Trump Presidency

[Buster Bluth]

Alabama sends message: We are too broke to care about right and wrong | AL.com

Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one.

Look at the 15 counties that voted for President Barack Obama in the last presidential election. The state just decided to close driver license offices in 53 percent of them.

Look at the five counties that voted most solidly Democratic? Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes and Bullock counties all had their driver license offices closed.

Look at the 10 that voted most solidly for Obama? Of those, eight - again all but Dallas and the state capital of Montgomery - had their offices closed.

Nothing to see here folks. Alabama deserves the benefit of the doubt, they don't have a long and shameful history that required a Voting Rights Act in the first place...

 

[Bishop2b5]

I have a hard time believing that voter disenfranchisement due to being unable to obtain a valid ID is really a major issue. Are there really any people who are legally eligible to vote who can't because they can't get an ID? If so, how are they functioning in their life? You can't cash a check, open a bank account, get a job, apply for any government benefits, buy a house, rent an apartment, or countless other normal, routine things without a valid government issued ID. How many citizens actually don't have one and if they don't, how do they go about life without one?

I understand that if you're poor and live in a small isolated rural community 50 miles from nowhere that you would find it difficult to just go by the court house or DMV anytime, but does anyone not have a chance to do so at least once per year?

 

[IrishinSyria]

Alabama sends message: We are too broke to care about right and wrong | AL.com





Nothing to see here folks. Alabama deserves the benefit of the doubt, they don't have a long and shameful history that required a Voting Rights Act in the first place...

That doesn't look like anything to me.

 

[Bishop2b5]

Alabama sends message: We are too broke to care about right and wrong | AL.com


Nothing to see here folks. Alabama deserves the benefit of the doubt, they don't have a long and shameful history that required a Voting Rights Act in the first place...

Buster, I'm not trying to argue. I'd like to discuss this reasonably without all the spin and hyperbole and assumptions. Have you ever been to this area in Alabama? It's very sparsely populated. It consists mostly of small, scattered communities. It can be accurately described as 20 miles west of nowhere. In a perfect world, you'd have a hospital, DMV office, world-class museum, and so many other things in every little wide spot in the road, but it's not economically feasible to have an expensive facility in a place where there are only a few people.

I live in the western part of South Dakota. Some of the kids here have to travel an hour each way to get to school. It's 60 minutes to the nearest hospital, police station, court house or restaurant for some people depending on where they live. It's not a matter of the state or the community discriminating against ranchers or white people. Nobody's trying to keep those people from getting an education, having police protection, or having access to good medical care. It's that in the real world, there are limited resources and you can't put a hospital, DMV office, school or anything else like that on every corner.

 

[Bishop2b5]

That doesn't look like anything to me.

There may very well be an attempt to suppress votes from this area, but it seems a rather inefficient way to achieve anything. There are so few people living in that area that if you kept every one of them from voting, it would have virtually no effect on anything other than the most local elections. Closing the DMV offices in Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery would be infinitely more effective, and nobody's trying to do that.

I live in a part of SD that has a similar population density. The population here is overwhelmingly white and conservative. There's no DMV office in my county due to the fact that there are only a few thousand people in the county. Gotta drive 45 miles to the nearest DMV office, and twice that far for people living at the far end of the county. Pretty sure it's not because of an attempt to suppress white conservative votes.

 

[Wild Bill]

I have a hard time believing that voter disenfranchisement due to being unable to obtain a valid ID is really a major issue. Are there really any people who are legally eligible to vote who can't because they can't get an ID? If so, how are they functioning in their life? You can't cash a check, open a bank account, get a job, apply for any government benefits, buy a house, rent an apartment, or countless other normal, routine things without a valid government issued ID. How many citizens actually don't have one and if they don't, how do they go about life without one?

I understand that if you're poor and live in a small isolated rural community 50 miles from nowhere that you would find it difficult to just go by the court house or DMV anytime, but does anyone not have a chance to do so at least once per year?

White privilege.

 

[IrishinSyria]

There may very well be an attempt to suppress votes from this area, but it seems a rather inefficient way to achieve anything. There are so few people living in that area that if you kept every one of them from voting, it would have virtually no effect on anything other than the most local elections. Closing the DMV offices in Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery would be infinitely more effective, and nobody's trying to do that.

