Tag: Voters

Hispanics And The Big Chill

One of the most confounding situations with the 2024 election, at least for me, was all the support Donny and his brand of racism got from the Hispanic community…..he got in the neighborhood of 45% of the Hispanic vote.

What bothered me was why would these voters go for Donny knowing that he had always labeled them as rapist, murderers, drug dealers and diseased….why?

A recent survey illustrates that Donny is losing his hold in the Hispanic community…..

President Trump’s favorability has fallen among Hispanic adults since the beginning of the year, a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows, a potential warning sign from a key constituency that helped secure his victory in 2024.

  • The October survey found that 25% of Hispanic adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump, down from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before the Republican took office in January. The percentage of Hispanic adults who say the country is going in the wrong direction has also increased from 63% in March to 73% now.
  • The shift could spell trouble for Republicans looking to cement support with this group in future elections. Many Hispanic voters were motivated by economic concerns in last year’s election, and the new poll shows that despite Trump’s promises of economic revitalization, Hispanic adults continue to feel higher financial stress than Americans overall. Hispanic voters made up 10% of the electorate in 2024, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of interviews with registered voters, and the number of eligible Hispanic voters has been growing rapidly in recent decades.
  • Hispanic voters shifted toward Trump in the last election, though a majority still backed Kamala Harris: 43% of Hispanic voters nationally voted for Trump, according to AP VoteCast, up from 35% in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
  • But the poll found that Hispanic adults are now less likely to approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and immigration—two issues that were major strengths for him in last year’s election—and their views of his overall performance have slipped as well. In March, 41% of Hispanic adults approved of Trump’s job performance, but now that has fallen to 27%.
  • Alejandro Ochoa, a 30-year-old warehouse worker in California, identifies as a Republican and voted for Trump last year, but he’s now unhappy with the president. He criticized some of Trump’s budget cuts, adding that the cost of groceries is too high and buying a home is still unattainable for him. “He was kind of relying on essentially the nostalgia of, ‘Hey, remember, before COVID? Things weren’t as expensive,'” Ochoa said. “But now it’s like, OK, you’re in office. I’m still getting done dirty at the grocery store. … I’m trying to cut corners where I can, but that bill is still insanely expensive.”
  • Views of Trump have soured even among Hispanic Republicans. In the latest poll, 66% of Hispanic Republicans said they have a “very” or “somewhat” favorable view of Trump. That’s down from an AP-NORC poll in September 2024, when 83% of Hispanic Republicans viewed him at least “somewhat” favorably. White Republicans, by contrast, did not change their opinion of Trump over the same period.

Great news!  It is about time that these voters woke the Hell up….just what the Hell were they thinking in 2024?

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Donny And The Magic Sharpie

Once again king-in-waiting has taken out his magic Sharpie and signed yet another EO (how many is that now?)….this time another wasted time and something for him to go on about…..voting.

President Trump signed a sweeping executive action Tuesday to overhaul elections in the US, including requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and demanding that all ballots be received by Election Day. The order says the US has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply. Trump says more election actions will be taken in the coming weeks.

  • The move, which is likely to face swift challenges from voting rights organizations, is consistent with Trump’s long history of railing against election processes, the AP reports. He often claims elections are being rigged, even before the results are known, and has waged battles against certain voting methods since he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and falsely blamed it on widespread fraud.
  • Trump has focused particularly on mail voting, arguing without evidence that it’s insecure and invites fraud even as he has shifted his position on the issue given its popularity with voters, including Republicans. While fraud occurs, it’s rare, limited in scope and gets prosecuted, reports the AP. The Wall Street Journalnotes that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and studies have found no evidence of ineligible people voting in numbers large enough to affect election outcomes.
  • The Guardian describes many of the provisions in the order as “legally suspect” because the Constitution gives states and Congress, not the president, the authority to set election rules.
  • “The short answer is that this executive order, like all too many that we’ve seen before, is lawless and asserts all sorts of executive authority that he most assuredly does not have,” says voting rights lawyer Danielle Lang at the Campaign Legal Center nonprofit.

How much longer will this country have to suffer from these senseless acts and get about the business of actually running, not ruining, the country?

Finally, just what the Hell is Congress doing?

Is Trump trying to male our reps obsolete?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Democrats Are In Trouble

Dems are facing a quandary….low voter confidence and now the new spending bill….

