The United States is neither a democracy nor a democratic republic, but an oligarchy featuring unlimited political bribery for those who can afford pricey lawyers.
I just hope that in 24 I can vote,drop off my tax payment and go get my booster all in one trip. That will limit my chances of getting gun violenced and keep my carbon tiptoe down to a socially acceptable level.
Oh don't worry, there's a new "app" coming that will be your one-stop shop for everything your government has decided you need (and for turning in any friends or neighbors who don't want it)! Just ask the Ukrainians, who will be the lucky guinea pigs in this brave new world of total digital control! It's gonna be awesome, dude -- we'll use technology to eliminate conflict and dissent once and for all, so we can live in total harmony around the globe forever, because we won't have a choice! Long live the Galactic Empire (sorry, I mean "Rules-Based International Order")!
As Mark Twain might have put it, in fact did put it in his later years, "I was dead for billions of years before I was born and lt not disturb me in the least."
If you can find it, search for his essay on "looking forward to the peace and quiet of the grave." I think it was in his book "On the Damned Human Race."
He was writing similar things on politicians long ago, when we still had a viable biosphere and perhaps 1/8 the population of today. And zero nukes. Not to glorify those days, just sayin'.
Which - MT's writing - in and of itself is NIHILISM at its core.
Looking forward to not having to witness ALL CREATION in existence is pretty ARROGANT - by THE HUMAN MIND - I must say. But equally not surprising to the diligent observer, looking at the mental degradation all around. And this trait has been in existence since ADAM and EVE in THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Seeing children enjoying every moment of existence, while YET not being aware of REALITY created by THE REBELLIOUS UNFAITHFUL HUMAN MIND looking to save itself, should be the focus. And at the same time putting on the armour of faith to teach our brothers and sisters - especially children - regarding the blindness of THE HUMAN MIND and how it is easily lured into the mental prison cell of THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN - THE CULT OF WORLDLY POWER, MATERIAL BENEFIT AND THE LIE!
Anyone reading this might wonder what is this all about?!
It's about THE LIE that THE HUMAN EXISTENCE is about material benefit and power over nature. It is not!
IT IS MUCH MORE - ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH SERVITUDE TO GOD ALMIGHTY!
Seconding Bakelite72, I listened to the Matt Taibbi & Walter Kirn episode on that app for Ukraine. And their suggestion that it include online dating so you can denounce your meet'n greet. Sweet!
This may be my favorite Caitlin post ever. If they start offering sausage at our polling stations, I may have to go and write in that jar of kombucha. But where I live, it would probably be vegan reconstituted soy product.
The US has a surprisingly popular World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) organization which stages completely fake, scripted 'fights' that millions of US citizens watch. US national elections are on that same level of authenticity. Only popular revolt will bring any meaningful change. Nice piece
I stopped voting years ago. Election Day is Laundry Day. At least I get something constructive done.
I am comforted by the thought that, just like during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Russian boats are patrolling the American coasts. This time, rather than protecting us from the Satanic British who are behind this (and, of course, their whores in our “government”), they are protecting the World from us.
My only request to our Russian brothers and sisters, who Lindsay Graham (may his soul burn in hell for eternity) wants to murder as many as possible, is when you launch the missiles, may I have the opportunity to see the fireball before I’m immolated.
I’m making my peace with God. I leave this world to Satan and the cockroaches.
I'm with you on LG... Hoping Ms. Lindsay joins that other paragon of virtue, J. Edna Hoover, in Hell's lingerie department - sooner than later. He can take all of his Neo-cons with him...
We the Elites, Why the US Constitution Serves the Few; by Robert Ovetz
Synopsis
Written by 55 of the richest white men of early America, and signed by only 39 of them, the constitution is the sacred text of American nationalism. Popular perceptions of it are mired in idolatry, myth and misinformation - many Americans have opinions on the constitution but have no idea what’s in it.
