They must do it differently in Illinois than they do in Michigan. I have been member of the American Independent Party, The Republican Party, and the Libertarian Party. I don't remember if I paid dues to the first one, but I do remember paying dues to the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party. I don't remember if the first two ever issued me a membership card, but the Libertarians certainly did, and they sent me a new one every year when I paid my annual dues by mail.
I don't think we have anything like precinct committeemen around here. We have precincts, but that is only so you'll know to which township hall you go to vote. Generally the borders of our precincts and the borders of our townships are congruent, but some townships are sparsely populated, so they might combine two townships or parts of two townships to make one precinct. In that case, everybody in the precinct votes in the same township hall, whether or not they actually live in that township. You can only vote for township officials of the township in which you reside so, when they give you your ballot, they ask you which township you live in so they can give you the correct ballot. In the City of Cheboygan, which is not part of any township, they have several polling places and it goes by wards. At least they used to call them wards, maybe they call them precincts by now. Chicago used to have wards too, but I don't know if a ward is exactly the same thing as a precinct. When you were a precinct committeeman, did you work for your city or township, or did you work for the Democratic Party? Either way, I find it hard to believe that they didn't issue you some kind of I.D. Were you still into the whacky weed in those days? I understand that stuff can impair your memory, but so can old age.
We used to register to vote with our township clerk, but now we do it at the Secretary of State, which is the same place we get our driver's licenses. I don't remember taking any kind of oath when I registered to vote, or when I transferred my registration after a change of address. I think the township still issues voter registration cards, but I have never been asked to show mine when I voted, so I don't carry it in my wallet anymore. When I first started having back problems some 40 years ago, I was advised to make my wallet as thin as possible, so the only cards I carry now are my driver's license, my hunting and fishing licenses, and my debit card. Everything else goes into the black hole that is my top dresser drawer. It must be a black hole because stuff goes in there and never comes out, yet the drawer doesn't seem to get any fuller.
I thought I made this clear before, but a certain amount of memory loss is normal at our age: I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of any Tea Party organization. It is my understanding that the Tea Party is a grass roots political movement composed of numerous local chapters that are loosely affiliated with some kind of national group. There is a local chapter in Cheboygan, but all I know about them is what I have read in the newspaper. I have never attended any of their meetings, nor do I plan to. I've got nothing against them, but I don't join anything anymore.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of any organization that promotes the candidacy of Donald Trump, nor have I given any of them any money. I do not plan to vote for him in November, I plan vote for the Libertarian candidate for President, and the Republican candidates for everything else. The only things I know about Trump are what you have told me and what I have read in the newspaper or seen on TV.
Saturday: I heard on the news this evening that Hillary has clinched the nomination. I wonder if the Bernie fans will support her as expected. With both major parties divided as they are, this might be the year that the third parties make a dent in the wall. One can only hope.
I copied this from the Wiki article "Gray wolf":
"It is a social animal, travelling in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair, accompanied by the pair's adult offspring.[15] The gray wolf is typically an apex predator throughout its range, with only humans and tigers[9][16][17][18] posing a serious threat to it. It feeds primarily on large ungulates, though it also eats smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage.[4] "
Friday, June 10, 2016
finally, the death of the Tea Party
I don't think there is any hard line on which on one side you are a
member of a political party and the other you are not. When I went from
being a happy go lucky man in the street to a powerful potentate of the
22nd precinct in Urbana, I did not have to swear an oath to take Old
Betsy out of Beagles' hands and to make him marry his gay dog. I did
not pay any dues, I never received a newsletter, and I never got a card
to carry.
You're right it was precinct committeeman. I don't know where I got captain from, it probably just slipped into my memory because it sounds so much cooler than committeeman. I had a friend who was an alderman and he asked me if I wanted to be a committeeman and there actually was an election, I think I voted for myself and that was that.
Two or three times around election day my buddy, the alderman, gave me sacks of democratic propaganda and I took it through the neighborhood like I did when I was a teen distributing Goldblatts circulars. I had the power to register people to vote. It involved a little paperwork and then they were supposed to take an oath. I think I registered one guy. We did the paperwork, but when the time to take the oath came he didn't want to do it. It wasn't like he was a commie or anything, but it was just kind of a dorky thing to do, I think it required him raising his right hand. I said oh c'mon, and he said forget about it, and I said well fine then, and he was registered, but I was a little disappointed.
