Ted Rall for November 04, 2022

Ukraine’s flaws + USA’s flaws = Russia good.

Gotta love Rall’s special math!

In Mr. Rall’s world, there’s only one that isn’t evil; Bernie Sanders.

Might as well just throw in the f*cking towel, right Ted?

Or Russia, for that matter…

On that note…………………………………….HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND……………………GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!

If we want to be honest, The United States only has one functioning political Party. Democrat. The Republican Party abandoned the tenets and responsibilities of the positions they were elected, to instead undermine and malign the Democrats.

From politicians to cartoonists to hammer-wielding MAGAs, not one of them are able to honestly defend the actions and intents of the Republican Party they align themselves. Not. One.

I can’t speak for other states, but here in Indiana, Libertarian candidates are running for all the statewide offices on the ballot: Sec’y of State, Treasurer, Auditor. There’s at least one Libertarian candidate for national office, US Representative in District 7.

In the US Senate, there are two Independents: King, of Maine, and Sanders, of Vermont.

Now, perhaps, Mr. Rall would like to use the Athenian approach: all male citizens in the Agora at a certain time, are herded to the theater where proposals are voted up or down.

fusilier

James 2:24

“This makes Zelensky the result of a coup.”and by that logic, every Ukrainian elected official from now till eternity will be, “the result of a coup?”

Dahl’s criteria for democracy (the US is not a democracy)

equality of voting

    one person, one vote

    equal value

effective participation

    adequate/equal opportunity to express preferences through decision-making process

enlightened understanding

    marketplace of ideas/free speech

    citizens need to understand political issues and see undistorted news

citizen control of the agenda

    citizens control what the government concerns itself with

    is distorted when wealthy have more control than their numbers warrant

    gov needs to address issues that public as a whole feel are important

inclusion

    gov must include and extend rights to all people subject to its laws

    citizenship must be open to all within a nation if the nation is to call itself democratic

In the entire history of American third party attempts to organize, which is in the hundreds, there has only been one that was successful. Generally, voting for third party candidates can be a good idea for local and statewide elections. A candidate can build a sufficient network of supporters and tell his or her story to every eligible vote. The reality is that most of third party candidates aren’t strong enough to win. Their ideas don’t resonate with significant numbers of voters and their personal charisma isn’t strong enough to attract significant numbers of voters. That is why they rarely win.

At the national level, most strong candidates move to one of the major parties because it is a significantly easier way to win. And, if they have any real strength, the party will come looking for them. Joining a party allows a candidate to leverage infrastructure that is already built and get access to money that is already out there, and getting the voters who will uncritically vote for their party’s candidates. It is a lot easier to change a entire tribe’s way of thinking about things than it is to start a new tribe. As a result, most people running for national office from third parties are the kinds of people who would struggle to win in any election at any level and are simply doing it to call attention to their ideas. They have no expectation of winning.

The civilians living in the Ukraine don’t deserve to have bombs dropped on their buildings. Whether or not their government is a democracy has no bearing on that.

I was opposed to the invasion of Syria, I protested America’s invasion of Iraq back in 1991. Invasion is wrong, doesn’t matter what type of government there is on either side of the battle.

Gee, I once saw where someone said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried from time to time.

And, it ain’t a new development that the niceties of politics and society go by the wayside when your neighbor next door puts a knife to your throat.

Chalk this one up to afflicting the comfortable, I guess . . .

The country was designed with zero political parties in mind. The parties arose because people like to organize into social structures. Plus, they work. We have two political parties because of the winner-takes-all nature of our representative democracy.

Had we created a parliamentary system where coalitions could be formed, third parties could have sufficient political power to remain in existence by being able to form coalitions to establish working majorities. This can work, but it can also be crippling (see Israel).

But we don’t have such a system. There is no one banning third parties; they just don’t work.

Having more than two parties doesn’t make a country democratic if the parties are the same. In fact, having more than one party doesn’t make a country democratic if the parties are the same. That’s where we’re at. Yes, yes, I’ll concede that democrats aren’t as thuggish, at least superficially, as republicans, but two pro-corporatist parties is inherently antidemocratic.

Correction: 3 or 4 Russian-funded TV channels are banned. The rest are still on the air. During a war, it makes sense to limit the voice of the opposing force, especially when there are sympathetic ears around.The same thing happened in Russia, of course. Both sides let their citizens free reign of the internet, so both pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine stories get through to the majority of the public who seeks them out anyway.

Germany had 6 major parties in the 1933 elections. There’s nothing about more parties that makes a system more “democratic”. But, if that’s your standard, the 7 parties with seats in the Ukrainian Rada should be enough, right?

I wonder if GoComics is blocked in Russia like most Western news & social media sites?

Jumping on the anti-Ukraine train a little early I see. The rest of the putin supporting, russia loving, christian nationalist backed political cartoonists aren’t starting up until after the elections.

Ted’s comments are the first time I, for one, am hearing about the background of Putin’s invasion. Reminds me of USA’s whole history ugly history of interference in Latin America, resulting in ultimately the mass migration of displaced indigenous peasants and other victims of the CIA and other USA funded wars targeting landed subsistence farmers, seizing their lands and giving them to large USA corporations such as Dole.

Nowadays when it comes to foreign policy and the military, among other things, the US really only has one party.

Ted Rall has appointed himself King of the False Equivalents.

Only a Democracy would elect a comedian who is defeating Russia militarily.

The US has been transmogrifying into an authoritarian state for more than 60 years. If you consider the incessant meddling into the affairs of other countries, the countless attempts to promote discord and war around the world, the dictatorships that the US has promoted and defended, and the utter disdain that American politicians have for the nation’s Constitution and the natural rights of American citizens, it’s difficult to reach any other conclusion other than the political class, especially the Left, wants to turn the nation into a country that Kim Jong Un, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Nicolae Ceausescu, and Mao Zedong would love.

Dear 3rd world countries we can’t afford to send you the help we promised for climate change ‘cause were busy playing ’war’ . . . again. Tootles