Lol wut?

I still don't know what's more disturbing, guitars endorsed by Trump or camgirls with MAGA panties or flags on the background wall.
This is so confusing even for non americans.
 
I still don't know what's more disturbing, guitars endorsed by Trump or camgirls with MAGA panties or flags on the background wall.
This is so confusing even for non americans.
That’s a good point, where did you say you saw these cam girls? Asking for a friend.😉
 
I envy you guys who live in other (not US) countries.
Unfortunately we're all in this together. The rest of the world is shaking its head. I feel for the people of the US (well, roughly half!) but I also worry about all of our futures.

Having visited the USA many times I am always shocked at the poverty in the world's wealthiest country. We don't have the freedom to be so poor here.
 
I mean, interesting. Sure. Surprising? Of course not.

This is America. We pretend that rules apply equally, that we are all free to pursue "happiness" to our hearts content.

Except thats not true. Never was. Unless one comes from means, everything is set up to funnel folks into debt and wage labor: both of which exist to extract enduring value from individuals who are paid less than their work is worth in the first place.

Which is, I would point out, not freedom. It's a game kept in place by inertia and propoganda, while the powerful blame all the shortcomings of the society that they oversee on minority groups and poor people.

Which: I have to admit, has been a remarkably robust system thus far. It's impressive that we've stayed relatively stable for as long as we have.

But capitalism is premised on the idea that growth will continue forever. It has to. It doesn't work otherwise: it's centered on the idea that folks will invest in companies because they expect their investments to *grow*.

There's a few things in nature that exhibit this same sort of grow at any cost behavior. A virus. Cancer. You know. Stuff that usually turns out great.

Unlike the gentleman in the video, I *do* mean to get political. Eat the rich.
I knew I liked you.
 
Unfortunately we're all in this together. The rest of the world is shaking its head. I feel for the people of the US (well, roughly half!) but I also worry about all of our futures.

Having visited the USA many times I am always shocked at the poverty in the world's wealthiest country. We don't have the freedom to be so poor here.
Is it 50/50 or more like 50/30 and 20 who don’t care?
If there was a way to use the money that gets burned in this ridiculous election drama for more important stuff like fighting poverty…
 
Is it 50/50 or more like 50/30 and 20 who don’t care?
If there was a way to use the money that gets burned in this ridiculous election drama for more important stuff like fighting poverty…
It's more like 26.5% Reliable Dem/26.5% Reliable Gop/4-7% reliable votes for either of the two parties/40% sick of the bullshit, don't care cause they're too busy, or voluntarily checked out because of learned helplessness via years of party propoganda.

Its pretty rich that democrats have been tooting the horn of "creeping fascism - we will defend!" over the past decade or so. Then they bombard us with phone calls and donation drives and hey...have you donated to your local chapter of *Defending against creeping fascism (TM)*?

I can't decide which side is, morally, worse with how they manipulate their donors. Republicans who invent the threat of "creeping socialism" in order to bilk rubes out of their dollars...or democrats, who are rich enough to insulate themselves from creeping fascism's boot, that dangle the actual threat above us all like a reverse sword of Damocles in case we get too bold and decide we want somebody who won't play nice with corporate interests and billionaires.

Either way it's a shake-down. Third parties don't fare much better; private funding of elections has done exactly as it was designed to do: reinforced capital as the final arbiter of the Overton window.

Is it any wonder why our political system and media infrastructure can support something like The New Yorker's puff piece of Richard Spencer?

Which, if you don't know about the guy, read that article about the Nazi next door and then listen to the clip of him speaking after the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville. In that order. See what I mean.

But then, endless editorializing in the new york times, the Atlantic, take your pick, of how the *real* problem with Democrats is that they've drifted too far *left*.

We're all living in the aftermath of the Powell Memo and the corporate efforts to make a society of and by corporate interests. Be it Citizens United, consumer welfare standards in anti-trust cases, or the overturning of Chevron. Be it newscorp's or clear channel's dominance in radio, television, and print news media: The last thing corporate interests want is anything resembling competition, regulation, or anything resembling "left wing thought" being allowed in the arena of public discourse.

Its the kind of ecosystem that can take someone like MLK Jr, a man who was passionately in favor of socialist causes, and boil him down into the anti-racism Teddy Bear. The same ecosystem that essentially erases any memory of Fred Hampton

Hell, when I went to school we never heard anything about how the military used airplanes against striking coal miners. Or how Eisenhower and McArthur led our armed forces against veterans camped in Washington DC.

How about the Business plot? How about the fact that Henry Ford was a notorious antisemite?

History, if you really dig into it, is fascinating.

Also: happy Thanksgiving y'all.

God I'm a buzzkill.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top