Trump's Card

[Gerontophile]

He has something wrong with his neck. Everytime he looks to his right, he has to turn his whole head and body.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I guess the thing that struck me was how he couldn't be arsed to close his umbrella. Just drops it for someone else to deal with. Or not. Mostly though it's the umbrella itself. Tossed around by the wind. Directionless, fragile, neglected. Kinda like the US itself under this president.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I want to kill all of those people.

[Satchmo Distel]

Another rally today.

[anton pulisov]

I want to kill all of those people.

Although:

The idea of leaving work, forwarding all of my calls to my phone, to go stand in line for four hours, to probably get called back to work before I even get halfway through the line, sounds terrible. I would have to tell work, “Hey, I’m not coming in until noon today,” and in the end, if it’s not something I’m extremely passionate about, do I want to spend four hours of vacation doing something I don’t quite want to do?

the land of the free

[ursus arctos]

US employers are required by law to grant employees up to three hours paid leave to vote, unless the polls in the relevant location are open three hours before or after a worker's regular working hours.

[anton pulisov]

What is required to move elections to a weekend? A simple law or a constitutional amendment?

If the former, why didn't the Dems push it through when they had the white house and congress majority?

[ursus arctos]

One could do it for federal elections with a simple law, but a complicating issue is that state and local elections are governed by state or local laws (and regulated by different entities), which means that one wouldn't necessarily have all elections on the same day.

There has also been long-standing opposition to weekend elections within the Democratic Party on the part of observant Jews and Catholics, which both have traditionally had an outsized voice in the party. Making voting easier has also been traditionally opposed by Democratic machines, which became fat and happy off the current system.

[Ginger Yellow]

Lindsey Graham, a profile in courage:

“I don’t think there’s any room in the party for wanting him to fail,” Graham told CNN. “If they see your criticism is designed to want him to fail or not support him, then you’re in trouble.”

[JVL]

US employers are required by law to grant employees up to three hours paid leave to vote, unless the polls in the relevant location are open three hours before or after a worker's regular working hours.

And I would guess that a lot of employees, like Maria (probably), don't know that. Employers too, or if they do, then they're not going to rush to tell anyone.

As for the other people interviewed in that article: just how fucking difficult is it to buy stamps?

Jocelyn: "You can send in your registration by mail, but I didn’t have stamps. I kept thinking that I shouldn’t have to jump through this many hoops to register."
Megan: "just say “Fuck it” because I don’t own a printer or stamps anyway."
Anna: "Most people my age have zero need to go to the post office and may have never stepped into one before. Honestly, if someone had the forms printed for me and was willing to deal with the post office, I’d be much more inclined to vote."

What, should someone wipe your arse for you as well? "Oh, so, right, I've never actually bought toilet paper and I think it'd be great if there could be some sort of guide on Instagram for that."
Oh fuck off.

[Ginger Yellow]

Jocelyn: "You can send in your registration by mail, but I didn’t have stamps. I kept thinking that I shouldn’t have to jump through this many hoops to register."

I mean, she's not wrong. Here you can do it online, or return the registration form in a prepaid envelope. It's only recently that you had to do anything at all. Not an excuse not to vote, though.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is there any chance the Kavanaugh Brothers on the Supreme Court could find automatic registration unconstitutional? On here, somebody from the Heritage Foundation talks about "infringing constitutional rights".

https://ballotpedia.org/Automatic_voter_registration

[ursus arctos]

That's by the discredited whackjob who provides the "intellectual underpinning" to Kobach's fantasies about voter fraud.

I can't see it failing even before this Court, though you have the same issue about it only being valid for federal elections if enacted by Congress and the fact that established Democrats also like the system as it is.

[anton pulisov]

And I would guess that a lot of employees, like Maria (probably), don't know that. Employers too, or if they do, then they're not going to rush to tell anyone.

As for the other people interviewed in that article: just how fucking difficult is it to buy stamps?

Jocelyn: "You can send in your registration by mail, but I didn’t have stamps. I kept thinking that I shouldn’t have to jump through this many hoops to register."
Megan: "just say “Fuck it” because I don’t own a printer or stamps anyway."
Anna: "Most people my age have zero need to go to the post office and may have never stepped into one before. Honestly, if someone had the forms printed for me and was willing to deal with the post office, I’d be much more inclined to vote."

