These motherfuckers are ruthless and shameless:
State and local Republicans have expanded early voting in GOP-dominated areas and restricted it in Democratic areas, an IndyStar investigation has found, prompting a significant change in Central Indiana voting patterns.
From 2008 to 2016, GOP officials expanded early voting stations in Republican dominated Hamilton County, IndyStar’s analysis found, and decreased them in the state’s biggest Democratic hotbed, Marion County.
That made voting more convenient in GOP areas for people with transportation issues or busy schedules. And the results were immediate.
We need to nationalize voting and spend billions on it.
Thoroughly Pizzled
Abolish the states. Federalism had its chance.
TenguPhule
Republicans: Hahahahaha Fuck you!
schrodingers_cat
Is only Indiana doing this? What about other states?
RinaX
This is interesting and all, but I read something yesterday about Tom Perez offering some donuts to true liberals trying to free the DNC from the shackles of corporate corporatism or something. I think we know what the real priority is here.
TenguPhule
Every single one of those Republicans deserves to be hounded forever.
Gravenstone
So we should just void all electoral results from Indiana since 2008? I’d be cool with that. Wonder what other states are doing likewise? We can invalidate their votes too? Keep this shit up, and Trump will be a horrible memory, but only a memory.
/wishful thinking …
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
My comment from downstairs:
Major Major Major Major
Gosh, who was governor there, again?
rikyrah
I know Cole..
I know……
Muthaphuckas…evil azz mofos….the entire lot of them.
different-church-lady
But according to my progressive betters all we have to do is solve economic inequality and the rest falls into place!
Neech
@schrodingers_cat:
They did this in North Carolina. Guilford County cut early voting sites from 16 to 1 for the 2016 election.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/analysis-north-carolina-counties-cut-early-voting-sites-see-lower-n671246
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
They won’t answer requests for comment because they know what they did, and continue to do, is wrong and indefensible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: Laboratories of suppression.
tobie
@TenguPhule: Does the vote have to be unanimous?
SiubhanDuinne
And as part of that, we need to make voter registration automatic for every citizen upon reaching voting age. If you don’t want to be registered, you have to make the effort to opt out.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat:
I want to know this too. Is there precedent for this? How is this fixed? Somehow take these decisions out of the control of political authorities? I don’t see amending the Constitution to take away regulating elections from states as something desirable or feasible.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Didn’t Jeb! do this (or something like it) in FL 2000?
TenguPhule
@tobie:
For them, yes.
TenguPhule
They’re not even pretending anymore.
This is the 10 commandments asswipe former judge. And he has a shot at winning because its Alabama.
This is NOT NORMAL.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: The Brooks Brothers Riot?
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: No, I meant things like mysteriously moving/closing polling places in minority neighborhoods at inconvenient times.
The Moar You Know
Here’s a better question:
Why aren’t we?
Mnemosyne
Funny, trolls keep telling me that voter suppression was totally inconsequential in Democratic losses at the state level since 2010 and it was all due to the terrible, pro-corporate policies of the Democratic Party.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule: Oh yeah, gird your loins for Senator Roy Moore. Alabama will come through for us bigly. LeSigh.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
Perhaps I’m being overdramatic, but this feels like just before Palpatine issued Order 66, and thus the Empire was born and the Republic died.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
My recent history is fuzzy. I was only 5 years old when that happened.
patrick II
Sure, as soon as we get the House back and 60 votes in the Senate.
It seems we have been driven onto a one-way street.
HeleninEire
“How the ever loving Fuck” is one of my favorite phrases ever. Mostly because it has my most favorite F words in it. Now, I am sure you are asking “Helen, most favorite “F” word? Of course it I’d Fuck. Surely there are other “F” words. What is your second favorite?
Well there was a governor of Virginia – the boy who was convicted of bribery and graft – you all will tell me his name. His wife and daughter too.
Anyway his College thesis was about the horrible moral state of America. He said that FORNICATORS should go to jail. Well I was at least 50 yrs old when I heard that and had never used the word “fornicate” ever.
It is now my second favorite F word.
The end
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: And they know how to WIN*!
*Except for the fact they never seem to have won anything.
Villago Delenda Est
Three words:
Vote by mail
Advantage: Paper trail, doesn’t require going to a polling place.
