| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
>>>an election he won Thank you . . . you made my day. And . . . the irony of a guy who lies about his name . . . complaining about a guy expressing his opinion, that you disagree with, is ironic. For the record . . . (and, count me among those who could case less) Trump may be wrong, he may be right. There is no more "proof" (I'm not buying the photo of the empty mall) that he's wrong than there is he's right. Let's just hope he doesn't come out and lie about something like 4 AMERICANS BEING KILLED as a result of a video. Obama and his cronies . . . unfortunately . . . so lowered the bar with regard to honesty and integrity . . . well, frankly, your feigned outage is laughable. | ||
| Ourdee |
A YMCA in Indiana has banned CNN to eliminate "perceived bias" reporting.  | ||
| Rick_a |
People are outraged over every little thing happening in the Trump camp...not the actual policy changes and restructuring, which is massive, but they're stuck on the inauguration crowd size thing and EPA media blackout  It's going to be a long 4-8 years for some folks. The media and Obama administration lied and obscured for eight years and got a pass. Now people are going nuts over trivialities. | ||
| Blake |
When we sell state of the art earth station satellite antennae or radio telescope arrays to South Africa or Australia, those countries require they be built in country. I always wondered why America doesn't reciprocate similarly. It just makes sense, at least at some level. China has all kinds of onerous protectionist trade and currency valuation policies that essentially close their markets to some of America's biggest industries. Trump dumped TPP and is preparing to oppose the Chinese island building based claims to the S. China Sea. China is not laughing anymore. Instead they're saying they'll move tens of thousands of cell phone and other related manufacturing jobs back to America. Russia's economy depends upon fossil fuels exports, oil and especially natural gas sold to European nations. America has a growing massive surplus of natural gas that is easily convertible into liquified natural gas, which would be easily transported to European ports. Russia is doing anything but laughing now. Hogwash, be careful where you get your news. A lot of it these days is just plain garbage. (Message edited by Blake on January 25, 2017) | ||
| Pwnzor |
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| Reepicheep |
Wiseco, lets do a little investigation and educate each other instead of just throwing back and forth over simplified sound bites. So for the voter registration, it could still work and the control could exist but be hidden. The drivers license data is difficult for citizens and companies to use due to the DPPA (Drivers license data protection act, passed after some stalker got the address of an actress from the DMV and went over and killed her). There are now permissible use rules you have to follow to be able to get that data that carry the force of law. The government can likely get away with more using that data. So if they are (as you note Court) doing fairly rigorous vetting of "who gets the drivers license", and making that the verified source of truth, that would be a sound foundation. They then do the voter registration, require an address with something that gives a little evidence you are probably the person (like the utility bill), and then they later true that up with the DMV drivers license data. So that would be a solid way to get the percent of the population that votes and that has drivers licenses squared away fairly accurately. Of course it would be labor intensive and expensive. I wonder if we do that? But here is where it starts to get interesting. In rural and surburban areas, I bet the number of registered voters that "has ever had a drivers license" is really high. I bet like 95% to 99%. So in those areas, this method would probably be really reliable. There could still be fraud, but once you get it down to the sub 1% level, it is highly unlikely to influence outcomes. But what about in heavily urban areas, where you actually can survive pretty easily without a drivers license, and where you don't have parents badgering kids to get licensed because they don't have to drive them everywhere like in surburbia? I wonder what the ratio of people with licenses are there? And does the drivers license identity verification even attempt to ascertain if you are a valid citizen or an immigrant (illegal, green card, dual citizenship, or new citizen)? This is where we need the non biased version of the NPR story that thoughtfully and kindly digs into the details of the story to really capture the good and the bad and the effective and the ineffective. I don't see how people can just declare with any kind of credibility that there wasn't at least a million fraudulent votes cast. There are over 300 million Americans. One million fraudulent or erroneous votes would be .3%. In other words, if the election was 99.7% accurate, there would be 1 million fraudulent votes. Which would actually be REALLY impressive accuracy for something of that scale. Anyone who has actually had to engineer a project of the kind of scale that a national election entails would probably laugh out loud if you told them you know it's over 95% accurate... | ||
| Fb1 |
Source, more: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/01/24/pr esident-trump-meets-with-major-u-s-automakers/ | ||
| Fb1 |
From last night:  Source: https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/82413307 0068518912/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw | ||
