Democratic (Party) Direction

so i'm gonna nerd out even _more_ here

i woke up this morning thinking about lord of the rings and sam gamgee (if that's how you spell his name, i only know the movies)

they're all walking right into mordor, sam and frodo and this creature called gollum, who we're told used to be a basically ok hobbit but the power of the ring fucked him up really bad

and frodo is like look we gotta have gollum with us, he can help us, and anyway he's not even all bad, i mean he does some weird shit sometimes but look at all the hurt and pain and suffering he's been through, but sam just sees a monster who tried to hurt him and hurt frodo, and he sees gollum trying to steal the ring and run away with it and beats the shit out of him and frodo wakes up and says "SAM WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY ARE YOU BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF POOR INNOCENT SMEAGOL" and smeagol makes those fucking anime eyes at frodo

it's a bad scene

so they get to the center of mount doom and it's time for frodo to destroy the ring and he says "no". sam... i think sam sort of knew this was coming, this was where it was going to end up. he hoped it wouldn't come to this but it did anyway. sam pleads with frodo, reasons with frodo, tries everything, but you know, frodo ain't gonna listen to him. the ring is more important to frodo than sam is.

that's when gollum comes barreling out of nowhere screaming "MY PRECIOUS" and grabs the ring

now, in the book, frodo and gollum fight for the ring, and in the fight gollum grabs the ring but in doing so destroys both himself and the ring.

it's a blatant and intentional deus ex machina. this is a miracle, and it happened because, you know, that's how tolkien wrote it

so what if that doesn't happen? what if gollum gets the ring _without_ destroying himself? and what if where we are now is frodo standing here, in the fires of mount doom, with gollum dancing around and rejoicing, and says to sam -

"sam, i need your help. help me persuade gollum to give the ring back, and we can take it back to the shire, and we can forget all this ever happened."

and sam, like, he's looking at frodo like he's gone completely fucking batshit crazy. this is frodo's idea? the idea that he can just politely talk gollum into giving back the ring? and that, even assuming that's possible, which it isn't, the plan now is to go against everything he said he was going to do, everybody who's fought, everybody's who's died, and just walk back to the shire? to say "oh no, there was no war of the ring, it was just some kind of misunderstanding?"

so sam looks at frodo and says "mr. frodo, i can't do that"

and frodo says to him "oh, so you _want_ gollum to have the ring?"

lol i love that post

https://earther.gizmodo.com/democrats-quietly-cut-opposition-to-fossil-fuel-subsidi-1844768172

is Joe Biden Gollum

i only know the movies)

now, in the book,

Which one is it?

Excellent post though.

democrats are quietly dropping climate change as a top issue, in general.

It’s called “Build Back Better”

they're just building up to their post-fatal-hemorrhage pivot, "bring back beto"

Which one is it?

Excellent post though.

― peace, man

it's the movie, i get confused writing sometimes :)

is Joe Biden Gollum

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

no

when does bl**mb*rg speak

I think that's in the Silmarillion

a+

damn tonight's agenda is truly a parade of bipartisan war criminals

plus: the ghost of John McCain!

i'll be watching pandemic baseball

watching hilary and pelosi talk i am deeply struck (speaking solely as an outsider) by how deeply MONIED usa seems - by the sense of wealth and power's co-mingling in ways that are signaled over and over again, unapologetically. the message embedded in the message. reminds me of President Snow or some kinda Hunger Games transmissions.

this place really sucks, no doubt

Xp otm

squintin...b i m....bim...what could it mean...an an acronym? Bomb islam more? Warren has done it again! https://t.co/pwDe9DAr87

— Y (@YSAB87) August 20, 2020

hey hey hey, bim's on the way

https://i0.wp.com/thenoise-boston.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/bimCDweb337.jpg

fuck nancy pelosi, would donate like a hundred dollars to her progressive primary challenger in 2022

Speaker of the House endorsing a primary challenge to a sitting senator https://t.co/ai5UYuKv7U

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 20, 2020

THAT SURNAME IS MAGIC!

As Clinton said 4 years ago, "Not gonna promise anything," we've had enough of that.

You should be speaking not Kasich https://t.co/0LTE7eQtsO

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) August 18, 2020

Enough with fucking political family dynasties, goddamnit. No more Bushes, Kennedy’s, Clinton’s, etc.

