Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
It’s painful to watch the Republican Presidential nominee join in clamoring for a secret, non-appealable Enemies List of un-persons who have been stripped of civil rights by some unaccountable bureaucrat in the federal administration: four years ago, no right to raise money for voter education; last year, no right to private communication by email or cell phone; today, no right to travel by air; tomorrow, no right to self-defense. Secret blacklists are the McCarthyism that my teachers warned me about.
I’m going to add emphasis to this next bit:
How can people not see that empowering the government to decide Who has rights is empowering it to decide Nobody has rights? Sure, it’s great while your guy is the President, but what if the unthinkable happens and my guy wins? Will you still be happy when you’re on the receiving end? Are Americans really that eager to roll back the clock to 1775, to be subjects instead of citizens, to live by sufferance instead of right?
What’s heartbreaking is the ONLY civil rights organization standing up for Due Process of Law is the NRA.
Joe Doakes
Not only are about half of Americans unclear on the difference between “Citizen” and “Subject”, but a good chunk of them actively yearn to be subjects.
Provided nobody tells them who to marry or whether they can get an abortion…
…are you seeing a pattern yet?
I’ll rather see the “Republican Presidential nominee” (Trump) go down in flames on election day than have him trimmed and neutered by the establishment.
It occurs to me that we have the two perfect POTUS candidates to represent the state of our Obamanation.
A thoroughly debauched, mendacious, power mad, traitorous, greedy, Machiavellian old woman or an ignorant, self absorbed, greedy, ignorant old buffoon.
Take your pick.
Trimmed, neutered and in flames is a good look for you, Emery. You should go with that.
With the exponential downslope this country is on, I’m thoroughly convinced that the 2024 election will be won by someone like Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, and Matt Parker and Trey Stone will be crowned psychic seers for making a comedy that turned into reality 500 years early.
To be fair, I think the ACLU also came out against the no-fly no gun idea. The end is near when the ACLU is on the same side as the NRA.
Swiftee: I believe we finally have achieved common ground!
Republicans are going to respond to the Democrat’s nomination of an unpopular candidate with a dubious record, by nominating a buffoon that no sane person can possibly support. It’s a sad state of affairs when democracy is confused with the notion that; “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge” — thank you Asimov for that quote.
That’s a stupid quote.
As soon as you find someone who says that their ignorance is as good as knowledge, LMK.
Asimov’s predictions about 2014, made in 1964:
1. Windows and natural sunlight have been traded for walls and ceilings that glow in different colors, partly because we all live underground now to make room on the surface for huge farms, ranches, and parks.
2. Food preparation is largely (but not completely) automated and frozen meals are hugely popular.
3. We have robots, but they are not very common and not very good. Instead we watch 3D movies about amazing robots still to come in the future.
4. We get most of our electricity from nuclear power plants, and even use nuclear-powered batteries in many of our appliances. We are also starting to experiment seriously with fusion power and operate large solar power stations in a few desert areas while thinking seriously about putting such a power station in space.
5. Hovercars traveling on a cushion of air a foot or two above ground or water are the best way to get around.
6. Self-driving “roboticized” vehicles are an up-and-coming technology.
7. In cities, moving sidewalks are big for moving people, while goods travel short distances by compressed-air tubes.
8. Satellites and laser beams make it possible for us to conduct video calls and conferences with people anywhere in the world — or on the moon colonies. No one will call Mars because we are still working on our first manned mission there, though we’ve landed unmanned ships already.
9. We live on a planet of 6.5 billion people, with the area between Boston and Washington being the largest city in the world. The deserts and polar regions are becoming populated. Global inequality is just as bad as if not worse than in 1964, plus now we’re all very freaked out about overpopulation.
10. Finally, the world is so dominated by robots that we are all taught programming in high school to prepare for an inevitable career as a “machine tender.” Creative work is rare and boredom is a global psychological epidemic.
http://www.cnet.com/news/how-isaac-asimov-got-2014-both-so-right-and-so-wrong/
Trump reminds me of those two buffoons Farage and Johnson who have shown they have no plan whatsoever and have been exposed as the absolute worst of the worst of postmodern politicians. Deeply cynical, machiavellian individuals who put personal ambition far above the common good — they gambled “remain” would win to score cheap political points and gambled that Cameron would fix any fallout.
I think emblematic of this whole campaign
was when Gove said: “The people are sick of experts!”.
We don’t need to vote, we’ll just have experts make all public policy!
If it makes you feel better, the US entered the Vietnam and Iraq Wars based on expert opinions 🙂
Both the Iraq War and the EU vote were unforced errors. Chest–thumping sounds good until you realize how hollow it is.
“Citizen” and “Subject”
In todays world one works and rights a check, and the other doesn’t work but cashes the other guys check.
Is free trade and open immigration good for everyone all of the time? The answer is “no.”
Politics should be the art of accommodating conflicting legitimate interests. Clearly there is a powerful segment of the ruling elite (there is always a ruling elite) that believes that politics is the art of identifying your enemies and making them eat shit.
The question yet to be answered is whether GB has chosen a path to the summit or a path to the pit. The near-term bump in the road is neither.