“Snowflake Syndrome”

A cutesy name for political hatred.

The “Syndrome” is the lies spread among the GOP voters these days.

The push for voter suppression, the distrust of vaccines and downplaying the insurrection of 06 January…..

A good look at this ‘sickness’ in an op-ed…..

A recent op-ed piece published by The Washington Post highlights the problem of Snowflake Syndrome among voters who cast ballots for former President Donald Trump. The author, Greg Sargent, notes that the current Republican agenda centers on the following: restricting voting rights, sowing doubt about the COVID-19 vaccine, and downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The problem is that there is no justification or substantial evidence to support any of their arguments regarding these initiatives. In fact, all are connected to false narratives and misinformation that has been, in some way, influenced by Trump. For example, the nationwide push for voting rights restrictions is supposedly an incentive to increase voters’ confidence in the integrity of the United States’ voting systems. But Sargent pushed back against that argument describing it as “bad-faith nonsense.”

“Broadly speaking,” Sargent wrote, “this “confidence” storyline is bad-faith nonsense: It’s being widely abused to keep alive the myth of the stolen election and to justify an unprecedented wave of efforts to disenfranchise the opposition’s voters. It is not designed to build confidence in our elections, but to further undermine it, for illicit purposes.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/trump-voters/

But how can this be?

Lonely people looking for a sense of belonging….

In his column for the Daily Beast, conservative commentator Matt Lewis made a case that Donald Trump’s rise was the inevitable result of a country that has become filled with lonely people who have lost any connection to their community and just want to feel like they belong.

As the conservative columnist notes that, at the heart of “Trumpism,” is an appeal to those suffering from social isolation which, in turn, makes them susceptible to appeals such as “Make America Great Again” as promised by the former president.

Explaining, “lack of communal ties may be killing us at the micro level, on the macro level this phenomenon has contributed to numerous societal ills, including the rise of Trumpism,” Lewis added that the new book by the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender (“Frankly, We Did Win This Election”) makes clear Trump’s early appeal.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-cult-2653974187/

I have read reports that the hatred is waning….I do not believe these at this time.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Please Lie To Me

I have been watching politicians for 50 years and it amazes me how badly they lie and the American voter allows it to continue unabated…..makes one ask….do the American people want to be lied to?

Actually it appears they do.

Two recent controversies have revealed an unsettling reality about American education: the ruling members of both the nation’s major political parties do not want an informed citizenry. With the right wing riled up about critical race theory in schools and both sides of the political aisle in an uproar over Ilhan Omar’s comments on the United States and the International Criminal Court, it’s difficult to come to any conclusion other than American politicians do not believe Americans should hear difficult truths about their own country.

The debate over critical race theory shows that plenty of politicians do not want the topic of racial inequities discussed in classrooms despite the fact that it’s a part of American history and leaving it out is tantamount to teaching science fiction instead. Red states have been moving to ban critical race theory from the classrooms, most recently Texas and Florida. Comments from Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick DeSantis and other elected officials do not give me confidence that they even know what critical race theory is. DeSantis believes teaching critical race theory, which is an academic form of study that investigates the way racism is woven into institutions and governments, is indoctrination. Yet, in the bill DeSantis hawks, it states “… [instruction] may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” Is this not also a form of indoctrination, stating there is only one interpretation of the nation? If not, why not?

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/06/17/do-americans-want-be-lied-both-major-parties-seem-think-so

Since most conspiracies are lies believed…..the question is how do they become so believable?

Think of a conspiracy theorist. How do they see the world? What stands out to them? What fades into the background? Now think of yourself. How does the way you see things differ? What is it about the way you think that has stopped you from falling down a rabbit hole?

Conspiracy theories have long been part of American life, but they feel more urgent than ever. Innocuous notions like whether the moon landing was a hoax feel like child’s play compared to more impactful beliefs like whether vaccines are safe (they are) or the 2020 election was stolen (it wasn’t). It can be easy to write off our conspiracy theorist friends and relatives as crackpots, but science shows things are far more nuanced than that. There are traits that likely prime people to be more prone to holding these beliefs, and you may find that when you take stock of these traits, you aren’t far removed from your cousin who is convinced the world is run by lizard people.

Why People Fall For Conspiracy Theories

Since the internet and social media drives the lies and conspiracies…..can we build a more honest internet?

