America

[Mikey Brown]

It all seems so inconsistent, and the testimony claiming they announced themselves already sounded decidedly dodgy.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... 554995001/

I'm not sure this article comes to any solid conclusions but this line is just idiotic "Walker said he fired a single warning shot from his Glock handgun at Taylor’s apartment because he thought intruders were breaking in."

It's like firing a gun is the only possible way to solve any problem you encounter in life.

[Digby]

Meanwhile in Florida....

Brad Parscale threatens his wife with a gun, is known to have 10 or more firearms in the house, has a drunken rant at cops that arrive, and not even a gun pulled on him by the law.

Little bit of a contrast to being shot 7 times in the back or taking 20 after your door is battered in at midnight.

Though they weren't looking to cuddle Brad

[Puja]

Meanwhile in Florida....

Brad Parscale threatens his wife with a gun, is known to have 10 or more firearms in the house, has a drunken rant at cops that arrive, and not even a gun pulled on him by the law.

Little bit of a contrast to being shot 7 times in the back or taking 20 after your door is battered in at midnight.

Though they weren't looking to cuddle Brad

I'm pretty sure Philando Castile and Tamir Rice would've still preferred that.

Puja

[Digby]

Meanwhile in Florida....

Brad Parscale threatens his wife with a gun, is known to have 10 or more firearms in the house, has a drunken rant at cops that arrive, and not even a gun pulled on him by the law.

Little bit of a contrast to being shot 7 times in the back or taking 20 after your door is battered in at midnight.

Though they weren't looking to cuddle Brad

I'm pretty sure Philando Castile and Tamir Rice would've still preferred that.

Puja

For sure you'd take being put down hard and being led away rather than carried off. But the physical and even violent approach is a standard

[morepork]

Maybe a brother just couldn't pass up a chance to king hit the plastic viking.

Imagine the size of the queue if it was Jared Kushner, fucked up on half a bottle of baby cham raging at the clouds with a fully loaded super soaker.

[Mikey Brown]

[Son of Mathonwy]

It would be interesting to plot the views of economists alongside this.

How much of this is ignorance (wilful or otherwise) and how much is that the democrats and republicans have completely different ideas of what's important in the economy?

It does show that - at least on the economy - democracy does not function in America. It's just brand loyalty.

Victory for Fox News.

[Sandydragon]

It would be interesting to plot the views of economists alongside this.

How much of this is ignorance (wilful or otherwise) and how much is that the democrats and republicans have completely different ideas of what's important in the economy?

It does show that - at least on the economy - democracy does not function in America. It's just brand loyalty.

Victory for Fox News.

Not an unusual situation to be fair.

[paddy no 11]

Ok I'm open to the he never had it conspiracy

[J Dory]

Queues to vote, way to go 'merica, guardian of democracy.

[morepork]

Queues to vote, way to go 'merica, guardian of democracy.

This. It's a fucking disgrace. We are getting kicked when we are down here.

[Coco]

The lines are for early in-person voting... voting by mail is available aa well... so is dropping off your mail-in at a designared location. Hell, somebody will come to your home to pick up your ballot from you if you need the help. Never been so easy to vote. Its nuts.

[Son of Mathonwy]

The lines are for early in-person voting... voting by mail is available aa well... so is dropping off your mail-in at a designared location. Hell, somebody will come to your home to pick up your ballot from you if you need the help. Never been so easy to vote. Its nuts.

Sounds great, if it's true for all parts of the country.

[Puja]

The lines are for early in-person voting... voting by mail is available aa well... so is dropping off your mail-in at a designared location. Hell, somebody will come to your home to pick up your ballot from you if you need the help. Never been so easy to vote. Its nuts.

All sounds great in theory, but various states make it hellishly difficult to vote outside of the day (more so for some voters than others).

Voting by mail is available, but not to Native Americans who use a postal box (or indeed to anyone who didn't plan ahead early enough to deal with the new and improved DeJoy postal system). Plus mail-in ballots have a ridiculously high rejection rate, with some states having byzantine rules about signatures needing to perfectly match official ID that might have been signed 10 years ago or particular formats for how the ballot must be formatted, signed, witnessed, and returned. Dropping off the mail-in at a designated location sounds like a good idea, except for if you're in Texas, where the Republican legislature has mandated a maximum of 1 drop-box for each county regardless of size and have fought off several legal challenges to allow more. That means some counties have 1 drop-box for 700 people and some have 1 drop box for 4.6km2 and 4.7 million people. And that doesn't account for people setting fire to the drop boxes in areas where they think their favoured candidate will get lots of votes (as has happened once already this election). Someone coming to your home to pick up your ballot is only available in certain states as well and has the same problems with validation and rejection rates as other mail ballots.