Disadvantage: Allows blahs, browns, and libtards to vote.
A Ghost to Most
In purple CO, the vested interests pushed through a proposition that allows cross-party primary voting.
Now the GOP is mulling canceling their primary in favor of a caucus. This would allow them to freely ratfuck the Dem primary.
They are making their move to create a one-party nation.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
All of this shit has Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over it. It’s Florida in 2000 scaled nationwide.
Sab
@TenguPhule: @TenguPhule: Actually, for Alabama it kind of is normal.
AnonPhenom
by 2040 70% of the population will live in the 15 largest states (containing the country’s 30 largest cities). They will be represented by a total of 30 Senators.
30% of the country will be represented by 70 Senators.
This shit is only getting worse.
HeleninEire
Just had a comment fly into the ether. Too bad. It was fucking BRILLIANT.
trollhattan
Drip, drip, drip.
If Manafort flips to avoid prosecution….
The Moar You Know
@A Ghost to Most: In blue CA, we swallowed a scam back in 2006 that is going to fuck us good and hard one day: cross-party primary voting, but any party that wishes to can simply opt out. Which the GOP has. So they can vote in my primary but I cannot vote in theirs.
tobie
@A Ghost to Most: Whose brilliant idea was it to allow cross-party primary voting? I can imagine anyone who vented about closed primaries last year would be for this. God, the DNC made a mistake in allowing the windbag from VT to campaign as a Dem. We are so paying the price for this.
TriassicSands
Yes, and all we need to do that is the agreement of the GOP. Excuse, I’m choking on something…
The best bet would be to nationalize voting by mail. That’s probably impossible, too, but since states control elections I don’t see anything good happening unless the SCOTUS comes up with some kind of ruling…excuse me, I’m choking again.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
This is somewhat related:
From Vocativ:
Miss Bianca
@A Ghost to Most: and “independents” happily lobbied for this ratfuckery, om the grounds that they DESERVE to be able to pick a party’s candidates without belonging to the party. Jesus Chicken-Fried Christ.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Right now, the CA “jungle primary” is kicking Republicans’ asses in statewide offices by shutting them out entirely, and that makes me happy.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Because we get accused of being cynical and defeatist when we bring it up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that sounds… familiar….
A Ghost to Most
@The Moar You Know:
These people are running the playbook
My question, with the proviso that I’m crazy: are we so confident in our institutions’ ability to stop this that we don’t need to prepare for the next plays in the playbook?
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know:
Uhhh… because it goes against our core beliefs?
Sab
@Villago Delenda Est: In our second to last mayoral election in my smallish Ohio city, fully ten percent of our absentee ballots were disqualified because the postal workers in Cleveland couldn’t manage to cancel the mail, so they had no proof of timely mailing.
Voting by mail isn’t a panacea when they are rat phucking various other governmental functions. And how many dementia patients in nursing homes are having others tell them how to vote. My 92 year old dad would vote exactly as I told him if I were so inclined
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Ah. I was fifteen and it radicalized me re: voting rights for sure.
Jeffro
So…I take it everyone is in agreement, this is THE bedrock issue for Dems going forward? Good! We need to get busy attending state and local candidates’ meetings, help them fundraise and knock on doors, and make this something the local & state papers hear about on every single op-ed page.
AND
we need to sue their asses off (right ACLU?) every time they try to deny American citizens the franchise. It’s where it all starts. Demographic advantages, better policies, more charismatic candidates, being un-evil: none of it will matter if only Republicans can vote.
A Ghost to Most
@Villago Delenda Est: This on steroids. Let the fuckers try to hack 150 million mailboxes.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Technically the Republic died during the Clone Wars. Order 66 just made the certificate of death official and officially recognized the Empire as its bastard heir.
This is not order 66.
This is the start of the Clone Wars.
If/When Order 66 comes to pass, Mueller will not be investigating anymore.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: Short term gain, long term suicide pact. CA for a long time was a reliable GOP state. Few anticipated the flip.
It can flip again. And will, one day. We really need, as a party, to start taking the long view.
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est:
Shredded Sight Unseen.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Miss Bianca: Yes, this. Goddamed idiots.
