So what remains? · 10:43pm Oct 28th, 2020
Well my little American friends it seems in just about a week you'll have a pretty important election coming up. Following the debates and absorbing all this political stuff for the last year has been a eye opening experience for me. I won't give you a brief summary of 2020, we all know how this started, but I ain't about to be a mindless npc and parrot everything that's been on constant repeat for most of this year.
Instead you maybe wondering where I stand on the matter and I'll gladly share that with you all.
Before I do that, I got an important thing I want to say. I remember a time when other peoples opinions were not feared and people argued their points when they disagreed with each other. Afterward both sides in the disagreement acted amiably with one another and go about their business. Sadly that seems rare in this day and age, especially when one side of the political spectrum deems everything they disagree with problematic and actively calls for censorship in wake of a disagreement. It's sad since their whole existence relies on censoring, shaming, and insulting others to survive. It's further sad that they get away with it, thanks to social media and MSM catering to them. I've seen enough social media murdering and wish for it to stop.
Now where do I stand? Where I always stand; on the opposite side of censorship. Have fun voting if you haven't already done so. I also recommend voting in person so ballots don't accidentally get lost in the mail.
I absolutely recommend everyone to vote in-person on election day as well. You can check to see if they somehow received your mail-in ballot from someone else (if you didn't send one in), check to see if they got the one you did send in and counted it correctly, or cast your vote with certainty. This is not suggesting to vote multiple times, simply to verify your vote was cast and counted.
After that, strap in. Nearly everyone is expecting a bumpy ride. Also, apologies in advance to Canada; your immigration website will probably get overloaded and go down again.
i.postimg.cc/dtbWbHtF/website.png
Vote in person, or turn in your ballot in a Dropbox. Make sure it's actually official, some shenanigans going on there. Vote early if you can. Most states are allowing early voting all the way until friday the 30th. if you mailed your ballot, check to make sure it was accepted. If it wasn't, you can cancel your mail in ballot at the polling location and still vote in person. Be safe.
Voting in person is the most effective way, secondly, were done for. Both major parties are just two corrupt old men fighting eachother for 10 days in the whitehouse before they kick the bucket and the VP takes over. Honestly if more people voted for or atleast knew about the third parties we wouldnt be in this mess.
5387849
Call it a hunch, but I think we're going to see record voter turnout for this election.
Can I live with you?
I'm hoping for the best but expecting there to be major problems and further unrest and unresolved issues.
I hope for a positive change and I voted to be a part of that change.
But so many where I live are only concerned about themselves and their affiliations, I just can't imagine much, if anything will change, let alone improve.
Sorry if this sounds a bit down and disalludioned. Just anxious and frustrated.
And thank you, TS. I've sincerely appreciated your comments and posts. They been informative and insightful.
What I hate the most is that Orwell was prescient, but 36 years early.
Both sides are guilty of trying to censor other, and let's not forget it's mostly extremists on both sides.
It feels like politics just creates more problems that doesn’t have a solution
I wouldn't ever go back to not paying attention to politics and such, but damn these last few years I've been involved have been depressing as all hell. National guards already being deployed in some areas and building are boarding up in preparation for the election. What a fucking world. Remember to laugh guys, or we might just start crying.
Biden is just another member of the neoliberal scum, but even that's better than the Trumpstapo.
I expected to have more to disagree with, but I'll second what many others are saying. Vote in person if at all possible. Hopefully your state hasn't tried to restrict the amount of polling locations like some have. (Cough, Texas)
5387886
This ain't over yet.
5387936
Politics is extremely frustrating these days especially, but we can't afford to ignore it or give up, unfortunately. A politically active and informed populace is how we get out of this mess we're in. There are many things getting in the way of that, but we can all try on our own to be more active and knowledgeable.
It feels so unreal that it's so close.
The problem with all the mania in the news media and social media boils down to two sides who mutually want to destroy each other's way of living and force their own way upon the other group. If they didn't use the federal government as a weapon against other people they wouldn't cause "trump derangement syndrome", or the equivalent the republicans had under Obama. Each side is just saying what it needs to say to win because they think it's life or death, at least for their way of life.
Also social media amplifies the extremes because that's what drives engagement. Most people in the US are independent at this point, if not outright collapsitarians. We're basically all just sick of this BS.
