2024

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jfish26
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Re: 2024

Post by jfish26 »

MAGA ‘Election Integrity’ Is Just Voter Intimidation

Non-citizens don’t vote—but that’s not what really concerns Republicans.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-elect ... just-voter
DONALD TRUMP’S DEBATE ASSERTION that migrants are eating abducted household pets was a whopper—but it may not be the most pernicious lie his campaign is peddling this election. The campaign and its allies consistently claim that if the former president loses in November, it will be because noncitizens are voting by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. As Trump lawyer Alina Habba put it recently, Democrats “can’t win lawfully,” so they are flooding “illegal aliens into this country,” ostensibly to elect Kamala Harris.

It is a recurrent and insidious theme—and one that Republicans have been making for years. When Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 (despite winning the Electoral College) he claimed 3-5 million votes were cast by people in the country illegally in states like California. More recently, he asserted that he would have won reliably blue states “if Jesus came down and was the vote counter.”

Now, Republicans are once again warning that noncitizens will determine the outcome unless Congress acts to prevent them—never mind that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. At Trump’s insistence, House Speaker Mike Johnson has tried to tie government funding, which runs out September 30, to a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Not even all Republicans were keen on the plan—which could provide hurdles for their own base, many of whom are older voters who don’t have passports or birth certificates handy—so Johnson withdrew a combined government-funding/voter-ID bill on Wednesday.

What actual evidence is there that noncitizens vote in U.S. elections? The Heritage Foundation has established a database to track prosecutions for illegal voting since 1979, but a recent search shows only 85 cases of noncitizens voting out of about 2 billion votes cast between 2002 and 2023. That hasn’t stopped Heritage from alleging the problem is rampant, however.

The “Oversight Project,” part of the foundation’s so-called voter integrity effort, recently claimed there is “staggering evidence” that 14 percent of Georgia’s electorate will be noncitizens this November. The proof? The group hired undercover crews with hidden cameras to visit heavily Hispanic neighborhoods in Georgia and ask—in Spanish—those they suspected weren’t citizens if they were registered to vote.

It’s clear from watching the videos that most people just wanted to get rid of the annoying interviewers, who claimed to represent a group registering Hispanic voters. It reminds me of what you say when someone knocks on your door asking for contributions to a charity or trying to sell a subscription to a magazine: “I already gave at the office” or “I’m a current subscriber.” Some of those captured by hidden cameras simply said “yes” when asked if they were registered to vote. One even claimed to have already voted even though early voting in Georgia doesn’t begin until October 15. But the unsuspecting immigrants weren’t asked whether they were citizens until after they’d tried to brush off the questioner by saying they were already registered.


In a lengthy exposé of the dishonest scheme, the New York Times reported that none of the seven people who’d said they were registered actually were, according to an investigation by the office of Georgia’s secretary of state following the posting of the video. Indeed, a spokesman for the office called the Heritage effort “a stunt,” according to the Times.

Voting in federal elections by noncitizens is punishable by fines and imprisonment for up to a year and deportation if the person is also undocumented. Nonetheless, Republicans continue to push for redundant legislation to deal with a negligible problem. States, too, bar voting by noncitizens—though that wasn’t always the case. As Arturo Castellanos Canales points out in a fact sheet for the National Immigration forum, until 1924, when Missouri passed the last state law barring noncitizens from voting in state elections, “Granting the right to vote to noncitizens was a common incentive among U.S. territories and new states to attract workers and families to work and populate the lands.”

Still, a handful of municipalities do allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, including Takoma Park, Maryland. New York City’s provision to do the same was struck down as unconstitutional by a state appeals court earlier this year. While the consensus position that only U.S. citizens should vote in any elections seems to be the best policy, the Constitution is silent on the matter.

Citizenship comes with responsibilities—to serve on juries, for example—but its chief privilege is the right to choose who will lead the country, whether at the local, state, or federal level. All of us lucky enough to be born here automatically earn that privilege, but so do lawful immigrants who naturalize after living at least five years in the United States, learning English, and passing a test about our history and laws.

Phony drives to uncover noncitizen voting fraud may end up disenfranchising citizen voters instead by intimidating both naturalized immigrants and their fellow ethnics who were born here and are entitled to vote. The real lawbreaker here may be those whose moves look less like promoting voter integrity than voter intimidation. And that may be the real point. A recent effort by Texas state attorney general Ken Paxton to ferret out “voter fraud” was aimed at campaigns to increase Hispanic voting in the state. Lidia Martinez, whose home Paxton’s office raided in search of fraud, remarked, “This is a free country. This is not Russia.” Now the nation’s oldest Hispanic civil rights organization, LULAC, is calling on the DOJ to launch its own investigation into Paxton’s actions.

