We are so fucked

[seektravelinfo]

Did anyone ever think it could get this bad. I'm glad my parents are dead so they won't have to see this.

TUESDAY, MAR 1, 2016

Thanks, America! Our broken political system is about to give us a terrifying campaign between a vapid huckster and a war hawk
Two corrupt parties and an angry, fearful and ignorant electorate are about to create the worst election ever.


by ANDREW O'HEHIR

Happy Super Tuesday: By the time you read this votes will already have been cast in 11 states (and American Samoa!) that in all likelihood will doom us to an eight-month campaign between a vacuous, proto-fascist huckster with no accomplishments or principles and an unregenerate war hawk who represents the neoliberal global elite. Thanks, America!

Thanks for not really paying attention and for misunderstanding pretty much everything and for voting out of fear and incoherent emotion, and for permitting and enabling an engineered, anti-democratic political system. OK, it’s true that the two parties brought this on themselves because they are corrupt and shortsighted and at least one of them is evil. If we’ve learned anything from the 2016 campaign so far, we have learned that a lot of people understand that. One could view that as an encouraging sign, even if the general response has not been entirely rational or constructive. In all honesty, I can sympathize: What have rational or constructive done for us lately?

Anyway, that broken system is about to inflict upon all of us a summer and fall of unlimited terror and unfunny farce, in which all non-nihilistic and approximately sane people will feel compelled to do everything possible to support the unregenerate war hawk over the freak-show barker. It’s a bad Hollywood remake of the disastrous French presidential election of 2002, when the electoral left imploded so thoroughly that center-right President Jacques Chirac’s last remaining opponent was the neo-fascist ultra-nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen (whose subtler and shrewder daughter, Marine Le Pen, has since inherited his mantle). That was pretty dreadful, but let’s say this for the French: People who basically hated Chirac’s guts showed up to pull the lever for him in droves, and he wound up with 82 percent of the vote. Anyone want to bet on a similar outcome in Stupidland?

I recognize how maddening it is to skip over the whole part of the primary campaign where actual citizens get to vote in large numbers. But who ever said that was the point? Both major parties engineered their primary processes to avoid a drawn-out ideological battle and create a near-certain nominee by the middle of March, and in both cases the law of unintended consequences has come into play. That brilliant plan has blown up in the faces of the Republican Party leadership, to hilarious effect, although the time for laughter is pretty nearly over. On the Democratic side it is about to work to perfection and yield the long-expected outcome, but even Hillary Clinton supporters may find the aftertaste unpleasant.

I will leave it to others to play out the game-theory scenarios in which non-Clinton or non-Trump candidates might still emerge victorious. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was always an extreme long shot, for reasons I hardly need to enumerate here. The most astonishing thing about Sanders in 2016 is that he has gotten as far as he did, which of course also speaks to the multiple weaknesses of his opponent, most notably the fact that most people don’t like her. His narrow pathway to the Democratic nomination probably involved winning the Nevada caucus and holding Hillary Clinton to a narrow victory in South Carolina. If he can win three or four non-Vermont states on Tuesday — from a group that includes Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oklahoma — he can plausibly keep going a bit longer. One would imagine that strategic wizard Tad Devine’s thinking all along has been that if Sanders can survive March without falling too far behind, the primary calendar shifts back toward friendlier terrain in the Northeast and on the West Coast. That’s an awful lot of “ifs.”

On the Republican side, any alternate-universe hypothesis involves either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio dropping out in the next week or two and endorsing the other one, in spite of their obvious and unfeigned mutual hatred. Then the Crubio survivor hounds Donald Trump all the way to the convention and engineers a last-minute delegate-count coup with Koch millions and backroom deals. Even if that works, how do you suppose that scenario would play out among the disgruntled Trumpian masses?

All that stuff, I suspect, is whistling past the graveyard. In today’s installment of Alarming Twists in Conventional Wisdom, the New York Times has already leapt past the presumed results of Super Tuesday to insider-baseball reporting on the impending general-election race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I won’t pretend that I didn’t read that article eagerly, in search of evidence that the Clinton team recognizes that this is a volatile and unpredictable situation and that they’re in a whole heap of trouble. Maybe it’s reassuring, if that word is not ludicrous in these circumstances, to learn that both Bill and Hillary Clinton expect a tight race, and understand that normal bipartisan assumptions about the electoral map don’t apply when your opponent is a giant orange robot from the planet Zanthor, who feeds on the hatred of his enemies.


