Showing posts with label Rigged. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rigged. Show all posts

Sunday, October 23, 2016

TOO LONG TO TWEET

THE ABSURD TIMES




LATUFF


Every so often, there is a comment or question on twitter or even facebook that requires a response that is either too long for Twitter or needs some flash for Facebook, and this is one of those.

During a discussion, this time from Facebook (but forms of it appear on Twitter) about whether we can believe Hillary Clinton when she talks about preserving social or "entitlement" programs.  I responded that she would, but the response was that she was untrustworthy and that she could not be believed.  I was to respond.

Well, first I had agreed that she could be counted on to continue the neo-liberal activity that consists of interfering with other countries that attempt to commit the cardinal sin of thinking that their own natural resources are to be administered locally and for the benefit of themselves.  It should be well understood that the power elite in this country consider all of these resources as belonging to the U.S.  Any leader who dares think the contrary is now a terrorist sympathizer, a dictator, or otherwise evil.  It was previously easier simply to say that they were communist, but the end of the "cold war," which was much to the benefit of both the capitalist elite here and the Slavic elite around Moscow, made it necessary for us to find other things to call them.  "Oppressors" and "Dictators" seem to be the most favored currently.

In order to carry out this exploitation, it is necessary to keep the population of the United States relatively content.  This means the continuation of so-called "safety net," and other programs, as irritating as they may be.  Otherwise, the people will become unhappy and take steps to oppose the important role of government which, of course, is to further exploit labor and natural resources everywhere.

The people are well aware of some of these practices and willing to go along with them so long as they are comfortable.  Now Donald Trump represents the sort of thing that can happen when the people are unhappy.  For this reason, his supporters are portrayed as "uneducated white men," mainly.  The image of a typical Trump supported is a middle-aged man, sitting with a beer in his hand, watching a football game while waving an American flag.  This may be somewhat accurate, although it is not inclusive.  People are increasingly irritated at the way our government is handled. 

If that was the only segment of the population that was unhappy, perhaps the system could be accepted, but it does not account for the millions of people who supported Bernie Sanders who, in order to obtain permission to compete in the primaries, had to agree to support the winner (who was predetermined to be Hillary Clinton).  

Now, to a great extent, there is truth in the statement that the election is "rigged," not in the sense that Donal Trump means it, but in actuality.  The system is set up so that only a Democrat or a Republican is allowed to be elected to any office of great significance.   At one time, Ross Perot threatened to overturn this system, but that was immediately corrected by first eliminating him from the race (the means are still not clear) and second by taking the debates out of the hands of the League of Women Voters who were foolish enough to allow Mr. Perot to be on the stage.  You can be assured that the rules and regulations will be altered by the time of the next election so that a Donald Trump will never gain such a position in the future.

So, yes, Hillary will follow the dictates of the ruling elite here, escalate interference in any country that threatens to set a good example by running itself independently as did Saddam, Gaddafi, and now Assad.  Mubarak became unpopular and we allowed him to be removed, but did not stop our interference until we managed to install Sisi.  (Most people would consider him a dictator, but he is our dictator and, hence, acceptable.)

And that, of course, was too long for Twitter.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Our Primaries


THE ABSURD TIMES





Tom Lehrer explaining Math, link below.


Our Primaries
By
Chicago Thought



There seems to be a great deal of confusion as to the "Democracy" pervading the United States.  Now this can only be cleared up by realizing that when the political parties use the term democracy it does not mean "one man, one vote".  Once you get that absurd notion out of your head, things become more understandable.

Donald Trump (hey, a broken watch is right twice a day, eh?) is quite right when he says that the system is "rigged".  As a matter of fact, for you mariners out there, the rigging is as elaborate as you ever saw, and it is so rigged that the two-party system will protect its interests and keep sailing on as if the people have no power over it whatsoever.

Now, the Republican system is beyond description in its complexity.  For example, you may hear about the delegates in Pennsylvania amounting to, say, 85 or thereabouts.  However, not told is the fact that only 17 of them are chosen by the voters.  The rest are just there and can do whatever they want.  In addition, two of those 17 that are running against each other both are Cruz supporters.  That really means 15 are left. 

Enough of the Republicans as I have no intention of writing a 300 page book in two days.  Let's look at the Democrats.

Whenever you see the delegate count, it probably says, as of April 21, 2016, that Clinton has 1,930 delegates and Sanders 1,189.  2383 are needed to win.  This means that Clinton only needs 453 while Sanders needs 1144.  When those numbers are presented, it looks as if the primary is over.

However, 540 of those delegates are so-called "Super Delegates" (hereafter referred to as SD to distinguish from STD) and really have not been elected by anyone as a delegate.  Now, Clinton has 502 SDs while Sanders has 38.  Let us just take the whole population and see what happens.

If those 540 SDs were to all support Sanders, he would have 1691 and Clinton would have 1390.  (The 540 is a fixed number and all will vote and not go away so if one person leave one and goes to the other, it makes a total difference of 2)  Why not? Now Sanders is leading and on his way to victory.  

I'll tell you why not: "The system is rigged".  Where have I heard that before? 

One final fact: many Democratic, not as many Republican, states hold primaries that EXCLUDE independents.  In other words, unless you pledge allegiance to the Democratic Party, say in New York, 9 months before the election, you can't vote.  Of course, in the real election, once the parties decode on their nominees, Independents can vote.  So, one man, one vote?  Don't be silly.

Here is a link that will help you understand how the math works:

Apologies for the commercial (something about divorce – just click the x in the upper right-hand corner of the insert).