You can still elect representatives, you just remove money from the equation. Candidates are given a public forum to share ideas, provide their credentials, and debate issues. Voters use a STAR voting system to vote for all the candidates they like. Special interest groups are free to speak and advertise all they want, but they cannot promote or attack a specific candidate.

It’s more or less how local primaries work, just on a larger scale.

Parties are just a power transfer from voters to oligarchs. Coalition governments are just as easy to manipulate as two-party systems. Politicians shouldn’t be permitted a short-hand explanation of what they stand for. They should be required to make a full throated defense of their positions on the record. Parties provide political cover to do unpopular things while pretending to not be in a position to stop it.

Here’s the thing. No.

We don’t really have two parties. We have oligarchs in control of both parties, and both parties work together to make sure no more parties can exist. They do this by making it seem like the right and the left are opposed to each other, but really both work together to keep you down.

We can’t fix this with parties. What we need to do is abolish parties. Prevent rich people from consolidating power. Give no small group of power-hungry bastards the ability to control everything. This means a drastic overhaul, and the people in power are not going to give it up willingly. They won’t fight fair, they won’t accept the results of an election unless it goes their way, and they won’t give you an opportunity to win.

If? Feels like we’re already there. It can, and will, get worse, but we’re already sending American children to death camps and putting dissenting politicians in prison.

“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for secretary of state,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen,

You literally didn’t have to do that. You knew exactly who he is and exactly what he was going to do. You could have voted against him.

But I guess your regret is some small comfort.

This is a terrible headline but the article is on point. Biden’s hubris contributed to Trump’s victory, and the Democrats are unwilling or unable to look in the mirror and admit they did something wrong. It’s a repeating pattern of self destruction that has been since Carter.

Gold would make a terrible dome.

Or you switch to caffeinated seltzer, because fuck you, brain. Fuck you, body. Not coffee, not water, not sugar, just do your fucking job and maybe we’ll get snacks later.

It’s all part of the firehose. Every ounce of energy you spend fighting this bullshit is an ounce you don’t spend on something else. He’s trying to make his critics seem petty and unreasonable.

Most people don’t care about the availability of human meat for consumption. Even if it were available for sale, almost nobody would want to buy it, much less eat it. But the number of human meat enthusiasts is never zero, and the beef industry wouldn’t be affected one way or the other.

If there was a meat industry push to start selling human meat, it would be extremely alarming, and anyone spending time preventing it would not be wasting their time. You would wonder about why and how anyone is selling it, and even worse who is buying it.

Certainly there are more impactful issues, and plenty of fights that need fighting, but that’s not a reason to ignore this one.

What’s “meaningful”? Gun enthusiasts and criminals will want guns that can be fired more quickly. Almost nobody needs these triggers, but the people that do should make you worried. If it wasn’t going to make money, why would people fight so hard to make them available?

Which part are you asking about? Why approve it? Why the restrictions? Why did it take so long? Why bother making yet another vaccine?

This will sell more guns and cause more chaos, generating more profit.

I mean, it’s always been Oklahoma. They don’t export a lot of intellectual capital.

It took me too long to get it.

86, as used by restaurant staff to mean “get rid of” something.

47 because he’s the 47th President.

Which is weird considering the nation’s relationship with weed and chocolate.

Netherlands has dental care included in healthcare. Florida, if you need dental work, you go into debt.

Running for local, state, or congress sucks balls. You’re basically a beggar, you have almost no power, you are beholden to your sponsors and party leadership, and you’re expected to work long hours campaigning for shit you barely care about while pet issues get lost in the shuffle. Most of your time is on the phone making promises you won’t keep to people who don’t believe you. The rest of your time is spent in transit. Everyone hates you, you’re surrounded by morons, and if you can’t even sneeze on camera without your opponents posting the ugly sneeze face photo on twitter.

Basically, the DNC has to beg candidates to keep them around. One reward they like to dangle is support from the national committee. Blocking primary challengers helps the candidate save some cash make makes their re-election seem inevitable. It’s a massive weight off, especially for younger politicians with few fonnections and fewer leverage options.

Is it right? Fuck no. I agree with you completely. But I can certainly understand why, if I were st the top of that ant hill, I wouldn’t want climbers to get a foothold, either.

Have you ever watched these sessions? I’m getting sleepy just remembering one time I was flipping through channels and ran out of batteries in the remote and we were stuck on C-SPAN for a few minutes, or several days. I can’t honestly say how long it was.

I wouldn’t even guess at the statistics of nutritional education, but I would believe you that most people don’t know about algae oil. What I’m saying is that there exist a significant number of people who do know about the inherent cruelty of factory farming, and the availability of cruelty-free alternatives, and they still won’t change their habits or consumption. It’s not a big secret anymore, and the internet exists to provide all information to anyone who wants it.

It’s like assuming Americans use the imperial measurements because they don’t know about metric. Sure, many Americans don’t know the metric system, but just learning it exists and understanding the advantages doesn’t compel Americans to switch.

Going vegan is a disruption. At a minimum, it means changing the groceries you buy. It means reading ingredients and scanning menus at all your favorite restaurants. It means depriving yourself of some previous enjoyment.

There are many people who don’t know the extent of cruelty. There are many people who are unaware of their options. And there are many people who, upon learning these things, immediately change their consumption behaviors because the thought of enjoying food or products that come from suffering is abhorrent. For OP, just knowing that suffering is not required for survival is enough motivation to stop consuming animal products. My point is that it is a mistake to assume that the same knowledge would move the needle for most people.

I said I don’t want to guess at statistics, but let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine you went to a barbeque and told everyone standing around that you had a video showing how the animals people are eating are treated. How do you suppose people would react to you offering to show them that video? How many would watch it? How many would react with anger and disgust because they already know what’s in the video? How many of them would trade their burger for a veggie patty?

My point is, it’s not that they don’t know. People know. People don’t want to think about it. And yes, share the info and maybe a few more people stop eating meat. I’m not suggesting that you or OP shouldn’t share information. All I’m saying is that if you expect it to be enough, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment.