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Rumor on the street (I know, I know, slowpoke.jpg meme goes here) is that a bunch of Trump's drooling zombie supporters are planning on starting the "Patriot Party" because the GOP isn't, surprisingly, 100% all-in on utterly subverting the Constitution and going full-on banana republic juuuuust yet. Shocking, given their past behavior, but apparently some of them are just bright enough to realize that societal collapse is bad for their stock portfolios?

We've always heard that forming a third party in the US is de facto impossible given how our system so strongly encourages the two-party system due to its first past the post and winner-take-all voting allocation. Thing is, this Trump plague that's convinced a good 70 million Americans (aaaaaaaaaaaagh!) that up is down, north is south, and Trump is qualified or even sane, might just give this enough of a push to make it happen. It's not so much grassroots as it is a kudzu infestation, the "meme that ate the South" if you will, but it may actually happen.

And anyone who's interested in joining the civilized world should be all over this.

Now you're probably reading that last line and going "hold on a minute, what? Hazuki is about as fond of Trump as a marathon runner is of ingrown toenails." Very true, very true. But with enough of these hyper-partisan nuts, these baby fascists, these fanatical, lunatic cultists, *this could split the previously rock-solid GOP base right down the middle.* And what that means is, *neither* of these two factions will be able to win elections, meaning we may actually get the 50-100 years necessary to clean up the mess the GOP has inflicted on us from Nixon to Trump.

See, the GOP is very much a party of the lowest common denominator. They have a kind of unity the Democrats don't because, to put it bluntly, their base is fucking dumb and easily-manipulable. Liberals tend to be harder to corral because the entire point is to question authority and look for better solutions to existing problems, whereas the conservative mindset by definition follows the path of least resistance and least change. So the unity on the GOP side is no surprise, but it also comes with a built-in self-destruct switch: there is no negotiating with a fanatic, so when inevitably the base fractures, it breaks into *two* fanatical frothing mobs, which will then proceed to tear one another to bloody shreds.

I am all for it. Nothing, *nothing,* could be more poetic than the very pathologies the GOP has inflicted on the nation and the world coming back to destroy them from the inside, in as painful and humiliating and bloody a manner as possible. Hope they call ahead and rent a big convention center in Hell so they can save on expenses!

Whatever happens this election--and, being blunt, as of 1600 EST on 3 November I am expecting a Trump win--one thing is for certain: this election and the previous 4 years have brought out the absolute worst in this country.

Even as cynical as I am, I had no idea that something on the order of 40% of the nation's grown-ass adults are some combination of ignorant, willfully stupid, and/or outright *evil* enough to back the GOP. My very worst-case estimate would have been one in four or about 25%. To know it's almost half the nation is almost beyond comprehension. Have we always been this horrible and it took social media and the Internet to make it widely-known, or has something happened during the last couple of decades to turn people into this?

I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. Certainly without Twitter and Facebook reducing the cost, latency, and effort of real-time communication to huge masses of people to near-zero, things wouldn't have gotten this polarized this fast. But some part of me also knew, even from childhood, that a lot of people are just awful deep down. No redeeming qualities, or at least none they wouldn't happily toss into the compactor and pull the switch if they thought it benefited them somehow.

At this point, *whatever* your politics are, there is no sane, rational excuse for supporting Trump and the GOP. None. Leave aside what you fear the Democrats will do if elected: Trump and company are systematically gutting the nation's institutions, driving up the deficit to insane levels (funny how that only matters when it's a D in the White House, huh?), alienating every ally we have, corroding worldwide health and defense initiatives, and dragging the US's reputation at home and abroad through something that *wishes* it could be called "mud." This is not merely unsustainable, as is the corporate Democrats' constant sucking up to big business: this is self-destructive, and rapidly so.

The reasons some of our frothier members give for supporting Hair Furor are as convoluted and bizarre as they are disgusting. Mostly I see a whole lot of people lying to themselves about what it is they're supporting, hiding behind euphemisms like "making common cause" in the course of trying to convince themselves that they aren't becoming what they ally with, that they can give it up any time they like, that they haven't irrevocably sold their souls off as noetic scrap. I see people parading around high-sounding ideals of freedom and liberty they do not even half understand, much less truly support.

I see incredible, Schwarzchild-radius selfishness, with the accompanying event horizon of permanent solipsistic shortsightedness such an attitude inevitably brings. I see people insisting that they're just forming temporary alliances of a sort, that they are more or less *using* the actual crazies instead of the other way around, that "the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, and I can ride this tiger as long as I feel like and it will never, ever turn around, buck me, and eat me alive."

