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KICK THEIR BUTTS, BERNIE.

That’s right Uncle Bernie, KICK THEIR BUTTS.

“Their” being all those Americans who sit on their butts and don’t vote in elections. “Their” being those Americans who aren’t even registered to vote. “Their” being all Americans who think Politics in this country is broken beyond repair.

If you happen to own one of those butts mentioned above, or are just a less than enthusiastic voter when it comes to the 2016 presidential elections, because, well, you’re too busy— here’s a news flash for you— and try to imagine it being delivered with a swift kick to your buttocks: The new base of the Democratic party is unmarried women, people of color, and young voters— the Rising American Electorate (RAE)— and they already represent a majority of voting-eligible citizens.

And that’s totally meaningless when the majority of them don’t actually vote. Yes, they flexed their new-found electoral muscles to elect the first black president, and then blew off the 2010 midterm elections, because:

• 2.7% could not find their polling place
• 3.9% forgot to vote
• 5.5% experienced a registration issue
• 8.6% were out of town
• 10.0% were punishing their own party
• 10.2% don’t know what “elections” are
• 11.8% said they were just plain indolent
• 12.7% did not like the candidates or campaign issues
• 15.7% reported not being interested
• 18.9% were too busy

(Black and Red stats are real; Purple stats are my best snarky guess. )

Non-voters are disproportionately young, single, less educated, and more likely to be of an ethnic minority than those who say they are infrequent voters, and those who are frequent voters. Forty percent of nonvoters are under thirty years old, compared to 29% of infrequent voters and 14% of frequent voters. Compared to 60% of infrequent voters, and 70% of frequent voters, 54% of nonvoters are Caucasian.

The perception that politics are controlled by special interests represents a significant excuse for lack of voter participation. In recent surveys, a feeling that candidates “don’t really speak to them” was cited as a leading reason why infrequent voters and nonvoters justify not voting.

The kids are turned off from politics, they say.
Most of ’em don’t even want to hear about it.
All they want to do these days is lie around on waterbeds
and smoke that goddamn marrywanna … yeah, and just
between you and me Fred, that’s probably all for the best.
—HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

And then there are voices (well, at least one voice) that says, yawn.. it’s Obama‘s fault, and it’s been his fault all along. “Nothing better dramatizes the damage that President Obama has done to Democrats than the fact that Republicans now control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a majority of governorships across America. Obama’s political style depresses liberal Democratic voters, who then would not turn out on Election Day, while inflaming conservative Republican voters, who would turn out,” blah, blah, blah.

Public opinion, the mores— is the basic energy in social evolution and state development. And when that energy is manifested through universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent majorities, we get the likes of George W. Bush; Louie Gohmert; Michele Bachmann; Sarah Palin; the current GOP Clown Car.

Representative government presupposes an intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate. The character of government is always determined by the character of those who compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage needs to be effectively modified. Every free and intelligent group of citizens represents a vital and functioning organ within the larger governmental organism.

Unless a free people are educated— taught to think intelligently and plan wisely— freedom usually does more harm than good. When fifty percent of any nation’s people become brainwashed, uneducated, intellectually challenged buffoons, and possesses the ballot— that nation is doomed. The dominance of mediocrity will spell the downfall of any nation.

[NOTE TO BERNIE] Bernie, when you make it to the White House, and after you’ve solved all the really intractable problems facing America and the World, make sure voting is compulsory, and make it easy to do so. And if they don’t vote, say because they think they’re too busy, not interested, don’t give a shit, then assess heavy fines against all who fail to cast their ballots.

The survival of democracy is dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of electing only those who are technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for the people be preserved.
—The URANTIA Book

Run, Barack! Run!

He will run away from that white house as fast as he can on January 20th, 2017.

Barack Obama: Great president?
Or greatest president. . .

The Transcendent Goal Of Time

The transcendent goal of the children of time— us— is to find the eternal God, to comprehend the divine nature of the universe.

VANITY FAIL

“Chunklin”?? At’s right, bitches.
He’s just indulging his “feminine side.”

BACK IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES, when a young Michael Dale Huckabee self-identified as a Hope High School “Bobcat,” he didn’t have any friends.

It wasn’t because he didn’t really feeeel like a “Bobcat,” because he totally did— when he was sixteen, he was the Hope High School student council vice president “Bobcat.” And the year after that, he was the Hope High School student council President “Bobcat.”

