- pic.twitter.com/r6cXwWcnUR

— Leria_V (@CPAMG1) September 26, 2024

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘

Half the time the title on this sub is worse than what actually happened. Thos is not one of those times (375)

People quit so fast. A little challenge and they run. Yeesh. (-59)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘

Well clearly she is not "the one" since you felt it necessary to make out with her cousin. You betrayed your girlfriend with her very own family who also betrayed her. You and the cousin suck. I mean if you can't keep your hormones in check, I don't know what to tell you bro. All your relationships are going to get fricked up with that. You are the butthole and I don't know why you would even ask because you have to know. Here's hoping that your ex-girlfriend doesn't bother taking you back for more heartbreak. (150)

Disagree with your first statement. His decision to cheat had nothing to do with her or his former relationship with her. By that I mean that OP cannot make the arguement that he would have had the proper motivation to avoid cheating if his ex gf was better in this way or that. Nope. I don't think you intended it to interpreted that way, I Just loath the idea that the person who didn't cheat is somehow responsible for the cheating in any way. (-38)

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

"One thing led to another": yeah, OP wanted to kiss the cousin and that led to him kissing the cousin. 🙄 At least take responsibility. (358)

There is an alternate possibility where she came onto him you know right? (-31)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Honestly, your situation is already complicated, but what you did with his cousin... it's going to create a real disaster in the family. No one will want to invite her anymore and she will be considered responsible for the scandal. You noticed that her eyes were on you and you never set boundaries. Now put yourself in your girlfriend's shoes. If she had cheated on you with your cousin or another family member, what would your reaction have been? You not only created problems between you and her; you have caused problems throughout the family. His mother will argue with the cousin's mother, leading to conflicts that could have been avoided. All because you acted impulsively instead of thinking.As for the cousin, she also didn't show much respect to herself or her family. But you are seriously lacking in maturity. Believe me, this kind of action always comes back to haunt you. What you have done will come back to you sooner or later, and perhaps even more seriously than you imagine. (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Your opinion is just as valid as anyone else's. Everyone has different boundaries that they get to define for themselves and their relationships. If your partner cheated on you, you for sure get to choose to leave or to stay and figure it out if you decide the relationship is worth working on and saving. Human relationships are complex and each of us bring our own fears and insecurities into them making each one exceptionally unique, and cannot be easily judged. (1)

I actually agree with what you said in this last comment. In the previous ones there was a lot more negative judgement and disrespect towards people who have a hard boundary on physical cheating ("for the people that are triggered please don't get into an actual committed relationship"???) which is what I disagree with. Not sure what made you change the tone/perspective but sure, ultimately it is on the individuals in a relationship to decide how the relationship progresses. If someone wants to take back a cheater, cheers to them and good luck, but if they choose to be disgusted by that person that's valid too, they're not "quitting and screaming" because they don't know how relationships work. They're just hurt and traumatised (betrayal trauma is a very real thing). And they get to be as angry and appalled as they want. (4)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

This is one of those where I don't get why you're even asking. At least some there can be a point of view where you can be unsure on who is in the right or wrong. But you cheated on her, but not just cheated... With her family! WTF dude. There's ruining a relationship with cheating and then there's destroying her because she can't even fully rely on her family for support it seems. "One thing led to another", "don't know why"? No, that's the biggest load of bullshit. I've had meals and watched films with my partners siblings or friends alone whilst waiting for my partner to get home or something and never once have we been close enough to be in a situation where something could happen. (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/Opposite_Leather_359

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Part 3 of this series took us up to June. I haven't had a big enough block of free time to follow up since then (seriously, this involves a heck of a lot of reading) but our girl just keeps finding herself in more trouble faster than I can document it. The last couple months especially have been a roller coaster.

When we left off, Alice had been positively identified as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping who moved to the Philippines in 2003. We were beginning to unravel the secrets of the whole family, like the siblings she forgot existed and then remembered later. She's obviously guilty of all kinds of stuff, but hasn't actually been arrested yet. She's only being questioned the senate.

Such a troublemaker.

The investigators begin unraveling ties from the Bamban POGO to all kinds of nefarious activity, including the Pharmally scandal. Pandemic response money was stolen like in every country in the world. In the Philippines the people who got it were Chinese gangsters close to both then-President Duterte and the Chinese Communist Party.

This was far from the only POGO news. On June 4 the Lucky South 99 (gee, I wonder what nationality the owners of that were) POGO compound was raided. It was another massive complex, with 46 buildings on 5.8 hectares (14 acres). Apparently these guys had the guts to just continue this massive operation knowing that the entire country was trying to find more to shut down. The raid had been leaked to the gangsters but they still managed to arrest 190 and rescue 158 slaves.

I could make a joke here about "Lucky South 99" but I'm way too classy for that.

Eventually Alice stopped showing up to the Senate hearings, explaining that she was "traumatized" by being asked questions like if she has any brothers and sisters. She kept insisting that she just didn't have enough spoons to be interrogated. After the second time she did this, the Senate lost its patience and on July 11 issued arrest warrants for her and several family members and business associates. While waiting for her to show up, every agency in the country responsible for white collar crime opens their own investigations: taxes, money laundering, immigration.

Where did she Guo?

