It is Russia, not “the West”, that is responsible for Russia’s poor relations with most of the world

The official US policy from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 to early 2009 was that Russia was a friend. Russia was an ally in the war against Islamic extremism. Russia was a trusted partner in multiple ventures, including the International Space Station.

Note that none of this was ever reciprocated by Russia. Russia continued treating the United States, and the West as a whole, as if the West was out to get them. Russian paranoia would not allow them to be good citizens in the world economy. Instead the Russian oligarchs huddled over their piles of looted Soviet wealth like dragons upon piles of gold, glaring at the West as if the West wanted to steal their gold. That didn’t stop the continuous outreach by the West though. If we were just friendly enough, it was thought, eventually Russia would come around and be willing to join us in the great experiment of modern civilization.

Then 2009 happened.

What changed in 2009? Well: In late 2008 Russia invaded Georgia in a clear act of naked militaristic aggression. It became clear at that point that Russia was a militaristic expansionist nation with the goal of annexing parts of its neighbors via blunt military force. This blatant 19th century colonialist war of conquest was directly in contrast to the great experiment of modern civilization that was taking place in most of the rest of the world.

At that point, Russia started looking less like a potential friend and ally, and more like someone we’d need to fight a war with eventually. And things changed. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 was the last straw for most of the world.

Russia’s current bad relations with the West aren’t the fault of the West. They are the fault of a paranoid, aggressive Russia that is stuck in 19th century thinking and refuses to join modern civilization, which it sneers at as “weak”.

That is all.

— Badtux the Geopolitics Penguin

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White supremacy is a hella drug. It makes heroin look like tap water when it comes to addiction.

So, Joe Biden is going to be our next President. That’s what the numbers say. Short of a thousand Box 13’s suddenly turning up with 100% Trump votes, that’s how it’s going to be.

It is unsurprising that the most corrupt, racist, incompetent, and dishonest president since the 19th century was voted out of office. What is surprising is that it was by such a narrow margin despite Trump’s mishandling of, well, virtually everything, from foreign affairs to the plague.

All because white people.

Specifically, over 57% of white people either being either racist or brainwashed members of a cult that claims to be “Christian” but doesn’t stand for anything Christ stood for.

Oh sure, you’re probably white if you’re reading this, But you’re also probably well educated and live in an urban area, and probably not a member of an evangelical “Christian” cult. I keep telling my friends here in the West Coast Bubble that they are, indeed, in a bubble, that they don’t know just how racist most of white America really is. Then I have Indian friends who look Hispanic or black go out on a road trip and they’re appalled to find out that they get pulled over every hour or so by racist cops who see two minorities in a Mercedes Benz and think “drug dealer”, and when they go into a roadside diner to eat the waitress won’t seat or serve them because she thinks they’re a biracial couple, or white people in monster pickup trucks flying Confederate flags cut them off and brake check them because minorities don’t belong in an expensive car, or etc., and then those friends come back and they’re upset but they *still* don’t understand why exactly that’s happening.

Well, there’s two words that explain why that’s happening: White people.

Deal being, white people got their place in America by oppressing minorities, by forcing minorities to do the hard work that actually built America while they took the profits. It was imported Chinese and Japanese laborers who built the state of California, who built the railroads and highways and worked in the mines that made the state great. It was black people who built the entire South, who built everything from the homes to the roads while being almost 100% of the workforce growing the crops that were the main reason for the South to exist. It was imported Mexicans who built Arizona and Texas, who built the houses and roads and worked in the fields that made those states great. And they did this while being oppressed by white people, who either enslaved them or forced them to accept wages well below their worth via laws that rendered them less than human and unable to do other things.

White supremacy built America. And white people are scared as fuck now that white supremacy is no longer the law of the land. For one thing, they’re scared that all those minorities they oppressed at government gunpoint are going to turn the tables and attack them. Crime against white people by minorities is fairly rare — white people are mostly murdered or raped by white people, for example. But the terror white supremacists feel about how they’re physically imperilled by minorities if a white supremacist is not President has nothing to do with that reality, and everything to do with terror that if white supremacy no longer holds sway, minorities will do to them what they did to minorities. For white people who built their entire identities around white supremacy, like, apparently, the majority of white people in America, this is scary as fuck.

