Random Thoughts

[Ivan Drago]

If Pokemon Go has taught me anything, its that I really need to never judge how people spend their free time. I read so many hateful comments from people blasting Pokemon players I blocked a few people. Ripping how anyone wastes time...on the internet...is just pure hypocrisy. Unless youre helping fellow man, literally every single frivolous minute is a fucking waste of time. Waste it however you want (as long as yourr not hurting anyone.)

Plus given everything that's happened in the last month, it's good to see something light-hearted and people having fun.

[Wryan]

The bloc of people who have spent an inordinate amount of time questioning and misunderstanding or just unfairly criticizing #blacklivesmatter and the bloc of people who exercised a nanosecond's worth of time to jump into #bluelivesmatter appear to have significant overlap.

Or is that reductive? Seems like a big portion of the energy behind it was, "Ah-HA! We can hashtag you right back! Irony! And we'll bake cookies and send pies and chocolate kisses to police stations." Feels like to a lot of people, this is a battle with a scoreboard rather than a Gordian knot.

[bac0n]

Too many people think that #blacklivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter are mutually exclusive.

[Idioteque Stalker]

It kinda blew my mind when I discovered recently that Howard Stern is a respected interviewer. I always assumed his work was trash. Then I listened to some interviews and thoroughly enjoyed them, although his method of strategically disarming people often spills over into overt creepiness when dealing with attractive women.


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[Dukefrukem]

It kinda blew my mind when I discovered recently that Howard Stern is a respected interviewer. I always assumed his work was trash. Then I listened to some interviews and thoroughly enjoyed them, although his method of strategically disarming people often spills over into overt creepiness when dealing with attractive women.


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He is a master at disarming. But he also tries to get people to loosen up.

He's a changed man from what he was in the 80s/90s. The older he gets, the less confrontational he gets. I admire that people he slammed on his show in the past, he's made up with since. Rosie O'Donnell for example. I remember getting emotional listening to the second video live on air- because I like it when Howard gets serious on a topic.

[Ezee E]

I think E!'s show of Howard Stern is what most people identify Howard Stern as. Non-stop porn star interviews and ridiculing weird-looking people.

[Dukefrukem]

I think E!'s show of Howard Stern is what most people identify Howard Stern as. Non-stop porn star interviews and ridiculing weird-looking people.

Yeh an all that Anna Nicole Smith BS. That's the problem with TV. You need to be consistently outrageous. You can't just play interviews of Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel.

[Mara]

I'm not playing Pokemon but I'm finding all the stories online adorable. People look like they're having a great time.

[transmogrifier]

I keep on meaning to look up what playing Pokemon Go actually entails, but get sidetracked by all the strongly-held opinions about the said playing of Pokemon Go, and I forget.

This will be my final communication on this particular matter.

[Irish]

Is anyone going to Comic Con this year?

[MadMan]

Heh I inspired a discussion about karaoke and I didn't even stick around for it. I'm just a ghost at this point.

[bac0n]

Is anyone going to Comic Con this year?

Nope. They're all at the RNC.

[Irish]

Nope. They're all at the RNC.

Speaking of which ... I watched all the speeches tonight and Jesus Christ.

This may be the most horrific thing I've seen in a political forum.

An angry orange man screamed AMERICA SUX at me for over an hour and now my head hurts and I want to lie down.

[number8]

No joke, man. I watched the whole thing and his speech honestly sounded like something that should be playing on a giant monitor in a city square during a dystopian sci-fi movie.

[bac0n]

[amberlita]

That speech, and the degree to which the crowd was eating it up, was utterly terrifying. I wanted to sidle up close to a loved one and just hold tight to something warm and positive. What's even more frightening is that the Democrats will doubtless limp through their convention next week, unable to appreciate how well that speech is going to play with people on the fence. Trump is stirring emotion. It's malcontent but emotion nonetheless and that's a powerful motivator, even inspirational to some people. It's also infectious. Hillary stirs....what? This miserable fucker is going to win, guys, and then we'll be truly one step closer to the American hellscape that was sold during that speech.

