The Next President is...

[MooseAg03]

Maybe you’re special because even with the wait at the DMV it took me a total of about 15 minutes (with a mil ID without SSN) to get my Texas DL.

Same with me. I think I waited about half an hour because of the line that formed prior to opening. My old license was about 2 years expired and I was in the middle of a PCS. I was even able to put my parents’ address on my ID because I was homeless at the time.

DMVs are a great example of government services and their level of customer service. Maybe we should allow vetted private businesses to offer driver’s license services to those who want to pay for convenience. Then this could free up DMV offices to give out free IDs to satisfy your mythical citizens who roam through life with no ID.

[Steve C]

9 hours ago, Jaded said:

I didn't understand it either until I tried to get a new driver's license in Texas after living overseas for several years. Showing up with all my forms filled out, all the ID requirements from the website (including my military ID), and getting turned away because my military ID doesn't have my SSN on it (Wtf). It ended up taking 3 half days off work to get a driver's license (first day at the DPS, next day at the social security administration, third day back at the DPS.) If I couldn't afford those lost wages or if I would lose my job for missing that much work, I just wouldn't have an eligible voter ID. 

Obviously you only accept sources that reinforce your world view, and I'm wasting my time providing a personal anecdotal counter example, but whatever. 

Here's a 17 minute podcast that goes through a methodology of voter fraud claims.

 https://www.thisamericanlife.org/630/things-i-mean-to-know

They use math as their source though, so not sure it it's something you are going to believe. 

 

Weird, I brought all the required paperwork listed on their website and walked out with a new drivers license in about 35 min.  

[drewpey]

17 hours ago, tac airlifter said:

Resistance to voter ID efforts are about enabling fraud and undermining our system. 

See, I can make dumb generalizations too!  When you assume my intent and base your opposition to my concerns on this incorrectly assumed intent, discourse is impossible.  

Said another way, when the discussion starts by you telling me my concerns are not just invalid, but neferious, there can be no amicable resolution.  

Why don’t you try seeing the voter ID issue from my perspective?  I see the potential disenfranchisement issue from yours, and I get it.  As I said to NS, I don’t think it’s a serious issue but I could be wrong.  How can we fix it?  Basically, since we should agree that voting integrity is the foundational legitimacy of representative democracy, how can we compromise and ensure both our concerns are addressed?

I’ll tell you how not to do it— starting the discussion by assuming my concerns are smokescreen for cheating my fellow citizens.

Republicans: Only we care about the integrity of our democratic voting process.

Also republicans: Yeah so what if Russia hacked into our voting systems?  Lets not do anything even though we control all the levers of power.

 

Voter fraud while it exists, has been shown to be a statistically insignificant amount of votes.  Republicans want to continually claim that Soros is trucking in millions of illegal aliens to vote democratic, despite there being no proof of widespread voter fraud.  What there is proof of, is foreign meddling in our election and a hodge-podge of poorly protected voting equipment across the US.  We've known about this for some time, but nothing has been done.  Why the inaction in the face of actual proof if you truly care about the integrity of the voting process?  What will be the tipping point where we can expect to see republicans actually being bothered to push for protecting the voter systems?  Let me guess--when foreign powers start pushing to elect democrats?

 

As for the anecdotal comments about how easy it is to get your documentation, requirements largely varies by state, and military folks are generally more prepared than your average citizen in terms of keeping personal records.  Additionally getting replacements for lost items and new IDs costs money, which poor people don't have a lot of.  They are too busy yanking on their bootstraps, so we should not try to make the democratic process work against them any more than it already has.

[SurelySerious]

What do you propose the response is to unconventional warfare such as hacking attempts on our voting system? 

[MooseAg03]

Franken won his Senate seat by 225 votes, so don’t tell me any number of fraudulent votes is insignificant. Also see Florida in 2000.

As for voting systems, I think electronic ballots are ridiculous. If we’re going to have them, they should be secured along the lines of high side machines in the DOD. Keep them separate, unplugged and isolated to prevent malware. I would much prefer a return to paper ballots where I receive a carbon copy showing how my vote was counted. But in today’s world where everyone wants instant results, I’m not sure that will happen.

