The 2022 Midterms

[Huntn]

How have they said they are going to fix anything?

Well we have restricted the vote of people you don’t like, that’s a plus; vote for us, we’ll make things better than the evil Democrats ever could, details after the election...

 

[Deleted member 215]

I mean, both parties are not going to do anything substantial about inflation, gas prices, or immigration (or health care, though that seems to be on the back burner for most now); instead Democrats are going to go on and on about January 6th and Trump's tax returns and Republicans are going to focus on trans kids using the bathroom and act like that's the greatest threat to the suburban white way of life.

 

[lizkat]

I don’t think inflation, crime, and immigration are cherry-picked problems.

The economy is one of those issues that automatically affects approval regardless of what the government can actually do to control it. Spending more money certainly doesn’t help. Granted I don’t think the Republicans will necessarily solve that problem. We should all be offended by the name of the “inflation reduction act” though.

Gas prices are largely out of the government’s control. That said, I think more could be done to persuade the Saudis but I think a lot of that situation has to do with Biden’s comments about MBS (all of which are legit, but it’s a complex relationship). And the Biden administration’s stance on the oil industry isn’t helping either. They’re not going to invest if they think in a couple years they’ll be slammed with more regulations. And the future outlook on the industry does affect prices. That said, I’m not sure there’s much republicans will be able to solve anytime soon.

Crime is a serious problem. The statistics show that. I think it’s fair to say some places crime reform has a lot to do with that, but that’s not all of it. But for the most part this seems like a local issue.

The immigration problem is completely out of hand and truly unsustainable. I think reverting to the remain in Mexico policy would greatly reduce the current influx. Building the wall won’t solve the issue, I’m not sure it’s a great use of money, but it can’t make the problem worse.

I think the problems for the democrats is that they aren’t even pretending to have solutions. Or if they do, it’s buy a $60,000 car that you won’t get for 6 months. In a lot of cases, they don’t seem to even admit there is a problem in the first place. I think it’s fair to say a lot of people think they’re out of touch with day to day concerns of the average American.

Generally speaking I have no more faith in the Republicans except maybe dealing with the immigration crisis. But they’re at least creating the illusion they’ll fix the problems to persuade voters. Ignoring the concerns or the “it could be worse” attitude doesn’t inspire voters.

I say the Rs have cherrypicked their election themes because it's true. Voters also care about affordable housing shortages, gun violence, voting rights, LBGTQ+ rights, decline of effective education, health care accessibility including but not limited to abortion rights and availability of OB/GYN care in the era of abortion bans.

But those concerns haven't the immediacy of stuff like getting mugged again or being short the money to pay for both one's utilities and basic groceries in the house plus gas for the car (since most don't yet have EVs and public transport is largely absent outside urban areas).

So I get why Rs pick crime and inflation. They're cherrypicked for good reason but my gripe with the Rs is they only pick them for fear mongering and offer no solutions. The implication is... no, the insistence is that crime and inflation are all the fault of Democrats in public office.

On immigration, well... overall, Americans actually rate that problem far lower than stuff like housing shortages and gun violence but "immigration" rhymes with CRIME in the Rs' playbook and in certain states that combo sells well.

I'll take the "cherrypicked" problems in reverse order.

Immigration: we could have had immigration reform locked down during Bush 43 first term, since he was very big on making it happen. It failed because the Rs liked the issue better (they choose to link "reform" with "amnesty" and so with CRIME), and the corporations in hospitality and poultry / meat processing -- which give money to pols on both sides of the aisle-- still like cheap and eminently disposable labor better than a guest worker program that protects worker rights and provides proper benefits in exchange for properly applied taxation. If this country actually wanted to deal with immigration better even in the short run then "all they need to do" in Congress is jack up the appropriations for hiring more judges to adjudicate asylum and immigration applications more quickly. But "all they need to do" = not going to happen.

Crime. The Rs run ads about it. They say CRIME is happening. Yeah. What is their solution? Judging from their track record all they do is divert block grants to building more privatized prisons. They're into punishment, not addressing root causes --poverty, sketchy childcare, poor education-- or amping up programs for prevention or rehabilitation that hook up industry and social service oversight of people re-entering society after serving time. If the Dems ran ads about crime maybe they'd get a leg up for a change.. and why is that? Well it's not like Republicans are the ones running programs that do try to provide education, job training, apprenticeship to ex-felons or to people out on parole. So why are voters drawn in by Rs pitching CRIME as an issue? I don't know. Any moron can stand on a corner and complain about crime. After awhile it's hard not to hope they stand there long enough to get their wallet lifted. Bottom line we have a "haves versus have-nots" problem in this country, and it is inevitable that crime will worsen until it is addressed by other than neglect and incarceration. In the meanwhile there will be plenty innocent victims, and the Republicans hope they all grow up and vote R, and they're probably going to be right about that. When they're running the whole table, there will still be CRIME... and martial law and other accoutrements of a fascist government.

