Political mumbo jumbo

[Buster's Uncle]

It's a protestant thing - where we didn't have Romans build our roads long ago.

[E_T]

I was old enough to see his campaign happening, but young enough to not fully understand or pay attention to the details.  Couldn't vote and politics is forbidden in the parents house, but I always felt a 3rd party was a good idea in general.

I feel that if the Libertarians didn't put so much emphasis on the drug thing, that a lot of Republicans (and maybe a few Dems, too) would join them and make it a real party.  Thing is, they aren't getting any of the Federal Election fund (you know, that one dollar that you opt in to play every year, when you do your taxes) due to the fact that they need to hit a threshold of (IIRC) 5% of the popular vote in the General Election to qualify for i(That and part of the free airtime that they could get).  That would make a big difference in getting their message out.
I've always considered them to be Republican Light...

[E_T]

"As you suspect that they would do unto you"...  Oh so very true!!

[Rusty Edge]

I like what I hear from Libertarian turned Republican Wm. Weld, Republican turned Independent Jason Amash, and bottom tier  Democrat Tulsi Gabbard. Why? Because they want to curtail our multitude of wars.

[Geo]

Not likely to happen until the US Military is curtailed…
If its there, its gonna be used.

[Rusty Edge]

Not likely to happen until the US Military is curtailed…
If its there, its gonna be used.

True.
I wish you were teasing or trying to be funny.

[Rusty Edge]

So, we've had the investigation, the report, and now the hearings about the report. Plenty of rhetoric as well. If the Democrats don't start impeachment hearings now it implies two possibilities-

1) They got nothing in the way of evidence of a crime.

2) All they care about is political power, not ethics, rule of law or The Constitution, same as the Republicans.

I suspect it's #2, but plenty of voters will think it's #1. Maybe they'll surprise me and do their duty regardless of consequences.

[Buster's Uncle]

2.  It's 2.  They should be jailed as collaborators, going back 17 years now.

[Buster's Uncle]

I feel that if the Libertarians didn't put so much emphasis on the drug thing, that a lot of Republicans (and maybe a few Dems, too) would join them and make it a real party.  Thing is, they aren't getting any of the Federal Election fund (you know, that one dollar that you opt in to play every year, when you do your taxes) due to the fact that they need to hit a threshold of (IIRC) 5% of the popular vote in the General Election to qualify for i(That and part of the free airtime that they could get).  That would make a big difference in getting their message out.
I've always considered them to be Republican Light...

I feel, and I said so when the election came out wrong, that the small-government conservatives ought to go Libertarian en mass, take over that party, and end their unnatural partnership with the Big Government social conservatives.  Those two things do not belong together, even when they're in the same person.

They stay away from the Nazi tendencies they left, be Libertarians, and I wouldn't automatically vote against them.

[Buster's Uncle]

Anyone have any strong feelings about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

My main take is that she'd never have come on my radar if the crap-talking right wasn't trying to make a new Ted Kennedy of her - and they've made a classic blunder.  Kennedy, who was mysteriously involved in a girl's death in his youth, was a charisma black hole, as is Mrs. Clinton, his primary successor as go-to Evil Democrat Behind All Wrong.  With her retired and trying it with Speaker Pelosi never having gotten much traction, they're trying it on Ocasio-Cortez, Pure Charisma with no black hole, and they'll be sorry when they've made her President.

She's got a lot of fight in her, and with the Democratic leadership for the last 30 years being a bunch of collaborationist Eisenhower Republicans posing as Democrats, I love that.  I understand that she does her job in Congress, shows up for everything and sponsors a lot of bills - no empty shirt.  I haven't the foggiest if she'd be good at anything else, but the future is hers to mess up.

[Rusty Edge]

I don't have strong feelings for or against AOC, with one exception-

I admire any person on any political level who wins a seat by knocking on doors and wearing out shoes. I figure she got an earful, and she is in office to share that message from the people of her district. She may be wrong, but she should be heard.

I read somewhere that people never re-consider their assumptions and assertions in the heat of an argument, they have to calm down first before they can re-evaluate logically. Much of social media/ cable info-tainment, etc. works as an outrage mill. And as long as they can keep the blood boiling, it's an us vs. them dynamic. So she's a tool for both sides, and outrage  keeps people from considering whether a living wage will become an unemployment check due to automation, or whether conservatives are trying to conserve anything other than political power for it's own sake any more. Or how much alike Republicans and Democrats are, so much as they put political calculations ahead of Constitutional considerations, spend money without a budget , consent to government by executive order rather than rule of law, and allow wars without declaring them.

[Buster's Uncle]

All this is true - but it's important to point out the Ted Kennedy=Antichrist=All-Liberals-At-Fault-And-EVIL obnoxious rhetorical attack is a lot older than the reign of Fox, if possibly not Reagan.

I hate to join the chorus on the 'both parties suck' talk, but when you've got the Nazis and the collaborators w/ Nazis to choose between, well, they both do suck, if not equally - but the partisans shot the collaborators, too.

[Rusty Edge]

So, we've had the investigation, the report, and now the hearings about the report. Plenty of rhetoric as well. If the Democrats don't start impeachment hearings now it implies two possibilities-

1) They got nothing in the way of evidence of a crime.

2) All they care about is political power, not ethics, rule of law or The Constitution, same as the Republicans.

I suspect it's #2, but plenty of voters will think it's #1. Maybe they'll surprise me and do their duty regardless of consequences.

So I've got what must be the 4th e-mail in 30 hours from Speaker Nanci Pelosi about the sky falling and she's going to lose her majority, each more frantic than the last. I must donate now to receive triple matching money.  I've been replying with the #2 arguments, and of course the follow up letters are all about losing power, rather than losing the chance to do the right thing. She's as bad as the NRA used to be, because she seeks a biennial pay for Congress program instead of having the courage to act on rhetoric seek a legal course of action to settle things permanently.

[Buster's Uncle]

I been seeing a lot of attack stuff against AOC crony Rep. Ilhan Omar lately, not least from my dipcrap cousins on FB.  She's black, Muslim and an immigrant, and I can really see them sticking to that one enthusiastically for a while, because black, Muslim and an immigrant.  -She also rocks her head-hankies pretty hard and is good-looking.

They're not gonna have a lot more long-term luck with her, either.  It's a major mistake to make stars of the attractive ones...

[E_T]

Wasn't Weld formerly a Republican before going Libertarian?