I’ve made the point several times now. We live in a constitutional democracy, but many of the first line (and last line) protections are not enforceable laws, but rather, agreements made among people who all want to live in and respect a constitutional democracy.
But if a large enough cadre of members of Congress, a gaggle of highly placed judges, or a President decide to act in a way that conflicts with those conventions, they can actually get away with quite a bit.
The US Congress is run by such a cadre, pretending to engage in a democracy but willing to break the non-enforceable laws whenever that suits them. Since the Congress is a key check on the President, this lets the President get away with whatever he wants. In this case, this means that the Congressional overisight of the Executive is non existent or hampered, faked, or even compliant with the Executive’s agenda. We are seeing that now with Congress attacking the investigators.
Over the last few months it has become apparent that the only powerful force, other than the people themselves (and they are powerful) putting a check on Trump is the press, and Trump has been acting to wear that down. Plus, women. The women were the first to march against Trump, and he’s going to put them down too.
And so, this morning’s tweets:
Word is that @Greta Van Susteren was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
And, on a related and very disturbing parallel path, Trump is working on getting a list of Democrats, via voter data, in order to … do what?
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
This is what a dictatorship looks like, people. They are coming for you.
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I’m actually surprised (happily surprised) at the lack of compliance by officials in states for voter information. The repeated lack of confirmation of anything resembling massive and widespread voter fraud is clear to all but the most dishonest and intellectually challenged folk across the country. Sadly, people at the intersection of those two groups are running the country.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trumps-voting-commission-asked-states-to-hand-over-election-data-theyre-pushing-back/2017/06/30/cd8f812a-5dce-11e7-9b7d-14576dc0f39d_story.html?ICID=ref_fark&utm_content=link&utm_medium=website&utm_source=fark&utm_term=.a2b5396db7d9
Greg.
Your side lost.
Under the constitution you can have another crack every 4 years.
Not a complex concept mate.
Meanwhile @realDonaldTrump gets on with the business of POTUS…..as he promised during the election campaign.
rasa, it probably escaped your notice but the losing of an election does not mean only republicans are allowed to complain or try to influence politics when they’re in the minority.
That is available to democrats and independents too.
It’s called “democracy”, and you’d best get over the idea that it’s a dictatorship when you “won”.
“Meanwhile @realDonaldTrump gets on with the business of POTUS…..as he promised during the election campaign.”
Except he really hasn’t begun many of the things he said he’d do (his plan to defeat ISIS in 30 days comes to mind), and had lied about everything else. It takes a special type of integrity free person to defend him and say it is wrong to point out his issues.
What’s this “posting too quickly” stuff?
The problem trump appears to have is likely back to his cult of self-personality (Joe was a big supporter and friend of Trump on the campaign trail, so he sees this as a personal betrayal) and his ego (the snip about his tiny hands).
His tiny digits can’t hold on to such a massive ego and that’s a problem. He probably loves tweets because he can use a phone with a small keyboard his hands can reach across and predictive texting to correct (some of) his spelling mistakes, whilst reducing how much he has to type. Those midget fingers get tired easy.
“…a check on Trump is the press, and Trump has been acting to wear that down.”
Is it effective? Who owns what anyway?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/30/democratic-voters-shift-left-liberal-media-keep-shifting-right
Wow – “rasa, it probably escaped your notice but the losing of an election does not mean only republicans are allowed to complain ”
This from Wow, who is constantly whining and complaining about people whining and complaining.
Wow – “they STILL whined and complained and bitched and moaned and cried and tore their hair out”
Wow – “so it’s rather pointless to whine and whinge and bitch and moan”
Wow – “You, however, just whinge and bitch and moan”
Just another example of Wow’s never ending hypocrisy…
What’s wrong with Trump supporters who think that just because he is (somehow) the president that we all of a sudden need to sit down and shut up? Just because they are delusional and voted for a very bad man for President doesn’t silence anybody who didn’t vote for that rat bastard with the gold toilet. He is an unpolished turd in a limousine and he is not my president.
