One man's observation of the End of the World.... not.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

A humorous read, recommended:

http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/11/hemlock-with-small-side-of-schadenfreude.html

[Opsa]

Delightful. How did you find him?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Delightful. How did you find him?

A side-link in a comment on one of my feed from Facebook, if you can believe that. 

Some useful stuff does come from there.   I've been paying more attention since the Tuesday "landslide" victory of President Obama*.  It's been entertaining as well as occasionally informative.

Yeah. I'm just as surprised as you are. 



__________________

*the one where the rest of the world, with a few notable exceptions, breathed a collective sigh of relief that Ronald Reagan 3.0 Dubya Bush 2.0 Mitt Borrow-from-your-parents-Antoinette  was not re-elected... 

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The GOP description reminded me the crazy nut that claimed that the world would end (for the 3rd time) a year or so ago. I imagine his followers are constituents... 

[Aggie]

You know, these people and their wealthy masters literally spent billions of dollars, billions, to defeat Obama.

All those dollars are now wasted.

Geez, you wonder why the country's broke? Those wealthy masters sucked those billions out of people with less money, by (officially) honest means. Any guesses why there's an increasing prosperity gap? The money's being pissed away on political hate propaganda.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

There is an argument that all that [eternal] campaign money is actually pumping the economy, for instance, all campaign goodies tend to be locally manufactured because it would be problematic if someone figures out they come from China. Lots of money to print stuff (also locally) but the big bulk goes to the big networks for both radio and TV  .

[Swatopluk]

US flags Made in China have been spotted, campaigners have little shame.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

They have no shame but they do have a strong preservation instinct, if they think they can get away with call centers in India and China made trinkets they will, but if they have a profile big enough for back checking they will buy locally to avoid the talking points.

[Swatopluk]

Experience shows that they can get away with a lot. Occasionally the claim is levelled by them at their opponents (esp. in the primaries), even if they themselves are indulging in that practice.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

We're talking about people that get away with murder on an ongoing basis. 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Indeed.  The deaths of in excess of 30,000 people due to the Iraq invasion is a case of government-sponsored murder.  I lay the blame firmly on each and every government person who participated in the lie about WMD's.  A lie they knew was a lie from the beginning.   Both Bushy & Chenny need to be brought up on war crimes against humanity.

[Swatopluk]

Politically it is far more dangerous to insult voters than to kill foreigners.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

If the latest election is any indication, you are quite correct Swato.  I only hope that people remember for 2014.

[Swatopluk]

Looks like the GOP (base and media establishment) will do everything that people do not forget. Doubling down and quadrupling down seem to be the main considered options. Some GOP run states are already working on making voting even harder. And SCOTUS has accepted to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act. There could be a second Citizens United in the making.
Btw, Hungary works on something radical to keep Orban's de-facto fascist in power despite rapidly falling poll results that could be adopted by the GOP, should they win the SCOTUS case: mandatory re-registration (in person) within a short time window (15 days) before the beginnng of every legislative period. Anyone failing to do that will not be allowed to vote or even renew their registration within the whole period. And Hungary (unlike the US) already has universal automatic voter registration, so this makes only sense  as a voter suppression scheme.
What do you think would happen, if US states could completely erase their voter rolls every two years and require everyone to register anew each time within a fortnight?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

If this past US elections proved something is that with enough motivation voter suppression isn't enough to win. There are protests again in Tahrir Square because Morsi is abusing his power, which gives a ray of hope, it's possible that some get away with the worst things but there seems to be a limit. Sadly there is usually a learning process and during that time the would be abusers usually get away with plenty of stuff.