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PoliGAF 2017 |OT3| 13 Treasons Why

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The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Dumb question, but what does Accelerationism refer to?

edit- oh cool, my ignorance is right on top of the new page lol.

The more widely used version, at least on here, is the idea that if we let stuff get worse then it will get better faster, i.e "if the GOP achieves power then people will see how bad they really are and come to their senses and support progressives"

I've always said it was bunk, but its possible to read the current backlash that way. I don't think you should though, the GOP is going to pay because of angry but apathetic progressives finally turning out, not their base turning on them

Also it doesn't sit well with me ethically. You're gambling short term harm on long term benefit
 

Slacker

Member
Twitter has jokes again:

Carl Bildt @carlbildt
Reports of White House been in lockdown after someone tried to climb over the fence. Doesn’t say in which direction.
 

wutwutwut

Member
Dumb question, but what does Accelerationism refer to?

edit- oh cool, my ignorance is right on top of the new page lol.
The general idea to allow the GOP to be in power so that people realize how shitty things are and come to their senses quicker/more definitively.

I'd never advocate for it because it comes from a place of privilege — the poor, the vulnerable and immigrants suffer — but its kinda what's happening now.
 

Pixieking

Banned
The more widely used version, at least on here, is the idea that if we let stuff get worse then it will get better faster, i.e "if the GOP achieves power then people will see how bad they really are and come to their senses and support progressives"

I've always said it was bunk, but its possible to read the current backlash that way. I don't think you should though, the GOP is going to pay because of angry but apathetic progressives finally turning out, not their base turning on them

Also it doesn't sit well with me ethically. You're gambling short term harm on long term benefit

Mmm... I've never thought of it in that way here, hence my wildly different explanation above. It is incredibly ethically dubious, and assumes that the bad things the GOP does can be overturned or rolled-back.

Edit: Which makes me wonder - is there a different word for what I've been thinking of as Acclerationism?
 
:D

It's used to refer to demographic and social changes in the US, and the political leanings of people within those groups.

Like, more young people believe LGBTQ rights are good than bad, and that number grows every year. So, a party that is anti-LGTBQ - like the GOP - will slowly bleed votes as its older voting base dies, and the newer voters move to the Dems.

Apply that system to policies like healthcare, gun-control legislation, abortion, and then factor in things like the growth in Hispanic and African-American voters. They do vote for the racist GOP, but for the most part they vote for Dems.

All of that adds up to a party that past a certain point in time must either change significantly - on a number of issues - or be forever stuck in opposition, as they appeal to a smaller and smaller minority.

Edit: Though that's only one reading of the term? Here's the more widely-known one? http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/what-accelerationism

Your explanation sounds like what was being referred to.

With that in mind, I don't think we need to wait until 2024 for "accelerationism" to show its effects. I think there are a lot of indicators from 2016 results to suggest that it's already happening. The demographic layout of the US just happens to mean that, as the parties skew more toward conservative/moderate whites vs. everyone else, there's going to be some modest shifts in blue/red states that temporarily help the GOP as it did in 2016. Ultimately, though, even electoral college fuckery will fail the GOP and they'll be forced to update. By 2028, no party will support white nationalism on any level outside of state elections in, like, Arkansas. Just my two cents.


edit- to your question in the post above, I've always heard it referred to simply as "demographic shifts" or "shifting demographics." Seems to be a pretty solid understanding of exactly what that means in reference to US politics.

edit edit- I think I'm doing pretty ok so far but in full disclosure I've been hollowing out a bottle of champagne in celebration of everything that unfolded today. :)
 

Trouble

Banned
The year is 2020. An emaciated man, barely alive, stumbles over a heap of garbage and flings himself at the rat he's been stalking for ten minutes. He ignores the screeching and starts tearing at the flesh with his teeth. It is the first meal he's had in two days.

A helicopter flies overhead and he hides himself in a dumpster. Reminds me of what the kids would do to me in college, he thinks to himself. The spotlight traces the highway, intent on finding fugitives.