Suggested soundtrack for this part: Del Shannon - "Runaway" or Johnny Cash - "Cocaine Blues"

Senator Risa Hontiveros, the gigastacy who has been leading the investigation, officially announced what everyone already knew on August 19. Guo and her family had fled the country. It's still not entirely clear when and how it happened apart from the fact it was in week or two after July 13. What is clear is that she'd been allowed to just walk around in freedom without even any surveilance. About a dozen authorities must have dropped the ball for this to happen. It must have taken a pretty staggering combination of corruption, incompetence, and laziness for them to all frick up this bad.

MFW President Marcos says "LET ME BE CLEAR: Heads will roll" over Guo's escape.

There's 7,461 islands in the Philippines with quite a bit of coastline, so there's countless places where she could have just gotten on a boat and left, probably for Sabah in nearby Malaysia. She was reportedly spotted in various places in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. The Guo girls ought to record their own version of Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" except with places across all of Southeast Asia.

The fugitives' main base: The Harris Hotel in Batam, Indonesia. It's not luxurious but at $50/night this is cheaper than literally every available room in the Portland metro area.

The public reaction was a mix of outrage and fatalistic apathy. I mean, you kind of knew that this was gonna happen. If you get angry every time there's a corruption scandal you'll go insane, so you can't take it too seriously. The country missed their favorite daughter Alice so much that restaurants competed to offer her the best free meal when she returns. The whole pursuit had a farcical air to it, like if 100 million people were watching the Keystone Kops trying to round up an r-slur who had escaped from the asylum. In a way it felt like OJ Simpson's low speed white Bronco chase.

Those were the days, amirite?

Not so fast

The monumental failure of the Guos' escape put on display the worst qualities of Filipino society, but it has many good qualities too. It is truly democratic, maybe even more than most first world countries. If it was like North America and Europe the ruling elites could have simply said that the only real problem was sinophobia and "anti-immigration hysteria" by "right-wing extremists" and forgotten about the whole thing. But Filipinos aren't afraid of being labeled alt-right. They're afraid of the goddarn Chinese taking over their country. And when most of the population agree on something and really care about it, they'll use the ballot or revolution to get it done. So the government realized that it was time to get their asses into gear.

EDSA, Metro Manila, 1986. The People Power Revolution that overthrew the current president's father. There's a reason why Filipinos are known as the world's most powerful race.

You may be wondering why their passports weren't revoked. This isn't as dumb as it sounds. As long as they were traveling under a Filipino passport other countries had to cooperate with Filipino law enforcement. By the time Sen. Hontiveros announced the escape on the 19th the Filipino Bureau of Immigration was already working with regional counterparts to track them down. Shiela Guo and Cassandra Ong (a whole new character who deserves her own post) were picked up by Indonesian authorities in Batam on the 21st and immediately deported. Shiela was soon dragged before the Senate where she suffered from the usual Guo family amnesia. One thing she did remember was that she is not in fact biologically related to Alice or her father. By now there was a mountain of evidence showing that Alice's POGO in Bamban and the more recently busted POGO in Angeles City were run by the same crime ring which was led partly by the Guo "family".

I had to check to make sure this was the Cassandra Ong who is a leading suspect at the heart of a vast international organized crime investigation, not All-American high school squash player Cassandra Ong. Who I'm sure has a very interesting life but it's not part of this story.

On the night of September 3, Alice Guo's luck finally ran out. She had been tracked down to a villa just outside Jakarta. Elite police commandos carefully crept up and waited, hearts pounding with tension, until they heard the command to go. Breaking in from five different places they moved to quickly secure the building, but it all went wrong from the start. Alice was waiting for them. Armor-piercing bullets shot out of her gun as a torrent of profanity in three languages shot out of her mouth. Four of the men had burst into the living room where she was. They were down before they even knew what was happening. She immediately swept through the rest of the house, emptying another magazine each one and wiping out the rest of the assault team. The police commander, desperate to rescue his wounded men, ordered that tear gas grenades be shot into the house and personally led the attack with his remaining men. But Alice already had her gas mask on and she had taken those few minutes to set up claymore mines with tripwires. The second assault force was destroyed even faster than the first. At this point military reinforcements were arriving with armored vehicles. Alice would occasionally stick her head out the window long enough to shout profane taunts, complaining that they were boring her, and taking pot shots at the troops cowering behind cover. After a few hours of consultation, President Joko Widodo finally authorized that any force necessary be taken. Tanks shelled the building dozens of times until it was completely obliterated. The troops advanced methodically, firing thousands of rounds as they approached. Shortly after dawn it finally was over. She was found lying under the rubble of the villa, gun still clutched in her hand with a broad smile across her face.

Indonesian commandos inspect the damage to the courtyard around the villa following the battle.

Nah, just kidding. The local cops went over there and found her in her pajamas, probably eating chocolate ice cream and watching The Gilmore Girls. She was taken into custody without incident and quickly extradited. She is now in a cell at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters.

Her no-makeup just got arrested look.

A social media star is born

Our girl, despite being in custody, managed to cause yet another scandal before even leaving Jakarta, and she did it just by being adorable. The Interior Secretary and chief of the Philippine National Police have caught some controversy for posing with her in a selfie like dumbstuck fanboys of a k-pop idol. But can you blame them? Alice's unbreakable optimism is infectious. You just can't help but join in!

Don't claim you would have done anything differently.

With agents of the National Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Immigration. See, nobody can help themselves!

