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

catch_the_sun · 2024-12-05 18:31:01

glennmagusharvey wrote: »

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.

To be more accurate, he declared martial law, attempted a coup, the generals were on his side but the soldiers were more confused than anything so they failed to stop the legislators from assembling (the spontaneous protests in the middle of the night didn't help either lmao), the legislators voted against the coup and forced the president to call off martial law and now the president is most likely getting impeached.

lrdgck · 2024-12-05 20:19:48

the soldiers were more confused than anything

What can I say, I'd be too. Coup d'etat 101: first make sure the army actually is on your side.

Also, there's that one man class war in New York thing going on right now.

fourteenwings · 2024-12-08 07:11:27

At least one of the "experts" who has been making the rounds on the news channels has about twenty Teenieping plushes in her room.

It's always odd when politics and TV shows for 5 year olds combine.

Stormtroper · 2024-12-08 08:12:44

Edit: This one makes more sense:

lrdgck · 2024-12-10 13:35:38

lrdgck wrote:

Also, there's that one man class war in New York thing going on right now.

I've been following the updates on this issue. I expected it'd take longer, pity. Although the court case is likely to be turned into a cause celebre, so story's far from over, feels like.

As for the popular reaction, it's basically this quote again:

lmao, are the Redditors OK?

Apart from all the rest, looks like US left's finally got ther own kid with a gun to idolize.

fourteenwings · 2024-12-11 14:51:28

I'm actually surprised that media people are surprised that somewhat far-left types hate is being demonized despite being the victim.

Also it's like, CEOs are just like medusa snake heads people, so it's not like anything will change aside from corporate types getting more security and an even greater distrust of far-left types.

lrdgck · 2025-01-10 14:14:27

Looks like Elmo the Musk lost the goodwill of the last group of people willing to take him at face value, those being the gamers. He was caught cheating at a game he streamed, or something like that.

Also, our prime minister apparently declared Netanyahu will not be arrested if he arrives here despite the international arrest warrant from the Hague. And guess you want, it's butt-fuckingly stupid, because we WANT these rules to matter. We want all the Putins and other little shits to be subject to justice. He could've just kept his mouth shut on the issue, that'd have been enough, but no. I have no idea why he did it, perhaps he calculated we need to kowtow the new American administration and that's the way to publicly declare the allegiance. I hope he really is that much of 5D chess master and it will pay off in the long run, because we're gonna get called anti-Semites anyway.

Stormtroper · 2025-01-20 07:59:35

Looks like Elmo the Musk lost the goodwill of the last group of people willing to take him at face value, those being the gamers. He was caught cheating at a game he streamed, or something like that.

Elon Musk battling with streamer who once had cockroach crawl all over him

Edit: Also the whole thing reminds me of Citizen Kane, with the rich dude trying and failing to get admiration and respect.

lrdgck · 2025-01-20 20:46:22

chad 1925 rich man: snorts coke off a US Marine's cock while sodomizing a Latin American president with a banana in one hand and lighting a cigaro off a burning hundred dollar bill in the other

virgin 2025 rich man: futilely attempts to pick basement-dwelling nerds' attention

fourteenwings · 2025-01-21 11:51:27

Is the 1925 scenario a real thing?

Also, whatever 17 year old's blood Mark Zuckerberg is having infused is really working out for him.

Stormtroper · 2025-01-22 07:46:39

Is the 1925 scenario a real thing?

There's the Panama Canal thing, but the other examples of rich-guy-abusing-his-influence I can think of involve either the indifference or hand-greasing of the local government.

Vaguely related, the Gulf of America thing is what would get called virtue signaling in non-Trump contexts.

Edit: If non-foreign rich guys work, I can think of a couple more.

lrdgck · 2025-01-22 10:40:08

To be honest that was mant to be a generic Banana Republic reference, not any single specific story.

fourteenwings · 2025-01-24 04:21:08

It needs to be immortalized in some piece of fiction (preferrably a book).

