Does your vote for President count?

1. It is what it is. For now, moving forward is important. Let’s hope Nostradamus is wrong about Trump. I’m glad Nelson won another treasurer term. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Karsky at the county is a zombie post. There are much better candidates for mayor than he. I’m thinking Pat Starr because he (with Stehly) voted to accept the 6400 petition. Stehly maybe but Starr is NE. A side of town that needs and he’d give attention to. Also, I doubt he can be bought by Sanford like others on the council.

2. I’m gonna register as Republican. In this state, seems they have more freedom and are less persecuted. I’ll still vote and have other party values. If you present yourself Republican, must you grope women? How about brag and lie about it without it happening?

3. You asked if our vote for the presidency counts. Well,
   last night was a result thanks to “Super Delegates” and an electoral college. Neither concept is democratic and they are the last major vestiges of political privilege controlling the masses in this country.

   One can be resolved by a political party, while the other asks all of us to reexamine our political process as we walk into a transitional period in American history from one of a white dominance to one of a greater pluralism. Time will tell if this transition will be with great peace, but for now we are sadly left with the reality that as a nation we are going from the politics of hope to the politics of despair thanks to some vestiges which do not offer answers, rather only a continuance of undemocratic control…..

4. The electoral college is how the game is played. If you look at a red/blue map of the US set up by county, it is about 90% red. This tells us that a few people concentrated in small areas have as much or more popular vote as the vast majority of the country. Even California has a significant amount of red. The EC then is set up as a compromise that allows for preventing the tyranny of the majority.
   Whether you like this or not, it is the system that is employed. Hillary Clinton knew it and Donald Trump knew it. In fact, I believe Hillary reminded Donald that the election is actually 51 elections. As things sort out, it appears Trump will have around 300 electoral college votes. Well above the number needed to win. It also reflects how much of the area of the country Trump actually won.

5. It is an arcane system that needs to go. We should have learned our lesson after Gore lost to GW Bush. The presidential race is not a popularity contest.

6. The electoral college is an eighteen century version of affirmative action, where the college was meant to create a balance of power between the only two political forces or electorate which mattered then, the white male land gentry of the rural areas and states versus the white male landowning speculators of the urban areas.

   Today, our country is far more vast and plural, and landownership is no longer a requirement to vote. The electoral college is an antiquated concept which is not in touch with the demographics or the true make-up of who needs to be and should be represented in our nation today.

   Do not get me wrong, I support affirmative action itself, and I believe it has a place to play in our society to hopefully guarantee an outcome of equality, but an application of this concept which limits the universe between groups or its players, which are only a part of the true reality and fail to protect and uplift all groups of a political society to a theoretical equality, is lacking in purpose and political legitimacy.

7. Again, the system has worked for all of these years. Whether you think it arcane or not is up to you. However it usually gets things right. Look at the electoral map of the US and see how little blue there is when compared to the red/pink areas. Liberals are holed up in small areas and the rest of the country with real people in it who have to make a go of things are in the rest of the country. This “arcane” system usually gets things right. All we have to do is look at the election a couple of days ago and in 2000 when Gore tried to steal the election. After 9/11, there were many Democrats who were glad W was in the White House rather than Gore.

8. “However it usually gets things right.”

   GW Bush was one of the worst presidents this nation has ever seen, he was a f’ing disaster and Obama worked almost his entire 8 years fixing that dipshit’s mess, and still hasn’t come close. Like I said, we should have learned from the mistakes of the EC when Gore lost.

   As for ‘Liberals’ being holed up, that’s pretty funny considering all these holed up liberals and hermit hippies managed to garner more votes for Hillary then for Trump.

9. Four times in American history, the candidate who lost the popular vote still was elected president thanks to the electoral college: JQ Adams 1824, Benjamin Harrison 1888, George W. Bush 2000, and now Donald Trump in 2016.

   Until Trump, the prior three were either the son or grandson of a prior president. And now, only sixteen years a part we have had two such victors. If the former does not speak to how the electoral college protects a privileged class to the realities of its time and the later does not speak to how the once again frequency speaks to the protection of one class against the many in a transitional period in our nation’s history, in terms of race demographics, then what else does it say?