It was you tea partiers (didn't you tell me you had a card?) who invented RINO, which was kind of peculiar because those were the guys who had been in the party all their lives, and you were the guys who crawled out of the swamps. How did you get to declare who was a republican? But right from the beginning the establishment republicans were terrified of you guys. Nobody would say a word against you. They welcomed you into the party as fresh blood the way the Romans invited the barbarians to settle inside the walls of the empire. Then they all claimed to be tea partiers too. Every single guy running in the primary was a Washington outsider bent on busting up the gummint. Even Jeb, in his low energy manner, spoke of how he had shook things up in Florida many years ago.
And then, and then, along comes Trump, and I'm not sure if you welcomed him in or if he just crashed the gates, but none of the tea partiers dared stand up to him. I'm not sure if it would have done any good, but at least they could have showed a little pride.
I said 'you' referring to the tea party, but I'm not sure if you are still one. I'm not sure if there is a tea party. I think Trump has subsumed the Tea Party, he has captured the essence of it and run away with it. I wonder what is to become of the republican party after Trump. I don't think he will win. If he does, well I can't imagine what will happen. In the best case he will be ranting on Twitter while the rest of the country ignores him, in the worst case it is just science fiction.
If he doesn't win, will the moderates be able to come back and say I told you so? I don't see a place for the tea party, but then I have been declaring its death since the day it reared its tri-corner head. I imagine there will be a hard right, bible thumping faction headed by Cruz, which will be all that will be left, like when a star collapses upon itself into a neutron star.
But don't worry when the big girl's guys (maybe they will be big girls) come around to round you guys up for reeducation camp, I will stand up and say "Hey I was once El Capitan of precinct 22 in Urbana, and I ask that you spare The Freehold." That way we will be able to continue our search for truth in post Trump America.
You're right it was precinct committeeman. I don't know where I got captain from, it probably just slipped into my memory because it sounds so much cooler than committeeman. I had a friend who was an alderman and he asked me if I wanted to be a committeeman and there actually was an election, I think I voted for myself and that was that.
Two or three times around election day my buddy, the alderman, gave me sacks of democratic propaganda and I took it through the neighborhood like I did when I was a teen distributing Goldblatts circulars. I had the power to register people to vote. It involved a little paperwork and then they were supposed to take an oath. I think I registered one guy. We did the paperwork, but when the time to take the oath came he didn't want to do it. It wasn't like he was a commie or anything, but it was just kind of a dorky thing to do, I think it required him raising his right hand. I said oh c'mon, and he said forget about it, and I said well fine then, and he was registered, but I was a little disappointed.
It was you tea partiers (didn't you tell me you had a card?) who invented RINO, which was kind of peculiar because those were the guys who had been in the party all their lives, and you were the guys who crawled out of the swamps. How did you get to declare who was a republican? But right from the beginning the establishment republicans were terrified of you guys. Nobody would say a word against you. They welcomed you into the party as fresh blood the way the Romans invited the barbarians to settle inside the walls of the empire. Then they all claimed to be tea partiers too. Every single guy running in the primary was a Washington outsider bent on busting up the gummint. Even Jeb, in his low energy manner, spoke of how he had shook things up in Florida many years ago.
And then, and then, along comes Trump, and I'm not sure if you welcomed him in or if he just crashed the gates, but none of the tea partiers dared stand up to him. I'm not sure if it would have done any good, but at least they could have showed a little pride.
I said 'you' referring to the tea party, but I'm not sure if you are still one. I'm not sure if there is a tea party. I think Trump has subsumed the Tea Party, he has captured the essence of it and run away with it. I wonder what is to become of the republican party after Trump. I don't think he will win. If he does, well I can't imagine what will happen. In the best case he will be ranting on Twitter while the rest of the country ignores him, in the worst case it is just science fiction.
If he doesn't win, will the moderates be able to come back and say I told you so? I don't see a place for the tea party, but then I have been declaring its death since the day it reared its tri-corner head. I imagine there will be a hard right, bible thumping faction headed by Cruz, which will be all that will be left, like when a star collapses upon itself into a neutron star.
But don't worry when the big girl's guys (maybe they will be big girls) come around to round you guys up for reeducation camp, I will stand up and say "Hey I was once El Capitan of precinct 22 in Urbana, and I ask that you spare The Freehold." That way we will be able to continue our search for truth in post Trump America.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Card Carriers, RINOs, and Wolves
Sure there are organizations that promote certain candidates, raise money for them, and sponsor advertising for them, but they are not all political parties. A political party is an organization that actually gets a candidate's name put on the ballot under their logo. In Michigan you can put your own name on the primary ballot. When I filed for County Commissioner, all I had to do was pick up a petition form from the County Clerk, get a few signatures on it, and turn it back in to the clerk. If I had been running unopposed, or had won the primary vote, then the Republican Party would have put my name on the general election ballot. It wouldn't matter that I wasn't a card carrying party member although, at some point in the process, somebody would likely have asked me to join the party. If I had declined to join, they couldn't have kicked me off the ballot even if they had wanted to. Running for President is different, you have to be nominated by the party at their national convention to get on the ballot. In Michigan the party also nominates candidates for some offices at the state convention. I think Secretary of State is one of them, and I'm sure all the judges are, but I don't remember what other ones.
