Obama administration pressures DA to stop looking into banks

[Soontir C'boath]

When I write-in "Emperor Palpatine" and "Darth Vader" in the coming elections, at least I know I'll vote for none of the evils. Non-fictional anyway. Except for Schneiderman, I'll keep an eye on his progress until he's up for election again.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I read that as: Don't try and change anything because nothing will change because people wont try. It also seems to call for a revolution which would be interesting. Still, that's what you're saying. Don't try, don't try and help anything, nothing will ever change so just live with it and vote Democrat like a good little boy and hem and haw about those evil Republicans. I guess early black civil rights activists are good case for this. I mean, the only way they could have made any progress is to change the way the country is run, and then have to clean house, rewrite all laws etc. etc. We saw their lack of progress in the 50s and 60s.

How can you even try and change anything if you don't fucking try? Can you really fault people for actually acting on their desire for change. Even if it's as small as voting for someone else

PS: Though but that attitude, I guess this forum loses any right to moan about people who don't vote or spoil their ballot. I mean nothing will change so why bother?

Oh I do call for a revolution, be it of the scale led by Martin Luther King or something. The question of course is where and when will the buck stop? Here? Never? There? What would take for people to rise up and change things? The trouble is, at the moment, it is impossible. Sometimes humans must learn things the hard way before they finally realise the bullshit they have been fed is really bullshit.

[Uraniun235]

You are kidding yourself if there were ever a third party, and even if there were ever one, it will no doubt be greased to death with corporate funds again and again.

If you want to change the way your country is run, then you have to clean house, rewrite all the laws etc. etc. But your country will never ever find the will to do it.

I don't harbor any illusions about the probability of any third-party (read: party that isn't Democratic or Republican, not some mythical actual contender for national power) electoral victory in the next election or the next decade. The long-shot hope is that enough people voting third-party will either spook two-party candidates into shifting their positions to be less evil, or that a substantial enough turnout in the third party can be leveraged by said third party into a future campaign of "see, we're closer than ever to breaking the duopoly, you can make it happen!" or something like that.

Remember, long-shot hope. (Because I'm sure some blithering retard will pipe up with "nuhhhhh that won't happen")

My short-term goal is to participate in the electoral process while refusing to assent to the rule or policies of either major party. A (relatively) clean conscience may be worth little practically, but I'll feel substantially better for it (and you can expect me to be a smug jerk about it, too).



I'm also not an optimist about the likelihood of substantial, positive reforms occurring in this country. I'd prefer to stay among friends and family in an area relatively better suited to weather the coming climate change. I'm not totally averse to moving to another country to find a better job (in the event I lose mine and cannot find another local job), but at the same time I'm not totally convinced that an American collapse would not involve lashing out at other countries; I may be equally screwed either way.

(screwed, of course, being a relative term compared to the suffering of actually impoverished people, as I'm sure someone can pipe in with at some point)


Basically what I'm saying is: I do possess at least some marginal self-awareness.

Oh I do call for a revolution, be it of the scale led by Martin Luther King or something. The question of course is where and when will the buck stop? Here? Never? There? What would take for people to rise up and change things?

I'm convinced that it would take television going blank (and now, the internet failing) for there to be a substantial likelihood of revolt in the US.

[Edi]

The only way for any change to happen is for the Democrats to get as scared of their progressive base as the Republicans are of the far right nutjobs. Which means blackmailing Democrats with the threat of not voting unless they start going left.

Yes, it will probably mean Republican governments for a few terms, but the progressives are going to have to grow a spine and be willing to endure that to get ahead. The problem is that they are not as tribalistic as the Republicans are, because that sort of mindset is difficult to instill in people with a sense of responsibility. Which the Teabagger idiots don't possess.

[Darth Wong]

That's the problem in a nutshell; despite the constant drumbeat of equivocation from the Mindless Middle, the left is not really as fanatical as the right, and is not as willing to make the entire country suffer in order to get their way. Certain individuals might be, but they don't have the weight of numbers that the Tea Party does.

It's like the recent debt showdown: Obama blinked first because he realized that a sane person can't play chicken with an insane person. The insane person will stay the course to the bitter end.

[StarSword]

Wow. One guy says one thing, the other says the exact opposite.

You may need your sarcasm meter checked.

*epic facepalm*

I must now go arrange to have my foot surgically removed from my mouth.