The dominant narrative for the growth of the World Wide Web, the graphical, user-friendly version of the internet created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, is that its success has been propelled by Silicon Valley venture capitalism at its most rapacious. The idea that currently prevails is that the internet is best built by venture-backed startups competing to offer services globally through category monopolies: Amazon for shopping, Google for search, Facebook for social media. These companies have generated enormous profits for their creators and early investors, but their “surveillance capitalism” business model has brought unanticipated harms. Our national discussions about whether YouTube is radicalizing viewers, whether Facebook is spreading disinformation, and whether Twitter is trivializing political dialogue need to also consider whether we’re using the right business model to build the contemporary internet.

https://www.cjr.org/special_report/building-honest-internet-public-interest.php

My thought on this is that it may be too damn late to try and reform the disinformation available on the internet.

Education would help….but in recent decades that is a term that brings scorn….so sad.

amicus populi

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Voter Rights And Suppression

All Americans have the right to vote….but about 43 states out of the 50 are trying to change that dynamic…..basically it is the GOP trying to avoid any defeats…..not what is best for the people of their state and the country…..it is all about party over country.

Some may ask….how could this happen?

It began in the where else….the South.

A little historic perspective……

George White of North Carolina served two terms in Congress between 1897 and 1901. He was the only Black member during those years, and he would be the last Black person elected to the U.S. House for nearly another three decades.

North Carolina Democrats made certain of that. A new state constitutional amendment, ratified in 1900, required passage of a literacy and education test before registering to vote, as well as pre-payment of a poll tax. By 1904, the number of registered Black voters in North Carolina had plummeted to nearly zero.

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/18/racist-gerrymander-north-carolina/

The Dems are trying to make the exercise of one’s rights easier (as it should be)…..here are the two bills, one from the House and the other from the Senate….

Click to access BILLS-116hr1pcs.pdf

And from the Senate….

Click to access SIMPLE-SECTION-BY-SECTION_S.-1%20Final.pdf

Before you agree or disagree with these bills at least read them and know what is in them…..or do what most Americans do….go to social media and get lies and misinformation….it is your choice.

Personally I believe it you are a citizen and over 18 years old then you should be able to vote without any restrictions from scared old white guys that are treading water on their control of this nation.

You may ask how this is even possible the violation of the peoples right to vote…..

We thought with the passing of the Voter Rights Act we had made it possible for ALL Americans to exercise their right of vote……if so how can this suppression move by conservs be possible?

You want someone to blame for the attack on our rights then look no further than the Supreme Court…..

How could this be you may ask.

Georgia’s voter restrictions were dashed into law Thursday by Republicans shaken over recent election losses and lies about fraud from former President Donald Trump, yet the measures also developed against a backdrop of US Supreme Court decisions hollowing out federal voting rights protection.

In another world, before the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, Georgia would have had to obtain federal approval for new election practices to ensure they did not harm Blacks and other minority voters.

And at another time, before the Roberts Court enhanced state latitude in a series of rulings, legislators might have hedged before enacting policies from new voter identification requirements, to a prohibition on third-party collection of ballots to a rule against non-poll workers providing food or water to voters waiting in lines.

But the conservative court has increasingly granted states leeway over how they run elections.

As the justices have turned away challenges to state policies, they have expressed sympathy for local officials who face potentially intrusive federal regulation and protracted litigation. Led by Roberts, the court has also dismissed concerns about the consequences for minority voters as it has curtailed the reach of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“Our country has changed,” Roberts wrote in the Shelby County landmark, “and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions. … (V)oter registration and turnout numbers in the covered states have risen dramatically in the years since.”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/27/politics/supreme-court-georgia-voting-law-john-roberts-shelby-county/index.html

This is what we get when ‘political activists’ are put on the highest court in the land…..we get rulings that will strip us of our rights….slowly but steadily.

Time for some changes to the way the Supreme Court is staffed……when the court is making laws doing the job that has been set aside for the legislative branch of government.

They should be upholding the law not making it.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

To Vote Or Not To Vote

There are at least 43 of the 50 states that are trying to stop people from voting….a right they have under the Constitution (remember that document?)…..

