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The Shutdown Political Game: Inflict Maximum Pain To Score Cheap Points
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Voting for incumbents is like not voting at all: either way, you're throwing away your vote.
Here is the politicos' government shutdown game in a nutshell: inflict maximum pain on the rest of us to score cheap points with partisans.
The amount of money needed to keep the National Parks open is such a tiny slice of the Federal budget that it doesn't even register. Planned a trip of a lifetime to a National Park? Sorry, buddy--the whole game is making life as miserable as possible so we will be driven to partisan cheering for one side or the other.
Need a passport or a work permit? Tough luck, bucko. The sums of money needed to keep essential offices open is trivial, but that's the game plan for both parties: make the cuts that hurt the most with the least political exposure to blowback.
Please recall that every politico in Washington D.C. has known when the budget and debt ceiling would reach criticality. Yet they did nothing. We all know the two-party system of governance is broken, and that both parties are equally responsible. Yet what do we do? We continue to elect the incumbents who failed to change the political culture.
Please remember this absurd political theater in 2014 and 2016 and vote for third party and independent candidates. I have to laugh when people object, "But voting for third parties is throwing away your vote."
No, voting for Demopublican/Republicrat incumbents is throwing away your vote, because you're voting to guarantee more gridlock, corruption, can-kicking and dysfunction. You know who really throws away their vote? People who don't vote at all. They are essential to the dominance of dysfunction, as the political parasites know that when half the voters don't even bother to cast a ballot, they only need to inspire 25% of the voting-age populace to vote for their brand of dysfunction to stay in power.
The only vote that isn't thrown away is a vote for a third-party or independent candidate. Voting for an incumbent or other Demopublican/Republicrat is the same as not voting at all: you're simply rubber-stamping a continuation of corruption and dysfunction.
It's systemic. Candidate J.E. Blow might be a fine fellow/gal as an individual, but by playing by the existing rules of raising millions of dollars in campaign contributions and voting along partisan lines, they are enabling and supporting the entire corrupt and dysfunctional system.
The Pareto Distribution suggests that if 4% of voters broke away from dysfunction and voted for independents, that "vital few" would influence 64% of all voters. Next election, join the 4% who will eventually influence the 64%.
Voting for incumbents is like not voting at all: either way, you're throwing away your vote.
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Yet what do we do? We continue to elect the incumbents who failed to change the political culture.
Well yeah. The reelection rate is 90% even when congress has a 10% approval rating. Stalin and Hitler wish they had subjects that stupid.
LOL, like voting is any solution.
Has this man not ever heard of "consent of the governed?"
Why, oh why, does he still consent, and thus continue to support the beast?
He lost me at "You know who really throws away their vote? People who don't vote at all."
Go fuck yourself. This is the same mud slinging blame game class fighting bullshit. Find anybody everybody else to blame. I've said this on here before.
Bush or Gore?
Bush or Kerry?
Obama or Mccain?
Obama or Romney?
He can claim all he wants that voting for a third party matters, but when the primary polls end, those are your choices. A giant douche and a turd sandwich. I didn't vote for any of them (feel pretty good about it).
People are still under the delusion that their vote counts for something?
http://americandictators.blogspot.com/2013/10/despite-government-shut-do...
I've got to add another point. Whats just as fucking stupid, is voting for somebody because they're NOT a democrat or republican. How about we vote for people not parties. I'm not voting fucking green party because its "not democrat or republicans". While they're all douchey politicians I'm hard press not to be content with some of them (of which aren't my reps or senators, so can't really help them out). I'm not going to go to sleep and say "nope can't support him, he has an R under his name."
This same bullshit was going on in the 2000 and 2004 election. "vote kerry because its not bush." Uhm no, fuck you, I'll stay home.
Good thing the park rangers who tell people the parks are closed are essential.
In Facist State of AmeriKa, citizenry is not vote, Diebold is vote.
Breaking News:
Due to the lack of barrycades, Oblama orders Grand Canyon to be filled in.
yeah, right...watch ten minutes of mark dice....stay the fuck home and save the gas....voting is for suckers....