So, we get to the real issue: is an incompetent like Trump a better choice for the next few years than a possibly more adept Pence? Trump has cut up things around the edges but has set Reps intolerance so high that they “think” they can get him to sign anything…if they only knew what it was they really wanted him to sign. With Pence, there might be actual leadership which would marshal the troops to actually get something done. I’m thinking that incompetence and gridlock for a couple of years is the best we can hope for.
Purging the malign Russian influence in our country has got to be one of our main tasks, in the months and years ahead. Russia appears to be light years ahead of the USA in terms of their ability to manipulate international political situations to their advantage. Let us never forget that their Our Dear Leader was the one that they wanted to win this past election. Nor should we forget that Moscow helped create North Korea.
This current Russian interference can be traced back to before Orly Taitz and the birther movement. The birther movement was a serious and successful Russian attempt to weaken the sitting American president, a leader whose goals and visions were at odds with Russian/ fossil fuel interests.
The Russian gubmint and the US right wing has been very successful at turning Americans and westerners against each other. It is a sneaky scheming plot hatched in the steamy reptilian petro brain, and it threatens to set western civ back centuries.
“Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad! 3:20 PM – 1 Jul 2017”
This is typically Donald’s Wow speech. Phonetically Wow stands for sounds of crying people: “Way oh way, ooh what a pity, way oh way.”
Stop whining and trolling, sober up, and debunk Trump and his trolls.
Netherlands, Saturday July 1st, 2017, 22.42 PM DT.
No, great boogers, you 100% deserve the words you get in your direction. And your attempt to pretend that there’s any similarity is just yet another whiney ass bullshit claim, just like your asinine faith in your quack’s claims of prophesy.
And still you haven’t even tried to educate yourself. Just like Donald Trump.
>The repeated lack of confirmation of anything resembling massive and widespread voter fraud is clear to all
California can give a definitive answer to this question. They have been giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. We can cross check that database and see how many voted.
Your racist fears are unfounded mikeN. There has been no evidence of massive voter fraud — indeed, not even small to middling fraud — in elections.
Join the fact based world. You’ve been away so long it will be odd at first, but eventually you’ll be much better for it.
Yes, it was a clear case. It’s not there at all. Out of four found cases of voter fraud, three of them were trump voters and close friends of trump and on his election team.
There is no evidence they’ve given drivers license to illegal aliens.
“California can give a definitive answer to this question.”
56 confirmed cases from 2000 to 2013, mostly among campaigns, not voters themselves.
Voter fraud has been investigated over and over and over again by a variety of agencies, academics, and journalists and it simply isn’t a widespread problem.
Hmmm. Just to help you along guys.
dictator
d?k?te?t?/
noun
a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained control by force.
I must have misread about the US Election last year with results an outcome according to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Again.
You guys picked an abysmal candidate and lost.
Try again in 4 years sunshine. And another 4 years etc.
“California can give a definitive answer to this question. They have been giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. We can cross check that database and see how many voted.”
Those California driver’s licenses have clear language indicating they can’t be used for identification purposes. The likelihood people illegally voted using their driver’s license as identification is virtually zero – since it would constitute a crime.
Your point , tabula? Or are you drawing a blank on that too?
“The likelihood people illegally voted using their driver’s license as identification is virtually zero ”
Illegal aliens won’t put themselves in a identification database because, well, they’ll be identified. Bank robbers don’t put their career down as “Bank Robber” in a goddamned census.
Time to trot out the classic characteristics of a fascist gubmint again for all the people who were asleep in history class..
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – e.g., Make America Great Again
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – e.g., anti Muslim, anti-immigrant behavior
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – e.g, Muslims. Blacks. Liberals.
4. Supremacy of the Military – He’s gonna make the largest even greater.. Cut food stamps, raise the military budget. Have a war.
5. Rampant Sexism – Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media – Megyn was not getting with the program….nor was Michelle Fields. Nor was Mika Brzenski Trump is working very hard to meet this characteristic.
7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool. Get those terrorists. Threaten NK.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders ( yesterday Trump said “Our rights are given to us by God” when, in fact the Declaration of Independence cites entitlements given by Nature and Nature’s God),
9. Corporate Power is Protected – Thanks to Judge Gorsuck.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Trump is trying to co-opt labor with policies that are nearly guaranteed to create an economic collapse that will hurt unionists worst.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Scientific decisions are being superseded by political and economic ones within this administration. Funding for the arts is being cut.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Trump’s AG Sessions has directed federal prosecutors to charge defendants with the most severe penalties possible and pursue mandatory minimum sentences where they’re available.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Ivanka, Jared , Trump hotels, emoluments, need we say more, wink, wink, nudge,nudge,know what I mean? know what I mean?