The government will shut down at midnight Friday unless Congress passes a spending measure before then, and the deadline is putting Senate Democrats in a bind: They don’t want to vote for the GOP-authored resolution before them, but they fear the alternative of triggering a shutdown is worse. Coverage:

  • Punchbowl News reports that the most likely scenario, for now, is that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer will settle for a face-saving measure to avert a shutdown. He’ll demand votes on amendments, including a separate vote on the Democrats’ own continuing resolution. “It’s theater,” the outlet notes, given that the Democratic plan has no chance of passing. But it would allow Schumer to say Democrats were trying to fight back.
  • The Hill similarly reports that Senate Democrats were saying privately they will not allow a shutdown to happen, meaning they would ultimately have to vote in favor of the six-month Republican plan—despite pressure from the party’s progressive wing. As Axios puts it, “Schumer is balancing his deep distaste for a shutdown against pressure from the grassroots to do more to stand up to Trump.”
  • One fear among Democrats is that a shutdown would leave federal employees even more vulnerable to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, per CNN. “If it shuts down, what is Elon Musk going to allow to open back up?” asked Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. “That’s a big concern of mine. How many more veterans is Elon, and this administration, going to fire? So, there’s not a good option here.” Independent Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, called it a “choice between two terrible alternatives.”
  • Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is already on board publicly with voting for the GOP plan, reports the Washington Post. A shutdown would “absolutely punish millions, millions of Americans,” Fetterman said this week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says the GOP measure, which already has passed the House, is the only route to keeping the government open. “The question of whether or not it stays funded now is up to the Democrats,” said the Republican leader.

This is a problem….do they show backbone and fight the new spending bill which they will be accused of causing a government shutdown or do they support and betray a lot of what they say the are for?

The Dems are in trouble.

For decades now the Dems have been losing support among the working class….the slide started, in my opinion, with Bubba Clinton and his embrace of big business and then it became more about the cash than the policies that would benefit the American people.

And now the studies show that it is getting to its lowest levels of support….for me I lost all confidence, what little I had back then, with the 1980 election….

Voters still have a sour view of Democrats six weeks after President Donald Trump and Republicans swept into Washington with control of all branches of the federal government, according to a new poll.

A plurality of voters — 40 percent — said the Democratic Party doesn’t have any strategy whatsoever for responding to Trump, according to the survey by the liberal firm Blueprint that was shared first with POLITICO. Another 24 percent said Democrats have a game plan, but it’s a bad one.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/poll-democrats-trump-disarray-00215291

The most recent study shows a serious lack of support…..

Out of power in Washington, Democrats are looking for ways to win voters back. A new poll suggests they have their work cut out for them. The Quinnipiac University survey found that 31% of registered voters have a favorable opinion of their party, while 43% have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party. That amounts to the largest advantage in favorability the GOP has enjoyed since 2008, Axios reports. A CNN poll released last week had similar results.

The flip side in Quinnipiac’s poll was no more encouraging for Democrats, with 57% of registered voters reporting an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party and 45% feeling the same way about the GOP. The findings, for which the pollsters report a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, alone aren’t evidence that Democrats need despair, Aaron Blake writes in a Washington Post analysis. The same polls showed Republicans were less popular in the first year of President Trump’s first term than Democrats are now, he points out. A Quinnipiac poll had Republicans with a 67% unfavorable rating in August 2017.

In addition, another poll released this week found that some of Trump’s early actions aren’t popular, per Reuters. Most respondents of both parties oppose his moves to end the practice of granting citizenship to children born in the US regardless of the parents’ immigration status, for instance. Overall, the share of respondents who disapproved of Trump’s performance rose from 39% to 46% since the first two days of his second term. The Reuters/Ipsos poll reported a margin of error of about 4 percentage points. “While it does seem Trump is getting a honeymoon to some extent, his numbers are still not impressive by historical standards,” said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

I will admit that the Progressive Caucus does have a bit of concern for the working person and they are showing their disdain for the more conservative colleagues……

The head of a leading U.S. progressive group on Thursday accused the Democratic National Committee—which will choose new leadership this weekend—of trying to silence rank-and-file activists and voters, showing that the Democratic Party’s governing body is failing to connect with the working-class Americans who helped deliver the White House and Congress to Republicans.

“This moment demands a Democratic Party that provides more than just reactive opposition to an administration bent on rigging our economic and political systems in favor of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals on Earth,” Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, said in a statement ahead of Thursday evening’s final DNC candidate forum. “It demands leaders who put the party’s grassroots base ahead of the donor class and articulate a real vision that rejects [Republican President] Donald Trump’s corporate rule—starting with renouncing corporate money themselves.”

