[_tunic_]

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers, leave them kids alone

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by verme (prevaricator)

https://thehill.com/opinion/5198022-...isinformation/

thanks for the link, i did read the source and the guy's credentials check out. does not seem like a partisan hack or foreign agent and reads "fair and balanced," as they say

about the thing you said the other day about the end of trumpo's speech: i did not mean that. yes he has learned to deliver the rhetorical heights of scripted texts with some style, but this is not the first time and it doesnt matter. if you check out his speech after the airplane/helicopter crash he said some beautiful things and then proceeded to spew some horrible mental vomit

the way i meant the speech to congress was successful is in a "television show" format. he made some funny jokes, scored points of common sense most people can agree with, delivered prizes to grieving parents and little children, told a bunch of people that he loved them, and had various other successful segments including his final peroration

the whole thing was not so much a "speech" as a television production. like a talk show where host and guest are one and the same. oprah interviews oprah, with the comedy stylings of oprah and the oprah band. and an oprah monologue. except instead of the word oprah use the word trump

oprah not sure what she does these days, but used to be the queen of daytime television. success in that way is what i meant. the mediatic kind, with a large mainstream audience

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

thanks for the link, i did read the source and the guy's credentials check out. does not seem like a partisan hack or foreign agent and reads "fair and balanced," as they say

about the thing you said the other day about the end of trumpo's speech: i did not mean that. yes he has learned to deliver the rhetorical heights of scripted texts with some style, but this is not the first time and it doesnt matter. if you check out his speech after the airplane/helicopter crash he said some beautiful things and then proceeded to spew some horrible mental vomit

the way i meant the speech to congress was successful is in a "television show" format. he made some funny jokes, scored points of common sense most people can agree with, delivered prizes to grieving parents and little children, told a bunch of people that he loved them, and had various other successful segments including his final peroration

the whole thing was not so much a "speech" as a television production. like a talk show where host and guest are one and the same. oprah interviews oprah, with the comedy stylings of oprah and the oprah band. and an oprah monologue. except instead of the word oprah use the word trump

oprah not sure what she does these days, but used to be the queen of daytime television. success in that way is what i meant. the mediatic kind, with a large mainstream audience

The thing I found frustrating about that Kuperman column is that there’s a lot of “well if it had been Trump and not Biden, this other thing would have happened.” That kind of speculative reasoning always sets off alarms for me because it’s based on nothing.

Notably:

Had Trump been president, he likely would not have provided such a blank check, so Zelensky would have had little choice but to implement the Minsk deals to avert war.

Ok. I mean, maybe? But also who the fuck knows.

But yes, Trump is getting a bit more adept at appealing to crowds composed of people other than foam-at-the-mouth MAGAs. Sadly, he’s presenting relatively well despite being in the middle of the most dangerous leg of his fuck the world reunion tour.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

The thing I found frustrating about that Kuperman column is that there’s a lot of “well if it had been Trump and not Biden, this other thing would have happened.” That kind of speculative reasoning always sets off alarms for me because it’s based on nothing.

Notably:


Ok. I mean, maybe? But also who the fuck knows.

well it's very characteristic of trump to be very transactional, he's never gonna offer something for nothing just in the name of ideals. i don't see it as speculation, it's just a very reasonable expectation of a habitual pattern with the guy

Originally Posted by Severian

But yes, Trump is getting a bit more adept at appealing to crowds composed of people other than foam-at-the-mouth MAGAs. Sadly, he’s presenting relatively well despite being in the middle of the most dangerous leg of his fuck the world reunion tour.

i'm staying open-minded and flexible. people voted for a revolution, they have a revolution. it's less bloody than most revolutions (so far), but we'll see eventually what it turns into. i don't have a crystal ball, i can't claim any claims, i just keep my eyes on the ball and see where it's moving. there are many unknowns, no use locking onto a single scenario at this point. in politics sometimes very good people do terrible things, and terrible people do very good things. i see no use in having too many convictions about the outcome. but the ball is rolling...

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

well it's very characteristic of trump to be very transactional, he's never gonna offer something for nothing just in the name of ideals. i don't see it as speculation, it's just a very reasonable expectation of a habitual pattern with the guy



i'm staying open-minded and flexible. people voted for a revolution, they have a revolution. it's less bloody than most revolutions (so far), but we'll see eventually what it turns into. i don't have a crystal ball, i can't claim any claims, i just keep my eyes on the ball and see where it's moving. there are many unknowns, no use locking onto a single scenario at this point. in politics sometimes very good people do terrible things, and terrible people do very good things. i see no use in having too many convictions about the outcome. but the ball is rolling...

