Prelude to the Apocalypse

[orange808]

Bush was president when the economy hit the wall. Don't underestimate the effect of that, either.

[Sengoku Strider]

His hard core will still run off the cliff after him, but there are too many deal breakers for your average right wing secret Clint Eastwood to be cool with.

For the millionth and first time, I really, really really want to believe this, but literally everything I see coming from both the right and the center (with Biden bleeding support on the left, while he's at it) tells me that Bill Barr still speaks for an utterly terrifying percentage of voters: "Sure, he's incompetent, a criminal, and a danger to democracy, but I'm still voting for him, because fuck you."

Like I said, a ton of them will; unless the other side starts putting white grievance issues on the menu they're not gonna be interested. But Trump is already on a massive electoral losing streak, and he's very evidently lost a good deal of financial and political support from within his own party.

What I always remember is seeing the Bill Clinton impeachment stuff in the news back in the day. I knew jack about American law or politics, but Clinton seemed cooler than the other guys somehow so I kinda rooted for him (inasmuch as I actually cared at the time, my brain cycles were 56% King of Fighters, 40% girls, 3% bio and 1% other). I couldn't quite understand what happened in the trial, but he wasn't in jail and was still president so I figured it meant he was innocent.

This is the zone I think most Trump voters live in. The news talks about fraud and rape and lies and impeachments and coups and treason, but they only sorta care about the news in general and every day they wake up and he's not in jail so whatever. The stuff he says about witch hunts might be true. But lurking in the background, there's always this sentiment:

Most Americans also say they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted of a felony crime by a jury (57%) or if he is currently serving time in prison (60%), including around a third of Republicans in both cases (29% and 35%, respectively). Around half of all Republicans say they would vote for Donald Trump in either scenario (52% and 49%, respectively), while about a third of Republicans (32%) say the criminal cases against Trump make them more likely to vote for him in 2024.

No matter how dispirited one might be with the whirling vortex of crazy LARP-world bullshit and warmed over movie plots the republican party has devolved into, I have a hard time believing they spend as much time talking about freedom and rule of law and Jesus as they do just as an elaborate attempt to throw liberals off the scent of racist authoritarian urges. That stuff does matter to a lot of them deep down, and it doesn't have to be a lot of them demotivated enough to stay home for Trump to get clobbered in a general.

Like I keep saying, the abortion thing has women pissed, and very effectively organized, funded and mobilized. The only chance Trump ever had against that was a unified and mobilized base, and he very obviously has much less of that than last time around.

[Sengoku Strider]

Years of being told "this candidate is awful and we know they are awful, but you better vote for them anyway because you have no choices" have engendered a reactionary "fuck you" mindset from voters. The establishment corporate puppeteers can only blame themselves for causing this problem. Hillary and Biden were both awful candidates, and each time the liberal voters were told "hahaha, you're going to vote for them anyway, bitches!"

Play stupid games...

Comrade, have you heard the good news? There is another path to workers' freedom.

[BulletMagnet]

Most Americans also say they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted of a felony crime by a jury (57%) or if he is currently serving time in prison (60%), including around a third of Republicans in both cases (29% and 35%, respectively). Around half of all Republicans say they would vote for Donald Trump in either scenario (52% and 49%, respectively), while about a third of Republicans (32%) say the criminal cases against Trump make them more likely to vote for him in 2024.

I'm presumably missing something about how this poll's data was compiled, because 1/3 + 1/2 + 1/3 does not equal 1.

More importantly, perhaps you're right that things are somehow different than they were in previous years, and the polls are actually on target this time because the people who say they won't support Trump actually mean it this time (though to the extent such sentiment exists I can guarantee you it doesn't translate to his legion of authoritarian ass-kissers down-ballot), but as I've said before, at this point I can only believe it when I see it.

[Sengoku Strider]

That's fair, the election's 10 months away, the primaries aren't even over yet, and the Green Goblin still has yet to throw every evil trick left in his bag.

But also, if you guys lose to these weirdos American civil democracy might well have been past saving anyhow.

