US Politics, March 2024: The house of illuminati will NOT be holding any other event in the foreseeable future.

otm

and now the College also empowers the states created by Republicans in the late 19th century to counter the Solid South. Irony!

I'm still stunned by seeing Santos at the SotU. Like there are so many ridiculous loopholes and privileges barely known about (perhaps including by those who exploit them) until right before they/we do.

Meanwhile Greg Abbott is in the UK for another state-specific trade deal, another unbelievable thing that should not be happening.

“Volunteer lawyers”, everyone

Motion to change spelling of stupider to stupidier - more fun to say

We're the stupidiest. #Americanexceptionalism

Meanwhile Greg Abbott is in the UK for another state-specific trade deal, another unbelievable thing that should not be happening.

I'm sure there will be some shaking down.

They should spend all of their money on proprietary postage stamps that can only be used by (real) Republicans.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, March 13, 2024 10:07 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

We
Await
Second
Trump
Empire

Crying of Trump 47.

lol

I would just like to reiterate this statement from my last post:

the real question is how many voters are willing to out themselves as stupid racists

I’m not sanguine about this election because I think this number is higher than we currently think it is. However, I’m very willing to go on record with the opinion that that number is not at all affected by the presence or absence of Tim Scott on the ticket.

I grew up in rural Wisconsin so I'm kind of sympathetic to these folks. I mean I think they're generally dumb and hateful and actively bad for this country but I've spent enough time around them to at least know how they think. Their primary political view is really simple - everyone's screwing you, all the time. The elites are taking advantage of you. There's a big coordinated effort going on involving every celebrity on the planet (minus Kid Rock and Dilbert) and it's all done with the goal of keeping you down. Like 95% of this comes from right wing media. If you watch any of it for just 10 minutes this is always the overarching theme. They believe in personal responsibility when it comes to good things but when anything goes badly it's because ~they~ are taking it away from you. This is why they love Trump. The media focuses so much on his personality and the constant stream of dumb shit that comes out of his mouth but the reality is they love him because he's just as whiny and aggrieved as they are. The media focuses on his crimes and business fraud and how he never suffers any consequences but his voters like him even more for that, because it means someone on "their side" actually beat the system.

The most enthusiastic Trumpers I see and know drive new F-150s, sent their kids to expensive private schools, and benefited from the Cuban Readjustment Act, i.e. the most obvious beneficiaries of The System, The Swamp, what have you.

i can't imagine ever being sympathetic to folks who vote a fascist into office

My sister was momentarily stopped in her Trumper tracks by me saying ‘so the trade-off for cheaper gas is… Fascism?’

i can't imagine ever being sympathetic to folks who vote a fascist into office

This is certainly the case.. I've always hated the GOP but I could at least understand why some people voted that way, for what we now would refer to as 'country club republicans' like Mitt Romney or Bob Dole. But I can't imagine ever having any kind of relationship with a Trump voter. I would be courteous but that's about it

I don't respect ANY reasons for voting for Trump, but "cheap gas" is such an idiotic thing for anyone to say that it makes me scream. People ascribing things to presidents that have nothing to do with presidents is just straight-up magical thinking. They might as well be voting for who will make the sun come back faster every spring.

I've met people who seem nice but vote GOP out of religious tribalism. I don't want to see them hit by a car or anything.

The System, The Swamp, what have you.

El sistema de la guayabera.

They believe in personal responsibility when it comes to good things but when anything goes badly it's because ~they~ are taking it away from you.

This is the problem with the whole meritocratic libertarian mindset. If you conceive of the world as a place in which you are always the central hero, then personal responsibility necessarily disappears when anything bad happens. How could you, the hero, ever be responsible for something negative?

People ascribing things to presidents that have nothing to do with presidents

Yeah but he said 'drill baby drill'

or if you conceive of the world, or this country, as a place that needs a central hero, to restore the country to this magical, ideal time where everything was perfect, and this hero could do this, could lead people* into the promised land, you vote for them because they're the chosen one, and the only one who can fix it

* only certain people of course, who look the right way and do the right things.

TLDR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millenarianism

xpost

back when you could buy a candy bar with the shiny nickel you earned shining shoes in front the general store

I only mentioned ‘cheap gas’ because my sister is one of those idiots that think a Republican administration has the ability to make that happen. We work with what we’re given sometimes!

