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

you should probably not even talk about the concept of joking for a while

Yeah, not funny

Why in god's name do we want to "save the Senate"? It's an anti-democratic abomination. There's so much dumb going around. https://t.co/5sGI3hYCe4

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) September 25, 2020

The wording of Klein's tweet isn't great, but the actual article is better.

It is not a bad article - but Klein remains remarkably credulous. "Democrats are now considering reforms that are, from the standpoint of democratic governance, overdue, but that were, from the standpoint of Senate traditions and mores, unthinkable: eliminating the filibuster, adding DC and Puerto Rico as states, even changing the composition of the Supreme Court." - none of that is happening.

I would give eliminating the filibuster pretty decent odds of happening, statehood less so.

how is adding more states unthinkable? we've clearly done it at least 37 times

statehood already passed the house iirc

eliminating the filibuster is going to be required to pass even a budget

the House of Representatives is much more democratic than the US Senate, but tbf the House has a larger percentage of members who are as dumb as a bag of hammers.

Disagree. If 70% of the senate is dumber than a bag of hammers (conservatively speaking) the the house is only like 45% as dumb

There are more House members, therefore more dumb assholes.

rate stats, silly

brain cells below replacement

feels like desantis deciding to open everything up in late sept/early oct is a blatant ploy to depress turnout, either by creating an excuse to close polling places when cases inevitably increase, or by making it so people who are worried about the virus (aka democrats) have more to fear from voting in person

As a political independent & centrist, I’ve voted for both parties in the past. In this critical presidential election, I’m endorsing @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris.

Progress takes courage, humanity, empathy, strength, KINDNESS & RESPECT.

We must ALL VOTE: https://t.co/rZi1mxh8DC pic.twitter.com/auLbc8xDBv

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 27, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy18AEE9JDk

That is pretty surprising that the Rock would go there given that he seems like a "protect your brand at all costs" guy.

The Rock, for whom I feel an abiding devotion, has endorsed Biden/Harris. I worry that casual observers will not realize just how profoundly damning this superficially vague and bloodless endorsement is. https://t.co/VzThg73SLv

— Tom Lee (@tjl) September 27, 2020

This is a man who, in an age of of endless partisan fracture, has maintained such widespread palatability that he is not only America’s top grossing movie star but mentioned as a plausible political candidate (generally assumed to be a corporatist FL Republican who who knows)

— Tom Lee (@tjl) September 27, 2020

If you are a student of The Rock’s instagram you will learn he studiously avoids taking positions on ANYTHING except:
- hard work (pro)
- fans (pro)
- troops (pro)
- his heritage (pro but in a nonthreatening way! it’s all good bro)
- his tequila company (pro)
- negativity (anti!)

— Tom Lee (@tjl) September 27, 2020

Picking a winner in this context means he’s seeing such a profound loser that there are no real costs involved

cf Swift, Taylor

— Tom Lee (@tjl) September 27, 2020

He spoke at the RNC in 2000 too

Kinda wish there was video of his meeting with Biden. I have no clue wtf they would talk about

Probably everything in that bulleted list except the tequila part

The UK's ITV news reporting live from a failed state spiraling into factionalist warfare (aka Kentucky):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re8jUhGOZu4

wow. did anyone else watch that?

i'm sitting here trying to think of what i am going to say when my friends start supporting the left-wing militias. for those who don't have the time to watch, the left-wing section doesn't come until near the end, and it's very clear that militias are almost entirely right-wing racists. i honestly have never seen a real left-wing militia, in formation marching, with guns.

also disturbing is that of course in many ways i sympathize with them - they've always lived with the constant threat and execution of physical violence by white people, they have more of a justification to form a militia and form their own protection, independent of the state, than just anyone i can think of, because the state itself is the one perpetrating the violence. i think they are living the REAL version of the bullshit that rightwing militias propagate. white supremacists always believe that either they are under direct attack or that the mob is at the gates. black people really have always been under attack.

