GET OUT: US politics November 2020

Just another day shooting hoops, killing people.

yes good work Alba

Obama is a good politician.

In terms of mass murders and war crimes, where does Obama rank among US presidents?

Oh good, this again. Maybe we can relitigate the 2016 election once more while we're at it. And what about that rascal Kennedy?!?!

Obama reportedly told senior aides in 2011: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Sunday, November 1, 2020 10:35 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This was originally reported in Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's Double Down: Game Change 2012, where the words "Obama said quietly" appeared between the two sentences. The impression it's meant to convey is that Obama was sobered by it. It wasn't a casual boast.

cool, so we're going to use this thread to re-litigate the Obama era.

i heard a rumor there was an Election but I guess not.

No luck involved, do your duty USA.

sadly, whenever active voter suppression efforts are a concern, some luck comes into play as well. also the litigation of the results, state-by-state, by the trump administration, there's luck involved because sometimes they randomly select federal judges, and if you get a trump-era judge they're probably a total fucking scumbag

but i support the overall message! :) the more all of us get out and fight through the bullshit and get our votes locked in, the less luck is involved

i did my duty

every box i ticked on my absentee ballot felt viscerally good

oh u voted absentee?

FAKE VOTE

i voted absentee 2

^ Lib admits to double voting!!!

i voted 6 times in Reno
just to watch him lose

From today's polls, Florida looks about dead even: Biden's a little bit ahead in two, Trump a little bit ahead in two (one of which is Susquehanna, not highly rated).

But the most important three look really good: Pennsylvania (+7, +6), Michigan (+7, +7, +7), Wisconsin (+11). Everything else is moot in terms of simply winning the EC.

i'd love for him to win Florida, but we're a stubborn (terrible) state

Maybe if people would stop posting about him, we'd be able to stop re-litigating it.

I'm done for now, though.

my comment was directed at the entire convo, not specifically your posts.

convo itself is fine and valid, just...we have threads where it might be better suited when we're kinda anxious about the current election.

In terms of mass murders and war crimes, where does Obama rank among US presidents?

The whole nineteenth century was a series of war crimes and mass murders against Native Americans. Plus the atrocities in the Philippines. We musn't forget all the military interventions in Latin America under cover of the Monroe Doctrine. So, I'd say Obama is below the median.

fortunately the Philippines have picked up the slack and started committing atrocities against their own people, thanks to Duterte

I love Ned's early voter updates and appreciate Alfred's "don't be an irrational bedwetter" reminders but I have to accept I have this magical thinking that no matter what Trump has some secret miracle he's going to pull out

I think all of us have that fear to a degree. the stakes are too high, so even the image of a victorious Trump will make most of us sick to our stomach. we have PTSD from 2016. this is the shit Lebron James can shake out of his head as he takes the game-tying freethrow, but I can't.

if you voted against Trump, you made that free throw in my opinion.

Mark Price is the god fearing patriot this country needs, but does not deserve

i'm listening to Painkiller's "Guts of a Virgin" rn and it sonically encapsulates what my head sounds like right now

I really do hope he eats shit in Texas, and not just bc of electoral implications. Might even go to thamksgibing at my parents’ house this year—which is apparently still happening, even if the usual 30 or so attendees will be whittled down to about 10.

Don’t want to miss my rich Texas chud extended fam and hear my aunt do a really passive-aggressive prayer before we eat. she really fouled the air with one out last year and it was 😙👌

A Biden admin might not offer much but at least I’ll have this.

I am sadly beyond really even caring about the Biden admin, it's just pure hate of Trump and his followers, not admirable I guess

if Trump wins, somebody is going to drop off a huge box that says REPUBLICAN BALLOTS TO BURN with a Beau Biden sticker on it and a nametag that says "Hi My Name is Hunter Biden" to that laptop repair guy

i care more about giving our country a chance to heal, even if Biden will be rife with problems. we don't even have a fighting chance right now.

