As a citizen, it’s not just my right to vote, it’s my duty. So yes, I vote in every election — local, state, and federal. Every election! Including primary elections.
And here in California, I don’t even have to leave the comfort of my home to vote. I vote by mail. I use an app on my iPhone to confirm that my mail-in ballot has been received, has been processed, and has been counted. Easy peasy.
This, That, and the Other 
Bear in mind that when you vote it’s at two levels. Sure, you vote for a candidate. But you’re also voting for the system, for example “first-past-the-post”. If somebody does not agree with the system used for voting, it seems entirely reasonable for them not to vote.
So while you might think of it as your duty, other people might not, and both views are valid.
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Better, in my opinion, to vote for candidates who promise to “fix the system” than to not participate at all. Unless your desired form of government is an autocracy where you have no voice at all.
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if somebody feels disenfranchised by the system, they likely already have no voice at all.
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That’s just an excuse to not participate in the democratic process.
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I kinda do suspect we are already disenfranchised in the sense that the process of selecting the candidates often seems rigged, but I still vote so far. And the super-delegate policy was changed (I forget the details) after Hillary’s nomination — to be at least a more Democratic endeavor if not fully. Now, I couldn’t vote when this occurred. I was taught to be against this, but we would likely be in a whole better mind frame today had this candidate been supported broadly then. Apparently, Chisholm wasn’t bought enough to be “electable” and shown to be taken seriously. While things are theoretically worse after some Court decisions that put money more easily into politics, I doubt people got far then without being puppets or corrupt either.
Thanks to Shirley Chisholm: When Congress Passed Universal Childcare
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I should’ve gotten a paragraph break in there, for clarity. (I could vote, and did vote, when Hillary ran for president.) I hope I didn’t miss other errors.
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https://face2faceafrica.com/article/was-guitar-legend-jimi-hendrix-assassinated-by-us-govt-and-manager-with-mob-ties
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It’s easier for white and white-passing individuals to believe the FBI and the CIA don’t and haven’t done these things. The reality is that jackasses such as Donald Trump and his cohort (he IS NOT on his own) are not at all unusual in our history. I believe it’s far beyond time, while there’s no time like the present, to stop fooling ourselves.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/breonna-taylor-daniel-cameron-craft-rcna82723
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https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-faces-blowback-from-parts-of-british-commonwealth-especially-caribbean-173601861555
The coronation of King Charles III is facing blowback from parts of the British Commonwealth, especially the Caribbean.
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https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/ibram-x-kendi-black-history-uncensored-rcna71650
~
Kendi begins the piece framing the Founding Fathers’ ambitions of creating a republic as inherently exclusionary. He notes that John Adams’ use of “our Struggle” in a 1776 letter to his wife, Abigail, suggested that the white guys who fought against British imperialism weren’t concerned with many freedoms aside from their own as white men. In doing this, Kendi immediately contradicts efforts to portray these men as framers of true democracy.
He wrote: “As we know all too well today, wealthy white American men did not stop rebelling when they won the American Revolution, when they gained the power to protect their declared independence. They continued to rebel to keep their power. They, ‘the Patriots.’ The rest of us have continued our rebellions because we have yet to gain the power to be free. The resisting rest of us, ‘the unpatriotic.’”
And whereas many people — particularly, those who want to ban his work — conflate patriotism with silence about historical and ongoing mistreatment by U.S. institutions, Kendi encourages a different tact.
~
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https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/allen-texas-mall-shooting-leaves-8-dead-including-three-children-173595717634
Mass murder has become a regular occurance in red states like Texas, as Republicans apparently keep trying to gaslight us about how the guns somehow have nothing to do with it. Joy and her panel discuss how to demand common sense gun reform now.
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https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/trump-s-deposition-played-in-court-during-civil-rape-trial-included-misogynistic-statements-targeting-plaintiff-s-lawyer-173087301712 ‘To Donald all women look alike’ [caveat white]: Trump expert on his deposition played during civil rape trial
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This wasn’t the entire segment, but it’s what is available right now.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/radical-right-wing-mass-violence-sits-dangerously-close-to-republican-politics-173612613606
Radical right wing mass violence sits dangerously close to Republican politics
Rachel Maddow, joined by Kathleen Belew, an expert on the white power movement in the United States, looks at the interconnectedness of radical, right-wing mass killings and Republican politics under Donald Trump that has embraced some of the same ideology.
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This still isn’t the whole thing, but more.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/why-being-latino-and-also-a-neo-nazi-are-not-mutually-exclusive-173615173518
Why being Latino and also a neo-Nazi are not mutually exclusive
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I don’t know why, but Rachel’s substantive (and approximately 10-minute) lead-in to these other two pieces of the segment — presented with no commercial break at all from the start of the show on to almost 27 and 1/2 minutes of the entire show — has not been included on the website for her news even now. It was about extremists, even anti-semites of a blatant kind, getting ready to meet officially in the name of Republican politics and bids for power and at a Trump family property in Miami (The Dural Hotel) along with Eric Trump and some big names. “Trump just three days ago spoke at the Victor Orban CPAC event on Friday. And this Friday he’ll host the ‘Hitler was Right’ guys…”
Additionally, yesterday evening, I saw a specialist for msnbc (and maybe he shows up for nbc as well) join in a conversation (while I don’t remember exactly which show it appeared on because I can’t find it online) about the extremists attached to the murderous shooter in Allen, TX. Online sympathizing waves, without necessary sense, from misogyny to racism to anti-semitism to any kind of bigotry and hatred for persons or groups who don’t fit their own emotional wishes and for public figures who and processes which don’t back their feverish worries about not being Jewish or inclined toward what we tend to see as American and on whiteness (differing in meaning from place to place).