but still, agh, get me out of here. i think i'm pretty categorically anti-marching with guns in neighborhoods

Imagine donating to the Lincoln Project so this guy could buy a speedboat https://t.co/1Gh6T3Vbvc

— Aaron (@BobbyBigWheel) September 27, 2020

"i'm sitting here trying to think of what i am going to say when my friends start supporting the left-wing militias" there is a decent piece on CNN this weekend about the concern that pretty soon, there is going to be armed conflict between black and white militias:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/us/black-white-militias-violence-blake/index.html

Frankly if it gets to this point, I'm leaving the US, fuck this. This is what the right wants, armed conflict, race war, fucking Wild West where everyone walks around armed. No thanks.

I know the left long ago gave up on taking the flag as it’s own symbol, for understandable reasons. But 50 years ago the refusal to cede that symbol—to take it back from these fuckers—was a powerful antiwar optic. It’s unfortunate that to most Americans even if only subconsciously these shitheads own the flag completely now and that it facilitates their bullshit patriots-vs-infidels narrative.

(this difference is thrown esp. into relief in the context of that video—the prospect of “symmetrical” warfare and what that will look like on TV)

Heard an interview with some experts on extremism a couple of weeks ago, after the Portland shooting that killed some right winger. It pointed to the murder as a potential inflection point, as the extremism stuff overwhelmingly tilts right, but there has been growing concern that the far left would take up arms as well. Of course, that was the case in the 60s, it's just been a few decades since we've have to live with and through such extreme bothsidesism. Been trying to think if there's anything specific that could take it over the edge, like repealing the ACA or outlawing abortion, and I'm not sure. Maybe it's just inevitable, no matter how stuff like that shakes out in the next few years.

Though actually, I think a contested election would put it over the edge.

https://www.axios.com/democrats-amy-coney-barrett-confirmation-strategy-fc515beb-fca9-4441-a93e-60601a0fcd75.html

lol everyone thinks she's an idiot

Senate Democrats recognize the danger. A top Democratic strategist pointed to three pitfalls: "liberals mishandling this by boycotting or treating her with disrespect; [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein [top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee] screwing it up; someone looking like a religious bigot."

You won't be glad you read this, but it's worth reading. (It's miles better than anything that asshole Umair Haque has ever written.)

I lived through the end of a civil war. Do you know what it was like for me? Quite normal. I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don’t understand. They’re waiting to get personally punched in the face while ash falls from the sky. That’s not how it happens.

This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner.

If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.

I was looking through some old photos for this article and the mix is shocking to me now. Almost offensive. There’s a burnt body in front of my office. Then I’m playing Scrabble with friends. There’s bomb smoke rising in front of the mall. Then I’m at a concert. There’s a long line for gas. Then I’m at a nightclub. This is all within two weeks.

Today I’m like, ‘did we live like this?’ But we did. I mean, I did. Was I a rich Colombo fuckboi while poorer people died? Well, yes. I wrote about it, but who cares.

The real question is, who are you? I mean, you’re reading this. You have the leisure to ponder American collapse like it’s even a question. The people really experiencing it already know.

So I’m telling you, as someone who’s been there, in similar shoes to yours; this is it. America has already collapsed. What you’re feeling is exactly how it feels. It’s Saturday and you’re thinking about food while the world is on fire. This is normal. This is life during collapse. Just read what it says on the tin:

LIFE! Now with 20% MORE DEATH!

...

Perhaps you’re waiting for some moment when the adrenaline kicks in and you’re fighting the virus or fascism all the time, but it’s not like that. Life is not a movie, and if it was, you’re certainly not the star. You’re just an extra. If something good or bad happens to you it’ll be random and no one will care. If you’re unlucky you’re a statistic. If you’re lucky, no one notices you at all.

Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is.

...

In the last three months America has lost more people than Sri Lanka lost in 30 years of civil war. If this isn’t collapse, then the word has no meaning. You probably still think of Sri Lanka as a shithole, though the war ended over a decade ago and we’re fine. Then what does that make you?

