h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Aren't they all?

Actually, because of the Electoral College, US Presidential elections are NOT necessarily popularity contests as on several occasions, notably Bush/Gore, the popular vote lost.

My vote in a "red" state is quite insignificant compared to a vote in a "swing" state. It really does not matter if I vote (I will anyway) as there is no chance that any Texas Electoral votes will go to Obama.

Re: the financial cliff

Built into previous legislation which allowed
the national debt ceiling to rise 'temporarily'
were deadlines of Jan 1st 2013 which would cut
government spending automatically by trillions
of dollars including a paralysing cut in the
military and all social services. It would be
like falling off a cliff.

These legally binding doomsday cuts were put in place
to force Congress to work in the meantime toward much
more sensible and thoughtful austerity measures.

But of course, in spite of the impending doom
they have stood like deer caught in the headlights
and nothing has or likely will be done.

The cuts come into effect after the election but before
whoever becomes the next President has been sworn in.
So neither of them will have the power to stop it - Congress
has painted the whirled economy into a doomsday corner.

Romany (sic) made one mistake last night - he said he
would no longer borrow money from China to fund PBS
(the public broadcasting system that provides educational
TV programming). He is going to cut off the chicken feed to
Big Bird. Children across America are crying because Mitt
is gonna kill Big Bird.


~jwf~

It's very telling that he mentioned that. That was yet more dog whistle politics. Of all the spending items on the national budget, that for PBS is absolutely minuscule compared to most corporate subsidies. PBS is an ideological target because neoconservatives are convinced it has a liberal agenda. And the main reason they believe so is PBS programming caters to intellectuals. Conservatives are, as a group, anti-intellectual. There are some very powerful conservative intellectuals, but they don't like to advertise that. They pander to the blue collar, evangelical, rural, Monday Night Football crowd who don't like PBS and don't see why they're tax payer dollars (actually minute fractions of a cent) should pay for it. And what the conservative intellectuals don't like are media sources that aren't beholden to corporate owners and sponsors.

*their

>>..Of all the spending items on the national budget, that for PBS
is absolutely minuscule compared to most corporate subsidies. <<

Yup that's why I called it chicken feed,

- a well known American redneck euphemism
for low cost expenditures. But it has an
undercurrent of the sense of waste. You
can't just fling it about. Even abundances
like chicken feed can be wasted if you
don't spread it around wisely. Giving it to
big imaginary yellow birds who hallucinate
even bigger elephumps is wasteful - to your
average highly subsidized farmer. Killing off
Big Bird will be seen as good husbandry.

The timing of this sound-bite debate about
the desentimentalisation of large fowl is
uncanny. Over the next few weeks leading up
to US Thanksgiving there will be many unhappy
children asking why the Turkey has to die.

And every parent with a hankering for stuffing
and gravy will be made to feel like a hypocrite
for not defending the Turkey but standing firm
on the imaginary Big Bird.

I do hope the 'smart'-er 'intellectual' President
will use the Pardoning of The Turkey tradition
to turn back this silly and pointless but highly
emotive symbolism.



~jwf~