Election 2020

[IdleRich]

Exactly like terrorism.

 

[IdleRich]

Been reading about the Dominion v Powell thing on twitter - amazingly there are loads of people out there who think that Dominion have fucked up massively and when they do "discovery" it will backfire on them cos people will discover all their corruption and links to Chavez etc and it will end up with Trump as God-Emperor again.

 

[william kent]

That there's going to be a renewed focus on terrorism with lots of things being seen through that lens, but it's going to be domestic rather than somewhere in the Middle-East.

@constant escape
Here's a Democrat congresswoman who used to work for the CIA saying exactly this,

Rep. Elissa Slotkin
@RepSlotkin
The post 9/11 era is over. The single greatest national security threat right now is our internal division. The threat of domestic terrorism. The polarization that threatens our democracy. If we don't reconnect our two Americas, the threats will not have to come from the outside.

 

[william kent]

For me, the striking thing about so many of these images of rioters in the Capitol is that what they're doing - all of them - is creating content for social media. At least in their minds, the true seat of power is not actually in that building. It's online.

Politics is always performative, but the nature of the performance has changed dramatically in just a few years. What we saw today was the sudden, violent disruption of one performance, the certification of electoral college votes, for another, wilder show.

They could have done anything in that building today. What they did, by and large, was take selfies and create social media content. That was what really mattered to them. Whatever higher motives they might claim, their actions suggest that was the real motive for many of them.

It's no coincidence that the star and driving animus of this show is a man who has built his whole life and business around delivering compelling performances on broadcast and digital media.

 

[william kent]

I was talking to someone the other night who felt the internet in its current form had been manufactured to capture and deflect revolutionary energy and the above certainly makes me feel that way. It's as though they've essentially built The Matrix; a virtual world where people can live and act out their politics with little to no impact whilst being tapped for resources irl by those who built it.

 

[constant escape]

@constant escape
Here's a Democrat congresswoman who used to work for the CIA saying exactly this,

Rep. Elissa Slotkin
@RepSlotkin
The post 9/11 era is over. The single greatest national security threat right now is our internal division. The threat of domestic terrorism. The polarization that threatens our democracy. If we don't reconnect our two Americas, the threats will not have to come from the outside.

But I think we're on track to settle for biden in a more united way than perhaps seems realistic right now. I think that siege was a release of energies that would have otherwise, in their festering, continued to fuel internal divide much more meaningfully and institutionally. I think Biden will be accepted as reality, but not without a post-Trump withdrawal. And this withdrawal may be as spasmodic and occasionally violent as we fear it will be. The point is that, in terms of threat scale, it seems to be diminishing.

That said, the siege ended on this vague, wishy-washy elliptical note, rather than than with a proper denouement and closure. So some of that momentum is still intact, but the element of surprise (if it can be said to have every really existed) is no longer there. Its now not a surprise that Trumpism harbors actual revolutionary intentions.

 

[constant escape]

I was talking to someone the other night who felt the internet in its current form had been manufactured to capture and deflect revolutionary energy and the above certainly makes me feel that way. It's as though they've essentially built The Matrix; a virtual world where people can live and act out their politics with little to no impact whilst being sapped of their resources irl.

Resources, namely data in this case. In exchange for a platform that can be operationalized in a libidinally rewarding manner, the digital subject more or less yields cybernetic control of their psyche to big tech.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Been reading about the Dominion v Powell thing on twitter - amazingly there are loads of people out there who think that Dominion have fucked up massively and when they do "discovery" it will backfire on them cos people will discover all their corruption and links to Chavez etc and it will end up with Trump as God-Emperor again.

The best bit about the Dominion conspiracy theory is that it ties together Soros (obviously) and Gates, on the one hand, and Venezuela, on the other.

Because, you know, multi-billionaire entrepreneurs and communist dictatorships obviously have convergent interests.

