If

[dualstow]

No you got it. I’m still not sure why he didn’t vote for Gore, but I think it was a strategy of “vote for someone good.” Not in Jack’s sense of not_evil. I don’t think he thought of Gore as evil, but perhaps part of the swamp, part of the machine.

[SilentMajority]

Voting is a suggestion box for slaves and makes you complicit with whatever the government does. It's a humiliation ritual. If you vote you're saying this system of selecting leaders is valid and therefore the "will of the people" is valid and executed by the gov't.

If no one voted the government wouldn't be any worse than it already is, and it would lose any semblance of legitimacy. Then protests and resistance of the evil government actions would not be portrayed as "threats to democracy or whatever".

Don't vote people. Have some pride and don't vote. Look at these pathetic choices you are offered. It's literally a self-shaming humiliation ritual and southpark nailed it years ago with giant douche vs turd sandwich.

[dualstow]

^ One of my favorite episodes ^ even if I didn’t necessarily draw the same conclusion from it.

[barrett]

The reason I asked is because I have a relative who was very anti-Bush but who voted for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election. And I always think, How did that work out for you.

But how it works out really depends on what state one lives in, right? I was a resident of New York State from 1987 to 2018 and it was always inevitable that a Democrat would win that state and its electoral votes. Seems like protest votes are potentially less costly to cast in states that are clearly red or blue.

[dualstow]

Seems that way, yep.

By the way, I was just checking this thread because I saw John Bolton say he was going to vote for Dick Cheney

[Jack Jones]

Also: isn’t one man’s evil candidate another man’s good candidate? If not, isn’t it still slippery like ESG investing?
(And this time I’ll bother to type out: you might be tempted to reply, “This post isn’t addressed to those who already think they’re voting for someone good. It’s for those who’re capitulating and voting for a lesser evil.” If that is the case — it might not be— then ok, fair enough).

Eyy, now you're starting to complete my thoughts. We must be getting to know eachother. Yeah, I disapprove of voting for the lesser of two candidates, both of whom one deems evil. I'm playing the long game with my voting. I want to see better candidates next election. Also, votes to a third party inform the two main parties that they might want to pull some of these issues into their platform.

If every voter could be swayed to think along the lines of Jack, Vinny- er, Yankees60, and you, then we would see real change. My predilection for compromise could be called cynical with shades of The Prisoner’s Dilemma and self-fulfilling prophecies. But, I’m concerned about outcome above all. Perhaps I’m thinking too short-term.

In their present condition men are like bees which have just swarmed and are hanging down a limb in a cluster. The position of the bees on the limb is temporary, and must inevitably be changed. They must rise and find a new home for themselves. Every one of the bees knows that and wishes to change its position and that of the others, but not one is able to do so before the others are going to do so. They cannot rise all at once, because one hangs down from the other, keeping it from separating itself from the swarm, and so all continue to hang. It would seem that the bees could not get out of this state, just as it seems to worldly men who are entangled in the snare of the social world-conception. But there would be no way out for the bees, if each of the bees were not separately a living being, endowed with wings. So there would also be no way out for men, if each of them were not a separate living being, endowed with the ability of acquiring the Christian concept of life.

If every bee which can fly did not fly, the rest, too, would not move, and the swarm would never change its position. And as one bee need but open its wings, rise up, and fly away, and after it a second, third, tenth, hundredth, in order that the immovable cluster may become a freely flying swarm of bees, so one man need but understand life as Christianity teaches him to understand it, and begin to live accordingly, and a second, third, hundredth, to do so after him, in order that the magic circle of the social life, from which there seemed to be no way out, be destroyed.

But people think that the liberation of all men in this manner is too slow, and that it is necessary to find and use another such a means, so as to free all at once; something like what the bees would do, if, wishing to rise and fly away, they should find that it was too long for them to wait for the whole swarm to rise one after another, and should try to find a way where every individual bee would not have to unfold its wings and fly away, but the whole swarm could fly at once wherever it wanted. But that is impossible: so long as the first, second, third, hundredth bee does not unfold its wings and fly, the swarm, too, will not fly away or find the new life. So long as every individual man does not make the Christian life-conception his own, and does not live in accordance with it, the contradiction of the human life will not be solved and the new form of life will not be established.

[dualstow]

Hah, brilliant.
That Tolstoy quote feels like something Medium Tex would post.

[Jack Jones]

I gotta admit, after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt, I’m feeling differently about Trump. Everything was fucked in PA, but he prevailed against the forces of evil.

[yankees60]

Mr. Book’s latest review:

You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my blog, <a href=https://www.mrbooksbookreviews.com>Mr. Book's Book Reviews.</a>

Mr. Book just finished Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, by Branko Marcetic.

Surprisingly, at this moment Joe Biden has been the best president of my 53-year lifetime—not that there have been many good candidates for that top spot. But, throughout the entirety of his political career, he has had a terrible record. This book, originally published in 2020, is on that subject.


I moved the rest of this (along with the text above, so it’s complete) to a thread dedicated to ginormous book review pastes. (Just ignore “Harbinger” in the topic title this time). It just makes it easier to scroll through this thread. You can find it here. / DS

[Jack Jones]

Voting is a suggestion box for slaves and makes you complicit with whatever the government does. It's a humiliation ritual. If you vote you're saying this system of selecting leaders is valid and therefore the "will of the people" is valid and executed by the gov't.

If no one voted the government wouldn't be any worse than it already is, and it would lose any semblance of legitimacy. Then protests and resistance of the evil government actions would not be portrayed as "threats to democracy or whatever".

Don't vote people. Have some pride and don't vote. Look at these pathetic choices you are offered. It's literally a self-shaming humiliation ritual and southpark nailed it years ago with giant douche vs turd sandwich.