No Elvis, Beatles, or Rolling Stones

As I alluded to in my piece, a lot of this is about the career aspirations of young moderates - many of whom, of course, are in the House. This is to placate them. Meanwhile, Senate Dems dislike Kennedy & back Markey - except Sinema who was one of these guys. Just a strange race. https://t.co/FoKzX1utNC

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) August 20, 2020

"If a scrappy young up-and-comer like Joe Kennedy can do it, maybe I can too!"

I read somewhere his people hope -- you have to chug vodka to believe this twaddle -- the public remembers how Ted Kennedy didn't become a great senator until the 1980s. And that's true. But how pathetic. "Please have faith I won't remain a mediocre bootlicker reliant on my name."

actual literal bootlickers, many of whom are excellent at what they do, don't deserve this association

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/512/039/ed9.jpg

i've imbibed my share of vodka, and i don't feel like vodka will make you that stupid. money, on the other hand, money will absolutely make a person that fucking stupid.

Wasn’t Common recently accused of sexual misconduct?

^^^

My wife has this on and it is so bad. Just tone deaf schtick.

I have to say Joe sounds pretty sharp laying into Trump for being such a fuck up.

I don't pick ol Joe to work on overturning Citizens United, but I'll hold my nose and color the box. Let's get that fossil fuels kill on the agenda Joe. Let's prosecute these motherfuckers too. Stop bringing knives to gun fights.

Let's get that fossil fuels kill on the agenda Joe.

Didn't they just remove the plank about banning fossil fuel subsidies?

He was suitably angry in this speech

I have to say Joe sounds pretty sharp

Impromptu Biden is often clumsy and bad. He's had months to hone this speech and lay out his best ideas and sharpen his delivery. This makes a big difference in how he sounds. Like any such speech, a large part of it consisted in convincing you to trust in his ability to do the job as you might want it done. That always requires overreach in painting a picture that will never be brought to reality. But it does indicate what he'd like to deliver if he only could and that has some value.

He did sound better than I've ever heard him sound in the past. That was helpful. And he mentioned the importance of climate change multiple times which is more than most Dem candidates did in the primaries and debates. I give him credit for a good solid speech, as convention speeches go. I could dance to it.

Yeah, on the Biden scale that’s was about as good as it’s going to get.

fwiw, at this moment, vs Donald Trump, it was good enough. Just making the usual platitudes toward family and caring about people was enough, because it throws into sharp contrast trump’s ability to do the same. That’s all Biden really has to do to win.

Trump’s ^inability^ to do the same, and also I meant to throw an “I think” in there
/iphone

Pretty good--a little shouty here and there, but the family stuff, which is overly familiar by now, didn't feel that way tonight.

Biden is not known for brevity, but he gave the shortest acceptance speech at the DNC since 1984, and his speech was less than half as long as Hillary’s, according to C-SPAN. pic.twitter.com/WLxYFS8oLy

— Kevin Robillard (@Robillard) August 21, 2020

guess who the three longest speeches are by

Clintons loved those endless laundry lists of policies speeches.

although, as a million other people + me just replied to that, i guess audience clapping time significantly added to the length of previous speeches

Let's get that fossil fuels kill on the agenda Joe.

Didn't they just remove the plank about banning fossil fuel subsidies?

c'mon that was 30 hours ago, they're progressive and will have moved forward by now

Turns out that the DNC didn't restrict invitee Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to only speak for a minute, in favour of Republican governor and 2016 presidential contender John Kasich, Republican representative Susan Molinari, Sepublican governor Christine Whitman, lifelong Republican and Hewett-Packard CEO and non-entertainment-enthusiast Meg Whitman, a random Pennsylvania Trump voter, McKinsey goon Pete Buttigieg, actress Alyssa Milano, corrupt nepotist Hunter Biden, accused sexual assaulter Common, accused sexual assaulter and registered Lolita Express traveller Bill Clinton, and public sexual assaulter Joe Biden.

They didn't invite her at all, and she got that minute because Bernie requested her to nominate him.

also turns out that the reason Nancy Pelosi broke the party's very important rule (that she made up (last year)) about supporting primary challengers was because Ed Markey's campaign "crossed a hallowed line" by making "assaults" on the Kennedy family, making it "imperative" that she endorsed the family she has been personally friendly with since her father ran a campaign for Kennedy's uncle sixty years ago.

is it possible for you to make a point, or does your programming limit you to tiresome recitations of public information

p sure the AOC bit there is the first time it's been mentioned ITT

is it possible for you to make a point, or does your programming limit you to tiresome recitations of public information

― sound of scampo talk to me (El Tomboto), Friday, August 21, 2020 2:47 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

when's the last time you made a point? all i ever see you do is dance around them and inform other posters that you're rolling your eyes at them