Several red states have already passed laws targeting voter outreach groups, levying fines and criminal penalties for assisting voters. The real election interference this November will not come from ineligible voters casting ballots, but from Trump and his allies who want to deter U.S. citizens from voting.
I would just add that there are those who will say, "If it's already illegal, what's the harm in 'redundant legislation'?"

The events in and relating to Springfield (OH) show exactly the harm: the legislation might be "redundant" for purposes of preventing illegal voting, but perhaps it is not redundant at all as a vehicle for leveraging the power of the state against people some might wrongly argue are, I dunno, illegal migrants as opposed to legal immigrants.
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KUTradition
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Re: 2024

Post by KUTradition »

texas and paxton would like a word
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Shirley
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Re: 2024

Post by Shirley »

This should look good in several million dollars worth of upcoming commercials in swing states:

Senate Republicans block IVF package as Democrats highlight reproductive rights

Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would protect access to IVF on Tuesday, in a vote that Democrats held to draw attention to the issue after former President Donald Trump's recent statements supporting the fertility treatments.

The package, called the Right to IVF Act, would establish a nationwide right "to receive fertility treatment from a health care provider, in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based medical standards of care." Other provisions aim to make the treatments more affordable, and require insurance companies to cover fertility care.

The legislation was first blocked three months ago by Senate Republicans, nearly all of whom argued the bill was too broad. Democrats dared the GOP to reconsider their votes Tuesday, with fewer than 50 days until Election Day.

"If Donald Trump and Republicans want to protect people's right to access IVF, they can vote yes on it," Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who sponsored the legislation, said in an interview with CBS News ahead of the vote. "He's shown that it only takes one sentence from him, and the Republican Party will fall in line behind him."

The legislation needed 60 votes to move forward. The vote was 51 to 44, with just two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joining Democrats in voting to advance the measure. Collins and Murkowski also backed the package in June.

[...]
“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
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jfish26
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Re: 2024

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And now just wait for the pubs to shut the government down, costing millions their regular paychecks on the eve of the election.
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Shirley
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Re: 2024

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jfish26 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:52 pm And now just wait for the pubs to shut the government down, costing millions their regular paychecks on the eve of the election.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but when you consider how little interest so many of them have in actually governing, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
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jfish26
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Re: 2024

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Shirley wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 4:24 pm
jfish26 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:52 pm And now just wait for the pubs to shut the government down, costing millions their regular paychecks on the eve of the election.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but when you consider how little interest so many of them have in actually governing, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
They might not have any interest in governing, but they have a strong interest in preventing a President Harris from doing so from and after her inauguration. And they can't lose the House and serve that interest.

(And don't look now, but holding the House is also crucial to their (illegal and antidemocratic and plain old bad-faith) efforts to prevent a victorious Harris from being sworn in - the next Congress begins at noon on January 3, 2025, which means that should the Rs LOSE the House, the Rs won't even be in control of the House on (sigh) January 6, 2025, which is the day on which Congress counts the electoral votes.)
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KUTradition
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Re: 2024

Post by KUTradition »

narcan, bullet-proof glass, panic buttons, and active shooter training…

thanks for volunteering to work the 2024 election!

‘murica!
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jfish26
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Re: 2024

Post by jfish26 »

KUTradition wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2024 6:52 pm narcan, bullet-proof glass, panic buttons, and active shooter training…

thanks for volunteering to work the 2024 election!

‘murica!
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zsn
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Re: 2024

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Shirley wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 4:24 pm
jfish26 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:52 pm And now just wait for the pubs to shut the government down, costing millions their regular paychecks on the eve of the election.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but when you consider how little interest so many of them have in actually governing, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
In honor of your signature line, may I present https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9 ... medium=web
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Shirley
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Re: 2024

Post by Shirley »

zsn wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2024 7:24 pm
Shirley wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 4:24 pm
jfish26 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:52 pm And now just wait for the pubs to shut the government down, costing millions their regular paychecks on the eve of the election.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but when you consider how little interest so many of them have in actually governing, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
In honor of your signature line, may I present https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9 ... medium=web
Interesting read, thanks.
“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
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KUTradition
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Re: 2024

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… last Friday, Jim Pillen, the governor of Nebraska, made a public statement: “I strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of Nebraskans’ votes,” he said. “As I have also made clear, I am willing to convene the Legislature for a special session to fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election. However, I must receive clear and public indication that 33 senators are willing to vote in such a session to restore winner-take-all.”
Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?
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Shirley
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Re: 2024

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KUTradition wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:39 am … last Friday, Jim Pillen, the governor of Nebraska, made a public statement: “I strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of Nebraskans’ votes,” he said. “As I have also made clear, I am willing to convene the Legislature for a special session to fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election. However, I must receive clear and public indication that 33 senators are willing to vote in such a session to restore winner-take-all.”
Of course.