   The electoral college is an out of date concept, that protects a few within an universe and ignores the true reality of the universe that we actually live in. There was a time when the electoral college enfranchised Americans, but today it merely disenfranchises many.

10. How about each county gets 1 electoral vote.

    http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/how-the-election-unfolded/

    The electoral is fair and good enough for the past 60 presidential elections. My candidate didn’t get to participate in the debates. I should stomp around and have a tantrum too.

    Its the electorate that needs to change by growing up. Your such a shitty loser.

11. Duggersd,

    I have only one question. What? You said,

    “After 9/11, there were many Democrats who were glad W was in the White House rather than Gore.”

    Oh really, you actually think that Democrats were not bothered that “Dubya” lied about why we needed to go to war in Iraq?

    Do you really think that Gore would have ignored the 08/06/01 national security briefing, which warned of Bin Laden’s plan to use domestic planes to attack our cities and buildings, like “Dubya” did, and that Democrats would not be bothered by this, once known?

    Do you really think that Gore would have had an Attorney General who belittled his staffers in July of 2001 when they raised concerns of domestic terrorism, like “Dubya” did, and that Democrats would have not been bothered by this, once known?

    Do you really think that Gore would have ignored national security advisor, Richard Clark’s west wing concerns over Bin Laden in the Spring of 2001, or would have ignored Clinton’s comments to incoming president “Dubya” that he needed to keep his eye on Bin Laden, had he been the in-coming president instead, and that Democrats were not bothered by these facts, once known?

    Huh?

12. JKC, Sr., First of all, 9/11 had nothing to do with the decision to go into Iraq. And there were several reports at that time of Democrats who were glad to have W in charge instead of Gore. And no, Bush did not lie about weapons in Iraq. The intelligence agencies of several countries including the US, Russia, Britain, and France said they were there. There is a difference between being mistaken and lying. BTW, there is some evidence that the weapons were there, but removed.
    l3wis, Bush was not the worst president in history. In fact, his legacy is getting better all of the time. He came into office during a recession. Things were just getting better when 9/11 happened setting back the economy. Then the economy started growing. This growth was much stronger than anything under the Obama administration. BTW, the Obama administration has been rated as one of the worst in History. The Bush administration attempted to do something about the bubble in housing that was getting ready to burst. However the Congress refused to do anything about it.
    Also, let us see if the conservatives come to see Trump being sworn in and booing and screaming at Obama the way liberals did to Bush.
    As for your laughing at my comment about the holed up liberals, um, look at the map and just see where the blue spots are. They are the spots that have large congregations of people and many of them suck off the government for their way of getting by.

13. Duggersd,

    I totally agree with your first sentence, but “Dubya” in time and place didn’t. So those alleged Democrats you mention of, right after 9/11, must of thought like Bush as well, else they would have not voted for the war in Iraq and liked Bush over Gore back then as you claim. Or in other words, you have just indicted the efficacy of your own opinion or claimed fact that some Dems were happy and credible when thinking that “Dubya” was president after 9/11 and not Gore, and thus, justified in their claim.

    Have you ever heard of the “10 Downing Street” memo? That memo severely indicts your claim that many world leaders believed that Saddam had WMD. In fact, if Russian and France truly believed he did, as you allege, then why did they refuse to join the “Coalition of the Willing.” In fact, France was are most vocal opponent of the Bush Doctrine when applied to Iraq during UN debates.

    “Dubya’s” economic legacy is a disaster. He ruined a federal balanced budget before 9/11 with a massive tax cut. He was caught sleeping at the wheel when it comes to the housing bubble.

    You want to blame Congress, well, if you want to blame Congress, then you have to blame the Republican Congress and their misdirected concerns back then for steroids in major league baseball and the Schiavo case, do you remember the Schiavo case? The Democrats didn’t take power until 2007. The same year “The Great Recession” began. The mess was already out of control.

    Any greater growth “Dubya” had in the mid part of the last decade in comparison to Obama’s is merely the reality of the economic infrastructure which “Dubya” had or could work with in time and place, which was greatly lost after the commencement of “The Great Recession,” which “Dubya’s” policies or lack there of ushered in.

    And for your last paragraph, well, they say that rural America elected Trump in this election. Huh? It seems to me that many parts of rural America are subsidized by federal ag programs, too…..

