Pretty sure the background narrative is this weekend, maybe next week, he’s gonna announce he won’t be accepting the nomination and Kamala will be running for president in his place

The obvious truth is he will not be getting nominated and it causes the least harm to the DNC overall if he willingly backs out rather than just be kicked out

It’s an offer he can’t refuse, and he’s the last one in the room to realize it

The right wing will be going hog wild for the next… forever… if this turns out to a clear cut assassination attempt as it now appears. Expect weaponization of the term “stochastic terrorism” against the democrat types. And, to an extent, they won’t be wrong. If you call a guy Hitler 2.0 you are kinda telling people to stop that guy. Of course they ddi the same thing with the 2020 election calling it stolen. If you truly believed there was a deep state coup, isn’t it logical to do something maybe like Jan 6? Right wingers are always better at the bad faith messaging though, so, I see absolutely nothing good coming from this. Maybe some good memes.

I don’t disagree with the underlying idea here

But I would also caution heavily against doubting the simplest explanation: some unwell person, possibly a fallen Trump fan (groyper types angry he supports Israel) or some delusional Biden fan, whatever, just someone mad because Trump does objectively suck shit. Someone who hated him is the most obvious and simplest explanation and should be the assumption unless or until convincing evidence otherwise comes out.

Biden’s press people are somehow more annoying, on the whole, than Trump’s were.

Holy fuck.

Trump had that one fail daughter kid who became governor because America

And spicy dipshit spicer

But all of Biden’s PR people are quite literally the worst and/or more demonic people one could possibly place there. Like who the fuck saw Kirby schlubing around the pentagon and said “oh yeah, the American people will love this loser!”

Seems like shit!

I like what the ublock origin creators/devs have to say about ads/adblocking

It is important to note that using a blocker is NOT theft. Do not fall for this creepy idea. The ultimate logical consequence of blocking = theft is the criminalization of the inalienable right to privacy.

Ads, “unintrusive” or not, are just the visible portion of the privacy-invading means entering your browser when you visit most sites. uBO’s primary goal is to help users neutralize these privacy-invading methodsin a way that welcomes those users who do not wish to use more technical means.

From their Github

I’d rather see these people who leave stay and actively undermine things. Leak shit, purposely fuck up communications, etc.

Or at least I would like to see that in a new screenplay I’m writing where I ponder the legality of stating I’d like to see this done

Alternatively,

Material conditions are still too good in the US for the type of extremism you write about to manifest (yet). People who are getting fucked over but not starving won’t be murdering anyone anytime soon.

However, the trend is clear, your observation is correct about where capitalists would like to take things. This will worsen conditions and push more and more people towards extremism… which is where it is up to “us” to push people leftward and point their anger where it belongs, towards capitalists/capitalism.

As I find myself repeating a lot, things just simply aren’t bad enough yet across the board in the US to see the unrest which is required for actual change. It’s going to get worse, worse probably than any of us can imagine right now, before it starts to get any better. If you can see the inevitable future coming then you can see things like this court case being another domino in a line of them that is still fuzzy. It won’t change anything on its own, but all these small events will eventually add up to something big. We just aren’t there yet, and that’s probably good in some ways because there is effectively no leftist movement of any sort in the US. Like the fact that these cases get decided in the obviously far right way, and that we expect it, shows that the left is totally annihilated in the US. Absolutely no power currently. Just gotta work on changing that however we can. It’s very bleak.

I was in the Rockies on Jul 4 like over 10 years ago. It was snowing at the higher elevations. Definitely a weird experience to go from snow and then like an hour later (driving back down to Denver/surrounding areas elevation) it’s 90F and you’re at a lake.

But anyway, let me crank up my AC running on fossil fuel-generated electricity and maybe later water my extra dry lawn…

If the UAW does this, I wonder what the insane overreaction will be from DC

Beyond forcing capitalists to share a few more crumbs of their stolen profits, unions and student led organizations have been the sort of the tip of the spear in past socialist revolutions. Surely this is not a secret to those in Washington and elsewhere. This has to be scaring the shit out of the more historically literate ones.

A lot of westerners, Americans especially, always ask “yeah but can I do?!” This is what you can do. Unionize your workplace or help unionize others. Push for (or be!) radical leadership that seeks to squeeze the owners for every cent they can get. Push the union to take up issues like divestment from Israel. This is how political change that actually matters happened in the past and it can happen again. Workers hold the power, ultimately. Capitalists and their subservient politicians want you to forget that or give up.

I don’t know how to not fedpost on this topic, but it’s very clear what the fascistic politicians and those too cowardly to stop them are doing.

