"Stop voting" indeed. Stop endorsing the corrupt system. The reason they constantly making it "easier" and more "convenient" through mail-in etc is they must keep it up to make themselves look legit.
Voting implies consent. There should be some choice on the ballot that expresses the voter sees no value in any of the available candidates. At least then the public and the winner of the election would know the winner didn't have a clear mandate, but was seen as the least psychopathic of the choices.
It may be useful, as a sort of theatrical or ceremonial enterprise, to remind the ruling class that their power comes from the consent or at least submission of the people. Although our electoral systems are almost completely suborned (that is, bought and paid for) there is a thread of popular sovereignty running through them that, at some moment, might become active and even significant. Of course it's a long shot, and I'm not recommending that anyone depend on it. If you want to change anything you probably should be doing other things. But I like having it there even if only in the background.
Your argument supports the notion that people deserve their governments. Especially that part that willingly participates in the corrupt process. The other part is at least honest in recognizing it is powerless in the face of the state repressive machine.
I do what I can as a retired veteran; I spend my days, besides my gardening, sharing info and passing it on, trying to wake people up, contacting my reps on a regular basis - they really need to set up a hotline for me! I also got active in my state politics, actively working for a true Constitutionalist running against compromised Deb Fischer. Of course, he lost - doesn't have the big $$$'s she's got...alternative news is the only place to find the real truth - there is NO TV news that is completely true and factual since $$$ compromises all of them.
It seems to me voting is a de facto agreement to be bound by the outcome. By voting you are essentially giving validity to the government and the process. Big subject. Have you read “Constitution of No Authority” by Lysander Spooner?
I've read everything by Lysander Spooner I could find.
The Constitution doesn't address voting, so how would his arguments against it, which are based on totally different criteria than voting, have to do with it?
Not on the side of fanbois who despite their advanced age haven't learned a thing. I don't blame youngsters - they're delusional by design. To keep the corrupt systems going.
“….Exit the voting arena and allow Fascists to consolidate power…:”
This is your take on a country that has had Biden and Obama in power, both in the pockets of the finance-military-industrial complex of endless war for profit, and both overseeing an ever expanding surveillance state and “homeland security” takeover?
Looks to me like two flavours of fascists is the “choice” you are getting at the ballot box….
The Democrats are pro-war, pro-censorship, pro-national security state, pro-empire, pro-surveillance, pro-police state, and corrupted by corporate money. But they still adhere, at least rhetorically, to the principles and practices of liberal democracy and rule of law. But their commitments are more closely aligned with the hollowed out shell of democracy Sheldon Wolin described in "Democracy Inc.". But - and here's where I disagree with you strongly - that is qualitatively different and a far cry from the cultural and political violent fascism openly embraced now by the Republican Party.
“….The Democrats are pro-war, pro-censorship, pro-national security state, pro-empire, pro-surveillance, pro-police state, and corrupted by corporate money. But they still adhere, at least rhetorically, to the principles and practices of liberal democracy and rule of law. …”
OK, so a reality check is in order.
The “Democrats” have just as much as the GOP, used the DOJ and IRS to persecute dissents and further their partisan agenda. What “rule of law”?
Case in point “Russiagate”, a whitchhunt aimed at silencing those who exposed the DNC’s….rigging of primary elections. What “rule of law” and what “democracy”.
Furthermore, the head Democrat and his family member have been exposed as having their hand in the till in Ukraine, to the tune of millions. Again DOJ and IRS used to put a quick slap on the wrist and seal the lead on acts which if they were undertaken by the president of Guinea or Cambodia and his son, well you sir would call this gross corruption. What rule of law”.
You are asking people rubber stand your fiction.
No.
Vote for Cornel West and begin a real change in this country.
Yes, Russiagate was a "witch hunt", but it was conducted in accordance with due process legal protections. Facts and law drove the Mueller investigation and Report. Trump did not get indicted for that. He got indicted for refusing to surrender government records he had no right to, for withholding evidence in violation of a legally issued grand jury subpoena, for lying to the FBI and DoJ, and for ordering his staff to lie while directing his lawyers to violate the law.
Trump should have been indicted long ago for openly conspiring to overthrow the election and block Congressional certification of the results. That coup plot is all laid out in the Eastman memo, remarkable something that Eastman is now being disbarred for in California, when he too should have been criminally indicted.
In contrast, Trump and Republicans lie and openly reject democratic norms (too many examples to cite). They openly back armed militia intimidation of Governors, legislatures, judges, voters, and protesters. They are fascists. There's a big difference between fascists and corrupt liberal democrats (small d).
LOTE-ing in ever more openly corrupt, neoConfederate, WEF selected, senile kleptocracts. Midterms had Koch's DCCC & Israeli oilgarch's United Democracy Project crush REAL, Black, female, proletarian representatives, many of whom were life-long loyal Democrats (to install more sneering criminals or "good" neocon, Republicans!) DNC flipped Fetterman (and a BUNCH of Squad/ DSA phonies) to funding Biden's prodding a war & killing a half million more (WHITE!) people to rescue OUR party's planet destroying FRACKING pyramid & mass infection, debilitation & excess mortality on sero-naive Chinese & re-re-reinfected poor US essentials (the new Black). Petit-bourgois PMC, yuppie & Congress' NASDAQ portfolios plateaued after Biden had to short or crush AGW-mitigating equities, so... yeah, we're all actually WORSE than a psychopath, orange Hitler fan-boi? See Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas' brillant montage on Protection Schemes?
So funny, I was going to start with the same two words!
I was trying to make this point to vanessa beeley, who kindly responded to my comment:
"I've long been an admirer of your research, Vanessa, which I've come across from other journalists but this is the first I've read directly. And I'm with you on two things here: I'm 100% pro-Palestinian and US politics will not change anything, no matter who's elected. I've written my own post critical of Kennedy for a person he supports, who I and others believe to be covertly at the heart of the damage inflicted by the 'pandemic': https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/kennedy-and-malone.
"I didn't hear the interview by Glenn but listened to his thoughts on it for his Locals broadcast. He was in agreement with you that Bobby is ethically inconsistent in his position on Israel and that's a major--not just problem--moral failing of his platform. But what Glenn followed with is saying that he heard something that was unprecedented in any politician he knew: Bobby saying, your points make sense, you may be right and I may be wrong, I need to think about that. I also believe that he's quietly disassociated from the person I write about, though I may be wrong.
