Open Thread - 05-10-24 - Schoolin' Them Dice
Much of Donald Trumps victory in 2016 presidential election was attributed to the massive free publicity that was conferred upon him by the mainstream media.
Trump is a master of self promotion. He knows how to sell himself. He put on a show and the press ate it up.
He and the press were locked in a symbiotic dance of a vote seeking parasite feeding on a money seeking ratings driven host, and vice versa.
Well folks, they're doing it again.
What it's really all about.
Trump is playing the media and the media is playing us, the rode hard and put away wet masses. They are working overtime selling us their spurious bill of goods. This is the most important election of our lives, don't you know.
This 2024 election, so far, is like a third rate reality TV show that just wont go away. The plot's getting pretty obvious though.
Trump will be the Republican nominee despite the lawfare, or because of it.
I also think that Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee.
I think it's all scripted.
I hate to say it, but I also think it's supposed to end with Trump as president again. Recent events have proven to me that he's still a tool as malleable as he ever was.
If one looks closely the puppet strings are obvious.
We just had a local election in March. My wife's friend for many years was running for a commissioners seat. The incumbent had been in the position for many years and was well entrenched and knew how to utilize the privileges of the office. He was thought to be unbeatable.
There were several other candidates running as well.
My wife and I, after some discussion, decided that we'd like some new blood in that position and mulled over the prospects of the various candidates to beat the incumbent. After agreeing that her friend really didn't have a chance to win, we decided to cast our votes strategically. The reality was that we didn't want to throw away our votes on someone that had no real chance so we looked for whomever we thought would have a good shot at winning.
There was a middle aged fellow who was obviously very gung ho about winning. He seemed sincere (don't they all, LOL!) and oozed of "walking the walk". We decided he had the best chance to win. It was a long shot but we voted with our heads instead of our hearts.
The middle aged fellow beat the incumbent and won. Our gambit proved successful. It seemed we weren't the only ones that voted strategically.
I will vote in the upcoming US general election in November, though I'm tempted to abstain. I still believe it to be my duty, even in the face of such dismal choices. That puts me on the spot since I refuse to vote for either of the two major parties.
I will cast my vote strategically, by that I mean I will vote with my head and not my heart.
James Montgomery Band - Schoolin' Them Dice
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
This quadrennial silly season is down right not silly anymore. It's enough to make a person want to sing the blues.
Lyrics
James Montgomery is real nice
-
-
on this rainy Friday morning. Rolling the dice, figure Biden is already toast.
What is the DNC plan B? If they pull some really stupid move, then we get
trumped again. Democracy at its worst. I like Jill Stein even as a long shot.
Also RFK, Jr. in spite of his zionist waves and brain worms is a better option
than gen Joe and the circus harpy.
Heading down to Long Island for the weekend in support of MIL. Sometimes
ya just gotta do what needs to be done. The ferry across the sound is fun.
Not so much with the rest of it. Steady libations help.
thanks for the OT!
question everything
James Momtgomery Band...
is a great blues band. I first heard them in the early 70s and was hooked. I have two of their albums. Their music has been hard to find on youtube until the last year or so. They are/were huge in the New England area, but kind of obscure in the rest of the country. I figured you would have heard of them being from the NE area.
The Green Party is always a long shot and probably always will be, maybe by design.
Brain worms are a prerequisite for holding high office. It reminds me of this great episode of Night Gallery from the 70s (spoiler - it's about brain worms):
The Caterpillar.
Good luck on the trip to MIL. Prost!
Completely agree..
Jill Stein or RFK, Jr. Don't know which one, but I'm not voting for either major party. Am done with that crap!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Since Corporate America
has completely captured our government I don't think it makes any difference who you vote for. I will vote on the issues that are on the ballot, but I won't waste my time voting for any politician.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
That's been made...
abundantly clear for as long as I can remember:
America is a corporation, without charter, that's run like a private equity firm that specializes in running businesses into the ground.
Great signature line, BTW.
