Red Mosquito

McParadigm wrote:

I was never afraid of Trump himself, always had faith the country would survive, but I never considered how many people out there could jump on the crazy train. Trump's spotlight may be gone, but his giant flock is still out there spouting nonsense. Had to hang out with a guy for a while on Saturday who is definitely one of these conspiracy types, but he had a habit of opening up his statements with "here's the deal" so I started calling him Biden until he started melting down and I had to stop. Thinks Biden is a major pedo and Dems are coming after him and others like him (but OF COURSE, it's not about racism...).

A weapon that I don't think enough people are paying attention to is the ability of state legislatures to directly award electoral votes, and even effectively saying "hey, you voted us in, now we're going to do our job".

Green Habit wrote:A weapon that I don't think enough people are paying attention to is the ability of state legislatures to directly award electoral votes, and even effectively saying "hey, you voted us in, now we're going to do our job".

I'm for it. Electing the president by popular vote is a terrible idea.

Make state representation matter to voters again.

(MSRMTVA)

Can I fit that on a hat?

Are you arguing for a system we already have in place?

BurtReynolds wrote:

Green Habit wrote:A weapon that I don't think enough people are paying attention to is the ability of state legislatures to directly award electoral votes, and even effectively saying "hey, you voted us in, now we're going to do our job".

I'm for it. Electing the president by popular vote is a terrible idea.

As is direct election of Senators.

This very long thread was making the rounds last night. I could quibble over the details, but more or less fits.
fav parts:

This is where people whose political identity was largely defined by a naive belief in what they learned in Civics class began to see the outline of a Regime that crossed all institutional boundaries. Because it had stepped out of the shadows to unite against an interloper. GOP propaganda still has many of them thinking in terms of partisan binaries, but A LOT of Trump supporters see that the Regime is not partisan. They all know that the same institutions would have taken opposite sides if it was a Tulsi Gabbard vs Jeb Bush election. It's hard to describe to people on the left (who are used to thinking of gov't as a conspiracy... Watergate, COINTELPRO, WMD, etc) how shocking & disillusioning this was for people who encourage their sons to enlist in the Army, and hate ppl who don't stand for the Anthem.

The idea that the press is driven by ratings/sensationalism became untenable. If that were true, they'd be all over the Epstein story. The corporate press is the propaganda arm of the Regime they now see in outline. Nothing anyone says will ever make them unsee that, period. This is profoundly disorienting. Many of them don't know for certain whether ballots were faked in November 2020, but they know for absolute certain that the press, the FBI, etc would lie to them if [they were].

BurtReynolds wrote:

. Many of them don't know for certain whether ballots were faked in November 2020, but they know for absolute certain that the press, the FBI, etc would lie to them if [they were].

Doesn't this ignore the fact that the president lied to them repeatedly and then told them, leading up to the election, that if he lost it's because of fraud?

Shouldn't he be considered part of the sensationalism problem and part of the government REGIME?

elliseamos wrote:

Burt wrote: Many of them don't know for certain whether ballots were faked in November 2020, but they know for absolute certain that the press, the FBI, etc would lie to them if [they were].

Doesn't this ignore the fact that the president lied to them repeatedly and then told them, leading up to the election, that if he lost it's because of fraud?

The voters were primed to hear Trump's message of voter fraud in large part because they have (very rightly) lost all faith in the press as an objective source of information, and see the press (very rightly) as dishonest actors who want to remove them from the political process.

elliseamos wrote:Shouldn't he be considered part of the sensationalism problem and part of the government REGIME?

The tweet is saying that the media reaction wasn't driven by sensationalism, but by a desire to protect the Regime (of which they are part.) Trump may be a sensationalist problem, but he's certainly not part of the Regime, as proven by the actual Regime's hysterical reaction to him for the last five years.

Green Habit wrote:A weapon that I don't think enough people are paying attention to is the ability of state legislatures to directly award electoral votes, and even effectively saying "hey, you voted us in, now we're going to do our job".

I will admit that I’m more concerned by the existence of a Republican Party that considers rejecting results before it will consider that a candidate who never polled well, never polled ahead, and produced a historic backlash may have simply lost on merits…than I am with the mechanics that could be used to achieve it.

McParadigm wrote:

Green Habit wrote:A weapon that I don't think enough people are paying attention to is the ability of state legislatures to directly award electoral votes, and even effectively saying "hey, you voted us in, now we're going to do our job".

I will admit that I’m more concerned by the existence of a Republican Party that considers rejecting results before it will consider that a candidate who never polled well, never polled ahead, and produced a historic backlash may have simply lost on merits…than I am with the mechanics that could be used to achieve it.

Me too. Pretty disheartening that something like a quarter of the country would answers those polls questions like that. That’s not a political party, that’s a cult.

CPAC weekend in Dallas.
How many conferences do these guys have? Didn’t they just have one in Orlando a few months ago?

BurtReynolds wrote:The voters... have (very rightly) lost all faith in the press as an objective source of information, and see the press (very rightly) as dishonest actors who want to remove them from the political process.

Which Fox News as the media arm of the party and Trump as the head of the party are literally doing by promoting more restrictive voting laws and the concept that the votes don't matter they'll install whomever they want as president. Seems like the Regime has maintained their "kettle logic defense" to perfection.

BurtReynolds wrote:The tweet is saying that the media reaction wasn't driven by sensationalism, but by a desire to protect the Regime (of which they are part.) Trump may be a sensationalist problem, but he's certainly not part of the Regime, as proven by the actual Regime's hysterical reaction to him for the last five years.

But the GOP (as a branch/extension of said regime) let this guy take over as figurehead all the while maintaining their grip on half of society (or more than half depending on how importantly you view the Supreme Court & the minority rule of the Senate's ability to filibuster). I see his sensationalism and the media's manipulation by it as one in the same: distraction. He's the right's useful idiot and the quasi-government that runs things regardless of who's in power's welcomed distraction (just like Obama, and W., and Clinton, and Reagan). Trump didn't work against anything or expose anything. He was told there was money to be made and played the part to it's Nicholas Cage extreme.

I suppose we're not saying things that are all that different, except for the fact that Trump is fully part of the system, not anything counter to it. And in that difference I see the right pushing his brand of distraction (re: racist dogwhistles) over Biden's or Obama's brand (slightly more progressive, but still middle of the road).

I wouldn't say the GOP let Trump take over. They were simply taken over, completely swamped by a tide of populism. Both the Republican party and FOXnews did everything they could to prevent him from winning the nomination (once they realized he could actually win), but his wins were so large they couldn't hope to fake the numbers. What could they do except refuse the results? Sanders didn't have enough support to keep the DNC and media from crippling his candidacy, but with Trump, his popular support was too much.

After the nom, he got the most tepid establishment support I know of. The GOP establishment thought that (a.) he couldn't win, and (b.) if he did somehow win, they could control him. Maybe they were successful to some degree, but he's too unstable, powerful and mentally deranged to be anywhere near fully controlled. The GOP wing of the Regime couldn't do much about him and were largely reduced to a pathetic band of centrist Nevertrumpers. The democrat wing/corporations/media/deep state orgs (but I repeat myself 4 times) went insane trying to do everything they could to get him out. And they did some incredibly underhanded shit while trying.

That's not to say that I think Trump is some man of the people bravely taking on the establishment - you're right about him only being in it for the money and power - but he certainly wasn't the establishment pick to manage the empire. Being a filthy rich narcissist isn't the same thing as being in the group that @martyrmade is talking about.