America has fallen. You need to look up, at the people you’re used to looking down on. We’re trying to tell you something. I have lived through collapse and you’re already there. Until you understand this, you only have further to fall.

I guess with everything else going on, there is only so much bandwidth, but this whole story is just absolutely insane and the money involved in the graft is huge.

Why does this sxxx not seem to stick to the GOP or any of these crooks? This is prime example of dark campaign money buying influence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

"Umair Haque" yeah who the fuck is that and why are his medium articles in my inbox all the goddamned time?

"lol everyone thinks she's an idiot" who? Barrett or Feinstein?

depends on how you define 'idiot' but Barrett is not one, by my definition (unlike, say, Nunes, or Kristi Noem, or Jim Jordan, or Sarah Palin).

Until you understand this, you only have further to fall.

I'll be the doomy Narrator this time. We don't yet understand this and we haven't yet arrived at our days of reckoning.

These debates are going to be bizarre and unnerving and meaningless and meaningful and lots else. Putting aside that I'm not quite sure what the concept means--a moderator can't follow-up with "That's simply not true"? Does that count as fact-checking?--I think I agree with the no-fact-checking by moderators, though.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/09/27/media/wallace-fact-check-reliable/index.html

Fact-checking Trump at this point, I just don't know if there's a person left on the planet where that makes a difference one way or the other. And besides grinding everything to a halt, the fact-checking would--how could it not?--fall so disproportionately against Trump, you give his cult exactly what they're looking for re proof of a rigged debate.

Which they'll claim anyway, so whatever.

I dunno, clem. Chuck Todd looked crestfallen when he saw the polls and realized interest in the debates is at an all-time low. The "persuadables" are below three percent.

Chuck Todd looked crestfallen when he saw the polls and realized interest in the debates is at an all-time low.

I saw this this morning; he was basically pleading with his panel of talking heads to reassure him that his/their theater criticism still mattered. (It doesn't.)

I'm surprised there's even 3% who haven't made up their mind--really? Your vote is still up for grabs?

No frame of reference for what these debates might be like. Trump-Clinton was bizarre enough.

I think you're right -- it IS below three percent.

HRC "won" (whatever that means) her three debates; nothing changed.

It is not a bad article - but Klein remains remarkably credulous. "Democrats are now considering reforms that are, from the standpoint of democratic governance, overdue, but that were, from the standpoint of Senate traditions and mores, unthinkable: eliminating the filibuster, adding DC and Puerto Rico as states, even changing the composition of the Supreme Court." - none of that is happening.

― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Saturday, September 26, 2020 1:36 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"None of that is happening" = they're not considering it? (Whether those reforms will actually happen is another matter, and Klein has long been frustrated with Democrats' inability to recognize the need for such reforms.)

I think debates sometimes matter, and for different reasons: 1960, 1976, 1992, 2008. I wouldn't dismiss their importance altogether.

People are already voting. Undecided and third party polling is tiny. They might matter but it’s less likely than ever that they will.

Also no one watches tv

I don't want to watch these debates, but afaict Trump has declined significantly since the last set. Perhaps so has Biden, but at least Biden began his decline from a position of coherence, Trump is now notably even more imcoherent. I'm not sure how he counters anything. It will just be his predictable word salad. Flights from China! Water flow! Religion! Socialism/antifa! Judges! Seems pointless to me.

do you cognitive declind?

*decline

Is that the name of a dance? Looks like I somehow misspelled incoherent, despite correcting an initial typo, so ... yes, I am declined

I wonder if those 2016 debates--especially the one right after the Hollywood Access tape (the first?)--would have been different without the albatross of Bill Clinton. Maybe Hillary would have directly confronted him, summoning forth every bit of disgust within her. BC made that more difficult, if not untenable, and she no doubt thought the clip itself made anything more unnecessary.