"I've written that a person who changes their mind is the second greatest power in the world. First is two people who share the same purpose. I don't think any person can make decisions for 330M people and pretend it's self-governance, aka democracy. I think the only strategy that will work, eventually, is decentralization. That's not going to come from the top down but it may be the only way we, in the US, survive after the hegemony of the dollar crashes and burns. So, with or without our influence, things are changing in a way that, ultimately, I believe will restore the Palestinians as owners of their lands and their lives.
One thing I never hear discussed in our politics is the idea of a "quorum."
"The minimal number of officers and members of a committee or organization, usually a majority, who must be present for valid transaction of business."
So what happens if they hold an election and no-one shows up?
This is why in some countries, mostly totalitarian, voting is REQUIRED.
Unfortunately this medium does not indicate a question from, or reply to, a specific posting or person. However, in general, if people can organize themselves in one way they can organize themselves in another. What ways are desirable or even tolerable is something they might want to discuss, not just submit to.
However, a simple question in what is a brief response.......
How could anything be worse?
For RFK, staying alive would be the challenge. Besides all the likely participants attending the meeting in Dallas the night before JFK's assassination, we now have as likely supporters so many more to add their contribution such as the CIA, FBI, Israelis from all walks of life, military / industrialists, investment organisations, banks and profiteers, all those who would be impacted in some way by honest government and a move back to democracy.
No more overseas bases could mean funding for better health , better education,
No more antagonistic power plays could mean friends and not enemies.
No more arrogant sanctions could mean maintaining the US dollar as the international trading currency instead of having it dropped by all, one by one as is the case at the moment.
But most important, seeing the USA shed its current bunch of un-American Neocons in all avenues of government while supporting a totally corrupted political environment, could mean returning the USA to what it was after WWII, a respected democracy with a wonderful future, with world peace as the predominant objective. Second time around.
Now such a collection of idealistic comments will surely bring out all those readers who have lost confidence in their country and think that the time is passed for the recovery of needed values. No so. Get 100% to vote and make it count for something.
Right now, there is the devil and the other devil. Change is needed.
Radical changes as above are needed. Nothing else on the horizon even compares.
I'm amazed at how people fail to understand that by not voting one actually does vote. Explicitly unregistering to vote is even better.
Some say local elections are important. I disagree. Those little pamphlets with "biographies" tell you absolutely nothing. To fully engage to learn and find out about the issues is unrealistic given how busy people are.
And when I see a one candidate for a position I can only laugh. And the suckers still manage to check that box. Astounding.
This is not true. The fewer people who vote, the easier it is for the oligarchs to install what they want. It doesn't bother them a bit if the percentage of the eligible who vote keeps going down.. I even think it's worth keeping on voting, if there is some candidate, or initiative, probably on a local level, that might make a difference. But I don't think it's worth getting exercised about it or wasting time and money and ink on the sham elections of the US.
Russian bot knows that direct action and organizing backed by voting is the only way to defeat the US oligarchs. So ask yourself: why does he undermine all that?
No democrat or republican politician gets any significant position without proving loyalty to the globalists and Vatican. Epstein. The ballot machines are owned by the Bush family and operated by the CIA. Policies and legislation is created in the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS and rubber stamped by politicians. Politics is the entertainment division of the government.
It seems that I may have misplaced my better judgement following my earlier comment and response to russian bot
June 23. My word this morning states that that R.F.. Kennedy has joined the mob, the Zionist-owned mob, sitting in 8 out every 10 seats in both houses of the US government.
So he'll run in November 2024 but he will be no different to all the rest from Johnson onwards in selling out his country to Israel, which also means subscribing to their dirty, murderous, apartheid deeds, daily.
Kennedy supports Israel. But it is the VAtican who is really in power. I do NOT support any politician, especially if they join a party
Trump was given half a billion dollars by his poppa (he is not self-made as he claims) but nonetheless his foolishness constantly had him begging for loans, and bankers did not want to loan him after he showed time and again inability to repay what he borrowed. Filed for bankruptcy. So why did they finally decide to keep him afloat? He would prove to be valuable in the future. He was groomed for years to be a nice little puppet. Ross, whom he appointed as secretary of commerce, was a Rothschild banker, and had been trained in a Jesuit school, as was TRump (Fordham Univ.), had financed Trump years ago. Trump has various connections to Rothschild.
According to his wife, and confirmed by Trump, he kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed to read. Trump learns proper strategies that worked. It is called propaganda and psychological persuasion.
Regarding Jesuits. There are over 14,000 of them in the world. The Jesuit- educated politicians are statistically present in senate and congress in a greatly disproportionate number. Why do they seek power positions? Could it be a Vatican agenda? Duh. The information comes from Vatican sources. Biden's cabinet is overbearingly Catholic. Obama's cabinet was full of Jesuits.
You listen to and believe politicians' speeches. Then you'll hear their excuses and become their defender since you voted for them and require justification for being duped yet again.
And then you'll look for some other name for the next cycle. See the pattern?
Do you really think RFK Jr fits this pattern? The demand should be that Jr. abandons the Dems for a third party when the sabotage him or refuse to debate (with a deadline).
Every single cycle there's somebody who "doesn't fit the pattern" for a big enough chunk of believers in the "most important right". And then they do. And the duped stand there agape.
Haven't you seen what they do and have done to "3rd Party Candidates" or have you been busy "voting" for the same old bullshit story! The system is as corrupt and rigged as can be and you still don't see that. The DNC has openly stated that Biden is the nominee end of story. If by some quirk of luck the bastard gets taken down their next nominee is Michelle Obama! This is a rigged system that has been many years in the making!
I'm pretty shocked that anyone here is still pushing the quaint and idealistic view that our votes are counted in the US. They aren't. They can keep track of the tiniest little thing, but can't count votes. Since 2000 when our vote tabulations we're all done on computer, computers that could be hacked by smart 10-year olds, voting ceased to be real. SO STOP ALREADY. The old joke is "if voting could change anything it would be illegal". Now it doesn't have to be illegal, it's simply fiction. Case in point: 2016 and Jill Stein of the GP was actually relatively popular. There were so many counties where people voted for her, but the county totals for Stein were zero. Yes zero. So right there we know that Stein's votes were simply deleted and handed to (most likely) lovely Hillary. Doesn't matter because your votes aren't counted. It's all fiction. STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND ENERGY ON THIS STUPID SHIT.
