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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dan TheBookMan<br><b>…</b></span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…His records of bankruptcies -- and walking away from them without incurring hits to his personal fortune -- seems to speak of his ability to game the system rather than the kind of brilliance anyone should applaud. Regards, Dan<br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>We Americans must face what we ourselves created. It is our own fault, our collective punishment for having elected the nearly meritless three predecessors Bill Clinton, Bush43 and Obama. Regardless of who wins, we get a throbbing canker sore in our highest office, a remorseless master of gaming the system, of shamelessly working the angles, a wizened guru of skating past the intent of the law while maintaining a strained pretense of the letter, practiced in the art of subterfuge, lacking a trace of moral character. We will choose a top executive who is the reprehensible antithesis of Gandhi: harmless as the serpent and wise as the dove. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>We were so offended when Jonathan Gruber said we were stupid for believing their story, but deep down in our hearts, we know he was right. Ben Rhodes echoed the sentiment in Thursday’s New York Times, admitting the current administration lied to us and calling us fools for believing them:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html?_r=0</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Here we have a guy openly admitting, or even bragging about doing Jedi mind tricks on the newschildren so that their echo chamber would result in news stories to convince the masses to follow meekly and quietly. Disgraceful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>No point in bitching about it now. This is all our own fault. We did this to us. Now we will make it still worse: good chance we will get a decent, competent, experienced and honest third party candidate who will step up to the podium and tell us the harsh truth. We will conclude that he is the most qualified of the choices but that there is no point in voting for him because he cannot win. Everyone knows third parties cannot win. Even if every member of the flock can see a greener pasture beckoning, the flock will stay with its miserable situation, for this is where the rest of the flock follow each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>