Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

It has never been explained to me how voting is difficult in this country and how these new bills make it even harder. It's honestly one of the easiest goddamn things there is to do in a world full of difficult things. At some point, however, a citizen should be required to affirmatively do something in order to take advantage of their right to vote. Get off your ass and participate.

Yeah, it's remarkably easy to vote in this country. There really isn't any honest dispute about that. There will, of course, always be the remarkably dishonest political angle to it. And, again, I think I can say basically the same thing about voter fraud. IMO, whether you're able to appreciate the similarities is a good lithmus test for whether you're strictly partisan or actually think about issues.

Eh, whatever.

[Hannibal]

Doing nothing is a far better alternative to what the Left plans to do.

It might be better, but it's not far better. Just delaying the inevitable march to the Left is not a win. There need to be massive reversals in the governance of the country, and the reversals that are needed are more massive than they were just a few years ago. The Left has mastered the art of moving the Overton window to the Left and then claiming that anyone to the right of it is a "Nazi". Repubilcan politicians fall for it literally every single time. A Republican House majority in 2022 will look like a Democrat house majority from 10 years ago.

[Tom W]

It has never been explained to me how voting is difficult in this country and how these new bills make it even harder. It's honestly one of the easiest goddamn things there is to do in a world full of difficult things. At some point, however, a citizen should be required to affirmatively do something in order to take advantage of their right to vote. Get off your ass and participate.

This. Voting shouldn't be TOO easy. You are, after all, responsible for electing your leaders and representatives. You do need to take it a bit seriously.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Mike- In fairness, North Carolina Republicans were literally recorded talking about how new voting restrictions and congressional districts would minimize the black vote and be good for their party. That's not paranoia, there's legit evidence the new districts were explicitly designed to benefit Republicans and every court, including the Supreme Court, viewed it that way. And that wasn't two generations ago; it was only about 5 years ago.

I think a lot of what the Georgia bill did has been wildly exaggerated by Dems but a word about the drop boxes. First it's my understanding that the boxes can only be used during normal business hours of the board of elections. So 9 to 5 probably. And they have to be located either outside the Board of Elections or another state agency. To that I say then: what's the point of having drop boxes? In my mind they're explicitly so you DON'T have to drop your ballot off during the work day.

And while it's true that every county is now required to have at least one drop box, they also put strict limits on how many a county can have based on a formula of 1 drop box for every 100,000 people. The practical result is that a lot of suburban Atlanta will have significantly fewer drop boxes next election. I think it's obvious the goal here was more about reining in the high population counties rather than ensuring rural counties had at least one.

Also, I know it didn't make it into the bill, but a number of Republicans were quite vocal about ending Sunday voting, which everyone views as an explicit shot at black churches and their traditional "Souls to the Polls" trips. "Our only motivation is election security, not partisan gain" becomes a harder sell when you have comments like that.

[Dr. Strangelove]

From a Dem perspective this is encouraging after the Texas Special. Rs hoped to cut into the district and didn't at all. Maybe their candidate was just really shitty, don't know. He's currently a state senator and even lost his own district.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Republicans may win back the house, but it won't matter, because they won't do anything. They are monumentally gutless pussies who will do nothing of substance, ever. They haven't done anything with a majority since the Contract with America.

The Contract with America laid out an actual agenda. By contrast the Republicans are on their 4th election cycle of relying almost entirely on Culture War issues to win votes. It's not too late to change that for 2022 but whether you agree with this or not, Trump is an impediment to that happening.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Iran's largest warship had a fire on board and sank today. Iran is being pretty tight-lipped about what happened.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-s-biggest-warship-catches-fire-sinks-gulf-oman-n1269292

[iam416]

there's legit evidence the new districts were explicitly designed to benefit Republicans

Redistricting is, of course, partisan. It always has been. The Supreme Court also ALLOWED North Carolina districts (and Maryland, where they were drawn heavily pro-D).

That is wildly different from the plethora of sensible voting rules that, e.g., Georgia passed. There remains no convincing evidence that any of these rules affect turnout. To Mike's point -- or, to quote you, "to be fair" -- there is virtually nothing of substance that suggests any of this shit decreases turnout. In short, to the shock of most white liberals, blacks folks can somehow muddle through and figure out how to register and vote. Shocking.