14. Fraudulent Elections – Well, there is no evidence of a fraudulent election in terms of stuffed ballot boxes, but funny how the Russian backed candidate won.
Look at Wow, comparing “illegal aliens” to bank robbers…
The true Wow finally comes out.
I notice our bark beetle infection fails comprehension 101 again. No you clown Wow did not compare illegal aliens with bank robbers for each retained their distinct identity.
Meanwhile on fraud and elections and Russian interference here is a tale in the style of Clifford Stoll:
How An Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab for Cyberwar
betty doesn’t want to get analogies because they’re so simple to understand and prove the point that batshit really doesn’t want to have understood.
What was your “point” about bank robbers again Wow? And why use the term “illegal aliens”?
Why must you be so offensive and dehumanizing?
Besides my proving you to be a liar and a hypocrite, it looks like I have to add heartless bastard to the list…
It was well beyond your reach, batshit.
Just like the difference between aliens and illegal aliens. Because you’re determined to be blind.
Marco, how about we check the two databases against each other. If the number is low like you claim, it would change minds and put a stop to the Republican efforts that Democrats think suppress minority votes. Republicans think Democrats are stealing votes with fraud, and Democrats think Republicans are stealing thru voter ID and other difficulties. If Republicans stop thinking the fraud is there with a thorough check in California, then the push to implement voter ID laws disappears.
How about you keep the rights of the people “mike”?
Not forgetting that if your asinine claim of drivers licenses were in any sense true you’ld already have the information you want:, and not just for checking “voter fraud”.
We should not be surprised that you keep demanding more and yet more investigations into something already disproven, though, because “keep making another investigation until we get the answer we want” is the RWNJ M.O.
“and put a stop to the Republican efforts that Democrats think suppress minority votes”
Yea, right. This will never happen while the R’s are alive and wedded to their fanatic base.
” it would change minds and put a stop to the Republican efforts that Democrats think suppress minority votes.”
You are ignoring this fact: in locations where Republicans have asserted there was large scale fraud, investigations have shown there was none. That hasn’t stopped Republicans from repeating the lie that it exists.
Why do they do that? Not because they believe it, but they know their gullible (most often racist) supporters do believe it.
Rasa: I must have misread about the US Election last year with results an outcome according to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Again.
You guys picked an abysmal candidate and lost.
Try again in 4 years sunshine. And another 4 years etc.
I am pretty sure if he makes it to 2018 the thugs are going to get trampled. We shall see now won’t we.
MikeN:
“Marco, how about we check the two databases against each other. If the number is low like you claim, it would change minds and put a stop to the Republican efforts that Democrats think suppress minority votes.”
No, it would do no such thing. Numerous – close to innumerable, actually – studies have been done showing no such fraud exists, and yet Trump has established his commission.
Are you just ignorant, or dishonest? I suspect the latter.
Climate science, modern biology, voter fraud … the Republican Party is into full-blown denialism despite science, data, knowledge, etc.
And you know it. You’re a liar. A despicable liar.
Hell, after pizzagate made Alex cry like a bitch and read out his lawyer’s prepared statement of “I made shit up, sorry”, he’s now moved on to claiming that NASA is running the child sex slavery ring ON A MARS COLONY.
Probably hoping that since it’s government he won’t be sued for making the same shit up about NASA he did about the pizza parlour.
Tell us again, “mike”, how republicans stop investigating made up bullshit when they’re allowed to investigate and prove it’s a load of crap.
The Takeover Of The USA By Fascist Morons ( continued)
“8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders..”
Yesterday Trump said that we will start saying “Merry Christmas” again….. invoking the phony war on Christmas and edging up to Church / State boundary line. The day before that, he misquoted the Declaration of Independence saying that “Our rights are given to us by God” . . Trump has always made use of the “Flag Religion” in his activities over the years, but now, he seems to be realizing that, with even less investment of his efforts, he can also co-opt the powerful Ameri-Christian religion . And go full on Fascist!