[Sima Tuna]

Years of being told "this candidate is awful and we know they are awful, but you better vote for them anyway because you have no choices" have engendered a reactionary "fuck you" mindset from voters. The establishment corporate puppeteers can only blame themselves for causing this problem. Hillary and Biden were both awful candidates, and each time the liberal voters were told "hahaha, you're going to vote for them anyway, bitches!"

Play stupid games...

Comrade, have you heard the good news? There is another path to workers' freedom.

Free Willy is going to get me a living wage, no foreign wars and some debt relief? Damn! I gave that whale too little credit!

[Sengoku Strider]

Free Willy is going to get me a living wage, no foreign wars and some debt relief? Damn! I gave that whale too little credit!

Not Willy, but rather proletarian comrade in the great global worker's struggle White Gladis, Devourer of Yachts.

[BryanM]

It's just PDF files of a book by one of the most cited authors in graduate politics courses and a man regarded as the world's preeminent public intellectual

Noam's a good egg on the whole, but is terribly old news by modern standards. (He was much more relevant pre-internet where leftist views were relegated to a couple places on PBS. Children's programming telling kids to not be afraid. Bill Moyers. Tavis Smiley would bring it up once a month. Every voice against the status quo was precious, even a George Carlin's.) I mean, even as a kid I could understand the TV was attempting to groom my thoughts. It's not much of a secret the powerful would use their power to amass more power. Which means disempowering everyone else.

We're entering the first age of where they're serious about replacing everyone with robots. It's understandable most leftists are absolutely convinced it's going to be terrible.

I'm curious what kind of data exists attempting to determine how much of Romney's loss was due to his own potential voters not bothering versus how comparatively effective Obama was at getting his own voters out despite their misgivings

This is always a hard thing to quantify with numbers. Because of that effect conflict always causes, as explained in that old CGP Grey video about flowers and butterflies. A ball of hate just draws more people into the conflict.

Data on how people voted according to income group is scarce (I imagine campaigns keep that kind of information private), and wouldn't mean anything because the margins we're talking about here are so stupidly narrow. A couple percents worth of swings here and there.

You could point to almost anything Clinton did during 2016 and blame it for her loss, and you can't be proven wrong. Maybe Comey had some influence on the outcome (I doubt it, especially in the grand scheme of things. But, maybe). Maybe her being a blood gurgling monster cost her the five votes she lost Michigan by. (Biden is managing to do about as well with the Muslim population there.)

You need access to one of those q-anon dimensional slider things to get useful data on this kind of thing. Run the 2024 election with Haley as the nominee, see if Texas flips. I guess you could try to run a simulation of such a scenario with a super intelligent AGI with a big gigachad brain, but I wouldn't want to poison such a thing with such cruel thoughts.

Bush was president when the economy hit the wall. Don't underestimate the effect of that, either.

Yeah, there is that see-saw effect that's intrinsic to our system. Biden is experiencing it now.

But it doesn't apply much to Mitt Romney, it's always short lived. Villain rotation is effective. Look at George Bush's approval rating now compared to then, nothing fucking means anything beyond how much someone likes a politician as an imaginary friend.

Trump activated some voters that didn't vote. GOP zombies will vote for Hillary Clinton, if she wore the right gang colors.

... I'm doing that thing where I'm using too many words to talk about something simple. Romney is a mediocre politician. Hillary is a bad politician. Trump is a good politician.

We're all kids who have been through school, and we know what popularity is when we see it.

the polls are actually on target this time

The polls were 100% accurate in 2016. Clinton lost, just like the no toss-up maps said she would. For three months straight going into November.

The polls say Biden might lose. They're not accurate until summer brings things into focus, nobody normal is paying attention yet. But I also don't think they're suddenly going to stop charging twice as much for groceries this year.

I have a hard time believing they spend as much time talking about freedom and rule of law and Jesus as they do just as an elaborate attempt to throw liberals off the scent of racist authoritarian urges. That stuff does matter to a lot of them deep down

I think it's adorable you still have this much faith in human beings, even as we enter into the middle of the beginning of the end of everything.

