US Politics: Burning Down the Country

[Fragile Bird]

3 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Remember that whole thing about Biden not doing enough and not being out there and whatnot?

 

 

I’m very impressed with the mayor of Atlanta. Is she experienced enough to be on the VP list?

[Starkess]

I don't have time to catch up on 20 pages of this thread, but it has not been a good few days here in Chicago. I'm heartsick at all of it. Even now I can hear sirens and the news choppers overhead intermittently. The mayor's press conference this morning was not at all reassuring. 

[DMC]

19 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I just think you can get away with almost any joke so long as it comes from a place of love,

Great comedy doesn't come from a place of love.  Even good comedy rarely does.

9 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I’m very impressed with the mayor of Atlanta. Is she experienced enough to be on the VP list?

Yes she's on the list.  One of Biden's closer allies - and Clyburn's - really.  Interestingly, Bottoms and Abrams have been political rivals within Georgia politics for quite a while.

[Fez]

I'm glad Biden is being visible, but his team better be taking every single precaution imaginable. If he gets COVID-19 we're so fucked.

In the opposite of getting fucked, the early polls say that this ain't 1968:

 

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, Starkess said:

I don't have time to catch up on 20 pages of this thread, but it has not been a good few days here in Chicago. I'm heartsick at all of it. Even now I can hear sirens and the news choppers overhead intermittently. The mayor's press conference this morning was not at all reassuring. 

I broke my rule about going to the US and attended a Pokémon Go fest last summer in Chicago, held along the waterfront. And I was there for my first Worldcon in 2011, and flew in a few times before that when I worked for Motorola in the 80s, (not the 90s, time flies!). It was so sad to see the violence going on.

I’m glad you took that day trip last weekend out to the countryside before all this happened. This too shall pass. I hope saner heads start talking to each other soon.

[Toth]

55 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I just think you can get away with almost any joke so long as it comes from a place of love, and that's not always the case with him.

I don't know about that, I think Chappelle's humor stems from a very deep awareness about how the race issues of the US work and poking fun at that. Granted, that's just me speaking as a white European having watched his show back when I was a kid. But the only thing I put against him is making the experience that while a white dude in blackface is offensive, a black dude in whiteface is the stuff of nightmares!

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

37 minutes ago, DMC said:

Great comedy doesn't come from a place of love.  Even good comedy rarely does.

Insulting people can be a act of love or hate. 

28 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I broke my rule about going to the US and attended a Pokémon Go fest last summer in Chicago,.

You is one silly old fogey church lady.

See, you mean drunk. Andre the Giant would have had fun with you.

23 minutes ago, Toth said:

I don't know about that, I think Chappelle's humor stems from a very deep awareness about how the race issues of the US work and poking fun at that. Granted, that's just me speaking as a white European having watched his show back when I was a kid. But the only thing I put against him is making the experience that while a white dude in blackface is offensive, a black dude in whiteface is the stuff of nightmares!

Chappelle was a master at playing with race, and you can tell he's laughing at black people just as much as everyone else. He did exactly love the reaction he got though. 

Anyways, on race, he's great, but he's had some pretty noticeable blind spots over the years, and it was clear the jokes were intended to be mean, not playful. 

But hey, like I always say, comedians need to have more room than others to play with. And with that, a master class on joking about race:
 

 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

In the opposite of getting fucked, the early polls say that this ain't 1968:

I don't like ~17% being undecided or (worse) third party in any poll.

11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Insulting people can be a act of love or hate. 

It's not a dichotomy.

[Fez]

8 minutes ago, DMC said:

I don't like ~17% being undecided or (worse) third party in any poll.

Sure. But that's Morning Consult for you. The important point is the trendline. They do a massive one-day poll weekly. And the week-to-week change is Biden staying steady and Trump losing 4 points, in a news cycle dominated by the protests.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 minutes ago, DMC said:

It's not a dichotomy.

Yeah, but when done right you can tell. Anyways, there's no point in dragging this on. 

On the T.V.s, Floyd's independent autopsy is in and it's homicide by asphyxiation. Because of course it would be. Everyone saw what happened. 

[Martell Spy]

5 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Yeah, but when done right you can tell. Anyways, there's no point in dragging this on. 

On the T.V.s, Floyd's independent autopsy is in and it's homicide by asphyxiation. Because of course it would be. Everyone saw what happened. 

A confirmed lynching.

