We live in a society that is still reliant on necessary lies to be functional. For example that the wars in the middle east are not about oil, or that working every hour of your day until you die is the key to happiness. Until we can solve our energy problem (eg with thorium) and our socially destructive economic issues then lies and fake news will inevitably rule over reason because reason is not compatible with our necessary lies.

Oh god, Glenn Beck seems reasonable. What the actual fuck?

Is this the world we live in now? Somebody explain this shit to me...
I'm.... I'm scared

I can only take the video author at his word, but he claims to have repeatedly attempted to deescalate before he started filming.

And even then, the video begins with him attempting to explain that she has no legal right to detain him in an even tone of voice.

The woman appears belligerent and is acting well outside of her legal rights by physically blocking him.

I think the guy acted with remarkable restraint under the circumstances. The woman shows no signs of being open to reason or changing her mind.

Some people simply cannot be reasoned with. And I say that as a mental health worker who deals with rude and belligerent people constantly. (frighteningly often not the service users but the general public they have to deal with)

I do entirely feel the sentiment of what you are saying. It would be a better world, but it's not the world we live in. Lamentably, wishing will not make it otherwise.

My father was a firefighter, so I always got this point hammered home.

Unfortunately shock is the only thing that gets the point across for most people. We have so little experience of what real fires are like that a dangerous kind of complacency tends to be pervasive.

Same with RTA's. It's usually only the victims and the poor bastards who have to clean up after that really appreciate the knives edge we live on.

The occasional kick to the gut like this is entirely justified IMHO.

Even if you did just make me weep like a lost child.

Good point, now that we live in a society where there is no consequence for lying, it would be nice to see more noble lies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie

blame?

i don't know if i would use such a charged word to describe a very and nuanced question.i think there is plenty of blame to go around,and it is never quite as simple as the media soundbytes we are all subjected to on a daily basis.

who do i blame most?
democrats..hands down.

but there are other factors that all served to produce this circus of an election cycle.

1.the failure of the left to actually understand just how frustrated and angry the working class had become.those people may be politically unsophisticated,but they are not dumb.

this really had very little to do with republican vs democrat.this was a large portion of the american population that had simply become fed up with a system that they finally understood had thrown them overboard decades ago.many of the people who voted for trump also voted for obama..TWICE..because they wanted to see "change" and what they got nothing,zip,zilch,zero,nada.

they simply refused to play charlie brown to the democrats lucy.

2.the DNC and debbie wasserman shultz,may she burn in hell for eternity.
this woman singlehandedly secured the nomination for clinton,while blocking a sanders nomination.

remember laurence lessig?
well,don't feel bad if you don't,because wasserman and the DNC kept changing the rules of application so lessig couldn't even get on the primary ballot.

the DNC basically said to the sanders supporters "sanders? fuck you! you get hillary and will like it".

3.the ultra left liberals,for being so sensitive and touchy (don't get mad,you guys are way too soft skinned) that they restrict their interactions in these weird,singular echo chambers.where everybody is agreeing with each other and nobody is challenging anything,no critical examination.

so when trump won.
they damn near lost their minds in shock!
because anybody who may have shed some actual light on the situation was already blocked or on ignore.

4.the republican party,who hated trump but allowed him to fan the flames of dissent with his bombastic speeches,emotionally charged rhetoric and divisive language.

they let this go on for almost a year,and while publicly denounced trump,privately sought a way to capture his thunder.

want carson?.....nope
cruz?...nope.
kasich?..nope.

because just like the left,they too,had misjudged just how pissed off people were in regards to our political system,and their plan backfired.

5.the democratic party for allowing such a shit candidate,and just like the republicans,not fully understanding just how pissed the electorate was.

6.the corporate media,who sought solely to profit from the election by giving us all this mish mash of reality tv,wrestling and days of our lives.they didnt report the issues,they fed the drama.

and every political pundit,every pollster,every opinion news mrs mcprettyface,got it FUCKING WRONG.

