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Post by Kimby on Oct 21, 2020 4:42:20 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Oct 21, 2020 12:52:45 GMT
I'm not a liberal; I'm a socialist. But I also don't live there.
Up here, we're facing a possible election about nothing, which nobody wants.
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Post by bjd on Oct 21, 2020 15:20:58 GMT
Why oh why do American elections go on for so long? I feel that nothing else has been talked about for years.
Why is Canada supposed to have an election, Lagatta? There was one last year wasn't there? At least the campaign only lasts a few weeks.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 21, 2020 15:32:34 GMT
Trump declared his re-election intention the day after he was inaugurated. That’s unprecedented, but allowed him to raise money from day one, and apparently he can use campaign cash to fight his legal battles.
America’s problem is that we have allowed money to be conflated with speech, and with the Citizens United case, the SCOTUS opened the floodgates for dark money (that doesn’t have to be reported by who made the donation) and money now rules our elections.
It’s a sad state of affairs, as any one who gets elected has collected enough money from special interests to “owe” them favors in legislating. We the people are left totally out of the equation, except that they need to throw us a few scraps to get our votes every two to four to six years.
Voting is almost always a choice for the lesser of evils as good people can’t raise the cash to run.
The American Experiment needs a reset, I fear...
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 21, 2020 15:45:27 GMT
I have no idea how these amounts are decided, but in France there is a ceiling for presidential campaign expenses: 16 851 000 € for the first round 22 509 000 € for the two candidates of the second round
Anybody who receives at least 5% of the vote is reimbursed 8 004 225 € for the first round and 10 691 775 € for the second round.
No advertising of any kind is permitted -- television, radio, or billboards.
Think of how much richer the moneybags of the United States would be if they had limits imposed on them.
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Post by mich64 on Oct 21, 2020 19:02:30 GMT
Up here, we're facing a possible election about nothing, which nobody wants. Exactly Lagatta! It is just ridiculous. We have more important issues than all this posturing.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 21, 2020 20:49:47 GMT
I'm trying to explain why both the Liberals and Conservatives want a snap election to our Any Porter friends, when no voters do. Elections also cost a lot of money and hold up government work. Normally I volonteer, but I'm not in good enough shape right now.
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Post by mich64 on Oct 22, 2020 2:42:55 GMT
I think this how I am understanding it Lagatta:
The Conservatives were trying to push for an investigative committee to be formed to investigate their claims against the Liberal government in regards to the WE fundraising organizations connections to the Trudeau family.
The Liberal party took this as a non confidence in their minority government.
The Liberals then stated they need the cooperation of the Parties in order to operate the Government.
The NDP and Green Parties were not going along with the Conservatives when it was framed this way and voted with the Liberal government today to avert an election.
The Liberal party holds a minority government so we can expect these conflicts for the next 3 years or unless the Prime Minister calls an early election and some point.
My impression is that the new leader of the Conservatives did not actually want an election as he realizes that many Canadians were upset to be asking Canadians to want an election over the WE situation during a pandemic. But I think his inexperience as a new party leader got him into a position where the Prime Minister proved the frustration over the situation versus placing citizens in an unnecessary risk to their health.
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Post by bjd on Oct 22, 2020 6:31:48 GMT
That sounds fairly clear, Mich. I supposed the new Conservative leader is trying to attack Trudeau whenever possible and only found this WE business. Given how popular Trudeau was in encouraging people to vote and getting youth interested in politics back in 2015 (?) when he was first elected, it's a shame that he has done a few stupid things which the Conservatives immediately pounce on.
This is really a storm in a teacup compared to the corruption that goes on in so many other places.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 22, 2020 17:10:27 GMT
Oh my golly gosh, we have so many problems at home which we are trying to make sense of….American elections are not on the cards here in any form……Believe me I doubt whether the man in the street has even heard of Donal Trump…….Ronald McDonald..Yes.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 22, 2020 18:17:30 GMT
It's true that Donald Trump and the United States are not the centre of the world for the vast majority of people on the planet, even in many of the developed countries. We have our own problems about which to worry and what happens "over there" is not of much interest except as casual entertainment.