Inflation. Of course that's a primary concern. I do get it that the sitting president is the one with the sign on his desk in the Oval Office that says "the buck stops here." Biden gets it too. He didn't invent inflation; his inauguration did not push some special inflation button; inflation was inevitable after the stimulus programs applied the world round during covid to keep the global economy from bottoming out worse than during the 2008 collapse over failure of subprime mortgage schemes. However, "voting with your wallet" is never more popular than when everyone's wallet is pinched by inflation. Switching horses in midterm over inflation is not necessarily logical, but one must be prepared to see it happen. It's just how it goes. I regret that Dems don't seem able to get traction over the positive impact of Biden's legislation on the forward path of our economy. That's the breaks. It's hard to look down the road when your cupboard is bare and you're out of gas. The Rs are lucky they're not being pressed for solutions to inflation. We'd have to engage them on matters of what corporate profiteering has to do with it.

 

[DT]

There is another issue, you bring a gun because either you think you need it to defend yourself, or you plan on using your gun to enforce some belief you have that you have no way of verifying. There is no place for groups of armed individuals at a polling place period.

Yeah, exactly, what is the firearm for? If someone drives up and gets out with a big bag of ballots, what exactly is the plan? Point a firearm at them? If they still approach the drop box, then what? Just murder them?

 

[Citysnaps]

Yeah, exactly, what is the firearm for? If someone drives up and gets out with a big bag of ballots, what exactly is the plan? Point a firearm at them? If they still approach the drop box, then what? Just murder them?

Yeah, that's pretty f'd up. Smells like brandishing a firearm (assuming it goes no further, and is illegal in some states) to me.

 

[rdrr]

Look, I know the film 2000 Mules has its issues. I get that. But there is video in it where people are walking up to drop boxes with handfuls of ballots.

Where they came from I have no idea, but ballot harvesting is illegal in AZ.

And FYI, both AZ and GA require 24/7 cameras on drop boxes.

In your world of what is right and only right. Would I be able to drop off my ballot and my 96 y/o grandfather who doesn't leave the house ballot, and oh while I am there collect my mother and aunt's ballot (because they asked me to be a dear), go down to the box with mine as well. Clearly showing I have 4 ballots in sealed and signed envelops, with my Biden 4 Life hat on, AND... then not get harassed by the knuckle dragging self appointed lawdog, carrying a AR-15 because they are short in other areas, MAGA-holes?

Ok, let says Biden shouldn’t be blamed for inflation, although some economists point to trillions in spending as being the cause.

But what about the border? He is certainly responsible for that. There are things he could do to secure it better than it is.

And then there is crime. While Biden may not be responsible as President, the Dems with their No-cash bail and other progressive policies are having negative effects on public safety and the people will vote against those and the party of those responsible.

Biden for all his spending hasn't even touched what TFG spent in his 4 years.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I mean, both parties are not going to do anything substantial about inflation, gas prices, or immigration (or health care, though that seems to be on the back burner for most now); instead Democrats are going to go on and on about January 6th and Trump's tax returns and Republicans are going to focus on trans kids using the bathroom and act like that's the greatest threat to the suburban white way of life.

Whiteboard wizard representative Katie Porter recently did one of her stellar easy to understand presentations showing a little over 50% of inflation was caused by corporate profiteering. This was responded to by mostly crickets. This includes nobody disputing her findings. Government can’t really do much about greed (nor does the US government want to), but it can provide some kind of assistance while the corporations dance on our economic graves. Republicans’ top priority is stripping away that assistance. So before their voters cut up a box to make their ”Build the Wall!” sign they might want to first make sure the box isn’t big enough to potentially live in because they’re probably going to need it.

 

[Herdfan]

You know, my state is 100% vote-by-mail. Kind of hard to intimidate voters if there is not a polling place to loiter at. But, the Rs seem to be opposed to vote-by-mail, because …

The concern is not you getting a ballot in the mail, filling it out and mailing it in.

The concern is that voter rolls are not kept up very well and any attempt to purge them is met with huge opposition. So ballots may be mailed out to people who no longer live at that address or even in the state. So if someone gets ahold of that ballot, nothing stops them from filling it out and mailing it in. And with lax signature verification it can be counted right along side legitimate ones like yours.