“Unfortunately,” Geevarghese lamented, “Democratic leadership is failing disastrously to meet this urgent mandate. Ahead of tonight’s forum, the DNC is actively working to silence rank-and-file Democratic activists and base voters calling for a ban on dark money in primaries and the rejection of corporate funding. In a last-minute move, they shut the event off from the public and even deliberately shared the wrong address for where grassroots supporters are allowed to gather.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-dnc

For me I would like to see the Dems grow a spine and get down to doing what needs to be done….but their actions in the first days of the new admin does not bode well for the country….they are too mamby pamby….

https://www.commondreams.org/news/democrats-prepared-to-oppose-trump-s-unqualified-cabinet-picks

I have bee a Progressive since the beginning of my political life but in those days we were insulted by morons that have the IQ of a garden slug. 

For me there are two major policies that the Dems should push and push hard….at least for now….

Implementing Universal Health Coverage (UHC). That is, a publicly administered system that guarantees that all people have access to the full range of quality health services when and where they need them. Financing of UHC could come entirely from broad-based tax revenues. Coverage would be universal and automatic. Covered services would include inpatient, outpatient, dental, mental health, and long-term health, as well as prescription drugs. All three levels of the U.S. government (federal, state, and local) would be involved in the health care system.

Cutting military spending. The United States spent $820 billion on national
defense during the fiscal year 2023. It spends nearly 8.4 times as much on its
military as Russia does and more than three times the amount of China. While the U.S. comprises just over 4 percent of the world’s population, it accounts for nearly 40 percent of global military spending. Between 2001 and 2022, the U.S. spent $8 trillion on war. The notion that such enormous defense spending is important for national security questions is utterly absurd. The U.S. homeland has never been invaded and no nation threatens U.S. national security. The obscene amount of money that the U.S. spends on defense, which different methodologies estimated to be above $1.5 trillion for the fiscal year 2022. Money saved from cuts in
the defense budget can go towards supporting social programs and/or for
reducing the national debt. Arguing for reforms in Social Security and Medicare when the country spends so much money on the military is morally indefensible and will become politically unacceptable if people realize how wasteful and harmful military sending is.There are other policies that need attention but these two, for now, would illustrate the the Dems are truly fighting for the working class.

The Dems are truly in trouble because very few people think the party will make a difference without some change in tactics.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The “Peak Of Ferocity”

The voter of this great land has gone to the edge of cruelty….we are witnessing something that has happened before but we choose to ignore the implications…

At its core, this culture strips working people, the poor, Black and Brown communities, and the marginalized of dignity, hope, and the right to a decent life. Though cruelty has long been woven into the fabric of American history, Trump’s second administration will wield it as an instrument of governance—hollowing out social bonds, eroding moral compassion, and suffocating collective resistance. In its place, it will stage an endless array of brutal spectacles, a politics of suffering in which fear and violence are both the means and the message.

Trumpism is not an aberration but the logical extension of a neoliberal system that thrives on hierarchy, disposability, and fear. The destruction of public goods accelerates the emergence of what Etienne Balibar calls “the transition from the social state to the penal state”—where repression replaces care, and policing takes the place of welfare. The gutting of federal aid programs, the assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and the defunding of institutions that support the most vulnerable are not incidental; they are central to the neoliberal strategy of dispossession. In the age of Trump, cruelty becomes an organizing principle of violence as is evident in homegrown notions of fascism that define citizenship in racist inclusive terms for white Christians only, sanctions genocide in Gaza, promotes mass poverty, and supports the ecological destruction of the planet. What we are witnessing as Pankaj Mishra notes is the emergence of a culture convulsed in hatred and rancor matched by an ongoing process of dehumanization and a “retreat into grandiose fantasies of omnipotence.”  Trump’s presence in American politics appears as the current endpoint in which hate, bigotry, and sanctioned ruthlessness “have reached a new peak of ferocity.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/17/trumps-reign-of-cruelty/

And now people are asking how did we get to this point?

That is a easy answer….we got here because the American voter is lazy and is easily influenced by bullshit.

President Trump and his MAGA Republicans and their forces are smashing American democracy, the Constitution, the rule of law, the institutions and norms. Trump has enacted over 50 executive orders since Jan. 20, the most in a president’s first 100 days in more than 40 years. Some of the most egregious ones are blatantly unconstitutional and violate current law. It has only been three weeks since Trump returned to power; these are the good times compared to what will come next.