So forget about all that nattering about “socialism” or “leftism” yada yada being the reason white people voted for Trump. That’s utter nonsense — Joe Biden was known as “the Senator from Citibank” when he was a Senator, he was one of the most big business friendly senators in the Senate. White people weren’t scared of Joe Biden because he was Vladimir Lenin reincarnated. White people were scared of Joe Biden because he spent eight years as Vice President to a black man — and never undercut that black man, always supported that black man, was clearly personal friends with that black man and treated that black man as if that black man was, well, the President of the United States of America. And that makes Joe Biden a threat to white supremacy.

So white people, despite their denials to the contrary, voted for the blatant white supremacist despite that white supremacist’s utter incompetence and corruption and despite the fact that this white supremacist is literally getting them killed because of his incompetence. Because they view white supremacy as more important than, well, pretty much everything. Because in their minds, if they don’t have white supremacy, the minorities they historically oppressed will turn around and do to them what they did to minorities, despite lack of any evidence that this will happen from states like California that are already majority minority. Because white supremacy is a hella drug, and they just don’t want to let go of it.

I expect that we’ll get plenty of pundits whining that Joe Biden didn’t get a 50 state blowout because he didn’t pander to Bubba White Person in Podunk, Idaho. Thing is, there is literally nothing other than white supremacy that Joe could have used to get Bubba’s vote — and that would have lost Joe the rest of his coalition. It was literally impossible for Joe Biden to pander to white supremacists more than an actual white supremacist did, and the (all-white) pundits who are suggesting this is the reason Joe didn’t get Bubba’s vote are, well…. white supremacists.

That is all.

– Badtux the anti-Racist Penguin

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I’m sick of Russian-originated BS claiming any Democratic candidate is “worse than Trump”

The latest was about Bloomberg, saying “he’s just like Trump, but competent, so he would be worse than Trump!”

Which is utter bullshit. Bloomberg does not support ripping toddlers away from their parents and putting them into concentration camps. That alone makes him better than Trump.

Before you say “but his record!”, Mayor Bloomberg issued Executive Order 41 on September 17, 2003 which instructs city employees not to ask nor to disclose information about immigration status unless required by law or organizational mission. As Mayor he also was a steadfast supporter of immigration reform with a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. To state that he would then do a heel turn and put even more toddlers into camps as President is something not supported by his actual record as a politician.

I’m not a supporter of Bloomberg by any means — his record on stop and frisk in particular was a civil rights atrocity — but let’s face facts. There’s *no* Democrat currently running who supports concentration camps for toddlers. That in and of itself makes them 100% morally superior to Trump. The Russian trolls who originated the “Bloomberg would be worse than Trump!” nonsense are just spreading BS for the sake of spreading BS, just as they are when they spread the nonsense “Bernie would be worse than Trump!”. Yet you still have people buying that BS. Even though it’s as Russian as vodka. Sheesh.

– Badtux the Peeved Penguin

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On logical proofs and proofs of the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Here is an example of a typical logic error: assuming that one of your premises is true without actually any proof that it is true. It’s called the “False Premise Fallacy”. In this case, we don’t know whether premise #1 is false or true (well, in the second example, we know it’s false because we know who invented spaghetti and it wasn’t a flying spaghetti monster), thus conclusion (statement #3) could be either false or true depending upon whether premise #1 is false or true.

So then you have to determine whether premise #1 is false or true. In the case of proofs of the existence of God, it’s turtles all the way down — every attempt at a logical proof ends up requiring proving a premise that in turn requires proving a premise which in turn requires proving a premise, and you never get to the bottom of that infinite rathole, as you’d expect from attempting a logical proof of something that cannot be measured, observed, or detected by any scientific instrument nor modeled by any human mathematics. In the end, mathematics (which logic is) simply isn’t the correct tool for attempting to prove the existence of the ineffable.

But the use of false premise logical syllogism extends beyond the infinite rathole of the proof of existence of God. It’s a common technique in politics, for example. Ronald Reagan’s argument about welfare is a good example:

1) People who have Cadillacs are rich
2) There are welfare recipients who have Cadillacs
3) Thus welfare recipients are rich, and we must cut welfare benefits.

