MetaFilter

[Please let the Bernie/Hillary fight rest for now. We've been around in those same circles plenty of times, let it drop now and let the thread move on to something else.]
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 8:38 PM on April 8, 2016

PS, it's a hell of an election cycle to be starting on as a new mod, quite the baptism by fire.
posted to MetaTalk by Eyebrows McGee at 2:57 PM on April 3, 2016

I really hate April 1.
posted to MetaFilter by octothorpe at 5:04 AM on April 1, 2016

MetaFilter: wait, how did we get here? crikey.
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 9:17 PM on March 24, 2016

Well, 25 years. To celebrate, I will tell you all of my REM-themed memories. Watch out, because there are a lot of them.

1. Lying in a half-filled bathtub at my father's house in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1985, smoking a cigarette. I'm 15, depressed. I wonder for the first time, seriously, if I should just kill myself and get it over with. On the other side of the closed bathroom door, my best friend, who was living with me at the time, puts Murmur on the turntable. I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by staggering termagant at 10:30 AM on March 16, 2016

I was at my dentist yesterday talking to some of the staff and people in the waiting room and tried to artfully conduct a mini focus group to get the temp on Trump. I don't think I got anyone's true feelings, staff in particular were on best neutral behavior. But one thing really jumped out at me... whether they favored him or not, they all seemed to agree that Trump is a good businessman and that a greater focus on business would not be horrible for the country. I I tried to poke holes in that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 11:58 AM on March 17, 2016

It's a little harsh to say only paranoid people thought this way.

It's not just harsh; I'd say it's a total fabrication. Yes, that's one of the things the warheads were calling people who questioned the claims of Saddam having nukes, but for someone today to say they were paranoid is really fantastic.
posted to MetaFilter by Kirth Gerson at 5:37 AM on March 17, 2016

I, too, was an adult and there at the time, and my memory was that only very paranoid people thought that the evidence was fabricated.

Woah, that's a sharp turn. I remember it very differently. Yeah, a lot of people did think it would be a disaster, but there was also serious doubt cast on the reliability of the evidence - the tubes, the stories about yellowcake, the pictures of "biowarfare" trucks. I specifically remember marching because... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by teponaztli at 5:26 AM on March 17, 2016

I want to be able to defend her, but how can I defend things I do not agree with politically - honestly?

My advice is to focus on the things that you do agree with, and then think longterm. Think about appointing Supreme Court justices who will overturn Citizens United. And then focus on any downticket races that you're excited about.
posted to MetaFilter by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:10 PM on March 15, 2016

dammit stav
posted to MetaFilter by prize bull octorok at 4:51 PM on March 15, 2016

hollygoheavy, I am so sorry that happened to you - that is really frightening. I have a wing of my family that I could see that happening with, I don't look forward to Easter dinner with the family.

Offering this as bit of a palate cleanser:

A lot of the right wing corporate types I intersect with for my work are pleasantly surprising me. Mind you, I never bring up politics, but knowing that I am liberal, several have gone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 12:08 PM on March 14, 2016

To add, she's certainly not alone in this decidedly political behavior. She is just a bit ham-handed.

That's the gap between Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters, as I perceive it, though. Clinton came of age in the apotheosis of the chameleon-cynic era of American politics, and she and her husband are very good at it and have been very successful with it. The 'chameleon-cynic' era has been not merely pandering (i.e., saying whatever... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LooseFilter at 2:28 PM on March 13, 2016

Are those other 76 people running for POTUS?

No, but one of them is the current Vice President. Did you vote for Obama/Biden in 2008 or 2012?

Another is the current Secretary of State. Did you vote for Kerry in 2004?

I kind of understood this obsession with laying everything bad ever at Clinton's feet when it was coming from the far right hate machine. The sudden adoption of the same... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dersins at 10:53 AM on March 11, 2016

Which of those sounds like someone with specific, pragmatic, achievable goals, and which sounds like noble-but-doomed idealism

Which one sounds like an uncharitable characterization of the candidate?
posted to MetaFilter by Fleebnork at 8:17 AM on March 10, 2016

Feel the Bern. Michigan was a bastion for Clinton until the 08' primaries. I'd be suprised if she carries the state.

