Trump is a Dumb Shit and So are We

You are what you eat. You break it, you pay for it. You elect a dumb shit, you are a dumb shit.
Confucius (attributed)

Remember when Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Secretary of State, reportedly called Trump a moron in a July 2017 meeting, i.e., when he was acting as Trump's SOS. He denied it and is still SOS, but we all know it happened and is true.

Now a report has come out alleging National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster called Trump an “idiot,” a “dope” and said he has the intelligence of a “kindergartner,” also in July at a dinner with the Oracle CEO. This is being reported by Buzzfeed.

Of course both are denying they said such things and Trump supporters blame the Deep State, but come on, isn't it fucking obvious? I don't mean to be condescending but, if you haven't deduced that by now, you may also be a dumb shit. No offense.

We're all dumb shits for letting this happen. Even if you didn't vote for the dumb shit, you allowed this to happen in one way or another. Unless you are one of the very, very few who have been pushing for an end to the presidency and this representative political system people have been brainwashed into calling "democracy". But if you have been participating in this system, how can you claim to not be responsible for the results?

If you still believe we should elect another president after this, I feel for ya.

I read another article earlier with the title, "Trump labels North Korea state sponsor of terrorism". Aside from the Orwellian act of the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism labeling a small, poor country a state sponsor of terrorism, the thing that stands out to me is the crediting of Trump with this decision.

How can a dumb shit moron with the intelligence of a kindergardner make such a significant decision as this?

Is it because Donald Trump, prior to becoming president, researched, analyzed, contemplated, philosophized, and planned the agenda that is being carried out in his administration toward North Korea?

No, the dude doesn't even read books, he watches Fox news and reads Breitbart. He's a silver spoon, pussy grabbing, real estate bankruptcy king who can talk in simple terms that many vulnerable dumb shit Americans can understand and actually believe. But that's no different than the millions of Americans who were literally shouting hallelujah when Nobel peace prize winner turned ultimate planet earth war criminal Barack Obama gave his speeches while campaigning for King of the World.

Labeling North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism wasn't his idea, nor was it his decision. He was presented with the information those he hired wanted presented to get him to make the decision they wanted him to make. It's called his decision, which it is, but it was the only decision he could make. Because he's a moron with the intelligence of a kindergartener.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-declares-nkorea-a-terror-sponsor-...

Well it doesn't really matter whether he's a dumb shit or not. Obama seemed to not be a dumb shit, but I would posit that anyone who is willing to accept the responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings as part of your job must be inherently a dumb shit. In the end, it all comes out.

It's time to seriously think about the way we allow ourselves to be "governed", or more accurately, ruled. History is littered with the crimes and unbelievably sadistic and immoral actions of the presidents, dictators, kings, queens, and other individuals the rest of us have elected or could not prevent from ruling our lives. Some will point out benevolent rulers and presidents who have bettered the lives of their subjects but those are few and far between and now, fuhgeddiboudit. Really.

Jesus ain't coming.

Action Item: Abolish the presidency and overturn this political system before it's too late.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

k9disc's picture

Seriously. I read that and kind of freaked a bit. Like,"WTF!?"

I could see the "Axis of Evil" with a Despot, an "out of control democracy", and a failed state with Nukes, but that wasn't calling them a terrorist nation.

Tell me all about their exportation of terror. Like... Where?

up
0 users have voted.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@k9disc for aggression against "terrorists" which the imperial powers seem to have carte blanche to prosecute in the never ending war...

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@k9disc The word "terrorist" means whatever they want it to mean.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
to get permission to use a Trump campaign commercial on a site like C99%.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@FuturePassed No, but I had to make sure nobody remembered it was also a George W.Bush campaign ad, a Hillary Clinton campaign ad, and a Ronald Reagan campaign ad. Smile

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
The commercial was filmed after the Reagan years.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@FuturePassed Let's just say the Reagan administration would have approved that message.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@FuturePassed She really does look like a Trump administration staffer, though doesn't she?

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@FuturePassed @FuturePassed Well, in the context of the story, she's not speaking on camera. This isn't for the masses; imagine this as a meeting at Davos. Sheridan is the only Earth military commander who had successfully beaten the Minbari in the last war, so they can't automatically assume he's a dissident or condemn him as a terrorist; he embodies patriotism for the whole planet, and would be very useful in a "humans come first" foreign policy (which the PTB in that story want). So, rather than making him a pariah, they send someone to rein him in and encourage him to make political choices they like.

