it was a shock to me because i expected a lot better. biden can read a teleprompter and sound cogent, but last night under the lights he looked like a mummy who could not reply to trump's utter lunacies in a clear and cogent manner. in the previous election he did, but the last 4 years have taken their heavy toll

really it doesn't matter who was right or "i told you so" though. because this is a real world emergency and it is happening and it' pointless to hand out awards and medals. it will affect you too if the beast is back, and you will experience many meltdowns even from your antipodean hideaway. there is no place to hide from 'merica, really... australia is a us ally (aukus hi)

sure biden's term has hardly been perfect, but if experience has showed me anything is that things can always get worse. and i'll always choose imperfection over catastrophe

i know you're young and still believe that utopias are possible if we just wish for them, but people are assholes and real life is an unforgiving fucking bastard. so i've been overall happy with biden's administration

and now i don't know what's going to happen

but trust me, if disaster comes it will come for you too. so don't be snarky and get ready, because it's coming "bigly" (ugh...). this is the big meteorite

anyway my mind has now adjusted from the shock of last night but i'm taking the day off for the body to recover (because stress is chemical and has bodily consequences)

jeezus fucking christ. it's like that peter weir movie with the wave, whatsisname. the last wave! jeeezus fucking christ. fascism is coming, and it will touch EVERYONE. no use in crying, we just have to get ready

warrig


that was the word they used over here to describe Biden
a bit like the Suicidal Tendencies song




Democrats are 50-0 down even before it's began
Right is taking over unfortunately, also in EurHope


In Holland, the upcoming new minister for migration has in the past been promoting the great replacement theory :eek::eek::eek:
The Dutch term is even better or worse however you want to say it: Omvolking. Sounds very Nazi German

He was great at his rally today.

Maybe there is something to the QAnon actor/clone/robot retarded conspiracy theory. That's the guy/machine who showed up last night.

Dude was dealing with a cold in his 80s. Certain meds can reduce your reaction time and your overall cognitive abilities. And that also comes in waves. He probably was feeling better during the rally.



We can't expect public personas to always perform well under any and all circumstances - that's expecting a machine/robot. Add to that that Biden has never been the most riveting orator. He occasionally does well in debates and has his moments, but an Obama or a Bernie he's not.


I'm perturbed by the media hubbub about it too (Hey, it's only democracy on the line here, no biggie). But no one is immune to giving a bad performance. I'm obviously worried, but the immediate jump to conclusions hyped up the medias is mighty crazy.


Not that I'm a huge fan of Biden's - but he's the better option and by the looks of things, the only option right now. He's had a bad performance, no need to blow it out of proportion right now. Because that tendency too may be detrimental.

i'm actually a fan of his administration, but this was not mere bad performance or stutter. he looked to be coming out of some great depths of confusion, and could not provide clear answers to covfefe's horrid lies. flu or not flu, a candidate should be able to answer

i don't need the media to tell me about my own physical reaction to something happening in plain sight--sure it's mediated by a camera and microphones and colored and shaped by lights and acoustics, but a helpless old man is a helpless old man, and i ended up screaming at the tv for him to do something, like in a boxing match when a fighter is getting clobbered and cannot even raise his guard anymore, or a lion tamer is getting mauled by the lion

it was extremely hard to watch and i just couldn't stomach the entirety of it. i mean i endured what, an hour of torture, not sure, i could not take it anymore. this wasn't a mere bad performance, it was a very old man looking lost with his mouth open and a confused stare. he doesn't have four more years in him i'm afraid. this was practically elder abuse and i saw it happen live

oh i remember this scene... https://youtu.be/b5qwTeCj4jc

the democrats have my support no matter who they run, i'll vote blue no matter who as they say, but i can't expect the rest of the country to do the same, much less the undecideds.

we need someone to protect us from the lying bastard and uncle joe is no longer up to the task. this was evident enough. we can spin it and talk about it, but the big meteorite is coming and we need someone who can stop it, and the old man is looking at the sky wondering what is that orange flame approaching

someone please help. this can't go on like this

While I do think there would be a couple of candidates up to that task (like I said, not a huge Bidenite), I'm not sure they'd rally the voters on such short notice. It would take a candidate so undeniably popular that mere months of campaigning and a complete overhaul of the entire strategy that late in the game don't seem such a herculean task.


