The 21st Century Voter — How to Deploy the Coalition Defense Vote

While it's true that the powers of the wealthy class were flash frozen in the US Constitution, the slave-owning authors forgot to include "practical" election laws, cutting us some slack here on the 21st century plantation. It was a good thing. We live twice as long as they did and their ideas of political process scale poorly and are too easy to exploit. Their processes were timed for communications that could travel faster than the speed of a horse. It was this kind of limited thinking that begat the many laws and systems that limit social progress and human rights in the US.

But in our advanced world, there are workarounds that can unlock the chains that distort our social development and make our civilization so cruel. The Internet, for example, will allow for the rapid deployment of a Voting Coalition, one with the potential to weaken and topple the corrupted Democratic Party in November. Sanders-the-Outsider demonstrated to Americans that an Internet coalition can expand rapidly and he proved that it can organize and sustain itself effectively.

The Reality

The Party Establishment picked up on Bernie's populist message, along with Donald Trump's. They saw clearly the uprising that was driving Primary voters to both Outsider candidates. Political rebellion was at hand. They could not outrun the proto-coalitions that were suddenly looming over them, and we all witnessed the ensuing chaos when the Republican Party was toppled. The Democratic Party Bosses went mad and shut the Primaries down from the inside, using extraordinary cheats that they pretend are invisible.

As a result of their near defeat, the Democratic Establishment has sought to shatter the dangerous proto-coalition that had supported Outsider, Bernie Sanders. Using crowd-control techniques developed in the Neocon strongholds of State, Defense, and Intelligence, they unleashed a blast of fear and distraction to drive the People back in line. They firehosed them with panic-propaganda about Trump-the-Outsider for months on end. They put messages of political terror into the mouths of politicians that the coalition admired; Elizabeth Warren, for example. Aided by their media monopoly cohorts, the onslaught of fear messaging coupled with the eternally shameful events at the Democratic Convention, cognitively crippled many on the politically-engaged Left. While not all of them succumbed, the Surge of Brainwashing will presumably continue until Election Day. Score one for the overlords.

The Tactical Vote

In November 2016, a Voting Coalition from the Left could readily deliver a crushing defeat to Clinton and a crippling blow to the Democratic Party Bosses and their Corporate owners. The "tactical vote" is a double-trouble vote that strongly impacts the final count. It is a vote cast directly against Hillary Clinton that is achieved by casting a vote for her closest opponent. This strategy also strips the Establishment of political power, for a time, with nowhere for them to turn. This just happened to the Republican Party, and we watched the Neocons turn to Hillary Clinton for shelter. Doing it once more will take them out completely.

Tens of millions of former Bernie supporters across the US are ready to be reactivated as voters. They are waiting for the signal from the Coalition that shows them the path forward. But it must start here, with you.

One Possible Future

If you think the two-party system is entrenched now, wait until Hillary Clinton and her team gets to the White House and closes the third-party loopholes once and forever. An Outsider President won't do that. Watch how quickly exit polls are prohibited, so the people will never again know when the vote has been fixed. Most important, the United Nations will not know that an impostor president is in their midst. (The UN and all international election observers and democracy watchdogs rely on independent exit polls to alert them to voting irregularities. The world forced Austria to hold a second Presidential election this year, for example, when their exit polls belied the election outcome.)

As an aside, one exit polling company, Edison, supplies the exit polling data to all but one of the Media Monopolies on election night (FOX). They admit they adjust the exit polls to match the counted totals along the way, so the prophecy unfolds in real time. They exit-polled the Primary elections last spring. Edison's office is located in New Jersey.

Why Execute the Coalition Strategy Now?

Certainly, an effective national Voting Coalition may be useful after 2016, but voters will never again have have an opportunity like this current one: An Outsider in place who can ultimately be used to topple both Parties during the same election year. This would send a distress message to the world from the American People. It would also provide a window of opportunity after the election for the People to build the kind of Parties and Democracy they want, while the world is looking on.

A political strategist might look at it this way: Donald Trump presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for real bottom-up political change in the US. If cognitively-able activists, who are inoculated against the post-primary brainwashing surge, decide to use the Internet to send a Voting Coalition signal that includes a blueprint for the months of political work that must follow — the American people will come out to vote. And they will be there for the restructuring and ratifying, if necessary.

One particular benefit of the current situation is this: A President Trump will bring to the Federal Government a completely inert Presidency. Both Parties are currently pledged to ignore or work against anything he attempts or proposes, no matter how beneficial to the the People. The Establishment's thoroughly frightened constituents absolutely insist on this. Any representative they elected to Congress, who crosses that line, is poison and finished in Washington DC. Meanwhile, Trump will not sign a budget that gives as much as half of the Federal Budget to the Pentagon. The Neocons know that, which is why they took refuge with Clinton. He definitely won't sign a free-trade agreement. It is a win-win for the American People to have the Neocon-infested Federal government paralyzed. If only this had happened fifteen years ago!

The People's Choice

Ultimately, the choice belongs to the American People, as it should. They will decide whether they will surrender their future to the status quo or whether they seize the advantage and use the momentum of victory to rebuild the Parties to represent them. At this time, the majority of US voters have no representation at the Federal level, this includes the working classes, Millennials, the Left, and the Independents. It will take time to restore power to the America's disenfranchised.

With the option of voting as a coalition, the People are given an opportunity to bring a transformative vote to what may likely be the last US election monitored by exit polls. It would restore and heal Americans to see that their democracy actually exists and belongs to them.

Unless, it doesn't.