I live in a part of SD that has a similar population density. The population here is overwhelmingly white and conservative. There's no DMV office in my county due to the fact that there are only a few thousand people in the county. Gotta drive 45 miles to the nearest DMV office, and twice that far for people living at the far end of the county. Pretty sure it's not because of an attempt to suppress white conservative votes.

Yeah, was making a Westworld reference, I don't know anything about that specific example.

This article looks at the broader question "why are minorities less likely to have a driver's license."

Voter ID laws: Why do minorities lack ID to show at the polls?

But basically:

Gotta drive 45 miles to the nearest DMV office, and twice that far for people living at the far end of the county.

Exactly

 

[IrishinSyria]

The Slate article links to a Silver piece that gets into the weeds with the data. Basically, his take-away is that there's a small but potentially significant impact from the laws:

 

[IrishinSyria]

Obviously, if that 1.2% swing in Pennsylvania holds true today and also applied to other states that added voter ID laws in the interim (Wisconsin) the laws could have swung the election to Trump while having a seemingly tiny impact on the vote.

 

[Bishop2b5]

I don't want to see anyone denied the right to vote due to poverty, inability to obtain a valid ID, lack of transportation, etc. I understand why you can't put a DMV or courthouse on every corner. I understand why a poor person in an isolated rural community would find it more difficult to obtain an ID. What about a mobile DMV office that visited each community a few times per year? Sort of like a mobile medical clinic or the bookmobiles that used to visit such communities? Seems like a reasonable solution that solves the problem and is affordable.

 

[IrishinSyria]

I don't want to see anyone denied the right to vote due to poverty, inability to obtain a valid ID, lack of transportation, etc. I understand why you can't put a DMV or courthouse on every corner. I understand why a poor person in an isolated rural community would find it more difficult to obtain an ID. What about a mobile DMV office that visited each community a few times per year? Sort of like a mobile medical clinic or the bookmobiles that used to visit such communities? Seems like a reasonable solution that solves the problem and is affordable.

Yeah, something like that definitely could work and really there's no excuse for not having something like that in the modern era.

Lax linked to an article about voter ID laws in other countries, apparently in India there's a law that says every person in the country has to have access to a polling station within 2 miles of his or her residency. They literally set up a jungle polling station for one dude. Any ID laws should show the same concern for giving voters the chance to participate.

Would love to see our election turnouts to go back to 90% like they were in the middle of the nineteenth century. Would also love to put concerns about voter fraud to bed, so a mobile ID station might be just the ticket.

 

[BGIF]

Under Trump, Congress likely to pull plug on medical device tax | Reuters
By Nick Carey and Susan Cornwell | WARSAW, INDIANA/WASHINGTON

When Donald Trump takes over as president on Jan. 20, one of the first business tax breaks he delivers is likely to go to the U.S. medical device industry and companies like Mark Throdahl's.

The chief executive of OrthoPediatrics Corp, based in northern Indiana, said his company has been able to hire more workers since the temporary suspension effective last January of a federal tax on medical devices. The tax was imposed as part of outgoing President Barack Obama's signature 2010 healthcare law.

Throdahl said he hopes the incoming Republican-led Congress and president will permanently repeal the tax.

Trump and U.S. lawmakers are likely to do that, according to lawmakers, lobbyists and industry executives, in a step that also would help larger medical device makers such as Medtronic Inc, Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical Inc and Johnson & Johnson.

...

 

[SavIrish]

So I guess the "works pretty well in several states.." line is something only I'm seeing?



Please feel free to point out some historical inaccuracies on my part.

Man, I can't....so I'm just going to go back to my everyday routine of being poor and stupid and just keep thanking god that a white man in Ohio is standing up and fighting for me, we can't fo it on our own, just so he can puch his own political agenda

You be right good sir and thank ya!

 

[IrishinSyria]

Carrier to ultimately cut some of jobs Trump saved - Dec. 8, 2016

Looks like a good deal of the 800 jobs at the carrier plant are going to be eliminated anyway, just through automation.

 

[kmoose]

So I guess the "works pretty well in several states.." line is something only I'm seeing?

Now I'm even more confused. Are you insinuating that, because it appears that it doesn't work very well in Alabama, that negates the idea that it might be working well in several other states?

 

[NorthDakota]

Alabama sends message: We are too broke to care about right and wrong | AL.com



Nothing to see here folks. Alabama deserves the benefit of the doubt, they don't have a long and shameful history that required a Voting Rights Act in the first place...