I know Michelle Obama is massively popular, but there haven't been any attempts or even whispers of intentions to run. I love me some Bernie, but I'm aware that at this point, this is pretty much a pipe dream. He'd have a shit ton of rallies and his own party's seeming dislike for him (assuming he'd run as a Dem again) to contend with. Gavin Newsom seems to be the most likely candidate right now based on whispers and murmurs, and he ... is divisive to say the least. Better than Trump? Always and without question. But a sparkling personality that could sway voters with ease? Afraid not.

bernie is too leftie, kamala is unpopular, newsom seems a bit of a douche, but anyone who can stand up straight and speak with a loud and clear voice would be an improvement

i've seen the name of senator mark kelly of arizona bandied about already. i dont know if you remember he entered the public consciousness when his wife gabby giffords was shot in the head by some lunatic. anyway he's an astronaut and navy captain and a centrist. az senator since 2020. i think if he can appeal to arizona voters he could bring on the undecided voters nationally

having said that, i don't know how good he is at television bulshitting and charisma, a requirement these days, but at least on paper looks competent and reasonable which is all we really need to run a country of laws with longstanding institutions which needs no micromanaging by a wannabe dictator

What a fucking week.

Anyone else 2024

What the jokers said in 2016. In ended in a putsch.

Seat projections
Party or alliance Seats
Rassemblement National and allies 230 to 280
Nouveau Front Populaire 125 to 165
Ensemble 70 to 100
Les Républicains and allies 41 to 61
Other 33 to 49
Source: Ipsos, June 30. Absolute majority requires 289 seats.

:/

What a fucking week.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga

...

no i don't believe in that but it has a poetry to put our shit in the perspective of much much more shit hahahahaha

Hey, we haven't even mentioned SCOTUS' latest horrors. Seek shelter - an IMMUNITY BOMB could blow up Jack Smith's case tomorrow. Washington Post gift link for you all.

I like Gretchen Whitmer. I mean, what's not to like there... What were we talking about? Biden, right. Look, I don't think the guy's going anywhere unless Dr. Jill tells him to drop out. Personally, I'm very conflicted about this - starting a candidacy from scratch with four months to go seems as insane as staying the course. What would Aaron Sorkin write?

By the way, if the candidate is Newsom look for another veep too, as the Constitution says the whole ticket can't be from the same state. That holy text, I tell ya, always a riot... I guess that rules out Gavin's cousin Joanna as well.

I've been thinking something along those lines too. It seems a huge gamble. In order for this to work, it would have to be someone with the incontestability of ... say a Mr. Rogers. Someone seemingly everyone loves. The Dems, and the pillars of US democracy as it is, are stuck between a rock and a hard place right now.

If THIS is the future, I'm out. I'm peacing out of this shit. OUT.

I mean, you've gotta play the percentages sooner or later. If the Democrats consider a Trump victory to be as horrible as the rest of the country considers it, and they consider Biden to have next to no chance of winning, you've got to roll the dice on a 10 to 1 chance as opposed to a 50 to 1.

Whitmer seems like a pretty good option, at least from what I've picked up - staunchly progressive but not so radical that centrist Dems will freak on her, successful state-based results, clearly going to run for election someday, and picking a Midwesterner would surely help them in the crucial swing states (only one Dem in the last 50 years has lost their home state, and that was Gore in Tennessee lmao; Whitmer's from Michigan and that's one of the most likely states to decide this year).

yeeeeeeees, very good!

Hm, I looked up a few more things on Whitmer. And she seems to be very likeable, even has that kind of "folksy" quality that would appeal to a broader portion of the population. She does seem to have a good sense of humor and the gift of gab. I could see her directing very effective jabs and sick burns towards Trump in a one-on-one. Plus her stances and policy decisions are pretty damn solid. She would indeed be a great pick.

kali yuga agents have granted immunity to a criminal! just 468,000 more years to go lolol....ok i'm gonna try to prevent a heart attack here...

i think i'm gonna watch jeff goldblum eat bagels and catch murderers in a make-believe world where shit works out...

It's over. The United States is fucking over.

From The Nation:

well biden is still president, so... he could immunize himself too

like, he could send all 6 unfavorable judges plus trumpo to guantánamo on "official" capacity, and be immune from prosecution

no?

he could also pick up mtg and matt gaetz and wassername and drop them into the arctic ocean from a helicopter like you-know-who. official immunity!

...


anyway this is fucking ridiculous but here we go anyway

(first as tragedy, then as farce)

stoicism + epicureanism remain individual remedies of last resort

the roman comparison is useful i suppose

the roman empire fought the persians (parthians then sassanids) until the rise of the arabs, who took north africa and spain and judea and persia itself... then rome was finally beaten by the turks who inherited from both arabs and persians

is china the new persia? i want to stay the fuck out of the way of the upcoming wars...

well shit, whatever happens happens. kali yuga here we go!

