Prelude to the Apocalypse

[neorichieb1971]

Well, i've dived in, had a look, had my say. You've been nice about it.

Even if I said guns are dangerous, someone will come out of the woodwork and say its people that are dangerous. For every argument there is, an American finds a counter argument.

On my level of idealistic living, guns should be in the hands of folk who have a use for them. Not for people who fear for being on the wrong end of the stick at some point in their lives or folk who want to create mass murder against people they have never met. This is a situation where nobody votes for difference, unless everyone is a winner. So for now, I will consider that the USA is in its comfort zone and leave it at that.

[Air Master Burst]

So for now, I will consider that the USA is in its comfort zone and leave it at that.

Nobody here is comfortable, america is a dystopian capitalist hellscape. You non-americans aren't wrong when you point out all this obvious shit, it's just that usually the closest thing you have to a constructive suggestion is "just stop."

We know it's fucked up here. Nobody knows how to fix it.

[BulletMagnet]

Do USA citizens not agree that certain "Freedoms" should somehow be earned?

The line you usually hear from the pro-gun crowd is that, unlike medical or driver's licenses, the right to bear arms is specifically mentioned in the Constitution, though as I've mentioned before I find this reasoning highly unpersuasive, for two main reasons:

1) Just because it's a right guaranteed by the Constitution doesn't automatically make it universal and without any conditions: literally every other right therein has exceptions attached to prevent them from being unduly exploited, i.e. you have the right to free speech, but aren't allowed to slander someone or incite a riot without legal consequences. As the saying goes, the Constitution isn't a suicide pact.

2) In case you're not familiar with the exact text of the Second Amendment, this is it:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

That's literally the whole thing.

You might notice, perhaps to your surprise, that the first few words therein refer to a "well-regulated" militia, immediately suggesting that the Founders were not only open to but explicitly defined limits on the bearing of arms as not necessarily "infringing" on the foundational right to bear them: the gun nuts, however, insist - and I'm not making this up - that the position of the second comma indicates that the first half of the amendment is basically just there for decoration, that the militia and "the people" who would make up said militia are somehow two completely separate entities with completely separate rights, and only the latter half actually carries any legal weight.

Even ignoring the fact that different copies of the Constitution sent for ratification during the founding contain varying amounts of commas within the amendment (as few as one in some cases, if memory serves), while I'm not a Constitutional scholar on its face it frankly strikes me as ridiculous that the writers would open the passage with such a specific phrase just to be flowery, and require subsequent generations to tie themselves into knots to arrive at the "real" meaning they intended as opposed to the one that immediately slaps you in the face the second you read it.

Aside from those two items, other arguments against Second Amendment absolutism actually call out the contemporary American right's supposed "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution, i.e. modern jurists should only consider the laws specifically via the context and intentions of the writers from over two centuries ago: from that perspective, the only arms that should be guaranteed are single-shot muskets that take ages to manually load and only reliably hit their targets from short distances. As with everything else, of course, right-wingers only ever actually apply "originalism" when it suits their purposes and ignore it when it doesn't, but that's a whole separate kettle of fish.

Again, if polling is accurate a majority of gun owners actually support additional restrictions on gun ownership; the problem is that you never seem to hear about this anywhere outside of said polls, especially not at the ballot box. As to why...well, you've already heard my reasoning on the matter.

[Blinge]

wheeeeeee, here we go!

[Sengoku Strider]

Who picked 2022-2025 in the thread poll?

[Sima Tuna]

We will see now if Netanyahu's arrogance spells the downfall of his country or not.

[Sengoku Strider]

We will see now if Netanyahu's arrogance spells the downfall of his country or not.

Only Fatality From Mass Iranian Missile Attack Is Palestinian Man From Gaza


I'm gonna go with or not.

There are already tens of thousands of US troops there to keep a lid on things, Iran is making noise because the Israelis are dismantling Hezbollah and their protection racket is looking pretty thin on the ground right now.

[BryanM]

And I was feeling optimistic about things, damn.

