Will there be a second wave ...

Because it is "rife with the opportunity" to be manipulated doesn't make it manipulable.

The EU is a place consisting of more than twice the population of the US and the "polling places" are open. I assure you, with the necessity of showing an National Identity Card (checked against an authorised voting-list) in order to get into a voting booth, the EU is likely a more honest place to vote than the US ...

 

As you will note, ID is only one of numerous issue with polling places.

In Arizona we witnessed the state government remove numerous polling places. In other states, we've seen long lines at the polls, including in bad weather. There has been a pattern of inequitable distribution of voting equipment with the resultant suppression of the vote in those specific areas as not everyone can stand in line for many hours. Alabama shut down numerous driver's licencing locations in poor rural areas making it differentially hard to get ID to vote. We've seen programs of misinforming the public of various voting rules in hopes of causing certain areas to be under represented. We seen hacked voting machines with no paper trail, causing results that would be impossible to obtain. Also, we've seen highly insecure absentee ballot processes in some states.

So, I don't understand your first sentence at all. We've clearly seen these methods used. And, they DO work.

None of those methods of manipulating the vote exist for WA. Registered voters have equal access with no transportation or hours requirement, no lines, with a paper trail, no significat opportunity for misinforming the public on where/when to vote, etc.

 

There are certain functions for which it is ridiculous to have each city or state attempt to provide the solution and where the individual certainly can not.

That's true for natural disasters. We fund FEMA to help out those areas devestated by storms, earthquakes, flooding, etc. We can't afford to have every state fund their own FEMA - it would be huge duplication. The same is even more true for our military. Water flows from state to state, and we can't afford to leave it to downstream states to figure out what to do with the polluion others choose to dump in the river. The same is true for air.

This pandemic is like that. Our healthcare is already seriously expensive. The only logical approach is to have one CDC, not 50. And, we have one federal government that has the power to reqquire industry to produce necessary materials for disasters such as this, war, and other emergencies. States can't do that.

Suggesting that we should accept that the federal government can be feckless liars is NOT good enough. These are very real problems. Our lives, our economy, our standard of living, our national defense ALL depend on better than that. So, that's what we must require of them. If they don't do the job, then a change must take place.

 

Voting by mail is not just a possibility.

It's up and running in multiple states as the ONLY way one votes. And, it is trusted.

 

You are naive - the facts when seen intelligently paint a very different picture. From here: Corruption in the United States - Excerpt:

Not bad, but certainly not the Greatest Democracy on Earth ...

 

That makes the issue with voting MORE important, not less important.

Remember that I am pointing out methods of corrupton used by most states in the USA. The fact that we fixed this voting problem in 3 states isn't naievete - it's identifying the problem and fixing it. Obviously, that didn't fix the money problem, but when those with the money have the power to suppress votes of those they oppose it is hard to fix any problem related to freedom and equality.

Your comment on gerrymanderin is importat.

Equally impolrtant is the fact that Washington, D.C. has more people than two other states, yet has zero representation in federal congress. Plus, the federal House has exceptional authority over what Washington, D.C. officials are allowed to do (such as their budget, their ability to borrow for improvement, etc.) - leavig them with FAR less power than states have.

So, we have taxation without representation!

Beyond that, we tax and control Puerto Rico, wrecking havoc on them compared to our care for states - even though they are ALL citizens of the US, pay taxes to the US, and have NO representation in the US.

... in case you were thinking I was promoting America as being great in terms of democracy.

 

Yes, the president is a fear mongerer.

 

Some component of democracy as elementary as voting means the laws should be national in nature and not state. State laws must have a specificity in that state for it to become a unique law. Voting laws particularly should be national in nature.

In a country as "free" as ours, people change places very often. From statista here:

Americans are a highly mobile people, which is one of the benefits of the country in terms of work-flexibility. But that flexibility has its impact upon voting patterns in and amongst states that can differ substantially from one national vote (of both the Executive and the Legislative Chambers) to another.

Meaning what? That it is a Very Good Idea to junk the Electoral College and report national popular-vote results directly to both Chambers of Congress which duly report publicly the results ...

 

DNA SAMPLE ANALYSIS

Trusted? Oh? How? Why?

Does your bank "trust" your signature on a check? Or, before cashing it through, does it refuse the check if you have no funds? Meaning that there MUST BE a science-based means of voter-verification of identity.

At the basis of any "trust" is something called "basic/fundamental identifying information". Which, in most countries, begins with a birth-certificate that is sent (upon birth) to a national or state entity for good keeping - along with a sample "DNA". THIS and this alone presently fixes an acceptable definitive identity to the individual and nothing does it better (for the moment).

What's more is that devices are being developed that will be able one day to obtain a sample of DNA without ever investigating any physical fragment of the individual. Which is the ultimate in individual identification means and that will happen. (The skull's ossified structure is also sufficient for purposes of "identification". But it is not a legally accepted method anywhere.)

My Point: There are numerous "identity factors" of human nature that are available for purposes of specifying an individual. A country need only have the gumption to implement them!

PS: The "recipe" for standard sample-collection for purposes of identification (from here):

 

Oh, really? Because you "say so"?

