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Monday, November 2, 2015

Latest politics news



White Lightning, who previously announced he was running for president as a Guns and Dope Party candidate, has sent me a new statement:

Dear Tommy boy,
I would just like to discredit a previous interview with Big Ball Bumpty about him being my VP. BBB is a registered sex offender and necrophiliac. He is also a sellout. I actually plan on making Vermin Supreme my VP. I am also pleased to announce that through your support, we have gone up 0.001% in the polls. It's a good start. Thanks again!
Sincerely,
White Lighting

This is the candidacy that may have inspired a clarifying statement from Guns and Dope Party representatives that the party does not endorse candidates.

Mr. Lightning's campaign seems a trifle unreal to me, but then again, U.S. politics these days seems more like something in a satirical RAW novel than the normal course of business for a democracy.  If you are not an American, you may perhaps be puzzled by the fact that our presidential campaign has been under way for months, even though the election is still a year away. The Republican front runner is an unpleasant reality TV star. The Democratic front runner is an unpleasant careerist, palpably desperate for power, who in the last few months have discarded almost all of her previous political positions in favor of more fashionable ones. The only positions she has stuck to are the ones I find most objectionable — she's a militarist who believes the destruction of Libya was a good idea, and a civil liberties opponent who delights in calling Edward Snowden a "traitor" for revealing how much the government spies on its all citizens.  All of this is trumped, in the increasingly tribal Democratic Party, by the fact that she would be the "first woman president."

Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party has six recognized presidential candidates. I don't know much about any of them.

Oh, and Ohio is voting Tuesday on legalizing marijuana. I'm voting for it, but I'm pretty sure it will lose.

UPDATE: Arthur Hlavaty wrote to me after he had trouble posting a comment, so I'll quote his email here: "The Libertarian race is a sausage fest (all white), and the marijuana vote would set up an oligopoly. My cynicism continues."

Mine does, too, but I'll take a flawed legalization over prohibition; I'm with Nick Gillespie on this.  I'll update this blog post when the results in Ohio come in.

UPDATE II: Pot legalization lost decisively in Ohio, with about 65 percent voting "No."

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