 

[william kent]

But I think we're on track to settle for biden in a more united way than perhaps seems realistic right now. I think that siege was a release of energies that would have otherwise, in their festering, continued to fuel internal divide much more meaningfully and institutionally. I think Biden will be accepted as reality, but not without a post-Trump withdrawal. And this withdrawal may be as spasmodic and occasionally violent as we fear it will be. The point is that, in terms of threat scale, it seems to be diminishing.

That said, the siege ended on this vague, wishy-washy elliptical note, rather than than with a proper denouement and closure. So some of that momentum is still intact, but the element of surprise (if it can be said to have every really existed) is no longer there. Its now not a surprise that Trumpism harbors actual revolutionary intentions.

I'm not saying she's right, I'm saying people like her are going to switch to this narrative and try to convince people of it. You've got an ex-CIA analyst on the news basically talking about "the enemy within".

 

[constant escape]

I'm not saying she's right, I'm saying people like her are going to switch to this narrative and try to convince people of it.

Ah I see. Well then yeah, that could still figure into things. That could be the narrative provided to the anti-nationalist audience, right?

 

[william kent]

Resources, namely data in this case. In exchange for a platform that can be operationalized in a libidinally rewarding manner, the digital subject more or less yields cybernetic control of their psyche to big tech.

I'm also talking about stuff like their time, money and health. Look at the alt-right people in that Pepe doc... One of the guys seemed to feel he was genuinely doing something by posting memes on 4chan whilst working his soul-destroying job.

 

[constant escape]

Yeah, sure seems like libidinal expression doesn't have to abide by reality, or at least can find really squirrelly ways of abiding by reality. Haven't seen that doc though.

 

[Leo]

I'm not saying she's right, I'm saying people like her are going to switch to this narrative and try to convince people of it. You've got an ex-CIA analyst on the news basically talking about "the enemy within".

After situations where homegrown armed militias have gone into state government offices, threatened to kidnap governors, and stormed the nation's Capitol Building to disrupt the transition of power, don't you think it maybe is legitimate to focus on stopping people who fit the exact description of domestic terrorists?

 

[william kent]

After situations where homegrown armed militias have gone into state government offices, threatened to kidnap governors, and stormed the nation's Capitol Building to disrupt the transition of power, don't you think it maybe is legitimate to focus on stopping people who fit the exact description of domestic terrorists?

Yes, but I'm talking about how it may develop. There were genuine Islamic terrorists around too and look at what the "War on Terror" ballooned into.

 

[sufi]

I was talking to someone the other night who felt the internet in its current form had been manufactured to capture and deflect revolutionary energy and the above certainly makes me feel that way. It's as though they've essentially built The Matrix; a virtual world where people can live and act out their politics with little to no impact whilst being tapped for resources irl by those who built it.

this is a fantasy too, they kicked the tyrant off social media and left him with the nuke codes ffs

 

[william kent]

I doubt he'd actually be able to launch a nuke, or even have the balls to.

 

[william kent]

@constant escape

 

[Leo]

I know it's just gossip but can't resist...

“HE KNEW HE F--KED UP”

According to one Republican briefed on internal conversations, Trump was swayed in part by Senator Lindsey Graham. The source said Graham called Trump yesterday and explained that there were enough Republican votes in the Senate to remove Trump from office unless he conceded the election and diffused tensions. “He told Trump that he had to say there would be a ‘peaceful transition.’ Those were the key words,” the Republican said. (In the video Trump said: “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power.”)

Trump’s fear of legal exposure is also being driven by his conversations with White House counsel Pat Cipollone. A source close to the West Wing told me Cipollone warned staff on Wednesday that they could be at risk if they helped Trump fuel the riot. “The warning he gave triggered resignations,” the source said. On Friday morning CNN reported that Cipollone is considering resigning.

 

[IdleRich]

I doubt he'd actually be able to launch a nuke, or even have the balls to.

A lot of people are talking about him "having the nuclear codes" but I really don't think it's that simple, he doesn't just press a button and bye-bye North Korea or Wales or whatever, I think there are a couple of fail safes. Probably it actually goes through a general or something who needs some kind of persuasion "You're in a bad mood and feeling rejected so you want to kill millions? Sah, yes sah!"

 

[Leo]