President Duterte's explanation: "We are the selfie capital of the world." Seems about the best take on this to me.

She even looks pretty dreamy in orange.

In conclusion, I'm beginning to wonder now if she's literally r-slurred. She's got that some upbeat attitude all the time like Forrest Gump. Even in all the hot water she's in right now, she's happy because looking on the bright side at least she can't be literally torn apart by a mob while she's in jail. I wish I could be more like that. She also reminds me of another of the most compelling characters of recent times, Darrel Brooks. They both have legal strategies based on constantly telling obvious lies. By obvious, I mean one step in sophistication above me when I was a toddler blaming everything on my imaginary doppelganger. I have to remind myself of where this story all began with those hundreds of slaves to stop myself from sympathizing with her. I'd say, if being nice and taking selfies with her gets her to cooperate, they should go for it. She's the chisel that we can use to break open an even larger organized crime network across all of Southeast East Asia and who knows where else.

Unfortunately we have to expect that Alice's shirt will probably remain on throughout the proceedings.

For this segment I dashed through the material as fast as I could and didn't explore a lot of branches that I hope I'll get to someday: there's been more news about POGOs in general, VP Sara Duterte is tangentially involved in all this, Risa Hontiveros is an interesting character, links to international organized crime like that huge money laundering ring in Singapore. Cassandra Ong is a whole new qt like Alice but with her own personality. (There should be a Japanese dating simulator with them as characters.) But I don't know if I'll catch up. While writing this, Alice has appeared before the Senate and caused drama again. More importantly, Apollo Quiboloy, the country's other most wanted fugitive often mentioned together with Alice, has now been caught. He's the leader of a huge cult, a corrupt influence peddler, a child molester on a massive scale, and this bastard even got Ang Probinsyano shut down!

Actual footage of the cops closing in on Quiboloy. He won't underestimate this probinsyano again.

It looks like I'll be busy for a while.

!pinoypride

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘

She wont win and if she does its because so many people are hate voting against trump. Youd be crazy to want another 4-8 years of this nightmare we have been living (85)

Yea omg, it's been such a nightmare! With the stock market more than doubled, record breaking job growth, the Fed cutting interest rates, low gas prices, record oil production, and a bunch of other things. God darn! When will this nightmare end?!?! I'd like to talk more about this ",nightmare", but I have to get back to my full time job. A job that I lost during The Trump presidency because of his amazing handling of things. (-44)

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

She wont win and if she does its because so many people are hate voting against trump. Youd be crazy to want another 4-8 years of this nightmare we have been living (85)

Inflation has been beaten.Unemployment is at modern lows.The stock market is at record highs.Crime has plummeted.Border crossings are at lowest point in years.More Americans have health coverage today thanever before.what nightmare are you living in? Could be self-inflicted because of the media you choose to believe instead of reality. (-32)

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

Don't care, not voting for Trump and his total incoherence. (-21)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Idc who she wit ain't nobody voting for that b-word. Only a fool would. She can't run a frickin country and also she's apart of Obama and Biden the worst got darn presidents. I'm black and voted for Obama only to find out he did nothing for anybody. The economy was fricked up when he was in office just like it is now. All he did was give the gay community laws and rights, shit like that in which I have nothing against gay people, people can do whatever they chose when it comes to that but come on now you had 8 years and that's all you did mf 🤨 Nothing worth talking about because people been doing them and what they chose. why is there so much emphasis on it that came from your watch Obama?? You manipulated them for the vote. And the economy has been fricked up with Joes sleepy butt in office too. But he really sleepy now that he's sent those trillions of dollars to those other countries and told them put his to the side. Heck I'd play sleeepy as a mf too and say frick running for presiden... (0)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Bro is on my peepee, did u see him r*pe a girl? Cus ik i didnt and hes not put away for it yet and ur nit even acknowledging her pathetic rallies, having megan thee stallion shake her butt on stage because she doesnt know shit about politics (1)

Oh, so r*pe only occurs when people witness it? And are you entirely smooth-brained or did you just bury your head in the sand when he was found guilty for sexual abuse, guilty for defaming the victim, and ordered to pay $5 million for it?It's very telling that the worst thing you can say about Harris is that she had someone "shake their butt" at a rally and that she doesnt know anything about politics without any sort of soecific example. Entirely ignoring Trump committing adultery, bribery, sexual assault, racism, sexusm, and constantly lying in ways that are so hilariously easy to prove wrong. You could also look to how he doesn't understand science and told people injecting bleach was a cure for COVID along with shining light under someone's skin. Or how incapable he is of giving a speech, like when he said a terrorist "died like a dog. A beautiful dog."Seriously, the level of stupid you have to be to think Trump has any positive qualities should disqualify you from being conside... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

I think the problem is the "issues" don't really get solved by voting. You can vote your candidate in with the popular vote but that doesn't even assure they become president, let alone then have the power they need to enact the changes you want.I voted for Biden because he said he was going to help me with my student loan debt.He tried, I'll give him that. But him getting into office did not have the results I wanted to see, so ya, this time around I simply care less. (-2)

What? People never give Biden credit for all that he's accomplished.And if anyone in this thread needs a refresher, in 2022 alone, Biden Administration and Dems did the following:• ⁠passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest investment in fighting climate change in history• ⁠passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower• ⁠passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, breaking a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence legislation• ⁠signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law• ⁠took out the leader of al Qaeda• ⁠ended America's longest war• ⁠reauthorized and strengthened the Violence Against Women Act• ⁠signed the PACT Act, a bill to address veteran burn pit exposure• ⁠signed the NATO accession protocols for Sweden and Finland• ⁠issued executive order to protect reproductive rights• ⁠canceled $10,000 of student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 and canceled $20,000 in debt for Pell... (3)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/Scuczu2

Score: 🐮🐮🔘🔘🔘

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Average angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

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Driskill, an author and poet who's been employed at the university since 2012, developed OSU's Queer Studies program and had previously been honored for their transgender scholarship.

