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Randalor posted:Please excuse me if I burst into laughter at the first few "Thoughts and Prayers" from politicians because of how darkly comical sending "thoughts and prayers" to a shooting at a CHRISTIAN school is. Listen, if God didn't help them during the shooting, sending more prayers their way sure as gently caress won't change anything. Sadly, from looking at the early push from right wingers and their propaganda outlets (along with the associated bot nets on social media) they use to create self reinforcing narratives out of fiction we're just as likely to see more slander towards left leaning people, atheists, LGBT people, or whatever target is convenient to push a regressive and inhuman agenda by the Republicans and extremist christians aligned with them. Remember that these sort of people don't give a flying gently caress about the deaths unless it affects them personally, it's all just a means to an end. A shooting of a christian grade school is from the perspective of the workshopping staff of an average Republican propaganda outlet or politician's PR teams potentially even a good thing to them since it can be used as a bludgeon* against their political adversaries regardless of the history of most of the past shootings in recent years or even the reality of the facts. They're already trying to blame it on "libtards", gun control, LGBT minorities existing peacefully, and anyone else rather than their own hateful ignorance that shouldn't be permitted to exist in the first damned place. Just a quick look at the R's posting in latest tweets shows some absolutely vile poo poo being posted on the norm. To wit, here's three of the comparatively less vile tweets I saw within 60 seconds of browsing: https://twitter.com/davaughn101/status/1640402996248072192https://twitter.com/YaZhynka/status/1640405045748416532https://twitter.com/JohnnyReno/status/1640405013213204480 * Not that they gave a gently caress before outside of perfunctory performance politics when it was a minority getting shot, or just someone else's kids to begin with. Thoughts and prayers is a snide insult to the sort of people who used it to try and handwave away shootings because right wingers were using it that way to begin with. Archonex fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 18:14
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Gerund posted:I am surprised that even some Fox News commentators have realized that you can't fortressify our way out of soft target spree killings with man-held machine guns. I mean, you can literally see people on social media astro-turfing the idea of open carry teachers or whatever the gently caress crazy nonsense they're on in the immediate aftermath of the news breaking. Heck, that selection of tweets I posted up above even had a self declared "warrior christian" saying we need heavily armed teachers like the crazy rear end in a top hat he or she is. It's just that the right wing media floated the idea of escalating firearms sales by making teachers purchase and bring a gun to school during earlier spates school shootings and it was met with a disgusted reaction from the wider public who rightfully identified the effort as an attempt to sociopathically handwave away the problem in such a way that would turn effectively schools into blood soaked danger zones. What with teachers having an extra psychological burden of knowing who to shoot and when on top of everything else wrong with it. So they've backed off from openly supporting this for now for obvious reasons. Archonex fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 18:41
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Farchanter posted:I'm curious if DeSantis is even going to care. He gets to put "put Woke Disney in their place" on his campaign ads, the actual implementation probably doesn't bother him one bit. Depends on how much traction it gets in the news and whether or not he can spin it as owning the lgbt people that he and his base hate the existence of so much.
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Mar 30, 2023 03:33
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Jaxyon posted:Pretty gross that she feels she has to campaign for the oppression of an entire group because she took a spike to head in a sport where that happens all the time. It's no different from what conservatives started this whole disengenous nonsense with. Originally, a track runner or swimmer or something like that complained she came in behind a trans woman. Except she and the conservatives also neglected to mention to the public that she also came in behind an extremely large number of (by her own standards no less) biological women who beat the trans woman as well. She was just a lovely athlete and was clearly trying to make a buck by being predatory towards a minority woman after she lost the competition by her own standards. There's also extra elements of bigotry in this in that it lets conservatives say that any trans woman that beats a woman in an athletics sport regardless of the cis woman's performance (and in most of these cases where they try to use it to be a bigot and oppress trans people the cis woman's performance when people examined the actual full facts of the event the cis woman complaining has been fairly dismal even by their own standards going up against other cis women) is clearly just a man and doesn't belong there. Of course, if the trans woman comes in last or behind a toxic person like that then they're clearly trying to rig the results to shut down the predatory bigots and can thus be discarded as proof that these people need to be forced to shut up about their hatred of the other. Really, the goal is to restrict people both cis and trans from playing and existing in day to day life without a fear of persecution and use it as a plank towards greater oppression and hurt for both trans women and cis women. See all the laws that Republicans have passed to try and restrict what even cis woman can do in sports (or just force some creep to examine their genitals in an invasive and rapey procedure) or to steal trans teens from their families and deliberately put them in abusive environments (literally a behavior that qualifies as genocide btw) that can and will get them killed as an example of what I mean. But despite that these parasites get theirs by being a discardable prop to a misogynistic and oppressive world view so they have no problem throwing every other woman out there under the bus if they get ahead for even a moment. TL;DR: It's essentially the trans-misogynistic version of a sort of no true Scotsman argument and it needs to be stopped and called out as the inane and predatory bullshit that it is. Archonex fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Apr 22, 2023 |
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Apr 22, 2023 06:17
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Charliegrs posted:I think both are very likely. All of the various texts and emails that were dug up during the Dominian hearings, I could see some really problematic communications between Tucker and Russian agents being unearthed. His narratives on the Ukraine war this last year have been literally the same as Russian propaganda channels. I doubt he came up with that all on his own. Narratives aside, back during Trump's first election run RT was basically simultaneously posting poo poo that Fox was, sometimes before Fox did stories. I remember one story was basically broke on RT that was something about Hillary that probably came from Republican party operatives and then Fox had an article with all the relevant details up like five minutes later with details no other outlet I could find had. They've been in cahoots for awhile even outside of Tucker. Ditto for the Hunter Biden laptop stuff, which was transparently being sourced out of Russia at at least one point. Archonex fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 19:34
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Main Paineframe posted:On the other hand, even if they'd caught and summarily executed Nancy Pelosi and AOC, that wouldn't be the end of American democracy. It'd just be a couple more political murders. Not so sure about that. Multiple people appear to have had a plan of passing the decision on the election to a republican friendly committee or scotus after delegitimizing the process in one way or another. Then have them hand the presidency to trump outside control of the electoral process. Basically, they appeared to be more expansive and flagrant attempts to pull a Florida presidential election recount deal on a federal level then claim it wasn't a coup because it was "legitimate" and use their propaganda outlets and supporters to do an end run around democracy by suppressing dissent and muddying the waters. It didn't work because they didn't manage to get a representative killed in the case of J6 and people like MTG and Cruz couldn't weasel their way into decertifying the election through official means. But if someone had died at J6, even Pence, they definitely would have been treasonous enough to pull a stunt like that.
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May 1, 2023 00:11
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Mellow Seas posted:I don’t think CNN in their rightward-branding exercise is really going for Fox News viewers. They’re more going for the people who are news consumers, and might watch network news or local news or use social media, but don’t watch cable news because “it’s all so partisan.” Fox viewers either don’t see Fox as partisan or support its partisanship, so they’re not really the targets. The guy who took over as CEO is a huge right wing trump type that has shut down at least one reasonably popular show for being "politicized" (read: Criticizing republicans for being corrupt and two faced.) and was most likely involved in the decision to host a town hall for Trump himself at some level. It's not a stretch to say that he's forcing his politics on the company much in the way that many of these types of authoritarian republicans do when they're permitted power. It's just another attempt at controlling the narrative through right wing corporate take over by trying to sway ignorant people who don't know of the more insidious agenda at the top. The idea that this time CNN is totally trying to capture all those Fox News viewers is foolish since the last time CNN tried that Fox News just blared "CNN is a commie liberal socialist demonic yadda yadda" on the airwaves every day and their hosed in the head viewers listened. Given the behavior in other parts of the company it's pretty obvious that the prick at the top is trying to strip mine CNN of any personnel that would talk about the hosed up stuff going with the Republicans while trying to keep turning a profit by turning it into another rag that pretends at an unbiased nature while very much being prejudiced in favor of right wingers. Archonex fucked around with this message at 18:34 on May 11, 2023 |
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May 11, 2023 18:27
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Kalli posted:Looks like the dude who did this is extra cooked: (Ben Collins is a nbc reporter) I can't get over the fact that this guy's claim is essentially that he was banished to the shadow realm like a yu-gi-oh character. What heinous crimes did he commit to enrage the pharaoh so? Seriously though, it sounds like he's got some serious mental issues and hopefully he gets the help he needs.
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May 15, 2023 23:14
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Acebuckeye13 posted:My experience with the New York City subway is such: But was your experience enriched by the lack of poop? That is the real question.
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May 27, 2023 21:18
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Lemming posted:It seems pretty obvious that she's a vulnerable person being taken advantage of, like it's probably not that she independently came to these conclusions she's probably involved with people who have convinced her this is what's going on Sir Kodiak posted:Anything is possible, but considering there's evidence that she was privately making allegations about Biden back in the 90s, it would be a hell of a long play. Jaxyon posted:There probably is. But dude has been a senator for longer than most of us have been alive, and now he's president. It should be noted that as time went on a multitude of reporters looked into Tara Reades' story and her past and discovered she has a long history of lying and pulling stunts like this to the point that she was caught perjuring herself in the past and pretty much no one with any integrity wants anything to do with her any more since she has a long, long, long line of people she cynically manipulated by preying on their sympathy and good nature in believing her lies to bleed them dry of money and a house to stay at (that she wrecked at least once) before remorselessly leaving them behind. In addition to that, it turns out that she was fired for cause by the Biden campaign for not doing her job, giving motive for revenge, the place she alleges the assault happened literally does not exist as reporters found out that it looks completely different from what she claims, and her friends later admitted that they were pressured by Reade to lie on her behalf corroborating her claims that Biden was handsy with her in public so Reade could set up a "layered" story she could unveil later on after Reade changed the nature of her allegations. The russian intelligence and state media know how to use pathological users of people that like that for their own benefit, so it's probably an opportunistic thing. And to be clear, the words others have used to describe her in the past have gone on record as being "manipulative, deceitful, and a user of people". Though I will say that she was tweeting and hollering support for russia and the RT state media way back when (she even called putin of all people the last hope for the free world when Obama was elected, or something like that) and actively seemed to oppose support for Ukraine, hyping up Russia, so who knows. She's certainly been in contact with russian propaganda operatives in recent years if her own admission is anything to go by. Edit: She even pulled a George Santos "I never said I was jewish, I said I was jew ish." and later said something to the effect of that she never explicitly said she was sexually assaulted. She said she just implied it happened and it's on everyone else for assuming. I'd have to look the article that released that particular update but it looks like she's trying to grift after all her other grifts failed or ran dry and it turned out that she can't hold down a real job as simple as collating Biden supporter's mail and forwarding it to be replied to. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) Archonex fucked around with this message at 00:17 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 30, 2023 23:59
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RBA Starblade posted:This seems like something you should post a lot more sources for Sure thing! For the manipulative, deceitful, and user of people thing: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/tara-reade-left-trail-of-aggrieved-acquaintances-260771 For the perjury thing and other stuff https://www.montereycountyweekly.co...24a816d1cb.html A particularly egregious one, where it becomes apparent she has no problem with straight up ruining lives if she gets attention or money posted:...There’s no telling whether that piece of evidence made a difference to voters – should they not believe Reade’s claim about Biden because of a false claim about her degree? – and there’s also no telling whether it made a difference to jurors. But that question is enough for the justice system to set at least three people convicted of felonies free, years early. And a nice collation of various reporters efforts in investigating her with at least one giving her nearly 1 year long fair hearing and with many coming away deeply confused https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05/tara-reade-joe-biden-allegation-reporting-vox-pbs-doubts.html It also touches on some of the stuff I mentioned in my post, along with a large number of other discrepancies. quote:2. Reade’s friend admitted to lying to a reporter to fit Reade’s narrative. McGann spoke with one Reade friend, who told her last year that Biden had harassed Reade but had definitely not sexually assaulted her: To be clear, this doesn't exonerate Biden in the other claims and you should believe all women. But Tara Reades' claim is so spotty and her history is so unbelievably filled with her pulling large scale cons like this that I feel safe in saying that she's gonna have to put up some more evidence than a simple claim for me to take it seriously. That she now says she thinks Biden is sending assassins after her and he has a plan to steal an election is...Uh, yeah. What the gently caress. Archonex fucked around with this message at 00:34 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 00:21
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World Famous W posted:im getting worked up, so ill just address 2 there. It seems to be saying her friend didnt stop believing her or that Reade changed what Reade told her, but that she only admitted to the reporter what Reade was at the moment comfortable revealing. Not really To be clear, the friend admitted she lied outright by adding a false detail to the claim. She didn't come forward about it until directly confronted about it because she thought she didn't think it was her place. Also, the whole thing with Reade deliberately perjuring herself is utterly terrifying. She straight up contributed to multiple people getting locked away, and the prosecutors themselves admitted that she lied through her teeth about her credibility, which almost certainly contributed to a reduced sentence to make amends for the clear error in the proceedings and justice. Never mind all the lying to various landlords and neighbors (One even says that they think she's escalated to going after a bigger con by going after Biden in the first article.) to extract money and housing from them before ghosting them which can be seen in the first article. I understand this is a sensitive topic, and I agree that given the culture around rape accusations we should give people the benefit of the doubt when they come forward with an accusation. But there is just so much poo poo with this person that you really should be demanding more evidence before taking her word at face value. She has a clear history of manipulating other people for her own gain, literally preying on their good nature and sympathy as one article puts its, and often has repeatedly done this to other people's detriment without a seeming care in the world for the harm she herself has caused. Hell, she herself claims to be a victim of domestic abuse but straight up had zero problem lying on stand in domestic abuse cases to the point where the prosecutors sought to lower the sentence afterwards. It's genuinely hard to get more untrustworthy than that. This is not saying that the claim should be tossed out outright, or that Biden is an innocent little snowflake, but if there was ever a person who should be given a very clear look at before treating their claims as gospel it's Tara Reade. That she now claims she that has discovered a plot decades out from her association with Biden to steal the 2024 election (a wing nut right wing grifting trick that they tried to whataboutism about at one point to downplay the J6 coup attempt, it should be added) and thinks that she's going to be assassinated by Biden should also concern folks. Archonex fucked around with this message at 01:09 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 01:01
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Tatsuta Age posted:very cool of you to slam in here and immediately kinda prove kronix's point Yeah, some folks can't handle talking about this, it seems. Like, you folks uncritically assessing this are defending someone who claimed in a divorce proceeding to be the victim of domestic abuse, then turned around and straight up loving lied about her credibility and credentials in cases involving domestic abuse that lead to life imprisonment and imprisonment for longer than a decade. She did this ten times. uninterrupted posted:Hi you're both rape apologists, and a direct danger to the women in your lives🥰 As someone who's had to deal with emotionally abusive and manipulative family members that act like her and has been nearly murdered by an abusive family member I invite you to thoroughly go gently caress yourself and shut the gently caress up. The accusation of rape does not exclude people from looking at someone who has gone out of their way to ruin lives themselves for their own profit by constantly lying through their teeth for decades on end with a note of skepticism. Especially now that she's openly gone full right wing wingnut and thinks Biden plans to kill her and is straight up posting right wing grifting conspiracy theories to the news on behalf of loving Russia of all places. Edit: And it looks like you're forum banned from D&D, and are a genocide denying CCP shill going off your rap sheet. Color me loving shocked at this development. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) Archonex fucked around with this message at 01:33 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 01:21
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Yawgmoft posted:Hey just wanted to point out this is disgusting behavior from you. Yeah, there's way too many people being lovely trolls or bad faith arguers to continue this discussion. Still trying to process Fister's nonsense misrepresenting the posts by saying she only lied about one thing when in reality it was so much more than that. Archonex fucked around with this message at 01:43 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 01:40
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World Famous W posted:I've posted in nothing but good faith and think calling those posts rape apologia is fair I don't have problems with you World Famous W. It's the rear end in a top hat showing up and going "You're a threat to women in your lives! *cutesy emote*" and Fister trying to apply a reductive claim to something vastly larger than that that have made me give up on discussing this. As i've said, the claims against Biden should not be tossed out on account of her past behavior. But the pattern of cynically exploiting the trust of others, lying in a way that undermines her claim, and the vast majority of character related stuff like literally claiming to be the victim of domestic abuse to get custody of her kid and then perjuring herself so thoroughly in cases involving domestic abuse as a witness that the prosecution even admitted she was an issue, and now this --- claiming she has proof of a conspiracy by Biden and fleeing into the arms of a fascist power after spending decades running fairly organized lies against a vast multitude of people for her own profit that lead to harm and in several cases even the destruction of other people's lives and freedom is not going to help her case and makes her look like another grifter. You're free to disagree with this if you want. I have no problem with that. But i'm telling you, that that's what it looks like for someone who is familiar with gaslighting abusers who know how to prey on other people like that. It is not rape apologia to point out that someone has consistently shown they have no bottom when it comes to a lack of honesty, and has actively hosed over other people to the point of possibly ruining their lives with seemingly no remorse whatsoever. It is pointing out that people should withhold judgement on the situation until more is known given the tremendous amount of damage that she has done to other people's lives, sometimes literally contributing to ruining them with prison time even though she herself claims to have been the victim of the same horrible thing. Or to put it as someone else did: Cugel the Clever posted:It's not "lied about one thing" so much as an unambiguous and sustained pattern of manipulation and deceit that had now been capped off by fleeing to the arms of a fascist foreign power. Archonex fucked around with this message at 02:03 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 01:57
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:
HiroProtagonist posted:I don't think courts of law are (currently, in the United States) a good basis to either cast doubt on or justify allegations of rape or sexual assault, for the reasons I listed, and the website I sourced it from has additional justification as to why, if you're interested! This is applicable regardless of the context you were speaking in, as well. To be clear, the text you (Hiro) quoted from uninterrupted dropping in with a one liner troll post also has nothing to do with what we were talking about previously and comes off like you were just dogpiling without actually considering the content of what people were posting back then. It doesn't seem like you really understand a fair bit of what was being discussed and are just listening to the people who are doing their best to misrepresent arguments and generally stoke a poo poo storm in this thread. Though, i'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt on that and ask for clarification with what you meant by that particular post? Archonex fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 01:40
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FlamingLiberal posted:I honestly don't know with Sinema....she may just not run for re-election at all and we never hear from her again as she goes off to take some six figure no-show job from one of her various donors who got what they wanted out of her being in the Senate. Sinema honestly comes off as narcissistic enough to believe that she's going to win despite having betrayed every person who ever propelled her to power. However, she's not a Ted Cruz type politician who is sly enough to get away with that despite their inherent sliminess and all around untrustworthiness. She honestly seems like she's in a bubble, what with the rumors she was convinced she was going to be able to run for president and win as a "maverick" candidate ala John Mccain. The more likely outcome is that she tries some bullshit at the last moment to screw over the dems and basically gets fully persona non grata'd for it instead of the 95-99% she's been cut out of the loop she has to deal with now. It's an open rumor that everyone on the dem side of the sitting politicians has given up trying to reason with her (Remember that endless series of demands and procrastination on her and Manchin's end, right up to Biden himself?) and are just pretending she doesn't exist while waiting for her to reap what she's sown by getting primaried out and if she pushes her luck that much further by trying to ruin the extremely slim advantage the dems have I honestly think they'll just go all out in trying to ruin her chances of even having any sort of political career out of retribution. Maybe she ends up on Fox News or another wingnut channel in a year or two after getting ousted as one of their token "left" leaning commentators or something. I'm honestly not even sure she has much of a career left in politics or even politics adjacent career paths given how badly she's hosed up by going out of her way to piss off anyone she would logically have to rely on or work with. HiroProtagonist posted:Pointing to resources run for and by survivors of rape to call out misbehavior in this thread is not a "troll post," at least by the definitions of D&D. You did not make a source argument. You literally just dropped a large wall of an organization's text in here with no comment other than "Mods, look at this post!" in a reply from a guy who said some deeply offensive stuff using a form of concern trolling to get away with it. I am asking you to clarify what your intent was, because it's murky and it can come off as pretty lovely otherwise. I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt in this. Archonex fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 01:45
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I think I've been pretty clear. I was responding specifically to the characterization of an expert witness lying about their credentials from the witness stand as a "minor" lie. Oh no, i'm not asking you. I'm asking about this: HiroProtagonist posted:Mods, believe this post requires additional attention. Sorry I wasn't clear. I got your post and I agree with it. I was just trying to understand what the heck Hiro was doing quoting that guy with that because it looks incredibly toxic and i'm trying to figure out how the heck I can even respond to something like that
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Jun 1, 2023 01:51
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Velocity Raptor posted:If anyone's interested in watching it in real time, they're finally voting on the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Craig K posted:yeah the black line for mccarthy getting voted to be replaced was "more republicans vote no than yes" and they're already over that line It makes me wonder however if the suicide caucus is going to go all in on removing him after this is all said and done just out of spite or for their crazy bigoted/extremist voters. Given how crazy and vicious they are I honestly wouldn't put it past them to at least try on a performative level to save their own skin.
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Jun 1, 2023 02:17
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Also it does not surprise me but Boebert tried twice to submit a provision to make it so that people on medicaid had to work to get access to healthcare. Which has got to be one of the most disgusting and murderous things to come out of this. I'm still going through the bill itself but I really hoping they did not find a way to sneak that in since it will 100% get people who can't work for whatever reason killed. https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-fiscal-responsibility-act The bill in the form as introduced in pdf form as of where it stood two days ago, for anyone wanting a direct link to it: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118hr3746ih/pdf/BILLS-118hr3746ih.pdf Archonex fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 02:24
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cat botherer posted:Scientology is becoming a smaller, but more intensive cult. It’s a natural progression with this kind of thing. David Miscavige is still doing great and they’re pulling in more money than ever. It’ll die eventually, but it will be much longer than you think. I'm not certain if it's still the case, but they were digging in extremely heavily into the government and property ownership in certain towns and cities down in Florida like Clearwater. The goal of which with retrospect appears to basically try and make it perceived as a scientology "owned" town that they could exert influence over like it was their own personal fiefdom. So even if they're reduced in national influence they're thoroughly entrenched for the foreseeable future and have some pretty substantial financial holdings via property ownership. Especially given that the local republican government is more angry about minorities being able to peacefully exist than the actual literal dangerous cult that had a policy of ruining the lives of those that spoke out against it. Archonex fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 03:11
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Acebuckeye13 posted:https://twitter.com/juliegraceb/status/1664080985762279425?t=NDuBvw0Kx4uYtnffwTRJ4g&s=19 She probably would have voted no anyways. I encourage everyone to go look at the provisions and submissions she tried to put into that bill. It's all vile poo poo that would get people killed. Alternatively, if someone got her on the hook for voting yes after all of that and she genuinely hosed up and ends up in the hot seat for missing her literal job then holy poo poo. 
Archonex fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 03:13
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zoux posted:There's never going to be a comeuppance for these people, they will move the goalposts such that the problem isn't caused by what it was caused by. We will all be neck deep in sea water and GOP will still be like "It's a natural cycle bro! In the 70s they said there was going to be an Ice Age!" It's for everything, we had almost everyone in the state lose power and water for a week directly because of conservative philosophies on electric utility regulation and it cost the Republican Party nothing. I can't think of a clearer example of governing ideology -> material outcomes and not a single Republican politician in Texas paid a price for it. There's never going to be a road to Damascus moment, something like scales are never going to fall from the eyes of Republicans and make them realize that they've been wrong all along. For a few individuals, perhaps, but societally? No way. The challenge is to drag these mfs along despite knowing they are going to kick and scream the whole time and never thanking anyone for doing what was necessary to offset or fix MASSIVE SOCIAL PROBLEM This is generally the problem with the US (and right wing politics globally) currently, yeah. At some point you have to stop trying to extend a hand to reach across the aisle to the guys and gals that are spending all their time giving you a death glare while sharpening the metaphorical equivalent of a hatchet and instead just sock them in the face and do the right thing while they're hypocritically shrieking about unfair the whole thing is. You're never gonna convince them that they're wrong because there's financial and power based incentives that keep the whole awful mess going at multiple points internal to the party and ideology itself. So grabbing them by the neck, dragging them to something better, and then forcibly holding them there through whatever means is the only real way to progress and fix the problems the country is seeing short of a collapse of the propaganda and power structures holding their hosed up ideology together. Worse still, if you're not willing to do this you risk the bigots and other conservatives dragging things back to a more primitive and less civilized time where they can persecute, sometimes to the point of inflicting death in one way or another, on those they hate. Archonex fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Jul 12, 2023 |
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Jul 12, 2023 16:55
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Kaiju Cage Match posted:It was probably his botox goblin assistant that retweeted it. Haven't seen it myself but it was in a campaign video apparently that was removed. The whole thing was apparently madly nazi-esque in a way that even low info people couldn't ignore. Now they have people trying to play it off like they couldn't possibly have known that it was literally just some nazi rally stuff because they have no integrity or trustworthiness and know their base will pretend it's okay too so long as they make the right noises to assure them it's everyone else that is the fascist bastards. Archonex fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Jul 24, 2023 |
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Jul 24, 2023 14:00
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Adenoid Dan posted:You are objectively wrong. Not only is it objectively wrong, it's outright dumb and ignoring dysfunction in the body. There are ways for your body to be forced into starvation mode independent of someone doing something wrong. You'll end up easily putting on weight (and find it nearly impossible to lose it) even if you were to eat nothing but meat and water with a side order of bread for a sandwich every day. As an example, things like extreme gall bladder dysfunction can trigger this and even when it's fixed it usually leads to life long problems losing weight after that too since the fix is to take out the gall bladder removing your ability to properly process things like fat while forcing you to restrict the availability of your diet even further if you don't want an upset gut. Good luck losing weight when the only thing that won't drive your lower intestine into a frenzy of farting and diarrhea is processed foods due to the low availability of tasty low fat foods in the US. Otherwise you have to deal with constant discomfort or eating like a monk. Archonex fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 22:46
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KillHour posted:A Democrat could chew gum in the hallway and Republicans would respond the same. They need to do something to discourage it because it's going to piss everyone else off (especially the fire department) if it keeps happening, but it's not going to be anything substantial. To be clear, Nicole is a republican so this is absolutely your usual shitbag Republican antics on display here. The party doesn't seem to be trying to censure him for accidentally pulling the alarm. Also, that sign really does have Don't Dead Open Inside energy to it. Archonex fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 11:42
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selec posted:At a certain point I just can’t vote for somebody because both parties support policies so far from what I want to see in the world, and those policies matter to me enough that I can’t bring myself to get over it and vote for them. I don’t think it’s a moral duty to vote, and I do think voting is lending legitimacy to the system, which to my mind only drags out the long period of moribund decay of the empire even longer, with all the horrific poo poo done in our names that the decline entails. It would be great if we could vote our way into a system that more evenly distributed the resources available, but it seems like no matter who we vote for the copper-stripping does not abate. So I don’t find much value in getting too het up about all of it. I mean, just talking events of the past few decades not wanting LGBTQ minorities to get genocided by a bunch of christian fascists taking over is something pretty much any decent person would want but you do you.  What it sounds like is that you think the good that can be done isn't worth your impossible views that are never going to happen in your lifetime. Which is about as similar as saying that you're okay with some innocent and less well off people getting hurt if it gets you closer to what you want.
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Oct 27, 2023 05:41
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selec posted:I think about this too, how we have had some gains from Democratic admins. But I also have to look at what we trade our vote for, which is currently backing up an attempted genocide, as I see it, just from one angle. You get served up people who have fully backed, even architected the drug war, which has created immense generational harm visited on the poor and people of color. At a certain point, from my perspective, it becomes morally repugnant to support actors who are willing to fulfill their role in perpetuating that system, at such a high level. Wait wait wait, so you don't want to support an attempted genocide...by doing your own part to let other people closer to home commit a genocide?  quote:There’s also practical considerations, like that I am in a red state, not that it matters; voting is as much a cultural ritual of individual moral expiation as it is a meaningful political act, and I’d argue it’s much, much more the former than the latter in the current political system, where so little policy is based on what the majority of citizens could actually benefit from. I hate to tell you this, but that red state won't change unless people vote. By submitting to nothing matters-isms you are directly playing right into what the assholes want. quote:And to your last point, there are two things. First, all political choices are about throwing somebody under a bus; you may think that my political choices throw vulnerable people here in the states under the bus, whereas I believe the choice to vote for either major party candidate does as much to throw other vulnerable people in the US and abroad under the bus. I think that were both probably right, either choice is picking a loser, and maybe not even any winners. My dude, you have literally just espoused the essence of "both sides are equally bad" while ignoring what people mentioned up above. You're also essentially saying "Yes, these vulnerable minorities will die for my dream! But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make them take!" which is just a lovely opinion all around no matter how you cut it. quote:As for the second part, on the likelihood of political upheaval in the imperial core, I don’t know if some enormous political shock will happen in my lifetime, one that offers the revolutionary moment, but would you really be so surprised? We spent four years after 2016 as a nation reeling at what felt like a fever dream at times, and yet further political upheaval doesn’t seem likely to you? You think it’s going to be fewer protests, less widening of the gap between rich and poor, less desperation, less neglect? Because as I’ve said, I don’t think the political institutions as they’re constituted under the political economy we labor under are capable of arresting the slide. I think they will become less able to make people feel like their lives are improved by government as the extraction of wealth from the working people of America only gets more craven, and the forces of law and order are sent out to oppress people with less and less to lose as the years go on. Can you cite your sources on this happening? Because this is literally just fantastical wishing from what i've seen. I doubt that not voting is suddenly going to make the world a better place, and you seem to be operating under a bunch of imaginary preconceptions about how results are traditionally won. Archonex fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Oct 27, 2023 |
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Oct 27, 2023 06:42
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Main Paineframe posted:Absolutely not. I know you're not American and don't necessarily have the best idea of what's actually going on here, but the right has been underperforming pretty consistently basically since Trump was elected. Yeah, it especially is annoying since the whole nothing matters and both sides-isms not only ignores this but is essentially preaching letting things get worse for the sake of some nebulous paradise future that almost always is so deeply steeped in theory that it ignores political realities of the times.
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Oct 27, 2023 07:45
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theCalamity posted:I simply do not have confidence that the Democrats, as a whole, can accomplish much. They had opportunities to codify Roe v Wade, but did not. They had an opportunity to protect our voting rights and failed to do so. They had many opportunities to actually make things better, but didn't. Some of these Democrats are flat out against the goals that I want and I don't want to give them the power to destroy the things that I want to see happen. I don't recall them having a significant enough majority to codify roe v wade yet. Hell, legally speaking the majority view was that Roe V Wade was settled law for decades on end. Meaning it wasn't needed to put a bill into law up until the republican extremists seized the court. It isn't the Democratic party's fault the Republicans subverted every expectation and demand of the office of the Supreme Court either. Archonex fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Oct 27, 2023 |
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Oct 27, 2023 07:52
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Discendo Vox posted:Time to direct people to my effortpost on reactionary rhetorics again. The argument that specific narrower changes or shifts are insufficient and therefore should not be considered, like the argument that the push for specific changes are futile, are both part of the reactionary playbook used to sabotage good faith discussion. There's a reason Republican talking points targeting Democrats and leftists reliably focus on equivocation between the parties, and setting ever-shifting standards for what counts as "really mattering". So are you saying that Selec and company are actually conservative reactionaries or some other type of reactionary on the left or that they've bought into conservative political ploys? Because I can agree with the latter at the least, and basically said as much earlier. I don't know enough about them to say anything about the rest of the possibilities there.
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Oct 27, 2023 07:55
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Discendo Vox posted:The arguments are, objectively, from the reactionary, conservative and authoritarian rhetorical playbooks. The rules forbid discussing the motives of the people making them, over and over, to interrupt and derail discussion to talk about how the only productive form of action is civic disengagement and studying violent revolution. It is very, very important that these users, and arguments, be entertained. Does anyone remember what topic was being discussed before selec's post? Right, just wanted to check to avoid the inevitable derail. But yeah, you are correct that some of the arguments are straight out of right winger's playbooks. They're fairly old tricks of the tongue too, given that both sides-ism is a longstanding propaganda campaign by extremist conservatives to disincentivize voting by anyone not a Republican. Ditto for nothing matters-ism's. Archonex fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Oct 27, 2023 |
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Oct 27, 2023 08:05
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Owling Howl posted:It seems the only correct moral stance to take is pacifist isolationism and just ignore anything that happens. Doing anything inevitably makes you responsible. Supporting Israel is supporting genocide. Opposing the Taliban is opposing Afghani civilians. Trading with a murderous regime supports murder. Not trading with them punishes civilians. By this logic doing nothing also makes you responsible for things you could have prevented by biting down and accepting a less than perfect option that could also have prevented negative outcomes elsewhere. It's almost like the world does not regularly serve up easy choices for people to make and folks have to learn to compromise on some things. I'd also point out that isolationism is a fantastic way to get your civilization subjugated or massively hosed up by more malevolent neighbors but I doubt that'd fly with the sort of folks who think it's a good idea. Archonex fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Oct 29, 2023 |
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Oct 29, 2023 13:19
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Morrow posted:Yeah, I'd absolutely love to respect politically aware non-voters decisions because punishing the Democratic establishment by withholding your vote is a tactic to force them to recognize your interests. Yeah, it's hard to have to respect for someone who is looking at the evil poo poo the GOP and christians are doing to women, trans folks, and democracy in general and say "Oh yes, this was a reasonable choice for you to make!" in light of Trump winning and the GOP using every opportunity afterwards to get as many minorities killed as legally possible at the time. It's the whole "making the perfect the enemy of the good" and pretending that a bunch of stuff that was never going to change in upcoming election cycles that is bad would be changed by not voting. All while letting poo poo you could possibly contribute to changing and saving actual lives go undone because (insert reason here). If the right wing wins because of that sort of pseudo-doomerism some of the blood of the people they end up driving to suicide or killing via a lack of healthcare ends up on the hands of those who didn't vote. At the end of the day it just comes off as kind of pathetic to me. Archonex fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Oct 30, 2023 |
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Oct 30, 2023 20:04
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Retro42 posted:I've personally taken the opinion that they just share a mindset with the crazy people on the Republican side although with VASTLY different beliefs: "If others have to suffer for my moral high ground that's totally fine." This is true, yeah. I literally pointed out at least one post way back at the beginning of this conversation days ago that basically said this. To add salt on the wound, said post was also preluded by someone else pointing out that their family can't afford to indulge in such wishy washy nonsense since they have a trans nephew. It's the essence of what essentially makes up privileged majority politics and it's absolutely cancerous to actual real progress. Sadly, this sort of awful mentality exists on both sides of the aisle in certain types. It's just that it's more noticeable on the right usually since their general ideology embraces it rather than decries it as the problematic thing it is. Archonex fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 30, 2023 |
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Oct 30, 2023 20:08
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TGLT posted:If Biden wanted to put actual pressure on Israel he could, instead of letting Blinken go out there talking about how there are no red lines while they pointedly refuse to call publicly for a ceasefire. He did it in 2021 and it worked, because at the end of the day Israel is a client state. Israel cannot do this without US backing. Israel would absolutely try to cozy up to Russia or China if we outright started to treat them as a client state with no gloves on. Netanyahu's regime has made that much clear.
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Nov 12, 2023 19:00
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