This book exposes the constitution for what it is – a rulebook to protect capitalism for the elites. The misplaced faith of social movements in the constitution as a framework for achieving justice actually obstructs social change - incessant lengthy election cycles, staggered terms and legislative sessions have kept those movements trapped in a redundant loop. This stymies progress on issues like labour rights, public health and climate change, projecting the American people and rest of the world towards destruction. Robert Ovetz’s reading of the constitution shows that the system isn’t broken. Far from it. It works as it was designed to do.
If you believe and preach that the US Constitution needs to be jettisoned, then you are helping globocaphomotechnosatan advance their evil as shit agenda.
The US constitution is outdated. And the US democratic mechanisms are outdated. Both need to be renewed to deliver actual democracy. Which they dont. Because they were created by rich slave owning colonist oligarchs several centuries ago. With obvious and severe deficiencies that cannot be ignored any longer.
The U.S. constitution was indeed written by slave owning colonist oligarchs several centuries ago.
YES.
All its deficiencies stem from there.
You feel free to cope with that reality however you want.
When people have recognised this they will convene to develop a new constitution based on shared humanity farther than paranoia and greed. So not anytime soon. Because paranoia and greed characterise the country and the people right now.
Your apparently shallow knowledge and understanding of the founding of this country and of human behavior would be forgivable if they weren't paired with blowhard imbecilic impulse.
“Shallow” :-). Ah right- I see you had nothing substantial to say, so you had to devote your entire 20 word dissertation to try and attack the messenger. Such was your “depth”.
I hit the mark exactly, is what it is.
America was founded as an oligarchy. And it operates as one. When people are ready and willing to move on, an entire new constitution and social contract will emerge. But no such level of consciousness exists. At all.
Wow here it is - the final assault upon the US Constitution. But it's been going on for years - not much left of it being followed by the ruling Elites anyway.
This elusive constitution everyone referes to has been stored in a basket beside the oval office desk for generations.
No matter what was written on it has been rendered irrelevant by law makers masterminding a glut of policy law to basically turn everyone into a criminal and slave.
Go read the artical in Forbes magazine about counting the nation's laws, they tried three times and failed and concluded everyone is a criminal.
And your "representatives" keep making them to justify their jobs.
Working with immigrants, the main reason people immigrate to the US is to be reunited with family members who migrated earlier (sometimes decades earlier since our visa system takes that long for others to come in as a sponsored parent or adult child). They don't ever mention anything about our Constitution. They've learned from the hellholes they left that all governments are to be scorned and feared.
If the US sucks so much, then going back home and fixing their old “hell hole”would be a better plan don’t you think? I guess welfare, Medicaid, and all the freebies are just too rich to pass up. Since they don’t have any idea that we have a Constitution, it sounds as though our educational system has also failed them. Time to go back home then?
Typically their countries are destabilised by US policy and US forces, which in fact prevent the masses from having any influence over their governments. If the people over come that and do manage to control their governments and economic policy, the US govt isolates and ostracises them ( see Cuba and Venezuela)
Apparently you have no idea what the situation of an asylum seeker is like. A lot to learn.
Right, let them go back and ensure their governments set up hundreds of military bases around the world to pilfer and rob those places, including the US. And then the "hell holes" they help produce will necessarily create a flow of immigrants into their countries.
the length of the US election season indicates a key function: to drain the money and energy and time of activists every four years (to a much lesser extent in the off-year elections) so that we are not spending our time talking about what we might do, together, to actually change things.
I don't think that's a major motive for leaving our defective, corrupt, absurd electoral system as is--but I think a key reason media have no interest in sensible campaign finance change is that they make so much money off the current system.. The loyal media don't need a payoff, they're owned by the same people who own the MIC and likely also intertwined with the fossil fuel companies, the hospital-drug-insurance complex. The media wing is absolutely key to holding the whole corrupt, stinking, homicidal mess together. Without it, they could not manufacture consent--or it just passivity.
I think you are being unfair to pro wrestlers. It is scripted, of course, but it is theater, after all. And whatever is being seen, even if the outcome of the one-act play is predetermined, is not fake. Those people are athletes, and, even if 99% of the time they are not trying to hurt each other, accidents can happen. It isn’t my cup of tea, but it doesn’t deserve to be lumped together with what Caitlin has so well and brutally eviscerated in her post.
