@QMS
but, the establishment isn't going to allow a free exchange of ideas after all of the hard work they've done conditioning the hoi polloi all these past years. Can't let the voters have too much democracy. But, I think you know that already:

May as well wish for rainbow farting unicorns on the White House lawn but ,,

I have this feeling in my gut, though, that for some reason or another that the offer from Biden is a ruse and the debates will not come to fruition. It may be that he made that offer with all of the various stipulations thinking that Trump would turn it down, so he, Biden, could boldly pound his chest and claim that Trump is a afraid to debate him. He's already made similar statements.

We shall see.

-
-
Call me nuts, but I would like to see a non-scripted debate
Hosted by Roger Waters, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, Caitlin Johnstone
and Scott Ritter.

Get the whole bunch up there: Jill Stein, Cornell West, RFK Jr, Biden and Trump
Give them all 3 minutes to answer one question from each host.
Simple questions like Ukraine, Gaza, immigration, economy, free speech.

Moderated by Judge Napolatino.

Could be a very revealing 75 minutes.
Exploding heads for entertainment!

May as well wish for rainbow farting unicorns on the White House lawn but ,,

@The Liberal Moonbat
I don't know if you meant that my theory is "doing their work for them" is being done by myself inadvertently or is being done in collusion with them. Either way the answer is, no.

First of all it's just a theory, I have no proof. My intention is exposure of what I perceive as a possible tactic being used to erode our constitutional rights. Expose the tactic and it may no longer work on those that are aware.

Elon Musk bought Twitter and immediately exposed the government collusion with big tech to both censor and ban users that didn't comply with the narratives. Musk made himself out to be a champion of free speech but, please note, his platform is still censoring and banning users, albeit not to the extent it was before.

My point is: what has changed since his exposé? Has the government stopped colluding with big tech? No, actually is about to get worse. They are telling us up front now that they will collude with big tech to influence the upcoming election. It has become "normalized" to the point where they aren't hiding it any longer, which is a direct violation of the First Amendment.

I theorize that whistle blowers are being used to normalize government abuse of the constitution, whether they, the whistle blowers, do it intentionally or in collusion. It's a sneaky tactic that needs to be exposed, if true. That's my point.

You should know from my past writings and from the fact that I offer this free speech platform that I'm a firm proponent of the First Amendment. Any chipping away of that agreement, or any other constitutional agreements, that We the People have with our government should be exposed.

Are YOU "normalizing the New Normal", Jt"C"?

My reaction to the second piece there was anger, frustration, terror, and at least a hint of despair.
Are you certain such a message as you are conveying is not doing their work for them?

Garland, et al, have no business telling US what's what; they're public servants. They're supposed to be OUR BITCHES. We shouldn't be cowering, we should be bitchslapping them - perhaps literally, if we can get close - and giving THEM orders.

Nobody who hews to dominance hierarchy has my respect; any such an animal who does is, by definition, my inferior.

They've got nothing; they're bullies - and bullies are parasites who depend on others subjugating themselves, because open violence is too risky. Their "power" is totally illusory. We have got to stop cowering in terror.

@enhydra lutris
you get it, sir. Thank you.

It is true that each of the words used is a bona fide english language word, but as assembled above they are meaningless and lack any discernible content. This is no doubt intentional, because the speaker can assgn or impute such interpretation as they see fit after the fact and change it at will. Once upon a very long ago, when quasi-rational justices ruled the bench there was a standard that laws had to pass, they had to be intelligible, and sufficiently so that a reasonable person could determine what was and was not allowed or prohibited thereby. True, the linguistic garbage barfed up above does not pretend to be law, but it is, nonetheless, gubmint policy, and as such, should pass some sort of "reasonable person" standard of intelligibility. It is instead clearly intended to provide cover for misbehavior and illegality and, almost certainly, infringement upon our rights as citizens and humans.

Exactly what I was trying to convey.

I agree with your debate idea as well.

Although, unfortunately, debates are little more that a platform to catapult lies. No more proof is needed other than witnessing the subsequent actions and policies of the winner when they take office.

protect our elections from national security threats, including malign foreign influence and cyber-enabled campaigns.

is devoid of cognitive content.

It is true that each of the words used is a bona fide english language word, but as assembled above they are meaningless and lack any discernible content. This is no doubt intentional, because the speaker can assgn or impute such interpretation as they see fit after the fact and change it at will. Once upon a very long ago, when quasi-rational justices ruled the bench there was a standard that laws had to pass, they had to be intelligible, and sufficiently so that a reasonable person could determine what was and was not allowed or prohibited thereby. True, the linguistic garbage barfed up above does not pretend to be law, but it is, nonetheless, gubmint policy, and as such, should pass some sort of "reasonable person" standard of intelligibility. It is instead clearly intended to provide cover for misbehavior and illegality and, almost certainly, infringement upon our rights as citizens and humans.

Debates: I really like QMS' proposal, but also think the candidates should be asked to explain, precisely and succinctly, yet in detail, the reason for each foreign military base, and why each country they believe or allege to be a "threat" is, in fact, a threat. Finally a few simple exercises like "where, exactly are each of the following and what are their top 3 exports and top 4 imports: Kazakhstan, Namibia, The Marshall Islands, Mexico, Timor, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

be well and have a good one

@soryang
the First Amendment is under attack. It's being stealthily slow walked rather than forcefully implemented.