[Dukefrukem]

Duke hates Trump.

[Lazlo]

Some cross-forum promotion, in case you haven't wandered over to the movies side recently:

I'm tallying votes for the 2015 Matchies over in General Film Discussion. Here's a link to a Google Form where you can vote! Deadline is 11:59pm EST Monday.

You don't have to have submitted a ballot for the nomination process to vote in the finals.

[Dukefrukem]

voted

[Irish]

This miserable fucker is going to win, guys, and then we'll be truly one step closer to the American hellscape that was sold during that speech.

I disagree about the "hellscape" narrative. That seems to be a common thread whenever Trump's name is mentioned. Based on social media posts, the moment he takes the oath of office is the moment where the left's imagination ends.

So far, this country has survived:

(1) England invading and setting fire to the White House
(2) Andrew "Let's murder all the redskins" Jackson
(3) A Civil War, which killed 600,000 Americans
(4) Warren G Harding and Teapot Dome
(5) Naked, unconstitutional power grabs from sitting presidents (Lincoln, FDR)
(6) Threats from pure crazies like Hitler and Stalin
(7) Another sitting president using nukes on foreign power
(8) Everything Richard Nixon did in his entire life
(9) September 11th

Everything Trump said in his speech was a lie. I'm not talking statistics. I'm talking the usual, bullshit campaign promises. In order to do any of the things he promised, you'd have to believe he would have the full backing of both Congress and the US military. For any meaningful "hellscape" to play out, you'd also have to believe that the citizens here would simply give up.

One of the things I like about Americans is that they are dumb. Like, soft-helmet-wearing, drooling-into-a-cup dumb. Because being dumb allows you the grace to be unshakeably optimistic. And only a complete idiot could have been as optimistic as we have been during our history.

Only an idiot could have said, "Dudes, we really need to make these 3 million people full citizens and give them the right to vote," despite massive, violent resistance. Only an idiot could have said, "Guys, we're not really a world power but we need to return to Europe and take France back from the Germans." Only another idiot could have said, "Uh, guys, I know nobody has a job or any money, but we need to take back France back from the Germans ... again." Only a complete idiot would have dared us, on national TV, to go to the moon within 10 years (and then done it). Only an idiot would have repeatedly risked his life to make sure his people had the right to vote, everywhere, for all time, and done it, again, in the face of massive, violent resistance. And only a group of idiots would have taken all these separate computers we have lying around and connected them together.

That's America's real legacy. It isn't about power or money. It isn't Horatio Alger or suburban dreams on one side and angry nationalism on the other. It's about being so goddamn stupid that you have the ability to look at any situation, no matter how dark, and immediately say, "Let's make this better."

If there's anything I love about this country, it's that. Americans are always sunny and bright. We hit the beach with a smile and a wave.

[ledfloyd]

We'll see. We're in a precarious situation with the level of income inequality we've developed over the last 40 years. When people feel economically insecure they typically turn to blaming "the other." The country seems ripe for a racist demagogue to come in and abuse the constitution.

Will the country become a hellscape? Probably not. But it seems that some pretty extreme (maybe unprecedented?) damage could be done to foreign relations, the global economy and the state of race relations in four years.

[Irish]

Yeah, I dunno, man.

I'm mostly talking about the crazy, reactionary shit I've seen from both sides on social media. Trump plays off the fears of the lunatic fringe and Clinton plays off those same fears, but in a different way. A lot of lefty's are shouting "Hitler" and behaving as if the next presidential inauguration will begin with Trump goose-stepping down Pennsylvania avenue.

I'm at the point where I don't feel like buying any of it.

Trump isn't a politician. His name doesn't lend support to any downticket races. Most Republicans will avoid him like the plague (cf: the RNC convention) or openly criticize him (Romney).