I also recall a post just a few before this one where someone else argued for paper ballots as well. There you go with the generalizations that an entire political party doesn’t care about a particular topic. It gets nauseating.

[Lawman]

What do you propose the response is to unconventional warfare such as hacking attempts on our voting system? 

I’d recommend:

1. refusing to acknowledge Russia is a geopolitical foe

2. Slashing military forward presence with the removal of 2/3 of standing forces from Europe

3. Continued ignoring of major partners in Europe not meeting their NATO member spending obligations to include its largest economy being unable to field more than 2 battalions is Armored forces

4......


Wait this all seems oddly familiar to the actions of the previous administration.


Long answer is while Russia “did something” it’s a red herring for a party that wants to focus on any excuse for losing what should have been their election. It’s just as big an overblown actual effect as the secret army of racist white guys that came out to vote in places like Montgomery County Ohio and then the box from blue to red for the first time in 30 years because “MAGA.”

The people saying we “aren’t doing something” about Russia... chances are they haven’t seen the ATO or been in theatre where we seem to be pissing them off daily. And for what response they want to see for this IO campaign, keep in mind they are a permanent security council member with veto power whose cooperation we need on bigger issues (North Korea) and we didn’t go to war with them previously over invading a sovereign country whose protection we promised when they gave up their nukes in the 90s, or shot down an airliner in the 80s, or Armed our F’ing enemies with state of the art hardware in war after war. We aren’t gonna do more than sanctions and blustering over them running a social media campaign exposing largely the crappy activities the DNC was actually truthfully engaged in.

[brickhistory]

Some recent funnies (to me anyway):

For the recent elected avowed Socialist congresswomen from da Bronx = She Guevera

For Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg  = shovel ready

 

Voter fraud?

https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2018/06/26/judge-tosses-kleberg-county-justice-peace-votes-orders-new-election/730354002/

 

2016 election interference?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stand-obama-team-blew-response-russian-meddling-100024634.html

If she who lost bigly despite being a lock, had won, not a peep of Russkie interference would've been uttered as it would've tainted her crowning (no pun intended).

 

 

Notice not much is/has been made of the IT scandal within many of the Democrat congressional delegations.  Guy (Pakistani national) accessed terrabytes of Congressional info, was picked up by the FBI with large dollars in his pocket at Dulles, his wife did manage to get out, his employer Debbie Wasserman-Shultz was frantic to keep her laptop and this issue out of the hands of law enforcement, etc, etc, etc.

Guy pled guilty yesterday to one count of loan application falsification.

Hmmm....

[MooseAg03]

 
Notice not much is/has been made of the IT scandal within many of the Democrat congressional delegations.  Guy (Pakistani national) accessed terrabytes of Congressional info, was picked up by the FBI with large dollars in his pocket at Dulles, his wife did manage to get out, his employer Debbie Wasserman-Shultz was frantic to keep her laptop and this issue out of the hands of law enforcement, etc, etc, etc.
Guy pled guilty yesterday to one count of loan application falsification.
Hmmm....

Another win for the non-biased completely apolitical FBI...

[17D_guy]

9 hours ago, MooseAg03 said:

 

Another win for the non-biased completely apolitical FBI...

My reading of the articles was this was a DOJ decision.

[MooseAg03]

What does that say at the top there?

[17D_guy]

Oh wow, they're the same exact thing?  Who knew?  It's almost like there's departments over agencies that can make decisions in line with or contrary to the agencies recommendations.

Why does that seem so familiar?

[MooseAg03]

The FBI let the dude’s wife flee the country after stopping her at the airport with personal possessions and a large amount of cash. They were investigating Awan and had a first-year agent as the lead, so it sure does seem like it was a priority. I’m sure they had absolutely nothing to do with the ridiculous plea deal.

[brickhistory]

Comey/McCabe/Strzyck (sp?), et al tarnished the reputation of the FBI so it's no wonder folks, including me, are skeptical about their actions.

DOJ ditto even under a Trump Administration who are, indeed, the ones who made this deal.

One has to wonder why this guy, after having access to 40+ Democrat congresscritters' IT systems/accounts, possessed USG laptops in his home, etc, etc, etc, was granted such a sweetheart deal.  

Flynn gets lying to the FBI and this guy gets a loan application fraud deal?

Hmmm....

