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Let's start with two months. It seems quite possible that we'll have a better idea what's going on by June. A number of important events that affect my communit

Let's start with two months. It seems quite possible that we'll have a better idea what's going on by June. A number of important events that affect my community have been postponed until at least then. In June, we can ask the public health experts whether we can start ramping back up with big public events, including elections. I wish all the democracy superfans would show some consistency and demand all-paper-ballot elections, like most democratic polities in history and in the present. The closed-source electronic voting box is certainly a bigger threat to democracy than several months of primary delay. When other nations have exit poll discrepancies of over 4%, the UN calls it an indicator of probable vote fraud. Our primaries regularly feature such discrepancies. [0] [0] https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/03/13/is-the-dnc-cheating-again/ https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/03/13/is-the-dnc-cheatin...

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
I'm in favor of paper ballots too! But surely you see why it's more concerning to say "alright, elections are cancelled, and we won't hold an election again until unaccountable public health experts make a subjective judgment that it's safe". What would happen if they don't?
- jessaustin 7y ago
  I'm not sure what would happen... The people can't really do much marching now, can we? If we were to march in these perilous times, we wouldn't waste it on Hidin' Joe Biden. Anyway, elections as currently practiced are more important to TPTB than to the people. The show must go on.
  - lern_too_spel 7y ago
    Or maybe instead of some cabal of TPTB keeping Bernie down, maybe people just don't like Bernie. Have you considered that? I think some of Bernie's ideas are fine, though his priorities are backwards. What I can't stand about him though is that he encourages raving conspiracy theorists. McCain shut that down when his running mate encouraged people to shout conspiracy theories at his rallies. Trump and Sanders revel in it. I don't particularly like Biden either, but he's far and away better than the alternatives.
    - jessaustin 7y ago
      Obviously superior alternatives who ran this year: Gabbard, Sanders, Warren, Booker, Castro, de Blasio, Gravel. Plausibly superior such alternatives: Klobuchar, Harris, Gillebrand, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Bullock. One could have predicted Biden would run in 2020 several decades ago, since after all he has run for president every other decade for the last five decades. The 2040s are not looking good... Whom do we have to bribe to get some new blood in the Democratic Party? Instead, against the original p####-grabber, they're running... another p####-grabber. [0] Good grief. [0] https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/joe-biden-metoo-times-up/ https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/joe-biden-metoo-times-up...
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Well... there are different scenarios. 1. If you're saying "everybody stay home, the NBA is cancelled, the NCAA tournament is cancelled because of the threat of transmission, but we're going to have the entire state parade in front of a bunch of old people who run our polls"... yeah, that might not be a great idea right now. Deciding to either postpone it or do it mail-only seems rather responsible. 2. Postponing it indefinitely is a whole nother can of worms. You can't just postpone the general election for two years until we have a working vaccine. So, worst case, we're going to have to conduct the general election by mail only. I think it has to be conducted on time in November, though, to avoid giving rise to conspiracy theories (or to tempt people from taking advantage of the situation...)

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago

I'm in favor of paper ballots too! But surely you see why it's more concerning to say "alright, elections are cancelled, and we won't hold an election again until unaccountable public health experts make a subjective judgment that it's safe". What would happen if they don't?

jessaustin 7y ago
I'm not sure what would happen... The people can't really do much marching now, can we? If we were to march in these perilous times, we wouldn't waste it on Hidin' Joe Biden. Anyway, elections as currently practiced are more important to TPTB than to the people. The show must go on.
- lern_too_spel 7y ago
  Or maybe instead of some cabal of TPTB keeping Bernie down, maybe people just don't like Bernie. Have you considered that? I think some of Bernie's ideas are fine, though his priorities are backwards. What I can't stand about him though is that he encourages raving conspiracy theorists. McCain shut that down when his running mate encouraged people to shout conspiracy theories at his rallies. Trump and Sanders revel in it. I don't particularly like Biden either, but he's far and away better than the alternatives.
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    Obviously superior alternatives who ran this year: Gabbard, Sanders, Warren, Booker, Castro, de Blasio, Gravel. Plausibly superior such alternatives: Klobuchar, Harris, Gillebrand, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Bullock. One could have predicted Biden would run in 2020 several decades ago, since after all he has run for president every other decade for the last five decades. The 2040s are not looking good... Whom do we have to bribe to get some new blood in the Democratic Party? Instead, against the original p####-grabber, they're running... another p####-grabber. [0] Good grief. [0] https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/joe-biden-metoo-times-up/ https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/joe-biden-metoo-times-up...
AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Well... there are different scenarios. 1. If you're saying "everybody stay home, the NBA is cancelled, the NCAA tournament is cancelled because of the threat of transmission, but we're going to have the entire state parade in front of a bunch of old people who run our polls"... yeah, that might not be a great idea right now. Deciding to either postpone it or do it mail-only seems rather responsible. 2. Postponing it indefinitely is a whole nother can of worms. You can't just postpone the general election for two years until we have a working vaccine. So, worst case, we're going to have to conduct the general election by mail only. I think it has to be conducted on time in November, though, to avoid giving rise to conspiracy theories (or to tempt people from taking advantage of the situation...)