The Coalition Defense Vote is an outside-the-box strategy with inherent risks and inconvenient sacrifices. It can only be deployed with the People's consent. It meets a certain criteria for success best expressed in a wise observation noted by Gryehound, over at Kossacks for Sanders: "The Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house."

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riverlover's picture

work more than half-time. That could be interesting or pull back another curtain. Wink

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

martianexpatriate's picture

of carnival atmosphere these days. I think we should probably talk realistically about what this all means.

Lets say for a moment, that we elect a President who refuses to send half of the budget to the Pentagon. (I incidentally strongly agree that we shouldn't send them that money.)

Do you guys understand what happens when Congress and the President can't pass a working budget long enough? I do, because I went partway through that process several times, and I lost a lot of weight when it happened, because food stamps stopped getting distributed in my state. I'd like to be really clear about something. I'm telling you that I started to starve to death. During that time, my blood pressure bottomed out because I couldn't get enough food. When I stood up too quickly sometimes I would start to pass out. I fell down sometimes. Do you know what it's like walking around in that state? It wasn't a great time in my life.

Nobody ever particularly cares when I say that. I guess everyone assumes that I'm lying. I can also tell you that I lost people I knew back then. They were already on the edge, some homeless. I don't know exactly what happened. I just never see them anymore. I'm pretty sure they are dead. I'll never really know. That's how people like me die.

Eventually, they did sign a budget and that's why I got food stamps and then I sort of recovered. Mostly. Not all the way though. I'm not the same person I was.

If no budget is passed, first people like me start to die. But that's early in the process. If it stops going on long enough, people stop getting checks from the government, vital services start to shut down. I'm disabled guys. You do that to me one time, and I'm probably homeless. I definitely lose my internet, so nobody will hear about what happens to me after that.

So now I've said that Trump can't be elected because he would paralyze the government. And I am saying that. I'm not backing away from that at all.

So am I a Hillary supporting shill now? I don't know. I hate her fucking guts. But I want to live. That woman helped pass laws that put my brother in jail. She contributed to his death.

You can all scream at me now.

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WindDancer13's picture

Periods of food stamp non-issuance are not the problem. The problem is the ongoing slashing of those benefits to the point that you (and I) are going to lose that benefit at some point anyway if the direction of the government is not changed now.

The 2014 Farm Bill slashed $8.7 Billion from the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program--also know as the Food Stamp program. The bill passed the House with 103 Democrats voting against it and 89 Democrats voting for it. By the way, 63 Republicans voted against it. The bill was signed by Obama.

And HRC is still proud of the damage that her and her husband's "welfare reform" did. Welfare reform is directly related to food stamps. From Democrats silent as one million lose food stamp benefits in the US:

Hillary Clinton gloried in the “welfare reform” legislation in her 2003 memoir Living History (for which she was paid $8 million). She wrote that Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the program the bill abolished, “had helped to create generations of welfare-dependent Americans … I strongly argued that we had to change the system, although my endorsement of welfare reform came at some personal cost.” The “cost,” of course, was to her political credibility as a supposed advocate of the poor.

Clinton claimed that the legislation her husband signed “was a critical first step to reforming our nation’s welfare system. I agreed that he should sign it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage—though he and the legislation were roundly criticized by some liberals, advocacy groups for immigrants and most people who worked with the welfare system.”

I already know where the soup kitchen is in my town. I suggest you start looking for one in yours.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

martianexpatriate's picture

save it, I stop getting food stamps. But so long as they pass the budget, they still send out social security checks.

I am on disability and have been for years. I have struggled for years to get a job and completely failed.

If the Democrats really completely gut food stamps to the point the program dies, I might be able to survive that now. But if Donald Trump is elected and we stop passing budgets, and we reach a point where I don't get my disability check is delivered, I'm gone.

I already know where the soup kitchen is in my town. I suggest you start looking for one in yours.

Do you seriously think that I don't know where the soup kitchen is? Are you seriously suggesting that?

I live in an assisted living facility in Pueblo West. It's called Pueblo West Gardens. The good thing about that is that I get most of my food as part of my rent, now. I didn't have that back when my food stamps stopped.

However, some of the food is unhealthy, and more importantly I live miles out of town, and there are no buses to Pueblo West from Pueblo. There are also very few stores. You could take a look on google maps if you don't believe me.

I'm not going to pay for a cab, just so I can go to the soup kitchen. And despite the help with meals, I do need to get my own food occasionally.

Just a FYI.

I still can't believe you don't think I already know where the soup kitchen is. That just blows me away.

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do you want to starve today or tomorrow? We all have a lot to lose with a Trump (and Hillary) presidency. Either way, we're all screwed. Screwed the most with Hillary because the establishment is behind her. So the question is, do you go out with a bang or a whimper?

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

martianexpatriate's picture

response scares me a little. I do understand it though. I can even sort of respect it. I'm glad that you understand how bad it is.

I believe that its possible to eventually make it a better way. I'm not entirely certain which way that will be, but eventually we are going to have to get enough people motivated to cause real positive change. I don't believe it will happen next year, or in a decade, but it has to happen because we can't allow things to deteriorate any more.

We all despise Hillary Clinton, because it's natural to feel hatred for a traitor, which is what she is.

My belief is that Hillary Clinton will continue the trend of selling out the middle class to fill some rich people's pockets, and I hate that. On the other hand Trump can literally tear this country apart. There are many ways he could do it, and one way is by not passing a budget for a year or too.

Objectively speaking, I don't believe that Hillary Clinton can possibly do that much damage.

