I tremble for my country when I reflect on the current level of political discourse

[struggle4progress]

It currently looks like Bush is running so he can go back in time and kill baby Hitler; Trump so he can host Saturday Night Live and push a Starbucks boycott; Carson so ... um ... so ... well, frankly, I'm starting to lose track of the real story here, perhaps because Carson himself lost track of it a long time ago

[pinboy3niner]

1. Carson's running for Pharaoh

[struggle4progress]

4. "Psycho-ceramic" springs to mind

[Hydra]

2. Seriously, it's scary

And not that long ago I came to the conclusion that our system is already dead- we're just propping up the corpse and pretending it's just sick and needs some treatment.

What do we do now??

[villager]

7. Hard to imagine we're not talking about 3 - 6 separate countries by 2050ish or so, at this rate

I'd be shocked, given the coming enviro and economic shocks, if there's still an intact "U.S." by then...

[Hydra]

8. Right now I'm betting on 10 years tops for what we would consider a "stable" country

And that's just with climate change in the background- this political meltdown across the entire establishment...the glue is just melting away as we watch...

[villager]

10. Feels about right -- certainly the country's finished with the next 8 year GOP administration

But even allowing for, say, an 8-year Hillary administration, that might, in other times, "kinda sorta maintain," that glue will still be furiously melted away by the white heat (pun?) of the rightwing lumpen, and their 1% manipulators...

[PatrickforO]

12. That fuckin' sucks!

In ten years, I'll be hoping that I can live out my retirement in peace after working hard, hard, hard for fifty years.

God I'm mad at these stinking slime parasitic neoliberal capitalists.

They SUCH SHIT and...

Well sorry for the rant. But I'm really getting mad at these assholes.

[Warpy]

3. Yes, and if you listen to teabaggers talk to each other

they're either repeating stuff they heard on Lardbutt's show or stuff they heard on Pox News. They recite it like mantras and congratulate each other on "winning" over liberals. These are the people who throw me into despair, not the candidates who are trying to reflect them so they can get into the big chair.

Without propaganda, such people would likely be apathetic until a month before the elections. With propaganda, they're constantly on a state of high alert against unbelievers.

[spanone]

5. it's disturbing that one of them will be the nominee...very disturbing.

[Hydra]

6. And consider what the next one will look like in 4 years

Evolution running in the wrong direction...

[Rex]

9. Careful, we have Carson defenders here.

As sad as that is.

[pnwmom]

13. Because Sanders says we shouldn't be calling Carson out on his lies.

We should only ask about his policies.



His policies, which are almost identical to those of Ronald Reagan. And he managed to get elected twice.

[PatrickforO]

11. Think of it this way, struggle4progress

The oligarchs don't give a damn about this country. They never have. It is just the latest vehicle to be manipulated to yield profit.

Look at TPP and TISA. Those are the move. If you read TPP you see that basically it gives corporations the power to overturn the laws and regulations of nation states. If you overturn the laws and regulations with impunity, it is only a matter of time before you can overturn the nation itself and take over.

We're all about to become wage slaves so billionaire parasites with mansions on the Riviera can work us til we die.

[Dr. Strange]

14. America needs to stop doing things 'cause they're funny.

[ljm2002]

15. You aren't the only one!

Used to be, it was getting worse by the year. Now it seems to get worse by the week.

It is a crime, perpetrated by the oligarchs and their media minions. It is absolutely a crime that they waste time on our airwaves with drivel like the baby Hitler question, when there are so many real and serious issues. It is a crime that they have downplayed and denied the reality of climate change, thus condemning future generations to a planet in crisis. IF there is still time to avert the worst of the crisis, that window is closing fast, but our media does not seem to think it is their responsibility to sound any alarms. They'd rather give the fluff interviews, ask the stupid hypotheticals, and still get invited to the "in" cocktail parties.

And the population is being educated down, propagandized, encouraged NOT to think critically but rather, to go along to get along. We Americans used to pride ourselves on being independent thinkers, which in turn helped our culture to be -- if a bit barbaric at times -- still very energetic, creative, and "can-do". Nowadays, we are not so creative, not so "can-do", but more group-think, and blame-oriented (where blame is always misdirected, usually to the poor and the "other&quot . It is beyond tragic.