After Trump's impeachment and execution, the Republican party was outlawed. All people were compelled to reregister as independent. Dissenters were thrown in modern gulags - the "WPA", as the Department of Labor called it. Democrats rebranded themselves as the Institutional Anti-Racism Party and elections were fixed by Donna Brazile. Most Republican members of Congress and the staff that chose to remain with President Pence were summarily shot and fed to dogs. Some were not shot, but definitely fed to dogs. Reince Priebus was one of the only survivor but forced to live in a zoo - as a dog. Paul Ryan fled to the United Kingdom (now simply "Britain") and is a part time bdsm actor.

Devouring the rat and crying quietly to himself, the man is suddenly knocked over by a swift kick to the head. He turns around and sees Kirsten Gillibrand in an iron suit, brandishing an AR-15.

"Hello, Ted." she says. "We're almost done killing the GOP. You're one of the last holdouts. Glad we could find you. Any last words?"

The former Senator looks at the clouds illuminated in the night sky by the full moon and - for just one second - sees the image of his beautiful wife Heidi in it. Then he remembers that when he asked if he could hide in her parents' basement, she had said "sorry, your fucking soup cans are taking up all the space" and admitted she was glad she finally had an excuse not to see his cheesy breathed bitch ass every morning humming Sound of Music tunes while shitting with the door open. He turns to his former colleague.

"Why must I be so PERSECUTED?" he screams, arms thrown up histrionically.

The gun goes off.

Bring it on.

LH9GeYM.gif
 
I remember being outright enraged by this Politico article 9 months ago. (piecake remembers because he posted it. btw where is piecake?) Decided to reread it again for fun, and found some good highlights.

The Case Against James Comey
The FBI’s history is divided into two distinct epochs: Hoover and post-Hoover. After Hoover’s death in office in 1972, Congress enacted laws designed to curtail the abuses—from illegal wiretaps and “black bag” jobs to campaigns of intimidation and blackmail—that defined his 48-year reign. Of the six directors who have followed, all but one have projected far lower profiles, eschewing the dramatic assertions of power that made Hoover so dangerous. Only James Comey, the seventh and current FBI director, has strayed from this well-worn path.

On the surface, there are few direct parallels between Comey, a widely respected former prosecutor, and his most infamous predecessor. Where Hoover was pugnacious and inscrutable—lurching, hunched and furtive, between power and paranoia—the 55-year-old Comey is affable and open, with a reputation for honesty and a well-known aversion to politics. Yet there is a growing consensus that Comey has wielded the powers of the directorship more aggressively than anyone since Hoover—to the consternation, and even anger, of some of his colleagues.

It would be difficult to argue—in terms of temperament, manner, or motivation—that he is, or ever will be, the next J. Edgar Hoover. But increasing numbers of critics believe he has displayed a worrying disregard for the rules and norms that have constrained all but one of his predecessors, straying with blithe confidence—and with increasing regularity—across the fine line that separates independence from unaccountability.

These concerns were only whispered about until July, when the FBI director’s public disposition of the Hillary Clinton email investigation stoked national controversy. Since then, even some of Comey’s supporters have been forced to concede that his exercise of power has been without precedent in the post-Hoover era. Among dozens of current and former Justice Department officials, this realization has given way to a rising sense of alarm: that our next president will find Comey just as untouchable as Hoover once was—and perhaps nearly as troublesome.

End of the article brimming with perspicacity.
Come January, whoever steps into the Oval Office will find, in Comey, a formidable antagonist: not the wrathful demigod Kennedy encountered in Hoover, but every bit as untouchable.

...

A Donald Trump presidency, on the other hand, would pit the headstrong FBI director against a know-nothing strongman—a “law and order” president with little regard for the law. Dramatic and likely escalating, clashes would be virtually inevitable. And the potential for lasting damage would be immense.

In either scenario, over the next seven years, James Comey’s power will only continue to grow. There is no ready means to slow or stay a figure who has—for better or for worse—repeatedly defied presidents, shrugged off institutional constraints, and wielded the instruments of his office to mold outcomes to his will. We can only hope that Comey will rediscover his sense of self-restraint. Otherwise, with more than two-thirds of his tenure still before him, the only question will be just how far our untouchable FBI director is willing to go.

lol
 

Slizeezyc

Member
The year is 2020. An emaciated man, barely alive, stumbles over a heap of garbage and flings himself at the rat he's been stalking for ten minutes. He ignores the screeching and starts tearing at the flesh with his teeth. It is the first meal he's had in two days.

A helicopter flies overhead and he hides himself in a dumpster. Reminds me of what the kids would do to me in college, he thinks to himself. The spotlight traces the highway, intent on finding fugitives.

After Trump's impeachment and execution, the Republican party was outlawed. All people were compelled to reregister as independent. Dissenters were thrown in modern gulags - the "WPA", as the Department of Labor called it. Democrats rebranded themselves as the Institutional Anti-Racism Party and elections were fixed by Donna Brazile. Most Republican members of Congress and the staff that chose to remain with President Pence were summarily shot and fed to dogs. Some were not shot, but definitely fed to dogs. Reince Priebus was one of the only survivor but forced to live in a zoo - as a dog. Paul Ryan fled to the United Kingdom (now simply "Britain") and is a part time bdsm actor.

Devouring the rat and crying quietly to himself, the man is suddenly knocked over by a swift kick to the head. He turns around and sees Kirsten Gillibrand in an iron suit, brandishing an AR-15.

"Hello, Ted." she says. "We're almost done killing the GOP. You're one of the last holdouts. Glad we could find you. Any last words?"

The former Senator looks at the clouds illuminated in the night sky by the full moon and - for just one second - sees the image of his beautiful wife Heidi in it. Then he remembers that when he asked if he could hide in her parents' basement, she had said "sorry, your fucking soup cans are taking up all the space" and admitted she was glad she finally had an excuse not to see his cheesy breathed bitch ass every morning humming Sound of Music tunes while shitting with the door open. He turns to his former colleague.

"Why must I be so PERSECUTED?" he screams, arms thrown up histrionically.

The gun goes off.

giphy.gif
 

DirtyCase

Member

I both laughed maniacally and shed at tear at the conclusion. I would almost pay for more.

This whole situation unfolding feels too surreal. I catch myself almost feeling bad for the disgusting rump in the oval office, sometimes imagining how hard it must be for him trying to sleep knowing how fucked he is. Then I remember how much of an asshole he is and everything is right again.
 
...so there's now two Libertarian representatives in the New Hampshire House after a Democrat switched parties to join the Republican who switched to become a Libertarian?
 
I both laughed maniacally and shed at tear at the conclusion. I would almost pay for more.

This whole situation unfolding feels too surreal. I catch myself almost feeling bad for the disgusting rump in the oval office, sometimes imagining how hard it must be for him trying to sleep knowing how fucked he is. Then I remember how much of an asshole he is and everything is right again.
I wasn't alive for Watergate, and I was only 9 when 9/11 happened so I barely remember it as it happened, so for me, this is basically the historic "I can't believe I'm living through this" moment of my lifetime as of now. I read a lot of history, and it's been surreal living through events that are undoubtedly going to have an entire section in a history book. From Inauguration/Woman's March onward, it's been crazy
 

Amalthea

Banned
The year is 2020. An emaciated man, barely alive, stumbles over a heap of garbage and flings himself at the rat he's been stalking for ten minutes. He ignores the screeching and starts tearing at the flesh with his teeth. It is the first meal he's had in two days.

A helicopter flies overhead and he hides himself in a dumpster. Reminds me of what the kids would do to me in college, he thinks to himself. The spotlight traces the highway, intent on finding fugitives.

After Trump's impeachment and execution, the Republican party was outlawed. All people were compelled to reregister as independent. Dissenters were thrown in modern gulags - the "WPA", as the Department of Labor called it. Democrats rebranded themselves as the Institutional Anti-Racism Party and elections were fixed by Donna Brazile. Most Republican members of Congress and the staff that chose to remain with President Pence were summarily shot and fed to dogs. Some were not shot, but definitely fed to dogs. Reince Priebus was one of the only survivor but forced to live in a zoo - as a dog. Paul Ryan fled to the United Kingdom (now simply "Britain") and is a part time bdsm actor.

Devouring the rat and crying quietly to himself, the man is suddenly knocked over by a swift kick to the head. He turns around and sees Kirsten Gillibrand in an iron suit, brandishing an AR-15.