7.bernie bros who stayed home in protest,but this entire election was a protest vote.

so,
yeah..a lot of mitigating factors went into trumps win.

i didn't think he was going to win but i knew it was going to close,but i sure as fuck was not surprised.i was actually laughing at loud.

would you look at that...
my fellow countrymen just hit the nuclear option.
i didn't want a trump victory..no sir..but i have to admire the audacity of my fellow citizens to hit that shiny red button.

fuck you washington!

we live in interesting times my friends.
interesting and terrifying times.

and really...what would clinton have given us?
more of the same?
more wars and regime change?
more tax breaks for the super rich while children starve and more people become homeless?

i may find my fellow americans choice horrifying,but i have to respect it.
either way kids...something is gonna change.

Sorry for a wall of repeated text, I tire of my replies being erased without being read.....

newtboy says...


Let me be clear about how those you lambast see it......

Forcefully nominating Clinton was the single action that made the most difference in interfering with stopping Trump. It gave him more votes than he earned himself. His entire campaign was "if not me, you get Clinton" and that argument won him the election.
The DNC is responsible for that action...and to a lesser extent her supporters like you that put blinders on to her innumerable flaws and the vitriolic hatred against her and chose her over a probable winner with a penis. Once it was clear they cheated to help her, it was over for her. She was not going to get enough Sanders votes no matter what anyone said, she just raped them of their primary vote, losing their election vote in the process.
THAT is a stone cold fact.

She could never have won...she's just too despised by the right, and they (clearly) act on their anger. You should have pushed for Warren instead of Clinton if it was just a genital thing for you. Even if she had won, we would have lost. She would (continue to) be a lightning rod for right wing hatred, and the obstructionism of the Obama administration would look like heaven compared to the division she would foster.

But you don't read or listen. You'll probably just erase this like every other post....so perhaps I'll copy it on my page so you can't.

Grow up.




bareboards2 said:

Let me be clear about something.

We are only responsible for our own actions. We are not responsible for other people's actions. We cannot change them.

We live in the present. Not the past.

So we choose for ourselves what we do now.

Donald Trump should not be President.

Every action taken that interfered with stopping Trump means that a choice was made in that present moment to help him.

That is a stone cold fact.



1 second ago

up0down












newtboy says...

And that's why you lost. You don't listen....you instruct and then shame as if you're their mom and they owe you a duty to obey. You aren't, they don't.
Sanders lost because of underhanded collusion between the DNC and Clinton. He may have lost without that cheating...we'll never know. When she and her subordinates cheated...they lost the election right then.
My support or lack thereof made not a whit of difference, she won California.....and my ballot had her name marked (even if not by my own hand) just so she might also win the popular vote...so you're totally barking up the wrong tree. In the end, I found her the lesser of 2 evils and 4 unqualified....but she was SO unacceptable to so many that the one that was both evil and unqualified won, because SHE drove his voters to the polls in record numbers, an argument I made in February as to why she was the WORST choice.
That is the truth, a truth I pointed out 8-9 months back when there was still a chance.
Independent Sanders supporters told you to support him, not the hated, smarmy, dishonest, under FBI investigation, baggage handler that tied Trump in polls at best. He was the democratic candidate that CRUSHED him in all polls, and you didn't support him or support the rule of law/election rules, and Trump is president. See how that's 100% YOUR fault and not theirs?....probably not, you don't read replies or accept responsibility for your own actions, because that would be acting too much like an adult.
Sweet zombie Jesus.




bareboards2 said:

I didn't read it, @newtboy.

Grow up. Sanders lost. You and others like your threw a hissy fit.

Trump is president because you didn't listen to Sanders.

That is the bald faced truth.

Sanders told you to support her and you didn't.

And Trump is President.

This is your responsibility.



1 second ago

We live dangerous times, when a deranged lunatic like Alex Jones has a show, instead of being institutionalized.

I'm only critical of this guy because he was part of the media establishment that cried wolf repeatedly and created the hyperbolic partisan swamp we live in today. You keep calling George W. Bush the second coming of Hitler, and guess what? When there's finally a candidate worthy of a Hitler comparison, nobody's going to believe it. The only people who believe that Trump has said strong man dictatorial and racist type statements are Democrats for the most part, even though Trump totally said those things.

No matter how dishonest Hillary Clinton may have been about her email and what not, she's not a racist bigot.

But it doesn't matter. Most of the country is so partisan they can't consider voting for the other candidate that doesn't match their political leanings/party. Whatever moderates are left think both candidates equally suck. They hear about how bad Trump is, and they just think Clinton is right there with him, or they dismiss things too outlandish they don't want to believe a major party's nominee would actually say that.

