The Banana Republic of America

[firstfloor]

The thing about Bananaists is that only Banana votes count:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...d8d_story.html

Watch out for the usual doublespeak.

[Cow Poke]

Maybe the rioters should riot by mail?

[firstfloor]

Maybe the rioters should riot by mail?

[Cow Poke]

You know, I suppose, that criminal types latch on to civil unrest, opportunistically.

So far, so good.

What possible "good" motives could there be for running out of Target with a 50" TV?

Disarm the police, and be nice to your local black or other minority family. Help to educate the little black kiddies, and give them a job.

OK, I thought this was going to be a serious discussion. Silly, Silly me!

Is David Chappell a name to you? Rude but good. The world is a rude place; we must embrace the rudeness, for in that rudeness is truth.

Always good to see you, ff, cause you make the crazy people in my life seem sane.

[firstfloor]

OK, I thought this was going to be a serious discussion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...482_story.html

[Sparko]

How are they suppressing the black vote? Are you under the impression that blacks only vote by mail or something?

[firstfloor]

An update on Flynn:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...atched-courts/

The Banana Republic gains strength.

[Starlight]

How are they suppressing the black vote? Are you under the impression that blacks only vote by mail or something?

A common Republican tactic is to ensure there are few voting places in black areas, ensuring voting queues are up to 6 hours long and thus discouraging people in those areas from voting. Whereas they aim to put a large number of voting places in white areas, to ensure voting there takes 10 mins or less in order to encourage voters in those areas to vote.

Compounding this is the fact that blacks in the US tend to be far less likely to own a car than whites, and so cannot as easily attend polling stations any significant distance from their homes.

Voting by mail would remove these discrepancies and provide equally easy ballot access for both white and black voters.

[firstfloor]

Blacks are second class citizens to be discouraged from voting by every means possible:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...how-stop-them/

[Sparko]

A common Republican tactic is to ensure there are few voting places in black areas, ensuring voting queues are up to 6 hours long and thus discouraging people in those areas from voting. Whereas they aim to put a large number of voting places in white areas, to ensure voting there takes 10 mins or less in order to encourage voters in those areas to vote.

Compounding this is the fact that blacks in the US tend to be far less likely to own a car than whites, and so cannot as easily attend polling stations any significant distance from their homes.

Voting by mail would remove these discrepancies and provide equally easy ballot access for both white and black voters.

How do they do that, star? Who put the republicans in charge of polling places in democrat districts? Where do you get this?

[rogue06]

How do they do that, star? Who put the republicans in charge of polling places in democrat districts? Where do you get this?

Yup. It's the officials at the precinct level who are in charge of running the polls in all of the jurisdictions I'm familiar with. And if an area is overwhelmingly Democrat then the makeup of the officials will be overwhelmingly Democrat.

Then considering that IIRC we still only have an estimate of the vote in the Democrat's Iowa caucus fiasco, that are constant screw-ups in Democrat precincts every election cycle is no longer such a surprise any more.

[firstfloor]

BTW, Huge oil spill in Russkie Arctic is going badly.

Investigators believe the storage tank near Norilsk sank because of melting permafrost, which weakened its supports. The Arctic has had weeks of unusually warm weather, probably a symptom of global warming.

BBC news.

[Cow Poke]

BTW, Huge oil spill in Russkie Arctic is going badly.



BBC news.

Remember the Exxon Valdez? All kinds of apocalyptic warnings..... Mother Earth demonstrates a remarkable ability to heal.

Fear not, ff..... this, too, shall pass.

[Starlight]

How do they do that, star? Who put the republicans in charge of polling places in democrat districts? Where do you get this?

In general state governments have pretty significant control over the state laws governing polling places. Also once Republicans win a swing district they can then be in a position to change the polling places in that district to ensure they maintain control of it.

Unfortunately SCOTUS recently struck down a historic law that required federal pre-approval of proposed changes to polling places that might have racial impacts. Republicans have seized the opportunity to rearrange the polling places to their hearts content:

Sept 2019: Southern U.S. states have closed 1,200 polling places in recent years: rights group:

States across the American South have closed nearly 1,200 polling places since the Supreme Court weakened a landmark voting-discrimination law in 2013, according to a report released by a civil-rights group on Tuesday.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found http://www.democracydiverted.org that states with a history of racial discrimination have shuttered hundreds of voting locations since the court ruled that they did not need federal approval to change their laws.

The report comes as Republican-led states impose a range of other restrictions, from shorter voting hours to photo-ID requirements. As turnout has surged in recent elections, voters in cities like Phoenix, Arizona and Atlanta, Georgia, have endured hours-long waits to cast their ballots.

Seven counties in Georgia now have only one polling place

March 2020: Texas closes hundreds of polling sites, making it harder for minorities to vote

[Starlight]

Speak of the devil, I've just come across some relevant articles as I peruse today's headlines...

Georgia election 'catastrophe' in largely minority areas sparks investigation

Hours-long waits, problems with new voting machines and a lack of available ballots plagued voters in majority minority counties in Georgia on Tuesday...

Cody Cutting was on a long line at Lang Carson Community Center in Reynoldstown, Atlanta, where the line snaked around the block and some had been waiting to cast their votes for four and a half hours...

Three-quarters of voters who called [into a legal hotline] with [voting] problems identified as African American...

Different article on the subject:
Georgia Is Screaming Out for U.N. Election Monitors - Malfunctioning machines. Absent machines. Six-hour lines.


A comment I saw elsewhere on the subject...

Funny, I went to vote in my mostly white, affluent neighborhood in an Atlanta suburb and had no issues today. No lines, machine worked just fine, etc. I wonder why those precincts that serve majority POC [People of color] voters had such a lack of resources. 🤔🤔🤔