Now That Trump's President... (not any more!)

  On 6/4/2020 at 12:49 AM, auxien said:

all these rich and powerful motherfuckers sure got lots of words. wish they would/would've shown some action.

don't get me wrong, the words are good. but i've got words. lots of people got words. i ain't got money and power and elite friends and influence, they do. they ain't used it and they ain't using it now. 

The optimistic take on it is that it encourages more dissent from GOP and the government. 

  On 6/4/2020 at 12:49 AM, auxien said:

 

And apparently, the rest will come out too. Probably for maximum election annihilation. 

  On 6/4/2020 at 1:24 AM, psn said:

The optimistic take on it is that it encourages more dissent from GOP and the government. 

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i sure hope that happens, just ain’t got much faith that it will. not just because of the history of Rs bending the knee to Trump, but given that it’s an election year, and very far into it...and i’ve seen little indication via polls/etc that his base is turning against him, much less if they would turn out for some other Republican challenger/party installation. 

On the Clearing of Lafayette Square, and the Coward Donald Trump (Timothy Denevi @ Lithub)

Is it conceivable that the GOP would find another candidate before November? Obviously this would cause a massive shitstorm, and (tragically) he still has a big, loyal base.

I'd hate to be a Republican with a conscience (they still make those, right?) in 2020.

  On 6/4/2020 at 5:51 AM, sweepstakes said:

Is it conceivable that the GOP would find another candidate before November? Obviously this would cause a massive shitstorm, and (tragically) he still has a big, loyal base.

I'd hate to be a Republican with a conscience (they still make those, right?) in 2020.

early on in the pandemic there was wild speculation of the DNC sneaking in Cuomo to replace Biden but it was all internet fun and chatter. 

i don't see the RNC side stepping trump for someone else. trump is going to have to be pulled out of the whitehouse by his feet dragging all the flags w/him as he hugs them like anchors. 

only way he doesn't get the nomination for republican candidate is if he has some kind major health event or goes totally daffy and starts saying that he "could walk right into heaven and shoot jesus in the face and not lose a single voter" or something like that. 

https://mobile.twitter.com/macinta/status/1268336590121766913

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And the Trump campaign just changed his MAGA hats to camo and is now referring to supporters as the "Trump Army." Totally not concerning at all.

  On 6/4/2020 at 12:10 PM, dcom said:

https://mobile.twitter.com/macinta/status/1268336590121766913

 

this guy just wants to start a civil war. i mean, you wouldn't believe it, but at this point it's safer to just take him at his word: he wants to fight the liberal mob. i'd take it literally.

That is very worrying.

It's always a good laugh when he calls the democratic party left wing extremists, when over here they'd be considered right wing.

  On 6/4/2020 at 2:39 PM, Gocab said:

It's always a good laugh when he calls the democratic party left wing extremists, when over here they'd be considered right wing.

I'm more pissed off than scared tbh. I wonder how well those new hats burn in a bonfire.

I feel for whomever was forced to make them in outsourced sweatshops in the first place though, probably wouldn't be fair to them.

  On 6/4/2020 at 5:14 PM, timbre monke said:

I'm more pissed off than scared tbh. I wonder how well those new hats burn in a bonfire.

I feel for whomever was forced to make them in outsourced sweatshops in the first place though, probably wouldn't be fair to them.

obama's article on medium directs energy to political work, and i think he's right. vote. talk to people about who they're going to vote for, if they are registered, how they can register, and how to check if they are registered. the ground is incredibly fertile for organizers to establish themselves, to mobilize people for November 3, and to make specific demands of their local governments regarding police brutality and racism. and it will make a difference, and this is how change happens.

Spiritually, I agree. But if you look around, you see so many examples of norms being destroyed and civility being trampled on, I can only wonder whether society is still capable of being a democracy. I know this is mostly my perceptions being fed by the media. But the thing is, a democracy is based on trust. And if the people have lost trust, well, what do you do? I'd personally jump on the Obama bandwagon. But that bandwagon only works if enough people jump on it as well. I'm having my doubts. (I mean, how many facepalms can I expect by saying I'd jump on the Obama bandwagon...)

  On 6/4/2020 at 6:25 PM, goDel said:

Spiritually, I agree. But if you look around, you see so many examples of norms being destroyed and civility being trampled on, I can only wonder whether society is still capable of being a democracy. I know this is mostly my perceptions being fed by the media. But the thing is, a democracy is based on trust. And if the people have lost trust, well, what do you do? I'd personally jump on the Obama bandwagon. But that bandwagon only works if enough people jump on it as well. I'm having my doubts. (I mean, how many facepalms can I expect by saying I'd jump on the Obama bandwagon...)

many worlds are possible. history is made of individual acts.

  On 6/4/2020 at 3:31 PM, joshuatxuk said:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfD6fn0mWrE 

 

Not sure why your post got a facepalm and burger react. The guy in the video is spitting straight facts.

  On 6/4/2020 at 6:40 PM, milkface said:

Not sure why your post got a facepalm and burger react. The guy in the video is spitting straight facts.

It's a little flippant and exaggerated but there's some great points and his overall assessment is correct: the US two-party system is an absurdly limited overton window, especially in the last decade or so and dictated by wildly specific and extreme political factors.