So we now have our very own American Nero, a fascist psycho who should have never been given the chance to enter the election. The Republicans, with no apparent unifying principle other than their adolescent love affair with the sadistic, self serving philosophy of Ayn Rand, failed to be able to choose a suitable candidate. Instead, they opted for a millionaire cage fight and ended up selecting the biggest , most self serving lout of the bunch, the one with the most Russian entanglements.
With the amount of corruption that the Republican party has smeared itself with of late, it is hard to realize that there are still some Republicans who are smart, who care about the public good, and who recognize that we have a constitutional government. These people will need to be allied with in order to get through this crisis. Otherwise, its all over but the crying.
“Otherwise, its all over but the crying”
There is the part where Wow chimes in to tell you…
“Waaaah Waaaah! Waaaaa! Waaaaaaaaaaah!”
Good times!
More complaining from the screaming toddler with a temper tantrum.
I guess this explains why you’re a trumpalina supporter: you identify with his thin skin, tiny hands, tiny dick, and tiny brain and massive overinflated ego.
Having actually read the retard’s post, I can summarise it thusly:
WAAAAAAHH WAAAAAAAA! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAH”
Or another way:
Shorter batshit: “Everyone is mean to me!!!!!!”.
Grow up, snowflake. This isn’t your safe space.
Looks like I struck a nerve eh Wow? Win anything lately?
Hang onto those distribution checks from the “corrupt” profits of Westmill Solar Wow, it’s all you have left……”but the crying”
Bwaaa Haaa!!
Go lie in a a corner until your temper tantrum is over, you infantile toddler.
More milk Wow?
On that, this is worth a read:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/normalization-lesson-munich-post/
It’s been a goal of the right for decades. By berating and browbeating the media and keeping the “leftist MSM” meme alive when it’s being moved further and further to the right, they’ve made the rightwing MSM “look” to their followers like leftists. They’re not leftists, they’re on the right, therefore they must be further to the right on things than the media is. And that
a) Moves that overton window
b) Removes the ability of the media to be believed by the right in anything
c) Removes the ability for anyone NOT far right to accept the media in anything
that this is now moving into making the media the official mouthpiece of the rightwingnutjob US government is merely a happy occurrence for them, and they’re just amazed it happened so fast.
@40
When you can’t win and desperation takes over, the Hitler comparisons come out…
I feel for you Berntard…
#42 Thanks Bernard J. for the link to the excellent article by author Ron Rosenbaum. The parallels between Trump and Hitler are significant. Can an inarticulate silver spoon fraudster with little real talent (except in lout skills) do as much damage as Hitler? I think that we would agree that he can and he will, if we let him and his outrages become acceptable.
Dean, while there might be some consultants and establishment folks doing it to suppress minority or other Democratic votes(Texas will take hunting licenses for example), the push from the rank and file is because they believe the vote fraud exists. All these investigations you speak of are more absence of evidence than evidence of absence. When a single county in Virginia finds hundreds of voters who voted illegally, the arguments will be there. Having a large database in California would give a good look at the scope of the issue. Based on the investigations you describe, what would you expect to be the result of checking California’s databases against each other?
#42 The reference to the nitwit thug segment of the population is telling. Trump is known to have kept Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. And now he is bashing the press just like HItler did. We have a president who is acting more and more like a child dictator, and the only people who don’t seem to recognize it are members of the nitwit thug segment of the population.
“Trump is known to have kept Hitler’s speeches by his bedside”
I did no know that. I still don’t know it. Is it true?
There is exactly what I spoke of – blatant denial of the results from the types of investigations the “honest” right wants. You could not have done any more to contradict your assertion that “if the investigations find nothing the issue will be dropped”.
“The parallels between Trump and Hitler are significant.”
Yes, any day now he should be sending his son in law, Jared Kushner, to the gas chamber.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y
Greg – I did no know that. I still don’t know it. Is it true?
When hearsay is put in writing, and you want to believe it, then of course it’s true!
