Politics, News and Current Events (2,874 views)

In the span of 2 hours, the major news story went from Ukraine dropping their Paul Manafort investigation to cozy up to Trump to this bananas Rudy Giuliani interview. I literally went to see a movie at 9:45, then came out at midnight to multiple breaking news alerts on my phone and cable news talking about a completely different subject.

It's wild out here.

I disagree. Everything matters all the time, especially right now. That's part of what makes it so painful.



www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/30/607008627/trump-should-win-the-nobel-peace-prize-south-korea-s-moon-says



And my beloved NPR is also in on the bullshit with this headline, ""Trump Should Win The Nobel Peace Prize," South Korea's Moon Says".



I found out about this garbage from my fellow bio grad students wailing about it in the group chat. If you listen to the audio, the woman they interviewed specifically says Moon said that to suck up Trump/appease his ego. That title is only there to get a reaction out of people, which tbf is what a headline is supposed to do, but given present circumstances (the apocalypse) that shit is irresponsible. They're a journalism outfit. They know how many people don't bother reading past headlines.And this is essentially a fake headline (in spirit, if not literally) to get attention. Fuck them for making a headline that supports right-wing viewpoints that Trump is an even passable world leader, let alone a person worthy of any recognition aside from utter contempt. And fuck them for furthering lefty sentiments that everything is chaos and a lost cause. Getting lefties to form a fucking sensible voting coalition to vote in their own damn best interests is already like herding cats if those same cats were blinded by apathy and cynicism, which they foolishly mistake for worldliness.

So Israeli police/soldiers (can't really tell which at this point) are straight up killing protestors.



I mean, they have been all year (and before), but today the death toll is at 52 so far. The protests are ramping up because today is the day the new US Embassy opens in Jerusalem.



And not to bring up old stuff, but it's actually super fucking important because the political left still seems pathologically incapable of understanding reality, but this is just One Reason of Many Why Hillary Clinton Would Have Been Better Than Trump. Not lesser of two evils. Like, better by leaps and bounds. I remember arguments that boiled down to, "yeah Trump is bad, but it's not like Clinton will be any better for poc, or the world!" which is, you know, demonstrably false. Especially when Trump was frothing at the mouth for war all throughout the campaign and openly baiting white supremacists at home and abroad.

Btw, Trump desperately wants a war. Probably before the November mid-terms. Definitely before 2020. Bolton of course has wanted a US war with Iran for his entire political life, and looks like Netanyahu also wants a US war with Iran.

In addition to the fact that the Trump admin coming into power has made things worse for the Palestinians, I can trace a direct line from Trump winning in November to Aleppo being sacked shortly after. 

Nvm shit at home like privately owned for-profit prisons immediately seeing a jump once after Trump. Nvm the fact that Obama had effectively yielded to the Standing Rock protesters, when Trump's election essentially doomed them. Nvm the thousands of people who have been living here for decades that are now about to be deported. Nvm the hundreds (maybe thousands) who died in Puerto Rico, not just because of the hurricane, but because of the continued lack-luster response to it.

To say nothing for the non-human parts of the globe, which will see irreparable damage from this administration. Already are in fact.

It is not hyperbole to say Clinton would have been better for the entire planet. Literally every living thing on the planet. From inverts like corals in the ocean to human beings to elephants. Better in terms of raw numbers, better in terms of raw biomass, just unequivocally better overall.

And I'm at a loss when people say things like 'the real problem is the electoral college,' not because it's a good system, but because that shit is not unique. It's been around for decades! There are actual fucking people who think the removal of Russian-bots is an attack on leftist orgs like Black Lives Matter. And the only explanation for such an ass-backwards pov is ignorance. Like, you really haven't been paying attenitoin to the news for months. Because the evidence started pouring in back in December 2016 that Russia had been churning fake social media accounts, news sites, articles, etc on all sides of the US political spectrum to sow discord. And you can't diminish the significance of that, because it clearly fucking worked. Back during the campaign, Trump would have done 5 crazy things before breakfast, but lefties would be yelling about something Chelsea Clinton said on twitter, and the media would be wringing its hands over some obscure Clinton conspiracy theory. To this very day lefties still believe nonsensical shit about Clinton, including that she would have been "just as bad" or only marginally better for people of color. They are LITERALLY RESISTING THE REMOVAL OF RUSSIAN PSY-OPS and backing that up with some quasi pro-communism argument? Wtf? 

Wasn't it Trump-supporter Roseanne just last month while trying to rationalize being a Trump-supporter, said, "well I don't like Clinton because of Haiti". Which is an insane statement, because 1 Trump is and has always been a bold racist. Literally taken to court by the justice department for being a racist. And 2, that entire story is garbage. Like, such obvious garbage. I guarantee you the liberals who pontificated about it (and there were many) can't find Haiti on a map. They certainly don't know any of its history, because they're un-ironically laying the economic dispossession of Haitians at the feet of Hillary Clinton as if that hasn't been the status quo for THE ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD since Haitians freed themselves!!! 

I swear, during that entire election my head was spinning. And afterwards, it hasn't gotten much better. 
People continue to die. People continue to suffer. Even if our media were competent, things happen at such an alarming rate that it's difficult to maintain perspective. I only remembered this morning that Trump's FCC is set to end Net Neutrality. And there continues to be no bottom to the well of ignorance. 

I know I started this talking about Israel, but I'm getting anxious about the election. Cuz I'm starting to see the same nonsense that cropped up before 2016 crop up again. It's scary tbh. It's scary to have my fate tied to people who won't act in our best interest. 

It's been 24 days now...

It's funny that with how crazy everything is this thread has gone fallow. I get it though. Crazy is the new status quo. Post something and by the end of the day it's old news.

The world is on fire both figuratively and literally.

I don’t mind the political class praising him, but the hagiographing (?) from the media is uncalled for considering what a thoroughly awful person McCain was. I mean, his final political act was sticking to his Senate seat so the governor gets to appoint his successsor instead of his constituents.

I mean...I disagree. It's 100% predictable. He's been a political figure for decades. Some of these media people probably knew him, if only professionally. I'm not at all surprised that every major news network, pundit, and host has their McCain memorial speech ready to go. Even celebrities are making statements on twitter. It's kind of what people do whenever a famous person dies. 

I agree the hagiography is grating, but no matter how glowing the praise I still read it as perfunctory. It doesn't mean much to me. Even that orange shit-gibbon posted a nice tweet about Aretha Franklin when she died, and I doubt he's listened to a single Aretha song in his life.

Is McCain's replacement up for re-election in 2020 or later? I've read conflicting things.