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Patrick Powers's avatar

When I was young some old guy told me that US politics was like professional wrestling. I was skeptical.

Now I'm the old guy.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

Nowadays the "opposition" seems to all be "you're not being tough enough on our enemies."

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Robert Billyard's avatar

I was told always stay with the incumbent they have already filled their pockets, vote for anybody new and they spend their time filling theirs.

You can buy a senator or Congressman for 50K and tips on insider trading are a fringe benefit for them.

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DomeLord's avatar

I see your point but they've all got very deep pockets and are quite insatiable. A symptom of the usurious Money Disease currently afflicting our species. Also called 'Financial Capitalism' let loose on us this time back in 1694 by William of Orange when he gave the keys to the new Bank of 'England' to a bunch of thugs in exchange for a war loan. In essence this is imaginary money lent at interest without the interest money ever being created to enable the discharge of the interest debt. This leads to society having a massive & unpayable debt & permanent money hunger. https://usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

Here are a few general memes for you illustrating my point here: https://twitter.com/DomeLord/status/1672153686884204544?s=20

It's a long serious deadly game these people play while we sleep, grunt, mutter & mumble, our way through the centuries.

Go for the real root of the problem with amputation in mind & don't be distracted by the symptoms of corrupt politicians, etc. Go for the cancer & not any dandruff the MSM fobs us off with. Join me in driving the filth of financial capitalism off this beautiful planet we find ourselves on.

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Jay R. Taylor's avatar

Your reference to the founding of the current banking system in 1694 is right on target. It continues to this day with our federal reserve.

Our founders of the country wrote the constitution a certain way so that we would not be adopting the English model of banking or mercantilism. For example, the creation of credit and the issuance of Quidditch in Buddie was vested in Congress.

Unfortunately, over time, the constitution has been over written, and the passage of the 1913 federal reserve act doomed our financial system.

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DomeLord's avatar

The sneaky ones have allowed us to own the masonry & mortar so we have the responsibility for upkeep/maintenance of the 'bank of england' building. However, the usurious/fraudulent profits of the bank go to the pockets of secret shareholders who grow dangerously powerful & obscenely rich in our midst.

"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be resolved sooner or later is 'The People v. The Banks'." - Lord Acton (1875)

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Observing the Absurdity's avatar

Exactly. I also learned that the full time/lifetime staffers waiting for their pensions love it when new politicians are elected. They come in as ignorant newbies and have to rely on the staff to tell them how things work.

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Leskunque Lepew's avatar

Its cheaper to hire a studio musician than a Beltway politician.

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Kojo's avatar

Exactly. For example the sums of money we see for buying a vice president and president , and knowingly starting WW IIIl (!!!) are shockingly small compared to what it has taken in the past to buy national leaders in Libya, Nigeria, Angola just to sell them goods or get access to cheap oil.

US Politicians are basically street walking junkies….they will do ANYTHING for a few bucks.

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Spaulding Showalter's avatar

As usual great piece, and we mostly agree. But there is a wry small group of competing interests at the tippy top who do control the world. And population control is part of at least one of those groups agenda. The club for Rome and MIT have produced reports calling population growth the biggest threat to humanity. Eugenics has been a popular subject among some elitist groups since before Hitler. That’s just an easily researched fact. And to use your argument when I said war is one way for them to accomplish population control and profits (and you argued why would capitalists want to kill their customers), wouldn’t nuclear war kill all their customers? Also, I don’t believe in even more centralized and surveillance state power whatever ism one wants to call it. The US is demonstrably the worst government on the planet, and I don’t support war against anyone, but that doesn’t mean I support other authoritarian surveillance state government structures as a replacement.

Economically however I do support a much more equal system (total equality if that can somehow be achieved is fine w me). Economics is defined as the efficient allocation of resources amongst scarce resources and unlimited wants. However one wants to define our current system, it is clearly nether fair nor efficient. It is a fixed system. The globalist oligarchy of for profit banks and corporations are the ones who actually write the laws, and also control the unelected bodies supposedly designed to regulate them

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notBob's avatar

The entire LGBT+++ agenda is part of the depopulation strategy pushed in government circles and the military. If you look at the Kissinger report written in 1974 it promotes the idea that alternative lifestyles will result in lower population growth, that abortion is an effective tool for population reduction and its all written from the perspective of a strategic military doctrine.

https://www.hli.org/resources/exposing-the-global-population-control/

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Patrick Powers's avatar

"Trump’s recent comments about taking Venezuela’s oil "

Actually they said that back in 2019 through the mouth of John Bolton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wifJII9W6ZI

I found this shocking. Syria, same thing.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

How true !!

Perhaps Robert Kennedy, Jr. will be the exception in US politics.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

His ideas are infinitely broader than what might be causing autism.....

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Kojo's avatar

How many oligarchs will this country need to run through the presidency before everyone gets the clue? They are oligarchs not democratic representatives.

The Kennedy clan has been in politics in this country since the 1950s and they have never created any movement. The solution seems to always be “another kennedy will save you”. Same as the Bush Clan, the Biden clan, the Cheney clan, the Clinton gang, the Cuomo clan. Beyond the feel-good talk, tge only thing they empower in any lasting way, is their OWN interests and primary.

Clue in please.

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notBob's avatar

RFK jr. is no better than the rest, a politician from a long standing political dynasty that while he is saying what people want to hear has a long track record of voting for the establishment. yes he opposes the terrible obvious parts of government but supports the massive underwater portions of the iceberg.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Any examples?

