US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[Himu]

my favorite part of having seen this when it originally aired (other than trying to figure out what the hell just happened) was that ABC only showed two random episodes, this one and then the one where they get locked in the freezer, and the second one is the one that flashes back constantly to events from the first episode (which they didn't air) so until like a decade later or whatever it was when Comedy Central or Adult Swim finally aired the whole series i never knew it was anything more than a stupid random gag, it was a stupid deliberate gag!

also trying to describe this ending to people at school the next day since it was like the funniest thing i'd seen on TV, or at least ABC, since The Critic had been cancelled

I miss The Critic. It was my shining light growing up. I liked it more than The Simpsons for a stint. There were some episodes I knew the entire script to memory. I haven’t seen it since 2000’s when reruns ran on Comedy Central. Does it still hold up?

[benjipwns]

I last watched it...hmm, this is probably like a decade ago now, because I think it was the same summer I rewatched Rocko and both of them held up and the latter had so much adult humor I never would have gotten originally probably.

The Critic webepisodes were always bad and still have no idea why they did those.

[Himu]

Still good

[benjipwns]

Full episode: (audio track is quite a bit higher warning)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Himu]

This always killed me!

I didn’t understand the Orson Welles jokes as a kid but now I do after having Citizen Kane  and his other movies a bunch. I think I’ll like the show even more as an adult.

[BikeJesus]

my favorite part of having seen this when it originally aired (other than trying to figure out what the hell just happened) was that ABC only showed two random episodes, this one and then the one where they get locked in the freezer, and the second one is the one that flashes back constantly to events from the first episode (which they didn't air) so until like a decade later or whatever it was when Comedy Central or Adult Swim finally aired the whole series i never knew it was anything more than a stupid random gag, it was a stupid deliberate gag!

also trying to describe this ending to people at school the next day since it was like the funniest thing i'd seen on TV, or at least ABC, since The Critic had been cancelled

I miss The Critic. It was my shining light growing up. I liked it more than The Simpsons for a stint. There were some episodes I knew the entire script to memory. I haven’t seen it since 2000’s when reruns ran on Comedy Central. Does it still hold up?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

fucking imbed thing. Just go to 57:43

[Mandark]

[Himu]

Why do republicans love bad country music?

[Himu]

(Image removed from quote.)

I’m fucking dying!!! I hear the voice in my head!

[benjipwns]

god i love franklin sherman

[benjipwns]

second video i ever uploaded to YouTube almost a decade ago:


 :'(

[benjipwns]

This always killed me!

I didn’t understand the Orson Welles jokes as a kid but now I do after having Citizen Kane  and his other movies a bunch. I think I’ll like the show even more as an adult.

It's actually a reference to late in his life when he was doing commercials and doing them...BRILLIANTLY:

[Himu]

Franklin was always the best character.



Was Jays mom an inspiration for Lucille Bluth?

[Himu]

This always killed me!

I didn’t understand the Orson Welles jokes as a kid but now I do after having Citizen Kane  and his other movies a bunch. I think I’ll like the show even more as an adult.

It's actually a reference to late in his life when he was doing commercials and doing them...BRILLIANTLY:

[Kara]

Orson Welles? The voice of Unicron?

[benjipwns]

Assi warned us first yet again:

Politics was organized until recently “along a left-right spectrum defined by economic issues,” as Fukuyama puts it in Identity, which he wrote while shuttling between his vacation cottage and his house in Palo Alto, where he teaches at Stanford. But increasingly, the global political system has become a battleground for competing demands for recognition. Identity can be seen as an earnest attempt to keep the bloody passageway back into history shut.

In the book, Fukuyama probes beyond the immediate triggers of the populist nationalist upsurge to the deeper sources of the discord threatening to undo liberal democracy. He situates this discord in thymos, the universal craving for recognition, which he argues can serve as a master concept to explain “the dynamic new forces” currently shaping world events. It is thymos, Fukuyama argues, that is the seat of identity politics—a phrase typically associated with the Left but which he applies more broadly—and thymos that accounts for the increasingly bitter fragmentation of countries around the world into hostile camps.

