chasfh

Totally constitutional, too, I betcha

Not equivalent.

Looks like whoever designed that logo was a little too confident. 😏

what town is that?

Shamelessness is apparently a prerequisite to being a Republican anymore.

If we do this—and I am definitely not opposed to it—I think we would just have to be comfortable with the idea that some or all of these three will kill it and maybe even become All Stars for someone else. Not everyone can be a good fit for even the best of systems, and some players would benefit most from a hands-off-just-play situation. I definitely believe that's Tork, for sure, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the two pitchers as well.

I'm sure many people have real concerns about voter fraud—even though the fear is based mainly in fiction and, in reality, there is practically zero voter fraud—but I think for many other people, the real reason they support voter ID is they hope it will cause Democrats to lose elections by keeping likely D voters from voting in the first place.

I'm sure SSN would be part of the equation, although I don't think federal courts would uphold a federal voter ID law. But if you want to make people chase the state around for ID, and also, leave confirmation up to poll worker discretion to accept or reject people on the spot instead of an airtight depersonalized confirmation system, then we part company on those.

So by highlighting this and only this part, can we assume you want to require the voter undertake efforts to obtain the ID and not the state proactively seeking to provide them ID? And that you want to retain poll worker personal discretion to accept or reject the voter in front of them as they see fit, based on "that's OK, you can go in, I know who you are", or "not so fast, that's not enough, I need more?"

Would it only take someone you personally know being victimized by the law to get you to agree that the voter ID law be changed? Is that the only requirement you'll accept?

Wanna have some fun with it? What do we think such a story could be? I'll start: Trump is caught on video saying "I can't believe I'm losing to that [f-word]ing [n-word] [c-word]!"

Do you agree these conditions would have to be met, or else there should not be a voter ID requirement at all?

I could be talked into it with the following conditions, at minimum: Voter ID is made available, proactively by the state and at taxpayers' expense, to every eligible voting citizen, bar none. Citizens eligible to vote should not have to bust their humps to try to obtain voter ID, and they should not be priced out of voting. Every voter should be required to have their ID and voting status confirmed at the voting booth, no exceptions. No getting a pass from the poll workers because they "know" you. They cannot have the personal discretion to approve or reject you on the spot. Your ID MUST be confirmed, no exceptions. If I show up, or you show up, or Donald Trump shows up, and the voter ID cannot be confirmed, then no vote. Period. No exceptions. And ID has to be confirmed somehow before vote-by-mail or online vote is allowed. Maybe there are more conditions I would need to see to be talked into it, but these are the first two I can think of off the top of my head. I'm not sure how these could be implemented, especially #2. Is voter ID a physical card? Can it be located on your phone like your medical card? Is there a counter-check on the poll worker's side to positively confirm, like a scanner gun tied to a state database? Can voters be processed as quickly as they are under no-voter-ID rules? How the heck can ID be confirmed for mail-in or online voting? I don't know, but just because I can't plan out and articulate exactly how these would work to a 100% complete degree to you right now in this post, does not mean they shouldn't be conditions in the first place. But my thing is, until these conditions can be locked down airtight, I don't think voter ID should be a requirement anywhere. Because the whole voter ID thing is far too easy to use as a tool to keep certain eligible voters the politicians in power don't like, or the poll workers don't like, from being able to cast a vote. Figure this out to my satisfaction, and you may have me on board with you.

The motivations of black voters is rich and complex, but one thing I’m pretty confident of is that they have no interest in voting just to blow up the system, as too many white voters would like. Black people know they need a strong government to protect them from the freewheeling, unchecked racial apartheid and vigilantism that characterized the first 350 years of white rule on this continent.

I think the closest I’ve come to ratifying polls posted here is when people would post a year or more out that Biden was up by some number of points on Trump, and I would reply with something like, “Quick! Call the election for today!”

I think there are people who have been in the red hat camp for eight years who’ve been rethinking their position, and something like this might help give them permission to peel off from MAGA. It won’t be any more than a marginal number of people, and it will make less of a difference in Oklahoma than in any other state, but it could help as another data point for such people in swing states who hear about this, and it could make a difference there. Not every 2x-Trump voter has the MAGA worm in their brain.

OK, forgive me, because since you responded directly to me, it initially looked as though you were aping me here. I’ve posted multiple times that I’m not paying to polling numbers, and in all my posts here, I don’t think I’ve shared a poll even once.

Is that supposed to be me talking?

It won’t move the needle in either direction one iota. The opinions are calcified. Also, the woman is, what, 40? People are going to look at this and say, “Trump groped a full-grown 40-year-old woman? And I’m supposed to be uniquely horrified by that?”

I don’t know about northern Illinois and Iowa, but definitely northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. I think it’s because the area was settled mainly by Scandinavians instead of Scots Irish.

Not on the roller coaster, so, not paying attention.

This is a good October surprise.

Head?