Guard Dog

OK, I STILL do not get how misninformation on social media is a threat to democracy. The elctions are still happening on November 3. Democracy is the act of voting. Not outcomes dicated by dumb f--k voters who don't know that everything on social media should be presumed false until proven otherwise.

Leftisim has a pretty loose definition. From YOUR definition yes, it works. Under some variations of leftisim private property does nit even exist.

Libertarianisim leftisim is a thing but I am really convinced it only works on paper. Leftisim requires government control to even work. There is nothing "libertarian" about that.

You are correct of course. But where do the traditional conservatives turn? Certainly NOT the goddamned Democrats. They are even more hostile to traditional conservatives than the new Republican party. They will be happy for your votes but offer nothing but scorn, derision, and hostility in return even of those votes bring them to power. The Democrat Party of today is NOT a Big Tent. "Taking back" the Republican party is likely a futile as third party support. I've said before Reagan and Goldwater would vomit if they saw it but the neo-cons LIKE what they have created. nd there are more of them than "us" as it turns out. So where do the traditional small government conservatives turn?

The housework is done. The work work is done. Today I'm breaking out the muzzle loaders and getting in some range time. Hunting season for archery and muzzleloaders starts on two weeks. I think this year I might buy a hunting license for the first time in years. My property shares a border with the Hatchee River WMA and Anderson Tully is only a 20 minute drive. I see deer around my place all the time. But I'd never consider harvesting one of them. I KNOW them! I'd rather hunt deer I don't know.

A lot has been said the past few days on the friendship between Scalia and his wife and RBG and her husband. I really don't understand why so many pundits find this surprising. Don't they have colleagues with differing political leanings and interests that they are still friends with? LOL! What am I saying? These are MEDIA pundits. They are more segregated than Mobile city bus on Nov 30 1955! They don't even KNOW anyone with differing politics!

I'm working on the assumption they are not going to get a justice nominated and confirmed in 48 days. Now if things go south in the election they can do it in the lame duck session I'm guessing. Collins and Murkowski already said no. They can't lose even one more.

Some prominent goddamn Democrats are promising to expand the Supreme Court. That is an even more naked power grab than Trump & McConnell trying to ram through a nomination inside 48 days. A smart play would be to make a deal with the goddamned Democrats not to ram through a nomination in return for a pledge not to expand the court until they get a permeant majority. Not that I expect them to honor it. As an election issue this actually helps the Orange Menace I think. It played a significant part in 2016. Of course Trump was something of an unknown in '16. Now voters know what they are getting and... it ain't impressive.

You are going to be disappointed then.

The point being there are goals for LP candidates other than actually winning. It's popular to say a vote for a 3rd party candidate is wasted. That is only true if the objective is to win the election. If the objective is to grow the movement then it is far from wasted.

Except for the fact that I would rather have whatever judges Trump picks than whatever Biden picks no I really do not give a damn which turd gets flushed and which one stays in the bowl. The difference being I DO have acceptable alternatives on my ballot. Paying bills and going to work don't have acceptable alternatives. I am in a position where it really does not matter which turd I picked. Trump is going to win my state. It is a done deal. It is one of the reddest. Voting for Trump or Biden will actually be the wasted vote. Voting for Jorgenson is one more vote closer to the 5% of the popular vote required to secure automatic ballot access for the 2024 candidate. So you see a third party vote is truly the only "productive" vote I can cast.

Add to that the fact that Jorgernsen is a career party hack with zero name recognition and there is a recipe for 2020 reversing the trend of the last twenty years where the LP takes a larger percentage of the popular vote than the previous election. If she manages to keep it in the 3% range that would indicate a definite if small voting bloc. But, as I have discussed with you numerous times the object isn't to win. The object is to continue to grow. Whatever reasons you assign to the trend it IS a trend and trending upward is never a bad thing. I'm very curious what happens in November. Again, as we discussed, the LP has no national office holders and certainly needs them. They have only four statewide office holders but there are over 1000 LP candidates in office. Up from less than 100 in 2004. I think the limited resources we have would be better spent getting a Senator or a few House Reps in office. The novelty of it alone would garner them enough media attention to help. Amash certainly focused attention on the LP in opposing Trump's BS. Neither Biden nor Trump deserve our vote. And I am beyond sick of choosing which of the two major party turds I have to swallow. I don't want either of them and I'm sure as hell not going to vote for either. Where is there to go after that but the LP?

Perhaps they should be:

You were around during the Roosevelt admin? The FIRST Roosevelt admin?

Once you lean how it's done it's easy to recognize it's bring done. When some dystopian future government starts burning books again $5 days The Prince will be one of them.