| Fb1 |
 Image link: http://dailysignal.com/wp-content/uploads/170116_S upermajority-Graphic_Lucas_v1.png Image sourced here: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/01/25/ja nuary-25th-2017-presidential-politics-trump-admini stration-day-6/ | ||
| Fb1 |
Excellent commentary from Lou Dobbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-zvNcYzhg0 | ||
| Court |
Interesting analysis of the usefulness of drivers licenses to conform and confirm identities. Enlightening, and I'd not thought of this, that the claimed disparity, on the order of 3 million votes, falls within 1 SD. Acceptable, as you allude, in some of the most rigidly managed projects. Your analysis underscores the genius of the Founding Fathers designing, fine tuning and implementing the Electoral College. Some folks, who generally don't know what the Electoral College is, how if works or why it exists, have called for it's elimination. I'd suggest that's a classic "be careful what you wish for" scenario. If popular vote decided an election, I think it may be possible to get anybody elected by flooding the zone in LA and NYC. If you lived, say in Wisconsin, you'd have no say in the election of the President. Part of the shame is the atrocious state of the America media. I just searched to find information on the snowflakes that are currently climbing the crane at 15th and L in Washington and was treated to a litany of things Trump was doing that most certainly foreshadowed the apocalypse. NPR is entertaining their reporting is so skewed. They could care less about accuracy . . .as long as all roads lead the the demise of the country. | ||
| H0gwash |
Hogwash, be careful where you get your news. A lot of it these days is just plain garbage. I've not made news based arguments recently, maybe you're talking about the new kid in town? That brings up a good issue though, If MSM is 'fake news' where should we turn to 'approved news' sources? Breitbart news? Where do people turn to for reliable news?} | ||
| Crusty |
I've found the BBC to be reasonably objective in their reporting on American politics. Every other news agency is biased. Some to the left and some to the right. Some are extreme and some less so. It's been like this for the entire time I've been an adult, but in the past decade or two, the levels of bias have reached extreme proportions, especially in the larger TV networks. I have a friend who works in the South Pacific who alternates between watching Fox News and Al Jazeera. He feels that by watching two opposing extremes, he can sort out a bit more objective view of reality. Me; I just assume that they're all trying to push their agenda, and I try to form my opinions without taking everything they say as truth. | ||
| Fb1 |
Where do people turn to for reliable news? I've found the Conservative Treehouse (CTH) to be a great way to stay informed. It isn't a traditional news source. I found them early on during Zimmerman (followed a link from Legal Insurrection). If you choose to try CTH, be SURE to read the comments on any given thread of interest - Treepers are amazing news sleuths and there is always much to be learned on a given subject by reading the comments. https://theconservativetreehouse.com | ||
| Pwnzor |
That's a great question, Hogwash... For my part, I listen to several sources and try to discern on my own what kernels of truth may be gleaned from the amalgam. When something sounds questionable, I try to find video or audio of the person in question actually saying or doing what it is they are reported to have said or done. It's ain't easy out here on these streets. See, a con is real easy in this desperate part of town... turns you from hunted into hunter... g'on hunt somebody down. Somebody said Fair Warning? | ||
| Macbuell |
Great song. One of my favorites. | ||
| Sifo |
It's kind of laughable to argue that there's only a handful of fraudulent votes being cast. Chicago alone, is known for massive voter fraud. It's known, it's accepted, it's never prosecuted. It's the lack of prosecution that keeps the left's claim of it being non-existent alive. That aside for a moment, there has been much hand wringing about Russia trying to influence our election (by releasing factual information BTW). What about a nations leader that actually promoted widespread voter fraud days before the election? In case you don't know, I'm talking about BO himself. That's far worse than what was done by Wikileaks. Shouldn't there be a law about elected officials encouraging people to commit election fraud? California has set itself up for illegals to vote. Other states are following. It's quite transparent what has been going on. Now the elected liberals are encouraging the fraud to take place. Don't worry, it won't be investigated. If we don't investigate, it didn't happen. Right??? One other point on election fraud... Michigan happens to have some interesting laws on recounts. Certain irregularities prohibit voting precincts to be recounted if the irregularities can't be accounted for. As they started looking at doing the recounts, they found that many precincts (that happened to be Democrat controlled BTW) had more ballots cast than they had receipts for. No explanation of how this had happened of course. Well, there is an explanation... It's called ballot box stuffing. Again, not prosecuted, so it didn't happen. Right??? | ||
| Sifo |
Big Joe gets it! | ||
| Court |
