ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 


Woof you made me go to twitter The Cato Institute. I may not recover.

Russian Media Is Giddy at Chaos in the USA, Claims ‘America’s Dying’

 miamizsun wrote:
 
So I think the is a tremendous opportunity to change the election process.  

We should get local colleges to send pollsters and support the opening of as many sites as possible.  Keep at least 1 adult in the room....but if they're old enough to vote, then they're old enough to check ID's and collect signatures without the risk that older folks have with the virus.  

 rgio wrote: 

depending on the election i vote in person at a local retirement community club house

i don't see the why i'd chance bringing some nasty to grandma

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

i'm going use a mail in ballot too

because not scared

 miamizsun wrote:
 
Agree.

It's amusing to consider the "logic" from POTUS.  Mailing in an absentee ballot that can travel halfway around the world is safe and good (I've done it a lot)...versus mailing in a ballot from down the street is corrupt and unfair.  WTF

 miamizsun wrote:
 
Woof you made me go to twitter. I may not recover.
 
edit: Here's a better summary.

#TrumpMeltdown

 black321 wrote: 

we will have an election on nov 3rd

 haresfur wrote:
 
That was my point. The owners of the 'press' decide what gets printed on it. The people who monitor the content are not called 'editors' or 'program directors', but they do control what the company considers acceptable. Liability is a different issue - those laws may be revisited at some point, given how influential social media is anymore.
c.

 steeler wrote:
 
Prepare the leaf blower! 

 Proclivities wrote: 

"news is whatever the editors say it is"

-some guy

 black321 wrote:
 
Foreboding.

He knows he needs to buy time.

He will not succeed in postponing the election. He has no authority to do so . He will do everything he can to label the election as “rigged.” Rigged against him, of course. Funny how he and his supporters assume not only that mail-in voting will result in massive fraud but that all this fraud will be in favor of Biden and the Democrats and against he and the Republicans. Of course, Trump bellowed that the 2016 GOP primaries were rigged against him. He won. And he bellowed that the general election was rigged against him. He won. Must have been a poor job of rigging in both instances, I guess.

It will be ugly up till the election and then uglier afterwards. If he loses, Trump will be screaming about the election having been rigged. Of one thing I think we can be sure, he will not go quietly into that good night. For him, it has always been, and always will be, Trump First. I shudder to think of the damage he could cause in those last 2 1/2 months. 

Is it going to get even uglier?

The 45th president of the U.S. tweeted on Thursday: "With universal mail-in voting (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most inaccurate & fraudulent election in history. It will be great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??"

 cc_rider wrote:
 
Twitter is different from a newspaper or radio station. They cannot be held liable for the statements of others on their platform, under US law. They do not have editors and program directors who control what goes out in anyway similar to the editorial and reporting process in newspapers. They can, however, define and enforce rules for what is acceptable for people to put on their platform.

 cc_rider wrote:
 

 Proclivities wrote:
 
What? Mencken, cynical? The devil you say!
c.

 cc_rider wrote:
 
True, though Mencken was probably also being somewhat cynical about the undue influence and power of certain publishers in his day.  As you know, the First Amendment prohibits the government (Congress) from making laws "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press", not private-sector publishers or distributors.  I'm not sure why so many people seem to be unaware of that.  There must be a large intersection between those people and people who think that exporters pay tariffs, not importers >>> consumers.  Twitter and Facebook are not branches of the government, and they are not the only "town squares".

 rgio wrote:
 
I recall folks in the late 60s and early 70s wondering out loud about the potential for fascism in the USA.   Nobody assumed that the USA would go 'communist'. 

At the time, I dismissed the 'fascist' speculation as part of the political noise that characterized that tumultuous period.  Little did I know.....

Later on in life, I was introduced to this concept of hegemony and the rise and fall of empires.   Most of the literature was written by Neo-Marxist scholars and other structuralists.   I am not a fan of the structuralist approach but it can provide a view of the forest while most of us tend to get stuck on closely examining trees.  The decline of US hegemony was not in question, it was just a question of time.  The set of circumstances coming out of WW II that advantaged the USA so much would not last forever.

Folks never once thought or speculated that the USA would decline in quite this manner.     Thinking people of the rational choice approach fully expected rent seeking to act as a drag on wealth and economic growth but nothing quite like this.   Though President Trump is an aggressive rent seeker extraordinaire.   It is curious that so many Trump supporters are reacting to welfare state generosity directed largely at non-white minorities .  

Frankly, the fall of the USA is stunning.  For most of the 20th century, the US economy, in the particular, the US labour market adapted quickly to technology-driven economic change.   Now it appears that much of the USA is still adapting quickly but large pockets  —  a significant minority — are being left behind.    Once upon a time, frustrated workers of European origin would drown themselves in alcohol.  These days, they overdose on opioids.  

I have no idea where the USA goes from here.  As usual, the Democrats fail to inspire.  This is a real problem for other rich western nations that in the post-war period have looked to the USA for leadership and support.   Perhaps Canada will conduct military exercises with the Chinese in 30 years from now.  If that ever comes to pass, Americans will have nobody to blame but themselves.  

Sad really.  We in the rich west had a really good thing going here for over half a century.  

demon sperm...