I always assume that in private, the politicians talk smarter than they do when they're talking to us. Not more moral, mind you, but less inane.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

gulfgal98's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal We should remember that the Occupy movement was labeled as a terrorist organization before the first tent ever went up in Zuccotti Park.

The biggest and most deadly terrorist country in the world is the United States.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

divineorder's picture

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98 and leaving it open for Trump to do the same.

He sent the troops to Niger in 2012, then announced more troops and a drone base in 2013.

...

Breaking:

....

....

And the beat goes on. Divestment!

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@k9disc
"Tell me all about their exportation of terror. Like... Where?"
Well, what about the nukes North Korea gave to Syria?

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@artisan

Israel’s Ploy Selling a Syrian Nuke Strike

In September 2007, Israeli warplanes bombed a building in eastern Syria that the Israelis claimed held a covert nuclear reactor that had been built with North Korean assistance. Seven months later, the CIA released an extraordinary 11-minute video and mounted press and Congressional briefings that supported that claim.

But nothing about that alleged reactor in the Syrian desert turns out to be what it appeared at the time. The evidence now available shows that there was no such nuclear reactor, and that the Israelis had misled George W. Bush’s administration into believing that it was in order to draw the United States into bombing missile storage sites in Syria. Other evidence now suggests, moreover, that the Syrian government had led the Israelis to believe wrongly that it was a key storage site for Hezbollah missiles and rockets.

This is interesting. Why doesn't Israel ever use its own soldiers to fight the wars instead of our government sending ours to fight their battles for them?

The Israelis made no secret of their desire to have a U.S. airstrike destroy the alleged nuclear facility. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called President Bush immediately after that briefing and said, “George, I’m asking you to bomb the compound,” according to the account in Bush’s memoirs.

Was there a different link that you meant?

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg Here is part 2.

up
0 users have voted.

@k9disc state means the US can use the AUMF in the GWOT on North Korea now. At least that was my very first thought when I saw that.

up
0 users have voted.

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

k9disc's picture

@lizzyh7

up
0 users have voted.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

ggersh's picture

@lizzyh7 https://occupywallst.org/forum/gore-vidal-well-have-a-dictatorship-soon-...

Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he regrets his change of heart. How’s Obama doing? “Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.” America should leave Afghanistan, he says. “We’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it.” The “War on Terror” was “made up”, Vidal says. “The whole thing was PR, just like ‘weapons of mass destruction’. It has wrecked the airline business, which my father founded in the 1930s. He’d be cutting his wrists. Now when you fly you’re both scared to death and bored to death, a most disagreeable combination.”

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

mimi's picture

system without a civil war?

May be the question is, Big AL, do you want the "total civil war" in the US? Sounds so bad, doesn't it? Like those bad evil doers, who asked for "total war", you used to fight against.

There is one consolation. If we are all dumb shits, nobody is intelligent. At least in that we are all equal.

I will send you some popcorn with FEDEX, hope it helps.

Now let's have a beer.

Drinks

up
0 users have voted.

@mimi @mimi
that are given to us by this political system. The people who gave us those tools weren't dumb and they were living in a world full of absolute monarchs. The problem is too many damn brainwashed people in this country and the the free ride that all those brainwashed people are giving the evil brain washers. We need to insist on fixing our broken election system and we need to all wake up and use it in a way that serves our interests, not the interests of the brain washers.

up
0 users have voted.

Beware the bullshit factories.

WaterLily's picture

@Timmethy2.0 But good luck with that.

(Disclaimer: I am not an online troll out to discourage anyone. This is just the way I see it).

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Timmethy2.0 @Timmethy2.0 @ Big Al
to study a bit the German parliamentary system, der Bundestag. It is so complicated that I don't fully understand it myself and would have a hard time to write about it here. It's not only the Bundestag, but also the German Bundesrat, which makes the system a bit more democratic than the US system. But even with the barriers for third parties to enter the parliament being lowered at the states level, it still has its dangers, which is really not system dependent, but dependent on humans characteristics and its psychology.

The voters have more options and more direct influence, but that also means they have to make more decisions. And it looks like most people don't like to make decisions.

