People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows -- US Politics September 2020

YEAH WELL WHAT’S WRONG WITH WATCHIN TEEVEE I WATCHA LOTTA TEEVEE TOO

yeah but 6% of those people didn't have comorbidities so it's more like 24.48 minutes of tv if you cross-multiply

pretty sure Fox is a co-morbidity

Is Woodward irresponsible in not coming forward with the material in his tape a lot earlier?
Was he bound up in seeking clearance for his book to be released until it was about to be. & is that an excuse?
Assume that has been asked elsewhere but does seem like something that might have made some difference if it was released at the peak of the first wave. Or would it have?

I'm of a divided mind. He's basically just confirming shit that anyone with eyes and ears and some degree of cognitive function already knew or could have guessed. And what's the cumulative result of him coming forward earlier? Hell, what's the result of him coming forward now? What incentive has anyone been given to ineffectually blow the whistle on this piece of shit? If dropping a bomb of this magnitude has no material punitive impact, maybe it will at least harm Trump in the GE. At any rate, I ain't falling for the pathetic rhetorical trap that suggests Woodward somehow had as much (or more!) responsibility to reveal this shit as the motherfucking president did.

The fault dear ilxors is not in our trump and woodward but in our nation, which is 47% astonishingly— obscenely, even—credulous, angry moron.

iow old lunch otm imo

Data from 23 and Me says that an overwhelming number of people are 47% credulous, angry moron and 1% Genghis Khan and/or Neanderthal (though not ours!).

i support some of the shit woodward is getting right now, because of course he held back on everything to increase his book sales. he says he had to wait a few months to confirm it with other sources (besides the president - like to confirm that trump wasn't lying, as usual, to woodward's face, when he said the things he said). and he just happened to wrap it all up by september/october 2020, just as the democrats had a million things on trump for impeachment, since before his inauguration, since before the 2016 election even, but somehow the moment seemed right around february of the election year.

the thing is, trump is a special case because he is always openly doing terrible things and bragging about it. if you wait just a little longer, he'll openly admit to doing something else that is unmistakably dumb or evil. and yet, no matter how long you wait and how obvious it is, ol' donny seems to squeak through with very little effect on his precious ratings or polls (they're all relatively bad, but always weird when LORD OF DARKNESS is consistently polling at 40% and well above 60% in some really ignorant parts of the U.S.)

there's also this sad speculation: even if woodward would have blown the lid off the trump/coronavirus thing in early February, what difference would it make? first, trump and fox would immediately paper over everything with confusion - no, trump never said that, ok he said it because there's audio, and yes this IS serious and it's china's fault, but you don't have to wear a mask, that's for sure, and there is no ventilator crisis, and there is no testing crisis, and all the states have everything they need, and and and and

it just doesn't fucking matter. in the end, woodward releases his book and makes more money because it's closer to the election, and his mean trump stories take about 1% off of trump in the polls during the week it's released

he says he had to wait a few months to confirm it with other sources (besides the president - like to confirm that trump wasn't lying, as usual, to woodward's face, when he said the things he said)

the crux of it, i think. when you have a president who lies so frequently and is so dumb that even when he admits really, REALLY bad and damaging and damning things about himself you have to cross-check it with multiple other sources to make sure he wasn't just lying about himself in a damaging way, well...i don't know what that is. possibly YAHTZEE!

Has he tweeted something offensive for 9/11 yet?

well they were gonna do a flyover in NYC

we must never forget the greatest people in the world whose lives were destroyed, the heroes we lost, i'm talking about roger stone and paul manafort and many, many others who had their lives ruined by the fake news and they lyin democrats

I'm sure he'll do something—iirc today is the 21st anniversary of Muslims celebrating in Jersey City

erm 19th

did u forget

^ the punchline to my favorite knock-knock joke ("9/11 who?")

I don't think it's relevant to the Woodward situation whether or not it would have changed anything. The point is that he had newsworthy, time-sensitive information that should have been communicated to the public expeditiously, and he sat on it to goose his own book sales. so fuck him.

https://hyperallergic.com/586808/trump-dildo-portrait-cleveland/
https://www.trump2020dongs.com/
http://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/trumpface_01-720x1099.jpg
http://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image1-720x960.jpeg

"scrotus"

The Rose Garden is now The Dildo Garden.

The Dongald

Mike Penice

I would say "Remove Bookmark From Thread" but lol, like I bookmarked this

Studded one on the left there is terrifying

Is Woodward irresponsible in not coming forward with the material in his tape a lot earlier?

just guessing but he probably wouldn't have gotten the next seventeen tapes if he'd released the material in his tape immediately

plus Trump said the same shit right out in public, on camera, anyway

It is important to realize that Bob Woodward is snugged like a tick into the deepest crevices of the governing establishment. He plays the game by rules that the people at the highest reaches of politics and power understand best and his professional venality is probably an asset in maintaining his access to them. He paints them more flatteringly than they deserve and in return they let him "wet his beak" by raking in book profits off of what they choose to reveal to him. He's the cowbird to their rhinoceros, at once both helpful and drawing blood from the small wounds he inflicts on their tough hides.

Ah yes, because every kid grows up knowing about US war crimes and is desperate to pull a Lynndie on some hogtied Iraqi. Gtfoh

btw FP'd tabes for racism here, even countries who have not had a stake in any war for the last 77 years can generate young people eager to commit and celebrate war crimes overseas

there's a lot of people angry that dipshit didn't mumble "under god" here but 40% of america is somehow not capable of discerning the sleepy confused racist grampa vibes? this lump would be extremely hard pressed to lead a pep rally at an arkansas middle school.