Be very wary of any political observer or other public voice — or anyone else — who suggests that Trump and his MAGA movement are losing, in disarray, ineffective or somehow confused or weak. Such people are seeing what they want to see and not what is actually happening. Donald Trump and his MAGA movement’s strategy is chaos. Moreover, that chaos is in service to their shock and awe strategy to end America’s pluralistic democracy and to replace it with a form of autocracy if not outright fascism modeled on Viktor Orbán’s Hungary or Vladimir Putin’s Russia with Trump as de facto leader for life. As Harold Meyerson observes in The American Prospect, “As to the wider world, if we ever sought to be that beacon on the hill, we’re now the bully on the hill. America, Trumpified.”

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/09/donald-chaos-strategy-why-americans-continue-to-fall-for-his-game-of-distraction/

Hatred is another reason for Trump prayed on the fears and biases of voters to gain the upper hand.

Will this trend ever end?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Americans Are Better Than This

Now that the election is mercifully over we can sit back and look at just WTF happened….it is what I do.

For decades I have watched the American voter make some really strange and disastrous choices and in all that time I thought and wrote that the American people were better than their half-ass vote…..apparently I have been wrong in all those days of optimism.

I came across an op-ed that says it all……

I never want to hear the words “America is better than this” again. I never want to be told about America’s better angels.

I want honesty. I want an admission of exactly who we are as a country, and let’s be damn clear about that definition: We are a country that just elected – that just willfully chose – one of the most cruel, unscrupulous and transparently self-serving political figures in modern history to be president. Again.

We just elected a convicted felon who has normalized bullying, spread hate like an industrial sprinkler and shown us over and over and over again he sees laws as irrelevant and self-enrichment as sacrosanct. Faced with a billowing ocean of red flags – from indictments for trying to overturn the 2020 election to the coddling of dictators who rule enemy nations – a majority of Americans cast their vote for the man who is a totem of the worst in all of us.

So spare me the wails of “This isn’t who we are!” I’ve got bad news for the sane and decent among us: This is exactly who we are.

…

But America chose the guy who cavalierly said he’d be a dictator for a day. Voters chose the guy who denounces our allies and cozies up to our enemies. Voters chose the guy who is an adjudicated rapist, a role model to none, an often-incoherent and always hate-fueled loon who has turned Americans against each other in ways I never thought possible.

Voters chose Trump. He won. Cruelty won. Bullying won.

And that’s who America is right now. We are Trump, and we will own every bit of the shameful and painful and embarrassing things he does. We are not “better than this.” We lost the right to make that claim the moment the presidential race was called.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/11/06/trump-wins-2024-presidential-election/759428050

I agree with the author….I do not want to hear we are better than this ever again…..because we are NOT!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The 2024 ‘No’ Vote

I have read several reports telling me that younger voters will stay away from the polls….even some of the older voters are not all that thrill and are considering not voting in this election.

If that is true why do they consider not voting?

The last time Richard Brown voted was in 2008. He had caught a couple of presidential debates on TV, and found himself liking what the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, had to say. And as a Black man, he was excited by the idea of voting for the country’s first Black president.

Then in 2012, he decided not to bother casting a second ballot for Obama. It wasn’t that he had soured on the president — he just didn’t think it was necessary. “He’s already in office … [so] I kinda figured he didn’t need my help,” Brown said. He was willing to take the time out of his day to cast his vote, but he didn’t think it would have an impact on the outcome. “I know it’s kind of a stupid thought, but I feel like one missed vote isn’t going to change anything.”

Twelve years later, though, he’s planning to vote again. It’s not because Brown, who is now 53 and lives in the Midwest, is newly hopeful that his vote will matter. In fact, he’s not at all confident that the candidate he’s supporting, Joe Biden, will win. But the stakes of this election feel personal. Over the past four years, some of his friends have changed the way they act and talk, saying hateful things about Obama or sharing racist memes on Facebook.

“I’m not even really keen on Biden,” Brown said. “It’s more so that Trump is bringing racist rhetoric out of a lot of people.” Those kinds of comments are “really hurtful to me, disrespectful to me,” he said. So he’s decided to vote again this year: “This way, if [Biden] does lose the election, I can’t say that it was my fault because I didn’t vote.”

