Prelude to the Apocalypse

[BulletMagnet]

The worst part of this election is knowing that this country isn't going to learn a damn thing from it.

If we couldn't learn from 2000 we never will.

[BryanM]

We learned tons from it.

You guys gotta look at the long tail. 16 years is nothing compared to the length civilizations are measured in. After Clinton, they have nobody to replace her with.

It took them nearly 50 years to kill the new deal. It's going to take us less than 50 to bring it back.

Reminds me about how the only thing they ever talked about when David Kucinich ran for president was his run-in with an alien. A much younger Ing found it strangely charming at the time.

A pretty good cautionary tale to other politicians to never get off message.

The second you show anything remotely interesting about your personal life, that's all they'll ever talk about.

that JFK speech pitching medicare

Listening to the great speeches of former presidents like this one... and then I contrast them to HRC's message.... it actually makes me feel like crying.

"We can't accomplish anything because republicans are going to win congress in the next election."
"We can't even TALK about ideas, because the republicans will get mad at us if we do."

[Mischief Maker]

The part of the rapey Trump tape that stuck out the most to me was when he was talking about making his big romantic move on a married woman, and that move was buying her furniture!

It actually made me feel kind of sorry for Trump being born with all that money.

Has he ever had a real friend? Or have everyone been yes-men and prostitutes with their hands out to him? Is this what Justin Bieber will be like at 70?

[Bitter Almonds]

bill and $hillary could give him pointers on sexually harassing women.

[BryanM]

Has he ever had a real friend? Or have everyone been yes-men and prostitutes with their hands out to him?

Friendship is a form of quid pro-quo, so it's very arguable the Clintons are his "real" friends. Some people have Blast'em Up video games as a hobby, others have pilfering the unwashed ignorant masses of what meager possessions they have.

Is this what Justin Bieber will be like at 70?

D, don't... let's not... go... to that place....

that guy.... he wears his underwear.... on the outside of his clothes....

no, nothing good... can come... of this...

[Durandal]

Wait, am I expected to be disgusted with grabbing pussies after a previous president got away scot-free after siring an intern and pretty much ruining her life?
How do you even grab a pussy?

[GaijinPunch]

Wait, am I expected to be disgusted with grabbing pussies after a previous president got away scot-free after siring an intern and pretty much ruining her life?
How do you even grab a pussy?

One was an affair... deplorable by some, he burned for it, and she was an adult. She made her bed, then slept in it. The latter is not the action but the comments, talking about going after married women and what is tantamount physical assault.

It doesn't help him that the feminist movement is about 100x stronger now than it was in the 90's.

[CIT]

Wait, am I expected to be disgusted with grabbing pussies after a previous president got away scot-free after siring an intern and pretty much ruining her life?

You should ask the other way around: After the Republican party exerted so much time and energy going after Bill for his putative turpitude, why I should I now be excusing their candidate?

[EmperorIng]

One was an affair... deplorable by some, he burned for it, and she was an adult. She made her bed, then slept in it.

While in some ways I agree with you, I think you are eliding over the massive power differential between the two adults. As the leaked tape alludes to, it's a lot easier for powerful men to force themselves onto women.

[Bitter Almonds]

It all depends on what your definition of "is" is.

[BulletMagnet]

You should ask the other way around: After the Republican party exerted so much time and energy going after Bill for his putative turpitude, why I should I now be excusing their candidate?

Even more than Trump, I can only dream that the so-called "values voters" (and the bible-thumping candidates and pundits who kiss up to them...especially the ones on their third or fourth wife) eat massive amounts of crow for this, especially since Trump's self-indulgent libido has been at least as much in the public eye as Clinton's for at least as long; there's no way in hell they can claim not to have been aware of it. It won't happen, but that's the "liberal" media for you.

It all depends on what your definition of "is" is.

In terms of "someone still thinks this is a legitimate sticking point?" this one's right up there with "Al Gore said he invented the internet!"

[Bitter Almonds]

The clintoons proved that the presidency can be set back even lower in terms of sexually harassing women. What trump said to that one tabloid show host shouldn't be surprising to anyone. Had bill been impeached, then we wouldn't be discussing the matter.