My world model assumes words mean nothing to these people, and they live driven by their feelings. If he does go to prison, I imagine many would be shocked for a while. Then they'll think things over for a few days, let the neural nets in their brains rearrange to create a world model that allows them to function, and lets them vote for Trump.

The very first thing that came to mind is the "grab them by the pussy" line in 2016. A woman working in a warehouse felt really bad when she first heard him say it. She went to bed feeling awful.

The next day however, she was joking with her coworkers about it. Shouting "grab it by the pussy!" and the like while using a forklift to move things.

In-group preservation of memes and coping is very powerful. Bernie Sanders would have to descend from heaven with a glowing sword and bible, and shove food into their mouths FDR style to change a single mind.

... god all the rumination I've been doing about cognition since ChatGPT went mainstream last year has brought some dark thoughts. How many people do live in that world of words, for anything outside their immediate experience? Where everything is built on a foundation of just-so claims and empty tautology? That nothing really means anything, least of all in the imaginary battleground that is "which of these two guys do you like/hate the least?"

Nothing matters more than the tribe. You're asking someone to betray themselves, their social group, their entire lives? For what? Some words? Some technicality they'll have to bend to, or they'll be a hypocrite?

I understand those with a humanist bent want to believe these things actually matter. And my materialist robot brain just can't accept it. But I've been wrong before: I never thought they'd just give people money, but they did during the pandemic. And I immediately had to rewire things to create a post-hoc excuse for it ("they must really be afraid"), followed later by a "Oh. They just doubled the prices of groceries. Guess they didn't really give us anything. World is functioning as normal, then."

... jesus is this a long post to say "nuh uh". Maybe the phone people are better off not being able to type two words a second.

[Sima Tuna]

Nothing matters more than the tribe. You're asking someone to betray themselves, their social group, their entire lives? For what? Some words? Some technicality they'll have to bend to, or they'll be a hypocrite?

Yep. Same logic as with religions. Seen it a thousand times. There are times when admitting to being wrong (or even not knowing) is not merely being wrong. It amounts to a total betrayal of everything that person believes, identifies with... It represents a teardown of their projection of self. And for what? That they now think there's a possibility they were wrong about some stuff? Is what worth giving up good relationships with their families, communities, their church, maybe even job?

Dan Dennett talks about "belief in belief." He also addresses, in this brilliant talk, the issue of those who do not believe in god but have many good, practical reasons to profess belief in god:

https://youtu.be/BvJZQwy9dvE

We can extrapolate this phenomenon Dennett discusses re: religion to encompass any belief, really. There's often a lot of crossover between fundamentalist religious groups and hardcore conservative groups. But whether or not that's the case every time, the mechanism of how people rationalize something they don't really believe or don't agree with into the set of principles they are required to profess is fascinating.

I do believe that many conservatives are very much the "law and order" type of people. These are people who married a couple times, max, and they worked boring jobs. They hunt and fish and watch sports. Maybe drive atvs or go sport shooting. Play video games, even. So it's not that they think Trump is awesome when he says "grab 'em by the pussy," or when he buys prostitutes, disobeys legal orders, scams people with his businesses, etc. But what's the alternative, for them? Vote Biden? So they have to find a way to make what Trump says and does okay, in their minds. So they can feel good voting for him. The "fuck you" protest vote doesn't need that because they don't care. But I do think mainstream conservative voters have to "work it out" in their brains, because the alternative to them is too horrible a betrayal of everything they believe. Voting for Biden means voting for abortion and liberalism in general, and that's a bridge too far.

[Lemnear]

the only thing i know is, Americans are shit if they don't help us to beat THEIR enemies.
This also applies to american users in this forum, no offense.

[Sima Tuna]

the only thing i know is, Americans are shit if they don't help us to beat THEIR enemies.
This also applies to american users in this forum, no offense.

[AGermanArtist]

It's just PDF files of a book by one of the most cited authors in graduate politics courses and a man regarded as the world's preeminent public intellectual

Noam's a good egg on the whole, but is terribly old news by modern standards.