Caitlin, you knocked it outta the park with this one: a grand slam. This is the best, most honest, summation of America's national elections I've ever read in an article of this brevity.
What? There are sausages at polling sites? I must truly be living in an authorative regime that adminisyers extreme capitalistic cruelty! Really, never knew that before. No matter who we vote for our vote is meaningless because as you said, we had no say in anything that matters. I mean, I don't remember voting for giving the Ukraine money, I don't remember voting for the Patriot act, I don't recall voting for the expansion of the insurrection act, I certainly wouldn't vote for Senate bill 686...Imagine all the bills and actions that I don't know about, likely hundreds of thousands of things that screw us over. We live in a republic that uses a representative democracy and oue representatives represent the wealthy, not us.
Go read the Forbes magazine article about counting the nation's laws, they tried it three times and failed each one and concluded everyone is a criminal.
Trump’s first term showed that he is not capable of doing many of the things he promised, when he is even trying (which is rarely)
He promised to pull out of Afghanistan, for which we had to wait for the present incumbent (I gave Biden credit for this, until it became obvious that he had only done so to free up the forces for his own evil pet project)
The point is, though, Trump at least *says* he will do it. We get the opportunity to register our disgust at the current regime and its adventures. We get to upset Joe Scarboro, David Frum, and the rest of the neocons, who will never acknowledge, let alone apologize for the evil that is done in their name. For those people Trump is a liar, when in actual fact he tells the truth, in all its obscenity
When you have the technocrats canceling debate and mainstream media lying about fake pee pee tapes, it makes for difficult times. Hopefully the current dementia troubled president will be replaced by a president who can find their way off stage after a speech.
All a vote for DJT will do is continue the theater for another 4 years until the next Killer Klown arises and it will re-fuel the idiot nattering media whores like Joe and Mika, Madcow, Cooper, Acosta, and Tapper...
Maybe... I’m not under a lot of illusions about Trump, I just remember liking the feeling that WWIII was *not* about to break out a lot more than I like the current malaise
He started *no* new wars. Not a one. I’ll take that, thanks
He also organized a summit with N Korea!, entirely unthinkable under any establishment candidate
I think I have views about Trump similar to yours.
He made a place for himself in society as a wealthy entertainer, with this business mogul persona, but he didn’t understand his place and got out of his lane.
To extend the metaphor, we got, and continue to get, this spectacle as other elements of power in society try to contain this runaway truck.
I had written him off, but I’m becoming more inclined to vote for him because he seems to have all the right enemies. Depends on who else is on offer, though.
Agree... Voted for the man once, as the thought of HRC in office was horrifying beyond description. He did delay the Ukrainian debacle by 4 years. Had she ascended to the throne, we would have been in WWIII immediately. But, he had his chance and the ensuing years have reinforced my long-held view, that if it made any difference "they" would make it illegal - shared by Mark Twain and Emma Goldstein, I understand.
I understand your reasoning. However, the CIA did let Trump live. They did not let JFK live. If you want to vote for someone who represents an even bigger threat to the neocons than Trump, vote for RFK, Jr, who is running to carry on the anti-war efforts of JFK and RFK, Sr. Wouldn’t it be nice to get Biden out of the running and see the 2024 general election come down to two candidates (Trump and RFK, Jr.) who are both speaking out against the war in Ukraine?
I entirely agree, RFK JR would be my preferred candidate overall
However, I very much doubt he will be (a) on the ballot as a Democrat or (b) prepared to make the dirty break and stand as an Independent when the Democrat party inevitably screw him
OTOH, if he is an option, I agree he is a better one than Trump
What applies to the USA also applies to all so-called "Western" democracies, because they are in fact Americanized democracies. The only difference is that only the election of the comedian who will stay in the White House for 4 years is "globally" followed and commented on throughout the West, whereas the election of the lackeys hardly leaves the borders of the country in question. I confess that, as a French citizen, I don't give a damn about the American presidential election, but I'm still waiting for the French statesman who will restore France's independence and sovereignty. Unfortunately, statesmen (and stateswomen, let's be modern) are a very, very rare commodity in Western democracies. Not even like Siberian tigers, an endangered species, but like dinosaurs, an extinct species, I'm afraid.