Big Joe gets it. Shame that little girl was deprived of an education and the ability to think. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Forgive me for my lack of research (and I'm domestic-born so I haven't had to go through any processes to become a citizen, so I have no personal experience)... but don't you have to be a legal citizen to have a SS card? Would that be too simple a method to confirm eligibility to cast a vote? "Sorry, ma'am/sir, you don't have a social security number which means you aren't a citizen. Therefore you cannot vote. Please step this way and enjoy a conversation with these nice gentlemen from ICE." "Sorry, ma'am/sir, our records indicate that SSN has already cast a vote in this election. Please step this way and enjoy a conversation with local law enforcement personnel." "Sorry, ma'am/sir, our records indicate the person assigned that SSN has been deceased for a number of years. Please step this way and enjoy a conversation with law enforcement personnel." Problem solved. It can't really be that simple, or we'd be doing it already...right? | ||
| Chauly |
RatBuell: Let me postulate a situation that you touched on: SS #'s being "shared". My contention is that the Feds have a disincentive to "fix" the illegal worker problem. Jose comes into the country and stays with Uncle Vladmir. he goes to look for a job armed with Uncle Vlad's SS#. The employer checks the number, and it comes back "good"(valid for Vlad!).Jose's cousin Henri does the same thing, and the same thing happens (Vlad!)and he gets a job. Taxes are withheld from Vlad, Jose, and Henri under Vlad's SS#. Come tax time, Uncle Vlad files his taxes, and is refunded what he overpaid on his W-2 salary. and no more! The other Uncle gets to keep the rest; Jose and Henri get no refund, (don't even file, probably)and when retirement or disability come along, Uncle Sam is only obligated to pay Uncle Vlad and his SS#, not the others. See what I mean? Why would Congress shut down a revenue stream through better policing? | ||
| Macbuell |
Chauly, that issue is separate and distinct from the concept of using SS #'s to confirm identity for voting purposes. | ||
| Chauly |
Not if they are determining if SS#'s are being shared for various I.D. Purposes. If Vlad knew he would be in trouble for allowing his SS# to be 'borrowed", he might be more circumspect. | ||
| Mnscrounger |
A purple thumb and a digital, sans veil photo to match the registered voter roll photo from last time disenfranchises no one. A few veil wearers might object, but perhaps they would option to provide their purple thumbprint to preserve their modesty. That only leaves thumbless veil wearers as the disenfranchised, (and there may well be more than we imagine). I'm sure a country, that can put men in orbit, pluck lost enemy subs from the ocean floor, and whack a terrorist from a desk chair at the antipode of the globe, can imagine a constitutional solution to that dilemma. It at least helps ensure the same person votes this time, as voted last time. It also increases the likelihood that once the voter leaves this earth, they stop voting. | ||
| Court |
As I watch the Dow-Jones Index . . . . I am trying to recall where all the naysayers were who promised me . . .that were Donald Trump elected President that the DJI would plummet . . in their words . . "immediately". Interesting that on the night of the election, as we were told Hillary was 98.1% certain to win, that the DJI Futures for the following day dropped over 900 points. This morning, after experiencing the greatest rise in the period from any President Election to Inauguration, the Dow Jones Index . . . . . yeah the one they Libtards assured us would tank . . . hits 20,000. The take away from this . . . . is that just like when they were being questioned on e-mails . . Benghazi . . . Fast and Furious . . . they have no fricking clue what they are talking about. Frankly any group who can be drawn by a Pied Piper like a Community Organizer with hardly any political experience . . . should not be allowed to run the greatest nation on earth. It's time to fire people, end sweetheart deals, drain the swamp and . . well . . . MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Let's have winners and losers . . . . let's let a kid get knocked down every so often so that they can learn to work, improve to better and kick ass on their own. What a shame that we'd essentially conceded so much manufacturing to foreign countries . . . this, the world's industrial powerhouse. I've personally watched Erik Buell try to find $$ to manufacture in America and seen how investors react. It sickens me. Why does the country that essentially designs every computer operating system in the world not serve as the center of computer manufacturing? I, for one, have concerns about Trump but we've reached a point where we no longer need gentle subtle change . . .it's time to turn the bulldog loose. Frankly, if it were me . . . I would start a program where undocumented workers could earn American Citizenship ONLY be agreeing (much like a military commitment) to work on "the wall" for the next 4 years. They make great construction wages, would be able to buy homes, send their kids to school and end up American Citizens.  ELECTION NIGHT: We are assured by the MSM that there is NO CHANCE that Hillary Clinton will not win.  We are promised that folks, much smarter than us, accurately predict economic disaster if Donald Trump wins.  They even produce some manufactured self-acclaimed "experts" to insure we are instilled with sufficient self doubt and lack of confidence in America to believe their line of crap  All the while . . . as Hillary Clinton is predicted to win . . . the markets plummet. But . . . alas . . the following day Donald Trump is announced the winner and the markets jump something like 200 points. The country suddenly can envision jobs and opportunity coming back to America.  