'nuff said.

Like, what are Moscow Mitch and his assholes up to?

As I've noted here before, I have a long-time friend who happens to be a Republican. We don't talk politics, but now and then he sends me a forwarded email and asks for my take on it. So far, every one of them has been anti-Democrat. A couple of weeks ago he sent me a short video and said that "this is the reason I cannot support the Democrat [sic] party."

And it finally occurred to me... this stuff seems to be geared towards getting people angry at the Democrats. From the little I've seen, it seems that that's all that Hannity and Carlson do, along with others.

Which brings up the idea that maybe the purpose here is just to get people so continually pissed off at the Democrats that they will vote for the other side regardless of who or what. Which then brings up the idea that maybe the assumption is that most of these people do not bother to read the news (or only watch Fox) and therefore don't know what's going on -- besides that the Democrats are bad.

I would love to sit down with some of these people and ask them, in a nice polite way, what it is that they like about the current administration and what it's doing for the country, and why they want to support it. Unfortunately, I totally expect that the conversation would turn into Democrat-bashing within a minute or so.

Okay, I understand the USPS is warning people about possible delays, and the MSM is eating it up like crazy.

But hasn't it occurred to any of these people that voters can just fill out their ballots at home and then drop them off at a local polling place or designated collection point? I've done that a few times and had no problems that I know of.

I've been to a number of professional or hobby-related conventions, and they have ranged from fun to meh. But somehow I just cannot get myself to imagine going to a nominating convention as a delegate and spending three days listening to political speeches.

Anybody else feel the same way? Just curious.

asking for my take on it.

To cut to the chase, it took me less than a minute online to find out that most of the "facts" stated in the email were incorrect.

And I sent him back a nastygram saying that it rankles the [galaxy-class profanity here] that people send out that bullshit and expect readers to be so fucking dumb that they won't even check it, when it's so quick and easy to do so.

I like this guy. We've been friends for over forty years and have avoided politics all this time. He's a nice guy. I'm starting to see a tiny glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately I come from a generation when people respected other people's opinions even if they didn't agree with them, so I don't see a need to work on him.

But it really makes me think that people spouting this bullshit do think their readers are just a bunch of fucking morons who will swallow anything without even bothering to check it. IOW and IMHO, they seem to have no respect for their readers.

And maybe that's just the way it is.

Honestly, sometimes I think I need to go to Costco and get a truckload of their aluminum foil.

But reading about some of the stuff the GOP has wanted to do over the past few years, I can't help but think they are actually setting up the country to totally disintegrate in the near future. And most of them don't need to worry about it: they're wealthy as it is, and an influx of tax-free rubles will take care of them and their descendants for a long time. IF -- big IF -- they even decide to stay here.

Which, of course, points to our friend Vladimir Vladimirovich.

If someone were to die and make me king, I would set up an investigation of the big players in the GOP and whether they could be charged with treason. I would want it to be fair and aboveboard and handled by honest and able investigators and all, and I would accept the results, but I would definitely want an investigation.

As Marcellus said to Horatio in Hamlet I 4, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Just saw this in a Bay Area online news source:

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/If-you-re-in-love-with-Trader-Joe-s-its-stances-15460721.php

More controversy-peddling from the MSM. It sells ad time.

The one -- the one -- take-away I got from this article is that you can't please everyone. It says the petition had about 5,000 responses. We don't know who these people were, or whether they were customers or knew anything about TJ's, or whether they even read the full petition, or how many did not sign it or did not agree with it. As usual, we are being fed a small portion of the story, tilted towards creating controversy for the purpose of selling ad time. If there are real facts there, MSM, then publish them.

The petition said that people from these other cultures were being marginalized, or words to that effect. AFAIC, no one would think in terms of those labels "marginalizing" people from these other cultures unless they already thought these people were somehow inferior. We talk all the time about 45 projecting his faults on others, and, IMHO, that petition was an exercise in projection.

And did anyone bother to ask lots of people from these other cultures -- TJ's customers and otherwise -- how they felt about it? Do some real research instead of just spouting an opinion? If anyone's voice should be heard, I believe it should be theirs. I don't know if anyone bothered, but I would venture to say probably not.

I don't want to derail the other thread about priorities, but it seems to me that one thing the government needs to do is figure out a way to make public officials accountable for their actions. Like the ones who ignored Congressional subpoenas, like the ones who acted like what they are (assholes) during hearings, and so on and on. Seems like right now the only recourse for much of this is to suck it up and maybe file a lawsuit and then wait a couple of years for the bullshit to repeat again.

It's getting fucking ridiculous.

There's a fair amount of stuff online about how some of FB's early investors were Russian companies, and a couple of days ago there was an item here in DU about how Mark's stock in the company is "special" in the sense that it allows him to make major decisions all on his own.

Added to that is FB's refusal to use the same rules for political material as for everyone else, and then there are the recent complaints by employees.

So, is it even just remotely possible that 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = tin hat theory?