The only reason that you are encouraged to vote is so you sign and date the voter registration legal documents that you agree to abide by the dictates of the establishment installed puppets. And get a little sticker like a grad school child to delude yourself you had a say.
With all the expectations over the last 100 years that voting would change anything, look where we are? We are in the most precarious situation as a nation that we have seen since at least the Civil War.
I am not going to waste much time over the next 17 months paying attention to candidates. The fact is that even with a rogue or 3rd party president, they still have to work within the confines of the utterly corrupt DC Swamp which never seems to change.
The only remaining answer is to abolish all government and replace it with something that works for all without anyone becoming a slave to the system.
There's an awful lot of treacherous sailing between removal of existing government and establishment of a new one. And let's not forget that it is the global oligarchy itself which seeks to replace our existing system and sovereignty with something better for them but nightmarishly horrible for us.
The U.S. govt….IS… at the heart of global oligarchy.
Existing sovereignty? What? Ask Assange if that exists - he is an Australian citizen being charged with booking US laws that don’t apply in Australia or anywhere else than the US. THAT is global rule.
Yes!!! This is your best essay yet, IMO, Caitlin & Tim. It had me alternately laughing and crying--and cry-laughing all the way through.
Never a truer statement made on God's green earth than this sentence: "When all is said and done, the person sworn into office on January 2024 will oversee an administration which governs in more or less the same way as their predecessors."
It's what I've been saying for years, and all I ever get when I say it is stares or outright hostile jibes. But it's the truth of the matter and always has been.
When some random American posted a poll on Twitter saying, "Is our Democracy in trouble?" I answered his tweet with, "No, of course not. We've never had a "democracy." You'd actually have to experience a real democracy first in order to know if it was in trouble or not. The trouble is, you THINK you're living in a "democracy" in 21st America. You've swallowed the Kool-Aid propaganda. Time to spit it out so we can actually start working on a way to bring about a true democracy."
The United States is neither a democracy nor a democratic republic, but an oligarchy featuring unlimited political bribery for those who can afford pricey lawyers.
We are being ruled by a collection of opulent psycopaths.
Perty much
I just hope that in 24 I can vote,drop off my tax payment and go get my booster all in one trip. That will limit my chances of getting gun violenced and keep my carbon tiptoe down to a socially acceptable level.
Oh don't worry, there's a new "app" coming that will be your one-stop shop for everything your government has decided you need (and for turning in any friends or neighbors who don't want it)! Just ask the Ukrainians, who will be the lucky guinea pigs in this brave new world of total digital control! It's gonna be awesome, dude -- we'll use technology to eliminate conflict and dissent once and for all, so we can live in total harmony around the globe forever, because we won't have a choice! Long live the Galactic Empire (sorry, I mean "Rules-Based International Order")!
Delivered by the global warmonger Samantha Power and “USAID” - what could be suspicious about that, surely. :-)
As Mark Twain might have put it, in fact did put it in his later years, "I was dead for billions of years before I was born and lt not disturb me in the least."
If you can find it, search for his essay on "looking forward to the peace and quiet of the grave." I think it was in his book "On the Damned Human Race."
He was writing similar things on politicians long ago, when we still had a viable biosphere and perhaps 1/8 the population of today. And zero nukes. Not to glorify those days, just sayin'.
Which - MT's writing - in and of itself is NIHILISM at its core.
Looking forward to not having to witness ALL CREATION in existence is pretty ARROGANT - by THE HUMAN MIND - I must say. But equally not surprising to the diligent observer, looking at the mental degradation all around. And this trait has been in existence since ADAM and EVE in THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Seeing children enjoying every moment of existence, while YET not being aware of REALITY created by THE REBELLIOUS UNFAITHFUL HUMAN MIND looking to save itself, should be the focus. And at the same time putting on the armour of faith to teach our brothers and sisters - especially children - regarding the blindness of THE HUMAN MIND and how it is easily lured into the mental prison cell of THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN - THE CULT OF WORLDLY POWER, MATERIAL BENEFIT AND THE LIE!