Oh, as an Irish Republican raised in Northern Ireland in the late 70's/80's I am acutely aware of the propaganda I've been subjected to. Being positioned on the pointy end of the English regime gives you a certain outlook that my English friends find difficult to understand and accept. Particularly when as a very young child I witnessed a friend of my cousin being shot in the head by British troops and labelled a 'terrorist' on the BBC's 'news' later that evening.
I couldn't understand how an 8 y/o I knew very well could be a terrorist. It was this event that triggered both my parents, grandmother and aunts to advise me on the nature of Propaganda.
It wasn't until my late teens that I encountered Chomsky who confirmed that my relatives and the local IRA were indeed correct, and in such a convincing fashion. And while you say this is old news, well, yes. It is to me, but clearly not here, evidenced by the length of this thread and the utter nonsense discussed within.

[orange808]

the only thing i know is, Americans are shit if they don't help us to beat THEIR enemies.
This also applies to american users in this forum, no offense.

Human beings are atrocity machines. You included. You're a human being.

No offense.

It's not "them". It's "us".

And, you would be no more trustworthy. That's the depressing part.

[Sengoku Strider]

Nothing matters more than the tribe. You're asking someone to betray themselves, their social group, their entire lives? For what? Some words? Some technicality they'll have to bend to, or they'll be a hypocrite?

Which goes hand-in-hand with the biggest reason why I think he's fucked. Because yes it's about the tribe first, but while he's confused on the matter he is not the tribe, just its Ronald McDonald. His antics are a direct threat to the tribe's continued survival, and have been for years. There are now internal voices bringing up constantly how many elections in a row they've struggled in. He's too undisciplined. He's poison for moderates, women, people with college degrees, non-whites, Swifties, the FBI, non-evangelical religious voters, K-Pop stans, urban voters, the state of New York, democracy, any corporation with brand equity they'd like to keep, Ukrainians, anyone who believes in the integrity of golf scorekeeping...even Tucker Carlson privately hates him. Way back in 2016 they were able to get most of their followers to go along with writing "Grab them by the pussy" off as locker room talk. $83 million dollars in rape-defamation awards later and it's a little more serious. Because what are the odds that's the last time he's sitting in court over that one? The man flails at any and all bait dangled in front of him.

Forget non-specialist media and moralizing democrat echo chambers, look at how pissed off the people who make up the actual republican apparatus are at each other. They know they're about to spend 6 months wearing themselves out shilling and fundraising and door knocking for a disorganized and distracted zombie candidacy that - yes - is going to make them look like massive hypocrites. Which means they're running the risk of being associated with it and swept out with the old when a new regime inevitably takes over with new messaging. Take a look at the money quotes from this Politico article on yesterday's RNC summit, wherein his stooge Ronda McDaniel is made proxy for criticisms of his regime (they know he won't pay attention and bring hell down on them if his name's not mentioned):

“They’re a bunch of losers. They know it. The grassroots knows it. The donors know it,” (Charlie) Kirk said in an interview. “They lost in ’18. They lost in ’20. They lost in 2022. We have tried to reach out to them many times, and I’m not going to put up with another culture of losing.”

The title of Monday’s summit was itself a clear knock on the RNC. A prevailing theme among attendees of the “Restoring National Confidence” gathering, which was open to local chairs and GOP leaders from the most consequential counties, was that the actual RNC wasn’t doing enough to train and support the grassroots.

“The fact of the matter is the same executive committee, the same leadership structure, the same strategic plans, the same ‘victory programs’ are all in place with the same people, and yet we have lost 22 out of 25 statewide races,” Dittrich said, referring to Wisconsin elections over the last dozen or so years — a period beginning before McDaniel was placed in the job by Donald Trump in 2016.

“And so my question would be simple,” he said. “If you’re in a business and your business lost 22 of 25 accounts that you were after, would you have the same structure continue? Would you have the same people continuing to lead?”

But before someone inevitably says it, yes, I am painfully aware his hard core are not on any of those wavelengths and will still passionately seek to Make America 5D Again:

[BulletMagnet]

His antics are a direct threat to the tribe's continued survival, and have been for years.

The tribe will be just fine; the only thing whose survival is under threat is America's democratic experiment, which they're not only willing but openly giddy about destroying in order to permanently hold power, which they may very well succeed at because...