 

[Herdfan]

In your world of what is right and only right. Would I be able to drop off my ballot and my 96 y/o grandfather who doesn't leave the house ballot, and oh while I am there collect my mother and aunt's ballot (because they asked me to be a dear), go down to the box with mine as well.

Not sure about GA, in AZ you are allowed to drop off ballots for family members. You are not allowed to walk around neighborhoods collecting them from random people.

 

[lizkat]

Meanwhile on Twitter, what's acceptable regarding election politics is not yet about policy changes yet but a drastic reduction in oversight and enforcement.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1587497585392193538/

Per the piece cited in Ars Technica's tweet:

Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth, tweeted that there’s nothing unusual about Twitter’s decision. The company is simply restricting access to prevent employees from making any changes to the software code during the transition.

According to Bloomberg News, Twitter has significantly cut back on its content moderation staff approved to access a dashboard that logs automated and user-flagged content that requires human review before content is restricted. Ordinarily, hundreds of employees would be using the dashboard, reviewing content to manually enforce actions dictated by Twitter policy, such as banning or restricting accounts. Since last week, two Twitter safety team insiders told Bloomberg that the total number had been reduced to about 15 employees.

Manually reviewed policy violations are usually the most high-profile violations, including those that could involve real-world harm, Twitter employees told Bloomberg.

Seems to me that Yoel is talking about access to code underlying the tools, but the safety team insiders interviewed by Bloomberg were talking about use of the tools. Big difference there, to have 15 employees and not "hundreds" now having a look at flagged content.

 

[ronntaylor]

Yep.

@ronntaylor I guess you only choose to remember things when the right is doing them.

Not even FoxNews. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opi..._gnaws_at_nation_s_values.html?outputType=amp

Yep, your typical bucket of bullshit. You could have included that in your inane response. You'll get no one championing those clowns. No one would remark that "is too far even for me."

Your typical whataboutism is weak sauce. Constant harassment and now violence encouraged by GQP members against Dem pols and their family doesn't have anything to do with the clowns you're referencing.

 

[shadow puppet]

Gotta admit, she makes excellent points. The GOP definitely do not want these points spread around. I am extremely concerned about the future of our democracy. Or the chance of a civil war. The January 6th insurrection was proof enough of this possibility.

If you're voting on the economy, then vote for the party that allows Americans to decide what is best for their own lives.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1588241645748645888/

 

[SuperMatt]

Hi everybody! Looks like I’m back just in time to see we’ve got election-week trolling and disinformation in full swing. And I want a piece of the action!

Maybe you’re thinking... “Calm down buddy, I just want Republicans to talk about their plans if they win." I got news for ya: they tried, but forcing pre-teen girls to give birth to rapists’ babies didn’t turn out to be the winner at the polls that they hoped. SO..... it’s all just troll, troll, troll your boat gently down the fecal stream of imaginary fraud.

But WAIT! Not ALL the fraud is imaginary... I want to give a special prize to a man who refuses to take “no fraud” for an answer!

Harry Wait of Wisconsin saw the Trump claims of fraud, but nobody could find any evidence. So, he used his “real American” powers to fix the problem in the only way he knew how. He committed multiple counts of fraud himself! Take that, stupid liberals!

MADISON - A Racine County man who illegally requested absentee ballots to prove election fraud is possible has been charged with election fraud, the Wisconsin Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Harry Wait, a leader of a Racine County-based group known as H.O.T. Government that promotes false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, fraudulently obtained absentee ballots for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason to show violations of the law are possible.

He was charged on Thursday with two counts of election fraud and two counts of unauthorized use of an individual's personal identifying information related to his scheme to commit fraud.

"I'm glad I did it. I would do it again in a heartbeat," Wait told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday.

Racine County man who illegally requested absentee ballots to prove voter fraud exists has been charged

Harry Wait is the leader of a Racine County-based group that promotes false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

www.jsonline.com

Since he’s a good ol’ boy, never meanin’ no harm, his local sheriff promised not to arrest him for it. However, it turns out that voter fraud can be prosecuted by people other than Sheriff Schmaling.

If he gets convicted, he’ll have up to 12 years in jail to laugh about just how hard he PWNED those darn libs. Maybe Trump would come visit him in prison to thank him, but according to what I’m seeing on the new and improved Twitter(tm), he recently died.

BREAKING NEWS!

It wouldn’t be 2022 if I didn’t reload the article I was going to link in the middle of typing this and find out that it got even more fracked up. This guy wasn’t alone. The deputy director of Wisconsin’s Election Commission is part of this nonsense too.