[iam416]

The Contract with America laid out an actual agenda. By contrast the Republicans are on their 4th election cycle of relying almost entirely on Culture War issues to win votes. It's not too late to change that for 2022 but whether you agree with this or not, Trump is an impediment to that happening.

It's not as if the Rs are alone out there tilting at Culture War windmills. I mean.. JIM CROW ON STEROIDS! DEFUND THE POLICE! WHITE SUPREMACY! JFC, the Ds are primarily about fighting culture wars, too. You just agree with them.

And, I'm not sure if you're labeling immigration a "culture war" issue, but that's at least one substantive issue the Rs run on. There is also a marked difference in the R approach to energy policy vs the Ds.

[Hannibal]

The Contract with America laid out an actual agenda. By contrast the Republicans are on their 4th election cycle of relying almost entirely on Culture War issues to win votes. It's not too late to change that for 2022 but whether you agree with this or not, Trump is an impediment to that happening.

There is truth to this. The Contract with America did set up more of a clear mandate. Nevertheless, the Democrats never have explicitly run on what they ultimately ram down people's throats, but that doesn't stop them from running with their agenda no matter what they said during the campaign. Republicans don't need an explicitly laid out plan to know why they are there, and yet they still do nothing.

[Hannibal]

Nick Fuentes reports that in addition to being on the no-fly list (for no other reason than that he is a political adversary of the Democrats), he has now been banned from rental cars.

[Mike]

I agree with the prevailing sentiment here that Trump is an albatross around the R's neck. They had a chance to distance themselves and refused. I hope like hell it doesn't cost them in the midterms because on paper it should be an unholy bloodbath like 2010. By next fall the public will have had a good long look at the kooky shit the D's are cooking up. It's already apparent in large cities. It should be easy to dunk on their anti-police policies and how it directly relates to soaring crime rates among many other issues. The crazies need to be locked away in the closet for a couple years... or preferably forever.

[lineygoblue]

In the last election, I received a letter from the Secretary of State, asking me if I wanted a ballot sent to me so I could vote by absentee ballot. I never asked for the letter, but I looked at it, and it also gave me a choice of ordering my ballot on line. I'm no fan of long lines on voting day anyway, and since Covid was still raging fairly significantly here, I decided to order my ballot online. I received it in the mail about 2 weeks later. On election day, I filled out the ballot, and drove about 3 blocks to the township office, where there was a designated drop box. I walked past the line of people waiting to get inside to vote, and dropped my ballot off (to the glares of many who watched me), then I hopped in my car and drove away.

About 3 weeks ago, I bought a pickup truck. I needed to get new tags, and get it registered in my name, new title, etc. I looked online at the Secretary of State site, and they told me the earliest I could go to the SOS office to get the paperwork done would be in mid-July. This was at the beginning of May. Fortunately, my son was aware that the SOS added some next day appointments twice a day, and he got me in on one of those. Had he not known about that, my truck would still be sitting in my driveway waiting for the title and a new plate.

So, it was easier to vote in the last election, than it was for me to register my new truck. I had to show ID to register my truck, buy the plates, and get a new title. I never got my ID out of my pocket to vote.

[Dr. Strangelove]

In the last election, I received a letter from the Secretary of State, asking me if I wanted a ballot sent to me so I could vote by absentee ballot. I never asked for the letter, but I looked at it, and it also gave me a choice of ordering my ballot on line. I'm no fan of long lines on voting day anyway, and since Covid was still raging fairly significantly here, I decided to order my ballot online. I received it in the mail about 2 weeks later. On election day, I filled out the ballot, and drove about 3 blocks to the township office, where there was a designated drop box. I walked past the line of people waiting to get inside to vote, and dropped my ballot off (to the glares of many who watched me), then I hopped in my car and drove away.

Heh, you're in an overwhelmingly Republican County, right? The people glaring were likely Trumpers. Only evil, crooked, depraved Democrats vote by mail.

[Tom W]

Iran's largest warship had a fire on board and sank today. Iran is being pretty tight-lipped about what happened.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/i...-oman-n1269292

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