How sparsely populated are those areas? Schools are closing all the time in ND. Doubt it's because anyone wants to stop the bumpkins from getting educated.

 

[Legacy]

Australia Voting

Australia Voting

Australia is the size oof the Lower 48 with much less population density with compulsory voting and direct election of officials by popular vote. 94% of eligible voters voted in last election. People grew up with the expectation of everyone having the right and obligation to participate in electing their government.

Voting within Australia – Frequently Asked Questions

Australia election: Why is voting compulsory?

They have "postal voting" and other contingencies (See rules and regs link).

 

[Buster Bluth]

Man, I can't....so I'm just going to go back to my everyday routine of being poor and stupid and just keep thanking god that a white man in Ohio is standing up and fighting for me, we can't fo it on our own, just so he can puch his own political agenda

You be right good sir and thank ya!

That's what I figured.

 

[IrishinSyria]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What <a href="https://t.co/BGKnwziTbS">pic.twitter.com/BGKnwziTbS</a></p>— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) <a href="https://twitter.com/Olivianuzzi/status/807414254630539264">December 10, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Putting aside the idea that we should just ignore the IC's assessment that Russia hacked private US computers in order to influence the election for a moment, Trump's electoral college total ranks 46 out of 58. Not exactly one of the biggest victories in history.

 

[dad4aa]

So how do you get 52.9% of the vote and still end in a tie?

 

[johnnycando]

Reagan destroyed the election. What a win. Both terms.

 

[IrishinSyria]

So how do you get 52.9% of the vote and still end in a tie?

Until 1804, electors didn't have to distinguish between their choice for president and Vice President. They just got two votes. Each elector that voted for Jefferson also voted for Burr. So I guess Jefferson (and Burr) each won 52.9 percent of the electors.

 

[NorthDakota]

Reagan destroyed the election. What a win. Both terms.

The OG when it came to Making America Great Again.

Not surprised both of these guys followed impotent clowns with bleeding hearts.

 

[johnnycando]

The OG when it came to Making America Great Again.

Not surprised both of these guys followed impotent clowns with bleeding hearts.

His strong 8 years even allowed for a landslide incumbent party guy, George H, to come in and squash his own dem.

Good 12 year run I see repeating itself again, now.

 

[IrishinSyria]

For a while Republicans owned the South AND California- would have had an uninterrupted run of comfortable Republican victories after the civil rights act was signed up until Clinton if it weren't for Watergate.

I don't think y'all have the same sort of electoral advantage today (as evinced by Trump's historically low margin of victory). But we'll see- if he can actually deliver that could change. I think he overpromissed and will under deliver.

 

[johnnycando]

Politically, I think socially our country has changed in that a lot of folks that expect hand outs automatically assume Dem is their correct choice.

In a world of more takers than givers, I doubt you'll ever see that again.

And as long as takers and multigenerational welfare hands continue to breed like mice, this trend will continue.

Eventually something will give and reverse somethings. When? Who knows.

I'm just glad I live where there's a lot of hard labor to be done.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Free Exchange v Free Lunch: Why Donald Trump can’t create 25m jobs | The Economist

Interesting wonk-lite look at demographics and employment.

 

[T Town Tommy]

Politically, I think socially our country has changed in that a lot of folks that expect hand outs automatically assume Dem is their correct choice.

In a world of more takers than givers, I doubt you'll ever see that again.

And as long as takers and multigenerational welfare hands continue to breed like mice, this trend will continue.

Eventually something will give and reverse somethings. When? Who knows.

I'm just glad I live where there's a lot of hard labor to be done.

I would give you some reps but that would go against the whole premise of your post.

 

[NorthDakota]

For a while Republicans owned the South AND California- would have had an uninterrupted run of comfortable Republican victories after the civil rights act was signed up until Clinton if it weren't for Watergate.

I don't think y'all have the same sort of electoral advantage today (as evinced by Trump's historically low margin of victory). But we'll see- if he can actually deliver that could change. I think he overpromissed and will under deliver.

Every president overpromises.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Every president overpromises.

Absolutely agree, though I think there's a line between over-promising and flat out lying that most attempt not to cross.

Didn't post the article because of that though, just thought the demographic analysis was interesting. If they're right any president- Dem or GOP- would be lucky to keep job growth even close to what it's been under Obama.