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I saw that segment on Rachel’s show. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?
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It is actually hard to believe… and I was informing people back in 2015 that Donald Trump showed indications of being anti-Semitic (he seemed to be granted liberties others would not have been allowed). So it’s somewhat surprising that I’m at all stunned, except that it’s now so blatant and extreme. Just flabbergasting. I wonder if it’ll mean anything to his acolytes (the ones who at least claim not to be anti-Semitic themselves).
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Probably not. I wonder how Jared feels about this, not that I really care about how Jared feels.
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Here’s something I’m kinda perplexed about. While Rachel reported the ex president was in Hungary on Friday, most of the media only reported that he’d been in Scotland (Monday) and Ireland that week — and particularly that he had lied to fellow golfers that he was leaving Ireland to go testify in New York.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-given-hard-deadline-e-jean-carroll-testimony-1798493
But while speaking to reporters at his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, on Thursday, Trump said that he will “probably” attend …
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I haven’t been able to find anything that reports where Donald Trump was on Friday the fifth of May (this year). I’ve re-viewed Rachel from last week, just now, and found she didn’t say Trump was in Hungary. She said the former president “made a surprise video appearance in Budapest…”
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/05/06/at-budapest-conference-orban-draws-only-second-string-far-right-leaders_6025670_4.html
Apart from Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, who faced unprecedented protests in his country in March for having proposed a law against “foreign agents” copied on the Russian and Hungarian models, no head of state or government visited the Hungarian capital. Not even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of whom Orban had high hopes.
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https://newsrnd.com/news/2023-05-05-orban-brings-together-donald-trump-s-network-in-budapest.ByAWYofNn.html
Hungary is an incubator where the conservative policies of the future are tested ” and the laboratory where the vaccine against ” Wokism, a nation-destroying virus ” was created , which the good doctor Orban proposes to administer to everyone and free of charge . ” It works everywhere, against all progressive variants and has no side effects “, proclaimed the Hungarian Prime Minister Thursday at the opening of the CPAC (pronounced “sipac”).
This is the second consecutive year that Budapest has hosted ” the largest and most influential gathering of curators in the world », as this organization defines itself, whose first speaker was Ronald Reagan in 1974 and which is now committed to the cause of Donald Trump.
The one who hopes to take over the White House in a year and a half also split a video message to the participants in which he praised the “great leader” that is Viktor Orban…
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https://www.columbian.com/news/2023/apr/03/hungarys-orban-tells-trump-to-keep-on-fighting-in-tweet/
https://www%5Bd0t%5D nytimes [d0t]com › 2022 › 01 › 03 › us › politics › trump-endorses-viktor-orban-hungary[d0t] html
Trump Endorses Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Far-Right Prime Minister Jan 3, 2022
Jan. 3, 2022 Former President Donald J. Trump endorsed Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, on Monday, formally pledging his “complete support” to a far-right foreign leader who has touted…
https://www%5Bd0t%5D nytimes [d0t]com › 2022 › 02 › 02 › opinion › trump-republicans-2025.html
What America Would Look Like in 2025 Under Trump Feb 2, 2022
In his Jan. 3 announcement of support for Orban’s re-election, Trump declared: “He is a strong leader and respected by all. He has my Complete support and Endorsement for re-election as Prime …
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Preface: The news sources for some people are telling viewers/readers that Neely (the man who is now dead) actually was violent in the interaction in the subway car — I don’t think this has actually been shown as so.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/man-who-killed-homeless-michael-jackson-performer-apparently-hailed-as-hero-by-leading-republicans-and-conservatives-174462021678
‘All strands of right are openly, aggressively embracing right wing vigilante violence’: Columnist
The arrest of the man who killed homeless Michael Jackson performer, Jordan Neely, on a New York City subway train, Daniel Penny, has been met with an overwhelming reaction from conservative Republicans and organizations. GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz gave Penny the nickname “the subway Superman.” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board described Penny in a headline as “The Subway Samaritan.” Joy Reid … panel discuss how leading Republicans and conservatives apparently believe that every election cycle requires a new boogeyman. May 15, 2023
Side note: Joy said in her show, last night, that a pair of the very most blatant racists/anti-Semites who were invited to present for Trump’s event at his own family property recently were disinvited after Rachel’s display of what they were like. (I’d wondered if the news had changed [not that it would’ve been wrong to report what the plans HAD been] and if that was why the segment never made it to the website. While I first viewed the segment, I had wondered if the fact it was being reported would change the eventual reality.)
