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Notes -
What's going to be the big apocalyptic struggle this election?
I wrote a piece over at my blog about how at this time in 2020 we were already in "2 Weeks to slow the spread", were about 1 month out from the first anti-lockdown protests, and 2 months out from the Summer of Floyd.
It seems obvious to me that all the chaos in the wider American empire concentrates around election years and seems to have the oxygen sucked out of it on off years.. 2020 is obvious, 2016 was only slightly less history changing, and even the 2008 financial crisis was an election year event.
There's a lot of really obvious candidates: Ukraine could go south really catastrophically really quick; the middle-east is speculated to kick-off with a potential Israeli invasion of Lebanon; and going shearly off the numbers the US southern border is one of the largest population transfers in human history with few precedents since WW2 or the even the 4th and 5th century.
But I don't know, maybe it's my mind trying to fit things too neatly to the 2020 framework... it feels like the election hasn't started yet, it feels like there's some shoe to drop or issue I'm missing, something as far from public consciousness as Immunology in Jan 2020, or racial politics in March 2020...
I can feel this massive issue just behind my peripheral vision that's about to draw all my attention and require its own Motte containment thread, and that will devour the media and twitter, for months on end.
I feel like there's this huge world shattering issue that's about to explode and within the next few months I'll be lamenting that I only have 24 hours in the day to read enough about it, convinced that it DEMANDS every second of my attention.... And I have no idea what it is?
-Is Trump going to die?
-Will a Nuke Launch?
-Is China about to take Taiwan?
-Are all those Chinese and foreign nationals on the southern border about to start targeting power infrastructure?
-Is there about to be a financial crisis?
-An "Internet Lockdown"?
-Hot ethnic cleansing in Europe?
-Global food chain collapse? .
Give me your best guess.
What will be the major containment thread at the Motte between now and election day?
Gaza? I'm finding it very interesting how the Democratic party usual suspects are getting hit by their own supporters (or I imagine these types are their own supporters), particularly in an election year where I'd expect them to be starting to circle the wagons around the old reliable Orange Man Bad.
Now, I don't know for sure these are the regular supporters, or if they're the ultra-lefty/prog types who make the most noise but are tiny in actual vote numbers, but I'm surprised Gaza is still such a live concern. But protesters inside the building who could afford to fork out the minimum $250 ticket price to attend are the ones I'd expect to be more exercised about "Ahhhh, Trump is gonna eat our babies!"
Also, what?
This image from your first link is wild. That flagpole in the middle with a trans flag and a Palestinian flag, the sign that says "Dykes for Palestine", the guy in the middle wearing a mask in the rain. The whole thing is just amazing. I have a hard time understanding how anyone that's retained their sanity and intellect could want to be seen allied with this ridiculousness.
To be fair, these are the kind of people who would turn out to protest anybody in government, because even if the DSA managed by a miracle to become the ruling party of the state, they'd still not be right-on enough for a certain segment of the population. These people will even more vigorously protest Trump and the Republicans.
But they are also the segment that pins its hopes on the Democrats to block the evil Republicans, so they expect more from them when in power as the nearest they've got to "you are supposed to be pro-minorities, pro-LGBT+, pro-equality etc. so give in to our reasonable demands". That's what makes it fun for me as an outside observer; we don't yet have this level of crazy (though we're getting there) over here in Ireland so I can't get my Schadenfreude fix from seeing Ivana and the Labour Boys having to be rushed past the grubby hordes on the way to Big Party Conference, I have to rely on it second-hand (these are your nutjobs, party-associates of AOC and The Squad, not ours. Though the girls seem to be keeping quiet recently, don't they?).
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