Right on the money! And then to top it off this criminal filth (both republicans & democrats in charge of an "Independent System"!) forced her to return the money which she was rightly owed for her campaign contributions! It doesn't get any more criminal then the system in place in this country! Every aspect is designed to control and extract the wealth out of even the poorest of us!
Perhaps Glen Greenwald's nightly show on rumble can help, "Neocon Monster: The Ruinous Lies & Crimes of Bill Kristol, Now a Major Foreign Policy Thought-Leader in the Democratic Party | SYSTEM UPDATE #102" He emphatically states that Bill Kristol and other neocons have aligned themselves with the democratic party, and refers to them as monsters, since they push death and destruction and have been very instrumental in doing so in our middle eastern wars and now in Ukraine and will continue to do so.
I continue to be impressed by Greenwald & Co.. There seems to be a base of good independent reporters developing online. Greenwald though, IMO, is at the top. Clean & professional set, good lighting, tie...starched shirt, (and most importantly, damn well thorough). He has all the great attributes of a great journalist. I could see one of the MSM networks trying to bring him into the fold. He'd be a great asset to any of them. Would he go? Would it be the right thing? Just thoughts...
I think he is a great journalist and many consider him to be one. He even had the integrity to leave the Intercept when they wouldn't allow him to publish a report on Hunter's laptop and Biden in Ukraine, and went to Substack and now Rumble. You have to look up the work he has done, and the recognition he has received.
Well, according to Greenwald and what I have observed they have a greater support system in the democratic party now then in the republican party, although there are certainly quite a few republicans that support their disgusting mindset. However during the Trump years and no wars they really gravitated over to the democrats. They were looking for a Clinton win, and as Assange said she is a sick woman in her love of war and desire for power. Amen. I couldn't believe how emphatic he was about how disgusting they were. It's a worth a listen, and I love Greenwald and trust him.
Elaine: Maybe that is true in your community but here in Sonoma County, California the crazies outnumber the sane ones by a 3:1 margin or more. The folks in our town voted 3:1 to keep fluoridating the water supply.
LIBTARDS! Liberals are the stupidest people I have ever met. I’m on the coast. It’s like a subculture...and not a good one. Stereotypes DO exist, and they’re spot on for Libs.
There is competition. Trump after the biggest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, after lockdowns, after Operation WArp speed and his continued support for vaccines, proof that he is a Rothschild puppet, freemason and was Jesuit-trained (Fordham Univ.) is still the favorite of conservatives.
Tammy - I am in Sonoma County! I agree with you that issues such as fluoridating are bad. I didn't know about our folks voting 3:1 in favor of fluoride. They are really uneducated on that--fluoride is poison.
But there are other local issues that I want to vote on.
Elaine: I'm in Healdsburg. AKA "Parklet City". Our town should have a statue of a buxom prostitute in a short skirt on the roundabout at the entry to town. The Statue of the Prostitute should say, "Am Here to Service You!"
Or maybe since so many LGBTQ+ types come to our town now, it should be a Queer statue.
Hi Timmy - I see I got your name wrong. I apologize.
Good comment- ". . . so many LGBTQ+ types. . ." Yes, Sonoma County residents are mostly liberal, but still a good place to live (climate, scenery, etc.).
I advocated and would have voted for Tulsi. BUT to this day even she acts like 9/11 was an "outside job." I find solice in the truly democratic reality of human extinction, as I work in the garden, walk two dogs, teach my step-daughter how to read, and get used to my new rollerblades.
They already have that power! It was consolidated long ago at the end of Eisenhower's presidency! The Arms Manufacturers declared war on the people's of the world.
German voters? You should look at what is going on in Germany NOW (fascists NEVER left, neither in Germany nor in all the other surrounding countries) and are sitting at the TOP again), Germany is a MESS and matters will get worse, so the political situation in the US is not 'alone in the world' (voting is a FRAUD!! But probably a system like Singapore would be better anyway, keep a tight lid on 'freedom' and introduce some 're-education' camps for the resistant trouble-makers. Now in serious terms: we would need a benign 'emperor' - BUT WHERE TO FIND ONE ...)
Question #16: Why is it that every US elected official that represents the American populace is a criminal, corrupt POS, incompetent idiot, nation divider, a negative detriment to society and a greedy scumbag?
I remember the bumper sticker from the late 80s to early 90s ... "Still voting?" Or the pithier, "What if they held an election and no one came?" Powerful idea that never caught on but should have.
If it ever happens I suppose I'll say, "I'm going to vote for what I believe in. I think the system is so biased that any energy I put into it beyond that is wasted. So I'm not going to talk about it any more than this." Then maybe I'd switch the topic to gardening.
The systems we have currently are tailor-made for psychopaths to rise to power and prominence. Anyone who desires power and control should never be given power and control. Since that is a fundamental truth, anyone who actually wants to run for office is immediately a bad choice. Are there a few who actually want to do some good? Sure, but I do not see them as anything other than a small minority. The system has become hopelessly corrupt and the logical conclusion of the current trajectory is a return to feudalism with a select few on the top and everyone else living hand to mouth asking the select few for permission to live. If the courts had actually protected and enforced the Constitution and the ideas it contains we wouldn't be here, but we are. As we see in Ireland, TPTB are quickly working to make speaking ill of government policies a "hate" crime. Coming to a country near you. There's no voting out of this mess.
We should not concentrate power into a few hands. That is begging for trouble. Electoral politics is well past its use-by date. Share the power out as in Direct Democracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy
Before the psychopaths & their NATO killing machine crushed Libya in self defence(!) it's informative to see what Libya's people organised for themselves under Gaddafi's guidance, namely 'Jamahiriya': Peoples' Congresses everywhere!
it's simple, nice americans should vote for cornel west or any other 3rd party candidate. it won't help, he won't win, but at least it's a possibility to count those that don't agree with the duopoly. when you don't vote, they'll rightfully consider that as consent, which it is.
Indiscriminate murder of non US citizens around the world while claiming moral superiority will end with all US citizens being blamed not just those initiating these policies of war and domination.
