all those empty platitudes "freedom" "greatest nation on earth"

meaningless terms all designed to be an appeal to emotion. And while yes, the other party does it too, the right relies on it far more than the left.

great nations don't sit around talking about how great they are and constantly patting themselves on the back. Great nations are too busy being great and don't have time for empty words.

His lip smacking smugness makes my skin crawl.

I'm so very glad he isn't our president.

So are you 'glad' about the current president, whose rap sheet of abject failures trumps more than that of 2 dozen administrations in history? Not saying any other would have done more for the elite who put all presidents in place but seriously....What the FUCK has the not-black president done worth a fiddler's fuck bareboards? Your comment sounds like the same2 rhetoric taught the masses from years of programming and fantastic confabulation.

Gitmo? Name-Calling and cry-racism at any opportunity? Appointing complete cunts to czar posts? Expanding surveillance and promulgating police-state? Debt to $4.939 Trillion since taking office (not that we'd pay back any debt anyhow, another confabulate issue, completely meaningless)?
Nobel peace prize (meaningless)?
Cult of personality antics that would make any dictator green and covetous?
Media-whore first-lady?
Blah, blah, blah green energy after the BP spill?

A real piece of work, but so's frikkin' Mitt Mormonite

Jesus man, get a grip on that shit!?

Name a couple please? How many 'empty words' can you find in your statement here if it's broken-down in a Socratic fashion? Sounds more like an advert for some deodorant or corn chip, ACTually

Fingers in my ears. la-la-la-la.

Much more pleasant this way.

THAT

Only that is what you might of wrote, although with a question mark in its proper place.

The rest is a Chemically induced rant from a retarded mind, full of assumption and personal poo thoughts flung at the people outside the steel bars.

Shut down for the night, tape the bottle cap down with duct tape. You're just being a jack ass now.

* Yea I guess the part I had wrote here in astrix before was a dick thing to write... seeing as though we can not throw blows at each other like what seems proper *

someones feeling attention deprived again, trolling and picking fights to overcompensate.

If I thought there would be actual rational discourse, I would engage him. But nope.

It would just be noise.

Although Chingalera has his unique way of alienating everyone, he does have a point (Somewhere, hidden deep within his craz-o-logue).

@G-bar
agreed.

just because @bareboards2 is happy that MITT is not our president does not automatically translate that she is happy with our current president.

@VoodooV is right.MITT is just spouting vapid,meaningless politician speak.
obama was just better at it.

but the end result would have been the same if MITT had won.

our democracy is broke and dysfunctional.
the inmates are running the asylum.
and the american public has become aware of this fact.

things are building up to maximum nasty.dont know where or when...but the balloon is about to pop.

@BoneRemake where you been ya lil troublemaker?
making gay porn in thailand again?
good to see ya brother!

Anywhere else beside Netflix?

depends on how you define "maximum nasty" @enoch

There was a time where I thought for sure we were heading towards another civil war. My assumption was that the gun nuts and other right wing lunatics would eventually take up arms against their country but ultimately lose.

But as I think about it more, for all their bluster and rhetoric. Chickenhawks are ultimately cowards and even gun-nuts really don't want to sacrifice their lives for their interpretation of the 2nd amendment. When it comes right down to it, most people don't want to fight and kill their fellow countrymen despite how much they want to try and demonize the "other"

The core issue as I see it that is preventing our political system from being more effective is private money in our politics and I don't think that's going to be fixed without a constitutional amendment prohibiting it. Thanks to the internet age, elections should be 100 percent publicly funded and lobbying and donations should be outlawed, because anyone can e-mail/blog and thus influence their elected officials without bribes or gifts or perks being involved. Money is not free speech

income inequality is going to get worse and worse until it reaches a tipping point that galvanizes the 99 percent but we're just not there yet. While I'm sure there will be some bloodshed during this process, I think on a national level it will be relatively bloodless and relatively peaceful.

as always, it's just going to be painful and it's going to take time. One of the problems with change is that you usually have to wait for people with bad ideas to die of old age before better ideas are implemented.

Obama has been a huge disappointment, no question of that.

But @bareboards2 didn't say "wow, I'm glad Obama is president", she said was glad Romney isn't. Yes, there's an important distinction there.

Because as much as Obama didn't live up to mine and others expectations, Romney would have been so much worse.