You have a lot more faith (or trust or willingness to go with the flow or whatever) than I do. In my household we work in the news, education and museum fields. We have close friends who are green card citizens. It’s really hard not to catastrophize because this all seems pretty goddamn catastrophic.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

You have a lot more faith (or trust or willingness to go with the flow or whatever) than I do. In my household we work in the news, education and museum fields. We have close friends who are green card citizens. It’s really hard not to catastrophize because this all seems pretty goddamn catastrophic.

it's just the opposite. i have no trust or faith whatsoever

but i believe (oh looky here, belief just snuck back in, only it's belief written with a small b) that in a catastrophe it's much more useful to be alert and open minded than to believe exclusively in dismal outcomes

so yes, my eyes are open to all present and possible disasters, but also to present and possible opportunities. and my mind is for thinking, not believing, and it needs neither coddling nor terrorizing. it works best when left in neutral

[_tunic_]

When Jesus comes back, all you motherfuckers gonna pay

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

When Jesus comes back, all you motherfuckers gonna pay

this guy?

 

and who's paying? i'm not buying...

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

Sadly, he’s presenting relatively well despite being in the middle of the most dangerous leg of his fuck the world reunion tour.

okay so when i talked about staying alert i meant it as "stay woke" in THE ORIGINAL SENSE, not the sanctimonious appropriation of the term. stay awake and alert and mindful (not preachy and self-righteous and maoist)

so here to help maybe put the current upheaval into context, understanding large weather patterns helps make more sense of hurricanes and tornado season and such:

https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/...of-the-Liberal

notice that this paper is from 2019. it claims this was going to happen one way or another due to fatal flaws in the system

those of us who grew up in the unipolar liberal world order sure will miss chasing girlfriends half a world away, plus all the other delights of cosmopolitism, like cheap portuguese wines and year-round mangos and avocados, digital nomadism, french au pairs, giant $500 teevees, multiple passports, international music festivals, etc

but these changes are larger historical forces at play, not the doings of a single person or president

understanding these large forces helps to see some logic in the chaos, and it gives the mind some rest from the apparent emergencies. and yes we don't have to like bad weather and tornado season, but we can at least prepare and dress for it. adaptation is what humans do best

i found myself looking at a list of most cosmopolitan cities in the world. #1 is dubai. #2 is brussels...

Originally Posted by _tunic_

When Jesus comes back, all you motherfuckers gonna pay

HELLO BRUSSELS

i'll trade you one bucket of kfc per each night of couchsurfing rights, hahahaha

yes i know we the children of the liberal world order are fucked now

but we can laugh instead of crying. laughter is braver

but hey, about this trauma: at least it's not personal. no use taking it personally. it's just the chaos realigning itself. of course it hurts, but whatchu gonna do...

[!@#$%!]

after a couple of rereads, i thought there has been an "interesting" development since mearsheimer published that paper. i'm not talking about trump's reelection. the nationalist mantle could have been taken by someone else (although likely not as successfully)

the "interesting" part is based on the mearsheimer prediction of the rise of two realist bounded orders after the fall of the unipolar ideological order. particularly, he said that in the future europe should fold into the us-led order (as it did during the cold war). he also says explicitly that an ideological order is only possible in a unipolar world. the entire paper is about the failure of an ideological order as the world became multipolar!

but here is the fly in the ointment: the strange jd vance lecture to the europeans about accepting their extremist ideologues seems in fact an overture to herald a new ideological order within the us bound order. except the ideology is nationalistic, not liberal as before. (it could be argued however that the defense of "free speech" is actually a return to classical liberalism rather than a coddling of illiberal ideologies).

but no, really. any ideological angle is a dangerous spot for the usa. we already failed once at this! and by pushing an ideology instead of returning to the realist parameters of the cold war, we risk pushing europe into the hands of china, which operates in more agnostic ways internationally, as mearsheimer points out. then europe would be able to sell advanced technology to china to compete against the us-bound order!

this here is the danger that the 2019 paper did not forecast for 'merica. the europeans are correct in feeling riled up by vance's gestures. and if the liberal order alienated hungary, what liberal democraxies would be alienated instead by a possible j.d. vance presidency? i dont even want to think about it...

(we have already alienated canadians if you listen to carney's latest speech... maybe this is just electoral posturing as howard lutnick claims)

trump is a businessman, he thinks transactionally, it is possible to deal with him in those terms. but vance is a writer... a less pragmatic and more ideological profession. hence, more dangerous

anyway, the ball is rolling and rolling and rolling, and i am awake all night now trying to see where it's going so i can keep from getting knocked by it. thanks, internet friends!

--

eta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Ranking enjoy it while you have it

[!@#$%!]

well, that was a feverish night. nobody else wanna touch the topic? lol

-

eta: https://www.spiegel.de/international...e-62e40a506ad2

[_tunic_]

speaking of Brussels:
The EU’s funniest man

Belgian comedian (and Prime Minister) Bart De Wever’s 9 best quotes from the European Council summit.



spoiler alert:
only one of them actually has a slight sense of humour IMHO.



anyways, the quote is from the one song that's stuck in my head since a few months: JCMF
it's sill early morning here, so this is a quiet version