USPOL Oct: Trumpelthinskin's spinning wheel: spinning hot takes into gold

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Oct: Trumpelthinskin's spinning wheel: spinning hot takes into gold

«‹›1588 »

EngineerJoe: Aug 8, 2004; -=whore=-

size1one posted:

As far as I've seen it explained there's no subtext to being a corncob. It's literally a random object/vegetable that he turns into. It's a terrible joke.

I honestly thought it was related to this:

# ? Oct 2, 2016 00:53

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 20, 2024 03:31

Islam is the Lite Rock FM: Jul 27, 2007; by exmarx

fishmech posted:

Nah, the far-leftist champion is one of the dozens of socialist fraction party candidates out there. And each of those are actually more likely to ever see political office again than Jill Stein!

Jill Stein is the "aunt and uncle who are really into crystals" champion.

I'll allow this, fishmech, because you made me laugh.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 00:53

MizPiz: May 29, 2013; by Athanatos

What's this basement dwellers thing? I'm not going through alt-right twitter posts just to figure it out.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 00:55

Endorph: Jul 22, 2009

MizPiz posted:

What's this basement dwellers thing? I'm not going through alt-right twitter posts just to figure it out.

Leaked audio from Febuary of Clinton talking about Bernie's supporters and mentioning that a lot of them 'live in their parents's basement, are baristas, they don't see any way out - they're victims of a system they aren't a part of and don't understand."

it's pretty clearly just meant to be shorthand for them not being where they want to be, not an actual insult. The worst you can say about the bit is that she's mildly condescending. Considering even actual berniebro hangouts have said that they don't care, it's not going to get any traction.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 00:56

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

MizPiz posted:

What's this basement dwellers thing? I'm not going through alt-right twitter posts just to figure it out.

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/30/hillary-clinton-center-right/

Leaked recordings from a fundraising event reveal Hillary Clinton empathizing with Bernie supporters:

quote:

CLINTON: Some are new to politics completely. They�re children of the Great Recession. And they are living in their parents� basement. They feel they got their education and the jobs that are available to them are not at all what they envisioned for themselves. And they don�t see much of a future. I met with a group of young black millennials today and you know one of the young women said, �You know, none of us feel that we have the job that we should have gotten out of college. And we don�t believe the job market is going to give us much of a chance.� So that is a mindset that is really affecting their politics. And so if you�re feeling like you�re consigned to, you know, being a barista, or you know, some other job that doesn�t pay a lot, and doesn�t have some other ladder of opportunity attached to it, then the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could be part of a political revolution is pretty appealing. So I think we should all be really understanding of that and should try to do the best we can not to be, you know, a wet blanket on idealism. We want people to be idealistic. We want them to set big goals. But to take what we can achieve now and try to present them as bigger goals.

Read in full context (or, even better, listening to the actual recordings to hear her tone of voice) reveal her empathy. But just saying "Hillary Clinton says Bernie supporters 'are living in their parents' basement" make her sound really dismissive and mocking.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 00:58

Samurai Sanders: Nov 4, 2003; Pillbug

MizPiz posted:

What's this basement dwellers thing? I'm not going through alt-right twitter posts just to figure it out.

Hillary was talking to her staff about how many Bernie supporters were young and educated but couldn't find work because of the recession, and she chose to use "living in their parents' basement" to express that. Not the best choice of words.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 00:58

redgubbinz: May 1, 2007

MizPiz posted:

What's this basement dwellers thing? I'm not going through alt-right twitter posts just to figure it out.

I've learned not to click on any trending hashtags, they're invariably full of garbage tweets by garbage people. Has anyone made an alt-right buzzword Markov bot yet?

(ninja edit: just googled the term to make sure I'm using it correctly and sure enough...here we are: https://filiph.github.io/markov/ )

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:00

Fitzy Fitz: May 14, 2005

It's funny how the recording is being paraded around like it's a bad thing, because I actually really like what she's saying.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:00

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Epic High Five posted:

That, and anybody who has been paying any attention to the Democratic Party this last year and half knows full well that "living in parent's basement and working as an overqualified barista" is the exact same language they have been using, in no small part because it's a very quick and expressive way to turn their concerns into something quotable

I don't care much for barista because carries some baggage, although I have a hard time articulating what exactly I mean by that.

I prefer the explication that millennials were told to go to school and get a degree so they didn't waste their life stuck at some McDonald's flipping burgers for a living, and now that they've graduated and are having trouble landing a job to pay the debt they are getting told that McDonald's is always hiring.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:00

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

Can someone fill me in on the basement dweller non-scandal? I missed what's going on and I'm at work.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:01

Endorph: Jul 22, 2009

Lightning Knight posted:

Can someone fill me in on the basement dweller non-scandal? I missed what's going on and I'm at work.

we just explained it four posts above you dude

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:02

Mokelumne Trekka: Nov 22, 2015; Soon.

Hillary should've have given a trigger warning before she said the basement dwellers remark.

