Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

This one's particularly pointed on the issue of why a lot of people like us are uniquely incensed by Trump: http://m.truthdig.com/report/item/con_vs_con_20160619

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Sees right through to what? You yourself stated elsewhere: I don't have a side. That's my whole argument. Neither side was worth taking.

I'd like to have had a side. I had one with Kerry v. Bush (it was Kerry), but I haven't had much of one since. That's my fault? That's a pose? You're being silly.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Right.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Oh, I see what's going on here. You think I'm a Trump supporter.

You're not that pathetic, are you? If that's all you've got, concede.

ETA: I've never seen a point, particularly a strongly felt or indignantly made one, I couldn't help but attempt to destabilize. The reflexive desire to poke a hole in the consensus is too strong to resist.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Nope. Clearly you do not see what is going on here.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

No, it's not basically the same as even at the level of "seats" we give the rural candidate two votes that aren't justified by his district's population.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I think he's just trying to knock out all of his promises on paper early, so he can move along to the profiteering with appropriate political cover as soon as possible.

They're just orders. "So called" judges will invalidate a bunch anyway, soon after the base is done following the stories. Credit for promises technically made. Hell, he'll probably undo a bunch of them quietly when they become problematic.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm trolling in an echo chamber?

ETA: Refute Hedges. I'd find that amusing.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

If you keep choosing to stake out the center, you might as well have a side -- it's saying that you make up your mind on the basis of what other people think, but without actually caring about anything except how you are perceived.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You and I seem to have very different understandings of how the man's mind works. You seem to think he's a conventional politician. I'm more with Josh on this.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Exactly. It isn't mathematically precise, but very very close to it.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Because I am helpful, there are many countries that elect a head of state by direct election.

But, point made, many states do not, and almost all indirect elections will have some form of distortion between the popular vote and whatever vote counts.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Your link seems to require searching by country. I'm short for Commish of PTO. Can't be caught searching such stuff. Adder, would you research?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

"Neither" isn't the center. It's not making up your mind, but opting out.

But it's not stance without principle. As Hedges notes, if all the system offers is different varieties of corruption, hitting "none of the above" sends a message. The parties are sclerotic, and entirely out of touch, but they got the message this year: Offer More of the Same, and you'll get the mother of all protest candidates.

I think it was Mencken who said every decent man has to hoist the black flag and act as a pirate now and again. If Trump's the near death drunk our system needs to get sober, indulgence of his debauched administration will have served a significant purpose.

Personally, I believe our problems are beyond a political fix, for all of the reasons Hedges eloquently explains. You've read War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. He applies the same lucidity in Empire of Delusion. Read that and tell me he hasn't perfectly described this country. Perhaps only something as volcanic as the forecasted Trumpocalypse will shake us to serious policy change.

More of the same was going to be fine for people like us. But in case you hadn't noticed, I'm guessing all of the households on this board are in the top 10%. Our perceptions are the rose colored opinions of courtiers. Or as Hedges would more aggressively note, the useful idiot servants and creators of intellectual cover for corporatist masters.

No one misses the irony that some of the loudest liberals we know speak from gilded perches funded by corporations working against many of the progressive policy planks they profess to hold dear. Handing out hypocrite citations to the professional liberal set is like passing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Yet the middle, as in people who don't buy into either party whole heartedly, is, I think thinking, but whatever. You lot are the thinkers, with accepting the dogma. I can't tell you how ill it made me the last weeks of the campaign, when I seemed the only voice saying " don't vote third party, this is a toss up," and then the meme started of "if you say hil is a poor candidate you are sexist." My prayer is the dems dig theirs heads out of their asses and realize how this perfect storm happened.