During a layup question about Jan 6th, Biden focuses on the weird minutia of who was where when, but also briefly forgets whether he's talking about himself or Trump being innthe oval office at the time.
In the single biggest gimme of the night the moderators offered Biden a question that grilled Trump on repelling Roe v Wade and he muttered through it for a minute before inexplicably handing Trump his favourite subject by talking about some rape and murder committed by (on?) an illegal immigrant. Which naturally Trump ran with for his whole 'the Democrats are using immigrants to destroy America schtick'.
After it was over Biden didn't know where he was and was too frail to walk down three steps at the front of the stage and had to have Jill guide and partially carry him. It was still on camera.
This is unhinged and genuinely as dark as it is funny. He's not really any more cogent - just able to read off of a teleprompter, be heavily edited, and so jacked up and aggressive he looks like he might be about to have an aneurysm. And he still wanders off to the bride of thr stage as if to shake hands with someone not there or not sure how to get off it. It's the same dementia, just louder, faster.
Desperately refreshing the NYT home page to see which way the wind is blowing, because a former DNC staffer who liked my Ted Talk once suggested maybe I would be a fit there once some of the old guard move on.
Sadder; that was a pre-planned line that had been rehearsed at Camp David to be a Kamala 'I Was That Little Girl's moment.
Yes. It was a pre-rehearsed line that he almost fumbled and then they started blasting on social media right away.
This was supposed to be his 'I was that little girl' moment. But it's shit, a phrase that makes him sound like he's stuck in the 1920s, and lots of people like alleycats.
Some of the online ones tried to do the Biden ones but the numbers ended up being anywhere between 10-25 depending on whether you counted him changing, correcting, or uncorrecting statistics again later and how generous they were in just going 'that was less a lie and more just nonsense'.
Yup, that's it. Add a haunted, vacant stare into the distance and you've got them all.
I saw the footage. A bit like he throught he was going to get an extra large soda from Waffle House and then was surprised it was full of people and apparently a press event, either because he forgot or they didn't tell him. He mumbled through a few pleasantries and shook hands with some mostly disinterested people and they left after he said he felt they did "quite well, although it's hard to debate someone who lies". (It's not, it should make it easier)
I was expecting some sort of 'emergency' Chapo episode but it seems that Felix was taking a break from gaming and shopping for fighter jets to spend the night hanging in a Waffle House. Clearly he wasn't too impressed with Joe's performance, so I guess that's a sneak preview of the next episode.
The constantly running splitscreen too. Biden was zoning out, looking around as though remembering where he was a few times, peering for signals from his team off camera, seemed constantly confused about which camera was filming him etc. He either didn't he was on camera all the time, or simply couldn't keep that idea in his head and not fade out while he wasn't the one talking.
Post debate discussion thread.
Gruesome Gavin 100% wants this and has been engineering it already.
He's been positioning himself as close to the Biden campaign for a while, whislt not engaging on the controversial stuff. Even before the debate his people were apparrently spending a lot of energy and favours making sure he'd be the first one called on in the spin room and the first to give interview with the TV networks after the debate. Despite saying that you "go home with the one who brought you to the dance" and a bunch of other metaphors designed to subtly point out Biden's age, while claiming he was backing him 100%, his whole performance was highlighting how different he would be from Biden in terms of ability.
Then, as he was leaving, some smaller press junket reporter trying to ask him questions kept shouting an almost certainly planted question about he "is surely now the democratic favourite to take over" and he could barely keep up the act, shit eating grin beaming from ear to ear and laughing at how well it all went when he thought he was out of frame.
The knives are out and Gavin is already making his play to force the issue, while claiming the opposite, and be annoited as the Biden-campaign friendly candidate.
Punch Trump & Judy Jill
I'm picturing a cartoon now with Jill holding a rolling pin with "truth" written on it and Trump stealing a link of sausages marked "democracy" from behind an oblivious Biden.
Had a glance at the debate thread on 
r/politics ...
It's wall to wall denial and imagined new Trump-Russia hysteria:
- The top 29 comment chains are all about Trump with no mention of Biden's performance at all.
- More than a third of those comments are trying to spin a theory that Trump and Putin planned going into Ukraine together in secret.
- The 30th most popular comment chain is thr first negative comment about Biden and it's scathing criticism is that "someone should have gotten Biden some water or something in the ad breaks".