I vote for Ron Paul even when he's not on the ballot.
My fiancee is a registered Democrat and she wrote his name in on the ticket.
They looked at her like she was crazy...and then she looked at them like they were crazy.
NOT voting is how we got stuck with this POS obamma. Romney was the clear choice and would have made a good president. So much better than this dildo we have.
Has anyone ever told you that you're funny when you're stupid?
In time, who will be seen as to blame if the system comes apart? Hoover, after all, was blamed for the Great Depression (complete with "Hoovervilles", and Hoover was considered the smartest guy in the room).
"Tea Partiers" ?? Really ?? You think ??
Join me in a thought experiment!
"Thought Experiment: Who was at the Helm?"
http://tinyurl.com/pha34tx
Adults need to stop voting for incumbents and the guy who promises you free stuff. Nothing is free, someone has to pay for it. kids and old ladies vote for free shit.....adults need to think and vote for the sensible guy or gal that will follow the constitution and listen to responsible people. And no crony capitalist bankster candidates either....they are worse because they look and act like conservatives but they screw you in the end and tell you its for your own good.
Re: adults need to think and vote for the sensible guy or gal that will follow the constitution and listen to responsible people
Nice concept but most children (dumbasses) think they are adults (smart-n-savvy).
The reality is that 50% of the population is below average. But, surely NOT you or me.
Voting people or parties to represent a nation is bullshit IN ANY WAY. How can those 'leaders' decide whats good or bad for everyone? They CAN and WILL only do whats good for their friends, for their families, for those who 'donate' some extra money. There is no plan, path, strategy or whatsoever to enhance the life of everyone or to make this world a better place. All their decisions are just random stuff in a chaotic, interconnected globalised world - and no one can predict the result. There is no right and no wrong.
As long as we allow others to manage our life we are only muppets playing a pointless role in a random show managed by some idiots.
Re: muppets playing a pointless role in a random show managed by some idiots
Of course, but, as "da foundin' fadders" knew: ya gotta have some government or the King will git ya.
So, IF you have a gov'ment, there's not allot of options other than letting somebody else "represent" you.
There will never be a situation where there won't be a government.
Many Southerners used to say the same thing about chattel slavery 160 years ago, and virtually EVERYONE on earth would have said the same thing 1000 years ago. And I'm sure there were plenty of cavemen who smugly asserted that "this agriculture fad will never take off --- mankind has ALWAYS been hunter-gatherers, and always will be".
I read this little tidbit once before (can't remember if it was on ZH or not): Once one group of people formed the first city, another group of people formed the first guerrilla movement. The winner of that struggle would decide the organizing template for mankind going forward. The city won.
For my own part, I look back through history and see that even successful cavemen groups organized themselves into governing authority structures. Our primate, hominid ancestors did, too, as do our primate cousins today. We're just neurologically wired that way, I suppose: Sheep looking for shephards, so to speak.
The Constitution was created so as to keep the shephards from getting abusive with their flock. And it worked well, right up until the shephards actually taught the sheep how to Baaaa! Throw some free shit around, dumb down the sheep with public school education, and you have what we have today.
But I get your point. Maybe at some point in history, humans will learn to organize societies without a state. I believe that this was the end-game of Marx's communist theory: the point where the State withers away for lack of usefulness...or something like that.
Here's my proposal for revolution & a new world order. So far I haven't received much interest, but maybe when the current system collapses people will start looking for new ideas.
https://sites.google.com/site/parcontre/
Or better yet, stop your whining and crying and grow a pair - run for office yourself. THAT is the American way. That other stuff you've been doing (voting red/blue and even not voting) only perpetuates the problem. Stop being part of the problem. Grow up and get in the game.
And when the irredeemably corrupt system, with its innumerable entrenched special interests and its co-opted corporate media, does everything it can (which is overwhelmingly much) to attack, denigrate, mock, and ridicule you, and alternately marginalize and ignore you, and you win maybe 1% of the vote despite your goodhearted and herculean efforts, what then?