The problem is that I just did a search on the SF Bay Craiglist and I can go out and buy a well-used Cadillac for $1500, or about the same as a well-used Chevrolet. (Note that used car prices are propped up here in California because the state will pay you $1K to take an old car off the road in order to reduce emisisons). Past a certain point most cars lose all value because they’ve reached their lifespan. (There are a few car brands, like Porsche, where this is not true because the older cars are in high demand as restoration targets, but they are the exception rather than the rule). Thus Reagan’s argument was false because his first premise — that people who have Cadillacs are rich — was false. There’s plenty of people who have old Cadillacs that they purchased for the same price as an old Chevrolet. Not as many as there are owners of old Chevrolets, but that’s because they didn’t make as many Cadillacs in the first place.

So keep this in mind whenever you’re reading political punditry, because it’s a staple of asshole politicians everywhere. When you see a politician doing shit like this… well….

– Badtux the Logical Penguin

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Work it, work it baby — why Kavanaugh will be confirmed

First, a song…. Regina Spektor, “Ballad of a Politician” off her brilliant 2012 album What we Saw from the Cheap Seats.

Okay, so you’re back. Did you listen to the song? If you didn’t listen to the song, go listen to it. Really. It is completely and totally relevant to the point of this post.

So: Did you get the point of the song? Did you, really? If you didn’t, you won’t understand why Kavanaugh will be confirmed despite the fact that he sexually assaulted at least three women, was a drunk and a cad towards many other people, and lacks the fundamental respect for rule of law that we expect for our sitting judges.

And that point was: Basically: If you are a politician today, you are a prostitute.

This is especially true of Senators, who are required to raise millions of dollars from their johns in order to become and remain Senators. If they don’t obey their johns, their johns will find another prostitute willing to pleasure them in the way they demand. And these johns want Kavanaugh, because Kavanaugh has promised to overturn multiple Supreme Court rulings that they find distasteful because they give the little people more rights than the johns want the little people to have.

And that’s that. Now, granted, Nothing is ever 100% guaranteed. Perhaps some of those prostitutes will decide that they’re tired of prostitution, and vote against their johns’ demands. But still, I say there’s a 90% chance that Kavanaugh will be confirmed within the next five weeks…

– Badtux the Prostitution Penguin

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Bill Clinton is not running for office

“Bill Clinton was a sexual predator!”

That was proven in 1999, after he’d won election twice. And your point is? Bill Clinton isn’t running for office, and if he were, I wouldn’t vote for him.

Meanwhile, a pedophile is running for office in Alabama against an experienced prosecutor who put two KKK leaders in prison for executing four little girls. That sounds like a no-brainer to me, but there’s still people who say it’s okay to vote for a known pedophile because Bill Clinton? In fact, the deplorables in Alabama seem likely to elect the pedophile. WTF?!

Look, I’ll admit that all these accusers against Roy Moore seem to have a common look: They’re all women. Which is surprising, because usually your anti-gay tighty righties are closeted gays who are gayer than the gay mayor of Gaytown, but ole’ Roy cruised the mall and restaurants looking for high school girls. But never fear, he never dated girls without their mother’s permission.

Which is creepy as fuck. A thirty-something-year-old man dating girls so young that they need their mother’s permission in order to date? SQUICK!

Well, for most of us. For Alabama, that’s apparently what passes as normal.

– Badtux the Squicked-out Penguin

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Why do these talking heads mention only the *white* working class?

So a (predictably white) talking head claims that “liberal elites” are clueless about the white working class.

Why are these (always white) talking heads never talking about the *black* or *Hispanic* or *Asian* working class, all of whom the Democratic Party and “liberal elites” reach quite well, thank you very much?

Hint: The white working class hasn’t been in play for Democrats since 1964. No Democrat has won with a majority of the white vote in any election since then. Not Jimmie Carter. Not Bill Clinton. Not Barack Obama. None.

Hint: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed in 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed in 1965.

