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Far from the what crowd? Hint: Thomas Hardy. 1 word, beginning with 'm'. Spelling is important:
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Topic Summary

Posted by: Citizen XXX
« on: June 17, 2024 »

I've decided to vote in the US presidential election after all, the "faff" involved being a poor excuse. As I cannot in good conscience support either of the main parties, I had a look at third-party and independent candidates. Barring any troubling revelations, I am tentatively prepared to endorse



the Prohibition Party. Founded 154 years ago, it is the oldest existing third party in the United States.


All the teetotallers in one room - what fun!

Some things I like about them. List grabbed from their Wikipedia page:
- A non-interventionist foreign policy
- Pro-choice
- Anti death penalty
- Abolition of the Federal Reserve
- Strict laws against usury. Definitely down with usury.
- A fully funded Social Security system
- Increased spending on public works projects
- Job training programs paid for by tariffs
- Free college education for all Americans
- Want to abolish state lotteries
- Opposition to testing on animals, and the use of animals in sport
- Fair trade
- Use of human rights considerations in determining most favored nation status
- Opposition to pornography. I think we could at least use a little pushback at this point.

Things I don't mind about them:
- They want so-called blue laws prohibiting employers in all fields except public safety from requiring employees to work on the Sabbath, aka Sunday for us heathens. Sure, why not.
- Campaigns to promote temperance. Good luck with that! But I admire the sheer implausibility of it. The fact that I don't drink actually didn't enter into my decision-making process.
- Opposition to physician-assisted suicide

Things I'm not so keen on:
- A strict interpretation of the Second Amendment
- Opposition to attempts to remove religion from the public square
- Prohibition of all non-medicinal drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. Let's see how that temperance campaign goes first, shall we?
- Frankly their name is a bit of a downer
- Free college education for all Americans. I don't rate a college education at all these days, so this would be a huge waste of money.

Their presidential nominee this year is a guy called Michael Wood. I don't know who that is and am not even going to bother googling. Their pick for VP is from Ohio. So am I!

Not sure what the camel is about.


XXX?
Posted by: Citizen XY
« on: June 10, 2024 »

Checked the results of my poll – not normally something it occurs to me to do – and was surprised to see two more supporters for Jon. Unfortunately he doesn't have a platform other than 'Winter is coming'.

It turns out I get to vote for someone nonfictional after all: Julia Long. As the Party Of Women currently has 16 candidates standing in 650 parliamentary constituencies, this feels a little like winning the lottery.

Happy to admit I'm a single issue voter: reality.



That's Julia back in 2019, recording herself getting kicked out of an inclusive event.


The gap between her front teeth also swayed me, as I can relate.

On edit:
This is interesting: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/80776/nigel-adam-jacklin
Another candidate who has pledged to protect single sex spaces and sports. Plus he's listed a favourite biscuit – Nairns Gluten Free. That has me wavering, as we have a coeliac in the house.
Posted by: Citizen X
« on: May 27, 2024 »

On second thought, Jon Snow is happy up north. He probably sees the aurora borealis all the time. Let's leave him in peace.

~

In 2000 I voted for Ralph Nader. Despite that he's blamed for Bush winning (the Supreme Court also had something to do with it, as well as tens of millions of Republicans), that remains the only one I don't regret, including Obama in 2008. You may call me naïve; I think any vote for someone you're pretty sure is going to make things worse is the wasted vote.


Obligatory George Carlin (because of this), unfortunately being interviewed by someone who turned out to be a sex creep, and yes it's a confusing title as Carlin died two erection cycles before filming. I also wonder if he'd change his tune re: "the beauty of the individual" circa 2024, but that's by the by...

This year I probably won't be voting in the US election (it's not worth the faff), and here at home I'll be writing "Party of Women" on my ballot, which alas counts as spoiling it,* there being nobody standing in my area. Back in the land of the free™ you're allowed to write candidates in and have them be counted.


KJK doesn't start addressing the crowd until around 3 minutes, and discusses the recent furore over her remarks about discriminating against men who say they're women and women who say they're men and people who claim they're neither. It's a lot easier saying "trans" than that mouthful, and I usually do, but I'm also of a view that it's a nonsense word at this point.

"You all belong to the cult now."

"I don't use any filters. I use a lot of light."

"Party of Women is about disrupting the broken political process that we have."

Works for me.

Quote from: probably a woman
The thing about KJK is that she brings out of the woodwork people who want to scold women, particularly articulate interesting women who speak up for women's rights. Moths to the flame. They can't help themselves.


*I read a story, don't know if it's true, that someone drew one of these bad boys on their ballot, and as it penetrated a box, they counted it as a vote for that person. So I'll be careful where I write it.
Posted by: sam
« on: May 26, 2024 »

My plan to avoid reading or watching anything about the election has been shot to hell almost immediately.

Rishi trying to channel JFK.

Quote from: X
National service to a country that doesn’t give a fuck about you? Sure.

Quote
National Service for all youngsters...every pensioner gets one free egg on St Swithin's Day...if your car is red you must pick up anyone waiting at a bus stop...training cats to work on cyber-defence...hire magicians to make crime vanish...unemployed to be sent to cull goblins.

(Alan Partridge has been called into service again - this is better than the others I've seen)

Quote
They get PTSD from the wrong pronouns, good luck with that one.
Posted by: sam
« on: May 24, 2024 »

That's clickbait. Who you vote for is none of my concern.


I mean, feel free to share,

Don't vote human, they'll only let you down

but I'm not going to try to convince you to vote for anyone in particular.

I favour Jon Snow, who knows how to make the tough decisions.