From what you have told me, it doesn't sound like you actually tried to join the party, you just volunteered to help out with the campaign. I'm not sure about that Precinct Captain job. Were you elected to that position or did somebody just appoint you? It would seem that they would want you to be a party member for that, but I don't know what a Precinct Captain does exactly. Is it anything like a Ward Healer? I think the correct title was Ward Committeeman, but my parents always referred to the old drunk that held that job in our neighborhood as a Ward Healer. I don't think they liked him very much.
Now that I think of it, I don't remember hearing anybody called a RINO before the Tea Party came on the scene, so maybe they invented the term. Truth be known, all Republicans never did march in lockstep with each other, or all Democrats either for that matter. When the Tea Party types tried to take over the Republican Party, they branded all the moderates as RINOs. I suppose the party establishment types have a name or two that they call the Tea Party types, but I have not heard of any.
It may be true that wolves spend more time hunting as individuals or pairs than they do in packs, but I don't think you could rightly say that they never hunt in packs. I know that the subordinate pack members bring in food for the Alphas' pups. Anything they can't carry home, they eat themselves and later regurgitate it for the pups to eat. (Ew, gross!) I have seen them do this on TV so it must be true. Man, they show anything on TV nowadays! The pups are born in the spring and should be ready to start learning how to hunt themselves by winter, which is when food gets scarce and everybody gets more serious about finding it. Maybe that's when the pack hunting starts, with the pups following the adults around trying to find something to chew on.
I think that skirt chasers and womanizers are called wolves because wolves are predatory creatures. They show up in European folklore from time to time, and they are never the good guy in the story. I have read that wolves in Europe were historically more feared and reviled than they ever were in the U.S. This might be because, by the time Europeans started immigrating to the U.S., they had guns, while they did not for much of Old World history. Fighting off a pack of hungry wolves with a spear or a sword certainly must be more challenging than shooting at them from 40 yards away, even with a muzzle loader. Also, the farther back in history you go, the less humans and the more wolves there must have been in Europe, so the humans probably didn't always win the fight.
From what you have told me, it doesn't sound like you actually tried to join the party, you just volunteered to help out with the campaign. I'm not sure about that Precinct Captain job. Were you elected to that position or did somebody just appoint you? It would seem that they would want you to be a party member for that, but I don't know what a Precinct Captain does exactly. Is it anything like a Ward Healer? I think the correct title was Ward Committeeman, but my parents always referred to the old drunk that held that job in our neighborhood as a Ward Healer. I don't think they liked him very much.
Now that I think of it, I don't remember hearing anybody called a RINO before the Tea Party came on the scene, so maybe they invented the term. Truth be known, all Republicans never did march in lockstep with each other, or all Democrats either for that matter. When the Tea Party types tried to take over the Republican Party, they branded all the moderates as RINOs. I suppose the party establishment types have a name or two that they call the Tea Party types, but I have not heard of any.
It may be true that wolves spend more time hunting as individuals or pairs than they do in packs, but I don't think you could rightly say that they never hunt in packs. I know that the subordinate pack members bring in food for the Alphas' pups. Anything they can't carry home, they eat themselves and later regurgitate it for the pups to eat. (Ew, gross!) I have seen them do this on TV so it must be true. Man, they show anything on TV nowadays! The pups are born in the spring and should be ready to start learning how to hunt themselves by winter, which is when food gets scarce and everybody gets more serious about finding it. Maybe that's when the pack hunting starts, with the pups following the adults around trying to find something to chew on.
I think that skirt chasers and womanizers are called wolves because wolves are predatory creatures. They show up in European folklore from time to time, and they are never the good guy in the story. I have read that wolves in Europe were historically more feared and reviled than they ever were in the U.S. This might be because, by the time Europeans started immigrating to the U.S., they had guns, while they did not for much of Old World history. Fighting off a pack of hungry wolves with a spear or a sword certainly must be more challenging than shooting at them from 40 yards away, even with a muzzle loader. Also, the farther back in history you go, the less humans and the more wolves there must have been in Europe, so the humans probably didn't always win the fight.
reading books
I can't imagine a political party or organization that isn't
interested in getting certain people elected over other people. What
would be the point?