According to the group's fall news release, Driskill had acknowledged they are not citizens of any federally recognized tribe but insisted they had ancestry to those tribes.

Driskill identifies as trans, nonbinary and Two-Spirit.

every single person quoted or mentioned in the article is trans

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2024/09/20/did-this-new-google-chrome-security-move-just-make-passwords-obsolete/

Apparently the sub /r/LivestreamFail had some of their mods removed and stuff like that. They now made /r/LivestreamFails and posted a thread

what is going on, which has a link to a 10-page long google doc People obviously make fun of the mods in said thread.

From what I gathered the mods voted on groomercord to give another mod top mod and that guy went "crazy" and removed the old mods & added another mod.

The old mods apparently also say the new guy is a Destiny fan and they blame dgg so here's the Destiny sub thread

One of the old mods cried on ModSupport: Lost our ~3.4M follower sub-reddit due to lack of support from Reddit Admins

edit: one of the old mods seems to be a hamas piker fan who spammed the change into multiple subs (hasan_piker, twitch,... ) and of course to the sardines

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

You don't get to "set boundaries" on other people's behavior. "You can't wear that" is not a boundary. It's a control."I prefer to date women who dress more conservatively" is a boundary. You're NTA for knowing your own preferences and dating accordingly. YWBTA if you continued to try to change HER behavior to make her compatible with your preferences. (3560)

I wonder if this is supposed to be the other side of the post where a girl left her bf over a similar issue. In that one the bf ended up "breaking up with her" which was just fine by everyone else involved. (47)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

YTA On behalf of all women you did her a favor. You're controlling and insecure. (-2)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘

she and her friends are right, yta (14)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Your boundaries are YOUR boundaries, anything that forces UPON YOUR PERSON something you don't want to do or expereience qualifies as your boundary.THIS IS NOT something to do with YOUR boundaries, policing YOUR soon to be ex-GF's clothing choices and vacation choices is NOT enforcing your boundaries, it's TRESPASSING HERS , WTH bro!?, these are not the 1800's, your GF is not your property, you ARE insecure and should address that with your GF on why this makes you insecureYou say you "know" what goes on in "these trips" that sounds incredibly controlling and toxic (unless you have evidence that your GF has cheated and is not to be trusted)Here's the thing, you do not trust your GF, theres a reason behind that (and it's not her clothing choices), either she has done something like cheating to lose your trust or you've been hurt in the past or had a negative experience that you haven't gotten over.If she cheats, she cheats and you'll find out, and ditch a bad relationship, if she doe... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

What in the actual frick am I reading in these comments??? Have you been in relationships? Because it seems like people are just throwing terms around. Where is this absolute crap coming from? A boundary has shit all to do with clothes. A boundary is "I don't want to fight at work, I need to focus". "I don't want to do this sexually". They're supposed to keep us safe. A PREFERENCE is a desire. You want a 6 foot 5 man with a 6 figure income or a woman who "dresses modestly". Or maybe you want someone to dress more provocatively. That's a PREFERENCE. Not a boundary. If you prefer that person, call a spade a spade but stop bullpooping around. Which leads to. Saying absolute bullshit like "I know what goes on in Miami" or implying that dressing a certain way leads to cheating is just that absolute insecure bullshit. Why? Because you have no basis for saying it. Clearly you aren't going to Miami. Clearly you aren't dressing provocatively. But you're an expert? Just stop. A compromise is... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

YTA A "boundary" isn't telling someone how to dress, you trying to control what she wears is by definition controlling. Your girlfriend is right and you are insecure. It's okay to break up with her because you feel insecure with her, but you should never have tried to change her in the first place. Hate to break it to you but she is 22 and it's extremely normal to dress "provocatively" at that age. She isn't a child anymore and her clothing will reflect that. She isn't trying to "provoke" anything. She is probably just looking at other pretty girls on instagram and getting interested in their style. Which is NORMAL. You don't know "what goes down in miami" yes people party, but it's not like everyone who does will automatically cheat. If she hasn't cheated on you before then it's unfair to think that of her after 5 years. It's controlling to tell her she should be excluded from her friend's trip too. Idk if you have actually been to Miami, but i have. You know what happens in Miami?... (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/thebrattyfairy

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Average angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

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This is Corrine, the games director.

Oh yeah baby. Chuds, we're gonna be eating with this one. Thought we'd have to wait until November for ubisoft's game to see a studio burn to the ground, but bioware has got us covered in the meantime.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Hands-on previews:

• ''Feels like the series' Mass Effect 2 moment" -Eurog*mer

• "A definite GOTY contender" -G*merant

• "The Character Creator I’ve Always Wanted" -IGN

• "BioWare At Its Most Confident" -Gamespot#DragonAge #Veilguard pic.twitter.com/6jnpNrYHdj

— KAMI (@Okami13_) September 19, 2024

Journ*lists fricking love it, baby! Bioware finally hits it out of the park!