Anyone reading this might wonder what is this all about?!
It's about THE LIE that THE HUMAN EXISTENCE is about material benefit and power over nature. It is not!
IT IS MUCH MORE - ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH SERVITUDE TO GOD ALMIGHTY!
Seconding Bakelite72, I listened to the Matt Taibbi & Walter Kirn episode on that app for Ukraine. And their suggestion that it include online dating so you can denounce your meet'n greet. Sweet!
This may be my favorite Caitlin post ever. If they start offering sausage at our polling stations, I may have to go and write in that jar of kombucha. But where I live, it would probably be vegan reconstituted soy product.
The sausage is plastic and shaped like a butt plug so you can remember who you voted for when you use it.
If anyone was seriously concerned with turnout they would be offering bacon,not snausages.
Pretty sure I got offered a shit sandwich last time I went to the polls...
Bacon's no improvement. How about hot dogs and hamburgs? BTW, I've never been offered anything to eat or drink in 50 years of voting.
Me neither. Americans are cheap when it comes to forcing us to "support democracy at the polls."
Good one
The US has a surprisingly popular World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) organization which stages completely fake, scripted 'fights' that millions of US citizens watch. US national elections are on that same level of authenticity. Only popular revolt will bring any meaningful change. Nice piece
Bread and circuses,,,it is as old as dirt.
Thank you!
I stopped voting years ago. Election Day is Laundry Day. At least I get something constructive done.
I am comforted by the thought that, just like during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Russian boats are patrolling the American coasts. This time, rather than protecting us from the Satanic British who are behind this (and, of course, their whores in our “government”), they are protecting the World from us.
My only request to our Russian brothers and sisters, who Lindsay Graham (may his soul burn in hell for eternity) wants to murder as many as possible, is when you launch the missiles, may I have the opportunity to see the fireball before I’m immolated.
I’m making my peace with God. I leave this world to Satan and the cockroaches.
I'm with you on LG... Hoping Ms. Lindsay joins that other paragon of virtue, J. Edna Hoover, in Hell's lingerie department - sooner than later. He can take all of his Neo-cons with him...
Don’t forget LG’s mentor, McCain, who’s there already.
No need to worry about the fire and brimstone of a nuke blast, it only stings for a microsecond.
We the Elites, Why the US Constitution Serves the Few; by Robert Ovetz
Synopsis
Written by 55 of the richest white men of early America, and signed by only 39 of them, the constitution is the sacred text of American nationalism. Popular perceptions of it are mired in idolatry, myth and misinformation - many Americans have opinions on the constitution but have no idea what’s in it.
This book exposes the constitution for what it is – a rulebook to protect capitalism for the elites. The misplaced faith of social movements in the constitution as a framework for achieving justice actually obstructs social change - incessant lengthy election cycles, staggered terms and legislative sessions have kept those movements trapped in a redundant loop. This stymies progress on issues like labour rights, public health and climate change, projecting the American people and rest of the world towards destruction. Robert Ovetz’s reading of the constitution shows that the system isn’t broken. Far from it. It works as it was designed to do.
If you believe and preach that the US Constitution needs to be jettisoned, then you are helping globocaphomotechnosatan advance their evil as shit agenda.
If you think the Constitution is a blueprint for democracy, you may be confusing propaganda with fact.
It is the single most valuable component of our society. You are an ignorant fool to devalue it.
What you’re doing is spreading a red herring.
The US constitution is outdated. And the US democratic mechanisms are outdated. Both need to be renewed to deliver actual democracy. Which they dont. Because they were created by rich slave owning colonist oligarchs several centuries ago. With obvious and severe deficiencies that cannot be ignored any longer.
Wow
To everything you wrote: NO.
The U.S. constitution was indeed written by slave owning colonist oligarchs several centuries ago.
YES.
All its deficiencies stem from there.
