Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Pattern Ghost]

Joe misspeaks a lot in live conversations. But he's been doing that for decades. I think his brain's in good enough shape for the job. It's certainly a step up from what we have now.

 

Leaning hard into gun control this election will probably hurt them more than their choice of candidates, as LL points out.

[Old Man]

We’ll see. Public opinion has been trending in favor of stricter gun control over the past few years.   And NRA members recently found out they’d been taken in by a pyramid scheme run by Wayne Lapierre.  But more to the point, I don’t think gun control is currently a top five issue for anyone. 

[Old Man]

Rotting food, dead animals, and chaos at postal facilities amid “cutbacks”

 

[Pariah]

3 hours ago, Old Man said:

We’ll see. Public opinion has been trending in favor of stricter gun control over the past few years.   And NRA members recently found out they’d been taken in by a pyramid scheme run by Wayne Lapierre.  But more to the point, I don’t think gun control is currently a top five issue for anyone. 

 

...except my brother-in-law. He flat-out said that there's no way he can vote for Joe Biden because if he dies, Kamala Harris has promised to issue an executive order to ban assault weapons and take away his AR-15. He proudly proclaimed himself a "one-issue voter".

 

He's almost certainly not alone in this.

 

 

 

19 hours ago, Cygnia said:

How Men’s Rights Groups Helped Rewrite Regulations on Campus Rape

 

That Betsy DeVos' name appears in the first sentence of this article surprises me not even a little bit.

[Badger]

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

We’ll see. Public opinion has been trending in favor of stricter gun control over the past few years.   And NRA members recently found out they’d been taken in by a pyramid scheme run by Wayne Lapierre.  But more to the point, I don’t think gun control is currently a top five issue for anyone. 

Yeah I agree in the trend until  at least until this summer.

 

For good or for ill, certain incidents helped some to remember why they were sht of gun control orignally

1 minute ago, Badger said:

Yeah I agree in the trend until  at least until this summer.

 

For good or for ill, certain incidents helped some to remember why they were sht of gun control orignally

 

Anyway I think you might be able to convince the masses on either gun control or defunding the police. For both, they will some 2nd thoughts.

[wcw43921]

Snopes Article On QAnon

 

Just in case anyone's interested.  It could even be fodder for a campaign.

[Tom Cowan]

hmm.

https://www.businessinsider.com/north-carolina-voters-receive-ballot-request-forms-with-trumps-face-2020-8

[Lord Liaden]

I've been trying to find alternatives to mail-in ballots for "absentee voting" during the American election. Of the other available choices: In the age of Internet hacking, I would be much more concerned about the security of email ballots than paper ones. Courier services are essentially privatized mail, but with no oversight of their security. Faxes strike me as being as easy to "stuff" as mailboxes. The latter two are more expensive than mail, less accessible for many people, and incapable of handling the capacity of voting compared to USPS. I can see no practical reason to vilify mail-in balloting specifically, other than with the intent to suppress the vote.

[Cygnia]

1 hour ago, Tom Cowan said:

hmm.

https://www.businessinsider.com/north-carolina-voters-receive-ballot-request-forms-with-trumps-face-2020-8

Happened here in OH too -- we got one 🤬

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Tom Cowan said:

hmm.

https://www.businessinsider.com/north-carolina-voters-receive-ballot-request-forms-with-trumps-face-2020-8

 

Donald Trump shows no sign of factoring ethics or even dignity into his decision-making process. His only restraint appears based on what he believes he can get away with. I expect he'll keep pushing that until someone effectively pushes back.

[Tom Cowan]

17 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Happened here in OH too -- we got one 🤬

I was thinking 'only party members' should be using mail-in ballots?  Sounds 2020? or is that 1984, USSR and PRC?

[Sociotard]

39 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I've been trying to find alternatives to mail-in ballots for "absentee voting" during the American election. i

Mail-in ballots don't have to go through USPS. There is always a direct drop-off location. When I lived in Oregon, I often used them because I was a cheapskate and didn't want to pay postage. Anyway, they look a lot like post boxes. Just pop in your ballot. If you are registered to vote in the US election, just ask your local election office where yours is.

 

[Ternaugh]

Just now, Tom Cowan said:

I was thinking 'only party members' should be using mail-in ballots?  Sounds 2020? or is that 1984, USSR and PRC?

 

During the years that my mother and I were registered as Republican*, it was extremely common for us to receive absentee ballot applications sent by the local Republican Party (NV in my case, ME in her case). It usually had language somewhere on it that it was to ensure that our vote was counted. I usually would use the early voting polls at the mall or local plazas, so I didn't need an absentee ballot, but Mom didn't really get out of the house, so she'd always use the form to order her ballot, and then vote for who she thought was best (which, in her later years, was almost always Democrats).

 

 

*I changed my party affiliation to Independent sometime after Trump's win. While I had voted for the occasional Republican down-ballot in the past, I hadn't voted for a Republican for President since my first time voting (for George H. W. Bush in 1988). 