.@realDonaldTrump reacts to the cold weather during a campaign rally at the Michigan Sports Stars Park in Washington, MI. pic.twitter.com/bMzqcL7yO0

— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 1, 2020

nah, he's rapping

On Election Eve, Biden is going to....Ohio. pic.twitter.com/qpup4rCyJf

— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) November 1, 2020

If he sees his shadow it means 4 more years of winter

maybe he's picking up some laptops hunter left behind at the cleveland apple store

BREAKING: Texas Supreme Court DENIES petition seeking to toss out almost 127,000 Harris County votes cast in drive-thru lanes.
Denial is without comment.

— Chuck Lindell (@chucklindell) November 1, 2020

Separate I believe from the federal case tomorrow but I suspect that's not a good sign for said case.

Good news

Yeah even if - IF - a court ruled that the jurisdiction acted improperly, disenfranchising those voters would be the wrong remedy - they simply believed what their jurisdiction told them.

On the other hand, a decision on the federal case will be worse than useless if it comes too late for the voters to remedy it by voting again, so... back to nail-biting

When have republican courts ever been deterred by the wrong remedy? They'll do as much as they can get away with.

I've seen a lot of stories about business boarding up their windows in anticipation of mass riots on Tuesday. What exactly is the scenario they are expecting that would lead to this?

Scary brown and black people?

Run on toilet paper. Again.

give people ideas when you consistently play into that narrative

Feels like the whole world needs a chillout lounge for the next couple days.

Trump advisers said their best hope was if the president wins Ohio and Florida is too close to call early in the night, depriving Biden a swift victory and giving Trump the room to undermine the validity of uncounted mail-in ballots in the days after. https://t.co/IMVciQtWJC

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 1, 2020

What exactly is the scenario they are expecting that would lead to this?

The president has said for months that if he doesn't win it's because of election fraud. He told the Proud Boys to stand by. He has a lot of well-armed and fanatical supporters. If the Proud Boys and those supporters turn out in force, so will counter protestors. Shit, if it looks like Trump went down in flames there will be plenty of street celebrations the Trumpist thugs will want to disrupt by breaking some heads.

It doesn't take a very large percentage of the US population for there to be several hundred thousand people surging around. From both sides. But tha police are not exactly a calming influence or even a neutral one.

https://i.imgur.com/OxmyAMl.gif

wait a minute-- Biden is pro-slavery? Why didn't this come out before the election? #RIGGED

well into his second term

actually that’s not true. I think I do remember being mildly annoyed by the time of the 2012 election, but among my subset of friends who pay an inordinate and prob unhealthy amount of attn to this stuff I feel like I was regarded Captain Save-an-O

Is it churlish to point out that the Crime Bill being referenced had the enthusiastic support of more than two-thirds of the Black Congressional Congress and that its legacy/result is a good bit more complicated than “White man wanted to lock up Black people because racism”? Or am I just deluded and compromised because I was alive at the time and I remember who was promoting the bill and how it was initially received?

Is it churlish to point out that the Crime Bill being referenced had the enthusiastic support of more than two-thirds of the Black Congressional Congress and that its legacy/result is a good bit more complicated than “White man wanted to lock up Black people because racism”? Or am I just deluded and compromised because I was alive at the time and I remember who was promoting the bill and how it was initially received?

White internet radicals always know best, DJP. Haven't you figured that out yet?

^^ it frustrates me that these points aren't made more often.

isn't this back to racist "intention" vs. results?

this legislation doesn't have a racist bone in its body!

I also think that instead of mentally preparing ourselves to hate on future President Biden, we should be reserving a good chunk of our righteous anger for the Republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court who will be doing everything in their power during his presidency to prevent, water down, and/or nullify any positive accomplishments.

lord grant me the strength not to waste undue energy on people who are actually evil

Biden palled around with racists before and after the Crime Bill. Maybe he’s not one but he never found them too objectionable.

That’s a separate issue from Biden’s history of pursuing multiple policies that have resulted in mass incarceration. The support of large parts of the CBC for one of those policies just means those members were wrong too.

we should be reserving a good chunk of our righteous anger for the Republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court

If the past two presidential cycles have taught me anything, it's that the American left in general has a hard time getting as outraged by even the abuses of Donald Trump as they do by things they can call neoliberal. Your garden-variety theocratic/Koch Bros agenda just doesn't arouse the level of visceral righteousness that the Democratic establishment does.

