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These are the idiots WE have put in power

Bill Nelson exhibiting his ignorance to Congress
Bill Nelson exhibiting his ignorance to Congress

On April 17, 2024 Bill Nelson, former Democratic Party senator and now NASA’s administrator, testified at a budget hearing in the House of Representives about the proposed 2025 NASA budget proposed by the Biden administration.

Such testimony is routinely boring and tells us nothing, which is why I no longer waste much time listening to it.

Other do, however, and as a result we all find out about moments of stupidity such as this one, spouted by Nelson:

“What do you think the Chinese are trying to get at, at the back side of the moon?” Rep. David Trone (D-MD) asked Nelson at a congressional hearing last week.

“They are going to have a lander on the far side of the moon, which is the side which is always in dark. Uh, we’re not planning to go there,” he said.

Trone followed up by asking, “And why not? What’s the benefit of doing so?”

“We don’t know what’s on the back side of the moon, so, uh, that would be something that they would discover,” the NASA administrator told lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “But our decision is that it’s more profitable for us to go to the South Pole of the moon because that’s where we think the water is,” he added.

First, Nelson exhibits the same kind of utter ignorance about basic space science as did congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) when she proclaimed on April 8, 2024 that the Moon “was made up mostly of gases.” Nelson says the “dark side” is always dark, when it is well known for many centuries that the back side of the Moon is sometimes referred to as the “dark side” not because it is dark, but because it is never visible to us on Earth, and until the space age no one knew what was there.

Furthermore, since the 1960s however we have known what is there, even if Nelson is an ignoramus about these basic facts. Landing there to research it up close and in detail is a entirely laudable science goal, something American scientists have wanted to do for decades. China is simply doing it.

Finally, China is also targeting the south pole for its lunar base, something Nelson seems utterly unaware, an ignorance that is shocking considering their lunar base goals are potentially in direct conflict with our lunar base goals.

You would think the administrator of NASA would know these basic facts.

Republicans might make fun of Nelson and claim that they never vote for him to be NASA’s administrator, but in a sense they did, because large numbers of Republicans now routinely don’t vote come election time. This failure is most often due to mere apathy, or a wish to bury their heads in the sand, fulfilling Burke’s prediction that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”

In recent years this lack of voting support has increasingly occurred as the whining equivalent of a tantrum by a two-year-old. As one typical disaffected commenter here at Behind the Black recently complained:

Why would we ever bother voting for Republicans when they keep pulling a McCain on us? They promise us the Moon and the stars, but what they failed to tell us was that they would be the shapes of the holes in the outhouses that they actually give us.

The problem with this last complaint — which I have heard over and over and over again for the past two decades from many conservatives — is that it is first unreasonable, and second an example of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

First, it is unreasonable because it is impossible to get perfect political candidates. The very structure of our Constitution and legal system recognizes this on its face, by creating numerous checks and balances to limit the power of one person or party, and to create competition so as to encourage better candidates, assuming the voters are willing to do their job as citizens.

Second, this refusal to support Republicans because they aren’t perfect simply guarantees that the Marxist and very corrupt Democratic Party will gain more power. The result is even worse policies, and more corruption, and congresswomen like Sheila Jackson-Lee and NASA administrators like Bill Nelson.

The Republican Party and its voters
What too many modern conservatives push for

It is all very self-defeating. If conservatives went out and always voted for the most conservative candidate available to them, the power in Congress and in local legislatures would quickly shift rightward. It would also encourage other individuals even more conservative to run for office.

By not doing so the worst kinds of leftist candidates win, which thus encourages more leftists to run as well. As Milton Friedman wisely noted, “People have a great misconception in this way. They think the way you solve things is by electing the right people. It’s nice to elect the right people but that isn’t the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.”

To do this conservatives have to make it clear to all politicians that they will win if those politicians push conservative policies. Instead, conservatives for the past decade have increasingly told congressional candidates that they don’t really care, and thus the legislatures in Congress, from both parties, have shifted leftward, or in the direction of outright corruption. If the public doesn’t care if they do wrong why should they do right? And if the public doesn’t care that they are stupid or ignorant, like Nelson (who was a senator for decades) or congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, there will be no incentive for either political party to put forth qualified candidates.

Worse, by allowing such bad candidates to gain power it corrupts our entire society. If our leaders are so ignorant, it guarantees that the quality of our voters will go down as well. It is thus no surprise that even now, after three horrible years of incompetence as president, Joe Biden is still polling decently. Too many voters no longer have the ability to think critically and knowledgeably about the politicians they vote for.