[Durandal]

Wait, am I expected to be disgusted with grabbing pussies after a previous president got away scot-free after siring an intern and pretty much ruining her life?

You should ask the other way around: After the Republican party exerted so much time and energy going after Bill for his putative turpitude, why I should I now be excusing their candidate?

Last I heard the Republican party is also trying their darndest to go after Trump for breaking this taboo.

[Wata123]

Why doesn't anyone vote for a third-party nominee? I guess that would require a desire for actual change instead as opposed to just posturing.

[BulletMagnet]

Why doesn't anyone vote for a third-party nominee?

Because one of them treats the anti-vaccine nutcases like Trump treats the birthers ("I *wink* totally acknowledge the established evidence on this issue") while the other...if the two "mainstream" candidates' willingness to kowtow to rich interests makes you uncomfortable, the Libertarian Party will make you dive screaming under your bed whilst leaving a trail behind you as your bowels cease to function.

[Bitter Almonds]

Neither of the 3rd party candidates supports military intervention and funding a police state the way twiddle$hill and twiddletrump do.

[Mischief Maker]

Ruh-Roh!

Looks like Trump wasn't making that shit up when he said he kisses women and grabs their pussy without asking. Now we're in for another Cosby/Ailes avalanche!

...which means we could be looking at a Mike "Funerals for Miscarriages" Pence-selected Supreme Court.

Fuck the world!

[BryanM]

Why doesn't anyone vote for a third-party nominee?

A lot of young people do and will.

Many True Believers of Bernie have this insane delusion that he would win the election if he ran third party. And downvote me whenever I point out he'd only get around 15%, Trump would be president, and Bernie's career at the national level would be over.

tldr: Because old people only get information from television and the ads on Facebook that play alongside DoubleU Casino and Criminal Case. Shit goes in, shit comes out.

---

eldr: There's an inadequate foundation upon which for them to perform. They're trying to take over America when they haven't even conquered Quartzsite, Arizona. To use a recent analogy, they're trying to "grab" someone's genitals without first building a relationship structure upon which that would be an ok thing to do.

The correct way to the crown involves a large amount of effort and luck:

Sanders ran for the governorship of Vermont multiple times to a miserable showing - however it gave him exposure in the state. One of his friends from a university noted that he got an unusually high number of votes in a place called Burlington. So they went around the city and asked people about their problems. And ran a campaign to become mayor, which he won by ten votes. With the city council completely against him, he slowly purged them out through elections and did a bang-up job of making Burlington less of a shithole. After eight years, he took a break and then became Vermont's representative in the house through many ferocious elections. At least one time, the republicans and democrats even united to run a guy against him (a turdmaster like Patrick Murphy).

This took a huge amount of patience and effort - we're talking ~18+ years just to get a chance to get his foot into congress. So what it requires to beat them is:

* A pathological addiction to boredom.
* The ability to perform well for your constituents. You have to prove you're ten times better than them.
* A completely clean slate. If you say a mean thing about anybody, they'll ratfuck the shit out of you. Like they did to Alan Grayson because he was angry at his wife during a divorce.[1] Imagine. The nerve of that guy.
* That means you need an emotional skin made of iron.
* At least one decade of building renown.

This is what you have to do to become a congress critter without being a corporate puppet. An enormous amount of work that maybe one in thirty thousand people would be able to do. That far less than one in a million were able to do.

It's a lot easier to just marry a horny slut you meet at Yale who goes on to become Attorney general of Arkansas in an uncontested election. And then coast as corporations continually promote him through the system thanks to his exceptional charisma he's mastered due to being an incredible slut.



[Addendum] The party that Bernie formed in Burlington to create a city council made up of humans instead of robots is still active today. As you can see, while they have Burlington on lock down, they haven't yet conquered Vermont, let alone the neighboring states of New Hampshire and New York. And it doesn't look like they're going to be able to. It'll be much easier to destroy the democratic party by changing who they are, not by looking for an outside messiah figure.

