So, I've been gone for about 2 months now. I don't just mean from the blog, I mean gone-gone. Off the internet. Out of town. Out bush. Up North. Caught up with some rellies I hadn't seen in a while. Did some manual labour. Realised I'm getting too old to be doing manual labour. Anyway, there'll be plenty of time to cover that in future posts. For the time being, let's talk presidential elections.
Four years ago, I was all over Yank politics. Followed the primaries, covered the conventions, listened to the debates, sucked up every morsel I could get my hands on. Between Trump and Sanders, I felt a glimmer of hope that the neoliberal global trajectory could actually be shifted.
Obviously, that hope is well and truly dead. This year, I barely mustered enough enthusiasm to give a shit about anything Yank-related. Now, no doubt some of that can be chalked up to COVID blues, but I think most of it comes down to disappointment over how effectively the status quo has bounced back.
As the Irish would say, we're back to a choice between two cheeks of the same arse. And whether you choose the left or the right cheek, you're still going to get the same shit. America is fucked, regardless of who wins; and to the extent that American foreign policy affects the rest of us … well, so are we.
Eh—oh well—que sera, sera, as the say. Here's a thread for us to discuss the arrangement of the deck-chairs while we wait for the ship to go down.
Enjoy.
29 comments :
Four years ago, I said that if the US kept on its (then) current trajectory, it would only be a matter of time before we saw election violence, and hardcore partisans murdering each other in the streets - similar to what you get in third world countries.
It might just be a case of the broken clock being right twice a day, but I wasn't far off the mark with that one.
It was looking good but I don't like the way that red is suddenly going up
Hey Squib, how have you been? What's the state of affairs up in the wilds of northern Jockland?
I'm not paying tooooo much attention to the coverage, but from what I have heard, you can basically ignore the initial "race" portion. The result is going to come down to a handful of swing states, and the final result might not be known for days, due to postal voting.
Hiya, things are pretty fucked up here. The virus and Brexit to contend with. If Trump wins then Boris won't even try to make a deal with the Eu and then we're all screwed (we're screwed anyway so MORE screwed)
Current odds on BetFair ...
Biden: $3.25
Trump: $1.33
Not exactly boding well for the Dems.
Anyway, I only slept for 3 hours last night, and I dunno how much longer I can stay awake for. Might have to check back in tomorrow.
They bookies now have them neck and neck. So, who knows.
Hmmmph. Having trouble sleeping. Not unusual.
Currently BetFair odds ...
Biden: $1.33
Trump: $3.25
Good news for Squib. I guess?
:)
Biden: $1.07
Trump: $7.00
Went to bed last night feeling miserable. Now maybe MAYBE some hope. MAYBE.
Glad to see you're alive and well Alex and Squib. Biden's a dick, but he's not Trump. He's not going to deliberately tell thousands of lies per year, for a start. And if something happens to him, well there's an awesome woman waiting in the wings.
Read a column from Andrew P Street this morning about how fucked America's idea of Democracy is. I really hope that the Dems can wrestle back enough control to fix it. Lose the electoral college for a start. And introduce one overarching body to run the elections as we have. And then stop preventing people from voting, make it easy for them.
One last thing, not election related: COVID-Melbourne has been a nightmare to live through and I do not want to live through this again. If the numbers start going up here again, we're joining the exodus out of the city to the country, where at least if there's a lockdown, you're not missing out on all that much.
Enduring the months of miserable isolation with fucking Scummo jeering at us and QLD borders closed so we can't visit our rellies even has been hellish. I can't do it again. I am really glad that we are not living in the Northern Hemisphere right now as it's going to be a much worse shitshow up there. (sorry Squib - stay safe)
It's not been talked about much but we preparation Victoria did for covid was extreme. There was a tent city erected in the carpark of the rehab hospital here, ready to take in patients, should it become necessary. I went 4 months without seeing half of my colleagues because we split our teams to give us some redundancy if one of our staff members caught it, meaning that the rest of their team would have to stay home for a fortnight and the unlucky other team would have to work 14 days straight somehow. Thankfully that did not happen, and strong bonds formed in each group because of what we were enduring together.
Last week we went out to dinner which was very strange, but such a relief. We were sat on the pavement outside Estelle in High St Northcote. People walking past (thankfully great mask compliance) made us uncomfortable for the first half hour, but after it got darker and the drinks started arriving, we stopped caring.
Hey Suze, good to hear from you again. I know Melbourne has really copped a pizzling with COVID, but hopefully you fellas are on the other side of it now, and there isn't a third wave. On the other hand, you did tell me a while ago that you wanted to pull the pin and get out of the city, so maybe now's the time? I dunno, it's just a suggestion, I don't know the details of your situation.
Biden's a dick, but he's not Trump. He's not going to deliberately tell thousands of lies per year, for a start. And if something happens to him, well there's an awesome woman waiting in the wings.
Disagree. Biden and Kamala are neoliberal corporatist turds - they're just much more polished turds than Trump; so when they lie, it'll sound pleasant and credible, rather than abrasive and buffoonish.