What, should someone wipe your arse for you as well? "Oh, so, right, I've never actually bought toilet paper and I think it'd be great if there could be some sort of guide on Instagram for that."
Oh fuck off.

the ones who couldn't be arse buying stamps, yeah, piss off

some of them offer philosophical reasons for not voting... which while i don't agree with, i can at least respect a bit more than just being lazy. the "it doesn't make a difference" thing doesn't wash with me. ok, maybe it doesn't make a difference to you, but it makes a difference to muslims with green cards not being allowed back into the country to see their family. so, you have to vote out of altruism. somewhere, a difference will be made, even if it is just for one person.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's by the discredited whackjob who provides the "intellectual underpinning" to Kobach's fantasies about voter fraud.

I can't see it failing even before this Court, though you have the same issue about it only being valid for federal elections if enacted by Congress and the fact that established Democrats also like the system as it is.

That's a relief.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Talking of Kris Kobach, he looks to have continued Brownback's work of making Kansas into a hyper-marginal.

Lots of very close governorships- Nevada, Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, all with Republicans as slight favourite.

[San Bernardhinault]

12 yoofs on why they're probably not voting

I feel that this article gets at something essential, can't quite put my finger on it....

That registering to vote in the US should be automatic, that voting should be made easier, that there should be more voting places, that nobody should ever have to wait in line to cast a vote, that out of state voting should be no harder than in state voting, that it should be explicit that you can opt out of voting on down-ballot items that you don't know or don't care about when the ballot is 4 pages long, that postal votes should have postage paid returns. And, of course, that when someone wins a majority of the vote, they should probably get into power.

Voting should be a trivially easy process. There shouldn't be even slight hurdles to voting. We don't only want democracy to apply to those who are really really engaged, or else we end up with a democracy that looks like a radio phone in, with only the shoutiest and angriest who're willing to jump through the hoops to get listened to.

[Sporting]

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1057384745036697601

Does Trump only pretend to like Jews if they live in Jerusalem?

[Sporting]

UK elections have been on a Thursday since 1931.

[San Bernardhinault]

I get angry at the "they're all the same" types, because they're actual idiots.

But I can't get too angry at the "it's a pain in the arse to vote, and my vote doesn't count anyway" types when we make it hard to vote.

And when the results are so skewed.

Reminder:

2016 presidential election. Votes D 48.2% Votes R 46.1%. Seats R 100% D 0%

2016 house election Votes R 49% Votes D 48%. Seats R 55.5% Seats D 44.5%

2012. 2014. 2016 Senate elections: Votes D: 54% Votes R 46%. Seats R 51% Seats D 49%

Currently, only the House of the three even represents which party won the most votes.

[ursus arctos]

Does Trump only pretend to like Jews if they live in Jerusalem?

He's also a big fan of Sheldon Adelson, other mega-donors and members of Mar-e-Lago and his other clubs.

[ursus arctos]

I'm familiar with Jakey though. I'd like it if he'd committed wire fraud.

"Wire Fraud" is simply the federal criminal law shorthand for fraud committed with the assistance of electronic means (originally telegraph, then telephone, and now internet, etc.). Wohl has definitely committed wire fraud on a number of occasions, the question is whether the prosecutors will choose to charge him with something more serious.

[anton pulisov]

I get angry at the "they're all the same" types, because they're actual idiots.

But I can't get too angry at the "it's a pain in the arse to vote, and my vote doesn't count anyway" types when we make it hard to vote.

And when the results are so skewed.

Reminder:

2016 presidential election. Votes D 48.2% Votes R 46.1%. Seats R 100% D 0%

2016 house election Votes R 49% Votes D 48%. Seats R 55.5% Seats D 44.5%

2012. 2014. 2016 Senate elections: Votes D: 54% Votes R 46%. Seats R 51% Seats D 49%

Currently, only the House of the three even represents which party won the most votes.

Don't forget 2000 presidential election: Votes R: 47.9% Votes D: 48.4%. Result: R 5 D 4

[Gangster Octopus]

Vote Democrat: Get Essex...

[ursus arctos]

The entire history of US elections has been grounded in skewing the vote.

That obviously doesn’t make it right, but for the most part it isn’t something being done in the shadows,