American politics

Scuttlebutt
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Sure there are… There are people in the fringes who believe all manner of crazy shit… there are people who are deranged across the spectrum of politics, age, race, gender,… You name it…

I guess I’m just curious why you are expending time addressing a fringe

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A favourite expression of my Grandfather " stone the bloody crows."

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Speaking of fringes… not quite Alex Jones quality though

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Well put. The “Founding Fathers” argument is a card played, with high predictability, by right wing moo bats and religious wackadoodles, anytime they lack an argument that is germane to the world as it exists today, in actuality (not their story books). Not everything that worked in a (mostly) illiterate, homogeneous, pre-industrial, agrarian society, will automatically work now, by virtue of its origin. Making sacred cows out of group of guys from 250 years ago, (many of them politicians, profiteers and opportunists), isn’t patriotic; it’s mentally lazy.

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146

This is working really well; 8 pages of drivel that I don’t have to read.
Well done me.

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I was thinking it’s “when the cows come home to roost” but I might be mixing metaphors.

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148

Oh, I have massive respect for the Founders, don’t get me wrong. They were amazing and spent a lot more time deliberating on what actually was the best way to do things. And while tech introduces a lot of changes, human affairs are actually not that different whether we talk about the founding of the Union or the earliest days of the Roman Empire… the Constitution was a second effort at the condo association bylaws of America, experience taught them to make some changes, later experiences made more changes. On matters like the Electoral College, they tried to make a process to pick an Executive in the best way they could adapted to the tech of the day and their countrymen—who they did not believe should choose anyone beyond local reps. The key items they wanted to institute in the government was process, checks and balances and the ability to react to challenges with responsible constraints. Time, experience, the serpent in the garden of faction/partisanship led to changes and challenges. Some good, some not, limitations were found, some overcome but generally trended back to the American way. If there are things to consider or emulate when the Founders are brought up it’s the Preamble of the Constitution and what the goals are and the manners, perhaps the methods, they used as they came together to try to achieve them in their time as we should in ours.

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149

Hehe. Yep. Chickens (usually) come home to roost. Cows just come home.

150

In fine nautical tradition. Jack Aubrey would approve.

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151

Individual 1 let loose this whopper at today’s daily tantrum. Spoiler alert: Joe can’t wait to take a chunk out of Putin’s Puppet’s ass.

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Neither can the rest of us… Smartest thing he’s done is to keep himself and the hilarious shit that comes from his mouth out of the news cycle and meme generating sites

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Was listening to an interesting interview yesterday on NPR’s “Fresh Air”… A new book by Jane Mayer (correspondent with the magazine “The New Yorker”) titled “Dark Money”. She has written loads of investigative work.

Loads of info on the American Politics we have today.

This may be worth the 40 minutes to listen to it. April 23, 2020

Jane Mayer On How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s ‘Enabler-In-Chief’

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Maybe the GOP should think about fielding a different candidate.

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I hope the entire lot on both sides of the aisle are re-elected. Electing a democrat majority will solve nothing. Let them all reap the whirlwind. After enough pain maybe the electorate will throw out the two party kleptocracy but we aren’t quite there yet. Four more years of this circus might do the trick though.

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156

Four more years of this circus will put us in the same place Germany found itself 87 years ago. Our own Reichstag is smoldering.

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157

Far fetched comments like this is why some of the center & the majority of the right of center distance themselves from the left. Trump will be creeping up on 80 in 4 more years. The majority in the media is biased against him, millions of online trolls do nothing besides sew discord in the US over DJT & pretty much all management teams of social media platforms are against him. If it weren’t for his now daily briefings & his Twitter account no one would hear any direct unskewed statements from him. I know you will say you were being facetious about the possibility of Trump rising to the popularity & power hungy levels of a German leader 80 years ago but when a person is consistently facetious about the same subject matter some in the center will start to suspect you’re probably nuts & not facetious at all.

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158

Sour grapes will ripen at some time,

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He doesn’t need any help making himself look like a complete moron.

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160

There is absolutely nothing humorous about Trump and his assumption of power. The parallels between Trump, his apologists and sycophants to the populist European dictators of the 1930s are too close to ignore. The discord you reference is the result of the disassembly of a social and political milieu that began in earnest in 2016.

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161

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To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves, and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not be able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (Look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary .)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy). Your new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

  1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour,’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters. Also, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up “vocabulary”).
  2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
  3. There is no such thing as “U.S. English.” We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. Also, the Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u’’ and the elimination of ‘-ize.’
  4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
  5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.
  6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler (a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public).
  7. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
  8. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
  9. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call “French Fries” are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
  10. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is, pound for pound, the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will henceforth be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine” in order that they can continue to be sold without risk of further confusion.
  11. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
  12. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; the one you call soccer and rugby (which is dominated by the New Zealanders – see above). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby, which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies.
  13. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
  14. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
  15. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
  16. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4:00 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs; also with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

John Cleese

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