[Fragile Bird]

My lord, Bernie Sanders is an autopsy doctor too?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

My lord, Bernie Sanders is an autopsy doctor too?

My favorite show plays an amazing looks like game. Adam Silver of the NBA is probably their greatest victim. It's so bad that they mock a good man like that so harshly, but then again the also do it to Mike Leach, and the coach loves calling in and talking about random shit. 

Bernie Sanders looks like the mad scientist who throughout the movie tries to warn everyone that doom is coming, but nobody listens, and he dies heroically shoving someone out of the way as the roofing collapses. He was of course right about everything. 

[dbergkvist]

15 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

On the T.V.s, Floyd's independent autopsy is in and it's homicide by asphyxiation. Because of course it would be. Everyone saw what happened. 

So now there are two autopsies. One that the protestors (and every sane person) will believe, and one that the government is pushing as the official one.

And some unknown organization is placing piles of bricks on suitable locations in the streets (or are creating fictional reports of such piles of bricks). And there were purposely misleading reports that the Washington DC protestors were all murdererd that somebody created.

Good luck, America. You'll need it.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, dbergkvist said:

And some unknown organization is placing piles of bricks on suitable locations in the streets (or are creating fictional reports of such piles of bricks). And there were purposely misleading reports that the Washington DC protestors were all murdererd that somebody created.

Good luck, America. You'll need it.

Not fictional

 

[Zorral]

The boogaloo is on and stocks are up!  Ain't life in the GOOD and SUPERIOR USA just frackin' grand.

We had a third night in a row of not being able to sleep, but last night was the real close-up and personal.  Today everything is being boarded up.  Looters (who are organized criminals with lots of experience with these conditions as journalists were able to suss out -- plus they came not on foot but in SUVs and knew just how to get into Guicci etc. -- and the plates are from out of state) targeted systematically all the luxury outlets.  All along I was baffled that Coach etc. left their stores just sit there, merchandise in the windows etc.  Looters are not the same people as the protesters.

That street hit hardest from Broadway to the east and 6th Ave. to the west the street above ours.  A fire was set pretty damned good right on the corner above us.  Fire is what has us terrified. The noise until about 5 AM was what kept us up.

I was pretty sure from seeing groups of guys today who obviously don't live here, walking around and eyeing all the blocks that weren't hit last night, that tonight would be another bad one.  But the mayor and governor have declared a 11 PM curfew tonight. The mayor's daughter was among the protesters arrested, btw.  Also I've never seen this many cops on these blocks in -- well ever. The helicopters are already back -- they didn't stop until about 6 AM.

Thank goodness our wine delivery came today, and so did the CARE package from med/rec entrepreneur in LA. Just in time.  Most of the liquor stores were hit, though for some reason the one we patronize was fine.  It has always had heavy steel shutters that go down at closing. Today they putting up boards in front of the shutters as well.  Also, I was told they were sitting tonight in the back of the store, and in their nearly block-long cellar, with some of their relatives and their shot guns. But I am hoping they don't need to now with the curfew.

But the war is on, the one They have been demanding since 1970's.  And the stock market eats it up.

 

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

Someone just pointed out something Adam Schiff said at the time of the impeachment: "How much damage can he really do in the next several months before the election? A lot."

https://secondnexus.com/donald-trump-adam-schiff-warning

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Just overheard my son explaining to someone he was gaming with online what the precise issues with modern policing in the U.S. are, and how they link to capitalism. I'm so proud.

[GrimTuesday]

some short clips of Trump's call with the Governors are circulating, but if anyone wants to listen to the whole thing, here you go.

One of the strangest things about Trump and his ilk (Bolsonaro, Orban, etc.) is just how untethered from reality they are. Trump is by far the worst of them, but these people aren't just fascists, they are clowns. Clown Fascists if you will. They see these conspiracies where there are none, and stoke the fires of hate.

Oh, and I didn't see anyone mention this, but Joe Biden suggested just shooting folks in the leg instead of the heart, which the perfect summation of Democratic politics, where the actual answer is to just not shoot people unless there is absolutely no other option. I'm going to vote for him, but holy shit he needs to never ever go off script, because he blunders into this sort of shit all the time.

[Fragile Bird]

Trump just invoked the 1807 Insurrection Act, so he could use the military to clear the protestors so he could have a photo opp at St. John's church. The troops used tear gas and pepper spray and flash bangs.

And Jesus wept.