"faintest idea of what you are talking about."
posted by Chrysostom

None taken, besides I was quoting and not talking.
Ok, I'll drop every semantic mask for a second and say this.

I listened to Bill Mahers' direct translation of the Hitler speech and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clavdivs at 7:14 PM on March 8, 2016

could one of you please convince me Trump or Cruz won't be president? I desperately need to not live in the universe where that happens.

There are no guarantees. But there are things to remember:

1. In 2012, the media worked its ass off to portray Romney vs Obama as some nail-biter "anything could happen" race, but in hindsight the outcome was never in doubt. The drama was only there to drive ratings. Common goddamn... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by scaryblackdeath at 4:10 PM on March 6, 2016

Or ... is tonight about the penis thing? Did that finally make both Rubio and Trump looks so unpresidential that the votes are going to Cruz?

Did Rubio just sacrifice himself by throwing his candidacy on the live grenade of Donald Trump's penis?

(And how is it possible that I am writing those words in that order? How?)
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 4:18 PM on March 5, 2016

This mutual bashing of Hillary and Sanders supporters on Metafilter needs to stop. Both candidates and campaigns bring a lot to the table. And starting no later than in a few months we all need to come together to defeat whichever nightmare the Rs have nominated and aim to take back Congress and our state legislatures and governorships.
posted to MetaFilter by bearwife at 3:48 PM on March 3, 2016

Just a point, buttoning isn't "quitting the site." A lot of people who disable their accounts do so temporarily. I'd actually love some stats on that, but it's beside the point. I've done it. Lots of people do it. Sometimes you need a break, and sometimes it's a hot incident that prompts it. It doesn't necessarily mean everything is on a horribly wrong track, or that the folks who disabled their accounts are never coming back and this was the last straw forever and ever; sometimes... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Miko at 9:09 PM on March 2, 2016

a Bad Lip Reading of Ted Cruz
posted to MetaFilter by numaner at 11:25 AM on March 2, 2016

Charlie Pierce: The Republican Party's Implosion Has Been a Long Time Coming. Today Is the Day.

More from Josh Marshall: Inside the GOP Implosion and the War to Stop Trump
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 5:59 PM on March 1, 2016

50 ways to insult Donald Trump that aren't ablist, looksist, name-mocking, eliminationist, or gendered.

… that also aren't very compelling and often fall to the same nominal problems — Nogoodnik? Ooh, sweet Boris and Natasha burn, based on anti-Soviet stereotypes!

As a German-American with a changed name, fuck it, Drumpf works if you think "Short-fingered Vulgarian" is too patrician or long. It echoes Drunk in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by klangklangston at 4:54 PM on March 1, 2016

In other news, Chomsky declares water is wet.

To be sure, that well describes his signal insight into the neurobiological nature of human Language. It's just that prior theories thought water was sleeping furiously.
posted to MetaFilter by spitbull at 5:42 PM on February 27, 2016

Donald Trump is playing the role of a megalomaniacal, sociopathic fascist demagogue, and whether he is genuine or simply pandering is beside the point. The point is that in winning, he has finally revealed the true darkness at the heart of the modern American Republican to such an undeniable extent that even the Republican party leaders and professional mouthpieces are forced to beg for mercy.

Frankly, we need Trump, because we need this fight, out in the open, ugliness... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Wherever you go, there you are at 10:20 AM on February 23, 2016

This year I will probably be comforting myself with a lot of H.L. Mencken:

"Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary."

"When a candidate for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by entropicamericana at 10:16 AM on February 23, 2016

I apologize for losing my patience a bit, but you folks do realize the gravity of the situation, right? What's going to happen if Trump or Cruz or Rubio actually win this election? This internecine bickering is not just disheartening, it's positively irresponsible, given the stakes.