It's depressing that you have to choose between the lesser of two evils, but that's the broken political system in the US (and to a lesser extent, most of the rest of the world too)

Virtually everything political is a choice between the lesser of two evils. That's why I can't stand people who dismiss it and wimp out of the process, claiming that both sides are equally bad. It's a cop out. Everyone has a internal value/judgement system and one side is going to be the slightest bit less-detestable than the other and that's the one you pick. If you don't like it, write someone in.

Too many people treat elections like horse races as if you get some sort of prize for picking a winner. A friend of mine a while back told me that he hadn't picked a winning president in the last 2 elections.

My response: So?

He (supposedly) picked the person he thought would do the best job. It's not a bet on who will win.

Hell even in my utopia I described earlier where private money has successfully been excised from elections and parties are abolished, we're still going to have candidates we don't completely agree with. Nothing is going to change there, but you still pick the one you think will do better or you write someone in.

There are no shining white knights, nor are there villains with furled mustaches and black top hats. Life is hard and complex with countless grey areas, deal with it.

@VoodooV
when i use the term "extreme nasty" i am not referring to a civil war but rather the american public finally reaching its boiling point.

it started bubbling with the tea party,and if people recall it was NOT the rabid christian rightwing fascist group it is today.
they had real grievances and rightly so.

but they got co-opted by private monies.

then occupy blew up and they too had real grievances and since the power elites could not co-opt them like the tea party they were systematically shut down by targeted governmental edict.

thanks Obama.

for years the poor and working poor were disenfranchised,made irrelevant in a political system that only used them as talking points to garner sympathy during an election cycle.

but now the middle class are finding themselves falling into the ranks of poor and working poor and ALL have been made irrelevant and inconsequential.

the american public has been kept in a constant state of fear for over 25 years.
fear of brown people.
fear of losing their job.
losing their house.
hell they even fear their own neighbors!

while the beautiful and poetic nationalism of american exceptionalism and ingenuity sound great,most americans are aware its all bullshit.
the political system is corrupt and sick on its own hubris and greed.

the american public know that this government no longer serves their interest.just look at the data.time and time again the public has a strong opinion on a subject and yet our elected officials vote to serve their masters.
war in iraq? americans shouted NO!
bank bail out? resounding NO!
the examples over the past (especially the past 15 yrs) are staggering.

so while i admire your optimism in still using the political system to enact positive change.i just dont see it ever becoming a reality.
mainly because the system is rigged and not in our favor.

so that leaves only ONE option:take to the streets.
refuse to go to work.
keep your purchases to a minimum and trade with each other.
refuse to feed the beast.
clog it with bodies.
clog the streets..halt business from operating properly.

but avoid violence.

thats what the state uses and to give it reason to engage in violence will only serve to beget more violence.

make those in power afraid.
remind them who they really work for and that if they dont the whole fucking thing is gonna come crashing down.

its the only real option i see and if it comes to pass you will see those who wield power do so..and it will be very nasty.

see:the labor movement
see:civil rights
see:anti-war
see:woman sufferages

@VoodooV, I agree, but it would be nice if the choices weren't so bad

ok, so you have a peaceful revolt...




...then what?

saying you're pissed is easy. Saying there is a problem is easy.

But where is your solution to address these ills. How do you plan to stop it from happening again?

I find it interesting that you seem to imply that violence is a tool of a state. That's rather disingenuous, don't you think? As if the state is more predisposed to use violence than other groups? the state, like every organization, is made up of people. so if the state is violent, it's because people are violent and we really haven't solved that problem yet, have we. Violence is still part of the human condition and not an inherent part of the state...or playing video games, etc.

I would argue that many of the conflicts we are currently in are because of monied interests and their influence on gov't. remove that influence as I suggested and I'd wager that we've have a less violent gov't.

and I'm sorry, I must have missed something, but are you implying that Obama personally shut down Occupy Wall Street? gonna need you to provide a citation for that. Speaking for my city. The local occupy group was evicted from it's spot by our governor, a republican, but not that it matters because the whole Occupy movement was poorly thought out to begin with. very few people want to camp out 24/7 on with college hipsters and homeless people. It was just a badly implemented idea....period. It was one of the few times I genuinely agreed with our governor. While I might have agreed with Occupy's intentions, they were absolutely ineffective at conveying any meaningful message and an absolute nuisance to the area.