President Trump recites the Pledge of Allegiance. pic.twitter.com/UscZajM4lk

— The Hill (@thehill) September 11, 2020

he's out of breath standing there fer crissakes

holy shit i just had a gutbuster laugh at the first 25 seconds there

that was like watching a father forget the name of his own daughter (tiffany) while introducing his family one by one to an acquaintance

just faking it all the time, no you're the faker

it's okay, it was only at a small event to commemorate the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist action in human history so i'm sure no one noticed.

(i may be overlooking a few terrorist actions in that statement)

The state with the prettiest name!

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a judge’s ruling that Floridians with felony convictions don’t have to pay all court fees and fines before voting, dealing a setback to advocates for 2018′s Amendment 4.

In a 6-4 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs did not prove a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs included more than a dozen people with felony convictions who accused Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers of imposing a “poll tax” by requiring them to pay off all court-ordered costs relating to their felony convictions before voting.

“Because the felons failed to prove a violation of the Constitution, we reverse the judgment of the district court and vacate the challenged portions of its injunction,” Judge William Pryor wrote for the majority.

btw FP'd tabes for racism here, even countries who have not had a stake in any war for the last 77 years can generate young people eager to commit and celebrate war crimes overseas

― erratic wolf angular guitarist (sic), Friday, September 11, 2020 11:36 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Amazing how one can take a post that is explicitly calling out the racism and imperial nature of the US war machine and call it 'racist,' but whatever.

Can we just keep in mind that the issue is not even so much that the Florida state legislature imposed this fee-to-vote system, it's that they did so as an utterly fraudulent "clarification" of reforms instituted by a ballot initiative that got 2/3 of the vote which specifically said Floridian ex-felons should have the right to vote as they do in 46 other states? The people of Florida are supposed to be able to overrule the legislature like this if they clear a very high bar, which they did, and the legislature just said "yeah but we don't accept the result" and the court is nodding. THAT is the problem here. It is infuriating.

Like the whole point of that post was to call bullshit on the idea that young kids grow up being told about the disgusting nature of the war crimes at the heart of US American empire. They aren't, and most are in fact sold on an image of military glory and righteousness, and so arguing that young people are aware of this vile shit is just not in tune with reality.

Utilizing a description of an image of torture to make that point is arguably in bad taste, but I wasn't reifying the image as good, instead pointing to it as an example of something abhorrent. Willful misreading.

I think you are willfully misreading sic, who is making the point that this is a global and not a US issue

So wait, I'm racist because I didn't include Australians...in a conversation that was about the US military recruiting apparatus?

That... was not a serious statement, unless I am misreading sic's tone

Yeah, that’s another one of sic’s running “jokes”

Huh.

"FP'd you for racism" was a joke format to ironically link to that story, the following clause was included to highlight this and generalise the issue

Okay. I'm still a little ... confused, though I did read that article you posted. Awful stuff.

It's funnier when you have to explain it, I find.

On the Woodward thing, what I'm curious about is why anyone thinks it would have made a difference if Woodward had reported it earlier. Trump supporters would have given no more of a shit about it in March or April than they give now — and by April he'd already said about 5 different things about the virus anyway — and people who aren't Trump supporters mostly assume he's lying about most things anyway. I think Woodward is fair game for criticism on many fronts, but I don't see this revelation as all that momentous.

The thought that he sits on a treasure chest of quotes from the president refuting his public posture might've helped the morale of the scientific community for one, and it may have pushed governors into stricter policies. Plus, sorry, I just find this old rotter using this info as leverage for advances and future sales a repugnant thing.

Crazy story linked from the latest Taibbi screed.

Someone leaked a tape of CNN chief Zucker talking to Michael Cohen and basically coaching Trump up for the CNN debate in 2016.

It got worse. Zucker promised Cohen, “I’m going to give him a call right now and I’m going to wish him luck in the debate tonight.”

Why Zucker said he would call, and not email, was the real punchline.

“I’m very conscious of not putting too much on email, as you’re a lawyer, as you understand,” Zucker said, adding:

And, you know, as fond as I am of the boss, he also has a tendency, like, you know, if I call him or I email him, he then is capable of going out at his next rally and saying that we just talked and I can't have that, if you know what I'm saying.

It’s not that I don’t want to talk to him every day. I’ve just got to be careful.

Zucker added:

I have all these proposals for him, like… I want to do a weekly show with him and all this stuff… is he back in New York tomorrow, do you know?

(xp to table, everyone else sorry for sidebar, also guillotine Zucker and Moonvest)

The marketing of aggression to youth is not solely mediated through deliberate advertising, and the capacity for young people to enact consequence-free violence against wilfully othered and dehumanised individuals is obviously a specific draw for a significant number of recruits. This is the case for militaries worldwide, with the tendency most strongly focused in armies

(eg: "I want to fly the fastest planes" -> air force, "I believe in unglamorous research as strengthening national diplomatic preparation to forestall armed conflict, have a strong interest in engineering, and function well without access to a variety of social options" -> be a submarine person, "I want to shoot people 13,000km away from my house" -> army)

Teens are certainly marketed to and given many legitimate reasons to sign up that don't center on armed conflict - there's been a spike in US enlistment due to student debt this year - but as James said, it's impossible not to also know that people in armies kill people as part of the job.



I enjoyed seeing you steer your thinking in the Gawker thread today, so I'm not being combative when I say I read a disjunct between "dumb teens can never grow beyond offensive jokes told in an environment that fostered them" over there, and "hapless teens can only absorb the messages they're fed" over here. The "State Sanctioned Violence" instagram has presumably been exposed by service personnel who rejected or never held those attitudes. The service personnel running it probably entered the military with those attitudes, and have rejected the opportunity to grow (given the mockery even of reporting war crimes within the chain of command), and also find the attitudes actively fostered at every level of their social, online and working lives.