[KurtSF]

FYI, I grunched this because I had a strong response to OP, but I'll go back and read.

OP, I' in exactly the same boat as you, with the minor (perhaps trivial) distinction that I was always on the liberal side in any election. Republicans have always been scum in my eyes (except gun control, they got that right), and the difference now is that Democrats are just as big scum. There is no one at all sensible or rational involved in the US government anymore. Its pathetic, and terrifying.

RE: the state of the world, yeah, for several years now I've been calling our times the "End of Days." Rome didn't fall in a day, and neither is the US. Humanity will survive, life will go on, but we are heading into a major train-wreck of civilization right now.

The poker world is a micro-expression, I believe, of the short-sighted, fascist, and just plain stoopid things being done by our government these days. It couldn't have been worse timing for me. I recently made a change in my game and have been reborn as a pokerplayer. I won about 25% of my lifetime winnings in the last month! All of a sudden I have a future in this game, and it gets pulled out from under me by a bunch of self-important posturing morons.

A close friend and I have a reoccurring conversation about Germany in the 30s, about when you know to run. The best answer we have come up with so far is when the populace is disenfranchised. That is, when the people's will expressed through voting is no longer empowered or important or heeded. We've passed that point in this country. I swear to anything, if I didn't have family and so many ties in this country I would be trying to find a way out.

$0.02