Been there, done that, not playing that game EVER again.
You are confused.
A vote for a major party doesn't count, but that's not the same thing as your vote doesn't count.
1992
Bush Senior
Ross Perot
Bill Clinton
Perot took enough conservative votes to let Clinton win.
2000
Bush Jr.
Al Gore
Ralph Nadar
Nadar took enough votes to let Bush win.
nader? pat buchanan ruled palm beach county and put bush over the top. hanging chadz and the butterfly ballot. he singlehandedly saved us from gore.
In the 2000 presidential election in Florida, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes. Nader received 97,421 votes, which led to claims that he was responsible for Gore's defeat.
Of course, if you think we were "saved" by Bush, we really have little to discuss.
For the record, I don't think we would have been "saved" by Gore, either. It would have been a different set of issues/problems, but probably not the kind what would bankrupt the country and totally wreck the Constitution.
We all play a role. Those at the top are the most indentifiable, but we are all in it. Pointing fingers of blame always leave three pointing back at ourselves. It is useless unless it is truthful and can actually lead to positive change. Unfortunately most blame is used to divert attention from true perpetrators and actually cause more damage rather than fix anything. I don't know how we can change things for sure, but I do know it will be us that has to do it.
Yep! The ONLY way anything would change would be if everyone sat home on election day and refused to vote...THEN the plantation overlords would see they have a real big problem on their hands, no one is buying the system anymore!
Charles Hughes Smith, go fuck yourself, along with the 'Independent' asshats who are probably bigger sellouts than repubs and dems combined.
Where's any example of how great these 'Independents' are? BUnch of bullshit 100%.
that's just stupid.
First of all there is no way that 100% of people are going to do anything. Secondly, not voting will still leave the same system in place so nothing will change.
"It doesn't matter which of us you vote for. Either way . . . your planet is doomed!!"
Hugh-Smith is right: if you don't vote then you literally don't count.
If you vote for one of the major parties then you count...for them.
The only way that you can do something that they don't like is to vote for someone you actually like.
First, the reformation electorate needs to control the vetting of candidates, so that some body who votes has an actual choice, and not merely the horns of a loose-loose dilemma. The votes that count are the ones to select the candidates. The Ron Paul campaign illustrates what the reformation electorate is up against here; the status quo will fight tooth and nail dirty. Get used to it, get preparred, and wade in.
part one inflict pain for political gain
part two use rumors and rumors of rumors for financial gain thanks to the free pass for inside trading given to congressional insiders
That's because the red/blue teamers always convince themselves it's "the other guy" and not their own rep.
If you haven't noticed, a lot of red teamers are attacking each other and giving their congress critters shit (see cloture vote last week).
Re: a lot of red teamers
The Red Team has always been split between Big-Gov loving "Conservatives" and anti-government Libertarians.
The duplicitous Libertarians usually vote Red Team because of "those people" which resulted in all the crony-capitalist scams that so many of us (me included) are living off of.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out in the future.
The Red/Blue team place barriers to entry for Independent candidates. No need for competition.
I've come to the conclusion that voting is a waste of time, unless it's to oppose a bond referrendum.
I threw away all my votes at once and cancelled my voter's registration. Voting has never, ever helped one bit. All politicians are unconstitutional traitors to our country and people. And beside, that damn voter's registration had right on it that I was a US citizen. As in 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof'. I am within a particular state, and am only subject to that jurisdiction. State governments and f'd up enough, no need to bring the feds into the mix.
Obama shows his true colors as a Petty Despot
But Kilroy don't play dat Chicago style
Moving closer daily to the last straw...but it's still usually a surprise to those blinded by power because little things don't matter to them. SURPRISE--IT MATTERS!
Obanga is nothing but a sick ass POS, clown can find the time to arrange for barricades at the WWII memorial and close down grave yards and entire public parks that don't require the presence of federal loafs to operate but can't seem to enforce the border with Mexico. His supporters should be hung by their necks from lampposts.
