President Donald J. Trump

[SredniVashtar]

Says the man who took his screen name from a ferret.

I said I'll contact you if I want bargain basement observations and lame attempts at humour.

[analog kid]

The pretend media.  This threatens the narrative, and must be discredited.

It was debunked. The context of the text was released, it was sarcasm. The woman was trying to get her colleague to release his calendar, and joked that she must need to be in a secret society to see it. Fox News and the Republicans saw that phrase in a random text and thought it would play well with the base. Despite their just being caught red handed, lying about it, we'll still be hearing it ten years from now on the interwebs.

[WOTR]

...WOTR has been a member for a long long time and he has always been independent-minded.  I value his opinion even if I may not agree with it all of the time. 

I appreciate the comment 21.  You know that you are in the category as a poster who I believe has thought through his arguments and who I respect.  Generally you make points worth considering and comments that can provoke thought.   Quite often I even find that I am in agreement with you (with the exception, of course, of those times when you are wrong.) 

I agree with you that it is more interesting to have some posters like YP.  It is interesting to see where people are coming from even if you don't agree...

[Radio Activity]

I said I'll contact you if I want bargain basement observations and lame attempts at humour.

Thanks. I must have missed that part. Next time I'll try harder to give a fuck.

[WOTR]

OK, so you're widely read and yet you still believe in communism?! Something's not adding up here.

Funny that is the conclusion that you reach.  Based on my voting record, I would say that most people might think that I am pretty far right.  Back in the day, the conservatives were not far enough right (in many cases they still are not.  They are for big government with more power for the state, less privacy, more corporate hand outs and more debt.) 

Back then I voted Reform with Preston Manning as I honestly hoped that a leader who did not want to run a party like a dictatorship or a country like a bank account would be a good choice.  He was not polished, did not talk well, was not liked by the establishment and the media did a better smear job on him that they have on Trump.  Since he has been gone and they merged the Reform and the Conservatives (Read they are the same old Conservative party who retained none of what Reform was about.)  Now provincially the Wild Rose has been swallowed up by the Conservative party and idiots are cheering less choice and more of the status quo as being the only solution to removing the NDP.  (The wild rose at least had some true conservative policies while the Conservative party ruled for half a century and is the most corrupt party with policies that I would deem Liberal that you will ever encounter.)  I spoiled my ballot in one provincial election and one federal election when the choices became too unpalatable.

Generally, I can see both sides of an argument.  Often times, both have some merit and sometimes it is fun to post things here.  I find it interesting that because I don't strictly parrot the talking points of the right that somebody would think that they know how I vote and what I decide after looking at both sides...

I know that I have told the story before when a pollster called me (2008?) and asked "if you could vote, would you vote for Obama or McCain.  I answered "Ron Paul."  They told me that was not an option... Obama or McCain.  I told them again, "Ron Paul."  This went on for quite some time.  Them insisting that Ron Paul is not an option, my telling them that is the only candidate that I would consider voting for.  Finally, they gave up.

Now, it is not that Ron Paul represents everything that I believe... But he came closer than any recent politician...

If anybody has actually read this far- can you spoil or refuse a ballot in the US?  I cannot see how you could spoil it intentionally (you cannot make a chad hang on purpose.)   Could you walk into the booth and emerge in 15 minutes to announce that you cannot possibly bring yourself to pull the lever and walk away without making a choice?

[Dr. MD MD]

As someone who regularly advocates violence against public figures you might want to take the 'joking around' defence more seriously.

I already do. I figure if you guys can get away with it it's open season.

[Dr. MD MD]

Funny that is the conclusion that you reach.  Based on my voting record, I would say that most people might think that I am pretty far right.  Back in the day, the conservatives were not far enough right (in many cases they still are not.  They are for big government with more power for the state, less privacy, more corporate hand outs and more debt.) 

