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Government United States Politics

John McAfee On Why He's Running For President 242

Velcroman1 writes: Our government is in a dysfunctional state. It is also illiterate when it comes to technology. Technology is not a tool that should be used for a government to invade our privacy. Technology should not be the scapegoat when we fail to protect our digital assets and tools of commerce. These are matters of priorities." So says John McAfee, offering up a brief explanation into why he's running for president. As noted earlier on slashdot, McAfee has filed paperwork already (PDF) to found a new party.
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John McAfee On Why He's Running For President

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  • Who cares? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Captain Splendid ( 673276 ) <capsplendid&gmail,com> on Thursday September 10, 2015 @03:27PM (#50498125) Homepage Journal
    Really, who cares? Trump's in it to win it and popcorn futures are tapped out. This idiot's got less chance than Palin at winning the Golden Ticket.
    • My vote goes to the person that I would most like to see elected, not the person that everyone says is going to win.

      • I do that, and then get accused of *not participating*. Following the herd is throwing away your vote, or selling it to the highest bidder.

        • I do that, and then get accused of *not participating*.

          Accused by whom? Aren't the ballots anonymous precisely to avoid that?

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Ah, the eternal dilemma for voters. Vote for the person you want, or vote against the person you don't want. Occasionally the guy you want is going to win anyway, but far too often you are stuck with this choice.

        "Winner takes all" electoral systems are broken.

  • by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @03:28PM (#50498147) Journal

    He will slow down the government...

    • "He will slow down the government..."

      Only the part of it that runs on Windows, though. The big federal mainframes typically run Unix. Is the US Navy still WIndows-based? This could mean Iran pouring money into his campaign.

      The centerpiece of McAfee's platform will be "A virus-free America." If we get an Ebola cure and more research on virus-based cancers, I'll be happy.

      • Only the part of it that runs on Windows, though.

        ha ha ha, windows antivirus software is also consuming lots of cpu cycles on unix mail server hosts

  • Lottery (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lab Rat Jason ( 2495638 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @03:29PM (#50498159)

    Being president is sort of like winning the lottery, but in reverse. You accept the blame for everything that happens during the next 4 years, and sometimes you get to take credit for a few things... then you ride the gravy train down to your grave. Anyone who believes that the president alone can fix "Our government is in a dysfunctional state. It is also illiterate when it comes to technology." is already drinking the cool-aid. It takes a president, a congress, and state politicians working together to effect change, and nobody's been able to round up that crowd in a few decades now.

    • by linuxguy ( 98493 )

      Mostly true. But there are some things that presidents can do without Congressional approval. Iran agreement is one big example. And the ACA, while it needed Congressional approval, simply would not have happened without the president deciding that it needed to happen.

      But again, I do agree that presidents generally have limited powers and cannot bring about large scale changes by themselves.

      • by s.petry ( 762400 )

        But again, I do agree that presidents generally have limited powers and cannot bring about large scale changes by themselves.

        This is working as intended. for now at least....

    • But really, what you've got going on these days are a lot of people just fighting to keep the status quo. Most changes that get proposed are historically made by the Democrats. (Look at everything from "The New Deal" to the concept of the social security system, to orders for NASA to explore space and try to get a man put on the moon.) Sometimes (usually in hindsight), these changes are viewed as progress or good moves by our government. But they're almost always expensive undertakings, which get fought by

  • by invid ( 163714 )
    Now all we need is for Charlie Sheen to run for president to get a trifecta of crazy.
  • by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @03:42PM (#50498281) Homepage

    Again: this is a front page story. [slashdot.org]

    Minor point releases of Amiga OS have an order of magnitude more business being front page articles than this inanity.

  • well (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ThatsDrDangerToYou ( 3480047 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @03:44PM (#50498299)
    At least politics is no longer boring...
    • The media won't let it be boring. We give more media coverage to a list of people who are not running, than we do to good candidates like Jim Webb that actually are running. There certainly are links between the two, but money in politics is looking like less of a problem to me than the media picking favorites and covering only people who are newsworthy. As long as the media defines the political winners and losers, we will remain completely fucked.

  • Because I am insane... but then look everybody else that is running for president.

    In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. There is hope for me.

  • The Republicans seem to think that winning an election as a Republican, somehow disqualifies you for president.

    The three Republican front-running candidates have not won a single election among the three of them.

    All of the Republican candidates that actually have experience winning an election have fallen way off in the polls.

  • by nickweller ( 4108905 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @04:13PM (#50498627)
    "If there is one thing society can learn from the soap opera now engulfing tech zillionaire John McAfee, it is that rectal shelving is the best way to take the psychoactive drug MDPV, marketed and known colloquially as bath salts." ref [vice.com]
  • Because he is under investigation for murder and wants to pardon himself when he wins the election.
  • by draftmonkey2016 ( 4028551 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @04:19PM (#50498695) Homepage
    It's easy and predictable to sit back and call John McAfee crazy. It is also unhelpful.

    Some of the nice, responsible people that do this actually believe that the system of government in place in the US is fully functional and healthy. I can't say much to these people except: see you at the finish line.

    The remaining people with functioning brains realize that many, many things are going horribly wrong with the US system of government. In fact a majority of Americans believe this today. Trust in government is at an all time low. For these people, even if they disagree on the specifics, clearly things are not going well. Many even doubt for any future at all if we continue down the same course.

    And yet many of these people will also stand up and say McAfee is crazy. Well so what? Beyond that, will anything be done in the absence of a crazy person to attempt it? To win one would have to usurp the Political Machine by defeating both the Republicans and Democrats in the election, the whole time thwarting their joint efforts to protect their system. They will literally be walking around with a target on their back. Who but a crazy person would attempt it?

    It also shouldn't be forgotten that crazy often comes part and parcel with a whole host of other traits and characteristics that are very desirable. That Mr. McAfee has at least some spark of these is evident in the success that he has met with in the past. To dismiss him as a gibbering loon would not only be a mistake, it would be completely in error.
    • Some of the nice, responsible people that do this actually believe that the system of government in place in the US is fully functional and healthy.

      ha ha ha, is that your imaginary friend who is saying that? maybe you need to take a serious thrashing to your straw man

      To win one would have to usurp the Political Machine

      yeah that's great, how will a president get anything done if he does not have the trust of his fellow lawmakers?

    • I'm really hoping for semi-competent, and avoiding crazy.
  • by Hartree ( 191324 ) on Thursday September 10, 2015 @05:38PM (#50499301)

    "Our government is in a dysfunctional state."

    So, John's saying he wants to be president so he can put the fun back in dysfunctional?

  • With all these extra people running for president, isn't this just going to make the wrong person win? The US doesn't have runoffs or any of the other less flawed voting systems. Instead, the votes get split up among the better candidates, and then the least favorite is the one who wins.

  • ... and McAfee needs to explain himself?
  • He may be better than some but do you really want an amoral blatant tax evader to run the place?
  • I don't think McAfee has a snowball's chance in getting elected. Why doesn't he run for congress? That seems like a better way to get into government.

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