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PaperclipPerfector  16hr ago (text post)   3832 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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☁ INAUGURATION THREAD ☁

I was going to post this to encourage Americans to participate in our show of civic unity. Let the messages of unity and American exceptionalism wash over you. Pay no mind to the commentators muttering about President Biden's last-minute preemptive pardons, or to the persistence of each Democrat speaker in reminding everyone that the Constitution exists and definitely binds the hands of the executive, too.

Kavanaugh has sworn in VP Vance. Now for the President.

Here's to four uneventful years. May the new administration succeed in delivering on their promises.

Edit: some of these promises kind of suck. I sure hope we don't do anything stupid over the Panama Canal.

Among the MAGA base, the mood is jubilant. The legitimate king has returned, speaking of the greatness to come; the usurper put out to pasture, the corrupt officials who oppress the people dismissed. Every peasant understands this story, and everyone knows what happens when a illegitimate king sits on the throne, and what do you know, the weather is literally improving as we speak.

Perhaps we'll grow disillusioned with our great MAGA king. Perhaps in a thousand years, the ruler who unites the colonies on Mars will take the title of Trump- like the emperors of Russia and Germany titling themselves Caesar. But either way, this remains the first president put in place because of the mandate of heaven. Obama and Bush and Biden exercised imperium, Trump personifies it.

I sure hope we don't do anything stupid over the Panama Canal.

Carter already did something stupid over the panama canal - this would be just correcting his mistake.

Carter finds more success in the arena of foreign policy, where instead of dealing with mercurial politicians from his own country, he can deal with mercurial politicians from other countries. He starts by tackling the third rail of the Panama Canal. The United States built the Canal by essentially colonizing the part of Panama it runs through, and obviously, the Panamanians aren’t super cool with that. The U.S. government has been kicking the can down the road since the LBJ era by continually promising to return sovereignty over the canal to Panama eventually, and after over a decade of “eventually,” the Panamanians are getting impatient.

The politically easy move for Carter would be to drag out the negotiations until the canal becomes the next president’s problem, just as Johnson, Nixon, and Ford all did before him. But for better or for worse, Carter almost never does the politically easy thing. “It’s obvious we cheated the Panamanians out of their canal,” he says, and he negotiates a treaty in which ownership of the canal is turned over to Panama, in exchange for the U.S.’s right to militarily ensure its “neutral operation.” It’s a clever diplomatic solution—Panama gets nominal ownership while we retain all the benefits ownership provides—but the American public hates it. To the average voter, it feels like we’re just giving some random country “our” canal.

To get the treaty approved by the Senate, Carter plays the congressional negotiating game well for the first and maybe only time in his presidency. He lobbies heavily for his treaty with every senator, cutting individual deals with each of them as needed. One even goes so far as to say that in exchange for his vote, Carter has to… wait for it… read an entire semantics textbook the senator wrote back when he was a professor. Oh, and Carter also has to tell him what he thinks of it, in detail, to prove he actually read it. Carter is appalled, but he grits his teeth and reads the book. It’s a good thing he does, because the Senate ratifies the treaty by a single vote. Although it remains unpopular with the general public (five senators later lose their seats over their yes votes), those in the know understand that Carter cut a great deal for America. Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos knows it too. Ashamed of his poor negotiating skills, he gets visibly drunk at the signing ceremony and falls out of his chair. He also confesses that if the negotiations had broken down, he would have just had the military destroy the entire canal out of spite.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-the-outlier

(emphasis mine)

Yeah, was going to say the U.S. already fought a war in Panama in the modern era. It was over in a few weeks.

Obviously there are some other parties who might object to the U.S. controlling it this time. But I think there's probably a solution that falls far short of warfare here.

A few weeks is probably long enough for the Panamanian military(such as it is) to destroy the canal, or at least inflict enough damage to render it unusable for several years.

The US could offer Panama statehood. We'd get the canal and a quarter of global shipping.

Here's to hoping that the next four years do indeed make America great again, again. And we manage to dredge some unity and goodwill out of our desiccated corpse.

For all that we complain, I always ask people: if not the United States, where would you go? And where would you invest? Whatever my family and friends say, they're still investing in American securities. They're mostly still working in the USA. The opportunity here in most fields in unrivaled.

And to paraphrase Curtis Yarvin, I'll bet you 50$ that if you look around your neighborhood, you'll notice 0 changes over the next 4 years attributable to Donald Trump.

"oh lordy we need goodwill and unity!" I cry, before returning to making snippy comments about my outgroup. How Democratic.

The context of the Yarvin quote is that democracies are weak and feckless so we convert to a dictatorship, not that Trump is a particularly ineffectual president. My point was that presidential elections probably won't affect any of us all that much. I would, and have, made the same point about democratic administrations. Is that what you were referring to?