I guess if you are ok with me and mine dying, then you can try to make Trump President. There's really nothing left for me to say there.

I still believe we can save this country, but we have to hold it together a little longer to do that.

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You can't get to the other side until you let go of the shore.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

and others at Pueblo West--is PW some sort of public housing--to gain access to garden space, for those able to use a shovel and hoe, or to gain access to locally produced food? If I lived in your town, I would be glad to bring you excess produce, source of vitamins and minerals not available in processed food, you should excuse the expression. Typically, gardeners have some crops each year which don't thrive at all and scads of excess of other crops. I, and I think other gardeners, are happy to share the excess, no cash involved if only because we don't want the health dept. apparatchiks sniffing around our yards, but we do want some respect, that is, no catcalling, no calling out, no confrontations by you OR your neighbors, etc., if we take the trouble to make deliveries. I understand garden veges won't replace food stamps, but they can be a valuable supplement especially if the gardens are organically maintained. I hope you understand that such arrangements need to be strictly informal. Myself, I participate in nothing which is headed up by some govt. bossy cow or steer looking to expand his or her authority.

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Mary Bennett

martianexpatriate's picture

I managed to get this old digital camera, which I hope will last a little longer. I went outside and shot this video right outside Pueblo West Gardens. I've been working up to shooting a promotional video for years, so I've prioritized keeping my computer alive and getting this camera.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JqWn5t4C30]

The kind of wind you are seeing in this video is not an unusual thing and the ground is extremely uneven and dry. There are farms around here, but there are fewer of them. We've seen record high heat and very little rain and a lot of the farmers went out of business.

Pueblo West Gardens is an assisted living facility. Its people on medicaid, some disabled by loss of a limb or schizophrenia, or mental illness. Others are senior citizens who never got a pension. They located the facility far out of town because real estate is cheap, but they separated us from most of the world.

I'm thinking I will try to shoot a documentary to show people just how bad it is in Pueblo. I think I'm partly wanting to do it so that people will understand the conditions, but partly I just want people to understand that I'm not lying about how things are here.

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For dryness of soil you need mulch, such as grass clippings, and for wind you need wind breaks and shelter breaks. I do realize nothing of this would be easy for seniors and the disabled. Melons, tomatoes, pepper and eggplant could be grown where you are, and perhaps some tropical fruit, maybe a neem tree or moringa tree. Do you know your ag zone? Does it freeze in winter where you are? What about snow? Probably not in the realm of possibility, but you really need a rain collection system. One thing about mulch is that is makes the soil underneath the mulch spongy, and then the soil absorbs more water when there is rain or snow.

I suppose the management hires some idiot with a leaf blower to make everything look nice and spiffy and even dryer, and sprays a raft of chemicals against things like scorpions and fire ants. Not much you can do about that, but if someone were able to establish say a small tomato patch, you could ask that the blower guys deposit the residue on the garden instead of in the street. I do think, climbing on soapbox, that any agency which can afford the mow and blow guys could afford a gardener who might provide some food.

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Mary Bennett

martianexpatriate's picture

They charge me $680 a month to live here. I get a $730 check, and I spend some on food. I also need to buy shampoo and razors. I'm broke about one week after I get my check.

You want me to go buy mulch now? Do you understand how crazy you are?

You know, you guys are almost as oblivious as the people at Kos. Are you just insane? Are you incapable of understanding what its like to be poor?

Next attack the people who live in this building for not doing enough to feed themselves. Do that, and I'll feel like I'm back at kos again.

This living facility doesn't even help us with recreational activities the way they are supposed to. The doctor barely sees people for five minutes before walking out. They aren't going to provide us with a gardener. They wouldn't even supply the guy in the next room with a chair after he broke his.

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martianexpatriate's picture

Not much you can do about that, but if someone were able to establish say a small tomato patch, you could ask that the blower guys deposit the residue on the garden instead of in the street. I do think, climbing on soapbox, that any agency which can afford the mow and blow guys could afford a gardener who might provide some food.

The country is dying now. The people who live near me are missing basic services. Some of their medical needs are denied. We don't EAT ENOUGH. People are getting sick.

Do you suppose we had money laying around and just didn't use it to buy food?

I don't understand how to make this clear to people any more.

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dance you monster's picture

Nastarana is not attacking you or your neighbors.

S/he is proposing steps that would cost almost nothing. Mulch is something people can collect, much like compost. Seeds are available for free from many places. There would be sweat involved in creating beds and tending plants, but that does not have to fall on everyone's shoulders. Growing your own food is a smart thing to do for anyone, from any station of life or the economic ladder.

Everyone here senses how precarious your situation is. They are offering ideas to help you improve that.

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I had no intention to berate you or make light of your situation. Clearly, I expressed myself badly.

Like I said, if I lived in your town, I would be happy to share excess from my own garden. No cost to you or other recipients, and I would also deliver, again at my own expense. I would only ask that I not be subjected to public catcalls, calling out and such like rudeness.

My point was not that you should pay for anything above and beyond your rent. Rather, what I was trying to say was that I have seen many low income complexes where the operating budget runs to a yard service but someone to grow a few fruits or veges seems to be impossible. I consider that to be misallocation of funds on the part of OWNERSHIP and MANAGEMENT, NOT of the renters like you. If the complex is federally funded, the MANAGERS have a responsibility to all of us citizens as well as to residents to make things as easy, pleasant and healthy as possible for residents, not just have the outside look nice to impress important people,

I respect and admire your courage in explaining the reality of your situation. The reality of my situation is that I cannot afford to buy health insurance and I don't qualify for Medicare,. Furthermore, a cool hundred bucks comes out of my SS check every month for Medicare 2, which only covers hospital expenses. Nothing else. Therefore, the quality of food I eat is a matter of urgent concern for me if I want to maintain my health. Therefore, in my own life, I am pro-organic and local and anti GMOs and industrial farming, a stance which the Kossites are pleased to describe as "privileged".

