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Removed by mod

Damn didn’t know I was an LLM? Thanks for the heads up, good discussion

Being a doomer is bad if you’re stating theories as facts while giving no supporting evidence. For example:

• Why would withdrawn international relations result in right wing voting? Isn’t it more likely to fuel populist voting (not strongly attached to regressive or progressive policies)? What historical trends are you looking at? Just pasting the American flag onto the Weimar Republic based on vibes?
• What makes you think the polling is temporary? Putting aside the topic of fair elections, voters who have been subjected to this administration’s chaos and are consistently polling negatively will turn on their heads and lick boots because of… Saber rattling? A weak passport? An (even more) destroyed economy? 300 million cases of Stockholm Syndrome? I’m really scratching my head here…
• 1% by what metric? The collapse will drag out for 100 years? Wealth? The USA will be using stone age tools by the end of it? Population? Deaths? Quality of life? Deportations?.. It surely can get worse but 99% in almost any metric is absurd.

I can’t even agree or disagree with you because your comments are so shallow that they can’t hold up to a discussion; ergo bad.

I mean, what would you suggest instead? Some system where a simple plurality can elect your fringe candidate? We could give the seat to whatever candidate Passes the Post First?

What you’re describing has nothing to do with the voting system. If your candidate is so far to the fringe that they can’t overcome the gravity of the primary center then they should probably be in their own party. If the voting public wouldn’t rank them above all other weak moderates in the general then that’s a problem with your electorate and election funding rules.

More contrived rage bait about one of the handful prominent elected officials with something approximating a progressive platform. Spinning an uninformed reaction and one offhand remark into a full headline and story.

I guess par for the course when you consider that the Axios is majority owned by Cox Enterprises who, at a glance, donated at 70% for Republicans and the rest to establishment Dems.

Democrats might be a controlled opposition, but it helps to paint real opposition with the same controlled narrative.

It doesn’t need to; market forces do that.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-realpage-algorithmic-pricing-scheme-harms-millions-american-renters

I don’t claim to be an economist but I’m doubtful that pulling indirect levers and letting the market regulate itself works. If it did we’d already be 45 years into a Reaganomic utopia.

What I don’t get is the assumption that a fixed stipend of currency will provide for basic necessities.

If the society was committed to universal housing, food and healthcare access then just make that the stated goal and get those funds involved directly in housing/food/healthcare. Just giving someone $1000 doesn’t stop their landlord from increasing rent by $900 to match; a government owned housing alternative does.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I read somewhere a long while back that UBI is a non-solution to wealth inequality. IIRC if you don’t also radically change the rest of the regressive tax structures then the supply of cash still gets funneled upward. Most of the hype is from PR and the inherent good vibes of getting a check in the mail.

I’ve never seen people more mad that a stranger paid a few thousand extra amortized over 14 years.

Don’t get me wrong, they signed up to ooh-rah bomb brown people. But it hits a little different when, statistically, a portion of them are literally from these cities. There’s an insular camaraderie in the military and they’re pulled from a diverse background by design. You can’t just drop a battalion on a city and expect them to behave themselves like a Texas National Guard in Oregon.

I’m also not claiming this is a good thing. A military junta doesn’t make for kind and benevolent rulers, but wouldn’t be bad in the same ways as the current administration.

He already functionally has full control of the country since there are no checks against him. Him getting a stamp of approval to ignore the rule of law doesn’t change anything except giving his lawyers more time to golf instead of pushing court papers.

The real fight here is over optics. He’s very visibly cannibalising and deconstructing the federal government and forcing constitutional crisis by marching ICE/National Guard around peaceful streets. When he has his shiny insurrection papers he can now march out the military as well, which is the only way he can exert real political control. Stochastic terrorism and 20k ICE thugs can’t occupy a nation of 340 million.

But the thing is the military isn’t ICE. They didn’t sign up to wander around Chicago arresting maids and line cooks. They need a real, genuine, convincing reichstag fire or armed opposition to keep those soldiers from wondering why they’re patrolling the streets and shooting dissidents for the emperor with no clothes. If you can’t convince them to be fully on board the maga train then it gets very difficult to hold your kangaroo court to purge the left. That is going to be much more interesting than any phony act or simple declaration of martial law.

I think a lot of people are buying into the image of white guy + tac vest + gun = ICE = fed = military. These things are in no way equal but it’s an important part of the administration’s plans for you to imagine they are.

ICE is a big bark and a little bite. These people have minimal/no training, they are literally angry thugs on a power trip. Step back and actually think about the outrageous operations and headlines you see.

They’re tough guys when they outnumber you or are tackling a 70 year old nanny, but when faced with a critical mass of opposition they tuck tail and run. The only thing they have going for them is the costume and a gun.

Turns out that watching a bunch of conspiracy videos about how brown people ruin America doesn’t make you a tough guy. What actually does make you tough is years of drilling, specialized training, decades of institutional knowledge, engaging in real combat, etc. So we’re back to the eternal truth: the military are the true kingmakers of the state.

In terms of personal safety you still need to watch out for ICE on the streets. However, in terms of political power they’re a paper tiger. They could never lock down a city or shut down an election without massive military support. Whether the military would lend that support is an open question, but certainly not without a compelling reason (beyond the POTUS decrees it)

Oh he’ll for sure be propped up and wheeled around indefinitely, but it’s basically confirmed he’s getting more frequent TIAs and worse recoveries despite his treatment. Real question is how bad is the next puppet going to be once he croaks.

Librarians?

For 20+ years it’s been (de facto) against the law for the stock market to go down. The only exceptions are pump & dumps to keep the poors out, but otherwise any drop in our glorious free market will be manually corrected by Uncle Sam.

Patiently waiting for the shooter to be a hard right conspiracy nut so I can play this clip back

I did skim through, it’s entirely focused on the Democrat failure as opposition with no acknowledgement of his/his employers culpability on hyper-normalization. If he cares so much, he could do something with his platform beyond hitting the same worn out Democrat punching bad that they’ve hammered for decades.

“Stop acting like this is normal” says rag sane washing every step in our descent to fascism

Oh yeah? Well if you’re so gay then why can’t I suck your girthy dick?

– Tucker “The Sucker (Throat Goat)” Carlson