I must close by noting that Nelson and Jackson-Lee are not the exceptions, but the rule. Our federal goverment has been generally run by fools now for several decades. Every project routine fails, while routinely going over budget by billions. And no one every gets fired for making bad decisions, or gets punished for stealing or committing corruption. We bury our heads in the sand, and the worst gain power day-by-day.

You get the government you deserve, and Americans haven’t cared to demand a decent government now for decades.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

28 comments

  • F

    So right!

    I have often heard people say that they have declared themselves as independents, rather than as Republicans, because of their dissatisfaction with the Republican candidates, but I feel that is the worst reason to leave the Republican Party, especially if leaving means the loss of the ability to vote in Republican primaries. If you remain in the Republican Party, you have a voice in the selection of candidates. Leave, and Party leadership, which is (sadly) always looking for a reason to ignore the conservative base, will feel justified in ignoring you.

  • GaryMike

    Born in the 50’s, public education schooled me to be Democrat. College times turned me Republican (not my fellows: parts of the problem. It was a period of transition for higher education).

    Republicans eventually turned me unaffiliated Independent.

    Political identities are toxic to actually being able to think for ourselves.

  • Edward

    First, it is unreasonable because it is impossible to get perfect political candidates.

    Except we cannot get candidates that will give us something better than the outhouse. Perfection has nothing to do with it. It all has to do with results. These candidates are not worth voting for, and we should be insisting on better candidates. Voting for the idiots who do us wrong sends the message that we are willing to vote for the idiots who do us wrong, so that is all we will ever get, and nothing will ever improve.

    The Party won’t give conservatives to us for primary elections, and it seems like the voters won’t vote for them anyway. The party fights the conservatives that are there now, so the Republican Party is no longer interested in conservatism. It is too far to the left, and has been trying to catch up to the Democrats in their run for the far left, instead of supporting conservatism, freedom, and liberty. It is the wrong party to vote for.

    Then there is the problem that the Republican Party won’t defend free and fair elections, so there is no point in voting in the first place. Voting for the wrong kind of candidate is likewise futile, because all we get is the outhouse.

    What we need is candidates worth voting for. Candidates who are on our side. Preferably candidates who will not fall under the same spell as Senator Paine in the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but foremost, we need representatives that will defend our votes. Otherwise there is no point to voting.

    Second, this refusal to support Republicans because they aren’t perfect simply guarantees that the Marxist and very corrupt Democratic Party will gain more power.

    That is what we got by voting for the idiots who do us wrong, and it will continue to happen when we continue electing them. These Republicans have no incentive to change. Twenty years ago I still thought the Republican Party was on my side, but it had already turned-coat by then. Now, they are worse than Senator Paine.

    I demand candidates worth voting for, not the pack of useless idiots that keep being elected. I won’t vote for those idiots. You don’t have to worry that I don’t vote, because I probably won’t vote for your guy anyway.

    Think of me as an unhappy customer, tired of getting the outhouse after paying for indoor plumbing.

    If the Republican Party wants my support back, they have to earn it with worthy candidates.

  • GaryMike

    Ed:

    I, too, no longer have a reason to stand in line for hours to vote on machines with inauditable proprietary software, within a system encouraging inauditable mail-in ballots, and no way to audit the counting processes.

    If I have no way to know that the vote that I cast is the vote actually counted, I have no reason to believe that standing in line matters at all.

  • And so, you all cede power to the thugs goons, and soon to be proud new Nazis. Congratulations. I once thought Americans had courage. Now they fold like cowards.

  • Robert Pratt

    What does this mean, “The Party won’t give conservatives to us for primary elections…”?

    The various state and local parties do not put forward primary candidates. Candidates, regular people, file to run in primaries and party voters choose a nominee from amongst those who chose to run. Conservatives must run and win primary or caucus votes. We’re actually riding a short wave of conservative primary victories over less conservative incumbents in Texas this year.

  • Cloudy

    Ir is telling that the questions seem to focus on potential competition with China. It is clear that science isn’t the real concern here. If it was, no one would have spent a penny of public money on manned space in the past 20 years. There would be robotic scientific missions, but they would look radically different from what we see today.

    Bill Nelson does not need to know much about science because science is not his job. He is a manager. He is a politician. That’s ok. Best to leave science to the professionals. He does need to know enough to avoid humiliating himself. At least he needs to be better prepared for the questioning. In that he broke a key rule in politics – he forgot to keep up appearances. You don’t need to know much science to be a good NASA administrator. You do need to know the limits of your knowledge. You need to be able to learn what you need to know quickly. You need to think on your feet in public. You must avoid advertising your ignorance. This video calls into question Nelson’s ability to do that.