[Vertigo]

On 7/1/2018 at 3:11 PM, MooseAg03 said:

Agree. If you can’t function at a level to have ID in this day and age, you should not be voting.

Our need for fair, fraud free elections outweigh people’s need to be lazy asses and not get an ID.

A 98 year old at a nursing care facility who has voted their entire lives, but now has no need for a driver's license or other photo ID is now a lazy ass.

Noted.

[Seadogs]

18 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

A 98 year old at a nursing care facility who has voted their entire lives, but now has no need for a driver's license or other photo ID is now a lazy ass.

Noted.

Pretty sure that's not what he meant. Dude like seriously how much kool-aid did you drink? 

[brickhistory]

59 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

A 98 year old at a nursing care facility who has voted their entire lives, but now has no need for a driver's license or other photo ID is now a lazy ass.

Noted.

https://www.philly.com/philly/news/vote-fraud-election-seniors-pennsylvania-20171103.html

https://nsjonline.com/article/2016/10/voter-fraud-complaints-issued-in-hoke-county/

https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/16491-two-sentenced-in-massachusetts-vote-fraud-case

 

Indeed, noted.

And these were, literally, just the first three google results found out of multiple pages of such.

[Lawman]

1 hour ago, Vertigo said:

A 98 year old at a nursing care facility who has voted their entire lives, but now has no need for a driver's license or other photo ID is now a lazy ass.

Noted.

My mother works as a nurse in nursing home/hospice care. Every resident she has regardless of age or level of infirm status has an ID. They have to in order to pay or have access Medicare benefits.

 

Jesus the level of contortions people will go to the explain why it’s ok to not have any form of identification yet exercise an action as big a deal as voting is ridiculous.  

[HossHarris]

2 hours ago, Vertigo said:

A 98 year old at a nursing care facility who has voted their entire lives, but now has no need for a driver's license or other photo ID is now a lazy ass.

Noted.

My drivers license expires when I’m 65. 

You can get non-DL state ID that never expires. 

It’s not rocket surgery. 

[matmacwc]

47 minutes ago, HossHarris said:

My drivers license expires when I’m 65. 

You can get non-DL state ID that never expires. 

It’s not rocket surgery. 

We know, and we know they know, and they know we know they know.  Meh, 4's bingo.   

[Lord Ratner]

 
Jesus the level of contortions people will go to the explain why it’s ok to not have any form of identification yet exercise an action as big a deal as voting is ridiculous.  

As soon as you realize that it's almost never about the issue at hand, but rather the act of opposition itself, it actually becomes quite understandable.

Muslims and gays. Taxes and abortions. Illegal immigration and the environment. These issues only go together under one paradigm.

[Vertigo]

I didn't say I was anti voter ID, you all just made that assumption.

 

I just said that just because someone may be in a situation where obtaining one is extremely hard for them it doesn't make them a lazy ass.

 

But feel free to keep putting words in my mouth because you can't read something for what it actually says.

 

Also this: https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-01-2012/voter-id-laws-impact-older-americans.html

Edited July 6, 2018 by Vertigo
A word

[17D_guy]

FISA warrant for Carter Page was released, find it at your favorite news source.

Some interesting analysis here: 

If you've got good reviews of it let me know.

[Vertigo]

On 7/22/2018 at 10:33 AM, 17D_guy said:

FISA warrant for Carter Page was released, find it at your favorite news source.

Some interesting analysis here: 

If you've got good reviews of it let me know.

You're going to get crickets because it shows the Republican released memo was a fabrication.

The central point of the memo was that the FBI didn't tell the FISA court about Steele's political motives, when in fact the footnote disclosing Steele’s possible bias takes up more than a full page in the applications, so there is literally no way the FISA Court could have missed it.

When Rubio backs the FISA warrant, then it's abundantly clear Nunez is full of shit and was just trying to disrupt the investigation.

[Azimuth]

Trump supporters would let Trump shit in their mouths, If they thought the Libs could smell it.

Paul isn’t looking too well since his first trial is delayed six days over discovery issues with the unsealing of immunized witnesses against him. Some states, like New York, have hinted at filing state charges against him if Trump gives a pardon.

[matmacwc]

Y'all are missing the forest from the trees.