Got home after having fireworks go off too near me, I am absolutely drained; it was a private party with a very large box of fireworks, couldn’t leave and I liked the people there, but now needing a nice safe quiet space

Reminds me of that series of novels that had a knight and dragon team up to fleece villages. Dragon would come in, terrify folks; then folks pay knight to kill dragon. Repeat a few dozen times

What is the most ethical thing to do here?

the hanging chads in FL

Those were really badly designed ballots. Look at France or the UK or Canada or Virginia etc for how they should be. No self respecting democracy should ever use a half mechanical design that fails like that.

What really made me angry later was that this was used to justify worse ways counting ballots. But my main issue was the shut down recounts. Busy was never properly elected, in my mind, and he made several problems for the USA that still have ramifications to this day.

His dad introduced modern computer voting. He used his contacts to form the first private voting companies we know today. And in my view his son was elected to Texas only because of that.

an expat now. Did you leave?

No, still in Texas. Unfortunately, during the gw era I was not interested in politics much. If I sound like an expat its because I am totally not on board with any of the major political movements

Edit: confused bushes

Most democracies use hand counted paper ballots. It works, and it’s fast enough, no need to improve it.

I don’t understand the American need to tinker with a good system.

That said, there is no way the majority of USA states will switch over to better counting systems. Some areas of the world will never be able to be truly democratic. The Americans have some weird system that works for their upper class, and the lower classes fully believe in it. This will not change in my lifetime

A revolt is needed and required, but this will more likely be successful in European countries . Most Americans do not understand democracy or anarchism or anything else that is reasonable.

Without the corrupt federal oversight or strong rule by the individual states, the masses will, in one generation or two, resemble the hundreds of German principalities from the 1600s or 1700s.

Only by using yet to be invented technology to enable small groups of people to be economically sufficient, can the USA ever hope to have decent governance

I like the documentaries that show how some renegade humans are trying to save a small percentage of the remaining life from other humans.

Those are my truest heroes .

Please remember individual humans do not suck, but any large group we make is deadly

Eh, it’s been a long journey for me. Years ago I was active in the Democratic Party in Texas, later I was a keyboard warrior who wrote millions of words, none of which did any good.

Now I just want fair elections; again writing words, now in a very small community, that also does no good.

But I’m done with the partisan stuff, and think both sides are equally out of their minds.

Democracies need accurate ballot counting, most states fail this. The primaries in both parties and the general elections have been tampered with for decades in many states. This has totally changed the character and leadership of both parties over the decades.

This is not a falsifiable argument because the only way to prove the above is wrong is to not use the election machines run by private organizations. While at the same time exit polls and stats hint of extreme ballot stuffing by these very companies. It’s not rocket science.

But, most commentators and social media participants in USA politics don’t care or want to know.

The ballot manipulation will allow democrats to win the midterms by a landslide, and most likely have the presidency again in 2028, and people who want paper ballots will be rendered mute again by most. Then next cycle the republicans will win again!

It’s a very long game, with each iteration moving more wealth away from the majority. And the only way to fix it is with paper ballots counted in front of witnesses and unlimited recounts allowed. Even then, it will take a long time to fix

My great granny was born in the 1800’s, she would have thought this very funny

These discussions always assume the elections are fair, which in many states is not true.

Perhaps instead of bickering about unimportant stuff ( at least to me they are not important), everyone griping should at least check to make sure their local elections at least meet United Nations specifications? Maybe they do, but depending where you are at, probably not.

I will never ever understand political discussions done by the majority of Americans.

deleted by creator

A voice of reason drowned out by a red scare.

Here we cherry pick unpopular posts and gripe about pro-west news censored. But I think it would be also fun to cherry pick some pro genocide from world, posts that are unpopular too, and gripe about how Chinese news is censored.

Double the fun! Yes?

My opinion 2100 years ago in a bar, after an hour of conversation when all of us are not sober:

“Caesar is not so ambitious as to want to overthrow the republic, he has good reasons for this, and I’m going to prove it by the following ideas…”

Any decent political organization cannot give equal rights to those who want to hurt others. One can be as kind and gentle about that as possible, but ultimately that rests on violence, or at least the threat of violence, to keep the peace.

Any violence, or threat of such, is by definition dehumanizing at some level.

Thanks

There are so many things wrong with the situation in the article.

I don’t want any misunderstandings, if I were a corrupt mess of a politician who would receive money from this, I would love it.

But as a small Texas citizen, I just see less money going to my community later, and worry about the increasing corruption that is more and more upfront

What are the details of the book? So I can get it via library… I want to know what happens on the next page. What about the spider mites ?

After decades of warnings warped by opportunistic politics, it is hard these days to take this seriously.

There will probably be one or two small incidents, covered by the press, especially if the perpetrator is not Christian or is not white. Police departments will use this as an excuse to spend more money.

But any mass shooting that causes so many more casualties, in the next week or two, will have a small mention only and be forgotten.

It’s very good, but I think it’s missing a section that portrays the crimes of [terror group] more. And how congress is working to sanction the finances of [radical group]

I’m disappointed, I guess like a little child I keep wanting the billionaire controlled press to do better