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Mary Bennett

please stop the personal insults when responding to the comments. Thank you.

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martianexpatriate's picture

There is nowhere left for me to go anymore.

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is for you to stop the personal insults.

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has been through a lot. Lets lay off, OK?

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Mary Bennett

have been through a lot here, should I give them free reign to insult others too? Should I just back off and let this place moderate itself?

I get people breathing down my neck to do something about the insults in the threads. I ask folks to not insult each other and I get told to lay off. Moderating this site is such a joy.

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You already are letting the place moderate itself. How is Trump advocacy serving the 99percent? Trump advocates getting rid of the estate tax. I think most of the readers are now Trump trolls. So if they tell a disabled women to collect grass to live through Trump and she insults the person for the "let them eat cake republican attitude," suddenly you step in.

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insults, not about advocacy. This is a nonpartisan site, folks are free to advocate for whomever they like. What they are not free to do is insult each other.

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This is a nonpartisan site, but not a non-ideological site. It claims to reflect the views of OWS through its title, yet half the posts, and mosts of the posts that get recs are posts that advocate voting for a bigot, who wants to get rid of the estate tax. Those are stances openly hostile to the 99percent. I am gone, and I will rescind my monthly donations too.

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dance you monster's picture

(1) Most participants here are advocating votes for Jill Stein.
(2) The few who suggest voting for Trump are not advocating his positions but are making a calculation that he'd not get them enacted in any Establishment Congress and that a vote for the only candidate who could defeat Clinton could have its merits to bring down the New Democrats and their brand of support and protection for the 1%.
(3) It's your choice, of course, to walk away from here, but it might be more effective to do it for a legitimate reason.

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It can be done by voting for Stein too, with the added benefit of not endorsing Trump's views, so I doubt their sincerity. Also these Trump posts are now dominating most discussions here.

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The fact that they do is because the "Party of the working man" doesn't give a shit. They are too busy bailing out the banks, building bombs, and filling their own pockets with our money. They'd be happy to eliminate the estate tax, privatize Social Security, Medicare and our schools, and force the near poor to give money to Aetna for health care they can't get.

The only way to stop the Trumps and the Clintons and the great American heist is to have a real opposition party. We don't have one of those either because too few people care, or are willing to take the risk, or are willing to hold their nose long enough to join with the vermin to rock and turn over the boat. I realize it is scary because no one wants to lose, and people like martian have no buffer thanks to all of us cowards voting for the lesser of evils for the last 40 years.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

gulfgal98's picture

Nobody should have to live as poor as martianexpatriate.

This is the real tragedy of this country, the richest country in the world.

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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

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

Civility fetishism, is a tool of the Obamacrats to stop criticism of the War and the Bailiouts.

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Obama is an asshole who is bombing 7 countries and refusing to prosecute the banks or the Clintons while his daughter smokes pot in public without consequence.

See I did that without calling anyone a name except the public figure we were discussing. That's civility.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

WaterLily's picture

Perhaps people's responses are unknowingly insensitive, but I genuinely believe they are trying to help.

I'm sitting here myself, hurting on your behalf and wondering what I can personally do.

I live on the other side of the country. That said, if you're willing to talk to your neighbors and identify a way to give this gardening thing a go, I will pay for a modest delivery of compost, mulch and topsoil to help get you started.

I just started backyard gardening myself this year. I do believe (sadly) that it will be essential for everyone's survival moving forward.

Peace.

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martianexpatriate's picture

to delete my messages. There's no point in me ever bringing up where I live, or what circumstances are like here.

Frankly I saw one insult in there. Maybe there was more, I really can't tell any more.

I'm so far away from everyone now that communication is essentially impossible.

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in this thread but eventually fell into personal insult mode. Please continue with your line of reasoning, without the personal insults.

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You are here and very much a part of this blog. You play an important role in the community. No matter how urgent today is to us, we are always immaterial to the universe. The routine trips we take between today and infinity make life a challenge for all of us.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

divineorder's picture

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

WindDancer13's picture

I'm telling you that I started to starve to death.

No one there also needs to go get groceries occasionally? Carpools are a great invention.

Not passing a budget does not equal stopping social security checks from going out. It is, howver, a great scare tactic. One that Obama likes to roll out pretty regularly. Politifact rated Obama's claim as mostly false: Barack Obama says if there's a government shutdown, Social Security checks won't get sent

But when looking at the fate of Social Security during a government shutdown, there’s an important wrinkle to remember.

Social Security is a mandatory program supported by a trust fund. As such, Social Security benefits aren’t appropriated -- and thus aren’t directly subject to the restrictions of the Antideficiency Act. However, the Social Security Administration’s operational employees are paid through appropriated funds. So the real question is whether a shutdown would prevent those employees from going to work, and if so, whether that would mean the payments wouldn't be sent.

...
The president and Congress "could decide whether to send out Social Security checks in the event of a shutdown," said Alice Rivlin, who headed OMB under Clinton. "Congress could mandate that enough workers be declared 'essential' to get the checks out or the president could decide to take that action—or not."

Historically, whenever there has been a government shutdown, checks have gone out. It might be well to remember that the largest voting block that Republicans and Democrats still rely on are those people who are within the retirement age.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

martianexpatriate's picture

Its like you guys you just don't want to see.