The Moar You Know
@different-church-lady: Not mine. I have zero problem in using the same tactics against people who are using them on me.
d58826
Trump is ranting again:
1. He has doubled down on what he wants to do with NK
2. He was asked for a reaction to Putin’s kicking out our diplomats. Der Fuhrer thanked Putin for helping us to reduce our payroll.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost to Most:
Don’t look at me, I just get called crazy when I keep pointing this out.
A Ghost to Most
@tobie:
The only defense is to cancel the Dem primary, and go to a caucus.
I really hate these skeevy motherfuckers.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: How is this not also a danger for ballots cast by hand, in your world where it even happens?
TenguPhule
@d58826:
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The Moar You Know
@A Ghost to Most: Our institutions have proven to be unable to stop anything. If you’re not preparing for the next obvious steps that’s truly crazy.
rikyrah
Trump barks orders, expects McConnell to do the real work
08/10/17 04:15 PM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump and his allies have expressed quite a bit of dissatisfaction this week with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and this afternoon, the president sent his third shot across his ostensible ally’s bow.
It’s hard not to appreciate the irony of the circumstances: Trump is in the early stages of a 17-day vacation at a golf resort he owns in New Jersey. For the president to urge McConnell to “get back to work,” while Trump continues his lengthy break, is kind of hilarious.
Regardless, the president soon after made related comments to the press.
Whether he understands this or not, this tells us quite a bit about how Trump views his role in governing.
Even as a candidate, Trump made clear he didn’t intend to do much real work. In May 2016, his then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said there were parts of the presidency Trump “doesn’t want to do.” He added that Trump “sees himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO.”
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost to Most: Colorado dems currently have a delegate-allocating caucus and a beauty-contest primary.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
When you vote by hand, you get a receipt. (For those areas that actually care about this)
When you vote by mail, unless you pay for certification, you don’t.
ETA: And if you think this hasn’t happened before, why are you calling me crazy?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
Election observers?
Peale
@The Moar You Know: Yep. New York will have a GOP governor long before Texas turns purple enough to make people worry.
A Ghost to Most
@Miss Bianca: If the Dems are sane, and they seem to be, there may be a caucus to go to.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule:
So in places likely to shred, which again is a thing that probably doesn’t happen, you wouldn’t get a receipt anyway.
At any rate, easily fixable by universal vote by mail.
ETA:
I can’t make heads or tails of this sentence.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
Any true red-blooded American should care about voting rights.
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know: Keep in mind that “those tactics” are hurting everyone, not just the enemy.
A Ghost to Most
@different-church-lady: true, and they use it against us. It’s a built-in headwind
Quinerly
Did anyone watch Trump’s press conference a few minutes ago? MSNBC reairing now. He’s even more insane than I thought 6 months ago.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: So, Democrats, then.
d58826
He just rambles on. Most of the presser is about the ‘fake’ Russian investigation. It sounds like he is going to blow up the Iranian deal.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
Sounds like something to include in a campaign ad.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@d58826:
That debilitating stroke can’t come soon enough.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
For those who come in to vote.
Voting by mail has more opportunities to interfere in the chain of custody.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
In California, after you mail in your absentee ballot, you can check your county clerk’s office online and verify that it was received. If it wasn’t, there are steps you can take to vote on Election Day instead.
You can also take it to any polling place on Election Day and drop it off.
These are not insurmountable problems that nobody knows how to prevent.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
They’ve been doing this kind of thing in many states for years. They require IDs, say they are free, then close the offices in the areas where the democratic voters live. They close polling places in certain areas, institute reduced early voting hours, etc.
The Republicans are anti democratic monsters. BTW I highly recommend the Vox podcast episode where Ezra Klein interviews Sen. MIchael Bennet from CO. He basically says the Senate is awful. It’s a bunch of sociopaths.
d58826
According to Der Fuhrer Apple is going to start building Iphones in the US. Right!!!!!!
A Ghost to Most
@TenguPhule:
I was trying to phrase it as calmly and judiciously as I could.
It took a long time to compose, since calm and judicious are not really in my wheelhouse.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
What gets me is that his first example of an evil export from the USA is same sex marriage.
d58826
Now he is beating up on the IC community and re-litigation the WMD issue.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Assuming they haven’t gotten to the postal workers! And how do you know the county clerk’s website isn’t in on the job too, you just can’t be sure unless you vote in person.
//
Jeffro
Jesus, what a complete, utter, fucking moron. Reading the transcript’s going to make everyone stupid like him.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
You can’t even vote in person, because they might take the ballot box in the back and shred them all!
Clearly, the answer is to never vote at all.
A Ghost to Most
@The Moar You Know: I was speaking of us as the resistance. I’ve already made major preparations, and will continue to do so.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
I would like to see more receipts in voting booths for a start
Until the base problem of not having a paper trail is addressed for a lot of areas (looking at you, red southern states), changing how and when the vote comes in really isn’t going to fix it.
Roger Moore
@Miss Bianca:
Like a certain “Democratic” presidential candidate who left the party immediately after the election but still thinks it’s his job to reform the party. Fuck these guys.
TenguPhule
@Quinerly:
UNpossible.
The Moar You Know
@different-church-lady: You can get out of the road or get run over by the GOP bus. They’re not stopping. How are you going to fight having your vote taken away? By voting? Jesus. It’s enough to make anyone cry. The courts have already ruled and said this is fine. Maybe you can ask that nice elf Mr. Sessions to stop being so mean. You may as well beg the sun to stop setting and rising.
Insisting that we stay in the road is not going to give us a victory, it just means we will all get flattened like pancakes.
Quinerly
On Trump’s presser…Nicole Wallace, “What was that?” Praised Putin for cutting embassy staff and payroll. Asked Elaine Cho to talk to her husband.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Roger Moore:
I mean, the thing about that, is that he’s not exactly wrong from a certain perspective. The US hasn’t always been a force for good in the world, though the alternative was much worse (aka the USSR). We have put dictators in charge around the globe. So did the USSR. Of course that wasn’t what Moore meant.
I’m willing to bet he doesn’t give one flying shit about the ethical implications of regime change or installing regimes. With morons like Moore, this country was always easy pickings for the right kind of nation. Putin’s Russia is it. The rest of the world should be on notice. Everyone has their own reactionary idiots.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Of course there is no difference between a ballot box where the region’s multiple votes are located and expected to be turned in and individual mailed votes that which can be matched against regions which vote Democratic.and tossed or “misplaced” before ever being counted. //
But I’m sure the Republicans will follow the rules. After all, look at them now.
A Ghost to Most
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Funny how ‘true red-blooded American’ can mean such different things to each half of America.
Edited for reading comprehension
Ohio Mom
@Villago Delenda Est: I am not totally on board with universal voting by mail because I think it’s too easy for family members with different opinions than yours to coerce you into voting their way before letting you put your ballot in the mail box — there are a lot of dysfunctional families out there, headed by right-wing bullies.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule:
This has the problem where they do EXACTLY WHAT THE ARTICLE IN THE OP IS TALKING ABOUT, where they just don’t let you vote in person at all in those places.
Then don’t have people put a return address on it. You don’t need one if the postage is free.
BruceFromOhio
There’s an ‘elections have consequences’ fable just waiting to be narrated.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@The Moar You Know:
I’m definitely in favor of being more verbally aggressive towards rightwingers; arguing them down at every turn, for example. This should include our elected reps. At the point, where tens of millions are disenfranchised, all bets are off. Violence will only then become acceptable, to me at least.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Oddly enough the ‘Jungle Primary” needs a strong state party as to not dilute the vote. They need to be able to tell candidates NO. If you end up with 20 Democrats running in the primary and 2 Republicans, you could end up with 2 Republicans in the General Election. IIRC, this has happened once in a solidly blue district.
JPL
@trollhattan: The problem with Manafort flipping, will be Putin. Putin doesn’t take kindly to traitors.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@A Ghost to Most: Yeah. Not too long ago I would have of thought such stuff as hyperbolic, but I’ve found a new sense of patriotism. I’m reclaiming it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
I did not, but I’m sure there will be opportunities to either see it or read the transcript later on. In the meantime, I’ve been noticing that there seems to be a difference in direction between Trump and his HHS Secretary.
Two days ago, Tom Price stated definitively that Trump would not declare a national emergency for the opioid epidemic because, he said, the opioid crisis does not meet the criteria so emergency status isn’t needed. And Trump himself said the “best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place.”
Today, Trump seemingly broke with Price on what constitutes an emergency. “The opioid crisis is an emergency and I’m saying officially right now it is an emergency,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey. “We’re going to draw it up and we’re going to make it a national emergency. It is a serious problem, the likes of which we have never had.”
I’m actually glad he made this decision — it will free up additional resources to address opioid addiction — but he seems to have thrown Price a little bit under the proverbial bus here. Could he not, for once, have taken time to consult with the responsible cabinet member to ensure they would be on the same page with the same message? It’s not nearly as critical as the various uncoordinated messages on North Korea, nor as long-term disruptive as his ongoing spat with Jeff Sessions, but it is still telling. And what it tells is, again, disturbing.
Sab
@Mnemosyne: Thanks for the info. We need it here, now we know.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: When I was 16 I liked Reagan, I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980.
VFX Lurker
@The Moar You Know:
I, too, live in California. When can the GOP vote in the Dem Presidential primary? Last year, the Dem Presidential primary was open only to Dems and no-party-preference voters.
Every OTHER race was open to ALL voters thanks to our newfangled top-two system, but registered Republicans are locked out of the California Dem Presidential primary, as far as I know.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I win! (It’s totally a contest!)
SatanicPanic
@AnonPhenom: I tend to agree, but there’s some other things at play here- if a rural state has a large population center that outweighs the other areas, it might well end up blue. Like, say, Oregon.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
That’s not how it works. In most states, ballots are cast by precinct, and all of the votes for a specific precinct go into a single box. The boxes are not opened until they get back to the clerk’s office. It’s dead easy to “accidentally” lose or shred ballots only from specific areas if you look up the demographics of the precincts.
Of course, non-asshole states like California make sure that can’t happen by having everyone scan their ballot on a machine that’s physically attached to the box, and that tally has to match up with what’s actually inside the box when it’s unlocked at the clerk’s office.
But assholes can fuck with any voting method at all if they’re determined enough.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
I’m showing my ignorance but is there a way to interfere in GOP primaries?
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
And they left footprints which got them caught doing it. Voting by mail tampering is a LOT easier to cover your tracks.
So we invite A) Actual Vote Fraud or B) Accusations of Vote Fraud.
All those third world country voting hijinks we thought couldn’t happen here? We were wrong.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: How does that encourage either vote fraud or accusations of vote fraud? There’s a barcode. Have you ever voted by mail?
ETA: And a receipt, too!
ETAA: You can’t worry about Republicans accusing you of evil things or you’ll never do anything at all.
A Ghost to Most
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I have never squawked much about being a Vietnam War era volunteer, but it has proven quite useful when sparring with right wing “Patriots”. My apologies to all.
JPL
Ossoff did better than any other democrat in the sixth district, but unfortunately not good enough. He needed 50 percent during the first election to prevent a runoff, but didn’t achieve it. In Roswell initially there was only one early voting site, and it was a few miles from Handel’s house. It’s not just Indiana.
@Quinerly: If MSM did their job, they would be discussing his mental health. They would be discussing whether or not he is fit for office. Kelly isn’t going to fix this. The republican congress is not going to fix this.. Trump threatened another country after the Post printed the info about the raid on Manafort’s house. Imagine what he will do, if Mueller tightens the investigation.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
True, but its a lot easier to do it without getting caught with mail in votes. Less fingerprints (yes, I’m speaking metaphorically).
CarolPW
@TenguPhule: In Washington State (vote by mail) your ballot comes with a tear-off bar coded strip that is the equivalent of a receipt. You can also check to find out if they received your ballot (you sign the outside envelope so they know). The actual ballot is in a sealed inside envelope with no identifying markings. They have never lost my ballot, and if there were a large discrepancy between the number of voters known to have cast ballots and the number of ballots counted in the county it would be easy to tell.
Ohio Mom
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Re: the Ohio teen who identifies as a fascist. If you’d had a ringside seat to Ohio’s social studies, history and economics curricula during the last twelve years, as I have, you would be less surprised by this.
It is full of right-wing propaganda. It’s revolting, really. Small example from sixth grade social studies: “a public good is a business run by the government.”
Um no, clean air isn’t “a business.”
