I'm writing elsewhere but I care passionately about this topic.  Here is what I had to say this morning: https://liveonearth.dreamwidth.org/1413541.html

 Seems like neither side will take the other side's point.  Dems, it makes sense to discourage people from using their children as a way to get into the US.  Reps, it's not fair to treat every desperate person who illegally crosses the border as a vicious criminal.  Let's talk about this, and Dems stop harping on "inflicting harm on the children" (one of the oldest lines in the book of politicians), at least until you address the issue more deeply than that.  I'm tired of it too.  And I pretty much despise both parties and their talking points.  And our asinine prez.  Ugh.

I've been keeping my mouth mostly shut about out political situation because I find myself disagreeing with much of what is said on all sides.  Trump is clearly delusional, and generates his own "alternate reality" which is how he has managed to get this far.  Humans are susceptable to anyone who has certainty, and tend to adopt the views of a person who knows the truth.  This is the secret of gurus everywhere.  Be certain and people will believe.  It doesn't matter if the truth they know is not true.  All it really needs is truthiness and regular repetition to be adopted.

Only 26% of registered voters actually voted for Trump.  That 26% includes several people who are dear to me, whose thoughts and opinions I respect.  The most common reason cited for their vote is hating Hillary.  In most every election that I've voted in, I've voted more against someone than for.  Only when I vote for 3rd party candidates can I really say I'm voting FOR someone.  Both the Dems and the Reps are corrupt, and have been so for a long time.  Every candidate who gains their party's nomination does so by agreeing to tow the line, to serve the corporate donors and perpetuate the corruption that has our nation's nuts in a vise.  Ethical candidates will never get those nominations; they must compromise with greed.  The Republicans elect dummies, actors, class clowns and now a narcissist.  It's embarassing.  Obama was smart and thought he coud do some good but had to quash his own ethics to serve as a Dem.  He tried to do no harm and it cost him dearly.

I worry that Americans are so idiotic as to really believe Trump's denigration of the media.  Our media is not perfect.  They parrot each other, and stories become more simplistic and less nuanced with each repetition.  Few outlets do deep investigative reporting, but some do!  They will be hard at work in the years to come making sure that somebody actually understands what is going on.  If you are one of those who believes that all media is corrupt and Trump's twitter feed is the source of truth, your IQ must be <85.  A friend of mine recently reminded me that "half of everybody is below average", well that may be true but even the less bright can have bullshit detectors that work.  I hope everybody's BS detectors are getting tuned up on this nonsense.

I also disagree with the out-freaking I hear from the Democrats.  If our nation and institutions are so fragile that one demagogue can tear them completely apart, then it was never going to stand in the first place.  America is an experiment, not a guarantee.  Nations come and go.  Species come and go.  We may not be one of the longer-lived species.  We have no hope of competing with cockroaches or horsetail.  So lighten up already.  Laws are made and repealed.  Nations are created and fall.  The planet is already infested with us.  Ten out of ten people die.  This is the way of the world, and freaking out doesn't do anyone any good.  Be an activist in the resistance if it suits you, but don't have a stroke.  Let's all just take a deep breath, and then a few more.

The group that I do not hear speaking up today are the once-upon-a-time small government anti-corporate libertarians.  Where did you go?  Why aren't you speaking up?  Are you holding your nose in the back row of the Republican party?  Perhaps you are simply happy that so many regulations will fall, that every bureacracy under the executive branch will be decomissioned, and that government will indeed shrink.  Do you not care that the new form will be fascism?  Do you not care that your fishing streams and forests full of game will be poisoned by industrial gasses and runoff?  Subsistence survival gets a lot harder when the environment is destroyed.  We might need those rivers for something other than kayaking.

I keep reading in the media that the record Latino turnout at the polls is a new "firewall" or somesuch for Democrats.  Well that may apply in this election, but don't count on it in the future.  Latinos are independent and have been provoked to vote for their own interests.  Trump voters have provided a new impetus for the Republican party to stop shafting its lower income voters.  If the R party can respond in any effective way to this challenge it could result in a shift in the demographics of both parties.

*First use of new tag: hispanic.  This population now activated is likely to become a powerful force in US politics.  Too bad they're so Catholic.

Listening to the media reports about Trump and Clinton, I understand the frustration of the majority of voters.  Most of us know that the "establishment" politicians, like Clinton, are part and parcel with the corporatocracy that has made our two party system a joke.  The two parties are simply different faces of the same government which is beholden to big business and rich investors.  While the Democrats make more of an effort to care for the most impoverished, neither side is actually effective at reducing poverty.  The Republicans assert that the poor are not helped by a free ride, and this may be true.  It is true that during the Great Depression here in the US, people got healthier.