Did you mean to post this in reply to someone else? I didn't say anything about Yarvin or Trump, I was talking about the way you bemoaned our lack of unity in the midst of your sniping at Trump and his supporters. It seems very gauche to me, but I am used to it courtesy of the former administration.

I love the United States! We're the fucking best. Almost everywhere else sucks by comparison and even the places that are pretty good are on such a small scale that they're more akin to nice states than major nations. Nonetheless, being the best doesn't ensure that there isn't just a secular decline in quality of life across the world, which is what I think would happen if the Pax Americana recedes. To that end, I hope we do reassert our authority with a Monroe Doctrine style of foreign policy.

And to paraphrase Curtis Yarvin, I'll bet you 50$ that if you look around your neighborhood, you'll notice 0 changes over the next 4 years attributable to Donald Trump.

We could talk about deportations, but on a small scale, I do credit Trump for appointing Supreme Court justices that sided with Grants Pass. Cities not being able to stop bums from camping in parks really would be a pretty terrible outcome that would be immediately obvious to everyone involved. They may or may not realize what the cause of that effect is, but pretty much everyone would notice bums camping in parks freely.

I suppose Australia counts as a 'nice state' from this perspective? I certainly like living here, more than I did in parts of the US.

I always ask people: if not the United States, where would you go? And where would you invest?

Unless you tethered by your job, live elsewhere where it's cheap but always invest in 'Big Tech'. Nothing beats tech as far as returns are concerned or Bay Area real estate. But otherwise, America is too expensive and you can save tons of money living aboard and than using the saved $ to invest in FAAMNG.

Unless you tethered by your job

What about friends? Family? Your bond to the land?

I can never understand this mindset of just being freely floating without any ties besides where you work...

consider the possibility that an opinion doesn't have to apply to everyone or all circumstances

Sure but why would a U.S. company hire you to telecommute from Europe for U.S. wages? Why not just hire a European for European wages?

The U.S. is downright cheap compared to other countries when you factor in the wage gap.

To put things in perspective, if you earn 68,877 euros, you are 95th percentile in France. 99th percentile is 115,313 euros. You will also pay half of it in taxes. Europe is much poorer than Americans think.

consider that someone may not be working, such as retired, and wants to save money by moving somewhere cheap. expat communities are a thing

yeah, if you making solid 6 figures in Bay Area tech, then it's worth it to stay put.

I'll bet you 50$ that if you look around your neighborhood, you'll notice 0 changes over the next 4 years attributable to Donald Trump.

I'll take that bet, but only if "Vance/Desantis 2028" yard signs and flags count as a change, since I think that would easily be 'attributable' to Donald Trump. As far as Material changes, go, I have a few Hispanic neighbors, its entirely possible some of the are here illegally, so if they get removed and housing prices in the neighborhood go down due to fewer migrants in the South Florida area generally that can probably be attributed to Trump as well.

Note: I like my neighbors so I'm not going to be the one calling ICE.

I'm not sure how many people were watching compared to the Inauguration proper, but right after the end of the Inauguration ceremony, Trump went downstairs to the 'Emancipation Hall' inside the Capitol to give a second speech to his supporters -- it was 33 minutes, vs. 29 minutes for his official Inaugural, and it was basically a mash-up of his stump speech with improvised riffing on the news of the day (Biden's last-minute 11th-and-a-half hour pardons of his family and political supporters). More importantly, Trump said that his staff & advisors told him he couldn't say certain things in his official Inaugural, so now he gets a chance to say all of them, which makes this a kind of Inaugural 2.0. I honestly don't know what to make of it, and I expect that this speech might actually overshadow the Inaugural Address itself (especially since Trump said he thought that the 2.0 speech was a better speech than the official speech upstairs!)

I genuinely have no idea what to make of this.

Will he give hit bitcoin and 'tech people' what they want?

The official speech was a teleprompter speech, was pre-written, and as usual Trump hated every second of giving it.

The 2.0 speech was largely impromptu, involved Trump talking from his head, and had his actual energy.

Trump is an engaging off-the-cuff speaker, and a terrible, terrible speech reader. And he knows this, which is why he hates pre-written speeches.

Watching Biden during the innaguration, I felt bad for him. He looks terrible.

There's no way this man has been running the country. I'm just glad he's out -- for his sake -- so his wife and his son and his handlers can no longer pour piss on his reputation in his name. Watching him leave the ceremony, I just wanted to give him a hug. May God have mercy on him, and may his sickness and his humiliation in public life be unto him a participation in cross of Christ, a call to repentance that leads to eternal life.

Oddly, I had a dream last night: that in his final speech Biden closed by saying something like I "resign myself," or I "recuse myself" or I "deny myself" or something like that. The man was a senator forever, and the VP to a president popular with his party and a large segment of the country; now his reputation will forever be that of a sick old man pushed out by his own party and his own president.

He could have retired after Obama, and just coasted on the reputation his association with Obama gave him. But politicians are like TV shows: they run until they're cancelled, not until they're finished. He who lives by the sword will die by the sword, and he who lives seeking power will be destroyed by it.

https://www.murdoch-murdoch.net/html/wb/inauguration-day.html

I confess to a feeling a bit of schadenfreude that Trump is decidedly not the hero that white nationalists so desperately want him to be. Between Trump's invocation of MLK during the speech, the black reverend praying for America, and the diverse military choir ushering the President out, this was a reminder that the alt-right stuff we read online has little to no bearing on what the next four years will be like.

I love America.

Can non-Americans engage in civic divisiveness?

By the power invested in me by the ghost of George Washington that came to me in a dream last night, I proclaim you an American for one (1) day. Enjoy the complimentary American flag cake and bald eagle. Don't forget to leave all civic divisiveness at the door.

Don't forget the AR-15 and ticket to Dollywood.

Jeez at least give him some fireworks.

and one (1) gallon of genuine iowa high-fructose corn syrup.

Give us your trolls, your bots, your huddled masses yearning to post freely, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Found the Russian bot.

No, that's netstack.

Days like this I kinda wish I was still on Reddit because I couldn't resist telling them how badly they screwed up for things to get this far and reminding them how utterly powerless they are to stop what is coming (whatever that is, I can't even say for sure), and if they had an ounce of self-awareness and the ability to reflect, this might cause them to change some of their beliefs about the world but no, they will be stuck in a cycle of learned helplessness because they can't even exit the echo chamber that has rendered them completely incapable of interfacing with the reality on the ground, and the beliefs 'normal' people hold anymore.

And also Sotomayor has a decent chance of dying or retiring in the next 3 years so lol enjoy having that shoe waiting to drop the entire time.

I'm not really sadistic, but that site has really become a pustulent sore on the Internet's face. I want to keep poking it until it pops. At least 4chan has the decency to stay hidden on the internet's ass.

I was pretty nervous but everyone remained civil. I hope that we can keep that civility for the years to come.

I was hoping he'd announce an executive order putting the whole country back onto year-round Standard Time.

Paging @DuplexFields. As previously discussed, you owe me a mea culpa.

The predictions I made:

  1. Court case - they tried, but realized any sentence for “feloniously committing a misdemeanor” would be a bridge too far.
  2. rent a mob - there are demonstrations in D.C. but the inauguration was moved indoors.
  3. assassination attempt number three - the inauguration was moved indoors.

Thanks for reminding me that the blackpill mentality is extremely online and conspiracy-focused; mea culpa.

Posts like this are why I keep coming back to The Motte. Very sporting, respect.

I don't think you were wrong to make the predictions, but try to give a confidence estimate next time for sanity checking purposes.

And props for taking the outcome with good humor.

This is a man who doesn't forget his debts... noted!

I loved Trump listing Americas accomplishments. Bring back patriotism! We have so much to be proud of as a nation.

We're going to dig deeper into this speech, but first, I think we want to hear Carrie Underwood...

Thanks, CBS. You have captured the American ethos.

One thing that stands out: President Trump is a much better speaker than either of the Congressmen or even the commentators. He hasn't been filling space with an "um" or an "ah." Since we can't see the original text, I don't know if he's sticking to the script, but I'd be willing to bet it's improvisation.

Oh yeah he's an incredible orator. I am so happy to have some good pomp back. Most Congressmen and Senators and even the priests (ugh) were terrible at speaking.

he's a professional public speaker and rehearsed it

I naively expected that to apply to sitting Senators.

Sitting senators have generally not run a competitive race in quite a while.

It's beautiful hearing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, seeing soldiers march to it. Same with Glory, Glory Hallelujah. I can't imagine how incredible these songs would've been when they were written, back when most people believed deeply in the Republic, and in God.

Definitely moved me.

Didn't catch that, but the (impromptu?!) a capella America the Beautiful by Carrie Underwood was delightful. Hearing the crowd sing along like a proper church hymn gave me a little thrill.

impromptu

Hah yeah, whoever was in charge of the music is (hopefully) getting fired. Super embarrassing for a mistake like that to happen at such an important event.

Fun fact, here it's been turned into a Christmas song (trigger warning: sung by a 13 year old Céline Dion).

Also a Japanese nursery rhyme (TW: exactly what you would expect, dead_dove.gif)

And the jingle for a Japanese camera shop chain.

A Finnish nursery rhyme, too.

I wanted to add another song with that music to the list, but Johnny Rebel apparently has an exclusive contract with Apple music.

It's beautiful hearing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, seeing soldiers march to it. Same with Glory, Glory Hallelujah.

Uh, isn’t the latter just (part of) the chorus of the former?

oh maybe idk

Couldn't agree more. High point of the ceremony, probably because no one was speaking.

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