Scalzi's conclusions look plausible to me, but I don't follow US politics closely. Interested to see what better informed folks think.Trump, the GOP, and the Fall
At this point there is no doubt that Donald Trump is the single worst major party presidential candidate in living memory, almost certainly the worst since the Civil War, and arguably the worst in the history of this nation. He is boastful and ignorant and petty, disdainful of the Constitution, a racist and a sexist, the enabler of the worst elements of society, either the willing tool of, or the useful idiot for, Vladimir Putin, an admirer of despots, an insecure braggart, a sexual assaulter, a man who refuses to honor contracts, and a bore.
...
The GOP trained their base election cycle after election cycle to be disdainful of government and to mistrust authority, which ultimately is an odd thing for a political party whose very rationale for existence is rooted in the concept of governmental authority to do. The GOP created a monster, but the monster isn’t Trump. The monster is the GOP’s base. Trump is the guy who stole their monster from them, for his own purposes.
...
Trump is the single worst major party presidential candidate in living memory, but he’s there because the GOP spent decades making him possible, and its base, trained for decades to look for someone like him, made him its standard bearer. He needs to lose and the GOP needs to be punished for him. Conservatism and classical Republican ideas won’t go away, nor should they. But if the GOP can’t break itself from its addiction to the bigoted and the ignorant, then it certainly deserves to die. It’s brought the country to the edge. Shame is only the beginning of what it should feel for it.
There's a man goin' 'round, takin' names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Today was supposed to be the last day to register to vote. Hurricane Matthew messed up a lot of people and while our horrible Governor didn't want to give anyone a break the federal courts told him to sit down and shut up and the deadline has been extended.
None the less registrations here today have been nonstop. Not a single declared republican yet either. Its glorious.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
The idea that you declare your allegiances publicly is completely bizarre to me. Its a secret ballot, I don't want anyone to know who I support, even if I am a party member then that's between me and the party only. Parties should have nothing to do with voter registration, that's just begging for trouble and inappropriate behaviour.
Doesn't matter, Russian tampering with the election itself will turn this into a nightmare.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
picking a party doesn't mean you have to vote for them over candidates from other parties. Its just the party you want to be affiliated with. Like Loki said for primary reasons, but also so they can spam the shit out of you.
https://voterrecords.com/ We really do put a lot of info out there publicly.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Over here everyone is automatically registered. And you can only vote for party leader if you're actually a member of the party.
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
There are powerful groups in the US that are keen to keep as many people from voting as possible, and they would fiercely resist automatic voter registration. That said, I believe the state of Oregon has implemented it. And not only that, they vote 100% by mail. I love it.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
To a lesser extent automatic registration - how is that happening and what security procedures?
To a far greater extent postal voting. What prevents one household member fraudulently (or by intimidation) casting the entire households ballots. The "head of household" can cast everyone's vote. To make matters even worse they can cast the votes of those who wouldn't have been arsed to register due to problem one. Or what can stop zealous party activists intimidating vulnerable people (eg the elderly) into handing over their ballots to be filled in "properly" by the party activists?
The secret ballot and the polling booth is sacred.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/28/politics.election2005
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26487418
I can register and vote via the mail, never having to talk to a single person. All I would need to provide is a social security or Driver's License #, something the head of a household has access to for everyone else.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
So open to abuse that there are virtually no examples of it happening.
Hope is the denial of reality
When all-postal voting was trialed in the UK there were so many examples that it never happened again. When postal voting on demand became an option it too was met with widespread abuse.
Judge slates 'banana republic' postal voting system
Only about a dozen states allow that.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Hope is the denial of reality
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/785990548821684224
Trump's campaign manager called himself a Leninist.
Hope is the denial of reality
Either through activities that severely increase distrust (eg. a Clinton victory followed by dissemination of phony evidence of fraud) or through direct tampering (with vote-counting machines, overseas postal votes, etc). Assassination or assassination attempt would be going over the line.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Fuzzy, read the disclaimer. This only includes registration information submitted by designated third party organizations, not the political parties themselves.
Hope is the denial of reality
They're STILL crap numbers. The party doesn't handle all their own GOTV efforts, they don't even handle most of them, local organizations are called on for a lot of the legwork. And that should be the case even more for Trump supporters considering how many non-traditional supporters he has. Although I suppose the Klansman trying to collect registrations in their robes might be a bit off-putting for a lot of people.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Two of the main three organizations mentioned in the story (collectively responsible for a third of all the signatures) are a chapter of La Raza and a social justice organization.
Hope is the denial of reality
Not surprising, I just hope it translates come election time. 538 giving Trump a 25% chance to win Florida (and 13% overall) gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
I do worry that when Trump gets buried on election day the nation will collectively try to claim that they stood above racism, sexism, hate, etc. Without actually doing anything to fix the problems we have.
Florida's voting deadline has been extended til the 18th. The governor is not happy.
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 10-12-2016 at 05:31 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/12/...-clinton-wins/
At what point do sane people realize this man is a conman?
And this is Trump's minority outreach: http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37614095
And for women: http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37639839
Last edited by Loki; 10-12-2016 at 11:57 PM.
Hope is the denial of reality
Given how much money there is in presidential election, how much would it even matter if some foreigners managed to sneak in a few million bucks?
And more (if true): https://twitter.com/senatorshoshana/...53529120231424
And more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltagg...them-changing?
Lewk, any thoughts on this borderline pedophile behavior?
Last edited by Loki; 10-13-2016 at 01:41 AM.
Hope is the denial of reality