Bottom line, is that as that Japanese general alluded to, America is a sleeping giant. For all the rhetoric and for all these ills you have mentioned, the average American citizen is still largely insulated from it. American life has not fundamentally changed during the administration of Bush and/or Obama despite what the pundits on either side try to cry wolf about. Because we have an all-volunteer military, even the average american citizen is largely insulated from our wars as well.

When those things change, then maybe you'll see something happen.

And yes, I know my view is optimistic. But optimism works. Wasn't that long ago that many things we take for granted today was viewed as optimistic but niave or unrealistic.

Everything virtual does not have to be this kind of choice, VoodooV-I'm no wimp, the process would work were it not continually hijacked by a mechanism that is both glaringly apparent and for a certain privileged few to tweak at their leisure while maintaining a simple yet elaborate ruse. 'Writing' someone in would not work and this cold-cut fact should also be glaringly apparent to anyone with the capacity for critical thought tinctured with a dash of common-sense. Elections are and have been simply an exercise in complacent self-approbation and self-deceit for some time now...going waaay back-The white-knights and villains are agreed, in every personality, every human breathing as all are capable of the worst atrocities and the infinite empathy and kindness. The checks-and-balances only work if everyone plays by the rule book and not the cheat-sheet.


Now, an intelligent breakdown of your reaction cloaked as some meaningful response:

'someones feeling attention deprived again, trolling and picking fights to overcompensate'

No-I'm not picking a fight, I'm picking at a soft-spot in a personality and calling attention to particular predictable rhetorical repetition in a manner which also predictably, causes these certain personalities to cry foul, troll (insert racist here, as those who cry racism are invariably the racists themselves) or any other convenient terms which halt the process of reason.

"If I thought there would be actual rational discourse, I would engage him." (here's your chance) 'But nope' (there's the cop-out and hasty retreat with the regular gang of supporters)

'It would just be noise' (perhaps to yourself, as this is yet another convenient dismissal of an alternative point of view or realization).

And bareboards, sorry if I cause you to la la la with fingers in your ears, I did nothing rather, your reaction as well connotes a predictable denial of the meat in my rant, as is Chaos calling out the mundane aspect of mistyped punctuation.

Haven't had a drop of alcohol when this was written earlier this morning, nor have I smoked the ganja for over 2 months...question mark, exclamation point.....and more than enough ....el;ipsis

As tired of the childish shit as y'all are of mine?? Yep-But I hold-out hope for communion and understanding, as we all play here together.

La.

@VoodooV
totally agree that there needs to be a strong message and people need to get organized.

as for my obama comment.i read an article when it went down that had the memo from the sec. of state.
i dont have it on hand so believe what you wish,its fairly irrelevant now but if you recall..all occupy movements were shut down within 48hrs.
that takes co-ordination.

as for the state being violent.
it is.
thats what it does.
just look up the labor movement.look up the west virginia mining strikes.just for ONE example to see the violence the state will perpetrate in the name of their masters.even back then corporations wielded immense power and influence.
anything good,decent and moral that this country has gained was NEVER a gift from the government but rather through opposition and bloodshed.

i do not accept the "lesser of two evils' argument.we can do better..period.

i do not accept that because the government consists of people that it automatically translates to benevolence.

the soldier who supervised the gas chamber in auschwitz may have been a great husband and father but he still presided over the execution of thousands.

people give authority and power to those who do not deserve it and sometimes that translates to a spiritual illness.

yes,you are correct.we have a voluntary military but have you ever questioned why?
why are these young people joining?
while there a myriad of reasons the main one?
they are poor and un-educated.thats the biggest reason.
and right now our military is experiencing the largest suicide rate ever..3 times the normal rate.

wonder why? might have something to do with a compromised moral compass?

maybe the american public SHOULD be made aware of what is being wrought in our name.
maybe that revolution would start a lot sooner.

i do not know whats going to happen.
but i am glad of your optimism.
i hope you are right my friend.
i hope you are right.

That's a good one. I called out the central conceit of your post which is that if @bareboards2 is glad that Romney isn't president, she must automatically be in favour of the litany of Obamas failures you outlined.

It's hardly "mistyped punctuation". Drop the fucking persecution complex.