In all seriousness, referring to millennials as "children of the Great Recession" is a very sympathetic phrase to apply to millennials.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:02

Islam is the Lite Rock FM: Jul 27, 2007; by exmarx

Lightning Knight posted:

Can someone fill me in on the basement dweller non-scandal? I missed what's going on and I'm at work.

The deplorables are trying to make another non-scandal of Hillary telling her people to feel empathy and help disenfranchised millennials get their life on track.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:03

WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

https://twitter.com/JoeMande/status/782226550519394304

:lol:

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:06

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

The first half of her comments is what made a lot of people on the left angry. Not the basement dweller part.

quote:

CLINTON: It is important to recognize what�s going on in this election. Everybody who�s ever been in an election that I�m aware of is quite bewildered because there is a strain of, on the one hand, the kind of populist, nationalist, xenophobic, discriminatory kind of approach that we hear too much of from the Republican candidates. And on the other side, there�s just a deep desire to believe that we can have free college, free healthcare, that what we�ve done hasn�t gone far enough, and that we just need to, you know, go as far as, you know, Scandinavia, whatever that means, and half the people don�t know what that means, but it�s something that they deeply feel. So as a friend of mine said the other day, I am occupying from the center-left to the center-right. And I don�t have much company there. Because it is difficult when you�re running to be president, and you understand how hard the job is � I don�t want to overpromise. I don�t want to tell people things that I know we cannot do.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:06

Endorph: Jul 22, 2009

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The first half of her comments is what made a lot of people on the left angry. Not the basement dweller part.

the first half of her comments, where the thing the comments are named after isn't mentioned

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:07

WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

�Finally. Someone who thinks like me.�

quote:

In a living room in western Pennsylvania, the Republican National Convention was on TV, and Melanie Austin was getting impatient.

�Who�s that guy?� she said, watching some billionaire talk about prosperity and tolerance. �Prosperity and tolerance? Forget that sh--.�

She lit a cigarette. Her boyfriend, Kevin Lisovich, was next to her on the couch, drifting to sleep, a pillow over his head. On the ottoman was her cellphone, her notes on the speakers so far � �LOCK HER UP!!� she had written � and the anti-anxiety pills she kept in a silver vial on her key chain.

She was a 52-year-old woman who had worked 20 years for the railroad, had once been a Democrat and was now a Republican, and counted herself among the growing swath of people who occupied the fringes of American politics but were increasingly becoming part of the mainstream. Like millions of others, she believed that President Obama was a Muslim. And like so many she had gotten to know online through social media, she also believed that he was likely gay, that Michelle Obama could be a man, and that the Obama children were possibly kidnapped from a family now searching for them.

�So beautiful,� Melanie said as Ivanka Trump walked onto the convention stage to introduce her father, and soon the soaring score of the movie �Air Force One� was blasting through the TV. Melanie sat up straighter. This is what she had been waiting for.

�Here comes Big Daddy,� she said, clapping. �The Donald. Big Daddy.�

Kevin was snoring.

�Here he is, babe,� she said. �Donald�s here, babe.�

Trump walked onto the stage, chanting �U-S-A! U-S-A!�

�That�s right, Donald � USA, baby,� Melanie said to the Republican nominee for president, who began his speech by marveling at all the Americans who had gotten him here.

�Who would have believed that when we started this journey on June 16th of last year we � and I say we, because we are a team � would have received almost 14 million votes?� Trump said, looking out on the cheering crowd.

�I would,� Melanie said to the TV. �I would, Donald.�

The first time she had seen him, at a rally in June, she was just beginning to realize how many people saw the world the way she did, that she was one among millions. At the time, her hips were still sore from a series of injections intended to calm her. She had gotten them in February, during a difficult time in her life, when she had been involuntarily hospitalized for several weeks after what she called a �rant,� a series of online postings that included one saying that Obama should be hanged and the White House fumigated and burned to the ground. On her discharge papers, in a box labeled �medical problem,� a doctor had typed �homicidal ideation.�

Melanie thought the whole thing was outrageous. She wasn�t a person with homicidal ideation. She was anxious, sure. Enraged, definitely. But certainly not homicidal, and certainly not in need of a hospital stay.

�It never crossed my mind that I�m losing it,� she said several months after her release, and a big reason for this conviction was the rise of Donald Trump, who had talked about so many of the things she had come to believe � from Obama being a founder of the terrorist group ISIS, to Hillary Clinton being a co-founder, to the idea that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may have been murdered in a White House plot involving a prostitute and a pillow.

�They say they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow,� Trump had told the talk-radio host Michael Savage, who was using his show to explain the scenario to his 5 million weekly listeners, who then spread it on Facebook, where it wound up in Melanie�s feed.

To Melanie, this was the glory of the 2016 presidential election. The truth about so many things was finally being accepted, from the highest levels of the Republican Party on down to the grass roots of America, where so many people like her didn�t care what some fact-checker said, much less that one day Trump would suggest that Obama wasn�t born in America, and on another say maybe he was.