Sab
@Major Major Major Major: Not related to your comment, but related to mine: nobody “got to” the postal workers. The Repubs just screwed up their working environment so much that they couldn’t function with regard to a Democratic city whose mail they now had to process when they had never had to before. They got buried, and we lost our votes
@Sab:
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@JPL:
Declare war on North Korea and nuke it?
Major Major Major Major
@Ohio Mom:
Ye gods.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: I left a comment for you on the OTR thread.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Not really, because mail-in voting states have a bunch of failsafes set up that allow people to track their ballots and make sure they were received and counted.
You’re spinning out on an imaginary problem that has not occurred in any state that has mail-in ballots, whether it’s an all mail-in state or a state that accepts absentee ballots by mail.
TenguPhule
@Sab:
Not quite as obviously blatant as cutting polling places.
But similar results.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Ohio Mom:
I went to school there over the last 12 years. Graduated in 2014. I know all about that “public good” stuff.
Haven’t thought about it in years. Social studies and history were my favorite subjects too. I took AP Gov so I like to think I got a better education on government than the regular civics courses could give
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks. Yea, if it times out you don’t get an error because it timed out.
@Mnemosyne: Sure, but who failsafes the failsafes that safe the fails? Wake up, sheeperson, the only solution is voting in person, which has never been prone to systemic failure anywhere.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Jesus on a Pogo stick, since when did Lucas know shit about anything but making cheesy scifi flicks by stealing the plots from Japense films? You want why this happening, open a real history book, This is Indiana, home of the modern Klan this happened in.
Mnemosyne
@Sab:
Definitely check the fine print on your mail-in ballot and see what the alternative methods of delivering it are in OH. There should be a way for you to swing by your polling place and drop it off.
And you should mention this story to Kay the next time you see her around. I bet she knows an OH elections lawyer who can make trouble on your behalf. ?
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.
Now imagine the Republicans in control of Texas, South Dakota or Kansas in charge of this. Somehow I doubt that they are going to be that professional. Its already bad enough when they do it to voters in their face.
Ohio Mom
@Major Major Major Major: One of the painful parts of raising a kid on the autism spectrum is that he’s very rule-bound. He is not open to any critiques. If the teacher said it, it must be true and don’t confuse me with another view.
But he turned out a Democrat nevertheless. Whew.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
You’re all assuming that anybody gets to vote next time around – almost a quarter of our fellow Americans would support a Trump proposal to postpone elections. I seriously cannot imagine how any non-brain-damaged American could look at that idea and not see how un-American it is. Really, WTF?
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Name a state that has no mail-in absentee ballot system.
I’ll wait here while you find that.
Ohio Mom
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: My gosh, you are probably the youngest commentator here. If we ever hold a blog-wide Passover Seder, you’re getting stuck with the Four Questions.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: I started voting by mail in Colorado when it was red, they didn’t fuck it up then.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
He hasn’t “made a decision.” He just said some werdz. He has no idea that those werdz mean specific kinds of federal aid, which he purposely didn’t send to areas that suffered weather disasters.
ruemara
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I can’t find this on Vocativ’s site. Can you link?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Maybe you could open up a grammar book
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@ruemara:
Sure.
http://www.vocativ.com/419423/from-moderate-republican-to-neo-nazi-in-about-18-months/
It’s from back in April
Ohio Mom
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Who asked them that question, and then publicized the results anyway? It was both irresponsible and merely a variation of the now-perennial interview of economically-anxious Trump supporters.
We can’t care what they think on this subject. Elections are not postponed, no matter what. No one gets to be president for more than eight years. Power transfers whether you like it or not. Period.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense:
And when it’s Sen. Bennet, Mr. Milquetoast Centrist himself, saying this, you *know* shit is fucked up and bullshit.
Sab
@Ohio Mom: Can I come to your seder?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
States that adopted vote by mail systems basically took their existing absentee ballot system and put all of their voters into it.
That’s why it’s silly to get all wound up in theory about vote by mail. It’s absentee ballots applied to all voters, not some new unknown system that’s never been tried before.
Sab
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I was only six when the Cuban missile crisis happened. I was actually more concerned about Hurricane Donna, which was very scary inFlorida.