For example, and I thought his most damning point, was his former MP was a conservative but a decent and fairly honest person who volunteered for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. There's no way even a Democrat who did the same in the US could run  for office without being torn down by clains of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiments.

It's also never had a proper true conservative, true liberal, nor true labor/left party. The more moderate and true conservative (i.e. lower deficits and keep leave government agencies that work alone) faction of the GOP has been long gone. I kind of wished he elaborated on this but it could of easily stretched the video out into a lengthy tangent.

  On 6/4/2020 at 6:25 PM, goDel said:

But if you look around, you see so many examples of norms being destroyed and civility being trampled on, I can only wonder whether society is still capable of being a democracy. I know this is mostly my perceptions being fed by the media. But the thing is, a democracy is based on trust. And if the people have lost trust, well, what do you do? 

makes you wonder if there was ever a point in the entirety of civilization that we really nailed it when it comes to governing ourselves. either we have one guy running the show, or we try and make it more fair (i.e. democratic). but either way, things always end up going to shit. 

and as for what do we do, well, my half joking/half serious response would be that we continue building faster and smarter machines that will one day take governance off our plates. let the machines conduct complex analysis on what decisions would be best. we totally suck at decision making. sure we'd be enslaved in the process, but we've had thousands of years to work at it and still can't get it right, so maybe we deserve it...

  On 6/4/2020 at 7:31 PM, joshuatxuk said:

For example, and I thought his most damning point, was his former MP was a conservative but a decent and fairly honest person who volunteered for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. There's no way even a Democrat who did the same in the US could run  for office without being torn down by clains of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiments.

Did you not at all hear about how Jeremy Corbyn was smeared by the UK media?

  On 6/4/2020 at 9:02 PM, zero said:

makes you wonder if there was ever a point in the entirety of civilization that we really nailed it when it comes to governing ourselves. either we have one guy running the show, or we try and make it more fair (i.e. democratic). but either way, things always end up going to shit. 

and as for what do we do, well, my half joking/half serious response would be that we continue building faster and smarter machines that will one day take governance off our plates. let the machines conduct complex analysis on what decisions would be best. we totally suck at decision making. sure we'd be enslaved in the process, but we've had thousands of years to work at it and still can't get it right, so maybe we deserve it...

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I've legit come to this conclusion. I told my friend about it a year or so ago and he was like, "you and I work with software systems and we both know how bug-riddled and fucked they are".

But this article made me think that this is actually on the right track, the key being simulation and not actually executing policy:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/05/1001142/ai-reinforcement-learning-simulate-economy-fairer-tax-policy-income-inequality-recession-pandemic/#:~:text=Scientists at the US business,policies for a simulated economy.

Human beings just can't handle the responsibility of not being selfish assholes and objectively serving the greater good, especially now. Having the ability to run numbers, making these systems transparent and reviewable (and, in my opinion, they should be accessible to literally anyone with a computer), and holding policy makers/auditors accountable to how their decisions tally against what's been demonstrated - I can't think of a better way forward from where we are.

^hyper-regulation and objectively serving the greater good is not the goal tho. at least according to most people’s thinking, and of course the entire country’s history. personal freedoms and personal enrichment (monetarily and otherwise) has always been the target. those things generally if not almost always come at the cost of greater burdens on others. there has to be a lower class for America to be America. i honestly cannot imagine any future where America is recognizable or even vaguely similar to the same nation where there are truly no large swathes of poor and suffering classes/communities.

  On 6/4/2020 at 9:48 PM, auxien said:

^hyper-regulation and objectively serving the greater good is not the goal tho. at least according to most people’s thinking, and of course the entire country’s history. personal freedoms and personal enrichment (monetarily and otherwise) has always been the target. those things generally if not almost always come at the cost of greater burdens on others. there has to be a lower class for America to be America. i honestly cannot imagine any future where America is recognizable or even vaguely similar to the same nation where there are truly no large swathes of poor and suffering classes/communities.

You're not wrong about any of that. I just think by having this data we can say, hey, look, if we keep doing what we're doing, it suuuure looks like we're fucked. And if that gets ignored, you can point back to that and say, welp, you could have listened. Hopefully before it's too late.

TL;DR you're totally right and I'm in the "bargaining" stage of grief over how fucked we are.

  On 6/4/2020 at 9:05 PM, milkface said:

Did you not at all hear about how Jeremy Corbyn was smeared by the UK media?

I'm aware of it. There's rampant claims of antisemitism toward leftists in Europe (like Germany's Antideutsch movement) but it's just a completely different beast in the US especially in terms of the weird US evangelical and Israel lobby synergy. I can't think of any Christian megachurches in the UK that have replicas of Holy Land sites

  On 6/4/2020 at 9:56 PM, sweepstakes said:

I'm in the "bargaining" stage of grief over how fucked we are.

yeah man, I usually keep thoughts about AI takeovers way in the back of my mind, since so much of it is sci-fi/fantasy influenced. but it's hard not to go there sometimes when you observe the current state we're in. 

I know we're not there yet, but I really wonder what will happen if the orange shit pile wins 2020. I would say that would be the perfect scenario to let the mad scientists get on with creating our next gen AI robot rulers.