Always criticizing AMERICA why don't you ever criticize NORTH KOREA huh?!

Jesus christ.

lol

If you live in a country where the greatest political challenge to your priorities is corporate Democrats, by all means devote most of your time to attacking them. It sounds like a nice country. Just not the one I live in.

tipsy what is your plan for pushing the supreme court left

Electing more Democrats of just about any kind to presidency and the Senate over and over for a decade or two.

people get mad at the people/institutions that hypthetically share (at least some of) their priorities and should be less shitty. you don't argue with mutants.

tipsy otm

xpost fuck that, I got in Leonardo's face last week

You have to get past the Better Things Aren’t Possible corporate Democrats before you can even take on the mutants.

I guess we need a December thread if anyone wants to step up

people get mad at the people/institutions that hypthetically share (at least some of) their priorities and should be less shitty. you don't argue with mutants.

I agree with you up to a point, I think it's good to hold people on or closer to "your side" accountable, and yes you should have higher expectations of them than you do of people who are nakedly hostile to your views or values. But also it's important to always understand and keep in mind your total political context, which very much includes all of those people who are nakedly hostile to you.

Mostly the leftist vilification of Biden this year and Hillary in '16 has seemed performative to me in a fairly tired way that just seems removed from the political world I live in. Joe Biden being a corporate centrist is far from my greatest political concern. I agree with most of the criticisms (though some are reductive and overly simplistic), but I also understand that a comfortable, familiar moderate was what a lot of voters gravitated to this year. And I understand why. I don't hate people who voted for Joe Biden in the primary. They were doing what they thought was the best thing to beat Donald Trump. I can't argue with the results of that.

Harping on Joe Biden being a bad person or "racist sack of shit" or whatever doesn't advance any particular cause that I can see, though I'm sure it feels good.

Keep the mutants out of power first and foremost.

We’re on Ilx to feel good(?) not advance causes tho xp

these days I'm on ILM to find Chris Rea remixes.

Keep the mutants out of power first and foremost.

The corporate Democrats have a terrible record at this, though. Seems like they’re more comfortable sharing the stage with the mutants than social democrats or progressives.

Harping on Joe Biden being a bad person or "racist sack of shit" or whatever doesn't advance any particular cause that I can see, though I'm sure it feels good.

it does not

(though personally those aren't the terms/lines of attack I would focus on)

When the Republicans get even an inch more leverage they use it to do the worst shit possible. Trump’s presidency set us back decades. That kind of shit has to be prevented at all costs. Look at our fucking Supreme Court now.

(not mad at anyone here, just getting a little worked up)

more than 1 xp

Karl are you currently attempting a 420 unlock on Havin' A Roni

― huge rant (sic)

holy shit that is a vanilla ice DEEP CUT

This fucking discussion again huh

look, i understand that everyone already knows havin' a roni. it's not a "deep cut". but i was a kid when vanilla ice was huge, and we only knew ice ice baby. this may be the millionth time for you, but i've been waiting to talk about havin' a roni for 30+ years now

i'm skipping over the rest of it because i saw a glance and yes, it's this fucking discussion again

we are in hell

minimal judgment, there; i've been in that discussion a hundred times, and i will probably be in it next time

that's how hell works

“we are in hell” for December thread title

You have to get past the Better Things Aren’t Possible corporate Democrats before you can even take on the mutants.

Progressives are 0 for 2 in the last two Dem primaries - 0 for 0 in the general. Try harder?

I donated to and supported and voted for Bernie in the primary. I thought Trump was so hated that 2020 was the golden opportunity for progressives - if not now, then when?

Now I seriously question whether anyone other than Joe Biden was going to win this election.

oh shit, it's Dec 1? wtf are we doing in this thread?!?
GET OUT!!

GET OUT!!!!!!!

"we are in hell" is basically the one statement we can all agree on

here we go
US Politics December 2020: an uneventful month, overall

get out