And, of course, because in this election we have one side spinning a conspiracy theory about mail-in ballots being fraudulent and bogus, that means that there's a partisan skew for mail-in ballots for the first time as Republicans are being warned away from using them by the President. Stats suggest that 71% of postal votes will be for Biden because of this skew, making a fairly obvious incentive for Republicans to make it as difficult to vote by mail as possible. Shockingly, by some crazy random happenstance, a lot of the above restrictions have been put in place by Republican legislatures. Weird coincidence, I'm sure.

Puja

[morepork]

The lines are for early in-person voting... voting by mail is available aa well... so is dropping off your mail-in at a designared location. Hell, somebody will come to your home to pick up your ballot from you if you need the help. Never been so easy to vote. Its nuts.

You are aware that the supreme court emasculated the preclearance provision of the 1965 voting act right in 2013? If you need a civics refresher the VRA ensures that state and local governments do not deny American citizens the equal right to vote based on their race, color, or membership in a minority language group, and required recalcitrant states with a history of voter suppression against minorities to obtain federal approval before altering any legislation concerning voting because they are, you know, racist. Georgia is one of those recalcitrant states and has documented form in this context. I mean, are you being deliberately obtuse or are you truly ignorant of the facts on the ground?

[morepork]

I mean, come on. Everyone is sick of this shit.

[Coco]

The lines are for early in-person voting... voting by mail is available aa well... so is dropping off your mail-in at a designared location. Hell, somebody will come to your home to pick up your ballot from you if you need the help. Never been so easy to vote. Its nuts.

You are aware that the supreme court emasculated the preclearance provision of the 1965 voting act right in 2013? If you need a civics refresher the VRA ensures that state and local governments do not deny American citizens the equal right to vote based on their race, color, or membership in a minority language group, and required recalcitrant states with a history of voter suppression against minorities to obtain federal approval before altering any legislation concerning voting because they are, you know, racist. Georgia is one of those recalcitrant states and has documented form in this context. I mean, are you being deliberately obtuse or are you truly ignorant of the facts on the ground?

Apparently I am truly ignorant. Tell me in plain English what you are implying is happening.

[Stom]

The lines are for early in-person voting... voting by mail is available aa well... so is dropping off your mail-in at a designared location. Hell, somebody will come to your home to pick up your ballot from you if you need the help. Never been so easy to vote. Its nuts.

You are aware that the supreme court emasculated the preclearance provision of the 1965 voting act right in 2013? If you need a civics refresher the VRA ensures that state and local governments do not deny American citizens the equal right to vote based on their race, color, or membership in a minority language group, and required recalcitrant states with a history of voter suppression against minorities to obtain federal approval before altering any legislation concerning voting because they are, you know, racist. Georgia is one of those recalcitrant states and has documented form in this context. I mean, are you being deliberately obtuse or are you truly ignorant of the facts on the ground?

Apparently I am truly ignorant. Tell me in plain English what you are implying is happening.

There were rules put in place to stop states discriminating, some states managed to water this down so much they can put more or less voting locations in different districts based upon whatever they want to do.

So states like Georgia have some very red towns with 1 location per 700 people and some very blue city locations with 1 location for 4.6m people.

Now you can understand why the queues to vote are a major problem. They’ve been fiddled by republican states to suppress democratic votes.

I don’t believe it’s racist, it’s just a nice side effect that black voters are overwhelmingly blue.

[morepork]

University Challenge Topic: United States Civics:


NZ - 10 point
Hungary/UK - 10 points
USA - 0 points

I suggest looking up Shelby v. Holder 2013. Then you won't be ignorant or have as much opportunity to be deliberately obtuse! Check out the original VRA of '65 while you are at it and feed your mind.

[Stom]

University Challenge Topic: United States Civics:


NZ - 10 point
Hungary/UK - 10 points
USA - 0 points

I suggest looking up Shelby v. Holder 2013. Then you won't be ignorant or have as much opportunity to be deliberately obtuse! Check out the original VRA of '65 while you are at it and feed your mind.

Ok, sorry, I got it second hand.

[morepork]

Not you Stom.

[Stom]

Not you Stom.

Oh, ok, I assumed the Hungary reference meant it was aimed at me :p

[Puja]

Not you Stom.

Oh, ok, I assumed the Hungary reference meant it was aimed at me :p

I believe that was meant in praise, as UK/Hungary had points.

Puja

[morepork]

Not you Stom.

Oh, ok, I assumed the Hungary reference meant it was aimed at me :p

I believe that was meant in praise, as UK/Hungary had points.

Puja

Yarp.

[morepork]

Aaaaaand another police shooting in Philly. Mental health crisis met with a lethal volley. Again. Sort this fucking shit out.