If the elected parties have to build a government and none of the parties wins an absolute majority, parties have to decide how they build a majority coalition to have a majority government. And it looks like, though people want free choices and a direct democracy, they don't like to make decisions and they don't like to change their minds about a party and stick with one no matter what. And to run a minority government is scary to most, though actually good for a democratic process, as it allows more individual parliamentarians to have influence on the legislative process.

So, nothing is fool-proof, just gradually better or worse.

It is always said that our German Basic Law is the basis of our pretty good electoral system and as you know (ironically) it was the US that was influential in the way the German Basic Law was written in 1948/9. This fact makes the realization that the US electoral system has deficiencies compared to the German system even more incomprehensible and infuriatingly saddening.

up
0 users have voted.
Big Al's picture

@mimi Angela Merkel.

Ya, it's going to be hard to come up with a "fool" proof system.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Big Al
Nah, Big Al, it's Seehofer. It's Schulz ... I think you may not "get her". She is less dumb shit than many dumb shitters believe she is. At least so far. To say it straight for dummies.

up
0 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

and civil war seem to be the only way to turn things around in what used to be our America. My late father-in-law said as much in the mid-80's. I didn't understand it then, it is crystal clear to me today. It makes my heart hurt for my grandchildren who are trying to get a foothold in life. They would be good rebels, though.

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann
the right has a winning record in all out civil wars, and such wars tend to be especially bloody.

The U.S. War for Independence and the American Civil War were not revolutions. They were wars of secession, one successful, one not. I believe the Civil War is still the bloodiest war (in terms of American casualties) in US history.

People, please be careful what you wish for.

up
0 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@FuturePassed
if all I ever am is careful, I'll end up in the gulag, which is less appealing to me than all out civil war with all the death and destruction that goes along with it. I'm no better than the human beings suffering all out devastation in the Middle East, so I cannot be afraid of civil war in the good ole us of a.

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@FuturePassed If such a war happens, I won't have to worry about the right.

I'll be too busy worrying about the CIA and JSOC.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

maybe not.

up
0 users have voted.
The Aspie Corner's picture

Bill Clinton wouldn't have told him to run otherwise. Sure, he was supposed to be Hillary's patsy, but this works fine for them.

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner They figured out how to make it work fine for them. Now, I'm surprised they dare try to impeach Trump--where will they get their credibility when he's gone? After telling everybody Mike Pence is a better alternative because he's a rational grown-up with the right manners?

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Azazello's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG7u2eC7g0U width:500 height:300]

up
0 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

We're all dumb shits for letting this happen.Even if you didn't vote for the dumb shit, you allowed this to happen in one way or another.

If you think voting, or the opinion of the people, is what has "elected" anybody since 1996 (at the latest), you may be a dumb shit.

Some of us believed we elected Obama in 2008, but what really happened is that we were convinced by a candidate already vetted by the NSA, among others, including the "smart money" on Wall St. We agreed with the NSA and 1/2 of Wall St that he would be a good president, or thought he might be a good president even though he had (at least a few) visible ties to them. We believed this, and believed we elected him, because, well, we were dumb shits.

The fact that more than 60 million people voted for Obama in the general election in 2008 is not why he was put in place. He was put in place because, to quote a phrase, "it was [his] turn." They have to alternate between Democrats and Republicans up there because it takes time to rebuild the reputation of any given party after it does horrible shitty things to the country and the world. You take your place in the limelight, promising to change things; you inflict horrendous damage on the country and the world; the people become disgusted with you and your party; then your party retreats out of power. The "opposing" party then takes its place in power and does horrendous things. Meanwhile the party out of power wrings its hands and talks about how they'd do things differently if they were only in power. The party out of power rebuilds its reputation. When the level of disgust with the party in power reaches a certain point, and the party out of power has rebuilt its reputation sufficiently, it becomes, once again, "their turn."

The point of this farcical dance of trashing and rebuilding one's credibility is not to get enough people to believe in you that they will vote for you. You don't give a shit who votes for you, because all that will be arranged by the techies working for your financial backers, and there will be little or no fuss about it, because everyone knows ahead of time who's going to "win." The point of "taking turns" in the credibility dance is generating faith in the system, so that too many people don't give up on the system altogether. You don't want them doing that, because then too many of them might start doing other things than participating in the system, and then you'd have to repress their activities, which would be inconvenient and messy. So much better if they keep believing that if they just vote for the right people long enough, things will improve.

The Bush/Cheney administrations trashed the reputations of the Republicans more than usual, because they did more horrendous things than usual. So there was really no question in 2008 about whether a Republican or Democrat would step into the Oval Office. The only question was "Hillary or Barack?" The answer was a bit unexpected, but all that really meant was that some of the elites are smarter and more imaginative than they had previously demonstrated. Obama offered far more useful talents and characteristics for the 1% than Hillary did.

This is all to say that people voting for Trump has little to do with why Trump was elected. Whoever countered Hillary's hackers, whether people working (at a distance) for Trump or just people with high levels of digital skill or security clearance who despised Hillary, they are responsible for Trump being in office. After watching the shit Hillary pulled--repeatedly--in the Democratic primary, you can't imagine that she and hers would leave the general election to chance. Why should they, when they could assure a victory? They certainly demonstrated in the primary that they had no regard for election integrity or what the voters wanted; they further demonstrated that nobody backed by big money was ever going to be prosecuted for election fraud.

That's why there has been so much hand-wringing and consternation from that camp. They thought they had it in the bag, because they were cheating, and they knew they had it in the bag. But they're not the only ones who know how to hack the vote. They were countered by somebody.

Despite the horrors unfolding every day, I have little ire towards those hackers--or those people deep within the security state, whichever it is--because, however evil Trump may be, it would have been no better if those people hadn't hacked the vote, and had just let Clinton cheat her way to the top.

It's not a question of being pissed off at people--or calling them dumbshits--for being involved in putting a particular person into the Presidency. The people to be pissed off at are the ones who compromised the entire system and made it a machine that usually (almost always) produces results made to order for a handful of rich sociopaths who run everything.

One of the only two pleasant things about Trump being in office is watching the system run in circles shrieking because they don't have absolute control. Only 99.99999% of the control. Don't get me wrong--they have no problem getting Trump under control. But they got a result of an election that surprised them and that galls them to no end, seeing as how it hasn't happened since 1976.

It would be lovely to think that we the people had vexed them so. But it wasn't us who put him in. Our votes don't put people in office, at least not at the D.C. level. Thinking they do is being a dumb shit.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Big Al's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal But then, we don't agree on much lately.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al We are in a similar relationship to the duopoly and the political system generally, and we're aware of our positions.

That makes us more similar to each other than we are to lots of people.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al Actually, the only thing we disagree on is that everybody's to blame. That's a persistent disagreement. You think everybody's to blame because they're stupid; I think the powerful are to blame because they're evil.

IMO, the stupidity of the people hasn't meant jack squat for many years.

If it helps, I wish people (including me) had not been stupid in the late 70s, 80s, and early nineties too.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Anja Geitz's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

on Obama's 2008 "election" to protesting in the streets over last years California primary, I have come a long way to get to the point where I finally recognize how it works:

The point of "taking turns" in the credibility dance is generating faith in the system, so that too many people don't give up on the system altogether. You don't want them doing that, because then too many of them might start doing other things than participating in the system, and then you'd have to repress their activities, which would be inconvenient and messy. So much better if they keep believing that if they just vote for the right people long enough, things will improve.

Does that make me a troll for agreeing with you? Or just you for saying it?

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Anja Geitz Why would it?

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Anja Geitz's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Was referring to another essay (I'm assuming in response to this one) that was posted earlier this morning. Should've put a snark tag on my question Smile

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Anja Geitz Oh, OK!

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

by a sally.

They were mostly broken by relief coming from the outside.

The American people have been under siege by the 1% for years. And now the 1% are doing everything they can to ensure that the people do not start looking for solutions that will actually help.

If we want a revolution, we need to start making allies with people around the world. We need other governments to start looking at the people as the legitimate government of the US, and NOT the corporations and think tanks that pump out the propaganda.

The first revolution was won by Franklin. Were it not for the support of France, and Spain, the colonies would have been annihilated, and the great age of Revolutions might have been strangled in the crib.

So yeah, the PTB are right to fear Russia. The Russians might just be the allies of the people in the next revolution.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

k9disc's picture

those south of the border have been turned into criminals, eh?

I expect a full court press on the terrorists of the Global South – Brazil is buddies with Russia, right?

And the rest of those countries in South and Central America are complete commies; everybody knows that...

Don't even get me started on Africa...

@detroitmechworks

up
0 users have voted.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks I don't understand why the Russian 1% (the oligarchs) are less bent on global destruction than our oligarchs.