The country ALSO indiscriminately murders US citizens in the country itself. They have a rampant govt-affiliated but unaccountable milita they call "the police" that does it.
I would HOPE SO!!! This empire of the good 'rules based international order' has to fess up to their CRIMES (I know: will not happen soon, and we are lucky if humanity survives this long - the war machine is racing along ...)
Brilliant set of questions. Should have been accompanied by a repeat share of that picture of the two big brothers who've given the little brother the unplugged game controller so he can "play" too.
Also, why did I know the comments would be filled with people arguing for their particular candidate. Almost like they did not read the post.
All 15 questions can be answered by accepting two things. The public is easily manipulated and bureaucrats are in charge and Fauci is their poster child. Even Putin knows this.
The Ukraine war was allowed to happen as a diversion to take our minds off Fauci and the elites' pandemic crimes. It continues to go on to take our minds off the Biden crime family and what China is doing, etc. Crimes committed to cover up past crimes of the criminal Deep State. Thus it has ever been and thus it ever shall be unless We the People finally get our heads together and defeat this foe of Liberty. (Nice sounding words, eh? I don't have a clue how to do that, either.)
Wow, a lot of negativity about voting, and I get it. But I do not believe that we should stop. It feels like that is exactly what they want. We absolutely need to make our voices heard even though all the while they are trying to silence us. Or more to the point, do not submit to their game.
Their GAME is to keep us "VOTING" even though voting is now 100% bogus. Seriously. 2 years out of every 4, we go through this again and again. How abjectly STUPID are Americans that they fall for this over and over and over ... it's so pathetic.
Yeah no country is perfection. It seems to have gotten a lot worse here over the decades. One wonders what any of it is all about? All the trillions of dollars wasted on war. Billions spent on elections. Billions siphoned off the backs of hard working Americans. Billions of profits made in the health care industry - sucking the life and financial welfare of ordinary Americans - being the #1 cause of bankruptcy. Ecocide on the agenda. So what was it all about? What is any of this about? Life seems more and more like a road to nowhere. And when you realize you may have just 1 or 2 decades left of life yourself - you realize just what a flash in the pan it all is - if you're lucky to even live as long as you have. Is there anything more - or is it all just a weird farce?
Votes don't always have to be one side or the other (which is no choice). Where possible, write in who you want, or NOTA - "None Of The Above". Just so you do the one single thing that is still left us. It won't throw out the evildoers, but it will show that you're still here.
I believe the "curtain" as you and "Frank" have referred to has been dropped. This filth commit crimes of treason right out in the open and just keep going saying to just get over it and all the empty heads bob in unison.
I think he is dead on the money there with one exception being his reference to Rothschild and he does not seem to understand how much Rothschild owns which is practically everything! Monsanto is another big part of this equation. Thanks for sharing this I have never heard of this guy and every bit of light always illuminates!
Nice post, but here's the problem: the defining feature of American culture is to never ask yourself any questions, and if they keep raising themselves, well squelch them. Don't try to know anything, and if anyone knows squelch them.
Isaac Aasimov caught on to this a long while ago, when he noted:
“...There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge...”
So that there is one big reason why things have gone wrong for so long over there. Like for several hundred years now. And why their politics is what it is: a gregarious race to the bottom of the barrel.
Hear, Hear!
Now to remind ourselves of this every time we want to engage a conversation about candidates.
I'm particularly thinking of the "left" media when they start talking about it. It simply does not matter who is elected.
The only way out of this mess is to stop making these people, this system important.
Stop voting and offering your support to a broken and corrupt system.
Stop making it our "Authority."
"Stop voting" indeed. Stop endorsing the corrupt system. The reason they constantly making it "easier" and more "convenient" through mail-in etc is they must keep it up to make themselves look legit.
Exit the voting arena and allow Fascists to consolidate power. That's the deal in US.
What side are you on Russian bot?
Voting implies consent. There should be some choice on the ballot that expresses the voter sees no value in any of the available candidates. At least then the public and the winner of the election would know the winner didn't have a clear mandate, but was seen as the least psychopathic of the choices.
What's the point when our elections are corrupt and fraudulent?
That is their goal.
It may be useful, as a sort of theatrical or ceremonial enterprise, to remind the ruling class that their power comes from the consent or at least submission of the people. Although our electoral systems are almost completely suborned (that is, bought and paid for) there is a thread of popular sovereignty running through them that, at some moment, might become active and even significant. Of course it's a long shot, and I'm not recommending that anyone depend on it. If you want to change anything you probably should be doing other things. But I like having it there even if only in the background.
Your argument supports the notion that people deserve their governments. Especially that part that willingly participates in the corrupt process. The other part is at least honest in recognizing it is powerless in the face of the state repressive machine.
I do what I can as a retired veteran; I spend my days, besides my gardening, sharing info and passing it on, trying to wake people up, contacting my reps on a regular basis - they really need to set up a hotline for me! I also got active in my state politics, actively working for a true Constitutionalist running against compromised Deb Fischer. Of course, he lost - doesn't have the big $$$'s she's got...alternative news is the only place to find the real truth - there is NO TV news that is completely true and factual since $$$ compromises all of them.
In what way does voting imply consent of anything else but your slavery?
libertymaniacs.com/products/voting-the-slaves-suggestion-box-poster?
It seems to me voting is a de facto agreement to be bound by the outcome. By voting you are essentially giving validity to the government and the process. Big subject. Have you read “Constitution of No Authority” by Lysander Spooner?
I've read everything by Lysander Spooner I could find.
The Constitution doesn't address voting, so how would his arguments against it, which are based on totally different criteria than voting, have to do with it?
Not on the side of fanbois who despite their advanced age haven't learned a thing. I don't blame youngsters - they're delusional by design. To keep the corrupt systems going.
“….Exit the voting arena and allow Fascists to consolidate power…:”
This is your take on a country that has had Biden and Obama in power, both in the pockets of the finance-military-industrial complex of endless war for profit, and both overseeing an ever expanding surveillance state and “homeland security” takeover?
Looks to me like two flavours of fascists is the “choice” you are getting at the ballot box….