No one there also needs to go get groceries occasionally? Carpools are a great invention.

We are trapped here. Do me a favor and read my statement about conditions here. Can you do that? Will you do that?

We don't have a car. There is nobody to carpool with. There is no bus into town. Most of us live on a social security check, and only a cab to go into town. We can get some of those rides paid for by social security.

I'm right back at kos now.

I'm done. I give up.

I hope someday some of you people get to experience my life.

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When you look it up on Google maps, the Walmart store is the highlight on the map as I believe it is in real life. He has a car, SS, medicare, a pt job, and a drunken wife he thinks might kill him when his back is turned. He weighs a whopping 108 lbs and is in poor health. He rescues dogs and just had to have 30 stitches in his leg from breaking up a dog fight. I cannot imagine living in his town or in his life, but I do understand how hard a row some people have in some pretty unhelpful places.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

enhydra lutris's picture

yeah, they can all take turns driving the carpool. First, one of them has to go carjack somebody, hopefully somebody with a full tank of gas, then round up the others and drive to town and back and ditch the car before the cops come. That's simple enough.

Shared resources can be a great boon when you are poor, but that only works when some of you have resources to share. I suspect that none of the residents at this facility, just like those at a ton of other such facilities, have any resources. If it was like CA, they'd have had to transfer title to the car and any other material assets to the state long ago just to qualify to stay there.

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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 --

WindDancer13's picture

It is harder to come up with one that may work better.

PS. I get my social security check on the 3rd, and on the 3rd I have no money left. My rent in the last year has gone up by $100, my food stamps by $12. It's a balancing act, but I manage and I think about the people who are living in the shelter down the street and count myself very lucky.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

And am also disabled. I'd rather go hungry than allow for more civilian casualties in Hillary's wars. Why should one me take priority over thousands of others in situations worse than mine?

I don't know about your area, but I know there are food shelves everywhere. The food they have may not be the best quality, but it's enough for survival. I would suggest finding out the nearest one to you. Hillary probably would cut the programs we live off of herself, so it's simply the best idea to assume that no matter who becomes president, you're going to be losing your source of survival, and plan accordingly.

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but it is not kind. It is a hard and necessary truth that I have learned over the years, but it is a truth nonetheless:

There comes a time when you have to chose to stand on your feet and fight or drop to your knees and grovel.

And only you can decide which you will do when the time comes, but face up and be honest about which you have chosen. As a legal aid attorney for over a decade, I've had clients that allowed themselves to be bought off for pennies on the dollar because they were in dire straights, and I've had clients fight to the bitter for the principle of the matter despite the cost.

I've had to make the same choice as well. There have been times that I dropped to my knees to grovel. There are also times I've gotten my ass thoroughly kicked when I stood and fought. But that's life - there is no safe place or sure path.

But when you do drop to your knees, be prepared to give your opponent everything they want right then and there and hope that they have enough empathy to take some pity on you, because that is all that you will get.

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One can survive a long time on a diet of just rice and beans. Bought in bulk. Supplement with raw carrots and garlic if possible. Canned tomato paste, salt and spices. It's not haute cuisine, but it's very inexpensive and it will keep you going if all else fails.

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native

martianexpatriate's picture

that nobody really stated they want Trump to be President.

I'm not angry at the poster for making this essay. I actually voted for it, it makes sense on a lot of points.

It's absolutely true that we are being frightened with Trump to elect Clinton. But the thing that people miss when they talk about how Trump is used to frighten people back into line, is that they aren't bluffing. It isn't all some ruse. If you shut down the government, you kill people.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

dance you monster's picture

. . . what you are saying is you are their hostage. We should not upset the delicate balance of abuse the powers that be have concocted on their path too scooping up everything -- wealth, power, planet -- because you'd be the first to suffer for it.

dkmich indicated another truth, If you don't shut down this system, others will be killed, lots of others. Somehow, their deaths are supposed to be less compelling.

I understand Pluto's argument. I'm not agreeing with it (yet), and have some trouble imagining I ever would be, but your argument, martianexpatriate, is an appeal to emotion, the wail of the hostage, not a weighing of all the pieces and variables that inform wise counsel. It would be good here to weigh everything.

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martianexpatriate's picture

assumption is that Hillary Clinton will do as much damage as Trump, and I don't accept that assumption. Its a ridiculous assumption.

Trump has a huge ego and massive anger issues. People have implied that if he gives the order to drop nuclear weapons, the military won't do it. They are lying. It is absolutely possible that Trump could start a war because someone makes him angry. Anybody who says otherwise is lying.

Anybody who thinks Hillary is more prone to use nuclear weapons simply isn't thinking clearly. She's made horrible decisions, and probably will send drones to new places and expand our military arm.

Unlike Trump, she makes her decisions carefully, carefully deciding which constituency she needs to play off to one another. She attacks people who can't defend themselves. That's awful. But if you think that this automatically makes her equal to Trump your just wrong.

I'm not making an appeal to emotion, I'm trying to help connect you people back to reality.

My ideas are very fact based. I know just exactly how the government works, and I suspect I'm more familiar with Trump's history than you are. I know at least as much about Hillary Clinton as you do.

I want to hold this country together long enough to save it. I believe that we can do that. As more people grow poor, the country shifts inexorably towards not responding to Hillary Clinton's kind of politics. Every year, we gain more traction.

My appeal is not based on emotion, its based on cold hard reality.