Of course, they're just as bad on global warming as our oligarchs. But, as I've said elsewhere, it's truly not realistic to expect Russia, under the global conditions as they've been for the past 17 years, to try to end the petrochemical economy. They'd be lying down in front of our oligarchs and baring their throats, saying "Start the incision here."

That said, I don't necessarily harbor much hope that they'd abandon the petrochemical economy even if they were free to. I wish that were true--but I know better now than to rely much on hope.

Where they are better than our oligarchs is that they don't want nuclear war. Or any version of World War III.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Granma's picture

Than I could guess, even my 90 year old neighbor. People are seeing things, and when they realize most people think or feel as they do about what is going on, things will change. I think those rich devils have overplayed their hand. They have stolen too much from too many, in too many ways.
I cannot forsee how or when, but i believe change is coming. I hope soon.

up
0 users have voted.
Big Al's picture

Too far out there. I was just trolling anyway.

up
0 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@Big Al
I understand how you feel..............

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

WaterLily's picture

@Big Al It's just a difficult concept to bend one's mind around when the Presidency has been so revered since we've been around as a country.

No one, myself included, abandons their comfort zone without a gentle push. Or a shove.

Keep on pushing, Al.

up
0 users have voted.
gulfgal98's picture

@Big Al I see you railing against electing a President by doing away with the office altogether. I agree that the office of President is far too poweful and there is no way to remove someone who does not perform up to the expectations of the public. The previous sentence is based upon the optimistic assumption that we have fair elections in most of the US. Ha ha ha!

The question then becomes, what is your best shot of what you would like to see as a form of governance here in the US? I am not sure I could answer that, but I will give it a shot. I believe a type of parliamentary system is fairer than the current system we have.

I would really like to see your idea on this or the ideas of anyone else here.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

CS in AZ's picture

@gulfgal98

My thoughts exactly.

up
0 users have voted.
Big Al's picture

@gulfgal98 with a sixty percent disapproval rating should be up for recall. No one person should be able to do and say what Trump has been doing and saying (not to let Obama, etc., off the hook).

More parties? Which is what a parliamentary system basically is. Maybe but I look at Canada and Britain and see the same problems we have.

Somehow we have to create a system that prevents the people with money and wealth from controlling it against the democratic desires of the majority. If we had multiple third parties that actually had a say in things it would obviously be better than what we have now. But even that I think is fool's gold without considering more direct involvement from the people and more controls on corporations and the wealthy.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al @Big Al Following that logic (with which I agree), the entire election should have been trashed and re-done when it was discovered, on Election Day, that a person disapproved of by 60% of the population was running against someone disapproved of by 58% of the population.

How is that allowed to stand? Nothing could be more anti-democratic and authoritarian. Nothing could better reveal the ways that both the parties, and the process they use, frustrate the will of the people rather than representing it.

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

CS in AZ's picture

@Big Al

It turns out that I too am a troll. Who knew. But I must be, because I'm sure not getting paid to be here, so I can't be a shill. (But if anyone knows of anyone who will pay me to shout into the wind about stuff now and then, please do let me know. I'm not above being a shill, if there's a real buyer anywhere. Yeah, I thought not. Sigh.)

On a more serious note, BA, when I first read your suggestion to abolish the presidency, I did think it was pretty far out there, it was such a foreign idea. But I've definitely warmed up to it over the past year. I guess the question is, and then what. Leave congress in charge? Oy. Do we get a group that acts as the executive branch and makes decisions through consensus or voting, like the senate only smaller?

I know you and I aren't going to be able to enact any vision, but I'm asking what if.. if you could abolish the presidency, what would you put in place for governance? I really would like to hear your "blue sky" ideas on this. I have a difficult time imagining how to put something in place that would be functional and sane.

up
0 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@CS in AZ
because I actually pay this site so I can read it. Do trolls pay or get paid? what's a troll/non-troll to do??? This is so very confusing!!

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Big Al's picture

@CS in AZ be dangerous as they say. There are options where a single (unitary) person does not have the power this country gives a president, such as tribunals, forums, etc., that can be linked to significant underlying organizations (such as in every state or county) that feed into the democratic process.

Rather than spend the rest of my life studying these systems, which would be a waste of time if no one wanted to change our current system, I'm trying to debate the possibility that we "could" have other options and that this system, with a president like Trump, is not working and we should consider other options.