[1] They've tried to ratfuck Bernie before using his ex-wife, too. Her response to the mud digger was "I believe in Bernie Sanders", hung up the phone, and told Bernie about it.

Because one of them treats the anti-vaccine nutcases like Trump treats the birthers

Nobody gives a shit what Jill and Gary think because they're not on TV during the big wrestling matches, and therefore can not win.

The last guy allowed on TV got 18.9% through his platform of protectionism.



lol just lol that you would call the moon crystal hippies a problem when Vlad the Impaler are the guys they're running against. Fucking hell, man.

[Xyga]

I'm surprised the counterattack hasn't landed yet, are they sleeping in Russia or what ?
They absolutely must have quite the selection of juicy stuff ready for Trump to use in case of emergency, things of magnitude, unlike Assange's wimpy tabloid shit.
Maybe it'll be for tonight during the debate !!!? (*dramatic tune*)

[BulletMagnet]

Nobody gives a shit what Jill and Gary think because they're not on TV during the big wrestling matches, and therefore can not win.

Drop the deliberately dense act, you know as well as I do (and JUST said as much about Bernie) that third-party candidates don't run to win, they run to pull votes in a direction which influences the candidates that do win. Sometimes I think I'm being simultaneously trolled from both ends of the ideological spectrum.

lol just lol that you would call the moon crystal hippies a problem when Vlad the Impaler are the guys they're running against.

For someone so seemingly resistant to so much as acknowledge the question of degrees when it comes to candidates (they're all equally terrible monsters, right?), not to mention so glowingly reverent of hard science, it seems particularly odd to extend an exception in this particular direction.

[GaijinPunch]

One was an affair... deplorable by some, he burned for it, and she was an adult. She made her bed, then slept in it.

While in some ways I agree with you, I think you are eliding over the massive power differential between the two adults. As the leaked tape alludes to, it's a lot easier for powerful men to force themselves onto women.

I won't disagree with that, but when it comes down to it, she is indeed an adult. Not excusing him, but it's not like he assaulted her or forced her to do anything. Coerced... perhaps, although I can't recall exactly, but even I've had to do some coercion to get laid from time to time.

Had bill been impeached, then we wouldn't be discussing the matter.

He was impeached.

[BryanM]

I'm surprised the counterattack hasn't landed yet, are they sleeping in Russia or what ?
They absolutely must have quite the selection of juicy stuff ready for Trump to use in case of emergency, things of magnitude, unlike Assange's wimpy tabloid shit.
Maybe it'll be for tonight during the debate !!!? (*dramatic tune*)

No, Trump is an agent and friend of the Clintons. A jobber. It's his job to lose. They spent years having him set himself up for this. "Grab her by the pussy" was focus tested four to six years ago.

They wanted to install their tool for a decade now. They've simmered in hate while Obama made them wait. Make no mistake: there will be war.

And then it will all be over.


Perhaps Mischief Maker was right, and that any one of the other republican pokemon would have had won. If Trump was going half-way Bernie Sanders, this wouldn't even be a contest no matter how much the tv wants you to be mad that there was vaginal touching going on.

they're all equally terrible monsters, right?

Incorrect.

I've constantly crowed about how Obama is incredible considering the garbage heap our country is, and constantly mentioned how much I wish we could call a mulligan on this entire thing and just keep him.

it seems particularly odd to extend an exception in this particular direction.

There is no exception.

Jill is awful on nuclear and indulges the feelings of anti-vaxxors too much
Gary is awful on domestic economic policy
Hillary is an enemy of humanity and should be guillotined
Donald is horrible on almost everything but has not yet done anything making a guillotining a 100% obvious necessity (he'll earn that later if he wins).

I don't expect perfection. I *do* believe in wrong and less wrong. All I ask is for someone to be president who isn't Vlad the Impaler.

[Mischief Maker]

Walking the dog today I saw a bumper sticker in the style of a Bernie sticker that read:

"Giant Meteor 2016: Just end it now."

[BryanM]

The official logo of course steals the waves from wal-mart's Equate brand feminine products.



Chafee's logo was probably the best this cycle.