Indeed, almost anyone can construe themselves as in some manner oppressed, and such claims are inherently more difficult to satisfy than economic ones. Fukuyama divides thymos into two different forms: “isothymia,” the desire to be seen as equal to everyone else, and “megalothymia,” the desire to be seen as superior. Liberal democracy can be “subverted internally” by either. In a remarkable passage, Fukuyama notes that “the passion for equal recognition . . . does not necessarily diminish with the achievement of greater de facto equality and material abundance, but may actually be stimulated by it. Tocqueville explained that when the differences between social classes or groups are great and supported by long-standing tradition, people become resigned or accepting of them. But when society is mobile and groups pull closer to one another, people become more acutely aware and resentful of the remaining differences.”

The Trump years have, however, brought Fukuyama back into contact with some of his old cohort. At a recent private meeting, he ran into Bill Kristol and Max Boot. “Boot told me, ‘You realized the bankruptcy of conservatism long before I did.’”

Fukuyama was never an exponent of the globalist, open-borders cosmopolitanism with which “The End of History?” came to be associated among those who had never read it. He has always believed, for instance, that the nation-state is the “largest political unit that is viable in terms of actually delivering . . . stability and security” and that some irrational patriotic attachment to the state is a necessary aspect of sustaining its unity. In the last chapter of Identity, Fukuyama proposes compulsory national service to force Americans to encounter and cooperate with one another across class and party lines. He calls for the assimilation of immigrants into a culture that isn’t afraid to say what it values and what it rejects.

And finally, while calling for the redress of injustices brought to light by social movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, he urges the Left to abandon a conception of identity that undermines “the American national story by emphasizing victimization” in favor of “a progressive narrative” that “can also be told about the overcoming of barriers and the ever-broadening circles of people whose dignity the country has recognized, based on its founding principles.” All of which sounds eminently sensible, as many reviewers have largely acknowledged, but will anyone be listening? “I really wrote this book for an audience that is unlikely to heed it,” Fukuyama observed.

[shosta]

What's the global political system and how do I register to vote in that one?

[benjipwns]

Go back in time and take over one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council?

PROTIP: Don't pick China!

[Kara]

Fukuyama proposes compulsory national service to force Americans to encounter and cooperate with one another across class and party lines.

Like conscription during Vietnam.

[benjipwns]

Reminds me of a 2008 Obama Platform item that I used to needle a few who were taking that general election way too seriously with

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.

We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a plan to create volunteer and service opportunities to help tackle some of the nation's most pressing issues, part of his weeklong focus on patriotism and national service.

"This won't be a call issued in one speech or one program -- I want this to be a central cause of my presidency," Obama said in a speech at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

"We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing national challenges."

He added, "When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

...

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also touched on the "spirit" of service witnessed after the September 11, 2001, attacks and take aim at the Bush administration's failure to capitalize on this opportunity to call Americans to service.

"We were ready to step into the strong current of history and to answer a new call for our country. But the call never came," he said.

"Instead of a call to service, we were asked to shop."

[benjipwns]

https://www.factcheck.org/2008/11/obamas-national-security-force/

Q: Is Obama planning a Gestapo-like “civilian national security force”?

FULL QUESTION

I read a quote from Rep. Paul Broun from Georgia which stated that Obama wants to set up a civilian national security force that was similar to the “Gestapo” or the Nazi Brownshirts.

What is the truth behind Obama’s statements that he wants to create a “civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded [as the military]”?

FULL ANSWER

This question stems from an interview that Republican Rep. Broun of Georgia gave to The Associated Press Nov. 10. The story carried a headline, “Georgia congressman warns of Obama dictatorship.” It said that Broun “fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.” And it quoted him this way:

Rep. Paul Broun, Nov. 10: It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s [Obama’s] the one who proposed this national security force. … That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did.