Sab
@Ohio Mom: j That’s my granddaughter AND her mother (my stepdaughter). I think I love them so much because I am slightly on the spectrum. Not enough to interfere with my life, but enough to recognize kindred spirits.
schrodingers_cat
@Ohio Mom: Word.
Eric U.
They have done this for years, really. Simply because they have vastly more voting machines per person in rural areas. I poll watched at a rural precinct that had 30 voters all day, presidential election. They would walk in one at a time, gossip a while, and then go to one of the voting machines. No waiting. There were two precincts in the church next door that did have short lines during rush times before and after work. Meanwhile, in town, people were waiting hours to vote. This is true, country-wide.
Quinerly
@JPL:
You mean the “Kelly effect” that Chuck Todd is talking isn’t going to save us? Damn.?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Sab: When I was six 9/11 happened. I remember it fairly clearly. One of the nice things about living in Ohio is no hurricanes (usually)
A Ghost to Most
@Miss Bianca:
Ramen to that. After Gorsuck, I am done with that mfer, and will support a decent primary challenger
Sab
Dems have consistent positions. Republicans believe whatever their corporate masters tell them that week. Not an easy moral framework for an autistic to adjust to? They like rules and certainty? Modern Republicans mostly want to know where the next paycheck is coming from.
Ohio Mom
@Sab: you’d have to put up with my super-obnoxious MIL, but sure.
MomSense
@Miss Bianca:
Shit is most definitely fucked up and bullshit. Ezra tries to say that Bennet’s House of Cards (you have to listen to it) surprised him because his working hypothesis has been that they are good people in an awful situation (paraphrasing sloppily) and Bennet responds by saying nope, they are just sociopaths. It certainly won’t shock jackals to hear this but it is a bit surprising to hear someone in the club confirm it.
smintheus
How is it legal? Someone should ask Pence that.
Ohio Mom
@Sab: I think I said this once before. When we were all sure that Hillary would win, I thought we would have time and attention for blog posts and threads on all sorts of new topics after November, and I was going to suggest an autism one.
There are a lot of us here who are either on the spectrum ourselves or a close family member.
Maybe in another five or six years? What keeps me going some days is the hope that the pendulum is going to swing fast and hard.
Sab
@Mnemosyne: I do always vote at the Board of Elections as an absentee. I am not worried about my vote. I am worried a lot about normal voters who think they have voted but haven’t.
IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT. IF YOU APPLY FOR YOUR BALLOT AND MAIL IT, IT SHOULD COUNT.
That’s all I am saying. If you think you voted, it should count as a vote. Not be subject to some secret vetting process that you never knew existed.
Sab
@Sab:
I grew up in the South. This is Jim Crow. It does not need to be limited to POC. This is meant to disenfranchise people who don’t vote like they like.
Sab
@Ohio Mom: That’s might be a weird mix. Probably should leave my Catholic husband at home.
Kathleen
@Quinerly: NBC ran it live, FFS. I couldn’t bear to hear Andrea Mitchell’s twaddly “analysis” so I flipped it.
Gelfling 545
@TenguPhule: Until they draw their final breaths each one should not be able to leave their home without being followed by a parade of folks with signs calling them thieves of the right to suffrage.
Kathleen
@Mnemosyne: Then there’s the scenario where you show up to vote but too many machines are malfunctioning, as what happened in Detroit in 2016:
http://time.com/4599886/detroit-voting-machine-failures-were-widespread-on-election-day/
Sab
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
When 9/11 happened I was in my 40s and had a job interview in the trust department at a bank in Youngstown. The trust department was still open for business, but the rest of downtown was rolled up.Weird listening to the radio and wondering what had happened.
I came two weeks later for my followup interview, and I couldn’t tell the difference between Youngstown rolled up for a crisis and Youngstown open for business.
The only thing else I know about Youngstown is that I love the Butler Museum, you have any amazing riverfront park, and my mother could not get there from Akron Ohio without going through her father’s home town of Newcastle Pa.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
I had forgotten about that, I associate it more with Ohio in 2004 (although that may just have been let’s send one voting machine each to Dem areas and 30 each to Rethug areas,” courtesy of Ken Blackwell).
But one of the things Jeb! did (or maybe it was Katherine Harris trying to please her honey) was purge the voter rolls of all sorts of persons who should not have been purged. I think it was something like 60,000 voters. I seem to recall that, for some unknown reason, a large percentage of the disenfranchised were blahs and browns.