14. JKC, just looked at your memo. It appears the Brits had concluded W had made up his mind to remove Hussein. It also says that Iraq had not removed all of its WMD’s, part of the resolution passed by the UN to justify war with Iraq. It also says Iraq had the capability to build WMD’s within 4 to 5 years. WMD’s were only ONE of the reasons for wanting Hussein removed. Hussein was an instigator of terror. Iraq was paying the families of people who blew themselves up while killing innocent people. BTW, according to the NY Times, WMD’s were found. ” From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.

    In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.”
    Also, don’t forget about the yellow cake that was found which is an ingredient to make weapons grade material.
    BTW, I am not a Republican and you can blame Republicans all you want and in many cases I will agree with you. The fact remains that the Bush administration warned Congress about the problem with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Two main opponents of doing anything about it were Republicans Barney Frank and Senator Schumer. In fact both of the Republicans thought these programs should be expanded and more people who could not afford to pay the loans should be given the opportunity to default on their loans and make the problem worse. This warning came in 2003. Allan Greenspan also warned Congress. Both sides ignored the information and built a house of cards that came tumbling down. So, yes I do hold Republicans accountable. Especially the likes of Frank and Schumer who said there was no problem and helped convince members of their own party and members of the other party there was no problem and things should continue as they had before.
    BTW, I just read an analysis about the popular vote. I am not sure how true this is, but according to the article, in many states absentee ballots are not counted unless they will make a difference. Absentee ballots break about 2/3 Republican to 1/3 Democrat. If absentee ballots are counted more than likely Trump also wins the popular vote. I voted absentee and it rather irritates me if this is true.
    Nice writing with you. You are one of the few people who does not find it necessary to insult people who have differing opinions.

15. Duggersd,

    I appreciate your final comment very much, thank you. I have to admit though, that not everything I have ever written on these blogs I am happy about. I have had my snarky moments, but since I have begun to use my name I find it brings a greater civility to my thoughts. Although, many on Facebook, especially, do not seem to be hesitant in their snarky qualities when using their actual names, but it works for me and if there ever was a time when we need more civility in social media it is now, thank you again.

    But when it comes to Iraq and WMD, let us not forget how that war was sold to the world and especially the UN. SOS Powell before the UN claimed that Saddam had roving RVs through the land that were making WMD, but these RVs were never found. Then the media was initially led to believe that the Coalition had successfully attacked a WMD plant, which was later disclosed to be merely a baby formula plant; which further indicted their intelligence assessments.

    Back in 2002-03 that war was successfully sold on the belief that Saddam was manufacturing WMD, which he was not. And a fear of capability is merely an intelligence hunch, which must be weighed against an all out invasion – and to the degree that there was any legitimate need to deal with any future capability, a surgical strike would have been the best answer and not an all out war.

    You make mention that Saddam was an instigator of terror. But hasn’t the application of the Bush Doctrine over time created a choice between a power vacuum in the Middle East versus the reality of a continual war with the former causing even more terror which has since spread to Europe and the US, while the latter is a draining foreign policy position which over time weakens America’s standing and capabilities in the world because of war fatigue? So in other words, the Bush Doctrine has enhanced terror and not prevented it.

    As far as the chemicals that were found, those were merely the remnants of a capability supplied to Saddam in the 1980s by the West to deal with Iran in the Iraq/Iran War, which were unfortunately and eventually used against his own people. The Iraq War was not sold to the world based on that capability, it was sold based on a manufacturing capability which they said existed and was happening.

    It was not in the interest of the Bush43 Administration to use those past chemical capabilities to justify a war, especially when they came from the West, and hence the finding of those weapons or their residue does not itself prove that WMD were found in Iraq based on what was sold to the public as to what would be found, which was a manufactured capability and reality in the present state.

    The yellow cake you mention was not the yellow cake that Bush43 told Congress that Iraq had tried to purchase. It came from their nuclear power program. There again, if this program offered any threat a surgical approach would have worked best for the West and not an all out war; and the Israel attack against Iraq’s nuclear capability back in 1981 is a good example of that preferred strategy.

    Here are a couple good articles which indict your WMD and yellow cake claims:

    http://www.salon.com/2014/10/15/no_bush_was_not_right_about_iraq_how_conservatives_misread_new_times_bombshell/

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/world/africa/07iht-iraq.4.14301928.html

    When it comes to the financial crisis, let me start by saying that Barney and Schumer are Democrats and not Republicans.

    And the argument that Schumer helped to cause the financial crisis back in 2008 has been debunked:

    https://thinkprogress.org/limbaughs-crazy-conspiracy-theory-democrats-started-the-economic-crisis-to-help-elect-obama-7e0c52d4ea2f#.futwkg14f

    And the case against Barney is weak, too:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/chart-of-the-day-did-barney-frank-cause-the-housing-crisis/249167/

    But I do think that Clinton’s signing off on a weakening of the Glass-Steagall Act was a big mistake and helped lead to the 2008 financial crisis, however.

    In a 2008 interview with Letterman, Clinton claimed that people were a sleep at the wheel after regulations were loosen and that that was the problem. But common sense tells you that if you loosen regulations which have worked for years that you cannot guarantee into perpetuity that people will be alert and on top of it down road in the absence of good regulatory guidance. Listen to what Clinton says here:

    FF: 16:42 (especially check out what he says at 20:20)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjxarvAiHUU

    I still believe if Clinton and the Republicans (some other Dems, too) would have not weakened Glass-Steagell back in the day that the crisis would have never happened, but with its passage, Bush43 wasn’t on top of this new reality which overtime during his administration created the housing bubble.

    When it comes to the popular vote out come for 2016, I beg to differ with you. On Wednesday, Hillary was 200,000 votes ahead and now she is 600,000 votes ahead. Some speculate that she may end up being 2,000,000 ahead when it is all done. Keep in mind, Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by 500,000 and lost the electoral college 271 to 267, but Hillary won the popular vote somewhere between 600,000 to 2,000,000, yet she lost the electoral college most likely 306 to 232…. The EC needs to go,but just watch, if we do get rid of it the first election afterwards will be awarded to a Republican candidate whose Democratic opponent would have won if we still had the EC….;-)

16. WMD’s were only one of the reasons for the Iraq war. Iraq was in pretty good shape until it was abandoned by this administration. You can either agree or disagree, but I believe history will show this to be true. You have a point about power vacuums. That is one of the major reasons we have a problem in what was once Libya. After this administration stoked the people to kill their leader and Hillary Clinton joked about it, there was a power vacuum. That is one of the reasons ISIS has been so successful. Even Afghanistan was looking somewhat good until this administration told everyone when we were leaving. As for the yellow cake mentioned. That yellow cake is something that could be used in the development of warheads. After 9/11, and you can blame whoever you want, Bush said that changed everything. If there was ANY chance of another attack, it had to be prevented. I do not believe he had plans to invade until after 9/11.
    About Freddy and Fanny. Barney Frank was a lead instigator in keeping those from being regulated until it was too late. I had forgotten about his love relationship with someone who was a high ranking executive of Fanny Mae. Here is an article that talks about this. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/barone/2008/10/06/democrats-were-wrong-on-fannie-mae-and-fre . And Schumer is not the angel you seem to believe he is. Here is a quote from an article. “But there was a crisis, thanks in large part to Frank, Sen. Charles Schumer and others on the leash of these companies. In Congress, they made sure there was no additional oversight, no additional limit on executive behavior and compensation, and no further restraint on the growth of the companies’ mortgage-backed-securities portfolios, among other changes. ” This is from a blog lifted from a New Hampshire paper. https://americaswatchtower.com/2008/09/17/barney-frank-and-chuck-schumers-role-the-fannie-mae-failure/ It REALLY indicts Frank. BTW, I know they were Democrats.
    As for the absentee voting, I do not know whether that is true or not. I mentioned it. As for the popular vote, if you take out California, Trump wins. The EC helps prevent the election from being decided by California, New York and Illinois. Any Republican has a disadvantage in the EC. They start off with the above mentioned states, plus New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware already in the Democrat column. They have to “run the table”. I also seem to remember Hillary Clinton reminding Donald Trump that the elections is actually 51 state elections and DC (which also goes Democrat).

17. I’m not reading all of that. Did either of them mention the Nazi’s or Hitler yet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

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