It’s no good claiming that we don’t deserve this painful Hobson’s choice, because we do. As Salon’s Sean Illing observed recently, the rise of Donald Trump represents the widespread stupidity, ignorance and arrogance of this country all too perfectly. A nation built on bullshit and empty bluster deserves a bullshitter-in-chief, a megalomaniacal billionaire with a long record of business failures, bankruptcies and empty promises whose only proven expertise is not in deal-making but in branding.

Say what you like about the guy: He represents the moment when electoral politics became pro wrestling; he’s the political equivalent of one of those hyper-patriotic Screaming Eagle rear-window decals in an F150 pickup, all attitude and no substance; he’s the world of Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” made real. It’s all true, and it doesn’t matter. Those are exactly the things people like about him. Furthermore, the true extent of Trump’s appeal across normal political, demographic and geographical boundaries has yet to be measured, and is about to create many sleepless nights for Democratic Party apparatchiks who thought they understood how to win elections.

I won’t even pretend to adopt the cynical position that there is no difference between Trump and Clinton. When I heard Sen. Ben Sasse, a right-wing Republican from Nebraska, announce this week that he wouldn’t vote for either of them, it occurred to me that that might be the only time Sasse and I ever agree about anything. That thought was infantile and petulant and I hereby retract it, but it also speaks to a deeper truth about American politics that is not unrelated to our current predicament. Sasse and I both live in states where our presidential vote is virtually certain not to matter, so we might as well not bother.

There are innumerable differences between Clinton and Trump, and I recognize that many people who support Clinton do so for what they see as valid political and strategic reasons, including (but not limited to) the fact that her presidency would break a historic barrier for American women. Most of those reasons boil down to the fact that she isn’t an evil robot from Zanthor but is a recognizable human politician. For those of you with long memories, she is pretty much Henry “Scoop” Jackson, a right-wing Democrat from Washington state who was affectionately dubbed “the senator from Boeing” for his love of military hardware and his Cold War hawkishness. Or she’s Richard Nixon without the progressive social policies—and if that sounds like an outrageous gag line, it’s really not.

Let’s get back to the question of what we deserve, and what we’ll get. A blundering imperial power so narcissistic that it uses overseas military interventions as Viagra for its flaccid masculine ego, and that rains death on people in villages a world away for reasons it does not understand, quite likely deserves a first female president who lists nonagenarian war criminal Henry Kissinger among her closest friends and who has supported every misbegotten foreign-policy misadventure of the last 30 years. In allowing our politics to become so ruinous, we clearly deserve this killing joke of an election campaign where we must elect said widely disliked and distrusted first female president in order to fend off the reanimated corpse of Mussolini. But don’t feel too confident that this remake of that ugly French film from ’02 isn’t heading toward a shock ending.

Andrew O'Heir

[sparrow]

Looks like Rome.

[Kurt]

It looks nothing like Rome.

I do not consider the United States to be The United States in terms of historical comparison. It is way too young. I see it as an extension of European culture and what I see in European culture and its many extensions does not resemble Rome at all but is closer to the Bronze Age collapse commonly blamed on the "Sea Peoples"

But the collapse was only a collapse for some, like Hittite, Myceanans, Minoan and Babylonians. But it seems to have gone swimmingly good for various Semitic tribes like the Hebrews and one group known as "Hyksos" (who were possibly Canaanite or Hebrew or a confederation of them. Their migration and settlement in Egypt may be the story of Abraham to his son Joseph).

The problem is, that all civilizations affected by this collapse did not have the capacity to analyse it. The writing that survives is biased as it is Egyptian and they did not collapse but were weakened because of it.

The only thing known is the global nature of the world then, with trade and international co-dependence, was that the cataclysm affected everyone who had Minoan "Bull" frescoes.( an archaelogical sign of "globalization" of the era). All we know is something was wrong, and the actions taken to combat it were also wrong. The closest ones to working were the Ancient Egyptians who had a combination of Xenophobia and their Nile based empire was not one that the invaders were interested in beyond the Delta (though they were interested in land locked places like Anatolia and Babylon).

So we do not know precisely what the problem is, only we have suffered it and the reaction to it seems to be making it worse.

