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You -- a lowbrow troll well established as a deliberate and despicable liar on this blog (e.g., post #s 27 & 33) -- of all people are not in a position to judge anyone else's character. "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Matthew 7:5
Yes, in a democracy voting should be mandatory. And upon birth or being awarded citizenship, registration should be automatically assigned for life, much like a social security number. When an eligible citizen moves from one district to another it should also be mandatory to alert poll workers in the states affected, so that accurate rolls are maintained.
In this modern era of ubiquitous IT systems, we should be able do this quickly and easily in a fairly streamlined manner. Why would that be any more of a burden for average citizens than the blizzard of forms and registration processes that corporations constantly throw at us to function in their world as consumers? Isn't voting in a functioning democracy even more important than consuming goods and services in the private sector?
Surely, America's much ballyhooed innovative spirit can do this, so that voting is a positive and satisfying experience. Our state also offers mail-in ballots with about a three-week lead time in addition to the traditional polling stations. It's cool for busy, busy people to have the leisure to study the candidates and issues without undo time pressure.
Perhaps even make voting day a paid holiday, or at least move the deadline to the weekend. Hype it up as a celebratory event like the Fourth of July. After casting their votes, revelers can retire to their homes or public parks or restaurants or bars to put on feasts with their family and friends. Eat, drink, and be merry -- yeh, ain't democracy great!
But nooo! Voting's gotta be an ugly, discouraging, disheartening nightmare, because the more good citizens who vote the less chance Republicans -- a minority party of the filthy rich -- have to win elections. That's one political reality that never changes. Make fascism great again!
I'm an European citizen, and i hope USA will find a solution to solve these problems. It's important for the world to have a peace governement.
@34 Deepspace,...it certainly reveals a lot about your character.
In my state we vote by mail. We also have polls but mail is much more convenient. Also our DMV issues ID for people that do not drive. You do not see pictures of long lines in poor neighborhoods. We have a Democratic Governor. It is what all states should do. Discouraging voting is about as corrupt as it gets. Kris Kobach is as corrupt as it gets. I like Australia's method. They fine you if you do not vote.
2950-10K -- Thom and Greg do talk about going after election fraud. I remember Greg mentioning Jill Stein taking a case to court in Michigan. The judge said see had a very solid case but no standing. That is, even if she won in court, she wouldn't have won the election. Where was Hillary? She would have had standing.
My understanding is that no one is turned away. The interstate cross-check removes a voter from the voter registration roll. The voter is not turned away, but is given a provisional ballot. He just has to show up at government office within 5 days and verify that he should be a registered voter. It is hard enough to get people to vote, let alone go through that process. I am sure some do; however, I presume enough do not.
Interstate cross-check is just one way they do it. The ACLU and others are taking Sec of State's to court often for many of the other ways. Sometimes they are winning. You do know they closed down the tRump-Koback phony commission.
If aliens came to Earth and encountered America's really, really efed-up voting system, they would have to wonder WTF do humans exactly mean by their word "democracy!"
Because, like a turd circling a toilet, the whole goddamn, moneyed-up, warmongering mess, helping to tear apart a dying planet, sure looks like it's spiraling down into what on their world is simply called "fascism," which was stamped out so many eons ago that their race has little memory of the "Dark Time."
(Lol, I guess the circling-turd analogy might not mean much to someone using zero-g toilets.)
#4 plugar
I live in Wisconsin. And, as long as the "Koch whore" Scott Walker is our governor, and we have the "Fitzgerald" Republican state house...
We will NEVER see any sort of resolution/referendum to get money out of politics, on any kind of ballot in this state... NEVER!!
I like the idea...
But, good luck getting 34 states, to even put it on a state level ballot as a resolution/ referendum. Sounds like a "pipe dream" to me.
Unfortunately... This genie has been let out of the bottle. And lm afraid the bottle is broke.
We're totally screwed!!
I hear ya. My dad died in 1984 and, mercifully, was also spared the worst. Their generation had to fight fascism to the death on two fronts, in Europe and the Pacific, so one can only imagine how they would have felt witnessing the takeover of their own precious democracy, for which they bled and died.
Great rant, jefflisse! I like the way you frame things.
Yep!
#33. Oh bullsh*t! Any normal person reading post #25 in context understands that the phrase "sloped forehead" was clearly meant in the generic sense (and was not even constructed in the various word forms spelled out in the links cited). Leave it to a right-winger in love with the biggest racist in the nation to know by heart every obscure racial slur and then project that unconscious bigotry onto others.
Although in this case, it was a very conscious lie, and on the face of it, a lame one at that. Calling "Corndog Suck-face" a stupid liar is not a slur either; it's just an objective and accurate description of her/his juvenile avatar and virtually every post, such as #33.
To legislate against greed is the primary function of good government Oldskoold....in my opinion anyway.
#30 Deepspace:
Slopehead--Derogatory term for a Ukrainian, derived from a term for a traditional Cossack-style haircut. Kike or kyke ... Slope, slopehead, slopy, slopey, sloper
Slope, slopehead, slopy, slopey, sloper (Aus, UK, and US) a person of Asian (in Australia, especially Vietnamese; in America, especially Chinese) descent.[287][288] Also slant, slant eye.[289][290]
My internet must be being throttled already... Apologies.
