Planet America

[stanky]

yeah, looks good. thanks, Arth.
glad to see such a site.

the media or the screen of pixels seems to have a hypnotic power over us.
doesn't matter what it is. if repeated enough, with constant distraction added, we believe it.
hearing both breaks the spell. hopefully. it sure helps to bridge the gap in our manufactured 'great divide' to see how flimsy our own truths are. i think identical twins could be separated for a year. one had only fox news for entertainment, the other, msnbc.
at the reunion, they'd discover how stupid the other is and how much we hate his guts.

rural america turned a hard right because of the am radio station that came in. jesus, paul harvey style manipulation, country music; white. had a different station come in, they'd all be raving 'whatever the flavor' zealots. victims of the whims of the tech more than examples of straight thinking.

[Meadmaker]

I've listened to "enemy" news for a very long time, and you are right about both sides. It's mind numbingly stupid. It's drivel. It's nonsense.

I tend to prefer Democratic nonsense to Republican nonsense. Democrats seem to me to be more nonsensical on more things, but those things mostly don't matter. Identity politics, basically.

The Republicans are overall more sensible to me, but where they are wrong, they are very, very, wrong. Supply side economics is my chief complaint.

the other one promises less debt and tax, and fails to deliver.

Sadly, though, this is only half true. They promise less tax, and they usually deliver. Donald Trump really did cut my taxes, and he promises to do it again. I believe him.

They promise that less tax will mean less debt, which is dumb as hell. (As an aside, I have occasionally gone to the effort of reading actual widely cited journal articles written by PhDs and Nobel Prize candidates, and there's a whole lot of stupid in those articles trying to justify that less taxes actually will result in more revenue. It's wrapped up so thickly in pseudoscience that most people can't understand it, but it's dumb as hell.)
However, since they don't understand it, the average person "reasons" that if it means less taxes, it must be good.

And, sadly, the Democrats have mostly learned that arguing against it doesn't helo them get elected, so they' pretty much given up. It's going to fall apart, eventually. I have a feeling that will happen right at the time that I start depending on a combination of retirement savings and Social Security to live comfortably in my old age, which is basically starting now.

Both succeed equally at fulfilling the agenda of the war machine and the continued (acceleration) of environmental degradation and rampant, unregulated consumption.

I think the degree of corruption is exaggerated, unless you mean just acting in the interests of constituents and/or donors. I think most politicians are basically lawful evil, or maybe even lawful neutral. They're mostly lawful, though.

[arthwollipot]

I think most politicians do try really hard to do what's good for their constituents - or at least, what they believe is good for their constituents. The constraints of politics and reliance on donors and their interests means that they can't always do all the things they want.

[President Bush]

I think most politicians do try really hard to do what's good for their constituents - or at least, what they believe is good for their constituents. The constraints of politics and reliance on donors and their interests means that they can't always do all the things they want.

[President Bush]

https://twitter.com/MerylKornfield/stat ... -true-goal

[arthwollipot]

Pres, that might have some impact if I had any idea who it was.

Edit: Ah, the URL tells me it's Kissinger. Are you implying that he had evil intentions?

[President Bush]

Pres, that might have some impact if I had any idea who it was.

Edit: Ah, the URL tells me it's Kissinger. Are you implying that he had evil intentions?

Australia was on board wth Kissinger and the the US when it came to supporting Suharto/Indonesia invading then annexing East Timor in 1975 so I guess we were all evil.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/82 ... 64?lang=en

[stanky]

i must be far more cynical than ya'll.
despite being painted as a wooster, i'm mostly waiting for science to save us. (Not myself; the big "us".)
and i don't mean via a flashy object or means of propulsion...i mean the method. The insistence on uncovering the truth; in preventing anomalies via peer review; in having no higher agenda or master to interfere or corrupt one's findings...

It's that infusion of hard science that could save us.
Politics has become merely theater in this age of global business.
I find it obsolete or even distracting, as per having any chance of progress.
Even the fiduciary nature of campaigning has an irrationality that exceeds all other nostalgic behavior:
the vast sums generated, which indeed, have perfect correlation with success, are simply a tax.
Poof! It's gone! New guy in office. What did the money achieve? Is there an edifice? A shelter for the evicted?
And for the loser? All that money and effort...ugh. I worked hard on that, back in the (gak) day.
Poof! Poof! And all the other fresh faced hopeful young idealist types get a hard lesson.

Had we applied that type of cooperative effort on a different project, we wouldn't be in this mess today.
I'm allowed to extrapolate from the past. (got me a poet's license) as long as i don't claim science. Science isn't sure there is a past.
anyway, the opportunity remains today...the redirection of effort, in a more meaningful way. Even if the occasional decent human gets elected, they are soon tainted by the money and fame and back room threats; rendered useless. The "Squad" comes to mind.

Funny about Bobby. He was juicy. The buzz was tangible. Young people were excited about the potential; the vibrant de- corrupting path was nearly real. Then, oops. Followed by fishy explanation and the usual doubt and depression. And now his kid is running. If he got more steam and approached winnable, his assassination would be a catalyst, imho, for a reaction in waiting.
Not the fake Jesusiness of a Trump, nor post mortem puppetry of the current guy...nah, something juicier.

welp, off to plow the lower 40

[sparks]

The full meal deal on Kissinger can be found in Christopher Hitchens' book on him.

Read up and weep.

[President Bush]

It's that infusion of hard science that could save us.
Politics has become merely theater in this age of global business.
I find it obsolete or even distracting, as per having any chance of progress.
Even the fiduciary nature of campaigning has an irrationality that exceeds all other nostalgic behavior:
the vast sums generated, which indeed, have perfect correlation with success, are simply a tax.
Poof! It's gone! New guy in office. What did the money achieve? Is there an edifice? A shelter for the evicted?

stanky, sometimes you remind me of the Control Voice at the beginning of an Outer Limits episode.

https://youtu.be/S-aIbUZdvPo?si=zlnqR8xL8gqB9wSF&t=124