I feel like there’s a real focus on the forest instead of the trees.
What exactly does this tell us?
Republicans in congress relied on obviously uncredible evidence in their pursuit to prove a crime that they wanted to prosecute regardless of whether it happened. A professional international shill shilled professionally, internationally.
Russia and other countries tell people to say and do things to spread propaganda and misinformation to influence politics in the US.
Sadly, none of this, we must acknowledge is new information. And honestly, it’s so terribly pervasive. The bad guys do this stuff, but most of the “good guys” kinda do too, just usually with a bit more restraint. So what do we do with this?
I think the main issue, the reason we should be pissed off when we learn that a guy lied to law enforcement to try and convince the media and the public that a political rival is a double-crossing criminal, is that we don’t want our system of government constantly being manipulated by unscrupulous manipulative assholes.
And so we should turn our attention to REAL democratic reforms. Ranked choice voting. Ending the electoral college. Curtailing political gerrymandering. Converting our two-party duopololy system into an actual multi-party system.
There’s no real use in being mad in the folks who do all this stuff. We need to just stop expecting otherwise and make systems that don’t reward this kind of outlandish bullshit.
Except none of what you suggest will ever happen. Ever. Republicans obstruct even the actual work of governing that desperately needs doing and that would, oddly enough, help their cause in the democratic realm (i.e. showing their constituents they can get things done). Why would they do anything that would basically destroy their party with two strokes of a pen? Same goes for the Democrats, for what it’s worth, but getting rid of first-past-the-post and subjecting the US to proportional representation and coalition governments is even more of a pipe dream.
What state do you live in?
Respectfully, I think you’re making a common error in reasoning in that you’re mistaking the reality you live in locally – in both time and space – as defining the boundaries of what is possible in other places and in the future. I find that things people say “can never happen” already have or are happening in other places in the country.
The world is full of things, and all of them were at some point new and without historical precedent.
“Possible” and “likely” are quite different concepts. I am in New England. If this would be likely anywhere, it would be here. But that doesn’t matter, because there are plenty of other regions who will fight to the death against such changes. Please, do describe a path forward. I do not see one in my lifetime. We are talking about the national stage, not a homeowner’s association somewhere.
100 years ago we could’ve had this exact conversation about Segregation and Jim Crow.
Wouldn’t you know, there are still hard feelings in parts of the US about what happened, and the fight is still fought. And Jim Crow and segregation weren’t protectors of large amounts of wealth and power, just social structures and power in urban enclaves. You’re going to face a hell of a lot more resistance with what you propose. This would be more akin to the end of slavery than the end of Jim Crow, and that took a civil war.
Well then use that as your reference.
Either way, I’m not giving up.
All good points except the Ranked Choice.
It’s somewhat of a poison pill.
On the surface, Ranked Choice looks like it would be a good idea, but when you break it down, it has some fundamental problems that are just as bad for democracy as First Past the Post.
This video is a great watch on the subject, it goes through all the problems in great detail, but the TLRW is thus, Ranked Choice is a flawed system, fatally so.
If you want to steal an election but make it look legit, Ranked Choice is your number one voting system. If you want viable third parties, Ranked Choice is not the voting system for you. It actually punishes viable third parties harder than FPtP.
A far better system in every way is STAR.
I’ll take a look, thanks!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
video is a great watch on the subject
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
It is a great video on the matter. The people at https://www.equal.vote/ know their stuff!
Who would have thought that something that works for Trump has Russian roots? Surprise, Surprise. Not.
Not anyone who watched Trump pardon all the people charged with crimes pertaining to Russia.
Oh and the money launderer… And the missuse of campaign funds guy.
Wait… This sounds like the crimes of someone we know…
A duel US and Israeli citizen has “extensive” ties to Russian intelligence? How many more just like him in the FBI and government?
Will wonders never cease.
It’s fine, I’m sure all the maggots will just hand-wave this away and focus on the true work of governing, starting with impeaching Mayorkas.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The former FBI informant charged with fabricating claims about a bribery scheme involving Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company has “extensive” contacts with Russian intelligence agencies, according to the Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors also say in a new court filing that Alexander Smirnov admitted to authorities after he was arrested that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about President Biden’s son, Hunter.
In the filing in federal court in Nevada, prosecutors argue that Smirnov be held in custody, pending trial.
Through his attorneys, Smirnov has asked the court to be released ahead of trial, saying he has ties to the community and isn’t a flight risk.
“Thus, Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues,” prosecutors said.
“He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
The original article contains 444 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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