Walking and chewing gum

It's not that I'm afraid to be exposed to alien propaganda...I would rather spend them doing something that interests me.

Fair enough.  One of my bad habits is thinking that because I find something interesting others will also find it interesting, and that is seldom the case.  Too much of my time is spent following the news and I think it's because of morbid curiosity more than anything else, like watching a train wreck.  This comes at a cost in that too much mental energy is wasted on things that are beyond my control, things that I am not actively involved in, and daily routines can suffer.  It's not good if you fall behind in your laundry.

-----

I like to read.  I am not a fan of videos or audio anything.

That's odd since Uncle Ken subscribes to  Netflix.  Is he listening to the news and reading the funny papers while he watches movies?  I like to read, too, but I enjoy it better without any distractions; total silence is best for me.  Certain activities lend themselves well to mental multitasking but being a passive participant is not necessarily a bad thing.  It depends on the individual, I suppose, but billions of dollars are spent by folks who attend events where they do little more than watch and listen.  I think it's unfair to state that either active or passive participation is better than the other; as long as you are enjoying the experience, who cares?  If I want to give something my total attention, whether it's a book, a movie, some music, or doing the dishes, well, that's within my rights.  And if I want to do a couple of things at once I can do that, too. but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do any of them as well as they could have been done by themselves.  It depends on a lot of things and is not something that I've tested.

-----

I wonder what  Old Dog means about  recent discussions going in circles.  That would imply that they got back to where they started and in my humble opinion they mainly just peter out.

Point taken.  I was thinking of the One Big Happy Party idea and it still doesn't make sense to me.  Signing any document stating that you will not form another party is a little heavy handed unless you like totalitarianism, don't you think?  If OBHP is such a good idea I think most political organizations would have coalesced into such a beast by now, but they haven't.  Political Science is not one of my strengths but I think that as organizations grow in size they tend to split into smaller groups based on shared interests and priorities.  A one party system would be static and exclusive but a multi-party system would be dynamic and inclusive, in my opinion.  A one party system would be a step backwards to the age of kings and emperors.  They had a very successful run, while it lasted, but then the little guys gained a voice and that was that.