The Democrats are pro-war, pro-censorship, pro-national security state, pro-empire, pro-surveillance, pro-police state, and corrupted by corporate money. But they still adhere, at least rhetorically, to the principles and practices of liberal democracy and rule of law. But their commitments are more closely aligned with the hollowed out shell of democracy Sheldon Wolin described in "Democracy Inc.". But - and here's where I disagree with you strongly - that is qualitatively different and a far cry from the cultural and political violent fascism openly embraced now by the Republican Party.
“….The Democrats are pro-war, pro-censorship, pro-national security state, pro-empire, pro-surveillance, pro-police state, and corrupted by corporate money. But they still adhere, at least rhetorically, to the principles and practices of liberal democracy and rule of law. …”
OK, so a reality check is in order.
The “Democrats” have just as much as the GOP, used the DOJ and IRS to persecute dissents and further their partisan agenda. What “rule of law”?
Case in point “Russiagate”, a whitchhunt aimed at silencing those who exposed the DNC’s….rigging of primary elections. What “rule of law” and what “democracy”.
Furthermore, the head Democrat and his family member have been exposed as having their hand in the till in Ukraine, to the tune of millions. Again DOJ and IRS used to put a quick slap on the wrist and seal the lead on acts which if they were undertaken by the president of Guinea or Cambodia and his son, well you sir would call this gross corruption. What rule of law”.
You are asking people rubber stand your fiction.
No.
Vote for Cornel West and begin a real change in this country.
And The Eastman debarment is kind of like Dr. Mengele losing his MD license after the war ended.
Read Wolin on hollowed out Democracy.
I wrote "rhetorically committed".
Yes, Russiagate was a "witch hunt", but it was conducted in accordance with due process legal protections. Facts and law drove the Mueller investigation and Report. Trump did not get indicted for that. He got indicted for refusing to surrender government records he had no right to, for withholding evidence in violation of a legally issued grand jury subpoena, for lying to the FBI and DoJ, and for ordering his staff to lie while directing his lawyers to violate the law.
Trump should have been indicted long ago for openly conspiring to overthrow the election and block Congressional certification of the results. That coup plot is all laid out in the Eastman memo, remarkable something that Eastman is now being disbarred for in California, when he too should have been criminally indicted.
In contrast, Trump and Republicans lie and openly reject democratic norms (too many examples to cite). They openly back armed militia intimidation of Governors, legislatures, judges, voters, and protesters. They are fascists. There's a big difference between fascists and corrupt liberal democrats (small d).
But you seem to have no problem with any of that
Would it be better to let communists consolidate power instead of fascists?
Conservatives think I'm a liberal.
Liberals think I'm a conservative.
I think both are socialists because they both believe in socialistic financing of government.
As a libertarian, I think they are both pretty ignorant for having abandoned the political philosophy of the founders, classic liberalism.
And they have finally gotten you to convince yourself that you are correct.
EXACTLY! And that’s what I’m doing. I’m not playing the game anymore.
and you allow Fascists to consolidate power.
How effective has your vote, or anything else for that matter, been at averting this?
LOTE-ing in ever more openly corrupt, neoConfederate, WEF selected, senile kleptocracts. Midterms had Koch's DCCC & Israeli oilgarch's United Democracy Project crush REAL, Black, female, proletarian representatives, many of whom were life-long loyal Democrats (to install more sneering criminals or "good" neocon, Republicans!) DNC flipped Fetterman (and a BUNCH of Squad/ DSA phonies) to funding Biden's prodding a war & killing a half million more (WHITE!) people to rescue OUR party's planet destroying FRACKING pyramid & mass infection, debilitation & excess mortality on sero-naive Chinese & re-re-reinfected poor US essentials (the new Black). Petit-bourgois PMC, yuppie & Congress' NASDAQ portfolios plateaued after Biden had to short or crush AGW-mitigating equities, so... yeah, we're all actually WORSE than a psychopath, orange Hitler fan-boi? See Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas' brillant montage on Protection Schemes?
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-podcast-with-4c9
https://mronline.org/2020/09/12/the-insidious-workings-of-the-political-ratchet/
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
So funny, I was going to start with the same two words!
I was trying to make this point to vanessa beeley, who kindly responded to my comment:
"I've long been an admirer of your research, Vanessa, which I've come across from other journalists but this is the first I've read directly. And I'm with you on two things here: I'm 100% pro-Palestinian and US politics will not change anything, no matter who's elected. I've written my own post critical of Kennedy for a person he supports, who I and others believe to be covertly at the heart of the damage inflicted by the 'pandemic': https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/kennedy-and-malone.
"I didn't hear the interview by Glenn but listened to his thoughts on it for his Locals broadcast. He was in agreement with you that Bobby is ethically inconsistent in his position on Israel and that's a major--not just problem--moral failing of his platform. But what Glenn followed with is saying that he heard something that was unprecedented in any politician he knew: Bobby saying, your points make sense, you may be right and I may be wrong, I need to think about that. I also believe that he's quietly disassociated from the person I write about, though I may be wrong.
"I've written that a person who changes their mind is the second greatest power in the world. First is two people who share the same purpose. I don't think any person can make decisions for 330M people and pretend it's self-governance, aka democracy. I think the only strategy that will work, eventually, is decentralization. That's not going to come from the top down but it may be the only way we, in the US, survive after the hegemony of the dollar crashes and burns. So, with or without our influence, things are changing in a way that, ultimately, I believe will restore the Palestinians as owners of their lands and their lives.
"In the meantime, this is what I'm looking for in a Presidential candidate: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/what-do-i-want-from-a-president."
One thing I never hear discussed in our politics is the idea of a "quorum."
"The minimal number of officers and members of a committee or organization, usually a majority, who must be present for valid transaction of business."
So what happens if they hold an election and no-one shows up?
This is why in some countries, mostly totalitarian, voting is REQUIRED.
More importantly, self-educate yourself in ways that the public fool system miseducated you.
Sounds great! And replace it with what? And how?
I understand your fear. And my answer is that we replace it with TRUST.
Trust that we can create something better.
The how will become apparent when we trust that we CAN.
Unfortunately this medium does not indicate a question from, or reply to, a specific posting or person. However, in general, if people can organize themselves in one way they can organize themselves in another. What ways are desirable or even tolerable is something they might want to discuss, not just submit to.
All great questions. Now watch how in this particular forum RFK Jr. fanbois spring to life maintaining with him it will be different.