  • Ray Van Dune

    The common wisdom is that the far side of the Moon, although not perpetually in darkness, is perpetually “dark” from Earthly radio noise. I am not sure what advantage this would confer to modern highly directional receivers, but I know that there is a zone of radio silence around the Green Bank radio observatory in West Virginia.

    The far side also offers a more stable view of the sky, since the rotation of the Moon requires 28 days, much slower than the 24 hours of the Earth’s rotation, although again the advantage to modern tracking systems may be minor.

  • 370H55V I/me/mine

    Pink Floyd has entered the chat.

  • Ken Hammond

    The “why bother voting” crowd is quite simply lazy, and deludes itself by imagining that they are the smart ones who have figured out the rigged system and refuse to participate, as if by doing so, that would somehow impress politicians to change their ways. Get real. Politicians would LOVE it if only 1% of the population bothered to vote. While the system definitely is corrupt, those lazy folks who stay home on election day make that corruption much easier and more effective.

  • Questioner

    A catastrophe like the one NASA boss believes will always be dark on the far side of the moon is ultimately the result of universal suffrage and democracy. Those elected reflect the characteristics of the electorate or those entitled to vote.

  • pzatchok

    All politics starts locally.And locally is the best place a normal person has to express their views and push forward their kind of candidate.
    Take the local offices and change will happen much faster. not as fast as you wish but imagine how that change would go if the other side was in total local power.

    Independents are just people afraid to say what side they really are on.
    Oh they claim they are fed up with what ever party they say they used to be a member of but are they actually in the middle philosophically or even leaning into the other party? No they are just upset over one or two things out of a thousand.

    Its the same problem with third parties. They never have much local support so they never have a national chance and if they do get elected statewide they almost never gain power and normally soon loose the next election.

    The American revolution was fought by less than 5% of the population with less than 20% support of the populous. All the while 50% of the populous was willing to stay with England and the King.
    That 50% though just sat back and did nothing so in the end they lost to those willing to make a sacrifice.
    Who is willing to make a sacrifice for our nation? Sacrifice your time at least.

  • wayne

    Pink Floyd –
    The Un-Buried Voices on Dark Side of the Moon
    https://youtu.be/CJvSzJphgT8
    (1:56)

  • wayne

    Hell on Wheels: Season 5, Episode 14.
    Thomas Durant Finale Speech
    https://youtu.be/o30_t_p7bTY
    4:53

  • Here is what turned me into a support-the-man-not-the-party independent, after two decades of loyalty to the GOP:

    The action that did more to get me to consider leaving the GOP than any other was the inclusion – in 1998, just four years after the Revolution – of funding in the federal budget for extra C-130 transport aircraft that the Pentagon did not deem essential to their plans. They were funded because the aircraft manufacturer is based in then House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s district, and because the aircraft are to be based in Mississippi — the home state of then Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.

    Around the same time, the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified to Congress about serious deficiencies in our basic military infrastructure — including the existence of 25,000 servicemen who had to receive food stamps to make ends meet!

    This example of misplaced priorities and inconsistency made it clear that the problems that the Revolution was supposed to remedy were not going to be remedied by these career politicians – and that the paradigm of professionally-pursued party politics worked against resolving our problems.

    Reinforcing my decision was the choices this (at-the-time) Illinois resident was presented for governor in 1998 – the GOP put forward George Ryan, a product of their Chicago machine; the Democrats (somehow defying their own Chicago machine) put forth down-state, pro-life, pro-2A Glenn Poshard, For only the second time in my life (the first was a family friend who was running for a local office, who ran under the Democrat label only to oppose the Republican candidate and was no Leftist), I voted for the Democrat – and in the defeat of my choice, my choice was validated when Ryan presided over a CDLs-for-cash scandal, then followed the grand tradition of IL governors transitioning from the State House to the Big House after his term on other charges.

    MUCH further reinforcement of my decision was perpetrated by the co-opting of the Tea Party movement by the professionals of the GOP, taking the movements support to advance their careers – and not much more – instead of resolutely pursuing the policies put forth by that movement in the face of the Obama Administration. The Left pursues their policies with resolve, whether in the majority or minority – why isn’t the GOP sticking to their stated principles and doing the same? Especially when they control both chambers of Congress AND the White House …. why wasn’t Congress making the resolute effort to turn Trump’s energy, trade, and immigration executive orders into laws that Biden couldn’t easily reverse?