"Hello, Ted." she says. "We're almost done killing the GOP. You're one of the last holdouts. Glad we could find you. Any last words?"

The former Senator looks at the clouds illuminated in the night sky by the full moon and - for just one second - sees the image of his beautiful wife Heidi in it. Then he remembers that when he asked if he could hide in her parents' basement, she had said "sorry, your fucking soup cans are taking up all the space" and admitted she was glad she finally had an excuse not to see his cheesy breathed bitch ass every morning humming Sound of Music tunes while shitting with the door open. He turns to his former colleague.

"Why must I be so PERSECUTED?" he screams, arms thrown up histrionically.

The gun goes off.

lol

I hope Bannon was forced to live as a Middle White pig in this scenario. (Just google them and laugh!)
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
The thing to me is that I don't know if this would ever bring Trump himself down. I don't think he has been a conscious participant in any dealings with Russia. Fairly obvious his underlings have had contact-- maybe even nefarious contact-- but in general? He just seems so idiotic and passive. How could he do anything?
 
The thing to me is that I don't know if this would ever bring Trump himself down. I don't think he has been a conscious participant in any dealings with Russia. Fairly obvious his underlings have had contact-- maybe even nefarious contact-- but in general? He just seems so idiotic and passive. How could he do anything?

Obstruction of Justice. He did a thing.
 

Xando

Member
The thing to me is that I don't know if this would ever bring Trump himself down. I don't think he has been a conscious participant in any dealings with Russia. Fairly obvious his underlings have had contact-- maybe even nefarious contact-- but in general? He just seems so idiotic and passive. How could he do anything?

I believe he'd sell out everyone(Except Ivanka maybe) if he's guaranteed not to be prosecuted. If he obstructed Comey there is probably more illegal stuff.
 
If Sessions hadnt perjured himself for no reason then he wouldnt have had to recuse himself, if he hadnt recused himself then rosenstien wouldnt be acting AG, if Rosenstein wasnt acting AG we wouldnt have a special counsel.

This is fucking crazy shit to think about.
 

Zolo

Member
If Sessions hadnt perjured himself for no reason then he wouldnt have had to recuse himself, if he hadnt recused himself then rosenstien wouldnt be acting AG, if Rosenstein wasnt acting AG we wouldnt have a special counsel.

This is fucking crazy shit to think about.

Yeah. This is what I meant earlier when mentioning how Sessions must regret recusing himself now. It's weird thinking about the series of events that led to this.
 

Nelo Ice

Banned
If Sessions hadnt perjured himself for no reason then he wouldnt have had to recuse himself, if he hadnt recused himself then rosenstien wouldnt be acting AG, if Rosenstein wasnt acting AG we wouldnt have a special counsel.

This is fucking crazy shit to think about.
Thank goodness just about everything these traitors have done has been self inflicted and pretty much all unprompted. They didn't even need to be baited lol.
 
Thank goodness just about everything these traitors have done has been self inflicted and pretty much all unprompted. They didn't even need to be baited lol.

Yup, even when nothing bad is happening they are still in crisis mode. Imagine if they had to deal with a 9/11, a hurricane katrina, or a financial collapse. We need to get these people out of the white house ASAP.

At first i wanted to wait until Pelosi became house leader so she would become president, but now i just want them gone.

Does Special Counsel mean FBI stops their investigation?

No, but he can use FBI resources if he wants. (according to CNN people i was listening to).
 

Teggy

Member
Not posted yet?

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN18E106?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

By Ned Parker, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel | WASHINGTON
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.

The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.

Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
That new TIME magazine cover is something else.
 

Zolo

Member
Big problem with Bobby Three Sticks: he doesn't leak

That's a good thing. Leaks are better when it can't be trusted that the info will ever see the light of day (which is why we've been getting so much since Comey got fired). If Mueller's investigation is to be seen as a bipartisan investigation, he does need to make sure to run a tight ship.
 
That's a good thing. Leaks are better when it can't be trusted that the info will ever see the light of day (which is why we've been getting so much since Comey got fired). If Mueller's investigation is to be seen as a bipartisan investigation, he does need to make sure to run a tight ship.

Yeah that's the good side, but kinda preferred having Rs in Congress on the edge.
 
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