As for me, I'm just quietly building a system of technologically ensured universal basic living standards (earthship, multimaterial 3D printing, IC etching, energy and waste management systems, greenhouses, full system cost under $25k and self replicating so neighbors can make more for each other) so we can restore the bargaining power of the worker relative to the neoliberal/neoconservative corporate oligarchy and also not suffer quite so much if the economy crashes again due to the unregulated financial sector or when all the jobs are finally automated (Amazon is getting close; wait till you see what they've got in the works). Compared to those things, the federal government seems kind of outdated and irrelevant, run by increasingly senile out-of-touch politicians.
I'll vote, but no one in government will save us when our last real president was FDR and then the corporate oligarchy/deep state/military industrial complex took de facto control. We will have to save ourselves. We had a good run, but the average lifespan of representative republics is about 300 years anyways, so it's about time for a reboot. Too bad the rules for constitutional conventions were unclear, but besides bloody civil war, that's probably our only real hope at maintaining any semblance of the society we have had up till now.
Oh and if you're in a state that's running a referendum on implementing ranked choice voting, vote yes! That will improve the power of your votes in the future and is a step towards value-based voting.
My previous comment seems to be getting some interest so if anyone has programming/engineering skills or knows someone who does, I'm building a team/network to make this "Technocopia" system a reality. Feel free to reach out; we could make Cory Doctorow's novel Walkaway real, except with existing technology and with a happy ending. The sooner we can build this technology, the more human suffering we can prevent.
5387931
True, but extremists with very loud voices. No one screams about how ambivalent they feel about their party's position. To get screaming you need passion, and sometimes drugs.
I have a horrible record in predicting anything, but I'm guessing overall turnout for this election will be middling-high, not as high as some, but higher than expected for Republicans and lower for Democrats. Really, the election of 1994 is a once in a lifetime event. Back then with the Contract For America, turnout went nuts and Republicans had a massive national sweep. This time I'm guessing panic fatigue is going to severely crimp Democrat turnout. I mean we've been told since 2016 that the world is coming to an end bombshells going off could this be the end for the Trump administration allegations of everything and Russian collusion supported by anonymous sources this means certain doom for Trump and really people can't be expected to swallow that kind of bogus line for four years without throwing up.
With luck, we'll see Trump hit 300 electoral votes on election night, all of the screaming about absentee ballots will die out almost at once since there won't be enough in car trunks and 'found' to make up the difference, and the world will roll on. If the Republicans keep the Senate, great. If the Republicans take the House, even better. The compromise Covid legislation that Pelosi has been bottling up for the last few months will make it through the legislature and be signed, the SCOTUS will stay at 9 members, taxes will remain stable, the economy will continue to grow rapidly back to *close* to what it was, and four more years of economic growth might fix the crippling damage the lockdowns caused, or at least patch it up to something normal. A vaccine or six for Covid will be released, it will be fairly effective (but not perfect, since no vaccine is), the anti-vaxx crowd will freak out like usual, and people across the globe will roll their eyes and roll up their sleeves. The US will not have any more Federal lockdowns, states will eventually come over to masks and social distancing is about as far as they are going to get without massive backlash, and both Major League Baseball and the NFL will return, although the attempts to make them BLM rallies will rapidly be squished because we want to watch football and baseball, not social posturing.
Then again, Kanye 2020 would be *epic*
5388024
Honestly, there has never been a better time for that. Maybe list yourself here. https://www.ic.org/ Anyone looking over that site, just be careful not to join a cult. Or at least join the right cult for you?
5388079
Wow, your record must be absolutely nil. I mean, some of that might happen, but all of it at once? If you're going to write out a best case scenario for the world, is that really the best you could come up with?
Wait. I want a try now. *Ahem*
With luck, the incoming asteroids will turn out to be the mothership for a coming armada, who will forcibly take over all political power, clean up our atmosphere, reallocate our resources so no one has to go hungry or work more than 40 hours without the means to pay their bills, and usher in a utopia for all mankind that will last until the eventual heat death of the universe!
Okay, that was fun! Anyone else? Come on, what's the point in trying to ground ourselves in reality? What's your best case scenario?
5388079
... I'm kind of hoping Kanye runs in 2024. No joke, while he's a bit... Odd at times I really do respect his stance and the veracity with which he defends it. That or South Dakota's Governor. She's really surprised me since she was brought to my attention, by Trump no less! Very level headed, personable, and like Trump she feels real. That's something I can respect in both of them.
5388104
Well, he might have to fight one of the Trumps for the nomination. Eric Don Jr and Ivanka are all in the age range.