OH SURE LIKE BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA IS JUST GOING TO COME OUT AND NAME IT "GESTAPO 2.0" SMH LIEBERALAMESTREAM MEDIA

[Kara]

Good thing we don't have an out of control domestic police and intelligence service right now. Really dodged a bullet there.

[benjipwns]

You're the last person I would expect to assume it's "out of control"!

[Mandark]

Real missed opportunity to tie that Fukuyama post to "buy my book!"

[benjipwns]

me posting it before the extended derail into The Critic conversation would have been ideal for yet another classic Mandark reply that everyone should not only hit like on but also pause to reflect on just how much they liked it

[agrajag]

Check out @realDonaldTrump’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1054351078328885248

National Emergy

[kingv]

Orson Welles? The voice of Unicron?

Him and Leonard Nimoy are legendary voice actors.

[CatsCatsCats]

Check out @realDonaldTrump’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1054351078328885248

National Emergy

Who will check our emjoules!?

[Brehvolution]

Check out @realDonaldTrump’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1054351078328885248

National Emergy

If only there was a multi-billion dollar apparatus to monitor such a thing if it existed. Dotard has been in office for 2 years. If he hasn't used it yet, does that mean dotard wants open borders?

[kingv]

Something about this caravan seems ratfuckish to me.

Someone should actually report on it and figure out how it started.

[Brehvolution]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

There is no caravan.

[close]

[benjipwns]

https://nypost.com/video/the-mooch-does-an-interpretive-dance-for-each-of-his-days-in-the-white-house/

[Joe Molotov]

Fukuyama proposes compulsory national service to force Americans to encounter and cooperate with one another across class and party lines.

Like conscription during Vietnam.

Just in case, I need a list of countries where I don't have to encounter or cooperate with anyone.

[shosta]

I've got an idea. We should put a nuke in the center of the caravan and detonate it. That'll split the caravan into two halves and each one will change trajectory to the left and right of the United States. If you can do it before it reaches Chihuahua, the two halves will miss the US entirely, averting armagedón. It's so crazy it just might work.

To accomplish this on such short notice, we're going to have to recruit Sarah "Drill Baby Drill" Palin and Rick Perry, our nation's foremost energy expert.

[shosta]

Good thing we don't have an out of control domestic police and intelligence service right now. Really dodged a bullet there.

you know, we really haven't been on the same page lately, because I thought you were referring to this

https://twitter.com/cia/status/1025051443970093056

[benjipwns]

Marvel’s Black Panther & Avengers: Infinity War introduced the fictional African nation of Wakanda

how can one intelligence agency screw up this often so easily

[Kara]

The Sponge Bob irregular capitalization meme but he's saying "unfree societies have state media."

[Madrun Badrun]

Marvel’s Black Panther & Avengers: Infinity War introduced the fictional African nation of Wakanda

how can one intelligence agency screw up this often so easily

Ya don't they remember when Wakanda was seen first on a map in Winter Soldier? 

[Joe Molotov]

Marvel’s Black Panther & Avengers: Infinity War introduced the fictional African nation of Wakanda

how can one intelligence agency screw up this often so easily

Oh shit, I thought it was fictional as well.

[Great Rumbler]

Marvel’s Black Panther & Avengers: Infinity War introduced the fictional African nation of Wakanda

how can one intelligence agency screw up this often so easily

To be fair, considering the target audience of the CIA's Twitter account, they were probably right in assuming that people weren't aware of Black Panther prior to the movie.

[Himu]

Saudi really tried to pass kasshogi off with a body double. That fucking country.

[Himu]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/despite-rampant-voter-enthusiasm-the-reality-many-dont-plan-to-vote-in-november/2018/10/17/d2773a9a-cbda-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html?utm_term=.8a5951173df2

[kingv]

Saudi really tried to pass kasshogi off with a body double. That fucking country.