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William Jeffreys's avatar

Thank you Caitlin :). I didn't agree with all of this, but most of it is spot-on and made me laugh out loud. We need to define capitalism, because it seems what is in the modern world being labeled as "capitalism" is not capitalism at all, but a gross perversion of capitalism, driven by greed and expediency, prone to taking advantage of and harming people for monetary rewards. This corporate / government partnership (regulatory capture) needs some other name, no?

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JackSirius's avatar

"This corporate / government partnership (regulatory capture) needs some other name, no?"

Agreed. Mussolini called it fascism.

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notBob's avatar

I tend to view capitalism as the popup farmers market, people trading goods without coercion or control, everything else is just cronyism/fascism.

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Daniel Geery's avatar

God said to build a better world and I said how? The world is such a cold, dark place and complicated now. And I’m so young and useless there is nothing I can do. But God, in all his wisdom said, “Just build a better you.”

My sister sent this a while back, from See you at the Top, Zig Ziglar, 2010, p.370 (I’d use the phrase “Evolving Universe,” but different strokes for different folks.)

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Jun 23, 2023
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Daniel Geery's avatar

No real disagreement. But at 75, I couldn't fit my biography here. Rabid environmentalist here, 25 yr elementary educator, lived off grid from '83 to 97, ran against Hatch in 2012, inventor with new design for airships, wrote a book on solar greenhouses, for a tip of the iceberg look. "Being a better you" is different things for different people. www.hyperblimp.com for further reading.

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Feral Finster's avatar

They also have elections for high school student councils.

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Toma's avatar

And that was how I learned what BS politics was. About the only thing I learned in high school and about the most useless.

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David's avatar

If voting made a real difference they would have outlawed it. What is jarring is that the nation still does NOT have an opposition party that can mount an effective resistance against the excesses of the duopoly and its corporate sponsors. As the Empire decays all it can turn out is bumbling octogenarians to maintain the status quo.

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notBob's avatar

That is all part of the plan, arranging society, media and systems to present the unified lie makes it appear there is the opportunity for opposition but its all but impossible in the modern age. We don't vote in any meaningful way for anyone above dog catcher. The ineptness of the octogenarians is intentional, the Reagan two-step is a classic example of pretending to be feeble, Biden certainly didn't invent it but he is playing the part.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Tucker’s war on Uniparty establishment:

https://youtube.com/shorts/dyuqP7kVaWs?feature=share

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Doris Wrench Eisler's avatar

The problem is, if you suggest that people raise their consciousness, the people who need to do that the most don't know what the hell you are talking about. And if they have an inkling, they immediately erase it from their minds. There is only one way forward, one way for human survival, and that is democratic socialism. And that can only happen when the suffering majority understand who and what is causing their suffering. Hopefully, some such enlightenment will come about this Fall, when energy stores are depleted in Europe. When prices increase ten fold. And the same in the US. And if that doesn't do it, nothing will. We are screwed.

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notBob's avatar

What is the difference between a president of a democratic socialist country and a republic ? Marketing.

Democratic socialism is just socialism, call it what it is. In the end the power structure will just move from one form of government to another with the only real change being updated marketing content that sells the new lie.

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Doris Wrench Eisler's avatar

Sure, words are cheap. But I'm talking about real democracy, combined with real socialism.

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Eric French's avatar

Politicians are so so seriously corrupt I become debilitated at times dwelling on it. I have not given up but keep my torch and pitchfork close by. It is the only answer.

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Dr. Hubris's avatar

"Elections Are Like A Toy Steering Wheel For Babies"

This is EXACTLY what I told an election-believer colleague of mine, scolding me that "you don't even vote"... and the same Maggie example :P... Great minds think alike :P...

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Kun Bela's avatar

The more we know about the foreign and domestic affairs of the USA, the more we get the impression that, in addition to the political leadership of the USA (this includes both the Democratic and Republican sides, which actually form a whole), it is a huge criminal organization !

Compared to them, the criminal organization led by Don Vito Corleone, seen in the former exciting movie The Godfather, is just a harmless association of knights and Sunday girl choirs !

I read somewhere (it has since disappeared strangely from the internet :) ) about the strange deaths surrounding the Clinton clan, where anyone who knew anything incriminating about them was guaranteed to commit suicide, or die in a gang war shootout, or become the victim of a murder that looked like a robbery, compared to the former Borgia a poison-mixing dynasty was a harmless family dedicated to making people happy !

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Jun 23, 2023
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Kun Bela's avatar

Szpasziba !

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Matt Duncan's avatar

skeptical about this analysis. Why spend so much time undermining the Sanders and Corbyn campaigns if it didn’t matter who won the election?

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

The gatekeeping is why — and how — it doesn't matter who wins.

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Benn's avatar

Got to ask: how do you keep writing this day in, day out, without going mad?

Representative democracy means you vote for who you trust to run the show. As you don't know them personally, they have to persuade you. This means you vote for people who have the ability to persuade you: charismatic people or people who can afford to employ psychologists and media moguls. Both tend to be just the sort of people you don't want in power: sociopaths and narcissists.

Boom. Game over. No restart.

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Robert Billyard's avatar

The best form of government would be run by a benevolent despot. The trouble is benevolence is always in short supply, despotism is in such easy reach.

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