In 50 years the Glorious American Empire will be celebrating the appointment of Grand Trump Barron Jr.'s Zonkey to the senate.

Probably. I doubt High Emperor Xi the 3rd will care about what the rabble in his least profitable colony does.

"Russia"

Just copypasta your brietbart talking points

"Breitbart"

the fact that you care about that reveals so much.

I think you've spent 4 years absorbing infowars-level conspiracy theories about Russia and your brain is basically scrambled.

Feeling peppy after getting your fresh payment of bitcoin from Russia Crackersmack?

I don't get paid in bitcoin, I get a check for $69 from the Soros Foundation every time I post something here. If I get a video on the front page I get $420 Soros-bucks.

Reminder not to engage with Crackersmack / Ashtar; he’s a zero credibility troll.

CALL THE JUDGE, AND GET SOME FUDGE!!!!!!!!

That's a really dumbed-down way of looking at things. It's what you get when you mistake the toxic, rage-filled, reality-neutral trolling character of present day political discourse for political reality, which is a lot more nuanced, and ineffable.

The best expression of the present political reality that I've seen comes from a really bad Netflix documentary, but this line really made a lot of sense. "It's confusing because we're seeing dystopia and utopia at the same time."

It is confusing, so I can see how you're confused.

One lousy president and America is done for, democracy is over, the world is ending.

Show a little backbone.

The American system of government was designed at its founding to function in a gentile society where being too much an asshole could mean having to duel someone to the death, and the threat of external invasion forced compromise.

Now those threats are gone so the self-serving assholes walked right in and took over. This is a fundamental flaw of the American system, and it was set up in such a way that a large majority of those self serving assholes would need to vote to remove their own power.

"One lousy president" is a REALLY dumbed down way of looking at things.

This isn't lousy business as usual like Harding or Coolidge. It's not even a bumbling, damaging con like Bush 2. It's the culmination of decades of groundwork by Americans for Prosperity, the moral majority, the Heritage Foundation, and the legacy of Roger Ailes. It's the perfection of coordinated gaming of the system and weaponizing departments that were meant to be and usually were non-partisan. They've figured out how to get into power with a minority of supporters, and grind progress to a halt when they're not.

We have a justice department threatening "sedition" arrests and using QAnon-grade conspiracy garbage about "anarchist jurisdictions" to justify it. We have presidential staff calling for the arrest of blue state leaders. We have secret police kidnappings in the street straight out of A Scanner Darkly. We have a president calling for his own SA militias to enact "swift retribution".

And they're just weeks away from locking down the supreme court, an entity that can be used for retroactive fiat rule and has only not been used as such out of respect for the intended spirit of the institution. The wildly unqualified fanatics they've been stacking it with will have no issue bulldozing all of that. They won't even have to worry about the occasional swing vote of Roberts anymore.

In what fucking historical context is this just another lousy president?

what JHM said

Trump is an accident. In all probability, he never wanted to be President,
He wanted to boost his brand. Nobody wanted Trump to be president, except for literally the dumbest people in America. The rest of the Republicans hate him, but they would sell their daughters to Jeffrey Epstein for a tax cut.

Trump was an accident, but he was an accident waiting to happen. Always remember, Fox News didnt create Trump, NBC did, because they would sell their daughters to Jeffrey Epstein for a hit show. The Apprentice was fourteen years of Trumpist propaganda. If you watched that crap every week, he was an infallible business genius. You didn't learn about the casinos, the steaks, the vodka, the airline, the hotels, the university. If you know nothing except what NBC told you, and then you saw Trump unexpected 2016 upset, you assume he can't lose. If he DOES lose, some of his fans will refuse to accept it, but others will emerge from their trance. I'm convinced that Trump himself doesn't need to be President as much as he needs to "win". If he loses, he'll claim that he was robbed. When he loses, he'll claim he won. He does it every time.

Trump says he intends to "negotiate" a third term, and he's not kidding. He wasn't kidding about wondering is he could be added to Mount Rushmore. His narcissism is sweeping, and its sweeping us all along.

Yes, he is destroying America, but he's destroying the Republican Party a lot faster. This could all turn out all right.

"Two Jar Slave - 2020-09-24

One lousy president and America is done for, democracy is over, the world is ending."

I don't know how old you are but I was born at the tail end of the Carter administration and I've yet to live through a president that wasn't pretty bad.

Came here to say what OZ said just above. Every president in my lifetime has been pretty bad, some of them were likeable, or even lovable at times, but they've all been leading us down the toilet one way or another.

"The best expression of the present political reality that I've seen comes from a really bad Netflix documentary, but this line really made a lot of sense. 'It's confusing because we're seeing dystopia and utopia at the same time.'"

The problem is that one side's utopia is the other side's dystopia. Both utopias can't exist simultaneously under the current political system in America. Totalitarian measures will eventually be required to keep the 'losing' side in check, and I think it's fairly clear at this point that both liberals and conservatives are perfectly willing to force the other side to submit to their will through brute force.