Dude doesn’t really look anything like him either.

He must have had some Just For Men treatment in the embassy.

This also explains why the Saudi story was that Khashoggi “left” at first.

[archie4208]

I just got back from voting.  I live in rural Georgia and, outside of the governor's race, my vote won't mean much, but at least I did more than bitch on the internet. 

[Himu]

Kill a journalist, try to use a bad body double and go “why are you asking questions?”

[Himu]

I just got back from voting.  I live in rural Georgia and, outside of the governor's race, my vote won't mean much, but at least I did more than bitch on the internet. 

“I just think that it’s a waste of my time,” said Leo Meeks, 39, a lifelong Clarksvillian who majored in political science in college but hasn’t voted in at least eight years. Even if he did vote, he said, the winner is often determined by gerrymandered districts or the electoral college, not voters. “Because whoever’s going to get into office is not going to be influenced based on what my goals are or what my needs are or what the public’s needs,” he said. “It’s going to be driven by capitalism, by big companies. . . . Money controls.”

Don’t do anything.

[Kara]

If voting didn't matter Republicans wouldn't be aggressively purging voter rolls, impeding the registration process, et cetera.

That said, the oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament.

[shosta]

then why is there a vigorous republican agenda moving full force through state and national legislatures

[Nintex]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/despite-rampant-voter-enthusiasm-the-reality-many-dont-plan-to-vote-in-november/2018/10/17/d2773a9a-cbda-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html?utm_term=.8a5951173df2

This was always the strategy. Make everyone sick and tired of politics by the end of 2018 let alone 2020.

And just have the fans renew the season.

 

[shosta]

I just explained they're power hungry pieces of shit you fuck. The Republican agenda isn't your racist uncle JR's agenda.

I think you underestimate the size of the overlap between the right wing political agenda and right wing voters' agenda.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/gelles/status/1054429680370106370

Someone reset the doomsday clock.

[Kara]

However true your observations are Stro, to say it's bad optics to throw your hands up on voting when we were just talking about how there's strong consideration being given to denying a minority their civil rights would be an understatement.

[shosta]

Jack Remington was right about you, Stro! If he were still here he'd tear you a new one.

[Himu]

That's accurate. American politicians only pay lip service to their constituents to get elected or stay elected, then go on to do whatever their party or corporate overlords want them to do once in office. Your vote doesn't matter, because no one in congress is writing laws for you or your ideas. You vote for someone to get into a position where they do whatever they're told by someone above them. Your votes ain't shit because politicians ain't shit because the American political system ain't shit.

If voting doesn’t matter why was an entire class and race of people stopped from going to the polls via violent retribution and control?

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/KateBennett_DC/status/1054444703934963715
 

[Kara]

To say I don't give a fuck about the optics would be an understatement you fuck

Fair enough, bless.

[Nintex]

The Khashoggi story is turning weirder.

Apparently some Saudi operative organized the whole thing from Skype.
As he and Khashoggi threw insults at each other during a Skype call he said at some point: "Bring me the dogs head" and the whole botched up murder started.

The Turks cite the Skype call as evidence. It is unknown if they kept 'on call' during the dismemberment of Khashoggi's body but it is very possible that the whole thing is on tape.
In any case, after the murder one of the Saudi's went ahead and used Khashoggi's clothes and attempted to look like a body double in order to "cover it up".

As John Goodman would say:
"BUNCH OF FUCKING AMATEURS"

[CatsCatsCats]

You gotta love an exposed asshole

[Joe Molotov]

I don't know if i'm happy or sad that the saudi royal family's incompetence has it's asshole exposed for the world to see.

Apparently at some point, MBS called up Jared Kushner because he couldn't understand why people were upset over this. When you're turning to Jared Kushner for answers, you know you fucked up.

[kingv]

Make it wink for me daddy.