The latter half of this year was a textbook example of an increasingly improbable chain of events that could only be explained by that stupid, subjective observer nonsense I was talking about earlier. Quantum immortality:

* For no reason, Trump debates Biden on TV.

* The donors, who are really stupid and live in the world of TV too, finally realize Biden is going to lose and pull the emergency lever.

* Kamala, against all expectations, dumps the Clinton strategists. This is absolutely unprecedented. They've had their tendrils wrapped around the party for 30-something years now.

* Thanks to this, she is able to select human being Tim Walz, instead of a Joseph Manchin motherfucker like Joseph Lieberman or Joseph Biden. (Let's all just agree all Joes are terrible human beings. I should know: I'm one of them.)

* I reiterate, that is a very big motherfuckin' deal. This passes the coronation torch of the next chosen one to a teacher. It can't be understated how massive this one decision is for humanity as a whole.

* It's literally the Democrats trying to win an election. Unprecedented. It's been lifetimes since this last happened.

* Maybe the world doesn't end.

Absolutely none of this could be explained by a rational chain of causal events. It can only be explained by stupid metaphysical woo.

By activating some leftists and normie young people, they now have a slightly better than a coinflip's chance of winning. Maybe a little better than that. I've never seen the left so libbed up in my life, I've been watching Vaush videos this year for god's sake.

Was really hoping for a future that was the scifi utopia Bladerunner, instead of the inevitable 1984 but worse we were heading toward.

Here's to hoping that if she wins, she doesn't decide to continue this nonsense. If Reagan and his identical twin Obama put a stop to it before, I'm stupid enough to feel some hope she might as well.

Who picked 2022-2025 in the thread poll?

I would have, but I don't like to contaminate the results. Made the poll because it felt like material concerns were coming to a head, and it was now or never. 2021 was always meant as a joke for those with shorter timeframes than me (and if they were right, they should be praised for calling something nobody saw coming that soon), and past 2030 it kind of feels like the window would have passed.

I guess if this actually kicks off I'll have to... make a new one.... I guess it'll be between whether you believe the decisive apocalypse that manifests will be Climate, AI, or Nuclear-related and timeframes for those....

[BulletMagnet]

We will see now if Netanyahu's arrogance spells the downfall of his country or not.

Unless the US finally gets fed up and tells him he's on his own, no. And unfortunately Biden and Harris seem infinitely more willing to lose the "we'd rather not vote for enablers of genocide" demographic, and quite possibly the election, than do that.

[vol.2]

We will see now if Netanyahu's arrogance spells the downfall of his country or not.

Unless the US finally gets fed up and tells him he's on his own, no. And unfortunately Biden and Harris seem infinitely more willing to lose the "we'd rather not vote for enablers of genocide" demographic, and quite possibly the election, than do that.

What exactly do you think Harris can do about it? She's not the commander and chief. I think it's not unconceivable that she would reverse course if elected.

[BulletMagnet]

Feel free to point out something major I've missed, but just about every piece of her rhetoric on Israel I've been exposed to has been nearly identical to Biden's, i.e. a meek "they need to do better", but not even so much as proposing any manner of consequences when Netanyahu not only openly flips the proverbial bird at the administration but escalates the violence with absolutely no signs of slowing down.

Could she pull a sudden about-face if she takes office? Anything's possible, I suppose, but if anything remotely different from continuing unconditional support is in the works she's sure as hell not dropping any hints about it - and, I would again argue, is losing voters over this in the meantime, just as Biden did when he was (keyword "was") the candidate.

[vol.2]

Feel free to point out something major I've missed, but just about every piece of her rhetoric on Israel I've been exposed to has been nearly identical to Biden's, i.e. a meek "they need to do better", but not even so much as proposing any manner of consequences when Netanyahu not only openly flips the proverbial bird at the administration but escalates the violence with absolutely no signs of slowing down.

I think it's worth considering the effect of a VP actively campaigning against the policies of a sitting pres. As long as she "meekly" protests, I don't think we have enough data to make assumptions about her potential elected policy.

It could also be a lot worse in a lot of ways and we won't find out unless she's elected.