In any case, it’s all about tecniques for manipulating gullible crowds, not which group is targeted first. In other words, the issue is: Where does il Don Trumputin fall on the spectrum of international assholes, past and present?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-books-bedside-cabinet-ex-wife-ivana-trump-vanity-fair-1990-a7639041.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/25/the-theory-of-political-leadership-that-donald-trump-shares-with-adolf-hitler/?utm_term=.55a223752449
@MikeN #46:
FTFY.
The “Hitler speeches in drawer” story seems to come from Ivanka.
[BAD OR DANGEROUS LINK DETECTED AND DELETED]
“This is what a dictatorship looks like, people. They are coming for you.”
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
He [tRUMP] went on to explain that it was “his friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.”
Mr Davis told Vanity Fair: “I did give him a book about Hitler. But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-books-bedside-cabinet-ex-wife-ivana-trump-vanity-fair-1990-a7639041.html
A 1990 Vanity Fair article about billionaire businessman stated that Mr Trump’s then wife Ivana, said her husband owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of the Nazi leader’s speeches.
Marie Brenner, the article’s author, wrote: “Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, ‘My New Order’, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.
[BAD OR DANGEROUS LINK DETECTED AND DELETED] ?
Ibtimes is bad or dangerous?
The link lead to something quite different. Try posting a second time if you like, maybe there was something wrong with it. And rather than assuming I’m an idiot, assume you are in the future. That won’t always be the case, but usually…. 🙂
The information at my link was the same as steveP has, so nothing changes.
A democracy is not about the voters’ choice being the end-all. Any kind of government system makes mistakes. The main value of a modern democratic system is the ability to reign in mistakes made by voters. That ability is fragile, as seen in pre-war Italy and Germany, and Romania and Turkey now. The system has to have strong checks and balances.
It is an open question whether we now have strong enough checks and balances. An argument for why we might not is that the extreme incompetence of the 2001-2009 government was allowed to continue.
Trump apparently wants a Fascist government – he tries to neutralize the press and the judiciary, grants power to the military and the business elites , manipulates the electoral system, and fosters extreme nationalism. If these strategies work for him, we are left with Congress as the last check, but it is controlled by the same type of people who sanctioned the foolish wars and economic policies in 2001-9.
One of the balances was supposed to be the opposition. Where the leader saw all their plans with rose tinted specs, the opposition looked at every possible flaw or failure. And the leader would have to look at those problems and fix them or work a way around them to get a *better* result than they would have had without opposition.
Nowadays, politicians think that the only compromise is “get less than 100% of what you wanted passed” and that means you get the rose-tinted version of both sides’ failures.
Hey, look at Greg with an explanation for his actions….it can be done in SOME cases!
Way to go Greg, I’m proud of you.
I wasn’t implying anything about you Greg. I was expressing my confusion.
Right, but you should always assume that I’m rite, that’s all I’m saying.
Just for the record, since I never received an answer….I’m implying and not assuming.
Hitler wrote this in November of 1942 in reference to his pogroms against the Jews: ? “Today countless numbers of those who laughed at that time, laugh no longer. Those who are still laughing now, also will perhaps laugh no longer after a while.”
On June 1, 2017, Donald Trump announced that he was pulling America out of the Paris climate accord. “At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be. They won’t be.”
See any similarities, peeps?
Trump is a menace to humanity. He is a menace to anything elevated above him in the panoply of human abilities and endeavors.
May Trump soon be brought down by the constitution of the United States of America.
Amen.
Killing 6 million Jews, not signing Paris accord…..I have no doubt you see a correlation Steve. And yes, I’m laughing at you…
Greg, we are of roughly the same vintage. (I just might be older). Anyway, apropos of this — and of the era(s) during which we came of age (whatever the hell that means) — staunch (and often virulent) anti-Rusian (qua-Soviet) attitudes were the sine qua non of American foreign (and oftentimes domestic) policy. No politician was legit until s(he) bashed Russia.
So this is what stuns me the most nowadays: the evident near-total apathy — excepting dinosaurs like McCain who are old enough to remember the Cold War, if nothing else — concerning Putin’s serial genocides, his takeover of the Russian state and, apparently, of our last presidential election as well. Trump et al.’s obstruction of justice and collusion don’t surprise me all that much. But the apathy of our politicians — over half of Congress, in fact — is another matter altogether. Having been politicized in the opposite direction my entire life (anybody remember Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov?!) I’m just utterly flabbergasted. You?
