Octopus Overlords

Autocorrect, you are my worst enema.

I offer another possible explanation for what's happening.



Apparently there are already Halloween masks ready for pre-order.

hepcat wrote:

Rip wrote:and my support of them has zilch to do with religion.

And yet you usually refer to them as the Jewish state when talking about them. Even going so far as to insinuate that liberals were anti-Semitic at one point because they didn't back Netanyahu during his war of words with Obama a while back. Go figure.

They aren't anti-Semitic because they didn't back him. It is a symptom not a cause.

Oh...you're serious.

I don't know, am I?

Anyway, watching Bladerunner with my son as he hasn't seen it.

Made it a point to note that it was set in 2019 and told my son that the only chance we have of it coming true is if Trump gets elected.

Ask you son if he's a Repli-can or a Repli-can't and then tell him to get you another damn taco.

Freedom fold.
"Taco" is un-american.

The POS is now trying to insinuate that Rubio isn't eligible to run for POTUS.

My God, can Trump sink any lower than he already has? He is seriously the biggest dirt bag vying for president that I can recall. It boggles my mind that he's leading the pack. The GOP is just broken at this point. They're becoming everything that liberals have painted them as over the last decade or so.

hepcat wrote: He is seriously the biggest dirt bag vying for president that I can recall.

Hey, don't sell Ted Cruz short.

Sadly, you're right.

What has happened to conservatives? Surely there's some sanity left.

hepcat wrote:The POS is now trying to insinuate that Rubio isn't eligible to run for POTUS.

My God, can Trump sink any lower than he already has? He is seriously the biggest dirt bag vying for president that I can recall. It boggles my mind that he's leading the pack. The GOP is just broken at this point. They're becoming everything that liberals have painted them as over the last decade or so.

I've never agreed with Rubio on anything, but I'm with him 100% on this:

“This is a pattern,” Rubio said. “This is a game he plays. He says something that’s edgy and outrageous and then the media flocks and covers that. And then no one else can get any coverage on anything else.

This a performance for Trump. It's a reality show. He who screams the loudest and is the most outrageous wins.

And it's working...which is so, so disheartening.

I just hope that our inevitable descent into dictatorship is one that I find agreeable. However, I highly doubt that will be the case.

hepcat wrote:Sadly, you're right.

What has happened to conservatives? Surely there's some sanity left.

This is what gerrymandering has resulted in and this speaks to both parties.

The only one that I think has an earnest desire to be president for the right reasons is Bernie...and his lack of any foreign experience (or even policy) makes him a less than desirable option.

Unfortunately, it looks more and more like I'm going to have to go with the crook for president. It's all about minimizing the damage this time around.

Let's hear it for the lesser of 20 evils.

Winter is Trumping.

I would kill for a Kodos.

hepcat wrote:Sadly, you're right.

What has happened to conservatives? Surely there's some sanity left.

By current standards in the primaries, Rip is a moderate in the GOP. So, none at all.

All of the remaining Republican candidates are asshats. Even Kaisch has been tainted after talking to my wife's Ohio relatives about the state of their schools.

Zarathud wrote:

hepcat wrote:Sadly, you're right.

What has happened to conservatives? Surely there's some sanity left.

By current standards in the primaries, Rip is a moderate in the GOP. So, none at all.

All of the remaining Republican candidates are asshats. Even Kaisch has been tainted after talking to my wife's Ohio relatives about the state of their schools.

Kasich just signed a bill eliminating state funding to Planned Parenthood. Granted Ohio only gave them $1,000,000 per year, so this won't destroy PP in Ohio. But it's still far right pandering at its worst. The sad part is that Kasich is the most middle of the road republican left in the race.

Yeah, earlier I was going to say that Kasich was the only repub that seemed capable of finding a middle ground in the political process...then I read about that.

hepcat wrote:Yeah, earlier I was going to say that Kasich was the only repub that seemed capable of finding a middle ground in the political process...then I read about that.

He's still the sanest GOP contender, it's just a "land of the blind" type situation there right now.

Unfortunately he has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving the Cruz/Trump steamroller.

I also have a dislike of anyone who fell for that whole Planned Parenthood shit storm. I consider anyone who bought into that to be an idiot.

El Guapo wrote:

hepcat wrote:Yeah, earlier I was going to say that Kasich was the only repub that seemed capable of finding a middle ground in the political process...then I read about that.

He's still the sanest GOP contender, it's just a "land of the blind" type situation there right now.

But he's so inspiring that "many women left their kitchens" to campaign for him!.

Trump could say that and his supporters would laud him for not being politically correct. Let's face it: you can say whatever you feel like it, and if someone calls you on it, you're a hero to conservative extremists because you're not being politically correct. Michael Richards is already booking venues for his comeback in light of that.

Captain Caveman wrote:

El Guapo wrote:

hepcat wrote:Yeah, earlier I was going to say that Kasich was the only repub that seemed capable of finding a middle ground in the political process...then I read about that.