And that's this election. Despite my misgivings about Clinton, she is by far the obvious choice and desperately needs to be elected because Trump is so jaw droppingly awful.

But good luck convincing people of thinking that if they don't already. And a lot of that is because we the people demand partisan hackery and media hyperbole instead of the truth about the complex world we live in, and the media was oh so eager to give us what we wanted to make a buck.

We live in a world populated in the enormous majority by mindless tribals. Of course their rituals are idiotic.

Educational videos are fine, but what we need is a cull.

Whoever said it was? Your the one who made the jump from, "The church has lost power" to "We live in a pure secular democracy".

Wow! Never heard of false equivalence?

Not as different as you think, when at least 1/3 and probably up to 1/2 of the people (100% wrongly) believe the constitution is not only based in Christianity, but was handed to Washington and Jefferson by Christ himself. The secular nature of the government the founders attempted to codify is eroding...we now have god on money, in our pledge of allegiance, in our courtrooms, etc. Religious rights/laws are on the rise, not decline.....at least Christian religious rights and laws.

The church is in decline, yes. Out of power, not by 1/2.

Yes, my point, it's not secular if being atheist disqualifies one from holding office. There is a religious test, not by law but in reality. That alone precludes true secularism, and it's not alone.

Well, of course there are other countries, but I only know how religion interacts with the government in my own country, and even then I freely admit there's much I don't know, both by their design of the system and from my own lack of interest. I can't speak with any first hand knowledge about how Europe is evolving (or devolving), how it's governments respond to religious pressures, or how their populations react. That's why I stuck to the US in my response, which is a place that the religious right describes as you did, totally secular and fast removing all power from Christianity, when the reality is you can't be elected here if you don't pray to Christ publicly and removing special privileges only granted to religion is considered a war against religion and an attempt to stamp it out...at least by 1/3 of us if not more.

As for perspective, you limited it to "the time we live in", but you want to counter my answer with "historically....", and YOU said "secular constitution", so I'm not sure how you translate that to "globally". To me, "secular constitution" strongly implies the US.
Clearly things are different in ANY democracy than under a theocratic dictatorship. That goes without saying....but I guess not to you, so now I said it, so now you can see the perspective that went right over your head.

I don't care for Christian lies any more than Muslim lies. In the world we live in, in the time we live in, fundamentalists of one of these religions is responsible for quite a bit more suffering. This is primarily due to the neutering of the Christians political power by secular society. When christianity had real power it was just as wicked.

I can see this one from both sides. The potential for litigation -- which could be truly catastrophic for a school / business / private person / whatever -- is real. It's fucking retarded, but it is a real danger.

In the early 2000's, I was living in a trailer park with a buddy while we were going to college. We lived right next to a movie theater that had a nice, huge, paved asphalt parking lot in the back. We used to take roller blades, sticks, and a PVC hockey goal into that lot and play roller hockey after closing time -- like 2AM or so. Nobody there, no parked cars, no property around to damage with errant shots or whatever.

One night we went a bit earlier than usual, and the manager had happened to stay late to close. He saw us as he was driving out and started driving towards us. I figured "well, there goes this spot". He asked us what were were doing, we explained. He asked us if we had asked anybody for permission, and we admitted we hadn't. He asked if we knew that companies sometimes got sued by people who wiped out and broke a leg or whatever, and we said yes.

And then he surprised me. He said "OK, consider this me, the manager, giving you permission to keep on playing here, on these conditions:

1) Never play there if there are parked cars in that part of the lot behind the theater.
2) Come in and ask for permission again if we want to play with more people, or if any other conditions change.
3) Look me in the eye and give me your word as a man that you wouldn't sue me for being an idiot and falling down and breaking your arm or whatever, and shake my hand to seal the bargain."

Awesome theater manager. Not sure if things have gotten enough worse in litigation-crazy USA that he'd be willing to make that same bargain again. But that wouldn't be his fault, it would be an outcome of our crazy legal system.

HRC and DWS had to be in collusion the whole time. For Hillary to state she knew nothing about this is BS. Heck HRC Just Hired DWS. after she was fired.

If this hands Trump the presidency it is because of Democrat VS Democrat corruption.

WE live is sad times Both sides are useless. Why on earth would anyone want a bigger government. They are so out of control.

The DNC convention vote could still give the nomination to Bernie.