@ ^ Joseph M.: FWIW I read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in high school english class. Flippin’ powerful, well written, moving – and grim – book. Haven’t read (?) Sakharov but remember him being mentioned in one of Arthur C.Clarke’s Space Odyssey novels. Will have to wiki him.
***
On the issue of voter fraud, I think Stonekettle Station blogger Jim Wright sums it up beautifully well and is spot on here :
http://www.stonekettle.com/2017/07/fox-in-henhouse.html
As I commented there, I think the United States is very badly in need of some major political reforms.
So, okay, I’m an Aussie. But y’know what, my nation is really heavily influenced in whole lotta ways by the US of A.
America says “Jump!” Australia’s leaders don’t even ask “How high?”; they’ve already got our metaphorical feet high in the air. It isn’t alone in this pavlovianesque response globally either.
The USA has one huge impact on the world.
Who its POTUS is, makes a massive difference.
So how it selects its POTUS makes a whopping big difference.
So. Is it too much to ask that that process of POTUS selection be fair and reasonable and democratic and stuff?
Is it really so much to ask when my countrymen, some of my friends will be risking their lives, when our whole planet is powerfully shifted by what your leaders do; that the way you choose your leaders, your POTUS, is actually fair and just and reasonable and good?
Because right now, I really don’t think it is.
Please, pretty flippin’ please can we have a United States electoral system that gives equal value to every citizens vote rather than disenfranchising the populous states like California and disproportionately, unfairly empowering the smaller states like Wyoming?
Can we have an end to jerrymandering and to, lets be honest, racist voter suppression laws?
Can we have an end to term limits that hamstring and make into “lame ducks” great President’s like Obama who already have far too much against them despite their better characters and policies?
Is it too much to ask for a preferential (or run-off election a la France) voting system that enables voters to rank say Nader first then Gore then Bush the Lesser and have Gore actually win not Bush the lesser when votes are truly counted?
Is it okay with you if you have mandatory voting like we Aussies do where everyone has to at minimum get their name crossed off the voting roll even if they then vote informal by spoiling their ballot or donkey voting?
And, for pity’s sake, though I’ve already obliquely said it, I’ll say again because it bears emphasising; can you please get rid of your unfair, anti-democratic electoral college* – and I’m tempted to add your whole Congress to that given what it did to Obama but I won’t because, FSM save us, its now likely our best hope of some sort of brake on Trump’s tyranny.
* How do Californians, New Yorkers and others bear that? Do they just not know? Do they just go along becoz Tradishn or what?
Isn’t it time now for this discussion and some major reforms?
After all, your system has ended up with Trump in power despite three million of you voting for the qualified, vastly superior woman leader instead. If that’s not a sign things are badly wrong & need changing then what is?
Oh dear, batshit. Also going to claim that Hitler never had a syrup and that trumpalina hasn’t got a natty little mustache?
What a retard you are, batshit.
Joseph, they’re wanting whatever gets them the laws enacted they want. They’ll not remove Trump until AFTER he makes the laws they’re insisting on. They also almost to a man want government to be so hideously incompetent that government will die, leaving it up to “private industry” to make the laws. So in that sense trump’s incompetency is what they want to happen.
They may also look forward to, if trump gets these tax breaks and removal of the Obama laws in every area they can (for the benefit of their racist voters), blaming trump on it all therefore they’ll do better, vote for them 2018/2020!
There’s nothing happening that they don’t want and they don’t want to hold up the few rules they can get passed that benefit them and the donors, in case they lose the house in 2018 and the presidency in 2020.
If you add up the various deaths related to or influenced by warming climate, changing climate, and near term fossil fuel hazards, you find that the annual numbers of deaths that are likely related to fossil fuel use actually exceed the yearly death rate from the Holocaust:
Diarrheal Infections
Heat and Cold Illnesses
Hunger
Dehydration
Crop Failure
Malaria and Vector Borne Diseases
Meningitis
Environmental Disasters
Air Pollution
Occupational Hazards
Petroleum caused cancers
Societal breakdown caused by diminishing resources
Battles fought over diminishing resources
So, in essence, arguing that Trump is not similar to Hitler because he hasn’t yet committed genocide against a specific population is a very weak argument. By ignoring global warming and its consequences, he is showing an arrogant, pre-scientific view of reality that may ultimately contribute to far more deaths than the Holocaust..