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My (just above) last paragraph — called “Side note” — isn’t supposed to be italicized. (Apparently, I forgot to include the close-italics command after the description of that video link.)
There’s a portion of the interesting video below — from the hour that Rachel is in on Monday’s but not regularly on other days — that references the pair who were disinvited. Start from 4:30, leading into a guest saying (from 5:30 on to 6 minutes forward some) that the “Re-awaken America Tour” just want two-degrees of separation from people who praise Hitler…
White Christian Nationalism emerges from shadows of GOP politics
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This man, Ben Collins, is the person specializing in online topics that I was referring to earlier (a week ago); not on this particular show, though.
https://www.msnbc.com/11th-hour/watch/gunman-in-texas-mall-shooting-deeply-ingrained-into-white-supremacist-culture-173603397894
Gunman in Texas mall shooting ‘deeply ingrained into white supremacist culture’
A suburb north of Dallas is reeling after a gunman opened fire at a busy mall on Saturday, killing 8. Ben Collins, Matthew Watkins and Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez join to discuss the latest mass shooting in America. May 8, 2023
Ben also reports that when he contacts Twitter customer or public relations and says that there are gruesome pictures of dead kids (with no blurring) on the platform that pop into your face when you click on a story headline, what he gets back from their official contact is a poop emoji. Plus, he says Elon Musk is indulging in “false flag” storylines.
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Schumer fast-tracked Trump judicial nominees…
Jake Tapper Invokes RBG To Press Dem on Feinstein Absence
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Can Justice Clarence Thomas [or
anyone] Be Held Accountable… ?
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SCOTUS LEGALIZES CORRUPTION For Public Officials
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Schumer and Top Republicans Are to Blame …
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Democrats Hatch Plan to Help
Kevin McCarthy Stay In Power …
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Biden Quietly Kills the ONE Good Rule Trump Put in Place
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Why are Democrats so afraid of having
power? [Afraid? Or is it something else?]
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Yeah, I basically think some Democrats are Republicans.
CIA Leak Reveals Disturbing News …
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“Kennedy’s face had a kind of sweet acceptance to it, the eyes understanding that it had come to him, the way it had to so many others before him…”
“When Evers died, when King died, when Jack Kennedy Died, all the bland pundits said that some good would come of it…”
“That was bullshit. …. Nothing would change…” as “the secret filthy heart of America” had killed Robert Kennedy, “America had struck again.”
Excerpts from Pete Hamill’s eyewitness account
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RFK Jr. CLAIMS CIA Killed JFK
‘Beyond A Reasonable Doubt’
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😵💫
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I learned, when we were in “the” Cold War, that Soviet society had so-called elections that were a mirage [is the case again now with Putin]. This was common knowledge among the educated in our country (there were other details of dysfunction shared about the soviet republic’s functioning, too, which simply became irrelevant in discourse as observed in our own environment). I don’t perceive us to be immune to a similar elite capture…
… not because we are susceptible to communism in a sense of democratic socialism or of community (or whatever other boogie men “the right” uses in their ideological ignorance and callousness and regurgitated talking points then find themselves shocked for the outcomes in their own perceived goals biting them in the butt) rather than in the sense of Soviet-like perversion of democracy to which “conservative” or “merit” thinkers have led.
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Some of what Elon says here is legit,
so it’s a mixed conversation; yet I
mostly agree with the young lady.
Elon Musk on with Bill Maher
[with Maher agreeing]:
WOKE MIND VIRUS Is
Infecting College Students
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I don’t know why this article is new today. The story came out a week or more ago (covered in one of the YouTube sources I frequent); perhaps a small detail is added. (In the video some time ago, it was pointed out that people only thought there was an emerald mine because Elon himself had said so years ago.)
https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/amid-elon-musks-constant-denial-his-father-details-4-day-visit-to-emerald-mine-with-billionaire-son/ar-AA1aTPQ1
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https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/technology/a-california-man-says-he-s-so-lucky-to-be-alive-after-his-tesla-started-shaking-and-caught-fire-while-driving/ar-AA1aTPO4?cvid=000881df8dbf49b4b2eeb17ce21a8c7e&ei=16
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Elon Musk Agrees … Ahead of
Turkish Election, to Censor Tweets
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Criminal Elizabeth Holmes Deemed
‘DEVOTED MOTHER’ In NYT Fluff Piece
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Why Is The NYT Trying to Launder
this Fraudster’s Reputation?
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Elon Musk’s Self-Driving Car
Disaster is Worse Than You Think
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Yes I am addicted to voting.
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Flint Resident … Flint Will Never
Receive Justice;
No Democracy in The U.S.
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Why is Dem Party Darling Helping Poison Kalamazoo?
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Op-ed or Satire? … GUSHING Over Pete …
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Biden Gives It All Away In Debt Ceiling Deal
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Gushes Over … McCarthy …
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… Sells Out Appalachia by Ramming Mountain Valley Pipeline into Debt Ceiling Bill
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Australians have to vote in Federal and State elections, we have no choice. Once we turn 18 thats it.
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Still think it should be at least an allowed hour or two off of work without penalty to go and vote up to businesses being closed for the day to allow people the day to vote.
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