Have you voted, why or why not?
I'm wondering if people who inhabit this community have voted already. This is limited to the US mid-term elections.
Why or why not have you cast your vote?
Why or why not have you cast your vote?
Comments (68)
:up:
Vote for Jake and the Space Cowboy Party!!!
Who was it at PF that had an avatar of the SpaceCowboy?
@Postmodern Beatnik.
First, the live performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwoiy-Fwm0E
Next, the cut from the album (tighter and groovier, but no video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELcTJZLxhFU
This is what was on the radio around the time I started voting. A guy in our gang had a huge old 1940s era car, it was about a half mile from the front seat to back seat. :smile: We'd all pile in the car, smoke about a pound of weed, and then drive for hours down the beach (you can drive on the beach where I grew up) looking for girls.
So, this is the platform offered by the Space Cowboy Party. Good friends, classic cars, a 30 mile long beach, pounds of weed, and girls. Vote for me and I'll make it happen for you! Unless I get too stoned and forget. Or get the munchies and forget. Or get ______ and forget.
I told you 'bout living in the U.S. of A.
Don't you know that I'm a gangster of love
Let me tell you people that I found a new way
And I'm tired of all this talk about love
And the same old story with a new set of words
About the good and the bad and the poor
And the times keep on changin'
So I'm keepin' on top
Of every fat cat who walks through my door
I'm a space cowboy
Bet you weren't ready for that
I'm a space cowboy
I'm sure you know where it's at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I was born on this rock
And I've been travelin' through space
Since the moment I first realized
What all you fast talkin' cats would do if you could
You know, I'm ready for the final surprise
There ain't no way around it
Ain't nothing to say
That's gonna satisfy my soul deep inside
All the prayers and surveyors
Keep the whole place uptight
While it keeps on gettin' darker outside
I'm a space cowboy
Bet you weren't ready for that
I'm a space cowboy
I'm sure you know where it's at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I see the show downs, slow downs, lost and found, turn arounds
The boys in the military shirts
I keep my eyes on the prize, on the long fallen skies
And I don't let my friends get hurt
All you back room schemers, small trip dreamers
Better find something new to say
Cause you're the same old story
It's the same old crime
And you got some heavy dues to pay
I'm a space cowboy
Bet you weren't ready for that
I'm a space cowboy
I'm sure you know where it's at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Well, I don't know about that. First you would have to prove that you are infected with the ridiculous stupidity of youth, because the Space Cowboy Platform Plan Thingy depends upon that.
But, if you can work yourself up in to a state (chemical enhancers allowed) where you think you REALLY ARE a space cowboy, then ok, jump on board. There are already about 17 people in the back seat, but I'm sure we can squeeze in one more.
Check out the lyrics to the song, pretty political really....
Hey, I have a great excuse: I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow and today is prep day. Not straying more than 5 seconds from the bathroom. Certainly not going to stand in line hoping that lightning did not strike in the next 20 minutes (because if I was standing in line, that's when...)
Had I planned ahead, I could have voted early, but I had forgotten about today and the sturm and drang of total clearance.
On the plus side, Minnesota often has the highest rate of voting in the country, and I live in an area that is a Democratic Farm Labor stronghold, so the liberals will be taken care of.
One of the candidates for Attorney General is Keith Ellison, formerly in Congress then Democratic Chair for a while. He had a sort of sex scandal -- his girl friend is accusing him of kicking her out of his bed. She says she has a video of it. Who was the third party in the bedroom making the video, inquiring minds want to know. She doesn't want to turn the video over because it was private. Well, Madam, I should think you would consider the whole thing to be too private to bring up publicly. If somebody kicked me out of bed, I wouldn't shout it from the roof tops. Geez. Getting expelled from a bed is usually not a compliment.
We also have a Somali woman running for congress, DFL endorsed. She had some sort of financial irregularity which she dismissed with the kind of breezy logic that one expects from the practiced political operator.
I would vote blue no matter who but the roster of democratic candidates just isn't very satisfying. The candidates that are red can jolly well drop dead.
Why did I vote?
Because if someone asks I won't be embarrassed that I shirked my civic duty, or whatever. Also I think compulsory voting is a good idea, so I'm practicing for that.
Voting legitimizes power structures.
Thanks for breaking that news, I was surely wondering. Well, the next two years will now make WWII look like a skirmish.
There's snow on the ground this morning, 31º. The weather ball is green so frigid lows are foreseen. A low of 15 for Saturday. Brrr.
Have a good day. :flower:
And by the way Mr. Crank, stop bragging about your glorious fall weather. 85 here today, and I don't mind telling you I'm about sick of it, as it's been like that since last February. But I'm trying to remain hopeful, as our nine days of winter will surely arrive sooner or later.
Such sentiments are perhaps at least part of how Trump got elected. Many people are looking for something other than the status quo, and Trump isn't really either a Dem or Repub at heart. Now that the mid-term is behind us perhaps he'll finally get serious and launch the Narcissist Party. :smile:
Well, and people say things like that as if there's a belief that I would have preferred to have Hillary in office. But I wouldn't. I honestly can't stand either Democrats or Republicans. I don't like Trump, either, but he's not been any worse in my opinion than any of 'em. Every president in my lifetime has been useless in my view.