We are absolutely NOT getting a thick mommy protagonist this go around. Corrine, did you have anything to do with this? Audience subverted, male gaze averted.

Whoops, that one slipped through the cracks. Corrine will get that tidied up before release though.

DLC:

They absolutely dogpile this man:

Why are they obsessed with vitiligo

— Amorphous (@amorphous714) September 19, 2024

Thread theme btw if anyone knows more Chappell Roan songs like this let me know, I love this song

When Kennedy ran for President in 2024, he was a joke. The very weird failson of a famous dead politician throwing a strange tantrum because Joe Biden was too pro-vaccine. His announcement speech in 2023 would get taken down by YouTube because of his strange rants about vaccines, and the Brandonslide in the Democratic primaries was too powerful to be stopped - Kennedy couldn't stop Biden, Phillips couldn't stop Biden, Williamson couldn't stop Biden, not even my GOAT Jason Palmer could stop Biden.

Remeber this? That was so awesome. Anyway, Kennedy was a weird joke like Marianne Williamson or Dean Phillips - until he announced he was going to run third party, then he became a very serious threat. His early polls were incredible - some (obviously bollocks ones) were at 15%, and he was generally polled at around 8% - 10% near the start of his run. Of course, fate would not smile upon RFK. After a graveyard shaped closet was unleashed, he eventually gave up and endorsed Trump. Kennedyheads, who had given up there time and money to a real outsider, saw Kennedy give up and endorse a former President. They need to be talked off the rooftops, but are they dumb stupid morons? When has a third party candidate ever really mattered? Three, arguably five, times;

1924: Calvin Coolidge (R) v John Davis (D) v Robert La Follette (P)

1968: Richard Nixon (R) v Hubert Humphrey (D) v George Wallace (AI)

1992: Bill Clinton (D) v George H.W Bush (R) v Ross Perot (I)

These third parties were either marginal influences in the party that had a great amount of regional influence, but a marginal voice if any at all in the party they were associated with - so they struck out and walked their own path, and enthralled millions with their unique messaging. This longpost will look at what they did right, and where Kennedy went wrong.

There are two other third party runs that did very well, but I'm not counting them for a few reasons

The election of 1912 had Progressive Teddy Roosevelt comfortably humiliate Republican Howard Taft in the best ever performance for a third party, coming second with 88 EVs to Howard Taft's 8 EVs. I'm not counting Teddy because he was a former president - I think any third party run would be made stronger by the candidate being a former President.

The election of 1848 had Martin Van Buren win 10% of the vote with the Free Soil party, an anti-slavery party - impressive, but he's not included because he is both a former President, and his third party run had him compete against the Democrats and the Whigs. Around 1896 is when the two party system as we understand it emerges, and the cut-off point to studying third party runs begins.

1924 - Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Progressive Party (Wisconsin)

"Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from men who are aggressive for what is wrong."

Wisconsin has always been a liberal state - meaning that in the early 20th century, it was a Republican strong hold, dominated La Follette and his son, Robert La Follette Jr. La Follette's progressivism was the old school, prairie kind - born and raised on farms, with a conservative "got mine" bent to it that pleasingly led to a dedication to civil liberties and isolationism.

Come 1924, and the Democrats and Republicans both nominate conservatives. Calvin Coolidge won re-nomination as the Republican, while after 103 ballots John Davis was settled on when delegates at the convention started to run out of money had to leave. If you think the duopoly is bad today, Coolidge and Davis aligned on nearly every issue, differing only on condemning the Klan (Davis did so, Silent Cal did not) and on tariffs (Davis liked them low, Coolidge liked them high). Otherwise they agreed on a limited government, deregulated industry and tax cuts. American conservatism has never had it so good, the uniparty in fundamental agreement.

La Follette, not a man loyal to any particular party despite being a Republican, was angry that neither party had nominated any kind of liberal. At the 4th Conference for Progressive Political Action, 1,200 delegates composed of union members, socialists, liberals but not communists, frick off Foster , nominated Robert La Follette and Burton Wheeler, a ticket that called for mass nationalisation of companies, tax hikes and support for labour unions. And he did amazingly - despite what the map may tell you.

"Well winning one state is impressive for a third party, but is it really that good?"

Yep. He won 16.6% of the vote, nearly half the votes of Davis, won his home state of Wisconsin and beat Davis (coming in second) in the following states; Oregon, California, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Iowa, Minnesota and both the Dakotas . These are some pretty astonishing results, located mostly in the Western plains with a higher amount of farms then normal. So, how on earth did La Follette do so well?

It can't be denied that his unique politics played a role. When both parties have so much in common, it's clear there's an unheard voice in that election and La Follette was able to amplify that voice. There was so much frustration that he near totally unified the left, leaving only the communists out in the cold. Another advantage he had over Coolidge and Davis is that he was actually the one to campaign. Coolidge had a pretty understandable reason - his son Calvin Jr died in a freak tennis accident, when he got a blister that turned sepsis. Obviously in a deep grief, Coolidge rarely left the White House and his campaign speeches were mostly about his theory of governance rather than addressing the issues or his opponents. By contrast, Davis just didn't like campaigning much and in his meeting with party bosses would need his arm twisted to say to he supports them because showing affection in any way was simply not his character. Equally valid reasons, I'm sure one would agree.

