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Dec 6th, 2017
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 11,991 Likes: 128
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 11,991 Likes: 128 |
This is how the voting went down. I didn't realize how bigoted and misogynistic America really is! Perhaps I need a reality check. ![[Linked Image from uploads.disquscdn.com]](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a7e59c9255d170306680de74a618def648ae6a63ff6ecd0a34a7ddb56b65610.png) Yup. But looking at this map it is hard to imagine that still she won the popular vote. Maybe the country is too damned big - needs to be split up into smaller parcels. It is hard to imagine, since only Republicans live in the red areas and only Democrats live in the blue areas. About the only bit of information that can be gotten from this map is that Democrats tend to be more social, Republicans more anti-social. That's not exactly news, but it is interesting to raise as a point (geo)graphically.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 17,125 Likes: 250
It's the Despair Quotient! Carpal Tunnel
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It's the Despair Quotient! Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 17,125 Likes: 250 |
Campaign 2016 will be remembered as the automated campaign. Face the facts, Never Hillary voters: YOU GOT PLAYED like the tools you really are. Trump voters, you're in for a very rude awakening. Donald Trump doesn't give two sh!ts about you. “The use of automated accounts was deliberate and strategic throughout the election, most clearly with pro-Trump campaigners and programmers who carefully adjusted the timing of content production during the debates, strategically colonized pro-Clinton hashtags, and then disabled automated activities after Election Day,” wrote Howard; Bence Kollanyi, a Ph.D. candidate at Corvinus University of Budapest; and Samuel Woolley, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington. And the most telling: "And as soon as the election ended, the researchers discovered a steep decline in content. Some nodes in networks began to disappear; others simply retweeted what Trump said."
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD
deepfreezefilms.com
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134
Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134 |
My read about the election is that some people have felt unlistened to for many years and voting for Trump was a vote for the outsider and in that a way to be heard. I remember that in my lifetime there was much more blatant racism, misogyny and gender limitation. That would be consistent with Trump just saying outlandish things having to no idea what to do about governing.
As painful as it will be, maybe it is better for the bigots tp come out of their closet and say what they feel. I think we need to face the reality of a highly prejudiced nation that is far from the ideal we keep pretending we are,
It will take hard work and probably suffering to move more of us to what we hippies sought then last time we faced ourselves. But this time we ought not prevail over bigotry but rather lift the veil of hatred and work hard to treat each other with respect.
My depression from this election comes from seeing what I thought were significant gains over the years since the 1950's be wiped backwards to the hatred now, once again, exposed in our nature.
Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death -- Auntie Mame
You are born naked and everything else is drag - RuPaul
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
...
My depression from this election comes from seeing what I thought were significant gains over the years since the 1950's be wiped backwards to the hatred now, once again, exposed in our nature. I agree. This retrograde movement is a slap in the face (or a kick in the nuts) to all those who fought (and many who have died) trying to make this country better for ALL OF ITS PEOPLE. The fight against racism, misogyny, homophobia, and economic exploitation (among other forms of exploitation) of the majority of Americans, apparently, is far from over - albeit I always believed that it was an ongoing battle. If it is now revitalized, well, then we have to move ahead. As they said in fight for freedom from colonialism in Mozambique - A LUTA CONTINUA (the struggle continues). And so we must proceed.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them."
Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month."
Dostoevsky
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 17,985 Likes: 178
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 17,985 Likes: 178 |
We are in the midst of a hostile takeover of the levers of power in the United States, something that I keep coming back to - but is also being seen by many others. It is that perception that gives me a modicum of hope: Nation can't survive system that distorts the majority's will. Even before the Nov. 8 election, Democrats had already lost more than 800 state legislative seats during Barack Obama’s presidency — a hemorrhage greater than any experienced by either major party since the 1950s, when Republicans saw a comparable reversal of their own legislative fortunes during Dwight Eisenhower’s tenure.
The latest election results provide little evidence that the tide is turning. When the new year begins, Republicans will control more than two-thirds of the nation’s 99 legislative chambers (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is non-partisan), while Democrats will maintain majorities in just 30. What is significant about this trend is that it is at odds with the electoral preferences of the populace: But the long-term consequences for representative government may be even greater, especially if the trend toward single-party control continues through 2020.
That’s because even as Republicans strengthen their grip on the legislative process, America’s electoral majority continues moving steadily to the left.
Much has been made of the fact that Trump won in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than a million votes. But although his feat is rare, it’s hardly unprecedented; Trump is the fourth nominee to win the presidency with fewer votes than his opponent.
In fact, losing the popular vote has become the rule, rather than the exception, for Republican presidential nominees. In the 28 years since the elder George Bush beat Mike Dukakis in 1988, only one other GOP standard bearer — the younger George Bush, in his 2004 contest against John Kerry — has carried the popular vote in the general election. Democratic nominees won the popular vote in the other six elections. It comes back to gerrymandering. n each of the last two election cycles, more Michigan voters cast their ballots for Democratic congressional and legislative candidates than for their Republican opponents. Yet Republicans continue to maintain a comfortable 9-5 advantage over Democrats in the U.S. House, and a 63-47 majority in the Michigan House.
And this gap between voter preference and legislative representation is likely to grow even wider if Republicans continue to dominate the reapportionment process, in which Michigan and other states reconfigure themselves every 10 years into new legislative and congressional districts. This article is about Michigan, but it is consistent with both the national experience, and the experience in other States. In Pennsylvania During that decade, Democrats won 22 of 37 statewide elections, largely thanks to dominance in lower-profile races for state Supreme Court, auditor general and treasurer. Republicans dominated legislative and congressional elections, running on district maps they drew to maximize Republican victories.
When the new Legislature is seated in January, Republicans will hold 156 of 253 seats, 26 more than a decade ago. The Obama/Holder effort to counteract this anti-democratic tendency is going to be vital to restoring citizen control of the country. President Obama’s ambitious post-...ir of new national redistricting effort.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
Now, given all of this above, where exactly is the democratic process?
It is clear that when the will of the majority is overturned with bureaucracy and scam (legal or not, remember slavery and Jim Crow were once legal too), there is a systemic problem that allows a tyranny to be installed under the guise of democracy.
As I have said many times and will repeat ad nauseam, systems are the problem, not people.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them."
Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month."
Dostoevsky
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134
Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134 |
California is far from perfect but we have managed to take control of the electoral process fairly effectively. Wikipedia
Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death -- Auntie Mame
You are born naked and everything else is drag - RuPaul
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 362
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 362 |
Hitler's Germany survived quite strongly --- until it was destroyed from outside. All that Fuehrer Trump needs is a Reichstag Fire or a 9/11 to sweep him into a position on unassailable power. .
Once, weapons were manufactured to fight wars; today, wars are manufactured to sell weapons
It is far easier to deceive folks than to convince them they are deceived
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 17,125 Likes: 250
It's the Despair Quotient! Carpal Tunnel
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It's the Despair Quotient! Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 17,125 Likes: 250 |
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD
deepfreezefilms.com
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
It HAS HAPPENED HERE 
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them."
Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month."
Dostoevsky
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![[Linked Image from scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net]](https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15194418_10209159223912639_8770430308395011773_o.jpg)