You assume that because Hillary Clinton has done terrible things, and you only have a very abstract associating with Trump that he must be better. He is not. He is a narcissist with profound anger management problems, who has blown up every business he was ever a part of. He'll do the same thing to the national budget that he did to the budget of all the corporations he worked for.

You want to see awful? See him drop a nuclear weapon.

I tell you now from personal experience that things can always get worse, always. The time of greatest danger is when you believe that they can't.

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dance you monster's picture

. . . is that Hillary will be successful in doing different damage than Trump. Hillary also "has a huge ego and massive anger issues."

Members of the military have said they'd refuse a nuclear order from Trump. They are lying?

And Hillary has stated that she would use nuclear weapons if Israel is attacked. She was lying?

"Trying to help connect you people back to reality" is not your bailiwick, and you are not qualified to measure it.

You are not alone in understanding how the government works. Nor in knowing something about Trump or Hillary. You are not the sole holder of facts. And your argument that we have to wait until enough Americans are dirt poor before we'll reject New Democrats' politics is no less cruel than the arguments you attack. It's merely a leavening to the lowest common denominator.

Finally, a politics of fear is not a politics that I will support.

[edited for spelng errers]

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Raggedy Ann's picture

It's happening every day, every where. You know this martian. People are dying because of our for-profit insurance companies. People are dying because they don't have a living wage. People are dying because they are on the street. People are dying because they are being thrown out of their homes. People are dying because it is too hot and they cannot afford air conditioning. People are dying because it is too cold and they cannot afford heat. People are dying regardless. People will continue to die until our political system is destroyed and a new one rises up out of the Phoenix. It's inevitable. There will be pain. There will be suffering. There is already pain. There is already suffering. There will be more of both. It is inevitable.

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"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

Lookout's picture

I prefer voting for Jill. I can't bring myself to vote for T-rump.

If T-rump wins I think we would be less likely to get in a war with Russia, but we really don't now what he would do - therein lies the problem.

Alabama will definitely go T-rump. My road is an alleyway of T-rump yard signs. If they (the rethugs) strip and flip votes in FL and OH they may win no matter what.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Pluto's Republic's picture

A President Trump will bring to the Federal Government a completely inert Presidency. Both Parties are pledged to work against anything he attempts. The thoroughly frightened constituents insist on this. Any representative who crosses that line, is poison is finished in Washington DC.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
martianexpatriate's picture

is not simply a government that doesn't pass laws.

It also doesn't pass budgets. That isn't just some accounting thing, it means that people on government programs will eventually stop receiving checks. That includes food stamps, and later social security checks. I am alive because I receive a social security check for $730.00 a month. I am just barely alive, I can never save any money.

If I don't get that check, I might not make it through that month. I don't think I would survive long on the street at this point. I used to be the kind of guy who could, but I'm older and repeatedly not getting checks like that has harmed my health.

I'm stating this as calmly and clearly as I possibly can.

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not going out? I can't recall that ever happening.

For that matter, when was it that a budget impasse resulted in food stamps being stopped? Again, I can't recall that ever happening.

With the debt ceiling "crises" during Obama's administration, I do remember parks being shut down, some federal employees being furloughed, etc. But as far as I know, the SS checks and food stamp benefits continued.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

and just because, maybe it has not yet happened, doesn't mean it won't happen. I fear the same thing every day. If we go along with our heads in the clouds thinking it will never happen, we will be in for a big surprise if it does indeed happen. We must be prepared for anything to happen at any time.

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"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

presented a food stamp cutoff as a consequence of a budget impasse as being an historical reality. If that was the case, I must have missed it.

I suspect that even our ruthlessly brutal politicians would hesitate to cut off SS checks. They might like to threaten it, but so far they have done everything possible to avoid that during these phony "debt ceiling crises" and budget impasses.

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Roger Fox's picture

and has its own financing.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

SNAP benefits may be another issue, since they're controlled at a state level, from what I can tell. I don't think there should be a reason for SNAP benefits to be held from distribution, but I could see individual states doing it to manipulate the voting public.

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... martianex, and ones like it are what always gives me pause about just wrecking the system. Because as bad as it is, as bad as it runs, it's keeping people alive right now.

I had a eerily similar online conversation during the Obamacare debates - I thought then I should not support it and push my reps for single payer NHS until someone (a Republican, as it turned out) started telling a story about how a minor problem turned into a major one, paying out of pocket because he couldn't get insurance effectively bankrupted him, and he was months away from being on the street.

I decided then and there, who the fuck am I to hold out for what's best, when what's on offer is obviously going to help more people than it hurts?

I'm sorry for what you're going through, man.

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You and I may not be violent supporters but he has them, and so if elected they imagine themselves the enforcers, not Congress. Is it possible? Maybe. Probable? Gosh hope not, because the citizenry is awash in small arms plus more. The Clintons already failed hard with Militias in the 90s, prepare to repeat only worse.

Good luck to all, may peace prevail.

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You did read about the yellow caps at the convention, her hired thugs?

Not to mention Honduras, Haiti, Libya, Ukraine and Syria, FIVE countries which have done nothing to us destabilized in one four year term as SOS. Even by the lamentable standards of Anglo American imperialism that must be some kind of record. The truth is that neither major party candidate is fit to be president and neither deserves the vote of an ethical, thinking person.

IMHO, the best strategy for this election is to vote for which ever of the minor party candidates has the best chance of gaining a large segment of the vote in your state. If I still lived on the West Coast, I would be voting for Johnson, not because I like all of his ideas, I don't, but because he is at least honest. Here in NY, I think it best to vote for Stein in the hopes of pushing her total to about 15-20% of the vote, a serious embarrassment for Clinton.