Coolidge was always going to defeat to Davis thanks to the booming economy, but La Follette turned Davis into a joke - to this day, Davis' 28.8% amount of the vote is the worst a Democrat has ever done in the Popular Vote, isolating his support near entirely in the Jim Crow South where votes were tightly controlled. To explain just how lacking Davis' support was, electoral votes in the electoral college are determined by population. California had 13 EVs, Alabama had 12. California, won by Coolidge, had 1,263,413 votes with about 400,000 going to La Follette. Alabama, won by Davis, had 157,971 votes, with 45,005 going to Coolidge. Underscoring just how catastrophic Davis' loss was, during the 1864 US election, the South was not able to vote in the election due to the "rebellion" thing - and McCellan still got 44.9% of the vote against Lincoln.

La Follette would die in 1925 at 70, meaning he never got to see his work vindicated by the Democratic party. In 1928, Al Smith would win the Democratic nomination. A progressive, urban Catholic, the south would abandon him in droves due to fear of Papal influence while the north continued to bet on the Republicans - with President Herbert Hoover winning in one of the biggest landslides at the time. Hoover would be left holding the bag when the economy crashed, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt would unite the Democrats and the country to implement many of La Follette's ambitions - except of course, without the isolationism.

1968 - George Wallace, American Independence Party (Alabama)

George Wallace standing in the doorway of the University of Alabama to block the entrance of black students. "I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!"

From a left wing populist to a right wing populist, George Wallace was about as anti-La Follette as you could get. With Hubert Humphrey supporting measures to integrate society and Nixon opposing de-jure segregation, George Wallace, who had built a national profile as one of the top opponents to integration, ran third party to appeal to the raving bigots. The Wallace campaign plan was to win enough states to prevent Nixon from getting 270 Electoral Votes, force the election to the House and work out a deal where Nixon would uphold Segregation and Wallace released his EVs to let Nixon become President. His plan was to speak aggressively and passionately, decrying the elitism of the mainstream parties and "handouts" from the Great Society like Nixon did.

But he also mimicked Humphrey with his support for unions. He had no issue with an honest days pay for an honest days work - but wasn't it so unfair you were paying for lazy people? While he struck a middle ground economically, he went in a different direction for the war - Nixon was "peace", Humphrey was for status quo, and Wallace was ramping it up. An infamous quote of his is "We win in 90 days or we pull out", which sometimes misinterpreted as a peace plan. Wallace wanted to destroy North Vietnam, to teach Red China and the Soviet Union a lesson . More importantly, he didn't talk about segregation unless pressed about it, where he would of course defend it. Wallace's victory plan was to build a coalition of single issue voters, racists, anti-welfare union workers, warhawks and people that enjoyed him picking fights with hippies, to cause the deadlock.

Trust me, picking fights with hippies is critical to the central thesis regarding Kennedy. To generate enough media attention, he used inflammatory language to create controversy. "The only four letter words don't know are W-O-R-K and S-O-A-P!" he would say of his protestors. When it came to the Lyndon Johnson's protestors? "If any anarchists lie in front of my automobile, it'll be the last automobile they ever lie in front of." Sometimes he'd even get into shouting matches with his protestors. When called a fascist, he boasted "I was killing fascists while you were in diapers!" Another memorable line was when he grinned and chatted to a heckler. "I love you, I really do. Because when you come to me, I get another million votes." People loved it. While Humphrey was in full shill mode, trying to pick up the pieces of the Democratic party, and while Nixon was chilling not doing anything at all because he was winning massively, Wallace was the man in the arena, ranting and raving in a way people loved.

Wallace at his peak was polling at an astonishing 20% of the vote, but crashed out pretty badly during LeMay's first press conference. "We seem to have a phobia of nuclear weapons" LeMay began. He would continue with "it doesn't make much of a difference to me if I have go to a jungle in Vietnam and get killed with a rusty knife or get killed with a nuclear weapon. As a matter of fact, if I had the choice I would lean towards nuclear weapon." Wallace, visibly panicked, steps in to say "General LeMay hasn't advocated for nuclear weapons, not at all. He discussed nuclear weapons with you, he is against the use of nuclear weapons and I am too." Moments later, LeMay was asked if he would use nukes on Vietnam. "If I found it necessary." Like a fricking sitcom.

The consequences were swift and brutal, with Wallace plateauing from 20% of the vote to around 14%-12%, and he would ultimately get 13.5% of the vote and a far better EV count than La Follette.

301 EVs is a pretty respectable amount from Nixon, but Wallace's defeat was a lot closer then one might think. The Midwestern states had the powerful union votes split between Wallace and Humphrey, letting Nixon sweep the anti-union vote easily. But Nixon only won several Southern states with less then 40% of the vote. Had Wallace preformed better or rather, not suffered from the LeMay fiasco, he could have won North Carolina or Tennessee due to thinness of Nixon's victory. The margin for Nixon's victory goes from 301 - 191 - 46 to 289 - 191 - 58, still a win but a narrow win when you need 270 to win without a deadlock.