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/non-voters-poll-2020-election/

I can understand for I find myself not at all thrilled with the two major candidates and any independents are not going to have a shot at the big chair….so not voting is an option, just not for me, but an option nonetheless.

Beyond that there are about 5 reasons some people will not vote….

Voting is a right that allows citizens to make their voices heard, but the reality is that as many as half of eligible voters in the US still don’t participate in the election process. 

The US lags far behind most other developed countries when it comes to voter turnout. Only 55.7% of Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election, and even less of the population, 36.4%, voted in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. 

People’s motivations for voting vary. They might believe voting is their civic duty and that their ballot has the power to make a difference. Others just want to fit in with their peers, or their anger about a certain issue drives them to the polls. 

The reasons people don’t vote are just as complex. While full voter participation helps maintain a fair and functioning democracy, everything from logistics to socioeconomic status can get in the way.

Here’s a list of five things stopping Americans from voting. 

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-people-dont-vote/

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

My Vote At The Crossroad

I wish that I could say that I have made up my mind for the 2024 election….but I cannot.

We are sitting at 2 short weeks before our trips to the polls.

We have two major candidates that stand for nothing that I hold dear.

I have said many times that I have not voted for a winner in presidential elections since 1976….during all that time I have voted usually for a third party….not that any of the candidates were that appealing to me but rather their platforms were more in-line with my principles.  Never have I ever regretted the vote I cast.

That brings us to this election….I still think that a third party and/or an independent candidate would get my vote…..and then brace myself for the unbending stupidity about my doing so would elect this person or that…none of which I agree….

Why Your Third-Party Vote Is Not Wasted

My argument is that it is MY vote and I shall put it where I think it will do the most good for this country not because of some personality that is all show and no action and what actions they do take is usually for the benefit of business not the people.

I have not noticed an uptick for independent candidates….if this was any other election but this one I would see this as a good sign….but sadly it is not…..but it is a good sign for the people are starting to see just how corrupt and do nothing the two parties have become.

Now let us look at nightmare scenario that is forming.

Let’s say the independent s make it so that neither major candidate gets the required number of electoral votes to win the election outright….what then?

Then it would fall to the House to elect the president….

If you don’t believe the 2024 presidential campaign can get any more bizarre or anxiety-inducing, just wait.

70 percent of Americans have indicated that they don’t want the major presidential candidates they now appear stuck with. A substantial percent of Democratic voters and a majority of Republican voters don’t want President Biden to run because of his age and perceived cognitive issues. A substantial number of Republicans and a majority of Democrats don’t want former President Trump to run because of his perceived legal issues.

…

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives elects the President from the three (3) Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each State delegation has one vote and it is up to the individual States to determine how to vote. (Since the District of Columbia is not a State, it has no State delegation in the House and cannot vote). A candidate must receive at least 26 votes (a majority of the States) to be elected. The Senate elects the Vice President from the two (2) Vice Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each Senator casts one vote for Vice President. (Since the District of Columbia is has no Senators and is not represented in the vote). A candidate must receive at least 51 votes (a majority of Senators) to be elected. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.

What if no candidate wins 270 electoral votes?

With the House controlled by the GOP, no matter how small the margin, and that party in bed with the Trumpian mindset we could be looking at a Trump win.

Now do you see my quandary?

My vote could throw this thing into a House election….in a different time I would laugh it off as corrupt politics at work….but it is different this time around.

Do I hold with the convictions of my principles or do I hold my nose and vote for an old fart that may not live another 4 years?  And his successor is not someone that I would ever consider worthy.

Then there is the other ‘guy’ whose policies are so far right that it scares me and the party he controls just keeps with its trek right….no where would I consider a vote for these people (being polite as possible)

Now I stand at the crossroad.

Three paths are before me….one is one that I would never travel….one is a road that holds no hope for the people of this country….and the last road is more in line with my principles but could be disastrous for the country.

I try to vote with my head and the policies that I think could benefit the most people not the party that promises and seldom has any inclination of fulfilling those promises.

My head is telling me to look beyond the two corrupt parties, which I have done on numerous occasions, but then the thought brings me back to those damn crossroads.

What to do?  What to do?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2024 Will Be The Pocketbook Vote

We hear almost daily that this election will be about economics…..some call it the “pocketbook vote”….people will vote for the person that they think will improve their income so they can better support their families.

I want to go on record as saying that I do not believe that BS for a moment.

Why would I make such a bold statement?