Back then I voted Reform with Preston Manning as I honestly hoped that a leader who did not want to run a party like a dictatorship or a country like a bank account would be a good choice.  He was not polished, did not talk well, was not liked by the establishment and the media did a better smear job on him that they have on Trump.  Since he has been gone and they merged the Reform and the Conservatives (Read they are the same old Conservative party who retained none of what Reform was about.)  Now provincially the Wild Rose has been swallowed up by the Conservative party and idiots are cheering less choice and more of the status quo as being the only solution to removing the NDP.  (The wild rose at least had some true conservative policies while the Conservative party ruled for half a century and is the most corrupt party with policies that I would deem Liberal that you will ever encounter.)  I spoiled my ballot in one provincial election and one federal election when the choices became too unpalatable.

Generally, I can see both sides of an argument.  Often times, both have some merit and sometimes it is fun to post things here.  I find it interesting that because I don't strictly parrot the talking points of the right that somebody would think that they know how I vote and what I decide after looking at both sides...

I know that I have told the story before when a pollster called me (2008?) and asked "if you could vote, would you vote for Obama or McCain.  I answered "Ron Paul."  They told me that was not an option... Obama or McCain.  I told them again, "Ron Paul."  This went on for quite some time.  Them insisting that Ron Paul is not an option, my telling them that is the only candidate that I would consider voting for.  Finally, they gave up.

Now, it is not that Ron Paul represents everything that I believe... But he came closer than any recent politician...

If anybody has actually read this far- can you spoil or refuse a ballot in the US?  I cannot see how you could spoil it intentionally (you cannot make a chad hang on purpose.)   Could you walk into the booth and emerge in 15 minutes to announce that you cannot possibly bring yourself to pull the lever and walk away without making a choice?

So, if you have a history of voting conservative in your own country what's your problem with Trump?

[Dr. MD MD]

I appreciate the comment 21.  You know that you are in the category as a poster who I believe has thought through his arguments and who I respect.  Generally you make points worth considering and comments that can provoke thought.   Quite often I even find that I am in agreement with you (with the exception, of course, of those times when you are wrong.) 

I agree with you that it is more interesting to have some posters like YP.  It is interesting to see where people are coming from even if you don't agree...

Really?! He changes his mind more than his underwear and really seems more interested in catty gossip than political thought but if you say so. I think I understand where your standards are now.  :

[Dr. MD MD]

[Dr. MD MD]

[Dr. MD MD]

[Kidnostad3]

So, you can't point to anything that indicates that they were joking around then. Got it!

SV’s always weak on facts but, ya gotta give it to him, he’s got an eye for misspellings.

[PB the Deplorable]

I'll bookmark and hit you up the next time I'm in the mood for fortune cookie wisdom.

Here in Berkeley the deep thinkers communicate with bumper stickers

[Dr. MD MD]

[Dr. MD MD]

SV’s always weak on facts but, ya gotta give it to him, he’s got an eye for misspellings.

I know! It's all feelz with that guy and he thinks I'm "on the spectrum."

Well, I better stop now before he starts screaming and hitting himself in the head.

[SredniVashtar]

MD and Kidnostad, a match made in heaven: Asperger's meets Alzheimer's.

[Billy Joe Mulgreavey]

Christ on a bike! Get a control of your Asperger's! Adults don't need to telegraph things with (I can't believe I have to point this out) winky faces. Children do. Adults don't.

I kind of like smiley faces and whatnot.  It sure beats an opening sentence (of yours) which starts out:  "Shut your whore mouth."  lol.

[Kidnostad3]

MD and Kidnostad, a match made in heaven: Asperger's meets Alzheimer's.

What would you call someone who is romantically involved with his ferret?  Check your medical record and get back to us on this. 

[Yorkshire pud]

So, if you have a history of voting conservative in your own country what's your problem with Trump?

You don't get it do you? Trump has no ideology, neither left or right. His 'loyalty' is to himself and only himself, and he expects that from everyone else. Note the complete lack of outrage extended to Steve Wynn that was (rightly) extended to Harvey Weinstein...The difference being, Wynn was only the RNC finance chairman (until two days ago) and a very good acquaintance of Trump. Funny the Trumpers aren't all angry about that isn't it?

[Yorkshire pud]

MD and Kidnostad, a match made in heaven: Asperger's meets Alzheimer's.