And it's not just national, I've seen it in local elections as well, as per your anecdotal example. I'm originally from northern Illinois, about 80 miles from Chicago. I always knew that Chicago politics was over the top dirty, it was thought of as a blood sport. But it's just as bad if not worse here in Texas.

Our society has been conditioned to be less virtuous in lieu of winning at all costs.

It seems like much the world is on a march towards totalitarianism. It speaks volumes about us, in aggregate.

...so Garland lists these as in the same category as "malign foreign influence," on elections? There is an unfounded innuendo or smear there to justify this authoritarian approach. In terms of the way it is expressed it is a nonsequitur. By this means it serves to muzzle any candidate from stating a view on a foreign issue on the internet, unless it is the national security state's approved view. Having differing views on foreign policy or national security doesn't make one a malign foreign influence. Garland's expressing what really is, in essence, a totalitarian view of political speech.

I think the real threat to the TPTB from "cyber enabled campaigns" is probably that they need not be large money enabled campaigns, taking away the necessary advantage of machine politics. Therefore the FBI and other "national security" agencies need to put their hand on the scale by getting the big online social media to monitor, suspend, throttle down, and otherwise disable political campaigns taking advantage of their popular appeal on the internet to actually win votes.

This is anecdotal (and I've told it before) but it's been more than five years since someone I know had their campaign for a relatively obscure seat in a state legislature virtually shut down by Facebook who suspended their personal account a few weeks into the campaign season without any reasonable explanation. This was in a backwoods rural area and the office had no connection to any foreign issues whatever. It was a white candidate but his grass roots political support was from the Black community. The fact is that the vested interests don't want any candidate no matter how small, with certain perspectives that have the potential to resonate, to even start a political career. The national security angle is really just camouflage for repression pure and simple.

I like Ayageum's rendition of Nocturne 야상곡 (夜想曲) - 김윤아 by Kim Yoon-a. I actually like it better than the original artist's performance. I prefer Ayageum's more subdued (simple?) singing style, it's not so overly dramatic. She let's the music and song be heard and doesn't overpower them.

Now that I finally finished this, I see that my point above about Garlard's nonsense is very similar to ELs. Thanks for the OT JtC.

@enhydra lutris
be careful what you create it may end up biting you on the butt.

Are we still guarding the poppy fields there, or did we forgo that in lieu of the dark income generated from fentanyl trafficking?

Once, long ago, there was a power struggle within the Afghan government over whether to move ahead and do things like educate women or to, if anything, move backward. The progressive faction won, for a while, and asked the Rus for support against rebellion. The US saw an opportunity to make Afghanisatn "Russia's Viet Nam" and created assorted noxious groups.

Once the Rus bailed, some of the groups the US created caused the US a bit of grief so we went in and waged war on Afghanistan for 20 years before the US too bailed.

Heh -

Russia and Afghanistan Plan to Build Logistics Center For Oil Transit to South Asia

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240517/russia-and-afghanistan-plan-to-build-l...

be well and have a good one

@kelly
the "waves of outrageous developments" are by design. They are meant to beat us down to the point where we give up and roll over on our backs and ask big government to scratch our bellies. Thus the constant barrage of drama and hair on fire propaganda.

Technology has become a double edged sword, it's allowed us to exchange ideas with each other while, at the same time, herd us into thought controlled corrals.

which has been the situation for perhaps always, but now enhanced by technology's filters and amplifiers. I dont blame the mass consciousness for attention deficits. Rolling waves of outrageous developments are used to numb people with induced feelings of helplessness.

@Enchantress
with this whole thing, the DNC candidate and the debates. It defies logic that they would actually go with Biden as their candidate. They can't possibly think he'll make it another 4 years as president. Something is up.

I concur with your reference to the local politics. I see it here as well. Several of the "Good old Boy" regime, who were thought of as unbeatable, lost in our elections last March. People are fed up with the corruption and want change. That's a good sign.

I just have no interest in hearing anything from a Biden vs. Trump debate. Does anyone think Biden’s actually going to make it? Every time I hear him, he sounds like he has a mouth full of cotton. That’s from taking medication. He used to only sound like that when he had to make a big speech. Now it’s all the time. This means he’s probably getting a small dose of speed every day. Too much could realistically kill him.

I have been following the local politics though. Small town politics is the worse. A lot of people have moved into this county. The “Good Old Boys” are coming undone because they are afraid that they are going to lose their control. The county and the county commissioners have I don’t know how many lawsuits filed against them. Everything from using the county credit card at the liquor store, to dumping a naked county employee on the county attorney's door during a convention and trying to date the county attorney and sexually harassing her when she told him “NO!” Oh, and three of them were former cops at the sheriff’s department. Who am I voting for? Anyone who’s not an incumbent.

@enhydra lutris
as good as:

"Don't change Dicks in the midst of a screw, vote for Nixon in '72"

Hire The Handicapped

Re-Elect Biden

@humphrey
clickbait congress. May I suggest mud wrestling?

“Never wrestle with a pig because you'll both get dirty and the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

any difficult situation that might arise.

What's become of U.S. Congress... https://t.co/9AlQKhhMN2

— SIMPLICIUS Ѱ (@simpatico771) May 17, 2024