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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Demonic_Braeburn Yankee Doodle Dandy from Defective California Since: Jan, 2016
Yankee Doodle Dandy
#156451: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:40:06 AM

[up][up] Sorry, I didn't see it.

The nation’s top intelligence official, James Clapper, submitted his letter of resignation, ensuring that President-elect Donald Trump will have the option to build his own network of intel leaders.

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#156452: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:44:59 AM

[up] All rats, abandon ship!

edited 18th Nov '16 8:46:02 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#156453: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:45:41 AM

The thing that really rankles is that if people can't be assed to show up and vote against naked racism and protofascism like in this election, the only way we'll be able to win more votes is by giving the 'not racist' districts and voters reasons to vote for us. We'll have to include sweeteners and economic bonuses for people who didn't give a shit about our humanity and human rights to prevent them from throwing another tantrum and smashing the country up more.

I don't think the poor whites will turn on Trump. All he has to do is vomit into the microphone about Obama and Mexicans and they'll line up behind him again the same way they did this year. Our only hope is to pander and try to buy the loyalty of a self-interested group that's already shown itself willing to step on the throats of everyone else in the country on the transparently false word of a liar - and that's assuming that all of them are perfectly neutral and didn't vote for Trump because they wanted to actually hurt people who were different from them.

It's been fun.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#156454: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:47:10 AM

[up] No wonder HRC couldn't win them over. Her main strengths were civil rights and identity politics and such, trying to help the people even worse off than the "poor" white working class.

edited 18th Nov '16 8:48:15 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#156455: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:53:54 AM

All regimes end eventually, but the question on my mind is - which will end first, these regimes or humanity?

To be honest - and it kills me to say this - as things go on, I suspect humanity might end first. I mean, it's going to be pretty damn hard to get rid of 7 billion of us, but who knows how a post climate-change world is going to look like in terms of geopolitics.

If so...well, I think humanity on the whole has been fascinating to watch progress throughout the millenia. We've done some unbelievably heinous and terrible things, but we've also been capable of greatness too.

I'm just sorry that things look like they'll end like this.

If there's ever another species like us in the future on this planet, I just hope they find out enough about us to learn from our mistakes.

IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#156456: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:55:40 AM

Whoa, this thread moves fast, I'll catch up with a few things from the last three pages I want to answer to:

In a Kleptocracy there will be no actual legit elections, just illusions of them.
Uh... yes, there can be real elections (BTW, direct popular vote is a million times better than EC)

Isn't it just Romney and Powell who have kept up with their objections?

What about Kasich?

edited 18th Nov '16 8:55:54 AM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#156457: Nov 18th 2016 at 8:58:39 AM

Thing is the EC is never gonna get repealed at this rate.

It's too strong a tool for the Republicans that's helped them win multiple times now, and they're in a position to royally fuck the country and give themselves even more power so they'll only make it harder and harder to get rid of it.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#156458: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:02:36 AM

The thing is that poor whites DO exist and DO need help. Neither party is making a point of that - but if the Dems don't compromise and turn the other cheek (or bend over more, depending on your mental image) they'll just go with Trump again. And it's very possible that that compromise will entail rewarding them for their racist choices, or turning on the people who need civil rights protections in favor of economic protections for the Rust Belt.

Basically, if the only way we can win them is to betray civil progressives... I don't think we should. We can't count on them, but we need them.

Or maybe we can just get more fucking Democrats to vote for the candidate with a chance of winning instead of staying home because the woman standing between the White House and a literal fascist isn't ideologically pure enough for them.

It's been fun.
RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#156459: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:05:08 AM

To be honest - and it kills me to say this - as things go on, I suspect humanity might end first. I mean, it's going to be pretty damn hard to get rid of 7 billion of us, but who knows how a post climate-change world is going to look like in terms of geopolitics.

That is, depressingly, my outlook as well. At this point, there are basically too many apocalypses waiting in the wings for one of them not to happen sooner or later. Time is not on our side, and now that we're looking at an indeterminate amount of time the U.S. will spend contributing to climate change, the clock's running out faster than ever.

So basically, the world may literally end before we get these regimes out of power. I've certainly got a very sunny outlook these days - I wish I didn't actually believe this. But giving power to tyrannical dictatorships despite the warnings of the far-sighted, then causing a global apocalypse before we have a chance to ever rectify that mistake? Is exactly the kind of thing we do.

Also, yeah, the GOP has no incentive whatsoever to get rid of the electoral college. It's one of their best weapons to ensure they remain in power. To get them out of power, we need to abolish the EC, and to abolish the EC we need to get them out of power. "Open the box with the hammer that comes in the box," basically.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#156460: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:06:38 AM

Or Go get a rock.

Oh, if the EC overturns the election I might just start being religious again...

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
Demonic_Braeburn Yankee Doodle Dandy from Defective California Since: Jan, 2016
Yankee Doodle Dandy
#156461: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:08:45 AM

Kanye West took time out of his concert in San Jose, California Thursday night to announce that he didn’t vote, but that if he had voted, it would have been for Donald Trump.