5388107
... Okay. Not a terrible thing if I'm honest. Don Jr. or Ivanka would be interesting. Both are intelligent, though I'd prefer Don Jr. Though neither of them seem all that interested in the office to begin with and I'm not a fan of Legacy Candidates. I'd happily settle in behind Kanye or Governor Noem.
5388112
I could be happy in a Noem Presidency, but I don't know if she could ever win the nomination.
This one point might kill it for her with republicans. Conservation is not something that promotes jobs.
5388060
Mostly drugs, and also idiocy.
5388113
Eh, like I said. I'm still hoping for a Kanye 2024 run. Noem is my back up candidate. But hell, a Kanye Noem ticket would be epic. Just gonna have to wait an' see.
5388117
I was going to reply that Kanye might have trouble because of that whole peeing on a teenager thing, but that was actually R. Kelly, Kanye just peed on a Grammy... Then I was looking around for if he was the guy who assaulted his wife, and only found him assaulting a photographer who had insulted Kim Kardashian... We live in a weird world now. Maybe we're ready for Kanye after all.
5388104
Kanye's all like "I respect and trust science and we should develop policy by actually asking the people we represent and not actively screwing over some of our constituents because they're in a different political party" and then a whole other bunch of weird stuff about god speaking to him directly which makes me nervous that the fame's gone to his head. That's... honestly not bad overall considering how low the bar is now. At least he'll be a good president until his mind comes apart at the seams.
Considering that there have been report of ballot boxes going up in flames, i will absolutely vote in person
5388080
The technology I propose does not need to be used in the context of housing cooperatives, but I could imagine lots of people in cooperatives would be into that. Ever hear of Factor E Farm? the Open Source Ecology project? I'm already connected with those guys and also OSHWA, to name just a few.
It can be used in a more capitalist context too. Where communism destroys itself by requiring a strong but corruptible central government to enforce sharing, free market capitalism destroys itself because those who gain advantage through luck or skill will use their money to push their advantage until only a smaller number of monopolies remain, and that's not a free market anymore. Self sufficiency technology does two main things. Firstly it forces monopolies to always be unstable, because all it takes is one genius with multimaterial 3d printing capability and IC etching capbility and now you have a digital file anyone can print which constitutes an open source and near zero cost competitor to the monopoly's product. As for monopolies on raw materials, just add raw materials processing capabilities to your self replicating system and don't build it out of anything rarer than copper. The other thing self sufficiency technologies do is restore real bargaining power to the working class. The fact that workers are treated like shit in the US isn't because that's how capitalism is supposed to be, it's because they have no leverage right now. If participating in the economy can become optional, they would never again be forced to work a job against their moral values or buy products from a monopolist. Once they do get leverage capitalism will still exist, perhaps even in a more robust form than we currently have. with less human suffering than we currenIly have because whenever there's a depression people can just opt out of the main economy and rebuild the economy from scratch. Take care that you don't conflate 'leverage', as business terminology, with communist takeover. It's a common mistake in our society because we've been sold a very overly simplistic lie about how our system functions.
Self sufficiency technology is also not new: after the fall of Rome the settlements that survived in the dark ages were the ones that could be self sufficient. The Amish are self sufficient with existing technology. The tricky bit is trying to get anything resembling the modern lifestyle while maintaining self sufficiency. It is technologically possible, but it will take some time. Time we might not have. Hence trying to build interest and a team. We already have the advanced multimaterial 3D printing and IC etching so we have in-principle self replication. We have incinerating toilets for waste management thanks to all the recent development, something which must remain secret for now to handle energy generation, but greenhouses are surprisingly hard. The issue with vegetarian diets is getting enough B vitamins. I've recently learned how to grow gardens with symbiotic mycelium for edible mushroom species though, and that may do the trick. Other than that you'd need to have a chicken coop or a bioreactor containing an E. Coli culture, each of which have trade offs. Also population density is just too high to ever do this in cities: just not enough room. Unless we manage to pull of catalytic fusion reactors... Oops did I say that out loud?
5388104
5388063
Seriously though, if Kanye runs and gets anywhere far without the neoliberal/neoconservative corporate oligarchy corruptly pushing him out of the race I'm changing my name to Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho and running too.
Props if you get the reference
5388104 5388113
I think Kanye just does whatever gets him attention. Anything he says I take with a grain of salt.
We can do far better than him or Noem, who is just another Republican as far as I can tell. Even her conservation record isn't that strong.