The GOP Senate committee has withdraw all financial support from Bolduc, he’s that good. Still plenty of dark money pouring in on his behalf but I suspect the women of New Hampshire - and even plenty of the men - don’t want this guy in the vaginas of American women en masse. Too bad GOP voters in the NH primary chose a lunatic over a middle of the road old school New England Republican.
But they aren’t lunatics. They are authoritarian personalities who are also sadists on some level - they are looking forward to hurting people by the millions if given the chance.
The U.S. has an abundant lunatic population and it is a large force to contend with.
Sorry, I should have used the word foolish, which is a secondary definition of lunatic. Although they do seem to be acting mentally ill. I've been wondering how these guys plan on identifying demo(n)crats before killing them. Are they just going after the obvious ones or will they invade and kill everyone in a city like San Francisco - or even the state of California - just because it's known as a democratic party run state? Will my Trump supporting friend that I haven't seen in a couple years shoot me? I better call and ask him.BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:16 amBut they aren’t lunatics. They are authoritarian personalities who are also sadists on some level - they are looking forward to hurting people by the millions if given the chance.
Lincoln Project podcast on my way to work yesterday the interview was with a journalist exploring attitudes among Trumpists and in particular the notion of impending civil war. She mentioned a couple in their elder years who spoke to her about the enthusiasm they felt for the opportunity they will have to live out their patriotism by killing leftist DemonRats and thereby save America.
Mentally ill people don’t scare me much at all - the truly dangerous psychopath like Gacy or Bundy or Dahmer are fairly rare.
The scariest thing is the normal looking sane neighbor who nevertheless transitions easily into violence and atrocity when following a compelling demagogue. We have seen this before, we know how perfectly normal these good little monsters appear on the surface.
I’m sure we all know some of them.
The judge blocked members of the group, Clean Elections USA, from openly carrying guns or wearing body armor within 250 feet of drop boxes. The judge also banned members from speaking to or yelling at voters who are dropping off their ballots. The group is additionally banned under the order from photographing or filming any voters at the drop boxes or from posting similar images online – which they’ve done in recent weeks.
Absolutely yes! All voting should be done on paper ballots.One thing people like him (ie scum) want to do is enforce hand counting of ballots and, if they can, ban electronic voting.
Only 7% of Americans vote in jurisdictions that use electronic voting machines, and those machines can be set to create a paper RECORD of the votes cast.
Here in Ohio we use paper ballots - counted by machine (scanners). I was not clear enough above. The ballots are kept (or course) in case of recount. Which may have to be done by hand in some eventualities.
Jeezus God, Joe, don't say that! You're giving away the secrets!!!Joe Guy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 11:13 pmI've been mailing in a paper ballot for at least 30 years. At first it was because I requested absentee ballots but now everybody gets a ballot in the mail. You can take it to a polling place or mail it in, then they are counted by machine and all votes for republicans are mechanically changed to a democratic candidate.
Opinion: American indifference will be the death blow for democracy
Editor’s Note: Michael Fanone, a former Washington, DC police officer who was injured during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, is the author of a memoir, “Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul.” He is a CNN law enforcement analyst. The opinions expressed here are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.
When I speak privately with fellow officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6, the conversation often turns to why so many Americans remain indifferent about the insurrection. In other words, most Americans just don’t seem to care. An overt attempt to end our democracy? Meh.
That’s when we cops began to discuss the part we’re not supposed to say out loud.
As one officer recently confided, “Mike, maybe if we hadn’t done such a good job against such overwhelming forces, maybe people would care more. Maybe, if a congressman or a senator had been injured, dragged through the halls to the makeshift gallows or killed, people would give a damn.”
Maybe then, people would get it, and would be motivated to vote on Tuesday as if the future of democracy was on the line. Maybe then, they would understand that if we don’t preserve “one-person, one-vote,” we’ll lose all control over every other issue.
Until last week’s brutal assault against Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, political candidates, including many Democrats, avoided talking about January 6. Apparently, polls show that swing voters care more about gas prices and abortion.