And my understanding of the electoral college is that it's a relic from the time when America was more of a union of independent states, similar to what the EU is today. And while I don't love it, I'm actually not a huge hater of it either. A direct democracy might be okay in a small country, but in a place the size of USA, Australia, Canada, etc, you probably want some sort of mechanism that spreads representation out geographically, so that your leader isn't effectively picked by a handful of densely populated urban areas. It's one of the things that's made me second guess my support for replacing the governor general with an elected president here in Oz. That just might be my rural bias speaking though.
Podcasts from the political fringes have been interesting this morning. Both sides have been talking about how, if their side loses, they will consider the result invalid because the other side cheated. From there, the talk has gone into whether it's preferable to be on the winning or losing side in a scenario like this; since the losing side could either:
a) Get demoralised by the loss and drop out.
OR
b) Be motivated to fight harder, due to perceived persecution.
*sigh* I wish we didn't need military protection from these cunts.
And while we're on the subject of who's going to be the turd in chief; have a look at the little cartoon portraits of Trump and Biden that the ABC has on their website:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-04/2020-us-election-live-results-who-is-winning-who-is-president/12762210
I'm seeing that style of art everywhere nowadays, and I don't know why. Not only is it aesthetically unappealing, but it usually doesn't even look like the person it's supposed to. Go on, tell me you'd pick that as Biden if you didn't already know.
Thanks, Suze. You take care, too
Give me Bernie over Biden any day! Yep, those cartoons look crap but you have to expect that because it's computer-generated?
Well Squib, that would explain why this shitty style has become so prolific. Much better to feed a photo through a Photoshop filter than it is to hire an actual artist to do a proper job.
And I agree with you on Bernie. Even 2020 Bernie would be a million times better than Biden, and 2020 Bernie isn't anywhere near as good as 2016 Bernie. Amazing how just four years of being a Democrat (Bernie was an independent) has shifted his position on certain issues.
*sigh* it's all very well to have socialist ideals - I am a socialist as well. But I'm also a realist. Given the choice between hate-spewing, intemperate Trump continuing to diminish his office and his country (that you've just pointed out we are dependant on for defense), and an over-the-hill, slightly doddery man who will take advice from the smarter people around him and stay the F off Twitter, I know what I want to see as leader. There's no point throwing away the baby with the bathwater because you didn't get your preferred candidate. That would be like me voting for ScoMo because I preferred Shorten as Labor leader (I did, but I won't).
It's the smarter people around Biden that I'm worried about. Remember "Yes Minister"? I don't really care if the president's some hug-able, old-school, socialist grandpa or a hate-spewing, intemperate, disgusting, pussy-grabber - so long as they've got the strength of character to stand up to the bureaucracy and at least try to wrestle the world down a different path.
Given his rhetoric in 2016, I thought Trump might have been a chance. However, when the rubber hit the road, he either didn't have the brains (or the balls), or he was just a disingenuous fraud. Sure, he might have flailed around and made a complete tit of himself, but the American machine chugged on, just as it had under Obama, and Bush, and Clinton, and Bush ...
What I want is somebody who can seize the controls of that machine and steer it in a different direction, or at least throw a spanner in the gears. Biden and Kamala are not those people.
While we're being so analogous, I'd rather they don't steer it into a wall (built by Trump). Biden may be middling and basic but anything is better than that dipshit
The wall is itself an interesting case, considering it was such a big part of what he ran on. In the end, what actually got built? As far as I'm aware, a few hundred miles of old shitty fencing was torn down and replaced with newer, slightly less shitty fencing ... and from what I heard, it just happened to be a company that the Kushners had a stake in that got the building contract.
Up until COVID hit, immigration (both legal and illegal) was up compared to what it was under Obama. Obama also deported more illegals in his first term.
Trump sunk TPP (thankfully), and he dicked around with tariffs here and there, and toyed with the idea of starting a trade war with China; but did he actually follow through and make the tough choice to do something substantial about reinvigorating domestic manufacturing and ending America's dependence on China? No, not really. There was a lot of bluster and bullshit, of course, but it never amounted to anything worth a damn.
And that's more or less how I see Trump's presidency - bluster and bullshit on the surface, and business as usual underneath.
Having said that, drone bombing that Iranian general who was in Iraq for peace negotiations stood out as being particularly slimy, even for the Yanks. And then there was that idiotic coup they tried to fund in Venezuela. Then again, what Obama did with Syria was probably just as scummy, so it's hard to say there was much of a difference, even in that regard.
Well, it looks like all the media outlets have called it for Biden now. I guess that, barring a legal challenge, that's that done and dusted then.
As far as I'm concerned, Sunday was a champagne day - no longer do we have to fear what that buffoon would do next. I'm honestly surprised that you Alex, thought he would do a decent job in the first place, given the lies that came spewing out of his mouth from the very first day of his office.
No, not quite Suze. What I'm trying to say is that I thought - based on his campaign rhetoric - that there was a chance he might TRY. But he started walking that rhetoric back as early as his victory speech on election night, and it all went downhill from there.
