A Deeply Fractured US

[QV]

This is about the only institution that is uncorrupted in all 50 states:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776235654851993877

There are many more going on... but have faith!

 

[Navy_Pete]

This is all a very easy fix; don't let the states come up with 50 different solutions to the same problem; have a single one that includes some kind of receipt so you can hand check it if you need to.

We use the basic scantron for a reason; if all else fails someone can go back and check the ballots manually. I can't think of a single case where they've done a manual count and it's changed the outcome, so probably a good indication that it's pretty reliable and accurate. We also don't have highly partisan committee controlled by a political party redrawing the election maps based on voter party affiliation either.

 

[kkwd]

This is all a very easy fix; don't let the states come up with 50 different solutions to the same problem; have a single one that includes some kind of receipt so you can hand check it if you need to.

We use the basic scantron for a reason; if all else fails someone can go back and check the ballots manually. I can't think of a single case where they've done a manual count and it's changed the outcome, so probably a good indication that it's pretty reliable and accurate. We also don't have highly partisan committee controlled by a political party redrawing the election maps based on voter party affiliation either.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Exclusive federal powers	Concurrent powers	Exclusive state powers
Coining money	Taxation	Conducting elections
Regulating interstate and foreign commerce	Lawmaking and enforcement	Establishing local governments
Regulating the mail	Chartering banks and corporations	Providing for public safety, health, welfare
Declaring war	Taking land for public use (eminent domain)	Maintaining militia
Raising armies	Establishing courts	Ratifying Constitutional amendments
Conducting foreign affairs	Borrowing money	Regulating intrastate commerce
Establishing inferior courts
Establishing rules of naturalization

Khan Link
Link

 

[Brad Sallows]

This is all a very easy fix; don't let the states come up with 50 different solutions to the same problem; have a single one that includes some kind of receipt so you can hand check it if you need to.

The constitutional structure was what was possible in order to have a country in the first place, including the difficult formula for amending it.

 

[Navy_Pete]

And? Update or rewrite the US constitution to have a federal standard on how to conduct elections to federal positions. It's easy enough to have a common standard that allows an audit.

It goes to the Supreme Court often enough, and there is already supervision of some States electoral mapping because the gerrymandering was so bad.

 

[Brad Sallows]

And?

Good luck to those pursuing amendments. Democrats like their kind of gerrymandering as much as Republicans like theirs.

 

[KevinB]

This is all a very easy fix; don't let the states come up with 50 different solutions to the same problem; have a single one that includes some kind of receipt so you can hand check it if you need to.

We use the basic scantron for a reason; if all else fails someone can go back and check the ballots manually. I can't think of a single case where they've done a manual count and it's changed the outcome, so probably a good indication that it's pretty reliable and accurate. We also don't have highly partisan committee controlled by a political party redrawing the election maps based on voter party affiliation either.

Virginia does the same. Honestly most of the ‘electronic’ voting down here appears to be the same. You fill in a paper ballot and it is scanned by the machine.

Some electronic machines don’t do that, but they all have the ability to generate a paper ballot - given the perceived issues with that, I don’t know why every state doesn’t go to the scanner paper ballots. (But again there would be issues brought up…)

 

[Kirkhill]

So how fractured IS the US? And where does that fracture line lie?

The FISA issue is at heart a question of individual liberties vs the needs of the state.

The House voted to pass a bill Friday to reauthorize a powerful surveillance authority, apparently capping off a bruising monthslong debate over national security concerns and privacy protections for Americans.

The House voted 273-147 on the measure to continue for two years Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with some changes aimed at making sure the government could not misuse the power.

But the chamber was sharply divided on whether to require the government to get a warrant before searching for the information of Americans swept up in the program — an issue that repeatedly raised hurdles to House action on reauthorization.

To underscore that split, the chamber voted 212-212 on an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement. “Yes” votes included 128 Republicans and 84 Democrats, while “no” votes included 86 Republicans and 126 Democrats.

Progressive Democrats and staunch conservatives banded together in voting for the amendment, but the tie vote meant that the House did not agree to add the warrant requirement by the thinnest of margins.

House approves surveillance authority reauthorization bill - Roll Call

The House voted to pass a bill Friday to reauthorize a powerful surveillance authority, capping off a bruising months-long debate.

rollcall.com

So where does the left meet the right?

 

[mariomike]

So how fractured IS the US?

"I love my country, but not our country?"

 

[KevinB]

So how fractured IS the US? And where does that fracture line lie?

The FISA issue is at heart a question of individual liberties vs the needs of the state.