But I’m sure that has *nothing* to do with why the *white* working class (but no other working class voters) deserted the Democratic Parties and decided that liberals (the people who got those civil rights acts passed) are icky. Nope, racism has *nothing* to do with it. SNRK!

Hint: Many of us “liberal elites” are from a working class background and understand the working class plenty well, thank you very much. Which is why we know that worrying about getting white working class votes for the Democratic Party is an exercise in futility. As far as the majority of the white working class is concerned, the Democratic Party is the “nigger party”. Their word, not mine, I’ve heard my working class relatives say it often enough. Short of throwing our black and Hispanic and Asian working-class voters under the bus, there isn’t a goddamn thing we can do to get their votes. And that ain’t happening — the liberal coalition got two Presidents elected in the past 25 years without the white working class, so fuck’em.

– Badtux the Former Working Class Penguin

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So, good news and bad news on the elections front

For the good news, Democrats did really darn well in Democratic states and in Democratic towns within Republican states. Won two governorships — New Jersey and Virginia — and a bunch of legislative and mayoral seats.

But: All this was in states or districts that Hillary won in 2016. Meaning… not a whole lot.

Meanwhile, the fans of the Orange Racist Pussy Grabber don’t seem to care that Donald Trump isn’t keeping any of his promises. His supporters here, it turns out, are energized by his bombast and his animus more than any actual accomplishments. Gosh, they voted for a dude who made explicitly racist statements during his electoral campaign, of course people who say that “NFL” stands for “Nigger Football League” would have no problem with the fact that Trump kept none of his promises to them. Nevermind that, Trump is the racist’s wet dream, doing even worse to black and brown people than they ever dreamed, whether it is punishing a brown girl for getting pregnant or pardoning racists for their crimes. You can’t underestimate the power of racism amongst Trump deplorables. Especially the ones who start sentences with “I’m not a racist, but ….”.

The end result? Trump hasn’t lost any of his supporters. If the Presidential race were held yesterday rather than a year ago, Trump would still have won.

In short, Trump is well on his way to winning re-election in 2020. If it’s yet another minority win where Trump wins with a minority of the popular vote, things may start getting… interesting. Because once is a coincidence, it doesn’t mean that democracy is over in the USA. Twice… well.

– Badtux the Elections Penguin

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Donald Trump succeeds at uniting Republicans and Democrats! Yay!

Every single Senator voting — 100% of them, both Democrats and Republicans — vote to hold pro-forma sessions to keep President Trump from making recess appointments over their August break.

Every. Single. One of them. Democrats and Republicans. Like cats and dogs agreeing.

But: it makes perfect sense. Republican senators are pissed that Trump might fire their former colleague and friend Jefferson Beauregard Sessions while they’re out on break and replace him with, oh, I dunno, maybe Alex Jones, as a recess appointment. And Democrats… well, they didn’t need motivation, heh.

Still. Unity. In the Senate. And all it took was a deplorable President. LOL.

– Badtux the Unity Penguin

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For once, the Nazis didn’t win

Hillary Clinton — err, Emmanuel Macron — wins French Presidency over Donald Trump — err, Marine Le Pen.

And not by a little, either. He won with 66% of the popular vote. That’s something that no American President has ever done. The closest is when LBJ whipped Barry Goldwater with 61% of the popular vote in 1964.

Of course, Le Pen is counting this as a victory — she convinced 1/3rd of Frenchmen to vote for, well, a fucking Nazi. (And no, I’m not making that up, before Marine Le Pen gave her party a makeover, it was fond of spiffy brown uniforms and swastikas). And it’s worrisome that 1/3rd of Frenchmen would vote for a fucking Nazi in the first place, even though she was running against some bloodless technocrat who has the charisma of barely-browned toast, basically the Hillary Clinton of France.

Still: The French had the sense to vote for their equivalent of Hillary Clinton rather than vote for a fucking Nazi.

Yeah, I think the French are gonna be insufferably smug towards Americans for the next four years… not only are they doing healthcare better than America, not only do they live longer than Americans and have better cuisine than Americans, but now they can say “nya nya, we voted against our Nazis and you didn’t!”?

Yeah, it sucks to be an American in France right about now…

– Badtux the Electoral Penguin

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