TODAY . . . the Dow-Jones Index sets an all-time RECORD HIGH. After experiencing the greatest "election to inauguration" rise of any election in history . . today the Dow-Jones Index hits a record high of 20,000. Will it stay there? . . .nope . . . just like real estate values (which also broke 16 year records in the month of December 2016 following the election) . . the DJI will rise and fall. But . . . I have a bet (I didn't need an "honest 3rd party". . . I just bet with an honest women) that the DJI will end 2017 at or above 22,000. Well see. You may not like Trump and he may do some stupid shit . . . but he's not dishonest and this if the first time politicians haven't been stacking them deck for themselves with no regard for the citizenry in a long time. Just my $0.02. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I agree. Transparency is refreshing. Will he get it right? Maybe. Hopefully. But I'll take that over the guarantee she brought with her. At least this way we have a shot. And a pretty good one at that. I also love watching the press conferences. "When will he meet with / why hasn't he met with / why is he ignoring" questions are answered with candid "it's been TWO DAYS, people!!" I wish he'd take the answers a step further "why did he pick XYZ first?" "Well...he had to start somewhere". Or more to the point: "why automakers?" "Alphabetical. Next?"  | ||
| Sifo |
Would that be too simple a method to confirm eligibility to cast a vote? No. When I was doing mortgages, we were able to provide a legal mortgage to illegal aliens. They had to have a valid SS# though. We had instructions on how they could get a valid SS# with the proper papers from Mexico.  | ||
| Reepicheep |
Found a bit more info that was useful. This leans a bit toward "fraud is a problem", but they seem reasonable on the assertions they are making, and have good citations. http://www.fairus.org/issue/noncitizens-voting-vio lations-and-u-s-elections My take home? It is unlikely but by no means impossible that voting by non citizen voters gave Clinton the popular margin. Basically, a reasonable guess is that there are 20M to 30M non citizens in the US at any given time. Given the 3M margin, then 1 in 10 of these individuals would have had to vote illegally. So not impossible, but that sounds like a pretty high ratio of people willing and able to break the law. But 1 in 100 seems way too low, at least intuitively. Heck, that many likely did it by accident not understanding that they were actually not legally allowed to register and vote. And that's already 10% of the margin right there. So when intuitive predictions say "more than 10%", I don't know how you can say it couldn't have happened. It indeed looks like the controls are weak, and the prosecution is virtually non existent. | ||
| Macbuell |
Not if they are determining if SS#'s are being shared for various I.D. Purposes. If Vlad knew he would be in trouble for allowing his SS# to be 'borrowed", he might be more circumspect. Still not related. It only becomes related if the government decides to add investigation / prosecution to the process. They can just as easily say we want to just use this to stop voter fraud and not go after or investigate instances where a social security number tries to vote more than once. It's an additional step that doesn't need to be added. | ||
| Airbozo |
"Why does the country that essentially designs every computer operating system in the world not serve as the center of computer manufacturing? " Exactly my thoughts and I know the answer: EPA. But it is not just the OS's that are designed here. Almost all of the computer hardware is designed here and built elsewhere. Almost all of the chip manufacturing and PCB manufacturers could not afford to build facilities that operate within the EPA guidelines and many of the old plants or businesses that were manufacturing those components were declare toxic superfund sites and most if not all have already been cleaned up at the taxpayers expense. Intel is one of the few companies to do real manufacturing of electronic components (mostly networking stuff)and silicon wafer fab on a large scale in the US. Most of the wafers are shipped out of country for final assembly though. Several years ago the federal government offered to match up to $1 Billion to any company that would build a chip and/or computer manufacturing plant in the US (mainly so they could source US made components for government projects). I do not think that offer was ever taken. I work for one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world (if not the largest). They are a US company and they design and assemble the computer systems and components in the US, but 99% of all manufacturing is done in Taiwan due to costs. _Significant_ cost differences too. They can tell you down to the individual worker who touches each and every part that comes off the manufacturing lines. Ask Intel where any of their server boards are made and they cannot tell you because they have no idea. Oregon and Arizona are the main 2 states that were able to work with Intel, so they could build environmentally sound plants for chip and PCB manufacturing. The biggest problem they have had is finding qualified workers. Since every child in the US if going to college, there is no one left to work the lines. We shot ourselves in the foot when we stopped teaching the basic trades in school. We are doing our kids a dis-service by pretending that college is the answer for everyone. The loan companies are happy though. |