He's still the sanest GOP contender, it's just a "land of the blind" type situation there right now.

But he's so inspiring that "many women left their kitchens" to campaign for him!.

Apparently I was duped by dishonest editing. It's not as bad in context.

Captain Caveman wrote:
But he's so inspiring that "many women left their kitchens" to campaign for him!.

Is that where Romney left his binders?

Isgrimnur wrote:I just hope that our inevitable descent into dictatorship is one that I find agreeable. However, I highly doubt that will be the case.

I remind myself now and again that the Roman Republic is just a footnote in the history of the Roman Empire, even though their republic lasted for 450 years. Then I remind myself that the comparison is weak and I get depressed all over again.

If we were Roman republicans, we'd have annexed Canada by now.

I'm not worried about a dictatorship with Trump. He's not interested in anything but his own image. This is an ego trip for him. I doubt he wants to put in the effort to even make for an effective dictator. I'm more worried about how much ground we're going to lose in the realm of international affairs with a freakin' child in charge who lashes out at anyone who he feels is questioning his penis size. I'm worried about a guy making national economic decisions who feels it's only smart business to declare bankruptcy multiple times, while letting the other guy pick up the tab. I'm afraid of a populace that's so full of anger that they vote out of spite now, not common sense.

Cruz though? Him I could see becoming dictatorial. Working with others is something he's simply not capable of doing.

I don't worry about dictatorship, at least not for a long time. I worry about our divided government's ability to actually function in a polarized political environment (which I doubt is going away any time soon). I worry about all the policy harms that are likely to ring up unaddressed (by either liberal or conservative-oriented solutions) as a result, such as (say) global warming.

Rip just went outside and then PM'd me that Global Warming isn't happening.

El Guapo wrote:I don't worry about dictatorship, at least not for a long time. I worry about our divided government's ability to actually function in a polarized political environment (which I doubt is going away any time soon). I worry about all the policy harms that are likely to ring up unaddressed (by either liberal or conservative-oriented solutions) as a result, such as (say) global warming.

So what happens if a chronically dysfunctional republic elects an aggressively authoritarian leader?

Kraken wrote:

El Guapo wrote:I don't worry about dictatorship, at least not for a long time. I worry about our divided government's ability to actually function in a polarized political environment (which I doubt is going away any time soon). I worry about all the policy harms that are likely to ring up unaddressed (by either liberal or conservative-oriented solutions) as a result, such as (say) global warming.

So what happens if a chronically dysfunctional republic elects an aggressively authoritarian leader?

Oh, dictatorship could happen eventually, especially since there will be long-term temptation among presidents of all political stripes to use increasingly creative executive powers in order to get anything done. It will take a long time to break down democratic norms built up over centuries, however, and the extreme difficulty of amending the constitution would make it very difficult for any would-be dictator to overcome term limits.

But given enough time it could happen, just not for a long time. On the upshot, after a few decades or so of dictatorship we'd probably wind up with a functional parliamentary system.

hepcat wrote:I'm not worried about a dictatorship with Trump . . . I'm afraid of a populace that's so full of anger that they vote out of spite now, not common sense.

This, and it leads me to worry about the stability of the country. I'm not saying civil war is on the horizon, but this country appears to be so fractured to me right now. Honestly, how are we supposed to relate to people that would support Trump? I find him as alien as I do the occupiers of the Malheur reservation.

American government has endured legal crises, continental expansion, Civil War, slavery, the end of slavery, social upheaval, the lure of Empire, greed, economic catastrophe, World Wars, Cold War, moral panic, ideological panic, generation gap, malaise, Watergate, 9/11, and now Donald Trump. One of these things is not like the others. We can take it.

We've done all this without falling into despotism or chaos. Right now we're arguing about revision and perfection, not survival. Apocalyptic thinking is what gets us into trouble, not out of it.

Great, now I'm worried about apocalyptic thinking...

Captain Caveman wrote:

Captain Caveman wrote:

El Guapo wrote:

hepcat wrote:Yeah, earlier I was going to say that Kasich was the only repub that seemed capable of finding a middle ground in the political process...then I read about that.

He's still the sanest GOP contender, it's just a "land of the blind" type situation there right now.

But he's so inspiring that "many women left their kitchens" to campaign for him!.

Apparently I was duped by dishonest editing. It's not as bad in context.

Yep. Bullshit dirty pool right there. The GOP now desperately needs every vote and poll tic it can get to go Rubio's way. Kasich is roadkill, and that's sad, because he'd actually be a decent president, IMO.

It's funny. I note some of the posts above that seem to write him off because of his stupid move to defund Planned Parenthood, but I'm not going to kill him for that. As already pointed out, it's more symbolic than anything given the paltry funding PP is getting in OH right now. And in the end, we're not going to have anyone from an opposition party who we agree with in everything. That's the whole point of having more than one.

If you're a single issue voter on funding for Planned Parenthood, I guess I can understand. But every issue can't be a single issue.