(Polls indicate a big interest in crime too – except, I guess, for violence against police officers during the 2021 insurrection.)
I’d like to believe that the violent attack on Paul Pelosi will be a turning point, but somehow I doubt it. I’m afraid that politically-inspired violence is only going to escalate. It’s already been normalized.
We are no longer talking about isolated incidents or seeing universal condemnation of violence by our leaders. The 82-year-old husband of the woman who is third in line to the US presidency was beaten in his own home for political reasons, and right-wing media and some Republicans reveled in the violence.
People used to say: “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” Well, people are getting hurt and some Republicans, including the former president’s obnoxious son, still think it’s all fun and games, condoning and – potentially encouraging – more violence.
I get where Junior is coming from. He knows the violence and threats are working. Local election workers, often selfless senior citizens performing their civic duty, are abandoning polling stations in droves.
Let’s not forget that the Republican National Committee adopted an official resolution that January 6 rioters were engaging in “legitimate political discourse.” In law enforcement, we call such an admission “a clue.” It gives us an idea of what’s next on their agenda. Now, GOP threats are no longer targeting just elected officials and election workers. They are being directed against voters themselves.
Make no mistake, voting rights are all about access to the ballot, but Republicans believe that protecting voting rights actually means protecting the ballot from the opposition’s vote.
That’s why Republicans are making it so difficult to vote, creating rules to restrict turnout and posting armed, masked guards at ballot boxes in Arizona, not unlike the way the Ku Klux Klan did after the Civil War – for no other reason than to intimidate people of color. The GOP is using a racist 19th-century playbook to amass power in the 21st century.
As a former police officer who has received death threats for speaking truthfully about January 6, I carry a weapon on a regular basis. But if I lived in Arizona, even I would vote elsewhere, rather than confront an armed individual posted in a lawn chair beside a ballot drop box.
Republicans should call out the masked men toting firearms at the ballot box for precisely what they are: Right-wing fanatics trying to intimidate the rest of us. Some GOP officials have spoken out, but the violent know-nothings who now control the party seem to revel in throwing gasoline on the fire.
In my book, I devote an entire chapter to my transformation from a 2016 Trump voter to a 2020 Biden voter. I had been a single-issue voter: law enforcement. But early in Trump’s term, my views evolved, as I realized I’d been duped by a carnival barker. My point is that people can change, and we need to do whatever it takes to help them – starting with explaining why it’s so important that they vote on Tuesday.
It won’t be easy. I’ve found that it’s easier to fool the American people than to get them to realize they’ve been fooled. I don’t believe that the vast majority of Americans support Trump, but I do believe this majority is indifferent to the pain and suffering that he has caused so many Americans.
There are plenty of reasons to fear Trump and his bullies. But the biggest threat to democracy is indifference, which I believe will be our downfall as a nation. We don’t seem to care enough to pay attention to what’s happening to our country.
I get it: People are busy living their lives. There are a million distractions. Elon Musk bought Twitter. Tom and Giselle are getting divorced. A Kardashian shared pictures of her new baby! This World Series is a barn burner.
But Americans need to understand why this election is so different: It is our first chance since January 6, to reject fascism. And it’s perhaps our last chance to preserve democracy.
We need to care. We need to vote. And we need to drag our indifferent friends to the polls, before it’s too late.
Special alert to those who believed what I wrote about voting machines in California changing votes for republicans into votes for democrats:Bicycle Bill wrote: ↑Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:30 am
Jeezus God, Joe, don't say that! You're giving away the secrets!!!
No, seriously, don't say that. There are too many people waving Trump flags and wearing their red hats too tight who are already believing that.
Trump chose the color blue for the Trump flag because someone once told him that blue is the complementary color for his skin color. So Trump, being a not too bright orange guy, thinks that means that the color blue said nice things about him and is loyal to him.Bicycle Bill wrote: ↑Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:30 amAnd just an observation — why are most Trump flags blue? Isn't he redder than those Commies that Senator McCarthy claimed had infiltrated the State Department back in 1950?