You feel free to cope with that reality however you want.
When people have recognised this they will convene to develop a new constitution based on shared humanity farther than paranoia and greed. So not anytime soon. Because paranoia and greed characterise the country and the people right now.
Your apparently shallow knowledge and understanding of the founding of this country and of human behavior would be forgivable if they weren't paired with blowhard imbecilic impulse.
“Shallow” :-). Ah right- I see you had nothing substantial to say, so you had to devote your entire 20 word dissertation to try and attack the messenger. Such was your “depth”.
I hit the mark exactly, is what it is.
America was founded as an oligarchy. And it operates as one. When people are ready and willing to move on, an entire new constitution and social contract will emerge. But no such level of consciousness exists. At all.
Because there are only two choices. The US Constitution and globocaphomotechnosatan.
Do tell me where this is written. Be specific.
You got that right Jeck. I was figuring this was the propaganda coming next down the corrupt Elite pike.
Wow here it is - the final assault upon the US Constitution. But it's been going on for years - not much left of it being followed by the ruling Elites anyway.
The US Constitution is the last wall to tear down so totalitarian elites can rule the world. When it is gone there is nothing stopping them.
This elusive constitution everyone referes to has been stored in a basket beside the oval office desk for generations.
No matter what was written on it has been rendered irrelevant by law makers masterminding a glut of policy law to basically turn everyone into a criminal and slave.
Go read the artical in Forbes magazine about counting the nation's laws, they tried three times and failed and concluded everyone is a criminal.
And your "representatives" keep making them to justify their jobs.
Yes, and capitalism isn’t going through a rough patch, it!s working as intended.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2022/06/19/capitalism-is-working-as-intended-the-madness-of-capitalist-inequality-by-pete-dolack/
So that is why the US has a border crisis! People are crashing the border because the Constitution and Bill of Rights works! 🗽
Well, the money works, anyway. For now.
Because they are hapless pawns whose countries are economically gutted and politically decimated by the foreign policy of the US.
That is why the US has a border crisis.
Working with immigrants, the main reason people immigrate to the US is to be reunited with family members who migrated earlier (sometimes decades earlier since our visa system takes that long for others to come in as a sponsored parent or adult child). They don't ever mention anything about our Constitution. They've learned from the hellholes they left that all governments are to be scorned and feared.
If the US sucks so much, then going back home and fixing their old “hell hole”would be a better plan don’t you think? I guess welfare, Medicaid, and all the freebies are just too rich to pass up. Since they don’t have any idea that we have a Constitution, it sounds as though our educational system has also failed them. Time to go back home then?
Typically their countries are destabilised by US policy and US forces, which in fact prevent the masses from having any influence over their governments. If the people over come that and do manage to control their governments and economic policy, the US govt isolates and ostracises them ( see Cuba and Venezuela)
Apparently you have no idea what the situation of an asylum seeker is like. A lot to learn.
Right, let them go back and ensure their governments set up hundreds of military bases around the world to pilfer and rob those places, including the US. And then the "hell holes" they help produce will necessarily create a flow of immigrants into their countries.
And you think that economics has nothing to do with it? Or the fact that at least the death squads won't bother them on this side of the border?
The Constitution has long been a dead letter.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2022/06/19/capitalism-is-working-as-intended-the-madness-of-capitalist-inequality-by-pete-dolack/
the length of the US election season indicates a key function: to drain the money and energy and time of activists every four years (to a much lesser extent in the off-year elections) so that we are not spending our time talking about what we might do, together, to actually change things.
I think it's largely a multi-billion dollar payoff to the loyal media.
I don't think that's a major motive for leaving our defective, corrupt, absurd electoral system as is--but I think a key reason media have no interest in sensible campaign finance change is that they make so much money off the current system.. The loyal media don't need a payoff, they're owned by the same people who own the MIC and likely also intertwined with the fossil fuel companies, the hospital-drug-insurance complex. The media wing is absolutely key to holding the whole corrupt, stinking, homicidal mess together. Without it, they could not manufacture consent--or it just passivity.
