out of an episode and it'd almost always be hilarious?

[Mischief Maker]

...aaand Trump just killed second stimulus talks, crashing the DOW and dooming many, many Americans.



He's taking us all with him.

[To Far Away Times]

Yeah, that was one of his dumber tweets. Which is notable considering how dumb his average tweet is.

Did he forget that "Democrat States" can also be swing states?

He's not even pretending to be President for more than 40% of the population.

Going scortched earth (as he has been doing the last 3.5 years) is a surefire way to lowering is ceiling and an electoral college stomping.

I want Biden to win the popular vote by 10% + and just really kick him in the teeth.

[GaijinPunch]

I want Biden to win the popular vote by 10% + and just really kick him in the teeth.

Whether he stays in office or not you know there is no way he is admitting he lost the popular vote if we only counted the "valid" ballots.

[BulletMagnet]

Whether he stays in office or not you know there is no way he is admitting he lost the popular vote if we only counted the "valid" ballots.

Far more worryingly, even after all that's happened, nearly his entire party, from top to bottom, remains ready and willing to yet again play dumb and pretend they believe him when he says it.

[Mischief Maker]

I like to think that the recent gay appropriation of #proudboys has sapped them of their will to fight/do a Brooks Brothers Riot 2.0.

But honestly I think this is no longer about how the American people vote and more about how many votes the Republicans can manage to flush in the now super-stacked court system. For example, SCOTUS just reinstated the in-person witness requirement for absentee ballots in South Carolina during a goddamn pandemic when we're all supposed to be social distancing, after thousands of non-witnessed ballots have already been mailed. Whee! I know what I'm about to say is bad tactics and won't change a single mind, BUT THIS IS WHAT I WAS GODDAMN WARNING YOU ALL ABOUT IN 2016!!!

But look how all those protest voters and non-voters have taught a lesson to the DNC and woke up centrist voters and shifted the Democratic party to the left, amiright?

Not to mention how much stronger it's made the Green Party as a political force in American politics, I just wonder why I didn't see them on my Wisconsin ballot? What's that, The Greens still don't have the basic political competence to fill out the forms properly to get their candidate on the ballot in all 50 states? Man, it's starting to make me question whether or not they'd actually be able to deliver on their super-duper version of the Green New Deal.

[BryanM]

Why are you voter shaming. The democrats are the jobbers here. No matter how hard you vote for them they are going to continue to lose in the years to come, as that's what they're paid to do.

You know the democrats have thrown the green party off the ballot in places like Montana. You know no amount of "basic political competence" can overcome not having any power, as those with power can simply crush you... with their power. (And I'm a person who thinks the green party is just a grift at this point. The difference in DSA members in positions of power vs what the greens have shows infiltrating the democratic party is the only game in town. That's why they have to be so goddamn antagonistic to leftists and engage in the liberal voter shaming you're currently doing: they absolutely don't want them in the party, taking it over. The belligerence is not without purpose. While the republican base is pure capitalist and therefore not a threat, and can be safely coddled. You fucking never see republicans doing voter shaming, because they don't want to cleave their support in half.)

2020 has been a sublime example that they're going to kill us all, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's a flaming plane hurtling to the ground and we're all passengers inside. You can scream about it, make up delusions that you can change the outcome... or you can grill.

(Also the best way to make a case for your guy is to link the opinion pieces of ghouls shaking in rage at the concept of increasing the minimum wage.)

[Mischief Maker]

Why are you voter shaming.

I dunno, take your pick. SCOTUS signaling that the door is open to overturn gay marriage? Shit like this:

Spoiler

I know you watch Thought Slime, did you like his recent episode about The West Wing? If you did, check out The West Wing Thing podcast!

Anyway, I'm not a horseshoe theorist, but there's more West-Wing-style-liberalism in the notion that, "It's not the material consequences of my vote/non-vote that matter, just that I had moral intentions in my head when I did so" than the "true lefties" care to admit.

You know the democrats have thrown the green party off the ballot in places like Montana.

More specifically, the Montana GOP paid $100,000 to a private company to get the Greens on the ballot. The company never disclosed their connection to the GOP in violation of campaign finance laws. The Democrats responded with a publicity campaign telling people they were lied to about the nature of the company whose petition they unwittingly signed, and enough of the petitioners formally withdrew their endorsement to drop the Greens below the minimum threshold. The Republican Secretary of State tried to get the Greens on the ballot anyway, leading to the lawsuit.

This was a Democrats vs. Republicans battle. The Greens lacked the competence to even put together their own operation to get on the ballot, the GOP did it for them. And even if you still consider that a "dirty trick," once again I ask if the Greens were powerless to overcome a handful of petition signature withdrawls, how the hell were they going to defeat the dirty tricks waiting for them in office?

The democrats are the jobbers here. No matter how hard you vote for them they are going to continue to lose in the years to come, as that's what they're paid to do.