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Although, of course, the denial of the franchise on the basis of race or color violates the Fifteenth Amendment and a series of implementing statutes enacted by Congress, the administration of election statutes so as to treat white and black voters or candidates differently can constitute a denial of equal protection as well. Additionally, cases of gerrymandering of electoral districts and the creation or maintenance of electoral practices that dilute and weaken black and other minority voting strength is subject to Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment and statutory attack.

The most egregious bill of all of them is from the state of Georgia…..and the governor had a hurried bill signing to prevent any opposition.

With opposition gathering outside his office, Gov. Brian Kemp signed new voting restrictions into law Thursday less than an hour after they passed the General Assembly. Calling the legislation “Jim Crow 2.0,” protesters outside the Capitol said voters were being disenfranchised. A Democratic state representative was arrested and removed by force after she knocked on Kemp’s door to try to witness the signing, the Journal-Constitution reports. Supporters, including Kemp, said the legislation would safeguard the integrity of elections. Georgia became the first battleground state to limit voter access since the November presidential election, in which President Biden carried the state over former President Donald Trump, per CNN.

The legislation rewrites Georgia voting laws. It adds voter ID requirements, limits the number of drop boxes for ballots, and permits the state to take over local elections. Runoffs will be held more quickly after general elections, leaving as little as one week for early voting. “It’s like the Christmas tree of goodies for voter suppression,” one Democrat said on the Senate floor. Republicans said the new law would increase trust in the state’s elections after Trump’s claims of fraud last November, though Georgia election officials—including Republicans—say there’s no evidence of widespread fraud. Republicans in other states are pursuing similar legislation, and President Biden called such efforts “un-American” on Thursday. He said he’ll do everything he can to block them.

I have been warning people since the 80s that our rights would be under assault…..and few paid attention.

All this suppression because of the “Big Lie” of massive voter fraud…..which by the way has NEVER….let me say again….NEVER been proven.

As Yogi once said….”It ain’t over ’til its over”.

This has just begun.

(More on this issue later)

Stand up or lose your rights!

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What About Those Electoral College Votes?

The finally tally was Biden with 302 votes and Trump with 232….but it will not be official until today and then on 06 January……let me explain….

Today the tally will be certified and prepared to go to the Congress in January…..

Monday is a significant day in the US on two fronts: Not only do COVID vaccinations begin but the electoral college meets. The latter is the next big step in the selection of the president, and one with added significance in 2020 because of President Trump’s continuing challenge of the results, notes the Wall Street Journal. However, when all is said and done on Monday, Joe Biden is expected to formally receive 306 votes and Trump 232. That sets the stage for the next important date: Jan 6., when the votes cast on Monday will be counted in a joint session of Congress over which Vice President Pence will preside, per the AP.

Electors will meet in their own states and in the District of Colombia to cast their paper ballots, with the first sessions beginning at 10 Eastern, reports USA Today. Biden is expected to address the nation in the evening when the process is complete. Some states allow “faithless” electors to cast ballots for a candidate not chosen by the voters, but the AP doesn’t expect any such defections this year.

What are the chances that some of these idiots will try something to prevent the tally from becoming official….sealing Biden’s election as law?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Learn Your Civics

The weekend before the general election and I would like to illustrate what the election is and what it accomplishes.

I have tried to get Americans to re-connect with the civics that they need to be productive citizens of the system.

Sadly our media is way too busy trying to influence the election than they are trying to educate the voter…..

This article is from the BBC and could teach the American media a little something about civics.

The US president has a huge influence on people’s lives both at home and abroad, so when the next election is held on 3 November, the outcome will matter to everyone.

The US political system is dominated by just two parties, so the president always belongs to one of them.

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53785985

Since civics is a disappearing subject this type of article should be in every newspaper web site and printed edition for the last month before the polls open.

Maybe then Americans would learn about their system and stop trying to destroy it with their ignorance.

“Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.” ~ Frank Herbert

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The 2020 Black Vote

In this election year of 2020 much has been said, speculated and lied about the direction of the black vote.

The MSM pundits want you to believe that it is a certainty that the vote will go to Biden and Harris….

Why?

First Biden was VP to Obama and since he is black they assume that will drive the vote toward Biden….and then he picked a black woman as his running mate and the pundits make sure that you know that should help drive the black vote into the Biden column.

All that could be true but only if the black vote talked about is 50 years old or older.