He's poison for moderates

I fucking wish.

[Sima Tuna]

They will cuck for Trump because there is no other alternative. The GOP could have solved the Trump problem by producing a single good GOP candidate, ever. They haven't had a good presidential candidate during my life time.

So their record of failure goes back much further than the quote implies. All they have to do now is all they've ever had to do: produce a single good candidate. Bring us a candidate who stands for the working class. Who will give more to the working poor and expand the quality of living for the majority of Americans. They can wrap that in whatever social conservative lingo they want. Don't make it about supporting unions-call it "cutting taxes," "reducing the size of government," "bringing standards of living back to what our grandfathers had" etc. Dress it however they want. The problem Republicans have right now is they absolutely despise the vast majority of their own voters, and they're smoking crack if they think voters don't pick up on shit like that. The Democrats are the same way, but they're sometimes obliged by their party to throw a few crumbs to the mass of unwashed humanity. So, by contrast, they tend to win more elections of late. Democrats win on the "hope for things to get better" whereas mainstream Republican candidates offer no hope at all.

Trump won because he was a wild card candidate operating outside of the mainstream GOP candidate-generator. That's the same reason why he'll win the Primaries again if he's allowed to run, and the same reason all the political elite of the GOP will cuck-walk themselves back into line. He is their only chance of getting close to another win, and that is entirely their own fault.

Political elections are a popularity contest yes, but what influences that popularity? How about promising things that people want and then delivering on them when you get into office? People liked Obama yes, but the "Hope and Change" political campaign was successful because it played upon strong desires the electorate had for the current situation to change for the better. Obamacare was poorly-implemented at launch, but most voters wanted some form of cheaper health care and that's what it tried to provide. My state has kept a form of obamacare to this day, which low-income individuals have been able to make use of. People I know would not have healthcare if not for obamacare.

If the GOP would produce a candidate who offered voters ideas that benefit them and then fulfilled those promises if/when taking office, they could produce results. They refuse to do this because they are corporate-owned, cronyist sons of bitches to a man. So even a half-hearted effort like obamacare or the SAVE program looks like an amazing offer next to the Republicans "muh abortion, muh christianity" platform.

All these words words words to explain the GOP has no alternative to Trump and they deserve to keep losing.

[Sengoku Strider]

Last time, on The Greatest Legal Team Ever Assembled!!

“President Trump has the most experienced, qualified, disciplined, and overall strongest legal team ever assembled as he continues to fight for America and Americans against these partisan, Crooked Joe Biden-led election interference hoaxes,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

How did our heroes fare against these partisan, Crooked Joe Biden-led election interference hoaxes?

Spoiler

Bodied so hard Captain Tough Guy spent his entire no-budget social media ad for new lawyers sobbing about what a big mean bully the judge was. He needs to save the cash too, he's paying out the ass for the privilege of the PTSD:

Donald Trump’s political operation spent millions more than it took in over the past year due, in part, to massive legal costs incurred by the former president.

Two of Donald Trump’s political action committees spent an astonishing $29 million in legal consulting and legal fees in the second half of last year, leaving only $5 million in his leadership PAC’s coffers.

Fortunately, MAGA patriots are able to connect the deep state dots through the fog of war:



If Trump and the White Hats weren't 5-8 chess moves ahead of their opponents at all times, I'd be worried that at this rate he'd have to pawn his replica of the replica of the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[orange808]

Is that how he burned his face so orange?

[Sima Tuna]

"Only allowed me to be on the witness stand for minutes."

Hey, that's just not right. It sounds like the Judge was trying to do the work of Defense Counsel. I've yet to see video, audio or transcript of a court case where the defendant taking the stand has worked out in their favor.

Spoiler

I suppose it's fine for traffic tickets

"Would not allow me to put forward vital evidence."

I hear this complaint from sovereign citizens all the time. The "vital evidence" in those cases involves unsupported testimony from the defendant, and filibuster attempts.

"He was a bully"

Even if that were true, to say so of a judge openly is bad form. That's an issue to take up in appeal with your legal team. Talking shit about one judge is not a good plan if you intend to get another judge to reverse the decision.

"Trump Hating Judge"

My brother in Christ, YOU are Trump. You are speaking of yourself. You don't need to use the third person when talking about a person who hates YOU.

"one word answers"

Again, I object on the grounds the Judge should not be trying to protect the Defendant from making an ass of himself on the stand. He should have allowed you to speak at length about whatever you wanted.

"Clinton-appointed Judge"

Should be a point in your favor rather than a point against, considering the corrupt, crony capitalist New Democrat Clinton was. If I were Trump, I wouldn't hold out for any better result on appeal. He doesn't take advice of counsel and runs through lawyers like a meth dealer. All his social media shit is going to prejudice the fuck out of his case, whoever he brings it to.

[Sengoku Strider]

Again, I object on the grounds the Judge should not be trying to protect the Defendant from making an ass of himself on the stand. He should have allowed you to speak at length about whatever you wanted.

The hilarious thing is, he was. Keep in mind this was trial #2 vs. E. Jean Carroll, and it was already determined in the course of the previous trial the year before that he had sexually assaulted her. The events happened so long ago that the statute of limitations had run out on the assault, but some law was passed allowing assault victims to still come forward with civil suits within a certain window. She sued him for defamation when he called her a crazy liar over the allegations and won, because he basically ratted on himself in his deposition.

Immediately after being ordered to pay her he continued defaming her on his social media within 24 hours, and even went on on a town hall on CNN and quadrupled down. Since it was already legally determined that his conduct was defamatory, this trial was purely just to determine how much he'd have to pay her this time around.

Cue the 5D chess master:

Donald Trump's testimony in the writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case ended almost immediately after it began, as the former U.S. president stood by his earlier testimony that Carroll's claim that he raped her was a hoax.

"100 per cent yes," Trump told his lawyer, Alina Habba, in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, when asked if his comments in an October 2022 deposition in Carroll's case were accurate.

Earlier on Thursday, Carroll's lawyers played videotaped excerpts from the deposition, in which Trump called Carroll "mentally sick" and a "whack job," and threatened to sue her.

"It's a false accusation, never happened, never would happen," Trump said in the deposition.

The very stable genius got on the stand and promptly proceeded to defame her in the trial to determine whether or not he should get a big or a gigantic fine for having 100% legally defamed her on live international television several times. Since this was not only just offering him a taxpayer-funded stage to continue to commit the offence, but had nothing to do with anything since this trial was in no way held to determine whether or not he assaulted her, the judge told them to shut up and stop using the courtroom as a campaign stop.

After he had spent a few minutes straight vigorously incriminating himself in front of the jury.

[BryanM]

And while you say this is old news, well, yes. It is to me, but clearly not here, evidenced by the length of this thread and the utter nonsense discussed within.

I often mention the cradle to grave grooming they do to us through the TV. (A Somethingawful comment is my favorite example of this mechanism: "FOX News talks to your dad more than you ever could." There's some extra subtext there about the mechanization of our society, mentally as well as physically. Because yeah, a flesh and blood person can never compete with a machine.) People just usually silently nod and have nothing to add or refute.

This thread was originally started as an election-watching thread, ostensibly about watching the Trump show. Secretly it was a political revolution thread - I was banking on Bernie Sanders winning the primary, winning the election, and purging the Democratic party like Bill Clinton did. Except to make it slightly better instead of worse. When Sanders lost the primary and therefore Trump won the general, I guess it became an as-scheduled apocalypse watching thread instead.

I was such a dumbass - why would something good happen?!

Some people are confused and still think it's about politics, but I guess as the apocalypse starts to manifest more solidly the culture here will change a bit. Whether it's climate apocalypse, capitalism cannibalizing too much of itself, or they replace everyone with robots, things will change.

I think there was like only one person on this forum, ever, who did a drive-by "conspiracy theorist!" sneer and left, when I used the "14 people rule the world" hyperbole line?

After nine years the well has been well mined. At this point it's about drilling for the last dregs of entertainment and horror there's to be had in this doomed world. Like many places on the internet, a water cooler to shoot shit and kill time.