This will probably hurt his chances in 2020./s

edited 18th Nov '16 9:10:14 AM by Demonic_Braeburn

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#156464: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:12:29 AM

Kanye West is a rich, out of touch idiot. That doesn't surprise me.

It's been fun.
HallowHawk Since: Feb, 2013
#156465: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:17:04 AM

@ Fluffy McChicken

Then California will need foreign volunteers for extra muscle.

In regards to the Republicans opposing Net Neutrality, other than torrents and streaming, what else is endangered in the Internet?

Karkadinn Karkadinn from New Orleans, Louisiana Since: Jul, 2009
Karkadinn
#156466: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:17:12 AM

Ironically, the same degree of personal comfort afforded to the status quo population (IE, the bare minimum economic security necessary to feel like you can afford to be apathetic about elections and/or vote for an obvious troll candidate out of pettiness) is also going to be an ally to the Democrats over the next few years. You think the average middle class white man (what little of the middle class is left, anyway) is going to be happy about the Republican agenda of taking away his healthcare, tanking the economy, destroying the environment he lives in and making things run worse via privatization? He's not. When he sees that a vote for Trump was basically the same as a vote for the most extreme elements of the Republican party with no checks and balances, he gon' be pissed.

No tyrant rules without the ultimate complicity of his people. Rig the votes as much as you like, if 99% of the country hates your guts because you don't stand for their ideals and actively make their lives worse in incredibly obvious ways, you ain't holding onto power.

There is a voice in the back of my head that sometimes wonders if the childish burn it down anarchists were right in the long run. For so long we've been struggling to make even inches of progress because we're always on defense against the Republicans pulling us yards back. Maybe this is what we finally need to be rid of it: for them to succeed at everything they've ever tried to do.

Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.
Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#156467: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:17:42 AM

I don't think the poor whites will turn on Trump.
Interestingly, the poor and the lower middle class favoured Clinton, no word on how that breaks down racially, though. But it's up from 2012. I know that one article on Trump's economic supporters someone linked suggested that some of them were middle class folks who didn't want to lose their relatively decent paying jobs and have to go work in the service industry.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#156468: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:22:48 AM

Ah, interesting. I don't think my core point is off, though - if our hopes ride on Republicans keeping their morals and turning on Trump, then we're pretty much screwed.

It's been fun.
blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#156469: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:25:36 AM

What happened wtf

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#156470: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:28:15 AM

[up] Two posts end up entangled sometimes when people post at the exact same time.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#156471: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:31:04 AM

@Ambar

OK maybe I did use the wrong trope, but even if I did that's not really the point. You also seem to have misinterpreted my comment as trying to shut down the discussion here when like Randomdude 4 I was just pointing out that using that kind of word choice isn't going to change any of the people it's aimed at face to face. And it won't, regardless of how objectively correct it is.

Also yes, not going to name names, but there's been at least one or two other people in this thread who advocated against reaching out to them, or even for the outright killing of them. For a while you seemed to be one of the former until someone else pointed out the importance of converting them and things we need to do to win them over.

On a side note you seem to take a lot of people's posts really personally and are constantly speaking with a snide and aggressive tone, not just on this thread. and not just about social justice topics. I get being passionate about the media but you really ought to dial it down on some of that. It's not just in this thread. I'm normally loathe to call out other posters, and call me a pussy or a DINO or whatever, but one of the major rules of the TV Tropes Forums is civility, and I feel like you're constantly edging along the line here, whether you mean to or not. And if I'm going too far by saying this in the first place Fighteer then let me know too.

@ Kanye

OK, seriously what the hell. Is he going to run Republican in 2020 or something?

@ Calling representatives

Whenever I do that I receive messages that the phones are both busy or that the voiceboxes are too full to receive any more messages. I'm not sure if that's a good sign that so many people or calling or that any further effort is wasted because they literally can't receive it.

edited 18th Nov '16 10:10:27 AM by AlleyOop

blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#156472: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:31:22 AM

Dude. You can Tele-Frag thread posts?! duuuuuuude

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#156473: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:36:13 AM

Personally, I like the "2016 destroyed time itself" angle better.

edited 18th Nov '16 9:36:25 AM by Pseudopartition

Memers Since: Aug, 2013
#156474: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:36:24 AM

In regards to the Republicans opposing Net Neutrality, other than torrents and streaming, what else is endangered in the Internet?
The biggest thing would be basically the internet companies will hold the entire internet hostage in the US, with a 'fastlane' and a 'slowlane' if you don't pay exorbitant prices your website will be in the 'slowlane' and not be able to receive as many connections and send data to people who use that internet company.

That and data caps will be imposed on pretty much anywhere where it has been made illegal to do so.

edited 18th Nov '16 9:38:25 AM by Memers

nervmeister Since: Oct, 2010
#156475: Nov 18th 2016 at 9:36:32 AM

I understand no self-styled Republican is made the same, but after being disappointed by Bush Jr., why does Kanye have a better feeling about Trump?


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