I missed this, but thanks for the perspective. This is great.

[dualstow]

I moved all the music posts to their own thread for better readability of this thread.
Music thread here / DS

[yankees60]

https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1814803589178487159



Art Candee
@ArtCandee
Yep. It was another utterly unhinged Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan today.

Let’s recap it:

He showed up 20 minutes late.

He took the ear Kotex off but his makeup was d@mn near blackface.

He called Pennsylvania “Prensylvania.”

He said the RNC convention was full of “unity and love.” He said there was no fighting but the bickering between Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy was wildly publicized.

He said “fight fight fight” again.

Unity message is totally gone. Not like it ever existed.

He called lakes “lakies.”

He said he has “great common sense.”

He tried to distance himself from “Project 25” and said he doesn’t “know anything about it.”

He claimed he “took a bullet for democracy.”

He babbled about Germany’s inflation “centuries ago.” Uh.

He said we have the “best,” “sweet” oil.

He praised Viktor Orban again.

He started talking in a baby voice when discussing being shot. Weird.

He said he wanted to “sleep with” a sign.

He once again claimed to get the “man of the year award” in Michigan, which doesn’t exist.

He said “I love Elon Musk” and praised him for a minute solid.

He said a boat with batteries “won’t float.”

He babbled about sharks and getting electrocuted for two minutes again.

He said he did more for auto workers than any president in history. Obama disagrees since he literally bailed them out.

He said Biden “can’t find the entrances off the stage.” Reread that in case you missed it.

He said “toosh.” Wut?

He tried talking about baseball and called throws “passes.”

He said he hates when people laugh at him.

He called folks “low IQ.”

He tried to do a French accent impression and it was awful.

He read his teleprompter cue and said “Trump” instead of “I.”

He whined about how his “severe combover” looked on the screens and called it “a work of art.”

He said he left bulldozers in Mexico when building the border wall.

He said Biden is going to raise taxes 4x.

He babbled about Hannibal Lecter again as if he’s real and dead.

He said they’re going to have a rally in Venezuela.

He said you’re “not gonna teach a criminal to not be a criminal.” Yes, we know Donald will never change.

He said that he’s going to “stop the plunder, rape, slaughter, and destruction of our American suburbs.”

He babbled about Al Capone.

He claimed the justice system isn’t going after him, they’re going after all of us.

Sandy Pensler came on stage and said he was “so inspired when President Trump kissed the empty uniform of Corey Comperatore.” Yikes.

He then announced he was dropping out of the Michigan Senate race and endorsed his opponent.

He said “hiler respected” instead of “highly.”

He praised Tudor Dixon, a lady who said that forcing teenage rape victims to give birth could be “healing” for them.

He called Nancy Pelosi “crazy like a bedbug.”

He really seems to think that the iron dome is a dome made of iron.

He said he had no wars and defeated ISIS.

He lied and said Biden wants to raise the retirement age (when that’s the plan of Republicans).

He called Kamala Harris “Kimala.”

The crowd seems to be falling asleep. They’re so quiet. He’s slurring more now.

He babbled about forts again thinking we fought world wars out of them.

He bragged about getting the NRA’s endorsement.

He babbled about cars again.

He insulted the UAW head again.

He said we’re a “nation in decline.”

But mainly we should focus on these ominous comments:

He praised President Xi of China because he rules with “an iron fist.” Total foreshadowing of what could happen.

He said court cases will get “overturned, anything that happens." We should be prepared.

He said they’re “not going to allow” Democrats to “rig another election.” They will not accept a legitimate loss. This is a dog whistle.

He said “we’re gonna take it over" when talking about Washington DC.

So…total trainwreck.

Once again, I’ll say:

SHAME ON THE MEDIA FOR NOT COVERING THIS SWEATY, BABBLING LUNATIC AND THE CRAZY SH*T HE SAYS!!!!!

[dualstow]

{ sigh }

[yankees60]

{ sigh }

It's only step 1 of Biden being out. He needs to take step 2 of resigning. Logically it follows. Now that he knows there is a definite end to his presidency that makes it more likely he will resign.

[Xan]

{ sigh }

It's only step 1 of Biden being out. He needs to take step 2 of resigning. Logically it follows. Now that he knows there is a definite end to his presidency that makes it more likely he will resign.

That'll never happen. He was barely convinced to drop out, meaning he at long last agreed that in 4+ years he wouldn't be up to it. To resign he has to be convinced he's not up to it now. There's no way, and nobody will care enough to force the issue (unless something huge happens or changes).

[flyingpylon]

… he at long last agreed that in 4+ years he wouldn't be up to it.

Do you really think that’s what happened?

[dualstow]

{ sigh }

It's only step 1 of Biden being out.

I was only sighing because you put another superlong post in here, the content of which was not your original work.
Anyway, I think they’re working on invoking the 25th amendment.

[yankees60]

{ sigh }

It's only step 1 of Biden being out. He needs to take step 2 of resigning. Logically it follows. Now that he knows there is a definite end to his presidency that makes it more likely he will resign.

That'll never happen. He was barely convinced to drop out, meaning he at long last agreed that in 4+ years he wouldn't be up to it. To resign he has to be convinced he's not up to it now. There's no way, and nobody will care enough to force the issue (unless something huge happens or changes).

I generally rarely agree with what Republicans are pushing. But, in this case, I'm in full agreement with him that if he is too senile to run for president .... then he should stop being president.

[yankees60]

{ sigh }

It's only step 1 of Biden being out.

I was only sighing because you put another superlong post in here, the content of which was not your original work.
Anyway, I think they’re working on invoking the 25th amendment.

10 minutes into that debate I sent two friends an email saying that the 25th amendment needed to immediately be invoked! The probabilities are increasing every day with the electron microscope now being focused on every word he speaks and how he expresses himself.