Pointing out hypocrisy is good rhetorically, but its downside is those with power simply ignore it. They’re not going to stop unless…[insert fedposting]…

Can’t even really type further. [federal sad noises] Greenblat [more federal noises]

I thought this was all basically totally dropped once it was tied back to that guy in that “totally not the CIA” “totally not a cult” “religious group” Falun Gong shit. Pretty sure those weirdos were behind the “very organic” pro-Hong Kong (whatever that even means. Hong Kong is fine) protests becoming big in the US, helping spread anti-Chinese conspiracies around covid, bunch of shit from laughable to actually life threatening

Holy shit a reactionary in the wild

We must cherish this one guys

Don’t make it run away!

The NLRB has been and is clearly on Capitalists’ chopping blocks since forever. Even though, somewhat ironically, its existence was meant (or has had the effect anyway) to tamp down on militant labor movements in the US. If SCOTUS eviscerates NLRB, and why wouldn’t they? Biden nor any other dem has lifted a finger to stop them so far, it will be sort of like closing the loop of labor relations in the US.

Calling it a loop or a cycle is actually rather hopeful of me. It could just be the end of linear progression. Capitalist exploitation was crazy high, militant labor movements squashed it back down, capitalists create a legalized relief valve that squishes out the most powerful parts of labor actions, unions go along with it, unions are slowly crushed, capitalists say “hey, why do we still compromise by having the NLRB?”, capitalists erase the NLRB and workers are back in working conditions like late 1800s as far as owner/worker relations.

Does militant labor action grow from there causing the formation of massive unionization efforts, general strikes, perhaps some cough coughing of billionaire owners, perhaps some sabocoughing of means of production and such? I dunno. I like to hope so, but, I don’t have any faith that people will do so. Will it be a line straight into the ground or more of a sine wave or parabola shape that is almost at the bottom of the curve? Hmm.

As always, gotta end my thoughts with “we’re fucked.”

If this is even discussed at all it will turn into some culture war bullshit when it’s very obvious the solution is provide people with what they need to live (and want to live. Barely surviving isn’t enough nor should it be the goal).

It’s funny/crazy/sad how the answer has always been “pay better wages, more paid time off, minimize and seek to end fear of loss of basic needs for life water, food, shelter.”

The US literally can’t even get to stage 0. Make sure everyone has a safe, private home. And I mean a home home not a “homeless people can stay here for 7 days then they gotta move on” situation.

We have to fight the right wing, which as always includes democrats, to even provide nutritious meals to every kid. Even then if you get them, through constant shaming, to finally allow free breakfast and lunch, they purposely seek out the cheapest possible food vendors who serve slop which is barely acceptable for a dog.

We should have free, prepared food funded by taxes for everyone in every community. Not dinky soup kitchens run by volunteers and churches and stuff, which is very nice of them to do, but it just simply shouldn’t work like that.

They act as if living is a privilege because they believe that. The mind and attitude of the average American is such a twisted, disgusting view of humanity and our responsibilities to ourselves and others.

It’s insanely profitable to Boeing mostly, yes.

They held (still hold) most of the contracts for the operating silos to this day. All the equipment had to be designed to withstand a first strike nuclear attack from the USSR. Not necessarily like a direct attack, but a nearby attack on its equivalent sites. 15 missile alert facilities per base. 10 missiles per alert facility. Three bases. Total 450 operational ICBMs under the ground with predetermined coordinates meant to strike at the most valuable military targets of the USSR, China, etc. (used to be more but Peacekeepers and others were dismantled).

Boeing designed a ton of proprietary equipment for these sites. Since it has to be hardened to EMP, radiation, heat, vibration, etc. it’s over-engineered (and probably done well since it was the 1960/70s before full enshittification struck). Proprietary equipment, most of it classified for national security reasons, has to be within very strict guidelines, etc. Boeing basically holds a pistol to the Air Force’s head with this shit. They can demand anything they want. Which is, of course, the entire point to a lot of this stuff. Enrich private corporations.

Russia and the US both still have the START treaty

However, Russia stepped back due to the whole Ukraine thing.

And yes the Russian Federation inherited the aged (even at the time) missiles which were equivalent to the US’ Minuteman III and others which have been decommissioned. Peacekeeper, Atlas, etc.

To be the most fully fair to the US, the Peacekeeper missiles were decommissioned and their former locations were (most of them) fully destroyed as to never be useable again.

Not that it matters much, but the US stepped down the Minuteman III to only carry one nuclear warhead (possible of 3 max). The Peacekeeper missiles could carry 10 warheads.

The reduction to one warhead and subsequent decommissioning of the Peacekeepers was due to US/USSR cooperation.

We did it before. We can do it again. There’s absolutely never been and never will be a reason for a country to have so many nukes.

Morality and such concerns aside, these missiles are pointless beyond boomer dick-wagging.

If the US military desires to destroy the world, the submarine nuclear arsenal is fully capable of doing so. If the US is hit with a first strike nuclear attack, again, the subs are fully capable of retaliating and ensuring only cockroaches are left.