Fools. Complete and utter fools, every last one of them. And the worst possible thing is happening: *they're going to get what they think they want!*

A perfect example of this is as follows: Runaway makes a big deal about "originalism" with regards to the appointment of Barret to the Supreme Court. It is clear he 1) has no earthly idea of what "originalism" means (and to be fair, no one on the SCOTUS does either; it's another of those "truth, justice, and the American Way" feelz-words) and 2) has really, *really* not thought this through. At all. Why? Because he's just about retirement age, not in the best of health, and is cheering on the permanent capture of an entire branch of the Federal government by the party that wants to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and all the other programs that are going to prevent his shriveled stupid Fox-News-jihadi ass from dying homeless under a bridge at 68 of malnutrition and untreated sickness! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I really can't comprehend the seething, teeth-grinding, spleen-wringing, malevolent mediocrity that would happily consign itself to this fate, completely needlessly, just to "own the libs." This makes him, and all who think like him, exactly as much of a suicide-bombing nihilist as any terrorist in a dynamite vest who pops off in the subway station...just far, far more cowardly. I cannot understand the kind of hate, *actual fucking hate,* that would make someone willfully condemn themselves and others like them to a slow, miserable, and above all unnecessary death just to hurt other people.

THAT is hate, not abusive language on the internet. That is stone-cold spiteful soulless nihilism.

And as the title says, "let him who is filthy, be filthy still." We've long since crossed the point of no return, and there is no redemption, NONE, for the people who voted for this, who caused this, who not only let this happen but cheered it on. The next few weeks are going to be incredibly ugly, and the next few decades even uglier. I really do not know if I'll survive to make it to Canada, but the fact is I saw all this coming all the way back on 9/11 in 8th grade, the day the towers came down so close I could see the smoke rising in real time. I've been planning for an escape over a decade, hoping and praying it would never come to this, even as I knew it inevitably would. The border is less than 30 minutes' walk away and so help me Goddess I will go there on foot and claim asylum if things get as bad as they look like they will.

I hope all of you frothing nutjobs are proud of yourselves. You are about to get the government you deserve, and get it good and hard. You have sold your souls for it, and will find out in short order that you really did not get a good deal at all...

https://soylentnews.org/~Azuma+Hazuki+2.0/

So someone's registered as "me 2.0" and is trying to mimic my writing style, likely by copying and pasting plus a little modification. Gods, what a lame troll. I'm impressed I get to live in someone's head rent-free like this, but really, how dumb can you get?

Accept no substitutions. Check the username before replying. There is only one of me, and apparently that's already more than some people can handle :)

Well, I made it to Buffalo. It's been a little less than two weeks, and for the most part I really like the city. It's miles better than Erie, the public transit is amazing if somewhat pricier, and it's nice to see buildings more than 2 stories tall again.

There are some seriously bad parts of this city, of course. I refuse to go east of Main Street if at all possible, and will not get off the bus on Niagara Street between the 1000 block and its intersection with Vulcan Street near Tonawanda. The South Side is also said to be rather dangerous. But people tell me where I'm renting is "the ghetto" too and it doesn't feel that way at all, so...? Honestly, after some of the places I lived in NYC, it feels like a vacation home. If anything, it actually feels like a very small version of some of my old haunts in the Bronx, compressed way down and with houses instead of apartment complexes. Oh, and no #4 elevated subway, but eh.

I got an Instant Pot and OMG, this thing is a miracle worker. Steel cut oats every morning if I want them? Done. All kinds of soups, curries, and chillis? Done, and I'm making a nice one whose recipe I'll share a bit later if anyone wants. Its best trick for my purposes is being able to cook dried beans and/or mote pelado (giant white hominy) from scratch in an hour - 40 minutes plus time to come to pressure and 10 minutes' natural release before hitting the unsealing valve.

All in all, this is a definite step up over Erie. I never realized how slow and dumb that place was by comparison until moving back here. And while it's no Milwaukee, in many ways I like it better than Milwaukee (and Madison), seeing as I come from NYC to begin with. It feels more familiar, even down to the architecture. Some of the apartment buildings remind me of NYC so much it physically hurts to look at them, even.

In light of many recent developments, some of which Subsentient summarized in his latest journal, I'm thinking I may be too late to make it to Canada. But I can look down the street and just about see the Peace Bridge on a clear day or with a pair of binoculars. So if all hell breaks loose, I may very well just pack my backpack and ask for asylum at the border. I'm getting death premonitions again, so thick and fast they're an unending stream and it's becoming difficult to sleep or breathe properly. But if I do die because of what's coming, it won't be for lack of effort or planning or execution of said plans on my part; I will simply, like so many millions and millions of others, have simply gotten unlucky.

Wish me good luck. What's probably coming is a nightmare...

Just...read this LOL https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/matt-gaetz-mocked-coronavirus-wearing-223948359.html

Gaetz is a special kind of childish moron even for the Trump administration, and Lady Karma really could not have picked a better target to shit thin shit all over. I hope this guy's wetting himself every time his throat itches. Maybe pickling himself in booze-a-hol will help a bit...though, note to Mr. Gaetz, the recipe calls for isopropyl alcohol and glycerin, and it's topical, not oral.