Both parties have their share of idiots and corrupt assholes. One party abuses the constitutionalist types in their ranks. The other party fosters hatred and outright subversion towards the document.
I'm fine with a third and fourth party, but the constitutionalist types are going to get screwed by division because it will just empower the left further. I like grass movements within the party until we get another party to split the other side as well. Just look at Boehner finally finding a backbone in the past two weeks (which may still fail as the debt deadline nears)...
Voting in some asshole to replace the unsatisfactory asshole you've got doesn't really work that well. We sent Norm Coleman packing here in Minnesota (he looked like he had just gotten a terminal diagnosis when he conceded, so I know it really hurt), but what we ended up with was just a smarter, smoother asshole who could actually do more damage. I don't think the political process works anymore so sending another infinitely corruptible politician to Washington is nice for them, for us not so much.
Is your problem so much with the two party system or the representative system? If we found people who adhered to the rules/constitution and held them accountable, the system would be much better.
I wish libertarians/conservatives who don't believe in social conservatism would step up and take back the democratic party and have it return to sanity.
So sorry. I believe it is beyond redemption or rescue. Is is naive to believe that anyone you send is incorruptible, that they can't be bought or blackmailed or the lever doesn't exist that will move them. The rare bird who doesn't fall into line has an "accident" like Paul Wellstone.
Don't listen to this guy.
Think of the trrrssssts. Think of the children. "Those people" will git yer woman and tax money. The supreme court picks will turn the country into a "conservative" wasteland, gays gonna poke ya in the butt, Global warming, God said to vote Red Team, Krugman said to vote Blue Team.
Did I miss any?
Because Your Vote can fix this!
Horseshit. The only lever left to pull is called a trigger. Everything else is already designed into the game to keep you satiated and paying taxes.
Opt out, stock up and get ready.
Fuck off and don't tell me how to vote. My Rep is doing fine and unless someone better comes along he has my vote. I voted 3rd party heavily in last election.
Yup, now we'll see WHO works for WHO!
Banksters had a little visit with the King O yesterday. One hour later King O comes out and says this mess could adversly affect Wall St.
If Boner and the Republicans work for the banksters, they'll cave. Now you'll have final undisputable proof that the red team and the blue team all play for the Banksters and J6P is out in the parking lot washing windows.
Who Da Boss?
Soon we'll see.
All the Pubs have to do to hand King O and the Democrats their ass is to send the budget proposals over piece by piece. Let King O and Reid choke on each nd every one of them.
And then we'd actually have the Senate passing one of the house's many budget proposals, albeit piecewise.
I "did my civic duty" and voted in every election since I turned 18. Breaking away from the traditional choice between a red douche and a blue duoche, and writing in Ron Pau's name was one of the most nerve racking things I've done. It was also very liberating when I walked away. This next election will be the one where I turn my back on the whole system. Voting only lends them legitimacy. The only way to win the game is not to play. .
I'm one election ahead of you doc. Third parties, etc are ways to keep malcontents on the plantation. A safety valve if you will.
What we need are independent minded individuals. Ones who can think and come to a conclusion, and have there be enough of them, to say, walk up to the one NPS guard who locked the beach access point and reopen it.
They have power because we consent. If 200 men walked up to a closed monument, beach access point or park entrance and calmly told the one guy there that they are using what is theirs and they will not obey his orders, what is he gonna do?
pods
Yep, voting only serves to give this rep/dem/indy fradulent system legitimacy.
>> This next election will be the one where I turn my back on the whole system.
I did that in the last election. First time in my eligible life I didn't vote and it was difficult. Afterwards is was emancipating.
>> Voting only lends them legitimacy.
Bingo. I like Charles Hughes Smith and his writings, although I rarely read them. I think this one was well thought out and well intended, but I have a difference of opinion. There is nothing about this country's legal and financial processes that I support any longer. Any way I can resist legally I will.
Saw my congressman (George Miller D/Ca.) on Drudge earlier saying Republicans are waging Jihad. This guy first went to Congress when I was 25 years old. I'm 63 now. And the best part....his father held the seat before him.