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Mary Bennett

I do believe in broad coalitions but not this guy, no way! Here Are All the Racist Comments That Got Donald Trump Fired From NBC

As for the comments that landed Trump in hot water, he basically said that a large percentage of immigrants are rapists, murderers, or other criminals. He repeated the remarks a number of times, and stood by them again on Monday.

Here’s the first iteration of the comments, from when Trump announced his run for the presidency earlier this month:

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. … .When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

When Trump was asked to explain those comments over the weekend by CNN’s Jake Tapper, he basically reiterated the stance.

Yesterday, Trump reverts to his xenophobic self

But Trump, having completed his photo op with the Mexican president, discarded the “friend” he had apparently just used as a prop. Trump landed in Phoenix for what was supposed to be a detailed “policy address” on immigration but was a familiar, nativist rant. Preceded at the lectern by Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff and anti-immigration hard-liner, Trump launched into a lament for the “countless Americans” who are “victims of violence” by illegal immigrants who are “dangerous, dangerous, dangerous criminals.”

“We will build a great wall along the southern border!” he said to an enormous cheer.

“And Mexico will pay for the wall! One-hundred percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall.”

Joe Arpaio? No! Not me. No Trump is the coalitional side in my view, over here with the No Clinton voter(s). Bosses and bankers are who to fight, not our brothers and sisters.

Peace

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You prefer feeling good for 10 minutes with no lasting results (Stein), or do you prefer the mad bomber (Hillary) at war with the people domestically and abroad to further enrich the corporate oligarchy?

I'm sure the union organizers and Joe Hill who died for us preferred a different fate too.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

about any of this. I know I am not.

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Mary Bennett

Both Trumpistas and Clintonistas argue my vote for Stein is nothing but a feelgood vote. In other words Trump is the lesser evil. You're a mod. I can see why this blog is dying now.

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Stein isn't going to win. She can be a protest vote, and I have no problem with that if that is the best I can get. If instead I can make Hillary and the Democrats lose by voting for Trump, I'm all in.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Clintonistas say Stein is a protest vote too, and you can also make Hillary and the Dems lose by voting for her, instead of endorsing a man who is a bigot, thinks all Mexicans are rapists, and wants to eliminate minimum wage and estate taxes.

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lotlizard's picture

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

If I can impact the vote in MI, my vote is going to Trump. Having been under GOP rule in this state since 2011 with no end in sight, I totally understand the risk. However, we got here with people voting for Obama and a corporate owned Democratic Party. So the way I see it, I've got everything to lose no matter who wins. If I can lose it all helping my grandkids or looking out for my own ass, pride, morality, ethics, whatever, I'm going out fighting for my grandkids.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Thanks, made me look. Wink I can only find realclearpolitics latest Emerson poll: Clinton 45, Trump 40, Johnson 7, Stein 3. Huh! Lucky you, in California my vote rarely counts against neoliberal elites.

Thanks Michigan (Primary Results)
http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/michigan
Bernie Sanders 595,222 49.8%
Hillary Clinton 576,795 48.3%

Donald J. Trump 483,751 36.5%

Peace & Solidarity

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I'm voting against every Democrat on the ticket, and I'll vote for a Republican if that's the option most likely to hurt Dems. Every one of them in my locale supported Hillary and several were among the most prominent liars about Bernie.

A stake needs to be driven through the heart of the most effective evil: the Democrat Party. (I've taken to calling it what the Republicans do because it's sure as hell not democratic.)

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On the state level, I will vote straight D. Stabenow and the rest of the Hillarybots at the federal level will not get my vote.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Government inertia will be the very definition of a Clinton presidency.
Food stamps are as low on her priority as they can get.
War and impeachment. Nobody will be discussing budgets and food stamps.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

to not do anything real in Congress like ending money in politics or implementing climate change policies with teeth or single payer etc. etc. Jill Stein has to be President for us to deal effectively with climate change and corruption before it's too late. Trump is a climate change denier. That is absolutely unacceptable today. If on election day, Jill Stein is out of the picture, I'll probably vote for the lesser climate change risk, which is Hillary. I would prefer Gary Johnson over Hillary and will vote for him if he has a shot to beat Trump. On the other hand, if the vote is rigged, I'm just talking gibberish.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Big Al's picture

Sounds like lesser evil voting to me. I can understand the tactical thinking but I don't think there's much advantage for the we the Serfs. You're right, the Congress and Senate would largely neuter whatever Trump wanted to do, like build a Wall, but that doesn't mean the show wouldn't go on.

We'll go thru four more years and do it again. The issue to me is we can't keep doing this again and again, i.e., electing a President and 535 people to supposedly represent us, it doesn't work for the Serfs, it doesn't give power to the people, it is not democracy, it is a farce.

Voting, no matter how strategic or tactical, is not going to get us out of this mess. The political system in this country is a failure, it's time we faced up to that fact.

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I totally agree with you Al. Not to mention, they'll just steal whatever they can't manipulate.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Hawkfish's picture

The bastards are using my compassion against me, but I have to vote for hope. Enough votes for Stein could split Clintons support badly and have a similar effect - or even toss the result to the house where Johnson would have a shot. At least it would put a lot of people on record. That is what I'm going to work for.

I have kids myself, and I want to leave them a habitual planet and a just society. Trump would produce neither, and might even strengthen the neoliberal position via "at least we are not that bad".