I just finished that Haymarket book. They hung four of them, one killed himself, and three got long prison sentences that were later commuted by Governor Altgeld. The eight hour day didn't come a federal law until 1938, but I am going to have to do some reading up on that.
Somebody threw a bomb when the police were breaking up a labor meeting, which was part of the general ferment of the 1880s for an eight hour day. Seven policemen were killed. They never discovered who threw the bomb, and it doesn't seem like they cared. They rounded up eight of the biggest mouths of the anarchists, and the prosecutor unilaterally declared that anybody who was involved in stimulating the Haymarket event was eligible to be strung up. That wasn't the law, but the establishment really didn't like these guys, so that was that.
In defense of the establishment I will say these guys tended to shoot their mouths off, and they tended to get rhapsodic when they were discussing the equalizing powers of dynamite. Well sometimes a law abiding anarchist needs a little dynamite to protect himself, and doesn't the second amendment speak of militias (these guys did have militias, though I expect it was more to attract babes than to do any actual shooting) and the right to bear arms?
My next book is Leon Trotsky's autobiography. I've just read a couple pages and it is a little flowery, but not full of that commiespeak like dialectical materialism.
I never got turned away from the Democratic party. I think what you are referring to was when I tried to be part of the get out the vote for Obama activity and I ended up collecting signatures for my local alderman.
It was in Champaign where I worked on the McGovern campaign and later was a precinct captain. No membership card, no newsletter, no dues, no stinking badge.
The word liberal has indeed gone through some changes. Originally I think it just meant being an anti-monarchist and being for democracy. Barry Goldwater would have been a liberal under that definition, but it has become more descriptive of leftist, but to the right of the socialists. Or evil incarnate as your ilk has branded it. I don't know how you did it, but nowadays nobody calls themselves liberal if they are running for office. That's why we use the word progressive, because who is against progress? Teddy Roosevelt was pretty leftist for his time (though he was for hanging the Haymarket Eight high), and he would certainly be a RINO RINO today. I say RINO RINO because nowadays those guys that used to like to call other republicans RINOs, are now being called RINOs by the Trumpists.
That book I was speaking of, the one that I can't remember, that I read in high school, was one that proposed to debunk popular myths, and it was there where I think I read that wolves don't hunt in packs. I brought up that fun fact amidst my high school chums and was laughed out of the proverbial malt shop (why didn't we have a malt shop like other typical teens, like Archie? Who did you go for, Betty or Veronica?). But, but, I stammered, I read it in a book. How could something be wrong if it was written in a book?
Now of course we have the google machine and wiki, and let me say wiki does say that most of the meals that wolves get, they get by hunting alone or with their spouse maybe.
If wolves are so monogamous then why do we call those guys who go through the girls wolves? Answer me that one. If I am the alpha wolf I am fooling with the beta lady wolves, and I expect the lady alpha wolf is messing with a handsome young beta from time to time. That goes against the lady alpha being the only one with pups, but I wonder about that. Maybe I should read a book.
I just finished that Haymarket book. They hung four of them, one killed himself, and three got long prison sentences that were later commuted by Governor Altgeld. The eight hour day didn't come a federal law until 1938, but I am going to have to do some reading up on that.
Somebody threw a bomb when the police were breaking up a labor meeting, which was part of the general ferment of the 1880s for an eight hour day. Seven policemen were killed. They never discovered who threw the bomb, and it doesn't seem like they cared. They rounded up eight of the biggest mouths of the anarchists, and the prosecutor unilaterally declared that anybody who was involved in stimulating the Haymarket event was eligible to be strung up. That wasn't the law, but the establishment really didn't like these guys, so that was that.
In defense of the establishment I will say these guys tended to shoot their mouths off, and they tended to get rhapsodic when they were discussing the equalizing powers of dynamite. Well sometimes a law abiding anarchist needs a little dynamite to protect himself, and doesn't the second amendment speak of militias (these guys did have militias, though I expect it was more to attract babes than to do any actual shooting) and the right to bear arms?
My next book is Leon Trotsky's autobiography. I've just read a couple pages and it is a little flowery, but not full of that commiespeak like dialectical materialism.
I never got turned away from the Democratic party. I think what you are referring to was when I tried to be part of the get out the vote for Obama activity and I ended up collecting signatures for my local alderman.
It was in Champaign where I worked on the McGovern campaign and later was a precinct captain. No membership card, no newsletter, no dues, no stinking badge.