Apart from that, the point I'm making is that, if you peel away the cosmetic layer -- all the dumb shit he's said, and the impeachment circus, and the rotating door of staff and cabinet appointees -- peel all that away and just look at how America has worked for the last four years, there's very little substantial difference between the Trump presidency and what came before it.
Except for the daily assault of him on TV giving briefings - going off script, saying stupid things, hyperbole and lies. When I was OS in Japan the only English speaking TV we could find was Sky News and he was always there droning shit. We soon chose to watch ANYTHING other than Trump. It was a relentless barrage of orange bullshit.
What he DID do was diminish the prestige of his office AND the USA.
It was a shitshow from the moment he said "grab em by the pussy" and has just gotten worse and more debased as it went on. The appointment of the new Supreme Court judge last week is the icing on th eshit sandwhich that is the Trump presidency.
And Obama was the first President since FDR that had no scandal - private or public - in his whole 8 years of office, so I don't see how that comparison fits at all.
Obama bailed out the banks while refusing to prosecute any fraud, malfeasance, or other wrong-doing; famously stating "whatever happened, it's in the past. And we are looking forward". If I ever get hauled in front of a judge, remind me to make the argument that whatever crime I committed took place in the past. Anyway, then he stood by like a sack of shit, while CEOs used taxpayer money to pay themselves millions in bonuses, and foreclose on hundreds of thousands of underwater mortgages, causing a masive spike in homelessness, urban decay, and community disintegration. He then signed off on the aparatus that's in place now, which basically functions like a fire hose of money, running from the reserve bank to wall-street, guaranteeing that they will never have to go back to the government, cap-in-hand again.
Despite having control of all three arms of the government, he failed to introduce a proper health-care system, instead adopting a Republican proposal, that fines people for not taking out private insurance, which in a lot of cases they can't use anyway, because the co-payments are too high.
He offered to gut the pension system, in his so-called "grand bargain", but was thankfully knocked back by the Tea Party Republicans who wanted him to go further.
He told people in Flint Michigan that their water was safe to drink when it wasn't. He said he would support teachers unions if they went on strike, and he didn't.
He oversaw the drafting of the Trans-Pacific partnership, the worst ever trade deal in a long and excruciating history of shitty trade deals.
He opened up the arctic to oil-drilling, approved the Keystone pipeline, and massively expanded fracking.
He never cleaned up Gitmo, like he said he would. Instead, he supported the renewal of the Patriot Act, and introduced provisions to suspend the right to a fair trial. He persecuted whistle-blowers; including Assange, Snowden, and others that I can't remember the names of. He encouraged the Justice Department to go after non-US citizens for breach of American intellectual property laws (imagine if you posted something about Mohammed on Facebook, and the Australian govt extradited you to Saudi Arabia to stand trial for blasphemy). He continued the FBI's fake terrorist sting operations (I will explain further if you don't know what that is) and the IRS's "Operation Chokepoint", which was designed to bankrupt businesses that the government didn't like, but weren't actually doing anything illegal. He continued and then covered up the CIA torture program, and when it finally came to light, he refused to push for prosecutions there too. He ramped up drone bombing, killing god knows how many thousands of civilians, and then made jokes about it.
He directed intelligence services to spy on Trump's presidential campaign (yes that one's actually true). He refused to take action against Epstein, whose operations became public knowledge under Obama, and which he obviously knew about anyway, since everybody at that level fuckin' knew about it. Bill and Hillary were some of his best mates, after all.
And probably worst of all, he backed a coup by a bunch of bloodthirsty Islamic revolutionaries in Lybia, and once that country was utterly fucked, he repeated the same stunt in Syria.
But you're right, Obabma had no scandals. Nothing I've mentioned above is considered scandalous by modern standards. He looked good and said all the right things, and in the end, that's what really matters, isn't it?
All of this is true.
I'd still rather watch 50 years of Obama than 20 minutes of Trump.
I get it Suze, Trump was a bloviating orange retard. But if people get so invested in aesthetics that it becomes the dominant focus of politics, I don't see how things will ever change.
It's not the optics. Even with just the sound on, I'd still want to punch him in the mouth after 10 minutes. The stupid crap that comes out of his mouth when he's not reading from a script. And sometimes even when he is.
The insane thing is, I really enjoyed The Apprentice, in all its iterations, including the US version.
I never watched The Apprentice, and I imagine I never will, so I shan't comment on that one.
However, that visceral hatred you're talking about, in fringe political circles, it's referred to as "Finkle Think" - named after the infamous political strategist Arthur Finklestein. His signature ploy was to get his supporters so riled up with venomous, seething hatred towards the opposition leader on a personal level, that you could get away with having your guy push whatever political fuckery you wanted.
Yeah well it works, but with me, Trump is fomenting hatred of himself.
And actually that started back in the Clinton era, the Dems were so "OUR PRESIDENT!" and refusing to accept his impeechment no matter what, that we end up with the kind of extreme partisanship they are now living with 24/7
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