These bases and their missiles are an antiquated relic from the Cold War. Hey here’s a crazy idea: the US agrees to an open destruction of the warheads and missile sites. China, Russia, etc. can send observers to verify the destruction. At the beginning of this process just publicly announce something like “we’re willingly and freely reducing our nuclear stockpile. It is our hope that other nations match us.”

Oh, damn, I must have been off in some commie daydream for a second. What I meant to say was we should pay Boeing $10T over the next decade to update the terrestrial ICBM silos.

Anyone who claims to care about Palestinians or just generally the US not doing evil shit (or directly supporting it) and is whining or complaining about movements to dump Genocide Joe

1. supports genocide (whether they say so or not. Supporting Biden or refusing to not reject him or supporting Trump are all genocidal stances)

2. is not a serious person as far as politics goes (and probably generally speaking)

All the liberals and many self-labeled leftists (I would call that a false label, but ok) first justified the genocide stance, and now they’re trying to ignore it and distract from the genocide by focusing on “bad actors” on the pro-Palestinian side; it doesn’t much matter, ultimately, if the “bad actors” are actually pro-Palestinian or not nor what their exact stance on Israel is or isn’t, the entire goal is to be talking about them. People such as Claudine Gay who is a Zionist (as almost all libs are- so she’s not special) but wasn’t sufficiently bloodthirsty in her Zionism and wasn’t sufficiently racist enough to condemn people for peacefully protesting an ongoing US-backed genocide. And the news has spent days worth of coverage on a person (and I don’t intend any specific disrespect towards her, because she simply isn’t worth caring about) who quite literally does not matter. She’s a glorified fundraiser in one person’s body. The face of America’s “great academic institutions!” and really nothing much more.

But the news, run by liberals of course, has spent alllllll this energy and time lying about protestors and the nature of the protests, using horribly worded defense from ex-president Gay (because she’s a Zionist and incapable of defending pro-Palestinian protesters. But she also didn’t want to condemn a movement against obviously horrific war crimes the US is supporting/doing), twisting everything into universities defending antisemitism instead of what they’re actually doing which is defending Zionism, and zero focus on Genocide Joe himself (haven’t heard much from him since Christmas) or his cabinet or Iraq War-esque cronies and clowns who are totally incapable, in the same way as Gay, of saying “yes, Israel is doing genocide and ethnic cleansing, and yes the President supports it.” Instead they call perfectly-crafted legal documents, using the beloved US-dominated neoliberal international laws, “baseless” and such.

So, I dunno. Who knows what will crack or when it will crack, but this split in the brains of liberals, the ones who have any conscience anyway, is widening day by day. They’re all experiencing the same brain fuckery that Gay and the other presidents had in front of Congress where every fiber of their being (I have to assume for my own sake) wants to scream “you don’t give a shit about Jews or anyone else!” When they keep falsely claiming and just blatantly lying over and over about simple phrases like “free Palestine.” Literally just those two words. Not even the river and sea portion, nothing else, that means “kill Jews!” to deranged Zionists. So I have to wonder when the liberals will reach some crisis of contradictions where something must change. They must choose between openly celebrating genocide, like Biden and his spokesmen are basically at this point (and since the beginning), or rejecting Biden, rejecting Zionism, and ultimately rejecting the democrat (and obviously, no shit, republican) party.

I’m pretty sure that contradiction will be settled AFTER Biden is gifted the nomination and AFTER he loses to Trump, which he clearly will at this point (of course anything can happen, but if things continue as Biden wants them to, he will lose badly). Their choice will not be the choice of justice but rather the “easier” institutional choice to side with the US state, to back Israel no matter they do, and to continue to spiral the US down the drain as the world wrenches itself from 30 solid, basically uncontested, years of US domination. Every single day is a day that Biden, et al. could steer the US for a softer landing in coming decades. To stave off desire for retribution from the rest of the world.

People will forgive a LOT of wrongs done to them/their ancestors once the healing process actually begins. Very few people desire blood just for the sake of vengeance. But if you keep pushing and pushing and pushing while you lose power, I don’t know what other outcome Americans who support Biden (or yes yes Trump, but does that even warrant mentioning? Of course Trump sucks dogshit) expect 10, 20, 50 years down the line if they keep supporting genocides now, stamping out domestic protests to genocide now, etc. The blowback for this shit doesn’t seem far off in some imagined future. The blowback feels like it’s already here or nearly here and just for the sake of self preservation any serious person who lives in the US should be demanding the US adhere to that aspirational statement of “never again” in every possible meaning. That means never again back genocide. Never again do a genocide. Never again ignore genocides, done by us or others we support or not. Never again force our nation’s will upon others by use of sheer might, military, financial, or otherwise.

I really enjoy that the core idea at the start of the article is “Republicans are just lying. This is surprising!” The result of media (not necessarily this piece but it all feeds off each other) all just functioning as an unquestioning mouthpiece for the state and its actors. “Well, this guy said it, and we MUST continue pretending they have legitimacy and aren’t literally always lying.”