Yeah, I think a VERY basic civics and econ test would be a fascinating thought experiment. It shouldn’t happen for any number of reasons, but the election results both in primaries and generals would likely be much better and as a fringe benefit we’d have a more politically literate electorate because candidates would have to appeal to people who could pass these tests.
The most vocal Trumpeter on my Facebook feed, mid-argument with someone they baited into posting, commented, “I didn’t vote this election, but I would have voted Trump and it’s fucking sad you didn’t.”
I mean, even when they don’t even fucking vote, you still have to deal with the crazy. It’s insane.
Mandatory voting would be a similarly interesting experiment in the US (I know other countries tries have done it), although that’s pretty much impossible while the GOP focuses on voter suppression as their primary campaign strategy
Agreed, although I can at least see a potential (distant) future where this comes to pass.
Aussies do it.
“It’s got what plants crave.”
So just to be clear, so-called conservatives are now unironically calling for a “Father Figure”?
Hey, not so much a “Father” as a “Brother”. You know, one who’s older, and more wise.
Like, a “Big Brother”.
George Michael is rolling over in his grave. (too early?)
So my wife and her friend are extremely active readers of their facebook feeds. I mean like they are always checking their facebook if there are just a couple minutes of downtime, while watching tv, while getting driven around, etc…
3 out of 5 of them (including my wife) have stopped checking facebook due to all the negativity and drama that’s come out of Facebook since the election, with the other two responding that they are pretty unhappy with their feed (even after hiding a bunch of people).
Anectdotal sure, but it will be interesting to see when the next Facebook numbers come out if the polarization has any affect on their daily active user count.
If any quarter would’ve been affected, it would be the most recent quarter. But:
- Monthly active users: 1.86 billion vs. 1.84 billion expected.
- Daily active users: 1.23 billion vs. 1.21 billion expected.
I know a number of people in Australia who check facebook more regularly just to see what Trump has done now, and will comment alot on stranger’s comments to posts about news items. The fact some people get their news from facebook will probably help increase activity in these uncertain and chaotic times.
Well I had hope at least :)
Upon reading that Mike Lee has said the Republican health care alternative has to remain a secret until revealed because the public isn’t going to like it, I kinda/sorta triggered and wrote this on my FB wall.
They’ve had years. If ACA is so horrendous, it should easy to replace, right? They’ve had years, score upon score of futile repeal votes that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars (no, you don’t get to sit back and claim to be the party of fiscal conservatism and act this way without being called a seething pack of hypocrites more interested in acting like an ideological cult than a body of engaged legislators). Trump promised health care plans so good Marilyn Monroe would rise from her grave and lift that famous skirt up one last time. Yet here we are. We’re not done playing games with clean air and water, with deregulating the financial sector so they can blow our entire fucking economy up yet again, with disappointing allies and making as many enemies as possible (I had to hang up on a long-standing ally, it was 5pm and way past my nappie-pooh time), with more kleptocratic ethics violations in the first two weeks than most presidencies see throughout their entire tenures, and a servile, lapdop party sitting in Congress that will refuse to act in the face of virtually every political norm being disregarded by a quasi-white nationalist govt because the American people have become so utterly fucking stupid that they vote for people like Donald Trump and Mike Lee, the former a transparently obvious scam artist lacking a soul and the latter a pocket-sized caricature of a Congressman. But we’re not done. Now we’re going to play games with the access and affordability of health care. We’re going to strip it away from millions, privatize Medicare because the private sector is just eagerly waiting to provide insurance (and you do know the basic principles insurance operates under, right?) to the least profitable slice of the health care pool, cut SS benefits even as health care costs will explode (if you’re disinformed enough to believe ACA has caused health care costs to explode, I’ll gladly link to a World Bank graph showing that as a % of GDP health care costs have dramatically slowed once ACA was passed), and that’s all before enacting yet another regressive, debt-funded round of tax cuts that continue making it impossible to run the country on any sound fiscal footing because the nation’s enriched overclass that increasingly represents a larger portion of those campaign coffers is in desperate need of tax relief. If only, if only, we had a recent example to show the macro economic impact of targeted tax cuts like the ones proposed by Trump. If only. Oh, wait, last fucking decade. Shucks, what happened? Well, the national debt exploded, job growth was a measly 35% of that of the 1990s, and despite those tax cuts that did nothing but starve the Treasury of much needed revenue as we went to a war we were told would by paid for by foreign oil, because while it’s safe to say that if any politician is talking they’re very likely lying, if you’re an elected Republican and you’re fucking alive, your god damn skin is oozing lies 24/7, none of that shit trickled down or stopped manufacturing jobs from continuing being sucked out of the country in a trend that began well before NAFTA was ever thought of. And those jobs aren’t coming back.
But keep voting Republican. Because god. And country. Rank nationalism masquerading as actual patriotism. A rabidly ideological cottage industry of fake media that poisons your minds and has yet to demonstrate a willingness to not sink as low as humanly possible because winning is more important than anything else, even our country. Because Hillary used a private email server yet Trump’s cabinet began doing exactly that the very weekend after the inauguration. Because of pay to play when Trump is yet again today using official govt social media to bash a company that dropped his daughter’s products (a result of free market capitalism the Right purports to love love love). Because of Russian disinformation collated, curated, and disseminated by the Kremlin that sleeved itself into existing right-wing conspiracy bullshit so smoothly that it’s hard to distinguish the two apart, and that alone should be enough to give any real American true pause. Because of Pizzagate. Because a campaign manager engaged in Satanic rituals. Because you’re stupid enough to believe that your white privilege magically makes you part of the entitled plutocracy. I’m here to assure you that the next four years will disabuse you of that notion more than anything I could ever write.
Ahh, Mike Lee. Jason Chaffetz. Orrin Hatch. Utah’s delegation never fails to make me ill.
That all felt good to read. And I really hope that the last part there comes true.
That was a fantastic read @John_Reynolds, and most likely ignored or dismissed by the very people who should be absorbing every word into their conservative media addled brains. You’re 100% correct on the last bit, it’s going to take an epic downfall for most people to recognize that they made a colossal error in judgment on November 8th, 2016.
Facebook Nancy Pelosi rage is time travelling from 2008. (Warning: page includes WND link)
That’s a lot, assuming it’s true. Still significantly less than the security cost at Trump Tower.
It’s a lot, but it’s for her and her whole team’s travel as speaker over 2 years. But it includes alcohol, so it can be good for outraging social conservatives.
NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER, NO FEDERAL $ CAN BE USED FOR ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. Wait, everyone, come back, I was joking! I have the bigly-est jokes! No puppet.