General politics thread (was: General U.S. politics thread)

glennmagusharvey

lrdgck wrote: »

Various locations were flooded. Though, the worst impacts of the storm for inland areas came in the form of tornadoes. There were many tornadoes. These aren't just the bulk winds from the hurricane; these are separate, individualized twister events.

Well, then, it's so fortunate that after the tornadoes there didn't come the giant spiders. Because they didn't, eh guys? Eh?

wait what

lrdgck

wait what

oh no

they're onto you already?

Stormtroper

Glenn, I need your expertise to figure out what decks he'd play.

More info has come out of this. I'm trying to find possible decklists but the ones I'm finding for the two insane decks of the era don't include Yawgmoth's Bargain, so maybe it's not either of the decks I'm thinking of?

I'd like to point out the article's absurdity in insinuating that playing black decks makes you an amoral monster, everyone who's played MtG knows that evil people play blue.

lrdgck

I knew it!

lrdgck

Gotta get preparing my popcorn.

Also, come to think of it - which colors do Harris & Walz play? Green-white? Green-blue? I've got a feeling at least one of them's playing green. (Now that's a presidential debate I'd watch.)

fourteenwings

Stormtroper

Poor Ukraine.

Also, I've seen that MtG article come up a couple more times and apparently it's supposed to be taken seriously.

lrdgck

As for me, since a few elections back we've had a saying, "to run over a pregnant nun on a pedestrian crossing". Meaning roughly "to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory". Feels like the Democrats did run her over.

My favourite joke of the day is that squirrel is the new Harambe. Oh, and while I'm at it: @Stormtroper get going with election meme dump, I'm sure you've got like a bucketload and my own meme backlog was already getting outdated.

edit: I forgot - one thing's for sure, Kamala's win would be way funnier outcome because I don't quite expect Democrat voters to do anything like the raid on the Capitol.

glennmagusharvey

Honestly, given the margins and the uniform swing toward the Republican ticket in many parts of the country, I'm not sure there was anything Harris or the Dems could have done that differently to win.

With 20/20 hindsight I guess I could suggest a cleaner break with the Biden administration. But perhaps more importantly my take on this is starting to be the notion that the American people have wanted drastic change.

Anyway, time to brace for another four years of policy backsliding, Ukrainians and Palestinians getting screwed over, slow or no progress on climate issues, and an administration doing every sort of bigotry short of explicitly saying the n word.

Also epic levels of grift, as comes with anything that's associated with Donald Trump.

Stormtroper

@Stormtroper get going with election meme dump, I'm sure you've got like a bucketload and my own meme backlog was already getting outdated.

Nah, I didn't pay all that much attention to the US elections, certainly not after the photo, after which I took for granted that he would get reelected. tbf I don't think I can blame any campaign organizer for losing against that.

I do have a couple images, though:

lrdgck

That's one ugly-ass pepe they've got there.

Browsing Reddit and Imgur to see the mass butthurt has been a treat... too bad I had to remind myself I'm on the side of the butthurt.

Honestly, given the margins and the uniform swing toward the Republican ticket in many parts of the country, I'm not sure there was anything Harris or the Dems could have done that differently to win.

With 20/20 hindsight I guess I could suggest a cleaner break with the Biden administration. But perhaps more importantly my take on this is starting to be the notion that the American people have wanted drastic change.

So, yeah, Reddit and Imgur are looking for someone to blame at the moment. So far it seems that rather than on Harris campaign team they prefer to pin it on rednecks, Latino folks, and to some extent people who didn't go out and vote, but conspiracy theories are beginning to circulate. Or at least that's how I understand the claims that votes cast by mail are deliberately not counted.

Last year we managed to get rid of the Party by, like, a massive voter mobilization. It took a lot of the wind out of it and it certainly seems they have basically no chance to win the presidential elections in 2025, but if Trump really won in large part due to the de-mobilization of Democrat voters, then that might be a warning for us.

administration doing every sort of bigotry short of explicitly saying the n word.

I guess we're about to see how long they need to get to that last one.

You know what guys, if I'm the one of us who lives in the most functional democracy... I'm so sorry.

Stormtroper

So far it seems that rather than on Harris campaign team they prefer to pin it on rednecks, Latino folks, and to some extent people who didn't go out and vote

It's been wild seeing redditors come up with which minorities to scapegoat and which collective punishments should befall on them. It's like people in the US are only one bad day away from going on a pogrom.

an administration doing every sort of bigotry short of explicitly saying the n word.

I'm not sure I understand whether this happens after passing racist laws or not.

lrdgck

It's been wild seeing redditors come up with which minorities to scapegoat and which collective punishments should befall on them.

That's why I cherished the ladies from TwoXChromosomes that the algorithm pulled onto the front page, they at least have always been consistent (ie. men).

