They could have helped us by including the public option in the bill, as it was originally designed to include by republican Mitt Romney. Instead, they simply used it as an opportunity to shovel 25 million Americans right into the pockets of insurance companies. Then-senator Biden dropped the public option before negotiations even began, as a “show of good faith to his esteemed Republican colleagues.” They left the insurance requirement in though, and even tried to add a system where we had to report it with taxes if we wanted refunds.

The part BBB is fucking up is honestly a travesty to begin with. It’s what allows Walmart to operate without insuring their employees, specifically training them to earn under certain amounts and work limited hours so that they can go on Medicare instead of the giant multinational corporation paying their fair share for their employees’ health.

Do you see the pattern here? Fuck these corporations for buying our government and using it against us to rob us blind. Both parties do help them with this, and it has got to stop because we’re at a breaking point.

Dems constantly let republicans get away with “causing more damage,” yet never seem capable of helping the working class when they get voted back into power. It’s so disingenuous, at least Republicans are honest about their evil intentions. But sure, vote harder next election sweetie, and if you vote hard enough the still not prosecuted Orange Traitor will just cancel the election altogether.

At least he didn’t say Mr Roboto ?..

His dad introduced modern computer voting

Ah yes, the now infamous Diebold voting machines. Manufactured by… drum roll… Dick Cheney‘a Halliburton, a company with every intention of getting us into forever wars for them to profit off of. Certainly nothing fishy about that, nor the countless reports of the machines glitching and flipping votes. This was the precursor to the refined technique which made news for allegedly swinging the vote for Biden and cost Fox all that lawsuit money, but if you ask me that’s just classic Republican projection. They know what they did to get Bush in office.

Glad you’re still here in the US, sorry it’s still tejas though. Such a mix of amazing and terrible things in that state. Politics is so frustrating there…it’s far more purple than Repugs would like to admit, but they gerrymander it like crazy and exploit people’s religious beliefs to keep the state turning blue seemingly perpetually out of reach. I was lucky to escape to one of the coasts in the aftermath of the pandemic, but not sure it makes much difference given the current socio-political landscape. Summers aren’t quite so brutal though so there’s that.

I do think there are better ways of doing ballots digitally, and yeah even old school methods like you described can work well. The states you mentioned use a type of scantron, very clear what you circle in but still subject to the same type of partisan nonsense as the hanging chads (eg, look they only filled in 90% of this circle, clearly we have to toss this vote.) speaking of tossing votes, that’s the other thing about paper ballots…they can literally just dump them before dropping off at the county election centers, and we had several cases of that in the ‘24 election. I think a permanent record that is a verifiable source of truth for election results is quite feasible, can still be anonymous, and provably non biased, but it has to be built that way and neither party can be trusted to do that.

Yep, do this every time. Unfortunately voter turnout in primaries is so abysmal that the ad spends seem to often work. By the numbers, the candidate who spends more money wins over 95% of the time. It’s a depressing reality that has led Dems down a very dark path of chasing donor money and abandoning their constituents in the process.

I’m apparently a freak of American politics and do basic due diligence to research beforehand if the primary is contested and find the most progressive contender possible, but I think most people just don’t give care enough to do this sort of thing and usually just vote for the name they see more on TV. So, I think increased civic engagement is another very important part of solving these issues.

We should invest in our electoral process and make it the envy of democracies around the globe, and as Americans, should be damn proud to do so.

It sounds like you were politically active in TX around the same time I was, during GW era, based on prior comment. But this reads as if you are an expat now. Did you leave?

One of the reasons I think paper can be problematic is actually part of the same debacle that got W elected - the hanging chads in FL. After numerous recounts, it was in fact confirmed that Gore won, but by then fucking Fox News had declared the winner and the corrupt SCOTUS went along with it.

What conspiracy theory? Dems are bought, for just one example look at how they lick Israel’s boots and eagerly spend our money on killing Palestinian babies because their AIPAC handler pays them to do so. That doesn’t help us at home, and it doesn’t resonate with the voter base, yet they still collect the money and do the donor bidding every time.

I want actual representation, by stark contrast.

There is no conspiracy here other than the apparent belief that Democrats have democracy and the American people’s best interests in mind. Sure, there’s Bernie, but he won’t call himself a Dem - the reason why is no conspiracy, and that should tell you a lot about the Dem party.

Agreed we need much better voting protections and a complete overhaul of the system, with national standards the states should be required to meet. I think there is probably a more modern solution available that would satisfy the requirements you’ve laid out, but would be happy to start with paper ballots if that’s all we can muster. Eventually I’d like to see something like a 1 way hash that can be combined with some of a voter’s PII to publicly verify votes cast and results while protecting voter identities.

I’m glad we have some agreement at least.

I’d just like to remind you that we’ve voted Dems into a super majority 3 times in the past 25 years, and every time they find some excuse to do nothing. It’s infuriating, until you realize that they are controlled opposition in an oligarchy, and the point of modern American government is to help the richest people in the world exploit and rob vulnerable Americans for everything they’re worth. Then it’s just sad to see people continually going to bat for them.

Dems are a pressure relief valve and a fundraising organization, nothing more.

We the people aren’t afraid of this, but if the establishment dems catch wind of a primary challenger who’s left of center, they will come down so hard on them with millions in DNC attic ads and literally try to cancel the primary if they have to to keep them out.

It’s much easier to stifle open revolt with sham elections. Putin has been doing this for decades now in Russia.

The Dems are also fascists. I’m not saying support republicans, I’m saying support a new party altogether. The establishment has been screwing us for over 50 years now, and helping the Dems inevitably leads to more of the same.

Should have begun charging Trump immediately after Biden took office, instead of taking over 2 years to even get started. Voting rights act on day 1? Not a priority. Could have done things for the working class promised during campaign season, instead got stopped by the almighty senate parliamentarian…even while in power just nothing the poor Dems could do, except collect donations from rube voters of course. Could have held a primary election for ‘24 in good faith to energize the base by letting them choose their party leader (inevitably would not have been a corporate stooge) - didn’t, tried to run a known advanced dementia sufferer, and when that didn’t work, just anointed another corporate stooge.

The Dems are complicit, and voting for them is not going to combat this fascist regime one bit. Pull your head out of your ass and wake up.

Good question, maybe FOIA requests but it will probably be all redacted for “national security concerns.” Congress should be able to get the info as well, and could release it at their discretion.

The $175 billion in new ICE funding that’s coming with this spending bill is what they’ll use to build it. Follow that money and you’ll find the mass extermination facilities.

Blatant racism aside, look around at the devastation wrought by repugnantcon policies buddy. Zohran is already in a 3rd world shithole, and he has the audacity to try to make it somewhat more tolerable for those in his city.

“Money is speech” might have a whole lot to do with it.

We don’t have representation of the electorate, we have a system of open bribery for the rich to control everything with their bought politicians.

Laughable. The one I’m worried about is Kushner.

I’d give him about as much of a chance as Sarah Palin.

Hold them in contempt of Congress, file lawsuits, campaign in Mike Lee’s home district and make a huge deal about it, stall bad bills in committee, haul in private industry leaders and grill them on why they want to violate federal law and destroy protected land - literally anything they have the power to do.

What they should not be doing is fold their arms and pout about not wanting to do anything for 4 years, which is exactly what they are paid to do by the donors.