(08-07-2023, 05:49 PM)Lucky2Last Wrote:

(08-07-2023, 04:42 PM)NYC4jags Wrote: If there is one thing we can agree on - it is that ^ I suppose. 

We are indeed screwed by the lack of choice and quality of candidate. 
If there is one thing I DO believe the most powerful want to keep in place to control us, it is that particular aspect of our system. 

I just think that our system (Constitution) does a much better job of protecting us with checks and balances than you do (once one of those candidates get elected.)
That's why (despite all of the bleating here) none of our actual lives have been radically changed because we went from Carter, to Reagan, to Bush, to Clinton, to Bush, to Obama, to Trump, to Biden. Folks like to pretend all hell broke loose each time one of these transitions happened, but it really didn't. 
Very little changed in the grand scheme of American Freedom. Society around us changed with the times, but it didn't come from those in office at the time or we'd have seen wild swings in societal norms as these various administrations shifted in and out of power. We didn't. We were lucky under each of these Presidents to live more freely than the vast majority of humans. I'm still grateful for it.

Me too, which is why I don't want to see it circumvented. I will respond to most of this post later, but I don't think we live in the same America that you and I grew up in. Something changed under Obama (and that is not me attacking Obama, rather I think there was an opportunity shift in the corporate sector). I never voted for a President in my life, despite being a PoliSci major and working in government for a few years, because it never really mattered. I just saw it as the same song and dance and the elites fought for their ideal world. I also thought we were insulated from too much damage because of the Constitution and our judicial system. And, ultimately, the President just didn't really have that much power. I don't think that's the case anymore. The WEF is making a global government. That's not a conspiracy. 

Now is the time for a 'great reset' of capitalism | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

Don't do an instant reaction, see Great Reset and go into automaton "conspiracy mode." That is just a palatable blueprint of their goals for the foreseeable future. If you take all of that at face value, and assume these elites are just well-intentioned philanthropists, sure, it sounds great. They believe in stakeholder capitalism, which means only those who have a genuine stake in the future should be shaping it. That's them. Not us.

These people are expert marketers. They will sell you what you want to hear and convince you it's for your own good. Their lifestyle will never change. They will never lose their grasp on power. Did you vote for anyone at the WEF? You skim past my above post about GARM without even realizing or at least addressing my point. It's not about the rules and whether they are good or not. It's about our ability to regulate our elites. When you have an organization that can pull 90% of advertising revenue to any company that is not comply with THEIR values, without any way to retaliate, you don't have a free market. 

NOTHING they are doing is giving us more say. It's taking it away. They are selling us an idea. You're buying it. I'm not. You need me to prove to you it's a bad idea. History is full of these grandiose ideas that fail because of human greed. You're the believer, not me. America ONLY worked because of checks and balances. You remove those, and you're just in an oligarchy that depends on the generosity of your overlords. Not a good idea, bro.

At least we're getting somewhere in this back and forth now, LOL. That's something.

When I have the time I'll follow the link and read up - give you a thoughtful response. 

Quick notes on other points:
I get the concept of GARM and its regulators having a scary amount of control, but are they actually doing what you are asserting?  Who have they bankrupted by taking their ad revenue, and were the ads pulled with just cause? Are you adopting a catastrophist outlook at their influence? Or is the reality less scary? 

Furthermore, in general terms, I don't believe our checks and balances have been damaged to the degree you believe they have, but I see how slippery the slope is. Both of the past two administrations have taken actions to try to end around the system at times. I don't like that. But again, I don't see them as "taken from us" yet and I don't see their destruction as imminent. I do believe we have reached a point of needing to protect those checks and balances and the current trend of "gotcha" style politics between the Dems and Reps is putting that at risk, IMO.

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