He is their only chance of getting close to another win

Indeed, to reiterate that's my assertion. The electorate is changing from people dying and being born, this guy has always been a last gasp from the boomer generation. The fear of death - death of the self, death of their culture, loss of their victory trophies - underlies a lot of this stuff.

Nobody wants a Romney. Nobody normal.

My theoretical scenario of Biden winning Texas but losing the election by losing the upper rust belt (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, etc) isn't impossible this year. Though the more likely outcome is he just loses the rust belt. Polling is currently quite in favor of Trump winning. While this is as good as they'll be for him, and will tighten as people start thinking about the election... it doesn't bode well. The last election was a coin flip, and a mild imbalance of motivation among the base will see Biden get swept in what looks like a landslide on the electoral map. (Liberals will cope and seethe with a "but he won more votes!" and change nothing about their primary voting habits, like with Hillary. Look forward to seeing lots more of Kamala and Pete. If we still have elections in three years.)

Of course you or I have zero impact to change any of this, unless you happen to live in Texas or one of those rust belt states. Let's remember our comrade Mischief in this moment, who didn't have our luxury of not giving a shit since our voting actions carry zero material value, but his did.

The Alt-Right Playbook

This is a channel I sometimes watch a video from, a couple times a year. Always about some trick or strategy they can use in the pageant show.

I think it can be reduced down to this: some people care about what words actually mean. And others only care about tone and appearance. Best illustrated here by Penn Jillette petting a dog. A lot of people are the dog.

There was this vice presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joseph Biden, where Ryan was being a little nerd dweeb trying to quietly trot out their lies and distortions, and Biden tore him apart like a rottweiler. I've never seen conservatives so angry and fuming - he beat their guy at the only game they care about! Appearing dominant on tv. The boo-hoo'ing was so delicious. "Smiling Joe" was the saddest attempt at a cope, only making themselves look weaker and more pathetic every time they used it.

Joseph Biden was always a good politician, by the metric of being likable on TV and therefore having people wanting to support him. Only George W really compared in my lifetime. (As Norm always said - nobody likes a guy that's smarter than them. Being dumb is an advantage, not a detriment to being elected president. As you know, like 50% to 60% of the country can't read and absorb more than a few sentences. ... They really don't care about words.)

It's just sad seeing Joe's decline. Not even a shadow of his former self.

anyone who believes in the integrity of golf scorekeeping

I've seen some things, man. People goofing around on the putt-putt course. It ain't right.

Games are serious business (╯>Д<)╯

[Sengoku Strider]

After nine years the well has been well mined.

This metaphor is mixed so hard it's making my eye twitch.

I've seen some things, man. People goofing around on the putt-putt course. It ain't right.

Games are serious business (╯>Д<)╯

[orange808]

You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foeginers in the land of Egypt. —Exodus 22:21

[Sengoku Strider]

Foreigners was actually the name of a gate in Jerusalem that...

[orange808]

Celebrating tonight in America? Yes, we locked a parent of a shooter. Finally, we did it.

But, Did you win? Feel good? Huh?

Well, have we rolled out universal health care? Can I just take my kid in and get sustained mental health treatment? Is that available to me? No. You don't go see a therapist once, visit a doctor, take a happy pill, and live happily ever after. That's a chronic health problem. Do we treat that? Not really.

Nobody wanted to work a second job to pay for therapy? Wow. That's so shocking...

Sure, a lousy parent didn't put in enough effort. But, did you help? No. We didn't do shit.

What's our policy on guns? Millions more are made every year! If we change the laws, we have to "grandfather in" all the existing weapons! It will take multiple decades to get the guns off the street--even after we curb sales! I wouldn't live to see the guns disappear.

What have you done? What have we done? Not shit.

But, don't let me interrupt the celebration. My apologies...

Oh yes. It's quite fun to dig up the dirt on some white trash. Yes, we locked up a bad parent. But, was it really illegal? And, the Americans reading this are all accomplices. I don't give a shit if you're willing. You're still an accomplice. This isn't an invisible foreign policy thing that you miss in your day to day life. You know guns are a fucking domestic problem.