It’s all ONE BIG ACT. It’s like “pro wrestling.” A bunch of “interesting characters“ but it’s all SCRIPTED and FAKE.
If you buy into it, I can't help you with your problem.
Best wishes!
I think you are being unfair to pro wrestlers. It is scripted, of course, but it is theater, after all. And whatever is being seen, even if the outcome of the one-act play is predetermined, is not fake. Those people are athletes, and, even if 99% of the time they are not trying to hurt each other, accidents can happen. It isn’t my cup of tea, but it doesn’t deserve to be lumped together with what Caitlin has so well and brutally eviscerated in her post.
Wrestlers are at least somewhat more honest about their fakery
And infinitely more entertaining!
Caitlin, you knocked it outta the park with this one: a grand slam. This is the best, most honest, summation of America's national elections I've ever read in an article of this brevity.
What? There are sausages at polling sites? I must truly be living in an authorative regime that adminisyers extreme capitalistic cruelty! Really, never knew that before. No matter who we vote for our vote is meaningless because as you said, we had no say in anything that matters. I mean, I don't remember voting for giving the Ukraine money, I don't remember voting for the Patriot act, I don't recall voting for the expansion of the insurrection act, I certainly wouldn't vote for Senate bill 686...Imagine all the bills and actions that I don't know about, likely hundreds of thousands of things that screw us over. We live in a republic that uses a representative democracy and oue representatives represent the wealthy, not us.
Australians really have it good. Sausages at polling sites! Unheard of in the US.
Go read the Forbes magazine article about counting the nation's laws, they tried it three times and failed each one and concluded everyone is a criminal.
It's all by design. Fascism through law
I once had a traffic cop tell me there were so many laws, it was always possible to find one to excuse pulling over anyone you wanted to.
Forbes.. Bahahah!! Read Bailiwick News on the stack for all the evil bills put in to enslave everyone
Can't disagree with you there...but if even fobes admits it Its got to be pretty blatant
am not able to vote, but if I could I would vote for Trump
He has that hated by the security services seal of approval and said he would end the Ukraine war in one day
I’m not exactly excited at the prospect but in my view it’s a no-brainer
I'd sure like to see the Ukraine war ended (and by negotation, not nuking Russia) so I guess this is a good choice. It's mot like Trump has ever lied.
Trump’s first term showed that he is not capable of doing many of the things he promised, when he is even trying (which is rarely)
He promised to pull out of Afghanistan, for which we had to wait for the present incumbent (I gave Biden credit for this, until it became obvious that he had only done so to free up the forces for his own evil pet project)
The point is, though, Trump at least *says* he will do it. We get the opportunity to register our disgust at the current regime and its adventures. We get to upset Joe Scarboro, David Frum, and the rest of the neocons, who will never acknowledge, let alone apologize for the evil that is done in their name. For those people Trump is a liar, when in actual fact he tells the truth, in all its obscenity
And unfortunately, it’s the best on offer
When you have the technocrats canceling debate and mainstream media lying about fake pee pee tapes, it makes for difficult times. Hopefully the current dementia troubled president will be replaced by a president who can find their way off stage after a speech.
All a vote for DJT will do is continue the theater for another 4 years until the next Killer Klown arises and it will re-fuel the idiot nattering media whores like Joe and Mika, Madcow, Cooper, Acosta, and Tapper...
Maybe... I’m not under a lot of illusions about Trump, I just remember liking the feeling that WWIII was *not* about to break out a lot more than I like the current malaise
He started *no* new wars. Not a one. I’ll take that, thanks
He also organized a summit with N Korea!, entirely unthinkable under any establishment candidate
I think I have views about Trump similar to yours.
He made a place for himself in society as a wealthy entertainer, with this business mogul persona, but he didn’t understand his place and got out of his lane.
To extend the metaphor, we got, and continue to get, this spectacle as other elements of power in society try to contain this runaway truck.
I had written him off, but I’m becoming more inclined to vote for him because he seems to have all the right enemies. Depends on who else is on offer, though.