Also:



(The rest I had is just images from Idiocracy.)

glennmagusharvey

IMO the consistent theme I've seen is basically an objection with the slow pace of change, like "you could've/should've done more to make things better", and there's at least three different responses to it:
* "I'll keep trying to support you as best I can because I know you mean well"
* "you suck and I'm going to withholding my support in order to get you to listen"
* "fuck waiting, accelerationism it is"
The first two groups tend to get into arguments. (The third group is just kinda nutty and thankfully smaller.)

On top of this you have conservatives going "fuck y'all's modernity; all of you are sinners and you need to be brought to heel". Plus random other factions.

fourteenwings

Or at least that's how I understand the claims that votes cast by mail are deliberately not counted.

Did not expect the Liberals-Mail-In-Voting-Conspiracy arc of this planet.

In more fun stuff, new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba got smoked in the last election, mostly because the LDP was getting smoked anyways and Ishiba is just insane enough to assume he'll somehow not be deposed in the next few months.

The big scandal (aside from like, the time the LDP stole all that Olympics money) is the time a photo where Ishiba & Co.'s shirts were super untucked was edited to make them properly tucked.


(the original)


(the entuckening)

I thought it was just a funny meme till I saw...

Stormtroper

lmao, are the Redditors OK?

I'm pretty sure the references to "macho" and "machismo" are an attempt at convincing themselves that we invented male posturing.

Anyhows, I don't remember the circular firing squad being this bad back in 2016, from what I remember pro-democrats were content with blaming Hillary, Bernie or, if online enough, GamerGate. Meanwhile now people from all walks of life are getting flak for it.

(ie. men)

I think you mean scrotes.

lrdgck

lmao, are the Redditors OK?

They also discover they aren't as pro-gun control as much as they were a few weeks ago, fun stuff.

Reminds me how a few years ago folks went out into the country to see who really voted for the Party, and it turned out that the stereotypical gullible lower class morons were actually rather rational in their choices; they voted for the Party because - picture that - they enjoyed the social transfers while they lasted, not because they were bought or something. Rational self-interest. It was the middle class types that were the true believers. The cash was nice, sure, but that didn't buy the allegiance as much as the validation and sense of sticking it up to the liberal elites.

glennmagusharvey

i happened to be looking into this stuff this morning so i'm gonna post about it

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/board-rules-captive-audience-meetings-unlawful

finally

unfortunately i kinda expect the next administration to defang this however they can

that said, within the NLRB itself at least,

If the full Senate—which is controlled by a razor-thin Democratic majority—reconfirms McFerran, then Democratic board members would retain the majority into 2026.

And I damn well hope they do.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trumps-chance-to-alter-labor-law-turns-on-nlrb-chairs-tenure

Stormtroper

much executive

very government

glennmagusharvey

I am pretty sure Musk came up with the idea solely to spell out the meme word and he gets a puerile glee from making people talk about things like "DOGE" and "X".

also i think government departments have to be created by acts of congress so i don't think they can actually do this unless, y'know, congress approves this

also lol @ the idea of making a whole nother department just for the purpose of government efficiency. and one with two heads, even

glennmagusharvey

from the realm of "ideas that came to me in a dream"

does anyone know what the term for resources spent to take care of others is?

for example, the time and money used to take care of an injured animal, or the help you'd give a friend by helping them pack or unpack or load or driving them during a move, or something like that

like, an economics term for resources used for altruism i guess? does a term exist for this?

lrdgck

From a quick wikipedia session, it seems you're thinking of some sort of opportunity cost to care work? Or something like that. I haven't found any specific name, but given the fact all I did was to take a glance at wikipedia, I'd guess wiki entry for feminist economics might be a starting point.

Stormtroper

Not off to a good start:
https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1862127644222832894

fourteenwings

Love it. Feel it. Adore it.

lrdgck

Not off to a good start:

Honestly, this time I wasn't gonna hope for a good start, he already had his chance to convince me.

lrdgck

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition did a funni, Assad ran to Moscow to ask sempai for help, but sempai has a new favourite meatgrinder these days. My guess is Erdogan must've got bored or something, because I honestly didn't expect to hear much from them anymore.

Georgia (the Not US) is in the process of doing funni, let's hope it ends well.

fourteenwings

Georgia too?

lrdgck

Well, they're not doing any invading if that's what you ask about, but there's massive unrest because nobody's buying the ruling party's claims they won the parliamentary elections.

Also, South Korea declared martial law or something, but it's actually way less hardcore than I thought. (Again, parliamentary antics, rather than all-out war or whatever.)

glennmagusharvey

i hear that South Korea's president tried to do a coup, declared martial law, found out that the army wasn't on his side either, then undeclared martial law. something like that.

Stormtroper

That's what I heard, too. Also that not even his own party's legislators voted against repealing the martial law, though tbf I don't know if that's not what usually happens during these self-coup things.

Edit:

he gets a puerile glee from making people talk about things like "DOGE"

Hey, I'll have you know the glee I'd get from doing that if I had that much money is very mature and sophisticated.