The word liberal has indeed gone through some changes. Originally I think it just meant being an anti-monarchist and being for democracy. Barry Goldwater would have been a liberal under that definition, but it has become more descriptive of leftist, but to the right of the socialists. Or evil incarnate as your ilk has branded it. I don't know how you did it, but nowadays nobody calls themselves liberal if they are running for office. That's why we use the word progressive, because who is against progress? Teddy Roosevelt was pretty leftist for his time (though he was for hanging the Haymarket Eight high), and he would certainly be a RINO RINO today. I say RINO RINO because nowadays those guys that used to like to call other republicans RINOs, are now being called RINOs by the Trumpists.
That book I was speaking of, the one that I can't remember, that I read in high school, was one that proposed to debunk popular myths, and it was there where I think I read that wolves don't hunt in packs. I brought up that fun fact amidst my high school chums and was laughed out of the proverbial malt shop (why didn't we have a malt shop like other typical teens, like Archie? Who did you go for, Betty or Veronica?). But, but, I stammered, I read it in a book. How could something be wrong if it was written in a book?
Now of course we have the google machine and wiki, and let me say wiki does say that most of the meals that wolves get, they get by hunting alone or with their spouse maybe.
If wolves are so monogamous then why do we call those guys who go through the girls wolves? Answer me that one. If I am the alpha wolf I am fooling with the beta lady wolves, and I expect the lady alpha wolf is messing with a handsome young beta from time to time. That goes against the lady alpha being the only one with pups, but I wonder about that. Maybe I should read a book.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Party Hearty
All political organizations are not political parties. A political party is a group that is organized for the purpose of getting candidates elected. Other groups might be in the business of spreading political ideas or just hanging around with like minded people. Political parties tend to evolve over time because the old timers die off and the newbies might put a different spin on things. Sometimes parties split in two or just go out of business. We have had two major parties for so long now that people think it was always like that, but it wasn't. The Republican Party of Lincoln was made up of the remnants of the old Whig Party and some others, and was actually called "The New Republican Party" at first. I think the Whigs came from the split up of the old Democratic Republican Party of Jefferson. There were at least two other Whig Parties that preceded them, one was in Scotland in the 15th or 16th century, and the other was in America before and during our revolution. I looked this up on Wiki some time ago, so I might not have all the details right, but it went something like that.
I thought you said once that you tried to join the Democratic Party but they wouldn't let you. You could have done "grunt work" for the party or given them money and not been a member. Did they or did they not issue you a membership card? To get to the "higher levels" you would have had to attend meetings and get yourself nominated when they were electing officers or delegates. Seeing as it was Chicago, it would also have helped if you had friends in high places. I joined the Libertarians by mail and never went to any meetings because they were all held Down Below. If there had been two of us we could have started our own local chapter like we did with the American Independent Party back in the 70s. I suppose its more complicated than that in the big city, but there must be a way to become a member of a political party I you really want to.
The Libertarian Party that we have today was organized in the 1970s. If there were other Libertarian parties in American history, I have not heard of them. The word "libertarian" refers to a political philosophy that was inspired by the writings of John Locke, but I don't know if that was what Locke called it at the time. Our Founding Fathers were called "liberals" in their day, and now they are called "classical liberals" to distinguish them from our modern liberals. I have heard that today's liberals are starting to call themselves "progressives", which is confusing because Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive and he was a Republican. Well, he founded the Progressive Party when he couldn't get nominated by the Republicans for a second term, but I think he was called a progressive before that.
I think how we got into world War II was we declared war on Japan, and then Germany declared war on us because they were Japan's ally.
You may be right that wolves hunt small game as individuals, but again you may be confusing them with coyotes. I don't remember ever reading or hearing of how wolves hunt small game. I have read that a human can starve to death trying to live off of small game in northern climates, or at high altitudes in temperate climates. It takes more calories to keep you alive in cold weather, and hunting small game frequently burns more calories than it provides. It is believed that Ice Age humans hunted small game and gathered various plant products to provide variety in their diet but, to make it through the winter, they needed to pull down something big like a hairy elephant once in awhile. Killing a hairy elephant with spears and rocks requires teamwork, you can't do it by yourself, which may be why humans became social animals in the first place, and may also be why they started hanging around with canines.
Anything I have read or saw on TV about wolves says that the Alphas are pretty monogamous. That may be because most of the other pack members are related to them. Animals don't have moral reservations about incest, but many species seem to have evolved instinctive ways to minimize it. I suppose, if they didn't, they would eventually become weak and sickly. That may be why some species like rabbits and hares go through boom and bust population cycles. They don't travel very far from where they're born and, as the population increases, it's only a matter of time till they are all related to each other.