...okay, there are two people karma could choose that would be even better: Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Pence is for me at the top of this list, since his willful inaction and religious whackaloonery precipitated an HIV crisis in Indiana so severe the federal government had to intervene. Drowning slowly in his own lung exudate would be a fitting and very poetic fate for him...and don't worry, after he's done it'll only take a few minutes in Hellfire before it's all evaporated out!

Trump being taken down by the virus he keeps calling a hoax and blaming on the Democrats (?!) would be perfect too. He's in his 70s, overweight as hell (if he's 239 pounds, I'm Callista Flockheart!), apparently doesn't sleep much, and subsists on a steady regimen of Diet Coke, covfefe, and hamberders. Oh, and well-done steak with ketchup, the nekulturny bastard.

But the best part of this? CPAC. This happened at CPAC, the epicenter of coronavirus trolling. I can't think of anything more fitting than CPAC turning into the major vector of coronavirus spread, and taking down the most deserving people in the nation. Of course they'll get the best treatment on earth--they have Medicare for All, after all, and on our dime!--but even if it doesn't kill these three waterheads, I'll still laugh myself hoarse.

The absolute best outcome would be if this virus ends the Trump administration, specifically because of their utter malicious incompetence in handling it. Let us not forget Trump's practice of hiring worthless yes-men has hollowed out the Cabinet and many federal agencies, not to mention he's explicitly gutted the CDC and specifically the pandemic response team. I can't think of a more poetically-just outcome of their willful mishandling of this pandemic than having it destroy them.

We live in interesting times indeed. Sweet Lady Karma, I wish you good hunting...

Feel free to flame away, everyone. I give fewer fucks than Deadpool barebacking a rabid honey badger well into the third day of a cocaine-and-PCP bender.

This one goes out to all the dogmatic "all regulation is bad hurr hurr" types we're infested with.

The single argument I see them falling back on when backed into a corner is something along the lines of "Yeah, well, X Y and Z regulations have been set up and perverted, so regulation itself is a threat and inherently bad!"

This is...I don't think there is a way to express in English how completely, utterly, boneheadedly, cynically, self-servingly, sneeringly, willfully wrong this is. No one with three sparking neurons would say this for its own sake. And what *that* means is that the people who *do* say this are using it as a flimsy dogmatic excuse to push their idiotic economic agendas.

Let me make this absolutely clear: this argument is the precise equivalent of saying "Well, cancer cells can turn off cell-cycle checkpoints like p53, so replication regulation mechanisms are bad for living things!" or "Yeah, well look what happens to human DNA when a retrovirus gets ahold of it. Cell division is anti-life!"

It is *exactly* the same argument, just made in context of the body politic rather than the body simpliciter. Anyone who makes this argument is a fool, a rube, a tool of the elite who no doubt don't even know they exist and would not thank them for their pathetic grovelling bootlicking.

In other words, KHallow (though we have others on this site infected with the disease). And yes, this is a call-out. Suck it up. I will never understand what drives people to kiss the boot that's stomping their skulls into a fine paste...though I fear it may be something as simple as "I suffer but $GROUP_I_HATE suffers more."

This is a fairly simple concept. Economies, of any sort, thrive on the flow of goods and services, for which money is an abstraction. Money (currency) may be thought of as something like electrical current or water; it does useful work only when it's moving ("velocity of money"), because it's a proxy for the movements of goods, resources, and services.

Capitalism has the potential, realized repeatedly, to produce staggering amounts of goods and services, and to keep the flow of same in motion. However, the profit motive is a concentrating tendency. In particular, it tends to accumulate both money and the goods/services/resources represented by money in fewer and fewer hands over time, and this effect is a positive feedback loop, i.e., the longer it goes on the more it potentiates and reinforces and accelerates itself.

The problem here is that this accumulation stagnates the economy. When money and the things it abstracts away stop circulating, useful work is not done. The knock of effects are economic malaise, increase in rent-seeking behaviors, and widening disparities between the rich and poor (which, again, are self-catalyzing). Bluntly, a consumer economy grinds to a halt when people can't buy stuff.

When this reaches its logical conclusion, we find the vast majority of resources, goods, money, land, and political power in the hands of a wealthy few, with the huge mass of the people as impoverished slave laborers or serfs. In a word: *feudalism.* Without proper regulations to make sure wealth keeps circulating, then, capitalism will inevitably degenerate into feudalism. Which is, ironically, the very state it was created to oppose ideologically! The reason this happens is because the drives behind both systems are the same: greed.

This seems to be an inevitable consequence of unrestrained human nature. I am told a slur against progressives is that they believe humans and human nature are perfectible; this is not something I have actually heard from any of them, so it's probably another stupid slur and can be safely disregarded. That said, if we don't make some serious changes to how we think about economic activity and the reasons for engaging in it, we're going to end up in a dystopian nightmare. Some could argue we already have, and others might say we never left it.