KKKRis KKKobach saw that, and said “So THAT’S how it’s done!”
Fortunately for our country, illegally/incorrectly purging all those likely-Dem voters had no effect on the outcome.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost to Most:
I am showing Bennet as a no vote for Gorsuch’s confirmation…
Kathleen
@Quinerly: Poor Chuckles Toady. Pining for “The Pivot” that will never come. Like a jilted bride who refuses to leave the alter. Sad.
Sab
@SFAW: This was Florida as Florida has always been. The difference is that this is now the rest of the country. The South has never respected voting rights or the rule of law. The Midwest used to respect both. We fought a civil war, 600,000 dead, and we just fucking handed a victory to those guys 150 years later, for no reason. Just because some geriatric Australian decided to poison our airwaves. Not much of a democracy there.
Kathleen
@SFAW: Greg Palast researched Florida purges in depth in his book “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy”.
Sab
@Sab: 7I am still game.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense:@A Ghost to Most: I have to admit that statement made my opinion of Bennet go up a great deal. Who knows, he may come out of the closet as an actual Democrat!//
@Major Major Major Major: Glad to hear that. I know he’s friends with Gorsuch – or at least, acquaintances.
Actually, even tho’ he’s not nearly as lefty as I would like, I have been pleased to see Bennet speaking up and taking charge on issues like the ACA. I wouldn’t want him to get primaried – that’s just paving the way for more Dems in Disarray, imo.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: I mean, Ginsburg and Scalia were friends, for christ’s sake. It’s hardly disqualifying.
The Lodger
@Mnemosyne: My family doesn’t use the USPS to deliver our ballots. In my county in Oregon there are ballot drop-off boxes at the county election office and the public libraries. I believe all the county election offices accept direct drop-offs. (Unfortunately, not all of the counties have maintained library systems.)
LongHairedWeirdo
@TenguPhule: The embrace of anti-gay activity has made Putin surprisingly popular with western
assholesfascistsevangelicals. And if he criminalizes abortion, there are more that will support him.It’s important to remember that there was a time when abortion was a predominately Catholic issue. By all accounts, it became an “evangelical” issue once the feds wouldn’t provide funds to colleges that discriminated against black people, and “stop people from murdering babies!” was a better rallying cry than “make the federal government let us discriminate against n… uh, freely exercise our religion!!”
And, of course, the right to discriminate against gay people wasn’t considered important at all… though to be fair, in the 70s, the idea that you might someday get looked down on for discriminating against gay folks just didn’t occur to people.
StringOnAStick
@Miss Bianca: I agree. I’ve been unhappy with Bennet before but he stepped up quite nicely to defend the ACA and did so vocally and loudly. I was even a bit surprised but happy he voted against the USSC usurper. I’m a whole lot more concerned about this open primary crap and getting rid of Gardner after that. I don’t support primarying Bennet after we lost Udall to midterm laziness, and as retrograde as some parts of Colorado are, I’d rather keep a reliable D senator than fire up the bro’s and risk losing it to Ken Buck or worse. Hell, I’m worried that the current D front runner for governor is too Boulder and too gay to win the state. I hope Im wrong.
Miss Bianca
@StringOnAStick: I feel you. On all of it. I really wish to hell that Hickenlooper would run for Senate. I bet he’d thrash Gardner’s ass handily, that smarmy little shit-eating pricklouse.
schrodingers_cat
Reporting w/o comment
Read on an immigration lawyer’s Twitter feed, about the undocumented/illegal immigrant who got a stay against a deportation order
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
Miss B. – please tell us how you really feel?!?!!! No need to hold back here among friends…
david
From the Jester’s twitter feed this past Sunday:
IDEA: To combat Trump’s ‘voter fraud’ use blockchain tech (same thing Bitcoin works on). A bitcoin cannot exist in two places. Like a vote. Per election US Government issues voters a ‘token’. Token cannot be duplicated. Blockchain will know. Hillary wallet. Trump Wallet. Simple.
Vhh
@TenguPhule: Most of the 755 US. embassy employees who will lose jobs are Russians. Diplomatic svc pros will simply be reassigned.