US Election 2020

[Svartalf]

Catholics believe people speak in tongues when they are possessed by demons...

Mostly the more backward kind, the kind that will go for ridiculous exorcisms rather than send people showing such symptoms to get their heads treated.

[Brian Peacock]

Catholics believe people speak in tongues when they are possessed by demons...

Lest we forget...

[laklak]

He's got a forebrain?

Forebrain? He's got a FIVEbrain. Maybe even a Sixbrain.

[Brian Peacock]

[Svartalf]

You know, he doesn't have a brain for every voice that tells him stuff...

[Brian Peacock]

[Tero]

CNN
But there's another frightening election scenario I dread as a Black man -- and that few people seem to be talking about.
It's what happens if an armed Black person clashes with an armed White person at a protest and bullets start flying.

Snip

Black people not aligned with these groups are arming themselves as well. Organizations of Black gun owners are reporting huge surges in membership. More Black women are buying guns. Many members of these groups said they joined because stories about Black people being killed by White supremacists convinced them they needed to be armed.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/us/black ... index.html

[laklak]

You better arm yourself, homes. Better to be have and not need than need and not have.

[Tero]

Though ultimately state controlled, the electors had evolved to this by 1804:

Evolution of selection plans
In 1789, at-large popular vote, the winner-take-all method, began with Pennsylvania and Maryland. Massachusetts, Virginia and Delaware used a district plan by popular vote, and state legislatures chose in the five other states participating in the election (Connecticut, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and South Carolina).[46] New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island did not participate in the election. New York's legislature deadlocked and abstained; North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution.[47]

By 1800, Virginia and Rhode Island voted at large; Kentucky, Maryland, and North Carolina voted popularly by district; and eleven states voted by state legislature. Beginning in 1804 there was a definite trend towards the winner-take-all system for statewide popular vote.[48]

By 1832, only South Carolina legislatively chose its electors, and it abandoned the method after 1860.[48] Maryland was the only state using a district plan, and from 1836 district plans fell out of use until the 20th century, though Michigan used a district plan for 1892 only. States using popular vote by district have included ten states from all regions of the country.[49]

Since 1836, statewide winner-take-all popular voting for electors has been the almost universal practice.[50] Currently, Maine (since 1972) and Nebraska (since 1996) use the district plan, with two at-large electors assigned to support the winner of the statewide popular vote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... al_College

[Brian Peacock]

Both sides a laying ground with their supporters which says they can only lose if the other side cheat. Incompetence in the administration of the ballot - like the 7 votes from service personell that were binned because they were accidentally presumed to be late requests for absentee ballots rather than votes - are quickly labelled as systemic fraud, and systemic attempts to suppress the turnout - like ignoring registrations where a politically-appointed official decides that a signature doesn't match the one provided on an application from 20 years before - are vociferously defended on the basis of fairness. This undermines the electoral processes and works to delegitimises the result regardless of the turnout or count, as do narratives which portray the other side as an existential threat to the nation. All this is made possible in part because the electoral systems of the US are archaic hangovers from a bygone age, but primarily because there is no independent, non-political oversight of the election process. In this case voters have to rely on information about the election - it's structure, administration, turnout, count, and overall security - from the political parties themselves.

Although all political parties operate on the assumption that they expect, and indeed probably deserve to win, an independent electoral system at least discourages them from cheating because the long-term political impact of demonstrable deliberate dishonesty delegitimises the politician and the party in particular rather than the system as a whole. However, in a system where incumbent political parties are empowered to institute and administrate the electoral system there is little incentive to champion or initiate any such form of independent oversight - either in power or in opposition.

[laklak]

I think we should just have a war to determine the winner. Look back through history, it's a common method of regime change.

[Brian Peacock]

But the guys who win the war always make the losers pay for the cost of defeating them.

[laklak]

That's definitely what happened the last time we tried it, and the goddamn Yankee carpetbaggers are still here.

[Tero]

But the guys who win the war always make the losers pay for the cost of defeating them.

Attack Mexico then?

[laklak]

Them homies is tough, esse.