In fairness they have rendezvous problems. MD never leaves his basement and Kidnostad refuses to visit him. So they have to conduct their assignations in virtual reality.

[Yorkshire pud]

I kind of like smiley faces and whatnot.  It sure beats an opening sentence (of yours) which starts out:  "Shut your whore mouth."  lol.

And? That's a tried and tested first date opening gambit..It never fails.

[SredniVashtar]

What would you call someone who is romantically involved with his ferret?

If this is the opening joke for your comedy set at the senior's centre, the punchline had better be really good, because the set-up is lousy. And can we really call it 'stand-up' when you lost the use of your gouty legs over a decade ago?

Maybe it's not Alzheimer's. Perhaps it's a good old-fashioned case of tertiary syphilis caught from a Shanghai rent boy.

[Yorkshire pud]

It was debunked. The context of the text was released, it was sarcasm. The woman was trying to get her colleague to release his calendar, and joked that she must need to be in a secret society to see it. Fox News and the Republicans saw that phrase in a random text and thought it would play well with the base. Despite their just being caught red handed, lying about it, we'll still be hearing it ten years from now on the interwebs.

STOP. MAKING. SENSE. Hannity and the Trumpers aren't interested in context. It makes perfect sense to them that anyone would openly mention a secret society in a text with the words 'secret society'.

[pate]

...

If anybody has actually read this far- can you spoil or refuse a ballot in the US?  I cannot see how you could spoil it intentionally (you cannot make a chad hang on purpose.)   Could you walk into the booth and emerge in 15 minutes to announce that you cannot possibly bring yourself to pull the lever and walk away without making a choice?

I did once.  My voting precinct uses "scan-tron" ballots (you use a pencil and darken the little oval next to your candidate's name or the line for the person you write in) you feed this sheet into a machine, which counts and stores your ballot.

A few months ago there was a special election to vote for the board of directors for a new special tax district.  Now, this tax district was created by one of the most fucked special election I have ever seen in this town.  It was a mail-in only election, you had to be a resident or property owner in the proposed district, and had to file a ballot request before a deadline, then receive and return your notarized ballot before another deadline.

I only found out about this mail-in special election because I happened to actually read a political flyer I got in the mail (I usually scribble dicks in candidates mouths and write derogatory stuff on the flyers, tear my address off then throw it out as litter somewhere it might possibly be looked at.)

I almost didn't get my mail-in ballot before the final dead-line and had to call city-hall about it.  Apparently, quite a few people didn't recieve their mail-in ballots in time.  Out of I would guess 100,000 eligble voters for this special tax district, approximately 2,000 successfully filed a ballot.  The measure narrowly passed.  

Again, I found out about it from an opposition flyer I got in the mail.  I never recieved the registered voter card that they send before an upcoming election on this one, it's not a voter id card, it just has your name and address on it and tells you when and where the polling place will be, which is almost always the same place.  That place for me is the community center just down the street.  Incidentally the special election for the "board of directors" for this bullshit tax-district was in a completely different place.  In my twenty years of living in this house, I have ALWAYS voted at that community center, this "board of directors" for the special tax district was held in a church not the community center.  Very weird.

Anyhow, for the actual walk-in election for the "board of directors" I was going to write in "Mickey Mouse" for my five selections for the board of directors as a protest.  When I got to the polling place, I signed out my ballot from the poll workers and saw that there was no place for a write-in.  I asked them about it, and they just shrugged and said try feeding a blank ballot in.  I didn't want to turn in an un-marked ballot so I wrote "Mickey Mouse X5" under the list of names and fed it into machine which rejected the ballot.  The poll workers wanted to give me another ballot, but I was so pissed at that point that I took the one I had marked with me and left the polling place.  I went home with the ballot, got a black Sharpie and wrote in huge letters on it "MICKEY MOUSE BULLSHIT X5."  I then took this defiled ballot and found a telephone pole near the polling place that had lots of pedestrian traffic and stapled it to the pole.  My civil disobedience urge was fulfilled.