Younger black voters are not all that thrilled with the choices they have in the election field this time around…..as was evident with the interviews that NBC has with young undecided black voters…..

msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldi

And another roundtable…..

msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/e

Watch the videos! Not at all the picture that the MSM is trying hard to rewrite…

Both those videos are very telling…..young blacks do not see a future with these Dems that are pushed down their throats…..

This is one reason the so-called “Squad” is so popular among the younger voters and that includes Black women.

The Squad? (For Christ sake use your brain and your finger…Google has the answer.)

How about the overall black vote?

But available evidence suggests that Biden, while viewed favorably by Black Americans, does not enjoy the extraordinarily positive sentiments Obama received when he was campaigning. An aggregated Gallup sample from late July through mid-September shows Biden with a 75% favorable and 20% unfavorable rating among Black Americans, compared with Obama’s consistent 90%+ favorable ratings among Black Americans in August, September and October 2008, during his initial presidential campaign. Gallup tracking in August and September 2016 showed Clinton with an average favorable rating of 71% among Black Americans as she campaigned for the presidency. Thus, Biden’s current image among Black Americans is closer to Clinton’s than to Obama’s at comparable points in their campaigning, underscoring the challenge facing Biden as he attempts to replicate Obama’s ability to bring out the Black vote.

(Gallup)

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read I Write You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

15 Days To Go

In about 2 weeks we will finally know who had the better campaign…….which Old Fart caught the people’s attention the best?

You know all that support that Trump supposedly has among white men?

There is good news/bad news…..

Good news is the Trump is losing support with whites…..bad news is he, Trump, is gaining with blacks and Hispanics.

Yes Dear you read all that correctly…..losing support with whites….gaining with Hispanics and blacks…..

There’s a well-known truth in politics: No one group swings an election.

But that doesn’t mean that the demographic trends bubbling beneath the surface can’t have an outsized effect. Take 2016. President Trump won in large part because he carried white voters without a college degree by a bigger margin than any recent GOP presidential nominee, though there had been signs that this group was shifting rightward for a while.

Likewise in 2018, a strong showing by Democrats in suburban districts and among white voters with a four-year college degree helped the party retake the House, a shift we first saw in 2016 when Trump likely became the first Republican to lose this group in 60 years.¹ And this is just scratching the surface. In the past few years, we’ve also seen hints that more women voters are identifying as Democrats and that some nonwhite voters might be getting more Republican-leaning.

Trump Is Losing Ground With White Voters But Gaining Among Black And Hispanic Americans

Look at the stats closely.

With two weeks to go there are a few things you can do to remain sane…..that is if you want to be sane.

fivethrityeight.com has a method…..

1. Keep the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in mind.

2. Don’t assume the race is in the bag for Biden.

3. But also don’t buy the narrative that “polling is broken.”

4. Don’t get too obsessed with comparisons to 2016.

5. Don’t pay much attention to individual polls; wait for polling averages to move.

6. Beware talk of “October surprises.” They’re usually overhyped.

7. Don’t read too much into the campaigns’ behavior.

8. Don’t get carried away with early voting data.

8 Tips To Stay Sane In The Final 15 Days Of The Campaign

Just hang in there the insanity is nearing its conclusion.

We can soon have a new set of issues to bitch about.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2020–Who Gets My Vote?

I have done a lot of bitching about the slate of 2020 candidates….so I guess the question is…..just who will get my vote this time around.

I will be honest…I have not voted for a winner in a presidential election since 1975…….when I voted for Jimmy Carter.

Since that election I have not seen any main stream candidate as a good choice for this country to move forward…..I did not vote for Reagan or Bush or Clinton or Bush or Obama or Trump…..so I can safely said that I did NOT vote for the rogue in the White House.

I wrote on my opinion blog, Gulf South Free Press, about my beliefs and my issues I want to see in a candidate…..https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/who-are-you/

I vote my principles I refuse to settle for the least smelly candidate…..some think that my vote is wasted on a 3rd party candidate….and that is their opinion personally I think if you settle for the least offensive candidate then YOUR VOTE was/is wasted.

In 2016 I looked at the Green Party….I just could not put my faith in Jill Stein…I also checked out the Modern Whig Party, I liked what I read but they did not offer a candidate…..Libertarians I like the antiwar posture but their idea of hyper-capitalism turns me off…..I admit it I did check out a couple of the so-called Left wing parties….not impressed.

