Christopher Allan Webber

Hang in there, world!

Christopher Allan Webber at

Trying to be optimistic about the future of this world, but failing. Already pretty depressed, and world politics aren't helping.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Clinton, but I'm voting for Clinton anyway. Trump is the apocalypse. Clinton may be continuing the slow spiral into hell we've been on, but isn't the apocalypse.

I also don't actually think Bernie would have been some savior of politics (I lost my youthful optimism in change and hope by seeing the reality of the Obama administration, and I really was a die-hard Obama fan in 2008, play out in reality); I'm not sure how he would have pulled off a lot of his plans. But still, I appreciate the direction he aimed to shift politics, and I would have been much more comfortable with that state of the world. But it's not happening. Oh well! There are some good things; Bernie did the right thing by holding out on an endorsement to leverage getting the democratic party to adopt much further left policies. Great!

But about the DNC emails: the whole thing has me confused. If this were released a month ago, when Wikileaks apparently already had them and it could have made a difference, why not release sooner? Especially if, allegedly, the emails have not been sanitized and there's a lot of identity theft'able information in there. What was the purpose of waiting? Wikileaks has done a lot of good things, but this (well, and some other things) feel pretty off the rails. Maybe we need a new Wikileaks, with a clearer governance model and principles founded on leaking information in the aim of advancing human rights. On the other hand, I mean yeah, a lot of the blame does go on the DNC for being pretty fucked up in the first place. (Though, over time anyone who spends enough time in organizations comes to realize how fucked up pretty much any large organization is... not that that's an excuse...)

I can't blame the people feeling like the situation with Bernie endorsing Clinton feels like a betrayal, especially with the above context that now we know the system did have internal biases. Who wouldn't feel that way? I feel that way. But where are we going? I really do worry that Trump is pretty much the end of US as a world power.

But you know what sucks? That's a super thin position to drum up the necessary level of enthusiasm that actually feels critical to stop the trump-pocalypse.

Clinton had an opportunity to reach out an olive branch to the more "independent" left. She could have chosen someone like Warren as VP. Why choose a completely flimsy centrist that absolutely nobody seems excited about? What kind of message did that send?

Damn! I want to be able to believe we aren't totally screwed, but I'm having a hard time keeping my head up.

Here's a cheer though: let's not fuck it up, America! Vote for not fucking it all up!

Great cheer, right?

EricxDu likes this.

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> I really do worry that Trump is pretty much the end of US as a world power.

I'd worry about how it would happen under Trump, but the end of US as a world power should be a goal, not something to worry about. Cue John Cage https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/07/i-dedicate-this-work-to-the-usa-that-it-become-just...

Mike Linksvayer at 2016-07-29T20:03:37Z

Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) likes this.

Her choice of VP was a strategic choice to court alienated conservatives and Latinos. The democrats are pretty confident that the people who more toward the "left" aren't likely to vote for Trump.

As for the why the recent email leak -- http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-real-paranoia-inducing-purpose-of-russian-hacks seemed like a plausible story.

The Russians want to spread distrust, and we in the US are suckers for conspiraces right now.

Diane Trout at 2016-07-31T21:39:43Z

Christopher Allan Webber likes this.

A small note to just one part of your post: Warren very likely doesn't *want* to be a Vice President. She's effective in the legislature and I'm not sure it would actually achieve any additional policy goals to turn her into a VP.

Sumana Harihareswara [on Mastodon] at 2016-08-01T21:55:36Z

Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠), Christopher Allan Webber likes this.

@Sumana Harihareswara That's probably true, and Congress probably needs her more than the VP seat needs her, by a lot!

Christopher Allan Webber at 2016-08-01T23:38:44Z