smfh
“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
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jfish26
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Re: 2024

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Shirley wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:42 am
KUTradition wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:39 am … last Friday, Jim Pillen, the governor of Nebraska, made a public statement: “I strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of Nebraskans’ votes,” he said. “As I have also made clear, I am willing to convene the Legislature for a special session to fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election. However, I must receive clear and public indication that 33 senators are willing to vote in such a session to restore winner-take-all.”
Of course.

smfh
The best part is the open cowardice of it - I’ll only put this up to a vote if I know it’ll pass. While of course that is how things commonly go, you don’t often see someone just say it out loud.

These people are SO afraid of exposing anything to the actual will of the people.
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Re: 2024

Post by twocoach »

jfish26 wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:59 am
Shirley wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:42 am
KUTradition wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:39 am … last Friday, Jim Pillen, the governor of Nebraska, made a public statement: “I strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of Nebraskans’ votes,” he said. “As I have also made clear, I am willing to convene the Legislature for a special session to fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election. However, I must receive clear and public indication that 33 senators are willing to vote in such a session to restore winner-take-all.”
Of course.

smfh
The best part is the open cowardice of it - I’ll only put this up to a vote if I know it’ll pass. While of course that is how things commonly go, you don’t often see someone just say it out loud.

These people are SO afraid of exposing anything to the actual will of the people.
Jim Pillen is a racist little piece of shit. I could go on and on about all the shady shit he has done but I have a million meetings this morning.

Frankly, if they don't outright get rid of the Electoral College, I wouldn't mind seeing every state do it the way Maine and Nebraska do it and split out votes by Congressional District.
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KUTradition
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Re: 2024

Post by KUTradition »

twocoach wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 9:23 am
jfish26 wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:59 am
Shirley wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:42 am

Of course.

smfh
The best part is the open cowardice of it - I’ll only put this up to a vote if I know it’ll pass. While of course that is how things commonly go, you don’t often see someone just say it out loud.

These people are SO afraid of exposing anything to the actual will of the people.
Jim Pillen is a racist little piece of shit. I could go on and on about all the shady shit he has done but I have a million meetings this morning.

Frankly, if they don't outright get rid of the Electoral College, I wouldn't mind seeing every state do it the way Maine and Nebraska do it and split out votes by Congressional District.
i’d love to see that, but not gonna happen…republicans wouldn’t ever win a national election again

in 2020, of the 50 most populace districts in the U.S., trump won a grand total of 1
Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?
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Re: 2024

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twocoach wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 9:23 am
jfish26 wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:59 am
Shirley wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:42 am

Of course.

smfh
The best part is the open cowardice of it - I’ll only put this up to a vote if I know it’ll pass. While of course that is how things commonly go, you don’t often see someone just say it out loud.

These people are SO afraid of exposing anything to the actual will of the people.
Jim Pillen is a racist little piece of shit. I could go on and on about all the shady shit he has done but I have a million meetings this morning.

Frankly, if they don't outright get rid of the Electoral College, I wouldn't mind seeing every state do it the way Maine and Nebraska do it and split out votes by Congressional District.
Even this is not enough - we all know how gerrymandered congressional districts are. The 270 Compact is the closest real thing to democracy. It awards states’ EC votes to the national popular vote winner.
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Re: 2024

Post by Sparko »

I wonder if Mark Robinson hates only 3/5 of himself and loves the entire electoral college?
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Re: 2024

Post by Overlander »

Sparko wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2024 10:14 pm I wonder if Mark Robinson hates only 3/5 of himself and loves the entire electoral college?
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Shirley
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Re: 2024

Post by Shirley »

Today In: Invoking "the Jews" as your prophylactic alibi, because subtraction is the new addition.

Donald Trump said on Thursday that “the Jewish people” would have a “lot to do with it” if he loses the presidential election to Kamala Harris.

The former president claimed that Israel would likely cease to exist within two years should Vice President Harris win the election and that Jews would be to blame because of their tendency to vote for the Democrats...




“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
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Re: 2024

Post by jfish26 »

Shirley wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2024 9:09 am Today In: Invoking "the Jews" as your prophylactic alibi, because subtraction is the new addition.

Donald Trump said on Thursday that “the Jewish people” would have a “lot to do with it” if he loses the presidential election to Kamala Harris.

The former president claimed that Israel would likely cease to exist within two years should Vice President Harris win the election and that Jews would be to blame because of their tendency to vote for the Democrats...




It’s like someone told Trump he was going to an anti-semitism event and he didn’t really understand the instructions.
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