The major parties have historically eliminated the third parties by silly rules that make them the only game in town…..rules like…..A third party candidate will sometimes strike a chord with a section of voters in a particular election, bringing an issue to national prominence and amount a significant proportion of the popular vote. Major parties often respond to this by adopting this issue in a subsequent election. After 1968, under President Nixon the Republican Party adopted a “Southern Strategy” to win the support of conservative Democrats opposed to the Civil Rights Movement and resulting legislation and to combat third parties with southern agendas. This can be seen as a response to the popularity of segregationist candidate George Wallace who gained 13.5% of the popular vote in the 1968 election for the American Independent Party.

Then the states have ways of keeping 3rd parties off the tickets…..Nationally, ballot access laws are the major challenge to third party candidacies. While the Democratic and Republican parties usually easily obtain ballot access in all fifty states in every election, third parties often fail to meet criteria for ballot access, such as registration fees. Or, in many states, they do not meet petition requirements in which a certain number of voters must sign a petition for a third party or independent candidate to gain ballot access.

This is how the system chooses your candidate for you.

But that does not answer my question just explains why I have so little choice……but it is 2020…..

If this was the GOP of 1956 I would vote Republican…….

Image result for 1956 GOP platform images

Their 1956 platform is something they should be proud of…..

Sadly those days of principled Republicans are gone….gone….gone….

If I do not like the GOP and I think the Dems are a spineless bunch of centrists then where does that vote….my vote…. go?

Libertarian? I like there antiwar and non-intervention positions but cannot vote for the hyper-capitalism that is killing our Middle Class…

The Green Party…..this is where I have put my vote in the past but it looks like the GPUSA has been shut down……Howie is just a tool of eco-capitalism.

Where oh where?

Reform Party? Not interested. Constitution Party? Too religious for my liking. A Socialist Party? Nope most are too chaotic. The Modern Whig Party? I like some of their positions but they shut down in 2018……

Register as an ‘independent’ does nothing to help when most times there are only 2 or 3 choices and none are progressive enough for my vote.

A Progressive Party, Bull Moose Party, would be ideal for me…..https://lobotero.com/2010/11/12/how-about-a-new-bull-moose-party-2/

It is a shame and a bit pathetic that I have no candidate to vote for in 2020 (for now)……. I will have to hold my nose and pick a lying toad or a spineless slug….not my idea of a constitutional democracy.

That Latino Vote

Listening to all the “reporting” on this election and of course we hear about the white vote, the black vote and the Latino vote….but is this a true analysis or is it just words to fill the report when there is a lack of substance?

I heard this morning that the Latino vote would help Biden……but is there truly a Latino vote?

With only 42 days left until the election, Joe Biden has his work cut out for him with Latino voters. That’s according to his senior adviser Symone Sanders, who has had to answer for why Biden appears to be losing ground among Latinos. According to a recent Latino Decisions/National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials poll, 65 percent of Latinos plan to vote for Biden or lean toward him, but this is still 14 percentage points lower than the 79 percent of Latino voters who said they supported Clinton in the pollster’s national election-eve poll in 2016.

It’s true that Latino voters do, as a whole, tend to be more Democratic than Republican, a trend that has only accelerated in recent years. But they don’t vote as a single bloc (in 2016, at least 1 in 5 Latino voters still backed Trump): How Latinos vote in Florida, for instance, can be very different from how Latinos in the Southwest or Northeast vote. These differences especially matter due to the size of the Latino population in a number of key swing states.

There’s No Such Thing As The ‘Latino Vote’

Polls are about as worthless as teets on a boar…..they are seldom correct for respondents seldom tell the true to the questioners.

Learn SAtuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: Voters

“Snowflake Syndrome”

Please Lie To Me

To Vote Or Not To Vote

What About Those Electoral College Votes?

Learn Your Civics

The 2020 Black Vote

15 Days To Go

1. Keep the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in mind.

2. Don’t assume the race is in the bag for Biden.

3. But also don’t buy the narrative that “polling is broken.”

4. Don’t get too obsessed with comparisons to 2016.

5. Don’t pay much attention to individual polls; wait for polling averages to move.

6. Beware talk of “October surprises.” They’re usually overhyped.

7. Don’t read too much into the campaigns’ behavior.

8. Don’t get carried away with early voting data.

2020–Who Gets My Vote?

That Latino Vote