Yest in Boulder I saw a big nice F150 with two bumper stickers:
“i am a KENNEDY democrat”
and
some bullshit for RFK jr

gas is like 4% of the average American’s discretionary income. If you’re trading something for fascism you should at least get cheap housing.

Somewhere in America, a citizen is replacing his "Politicians are Temporary, Wu Tang is Forever" yard sign with a "RFK 2024" sign.

Probably my next door neighbor

i can't imagine ever being sympathetic to folks who vote a fascist into office

― a (waterface), Wednesday, March 13, 2024 1:41 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i might just be using the wrong word. like I see what they're coming from. hell the "everyone's trying to screw the little guy" thing isn't exactly wrong. but yeah I don't have any relationships with Trumpers anymore. you'd think maybe we could reach this understanding of "lets just not talk politics" but no. it's all they ever want to talk about. and they're so misinformed too. like they genuinely have no clue that Trump's been charged with so many felonies.

MY PEOPLES ARE YOU WITH ME WHERE YOU AT
Fuck the left, fuck the right, vote for me, anti-vax!

lol

RFK Jr.: Stickin' Pins in Your Head Like a Fuckin' Nurse

I'm going to give you covid and keep vaxin' you and vaxin' you . . .

Yo, it must be Bobby
(Bobby) Oh, no, it must be Bobby
(Bobby) Oh, no, it must be Bobby
(Bobby) Oh, no, it must be
I keep rice soaked in coconut milk mixed with tofu
Sit in the sun six hours then I charge up like Goku

TikTok should tell Congress to shove it

Their primary political view is really simple - everyone's screwing you, all the time. The elites are taking advantage of you.

The problem is that they are usually not aiming their ire and fascist rage at the correct elites, not that they are wrong in thinking this. They've bought into the idea that "elites" are anyone who isn't like them, which is why a trans person struggling to pay for their HRT or a Black person working as a secretary or my gay ass pasting together like 7 different gigs to survive is an "elite" to them. That they fall for this shit, and willingly do so, is what makes them stupid and unworthy of consideration in a lot of ways...

but elites are screwing us, and powerful people are trying to screw all of us, all the time.

Yeah like DeSantis’ hilarious redefinition of “elites” to mean public school teachers and social workers but not millionaires.

exactly. Trump matched their tone and general whininess but - surprise, surprise - had no actual plan or intent to help any of these people. even the people who go to his rallies and buy his shit he just leaves stranded in a parking lot.

And they love him for it! Trump is the abusive dad of their dreams, they’re masochists in the cycle of abuse.

Fassbinder’s Martha comes to mind, which Fassbinder described as a “masochist finding her sadist.”

without even a cafecito to-go

I am at present a mile from that restaurant

There's a great Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles also called Versailles but apparently they are not co-owned

lol I missed that story. I actually think this masochism theory has legs. I'm reminded of the first response to this thread: have you ever heard the fable of the scorpion & the frog?

its genuinely weird that Trump kept bringing that fable up. one because in this metaphor he is so obviously the scorpion. two because he so rarely tells any stories about anything or anyone when it didn't directly involve him. and yet he loved to tell this one. if a movie had a Trump-like figure and he told that fable during a big speech it would feel so hamfisted that it would ruin the whole film.

They might as well be voting for who will make the sun come back faster every spring.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, March 13, 2024 2:53 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wait but the president could actually sign a bill that does this

ha ha!

(I'm in favor of splitting the year up between standard time and daylight savings, though)

My brother-in-law has been a lifelong republican and has serious OCD (which I think affects his choices), and he's always going to vote republican no matter what, but in the past few years I've seen that he's increasingly bought in to the Fox News propaganda, and that it's influenced my sister. They know what I think. We agree to not talk politics, and I still like them, but there's a slight element of distrust. Still, my sister has always been my closest sibling and I don't think she or my brother-in-law or I want to disrupt that bond, so there's a kind-of truce

My situation exactly.

"This is not an attempt to ban TikTok. It's an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-Tac-Toe. A winner. A winner."

-- Rep. Pelosi pic.twitter.com/ExkX6bxz0O

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 13, 2024