I have concluded that there is hardly a man alive that I trust to represent my interests. Fuck them all. The best you can do is vote with your feet and find a rural community of like minded souls that understand D.C politics is for suckerz..........
Re: I have concluded that there is hardly a man alive that I trust to represent my interests.
No, but in reality, that's what Representative government is for. Nobody will be represented by one person (except for THAT person himself).
If Representative government is actually possible everybody has to understand the reality of "representation" and what is being "represented".
Where reason fails to win the Argument, Pain or Pleasure can and do win.
TPTB are using this principle, to Pin The Pain on the Tail of the Elephant.
Old joke as to who should be "in charge":
All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was in charge.
The brain said: "I should be in charge, because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."
"I should be in charge," said the heart, "because I pump the blood and circulate oxygen all over the body, so without me you'd all waste away."
"I should be in charge," said the stomach, "because I process food and give all of you energy."
"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "because I'm responsible for waste removal."
All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight. Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, and the blood was toxic. Eventually the other organs gave in. They all agreed that the rectum should be the boss.
The moral of the story?
You don't always have to be smart or important to be in charge... just an asshole. ;-)
(Of course, as most CEO's know, being a "smart asshole" makes you really dangerous.)
This is a side show.
The Federal Government is overspening by at least $100 billion a month.
The Debt will be close to $20 trillion by the time Obama leaves office.
At 5% interest, the interest payment on the debt will be $1 trillion dollars (which will be paid for by more borrowing).
If a private citizen or company did what the Federal Government is doing - borrowing money that it has no intention or repaying - it would be fraudulent.
While the Treasury is unlikely to default in the near future - this would be like not paying your rent, mortgage or car payment so that you can pay for other frivolous activities - it will eventually have to.
"The Debt will be close to $20 trillion by the time Obama leaves office."
The total debt doesn't matter. What matters is the percentage of treasuries owned by the FED. It could well be over 50% by 2016. It's all part of the reset/transition they have planned. Remember, its all just bits in a CPU. We're NEVER going to default. The FED is "The Bad Bank"
The Bank never "goes broke". If the Bank runs out of money it may issue as much more as may be needed by merely writing on any ordinary paper. - Monopoly Rules
"...it'll fuck up the economy! Which is fake anyway..." - Bill Hicks
Finally! Someone other than me gets it! It's not a waste of time voting 3rd party.
The last time the numbers were reported, the GOP accounted for 23% of registered voters and the Dems 32%. That's only 55% of the vote! If one-third of everyone else voted other than Rep/Dem, we would have another 1992 where Clinton garnered 43% of the vote and got his head handed to him when he tried to act like he had a mandate.
What would happen if a candidate won with barely 1/3 of the vote? It would be an Electoral College nightmare that would probably trigger a monster constitutional crisis. I say we find out. Let's give it a try next time.
Sigh, we can dream, can't we!?
You Last Line fell short, the slogan should read
Voting for incumbents is like not voting at all: either way, you're throwing your vote away.
People vote for the Team that matches their brain configuration.
35% are Red Team, kick-ass daddy, old-testement, "Conservative", mean, authority-worshiping, fascists.
35% are Blue Team, smothering mommy, new-testament, "Liberal", guilt-ridden, authority-worshiping, socialist.
30% (the rest) are Libertarians, Conservative (without quotes), and Liberals (without quotes) who have nobody to vote.
It's the same in throughout the word, but the size and diversity of the US allows for the two majority brain configurations to dominate the other three.
Just bad luck on the part of the US.
Actually, I think you should replace the Blue team "socialist" with "fascist". Both sides bow to corporate money.
Re: replace the Blue team "socialist" with "fascist".
Totally agree. But the Blue Team dumbasses (the brains of the voters doing the voting) are basically socialist minded.
The "Conservatives" and "Liberals" both want an authoritarian government and prove it every time they vote. They only disagree about what authority.
But, you are right, eventually both road lead to fascism.
