Trump’s big coronavirus giveaway in Tulsa: Open thread

@Naglfar, do you think the organisers would say “great, so few people have turned up that we can spread them out”? No, they would ensure that most TV shots would show no empty seats.

I wouldn’t want to be in Brad Parscale’s shoes today. Trump will be raving, particularly at the news of the overflow venue being dismantled because it wasn’t needed.

Re: 40k
I’m not speaking as a fan, I couldn’t give half a shit for the game itself, or.the various spinoffs. I’m speaking as a grognard who’s been embedded in wargame/ttrpg culture for 30-odd years and followed the meta-discussions of fandoms in that time. The problem is not and never was Warhammer 40k. The problem is that there’s always been a far-right current in gaming, and until recently the custom has been to let their shit slide out of geek solidarity. This is in turn a microcosm of Western (and I use this term advisedly) cultures, especially the Anglosphere, where fascist apologia by people who theoretically know better has been a way of life for generations. The problem isn’t Warhammer, it isn’t Starship Troopers, it’s that we refuse to acknowledge how deep the currents that produce this stuff are. The problem is that Law and Order gets votes from people who swear they aren’t racists. The problem is that nobody admits that there’s a direct line between “Support the Troops” and Imperial Space Marines destroying worlds and writing it off as collateral damage. The problem is that people who call themselves progressives will drop everything to cheer a new massacre of brown people (viz. the levels of support of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan at the time they were proposed.) It’s nitpicking every effort by oppressed groups to get their voices heard, because if makes people uncomfortable to point out the crimes they’ve been complicit in (and yes, every single person who ever voted for a candidate who campaigned as “tough on crime” or “anti-drug” or any of that bullshit is actively complicit in the crimes of the police). I could go on, but my fundamental point is that we have met the enemy, and he is us. And that until we, meaning white people, especially those of us resident in colonial empires, need to seriously examine our own cultural assumptions, so we can make new ones that aren’t based in white supremacy. Going after the low-hanging fruit will never do that. The problem isn’t Starship Troopers, it’s Black Hawk Down.

I hope this embed works; but this is a great picture from Trump’s Nurnberg campaign rally.

Ok, let’s try this again. C’mon Al; pretend you’re tech savvy.

@Buttercup, Naglfar, Moogue:

15 minutes boasting about how he can drink water and walk down a ramp.

I suspect this is because a short while back Stephen Colbert ran clips of Trump stumbling as he walked down a ramp, and also of him holding a glass of water in an awkward way as he drinks from it. Trump must have either watched or heard about it.

@Redsilkphoenix
I feel like they still wouldn’t wear them, but might carry them around or something like that.

@Moon Custafer
I saw those clips. The whole incident just goes to show how truly fragile he is after any perceived attack on him or his abilities. Makes me wonder if people started saying he isn’t good at flapping his arms like a bird and making bird calls whether he would demonstrate flapping and bird calling at rallies to prove he can.

Stormy Daniels has tweeted, “Told y’all he exaggerates about the size of things.”

I gotta admit, I’m curious as to what the Lincoln Project folks are going to do next with all this new political ad material Trump gave them this weekend.

Open thread right? Not just politics.

I’ve discovered through empirical proof that love in the age of coronavirus is possible, and is not that different from the norm (aka I’ve fallen head over heels). The main change: instead of evaluating the other’s use of precautions before the first time you have sex, you do it before the first time you kiss.

Yay!

We are going much faster than either of us is used to. And I’m hearing of other new couples doing the same. I’m guessing there might be a bunch of babies and/or divorces in the near future.

@Shadowplay:

I grant you the doubts about foresight, but I have no doubt that he remembers every mean thing he’s ever done, with great cackling glee and delight.

@Ledasmom, @Full Metal Ox

Yeah Naglfar got it, the “graphic” was the words; the dots were spacers.

Maybe I’m just weirdly sensitive, IDK, when I read the thing I’m referencing in The Origins of Totalitarianism I had to fight back waves of physical nausea. Fascism turns “ordinary men” into serial killers – like, literally, the kind of sex murderers that white USians only see on TV now.

Reading that book will change you. I rather highly recommend it if you haven’t.

@Dalillama

I mean okay, a grognard I am not. But I’m not saying “40K is the problem”. I’m saying it’s part of the problem. Which you seem to be saying too.

Did you see the video of Trump’s walk of shame from da choppa after Tulsa? He looked so defeated, you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh. At the same time, though, his walk looked more normal than usual, so I wonder whether he wasn’t wearing his lifts.

@Victorious Parasol
I’m so proud of kids these days ?. It makes sense in a lot of ways: trolls played a major role in getting Trump elected, so to bring him down we need to fight in a similar way.