Trust is something verifiable and not just mutually agreeable. Today and tomorrow, there is and will be only one Qualified Identifier of the human being, and it is its DNA ...

 

Good luck sir!

 

TAKE MUNEY OUT OF THE POLITICAL EQUATION

And they also have been around for a good long time. The present head of the Senate is way, way beyond his End Of Use date!

But when you look at the number of Replicants who are elected PotUS that should give you an idea of why certain laws that constrain the way products/services are made are not touched. The Replicant Party is that of BigBusiness - always has been always will be. It exist for the promotion and defense of Business Interest.

But what about the buyers? Good question!

The Replicants learned early on (19th century) that enough money spent selling politicians like cigarettes, beer or whatever paid off. It actually helps get a politician elected. Howzat? Basically because some people are that simpleminded!

So, what's a country to do? Well, Uncle Sam could do like its kissing-cousin here in Europe. Any political advertising whatsoever in an election is forbidden. If politicians have funds they target key constituencies and pay for a personal appearances, speech-making, coffee&donuts, etc., etc., etc.

But the real political debates that are essential to the selection of a people's representative to government need to be paid out of public funding and performed on TV for all to see free-of-charge! (Or should be.)

It is really as easy as that! Costly, but easy. And the sooner we take MUNEY out of the political equation, the better ... !

 

Attempting to make that change direction would be highly difficult, as it is written into the constitution and it could have ramifications on various constituencies. The electoral college clearly benefits Republicans as there is a disproportionate number of Republican majority states (as compared to the number of Republicans). Yet Republicans representatives would need to vote against the EC to allow for a change and states would need to ratify the change. Also, it has potential to refocus campaigns for the same reason. In general, party affiliation runs along the lines of population density. With the EC gone, it could change the power that states have - which is what our founders were worried about.

 

No, not because I "say so".

Vote by mail is the only way to vote in at least 3 states. If some constituency in those states were upset about that, they would say so.

I'm not about to give the federal or state governmnet my dna. And, that has to do with trust, too. I'm pretty sure I'm in the vast majority on that.

 

Good for YOU! How wonderful for WA. (Wherever that is.)

Just one of America's fundamental problems is lack of a suitable identity document. Some jerkos even think it is anti-American and should never exist. Which is why false documentation is rampant.

When, in fact, most other developed countries (including the EU) do have IDs, and nobody has complained yet. And its population is twice that of the US.

The US has been sitting on its laurels for two centuries and having won a couple of World Wars and thinks thinks it's the bastion of Freedom & Justice. Well that's debatable, isn't it?

Freedom to earn megabucks and thus heighten Societal Disparity is (or should be) a great No-No in any truly fair country ...

 

I forgot that you don't know America.

WA is the state of Washington, which is on the west coast and adjacent to Canada, and the states of Oregon and Idaho.

It is the 13th most populous of the 50 states.

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

You seem to think the American Constitution is like the bible. Never to be rewritten? Nobody really knows who wrote the bible. We know who wrote the American Constitution.

The actual development of the Constitution was an historical shambles that barely achieved its needed goal. But the importance of what happened is equally as heavy as the importance of what did not happen. The American peoples knew they wanted freedom from a British King that was stealing their wealth, but they hadn't the slightest idea of how it should be constituted and disagreed often violent for a decade before finally deciding.

What happened of importance that was defined finally: The preponderance of population is expressed in the HofR. The preponderance of Individual Sentiment (regarding the passage of a bill) is expressed in the Senate. Both institutions thus must agree for bills to be passed. (This is the key central element of the American Constitution!)

Which is why:

My Thought for the Day: Instruction in Civics is key to our understanding of how the government works. It is so important to any democracy that No Child should be allowed to graduate from high-school without passing a Civics exam. (They can retake the exam as many times as they like, but they must pass it!) And that exam must be the same for all Americans ...

PS: The shambles we have today in LaLaLand on the Potomac is due to a patent lack of understanding of how a democracy should work truthfully and fairly. And at the heart of the problem is our collective mental-attitude towards the wilful accumulation of riches. And how it poisons our electoral process.
PPS: Once upon a time we were a people that had arrived destitute from elsewhere and staked out an existence that we lived in one place. That is no longer the case. In the pursuit of our own personal destiny we move about more than any other country on earth. That fact changes fundamentally the relationship between State- and Federal-governments.

 

What about the 1st wave lol

 

90% of the states are at 1.0 or lower.

https://rt.live/

The environment isn't tired.

Doing less business with China, environmentally, one of the filthiest nations in the world, is environmentally sound policy.

I love the way some folks use words with no apparent understanding of what they mean. There is no such thing as "A Trillionaire" yet you have manufactured multiples of them and even imagined them owning fossil fuels and airlines.

If one person had all the wealth of the 18 richest people in the world, they wouldn't even be a "Trillionaire".

Find smarter economists to listen to. There are no "Trillionaires". When they start making things up to support their social policies their fabrications are usually dumb enough that if you are paying attention, you'll catch on pretty quick!

WAIT, THOSE COMMERCIALS SAID WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: Frontier will charge up to $89 for social distancing on flights.