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Post by patricklondon on Oct 22, 2020 19:25:42 GMT
I have no idea how these amounts are decided, but in France there is a ceiling for presidential campaign expenses: Similarly tight in the UK. For the year preceding a general election, a party can spend on generic promotion of itself (rather than a specific candidate) £30k for each constituency it's campaigning in, so a maximum of £19.5m. In a by-election for any one constituency, they can spend up to £100k; but in a general election campaign period (~25 days) an individual candidate's campaign can apend up to a limit related to the number of voters on the register, which works out at somewhere between £10-16k. Likewise, no paid TV or radio spots allowed (billboards are) but there are set free amounts of time parties are given in the 25 days, depending on how many constituencies they're contesting. And non-party campaign organisations have to register, and are subject to tight limits on spending (£20k,I believe).
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Post by mich64 on Oct 22, 2020 21:50:44 GMT
This is really a storm in a teacup compared to the corruption that goes on in so many other places. Once I got clarification on what this means, I quite liked it and agree that it is quite accurate bjd.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 23, 2020 15:50:22 GMT
This all sounds good and correct vs. how we run things in the US, but even the best designed and run systems seem to regularly produce ghastly results.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 23, 2020 16:03:32 GMT
Yes, it kind of proves that advertising has practically no impact on the vote. People form their opinions from the most sordid items in the news.
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Post by lugg on Oct 23, 2020 18:06:39 GMT
I am trying to educate myself about the electoral college , ( previously my knowledge was shamefully low)
"It's true that Donald Trump and the United States are not the centre of the world for the vast majority of people on the planet, even in many of the developed countries. We have our own problems about which to worry and what happens "over there" is not of much interest except as casual entertainment. "
I do think the US election holds more interest for many in the UK this year.[at least for me and many of my friends) Why ?- well because DT is just so awful but also because of Brexit - DT for and JB against. That may have implications for us Brits although we would never want to admit it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 23, 2020 18:10:43 GMT
Well of course, since the whole plan of the UK was to snuggle up to the US after Brexit. I read than now they are hoping to snuggle up to Australia, but that is a piss poor plan since Australia can't supply most of the products that they need or want.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 23, 2020 18:54:47 GMT
That's a relief.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 25, 2020 11:25:50 GMT
I love Obama's commitment and comments.
One of his last : Trump wants all credit for the economic situation he inherited and zero blame for the pandemia he ignored.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 25, 2020 16:27:15 GMT
Agree, Whatagain! Right now I feel the name of this thread should be changed to "American elections can be deadly", considering what the election of 2016 did to the US and the fact that it could get even worse if this year's goes the wrong way.
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Post by htmb on Oct 26, 2020 20:52:40 GMT
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Post by htmb on Oct 30, 2020 0:55:03 GMT
My Florida ballot (dropped off at the supervisor of elections office two weeks ago) has been counted.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 30, 2020 1:34:35 GMT
Yes!
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Post by htmb on Oct 30, 2020 1:49:01 GMT
During the primaries my ballot didn’t register as being counted until Election Day. According to the news, both Florida and North Carolina have started counting their votes early and may be the first major states with indications of where the election is headed
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 30, 2020 3:10:34 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 30, 2020 5:32:31 GMT
That man will stop at nothing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2020 11:20:23 GMT
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Post by casimira on Nov 2, 2020 13:11:49 GMT
This morning I heard on the local news that there are 11 voting locations/precincts in New Orleans that still don't have electricity restored from Hurricane Zeta. One would think, hope, that they get it together to have generators to provide the necessary electricity to accommodate people to be able to vote. One of the problems is that the Mayor of NOLA and the Secretary of State are at odds with one another as to who is responsible for this happening. I foresee a cluster f**k. New Orleans is the only BLUE Parish in the state. The "powers that be" in Baton Rouge are die hard RED. Because this is an unprecedented situation there is no telling what will happen. How embarrassing and criminal that partisan ideologies could allow for this to happen.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 2, 2020 13:43:55 GMT
The United States has been denouncing corrupt elections in many other countries for at least 70 years. Perhaps the corruption was studied so carefully that the officials now know all of the tricks to use to obtain the desired outcome.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 2, 2020 15:44:50 GMT
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