More and more, she was meeting people who felt the same as she did, joining what amounted to a parallel world of beliefs that the Trump campaign had not so much created as harnessed and swept into the presidential election. As Melanie saw it, what she had posted about Obama was no different from what a New Hampshire state legislator and Trump campaign adviser had said about Hillary Clinton, that she �should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.�

�If it�s time to lock me up, it�s time to lock up the world,� Melanie remembered thinking when she had heard that.

And so when she was released from the hospital with instructions to �maintain a healthy lifestyle,� she did what seemed to her not only healthy but also patriotic. She began campaigning for Trump.

�Trumpslide 2016!� she posted on Facebook a few days after she got home in March.

�Lets build a winning team and GREAT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!! #Vote for #Donald #Trump for #President!� she posted in May. �#STOPHILARYCLINTON #STOPBERNIESANDERS #SHUTUPMITTROMNEY.�

In June, Melanie heard that Trump was holding a rally in an airplane hangar near Pittsburgh, so off she and Kevin went. On a blazing Saturday afternoon, her red �Make America Great Again� hat bobbed amid the thousands streaming past hawkers selling �Trump that Bitch� T-shirts and �Bomb the poo poo Out of ISIS� buttons and a man handing out pamphlets about the apocalypse.

Melanie took one to fan herself, and she and Kevin found a spot in the crowd. She looked around.

�I feel so inspired and uplifted!� she yelled over the blasting music.

�We need hope!� yelled Kevin, and soon the �Air Force One� theme began swelling as Donald Trump�s Boeing 757 rolled into view.

�We want Trump! We want Trump!� the crowd began chanting.

�There he is!� Melanie yelled as Trump stepped out of his plane. �Oh, yeah! Donaaaald!�

Her voice blended into the thunderous cheers, but as Trump began speaking, and people quieted down, hers became the lone voice calling out from the crowd.

�Boo! Booooo!� she yelled when Trump referred to �Crooked Hillary.�

�Traitoooor!� she yelled when Trump mentioned Obama.

And when Trump was saying how great it was going to be on Election Day � �If you pull the right trigger, we�re going to have fun together!� � Melanie was the one letting it rip from the back of the airplane hangar.

�Yeeeeaaaah!� she yelled.

A month later, she was backing out of the driveway of her house, a gray-sided two-story, the same one in which she grew up. It was late afternoon, and her check-engine light came on.

�Oh, that�s all I need,� she said during another chaotic day.

Her morning had gone by in county court with Kevin, a onetime local council member and firefighter who was now a laid-off production-shift supervisor checking in with a judge about charges related to using someone�s car without permission.

�We had to sit through all these arraignments,� Melanie said of the parade of heroin addicts. �I couldn�t believe all the women they brought in. They had tattoos. Blue and green hair. These are zombies, is what they seem to be.�

After that they went to help Kevin�s son fix his decrepit van. �So we tied the muffler up,� she said, and that was her day so far. Zombies, a busted muffler and now a check-engine light as she was driving.

Through the windshield was a part of Pennsylvania that is more than 90 percent white, ranks among the worst in the state on indicators such as unemployment and premature death, and is near the top in support for Donald Trump, who got two-thirds of the GOP primary vote in April.

�My crappy little corrupt community,� was how Melanie described it, speeding past houses with roofs sagging, porches tilting and buildings rotting into overgrown grass. She slowed as she entered the tiny downtown of Brownsville, population 2,292 and shrinking.

�My workplace was right there to the left,� she said, pointing to where a railroad office once was. �It was a big red building. Bunch of offices. I don�t miss it one bit,� she said, speeding up again. �And I have unpleasant thoughts.�

She had spent her whole life here. She was raised in a family of coal miners and railroad men, graduated from a technical school, and had been working as a secretary when her sister became sick and asked her to take care of her son temporarily. Needing more money, she started working for the railroad, first as a crew dispatcher and eventually as an engineer, running trains full of coal and equipment.

She was usually the only woman on a crew, but she prided herself on being tough, so when she heard that some higher-up had called a colleague and asked, �What�s Austin wearing today, her green miniskirt?� Melanie laughed it off. She ignored the boss who she said left a Penthouse magazine on her desk. But then came the sexually explicit graffiti about her in the train toilets, and a male colleague�s calling her �psycho bitch� over the radio, and another male colleague�s flying her underwear like a flag off the train � all of which became part of a sexual-harassment lawsuit Melanie filed against the railroads. In 2002, a jury awarded her $450,000 in damages, a verdict overturned by a federal judge who did not question the facts of the case but decided that the matter had been handled appropriately.

�The jury gave me my one moment in the sun as far as justice was concerned,� Melanie said. �But the politicians are never going to let a little girl slap two Class I railroads, and they didn�t.�

That was the moment when she began to see so clearly how the world worked, she said, and it wasn�t just about the judge. It was about a whole corrupt political system, starting with the governor at the time, Ed Rendell � �that dirty, filthy politician I call Swindell� � who she figured was in the pocket of the railroads and had influenced the judge.