And what exactly are the Greens paid to do?

Because I remember in 2016 at the TYT town hall when Jill Stein was asked point-blank, if she got the federal matching funds what was step 2? And the underpants-gnome-like response she gave.

Dave Rubin just sold his starter house for $1.75 million. Tim Pool dresses like shit, but makes jaw-dropping amounts of cash. There's a lot of money in pied-piperism for the left.

You can't spin this as "The Capitalists will sell us the rope we will hang them with!" if you lack the competence to tie a noose.

Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, AOC, and the justice dems have accomplished more for the left within the Democratic party than any third party has in decades. And they all say vote Biden. And I see no 17-dimensional-chess scenario where a second Trump term strengthens the Justice Dems in any way. Doddering Joe Biden is the enemy I want, not some Fucking Illinois Shit Head child soldier getting driven to my state by his mom to hunt leftists for sport while the cops blow him kisses.

And look, I'm an equal-opportunity vote-shamer. It's just if there are any a Warren-stans or proud Biden primary voters around here, they aren't speaking up here or in any of my news feeds at the moment.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

More specifically, the Montana GOP paid $100,000 to a private company to get the Greens on the ballot. The company never disclosed their connection to the GOP in violation of campaign finance laws.

And it's not even the first time this sort of thing has happened. Dirty politicians love to use plurality voting's inherent Candidate Cloning vulnerabilities to win the election (where multiple similar candidates running in a First Past The Post/Plurality election causes them all to lose to a completely different less popular candidate due to vote splitting between the popular candidates). Three additional examples listed here:

https://rangevoting.org/CandCloning.html

One of the major reasons election reform is needed is because the current election system is incredibly shitty at responding to various methods of gaming the system, something Score Voting is far more robust against.

[Mischief Maker]

Well that was boring, aside from the fly on Pence's head.

What the hell is up with this Trump administration attracting flies and raccoons and other creepy crawlies these days?

[orange808]

Have you peeked at the people being prosecuted for PPP loan fraud? What exactly is the real difference between these small time grifters and the church of scientology? (not capitalised because they didn't earn it)

No real difference. Apparently, only billionaires can steal.

[GaijinPunch]

Surely we can get another poll that's a bit more targeted to the event at hand? I'm curious to see where everyone stands.

I went to vote in Cali today... surprise surprise, it took less than 30 minutes. Drop boxes had no line either.

[BryanM]

Surely we can get another poll that's a bit more targeted to the event at hand?

When I made this thread, it's no secret I was hoping it would be the political revolution thread. That we'd have maybe a 10% chance of making it past the fossil fuel filter. Now that it's apparent it's 100% the apocalypse thread, the Iran war is the next major scheduled event. Our taco bell president was only ever a sideshow.

There's always going to be a wrestling match going on. If a couple other people want a poll of which wrestler they support, I'll change it... but it's literally just a few weeks away and will be dust in the wind afterwards.

[BIL]

BryanM I am dying, of cheeto dust inhalation (｀ω´メ) Could you pls make a poll on the best cheesy snack so younger generations won't suffer my fate. Regs Biruford

[GaijinPunch]

Surely we can get another poll that's a bit more targeted to the event at hand?

When I made this thread, it's no secret I was hoping it would be the political revolution thread. That we'd have maybe a 10% chance of making it past the fossil fuel filter. Now that it's apparent it's 100% the apocalypse thread, the Iran war is the next major scheduled event. Our taco bell president was only ever a sideshow.

Considering they are arrested militias for conspiracy to overtake government buildings and execute a governor like some type of Bane rip off, I'd say there's more chances of a civil war than Iraq war in the near future.

[FinalBaton]

BryanM I am dying, of cheeto dust inhalation (｀ω´メ) Could you pls make a poll on the best cheesy snack so younger generations won't suffer my fate. Regs Biruford

[BryanM]

Near the 10 year anniversary of this Bors strip.

Spoiler

Questions you mysteriously never heard before in your life:

* Why are we still in Afghanistan?
* What does winning in Afghanistan look like?
* How are we going to pay for it?

Considering they are arrested militias for conspiracy to overtake government buildings and execute a governor like some type of Bane rip off, I'd say there's more chances of a civil war than Iraq war in the near future.

While the fash are quite murder happy and will continue murdering people... I don't think the incentive structures are there for a civil war anytime soon. There's no one in the ruling class that profits from it - they want us to want to kill each other, but not actually damage their capital. Our last civil war was between two different factions of capitalists with opposed material interests. A random ass terrorist cell can't install themselves as Lord of Montana without being droned within hours by the existing powers that be.

By the time this kind of thing becomes viable, it would mean we'd be in complete collapse. At a bare minimum, no gas for apaches. As you know we've got infinite money for apaches and putting gas into them, so the resource shortage would have to be most dire indeed.

[orange808]

The civil war thing is an easy, fast, superficial, and lazy talking point that comfortable neolibs in SoCal might throw out to get their status quo back. As far as that guy is concerned, Biden is the end of the journey and a perfect happy ending.

What's the old saying? Love him, he's a liberal.

[Mischief Maker]

https://youtu.be/yGkx80naDF8?t=95

[orange808]

https://youtu.be/lEHZJNQ5Y4A

[orange808]

Amy Coney Barrett

https://youtu.be/bzVHjg3AqIQ

[BryanM]

The Starship Troopers animated films are weird. They're clearly inspired by the Verhoeven film, not the original novels (no heavy mecha, no mention of the protoss), but they seem to have lost the satire and anti-war sentiment. The exaggerated propaganda segments come across as awkward and strange instead of being a darkly humorous mirror of the world we live in.

[Mischief Maker]

For any lurkers in this forum still on the fence on whether to vote this election, here's neoliberal shill Bernie Sanders laying out five clear reasons why you need to vote this election day.

And if I may add a sixth, back in the 2004 election around late September or Early October, "Red State" Colorado started polling purple. I'm convinced if the Dems hadn't written the state off and taken the time to build a basic campaign infrastructure there we could have beaten Bush jr; and his SCOTUS appointees wouldn't have been able to gut the voting rights act and bring back Jim Crow voting in the South. You can't take as gospel that you live in a "safe" or "meaningless" state in these crazy times.

[orange808]

Colorado is two things: Republican and Libertarian. People sometimes accidentally mistake libertarians for lefties. There are some liberals, but they are classic "centrists". White people in Colorado aren't voting for anything on the left. There's two kinds of conservatives there: rural classic Conservatives and urban Libertarians/Liberals that want to get high--and pretend to be good people on Facebook. These are the people that point to Obama and say "racism is over".

There's also a strong Catholic undereducated, and conservative bloc that flows in from south of the border. Yeah, you can get all pissy and PC; it's true. That bunch votes against their own interests. There's your stumbling block in a demographics breakdown of the area. The MSM tells you that they will automatically vote their interests, but they don't. They vote Catholic, dummy.

It's not really purple. It's Republican, Libertarian, White Suburban Centrist aka "Liberal" "White Feminist", and Catholic (GOP).

Sure. You can find Biden votes there under these circumstances, but you won't find many real allies in that ignorant bunch. The liberals and libertarians are almost indistinguishable. The Catholics and rural Republicans are in lockstep. It's red.

[Mischief Maker]

I honestly don't care what's in their hearts, I just want the votes.

[orange808]

I honestly don't care what's in their hearts, I just want the votes.

You won't flip their legislature votes and they will turn against you if the president does anything you want. They won't accept gun control (despite Columbine and Batman). They won't accept getting health care (despite their health care cost woes). The Catholics will lose their minds when you pack the court and take away their "moral majority".

Getting a few votes for a temporary four year break is a short-sighted strategy. You need buy-in. How you gonna get it? Don't ask me, by the way.

Stop calling it purple. "Not Trump" isn't a sign of change.

[orange808]

If you want to start flipping states permanently, you have to abandon the bullshit centrist strategy.

You want a coalition of ordinary working class black and white people. That's what terrifies the establishment.

Latino is a favorite among the MSM and center right because they are Catholics; they won't support real change. They are safe. Catholic means right wing.

Also, most latino people get to be white. Same thing with most asian people. Those groups are intentionally hand-picked and targeted by the Dem establishment for good reason--and it's strictly verboten to point out that they don't ensure anything near real racism that Black Americans do.

I won't bother going too deep into white feminism and white women's tears. I'll just remind you that black women don't get shit if they look vulnerable--besides getting shit on.

[Mischief Maker]

Look, I'm not talking about permanent changes or prognosticating 20 years in the future. I'm saying people right now who might sit this one out because they're in a "red state" or a "blue state" shouldn't take things for granted. Nobody was expecting Alabama to elect a Democrat to the Senate last time.

It seems to me Trump and the Republicans have given up entirely on getting the most votes (hence no stimulus) and now have put their whole weight behind flushing ballots and Bush v. Gore 2.0 in the courts. The more votes Biden has, the less the options Republicans have, and the greater the political risk to the judiciary.

And I'm sorry, but when it comes to "earning" my vote, the Green candidate hasn't earned it. I have way more interest in growing the DSA as a party than the American Greens. And the Working Families Party, while still a net positive IMO, has proven in recent years that "third party" doesn't mean "immune to corruption."

[BulletMagnet]

The Catholics will lose their minds when you pack the court and take away their "moral majority".

I'm pretty sure it's not just (or even primarily) the Catholics, not just in Colorado but anywhere.

You need buy-in. How you gonna get it?

Get in power, ignore and/or refute the astroturfed whining, and enact policies, including (or even primarily) incremental ones, that people can actually see improving their lives somehow. It's hardly a revolution, but the tune does change.