Anyhow, enjoy your little victory. Hooray for you. You really "changed the world".

Maybe, we could get off our asses and change the gun culture and get us some health care? We already spend more than any other nation!

That's hard, though. It's easier to make fun of white trash on social media. And, it's more fun.

Good job. Carry on with the celebration. Good job, America.

[BryanM]

What was her crime, besides buying a gun and enjoying having sex with new friends? The entire scenario at a glance seems no different than the same thing hundreds of thousands of other people have done and are doing right now, the only difference being that the kid very rarely actually goes on a killing spree.

It does feel vindictive.

Note the age of consent in Michigan is 16, like in over half the states. He was five months away from being considered a grown man. Well, a grown man who couldn't drink alcohol or vote, but he could boink the granny down the street in front of the president of the united states and there wouldn't have been a single thing they could do about it.

... that's always been one of those things that shows what's really important to us. Giving grass a haircut. Ghouls exploiting teenagers. (Stuff like fixing aging? Nah, not worth pursuing. Negative money in it. And surely it's impossible. Ignore the parabiosis experiments from over a hundred years ago.)

Sometimes... yeah, I can see why there are those we refuse to be introspective about anything. Thinking about stuff only unearths countless horrors the paper mâché covers up.

[Sengoku Strider]

... that's always been one of those things that shows what's really important to us. Giving grass a haircut. Ghouls exploiting teenagers. (Stuff like fixing aging? Nah, not worth pursuing. Negative money in it. And surely it's impossible. Ignore the parabiosis experiments from over a hundred years ago.)

Sometimes... yeah, I can see why there are those we refuse to be introspective about anything. Thinking about stuff only unearths countless horrors the paper mâché covers up.

[BryanM]

Google released their bestest chatbot ever today. It flopped as hard as I expected it to, no more and no less. Google never fails to meet expectations.

A couple examples from the community seem pertinent:

Gemini fails the "Timmy has 2 apples. Yesterday he ate 1 apple. How many apples does Timmy have?" test.

ChatGPT4 passes a "where is the marble test", where they put a marble in a coffee cup, walk around the house, turn the cup upside down in the backyard, does some other stuff, before putting the cup into a microwave.

So Google is years behind. I guess this confirms my assumption that OpenAI is the only serious contender right now. The snowball effect should be pretty bad in a few years; you'd think Google would have put more effort into becoming god than they did into Stadia, but I guess they're not very interested.

Can it tell me how to create a portal to another dimension using a toaster and a microwave?

If not, its junk and im not interested.

[Sima Tuna]

... that's always been one of those things that shows what's really important to us. Giving grass a haircut. Ghouls exploiting teenagers. (Stuff like fixing aging? Nah, not worth pursuing. Negative money in it. And surely it's impossible. Ignore the parabiosis experiments from over a hundred years ago.)

Sometimes... yeah, I can see why there are those we refuse to be introspective about anything. Thinking about stuff only unearths countless horrors the paper mâché covers up.

https://youtu.be/PMvuqYMg8mw?t=5765

I would have stolen it myself if I had the guts
They deserve it for flaunting these things
We have to do worse than steal if we want things like this

Capitalism is a dream world for the rich and a living hell for the poor. Democracy is the shell game to keep your attention focused away from this truth.

[Sengoku Strider]

https://youtu.be/PMvuqYMg8mw?t=5765

I would have stolen it myself if I had the guts
They deserve it for flaunting these things
We have to do worse than steal if we want things like this

That movie is called Nora Inu in Japanese, which translates kind of more like 'Wild Dog' than 'Stray Dog' imo. One time I had a gig as photographer for a Japanese indie band tour, and had recently watched that movie. After one of the sets I went back stage and told the guitarist he was like a nora inu out there, because he killed it and that was the coolest sounding Japanese term in my head at the time. He just looked at me like I was a huge asshole.

Capitalism is a dream world for the rich and a living hell for the poor. Democracy is the shell game to keep your attention focused away from this truth.

It's why I'm #TeamJuche.



For the 99.9% alphabetization.