2024

[TDub]

yes I'm aware that's a bunch if random rambling. it's all I have in me today. I'm not going back to edit it to make it more readable. Sort through it for what you can get out of it, or ignore it. It's all good.

[twocoach]

more proof that there is no choice.

One "option" is unelecteable piece of trash. That leaves us with 1 pre approved person as our "choices". Awesome.

No matter how you present it, the choice is nothing but a word for you to feel better about yourself for not checking the box of a lunatic. That doesn't make it a "choice". Real choices would involve actual candidates and having to think about what you arr selecting, bot blindly checking the box of the guy that wears the correct color ribbon.

No disagreement in principle. I don’t, however, think a protest write-in is the correct move at this time. I think there is value in each and every person who considers Trump to be an unelectable piece of trash casting their vote in the one way that is a clear rebuke of that piece of trash.

didn't say it was but its the heart of the argument that's silly to me.

Not saying you, but many responses in this thread speaking of how we do have choices and what are we going to do about it..

- of course you have a choice, but you have to vote for Biden or you're enabling a traitor

-you have the primaries to exercise your choices.....as long as your choice is to vote for Biden!

- ok, I'm gonna vote for a third party. Oh no, you can't do that, that's the same as voting for Trump!

- ok I'm gonna write in a candidate. Oh no! you can't do that either.


Ok so how exactly is it that we can "do something about it" if the only things we theoretically can do (even if these theoretical options are also null and void because the lobby purse strings pull the numbers for candidacy) we actually cant do. It's all bullshit, burn it to the ground. We have no choice and no say, regardless of the lip service paid to the constituency.

bread and circus.....with overpriced, mass manufactured welfare bread and a circus we can't afford even if we had any desire to be "entertained".

broken. all of it. I don't have answers, but I do know the last decade has made people stupider, less amiable and turned once tolerable lack of choices into gangland conflict. I've never liked people, I especially don't like people now. I do not support what either party is doing *yes the bloods are currently significantly worse in most regards. But, both sides need to calm down on control. The fight for control of citizens every move is....unacceptable.

I am sure there are groups out there that are also pushing for changes to the US voting system that would love to have you volunteer for them. If ranked choice is your cut of tea, go find a group that could benefit from your volunteer hours or donate money to them to help their push. There are things that can be done if you're so serious about it. Just quit bitching and DO them.

I got sick of complaining about how Nebraska doesn't have medicinal/recreational weed so I volunteered and sat at a table reading the required statement and collecting signatures to get it on the ballot because that was something I could DO about it.

[DeletedUser]

Nothing like twocoach telling people to quit bitching while simultaneously bitching in various threads.

He's on a roll.

[KUTradition]

at least he seems to actually be doing something, rather than just message board activism

[Shirley]

at least he seems to actually be doing something, rather than just message board activism

^^^

[ousdahl]

Serious question:

Is it better to be an activist, or to be a protestor?

Consider how those in power do really nothing to earn our votes, but are trying so doggedly to counter these protests.

Trying to decide if that says something about where we should concentrate our political energy.

[Sparko]

Serious question:

Is it better to be an activist, or to be a protestor?

Consider how those in power do really nothing to earn our votes, but are trying so doggedly to counter these protests.

Trying to decide if that says something about where we should concentrate our political energy.

Give democrats clear majorities and most of the hobby horse issues go away. Let's focus on health care, pensions, wages and the environment first

[Shirley]

Serious question:

Is it better to be an activist, or to be a protestor?

Consider how those in power do really nothing to earn our votes, but are trying so doggedly to counter these protests.

Trying to decide if that says something about where we should concentrate our political energy.

Making absolute statements like that only serves to call whatever credibility you might have into question. Contrary to your allegation, there are plenty of people putting in the unglamorous but necessary work to try and improve our lives and earn our votes. And for you sweep to them all into the same trash bin with the candidates that don't make any effort, says more about you than it does about them.

What due diligence, exactly, have you done on a granular, local level in the past, to be able to make such a blanket statement?

I'm lazy, I don't really want to, but tomorrow afternoon I'm going to a meeting of like-minded people to help decide which candidates we want to throw our support behind precisely because some of them do plenty to earn our votes.

