Hackworth

And to obey the Law of the Pack.

Trevor Moore is underappreciated. (nsfw)

I’m concerned that they’ve already undermined trust in the elections so much that neither side will accept a losing outcome as legitimate. The larger attack on democracy has already succeeded. I hope I’m wrong.

The Good Place (spoilers)

The bar for discourse re: AI is pathetically low. I guess par for dis course.

Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts

Yeah, I’ve been advocating for ranked voting forever. But as long as we’re stuck with 2 parties, we’re stuck with an either-or decision.

Are you equating Harris and Clinton’s shortcomings with Trump’s?

When you say ‘demand’, what do you imagine I haven’t done? What power have I failed to wield in the history you’ve imagined for me?

This is not a puzzle I’m trying to get you to solve. You needn’t hypothesize about intention or my experience or alternate histories. I’m literally saying:

In a well America, should [Clinton and Harris] still have beaten Trump handily? Absolutely. We’re not well, as a nation, and you can’t lay that at Obama’s feet.

The issues people have with Clinton and Harris, however valid they may be, do not amount to a reason to vote for Trump or refrain from voting. That is the disconnect from reality that I’m addressing.

You should continue that quote.

Oh, I remember, and I also remember telling everyone to lower their expectations. Obama’s campaign promises were off the charts optimistic, bordering on delusional, even for the time. And that’s not where the bar is for us now. Simply not doing this (gestures at everything) is now what constitutes a “great leader” for us. I don’t want it to sound like I’m okay with the bar being this low, but here we are.

Trump polled more historically unpopular than Clinton and Harris, and one of the main points of discussion to follow was how incongruent the polling was with the votes. You can’t Monday morning quarterback this productively. And in any case, it sidesteps my point. Were Clinton and Harris great candidates? No. In a well America, should they still have beaten Trump handily? Absolutely. We’re not well, as a nation, and you can’t lay that at Obama’s feet.

He is not an aberration to our system he is a product of it.

Unless you’re saying Obama created that system, I don’t see the point of the distinction. If your assertion is that Obama should have fixed what is fundamentally wrong with US culture, then I just plain disagree that this is a reasonable expectation. Considering the size of our population that identifies with the disease, I don’t see “pathological” and “product of the system” as mutually exclusive. The manic person, for instance, does identify with the mania. Could Obama have done more? Definitely. I’m not disagreeing with that.

The DNC chair is appointed by a committee of over 400 people with no obligation to follow the President’s recommendation (though they usually do). The DNC is a private organization with no obligation to the people. The responsibility of electing our leaders comes down to us. And as a populace, we looked at Clinton and Trump and chose Biff Tannen with the golden toilet. It’s not like America didn’t know who Trump was when they elected him… both times. This is a problem with our culture and our people, not something we can comfortably pin on old leaders or outside forces. You think the country that re-elected a felon would have given Bernie 8 years?

Those are normal, nuanced issues to have with a leader. I agree with most of what you’ve said. “They didn’t do enough to make things better,” is a valid position that does not equate to “evil piece of shit.” Trump, on the other hand… America knew what Trump was (insert appropriate Biff Tannen still) when they elected him. That’s pathological.

Nah, I’m not going to unironically “Thanks Obama” for shit being so fucked up right now. Trump did not get elected either time because of anything Obama did or didn’t do.

If you’re looking for AI-generated anti-AI music, we’ve got that (mildly NSFW).

Member when Bush Jr. leaned over to Michelle Obama and said, “That was some weird shit.” after Trump’s first inauguration? It’s strange to see villain decay outside of fiction.