At this point,
it doesn't matter who the dems parachute in to replace the undead meat-puppet, should they choose (or be forced) to do so. The possibilities will all be full-throated Zionists, and none will dare cross the party on that topic. The dems are a solidly Zionist party now. Hope that doesn't cause any inconvenience.
So Trump will win. He's also a Zionist, at least by all appearances, so all the american people have to go on is the vain hope that he's been lying about that (as he does everything else). And since he really hates the Mexicans, the right-wing voters will love him for his wall. Game, set, match.
I'll be voting Stein again, not that it matters one iota.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
They are all...
Israel firsters. Dr. Stein, if elected, would be surrounded by the firsters, so there's no chance in hell of getting around it.
The Green Party seems like a waste of a vote, I know that from experience. I think that may be their raison d'être, to suck up wasted votes. Who to vote for then? That's the conundrum and the modus operandi of the Voting Industrial Complex..
Someday, when this shit show collapses, when the money and power are gone, that will all change. Hopefully.
It's not as if great numbers of people --
-- faced with the combined criminal idiocy of the Two-Party System -- said "well, geez, maybe we ought to create a viable party outside of the system." Instead, the Nice Liberals with Big Egos said, "let's behave in awe of the big foundations, the big donors, and the shadow government, and we'll use all of their power (in fact the power WE grant THEM) to make the Democratic Party a whole 2% better than the Republican Party!"
That's what they did, all the way down to Chomsky.
So what we have is the Green Party. We only have the Green Party, and nothing more, because over forty-plus years of neoliberal politics a significant challenge to the Two-Party System was not waged, and because all electoral decisions were made on the basis of "gee, I've done absolutely fkn NOTHING to challenge the system and right now I feel obliged to vote for someone."
Given the track record of this "strategy" and its real-life results, we'd even do better to avoid voting altogether, because at least then we'd have rid ourselves of the notion that we were obliged to vote for so-called "lesser evils." Not voting is not very much better than what we're doing, but still it's better.
I've said this several times over, but I'll say it again here. The point of "lesser evil voting" is not to avoid any evil. It, is rather, to wash our hands of politics, to be a great mass of Pontius Pilates. We don't, after all, apologize for "lesser evil voting."
So, no, I do not criticize the Green Party. It's what we've got, and if we don't have anything better, that's on us, not them.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Gotta go...
mow some grass while the getting is good, more rain coming this weekend. Be back in a couple of hours.
Voting for third party hoping for some choas.
My state has seven official third parties who will run candidates. I will vote for the candidate who might take votes away from incumbent so either opposing dem or goper candidate wins. Just to shake up the system.
That's what I mean...
by voting strategically.
Thanks for the input.
It is sort of fun to watch the
Zerohedgers dance around this. There are still many who think that this would be Just Great. Since they hate all non-right-wingers, it wouldn't be their ox being gored- at least this time. But surprisingly, there are some of them who are belatedly beginning to realize that that level of weaponization of the overreaction to free speech could be aimed at the right wing as well. Niemoller was right...
We'll see if the Constitution really is dead with this one, won't we? Bernie won't block it, since he's now running for reelection and undopubtedly wants that AIPAC money. Thus, I fully expect it to pass, and then get extruded through the house just in time for the undead meat-puppet to blissfully sign it into law. We have slid down the slippery slope far enough to be dangling above the abyss, and this could push us right into it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/senate-bill-seeks-place-campus-pr...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
I tend not to think of them as "right-wingers."
Rather, the various syndicates at the top of the political pecking orders in the US and elsewhere market what I am calling "pseudo-conservatism." Here is how I am phrasing it in the most recent draft of my book:
But, yes, the "Right" is composed of idiots who seem to think that being "more Right than thou" is the only idiocy that matters.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Speaking of voting we get this.
https://apnews.com/article/un-resolution-palestinians-membership-rights-...
The actual results:
An example of up is down and black is white. We get this.
I am sure that the Global South fully understands the results.