Let’s look at my state of Mississippi….which by the way is at the bottom of the economic scale….voters on local, state and national level do not vote with their wallets…..if they did this state would be a lot better off than it is today.

Many studies assume that policy issues have little bearing on voting, while the economy has a substantial impact, especially in congressional elections. Yet from 2020 to 2022, congressional voting preferences changed in fundamentally rational ways based on views, thus suggesting evidence of democratic accountability with respect to this particular issue.

“What people tell you is ‘most important’ in determining their vote is likely to be a reflection of their partisanship, rather than a source of change in their vote preferences,” conclude Mutz and Mansfield.

“It could mean that people’s perceptions of the economy are less important than journalists typically imply in their coverage. As a result, lingering effects of the Dobbs decision and general distrust of the Supreme Court may be especially influential in 2024.”

https://phys.org/news/2024-05-conventional-wisdom-americans-pocketbook-voters.html

Do Americans “vote their pocketbooks?” This near-ubiquitous cliche seems at first to pass the test of common sense. Why wouldn’t people vote for the candidates under whom they’ll do the best financially? A wealthy voter should favor the candidate who will lower their taxes. A chronically unemployed voter should support the candidate promising lavish government handouts.

In the most basic economic terms, however, this logic falls apart. If one votes, for example, to maximize the present value of their future income, the answer is to not vote at all. Given the vanishingly low probability of breaking a tie, voting isn’t worth the gasoline used to drive to one’s local fire station and cast a ballot.

Perhaps this critique says more about the limits of economic modelling than it does about voting. Slogans like “It’s the economy, stupid” and “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” suggest a bigger-picture view people can take when voting their pocketbooks. But once again, this view fails to hold water.

The concept of “voting one’s pocketbook” frequently causes partisans who don’t understand the other party’s voters to make strategic errors. It also perpetuates the destructive idea that different groups of citizens are playing a zero-sum game against each other. Finally, and perhaps most insidiously, it creates the myth that the right politician can make our pocketbooks grow.

The Myth of Voting One’s Pocketbook

I ask for your input.

Do you think Americans will vote with their wallets?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Bad Voting Info

It is that time again when people will start looking for their place to vote….in some states it seems to change yearly….most will go on-line but will they get accurate info?

Could AI give bad voting info?

OpenAI’s ChatGPT was caught spitting out false voting information for battleground states, CBS News discovered, in another grim sign of how AI is poised to upend elections.

The errors came to light after reporters at CBS asked for basic information on voting requirements, polling locations, and other questions that a typical voter would ask if they lived in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin — all places that could determine the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election in the fall.

When reporters at CBS asked ChatGPT questions such as the deadline to mail in a ballot in certain states, it would give different but still erroneous outputs on separate devices.

Though OpenAI released a statement in January saying that anybody entering basic voter queries into ChatGPT would be directed to the non-partisan voting website CanIVote.org, reporters at CBS sometimes didn’t get that link to this website when asking voting questions.

“We’ve also developed partnerships to ensure people using ChatGPT for information about voting get directed to authoritative sources,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CBS News. “We are closely monitoring how our technology is being used in the elections context and continue to evolve our approach.”

https://futurism.com/the-byte/chatgpt-bad-info-vote-battleground-states

AI WILL influence voting and we should do all we can to counter it….

2024 will be the first election year to feature the widespread influence of AI before, during and after voters cast their ballots, including in the making and distribution of public messages about candidates as well as electoral processes. 

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has been working hard to help address the impact of AI on our democracy, including educating the public about what to expect in upcoming political campaigns and recommending policy solutions lawmakers should adopt to mitigate the greatest risks to our election system.  

CLC has particularly highlighted the danger of political ads that use AI technology to generate deceptively realistic false content — such as “deepfakes,” which are manipulated media that depict people doing or saying things they didn’t say or do, or events that didn’t really occur — to mislead the public about what candidates are asserting, their positions on issues, and even whether certain events actually happened. If left unchecked, these fraudulent and deceptive uses of AI could infringe on voters’ fundamental right to make informed decisions. 

In addition to influencing the voters’ perceptions of candidates, AI could be used to manipulate the administration of elections, including by spreading disinformation to suppress voter turnout.

https://campaignlegal.org/update/how-artificial-intelligence-influences-elections-and-what-we-can-do-about-it

All I can say is ‘Voter Beware’!

If you have question then contact your local election commission directly and get good info….after all it is your vote and it is valuable.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”