I thought you said once that you tried to join the Democratic Party but they wouldn't let you. You could have done "grunt work" for the party or given them money and not been a member. Did they or did they not issue you a membership card? To get to the "higher levels" you would have had to attend meetings and get yourself nominated when they were electing officers or delegates. Seeing as it was Chicago, it would also have helped if you had friends in high places. I joined the Libertarians by mail and never went to any meetings because they were all held Down Below. If there had been two of us we could have started our own local chapter like we did with the American Independent Party back in the 70s. I suppose its more complicated than that in the big city, but there must be a way to become a member of a political party I you really want to.
The Libertarian Party that we have today was organized in the 1970s. If there were other Libertarian parties in American history, I have not heard of them. The word "libertarian" refers to a political philosophy that was inspired by the writings of John Locke, but I don't know if that was what Locke called it at the time. Our Founding Fathers were called "liberals" in their day, and now they are called "classical liberals" to distinguish them from our modern liberals. I have heard that today's liberals are starting to call themselves "progressives", which is confusing because Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive and he was a Republican. Well, he founded the Progressive Party when he couldn't get nominated by the Republicans for a second term, but I think he was called a progressive before that.
I think how we got into world War II was we declared war on Japan, and then Germany declared war on us because they were Japan's ally.
You may be right that wolves hunt small game as individuals, but again you may be confusing them with coyotes. I don't remember ever reading or hearing of how wolves hunt small game. I have read that a human can starve to death trying to live off of small game in northern climates, or at high altitudes in temperate climates. It takes more calories to keep you alive in cold weather, and hunting small game frequently burns more calories than it provides. It is believed that Ice Age humans hunted small game and gathered various plant products to provide variety in their diet but, to make it through the winter, they needed to pull down something big like a hairy elephant once in awhile. Killing a hairy elephant with spears and rocks requires teamwork, you can't do it by yourself, which may be why humans became social animals in the first place, and may also be why they started hanging around with canines.
Anything I have read or saw on TV about wolves says that the Alphas are pretty monogamous. That may be because most of the other pack members are related to them. Animals don't have moral reservations about incest, but many species seem to have evolved instinctive ways to minimize it. I suppose, if they didn't, they would eventually become weak and sickly. That may be why some species like rabbits and hares go through boom and bust population cycles. They don't travel very far from where they're born and, as the population increases, it's only a matter of time till they are all related to each other.
Who's a RINO now?
There is the big libertarian party (Big Lib) with Gary and Bill, but I imagine there are plenty of other libertarian parties also, like
there are several different Ayn Rand societies, and god knows how many
anarchist and socialist parties. The interesting thing is that to be a
member of any of these parties you have to believe in something, whereas
to be a Republican or a Democrat all you have to believe in is the
currently running members of the party.
I expect party platforms will be hard fought battles in both parties this year, but come the election the presidential candidates will widely ignore anything that is in them, I believe it was Truman who, when asked about his party's platform, replied that he had never read it.
That was what was so silly about that RINO thing, where a person was deemed to be not truly a Republican unless they believed certain things theoretically, I think, having something to do with Reagan, though of course if Reagan was alive today he would be called a RINO. Now I see where the Trumpettes are calling anybody who isn't a RINO, even though Trump is sort of a liberal because sometimes in the shotgun blast of his rantings you can hear liberal thoughts.
There were primaries last night so I went to FOX and CNN between innings of the ball game and I heard Trump would be making a speech soon, and then just after the third there he was. I rubbed my hands in anticipation. Well you know how he is, he tends to meander until he stumbles onto some subject that gets his blood boiling and he is off like a spaceship. But that didn't happen last night. He badmouthed the big girl and then he badmouthed her some more and then the speech was over. The idiots cheered, but you could tell they were disappointed, as was I. Later I learned that he was reading from a teleprompter.
That judge thing has gotten his teat in a wringer, and all the big reps who have mumblingly backed him have had their panties in a bunch over that and I guess somebody in the Trump organization told him to tone it down, Trump toning it down is like me putting on a suit and going to Sunday School, we both get extremely itchy. I don't expect him to stay toned down for long,
I guess I was able to join the democrats during the McGovern campaign and later when I became a precinct committeeman, but none of it seemed very official. I got the feeling that they were glad to have me at the grunt level, but if I tried to get to a higher level they might tamp me down a bit.