And it didn�t stop there. Rendell was friendly with Bill Clinton, and Melanie was sure it didn�t help her case that Clinton was president and embroiled in sex scandals when she began filing complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. �To see Slick Willy�s photo all over, you just wanted to barf,� she said.

�What could I do?� she said, driving along. �Nothing. I�m just one little girl.�

Someone honked.

�Oh, be quiet!� she yelled out the window.

She was late taking her afternoon anti-anxiety pill.

�My anxiety�s through the roof,� she said, and then explained what came after the lawsuit. Her sister became ill with cancer. There were fights with doctors and insurance companies over bills. Her sister died. There was the housing collapse and the banking collapse, and her hours got cut back, and her colleagues were treating her as bad as ever.

�Every day was a different scumbum,� she said. �I couldn�t handle one more d---head.�

Her anxiety was getting worse and worse, and then one day in 2011, Melanie went to work, and in a moment she cannot recall clearly, ran her train through a red signal. No one was hurt, but she lost her job.

�I did cartwheels,� she said. �I didn�t have to endure this s--- one more day. Not one more creep crawling up on my engine. Still, it�s a hell of a transition from working woman, and then now to have to confront PTSD, anxiety and depression.�

She went on disability. After a while, she tried to get a job at the local firehouse but came to believe officials were stealing money. She tried to stay on top of her anxiety medication but thought her doctor was committing Medicare fraud. She joined a motorcycle club called Bikers for Christ but found the members to be just �filthy old men.� And every day there was Brownsville.

�When I was a kid, at Christmas time, you�d have lights and a big �Season�s Greetings� banner hung up here,� she said. �There is none of that now. I don�t see much pride in this town. I don�t see much pride at all.�

What she did see more and more was not only a collapsing town, but also a collapsing country and world, and when she looked at President Obama, the person presiding over it all, what she saw was someone who seemed �to come out of nowhere.�

�Nobody knew him! I mean, �Dreams from My Father� from Kenya?� Melanie said, referring to Obama�s memoir.

To her, the president seemed so far away, so oblivious to the decay she saw around her that when Donald Trump began suggesting that Obama was not American, it made sense. When Trump and others suggested that Obama was Muslim, to Melanie it seemed plausible. And when Obama started talking about, of all things, gay marriage and letting transgender people into bathrooms, it all came together: The president of the United States was a gay Muslim from Kenya working to undermine America.

The more she thought about it, the more certain she became, and with certainty came a feeling of confidence � a sense of liberation that culminated over several days in February, when she decided, �I�ve been pushed around all I�m going to be pushed around,� and began unleashing 20 years of feelings online.

�Melanie is taking the world by storm!� she wrote, alongside a cartoon of herself flying.

�Yippeeee!� she wrote when Trump pulled ahead in the South Carolina primary.

�Have a cup of shut up juice DemTARD!� she wrote during a Democratic forum.

�OUR NATION IS IN TROUBLE,� she wrote two days later. �WE ARE STARVING FOR GOOD, HONEST, CARING LEADERSHIP.�

She posted the name of a local firehouse official with a circle and a slash through it. She wrote to a local council member, �Buzz off blubberlips!� She wrote #hangslickwillynow, and in reference to Hillary Clinton, #hangtheskanknow, and then she turned her attention to Obama. The president should be hanged and the White House fumigated and burned to the ground, Melanie wrote, and soon after that, the state police were knocking on her front door.

She was in her nightgown. She was off her anti-anxiety medication. She thought that if she opened the door, the police were going to grab her, so she talked to them through a window.

�Oh, they were very placating. �Hello, Ms. Austin, how are you today?� � she recalled. �They couldn�t care less how I was today.�

The rest of the conversation was a blur, but Melanie remembered that she finally decided there was no use resisting, and as the police led her outside and into the hot back seat of a cruiser, she hummed the old hymn �Don�t Be Afraid� over and over. As she saw it, she was becoming a �political prisoner.�

Her neighbor John, a childhood friend who was watching the whole thing unfold from his yard, walked over and ducked his head into the police car. He was worried. Melanie told him not to be, that God was in control, and that �time will tell the truth.� She asked him to take care of her cat, and then the police drove her away.

Four months after that, the Republican convention was underway, and Melanie was online with her 2,795 Facebook friends and 1,430 Twitter followers and all the other people she was meeting every day across America.

She was in her garage, where she went most mornings at sunrise to say her prayers and check her social media feeds on her phone. She sat at a big picnic table set with some laminated Holy Land place mats she had gotten during a trip to Israel, and under the Christmas lights in the rafters.

�Oh, look,� she said, reading a headline. ��A West Virginia member of the House of Delegates says Hillary Clinton should be tried for treason, murder and crimes against the U.S. Constitution and then hung on the Mall in Washington, D.C.� �

She scrolled.

�I want to find out if he�s going to the nut house because of it,� she said.

