The Indelible Bonobo Experience

Renaissance Monkey: in-depth expertise in Jack-of-all-trading. I mostly comment on news of interest to me and occasionally engage in debates or troll passive-aggressively. Ask or Submit 2 mah authoritah! ;) !

Obama ≠ Romney

aidsnegligee:

inbonobo:

aidsnegligee:

getting pretty sick of people telling me that obama and romney are just ‘the same’. 

i’m no fan of parliamentary ‘democracy’—but what does this even fucking mean?—it’s not even a critique. it says nothing. 

yeah, i’m sure they’re the same for you—as a white male. living in canada.  

I’m not sure who you’re referring to (I am also a Canadian male), but to me the two mofos are the same in that their freedom to enact substantially different policies is severely limited (whether they really think differently or not). Yes, they try to appear different, they have slightly different backgrounds and “complexions” but once in power, they’d do the same things. 

Personally, I like Obama more and given the chance I’d probably vote for him. It may even be true that his inability to keep his promises is actually getting to him. He is, however, a bit too pompous for my taste and he doesn’t seem to understand what debating is about, he doesn’t like debating (weird for a lawyer) or he simply wanted to lose the first one just so that he can go on the glorious route of Kerry and Mondale, who have also won the first televised debate against the incumbent. 

Romney, OTOH, is a putts. His body language, EVERYTHING, betrays his deep conflict between his disdain for regular people and his rational need to beg for votes.  

But no matter which one gets elected, USA will continue to be a beacon for strong-handed policing and curtailing of personal and civil liberties, corporatism / fascism / cronyism, war on drugs as disguised imperialism abroad and interment of potential dissidents at home, copyright clusterfuck, descration of privacy right and all the other cancers that have come to dominate the political life in USA and are now being exported elsewhere. Here in Canada the conservative government through Vic Toews appears to go in the direction of deletion of privacy rights, annihilation of civil liberties, private prisons and strong policing through the crime omnibus bill.

Hopefully, now you know what I fucking mean.

oh, of course. completely on board here. 

what i detest is the populist rage against the machine-fan “they’re just the same” without the actual content (which you have certainly provided) which would render the statement meaningful. 

if you really wanted to know, the text i was considering was my ‘buddy’s’ statement:

I want Mitt Romney to win for the same reason I wanted Rob Ford to win. Because politician’s value in my eyes has been reduced simply to the amusement and laugh-ability factor. ” 

which, forgive me if i think clearly demonstrates the circumvention around the difference of the real policies these men will introduce. as you say ” [the] USA will continue to be a beacon for strong-handed policing and curtailing of personal and civil liberties”. this is undeniable. my point, however, is there is indeed a real minor difference in the platforms advanced by each man, the more ‘conservative’ of which seriously curtails the well-being of american women. 

I answered in my comments for the last debate.

Complete Second Presidential Town Hall Debate 2012: Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney - Oct 16, 2012 (by TheNewYorkTimes)

Most pundits seem to think that Obama has won but I’m not so sure. The President certainly appeared more aggressive, but I doubt that would help him win more hearts - it would only reassure and energize those he already had on his side. Romney is far better in playing the smiling, non-aggressive and civilized shark while getting his points across. This is an art that Obama has failed to master and probably never will.

Obama was tense and often times, when answering, he came across as being angry at those asking the question. He seems to have difficulties staying alert AND friendly - he can only be at the top of his game by tensing up and appearing angered. That makes for a good show and good TV, but will that move more people to his side?!

Finally, this performance was more enjoyable to me than the first one, but given the chance, I would’ve already voted for him.

What troubles me is that nobody’s asking them about civil liberties, which took a severe beating in the past decade - this does not seem to concern Americans. The encroachment on civil rights, security theater, extra-judicial killing, runaway surveillance, these are all issues that no longer seem to even register. In the VP debate, Ryan brought up TSA and security theater only to be interrupted and ran over by Biden.

I know that there are those who feel that the one area where Obama and Romney differ is the “war on women”. Personally, I find that “war” demented. I fully support a woman’s right to alone decide what to do with her body at any time, with no reservations. However, I see reproductive rights as a subset of human rights and civil freedoms. (It isn’t terribly relevant whether abortion is unrestrained as long as the President can order extra-judicial killings of even American citizens, all conversations can be intercepted extra-judicially and virtually nobody has any personal freedoms left.)

If you have a chance, make sure that this question is asked. If nobody asks, whoever is elected will easily ignore these issues and our march to full police state (or, rather, continent) will continue.

Amnesty Report 2012

futurejournalismproject:

Amnesty International released its 2012 report today, the 50th in the organization’s history. The grim of it: “Amnesty International Report 2012 documents specific restrictions on free speech in at least 91 countries as well as cases of people tortured or otherwise ill-treated in at least 101 countries – in many cases for taking part in demonstrations.”

A print version of the report is available for purchase at Amnesty. A Kindle edition via Amazon.

Initially published as a video link, that “video has been removed by its user”. A sad commentary on the state of affairs.