[BulletMagnet]

I think it's worth considering the effect of a VP actively campaigning against the policies of a sitting pres.

This is a valid point, but any indication that Harris might differ markedly from Biden is undermined by the fact that he's been making the exact same toothless remarks as she is for a year running now; even as Israel blocks aid to refugees, systematically sexually assaults prisoners, and openly assassinates not only foreign leaders but journalists, doctors, aid workers, and even American citizens, Biden quite frankly uses the same language Bush used whenever an Iraqi village was massacred; oh it's tragic, it's devastating, but we're still not only sitting on our hands but actively shielding the perpetrators from consequences, not to mention sending them billions, completely uninterrupted and unconditional.

Just to lay my cards out on the table here, as awful as it is I'm personally not planning to withhold my vote on this issue; as you suggest, as horrific as things stand now, under GOP leadership it (among many other things) would unquestionably be even more of a bloodbath. That being said, I also haven't lost anyone to this violence, and if I had, and then been told to sit down and shut up about it for the sake of an appearance of party unity, I might just be tempted. And frankly, I don't know if there's been any official polling on this, but at this point I'm inclined to guess that just about anybody who still thinks that Israel's actions are justified is already in the tank for the likes of Trump.

I personally know people who are turning their backs on the Harris ticket precisely because, for all the lofty talk of "preserving democracy", any and all dissenting voices, even on such a stomach-churning and seemingly cut-and-dry issue as this, are being very actively suppressed and shouted down, and the more Harris insists on towing the company line as Israel becomes more and more of a rogue state, the more people are going to follow them.

As others have repeatedly pointed out, if this election really is that important, if democracy really is on the line, why the fuck are the Dems seemingly willing to risk it all for this?

[Sima Tuna]

The sad fact is Harris is part of the same post-911 (post Reagan, really) Empire Building aristocracy as the whole lot. We've not had a decent president within my lifetime. Especially not on foreign policy issues.

[BryanM]

It really is the apocalypse, with BM sounding like me and I've become one of those lesser-evil toolbags.

I really wouldn't be so sanguine about things if not for Tim Walz. Harris absolutely can't say she really supports a ceasefire, unlike lying blood-gurgling shitbag Biden, for a multitude of reasons. 'Oh, so we should vote for the party of blood-gurgling shitbags now?' You don't make your boss and organization look bad. It's a great way to quickly get pushed out and turned into a kook by the media, Mike Gravel style. (Reminder virtually no senator has done as much as him to tell people the truth, or fought so hard against pointless wars. ... Man, imagine the modern Jeff Bezos Post or other corporate newspapers printing the Pentagon Papers this day and age. It's just impossible, isn't it?)

I think the odds of a change in policy if she were in power are anywhere from 3% to 60%, depending on how hard her pirate ship has been paid off. During her career as a senator, she was on the lower end of bribe recipients on this issue. Her loyalty can't possibly be anywhere near as high as the #1 manifest-destiny-the-middle-east-by-proxy guy.

As always, all of our current problems can be directly traced back to Obama and the Clintons. I never thought I'd be hopeful Harris might turn the rudder in another direction, if only to bend the knee to the current electorate of millennials on down. You guys know how many years I actively despaired and loudly complained about her being the next coronated chosen one.

Highly aware this is very possibly all copium. I really, really don't want to have to show my gender card and have my junk grabbed by a robot every time I want to use the toilet in my own house.

[orange808]

https://www.businessinsider.com/hurrica ... ls-2024-10

Andrew Marsh is a registered Republican. Funny how he didn't save enough money to purchase a second house and fix his legs. He obviously lived beyond his means, right?

Hey, call your orange clown and ask him for a handout. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

It's a handout, right? Hey, all the money is going to foreigners or some shit like that, right?

His hands still work. Pull on those bootstraps, buddy! Pull gently, though. It's probably sore.

Sorry. It pisses me off.

Who in the fucking world needed a safety net and universal health care more than a self employed couple? Fuck!!!! What in the fuck has this guy been thinking?

[Sengoku Strider]

The Deep State may be using weather machines so that Delta Force can seize Florida, but Hungarian wisdom can defeat it with church bells.