A Milwaukee election official could face criminal charges accusing her of fraudulently requesting absentee ballots reserved for members of the military and sending them to a Republican lawmaker known for embracing unfoundedconspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Milwaukee Election Commission Deputy Director Kimberly Zapata, 44, of South Milwaukee was fired by Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson this week after Johnson discovered she had requested the ballots. Johnson said Zapata's actions may have been to show voter fraud was possible.

"This has every appearance of being an egregious and blatant violation of trust," Johnson said. "Election integrity is absolutely integral. It's absolutely essential."

Milwaukee County prosecutors are considering charging Zapata with malfeasance in office, a felony, and illegally requesting a ballot, a misdemeanor, a source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Milwaukee Election Commission official Kimberly Zapata could face charges accusing her of fraudulently requesting military ballots

A Milwaukee election official fraudulently requested absentee ballots reserved for members of the military, an internal city review shows.

www.jsonline.com

So, what imaginary problem should Republicans turn into a real problem next? Pick your favorite:

MAGA-hat wearing gangs run through “Democrat-led” cities, murdering everybody they see. You say crime is down 1%? We’ll fix that!

Millions of Trump voters across the country get sex change surgery, thereby proving this transgender thing is totally out of control!

2000 Republican voters ride to their polling place on actual mules.

Doug Mastriano performs pole dances in Pennsylvania’s public schools.

Republican politicians start using litter boxes instead of bathrooms.

 

[Renzatic]

The concern is that voter rolls are not kept up very well and any attempt to purge them is met with huge opposition.

It's only met with opposition when the purge is selective, and takes place shortly before a vote.

 

[rdrr]

Not sure about GA, in AZ you are allowed to drop off ballots for family members. You are not allowed to walk around neighborhoods collecting them from random people.

Except the Idiot with the rifle who thinks he is right, wouldn't know if the the 4 ballots in my hand are "random" people or family members. None of their business who's they are, but they'll take a look at my Biden hat and assume I am "stuffing" the ballot box. Meanwhile the people on the right who actually did commit voter fraud in 2020, got what you would consider less than a slap on the wrist. The hypocrisy is real my friend

 

[ronntaylor]

The hypocrisy is real my friend

It's not hypocrisy. It's criminality planned and executed by thugs. Like the saying goes: for Republicans, every accusation is a confession.

 

[lizkat]

There's a reason my watchlists on streaming platforms are getting pared down now.... I might be almost maxed out on all the pre-2022-midterms high jinx and low blows... even if I still appreciate random samplings of "what's up" from members of this community

None of what has gone on in campaign arenas since the summer of 2015 has made me think less of proposals that US political campaigns are, variously:

too long, too freeform, too expensive, should consist of people posting policy statements and a photograph on their party's website, which reminds potential voters they have six weeks to read through all the stuff and make up their minds, then four weeks to check their voter registrations, then three weeks to submit ballots.​

Three months total instead of our 24/7/366 preoccupation with... "so much winning" and losing.

 

[Alli]

I mean, both parties are not going to do anything substantial about inflation, gas prices, or immigration (or health care, though that seems to be on the back burner for most now); instead Democrats are going to go on and on about January 6th and Trump's tax returns and Republicans are going to focus on trans kids using the bathroom and act like that's the greatest threat to the suburban white way of life.

Oh please. The right definitely isn’t going to do anything, they don’t even have a platform. Regarding inflation, their idea of help is to give more tax breaks to the ultra wealthy. They don’t even think about the other 99% of the country. Gas prices? Again, the right is verify happy giving tax breaks to the ultra wealthy. The left, OTOH, is talking about a new windfall profit tax - the opposite of the tax breaks the right offers. Health care…yea, the right keeps voting against anything that could benefit our health, whether it’s capping drug costs or making sure women don’t die of sepsis while waiting for a lawyer to determine the fetus she’s carrying has been dead for 2 weeks so maybe they should let the doctor perform the procedure to remove the fetal tissue that causes sepsis. Don’t even start on immigration. I try to keep my responses brief.

Hi everybody! Looks like I’m back just in time to see we’ve got election-week trolling and disinformation in full swing. And I want a piece of the action!

Welcome back, Matt! I’ve missed you!

 

[Huntn]

The concern is not you getting a ballot in the mail, filling it out and mailing it in.

The concern is that voter rolls are not kept up very well and any attempt to purge them is met with huge opposition. So ballots may be mailed out to people who no longer live at that address or even in the state. So if someone gets ahold of that ballot, nothing stops them from filling it out and mailing it in. And with lax signature verification it can be counted right along side legitimate ones like yours.

It’s mostly a made up Right Wing concern to sew doubt about any election where they don’t win. Questions?

 

[shadow puppet]

Welcome back, Matt! I’ve missed you!

Ditto!