Mr.TaterSalad

Thanks! The other thing for me too, is even though I had voted Republican in the past (ie Ron Paul and also McCain in 08) I could neve side with the crazier elements of the Republican Party. I'm not the least bit religious so the Christian Conservatives and their need to regulate behavior so it falls inline with their religious beliefs was always a turn off for me. The Tea Party was a turn off too as I never bought into their idea that Obama was a Muslim terrorist from Kenya. I also saw the Tea Party folks as phony libertarians who were only against the government when it suits them. Look no further than Rand Paul who spent several years in the Senate railing against disaster relief funding, only to come begging for it hat in hand when tornados hit Kentucky. All the craziness of the religious right and Tea Party finally gave way to a President who matched their values. For years the George Bush's, Dick Armey's, Tom Delay's, William F. Buckley's, and George Will's ran the party from a political and intellectual perspective. They've gotten overrun now and Donald Trump, along with the likes of Lauren Bobert, Louie Gomert, Mark Meadows, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Dan Bongino, are the culmination of their radicalization and conspiracy-laden mindset. We're only lucky that Trump and his cohorts are as big a clods and feckless as they are. Someone with Trump's selfishness and narcissism, who could effectively govern and run an organization, would be far more dangerous to this country than Trump himself. I'm glad as a former libertarian, as I'm sure you are too as a former Republican/conservative, to be standing on the right side of history against the Trump movement. Standing in support of our democratic institutions and freedom from authoritarianism.

Libertarians would allow children and adult workers alike to be chained to factory floors and workshops. That doesn't mean every libertarian supports that kind of behavior or practice, but when you strip away child labor laws like they want to do and like the Big L Libertarian Party wants to do, that's what you would get. Libertarianism, were it put into practice, would return us to the days of the Robber Barons of the late 19th century/early 20th century from an economic stand point. It would also mean the return of Jim Crow era of segregation and racial/ethnic politics. Separate but equal would be perfectly acceptable to a libertarian so as long as it preserves states rights and doesn't interfere in the ability of others to carry out their personal liberty, which includes being a racist and displaying bigotry.

I passed through that phase of my life. When I was in college and after graduation I went through my Ron Paul/libertarian phase. For me it was about 07-2013ish. I was a big Ron Paul fan back in 2008 and 2012 and voted for him in both primaries. I still respect the guy for his honesty, opposition to the Iraq War, opposition to the Patriot Act/domestic spying, and a few other issues I agree with him on. I've read all the libertarian authors and political commentators too from Ayn Rand to Fredrich Hayek to Ludwig Von Miss to Milton Friedman to Murray Rothbard. I used to read all the think tank publications too like Cato, Mises Institute, Reason Magazine, and Heartland. What got me off the libertarian wagon though was related to what happened to my dad. When he lost his house to foreclosure during the recession and when he came clean to be about being joke broke, I couldn't sit there and continue railing against the very social programs and safety nets that were keeping him subsisting (Social Security, Medicare, and VA Assistance). Government money was the only thing keeping food on my dad's table, clothes on his back, and giving him the medical care/prescriptions he needed to live. How could I be so strident against the very social welfare that was keeping him alive and was keeping him from not having to live with my sister or I? The other thing that really worked for me is that I left the vortex of libertarian media and the libertarian echo chambers online and in research. Instead of sitting there sifting through Reason Magazine articles and Cato research all day I forced myself to listen to other points of view, hear out other people (most notably my own mother whose always been a progressive), watch other sources for my daily news, research opposing view points, and just take a cruise around Metro Detroit to see how others outside of the middle class enclaves of Canton Michigan actually live. The thing about libertarianism is, when you leave no checks and balances in place, when you strip away all regulations and you rely solely on the nature of others to do good in a situation, you create chaos and destruction. What libertarianism doesn't or refuses to account for in the bad nature of others. That bad and unethical behaviors like callousness, greed, manipulation, selfishness do exists and without proper controls placed on those behaviors, they will run roughshod over people all in the name of self interest. Whether that self interest is that of a company trying to maximize its profits or someone refusing to look out and take care of their fellow human being. Libertarianism in some cases makes false assumptions that people will naturally do good because it is in their own self interest to do so. In other instances, like Ayn Rand and her sociopathic theory of objectivism, doing good for others or caring for those around you matters not. In Rand's case, only looking out for yourself and treating yourself as the king above all else, breeds a degree of selfishness and greed that is downright destructive to people and the planet. Besides, who wants to live in a world where you're stepping over bodies and walking around a burning planet all so you can maximize your own gratification and self interests for a short amount of time. Life is about far more than that and there is a certain nobility and positive impact you get to make in life by being a caring, compassionate, kind, selfless human being.

That headline "more interested in attacking Trump" is something else. He insighted the insurrection to happen in the first place. Who the hell else are they supposed to investigate for insighting an insurrection?

Amen Liz!!!!! I am watching Rachel Maddow right now and heard Liz Cheney reading texts from Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade, and others. All these Benedict Arnold Fox News hosts new what a serious situation the insurrection was when it happened and then went on air on Fox later to downplay the gravity of the situation or blame it on others (ANTIFA) who had nothing to do with it.

Also, if you supported the January 6th Insurrection in any way or excused the behavior of people trying to stop the certification a democratic election then go piss right off crying about rigging elections. People literally stormed the capital to hang the Vice President of the United States and stop the certification of free and fair democratic elections. If you don't condemn that than you most assuredly don't get to pull words like rigged out of your ass to describe a piece of legislation you might or might not have read through.

Here's the full summery of HR 1 as well as the full language of the bill. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1 HR 1 will rig elections? HUH? Where do you get this stuff at? I read through the language of the bill a couple of months back and I missed the part where it would rig elections. You can also dive into the meat and potatoes of what's in the For the People Act/HR 1 here from the Brennan Center report on the legislation. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/annotated-guide-people-act-2021

Saving us from what? Universal Pre-K? Paid Family Leave? Combating Climate change? Oh nooooooo, we might enact Paid Family Leave like most other first world, democratic countries already have.

The NDP's Jagmeet Singh is the real deal/ It's too bad his chances of being Prime Minster ever run into the negatives and less than territories. Of course, he's as left as you can get, but a real solid, honest guy for the people.

The line about we will teach the poor dumb farm boys they should stick to slopping hogs. Pretentiously awesome!

Not Michigan, but the Georgia Tech glee club did a mockery of Georgia's fight song (Glory Glory to Old Georgia) only singing To Hell With Georgia. Gold!

Plymouth-Canton-Salem High School on Lockdown After Possible Threat DAMNIT!!! Here we are again with this. Plymouth-Canton is where I graduated from HS. I certainly hope everything is ok over there and that this was a precautionary measure, not an actual incident.

Logic and reasoning are whatever Trump supporters and their god Donald Trump say it is. Trump is the Jimmy Swaggert of Presidents. They give Trump their unending love, affection, and of course a nice donation of $100 or more. In exchange they get, well, a red hat and a grift instead of a prayer cloth and a grift. And for any of them to go blubbering on about being a troll or how they get treated by other people when their guy displays the most repugnant behavior is really rich. Cry me a river.

Don't forget wearing a thin blue line t-shirt and then supporting people who literally tried killing police officers during an insurrection.

Being a patriot means whatever Trump supporters say it means in the moment. Forget trying to overturn the results of a democratic election, a real patriot knows the election was stolen because reasons and evidence which they can't produce at this moment in time.

I've seen your posts here and assume you voted for Trump in 2020 and 2016. If you voted for Biden in 2020 and Hillary in 2016 then I'll sincerely and honestly apologize to you. If you voted for Trump than I'll tell you to suck it up snowflake like we were all told for the past four years. I've been told no less than half a dozen times "F*** My Feelings" by Trump supporters. It wasn't Hillary or Biden who mocked disabled people, woman, POWs, Gold Star Families, etc. It wasn't Hillary or Biden who went around hurling insults at people or using profanity in public or on social media. It wasn't Hillary or Biden who went around making racist and xenophobic remarks. It wasn't Hillary or Biden who went around talking about jailing reporters and changing libel laws to be able to sue the free press. It wasn't Hillary or Biden who lead an insurrection and tried to overturn the results of a democratic election and it wasn't their supporters who tried to execute members of Congress and hang the Vice President of the United States. The vulgarity, coarseness and crassness of American politics existed before Donald Trump. The difference is, it wasn't the President of the United States who was a vulgar, crass, racist (well maybe Nixon was). Not only did we live through four years of the President acting that way, he encouraged his supporters to act the same way. If you don't like the way I'm acting towards you and you did vote for Trump, then you should take a look in the mirror and reflect long and hard on the last four years and what many people had to go through in this country as a result of the President's words, actions, and uncouth behavior.

That Twitter page is a great follow. Apparently Fox News ran this on one of their segments. This is literally Trump to a T.

I'm calling timeout on this one because we should have been a Championship team last year, stupid UCLA.

Furthermore, it seemed as if Meadows was cooperating with the committee as of just a few days ago. So why the sudden flip?

Archie Bunker was supposed to a parody of the dopey, backwards thinking American from days gone by. But thanks to fine patriots like yourself, we got to see what the country would have been like if Archie was elected President. Is there any water left in Trump's bowl or did you lap it all up? Mark Meadows was Trump's Chief of Staff at the time the insurrection took place. So it is highly probable that Meadows himself knew what was being orchestrated beforehand or the day of the insurrection. He certainly knew what was going on as the chaos unfolded at the Capitol building, while Trump spent several hours fiddling like Nero while Rome burned. Meadows also knew that the President and others with close ties to the administration, like lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, were going around making erroneous and unprovable claims of voter fraud. He knew they were taking cases to court and losing bigly prior to January 6th. So given all that Chief of Staff Meadows knew and understood about what his boss and those around Trump were doing on or proceeding January 6th, ask yourself this. If Meadows has nothing to hide and if nothing went wrong, and the January 6th Insurrection was nothing more than peaceful protestors taking a field trip through the Capitol, why not cooperate and clear the air?

Boy the amount of golf he played, tweets that made the hit parade, guys like Trump they had it made, those were the days . . .

I thought so too. Why would someone has honest and ethical as the day is long like Ron DeSantis manipulate covid data. It couldn't be because he wants those tourist dollars to keep pouring on in so he's placing dollars ahead of deaths?

You're right, look at the tyranny that Canadians have to live under because they have universal healthcare instead of AR-15's and Glock 9's.

Revised Data for Florida from the NPR Link I Shared Yesterday The Florida numbers were misrepresented and underreported on the graph that NPR had published that I shared yesterday. It appears to me that Governor Covid, Ron DeSantis, and his administration are fudging the death count from Covid in Florida to make it seem lower than it appears.

Florida Sentinel: Governor Covid, Ron DeSantis, Underreporting Covid-19 Deaths