House approves surveillance authority reauthorization bill - Roll Call

The House voted to pass a bill Friday to reauthorize a powerful surveillance authority, capping off a bruising months-long debate.

rollcall.com

So where does the left meet the right?

The Venn Diagram of where Chinese and Russian money connects them.

 

[Kirkhill]

The Venn Diagram of where Chinese and Russian money connects them.

The Chinese and the Russians may seek to exploit divisions but the fights between the individualists and the statists, between the isolationists and the internationalists, are entirely home-grown and older than the declaration of independence.

The bizarre thing about this world is that occasionally it is possible to believe that your enemy has a point. In fact their best avenues of exploitation are often those very issues.

That is where rational discourse fails. Sometimes you just have to pick a side.

 

[RangerRay]

The Venn Diagram of where Chinese and Russian money connects them.

I’m a big believer in the horseshoe theory of politics.

 

[Kirkhill]

Friendly bunch.

American Anti-War Activists Cheer for Iran’s War

At a left-wing conference in Chicago, activists believe Iran is ‘part of the arc of resistance because the enemies are Israel and the USA.’

www.thefp.com

Go to a Teamsters union hall in Chicago and learn how to chant Death To America in Farsi - while wearing plague masks.

 

[Brad Sallows]

If anyone is interested in more details of what's at issue in Trump's "hush money" case, see here. (Reason.com)

 

[brihard]

This is by far the least consequential of his four criminal trials. The o my way he would realistically face custody in this is if he gets himself slapped for contempt a couple times.

The biggest consequence of this matter is that, on the one hand, it blocks out two months of his and his lawyers’ availability for other matters… But, at least with it going, the courts in those respective other matters can start scheduling their own next steps. It’s not clear yet which one will be next up.

 

[QV]

If anyone is interested in more details of what's at issue in Trump's "hush money" case, see here. (Reason.com)

Snip:
But whether Trump actually broke those rules is a matter of serious dispute, the relevant statute of limitations has expired, and Bragg in any event does not have the authority to enforce federal campaign finance regulations.

After taking a long, hard look at potential state charges against Trump stemming from the payment to Daniels, Vance concluded they were too iffy to pursue. Now Bragg is desperately looking for a legal pretext to punish what he takes to be the essence of Trump's crime: keeping from voters information they might have deemed relevant in choosing between him and Hillary Clinton. But that is not a crime, and treating it as 34 felonies stretches the bounds of credulity as well as the bounds of the law.

 

[brihard]

Snip:
But whether Trump actually broke those rules is a matter of serious dispute, the relevant statute of limitations has expired, and Bragg in any event does not have the authority to enforce federal campaign finance regulations.

After taking a long, hard look at potential state charges against Trump stemming from the payment to Daniels, Vance concluded they were too iffy to pursue. Now Bragg is desperately looking for a legal pretext to punish what he takes to be the essence of Trump's crime: keeping from voters information they might have deemed relevant in choosing between him and Hillary Clinton. But that is not a crime, and treating it as 34 felonies stretches the bounds of credulity as well as the bounds of the law.

It’s worth recognizing that the hair being split here is whether the matter will be a Class E felony or a misdemeanour. The falsification of business records itself should be easy to make out as an offense. The challenge the prosecution faces is if they can establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the alleged crimes were committed to further another offence. That actual additional offence does not itself need to be proven to a standard of conviction.

But as I said, this is by far the least consequential of the criminal cases other than helping him run the clock on the rest.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Friendly bunch.

American Anti-War Activists Cheer for Iran’s War

At a left-wing conference in Chicago, activists believe Iran is ‘part of the arc of resistance because the enemies are Israel and the USA.’

www.thefp.com

Go to a Teamsters union hall in Chicago and learn how to chant Death To America in Farsi - while wearing plague masks.

I know this is American. But I wish us and them had the ability to strip citizenship and deposit these folks in the regions they support. Free one way play ride and a boot in the ass on tarmac.

 

[brihard]

I know this is American. But I wish us and them had the ability to strip citizenship and deposit these folks in the regions they support. Free one way play ride and a boot in the ass on tarmac.

Hazardous precedent to set. What happens when people protest in favour of a cause you strongly support?

Prosecute crimes, but be careful with letting that cross into simple wholesale suppression of objectionable opinions. Any reasonable discourse about how public order should be policed and enforced needs to stay agnostic to the cause in question on a given day or week.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Hazardous precedent to set. What happens when people protest in favour of a cause you strongly support?

Prosecute crimes, but be careful with letting that cross into simple wholesale suppression of objectionable opinions. Any reasonable discourse about how public order should be policed and enforced needs to stay agnostic to the cause in question on a given day or week.

Hey, get your sound and reasoned logic out of the way of my emotions