Stormtroper · 2025-01-25 12:16:44

Finally, someone uploaded this:

(It's counter admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal, the guy most well known as the interim president after the downfall of dictator Marcos Perejil Memes, but also had a stint sometime as a musician.)

lrdgck · 2025-01-26 21:11:30

^
Original footage of Wolfgang Larrazábal confronting Marcos Perejil Memes

I've stumbled upon an interesting piece of Trumpery today. Hearing about Trump's outbursts concerning Greenland, I decided to go and see what does my favourite crazy rightie militia survivalist wacko website has to say on that matter. I honestly expected they'd try to justify everything somehow, but no. They were like, "don't vote for him! he's a GLOBALIST! he's NOT A CHRISTIAN!". So it looks like he's at risk of losing the unconditional support of crazy rightie militia survivalist wackos, not that it matters a lot now.

For the record, I haven't checked if they had any of these warnings posted before the elections, because you know, they could have warned their readers if they did, perhaps they wouldn't have to warn them now. But I digress.

glennmagusharvey · 2025-01-28 21:50:01

I haven't been posting about U.S. politics but that doesn't mean I don't have opinions.

Needless to say, pretty much everything coming out of the trump administration is a giant load of shit, for various reasons. Things like the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord, firing a whole slate of inspectors general, and pushing out nonpartisan civil servants should be pretty glaringly obvious why they're horrible.

And it's only getting worse. There's the recent pause on releases of scientific reports and research funding, affecting such institutions as the NSF, the NIH, and the CDC. This includes clinical trials, leaving people hanging everywhere. And then there was the directive to freeze *all* government funding. Medicaid portals on the internet are down for entire states, and people are unable to access funds for things like Meals on Wheels.

All because some jackasses wanna push their stupid-ass wingnut ideology. This is evil at work.

Oh, btw, all that crowing about egg prices before the election? Well, they're even higher now. Saw a post about a $10 gallon of orange juice too. This perverted monster labeled as "conservatism" or "Make America Great Again" or "America First" does not help anyone. Well, except maybe some jerks who get their kicks from seeing "libs" get "owned", consequences be damned.

Sidenote: I remarked the following last night:

Economy Crash

any% speedrun to government shutdown

* takes damage to save time

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned glaring assholery like pardoning the January 6 rioters or Elon Musk doing not one but two sieg heils on stage. Or Trump himself getting off scot-free from the various crimes he's committed.

Edit: Oh, I forgot trying to conquer Canada / the Gulf of Mexico / Greenland / the Panama Canal.

Edit: Oh, I also forgot, trying to end birthright citizenship. The Constitution is pretty dang clear, but the Constitution is not actually something that these brazen lawbreakers (i.e. the Trump administration and its allies) care about.

fourteenwings · 2025-01-29 11:48:39

I chose not to read beyond this point.

lrdgck · 2025-01-29 13:44:11

Dear diary, today Glenn was pissed over politics. Like, pissed, not just angry at somebody who acts deliberately obtuse in a conversation. Yeah, looks like out of us four I live in the least dysfunctional country. Guys, I am so sorry.

fourteenwings · 2025-01-29 16:20:47

I chose not to read beyond this point.

This is just because we might start like the depopulated forum version of WWIII and not because I don't respect GMH's opinions.

Edit: but also yeah we've been majorly directly affected by the decisions made and people might genuinely die from hunger or communicable diseases because somehow Donald Trump doesn't understand what soft power is.

Stormtroper · 2025-01-30 02:34:40

"don't vote for him! he's a GLOBALIST!

I'm curious, are rightoids generally anti-globalist over there?

(I'd guess so but having Russia nearby could change things in ways I'm not picturing correctly.)

lrdgck · 2025-02-01 13:15:46

I'm curious, are rightoids generally anti-globalist over there?

(I'd guess so but having Russia nearby could change things in ways I'm not picturing correctly.)

It's a tricky topic, and dependent on what counts as a rightoid. So, altogether, they are anti-globalist, yeah, but it doesn't mean they're all pro-Russia. This leads to a lot of confused takes concerning Viktor Orban and the other wannabe strongmen, because they'd like to applaud them but at the same time don't want to go all the way and applaud Putin.

So, at this point in time, in terms of political parties, we have these folks right of center:

PL2050, which is part of the ruling coalition. A newcomer which may or may not only last till the next parliamentary elections. Try to be the mild, hip, inoffensive option concerned only with good governance and people's welfare, except it's Christian Democrat instead of more typical lib-left.
PSL, which is part of the ruling coalition. Technically a peasants' interests party, they moved to a soft-conservative position and obstruct more left-leaning reforms. Since they're not generally perceived as a right-wing party, it could be honest, could be cynical, could be they want to replace the current hard-right with themselves as the sane alternative.
PiS (and affiliates), which is the Party that got sacked in the last parliamentary elections. Generally the party of generic mustachioed boomer uncle from the countryside. Cult of state power, hard-on for Orban and other wannabe strongmen - basically right-populist, not-yet-fash kind of thing. Love euromonies, love misuse of public monies, love government handouts and massive propaganda projects, love Putin's cronies, love the institutional Church, love the US unless the US stands for democracy (even if only to further American interests in Poland), hate EU telling them not to bash gays and stuff, hate anyone telling them not to do something, hate Putin. Also, they're a locally grown flavor, preferring to compare themselves to patriot nobles and pre-War strongmen, instead of an American/Russian import. So, it's in a kind of schizophrenic balance between different flavors of rightoid. Ask your boomer uncle when he puts down the grilling utensilia and it might be something like this.
Konfederacja, which is a mix of nationalists and right-libertarians who map the closest to your typical alt-right. Conspiracy nuts, Putin gooners, MRAs, wannabe ancaps, sedevacantists, and generally all other kinds wackos welcome. Whenever you see a meme with a Polish politician, you can bet it's one of these guys or affiliates, and you're gonna end up winning more than losing. (I mention affiliates because you can count on a bunch of these splitting or getting kicked out for fire extenguisher funtime but still hanging out with the rest.) And yes, technically speaking the tradCath and ancap are very different flavors of rightoid, but somehow they themselves are not bothered, so why should I if I'm just listing them.
An assortment of nationalists, fascists, and wackos who do not belong to Konfederacja. Not really relevant and not in the Parliament, but providing a bunch of hilarious takes when literal fascists come off as more level-headed than Konfederacja.

So, the first two, not anti-globalist, not (I think) rightoid. The third one, confused anti-globalist, confused rightoid. The fourth, anti-globalist rightoid.

As of a man on the street, the young-ish rightie will be a Konfederacja guy. If otherwise sensible, will engage in a weird sort of double-think over their wacky antics ("yeah, I know he's got controversial views, but think of the economy/it's the party programme that matters/etc."). A middle-aged rightie will be a PiS guy and probably react with mindless aggression (aimed towards you or the politicians they don't like, whether or not you mentioned or even support them at all) if called out on it. A person you've met in a church and/or the countryside and you're sure they're a rightie, but did not react with aggression and/or questionable takes might be a supporter of the first two.

Stormtroper · 2025-02-02 18:59:31

hate Putin

It seems this is the contant in Polish politics. I didn't expect to see it combined with loving Putin's cronies, though. I wonder how they square that circle.

As far as I can tell it seems Latin America is unique in that the left is the anti-globalist side, I wonder why? (That's a rhetorical question, I know why; this book)

lrdgck · 2025-02-03 23:42:51

It seems this is the contant in Polish politics. I didn't expect to see it combined with loving Putin's cronies, though. I wonder how they square that circle.

Unfortunately, I don't quite follow their own media, so I can't much answer how they play it to their ~~believers~~ voterbase. As far as I can guess they offer a mix of doublethink, no u, and plain omission.

Also keep in mind, there are also the Konfederacja guys, and these are nicknamed "Konfederussia" for a reason. Among them you can find folks who just genuinely vouch for Putin. They're a diverse mix so the less obviously crazy can always get in front of the crazy and try to obfuscate them.

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

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