What sticks out for me is the ‘LIBERTY MILITIA’. 
Since when has liberty needed amilitia? 
Is USA the only democracy without a national, non-partisan election commission??? Going by this article, there are some very cumbersome protocols which are destined to make voting hazardous.
I can tell you this; on the rare occasions we had a proper election, voting was really, really smooth.
America has a long history of celebrating freedom and loving democracy, while then simultaneously either outright not authorizing groups from voting or just making it incredibly difficult for them to do so. Make no mistake, these things are done on purpose, and they are done to make it harder for people to vote that the powers that be do not want to vote.
One of the supposed strengths of the US electoral system is how regionally controlled it is. That means that any shenanigans will only affect that isolated area. The problem is that political corruption is higher the more local you go. The general public can barely bring themselves to have an informed opinion about a presidential election. That becomes increasingly rarer the more local the election becomes. The result is we have a country full of partisan hacks running elections all over the country doing really brazen shit to get in the way of democratic process and there is very little way to hold them accountable for it. The Shelby County vs Holder ruling in the Supreme Court in 2013, that basically said racism is over and it is impossible to think people will now fuck with black people’s ability to vote, has seen a considerable increase in this fuckwittery since.
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Yes and no.
It is true that some places do make it difficult to vote.
But OTOH, it is much easier to vote here than most places. For example, polls here in Florida open two weeks before Election Day, and you can vote by mail.
That is a broad stroke statement though, which I think is a large part of the problem. I live in orange county, within the city of Orlando, and we actually have a good reputation for competency in elections, meaning it is remarkably easy and fairly well buttoned up here. You only have to go a few miles though to get to places where the experience is very different. If you’re white and middle class you tend to overlook these stories of other people having massive obstacles to overcome because you don’t see it in your own experience.
The poll tax issue for people with felony convictions is a great example.
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had planned to do yard work today but it’s raining so i’m cleaning the windowsills with NFL games on in the background. in & out of the room so i’m not there to escape the most obnoxious ads
a ‘seniors beware’ trump spot came on, and the voiceover guy said that biden would eliminate private insurance. and as lame as it is that biden can’t wait to defend private insurance (or fracking), the sheer dishonestly made me realize the republicans are worse
then the biden ad came on, and it was scaremongering about how the supreme court, with trump’s third appointee, was going to overturn parts of the ACA that protect pre-existing conditions. feinstein fawned over barrett & hugged lindsey graham, and they’ve made no effort to even slow down her impending confirmation, but she’s a reason to vote for them
everything about this election is depressing and insulting in equal parts
Have you voted, yet!
no i live in the suburbs near rich people so i’m going on election day
oh also i threw out all the mail-in ballot applications they sent me because biden & my house rep (houlahan) are trash imo. so i wouldn’t have bothered, but the dem candidate for my state senate district is the head of the plumbers union & talks like a working class person so i’m voting for him
maybe i’ll be the one to push gloria la riva to five digits nationwide on the presidential line
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I thought i had read somewhere earlier today that the Democrats had voted against Barrett (with 2 Republicans voting alongside), with another vote going ahead tomorrow, which is expected to confirm her appointment? (I don’t know where the votes took place)?
I live in Florida too, and get into rural Florida a fair amount.
I’m Canadian. In Canada, you voted on election day. You had one ballot, and put an X beside the name, and that was that. I have lived in the UK, but I’m not a British citizen, so I’ve never voted, but I assume it’s pretty much the same as in Canada. I was once involved in youth politics in Canada, and colleagues of mine have gone on to be premiers of provinces, deputy chief of staff to the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. So I’ve always had an interest in politics. I once worked as an aide to a provincial premier.
The first time I voted as an American citizen, the ballot was four pages long, and had 33 things I could vote for. I could vote for President, Senator, Congressperson, state senator, state representative, local councilors, judges, constitutional amendments, even Soil and Water Conservation Officer! I didn’t even know what that was!
Canada is essentially a democratic dictatorship. Yes, that’s a bit dramatic, admittedly. But essentially, there’s an election every 4-5 years, and in between then, the country is run by maybe 10 people.
I certainly agree with you on the felons. Voter suppression has a long unhappy history in America. But my belief is that America is way, way more democratic than Canada or the UK, despite some of the issues here.
The sad thing is that the political operatives understand that what drives people are negative emotions. Fear, disgust, loathing, are generally what drives people to the polls. It’s human nature.
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Why don’t they phase the national, state and local elections in different years?
Isn’t that more or less same for all democracies?
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This horrifies me. I feel he cannot be discarded, his data expertise too great.
I believe personally, that there are enough Americans who are not abominable humans or lost in the Right Wing propaganda apparatus, and that Trump will lose. But one never knows.
I have always been of the opinion that less than a 66.6% victory to Biden will be damnable beyond belief to the US as a democracy and where they are as a society (anything less than 3/4 victory to Biden would be ludicrously pathetic after Americans have witnessed 4 years of this mafia boss, and it sadly looks like it won’t be anything near a landslide) .
But yeah, this frightens me to say the least. If he is right, transatlantic cooperation will be over. Trump has done so much damage to US credibility, it will take decades to rectify this, but if Trump wins, I don’t know if anything can be mended ever. I then believe the US will leave the West and diverge from Western Civilization. One cannot underplay how unfathomably damaging Trump has already been both to Americans but also relations with the West.
Anyway, this is worth reading even if you strongly believe Biden will crush Trump (I think it will be a narrow, much too narrow, Biden win): https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/us-election-data-guru-bela-stantic-reveals-donald-trump-is-on-track-to-win-again/news-story/cc04c8525c3046c2387092d2cfaafa38
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If your country is under threat of invasion and has a weak/limited army, national guard-like forces (militia-like) who are trained to, and can wage effective guerilla warfare, would be an important deterrent and seriously alter the calculus of a potential enemy (Russia isn’t going to attack Finland any time soon for instance). Of course, in the US, which has the most powerful armed forces in world as well as a massive nuclear arsenal, it is beyond pointless…
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Most Americans vote every second year in even years, though there are some states like Virginia that have state elections in odd years. The states decide when they want to run their own elections.
Just wanted to add my tuppence worth on the complexity of voting in America.
When I voted the other day here in Indiana my full intention was to go and cast my early vote in the Presidential election, which I duly did. However…
There were numerous other options, congressional seats to vote on, plus lots of local stuff, including judges and school related stuff.
When I left I said to my wife that I shouldn’t be voting on the dinner lady, and this sort of set up, at least partly, explains why the lines are so long here when it comes time to vote.
Big tech needs to be tasked by a cross party commission to sort the whole thing out, making it easy, secure, rapid, for people to vote. It can’t be beyond them, if there’s the will to do it.
And there’s the problem.
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biden, pelosi, and schumer. a real dream team
"Shortly after Kushner appeared on “Fox and Friends,” he received backlash for his remarks on the Black community, which White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany quickly dismissed.
“It’s disgusting to see internet trolls taking Senior Advisor Jared Kushner out of context as they try to distract from President Trump’s undeniable record of accomplishment for the Black community,” McEnany said in a statement shared with TPM on Monday. “From criminal justice reform and record HBCU funding to record low Black unemployment and record high income increases, there is simply no disputing that President Trump accomplished what Democrats merely talked about.”
Are any of these claims actually true? If not I find it astounding that there isn’t a major backlash for simply lying outright. Chemical Ali springs to mind.
I doubt it, certainly not through anything he has done deliberately. If the community have enjoyed higher incomes and employment its the result of the economy Trump inherited.
His big economic moves- the tax cuts and trade wars have had little positive impact on those with lower incomes.
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