found this, read it

https://billmoyers.com/story/increas...horitarianism/

without an external opposition however an empire can last forever

No dude, Persia is Iran now.
:D

you never did the analogies test huh? haha ok

as fun as it would be for reality to follow fiction, i don't see the 1984 blocks really happening now

oceania / eurasia / eastasia? hmmmm

well actually we don't even know if those actually existed in the world of the novel or if they were just made up for propaganda, something often missed when people talk about 1984, "the world is divided in..." well we can't know

but in orwell's times those 3 blocks were imaginable and also possible (hence their popularity)

however, the symbolic eurasia/eastasia are now merging in real life. so we now just have 2 big warring blocks shaping up

in antiquity also we had 2! it was greece/rome "the west" vs roughly persia as "the east" (china was in its own world)

historically, the "east" of europe used to be the persians, because china was too far for full contact. the hun and mongol cavalries did kiss the edge of europe but never really stayed for long. the russians were the ones in trouble with the tartars (but now they will be a chinese province so they don't matter in the long run)

for millennia however we had:

egypt vs mesopotamia
greece vs the persians
(alexander joins the edges briefly)
rome (who took egypt) vs the parthians
greek rome (byzantium) vs the sassanids
europe vs the arabs (who take over persia and greek rome)
europe vs the ottomans (who finished killing greek rome)

see the dividing line, always returning?

but now! persia is piddly and practically a pawn. and china is the big bogeyman it was never before! they used to be providers of exotic merch, now they are the competition even in africa korps, they are putin's patrons, iran's buddies, etc

china as enemy of "the west" is a new paradigm, at multimillennial scale.

but it's same song as the old anti-persian song, just different lyrics now. this is bigger than ever. it's planetary. russia + iran + china + north korea *a block*. we didnt have this before. usa the new rome and china in charge of persia. actually nato is more like the delian league than rome. but ok it's not a replication, just theme + variations

(previously we had "the eastern block" with the soviets but that was short-lived. russia and china used to be enemies which is what drove china and nixon together)

and now that the usa is heading towards full imperial government... who is going to stop this madness? we'll be ruled by fiat and assassinations just like "the other side". xi, putin, kim and the ayatollah vs ... our own unchecked authoritarians?

i am just looking to get away from the future front lines (eg yesterday the balkans, today ukraine and gaza, tomorrow...?). hard to tell where they will be with satellites and hypersonic nukes and cyberwarfare though

We all know the Democrats don't have the balls to act so decisively

of course democrats wouldn't do that. something like that would trigger a civil war... the crazy guys on the other side would not mind though. they have all the ar-15s

M'kay, so apparently that is that with that. Tell you what: if Biden wins, we're gonna go through the whole rigged/stolen bullshit talk again (only worse), so fuckit, let's steal it for real this time. Same diff!

i was watching copa américa, canada beat venezuela on penalties, it was an entertaining low-quality match

so i missed this shitshow! and im glad

"the almighty"? well now the fucker has lost it. proof he has bad judgment?i don't mean about his presumed religiosity, but his ego...

im glad he has good staffers because otherwise...

i don't think we're gonna face any stolen election scenario. oh i see what you're saying hahahaha

i don't think he can

jill biden on the cover of vogue! jeezus haploid fucking christ

no i mean, no, they've lost their last marbles

i'll wait to watch the video in the morning, or i'll get nightmares

we're gonna get covfefe'd...

I very much doubt that a civil war would ensue from that. Street scuffles, maybe.

i don't know, maybe i'm paranoid. but if biden were to cloak himself in presidential immunity to start acting like a banana republic dictator, disappearing people and political enemies in the name of "official acts" , i think even his own people would rise against him. i am not sure about the militsry, but i think there could be statewide insurrections. texas for example is armed to the teeth even if you don't count the military bases and personnel in it. and they have money and power and a huge population, unlike in 1860

on the other hand if a republican did something like that his fanatics would just look the other way as they have done previously. nixon would not have to quit in disgrace today. and the democrats would probably do nothing except maybe scream and cry in public places and maybe loot random businesses. that would be the street scuffles

this is a really weird time. weird as fuck. here, and in europe... i don't like it

curiously the uk has bucked the trend! you're not getting farage as pm but a centrist (corbynism is dead). is that ahead of the curve, or behind the curve? i'm not sure... i hope it's ahead of the curve and a return back from extremes is the future for everyone

fuuuucking relieved that the left is winning in france! jeezus fucking christ, a huge bullet has been dodged today

(their current proposals would damage their economy though if implemented)

To be clear, I'm not saying "whoever is in a 3rd/4th party here". I'm saying remove Trump from the ticket, remove Biden from the ticket, put in other, ideally younger, people we can vote on, major parties included.

It was some good news for a change. Things are looking grim enough. Good to see a few countries bucking the trend.

the new right-wing fraction Patriots For Europe for the European Parliament founded by Hungarian prime-minister Orban is a bit scary to me. The Dutch PVV has joined amongst others, the Belgian right-wingers and the French Rassemblement National of Le Pen most probably join as well.

At this point, the only entity who can replace Joe Biden is... DARK BRANDON!

"Patriots", right. Buncha motherfucking pieces of shit. :mad: