deer_in_the_headlight dafremen When your friends are fighting about politics: Me watching the neofascists and neocommunists decide which authoritarian system works better -- *popcorn* Didnt anybody notice that we keep electing the same class of people who are getting richer while the middle class disappears? It's not about immigration -- GW Bush let in more immigrants than anyone but Biden. Legal immigration keeps wages low for the corporate sector. Illegal immigration keeps them low for the rural/small business/contractor sector. All immigration dilutes the labor force and keeps wages low. It's about breaking farmers backs to steal their land..and breaking unions' backs so wages can stay low and conditions can be lowered. Thats the real purpose of immigration policy, regardless of our personal exception stories. It's not about being a dove or a hawk either. Reagan took us into Central America. Bush Sr. took us into Iraq. Clinton into Serbia. Bush Jr back into Iraq. Obama into Afghanistan. Now we're headed back into Central America. Wonder if we'll repeat the circuit again? Meanwhile Mexico's elites got so corrupt and greedy that they couldn't keep their peasants in line, so now we're going to go help them restore the plantation and get the proper (banker's) gang back in power. Back to war we go..er sorry "police action". Speaking of which, didnt anybody notice how each side laughed and stuck their tongues out at each other when their guy signed another Executive Order..because we're all too distracted to notice that Congress has been eliminated from the policy making process? So much for checks and balances. But at least we got to call each other names, so that's nice. It's not that left or right is caring about our kids. Both are ignoring the obvious elephants in the room that are destroying their future: real estate speculation, rental plantations, monopolies, automation and the scourge of outsourcing. Media child grooming and its move to the internet. All of these things have decimated the future for the many while concentrating the fruits of American labor and resource into the pockets of those who are willing to become banker's minions. Gone are the days of slapping billionaires d---s in the dirt when they start pulling the strings of our republic. We are their puppets..the lefties who want us to be their commie proletariet and the righties who would like us all goosestepping like Hummel figurines to "law and order"s written by the wealthy. And so I'm breaking out the popcorn again this year. I predicted where we're at politically and socially some 17 years ago in my satire newspaper Daffy Times. I tried to exaggerate as ridiculously as possible, and yet here we are. We are actually that ridiculous. We are a bunch of clowns in the circus. (Thats probably why they played all of that circus music at the end of the inaugural speech.) Working and poor folks of all stripes from dirty kid to business owner should hug it out already, before it's too late. It's goofy af to fight over which rich people should be our masters. I'm still not sure why deer tend to get caught in headlights instead of escaping their demise. Maybe it's the two lights that confuse them so they dont know which way to run, to the left or to the right.. 250123 ... Phil They get blinded but don't look away from the danger. 250125 ... hurley Not trying to defend Obama and his relentless collateral damage (civilian casualties) via "precision" drone strike fuckery, but the U.S. was actively in Afghanistan since about five minutes after 9/11, which was 7+ years before he took office. If you recall, the critique on W Bush from anyone not wallowing in easily goosed islamophobia and rah-rah bootlicking was (besides the obvious lie of his cassus belli) the drain on the military and the overall budget that would result from opening a war on two fronts when the dumbass cowboy decided to one-up his daddy by toppling Saddam Hussein 250126 ... ego hum yes that bright light freezes me I'm about to die 250130 ... dafremen The condemnation of Obama and Afghanistan was related to his campaign rhetoric and his promise to "Get the troops out of Iraq". He knew everyone was tired of war and wanted the troops to come home. He intentionally deceived the public. He had no intention of bringing them home. And we've been in Afghanistan since the late 70s when we provided support against the Soviets. We went in during Carter's tenure. If you're trying to make money and gain influence by fueling the drug wars, you'll want a place to grow your dope. 250204 what's it to you? who go blather from