 

[TrickstaPriest]

Apparently a group of ~30 heavily armed and armored 20-40 y/o white males have been hanging out in Old Scottsdale

 

Plate carriers, loaded ARs with spare magazines.  Loitering around neighborhoods.

[Old Man]

What could go wrong?

[archer]

9 hours ago, Sociotard said:

Mail-in ballots don't have to go through USPS. There is always a direct drop-off location. When I lived in Oregon, I often used them because I was a cheapskate and didn't want to pay postage. Anyway, they look a lot like post boxes. Just pop in your ballot. If you are registered to vote in the US election, just ask your local election office where yours is.

 

 

I think it was on the Rachel Maddow Show this week, but one of the states was changing their rules only one of those kinds of drop boxes per county: outside the county board of elections.

 

I'm wanting to say it was Ohio, but I couldn't swear to that. 

 

If those kinds of ballot drop boxes were everywhere to the point that very few people would see the need to actually use the US Postal Service, that would solve most of my concerns in having nationwide elections which were 100% mail-in ballots. 

 

 

Edit: 

Didn't find that clip from the Rachel Maddow Show but here's an article on the "one ballot drop box per county" decision in Ohio.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/08/ohio-secretary-of-state-frank-larose-no-extra-ballot-drop-boxes-for-november-election.html

[Sociotard]

Ouch, yes limiting the number of drop off locations would make that not work at all. Long lines, etc.

[BoloOfEarth]

Whereas Michigan seems to have a good number of them.  There are 23 in my county alone. 

 

Some counties only have one location (e.g. Menominee and Schoolcraft counties in the UP), but those seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

 

Yet another reason Michigan is way better than Ohio. 

[DShomshak]

Washington, of course, has scads of 'em.

 

I expect that Republican zealots *will* try interfering with mail-in ballots as Archer has described. Maybe even trying to rip out and destroy drop boxes in Dem-friendly regions. But I also expect attempts to thwart in-person voting, such as groups of armed men outside polling places demanding to see voter registration cards (according to a recent newspaper article, the law against this sort of blatant voter intimidation was repealed). I have also heard the suggestion that Putin may try interfering by blacking out cities on Election Day, so people will be reluctant to leave their homes and electronic voting machines can't run until generators are hooked up. (it's already established that the power grid's security is grossly insufficient.) It's also possible that voter rolls are being hacked into, to cast further doubt on the results.

 

It's why Dems need massive turnout, big enough to overcome the likely fraud and suppression. Trump will still claim fraud, but but with a big enough, clear enough loss, his own attempts to rig the vote just become more indictments.

 

No sitting out this election because no candidate is precisely what you wanted.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

[Asperion]

On 8/22/2020 at 8:19 AM, Sociotard said:

Mail-in ballots don't have to go through USPS. There is always a direct drop-off location. When I lived in Oregon, I often used them because I was a cheapskate and didn't want to pay postage. Anyway, they look a lot like post boxes. Just pop in your ballot. If you are registered to vote in the US election, just ask your local election office where yours is.

 

 

We have these boxes as well where I live. While there is no actual regulation that requires this, I believe that they should be located at every public library, public government office, and every public school. What's more, they can't be in some hidden corner that would be hard to find and get to, but be located basically right off the road so that people will be able to get to it with no problem and not cause no problems with traffic.

[Starlord]

Trump will speak every night of the convention, because...of course.

 

 

PS:  Also - President Trump's family members make up half of the keynote speakers at this week's convention, which will begin on Monday

[Cygnia]

Republicans Want the SPLC to Stop Designating 'Hate Groups'

[DShomshak]

I'm actually a bit curious how the Republicans will do the convention, because an all-video format actually could work to Trump's advantage -- he's always been so much a creature of media illusion. Like, they could CGI in whatever backdrop he wants, add cheering crowds, a "yuge" golden throne with Nancy Pelosi chained to it like Leia to Jabba the Hutt, an honor guard of warrior angels with flaming swords, and Jesus Christ Himself appearing to proclaim him the New Messiah! Anything at all that Trump's ego demands, or that might appeal to his base.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

On 8/21/2020 at 9:39 PM, wcw43921 said:

Snopes Article On QAnon

 

Just in case anyone's interested.  It could even be fodder for a campaign.

This shares many elements with the Satanic Cult Panic from the 1980s-90s, though with more politics and less preschool and Multiple Personality Disorder. Well, as it notes with regard to the linkage between QAnon and anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theories tend to follow the same pattern. QAnon draws on Satanic Cult Panic; Satanic Cult Panic draws on past subversion myths about Jews and Catholics; which copy witch fears from the Renaissance.

 

On a recent All Things Considered interview, "QAnon Anon" podcaster Travis View said QAnon is spreading like wildfire among American Evangelicals, to the point of becoming practically an alternate religion. Again no surprise, given the similar cosmic war, apocalyptic worldviews.

 

Dean Shomshak

Addendum: But I'm disappointed the Snopes summary doesn't mention Reptoids. Someone needs to tell the QAnon folks that it just isn't a proper conspiracy theory without Reptoids.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Matt the Bruins]

Just get Stella Immanuel to hook up with them and Bob's yer alien reptillian spirit!