Also, arguing that Trump is not like Hitler because he is not anti-semitic is also a mistake. Trump’s anti-Muslim attacks are cruel and inhuman as HItler’s anti-semitism was, which, by the way, he used as a tool to rally his base… just like Trump does with Muslims. Oh, and the ranks of Trump’s base are well populated with all sorts of anti-semites, KKKers, and Confederate flag wavers ( Who is David Duke?). Also, aren’t many many Muslims semites?
So yes, I am guilty of the thought crime of believing that the head of Trump University is a mountebank. And the laughter of all the hyenas in the Russian stoked internet pack aren’t going to make me change that belief. Sorry.. Try again.
Trump is anti-semitic. He’s pro-himself. Anti everyone else. And Semites are not him. Ergo, antisemitic.
Though I’m still laughing at you Steve, the laughing you are hearing is in your head…..and it won’t go away without the proper medication.
Wow – “Trump is anti-semitic”
Well, with that said, at least we know he won’t put his Jewish Democrat son in law in any position of power like a senior advisor. So that’s a good thing…
When a fool laughs at you, it is a compliment.
Notice how the Russian sponsored Trolls, when their attempts at applying peer pressure fail, become reptilian. How boringly consistent.
Steve – “When a fool laughs at you, it is a compliment”
Fooling yourself is no substitute for the proper medication…
Trump’s attacks on the free press would be disturbing even if it didn’t ape the actions of early Hitler. The ease with which Trump lies would be upsetting even if it didn’t run completely parallel to Hitler. Trump’s attempts to block the investigation of Russian influence in America would be outrageous even it it weren’t just like Richard Nixon.
The use of anti-semitic memes by Trump surrogates during the election is despicable, whether or not he has a Jewish daughter and son in law, because it stirs up the cruel and vile bottom of the base that he counted on for votes and power, a base that now seems to feel far freer to express their arrogant , hateful, fearful white supremacist narcissism, even if the administration is only overtly prejudiced against Muslims who are not the heads of oil states, in which case, he dances with them..
Trump’s repeated incitements to violence have thus far been kept in check by a mix of law and tradition. It is critical that those of use who can continue to work to fight Trump’s anti-press tirades until Nature and Nature’s God cleanly and constitutionally removes him from office.
Julian Frost, the IF/When depends on what you are talking about.
They found votes cast by people removed from voting rolls as non-citizens.
However, it is not clear they actually were non-citizens, and may have been removed by error, like the example in the article.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/30/illegals-in-virginia-registered-vote-in-elections/
Dean, your link makes no reference to investigations that found no voter fraud. What are these investigations you are talking about?
Poor Steve. his mental illness has taken him to a place he hates the most…he’s become a Republican.
http://theweek.com/articles/568774/why-republicans-are-obsessed-comparing-obama-hitler
“Military families are growing less enthusiastic about the president, according to polling data that The Wall Street Journal collected and analyzed last month.”
mikeN, if you don’t have a clue about studies of voter fraud you shouldn’t comment on it.
brennancenter dot org / analysis /resources-voter-fraud-claims
(That first link has a long list of references to studies.)
brennancenter dog org / publications / truth-about-voter-fraud
(That second link gets you to a summary)
Your washington post story about virginia has been shown to be a load of crap (no surprise, given the “fair” organizations that carried it out).
News organizations in Virginia tried to replicate the same data gathering the folks in the story you found carried out — exactly the same way. Their summary:
What was found?
Hardly the bullshit claim in the wapo story or the one pushed by the right. I heartily await your typical denial of data that doesn’t match your predetermined assumption.
“Julian Frost, the IF/When depends on what you are talking about.”
Yeah, if you’re talking about there being no voter fraud above the noise signal, it’s when. If you’re talking about voter fraud it’s if.
And when you find no evidence, as with every other time you found no evidence (Benghazi, MBH98/99, etc), you’ll keep demanding an investigation until there’s evidence.