[Sparko]

That "welfare bread" statement pisses me off. We have a government to work for the general welfare of all people. Not some. Not just libertarians or the rich. All. That bread is made by corporations using wheat subsidized by taxes. No choices? Seems some have made plenty. Costs are high based on the profit motive more than any other single component including Russia's invasion on the bread basket of Europe. Gasoline likewise.

[jfish26]

Serious question:

Is it better to be an activist, or to be a protestor?

Consider how those in power do really nothing to earn our votes, but are trying so doggedly to counter these protests.

Trying to decide if that says something about where we should concentrate our political energy.

Making absolute statements like that only serves to call whatever credibility you might have into question. Contrary to your allegation, there are plenty of people putting in the unglamorous but necessary work to try and improve our lives and earn our votes. And for you sweep to them all into the same trash bin with the candidates that don't make any effort, says more about you than it does about them.

What due diligence, exactly, have you done on a granular, local level in the past, to be able to make such a blanket statement?

I'm lazy, I don't really want to, but tomorrow afternoon I'm going to a meeting of like-minded people to help decide which candidates we want to throw our support behind precisely because some of them do plenty to earn our votes.

School boards
City councils
Planning and zoning commissions

There are all sorts of directly- and indirectly-elected positions that (1) bear meaningfully on day-to-day life (and the future prospects) of where you live, and (2) can swing on VERY low amounts of dollars and volunteer engagement.

They don't (I mean, ideally) land on screaming head-in-a-box shows on cable news, but they affect our individual lives MUCH more so than do the national elections we all want to give up on.

[twocoach]

Nothing like twocoach telling people to quit bitching while simultaneously bitching in various threads.

He's on a roll.

Don't bitch about a broken system if you aren't going to do something to try fix it. Me offering up solutions on what they can do is my way of offering up a solution on how they can fix it AKA trying to DO something instead of JUST bitching.

I get that you think your line is so funny like you have me in some witty zinger that you had to repeat it twice but it's actually childish and simple. But that is all I expect from you.

[DeletedUser]

I get that you think your line is so funny like you have me in some witty zinger that you had to repeat it twice but it's actually childish and simple. But that is all I expect from you.

Was that your attempt at a witty zinger? Sorta childish and simple.

[Shirley]

Where's the Politics forum "Petri dish" thread?

With no alternatives, I guess our future is going to be replete with heretofore preventable infectious disease outbreaks. I'm retired, and even I never saw a case of diphtheria or tetanus. Lord help us, because when this becomes the law of the land, we're going to need it:

[jfish26]

Where's the Politics forum "Petri dish" thread?

With no alternatives, I guess our future is going to be replete with heretofore preventable infectious disease outbreaks. I'm retired, and even I never saw a case of diphtheria or tetanus. Lord help us, because when this becomes the law of the land, we're going to need it:

I know we've been normalized down to the nub here, but how this fits into the dumbest possible feedback loop is so profoundly depressing.

I am aware that there were anti-vax loons out there well before Trump.

But what's happening here is that (1) Trump can't possibly have botched Covid, and so (2) "actually, Trump was right about Covid" has turned into a loyalty test, and so (3) smart people adopt anti-vax lunacy in order to pass the loyalty test and appease Trump, and so (4) Trump now thinks (not unreasonably!) that running on an anti-vax platform is a GOOD thing.

[Shirley]

RFK Jr can't be happy that Trump is actively courting his stupid as shit supporters...

[Shirley]

Trump increased the national debt 7 Trillion dollars in only 4 years, and is promising even more tax cuts if he's elected? Imagine what he could do in 8 years!

If that's not Republican fiscal responsibility, I don't know what is!

[twocoach]

Where's the Politics forum "Petri dish" thread?

With no alternatives, I guess our future is going to be replete with heretofore preventable infectious disease outbreaks. I'm retired, and even I never saw a case of diphtheria or tetanus. Lord help us, because when this becomes the law of the land, we're going to need it:

The GOP has fully embraced being the Party of Stupidity.

[Sparko]

The government finished last month in the black. Thanks Biden. But a long climb after Trump.

[Shirley]

[jfish26]

It’s Schrödinger’s Pandemic: it didn’t exist at all (as something Trump bungled), but also it is why Trump is blameless for his own disastrous economic and tax policies.