I lived through the end of the cold war, I watched Threads when I was 12 and the last 18 months on both sides of the Atlantic have made me seriously worry that we're heading for dystopia.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fullerine at 12:37 AM on February 21, 2016

There goes Jeb

Press 'F' to pay respects
posted to MetaFilter by T.D. Strange at 5:48 PM on February 20, 2016

Personally, while I'm prepared to suck it up and vote for the Democrat regardless, I really feel like I've been thrown under the bus this election cycle by the DNC and Secretary Clinton. I mean, Senator Sanders is only holding on because hes struck a chord with some part of the electorate, but the truth is this was all supposed to be a dog and pony show anyways. Long before the primary even began in shadowy back room meetings a decision was made that Secretary Clinton would be the nominee. It... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by getting_back_on_track at 5:44 PM on February 20, 2016

Fascists are great fun to get drunk with.

Fuckers always stiff you with the bar tab, though.

This is the exact plot of a lost Hemingway short story.
posted to MetaFilter by tivalasvegas at 8:40 PM on February 18, 2016

He doesn't skeeve me out the way W always did, and he seems sincere, but man, he's also semi-coherent and worryingly uncertain of his own ideas, listening to him right now. I think high school principal is about right.

About SCOTUS, he said he felt like the President should use any tools he has to do what he feels like he needs to do (paraphrase), and sighed for a second like "this'll cost me."
posted to MetaFilter by zutalors! at 6:52 PM on February 18, 2016

okay but what if the carbuncle bursts and under it is a lump of fresh raw pink skin, and there's a couple little bumps on it, and it kind of makes the lump look like a face, and the face kind of looks like Ted Cruz, and oh god Ted Cruz's face is growing in your skin, Ted Cruz has joined to your flesh, Ted Cruz is inside you oh god oh god its eyes are opening it's giving you that creepy sad smile and talking about God oh god oh god ohgodohgodOHGODNONONONONOOOOOOO
posted to MetaFilter by prize bull octorok at 5:05 PM on February 18, 2016

This is pretty much why I write things on the internet at all, half the time -- anticipating the pleasure of a future me rediscovering the self I am constantly in the process of forgetting, Memento-ishly.

“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.”
-Italo Calvino
posted to MetaTalk by Sebmojo at 4:54 PM on February 18, 2016

A few other 2000-2001 era time capsules:

zefrank - how to dance properly

Tunuk Tunuk Tun - Daler Mehendi

Welcome to my home page!!!!!!!!!
I kiss you!!!!!

Hello my future girlfriend

MadCow (nsfw language)

Mr T ate my balls

rectal foreign bodies

Oh, and blort - we old and still keep... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 2:34 PM on February 16, 2016

Donald Trump, in a state where he's polling higher than any other candidate by far and one that is traditionally friendly to the Bush Dynasty, gets on stage and proceeds to tell the audience -- an audience hand-picked, it is being reported, to be majority-composed of Bush and establishment-lane supporters -- that a) GWB's administration failed to protect America from Al Qaeda, b) was responsible for 9/11, c) made a categorical mistake in invading Iraq and d) lied about its... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by spitbull at 7:46 AM on February 14, 2016

Reince Priebus ✔ @Reince
Our well-qualified & experienced candidates continue to put forth serious solutions to restore prosperity & strength to America #GOPDebate

Remember in the early days of the Iraq War when we could all unite in the comedy stylings of Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf who would tell us things like "there are no American tanks in Baghdad" when CNN had a split-screen showing tanks... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zachlipton at 9:25 PM on February 13, 2016

PBS should've cut to commercial with "The GOP congress cut our budget, so we need to go to commercial." Then we wouldn't be complaining.
posted to MetaFilter by DynamiteToast at 6:14 PM on February 11, 2016

privileged old white guys

You know, I find it really insulting when people think that because I am a Hispanic woman I will automatically vote for Hispanics or women. If I based my political choices on that, I would be as bigoted as those who didn't want Obama because he was a different color.