Even if he's elected, the Washington bureaucracy will eat him alive. He is, at best, a one-termer. What's most likely to happen is that he'll turn into a lame duck immediately. Half his subordinates will run the country while the other half will steal anything that isn't bolted down (cf: Harding, George W Bush).

Income equality is a thing, but it's also a thing that swings back (it has before). It isn't an issue that can be solved solely from the White House, and I don't think it's a problem whose solution depends on a specific person being in the Oval Office.

After Kissinger, Cheney, and, frankly, Obama, it would be impossible to damage "foreign relations" any more than they already have been.

The Constitution takes a beating on a regular basis. It always has. The level and ferocity of the beating changes with the times. Trump really can't do much else to it that other administrations haven't already done.

Race relations will continue to be a thing because the demographics of this country are changing. That won't go away after November. It will get worse, no matter who is President.

When Nixon was elected, 90% of eligible voters were white. Today, it's more like 70%. Eventually, the overall US population will be a "minority majority," where no single ethnic group is larger than any other. This has nothing to do with who is in the White House. There's also no way to stop it.

I'm not saying these issues aren't important. I'm saying I kinda wanna step back from everything I'm reading online and go, "Waaaaaaaait a minute."

Not only is all this gloom and doom a total bummer, it's also not very productive.

[bac0n]

I disagree about the "hellscape" narrative. That seems to be a common thread whenever Trump's name is mentioned. Based on social media posts, the moment he takes the oath of office is the moment where the left's imagination ends.

So far, this country has survived:

(1) England invading and setting fire to the White House
(2) Andrew "Let's murder all the redskins" Jackson
(3) A Civil War, which killed 600,000 Americans
(4) Warren G Harding and Teapot Dome
(5) Naked, unconstitutional power grabs from sitting presidents (Lincoln, FDR)
(6) Threats from pure crazies like Hitler and Stalin
(7) Another sitting president using nukes on foreign power
(8) Everything Richard Nixon did in his entire life
(9) September 11th

Everything Trump said in his speech was a lie. I'm not talking statistics. I'm talking the usual, bullshit campaign promises. In order to do any of the things he promised, you'd have to believe he would have the full backing of both Congress and the US military. For any meaningful "hellscape" to play out, you'd also have to believe that the citizens here would simply give up.

One of the things I like about Americans is that they are dumb. Like, soft-helmet-wearing, drooling-into-a-cup dumb. Because being dumb allows you the grace to be unshakeably optimistic. And only a complete idiot could have been as optimistic as we have been during our history.

Only an idiot could have said, "Dudes, we really need to make these 3 million people full citizens and give them the right to vote," despite massive, violent resistance. Only an idiot could have said, "Guys, we're not really a world power but we need to return to Europe and take France back from the Germans." Only another idiot could have said, "Uh, guys, I know nobody has a job or any money, but we need to take back France back from the Germans ... again." Only a complete idiot would have dared us, on national TV, to go to the moon within 10 years (and then done it). Only an idiot would have repeatedly risked his life to make sure his people had the right to vote, everywhere, for all time, and done it, again, in the face of massive, violent resistance. And only a group of idiots would have taken all these separate computers we have lying around and connected them together.

That's America's real legacy. It isn't about power or money. It isn't Horatio Alger or suburban dreams on one side and angry nationalism on the other. It's about being so goddamn stupid that you have the ability to look at any situation, no matter how dark, and immediately say, "Let's make this better."

If there's anything I love about this country, it's that. Americans are always sunny and bright. We hit the beach with a smile and a wave.

Irish, for maximum effect, you should have read this post outloud, and then when you got to the One thing I like about Americans is that they're dumb part, started playing the below music in the background.

[Morris Schæffer]

Just watched the Donald Trump RNC speech. Downright hilarious how he's introduced to the theme of Jerry Goldsmith's Air Force One.

[MadMan]

Donald Trump's speech made my brain cry.