What I mean is, he didn’t have any friends who were sophisticated enough to tell him that, if only he could have felt like a female “Bobcat,” then he could’ve maybe marched right into the girl Bobcat shower room, where he could’ve enjoyed his “feminine side”— by, you know, watching all the real girls undress, and ogling them while they were showering; you know— just as a way of indulging his “feminine side.”

Take it away, Chunklin:

“Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE. I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

Yeah. It does. Just not in the way you think it does, Tubby.

A CNN reporter recently asked Huckabee for his reaction to Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover in which the former Olympic champion and self-described Republican, came out as a female.

“Not going there,” Huckabee said. The sad truth is, he fucking already did.

Uh, NO, This Isn’t “What Don Draper Will Look Like At 80.”

Seriously?? A little more orange and you have John Boehner, right?

A Mister Tim O’Brien, not from Fort Lee, New Jersey, but president of the Society of Illustrators and the victim of a brief but supposedly clairvoyant snit-fit, says the “troubled” character of Don Draper actually went on to have a “wholesome, fulfilling life.”

Bwwaaahaaaahaaaa!

Sayeth, Timmeh: “I think Don went on to be near his children with his move back to NYC. He learned something out west; that he had people around him who loved him and I think the rest of his life was recognizing that.”

Sadly, no, Tim. Did you even watch the show??

THIS is what the “troubled” character of Don Draper will look like at 60; just forget 80. This is what Don Draper went on to fulfill: The life of an alcoholic on the street.
Real Don Draper

The “troubled” character of Don Draper, known on the street as, “Madman.”

Sayeth, Terreh: “I think Don went on to be near his drinking bros back in the hobo parks of L.A. Yes, he did learn something out west; that he had people around him there who used him, even as he used them; I think the rest of his life was spent recognizing that, hating it, and them, and eventually drowning in his addictions to alcohol and tobacco, and dying alone under a Maytag refrigerator box at age 62.”

But you’re not off the hook just yet, Timmeh. Let’s learn a bit about cirrhosis of the liver, the disease that comes on slowly over years of heavy alcohol use. Early on, there are often no symptoms at all, outside of, you know, the usual cognitive impairment that goes hand in hand with being a drunk.

As the disease really gets going though, you become tired, weak, itchy; you’ll probably experience swelling in your lower legs; maybe develop an unpleasant shade of yellow skin; you’ll find yourself bruising easily. You’ll look in the mirror one day, and discover spider-like blood vessels all over the skin of your nose. Worse still, you’ll have fluid build up in your abdomen; the fluid build up may end up producing spontaneous infection. If you’re lucky, you might avoid bleeding from your dilated esophageal veins. And the resulting hepatic encephalopathy results in increasing confusion and eventually, unconsciousness.

So yeah, it takes more than a few drinks per day, over a number of years, for cirrhosis to occur. But hey, that was Don. He could hang with the ~~best~~ worst of them, and he almost always did.

Then there was Don’s lung cancer. He was diagnosed at 58, after a protracted hacking fit one morning. This was right after he realized he was broke, and had no recourse to medical care. When it rains… But. Ninety percent of heavy smokers like Don inevitably find themselves with lung cancer, the most common cause of cancer-related death in men and women world-wide; it’s responsible for more than a million and a half deaths every year.

Finally, we haven’t even looked into Draper’s more or less constant casual sexual relationships with women, and what that meant to his increasingly stunted soul. Suffice it to say, all physical poisons greatly retard the efforts of the spirit to exalt the mortal mind. And then there’s that big bag ‘o mental poisons— fear, anger, envy, jealousy— suspicion, hate, intolerance— these likewise tremendously interfere with the spiritual progress of the evolving mortal soul.

So NO. Don Draper did not suddenly decide to live a “wholesome, fulfilling life.” Like so many other disillusioned, poisoned souls, he drank himself to death.

May he rest in peace.

Bye Dave.

While never really a Letterman junkie, “Late-Night” for me was usually finishing a strip while he was on, so I became a de facto regular viewer. Oh, yeah, and Dave was brilliant. Even so, the strip above was my only homage to the many hours spent enjoying Dave’s top ten things, that usually made someone squirm. People say New Yorkers can’t get along. Not true. …