Abolishing the presidency in and of itself is not the answer of course. I've also argued that this system of representation nationally, with only 437 people elected to represent 330 million, also must change to maybe something like a hybrid representative (greatly expanded and changed to a true citizen volunteer system) slash direct democracy (referendums, initiatives, etc.) system. Many have pointed to the ancient Greeks and others as a starting point for a new system.

I know what I see and I know it can't be the best we've can come up with.

up
0 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

@Big Al

I know what I see and I know it can't be the best we've can come up with.

Exactly right. I don't have the answer, but we need to keep talking and - especially - putting ideas out there. Yours are important, Big Al.

up
0 users have voted.
gulfgal98's picture

@travelerxxx I REALLY want to hear more ideas of how we can make our government more responsive to we the people and more responsible for their actions.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Strife Delivery's picture

They have to alternate between Democrats and Republicans up there because it takes time to rebuild the reputation of any given party after it does horrible shitty things to the country and the world. You take your place in the limelight, promising to change things; you inflict horrendous damage on the country and the world; the people become disgusted with you and your party; then your party retreats out of power. The "opposing" party then takes its place in power and does horrendous things. Meanwhile the party out of power wrings its hands and talks about how they'd do things differently if they were only in power. The party out of power rebuilds its reputation. When the level of disgust with the party in power reaches a certain point, and the party out of power has rebuilt its reputation sufficiently, it becomes, once again, "their turn."

This here is a golden statement.

All one has to do is look back at the beginning of Obama's first term. If the reality truly was this "D v. R" game show reality that they try to force upon us, the Dems would have gone in for the kill. Dems controlled so much. Why wouldn't they go in for the kill?

Because they didn't want to. No matter how weak the other party is, the other party will prop them up to keep them alive. They need each other to stay alive. If one dies, the other dies.

up
0 users have voted.
BrutallyHonest's picture

Getting rid of just the Presidency is, in your own words, "Stupid". It is another half measure.

The only thing that the 1% fear with the election of Trump over Hillary is that Trumps election will cause too many people to wake up and see that the whole system, economic and governmental, that we live under is all BS, a lie, and a scam.

Capitalism enables sociopathic behavior. Sociopathic behavior makes people with empathy feel scared, brutalized, uncared for, and isolates. Add to the mix that our governmental system has shown itself to not now, or ever, truly worked for every one equally in our country and its high time to say that the whole system must change.

For those who want the revolution to be enacted in an anti violent way, it is possible to do so, however, you all have to understand that our enemy are people who are sociopaths/ psychopaths. These are people who have no ability to feel empathy, compassion, or love for their fellow man and as such have no compunction in enacting violence upon others.

So what is the way forward?

Making every company a worker cooperative is the first step in solving our problems.

Worker cooperatives would educate, and empower the populace in ways that unions never could.
Worker cooperatives would create a bottom up power structure that would overpower, and supplement the current top down US government system, and the capitalist system at the same time.
Worker cooperatives would offer for a real democratic choice for every person thus again helping in removing and replacing our government.

How could we make this change? Easily!

You fear that the propaganda the 1% has used is too strong to combat and thus it will be too hard to convince others to the power of worker cooperatives. I say then embrace their propaganda and use it against them!

"Workers deserve a choice in how and where they work!"
"Where does everyone spend most of their time when they are not home? At work! Then why do we all not have an equal vote on the decisions at our work place? is this not a Democracy? Then one person, one worker, one vote!"

Worker cooperatives are so beneficial to the mass people that once we get enough people to start, or join a worker cooperative the war will be won before the 1% knows it.

That is why it is important also that worker cooperative banks, telecommunication, health care, and security companies are formed in the very beginning. If we have these kind of help on our side we can win. Without these companies on our side we will definitely lose.

The only true minority destroying our world are the Sociopaths/Psychopaths. These people have no capacity for empathy, care about others, care about the planet, or the ability to love. In essence Sociopaths/ Psychopaths are EVIL. I am sick and tired of living in a world that empowers Sociopathic Morals, its time we became a more caring and just world.

Who is with me?

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@BrutallyHonest
or "psychopaths" for people who work for their own profit all the time and lust for the power to work on maintaining their profits flowing into their pockets. Is psychopathy or sociopathy a sickness you are born with? When do you become a sociopath? And when do you become a psychopath?

up
0 users have voted.

useful insights from Jonathan Haidt. He has a number of YouTube talks that I have found to very enlightening.

up
0 users have voted.

chuck utzman

TULSI 2020