The ballot stayed up on that telephone pole for a few months.  But I still get to pay a special property tax for a bullshit street-car system that I will never use. I am still pissed off about this crap.  My brother even more so, he already has a "special tax levy" for the existing line that is getting extended and apparently falls into the new special tax district created for the extension of the line, he believes he will be hit with the tax twice!

I think if it is such a great thing economically that it should be paid for with usage fees, not from special property taxes only levied on properties in a 1 mile corridor along the street-car line.  It is so fucked.  I think it's illegal how they did it...

Apogees...

---------------------------------------

In short,

...

If anybody has actually read this far- can you spoil or refuse a ballot in the US?  I cannot see how you could spoil it intentionally (you cannot make a chad hang on purpose.)   Could you walk into the booth and emerge in 15 minutes to announce that you cannot possibly bring yourself to pull the lever and walk away without making a choice?

Yes.  I did once.

[Kidnostad3]

If this is the opening joke for your comedy set at the senior's centre, the punchline had better be really good, because the set-up is lousy. And can we really call it 'stand-up' when you lost the use of your gouty legs over a decade ago?

Maybe it's not Alzheimer's. Perhaps it's a good old-fashioned case of tertiary syphilis caught from a Shanghai rent boy.

Okay, so let’s just say that you are an anally receptive pet lover rather than a ferett fucker in the interest of Anglo-American relations.

[GravitySucks]

Funny that is the conclusion that you reach.  Based on my voting record, I would say that most people might think that I am pretty far right.  Back in the day, the conservatives were not far enough right (in many cases they still are not.  They are for big government with more power for the state, less privacy, more corporate hand outs and more debt.) 

Back then I voted Reform with Preston Manning as I honestly hoped that a leader who did not want to run a party like a dictatorship or a country like a bank account would be a good choice.  He was not polished, did not talk well, was not liked by the establishment and the media did a better smear job on him that they have on Trump.  Since he has been gone and they merged the Reform and the Conservatives (Read they are the same old Conservative party who retained none of what Reform was about.)  Now provincially the Wild Rose has been swallowed up by the Conservative party and idiots are cheering less choice and more of the status quo as being the only solution to removing the NDP.  (The wild rose at least had some true conservative policies while the Conservative party ruled for half a century and is the most corrupt party with policies that I would deem Liberal that you will ever encounter.)  I spoiled my ballot in one provincial election and one federal election when the choices became too unpalatable.

Generally, I can see both sides of an argument.  Often times, both have some merit and sometimes it is fun to post things here.  I find it interesting that because I don't strictly parrot the talking points of the right that somebody would think that they know how I vote and what I decide after looking at both sides...

I know that I have told the story before when a pollster called me (2008?) and asked "if you could vote, would you vote for Obama or McCain.  I answered "Ron Paul."  They told me that was not an option... Obama or McCain.  I told them again, "Ron Paul."  This went on for quite some time.  Them insisting that Ron Paul is not an option, my telling them that is the only candidate that I would consider voting for.  Finally, they gave up.

Now, it is not that Ron Paul represents everything that I believe... But he came closer than any recent politician...

If anybody has actually read this far- can you spoil or refuse a ballot in the US?  I cannot see how you could spoil it intentionally (you cannot make a chad hang on purpose.)   Could you walk into the booth and emerge in 15 minutes to announce that you cannot possibly bring yourself to pull the lever and walk away without making a choice?

We use an electronic voting system in my precinct. You have to scroll theough every raced and every ballot initiave (but you can vote straight party for republican or democrat). You don’t have to make a selection for any of the measures. Once you have at least looked at every race, you hit “submit ballot“. I often submit a ballot when I have abstained from voting in at least a few races or on certain ballot initiatives. Sometimes I don’t care enough about those, sometimes i am not familiar with the candy/issues and sometimes a candidate is running unopposed. I have never tried to submit a ballot when nothing is selected. Our elections include federal, state, county and city offices, state constitution amendments, bond measures, and non-binding ballot initiatives so I cannot envision submitting a ballot that didn’t have at least one vote.