I nearly became the first, Russian bot.
However, a simple question in what is a brief response.......
How could anything be worse?
For RFK, staying alive would be the challenge. Besides all the likely participants attending the meeting in Dallas the night before JFK's assassination, we now have as likely supporters so many more to add their contribution such as the CIA, FBI, Israelis from all walks of life, military / industrialists, investment organisations, banks and profiteers, all those who would be impacted in some way by honest government and a move back to democracy.
No more overseas bases could mean funding for better health , better education,
No more antagonistic power plays could mean friends and not enemies.
No more arrogant sanctions could mean maintaining the US dollar as the international trading currency instead of having it dropped by all, one by one as is the case at the moment.
But most important, seeing the USA shed its current bunch of un-American Neocons in all avenues of government while supporting a totally corrupted political environment, could mean returning the USA to what it was after WWII, a respected democracy with a wonderful future, with world peace as the predominant objective. Second time around.
Now such a collection of idealistic comments will surely bring out all those readers who have lost confidence in their country and think that the time is passed for the recovery of needed values. No so. Get 100% to vote and make it count for something.
Right now, there is the devil and the other devil. Change is needed.
Radical changes as above are needed. Nothing else on the horizon even compares.
Give it a try. The alternative is frightening.
I'm amazed at how people fail to understand that by not voting one actually does vote. Explicitly unregistering to vote is even better.
Some say local elections are important. I disagree. Those little pamphlets with "biographies" tell you absolutely nothing. To fully engage to learn and find out about the issues is unrealistic given how busy people are.
And when I see a one candidate for a position I can only laugh. And the suckers still manage to check that box. Astounding.
This is not true. The fewer people who vote, the easier it is for the oligarchs to install what they want. It doesn't bother them a bit if the percentage of the eligible who vote keeps going down.. I even think it's worth keeping on voting, if there is some candidate, or initiative, probably on a local level, that might make a difference. But I don't think it's worth getting exercised about it or wasting time and money and ink on the sham elections of the US.
Russian bot knows that direct action and organizing backed by voting is the only way to defeat the US oligarchs. So ask yourself: why does he undermine all that?
No democrat or republican politician gets any significant position without proving loyalty to the globalists and Vatican. Epstein. The ballot machines are owned by the Bush family and operated by the CIA. Policies and legislation is created in the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS and rubber stamped by politicians. Politics is the entertainment division of the government.
https://truthforce.work
You know the answer to your rhetorical question - Putin!
Yes, Putin! He's Literally Hitler, doncha know.
It seems that I may have misplaced my better judgement following my earlier comment and response to russian bot
June 23. My word this morning states that that R.F.. Kennedy has joined the mob, the Zionist-owned mob, sitting in 8 out every 10 seats in both houses of the US government.
So he'll run in November 2024 but he will be no different to all the rest from Johnson onwards in selling out his country to Israel, which also means subscribing to their dirty, murderous, apartheid deeds, daily.
Tell me I'm wrong, someone.
Kennedy supports Israel. But it is the VAtican who is really in power. I do NOT support any politician, especially if they join a party
Trump was given half a billion dollars by his poppa (he is not self-made as he claims) but nonetheless his foolishness constantly had him begging for loans, and bankers did not want to loan him after he showed time and again inability to repay what he borrowed. Filed for bankruptcy. So why did they finally decide to keep him afloat? He would prove to be valuable in the future. He was groomed for years to be a nice little puppet. Ross, whom he appointed as secretary of commerce, was a Rothschild banker, and had been trained in a Jesuit school, as was TRump (Fordham Univ.), had financed Trump years ago. Trump has various connections to Rothschild.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-wilbur-ross-commerce-20161208-story.html
https://silview.media/2021/05/30/the-trump-rothschild-rockefeller-connections/comment-page-1/
According to his wife, and confirmed by Trump, he kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed to read. Trump learns proper strategies that worked. It is called propaganda and psychological persuasion.
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he-kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8
Regarding Jesuits. There are over 14,000 of them in the world. The Jesuit- educated politicians are statistically present in senate and congress in a greatly disproportionate number. Why do they seek power positions? Could it be a Vatican agenda? Duh. The information comes from Vatican sources. Biden's cabinet is overbearingly Catholic. Obama's cabinet was full of Jesuits.
https://www.jesuits.global/2022/03/23/the-society-of-jesus-in-numbers-2022-edition/
https://loyolamaroon.com/10011775/religion/10-percent-of-congress-attended-jesuit-colleges/
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/01/05/senate-catholic-jesuit-educated-239652
https://www.ncronline.org/news/joe-bidens-very-catholic-cabinet
https://tabublog.com/2016/02/17/obama-owned-and-ruled-by-the-jesuits-kitchen-cabinet/
Now this you have to see. A very clear view of the Vatican's presence in the US power positions, including the military brass and CIA.
https://rense.com/general74/vattt.htm
The COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS IS ALSO RUN BY JESUITS
https://vaticannewworldorder.blogspot.com/2013/09/jesuit-ruled-cfr-first-of-two-co.html
MORE INFORMATION - A SMORGASBORD ON THE JESUITS
https://tabublog.com/jesuits-rulers-of-evil/
Did you listen to RFK, Jr.' speech today? It explicitly attacked the MIC, called for peace, and challenged the Biden administration.
You listen to and believe politicians' speeches. Then you'll hear their excuses and become their defender since you voted for them and require justification for being duped yet again.
And then you'll look for some other name for the next cycle. See the pattern?
Do you really think RFK Jr fits this pattern? The demand should be that Jr. abandons the Dems for a third party when the sabotage him or refuse to debate (with a deadline).
Every single cycle there's somebody who "doesn't fit the pattern" for a big enough chunk of believers in the "most important right". And then they do. And the duped stand there agape.
Haven't you seen what they do and have done to "3rd Party Candidates" or have you been busy "voting" for the same old bullshit story! The system is as corrupt and rigged as can be and you still don't see that. The DNC has openly stated that Biden is the nominee end of story. If by some quirk of luck the bastard gets taken down their next nominee is Michelle Obama! This is a rigged system that has been many years in the making!
For the fanbois it's a religion. Funny how many of them slam real world religions while being fervent adherents of their own.