My political views are way, way out in left field.
I'm not arguing with this, just saying that many people appear to share your view, and in their frustration have turned to options outside the usual routine. Bernie Sanders was also an example of this to some degree. Who knew a grouchy old socialist would take the Democratic Party by storm?
One did. He still won.
I think that better describes the Republican Party. Anti-climate change, trickle-down economics, bearded guy in the sky who demands that gays be oppressed...
A democratic socialist.
:rofl: Only You as a non-American would know that! To add a little absurdity to it, Exiled Sheriff Joe Arpaio shared the same stage with him the night before he died. :eyes: :rofl:
Never 2 quarts but I have had my share of salty slop. :razz:
Quoting Bitter Crank
Okay now your making me jealous! It is another cloudless sky, 78* and perfect weather that I am absolutely done with! :angry:
I am so wanting the soft, quite sound of snow falling. It makes the world look virginal of all mans' victories and defeats against Mother Earth. :halo:
Quoting Bitter Crank
Awwww I would still like to come over and bring you a little dinner. You have got to be starving and I promise, nothing salty, only sweet. :flower: :flower: :flower:
What I got was some benzodiazapine and fentanyl -- the stuff that everybody is overdosing on and dropping dead from. It worked great--I was awake to watch the show. Now, afterwards the nurse told me she had to tell me to keep breathing several times but I have no memory of that. There were a couple of moments that were painful, but not terrible and very short -- when they turned the head of the scope backwards to view the asshole from the inside out.
The results were zero polyps, zero cancers, all good.
I was starving: a can of soup, a piece of cold chicken, some toast, cheese, a sweet potato with fresh apple sauce and cranberries (now in season).
Congrats. You might want to consider consuming probiotics of some kind to help along the microbial recolonization of your gut tract.
There wasn't much of anything left in the large intestine, though I suppose the walls were coated with samples of bacteria that were there before. The appendix is also supposed to keep a sampling of microbes on tap. But this didn't, after all, involve antibiotics. The furthest extent of the colonoscopy tube is where the small intestine joins the large intestine; one could see some of the cilia-structures; it looks quite a bit different than the colon. One could also see the opening into (or out of) the appendix, if ever the appendix decided to open up.
Since the microbiome is so important in our function, I'd like to get the mix that produces intellectual brilliance, creative genius, sunny equanimity, physical prowess, and a robust immune system. The varieties that I had before produced nothing but bullshit.
I honestly don't know if they genuinely don't believe in it or if they do but care more about money and so lie about it.
Hmmm now that approaches the level of pain that a lady endures for the first 4 hours of a 12 hr labor. Thank goodness for modern medicine because I was at a level of 15, dying from pain when I asked for my Epidural and within minutes I was filing my nails watching my beloved Cubs lose yet another game. That flippin meter that I was dying at 15 hit 133 in my 11th hour and all I was supposed to feel was "pressure" but alas as the baby nears Oxygen they taper the Epidural down so the woman can "feel" to push. BULLSHIT! It's not "feel" it's flipping barbaric levels of pain. But enough about me... :scream:
Quoting Bitter Crank
Woo Hooo that is AWESOME news!
Damn again to modern medicine. When my Mom was a Nurse just starting out was in the lab, doing smear screens under the microscope, looking for Cancer cells that took dayssssssssss….. peace of mind is such a necessary part of our overall health.
Quoting Bitter Crank
Mmmm sounds good then again ANYTHING would sound good!
Everyday, first thing I consume and it removes any sugar craving I might have had. Lots of energy and a healthy stomach...it really is the fountain of youth, in a bottle, for the same price of beer. :roll:
Unfortunately, Al Gore championing the issue seems to have made it one.
Lol, I know$
Not everyone does hate Trump.
Those who are not fond of, dislike, loathe, or hate Donald Trump are responding to several features:
First, he has zero record in public service. He is an entrepreneur.
Second, as an entrepreneur (real estate) he has not been nearly as successful as he paints himself to be. Some of his projects appear to be manipulative bankruptcies. Many of his hotels are not actually his -- the Trump name is licensed.
Third, Much of Trump's wealth was inherited. This is not at all unusual -- a lot of rich people inherited their wealth. But Trump has presented his wealth as the work of his own genius.
Four, Trump's familiarity to the public is based on his abrasive celebrity shows.
Much of his career carries with it more than a little odor of dishonesty and flim flam.
Trump has made little effort to perform the role that politicians traditionally at least attempt: the statesman with gravitas. Trump eschewed any sign off gravitas (substance and dignity) from the getgo. While not being uneducated himself (presumably he learned something in college) he favors the impression of being anti-intellectual. Americans do not expect their presidents to be learned scholars, but they want them to respect learned scholars (because the president needs to get good information on which to make decisions). Trump seems to be in very short supply of good information about anything.
