An open thread to discuss Trump’s big rally/coronavirus giveaway in Tulsa. And whatever else you want to discuss.
No trolls!
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I don’t think that they care less about their well-being than owning the libs, I think that they believe they are special and exempt from harm. They are the protagonist of the story after all, and that makes them special. Nothing bad will happen to them. The Leopards Eating People’s Faces party will only eat the right people’s faces.
@Ohlmann,
I think that 40k is as deliberately horrible as it has always been, the shift has been more in hiding the tongue-in-cheek nature behind heavy metal album covers. It’s a shift in presentation, not theme.
It’s still deliberately over-the-top awful, just less “openly laughing about it.” Consider the Orks, who remain the primary comic relief, but by exaggerating their brutality rather than their goofiness.
I don’t think any of the developers consider the Imperium a Good Thing. Canon material constantly throws around words like “nightmare dystopia” and the “what would look awesome painted on the side of a van” aesthetic does not conflict with that.
So I do think that the fans who take anything about the Imperium as desirable are reading what they want to read into it, not what the writers are trying to get across.
@VP:
I’m not buying it. He’s apparently had the kid in his care since the latter was 12-13 years old. So this would not be a Lady G situation, but something much worse. And, as dumb as Gaetz is, I don’t think he’s dumb enough to willingly start people digging if that’s the skeleton in his closet. I dunno: the whole thing smells, but I just don’t know what it smells of, unless the answer is just “Florida”.
@Naglfar:
You know what? They should just equip a room in the White House with a green screen, and show him how he could use it to appear wherever he wants. Or get him a VR headset, and mock up a virtual rally.
@Catalpa
That could also connect to evangelical beliefs: they think they are righteous and that God will protect them from harm and/or take them to heaven if they do die.
@Allandrel
For any dystopia in writing, one runs the risk of a sort of Poe’s Law: someone will think it’s a great idea and read the whole story wrong.
@Moggie
A virtual rally probably wouldn’t satisfy Trump because he wouldn’t get to hear crowds chanting his slogans. He wouldn’t get to show off how many people see him, which is what he wants.
By the way: do we have any estimates of how many people will go to the rally in Tulsa?
Donald Trump is finished. I daresay his chances of reelection are <50%. He has really shot himself in the foot and the butt by his incompetence at handling a major crisis. Some truths are just too big and obvious to obfuscate.
@Naglfar: The Tulsa Rally is going on right now. There’s no official estimate and won’t be until awhile after, but I’ve seen very rough estimates from 40,000 to 80,000. Trump said earlier he expects one million, because of course.
In other news, Gabriel Wortman, the man who committed Canada’s deadliest mass shooting in April, withdrew a significant amount of money from a bank in a way that civilians cannot, but that the RCMP (Canada’s Federal police) frequently uses to pay their undercover agents and informants.
Coincidentally, the killer also had access to a police car and a police uniform, which he used during the shooting. (Along with a big stash of guns and several domestic violence reports that the police did absolutely nothing about.)
Predictably, the RCMP are claiming that the killer definitely had nothing to do with them.
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-nova-scotia-shooter-case-has-hallmarks-of-an-undercover-operation/
@Ohlmann
The thing abour the 40k universe that people taking it seriously always forget is that it is a wargame. The setting is premised on eternal warfare because it’s a game of simulated war. It’s absurd to apply moral values of any sort to any of the sides because morality is not relevant in the context of a wargame. There’s only factions, who fight each other, and there’s no greater meaning to any faction’s backstory than “this is why they’ll never make peace”.
@Snowberry
My apologies, I thought it was later in the day.
I expect to see a significant spike in cases in Oklahoma within a week, because I doubt any attendees will be wearing masks.
…Also today is National No Mask Day, and businesses will ban the wearing of face coverings, unless they’re run by cowards or slaves to the forces of evil. So says the kind of people who are showing up at the Tulsa Rally. I don’t expect that most people will pay attention to that if they’re even aware of it, but if you live in an area where those types are prominent, be aware that there’s always a chance that some business you use will listen to them and do so.
…Whoops, I messed it up. I saw links to the live event but didn’t check them (who wants to watch Trump babbling? Not me), and misread the time for the Rally as AM and not PM, so I thought it was going on about now, but it’s actually not until tonight. But there are around 40,000 to 80,000 people already gathered in the area for the event, so it might eventually be higher (the city is supposedly prepared for 100,000 or more). Not to mention that the increased density of uncovered faces all day long isn’t going to help. This will be *bad*. ? I mean, it was already going to be bad, but this is worse than I thought.