In turn, Missouri and Ohio both have Nixon with a margin of roughly 1% over Humphrey. If Wallace didn't have the nuke comments weighing him down, he could have tapped better into the Conservatives of the state and allowed Humphrey to win them both. If those states went blue but Nixon got every vote from North Carolina, the margin of victory is 269 - 229 - 45, just one EV from preventing Wallace's actual victory of forcing Nixon to end integration. Granted, this is all a lot of what ifs. But Wallace's defeat was a very narrow thing.

After the election, Wallace crawled back to the Democrats and became a bizarrely accepted part of it - to the point there were rumours of a Humphrey/Wallace ticket in 1972. He would ultimately come third in the 1972 primaries, despite being shot, and managed to outlive both Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, despite being shot. His legacy is of interest only to historians, his riot having accomplished nothing at all. De-jure segregation is illegal, and de-facto segregation remains commonplace all over America - no thanks to Wallace's tantrum.

1992 - Ross Perot, Independent (Texas)

"The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled."

After dealing with two populists, it only makes sense our final candidate before Kennedy is Ross Perot - an anti-populist. A man who went on TV, promised to raise taxes and cut benefits, and soared to the top of the polls.

That's not an exaggeration - Gallup had at one point Ross Perot leading with 39% of the vote, to Bush's 31% and Clinton's 29% of the vote, past the 4% margin of error. As well as these other candidates have done, none of them have ever been polled at outright beating both candidates.

His key policy was going against the grain, and embracing protectionism when Bush and Clinton were both enthusiastic supporters of NAFTA. During the debates, he eerily prophesied "there will be a giant sucking sound going south" if NAFTA passes due to Mexico's lax environmental and labour laws. His other

Those were his most notable policies, and what he really railed against Bush and Clinton on. Bush had got them in this mess, and Clinton's liberal policies weren't gonna get them out. But he also had an eclectic series of other policies - like "Direct Democracy" through electronic town halls (fitting for a CEO of a company that specialised in computers), and a less involved America (although not isolationist).

Also unique was his messaging. While Clinton used platitudes and uplifting advertising, and Bush viciously attacked Clinton as a philandering communist plant, Perot's defining ads would be him buying 30 minutes of air time and frankly explaining what he thought was right for the country and how he would do it, with CHARTS BABY!

It's goes against every single populist idea there's ever been. Perot had policy that didn't have "popular" aspects of it, delivered in a frank, clear and detailed manner. By nearly any political junkie's understanding of the American electorate, he should have flopped, his advertisements discovered by pathetic teenagers saying "so true!" and calling themselves Perotstans in the new 20s.

There is a lot more to the story then this, worthy of it's own article (I haven't even mentioned Perot thinking the CIA was sabotaging him or dropping out of the race), but that is the short version when it comes to analysing Perot's place in third party history.

With Bush losing, the Republicans generally considered Perot to have stolen votes from Bush and handing Clinton the election - the facts don't reflect this, Perot generally took from both bases, but the Republicans grudgingly took notice and for the midterms introduced the Contract With America, an ambitious set of reforms that included the Balanced Budget Amendment to outlaw deficit and term limits for members of Congress - all of which failed to pass.

Perot would try his luck again in 1996, forming the Reform Party and couping it's nomination from Richard Lamm, and getting decent results - 8.4% is nothing to sneeze at, and more then enough to win the party federal funding. The party's apex would be in 1998, when former pro-wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura won the Minnesota Gubernatorial race. The Reform party would crumble shortly afterwards, as Progressives and Paleoconservatives feuded with each other over which way to take the party - ultimately the Paleoconservatives won, nominating Pat Buchanan and getting less then 1% in 2000. Ross Perot for his part endorsed George Bush.

2024 - Robert Francis Kennedy Jr, Independent (California)

"Why should somebody be able to pollute the air, which belongs to all of us, or destroy a river or a waterway, which is supposed to belong to the whole community?"

What does a left wing populist, a right wing populist, and centrist anti-populist have in common? Why did they succeed when the Greens, the Libertarians, the Communists, and my GOATS the Prohibition Party fail, time after time?

I narrowed it down to three factors.

• A wedge issue

• A wide coalition

• A unique voice

A Wedge Issue

The first and most important step is the wedge issue. La Follette had progressivism, Wallace had segregation and Perot had NAFTA and the deficit. You need to be saying something that no one else is saying, that really resonates. Chase Oliver of the Libertarians fails because his socially progressive message is being used by the Democrats, and his fiscal conservatism is being used by the Republicans. Perhaps there are voters that prefer his message as a whole, but most consider one issue more important and back the party likely to win to accomplish this goal.

It's called the marketplace of ideas, and you need to operate like a business. You can't walk in with a mishmash of policy both party's are offering, you just enter a saturated market. You need a unique selling point no other competitor is offering, or else you'll just be overshadowed by your better funded competitors. (Glad to put my diploma in business to good use).

Did RFK Jr have these unique ideas? In a sense he did. As he pointed out frequently, the COVID-19 vaccines came from one Donald J. Trump's project Warpspeed.

This didn't matter. Despite starting as a hippie thing, of which RFK is a remnant of, vaccine scepticism has become firmly an stance of the fringe right, who Donald Trump commands. They may not like that Trump is pro-vaccine (here's Trump being booed for saying his crowd should take the vaccine) , but he is still their guy. Saying "uhhhh I don't trust those vaccines" doesn't fly when Q is warning people if they don't back Trump JFK Jr will stay dead or whatever.

