@QMS

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Caitlin gave me a chuckle..

Voting in western “democracies” is done to give us the illusion of control, like letting a toddler play with a toy steering wheel while you drive so they can feel like they’re participating.

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/a-dementia-patient-is-president-because

Thanks for the OT!

@enhydra lutris
the corruption is ubiquitous, from local school boards on up to, and especially, the highest levels of authority. It, from the top down, defines us as a society.

It's a real head scratcher when a politician leaves office with much more wealth that their salary provides. Not!

The rai·son d'ê·tre of politics has mutated from civic service to servicing civic booty, money not butt, but that works too.

for our actual, as opposed to mythical form of governent. All of them have some degree of merit. A few that come to mind are oligarchy, plutocracy, corporatocracy, kleptocracy, and kakistocracy. Meanwhile, the masses, because there are so-called elections, are led to believe in a "representative democracy" even though, as noted, those elected do not represent the demos, and are "elected" in show elections in which a fraction of the populace is allowed to pick and choose between a limited selection of "candidates" pre-selected by the two wings of the uniparty. The uniprty fights fiercely to keep outsiders off the ballot, and, usually, to restrict voting privileges to their faithful. (There is no "right to vote", as I have outlined elsewhere.) All of those names have merit, each emphasizing one or more specific features of our government that prevent an objetive observer from finding it to be a democracy. It can also be said that we are a fascist country insofar as the government is owned lock, stock and barrel by a a cabal and generally aligns its policies and interests with those of our corporates. (Corporates in the classic sense, though, predominantly corporations.)

All of that is, in a sense corruption. The key element to damn near everything about our government, its governance and activities derives from corruption. It is not an accident that sociopaths rise to the top of government and business, especially corporations, or that sociopaths are actively sought out for top positions. They need not be corrupted by peers and processes, but are ready to go right out of the box.

Accordingly, I propose that we quit focusing on this or that specific aspect of our government and economy and instead focus on the principal unifying theme; we are a corruptocracy, no more and no less.

be well and have a good one

@usefewersyllables
as per my opening comment, I'll do my best to go on living my life as normal as possible. My life, as I see it, not as they want it to be.

The goal of the fear mongering and intimidation is to shut us up and to shut us down. The old axiom says it best: Best not to worry about things beyond your control. The threat of nuclear annihilation is the most effective weapon in their arsenal of fear. Fuck 'em. I'm not going to let that stop me from enjoying life.

With that said, I understand your angst and appreciate your view point.

Thanks for stopping in and hope to see more of you around in the future.

Saw the PSA yesterday, and thought I'd drop in a few shekels.

Woke up this morning still alive. I've stopped expecting that- I know that one of these white-flash nightmares is going to be real, soon enough. I find myself contemplating Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov and Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, and I'm reduced to the hope that there are still some of their ilk around in the various militaries. Don't have a lot of real hope for it, though; just sort of a vague longing.

I won't be participating in the political process any further, because doing so represents milliseconds of life wasted that can never be replaced. Things have gone too far to be repairable.

So I work, I eat, I drink, and I attempt to sleep. What's left of life will be spent in those pursuits. And when the white flash finally and inevitably does arrive, all I'll have to say is "Well, it certainly fuckin' took you long enough...." Not in a happy place, right now. But your mileage may vary.

How about that big sportball game? Will they be giving out free bread?

@snoopydawg
kill him makes him stronger. Oops, maybe I should have worded that differently.

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Defame Carlson for interviewing Putin.

Media are suffering from Tucker Terror. pic.twitter.com/0yCvPcHqX7

— James Hirsen (@thejimjams) February 8, 2024

The comments on my local rag about the interview were the same as the democrats mouthpiece media, but I doubt many of them even bothered to watch it. Lots of talk about Putin committing genocide instead of trying to stop it.

Americans are the most uninformed and propagandized people and they seem to be proud of it since they won’t do any research for themselves. Maybe it’s true that Americans have the government that they deserve. Just today I saw comments saying that Biden is the best president since FDR. Just what has he done to deserve this?

@The Liberal Moonbat
have gotten so extreme that we are better off with as little legislation as possible, in my view anyway.

But then presidential executive orders enter the chat room.

Hopefully the two houses of congress will stay divided. IMHO, continued stalemate is the better option.

I happen to know a self-described "staunch conservative" (whom I somehow believe is closer to my age than to yours) who said pretty much just this, that he likes it best when neither party is in control and the least gets done.

"That government governs best which governs least" - which is certainly true when the government has become an abusive, dysfunctional parent, the kind you live in terror of and only hope will leave you to your own devices while it dozes through its latest substance-abuse session - because nothing good ever comes of it deciding to get involved in your life for a while.

This is the divide; those who still say
"Government GOOD! Government DO STUFF!"
Versus
those haunted by the trauma of what's happened when it has.

This is indeed, not democracy; in a democracy, either such mentality would be meaningless.

@humphrey
but it takes two sides to make a mutual agreement. The neocons are locked into a unilateral roadblock position. We shall see.

Judging by those images below the tweet, Scholz and Macron must have cooties.

interview.

Excellent analysis of the Tucker-Putin interview by Scott Ritter.

This is just the beginning of the process of mutual understanding. https://t.co/27Qsv8fngP

— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) February 9, 2024

Just saying.

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@Snode

why during WW2 people of color, native Americans, Chinese.....all of us, no matter how treated, still volunteered to fight for America. There must have been some feeling, maybe that being an American was like being in a family, we're all in this together. For me, that broke with Vietnam.

Me too, Vietnam broke the trance with me as well.

The machine runs on fear. If enough people disavow the fear the facade would crumble like the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulled back the curtain.

Great insight, thanks Snode.

why during WW2 people of color, native Americans, Chinese.....all of us, no matter how treated, still volunteered to fight for America. There must have been some feeling, maybe that being an American was like being in a family, we're all in this together. For me, that broke with Vietnam. For a lot of the U.S. it seems to have broken over the end of segregation. And we've been being broken ever since. We're being churned, always off balance. Our political system worked for us once, so it can happen again, how I don't know. But you're right. We can't stop living. If we value life, we need to value our own lives as well and stop churning. The media, the politicians and corporations endlessly present what we see as the most important thing in the world, for their benefit. It's not. We need to stop playing their game.