    Yes, I’ve only voted for two Democrats in my life – even after all this. But I vote for most GOP candidates only because they are the least-worst option – damage control. I’m not looking for perfection – I’m looking for elected leadership that lives up to the reason governments are instituted among men – to secure our unalienable rights. Not to be placeholders who believe that just getting elected and holding a seat is doing their job.

    I’ve seen how we are being shortchanged by the complex Eisenhower left unmentioned in his farewell speech, while noting the military/industrial complex and the scientific/technological elite … the professional/political complex that has risen up since the end of his watch, with its career legislators, appointees, consultants and pollsters who act like Wall Street chart-men, instead of focusing upon securing our rights,

    Why should I support ANY party – as opposed to delivering my vote to individual candidates who have earned it, or are the least-worst option – that expects me to roll the boulder of their careers up the hill like Sisyphus, only to have its placeholding inertia obstruct our progress and eventually roll back over us?

    This graphic sums up our situation well:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a3cd8b996b3e1659d92b1c60574c74ffed634e237d2cc5177df1640d0274161.png

  • Russ Meyer

    Absolutely hysterical that so many of the commenters here are proving the author’s point about purity.

  • M Puckett

    I bet Jim Bridenstine wouldn’t have made that mistake.

  • James Street

    23 second video from a couple days ago of Trump titled “Man of We the People”. I didn’t see the context but Trump appears to be either on his way to or from court surrounded by his lawyers, staff and security when he sees a supporter and lets her take a picture of him with her family.

    Trump has the weight of the world on his shoulders but he’s always in control, always sees everything and never loses his humanity.
    https://t.ly/FZmCB

  • markedup2

    You’re not wrong, but I don’t necessarily agree with you, either.

    We’re oversaturated with stories and narratives. Life doesn’t work that way. Mr. Smith did not go to Washington. There is no Manchurian Candidate. George Baily is not a real person. Getting anything accomplished in politics requires compromise.

    That said, we’re promised narratives and given outhouses. Paul Ryan, Dan Crenshaw, and Mike Johnson come to mind (from earliest to latest). Even Russ Feingold impressed me, _before_ he was elected.

    I fell in line and voted for Thune in the general election. I voted for the “other guy” in the primary. The results were SO lopsided. The “other guy” ran a horrible campaign. No narrative. No story. No presence. Thune had name recognition, seniority, and pork on his side.

    As much as I don’t like agreeing with Democrats, we don’t need new candidates, we need new voters. Voters who don’t fall for stories – but everything in our lives is stories, now. How do you find those voters? Or wake up the existing ones?

    Would things be worse if SD had a Democratic senator? Probably. But we’re also getting to the “it’s all going to come apart, anyway” stage. Is sooner better or worse than later?

    I really, really dislike the philosophical implications of _The Fourth Turning_, but I’m starting to think they may be on to something. It’s going to take a massive, exogenous shock to get things reconfigured into something stable that we don’t all hate (it’s not as if the Democrats are enjoying what’s going on, now, either). On the bright side, Biden is trying to get WWIII going, which will do nicely as a massive, exogenous shock.

    Seven more years until I’m eligible for Social Security. I’m willing to bet my first check that I don’t get my first check, no matter who I vote for. (click my name for more)

    All that said, I’ll keep filling in the ovals for Republicans. It’s not going to make anything worse.

  • Edward

    Robert Zimmerman wrote: “And so, you all cede power to the thugs goons, and soon to be proud new Nazis.

    Which ones? The Democrats or the Republicans? Both are moving in that direction, racing each other for who will get there first.
    _______________
    Robert Pratt wrote: “The various state and local parties do not put forward primary candidates. Candidates, regular people, file to run in primaries

    Well, if there aren’t conservative Republicans running for office, then maybe there just aren’t that many conservatives left in the party.
    _______________
    Ken Hammond wrote: “The ‘why bother voting’ crowd is quite simply lazy, and deludes itself by imagining that they are the smart ones who have figured out the rigged system and refuse to participate, as if by doing so, that would somehow impress politicians to change their ways. Get real.

    Robert said it himself: vote for what you want to get.

    If conservatives went out and always voted for the most conservative candidate available to them, the power in Congress and in local legislatures would quickly shift rightward. It would also encourage other individuals even more conservative to run for office.