Can anyone explain why those voters being illegally thrown off the voter roles by Kobach's crosscheck don't file suit against him and the state governments that are allowing it.
If it's a case of actually voting and not knowing your vote didn't count, then why aren't all the local board of elections involved not charging those citizens with voter fraud? They have the addresses and signatures of each suspected illegal vote. When charged that voter would know there is election fraud taking place and could easily prove their innocence...however is that precisely why they aren't being contacted and charged?
On the other hand James Brown shows up to vote and is turned away. Now he is in fact aware of the election fraud and needs to stand with thousands of others like him and go after Kobach and that precinct for election/engineering fraud.
I've never heard Thom or Greg Palast address this.
# 10 perfect. No i'm not a Judge but feel you are on a big point; kudos! Your comment is perfect and leads me to mine! Since most of the devout that voted for this crap are Evangelicals I ask this question from anyone (because im lazy I suppose), "what degree of Deadly sins was Greed"? Kinda hate to question that but; could it be we must conquor GREED to get to the next level of humanity?
I hope if answerd, it's not anything worse than greed that would result in this "herd" mentality going forward.
# 10 perfect. No i'm not a Judge but feel you are on a big point; kudos! Your comment is perfect and leads me to mine! Since most of the devout that voted for this crap are Evangelicals I ask this question from anyone (because im lazy I suppose), "what degree of Deadly sins was Greed"? Kinda hate to question that but; could it be we must conquor GREED to get to the next level of humanity?
I hope if answerd, it's not anything worse than greed that would result in this "herd" mentality going forward.
All through history the "Golden Rule" has been: "Whoever has the gold makes the rule."
The enlightenment thinkers noted the insanity of this and left us with written inspiration on how to avoid the potential abuse. Jefferson certainly was clued in and understood the dangers, yet we always seem to fall short of "good government. " Locke's social contract remains the blueprint we need to thwart the cancer of extreme wealth leading to arbitrary rule by the morbidly rich.
Of course the enlightenment thinkers couldn't foresee anti democracy weapons like foxaganda and the modern warfare of the cyber sort being waged against us by Putin. BTW: He's kicking our sorry ass thanks to our foxmerized CIA and FBI.
Democracy is and always has been government of the many not of the monied.
Money out of politics is the answer, and I continue to stamp all of my greenbacks with the protest slogans.
#31. Well, to be fair, there's a lot to be mean and angry about nowadays, no? Revolutions aren't fought over tea and crumpets. Besides, although we all love our mothers, please consider the context. Remember, it was a shameless Ou812 who on the occasion of her/her own mother's birthday (for chrissake) gleefully chose to insert her into a heated debate in order to use her as a political prop, so that "mean and angry" 0u812 could hurl one more gratuitous insult at the majority of the American electorate. She deliberately invited incoming fire, which is her/his wont. Such is war.
I thought I left a similar version of this message last week although now I can't find it.
So here goes again.
I do not have the time to listen to the full 3 hour (2 hours + without commercials) podcast of Thom's radio program, so was was very happy last year when he started putting out the The Hartmann Report on the iTunes podcast. I thought it was a great daily summary, or daily 'best of' Thom, whether it was guests, rants of some of the really thoughtful listener calls. I really got addicted to it. I also passed onto several friends who downloaded it regularly and it certainly helped change their way at looking at things.
In light of the importance of this 2018 election year, having an easily digestible one hour Thom Report seemed even more important and urgent this year. So it was with real surprise and disappointment to discover that apparently the one hour free podcast has been discontinued as of 2018.
Why discontinue it now, in light of the fascist challenges facing our country more than ever?
Well; seems like the current events are taking care of this yearlong nightmare and the "Chickens are really a coming home to roost". It will all hinge (and I mean all) on how the 25% (now) react. Some of us live in areas where, if they go ballistic, it could actually start another uncivil war. Local law enforcement loves this fool. Have some family (inlaws) members who won't even watch the NFL now that wear a badge. Saddest time in my life I have ever experienced. And; the "hell" of it is, it will be led by these Christian Soldiers what's in church every Sunday to discuss what's wrong with our country (and gossip about attire). Seperation of Church and State is so blurred now they can't see it! I hope they get to the optomotrist quickly..... Or follow the Pied Piper all the way off to the North Sea by way of a cliff!
Stopgap
You are mean and angry. I have a mother too. I'm no longer your friend.
#27. Seriously, is there anything you say on this blog that is not either a deliberate lie or an unconscious stupidity?
#29. LMAOLMAOLMAO ...Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph! Did we all just read that right? Some Australopithecine mouth-breather from the flying monkey right, eating the lice off an orange baboon while he's grabbin' pussy, is trying to judge the sanity and intelligence of someone several stages higher on the evolutionary scale?
PLEASE good God if there's a heaven, "for ten minutes" have Mike Malloy debate Donald Trump on the issues!!! Better not put em in the same room though; Malloy might give in to his inner fantasies. It would make the scene where the pussgut bully beating up the guy with a CNN-logo head look like a '60's lovefest.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.