They tell us we live in a country that serves as a shining beacon on a hill, a model for democracies around the world. If that’s true, how the hell did we end up with two candidates who are the #1 and #2 most unpopular candidates in the history of polling, either one of which could lead to disaster?
The Best System in the World
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Simple question – Simple answer: No one wants the job except megalomaniacs and crazy wingnuts, and the USA is chock’ful of ignorant people.- especially since we now have the Internet – a Tower of Babel if there ever was one…..:)
«THE BEST SYSTEM IN THE WORLD» Spot on, Ted ; that’s why the US is so disliked around the world – we are so envious of your great system. As George Walker Bush famously put it on 20 September 2001 : «… They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.»
No doubt, we’ll be still more envious of your system after 20 January 2017….
Henri
Good comment Henri, the actual fact is they dislike our wasteful consumption, and the fact that we are telling them what to do when we do the opposite. Imagine a refugee placed in a redneck, backwards US community.
“They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other”
IOW, they hate us for the same reasons that the GOP hates us. If they ever figure out they’ve got more in common with the terrorists than with decent people we’re all screwed.
Actually, most don’t hate us except when we kill them. Most of the world thinks we are retards, with the most expensive healthcare in the world, the highest percentage of people locked up in prison, and now, the possibility of a crazy con man becoming President of the most powerful and dangerous military industrial complex in the world. LMAO!
«Most of the world thinks we are retards, with the most expensive healthcare in the world, …» And, rikster, one of the worst outcomes among comparable countries. But then, of course,in the United States, the healthcare system is as little designed to provide good care to ordinary people as the so-called «criminal justice [sic !] system» is to combat crime ; the former is designed to enrich the insurance companies and the latter the prison-industrial complex. In that respect, both systems serve their primary functions quite well….
I don’t know where you’re posting from – myself, I live in a faithful US vassal state known as Sweden – but I’m not sure that «[m]ost of the world thinks we [i e, residents of the US] are retards» ; after all, we here in Europe, at least, are continually bombarded by both subtle and not-so-subtle propaganda on the part of corporate and so-called «public» media (I’m thinking specifically of Sveriges Radio) for the US system and for that country as the «indispensable nation» and the «leader of the free [sic !] world». Thus, to my mind, it is extremely fortunate that most of do have access to the internet – despite all the crap to be found there – as an antidote to the Weltanschauung legacy media attmpts to foist on us….
Henri
I have watched the coverage. And it mirrors what I have observed in people. Here’s the conversations I endure more and more often:
Them: So, what about that situation involving that person?
Me: Well, you have to keep in mind that for decades, the position …
Them: So, you know what I think?
Me: Uh? No.
Them: I think it’s laziness. When I was their age, I had a house.
Me: Yes, but you started working during a period of economic stability that doesn’t …
Them: I’m sorry. I have to check my Twitter. Keep going …
Me: Right. … doesn’t exist anymore due to globalization and other factors.
Them: Oh, gosh, have you tried the meatballs? They’re fantastic!
People now have a 10-second attention span and seem to take any contradiction to what they are saying as a personal attack. But I’ll give you the proof of what I mean right here: Watch the CNN coverage of the election. Count how many times someone on the panel makes a HILARIOUS joke that everyone laughs at. See, it’s the most important election of our lifetimes, and the entire election cycle has been dominated by media elites who never actually look at the camera and say, “Trump says he’ll build a wall, and that’s completely impossible. Clinton, on the other hand, makes similarly impossible vague promises about making sure tuition is zero at a state college for families making less than $125,000. Look at all the fuzzy areas on that. What if one kid wants to go to Idaho State and the other Ohio State. What if mom makes 65,000 and dad makes $64,000? How much of a screwing do they get? What about fees? Most state schools figured out about 20 years ago that tuition goes to the state and is then disbursed back to the school, but fees go right to the school and don’t go through the state’s government. Will fees be covered? What about room and board? Textbooks? Why not address the root cause: why has college become so much more expensive? Oh, and we’re out of time. Love the suit, Anderson.”