    Although this seems like the most logical strategy, it hasn’t worked for the past couple of decades or so. This assumes that the most conservative candidate available would win, but as we have seen, the rest of the Republican voters are not willing to vote that same way. They go farther left, explaining why the party is moving to the left, not back to the right. This strategy is how we got here, today. It doesn’t work. Republicans have compromised away America into whatever it is we have now. It is not the solution. A new strategy is needed.

    If the conservative is not available, then there is no sense in voting. Until a conservative party comes along, my strategy has become: vote only for the candidate worth voting for. If the Republican Party is not willing to present that candidate, then I won’t be voting Republican.

    Frankly, guys, you just aren’t convincing me that you even want my support back. You don’t seem willing to earn my support with worthy candidates. You are just complaining that I won’t go along to get along. You guys may web willing to vote for the people who continue to take the country down the drain, but I won’t.

  • Getting anything accomplished in politics requires compromise.

    markedup2, how much of what our politicians try to accomplish, should they – and the administrative state – be involved with AT ALL? Especially when their human limitations limit their reliability, when it comes to accomplishing things that do not harm at least some of us?

    These questions are not asked enough, and seriously enough … instead, Our Democracy™ operates under the assumption that, because politicians are elected to office, they can propose and implement almost anything deemed to be in the “common good”/”greater good” – even if it demands that some of us to “take one for the team” and have harm forced upon us.

    This fundamental compromise of those self-evident truths our nation was founded to respect and protect, is a big reason why politicians can do so much harm in the name of doing good as they do well for themselves. We cede the power to intervene to them, simply because they have been elected.

    Unalienable rights supersede a majority vote. We voters have forgotten that, and have become suckers for the sales pitches of social snake-oil salesmen who promise to solve our problems FOR us if we just SUBMIT.

  • pzatchok

    Teach the children how you want the future to look.
    Teach them to be the conservative leaders of the future.

    Or just hope and pray they accidentally become what you want them to be.

    We have spent 50 years hoping and praying and look what it has given us.
    Its time to take back our education systems.

  • Max

    Robert Pratt asked;
    What does this mean, “The Party won’t give conservatives to us for primary elections…”?

    In Utah, Democrats do not have to register as a Democrat but the Republicans do. So the Democrats register as Republicans so they can vote for the most progressive rhino of their choosing. The rhinos control the state nearly as bad as they do in Arizona. (A red state that supports every progressive measure that pops up including recently indicting the lawyers that represent Trump)

    For example, a carpet bagger from Massachusetts had prostate surgery and did his convalescing in a ski lodge in Utah Making himself eligible as a resident to run for office. (Despite his real residence/mansions in Florida and Massachusetts…) that’s right, Mitt Romney, Massachusetts third senator.
    He came in third place when the coccus voted for the Republican who would represent the party on the Utah ballot. So Mitt Romney ran a “write in” campaign. (which was later deemed illegal after he was elected) to get his name on the ballot against the party wishes. (One website was strongly for him, a second website was “against” and was presumably collecting signatures to keep him off the ballot… And it turned out that both websites was ran by Mitt Romney from a dirty tricks firm responsible for removing Republicans in California.)
    Another house representative Curtis was the head of the Democrat party in Utah County… He was tired of losing elections so he switched parties (in name only) he votes with and goes to parties with the Democrats in Washington DC now. None of Utah’s representatives are conservative accept Mike Lee who has one of the best voting records ever.
    Matter of fact, Mike Lee just yesterday endorsed a candidate to take mitt Romney‘s place because he is desperate to get more conservatives in Congress. (He’s never endorsed anyone before)
    Unfortunately, Oral Hatch Junior wants his fathers old seat as senator and of course he went to all the best Ivy League schools so you know how he will vote.

    I remember the first speech given by The new President O-Biden… he said he was going to send IRS agents to the Cayman Islands to find all those billionaire bank accounts that weren’t paying taxes…. their fair share! Mitt Romney‘s son tag runs the largest billionaire hedge fund for other billionaires out of the Caymans… Now you know why Romney always votes with the Democrats. Who can you trust? Even Trump made several trips to pedophile island…

    As a sidenote, did you see all the Ukrainian flags that popped up and were being waived by your representatives after the vote to send billions to other nations to guard their borders? Yeah… That was illegal and it was in your face.

    When the constitution is being ignored, not enforced… The rule of law is thrown out the window and it’s every man for himself. Gangs are ruling the streets. The useful idiots on campuses don’t have a chance against well armed gangs competing for territory.
    There is no honor among thieves and the Democrats are stabbing each other in the back competing for who can out “woke” the other while the game of revolution rises to the next level and has no patience with the fantasies of the incompetent.

  • Max

    Edward;
    I’ve been disillusioned with the party since I was 18 years old when Ronald Reagan broke a promise not to raise taxes!
    Tip O’Neill promised him that he would cut spending three dollars for every dollar raised. My first lesson in life that politicians lie… And politicians that used to be actors lie the best.
    Reagan, Clinton, read my hips bush, all broke promises not to raise taxes. (in Utah we did our state taxes by dividing our federal taxes Gross by .5… that means our state taxes went up without any state legislative action, riding along with the federal raise which is also illegal but no one caught it or did anything about it… I had a meeting about this with my district representative and he just smiled and shrugged)

    So I joined the Tea party after a short time with the Ron Paul Libertarians. After 10 years of fighting we got a Utah constitutional amendment for term limits!
    We won!
    The maximum anyone can hold office was two 4 year terms starting in eight years from it’s passing.
    After seven years, legislation passed repealing term limits.

    It’s hard not to be bitter. I begin reading more history so I can be better prepared for what’s coming. I can no longer search the Internet for anything without getting five pages of fact checks! (that are all obviously wrong)
    The dark age of science is here, with unrealized income tax, digital currency, mandatory vaccinations on the horizon… heck, they just announced conservatives, Christians, homeschoolers, conspiracy people are terrorists! Homeland security is coming for all of us.

  • GaryMike

    RZ &KH,

    “And so, you all cede power to the thugs goons, and soon to be proud new Nazis. Congratulations. I once thought Americans had courage. Now they fold like cowards.”

    I said: “I, too, no longer have a reason to stand in line for hours to vote on MACHINES WITH INAUDITABLE PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE, within a system encouraging INAUDITABLE MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and NO WAY TO AUDIT THE COUNTING PROCESSES.

    If I HAVE NO WAY TO KNOW THAT THE VOTE I CAST IS THE VOTE ACTUALLY COUNTED, I have no reason to believe that standing in line matters at all.

    You are stuck on a different page.

    The system is engineered for election corruption. Instead of doing the blame & shame thing, get off your butts and actually do something about it. Assuming you can.

  • john hare

    As long as people expect government to be the answer, this discussion will not close. From MIC to food stamps to space exploitation and back, the majority of people now expect the government to lead. That is the basic problem that has to be addressed. Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Right, and Left, have just become tribal labels thrown around for influence. For change to happen, people with desire for the change will have to learn to think for themselves, and solve for themselves.

    Until things move in the direction of people thinking and acting in their own best interests long term, nothing changes. Look to Washington for solutions, and get Washington’s’ solution. The rest is almost irrelevant.

  • Edward

    Max,
    As I said, they don’t represent our interests. We are not being represented. Taxed, yes. Represented, no.

    However, tax raises are small potatoes compared to sticking us with the horrific Obamacare that they left us with. We will be stuck with it for decades, like the British are stuck with their National Ailment System and their bad teeth. They promised to kill it if we gave them the House, so we did. Then said that they needed the Senate, too, so we gave them that, too. Then they said that they had to have the presidency, too, but when they got that, they turned on the president and turned on us. The Republican Party turned on its own constituents and McCained us. What good are they when they screw us as hard as the Democrats do? What a pack of useless idiots.
    _______________
    john hare wrote: “As long as people expect government to be the answer, this discussion will not close.

    The Republican Party was founded on the principle that power external to the individual is bad, that a smaller government is better than a larger, more powerful government. Somehow, the party has lost its way. It is the party, not the government, that is supposed to protect us from an overbearing government. That is why it is We the People who run for office, not they the governors. Government has its uses, but the Republicans have allowed compromises to let government grow into a huge behemoth that now controls our healthcare, steals our money, and uses its “right” to that theft as an excuse to tell us what to do, what to wear, and what we must and must not say.

    Big government is the problem. Small government can protect our rights and act as a disinterested third party to peaceably resolve disputes. Anything more than that is a usurpation of rights. In the USA, government only has the rights expressly given to it in the Constitution.

  • wayne

    These are the idiots….

    Dave Smith
    Part Of The Problem 1118 (April 27, 2024)
    “McConnell Blames Tucker for Dissent”
    https://youtu.be/xw2X6ED2Fac
    (1:02:23)

    “On this episode, Dave and Robbie take a look at Mitch McConnell blaming Tucker Carlson for the dissent on college campuses in America about the war on Russia.”

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