I know it sounds great when you blame both sides, but I don't think that that's the case. The riots we've been seeing this summer, whatever you think of them, are not a plan for long-term governance. There is no Trump-like figure on the left in the US. What we've got is one party, however flawed, still basically committed by playing by recognizably democratic rules and another party that's trending away from that pretty damn quick.

"Every president since Carter has been just as bad."

Jesus christ, guys. Throw out that copy of Jacobin and turn off the Chapo. There's real shit at stake here beyond impressing the college campus communists at the local chess park with your cynicism.

what's the "real shit at stake" here Nominal? putting a thin veneer of respectability over the exact same human rights abuses? Biden isn't even promising to do anything differently with immigration

>>>what's the "real shit at stake" here Nominal?

Idiots petulantly demanding that you explain the obvious to them.

HOW is Trump racist?

Can you tell me ONE TIME that Trump lied.

Fuck you. Google it.

You know, crackersmack, speaking of what's at stake, some sources are reporting that Trump is refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. I know, that seems farfetched. Maybe somebody could post a video or something?

>>>The problem is that one side's utopia is the other side's dystopia.

Well, if you say so, but that certainly isn't what I meant. Let me say that for me, This is as much utopia as dystopia, both at once. Not only do I have access to knowledge and culture that I just couldn't have imagined a few years ago, not only can I make an abstract art video for no money, and have it be watched by someone in India, but I am completely certain that the experience has made me much more enlightened about marginalized people.

And it's not just me. Did anyone make it to the end of my Stephen Fry video about Trump. The conclusion is that most people are becoming less racist in the era of Trump.

http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=177491

Both of you are a bit too isolated in your worlds to understand that phrase.

We live in a country where some people can enjoy a $2000 brunch every day, after which they have to make a hard choice about which villa they own to spend the afternoon at.

While others have the think about which street corner would be best to panhandle at this time of day to make enough money to afford some cheap fast food for the night, before returning home to the highway underpass which is shared with 50 other people.

>>>Both of you are a bit too isolated in your worlds to understand that phrase.

SolRo, you really are THE WORST. GODLIKE condescension...

First off, I was the one who introduced the quote, to make my own point, and, at the risk of seeming presumptuous, I feel like I pretty much understood what I meant by it.

Secondly, the guy who originally said it was a silicon valley executive in a documentary about social media. It had nothing to do with two thousand dollar brunch, etc.etc.

Maybe I should have explained that, but, to be fair, someone who isn't a raging tool would have perhaps asked for the context before declaring himself the only person who gets it.

Solro

-Godlike Condescension




Thanks.

Really? Nothing about "Raging Tool?"

Solro

-God of Condescension with a raging tool

Thanks.

"I know it sounds great when you blame both sides, but I don't think that that's the case. The riots we've been seeing this summer, whatever you think of them, are not a plan for long-term governance. There is no Trump-like figure on the left in the US. What we've got is one party, however flawed, still basically committed by playing by recognizably democratic rules and another party that's trending away from that pretty damn quick."

There are Democrat blowhards who do nothing but speak in inflammatory language, but they don't have Trump's fake populist appeal so they can't win a presidential election yet. Right now they're relegated to relatively low-level positions in the Democrat Party because they embarrass the leadership every time they open their mouths, but that will change in the future. Leftist energy is moving in their direction.

As far as one party playing by the rules and the other flouting them, I disagree. The rules outlined in the Constitution (which nobody other than a minority of weirdo classical-liberal text fetishists give a shit about) were written by lawyers and Masons in such a way that other lawyers and Masons have been able to pretzel twist them to suit their needs, and both parties willfully engage in that pretzel twisting.

I agree that the leftist protesters will be put to sleep when Democrats take power. I witnessed that first-hand when the anti-war movement dried up in 2008. The bad blood won't dissipate, though. The same people who are breaking windows in designated riot zones right now will be calling for their leaders to use state power to crush their enemies.

You're welcome, SolRo.

Biden will pull a Gore 2000 and then condemn people for insufficiently peaceful protesting.

I won't be happy until we're scolded by Obama

maybe you guys just need to throw a few more bottles of piss at authority figures, that should solve everything

There is a number of bottles of thrown piss that would solve all our problems. It is very high, but not infinite.

But I've been alive since past presidents and there's nothing unusual about Trump's badness and *faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart*

a million dead Iraqis have something to say about who the worst American president is

Some of you have forgotten Teapot Dome and it shows.

Some amazing non-sequiturs here.

>>>a million dead Iraqis have something to say about who the worst American president is

Really? They can talk? Do they talk to you?

I suppose there's a completely rational argument for Bush being the worst president ever, but it's not rational to bring it to this discussion.

Trump is the worst President, according to the standard imposed of his oath to protect and defend the Constitution. In 2016, Trump rather famously told a group of GOP lawmakers that he intended to defend Article 12 of the Constitution. T

here are only seven articles. It has been described as an uncomfortable moment.

agreed 100%.

IMO most of what drives current-day american politics is a couple of things.

first is this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_GDP_per_capita_vs_media n_household_income.png

second is the fact that while both parties are committed to making that worse, one is able to do it with the support of their base.

sigh https://tinyurl.com/y5o24xfm