#Appetite for Democracy

[longliverockback]

Guns n’ Roses Appetite for Democracy 2014 Geffen ————————————————— Tracks: 01. Chinese Democracy 02. Welcome to the Jungle 03. It’s So Easy 04. Mr. Brownstone 05. Estranged 06. Rocket Queen 07. Live and Let Die 08. This I Love 09. Better 10. Motivation 11. Catcher in the Rye 12. Street of Dreams 13. You Could Be Mine 14. Sweet Child o’ Mine 15. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) 16. November Rain 17. Objectify 18. Don’t Cry 19. Civil War 20. The Seeker 21. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door 22. Nightrain 23. Used to Love Her 24. Patience 25. Paradise City Interviews 26. Dizzy Reed 27. Tommy Stinson 28. Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal 29. DJ Ashba —————————————————

Daren Jay Ashba

Frank Ferrer

Richard Fortus

Chris Pitman

Dizzy Reed

Axl Rose

Tommy Stinson

Ron Thal

* Long Live Rock Archive

[rocketqueen1989x]

i need them inside of me

[animalb0y]

Axl Rose na capa da RIP Magazine, Setembro de 1991.

[oldsoulgunsnrosesgirl]

Ok This Is Fr So Me I Love All These Albums So Much😭😍I love these men so much

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[nerdwelt]

Guns N' Roses veröffentlichen endlich neuen Song 'Vielleicht'

Guns N’ Roses haben endlich ihre lang erwartete und kürzlich verschobene Single ‘Perhaps’ veröffentlicht – hier könnt ihr reinhören. MEHR LESEN: Slash spricht über Glastonbury, Guns N’ Roses und den blutigen Horrorfilm ‘The Breach’ ‘Perhaps’ sollte angeblich letzte Woche veröffentlicht werden (11. August), wurde jedoch aus unbekannten Gründen verschoben. Vor der Verschiebung erschien kurzzeitig…

[cleoselene]

so many people are failing so hard at the most basic fundamental question of democracy that faces as voters in 2024:

fascism or nah?

democracy or nah?

authoritarianism or nah?

but the way some of you talk about Joe Biden it makes me think you wish that he was more authoritarian. I choose to believe people simply don't understand the legal separation of powers, I choose to believe it's a civics failure

but more and more I think there's just an appetite for authoritarianism. I think that's what draws people to Trump, actually. I think that's where you get dummy leftists saying "Why didn't Biden just sign an executive order to [insert thing that the courts would CERTAINLY immediately overturn here, like student loan cancellation, which is exactly what happened]?" and you're like "well, the courts" and they're "why didn't Biden just stack the courts" and you're like "well, the Senate" and they're like WHY DOESN'T HE STEAMROLL THE SENATE and it's like BECAUSE HE FUCKING CAN'T IT'S AGAINST THE LAW. And why isn't the senate better? because stupid fucks don't vote

people just want a benevolent dictatorship without realizing that such a thing has always been a fucking fantasy. a dictator is a dictator is a dictator.

[mrhaitch]

Hello, Mr. Haitch

You mentioned before in one of your answers that "climate and social justice are inextricably linked." Do you mind saying how so?

Thank you!

Our current geological age - the Anthropocene - is inextricably linked to the history of capitalism, no matter how you date it. The three main theories are that it began in 1945 at the close of the second world war and the international trade agreements and advent of nuclear testing; that it began with the industrial revolution; or (and this is the theory I subscribe to) it began between 1492 and 1610 with European colonialism in the Americas.

The anthropocene is defined as an age of globalised human control and impact on the earth's environment, ranging from climate change to biodiversity, and the early history of Europe's colonisation of the Americas fits the bill pretty well. Beginning in 1492 the indigenous population of the Americas collapsed by 95% (population estimates run from 60 million to 120+, the loss represents about a 10% global population loss), along with vast amounts of infrastructure including cities, towns, trading outposts, road networks, irrigation systems, and so on - all in an area (especially equatorial America) where the local flora grows rapidly. The deaths of so many with so few colonisers to replace them saw a rapacious period of reforestation, creating a massive carbon sink which drew down an estimated 13 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, ushering in The Little Ice Age. Global temperatures fell for the first time since the agricultural revolution, and put huge stress on an already fracturing feudal system. Over the course of 200 years Europe went through fits of social and political revolution, where the aristocracy were (sometimes violently) deposed by an ascendant merchant class ushering in our current age of liberal democracy, the enshrining of private property, and fixation on trade and prosperity.

The population collapse also provided a rationale for the Atlantic slave trade, as the enslaved workforce the Europeans had been using up until then were pretty much all dead.

With me so far?

Since the industrial revolution our economic system has been reliant on exponential growth, leading to an ever increasing appetite for raw materials, land, and cheap (or free) labour. The environmental and human costs have increased in lock step with one another - both crises borne of the same root. We cannot address one without addressing the other.

This is a very condensed version of the argument and I'm glossing over a lot here. If you're interested I'd recommend tracking down the following texts (usually available at libraries, particularly University ones):

The American Holocaust, David Stannard

The Human Planet, Lewis and Maslin

The Problem of Nature, David Arnold

The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert

History and Human Nature, RC Solomon

[acti-veg]

could england ever rejoin the EU?

We could, but the barrier to doing so is very much on our side. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has expressed support for the UK rejoining. The problem is that there is little appetite for it at home, Labour have ruled it out and the Tories certainly have.

That said, as time goes on the argument for a referendum will get stronger, as our economy gets worse compared with similar nations who are inside the EU, and as our influence on the world stage shrinks. There is also the fact that more and more people of voting age will not have been old enough to vote in the EU referendum, and many the older voters who did vote leave will be dead or no longer politically active. That isn't to say they won't be replaced by the rise of right-wing politics in younger men in particular.

On top of that, many who voted to leave now regret doing so, particularly those in the manufacturing and farming industries. Many wanted to ‘take control of immigreiton’ and have had their pretty unrealistic illusions shattered. Farmers are overwhelmingly conversative in Britain but the industry has been hit hard by the lack of access to seasonal EU workers, and on the inability to export or compete in the EU market. The same is true of manufacturing.

Even on the left though, there is this bizarre prevailing opinion that you vote on something once it’s decided forever, so you never put it to the public again, and that is somehow what democracy means. A UK return to the EU is not impossible but most commentators agree it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, at least not until the political landscape changes pretty radically.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

'Jubilee Procession in a Cornish Village' by George Sherwood Hunter

* * * *

Leonard Cohen’s thoughts on democracy (from a 1993 interview) are especially relevant today: "Democracy is the great religion of the West – probably the greatest religion because it affirms other religions; probably the greatest culture because it affirms other cultures. But it’s based on faith, it’s based on appetite for fraternity, it’s based on love, and therefore it shares the characteristics of a religious movement. It’s also like a religion in that it’s never really been tried.“

[Wait-what?]

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

By: Mariam Memarsadeghi

The Iran regime’s role in the October 7 attack is fundamental and a manifestation of its daily “Death to Israel” chants and call to wipe Israel off the map. The Biden administration, however, has chosen to minimize the fact that Hamas has been developed and directed by Tehran, deflecting scrutiny from the world’s top state sponsor of terror. This appeasement mindset helped Tehran to believe it could get away with a massive terror attack on Israel in the first place. The Biden foreign policy is predicated on a worldview that seeks to end American presence in the Middle East region, has little interest in aiding democracy movements to topple authoritarians, rejects as the Obama administration did the post-9/11 vision to link democratization with security and sustainable peace in the region, sees appeasement of the ayatollahs as means to minimize instability and its own involvement in the region, and so has lifted the Maximum Pressure placed on the regime by the Trump administration. But feeding the crocodile has resulted in only a bigger appetite, as the delisting of the Houthis, a first move by the Biden administration to show its willingness to please Tehran, quickly proved. On the nuclear file, too,  Iran’s regime has taken advantage of Washington’s overtures and willingness to turn a blind eye on sanctions to up its enrichment.

The October 7 attack on Israel is part and parcel of the Islamic Republic’s larger, multifaceted war on the West and liberalism. It has resulted in suffering and insecurity for the Israeli people, rising antisemitism across the globe, and moral confusion within democracies. Terror that should have been met with global condemnation and solidarity with the Israeli people instead resulted in the proliferation of the hate projected by Iran’s regime. Any policy truly designed to prevent Islamist terror and cultivate peace for the region must begin with a strategy to bring down that regime, but as evidenced by messages of condolences on the passing of the mass executioner Raisi, Western governments remain determined to appease it.

[rocketqueen1989x]

sorry but his nose is so fucking beautiful

[animalb0y]

Grand Theft Auto: Paradise City

[tomorrowusa]

Yes there is a double standard in the news media AND among members of the public.

Democrats are held to a higher standard. Democrats are always expected to act like grown-ups while Republicans are allowed to wreck institutions of democracy while getting only a perfunctory tsk tsk.

If Biden gave a bizarre and semi-coherent speech like this the media and users on social media would go into convulsions of disparagement. But because it came from Trump, the general feeling is that "it's just Donald being Donald"...

...and that doesn't even touch on fact checking.

The House drama is another case in point. One candidate for Speaker, Gym Jordan, turned a blind eye to sex abuse as an assistant coach; and the leader of the anti-McCarthy coup, Matt Gaetz, has an appetite for girls under 18. Republicans are like the villains in their own QAnon conspiracy folklore.

Jen Sorensen, an American national treasure, touched on this double standard in a cartoon.

With the emergence of every new revelation of GOP idiocy, incompetence, or downright treason, publicly ask what the reaction would be if a living Democrat had done the same.

Don't let membership in the GOP excuse people for being anti-democratic dickheads.

[itryandfeelthesunshine]

Friday, December 8th, 2023;

After a long time waiting, “The General” is officialy released ✨

Information for all new GN'R fans, this is NOT a new song. The first time Axl ever mentioned "The General" was in December 2008

Was it worth waiting for? Well, I'm happy. And no, this is not a song that sounds like it did during the Appetite for Destruction era, and please don't criticize this song just because it has a different sound, Axl has been working on it for over a decade and experimented a lot with technology and sound, this is the time of the creation of Chinese Democracy and we fans cannot expect that Guns' music won't change, because everything changes and that is natural, I'm glad that they create, play and perform. And their sound, whatever it is, is iconic 🎸

M. 🌹

[theculturedmarxist]

A few minutes earlier, Walz had been onstage in Washington at a Center for American Progress event, chiding a crowd of engaged but worried Democrats, “Everybody who says, ‘I wish he was younger.’ I wish I was skinnier! [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis wishes he was more likable! It’s not going to happen. … There’s a responsibility for us not to buy into that.”

STOP EXPECTING THINGS OF US!

Or as Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle told CNN more bluntly, “People should shut the hell up.”

STOP DEMANDING WE DO ANY BETTER!

“I deal in the real world,” said the Philadelphia-area Democrat, who has been proudly supporting Biden for years. “He is going to be the nominee, regardless of whether people think they can construct on paper a more attractive nominee or not.”

IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!

“Every time Democrats go on TV and say, ‘The president’s done a great job, but he’s 80 years old,’ all they’re doing is feeding this appetite out there by some for a third-party run,” said Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City-area Democrat. “And that could be the worst thing that happens in a century.”

WE LIVE IN THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS DON'T LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES AND RUIN EVERYTHING NOW!

“Joe Biden is on the freedom, democracy and opportunity agenda that beat MAGA Republicans in 2020, in 2022, and will win again in 2024,” Ben Wikler, the Democratic party chair in the top battleground state of Wisconsin, told CNN. “Every hour that someone spends fantasizing about some other ticket is an hour they could have spent calling voters or raising money to help reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

WE'RE GREAT! WE'RE DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB!! OUR POSITION IS COMPLETELY UNASSAILABLE AND WE'RE DEFINITELY GOING TO WIN EVEN THOUGH WE INSPIRE NO CONFIDENCE IN OURSELVES OR OUR SUPPORTERS.

“All these pundits will talk about polling, polling, polling — OK, fine, let’s talk about that,” Harris said, drawing an enthusiastic standing ovation during the DNC meeting in St. Louis. “What we did on the climate crisis: I think 80% popularity. Lowering the cost of prescription drugs to $35 a month, I think everyone loves that. $2,000 a year for seniors for prescription medication, hallelujah. Fighting for relief of student loan debt. 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. Popular, popular, popular.”

Delusional, delusional, delusional.

“That which doesn’t kill him,” the congressman said hopefully, “makes him stronger.”

lol, lmao

[woodpengu]

For the first time in about 16 years... I stepped foot into a church, a place of fellowship and communion, a building of a particular type with a particular purpose. And for the first time in my life, it healed me.

No, I'm not a Christian, nor will I ever be... to my parents' disappointment. This was a Unitarian Universalist organization, the first I've ever stepped foot in (though have been curious about since the first time I saw one in another city what feels like a lifetime ago). I had no idea what to expect, but my nervous system draws its own conclusions from trauma rather than logic. Bless my fiance for her effortless and endless patience (no pun intended) as she held my hand, massaged my knuckles, and kissed my cheek through the entire experience. I was there for her sake more than my own, but part of it was also for me.

One never knows how a new thing will go until they do it, and that is a much more terrifying statement to one who is both neurodivergent and severely traumatized. Risk aversion is a steadfast companion. My normal walking into such a place in the past was met with niceness, not kindness. A "Welcome" for being here leaden heavily with conditions for daring to exist in such a space, and a strict propriety. So, of course I was mute with anxiety and terror from the moment I woke up this morning, sleep fitful, appetite altered, senses tuned to suffering and a heightened awareness of being somehow seen as deficient.

I did not expect jeans and t-shirts. I did not expect kindness and welcome. I did not expect a service paying homage to the necessity of democracy on the coattails of an attempted assassination. I did not expect the open admittance of many of the congregation to be in agreement with my own feelings. I did not expect to be approached with genuine grace and warmth, especially after admitting my experience with religion. I did not expect to walk in shut down and walk out opened as a lotus to the sun.

We'll be going back. The exposure therapy is working in this one regard.