Open Thread

Open Thread #390: Clown World/Politics/Economics

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43 thoughts on “Open Thread #390: Clown World/Politics/Economics

    1. To be fair she seems to be Russian (based on her accent and, of course, the Russian flag on hear sleeve) and Russians in general find the Nazi salute amusing. It’s not uncommon to see a Russian person doing it in jest. Russians also care less about being cancelled. Indeed, nowadays if you are Russian you are cancelled by default, what is there to be afraid of?

  1. Aaron,
    I came across German politician Christine Anderson. I’ve been reading on her lately. Has she been a positive impact on Germany, or is she fighting an uphill battle?

    1. Christine Anderson is a member of the European Parlament and she has caused quite some waves. You can probably compare her to Marjorie Taylor Greene in the United States. Both are a little bit unhinged at times but given how consensus-driven and fake politics is, I think there is great value in their presence. There are a few female AfD politicians who play a similar role, with the added benefit that they are younger and better-looking.

  2. Moldova on the path of joining EU after a shamelessly rigged referendum. “NO” was winning bit a tidy margin, until they found thousands of mail ballots during the night that flipped the result.

    1. Mail balots, eh? Where have I heard that before? I guess this kind of shit is the new norm. I can’t wait to see how entertaining the US election will be.

  3. “Aaron Regunberg
    This is a Nazi rally. They’re Nazis. Good god, that should mean something.”

    How dare this magic word spell not work any more after we’ve flogged you with it since before your grandparents were born.

    1. This is perfect fodder for the “POV meme”. Here, this is the POV of someone unfolding the NYT to read a front-page article that was written by some Gen Z libtard. I have encountered comparably erudite argumentation in my professional life as well. There is even a subset of these idiots who seem to believe that including a GIF of some movie with a silly line is the same as presenting a well-reasoned argument.

  4. The city Gary in Indiana has less than 10% whites, and look how these people behave! Instead of helping out their fellow man, i.e. the about 80% blacks in this city, they unconscionably let everything fall into disrepair:

    1. Aaron,
      On a related note, I think you will enjoy this channel. It explores abandon small towns in rural America. Unfortunately, a lot of places in rural America have become ghost towns. I have explored and traveled Montana extensively. Montana is a depressing state. It does have some nice areas, but overall life is depressing. These small towns once thrived fifty years ago, only to become abandon.
      https://www.youtube.com/@attrell

    2. That’s great, thanks for sharing! I really enjoy such channels, not so much because I enjoy looking at urban decay but because they give a realistic view of the state of our society. There are a couple of somewhat related British channels I follow, and there are also one guy from the US on YouTube who goes to abandoned malls whom I like. Here are two videos:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i48oH6b59FM

    3. I consider myself a bit of a veteran dead mall enthusiast. I first became fascinated with them when I discovered this place, the grand daddy of dead malls:

      https://youtu.be/05Mr-SFN658?si=UmboHefD4TwvbfLB

      Short history: Dixie Square Mall was relatively short lived due to multiple unfortunate factors. It is probably most well known as the mall where a car chase scene in Blues Brothers (1980) was filmed.

      In recent times, due to the current economic climate, there has been a bit of a saturation of dead mall content on YouTube, to the point where it’s mostly just abandoned modern malls that all look the same. I’ve been forced to delve into the archives to see some cool vintage malls on sites like this:

      https://skycity2.blogspot.com/

    4. Also, while we’re on the topic, I would be remiss not to highly recommend watching Casa Bonita Mi Amor:

      https://youtu.be/9YE-xxVWs3s?si=24vuSvfl4YwF8z6x

      It’s the very cool Spanish themed restaurant/mini indoor theme park that was featured on an episode of South Park. It had fallen into severe disrepair and was facing permanent closure after the Scamdemic, but Matt Stone and Trey Parker stepped in and purchased it themselves. The documentary shows the extensive renovations – not to mention money – required for its reopening.

    1. Today, the German governing coalition collapsed. I wonder if this has anything to do with Trump winning the election. Well, it most certainly has, considering that the State Department basically runs Germany, even installing people like
      Jennifer Morgan to ensure that Democrat-led deindustrialization policy, aka. Morgenthau 2.0, gets executed properly.

    2. Gerd, to be perfectly honest…..I don’t like the taste of Left Wing tears. Is that ALL WE HAVE Is LEFT is WIng Tears? Hatred for our enemies? Not a thing of substance? Nothing for ourselves but tears of enemies? This sings of a sports fan not cheering for their favorite team, but for their second LEAST favorite team.

      Yes, they will cry, sure. YAY! But some sound like this is a football game. Trump will be marginally better. But marginally is not what we need. We need reversal of globalist policy. But Trump hobnobbing with these ass holes who hire these invaders will change nothing. He says nothing of these absolute globalist traitors employing invaders.

      Why won’t he go after his open borders brothers?

      I want a WIN. NOT a draw.
      The day I see globalists corporatists crying, because they can no longer higher illegal Mestizos, THEN I will celebrate.

    3. Trump says he’s going to sign an EO on day 1 ending birthright citizenship for illegals.
      RFK says he’s going after the FDA, Big Pharma, and Big Agra.
      Vance says he agrees with Ron Paul about the Fed (as in, get rid of it).
      Ron Paul says he wants to talk with Elon Musk about reducing the federal government.

      If any of these things are true, pray for all these people’s safety. They are going to need it.

    4. A glimmer of hope is that these statements were made, or reiterated, after the election. In 2016, a lot of people wanted Trump to “lock her up” as well as build a wall. The former did not happen and the latter only to a rather limited degree. Musk wants to run the new DOGE department, i.e. Department of Government Efficiency, and a pun on the Doge alt-coin. I think that he is most likely to pull through, primarily because he is ruthless autistic and just does what he thinks is right. He fired 80% of the staff at Twitter and the site is in a better shape than ever before. Surely, he will be able to cut 80% of the government.