Fascism is the only natural government of humans, so it must be like that.
No difference in actuality.
The socialists are for property vested in government with central control and no property rights.
The fascists are for property rights with central control of your property "rights".
But at least the socialists admit that they think the government should own and control the property, while the fascists want to pretend that they "let" you have property rights, while actually behaving no different than the socialists.
If I can't use my property without consent of the state, then I have no rights, only permission.
Re: But at least the socialists admit that they think the government should own and control the property
You are right about that. But it's funny how you put it: it comes out as "at least the socialists are more honest...".
I've always looked at it as: "At least the fascist tell the dumbasses they are going to kick them in the ass" which makes me think the fascists are more honest.
In reality, the socialists and fascists win because they are roughly the same thing and both exist on the duplicity (bullshit) of the message to the dumbasses. The dumbasses will always be manipulated by bullshit. They are just children. Children have no concept of duplicity in those they worship (the adults).
We've got the only system possible. It's actually working perfectly. The duplicitous ones win. Period, end of story.
The problem is that you have to vote for someone. You can't create a Mr. Potato Head or Frankenstein candidate of your own with one policy you like from this one, one policy from the other one, etc. Vote for one that is closest to your liking and then ride their ass while they are in office. But this takes time and effort, and most people aren't up to that sort of commitment. Politicians are not "set it and forget it" types. Like them or not, the TEA party has figured this out and it is working for them now.
If you don't vote, you simply amplify the power of the useful idiots who only go to the poles to vote the way someone else told them in exchange for a carton of cigarettes or because someone loaded them on a bus on election day.
I am not ready to give up yet.
Write in
John Galt
And let's not forget, the huge part that the MSM plays in all this. Who can forget the ridiculing of Ross Perot? And just recently, Ted Cruz, with the 'Green Eggs and Ham' story, that implied that is all he did, was read fairy tales and spout 'nonsense?
I'm sure that 'smart looking' Diane Sawyer will massage the message, by putting it in a cuisinart, until it's blended to a bland puree, so that your average American dumbass can digest it! And yet, they'll add some sly angle to it (like she did with the interview with Trayvon's mother)...
Re: And let's not forget, the huge part that the MSM plays in all this.
MSM is as authority worshipping as the population. MSM is huge corporations. You don't survive in a huge corporation unless you worship "the mission".
So, MSM in a country of authority worshipers must itself worship those who prove themselves to be worthy of worship (as are senior management worship by the corporate workers).
Voting may be a weak weapon but it is one of the few weapons we have. Politicians knuckle under to voting blocs and campaign contributors all the time. Organize, it is the one thing they are afraid of.
Surely doing nothing and whining like a twat is doing something?
Barack Obama has pulled out “the oldest card” in the politicial game deck. He’s now threatening Social Security recipients with a possible hold-up or loss of the check if his debt ceiling isn’t raised.
At the same time, Senator Schumer (D-NY) is out accusing Ted Cruz of extortion, of holding millions of innocent Americans hostage, because, get this, Cruz has made himself the sole determiner of who gets government funding.
There are a lot of pants afire in Washington these days…
Here’s what Matt Taibbi has to say about, well, Chuck Schumer:
“Schumer, a platitudinous champion of liberal social issues, moonlights as a pillbox-hat bellhop to Wall Street on economic matters. The self-aggrandizing New Yorker has not only fought to keep taxes low on hedge-fund billionaires, he got up onstage with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein at a Democratic fundraiser in 2006 and performed "nostalgic furniture-store jingles.
“This bears repeating: The person in whose hands America had placed its hopes for finance reform was someone who once sang furniture jingles onstage with Lloyd Blankfein.”
HUffPO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/social-security-debt-ceiling_n_4037870.html
Re: In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time," Obama said. "In an economic shutdown, if we don't raise the debt ceiling, they don't go out on time
Right now, I'm perfectly happy with the OldFarts not getting their welfare.
But in a few years, when I'm ENTITLED to my free motor-scooter and hip-replacement I'm not going to be perfectly happy.