CNN short of the softball they threw Joe about Jan 6th. Should have been an easy home run. Instead Joe fumbles it misremembering the minutiae while Trump uses it to pivot to this strengths and defend his base: CNN YouTube Short
Biden campaign HQ hype campaign after the debate:
Biden comes out seemingly completely unaware of where he is, while his wife talks to him like a dog.
Jill Biden: "Joe, you did such a good job! You answered every question! You knew all the facts!"
(He absolutely did not, of course)
Doesn't let him respond, just let's him grin mindlessly, while she tries to whip up thr base about the fact that Trump lied.
Biden's face goes back to confusion when the crowd stop cheering and shout "lie" about Trump as though he has no idea who or what they're talking about.
Video Here Apologies for the chud twitter link, it was the only easy clip I could find
My understanding is the A-4s can be modified to Gen 4 fighter standards. But you're probably right, my point really was that more visible mercs let's them bring armor or bigger hardware and do more visible activities.
£20bn in cuts with no increase in revenue!
Further funnelling of money into slushfunds for private energy and health care!
Harsher crackdowns and reductions in benefits and welfare than even the Tories!
No increases in taxes on the rich, ultra rich, or anything they do!
No price or rent controls to ease with cost of living!
(I'm sure that'll all go very well and people will just be pleased to have a serious, sensible, boring adult in charge when living standards continue to plummet, inequality widens, supermarket shelves empty, and overlapping crisis have no answers.)
🎵 THINGS / CAN ONLY GET BETTER / CAN ONLY GET / BETTER 🎶
The Reich has managed to limit liability and outsource risk for their fascism via Israel the same way oil companies create shell companies as liability shields. Truly the most appropriate modern form of fascism.
And potentially offer mercs with larger, more advanced hardware that couldnt remain under the radar. Academi has been building a private airforce for example.
Taken by @JW_Hendricks on Instagram.
Posted here because we don't have a pictures comm.
Taken by Aline Manoukian in the Palestinian camp of Burj el-Barajneh, located near Beirut in 1988.
PodBean has gotten shitter and shitter, randomly stopping play when not on screen.
Google has just announced its taking Podcasts out behind the woodshed so you can pay them for YouTube Premium to watch video podcasts in the background in your pocket.
I just want something simple, free or a one off purchase, that is friendly to copying Patreon feed links etc.
Suggestions appreciated, although I still don't relish the idea of refollowing 50+ feeds again.
I'm the king of shouty things and wishing I was in the Budos Band now. It's still dead good though.
So much better than it probably should be. Some great dialogue sample choices too. Even the EQ/tracklisting video is slick.
A certified oddball banger.
More than 20 years ago British rap was giving way to an increasingly northern move that included J Cristie who, despite a shit line about China and a few dodgy refs, put out relentlessly anti-imperialist UK hip hop for his short, but very solid dominance of what remained of the backpack/conscious UK rap scene.
The next record (2006) brought a sequel to The Grip, written - in part, with some broader context - from the sympathetic perspective of a young auicede bomber. Naturally the UK paying attention shit itself and the rest happily ignored it.
So why is this back again (for fhe feed)? In the UK and online people have spent the whole week being bemused or insensed about Galloway winning an election and becoming a British MP. They reference some shameless performances or reality TV. People on the left rightly reference his chameleon status, socially conservative leanings, and recent TERF shit.
But you know why he won a protest by election? You know why he's not just sampled but distinctive contextual sample for one of the most important non-grime records in 2000s music? Because he was and is one of the only public personas in the UK who has been constant on this issue.
The fact that fucking Galloway was who got endlessly sampled then and is getting elected now is fucking shit, but an example of how much worse the UK was and is in general.
But no-ones reading this anyway on a post about 20+ year old BritHop. So why not ramble?
'Jews are predisposed to calling for genocide and it's part of our rich but often misunderstood quirky cultural heritage, but we can't actually do it, even when we are, because.... reasons' is one one hell of a take from a 'left' history professor and author:
> As the author of ‘Jews and Words’, a book that celebrates the Jewish culture of debate and textuality, I must spell out something that the book didn’t mention, a negative aspect of our talkative legacy.
> You may not like it, but here it is.
> This morning’s proceedings in The Hague focus on genocidical talk in the Israeli public sphere. There are dozens of examples: ministers, Knesset members, influencers. Even the manipulative Netanyahu mentioned Amalek, the ancient people that the Bible singled out for eradication. Never mind that great rabbis have determined long ago that Amalek is obsolete, and the biblical verdict does not apply to any existing nation.