Education is pretty much free here – except for books and living expenses if you have to move near the educational institution. The US ? A complete ripoff in every direction. Kids here dream of going to a Scandinavian country or Europe on a grant or exchange programme. In 15 years of teaching English here, I have never had a student want to go the America for a higher education unless their family was very rich.
So now, the FIB has once again decided that Hillary is not guilty of criminal behavior wrt her email server. I wish they’d make up their minds about who I should vote for….
«So now, the FIB has once again decided that Hillary is not guilty of criminal behavior wrt her email server. I wish they’d make up their minds about who I should vote for….» Pure speculation on my part, of course, CrazyH, but I suspect Mr Comey was just covering his – and the bureau’s – collective arse. If he hadn’t notified the legislators that new evidence had turned up, after earlier giving them the impression that the investigation was finished, he would have left himself open to a Republican charge that he and the FBI, like the «Department of Justice [sic !]»,were obviously partisan. By now claiming that nothing has been found which changes the earlier recommendation that Ms Clinton not be indicted, despite her having been «extremely careless» in her handling of official documents, he’s shielding himself against charges of partisanship from the Democrats….
Of course, however tomorrow’s election goes, Mr Comey may be looking for a new job come 20 January 2017. But with what he knows about Washington, I’d not worry about his ability to find one that pays better than flipping burgers at a certain fast food chain…. 😉
Henri
And you know what? One final reason I am horrified at the thought of Queen Clinton, second of her name? The insufferable smugness of some of her supporters. You know when Archie Bunker would snort derisively at things like a “girl” being a doctor? Well, we’re 40 years later, and we’ve got a pack of smugs that are more than a match for Bunker’s narrowmindedness. HRC is simply going to be the bee’s knees and the cat’s ass because she’s a woman. Her resume? Sure impressie. Too bad almost nothing in it is a singular success. But she’s still going to do everything perfectly, even the things she does wrong, at least to judge by her supporters general vibe.
And I know that as the whole thing turns into a disaster, it will never be HRC’s fault. Blowing up Muslims? Well, will come the smug reply, Trump would have been worse. Tuition skyrocketing while Wall Street gets whatever it wants? Incrementalism. Remember what everyone kept saying in a cultish monotone when Obama didn’t do pretty much any of the stuff he said he’d do? “We didn’t elect a king.” So we got shitty healthcare that’s such a disaster they’ll have to do a teardown to save the profit margins for the pharmas that bought HRC all those years back. But not one syllable of it will be her fault.
That’s the part I’m really dreading.
«Well, we’re 40 years later, and we’ve got a pack of smugs that are more than a match for Bunker’s narrowmindedness. HRC is simply going to be the bee’s knees and the cat’s ass because she’s a woman.» And of course, if one doesn’t care for Ms Clinton, that’s because one, according to certain of her partisans, is a sexist pig. That, despite the fact that in my case, for example, I’d happily vote for Jill Ellen Stein, in the event I enjoyed the franchise in the United States or, were she available, Jeannette Pickering Rankin, both of whom presumably have/had the same type of internal plumbing sported by Ms Clinton. Then again, I’d never have voted for Margaret Hilda Thatcher either, so I suppose I’ll be condemned to eternal sexist perdition….
Henri
I will never stop being creeped out about Hillary’s laughter about Qadaffi being killed by a knife shoved up his asshole.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/globalpost-qaddafi-apparently-sodomized-after-capture/
“A frame by frame analysis of this exclusive GlobalPost video clearly shows the rebel trying to insert some kind of stick or knife into Gaddafi’s rear end.”
A beheading would have been more merciful.
That bitch is cold.
«That bitch is cold.» What do you expect , Glenn,of a protogé of Marie Jana Korbelová (aka Madeleine Albright) ?…
Henri