[GravitySucks]

It was debunked. The context of the text was released, it was sarcasm. The woman was trying to get her colleague to release his calendar, and joked that she must need to be in a secret society to see it. Fox News and the Republicans saw that phrase in a random text and thought it would play well with the base. Despite their just being caught red handed, lying about it, we'll still be hearing it ten years from now on the interwebs.

How do you know that was sarcasm? Sounds like collaboration to me.

[Kidnostad3]

You don't get it do you? Trump has no ideology, neither left or right. His 'loyalty' is to himself and only himself, and he expects that from everyone else. Note the complete lack of outrage extended to Steve Wynn that was (rightly) extended to Harvey Weinstein...The difference being, Wynn was only the RNC finance chairman (until two days ago) and a very good acquaintance of Trump. Funny the Trumpers aren't all angry about that isn't it?

Fuck ideology.  He get’s shit done.

[GravitySucks]

Fuck ideology.  He get’s shit done.

Exactly. The only ideology that republicans and democrats seem to both be committed to is re-election.

[Kidnostad3]

I did once.  My voting precinct uses "scan-tron" ballots (you use a pencil and darken the little oval next to your candidate's name or the line for the person you write in) you feed this sheet into a machine, which counts and stores your ballot.

A few months ago there was a special election to vote for the board of directors for a new special tax district.  Now, this tax district was created by one of the most fucked special election I have ever seen in this town.  It was a mail-in only election, you had to be a resident or property owner in the proposed district, and had to file a ballot request before a deadline, then receive and return your notarized ballot before another deadline.

I only found out about this mail-in special election because I happened to actually read a political flyer I got in the mail (I usually scribble dicks in candidates mouths and write derogatory stuff on the flyers, tear my address off then throw it out as litter somewhere it might possibly be looked at.)

I almost didn't get my mail-in ballot before the final dead-line and had to call city-hall about it.  Apparently, quite a few people didn't recieve their mail-in ballots in time.  Out of I would guess 100,000 eligble voters for this special tax district, approximately 2,000 successfully filed a ballot.  The measure narrowly passed.  

Again, I found out about it from an opposition flyer I got in the mail.  I never recieved the registered voter card that they send before an upcoming election on this one, it's not a voter id card, it just has your name and address on it and tells you when and where the polling place will be, which is almost always the same place.  That place for me is the community center just down the street.  Incidentally the special election for the "board of directors" for this bullshit tax-district was in a completely different place.  In my twenty years of living in this house, I have ALWAYS voted at that community center, this "board of directors" for the special tax district was held in a church not the community center.  Very weird.

Anyhow, for the actual walk-in election for the "board of directors" I was going to write in "Mickey Mouse" for my five selections for the board of directors as a protest.  When I got to the polling place, I signed out my ballot from the poll workers and saw that there was no place for a write-in.  I asked them about it, and they just shrugged and said try feeding a blank ballot in.  I didn't want to turn in an un-marked ballot so I wrote "Mickey Mouse X5" under the list of names and fed it into machine which rejected the ballot.  The poll workers wanted to give me another ballot, but I was so pissed at that point that I took the one I had marked with me and left the polling place.  I went home with the ballot, got a black Sharpie and wrote in huge letters on it "MICKEY MOUSE BULLSHIT X5."  I then took this defiled ballot and found a telephone pole near the polling place that had lots of pedestrian traffic and stapled it to the pole.  My civil disobedience urge was fulfilled.

The ballot stayed up on that telephone pole for a few months.  But I still get to pay a special property tax for a bullshit street-car system that I will never use. I am still pissed off about this crap.  My brother even more so, he already has a "special tax levy" for the existing line that is getting extended and apparently falls into the new special tax district created for the extension of the line, he believes he will be hit with the tax twice!

I think if it is such a great thing economically that it should be paid for with usage fees, not from special property taxes only levied on properties in a 1 mile corridor along the street-car line.  It is so fucked.  I think it's illegal how they did it...

Apogees...

---------------------------------------

In short,Yes.  I did once.

I find defecating in the polling booth to be an effective way of communicating that one doesn’t like the choices.