Ted Cruz gets an honorable mention. The firey raindrop is a solid representation of the acid rain he plans to bring back after abolishing the EPA. Politicians should definitely convey such solid policy positions in their logos.

[Mischief Maker]

Well from a sausage-making of politics perspective, you've gotta hand it to the Clinton campaign, they rose to the occasion of their weak candidate.

The INSTANT the wall street transcripts hit, they put out the pussy-grabbing video, and now they've got alleged victims telling their stories to Newsweek.

One month left for her to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

Stupid Putin should have put his hackers to work helping Bernie, not Trump.

[system11]

The most interesting thing about the whole process (and again similarly with Brexit) is I don't remember being more acutely aware of the power of the MSM or the extent to which they're willing to selectively report and spin news to suit their desires.

Has it been this bad before and I just didn't notice, or is 2016 genuinely a new low point? The BBC in the UK have been absolutely disgraceful with it, taxpayer funded and they're supposed to be impartial. Perhaps it's just because everything has been going their way for so long that the bullshit hasn't been required.

[BryanM]

CHOOSE

is 2016 genuinely a new low point?

No it's really, really not. It's more just:

> everything has been going their way for so long that the bullshit hasn't been required.

This year we just felt that thing... what do they call it... "hope"? For the first time after being numb and dead inside for decades?

We're groomed as a society by middle level millionaires employed by billionaires. All corporate media is a vehicle to further their interests. Why wouldn't it be? Why would you own something, and then allow that something to bite you in the ass? Of course you wouldn't.

Some techniques:

* Ignoring topics that would be against your interests. (Bernie Sanders was invisible for the entire year in 2015. Many people in New York learned he existed at the first debate. Long too late to register and vote for him in New York.)

* Lies and fallacies.

* Project an alternate reality. Every time we need to bomb the shit out of someone, no problem. Want to give $5 worth of sandwiches to war orphans? WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET THE MONEY. [2]

And so forth.

Guys like Edward Bernays popularized how to manufacture consent. Guys like Noam Chomsky talk about manufactured consent, and then say you should give your consent because "Trump bad".


[2] Famously, many first responders on 9/11 developed health problems due to the asbestos and other crap in the rubble. Our government's response was "fuck'em". It took comedian Jon Stewart getting on his television program and shaming the shit out of them to get something passed. And he had to continue to do this because, the moment the camera went off the topic, the official US policy reverted back to "fuck'em".

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

Big Brown Clock

Here in the states we have these things called PBS and NPR - Plutocratic Broadcasting Station and the Nothing-but Plutocratic Radio.

They're publicly funded so, in theory, they're supposed to be neutral. And they do the best at pretending to be. [1] In practice they're completely reliant on corporate and capitalist contributions to stay afloat. Every broadcast of the PBS Newshour is prefaced with a brief caveat that some enormous Bank donated an ocean of money to them.


[1] Bill Moyers is one of the very few old timey New Deal Democrats left that the "New" Democrats wiped off the face of the earth. That he was allowed to have a show on TV blows my mind. Then again, it was on PBS on a Sunday. Nobody watched that show.

[Bitter Almonds]

Had bill been impeached, then we wouldn't be discussing the matter.

He was impeached.

Sorry, I meant kicked outta office for misconduct.

[BulletMagnet]

Has it been this bad before and I just didn't notice, or is 2016 genuinely a new low point? The BBC in the UK have been absolutely disgraceful with it, taxpayer funded and they're supposed to be impartial.

Just wait until a handful of pus-oozing conglomerates own the whole mess, like they do over here...and the corporatists still have the brass balls to tirelessly whine about how hopelessly they're all oppressed by the overwhelming liberal bias of it all.

[Lord Satori]

CHOOSE

I feel like that analogy only makes the choice clearer.

The Joker is twisted and evil with no ulterior motive behind what he does. He creates chaos for the sake of chaos.

Harvey Dent was an all-around good person who was physically scarred in an accident and only committed evil out of despair. If I remember the film right, he took his own life after behind convinced that murder wasn't the answer or something.

If those two were actually running against each other, I don't think it would be a contest.