> What stands on trial today is the ancient Jewish habit of speaking to each other as if no one else is listening. The Jewish habit of making extreme statements irresponsibly, unthoughtfully, without expecting any payback.
> For so many centuries we have exercised a wild freedom of speech among ourselves, in our own languages, relying on our own argumentative balance mechanism: extremism and moderation may clash, and moderation usually triumphs. The House of Shammai is legitimate, but the House of Hillel, the moderates, usually wins. Israeli verbal culture inherited this freedom. But Israel is also a liberal democracy and member of the global community. Most of the loudmouths crying Genocide and Amalek are not aware of the profound dissonance, the huge damage, the justified outrage. Some don’t care.
> Only a small minority wants actual genocide in Gaza and are morally crippled enough to carry it through: the extreme national-religious right. The fact that Netanyahu allowed these thugs into his government and echoes their discourse is an eternal blot on Jewish history.
> Our disputative, wordy culture deserves to be celebrated, but it must denounce its dangerous outcrop of inciters to blind violence. Their Amalekite speech has become too viable to bear. Too doable.
> No, Israel is not conducting genocide. But its ongoing rant about “flattening Gaza” is no longer a quaint side effect of our argumentative heritage.
> It is a crime, a travesty and a harrowing blow to the best of Jewish traditions.
Later, from her responses:
> This horrific, dirty, ugly war is not genocide. If that was our intention, Gaza would cease to exist on 8/10 and 500 of our soldiers would still be alive.
Ah yes, genocide has to be the instantaneous Thanos-like removal of a population just like it was in Germany during the... errrr.... !monke-beepboop
The BBC ran a story about a Muslim family who upped sticks from the city and bought a farm in rural Wales, and how they're encouraging more diverse people from cities to enjoy the outdoors. You can read it here.
The headline now reads Muslim farmer wants more diverse rural visitors. But it didn't when they posted it as evidenced by the Tweet linked in this post, as they can't change that.
For anyone who can't follow the Twitter link (Nitter couldn't find it even with a link, sorry) the original headline was this:
Muslim farmer wants more ethnicity in rural Wales
A headline that very deliberately baited a massive number of racists who predictably used it to tout great replacement theory.
David Mencer, who was the director of Labour Friends of Isreal before recently moving there, had an extremely normal one when invited on to discuss the growing calls for Labour (and others) to back a genuine ceasefire.
Seriously, it has to be seen to be believed; from his total lack of self-control, absurd rhetoric, and the worst case of long-Corbyn derrangement sysndrome I've ever seen.
Keep in mind that TalkTV is an explicitly right-wing Rupert Murdoch funded news channel here and the host feels compelled to warn, repudiate, lower and eventually cut Mercer's mic in favour of a left-wing Labour activist with a pro-Palestine view.
(Posted here as it seemed most fitting, if it shouldn't be then just let me know - edited with Nitter link)
George Grosz was a fascinating and viceral painter, deeply scarred and influenced by his experience serving in the first world war, before he was discharged and left with psychiatric problems and a serious drinking problem. Many of his paintings from that period deal explictly with the horrors of war and the human cost juxtaposed against societal conflict.
His later work saw him fined by the German government and some of his collections ordered destroyed as they became more satrical and focused upon what he saw as the hypocracy of those that advocate for such violence - things like preachers vomiting grenades and Jesus being forced into conscription.
He also went to Russia in the 1920s, where he was initially detained as a spy, but released when proven not to be and even met Lenin. He lived in the US for most of his life after the '30s but eventually returned to Berlin, where he died falling down the stairs one night drunk.
This is Thanet Parkway.
No ticket office, no information point, no staff, about as wide as a balance beam and less vibrant than a self-storage complex. It was supposed to cost £11m but somehow ended up spiralling to over £35m.
Southeastern Railways is on Twitter trying to answer or deflect angry questions, predominantly from disabled people, explaining the ever more complicated and absurd ways disabled people can 'request' assistance in using the station.
It's important to note that most of their answers rely on just saying that the trains on that line have conductors on the trains themselves who can help, at a time when both the government and the rail companies are pushing for DOO trains (Driver Operater Only i.e. no train staff apart from the driver who is not allowed to leave their cabin).
They've also been asked numerous times for the dimensions of the platform so that disabled users can check if there is enough space for their wheelchairs / mobility scooters. This is the only question they have repeatedly ignored.
It also appears that the station, which many local politicians have argued was not required, may have been promised as part of a deal with a housing developer to increase the value of the development they were building. Which is a whole other can of worms.