[Farmdog]

While not a big football fan, I may write in Barry Sanders when it I time for the election. At least he was a professional who knew the value of hard work and determination. No one offered him a scholarship and he went on to post the greatest single season in the history of college football. I don't even like football, but he's more qualified than the other options. I will now honor article 88 and STFU.

[nowonmai]

While not a big football fan, I may write in Barry Sanders when it I time for the election. At least he was a professional who knew the value of hard work and determination. No one offered him a scholarship and he went on to post the greatest single season in the history of college football. I don't even like football, but he's more qualified than the other options. I will now honor article 88 and STFU.

No need, as long as you don't slate..... Choomgang, Dollhair, those fucking idiots in Congress, Clownshoe Carter, the various other party apparatchiks rewarded with minor sinecures as secretaries of such places as the Defense Commissary Agency, Renard Foxx (wtf- he doesn't even need a stupid nickname), the Boss Hog governators of your feudal state system and occupied territories....then you'll be fine.

And by the way, define contemptuous. What's the matter with these petty little thinskinned motherfuckers anyway, that they can't stand some pipsqueak officer taking the piss out of them. Anyone would think they're worried about a coup, there's no fretting on that score, the US military selects out initiative long before it could do anything dangerous anywhere.

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

The official or legislature against whom the words are used must be occupying one of the offices or be one of the legislatures named in Article 88 at the time of the offense.

Ironic that such a cowering fascistic little Article should be reminiscent of the ultimate political squirt who was afraid of military initiative.

[Farmdog]

If there is one thing we aren't lacking, it's initiative. Each service has its own character and approach to mission command. Mission areas and functions have further character of their own. There is more opportunity for an Army officer than most can figure out what to do with. I have a stack of projects that range from interagency support to wild land fire fighting to space launch coordination.

The concern for respecting article 88 goes back to understanding the civ-mil divide and the difference between speaking up and speaking out. This goes back to a very American idea of military subordination to civil leadership. Fanning the flames only makes things worse for the military in the future as the number of veterans serving in office continues to dwindle.

I'd be curious to hear your take on Rep. Duckworth, if you check YouTube you can find her tearing into someone for fraudulent claims of being a disable veteran. She lost both of her legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq. She is one of our last best hopes in office. I'll see if I can find the clip and post it later.

Sorry this is a short response without profanity or reference to your mother, wife, children, pets, religion, national origin, political affiliation, or favorite beer. Please go easy I'm just getting back into the swing of things.

So what is the reference to the patch with the 88, I presume the leader of the Brown shirts is who you are alluding to?

[coldharvest]

Anyone would think they're worried about a coup, there's no fretting on that score, the US military selects out initiative long before it could do anything dangerous anywhere.

Most people can not comprehend the scope and size of the US military nor the American citizens support of it.
I shit on most things because most things are pointless in the face of the Void but I am in awe of the American Military, they have 10 Nimitz class carriers alone.
Let that little fucking fact sink the fuck in.
Special Ops, USMC, Armor Corps...they made 10,000 M1 Abrams tanks fer fuck sakes, you park just one of those fuckers on your front lawn and it'll make every garden gnome within a 100 square miles shit its pants.

If Trump does get in and lets them off the leash then we are in for very interesting times.

[MJK]

Everything about Trump has just fallen in place a bit too easily. Peak hysteroidal cycle in the US public; check. Charismatic woof cookie salesman stepping to the fore; check. Hillary's server farmer getting offered immunity; check. I wonder what Trump's Reichstag Fire moment will be centered around...

Carriers are the battleships of the 21st century and will most likely be the stars of a false flag on par with Pearl Harbor. Oh, they are the cat's ass for pounding third worlders back into the Stone Age but the big boys on the other side of the ponds have the kinds of tools that will quickly assign them permanent subsurface parking spaces. All that is lacking is a stateless third party deliveryman.

[coldharvest]

Dude, come on
We're both aware that Carriers come with a shit load of extra ships above and below the sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_strike_group
massive targets that they are you'll be spending a fuck ton of GDP to take one out
and they have 9 more
and now motherfucking Rail Guns
and that's just those jolly bumjumpers in the Navy
The Mad Dogs have 8 Wasp class amphibious assault ships that have a United States Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit stuffed into it like a fucking floating murder pinata

Johnny Chinaman will go down like the bitchass pussies that they historically are
not that they'll be a problem for much longer because if you've read the Big Book of Chinese History you'll understand that the greatest enemy of the Chinese is China.

We will never fight Russia
because deep down we know that they are much tougher
and they're no bullshit and we admire that in crazy ol' Ivan plus they play hockey and drink like Russians and won the Second World War for us
and because Putin would punch Trump right in his brutish orange cunt

anyone else can fuck right the fuck off

[gnaruki]

Trump and Hilary get stuck on a deserted island, who survives?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
America.

[flipflop]

Not funny

Cheers

[friendlyskies]

We're probably all doomed, but Vegas still has Clinton as the overwhelming favorite and, while she's not the ideal POTUS, at least she has a fucking clue about this whole "running the empire" thing. Which is something. Assuming she can stay out of prison until November.

And if you're a Democrat who enjoys Schadenfreude, the implosion of the GOP is fun to watch. I mean, last night, in a formal, presidential debate, the candidates were discussing penis size. Fucking awesome.

Also amusing is the spectacle of establishment Republicans, who have spent the past 30 years wrapping neoliberal economics in stars, stripes, crosses, our blessed troops, homophobia, xenophobia, Muslimphobia, and whatever other dangerous, immoral rhetoric has been focus-group approved for selling bank deregulation, free-trade agreements, corporate subsidies, tax breaks for the very rich and wars for oil to blue-collar rednecks who have nothing to gain from such policies, lose their shit. Oh, did someone leverage your dangerous game into power for himself instead of the idiot pack of Iran-Contra veterans puppeteering for Jeb! Bush? Too bad so sad. The Economist's cover story this week was hilarious in its unrealized irony, as was pathetic, low-energy loser Mitt Romney's grammatically spotless attack on Il Douche.

We're not going to hell in a hand basket, we're going to hell in a Six Flags roller coaster. It could be worse [knocks on wood]

[nowonmai]

If there is one thing we aren't lacking, it's initiative. Each service has its own character and approach to mission command. Mission areas and functions have further character of their own. There is more opportunity for an Army officer than most can figure out what to do with. I have a stack of projects that range from interagency support to wild land fire fighting to space launch coordination.

The concern for respecting article 88 goes back to understanding the civ-mil divide and the difference between speaking up and speaking out. This goes back to a very American idea of military subordination to civil leadership. Fanning the flames only makes things worse for the military in the future as the number of veterans serving in office continues to dwindle.

I'd be curious to hear your take on Rep. Duckworth, if you check YouTube you can find her tearing into someone for fraudulent claims of being a disable veteran. She lost both of her legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq. She is one of our last best hopes in office. I'll see if I can find the clip and post it later.

Sorry this is a short response without profanity or reference to your mother, wife, children, pets, religion, national origin, political affiliation, or favorite beer. Please go easy I'm just getting back into the swing of things.

So what is the reference to the patch with the 88, I presume the leader of the Brown shirts is who you are alluding to?

Duckworth works her wounded warrior halo effect well. Good for her but I don't detect anything special from a political standpoint.

88 = code for Heil Hitler (H being 8th letter of the alphabet), 14 being code for Adolf Hitler. Thus groups with names like Column 88 and Combat 18, both British fascist groups. Genius code, them pesky policemen never crack it, especially when it's tattooed on your neck.

As for your projects I have some suggestions to save some time:

- interagency support - fuck those assholes, they won't support you
- wild land fire fighting - let nature take its course, it'll regrow soon enough
- space launch coordination - make sure the earth is the right way up before you fire the bloody thing

There, now you can take the rest of the week off and do some real soldiering on the parade square

[Kurt]

Actually 14 is "The Fourteen Words"

I guess if you are a mouth breather you find them inspirational.

"We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words

[friendlyskies]

The Economist is off the rails on its US Election covers. Now it's got Clinton and Trump looking at each other like they hate each other, Trump in red and Clinton in blue, with the headline, "Battle Lines." How am I supposed to read this?

First off, they're good friends, their daughters are best friends, and they agree on probably 85% of everything. Second, while both of them have decent leads, they're hardly the nominees yet. Hell, Trump can't even win the GOP nomination with a majority, he's got to get enough delegates to beat a brokered convention.

Come on.