She lit a cigarette and squinted at the screen.

�Look at this,� she said, pointing to a photo of Michelle Obama with a caption suggesting she is a man. �It�s everywhere.�

And then she began explaining, step by step, how she had come to believe that the first lady might actually be a man named Michael.

She figured it started with the Christian televangelists she had followed since the 1980s. In particular, she loved John Hagee, who had said that the Antichrist would appear as a �blasphemer and a homosexual.� And Jerry Falwell, who had blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on �the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians.�

�Also,� Melanie said, �Falwell disclosed that the first Christmas Bill and Hillary spent in the White House, Hillary collected ornaments from homosexuals all over the world. And those ornaments were hung in the White House foyer.�

And if that wasn�t enough to prove they were �anti-Bible,� she said, the Clintons went on to support allowing closeted gay people to serve in the military, which she saw as a watershed moment when America began turning away from God.

Then came Obama � �Obama and his gay initiatives,� she said � and her suspicions about him deepened with each one. First he supported allowing gays to serve openly in the military. Then gay marriage. Then came the one that struck Melanie as the strangest and most sinister of all: allowing transgender people to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.

�It�s like he wants to classify us � alpha, beta, gamma, delta,� she said, referring to the dystopian future described in the novel �Brave New World.�

As she tried to understand it all, the best explanation she found was that Obama himself must be gay, a notion introduced and reinforced by all sorts of stories and photos and videos showing up in her Facebook feed. Of these, few were more convincing than a video of the late comedian Joan Rivers, which was what brought her to the matter of the first lady.

�Here we go,� she said now, finding it on her phone.

She read the headline out loud: �Joan Rivers died two months after calling Obama gay and Michelle a transvestite.�

And then she scrolled through one YouTube video after another, including a 13-minute 28-second one with more than 1.4 million views that she watched again now. In it, a reporter asks Rivers when America will have its first gay president. �We already have it with Obama, so let�s just calm down,� Rivers says as she walks away, adding, �You know Michelle is a tranny.� �I�m sorry, she�s a what?� the reporter asks. �A transgender,� Rivers replies. �We all know that.�

�So,� Melanie said, explaining why she thought Rivers was serious. �There are societies out there, especially in Hollywood, that we don�t know about. Joan is in the LGTB community; she�s steeped in it. I watch her stuff on E! Anyone knows that.�

�So,� she continued, �I think if she comes out and says we already have a gay in the White House and Michelle is a tranny, I mean, do you think she�s nuts?�

She took a drag on her cigarette.

�Well, I don�t,� she said, and turned her attention to the question of the Obama children.

�Let�s look,� she said, and began googling.

She started with mrconservative.com, where there was a story, headlined �Evidence Michelle Obama Never Gave Birth to Malia & Sasha,� that said: �We have seen pictures of Barack and Michelle dating back far before they had children, like shots from their wedding, but when it comes to what would have been Michelle�s childbearing years, there is absolutely nothing. Not one picture of her pregnant or with a newborn baby.� It continued: �Ancestry.com and GenealogyBank.com have no records of Malia or Sasha being born,� and also said that �Malia and Sasha [bear] little resemblance to their parents,� which �could very well be because the two girls were adopted, possibly from Morocco.� After reading that, Melanie scrolled through links to versions of the story on americasfreedomfighters.com and redflagnews.com and others among the dozens of similar websites that have proliferated in recent years and draw millions of visitors each month. She looked up from her phone.

�I think those kids were kidnapped,� she said. �We should be looking for those kids� parents.�

She kept scrolling for more evidence.

�Obama gay is on Infowars,� she said, pausing for a moment on the conspiracy theory website that now had more than 6.9 million U.S. visitors per month and a daily news program hosted by Alex Jones, who had interviewed Donald Trump. �I just want to finish by saying your reputation�s amazing,� Trump had told Jones in December. In May, Jones had devoted his show to �the possibility that Michelle Obama was born a man,� and as the Republican National Convention began, he had hosted a rally attended by Trump adviser Roger Stone. Melanie kept scrolling.

Obama Muslim. Obama ISIS. Christian beheadings. A link to an article on a website called commonsenseshow.com detailing how the U.S. government had imported 30,000 guillotines in preparation for martial law, and explaining that a single guillotine �reportedly can chop off the heads of about 100 people per hour,� so that �in one ten hour day, 30 million people could be executed.�

It was afternoon now, and Melanie got herself a glass of iced tea. She thought about the two legislators who had said Hillary Clinton should be executed, and all the memes, and all the stories on all the websites. The more she read, she said, the more certain she was becoming that she was not out of the ordinary, and that her hospitalization, for instance, was just one more example of an increasingly unjust world. She went over it again: the police cruiser, the injections, the medical bills after. Her hips still hurt. Her gait was off. She was almost out of cigarettes.

After a while, her next-door neighbor John stopped by.

�John,� Melanie said. �Do you remember when I was in the police car handcuffed and you came to talk to me?�

�Yeah,� said John, a laid-off coal miner. �I didn�t know what was going on, to tell you the truth. I said, �Well, something�s up. She�s pissed somebody off.� �

Melanie asked him, �Did you feel I needed to be committed?�

John looked at her.

�That�s what Randy thought,� he said, referring to a neighbor. �He�s the one that said being where you�re at is the best thing for you.�

�John,� Melanie said. �I�m on the same meds today that I was on the day they took me out of my house.�

�Well,� John said. �Maybe they thought they had to settle your rear end down.�

�There are a lot of people like me,� Melanie said. �What�s so special about Melanie Austin that she had to be hauled away to the nuthouse?�

John didn�t answer, and after he left, in the early evening, Melanie put on a CD of Chuck Smith, a 1970s preacher she�d long admired who was best known for converting hippies to Christianity.

�This is one of the last CDs he made, and it�s beautiful,� she said, turning up the volume on the classic gospel hymn �How Great Thou Art.�

�That�s the moment I�m living for right there, �When Christ takes me home,� � she said, referencing the lyrics. �I will say, �Thanks for remembering me.� �

She kept scrolling. Hillary Clinton murderer. ISIS chops off heads with dull knife.

�I do feel happy and blessed,� Melanie said, singing, reading on her phone.

She was looking for news about the death of Scalia. She googled �Scalia murdered by prostitute,� and soon she was awash in stories about secret White House plots and embalmed bodies and the murder of one of the nation�s most powerful people. �Like so many other people around Hillary Clinton,� she said. �What are we supposed to think?�

She finished her last cigarette and listened to a song about surrender. A fan was blowing. The lights were glowing.

�So you see, the media, everybody helped me get to February,� she said, referring to the day the state police took her off to the hospital. �I didn�t get there on my own. But I�m supposed to be the one to pay the price for it for mouthing off? I need to learn my lesson?�

She got up from the table.

�It�s not that I�m some whacked-out whatever,� she said. �I had a lot of help.�

It was almost dark.

�Heaven forbid you should get pissed off and say, �Up yours,� � she said.

She was hungry and thinking about making dinner.

�I wonder if Kevin has a cigarette,� Melanie said, and went back into the house.

In the living room the next night, the Republican convention was on the TV.

Kevin was asleep on the couch with a pillow over his head, and Trump was on the television accepting the Republican nomination for president.

�Praise the Lord,� Melanie said.

The crowd roared.

�Finally,� she said. �Someone who thinks like me.�

Trump began talking about lawlessness, crisis, �terrorism in our cities� and how any leader who doesn�t grasp this horror �is not fit to lead our country.�

�Amen,� Melanie said, clapping quietly on the couch. �They�re traitors.�

�Safety will be ...� Trump said.

�Restored,� Melanie finished.

�We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore,� Trump said.

�That�s right; cut the crap,� Melanie said.

�Killings have risen,� he went on.

�Mmm hmm,� Melanie said.

�Illegal immigrants � innocent young girl. � Her killer � now a fugitive,� he said.

Kevin jerked awake.

�You all right, hon?� Melanie said.

�Yeah, I was dreaming,� Kevin said.

�One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders,� Trump said.

�I was kicking someone�s rear end,� Kevin said, and drifted back to sleep.

�Our roads ...,� Trump said.

�Are a mess,� Melanie finished.

�Hillary Clinton�,� Trump said.

�Lock her up,� Melanie finished.

�Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness,� Trump said.

Kevin jerked awake again.

�You still fighting?� Melanie said to him.

�Yeah,� he said, groggy.

�You winning?� she said, but Kevin was drifting off again, and as Trump went on about �how the system is rigged,� and �wounded American families� and �our own struggling citizens,� Melanie said yes, yes, yes, over and over again, until Trump reached the final three words of his speech.

�I love you,� he said.

�He really does love us,� Melanie said, and soon, the balloons were dropping, Trump was waving to the crowd, and she was switching off the television. She didn�t need to hear any more.

�It�s finished,� she said of the 2016 presidential election, in which she was sure Trump would triumph and more and more people across the country would at last see the truth. �In my head, anyway.�

holy poo poo

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:08

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

EngineerJoe posted:

I honestly thought it was related to this:

That he looks like a tasseled corncob is just a happy coincidence.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:09

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

Endorph posted:

we just explained it four posts above you dude

I skipped ahead because I'm in a hurry.

Also I meant as in, an article or link or whatever. I understood the summary.

Using the phrase "basement dweller" to describe people you aren't trying to poo poo on is highly inadvisable, but at the same time, even if I could hypothetically feel personally insulted by it - being somebody who is working through college with increasing student loan burden and temporarily staying with my parents again - it shouldn't change the fact that Hillary is still objectively the best choice for President and anybody with half a brain should understand that.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:09

Hodgepodge: Jan 29, 2006; Can't post for 221 days!

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The first half of her comments is what made a lot of people on the left angry. Not the basement dweller part.

"I don't want to make election promises I can't keep." Truly, her 47% moment.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:10

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The first half of her comments is what made a lot of people on the left angry. Not the basement dweller part.

I get why this would anger some people, but also it's not like it's out of character for Hillary. She doesn't want to overpromise and underdeliver. She doesn't want to be out there saying "Free education for everyone, free healthcare for everyone" and then get into office and not deliver that. If you listen to the recordings she also gets into the nitty-gritty of how Sanders was leading people to believe that elected a progressive president would magically pass legislation, whereas actually what needs to happen is elect a president, congress, and senate in order to do so.

She's basically saying she would rather underpromise and overdeliver because that's the practical thing to do, but that candidates to both her right and left are running on schemes she sees as completely unfeasible in 2016 like universal healthcare or deporting every Mexican. So yeah, she's the only moderately centrist candidate left.

If you read the two excerpts together, she's essentially saying that she wants Bernie voters to keep being idealistic and dreaming big things because in the long run that will effect great change, but that she also wants them to recognize that we should celebrate whatever small victories we do manage to achieve. So if she somehow got a $12 minimum wage passed, she would hope people would celebrate that as a huge jump from the status quo even while continuing to fight for $15, rather than going all-out ideological purity and saying "$12 isn't $15 and therefore it's worthless, gently caress Hillary".

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:12

DaveWoo: Aug 14, 2004; Fun Shoe

Hodgepodge posted:

"I don't want to make election promises I can't keep." Truly, her 47% moment.

"I think we should all be really understanding of that and should try to do the best we can not to be, you know, a wet blanket on idealism." A devastating gaffe.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:12

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

�Finally. Someone who thinks like me.�

holy poo poo

"scalia was murdered, you don't find pillows on peoples faces" she said to her boyfriend, who was resting on the couch next to her with a pillow on his face

This whole thing should be tattooed on the foreheads of every Buckley conservative

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:13

Endorph: Jul 22, 2009

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

�Finally. Someone who thinks like me.�

holy poo poo

the most terrible part of this is that the presidential candidate that'd turn over her sexual harassment lawsuit like that is trump, not clinton

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:16

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Hodgepodge posted:

I still don't like how she uses "being like Scandinavia" as some bizarre impossible ideal, but that's about the only bad part.

Scandinavian countries do not have anything resembling Republicans, especially Republicans willing and able to unilaterally veto all progressive legislation. I mean, sure, Scandinavia has right-wing parties that shout racist and nationalist bullshit that would make even a white southerner get the vapors, but these right-wing parties do not generally thrive on purposefully loving over the citizenry at large in order to please their corporate masters or simply to convince the people that government can never function effectively.

Hillary should respond to this "scandal" by making it clear that the reason we have a major roadblock to universal healthcare and free college is that we have a significant number of Republicans in Congress. And if someone wants these things, maybe they should do something about that roadblock, so that the U.S. can become more like Scandinavia instead of being a special snowflake that can never have nice things.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:16

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

�Finally. Someone who thinks like me.�

holy poo poo

also if you think that's troubling, read the piece washpo did on Dylan Roof's world

quote:

It is a man no one knows except Brandon, who had argued with Brandon earlier and who now barges into the trailer, pulls out a handgun and cocks it.

He points the gun at Brandon. He points it at Jacob. He points it at Justin. He points it at Lindsey. He points it at Joey, who stands up in the middle of the living room and says, �Shoot me.�

As the others watch, Joey inches toward the gun.

�Shoot me,� he says again, moving closer, and he keeps saying it.

�If you�re going to shoot anybody, shoot me,� he says, and as he closes in on the man, the man begins backing up.

�Shoot me,� Joey keeps saying, and now the man is out of the trailer and putting his gun back into his waistband, and Joey is escorting him up the rutted road, and the man is walking toward the highway, disappearing into the dark, and now Joey is shaking.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:18

DAD LOST MY IPOD: Feb 3, 2012; Fats Dominar is on the case

the chance that woman doesn't attempt suicide after the election is basically 0% and that's really loving sad

I wish we had something to offer these people other than a shrug. Misery and hopelessness and withering contempt from Left and Right, no wonder she's a wreck. Even if we could wave a wand and provide free education and job training to everyone, she's old, she's set in her ways, and the jobs just aren't coming back. She may be a bigot but she's spent her life caught in the gears of a machine so big she can't even see it from inside. Against that propaganda machine, what chance did she have?

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:21

Rookersh: Aug 19, 2010

The irony of that quote is that barista/server are the two jobs you can take without a degree that regularly pay $18-$22ish out of the gate.

I've stuck with barista for 6 years now, and am nearing the $30ish mark. I still only work 5 hours days.

I am very happy thank you. I got to watch my friends go into debt, and I'm going to pay for my entire college experience out of pocket.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:22

WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

Epic High Five posted:

also if you think that's troubling, read the piece washpo did on Dylan Roof's world

white people smdh

at least the blacks invented raps

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:22

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:

the chance that woman doesn't attempt suicide after the election is basically 0% and that's really loving sad

I wish we had something to offer these people other than a shrug. Misery and hopelessness and withering contempt from Left and Right, no wonder she's a wreck. Even if we could wave a wand and provide free education and job training to everyone, she's old, she's set in her ways, and the jobs just aren't coming back. She may be a bigot but she's spent her life caught in the gears of a machine so big she can't even see it from inside. Against that propaganda machine, what chance did she have?

The stuff that will help them is the stuff they will vote against if it's a liberal proposing it. Capitalism and the private sector have failed them but they still worship them. They will need to be dragged I am afraid

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:24

Endorph: Jul 22, 2009

Rookersh posted:

The irony of that quote is that barista/server are the two jobs you can take without a degree that regularly pay $18-$22ish out of the gate.

I've stuck with barista for 6 years now, and am nearing the $30ish mark. I still only work 5 hours days.

I am very happy thank you. I got to watch my friends go into debt, and I'm going to pay for my entire college experience out of pocket.

My girlfriend works as a server and gets jackshit for pay because she gets stiffed on tips a lot and her bosses take a cut.

Which, yeah, isn't exactly above board, but what's she supposed to do, quit?

tl;dr it depends a lot on where you are, who you are, and who you work for

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:26

Nelson Mandingo: Mar 27, 2005

terrorist ambulance posted:

I don't get how people figure he's this alpha male figure. He's a cheap whiny little loser, and whenever he loses he can't acknowledge any fault or wrong; the system must be crooked or wrong if it produced any result other than him being #1. People identify him as this swaggering alpha male character, but his whole life screams insecurity and weakness.

Anyone who labels themself as an "Alpha male" pretty much is plagued by insecurity and weakness by default.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:26

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Rookersh posted:

The irony of that quote is that barista/server are the two jobs you can take without a degree that regularly pay $18-$22ish out of the gate.

I've stuck with barista for 6 years now, and am nearing the $30ish mark. I still only work 5 hours days.

I am very happy thank you. I got to watch my friends go into debt, and I'm going to pay for my entire college experience out of pocket.

Where the hell are you working, cause I was making $9/hour when I was a barrista.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:26

Alec Bald Snatch: Sep 12, 2012; by exmarx

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

�Finally. Someone who thinks like me.�

holy poo poo

USPOL Oct: �Obama gay is on Infowars,� she said

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:30

Rookersh: Aug 19, 2010

fool_of_sound posted:

Where the hell are you working, cause I was making $9/hour when I was a barrista.

Seattle. Minimum was $9, now $12 ( will be $15 soon. ). You average about $5 more per day in tips ( honestly more if you work in a good shop, but I'm counting bad shops here. ).

Servers get an even better deal, and usually average between $8-$12 a day in tips on top of their wages.

The one bartender I actually know that lives here averages $30ish, and she's only been at it for two years. But that has huge burnout just due to being a bartender.

It HEAVILY depends on the state/area though. As Endorph said, it might not be quite the way out for some thanks to lovely bosses doing illegal poo poo. Also quite a few states allow businesses to pay their employees up to minimum counting tips which doesn't allow the gain.

The irony is the people I work with are all severe alcoholics, so while they are making the $18-$25 range, they still can't pay rent because they spend so much of it on booze and drugs. Same with all the servers I know. Getting livable wages per paycheck doesn't seem to stop people from living beyond their means very well.

Rookersh fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Oct 2, 2016

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:31

Jonas Albrecht: Jun 7, 2012

Alec Bald Snatch posted:

USPOL Oct: “Obama gay is on Infowars,” she said

Beat me to it.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:31

BearDrivingTruck: Oct 15, 2011; You see the most shocking sights sometimes

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/782117968117428224

Now this is pure-strain trolling.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:33

Party Plane Jones: Jul 1, 2007; by Reene; Fun Shoe

Rookersh posted:

Seattle. Minimum was $9, now $12 ( will be $15 soon. ). You average about $5 more per day in tips ( honestly more if you work in a good shop, but I'm counting bad shops here. ).

Isn't Seattle and the surrounding area basically the area where bikini-clad barista drive-throughs are obscenely popular (and usually also involved in some light prostitution rings on the side)

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:34

Samurai Sanders: Nov 4, 2003; Pillbug

Party Plane Jones posted:

Isn't Seattle and the surrounding area basically the area where bikini-clad barista drive-throughs are obscenely popular (and usually also involved in some light prostitution rings on the side)

Having grown up there I heard about them but never saw one myself.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:37

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 20, 2024 03:31

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

Let me just tell you now that being a server/barista in 99% of the country is a poo poo job that pays nothing

Anywhere the law doesn't expressly forbid it, servers will be making $2.13 an hour and barista rarely rises above what you'd be making stocking shelves at Target

# ? Oct 2, 2016 01:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Oct: Trumpelthinskin's spinning wheel: spinning hot takes into gold

«‹›1588 »