I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE BOTTOM IS • US presidential elections part VIII

the anesthetized factor is something that's both inevitable and troubling, not only regarding mass shootings but regarding the farce/horror show that is the GOP nominee.

when you step back a second, it's really quite alarming to realize that one of the two major parties isn't really willing to engage, in any broadly realistic way, questions of policy and their effects. "even" paul ryan, the supposed intellectual leader of the bunch, hasn't put forth a single /serious/ policy proposal in his life, one that actual looks rationally at causes and effects. the only inputs on the GOP machine, to the extent it even functions as such, are feeding it an alternate, fractured version of reality.

i know, i'm being captain obvious, but sometimes i wake up and just immediately realize how far down the rabbit hole we've all gone, and despair.

idk, these things will continue to happen - probably best to not have hysterical populace reaction each time they do.

this is maybe for another thread but I've felt for a long time that this increased level of randomized violence corresponds to the decreased impacts of actual traditional military warfare on civilian populations. whereas previous generations lived in real and constant threat of having their lives destroyed by military conflict, that has become increasingly rare (currently zero military conflicts in the western hemisphere for ex.), but there's still aggrieved and violent segments of the populace, and now their outlet is randomized violence rather than goin off to war, and as a society we are learning to cope with this change in the type and scope of violent threats.

which is not to say that terrorism is "okay" or that we should accept it and just learn to live with it, it's just that we're adapting to a different kind of violence than previous generations had to contend with, and one of those adaptations is a certain anaesthetization.

Οὖτις, that would make sense if frequent mass shootings were a western phenomenon and not limited largely to the USA

but the absence of war in, say, italy doesn't seem to have provoked the same kind of "peace time" violence.

x-post

yeah I'm not referring specifically to mass shootings (which are def a US-specific thing), was referring more to ISIS/Muslim nutjob style stuff

just ideologically driven terrorist attacks targeting innocent civilians in general

except that statistically even those attacks are insignificant, you can't draw enormous zeitgeisty conclusions from them

I can and will!

but seriously I am just spitballin I have no data or studies or whatever just my armchair sociologizin

agree that violence is now more virtualized, mobile and fragmented

After keeping him hidden for months, I've seen Lanny Davis twice on CNN in the past couple of weeks. The Kayleigh McEnany of Clinton surrogates--truly the worst.

guys

Trump will hold a question and answer session Saturday at the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, which has a primarily black congregation.

clearly the American military is totally capable of manipulating foreign battlefield victories for maximum domestic election impact, yup that is a thing they are good at, they are always in total control of conflicts in foreign countries, it's really incredible how totally in control they are at all times, they are just the best, it's really beautiful, you just wouldn't believe it

― Οὖτις, Monday, 29 August 2016 20:33 (one hour ago)

First of these to work in months, hi 5

flippantly dismissing military influence goes hand in hand with a certain anesthetization who knew

i know one person who knew

your mom

I had a nightmare last night that I'd slept through the election and I went online to gloat and got brought to Rasmussen reporting Trump had won 390 electoral votes.

waking up was bliss.

i've said this before but i think that if the polls are systemically wrong it is much more likely it is in hillary's favor than donald's.

― Mordy, Monday, August 29, 2016 4:14 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup. https://twitter.com/adrian_gray/status/770414474339680256

Rick Perry http://www.etonline.com/news/196777_dancing_with_the_stars_derek_hough_confirms_return_cheryl_burke_set/

Poor Marilu Henner having to associate herself with such co-star dreck

they hired the wrong calvin johnson

JAZZ HANDS

http://cache4.asset-cache.net/gc/497763498-calvin-johnson-performs-at-the-tin-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXu7VaEBbPBMy0tJTkwrhIC7jHG44n9Mpbr%2BTB8ArW8PCx2Ppu2Q%2F4HPQ17dVfMQPTA%3D%3D

I'm surprised SNL didn't do some parody of the Bachelorette earlier in the campaign with some hot girl and all 17 GOP hopefuls. They could have done it on the Trump episode. BTW, isn't it insane that Trump hosted SNL? When was that, a few years ago?

last fall

Lorne is a fucking brownnosing whore w/ pols, has been for 40 years

If that were true, then why did he give Nixon a humiliating mustache?

idk, these things will continue to happen - probably best to not have hysterical populace reaction each time they do.

― Mordy, Monday, August 29, 2016 4:59 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

two stampedes at major airports in a month over non existent mass shootings suggest the populace is getting more not less hysterical

Eh, that's just pent up frustration at being forced to stand in line for hours. People gotta move!

a lot going on in this vox article (no, really!) http://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2016/8/30/12697920/race-dividing-american-politics

e.g.

https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9KhpJ_NFpUNHmoE8dzyEGOijVMo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7012541/immigration_and_R_voting.0.png

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9z9sqgPXLwHeCfs0LUb-V0xpuiQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7012527/Voting-education.0.png

I can't even parse what it means when a black man puts a white woman in blackface in the service of an avowed racist white guy I mean waht

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/black-pastor-a-trump-surrogate-apologized-for-tweet-showing-clinton-in-blackface/2016/08/29/1fdce5c2-6e55-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html?hpid=hp_special-topic-chain_trumppastor-1115pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

b-b-but caek, everybody knows the Trump voter has real and legitimate economic concerns that need to be taken seriously by the Dems!

in other news: http://www.pressherald.com/2016/08/30/lepage-says-he-is-considering-resignation-after-apology-to-westbrook-legislator/

“When I was called a racist I just lost it, and there’s no excuse,” the governor said. “It’s unacceptable. It’s totally my fault.”

LePage said being called a racist for him was, “like calling a black man the ‘N’ word or a woman the ‘C’ word. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet.”

hmm could it be one of those things is not like the other

Also, it's not the important part, but he wasn't even called a racist.

re: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/black-pastor-a-trump-surrogate-apologized-for-tweet-showing-clinton-in-blackface/2016/08/29/1fdce5c2-6e55-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html?hpid=hp_special-topic-chain_trumppastor-1115pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Hours later, Burns deleted the tweet and said it was “not at all my intention to offend anyone.”

whut

also lol at LaPage, preferably while punching him in the face

a banner day for race relations!

'not at all my intention for anyone to call me out on the obvious offensiveness of my tweet' is what I think he meant. Damn those PC police.

Meantime!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-conservative-coup_us_57c4c63ae4b0664f13ca3715

Specifically this bit from some Freedom Caucus doof about Ryan doing nothing (duh) to help Huelskamp.

“How can you have a gang, and have one in your gang get stabbed, and do nothing?” another member asked. “You got to stab somebody, or else what’s the point of having a gang?”

new thread title imo

Ben Carson can lend you some of his stabbing expertise

Can't read that quote without picturing it being accompanied by West Side Story choreography

anyone read that twaddle the NYT published about Weiner this morning?

you're going to have to be more specific than that

You got to stab somebody
You got to stab somebody
Well it may be the devil, or it may be the lord
But you got to stab somebody

Everybody stabs somebody sometime

you better find somebody to stab

I'm doing too many things at once -- "It may be an elephant or it may be an ass" would be a better line

kinda surprised he hasnt said some dumb shit about colin kaepernick yet

― if young slothrop don't trust ya i'm gon' rhyme ya (slothroprhymes), Monday, August 29, 2016 1:51 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-donald-trump-says-maybe-colin-1472562284-htmlstory.html

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrHF2iIVYAAB7qG.jpg:large

allow it

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sqTFGwpAiZI/maxresdefault.jpg

http://66.media.tumblr.com/93b88a8848bb20bd6758904027e61918/tumblr_o53wy6hYhU1s4mls2o1_1280.jpg