But on the off hand you're in the path of this beast, maybe just get as far away as humanly possible in case the bell thing takes a bit to warm up.

[Lemnear]

I would say that Israel has really shit outside the jar and if it continues to shoot at Unifil positions like this they risk a second Shoah.
Theirs is a clear demonstration of arrogance.

[Lemnear]

so..welcome to Flordran?

[orange808]

Both Iran and Israel are awful. I'm tired of their shit. There's no hero in this story.

[Sima Tuna]

Only the dead and the dying.

[orange808]

It's time to start arresting homeless Florida registered Republicans. Should be able to use FEMA applications and voter rolls to identify potential criminals.

Profiling? Not a problem in Florida!

[BulletMagnet]

Both Iran and Israel are awful. I'm tired of their shit. There's no hero in this story.

...and the USA is directly responsible for the awfulness of both.

In completely unrelated news...

If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?

There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of — and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.

-----------

Expect to see this clip every single time you turn on the television between now and November 5th.

Just fucking shoot me.

[Sengoku Strider]

Turns out there was no need to worry after all, patriots reduced the storm to a cat 3 by firing nuclear weapons into it.



Take that MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!!

[orange808]

Both Iran and Israel are awful. I'm tired of their shit. There's no hero in this story.

...and the USA is directly responsible for the awfulness of both.

Those fuckers have been killing each other for centuries. They have magic books and America didn't write them. Their stupidity is an inherited problem.

Same shit in the Balkans. The only thing that stopped those dumb bastards was the Soviets pointing guns to their heads. They practically started killing one another the day the wall came down.

Fuck. Nobody wants peace.

Yes. America isn't helping. The Brits, Spanish, French, Soviets, and China haven't done a thing to help, either. Every nation has their own interests and there's no Star Trek global union on the horizon. Doesn't matter what foreign power influences that region, those people are bent on exterminating one another.

[Mortificator]

Israel hasn't existed for even a single century. It's a colonial outpost the west established by allying with a white supremacist movement in order to conduct terror operations as force projection. It's secular as well. Orthodox Jews hate it.

[orange808]

Well, let's all blow kisses to Spain for putting an end to the violence among the warring factions of native Central America. Nothing extinguished those native regional conflicts like fucking genocide, right? (Their bloodlines are literally and scientifically extinct. They were completely obliterated.) No more wars. Not like before.

There's an example of a foreign solution. Happy?

The magic books say things about "promised lands" and encourage jihad. I'm sorry, were those books introduced in the twentieth century?

America started it? Constantinople, anyone? I wasn't born yesterday, man.

Aw, yes. Less than a century. Interesting... Should we hand Taiwan to China? Ukraine hasn't existed for very long.

Maybe the solution is to stop redrawing lines without democratic consent? Regardless of what happened before?

[BulletMagnet]

Those fuckers have been killing each other for centuries. They have magic books and America didn't write them. Their stupidity is an inherited problem.

I'm not sure what flight of fancy led you to interpret my comment as labeling outside forces as somehow to blame for every atrocity either civilization has ever committed, but if you need a qualifier, sure: the USA is directly responsible for the awfulness of both in its current form.

[orange808]

Those fuckers have been killing each other for centuries. They have magic books and America didn't write them. Their stupidity is an inherited problem.

I'm not sure what flight of fancy led you to interpret my comment as labeling outside forces as somehow to blame for every atrocity either civilization has ever committed, but if you need a qualifier, sure: the USA is directly responsible for the awfulness of both in its current form.

A conflict that (barring complete genocide victory by one party) would still exist in some awful current form?

[BulletMagnet]

Perhaps, though I'm inclined to guess that if the USA hadn't a) Played a pivotal role in the founding of the modern state of Israel and provided both billions in aid and unconditional diplomatic cover even as the latter has repeatedly thumbed its nose at both US and international law, and b) Staged a coup against Iran's secular, democratically elected leader and allowed religious extremists to take over the country when its puppet replacement was forced out, the nature and scale of said conflict would be quite different.