    5. “Today, Trump attorney Mike Davis used an interview on “The Benny Show” podcast to lay down the law to James and her flying monkeys.

      ‘Let me just say this to Big Tish James, the New York Attorney General; I dare you, I dare you to try to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term because, listen here, sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time, and we will put your fat ass in prison for conspiracy against rights. I promise you that, so think long and hard before you want to violate President Trump’s constitutional rights or any other American’s constitutional rights. It’s not going to happen again.’

      “Mike Davis was a standard-stock Republican, Federalist Society lawyer, right? Standard stuff. Played by the rules. Helped get guys confirmed, could play tough, but painted inside the lines,” Bannon told me. Now, though? “He’s a full fucking MAGA warrior.”

      Davis is rumored to be the front-runner for Attorney General.”

      He certainly sounds like a step up from the Keebler Elf and Bill Barr.

    1. Carlin is the GOAT comedian. I’m very familiar with this clip. Yup that’s my country. We’re not in “the big club.” But we sure get hit over the head with it.

    2. I will check those.

      He’s a national treasure that Carlin. Such a smart mo-fo. Love his one about “advertising “ it’s gold!

      “ it’s called the American Dream.. because u gotta be Asleep to believe it!” Savage.

      I haven’t been keeping up on the election promises but watched Trumps post win speech ..he got the head of the UFC up to talk , who did a shout out to Joe Rogan for getting the word out! Now that’s entertainment!

      It’s like Back to the future 2 and now Buff is president again 😱

      Did Trump promise to rejuvenate the “rust belt “ of America in his campaign? Make Detroit Healthy again etc? Is that possible? Would be interesting to see him do that.

      Will be a fun time for young women of America now .. when he pushes to stop abortions happening again in the states.

    3. Lol. They are gold also.
      “The Planet will evolve..
      to The Planet .. plus plastic” 😆👌

      Baseball the objective is to be Safe and Home 😆

      George Carlin is the ‘meta’ for everything

      This is my favorite of the moment ( I just got onto him recently)

      Pocket flashlight/ servicing the account/ buyer beware .. it’s almost TOO good.

      https://youtu.be/AtK_YsVInw8?si=9BoctSBrsXH4PG6L

      I love Norm McDonald also. His delivery and style are so simple. Watching his stuff got me through lockdown and I actually shed a tear when I heard he’d died of cancer, 😢

    4. Did I say that Carlin was GOAT?

      Once you mentioned Norm, I may need to reconsider 😆

    5. I’m just getting into Carlin properly lately.
      Norm is the GOAT for me tbh. He was a rock star of comedy. who really gave zero fucks as long as it was funny.

      His old stuff about OJ Simpson on SNL is savage. Plus the Espys and his presidential dinner show. His own Norm Live podcast show jokes are great.

      Go about 13 mins in for his Albert Fish joke .. classic.

      https://youtu.be/SKeIdJfzpM4?si=Gsb9Y-WiJwVFOz_t

      I like Pablo Francisco from the new crop. He’s hectic with his impressions.

    6. His best friend, Artie Lang, (I’m sure you know who he is) said Norm didn’t even have motivation to go out on stage. Then Norm would go out, and absolutely destroy. They toured together everywhere. They both had insane gambling problems (Artie had more than that).

      If you have Netflix check out Hitler’s Dog. Norms last performance. I watched it shortly after he passed. You’ll laugh the whole way through. Norm didn’t memorize his routine completely. He largely improvised.

    7. Awesome cheers. I don’t think I’ve seen the Hitlers Dog one so that’s a must do.

      I’ve only heard of Artie Lang through one of Norms stories so that’s on the list now too.

      I’m watching a lot of Ali Wong atm on Netflix.
      She’s pretty good . For a dame😉

      Her show “single lady” is pretty savage. And good advice for men dealing with older women.
      Watched her Cobra show last night. Also good sex tips .. “start all sensual and seductive, and in the last 10 mins I want him to get close to rapey and shout racist insults in my ear”. 😂

      Pretty funny cos it’s spot on more or less.. 😳

    8. Re the gambling yeah that’s how I heard of AL. Was a gambling story, apparently Norm lost everything and 3 or 4 times through gambling .There’s a story of him throwing $30k of chips in the ocean at Atlantic City .. cos he reasoned he’d just gamble it and lose even more chasing a win. his main vice was crazy football betting if I recall.

      There’s a great interview w him w Larry King talking about his gambling addiction and the psychology of it. He was a true wild man and did not give a fuck. Respect.

    9. It just occured to me that it’s nuts that Norm is gone, and Artie s still alive. It’s like Sinatra said, “That’s life.”

    10. I rewatched Dirty Work. Damn I miss that era. Better collective sense of humor. People didn’t take things so seriously back then.

      The crazy thing is Bob Sagat directed that. A completely unfunny guy. That was all Norm and Artie 😆

    11. Have u seen Norm on the roast of Bob Saget?

      Very good spot. He really mixed it up and apparently bombed but gave zero fucks. Classic Norm.

      Been watching YT clips “Norm MacDonald ROASTING people” awesome.

      Plus Jeffry Ross’ roasts are excellent also.

    1. He was surely on his usual cocktail of meds. Given the nature of the Internet, his many blunders have spread far wider than his normal speeches, assuming that Biden did not act 24/7 like in his highlight reels.

    2. I’m hearing he endorsed Harris hours after dropping out precisely to preempt an open convention that might have given them a more able candidate, thus sticking it to Pelosi and the others who engineered his ouster. If so, it was a cunning bit of malicious compliance, and I sense the hand of DOCTOR* Jill. I can just imagine her quietly gloating over the result.

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