Well, Israel
has now demanded that their congressional lapdogs now kill US funding of the UN in retaliation. It'll be interesting to see if that happens. If it does, the UN should relocate to a BRICS+ country ASAP. That'll fully cement our status as a rogue nation.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israeli-envoy-says-us-must-...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
JtC with reference to this:
The cops cleared U of Penn’s anti-genocide encampment this a.m.
with the support of Dem city gov’t and Dem state gov’t all the way up to governor Josh Shapiro.
Fascists are “red”, fascists are “blue”, one fascist is Christian, another’s a Jew …
This is good
'Fascists are “red”, fascists are “blue”, one fascist is Christian, another’s a Jew …' I'm gonna chant that when I need to state the obvious to some ignorant friend..
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Hola, todos!
When we continue to elect self-serving imbecilic ideologues, it just plays into Putin's hand! If we wish to defeat Putin, we must ignore the uniparty and vote for someone else, anybody else.
Stop Putin!
Vote Third Party
Everybody have a great weekend
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Politicians
have such an inflated ego, they are insane. Don't they understand the only thing they are good at is following the orders of some donors.
We aren't the sheep---they are.
Yeah, strategy does work in open primaries. The higher the level of government, the fewer primaries, and the surprise losers are the ones the donors targeted for their disobedience.
My vote will not be for a less evil president. It will be a vote that gives the finger to Biden. I will have a few moments of satisfaction from casting my vote for that reason only.
Stein would get my vote if RFK JR. were not in the race. He might have an actual chance. I am waiting to see if the brain worm thing ruins it for him. /s
All but Stein want to keep the US subservient to Israel. It is my wish to sever all ties to that rogue, criminal state, if state is even the correct term for Israel. You and I do not deserve to be punished by the rest of the world for our US Zionists.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
If Kennedy continues getting traction,
I can't see him still being alive by November. I believe that the CIA would love to have the trifecta. The only question is who will put out the hit. I wouldn't put it past the rethugs to do that, just because they know that Biden and the dems will immediately be blamed...
But you're right- i'd be likely to vote for whoever is the most likely non-Uniparty person.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Even though she is a long shot her views make her stand out.
Stein's gonna
get dead before RFK Jr gets dead.
She is an awesome human being, for who I have voted.
I still dream.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
My friend...
I hope you are wrong about the awesome Jill Stein and getting dead, but I'm afraid you could be right. I still think it'll be RFK, Jr first though
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I’ve been distracted by Sun spots recently
The current and ongoing electromagnetic storm is predicted to continue for the next two days, possibly longer. Though the probability of a “Kill Shot” level plasma wave was initially less than 10% it has since been raised to +/- 15% based on the consolidated arrival of the first two flares. There are several more plasma waves, larger than the earlier flares, yet to arrive.
Political machinations seem tame by comparison to the existential threat of a Neo Armageddon. Brett Weinstein and Ben Davidson discuss the matter in a fascinating science based Rumble video. The Clovis extinction mystery may have been the result of a 12;000 year cyclical pattern of heightened solar activity. We’re about due…..
I’m reconsidering travel plans for this weekend. Having the computer chip in my car toasted hundreds of miles from home, along with thousands of other motorists, tops my worst nightmares.
Though total disaster is unlikely (at 10-15%), Russian Roulette with a 10-shooter is not a risk I would willingly take. But since my arrival accommodations are non refundable, I’ll likely make the drive and take my chances. Would you do the same?
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
The answer would vary depending on current responsibilities
in life. If just me, would travel,if an adventure happened - so be it. Another story to tell or reminisce.
If during one of those sections of life not being physically available would seriously harm my future, another person or animal would not go. It is only money, easier to replenish than try and repair some types of life altering events.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
The Aurora makes it to Alabama...
For the first time in my memory. So this is a big solar storm (wind) hitting Earth at present.
https://www.al.com/news/2024/05/severe-solar-storm-could-trigger-norther...
I missed it but there's another chance tonight (Sat) which we're going to try to catch.
So the solar storms are interesting.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Part of the equation is the weakening of the
of the earth’s magnetic field, as well as an indication that the poles may have begun a flip.
I do not understand how all these factors interconnect, but the current anomalies are exceedingly rare.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024