Get your socialist hands off my government Medicare you trrsssss, I'm ENTITLED to that free hip.
"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." (Josef Stalin)
Whether he said it or not, it's something he should have said. Wit electronic vote counting (and hacking the machines), we've lost all chance of fair elections.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GamR4y_ykA0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx1vxPFXIiw
"The Pareto Distribution suggests that if 4% of voters broke away from dysfunction and voted for independents, that "vital few" would influence 64% of all voters. Next election, join the 4% who will eventually influence the 64%."
That's the plan where we live. Will you try it where you live? http://arneighbors.org/
Voting to make a difference is sooooooooooooooo STUPID. You Can't Fix Ignorant,and our political leaders LOVE IT.
Is this never-ending Obunga/Carney hot air what used to be referred to as "Jive-ass shuck"??
"Voting for incumbents is like not voting at all: either way, you're throwing away your vote... The only vote that isn't thrown away is a vote for a third-party or independent candidate."
BS. Voting for anyone in a country of willfully ignorant consumers who never learned the skill of analytical and critical thinking and who are, therefore, so easily propagandized by the multi-billion-dollar funded taxpayer gravy train recipients' status quo perpetuation machines is a complete waste of time. Casting an informed vote under those conditions is like pissing in the ocean. Any "change" promised by the two major parties that might be brought about by an independent winning a few percent of the vote will be nothing more than lip service.
Why aren't all voters independent?
What do we contrast to "independence"? Does "dependence" mean, "I'm dependent on you telling me who to vote for and what to think because you're im my fraternity?" Of course, that is what it means.
Indepdence for everyone!!
Is there a point to voting when they are selected and not elected? And when somebody of value (Ron Paul) comes around they do everything in their power to prevent him from getting ahead.
Hey, we are all getting sidetracked over these BS politicians.
I am stackin' at current prices!
The only way you can fix reprsentative govt is periodically run all the money-changers out (lobbyists, etc etc).
I am afraid we will have to have a reset back to regional states or individual states for this to happen.
Therefore, do not participate any more than you have to.
Cliche that it is, go Galt on them. The Founding Fathers' intent was to have us Dismantle the Damn Thing if we had to and start over with the Documents they provided by Providence.
Also, never, ever, never give up the Second Amendment. It is Law. It cannot be Revoked (except by Amendment). Virtually Every 'gun law' on the 'books' is 100% Unconstitutional!!!
Raise the Black Bart Flag and then Raise Hell, ZHers!!!
What pain? I don't feel anything! Keep it shut-down, honestly it feels like things are running smoother this way.
So what does the endgame look like?
As the debt ceiling date approaches, market will start to freak out. You can already see a faint hint of freakout coming, as interest rates on 4-week Treasury bills — which may not be repaid on their due date — have moved up above 6-month.
The Repubs need to hang tough here and not concede an inch. We could be looking at a big reset here that will make the 'Leahman's moment' of 2008 look like a Sunday school picnic. This is EXACTLY what this country needs right now. I have been hanging out for this moment for more than five years now - long silver, gold, ammo - and beans.
The political system in the USSA is based on two marionettes, on stage purportedly battling one another, while in reality both are controlled by a single hand above them, somewhat hidden from view of the audience. Nothing will change through the electoral process except perhaps the following: If enough sheeple munch on the red pill, and threaten to throw out this Kabuki theater onto the trash heap of history, whether in DC or the state capitals, we would then see martial law come down like a lump hammer on an anvil. That is when all those 2 billion "manshredder" hollow points come into play, not to mention DARPA weapons, almost beyond our imagination, developed under beyond black programs The NWO will not give up their control "gracefully," and like Samson, would destroy us all before they saw an end to their hegemony, given the likely possibiity to do so. The fallacy to Smith's argument is that the dickheads would allow freely elected politicians, who would choose to further the people's interest, to function. Dream on!
Most all the college kids in SoCal are independents now.
Kaboom!
You did not blow that up! I did!
--The Monkey