Trump, on the other hand, is not part of the "establishment" except in so far as he is rich, and he is stupid enough to become their tool, just as Shrub did.  His daily empty statements, like what I just heard that he "will win" 95% of the black American vote, are lunacy.  There is no way that he is getting 95% of any vote, except perhaps of those white male voters who are angry and desperate enough to commit suicide but would rather have someone else do it for them.  I understand the line of thought that says "crash this train", that is to say, destroying our corporatocracy is the first step toward building something new.  This is more the approach of libertarians who understand that big business will not be dethroned by small measures.  Electing Trump would be a drastic measure that could crash this train, except for the fact that the corporate Republican powers will feed his ego and narcissism and keep him busy and distracted by giving him televised glory while they run things.  In other words, it won't work.  Electing Trump will not derail the corporate train.

The Libertarian and Green candidates are relatively attractive in this election.  Unfortunately the Libertarians appear to be almost as "estalishment" as Clinton, see Gary Johnson's positions here.  Jill Stein of the Green party is a physician and one smart cookie, and she actually makes the most sense to me of any of the candidates.  She knows that our two-party system is broken, and she addresses that question and others with a raft of information instead of party lines or defund-it-all ideology.

I do not know what it would take to persuade a majority of voters to choose third-party candidates, but I pray that I live to see it.  At this moment it appears to me that Clinton will win because so many people are terrified of the specter of a Trump presidency.  His racism, bogus claims and impetuous thin-skinned personality are enough to disqualify him for all but the most blindered of voters.  It is true that if he were elected the Republican party would attempt to control him, but we all know that he would be more likely to push the nuclear button than any other president in living memory.  While it bears discussing why we refrain from using nukes, just as it bears discussing why we can't as a society afford freeloaders, we might want to discuss it very well before we hand any control to a tool such as Trump.

I am sure I've mentioned it before, but it is my belief that in order to build a majority that can beat both established parties, we need to build a bridge between the far right Libertarians and the far left Greens.  When this happens we might actually wrest our democracy back from its service to business.  It would be heralded as a great crisis, just like the Brexit vote, but don't believe everything you hear in the news.  A reduction in our GDP might be good for us.  More unemployment is not an entirely bad thing.  We Americans need to get back to the project of taking good care of ourselves and our dear ones, building community, and being real people face to face with other real people.  This wealthy life of internet and automobiles has created a Great Satan that is making us sad.

** first use of tag: green party

Looks like it is mostly true, the assertion that more handouts are given in republican-dominated states. This makes sense to me because in those states or areas where local social programs are limited or cut, the poor will seek out federal assistance. Big business on the other hand is likely to avoid paying taxes entirely. Churches remain tax exempt no matter how gigantic or lavish. There is a problem here.

http://exposingreligionblog.tumblr.com/post/35908018305

This state is so delightfully progressive it curls my toes. Much as I liked Kitzhaber, I think I am going to like our new governor Kate Brown more! She was sworn in yesterday. On Monday this week (when she was still Secretary of State) she made the announcement that the Independent Party of Oregon qualifies to be a MAJOR PARTY claiming as members more than 5% of registered voters as of the 2014 gubernatorial election. The total membership of the Independent Party as of 2/2/15 was 108,742, which is three voters over the minimum to become a major party. I suspect that with the publicity incurred by this landmark change, more people will change their voter registration from Dem or Rep to INDY.

SOURCES
http://www.indparty.com/node/25
http://time.com/3709837/oregon-kate-brown-governor/

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/19/house_republicans_just_passed_a_bill_forbidding_scientists_from_advising_the_epa_on_their_own_research/

We are going to see a lot more of this type of nonsense. While people were paying attention to the Keystone debate, the republicans got this passed. Unless it is vetoed, the EPA is going to have industry advocates instead of scientists on their advisory panels. It's a ridiculous fallacy to think that you can't trust scientists to report about science. They are the only ones who KNOW what it means, and are more interested in the truth than in agendas. America is increasingly governed by business for business. People who want clean air, water, and food, beware. People who want the truth: good luck!

I am going to have to take regular media blackouts in order not to be utterly despondent over the state of things now that the repugs have their majority. I am all for libertarian freedoms and fiscal responsibility, but I despise today's anti-science ignoramus repugnican party. May they fall into the holes that they dig! May Obama relish the power of the veto!