Replying to myself so it's closer to the top:
Voting religion zealots - watch Jimmy Dore right now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5hSiFG_Hlk
Here's the Blackrock recruiter video: https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1671262303319392259?cxt=HHwWhoDUvbmNwrEuAAAA
I'm pretty shocked that anyone here is still pushing the quaint and idealistic view that our votes are counted in the US. They aren't. They can keep track of the tiniest little thing, but can't count votes. Since 2000 when our vote tabulations we're all done on computer, computers that could be hacked by smart 10-year olds, voting ceased to be real. SO STOP ALREADY. The old joke is "if voting could change anything it would be illegal". Now it doesn't have to be illegal, it's simply fiction. Case in point: 2016 and Jill Stein of the GP was actually relatively popular. There were so many counties where people voted for her, but the county totals for Stein were zero. Yes zero. So right there we know that Stein's votes were simply deleted and handed to (most likely) lovely Hillary. Doesn't matter because your votes aren't counted. It's all fiction. STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND ENERGY ON THIS STUPID SHIT.
Right on the money! And then to top it off this criminal filth (both republicans & democrats in charge of an "Independent System"!) forced her to return the money which she was rightly owed for her campaign contributions! It doesn't get any more criminal then the system in place in this country! Every aspect is designed to control and extract the wealth out of even the poorest of us!
Perhaps Glen Greenwald's nightly show on rumble can help, "Neocon Monster: The Ruinous Lies & Crimes of Bill Kristol, Now a Major Foreign Policy Thought-Leader in the Democratic Party | SYSTEM UPDATE #102" He emphatically states that Bill Kristol and other neocons have aligned themselves with the democratic party, and refers to them as monsters, since they push death and destruction and have been very instrumental in doing so in our middle eastern wars and now in Ukraine and will continue to do so.
I continue to be impressed by Greenwald & Co.. There seems to be a base of good independent reporters developing online. Greenwald though, IMO, is at the top. Clean & professional set, good lighting, tie...starched shirt, (and most importantly, damn well thorough). He has all the great attributes of a great journalist. I could see one of the MSM networks trying to bring him into the fold. He'd be a great asset to any of them. Would he go? Would it be the right thing? Just thoughts...
No MSM network would touch Greenwald, for he resists being controlled.
I think he is a great journalist and many consider him to be one. He even had the integrity to leave the Intercept when they wouldn't allow him to publish a report on Hunter's laptop and Biden in Ukraine, and went to Substack and now Rumble. You have to look up the work he has done, and the recognition he has received.
Well, according to Greenwald and what I have observed they have a greater support system in the democratic party now then in the republican party, although there are certainly quite a few republicans that support their disgusting mindset. However during the Trump years and no wars they really gravitated over to the democrats. They were looking for a Clinton win, and as Assange said she is a sick woman in her love of war and desire for power. Amen. I couldn't believe how emphatic he was about how disgusting they were. It's a worth a listen, and I love Greenwald and trust him.
39% of eligible American voters did NOT vote in the last Presidential election (even with all the fraudulent votes "cast").
I think about 1/2 of Americans realize that voting is pointless.
Only on local issues is voting important.
Elaine: Maybe that is true in your community but here in Sonoma County, California the crazies outnumber the sane ones by a 3:1 margin or more. The folks in our town voted 3:1 to keep fluoridating the water supply.
LIBTARDS! Liberals are the stupidest people I have ever met. I’m on the coast. It’s like a subculture...and not a good one. Stereotypes DO exist, and they’re spot on for Libs.
There is competition. Trump after the biggest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, after lockdowns, after Operation WArp speed and his continued support for vaccines, proof that he is a Rothschild puppet, freemason and was Jesuit-trained (Fordham Univ.) is still the favorite of conservatives.
Today, there is only “freedom” or tyranny. There is no one I will be voting for. There are no fair/free elections.
Tammy - I am in Sonoma County! I agree with you that issues such as fluoridating are bad. I didn't know about our folks voting 3:1 in favor of fluoride. They are really uneducated on that--fluoride is poison.
But there are other local issues that I want to vote on.
P.S. I live in Petaluma. Ironic that we both live in Sonoma Co., CA.
Elaine: I'm in Healdsburg. AKA "Parklet City". Our town should have a statue of a buxom prostitute in a short skirt on the roundabout at the entry to town. The Statue of the Prostitute should say, "Am Here to Service You!"
Or maybe since so many LGBTQ+ types come to our town now, it should be a Queer statue.
Hi Timmy - I see I got your name wrong. I apologize.
Good comment- ". . . so many LGBTQ+ types. . ." Yes, Sonoma County residents are mostly liberal, but still a good place to live (climate, scenery, etc.).
I advocated and would have voted for Tulsi. BUT to this day even she acts like 9/11 was an "outside job." I find solice in the truly democratic reality of human extinction, as I work in the garden, walk two dogs, teach my step-daughter how to read, and get used to my new rollerblades.
Tend your garden.
Daniel Geery: I find solace in my own coming extinction. You are a good Dad.
Sitting on your "pointless" sidelines allows the Fascists to consolidate power.
How do you think German voters feel about that?
They already have that power! It was consolidated long ago at the end of Eisenhower's presidency! The Arms Manufacturers declared war on the people's of the world.
bill wolfe: My German ancestors left that shithole over 100 years ago.
German voters? You should look at what is going on in Germany NOW (fascists NEVER left, neither in Germany nor in all the other surrounding countries) and are sitting at the TOP again), Germany is a MESS and matters will get worse, so the political situation in the US is not 'alone in the world' (voting is a FRAUD!! But probably a system like Singapore would be better anyway, keep a tight lid on 'freedom' and introduce some 're-education' camps for the resistant trouble-makers. Now in serious terms: we would need a benign 'emperor' - BUT WHERE TO FIND ONE ...)
It's very true that not voting allows the fascists to consolidate power. It's also true that voting does nothing to change that.
Question #16: Why is it that every US elected official that represents the American populace is a criminal, corrupt POS, incompetent idiot, nation divider, a negative detriment to society and a greedy scumbag?
Because honest people are a threat to the system and vigorously excluded.
To mix two metaphors:
Diogenes's lamp is running low on oil; he's going to need a bigger barrel.
Because power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats.
And over the last 250 years, incredible amounts of power have accumulated within the US federal government.