Isn't the Libertarian based on like John Locke and Thomas Paine who were around at the time of the revolution? Why didn't it get organized until the 70s? What happened so special then? I think the libertarians are only for defensive wars. I guess Pearl Harbor would have been enough to get them involved against the Japanese, that was US Soil, and I guess we declared war on both at the same time because they were axis allies.
Isolationism is considered a pejorative term like socialist or liberal, but I don't know that it's all so bad, I guess it's a matter of degree, you can't completely ignore the rest of the world, but sprinkling your troops all over seems like asking for trouble to me.
I know that wolves live in packs, but what I was wondering about was the hunting in packs thing, I'm sure they get together and bring down a deer or a human from time to time which is not only good eating, but a good time, but I read somewhere, maybe in that book I don't remember the title of, that they got most of their food from small animals which they hunt down individually.
Doesn't the alpha male impregnate all the lady wolves and not just the lady alpha? That's what I would do if I were he. Maybe lady alpha has something to say about it?
I expect party platforms will be hard fought battles in both parties this year, but come the election the presidential candidates will widely ignore anything that is in them, I believe it was Truman who, when asked about his party's platform, replied that he had never read it.
That was what was so silly about that RINO thing, where a person was deemed to be not truly a Republican unless they believed certain things theoretically, I think, having something to do with Reagan, though of course if Reagan was alive today he would be called a RINO. Now I see where the Trumpettes are calling anybody who isn't a RINO, even though Trump is sort of a liberal because sometimes in the shotgun blast of his rantings you can hear liberal thoughts.
There were primaries last night so I went to FOX and CNN between innings of the ball game and I heard Trump would be making a speech soon, and then just after the third there he was. I rubbed my hands in anticipation. Well you know how he is, he tends to meander until he stumbles onto some subject that gets his blood boiling and he is off like a spaceship. But that didn't happen last night. He badmouthed the big girl and then he badmouthed her some more and then the speech was over. The idiots cheered, but you could tell they were disappointed, as was I. Later I learned that he was reading from a teleprompter.
That judge thing has gotten his teat in a wringer, and all the big reps who have mumblingly backed him have had their panties in a bunch over that and I guess somebody in the Trump organization told him to tone it down, Trump toning it down is like me putting on a suit and going to Sunday School, we both get extremely itchy. I don't expect him to stay toned down for long,
I guess I was able to join the democrats during the McGovern campaign and later when I became a precinct committeeman, but none of it seemed very official. I got the feeling that they were glad to have me at the grunt level, but if I tried to get to a higher level they might tamp me down a bit.
Isn't the Libertarian based on like John Locke and Thomas Paine who were around at the time of the revolution? Why didn't it get organized until the 70s? What happened so special then? I think the libertarians are only for defensive wars. I guess Pearl Harbor would have been enough to get them involved against the Japanese, that was US Soil, and I guess we declared war on both at the same time because they were axis allies.
Isolationism is considered a pejorative term like socialist or liberal, but I don't know that it's all so bad, I guess it's a matter of degree, you can't completely ignore the rest of the world, but sprinkling your troops all over seems like asking for trouble to me.
I know that wolves live in packs, but what I was wondering about was the hunting in packs thing, I'm sure they get together and bring down a deer or a human from time to time which is not only good eating, but a good time, but I read somewhere, maybe in that book I don't remember the title of, that they got most of their food from small animals which they hunt down individually.
Doesn't the alpha male impregnate all the lady wolves and not just the lady alpha? That's what I would do if I were he. Maybe lady alpha has something to say about it?
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Running With the Pack
I don't know about the anarchists, but a libertarian is just a guy who believes in libertarian principles, while a Libertarian is a card carrying member of the Libertarian Party. It's the same with democrats and republicans, although many people today might say that they are Republicans or Democrats just because they usually vote for Republican or Democratic candidates. Funny, though, that "Tea Party" is almost always capitalized, I suppose to distinguish it from a tea party where people actually sit around and drink tea together. As I have said before, there are many Tea Party organizations that may or may not be affiliated with the national Tea Party, if there even is such a thing anymore. Maybe it was the same with the anarchists, several anarchist type organizations that may or may not have been affiliated with each other.