But thanks for making the argument. It's why I come here.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

It is yours to do with whatever you please. Al makes a great case for staying home.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

... is that "eligible but did not vote" could swing just about every election in this country, including POTUS.

True enough, a vote represents the bare minimum of what you can do to change things, but if you give up even that, well, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

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whatever we do, we always end up screwed. No shows in Detroit and Flint elected Snyder to a second term. That and a bland D candidate that loved mom and apple pie. I was really pissed.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

mimi's picture

it's not defensive in my mind, but idiotic. If a whole coalitions has to vote for an idiot, the coalition will fall apart because some of them won't go along with feeling like being taken for idiots.

Hillary Clinton's closest opponents are the voters, who won't vote anymore. The questions is what they are doing instead.

I respect your diary, but I don't believe in it.

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is that I don't think voting Trump is really a middle finger to The Powers That Be. To the contrary, I think they'll easily buy his cooperation in office. But I could be wrong.

That said, this election season is so incredibly stupid that I wish all the power and luck to your plan. If nothing else, I think that Trump will be less dangerous than Clinton and the mad scientist in me is curious as to what he would actually do as president.

* I have no idea why TOP had to dumb down the concept of an essay into a "diary," but we really should take back the language on this point.

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

It's such a good diary, and it distresses me that my first response is:

Yeah, but my best guess is that Trump is a Hillary sockpuppet.

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"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

A vote for Trump tells the politicians you endorse Trump's policies. You are also telling them you accept the shit choices they have given you. A vote for Stein denies Clinton a vote and also denies Trump a vote. A vote for Stein tells the politicians what you really believe in and why they lost your vote. Trump is Clinton's fallguy anyway? You are just reverse lesser evilists.

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shaharazade's picture

be an effective coalition? Would their be enough votes to take The Mad Bomber and the New Democrat's down? Trump's is an such an effective crazy man frightner that it's hard to believe he's not in cahoots with the Democrat's. It's like not voting in that to be effective it would have to be organized and consist of enough voters to make a difference. The owners of the place like it when there is low turn out. If a large segment of Democratic votes goes to Trump would that counter the Republican's who will reject Trump and his supporters. What about the Indies who's numbers at this point must be rising sky high.

Most coalitions have some common ground and I don't see any between Trump supporters and the large segment of voters who reject Clinton. I can't see how a pox on both houses is enough incentive to get people to vote for the odious Trump. Not that Clinton is in any way better then The Hairball but better the devil you know and fear of the lunatic RW will lessen the resolve to strategically vote for the overtly insane demagogue and his armed and crazy supporters.

I won't vote for Clinton or any Demorats or Repugs down ballot. I think about voting for Trump but cannot picture myself actually filling in the oval next to his name. Same with The Mad Bomber. I can and will vote for any Green, Socialist or independent who's running against the entrenched Democratic incumbent's in Oregon. Will it make a difference? I doubt it.

What is needed is some sort of organized coalition that can bring together enough people willing to take on the duopoly. That's not going to happen as the large sane populist movement that Bernie gave voice to got sheep dogged right back into the fold. Or did they? Fear of Trump sure seems to have been effective. Offline and on I am told over and over that I'm selfish, irresponsible and dangerous because I will not vote for the more effective fascistic evil. Who knows what will happen but either way humans are all screwed, globally and here in the USA, USA, USA.

There were enough people who voted for Bernie to form a coalition with indies and Democratic voters who have had enough along with non voters to effectively organize and take the monstrous duopoly out. I don't think this will happen via the electoral system but regardless of who wins this freaking farce it's going to be bad news for people everywhere. Politics are not static or inevitable and one way or another we need to start organizing and forming coalitions out side the veal pen. Fear is a killer and freezes all movement.

There are no yard signs for either candidate in my 85% Democratic district. On a bike ride through my neighborhood the other evening I did see a lot of Black Lives Matter signs. This neighborhood is pretty white and middle class and it seems no one is buying what their selling on any level. Seems to me people need to buck up and start using their power instead of trying to 'revitalize' or reform either party. Right now the people who supported Bernie are left in limbo with no direction home. That is understandable given what happened.

This won't last as more and more of us are aware of what is going down and it's not going to get any better or go away. Sometimes closing loop holes is not enough to stop people from forming coalitions and taking down oppressive 'inevitable' systems. Have enough of us got to a point where enough really is enough to form a critical mass? Maybe but as long as people feel they have something to lose they will support the status quo. The TPP might do the trick.

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The ptb will be THRILLED if Trump wins. It means they no longer have to be pc. They can just be hate hate hate ALL the time instead of just most of the time.

If you want a frigging coalition I think the one where we can work with repubs and pair our Jill votes to the libertarian votes would be much much smarter.

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glitterscale

are likely to become President, voting for either of them will not determine the outcome. I plan to vote for Stein anyway. I can't advocate voting for Trump. However, it's true that to withhold support for Clinton is, in a way, to refrain from actively opposing Trump.

That's my position. I will not support Clinton, even knowing that not supporting her gives Trump a better chance of winning. But if Trump were to defeat Clinton, how could anyone in their right mind blame Stein or Johnson voters for her loss? The responsibility for a Trump victory would rest squarely where it belongs - on the shoulders of the Democratic Party establishment.

Similarly, to refrain from supporting Trump is to make a Clinton victory more likely. But again, third-party voters should not be held responsible for that result either.

It is extremely likely, almost certain, that one or the other of them will be the next POTUS. But I refuse to be complicit in helping to effectuate either outcome. Let the two opposing camps fight it out between themselves, and let the least worse of them win, but I'm not about to help either of them do it.

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native