Yup, which is why it is pretty much Catnip Mountain.
George Carlin answered that question.
That's the type of shite that rises to the top of our political sewer.
Because the American populace is vapid and easily manipulated and politicians deliberately play on this.
Read Drew Westen’s book “ The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation”
Over the past few months I've known of a few ways to help others question their assumptions on voting but this list definitely helps.
Thank you. The day is coming when I'm asked by my friends and family who I'm voting for and I'll need to break it to them.
I remember the bumper sticker from the late 80s to early 90s ... "Still voting?" Or the pithier, "What if they held an election and no one came?" Powerful idea that never caught on but should have.
I liked that last one, too.
If it ever happens I suppose I'll say, "I'm going to vote for what I believe in. I think the system is so biased that any energy I put into it beyond that is wasted. So I'm not going to talk about it any more than this." Then maybe I'd switch the topic to gardening.
This is good as well.
The systems we have currently are tailor-made for psychopaths to rise to power and prominence. Anyone who desires power and control should never be given power and control. Since that is a fundamental truth, anyone who actually wants to run for office is immediately a bad choice. Are there a few who actually want to do some good? Sure, but I do not see them as anything other than a small minority. The system has become hopelessly corrupt and the logical conclusion of the current trajectory is a return to feudalism with a select few on the top and everyone else living hand to mouth asking the select few for permission to live. If the courts had actually protected and enforced the Constitution and the ideas it contains we wouldn't be here, but we are. As we see in Ireland, TPTB are quickly working to make speaking ill of government policies a "hate" crime. Coming to a country near you. There's no voting out of this mess.
We should not concentrate power into a few hands. That is begging for trouble. Electoral politics is well past its use-by date. Share the power out as in Direct Democracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy
Before the psychopaths & their NATO killing machine crushed Libya in self defence(!) it's informative to see what Libya's people organised for themselves under Gaddafi's guidance, namely 'Jamahiriya': Peoples' Congresses everywhere!
https://twitter.com/DomeLord/status/1671432547262255104?s=20
All systems eventually come to be ruled by sociopaths.
And - those of us who are well aware of the answers to those questions are likely considered to be domestic terrorists.
it's simple, nice americans should vote for cornel west or any other 3rd party candidate. it won't help, he won't win, but at least it's a possibility to count those that don't agree with the duopoly. when you don't vote, they'll rightfully consider that as consent, which it is.
Indiscriminate murder of non US citizens around the world while claiming moral superiority will end with all US citizens being blamed not just those initiating these policies of war and domination.
The country ALSO indiscriminately murders US citizens in the country itself. They have a rampant govt-affiliated but unaccountable milita they call "the police" that does it.
I would HOPE SO!!! This empire of the good 'rules based international order' has to fess up to their CRIMES (I know: will not happen soon, and we are lucky if humanity survives this long - the war machine is racing along ...)
Brilliant set of questions. Should have been accompanied by a repeat share of that picture of the two big brothers who've given the little brother the unplugged game controller so he can "play" too.
Also, why did I know the comments would be filled with people arguing for their particular candidate. Almost like they did not read the post.
All 15 questions can be answered by accepting two things. The public is easily manipulated and bureaucrats are in charge and Fauci is their poster child. Even Putin knows this.
Nobody talks about Fauci any more. COVID is ancient history, Ukraine is The New Hotness.
Otherwise, you are generally accurate.
The Ukraine war was allowed to happen as a diversion to take our minds off Fauci and the elites' pandemic crimes. It continues to go on to take our minds off the Biden crime family and what China is doing, etc. Crimes committed to cover up past crimes of the criminal Deep State. Thus it has ever been and thus it ever shall be unless We the People finally get our heads together and defeat this foe of Liberty. (Nice sounding words, eh? I don't have a clue how to do that, either.)
Wow, a lot of negativity about voting, and I get it. But I do not believe that we should stop. It feels like that is exactly what they want. We absolutely need to make our voices heard even though all the while they are trying to silence us. Or more to the point, do not submit to their game.
They DO want you to "vote" because it legitimizes them. Your voice WILL be "heard" with them sneering - "another sucker bit the dust".
Their GAME is to keep us "VOTING" even though voting is now 100% bogus. Seriously. 2 years out of every 4, we go through this again and again. How abjectly STUPID are Americans that they fall for this over and over and over ... it's so pathetic.
You submit to their game by participating in the scam.
Yeah no country is perfection. It seems to have gotten a lot worse here over the decades. One wonders what any of it is all about? All the trillions of dollars wasted on war. Billions spent on elections. Billions siphoned off the backs of hard working Americans. Billions of profits made in the health care industry - sucking the life and financial welfare of ordinary Americans - being the #1 cause of bankruptcy. Ecocide on the agenda. So what was it all about? What is any of this about? Life seems more and more like a road to nowhere. And when you realize you may have just 1 or 2 decades left of life yourself - you realize just what a flash in the pan it all is - if you're lucky to even live as long as you have. Is there anything more - or is it all just a weird farce?
Bilbo'sBitch Well said!
Votes don't always have to be one side or the other (which is no choice). Where possible, write in who you want, or NOTA - "None Of The Above". Just so you do the one single thing that is still left us. It won't throw out the evildoers, but it will show that you're still here.
That’s exactly why I’m not voting. I don’t want to be a part of their game. It’s bad enough living in Commifornia and not having any voice.
I believe the "curtain" as you and "Frank" have referred to has been dropped. This filth commit crimes of treason right out in the open and just keep going saying to just get over it and all the empty heads bob in unison.
I think he is dead on the money there with one exception being his reference to Rothschild and he does not seem to understand how much Rothschild owns which is practically everything! Monsanto is another big part of this equation. Thanks for sharing this I have never heard of this guy and every bit of light always illuminates!
Nice post, but here's the problem: the defining feature of American culture is to never ask yourself any questions, and if they keep raising themselves, well squelch them. Don't try to know anything, and if anyone knows squelch them.
Isaac Aasimov caught on to this a long while ago, when he noted:
“...There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge...”
So that there is one big reason why things have gone wrong for so long over there. Like for several hundred years now. And why their politics is what it is: a gregarious race to the bottom of the barrel.
16. What happens if CBDCs take root to control our entire economy? (Should be #1)