Also, this isn’t just Oklahoma. People are also coming in from elsewhere. But Oklahoma will take the brunt of it.
@Snowberry
Whose awful idea was that?
Seeing as Tulsa is less than 100 miles from the borders of Missouri, Arkansas, and Kansas, it seems likely people are coming from those states. I’m not sure if anyone is coming in from further, but it’s possible some superfans have driven or flown in.
Quote from the Guardian’s pre-rally report:
I find it amusing that she’s carefully framing this whole thing as a “wish” rather than “recommendation”, going out of her way to emphasize the freedom of choice. Heaven forbid anyone gets the impression that they’re being *told* to wear a mask just because Trump campaign saw it necessary to hand them out.
I’d be rather surprised if the campaign has actually stocked 19,000 masks for this event. It’s not like they expect most people to accept the mask handout.
Also, lol at the wish for people “staying socially distanced”. If that actually happened, Trump would be hideously disappointed at the sparse attendance.
@Lumipuna
I’m actually surprised they’re handing out masks at all. I’d think most Trump supporters would see it as offensive and emasculating that someone cares enough about their safety and others to try to prevent disease.
News articles on “National No-Mask Day” appear to be sparse, and none of them mention where the idea came from, so probably someone obscure, or an anonymous 4chan troll, or something similar. There are a few images associated with it which one can Google if one wants, as I’d rather not link them or display them in hopes it doesn’t get any unnecessary attention. Also it doesn’t seem like the idea is well known, at least. The earliest mention I can find is just 3 days old.
I have noticed that a lot of message board posts, news comments, and blog comments have recently had one or two people who insist that the CDC (or WHO in the case of non-US focused things) recommends *against* masks because because the fatality rate has proven lower than the flu, and also wearing face coverings promotes bacterial infections. They usually get dogpiled for it, but continue sowing doubt nonetheless. The backlash is growing, unfortunately. Let’s hope it doesn’t grow very much.
I’ve been wondering how the hell they’re going to protect Dumbo? Will he be in a glass cage or something? In that environment, social distancing is useless. People shouting, cheering, coughing, sneezing – all that sends droplets around that don’t stay in a nice 6′ radius. Look up some of the videos where they’ve tracked it in closed spaces. That whole arena is going to be teeming with virus, since there’s no doubt many attending are infected.
::sigh:: I keep waiting for cosmic karma to kick in, but it just laughs at me and keeps taking innocent people who were trying to help or stay safe, while the people inciting the lemmings to jump seem to remain safe, even when exposed, even when they test positive.
Six Trump Campaign Staffers Who Set Up Tulsa Rally Get Infected With COVID-19
this_is_fine.gif
@ moggie
“Fake flus!”
I bet if you asked 100 Trump supporters if they were planning on getting the vaccine Trump just announced, most would say yes and none would even ask any questions. Even if they never heard Trump say there was a vaccine, they would accept it without question. It’s a cult.
@CS Strowbridge
Yet the exact same people would reject the vaccine if it were announced by Bill Gates because something something New World Order something something trackers. 50% of Fox News viewers think a Gates vaccine is to track people.
O/T, but this is an open thread and I have a question about British government:
Is there a way to remove a peer from the House of Lords? I know they are typically appointed for life, but racist, homophobic, and transphobic comments from a certain Baroness made me wonder if there was a way to remove her from her peerage.
As is always the case with the Proud Boys it’s worth mentioning that the wife of founder Gavin McInnes is half Native America. They have 3 children. So he’s an actual race traitor, although I’m sure they don’t use that slur.
Well well well.
@Dalillama : but it’s not just a wargame setting. There’s also books, tabletop games, etc, about it. Also, plenty of universes who are custom made to have permanent wars and yet don’t make fascism look good.
It’s also somewhat insidious, because while a universe where freedom and knowledge are inherently bad is an interesting take, it’s also dangerous because it make freedom and knowledge look inherently bad in general. It’s similar to how universes where men and women are essentially different easily promote sexism to part of their readers.
And warhammer 40k clearly does not sell itself as a dystopia or a particulary bad future. Sure, it say grimdark and all, but it’s sold on the back of playing badass super soldiers, not on the back of playing brutal enforcers of a corrupt regim.
@ naglfar
Just on phone so can’t expand on this (no doubt a relief for all) but here’s the relevant legislation:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/24/enacted
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/14/enacted
Catalpa,
I saw that, and it perhaps explains why the news about that shooting disappeared from the news in about a day.
Thread,
So, apparently the address to the overflow got cancelled because there isn’t an overflow crowd. Pretty hilarious. Although I’m sure that Trump will say there really were a million people there and his supporters will believe him.