Trump is cynical; this is standard in politics, but he makes little effort to conceal cynicism the way most politicians do. His election strategy was to play to the lowest common denominator in crucial states. We don't like open cynicism.
Trump has little respect for the kind of role that most Americans expect the President to fulfill.
Trump didn't invent the right wing, white supremacists, racism, anxiety about poorly controlled immigration from Mexico and Central America, and so on but he has done nothing to allay mainstream fears about the right wing, photo-facists, crypto-fascists, authoritarians, and so on.
Barack Obama, George Bush II, William Clinton, George Bush I, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, J. F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, F. D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, Warren Harding, and Woodrow Wilson -- have all been problematic in various ways. Presidents, of course, are not perfect and it is a very difficult job. But most Presidents have more or less played the role that was expected of them. Most of them have been reasonably competent. Perhaps Trump is most like Warren Harding. Harding died in office, so maybe Trump will be kind enough to do the same. His Vice President can follow suite.
Trump has more forthrightly revealed what ruling class politics is really about -- protecting the ruling class and fucking over everyone else. He has pulled the curtain aside (think of the Wizard in Oz 'reveal' scene).
In summary, Donald Trump is an arrogant asshole.
:100:
Seems like a good reason to vote.
It means "fart" in the UK.
I know, I know, I heard that story on NPR. Hilarious! I felt so sorry for the Dem though, whooped by a dead man, how embarrassing!
It means fart here now too.
Trump understands the media, and consumers of media, better than any politician in my lifetime. My theory is that this is due to
1) natural talent
2) living in NYC arguably the corporate media capital of the world
3) his business career
Trump gets that corporate media is not a public service, but a business whose function is to make money.
Trump gets that the business model for corporate media is to use drama to build audience and thus ad revenue.
Trump gets that consumers of media are more interested in being entertained by drama than they are in complex public policy issues.
Trump gets that super intelligent huge brained philosophers like us who claim that they are somehow different than other consumers of media are largely self delusional. :smile:
The proof of the above is of course that Trump beat every professional politician on all sides of aisle, and did what the media said for years he could never do, win the highest office on Earth.
Is Trump an asshole? Yes, of course. But he's also an intelligent REALIST, and that is his great power.
Politicians are a mirror image of the public they serve, and when we don't like what the mirror reveals, we yell at the mirror.
Except for us of course. :smile:
All you’re essentially saying is that he’s good at the manipulation of his base (not the sharpest tools in the shed). The evidence indicates that the motivation behind his tactics is at least primarily to gain power and wealth, rather than advance a more noble goal like human flourishing.
A leader with principles and unselfish goals wouldn’t be able to do what he does, that’s for sure.
All I'm saying is that he won, because he is the sharpest tool in the shed in some important respects.
No, he’s simply willing to do what others with principles and less selfish goals are not. The almost half a billion dollars he inherited from his father also gave him an unusual advantage.
It seems to me that the democrats had plenty of money to conduct the 2016 campaign. The spending was $1.4 billion by Democrats (Clinton) to the Republican's $957.6 million (Trump).
Another $4 billion was spent on congressional races in 2016. The Republicans have had an intelligent long-range plan to capture state houses and governorships in order to better control redistricting, which is where a party can guarantee safe districts for decades into the future.
I just don't think most presidents, congresses, governors, legislators, or mayors and city councils have been all that interested in the noble goal of human flourishing. OK, every now and then they might be seized by a fit of nobility, but after that wears off it's back to business as usual.
Most politicians are, by necessity, focused on their careers and the best interests of their political parties (venality, in other words). We expect accomplished politicians to resemble the Prince of Darkness; we just don't want them doing business out in the open where they upset women and children or frighten the horses.
He's such a tool.
For some of us who hate him, it's because he's an arrogant moron with a lot of views we strongly disagree with, where he's trying to bully those views into law, and where instead of concentrating on anything we feel would actually have a positive, practical affect on the citizenry's lives, he's concentrating merely on trolling via tweeting, hosting rallies, etc.
Yes. Which to me suggests that maybe we need to trash the way we've been doing things and try something else instead.
What I was thinking at the time was that, for example, if Trump had only received one million from his father as he claimed, rather than the 413 million that research reveald, he may not have been in a position to run for office and win.
I was thinking of something he said in a press conference the other day that demonstrates what a dull tool he is. When asked if he thought that adopting a nationalist identity shows support for white nationalists, he responded by saying that it was a “racist question”. That’s off key because it expresses a fundamentally liberal value of equality or individual rights. If he had time to think or be advised, a more ‘on brand’ response should have been some rhetoric about the nation not being treated fairly and taking care of our own, or something about the evils of globalists.
I voted only for GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate and only for DEM candidates for the House Of Reps.
I want divided government back. If Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell cannot agree on legislation then I do not want it to pass.
My wishes have been fulfilled. The Senate is still in control of the GOP and the House has been taken over by the DEMs.
What about you? Did you vote? Were your goals achieved during the midterms?