You are working on the assumption that the Libertarianism can be a plank in a Republican platform or the Green's agenda can be a plank in a Democrat platform. That was certainly true forty years ago. Perhaps even 20 years ago. Not now. Not even close. I was a reliable Republican supporter for many yeas. When I got out of the service I even worked on the campaign staff of Don "Big Daddy" Garlits when he ran for Congress. The Republican party of today bears small resemblance of the one then. If Reagan or Goldwater were alive to see it they would be disgusted. They have turned their backs on small government advocacy and small "L" libertarianism. McCain was the last Republican I voted for. And he will be the last unless the ship is somehow righted in the future. I joined the Libertarian Party because it is becoming what the Republican Party should have been. But isn't. Libertarians are not Republicans. Greens are not Democrats. And vice versa. @BruceVC strategic voting is something I will do down ballot if needed. I expect Biden will win so I'd be inclined to support Republican candidates for Congress because I do NOT want a President and Congress of the same party ever again. If I thought Trump was likely to win I'd be inclined to support candidates other than Republicans. But voting for Biden because I dislike Trump or Trump because I dislike Biden I will not do. One of these idiots will win and we'll be stuck with them. Nothing I can do. But I will NOT put my name on it by voting for it.

That is a shame. The Prince is required reading at GD University

Let me give you a little insight into my posting style Achilles. It's likely you have not read many of my posts but I tend to treat serious subjects with a facetious flair. I also indulge in hyperbole freely and willingly sometimes to be argumentative and sometimes to provoke a discussion. My comment about "picking up a rifle" was an example of that. Notice it was sandwiched between two serious options? Not accidental. Most of the other folks around here, Gromnir in particular know my schtick. Just in case you didn't. Now to address your point. Neither major political party is moving anything anywhere near where I want things to go. The US is nearly $27T in debt. Actual and unfunded liabilities. We have a $3T spending deficit right now. The position of the dollar as the worlds reserve currency is is jeopardy. If there were an acceptable alternative right now we be f----d. The last four Presidential administrations have usurped legislative and state power and no one has uttered a peep. The Federal government is literally spying on us and everyone just shrugs and goes on. Obama turned the IRS into a political secret police and no one cared. Trump took money designated by Congress for other things and used it to build part of his wall. The President can't do that. But no one stops them. He also unilaterally started using tariffs as he pleased. That is a congressional power not an executive power. No one says a word. The Court decided it's perfectly ok for the government to seize your home and sell it to someone else and no one stops it. The reason why no one stops it is both political parties are equally responsible for it. Both do it freely. For all the political bickering there isn't a times worth of difference between the two. They both do the same thing: spend money, spend more, expand government power. The rest is just window dressing. I vote in every election. But I will never vote for a Republican again and I sure as hell will NEVER EVER vote for one of the goddamned Democrats. The love of freedom and liberty does not abide in either party. I donate to candidates. Heck I donated $1k to Gary Johnson's campaign in 2016. I donated $500 to Jo Jorgenson this year. I pay my dues to the LP every year. I am under no illusions about her chances of winning. But I am ok with the guy in the mirror because I did NOT support a political philosophy I hated. And by the way the Pennsylvania Democrat Party recently sued to keep the Green Party candidate off the ballot. There may not be a stable of philosopher kings waiting in the wings but there ARE other opinions of what we can/should do and the Democrats and Republicans along with a willing media are working like hell to ensure voters don't get to vote for or hear from them. THAT is also a suppression of liberty.

RIP Justice Ginsburg. This is a woman with whom I almost NEVER agreed. Most of the time she was firmly in the camp of the infallibility of the democratically elected state. Many times she was on the wrong side of decisions that left the state more powerful and the rights of the individual diminished. She also suggested the court should consider precedents set in foreign courts. But she was also a consistent champion of the 1st Amendment. She was a barrier breaker and has served as an inspiration to women in Gen X, Y and the Millennials many of whom have followed that inspiration into legal careers themselves. If the SCOTUS had a hall of fame I say she should be in it. I might not have liked her opinions but she was tough, tenacious, and above all consequential. Now, as for the election, buckle your seatbelt. S--t is about to really get going!

Started watching Hell on Wheels on NetFlix. So far I'm really into it.

Do not recommend. Not because it isn't a good story. It definitely is. But it's liberally mixed with dropped names and fiction. The one that really caught my eye was a claim to do a job for an associate of Bill Clinton and drug use in the Clinton gubernatorial admin in 1975. Just one problem, Clinton was a deputy AG in 1975. The Governor was David Prior. I knew that didn't sound right. There are a few others like that. Some provably false after a few minutes on google. Some not provable but highly improbable. There might be truth in there but it's served up with a healthy dose of fiction. I like my non-fiction to be just that