People defaulting to support those who are like themselves is what got humanity into most wars and conflicts in the first place.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tarumba at 9:37 AM on February 10, 2016

The folks down here have made it 100% clear that they don't want to talk about this, I get it, I stopped discussing it a half hour ago.

Good, it's a pointless conversation to have at this point. Yes sexism and misogyny are a thing. Why on god's green earth you would want to pit the two most progressive icons in America against each other in some hypothetical dog race is beyond me. That's all I will say about it.
posted to MetaFilter by AElfwine Evenstar at 10:40 PM on February 9, 2016

You think double-standards and sexism wouldn't enter into that race?

What does a 'yes' or 'no' answer to this question gain us? Not really sure of the point here, but it sounds like whataboutism.
posted to MetaFilter by rhizome at 9:49 PM on February 9, 2016

Bernie Sanders a few years ago stood and gave an eight and a half hour speech. It wasn't an official filibuster it was just a pissed off Sanders. At one point he gets out letters that he received from constituents.

He reads, he pauses, to explain realities like dented can stores, difficult decisions and impact on dignity and expounds upon unfairness. He ends by saying that when he first got the letters he couldn't read more than a half dozen at a time because they took... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by phoque at 9:17 PM on February 9, 2016

if we're serious about wanting viable female candidates for leadership, at some point we all need to be voting on gender.

Wait, so I was supposed to vote for Sarah Palin?
posted to MetaFilter by dialetheia at 2:16 PM on February 9, 2016

One of my very favorite things about Bernie Sanders is that his YouTube channel has all the old C-SPAN footage of his speeches in Congress calling out many of the biggest mistakes we've made since the early 90s. It's pretty striking.

Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order -
Bernie Sanders predicting the 2008 crash in 1998
Bernie Sanders against the first war in Iraq
Bernie Sanders against the second war in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dialetheia at 10:47 PM on February 7, 2016

I forgive you.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 7:55 PM on February 4, 2016

It would be a much better country and world if this were the Presidential debate.
posted to MetaFilter by cell divide at 7:50 PM on February 4, 2016

hey all, sorry if I'm late to the conversation, have we established yet whether "ten thousand writhing centipedes poured into a human-shaped mold" is disqualified under the "natural born" clause?
posted to MetaFilter by indubitable at 10:10 AM on February 3, 2016

I've been an active member of online communities, in every role from anonymous lurker to in charge of the whole shooting match, since 1983. Here's what I've learned.

1. Open, anonymous, unmanaged comments are a guarantee of disaster. You will quickly lose anyone of worth and end up with a bottomless pit of bile. Unless you are assembling a corpus of shit to feed some sort of experiment and can't for some reason just use the infinite supply of same already available, do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Devonian at 6:24 AM on February 1, 2016

Oh, I agree! I hate it that this is the way things are now. In a better world, I would have been able to have a better job because there would have been a system in place to care for my children so I could focus on my future. But I was treated badly. I can't undo that now.

I was just responding to the tone of hopelessness in the thread by saying, hey, I have not had a lot of economic advantages but here's how I'm making things work for me. Try to stay hopeful, and don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tizzie at 8:12 AM on February 2, 2016

Judging metal by Phil Anselmo is like judging punk by GG Allin.
posted to MetaFilter by jonmc at 10:39 AM on January 31, 2016

Well, no review sites for you, but I'll say this... I was a 17 year old book-reading maniac, and now I'm a 35 year old book-reading maniac, and I still manage to ram more than 100 books a year into my brain (though I've come to believe that the brain has only so much storage available, and these days I'm depending on old friends to remind me of all the cool stuff I did in my 20's)...in any case, this I say unto you...read your ass off, but get outta the house too! Go crew on a sailboat in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:08 AM on January 27, 2001

There is no such button. :-P
posted to MetaFilter by Feantari at 6:43 PM on January 18, 2016