Amazon slaps U.S. sellers with 5% fuel and inflation surcharge

[nlinecomputers]

If Trump runs again I will vote in the primaries for the first time as an effort to keep him out. There are crooked politicians and then there are dangerous nut jobs who are mentally unfit for office.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@nlinecomputers When it was Trump v Hillary in 2016 I voted for Johnson... and I really wish a few more had. He was 1% point short of getting Federal funding for the Libertarians for the next election. Not that I thought he deserved the office, but that funding break is a huge deal for our two party system. It would have caused some interesting things to happen.

And while voting as such I could both not vote for the failure of a business manchild AND not vote for the woman that bought her nomination. The candidates that have run for either Green or Libertarian parties before and since simply never got close enough to that magic 5% threshold.

I'm in the GOP primary in AZ right now, looking at this ballot filled with bigots and traitors... it's depressing.

 

[britechguy]

I'm not interested in forwarding these issues off to my kids to solve down the road.

Well, then if you're not interested in in forwarding them, then vote. There will always be cans being kicked. How far, how long, and how messy does vary, widely, between our two major political parties.

Your argument is without rational merit. We're faced with the candidates and party positions that are offered. There is ALWAYS a better choice between those two. I'm not about to tell you which happens to be better at each election cycle, as that has changed, radically, over the decades. But there's never been a time where a "clearly better of the two" did not exist.

 

[britechguy]

If Trump runs again I will vote in the primaries for the first time as an effort to keep him out.

And isn't it a crying shame, even before the January 6th hearings, that the Republicans would even consider allowing him to run under their party? What in God's name has happened since the days of Watergate when "far lesser crimes" resulted in the sitting president being driven from office to avoid impeachment? [And that someone who is exactly as you characterized failed to be impeached.]

 

[Sky-Knight]

And isn't it a crying shame, even before the January 6th hearings, that the Republicans would even consider allowing him to run under their party? What in God's name has happened since the days of Watergate when "far lesser crimes" resulted in the sitting president being driven from office to avoid impeachment? [And that someone who is exactly as you characterized failed to be impeached.]

What's changed is two generations of barely literate ignoramuses that call themselves citizens, and describe themselves as patriots who have been whipped up into such a fervor thanks to their corrupt pastors any attempt to dissuade them would result in civil war.

I know these people all too well, they're my family. Being the only college graduate in the group is physically painful, not to mention mentally exhausting and emotionally draining. There is no critical thinking skills to be had, and their faith is warped and so off God's mark that I lack the vocabulary to describe it.

I can tell you from first hand knowledge, there is no redeeming this bunch. They will need to be shot. So I say, get it over with!

 

[britechguy]

I can tell you from first hand knowledge, there is no redeeming this bunch. They will need to be shot. So I say, get it over with!

An option you don't really have [as devoutly as it is to be wished.]

But if everyone, and I do mean everyone, were to get out and vote for either "the least among evils" [primaries and local elections of all sorts] or the "lesser of two evils" in all elections this country would look nothing like it does today. Too many who are up in arms have just walked away, which is handing everything over to benighted zealots.

 

[Sky-Knight]

An option you don't really have [as devoutly as it is to be wished.]

But if everyone, and I do mean everyone, were to get out and vote for either "the least among evils" [primaries and local elections of all sorts] or the "lesser of two evils" in all elections this country would look nothing like it does today. Too many who are up in arms have just walked away, which is handing everything over to benighted zealots.

True enough, we cannot neglect our responsibility. I'm typing this as I look over and fill out my primary ballot. There are good options in this GOP primary, it's just terrifying to see how many unacceptable options there are at a local level, and trying to get into state and federal levels too.

But when I say I'm done with it, I don't mean the political process. That's eternal, and the duty of all citizens. What I'm done with is arguing relatives into a stupefied silence when I point out their flagrant stupidity, only to watch them return to the same idiotic habits ten seconds later. I'm done yelling "candidates" off my front porch that come to my door looking for electoral support when they've spent less time thinking about anything than I have. (And I really don't have the time to spend on this stuff)

But most of all I'm done with the very idea that someone that is different than I am is the "enemy" and "must be destroyed". One of the great ironies of civilization is that a tolerant society cannot tolerate intolerance, and I'm done doing so.

 

[britechguy]

But when I say I'm done with it, I don't mean the political process.

Wonderful (as was the rest of the message from which this line originates)!

But you must admit that you did leave some ambiguity as initially offered. I just filled in the gaps with what seemed, to me, to be the most likely meaning. Too many people literally walk away, never come back, and wonder why nothing they want, or anything even approaching what they want, is a part of their governments/governance. The voting booth is the way we express our political wants and needs - period - end of sentence.