I don't know why you were not able to join the Democratic Party, maybe it's by invitation only. I was invited to join the Republican Party when I was elected as a precinct delegate back in the 70s. I didn't need to be a party member to run for the job but, after I was elected and showed up at the meeting, I was invited to join, although the chairman told me that I didn't have to if I didn't want to. I was the only elected person at that meeting, so the others must have been party members because they seemed to know each other, and somebody must have elected the chairman at some point in time. The meeting was of the Cheboygan County Republicans, and we chose delegates to the national convention. There was no voting, the chairman just asked "Who wants to go to the convention?", and some guys raised their hands. I suppose they were allocated a certain number of delegates and, if there had been more volunteers than they had allocations, they would have voted on it. Later the chairman called me on the phone and asked me if I wanted to go to the state convention, which I have previously told you about. The Democrats in your area must have something like that, although I understand that all the states don't run their parties exactly the same way.
I don't know what Trump is doing about funding right now. I understand that he mostly financed his primary campaign with is own money, but he might be soliciting donations for his presidential run.
The Libertarian Party was founded in the 1970s, so they wouldn't have been around during World War II. I was just speculating when I said that they probably wouldn't have been opposed to that one. I don't think they are pacifists, they just don't want the U.S. to be tangled up in the conflicts of other countries. I have heard them called "isolationists", but I don't know if they would call themselves that.
As far as I know, grey wolves, a.k.a. timber wolves, have always been social animals. You might have them confused with coyotes, which are technically just a subspecies of wolves. Coyotes occasionally form temporary hunting packs in the winter to pursue larger prey like adult deer, but they usually hang out in family units, Mamma, Poppa, and this year's pups. Those pups will disperse and go their own way when Mamma and Poppa start working on next year's pups, usually in late winter or early spring. A grey wolf pack might contain several generations of pups from the Alpha male and the Alpha female, as well as some unrelated individuals that have been allowed to join up. Generally the Alphas are the only breeders and everybody else helps take care of their pups. The Alphas will sometimes let another pair breed but, when food gets scarce, the Alphas' pups get fed first.
Lone wolves are usually either orphans whose pack has been killed off, unsuccessful challengers to the Alpha position, or former Alphas that have been overthrown by some punk kid trying to make a name for himself. Lone wolves have a harder time of it than pack wolves because they have to fend for themselves, which is not what wolves are good at. The younger ones might try to join another pack, or they might find a mate and start a pack of their own. The old deposed Alphas usually just walk off into the sunset and are never seen again.
I don't know why you were not able to join the Democratic Party, maybe it's by invitation only. I was invited to join the Republican Party when I was elected as a precinct delegate back in the 70s. I didn't need to be a party member to run for the job but, after I was elected and showed up at the meeting, I was invited to join, although the chairman told me that I didn't have to if I didn't want to. I was the only elected person at that meeting, so the others must have been party members because they seemed to know each other, and somebody must have elected the chairman at some point in time. The meeting was of the Cheboygan County Republicans, and we chose delegates to the national convention. There was no voting, the chairman just asked "Who wants to go to the convention?", and some guys raised their hands. I suppose they were allocated a certain number of delegates and, if there had been more volunteers than they had allocations, they would have voted on it. Later the chairman called me on the phone and asked me if I wanted to go to the state convention, which I have previously told you about. The Democrats in your area must have something like that, although I understand that all the states don't run their parties exactly the same way.
I don't know what Trump is doing about funding right now. I understand that he mostly financed his primary campaign with is own money, but he might be soliciting donations for his presidential run.
The Libertarian Party was founded in the 1970s, so they wouldn't have been around during World War II. I was just speculating when I said that they probably wouldn't have been opposed to that one. I don't think they are pacifists, they just don't want the U.S. to be tangled up in the conflicts of other countries. I have heard them called "isolationists", but I don't know if they would call themselves that.
As far as I know, grey wolves, a.k.a. timber wolves, have always been social animals. You might have them confused with coyotes, which are technically just a subspecies of wolves. Coyotes occasionally form temporary hunting packs in the winter to pursue larger prey like adult deer, but they usually hang out in family units, Mamma, Poppa, and this year's pups. Those pups will disperse and go their own way when Mamma and Poppa start working on next year's pups, usually in late winter or early spring. A grey wolf pack might contain several generations of pups from the Alpha male and the Alpha female, as well as some unrelated individuals that have been allowed to join up. Generally the Alphas are the only breeders and everybody else helps take care of their pups. The Alphas will sometimes let another pair breed but, when food gets scarce, the Alphas' pups get fed first.
Lone wolves are usually either orphans whose pack has been killed off, unsuccessful challengers to the Alpha position, or former Alphas that have been overthrown by some punk kid trying to make a name for himself. Lone wolves have a harder time of it than pack wolves because they have to fend for themselves, which is not what wolves are good at. The younger ones might try to join another pack, or they might find a mate and start a pack of their own. The old deposed Alphas usually just walk off into the sunset and are never seen again.
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