A Wide Coalition

This is important, third party or first. No single issue is ever popular enough to propel someone to the finish line just on that single issue. You need to have a stance on everything that's in the public consensus as "important". La Follette's sheer uniqueness gave him the widest coalition of the American left there's ever really been, while George Wallace flirted with Warhawks and the unions. Ross Perot's top concern was the economy, but he also had the most non-interventionist foreign policy and some eccentric ideas on general governance.

I conducted a small (tiny) poll asking random people why they thought RFK Jr was running and to assume it was in good faith. The vast majority of the answers I got were "vaccines". I had three other answers of the dozen or so people I asked - one included Bobby's issues with the FDA, which is technically different but ranting about the chemicals in our food is on a similar wavelength to anti-vaccine rhetoric, two answers included opposition to the duopoly, and one came from an outright Bobby fan who correctly identified Bobby has having the most anti-corporate, pro-environment platform in the race (aided by Biden and Harris not actually having a platform).

No one mentioned his isolationist foreign policy, his shockingly progressive stance on race, his transphobia, or his ties to crypto currency. Because he never really talked about it! It was all about the Duopoly, the FDA, or the Vaccines. He seemed to be trying to build this wide net on his policy page, but gave up when it came time to campaign and focused on his most nutjob stances.

Opposing the Two-Party system isn't enough. If it was, Gary Johnson would be included in this list. Remember him? The 2016 Libertarian candidate, running against two of the least popular mainstream candidates ever. He won 3.28% of the vote, not a terrible result for a third party, but hardly what you would expect from arguably the least popular race of all time.

So RFK Jr doesn't really have a wedge issue, and he doesn't really have a coalition. Surely such a wacky candidate has the final part?

A Unique Voice

He sure did have a unique voice! Because spasmodic dysphonia and he does seek treatment for it, it's very insensitive to make fun of it.

But when it comes to how he campaigned, he was rather standard. He appeared on podcasts… and that was about it

Sitting down and explaining your crank beliefs on a podcast may have been unique in 2010, but it's really not that different from sitting down and explaining your crank beliefs on a TV show these days. In fact, Donald Trump has been the one experimenting with messaging, doing a "X Space" and going on a livestream with popular r-slur Adin Ross.

There is one exception to this. One instance where he had a truly message that wasn't about chemicals, delivered in a manner that was unique and appealed to people outside of his eccentric circle - his Superbowl ad, wherein all that was advertised is that a Kennedy is running for president, and he's younger than Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

The same fricking duopoly message that doesn't work.

In all three factors, Kennedy came up short. He couldn't wedge an issue, he refused to expand his circle, and his campaign style was far blander then his bizarre campaign ideas.

Kenndy and his scandals

The Scandals

Scandals are part of any good campaign, and Kennedy is no exception. His campaign may be more famous for the constant, bizarre scandals then any of his very silly beliefs.

All I can say is Kennedy is very, very lucky that the outlandish scandals overshadowed his dark past.

In the same day he was accused of eating a dog, he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman he hired as babysitter, allegations he responded to with a blasé "I am not a Church Boy". These very serious criminal allegations were overshadowed by the ludicrous ones, a reoccurring theme. The fact he literally had a brainworm overshadowed how this information got out - it was disclosed during divorce proceedings where he was so callous to his ex-wife during and after the marriage, he drove her to suicide. There is a real darkness in Kennedy, overshadowed by the utter farce much of his campaign seemed to be.

The future of third parties

It's hard to not view the future of third party politics as bleak. The party's are more unified then ever, but that's come with polarisation increasing loyalty to the parties. Wedge issues are by their nature impossible to predict, and in the age of mass media, what's unique is generally a very fleeting thing.

Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Donald Trump got shot about two months ago, and the world has just continued to chug with those events just being part of the news cycle. The third party uniqueness vital for them to stand a chance seems like they're much more likely to just be a fad, rather than anything impactful.

I hope I'm wrong. But more likely, you'll see outsiders - like former Reform party member Donald Trump or Independent Bernie Sanders work within the party, and force compromises along inside the system.

Germany tried this with Turks and Syrians, Canada tried it with jeets, UK tried it with Pakis, etc...

But they think it will work with Haitians lmfao

Shout out to all of my !dixie brothers whose lives are also about to get fricked up for the next week or so lol. I'm directly in the path of this thing. Could still bend around us but we'll see!

!kino !bookworms !ringbearers AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

What is this shit?

Currently 2 interstate highways are completely fricked in the area

Interstate 40 is closed at the Tennessee-North Carolina border near the Pigeon River Gorge after flooding and a mudslide overtook the highway.

The interstate, a major thoroughfare through the Southern Appalachians, is closed in both directions, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

I-40 East is closed from Mile Marker 432 in Tennessee until Mile Marker 3 in North Carolina. I-40 West is closed starting at Mile Marker 3 in North Carolina through Mile Marker 435 in Tennessee.

A mudslide on the North Carolina side resulted in a partial collapse of the highway, according to Kelse Edwards, a communications director for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Photos of the dramatic collapse circulated on social media.

There is no timeline for how long it will take to assess the damage or repair the roadway.

I want to share: https://t.co/CmCwbcxZfD has blocked @wpengine customers from updating and installing plugins and themes via WP Admin—disrupting essential work for #WordPress users, agencies, freelancers, and plugin developers.

Please read: https://t.co/cE45rmvnqW

— Brian Gardner (@bgardner) September 25, 2024