Agree... Voted for the man once, as the thought of HRC in office was horrifying beyond description. He did delay the Ukrainian debacle by 4 years. Had she ascended to the throne, we would have been in WWIII immediately. But, he had his chance and the ensuing years have reinforced my long-held view, that if it made any difference "they" would make it illegal - shared by Mark Twain and Emma Goldstein, I understand.
I understand your reasoning. However, the CIA did let Trump live. They did not let JFK live. If you want to vote for someone who represents an even bigger threat to the neocons than Trump, vote for RFK, Jr, who is running to carry on the anti-war efforts of JFK and RFK, Sr. Wouldn’t it be nice to get Biden out of the running and see the 2024 general election come down to two candidates (Trump and RFK, Jr.) who are both speaking out against the war in Ukraine?
I entirely agree, RFK JR would be my preferred candidate overall
However, I very much doubt he will be (a) on the ballot as a Democrat or (b) prepared to make the dirty break and stand as an Independent when the Democrat party inevitably screw him
OTOH, if he is an option, I agree he is a better one than Trump
What applies to the USA also applies to all so-called "Western" democracies, because they are in fact Americanized democracies. The only difference is that only the election of the comedian who will stay in the White House for 4 years is "globally" followed and commented on throughout the West, whereas the election of the lackeys hardly leaves the borders of the country in question. I confess that, as a French citizen, I don't give a damn about the American presidential election, but I'm still waiting for the French statesman who will restore France's independence and sovereignty. Unfortunately, statesmen (and stateswomen, let's be modern) are a very, very rare commodity in Western democracies. Not even like Siberian tigers, an endangered species, but like dinosaurs, an extinct species, I'm afraid.
This is brilliant writing describing reality , using a very sharp pen/sword. Absolutely love it!
The only reason that you are encouraged to vote is so you sign and date the voter registration legal documents that you agree to abide by the dictates of the establishment installed puppets. And get a little sticker like a grad school child to delude yourself you had a say.
I view the political season sort of like March Madness on steroids. It's entertaining but nothing of real consequence.
It's going to start to resemble that film the purge soon.
With all the expectations over the last 100 years that voting would change anything, look where we are? We are in the most precarious situation as a nation that we have seen since at least the Civil War.
I am not going to waste much time over the next 17 months paying attention to candidates. The fact is that even with a rogue or 3rd party president, they still have to work within the confines of the utterly corrupt DC Swamp which never seems to change.
The only remaining answer is to abolish all government and replace it with something that works for all without anyone becoming a slave to the system.
There's an awful lot of treacherous sailing between removal of existing government and establishment of a new one. And let's not forget that it is the global oligarchy itself which seeks to replace our existing system and sovereignty with something better for them but nightmarishly horrible for us.
The U.S. govt….IS… at the heart of global oligarchy.
Existing sovereignty? What? Ask Assange if that exists - he is an Australian citizen being charged with booking US laws that don’t apply in Australia or anywhere else than the US. THAT is global rule.
Interesting, I have thought that the u.s. gov. is the shell of the Oligarchy. Pretense of government.
Jeck, did your nudge unit just get assigned to Caitlin’s Substack?
Is nudge unit what you call yourselves?
I was thinking the same. Likely projection, and he didn't catch himself before writing it.
Yes!!! This is your best essay yet, IMO, Caitlin & Tim. It had me alternately laughing and crying--and cry-laughing all the way through.
Never a truer statement made on God's green earth than this sentence: "When all is said and done, the person sworn into office on January 2024 will oversee an administration which governs in more or less the same way as their predecessors."
It's what I've been saying for years, and all I ever get when I say it is stares or outright hostile jibes. But it's the truth of the matter and always has been.
When some random American posted a poll on Twitter saying, "Is our Democracy in trouble?" I answered his tweet with, "No, of course not. We've never had a "democracy." You'd actually have to experience a real democracy first in order to know if it was in trouble or not. The trouble is, you THINK you're living in a "democracy" in 21st America. You've swallowed the Kool-Aid propaganda. Time to spit it out so we can actually start working on a way to bring about a true democracy."