Shit! we forgot an election thread for the midterms. Here it is now.

TheMysteriousGX

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All this talk of awful politics and shuffling slightly less or more bad people into office while I'm just sitting here wondering how the hell "loli" is trending on Twitter for the 8th time in the last three weeks.
Short version: weird internet weebs have decided that "loli" means something dramatically different than the vast majority of people who've been using the term and have been particularly annoying about it since the cyberpunk anime came out


...I need to be less online.


1668069574431.jpeg
 
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Baffle

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The Catholic Clergy are less likely to abuse someone than basically any other set of people on the planet, and it is the self-flagellating, hyper-penitent nature of Catholics who refuse to defend themselves that allows you to imagine otherwise.
Ha ha, the game's up, we now know you've never actually met a catholic priest.
 
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gorfias

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EDIT: I am referring to income tax. Things like a gas tax are very regressive and as a % of income, have the poorest of us paying more than the wealthiest.

The problem is that when Republicans say "lower taxes" they mean lower taxes for wealthy people and corporations. They don't mean lower taxes for YOU.

Rank and file Republicans don't expect them to be tax cuts for us due to a progressive tax rate in which a large portion of the populace pays no net taxes, including many of them and many more of them that do pay, do not pay very much net either. But they do think this lowers the cost of doing business while putting more $ into the pockets of private sector investors, who will handle their own finances better than would the government resulting in a growing economy and rising wages, which we did appear to get for the first time since 1970.

Whole other topic as to why we have not seen rising wages (relative to inflation) in 50 years.

One of the more barbaric plans they've been trotting out now and again is to force everyone to pay taxes regardless of income, even if it's a dollar, so that they feel "invested in the system"- because after you pay that dollar, you'll suddenly realize how wasteful the government is and vote Republican. Of course, that plan would cost far, far more than it would ever take in, but since when have Republicans let fiscal responsibility get in the way of punishing the people they hate?
It's barbaric to make everyone pay their fair share? I thought places like Sweden have very high tax rates on nearly everyone taken and used by local governments and have a very generous social safety net in exchange. They pay for a lot of government and get a lot of government and like it that way.

You don't think you can corrupt people telling them to expect something for nothing?
 

The Rogue Wolf

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Cheetodust

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They pay for a lot of government and get a lot of government and like it that way.

You don't think you can corrupt people telling them to expect something for nothing?
Literally nobody doesn't pay taxes. Your income might not be taxed but every penny you spend a portion of it is taxes.
 
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gorfias

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Here's your homework exercise: Define "fair share". And then tell me how spending $50 (ballpark figure) on collecting $1 is anything but spiteful.
You didn't answer the question: "You don't think you can corrupt people telling them to expect something for nothing?" because I do. The fear is that democracies die when 51% realize they can just vote for free stuff, or, I would add, exploit the other 49%. That in part is because economics work with minorities providing the majority almost everything. There will always be more clients than lawyers, more tenants than land lords, patients than doctors, etc. Vote that you pay less than a market price and you get shortages.


As for defining "fair" your question, a good one. I do not have a ready answer. Spending $50 to collect $1 could be justified as necessary to avoid corrupting the people but there has to be a far more efficient way to do it rather than hire 87,000 new tax collectors threatening to shoot us dead if we don't obey.


Literally nobody doesn't pay taxes. Your income might not be taxed but every penny you spend a portion of it is taxes.
As noted before, some taxes (cigarette/gas) are even regressive when viewed as a % of a person's income.

I think it destructive though to have a whole form of tax, income, that whole very large swaths of people (a large majority?) do not pay. It can/does create a destructive illusion that one can get something for nothing. As described to @The Rogue Wolf above, it's a great way to destroy a society.

As we're already printing $, might be food for thought: small office reviews annual GDP, then has a % of that GDP printed for the Fed to spend. No loop holes for anyone. Make a balanced budget amendment that reduces the deficit over time. Right the USA's fiscal policy so we don't have a collapse that leaves us starving, cities burning and a civil war resulting in oceans of bloodshed. Pretty dark vision I admit but given everything going on, I've never felt this black pilled before.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Was gonna make a lil celebratory song about boebert, but those numbers are just way too close to feel safe around. Not a fan.

On the upside. At least for now?


Political candidates who have expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory lost big on election night after the predicted red wave failed to materialize.

While the movement’s biggest cheerleader in Congress was able to retain her seat, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) cruised to an easy victory, many up-and-comers were roundly rejected by the electorate.

Although a number of QAnon-linked candidates were novices and expressed outlandish ideas, the hope was that an expected energy for Republicans in the wake of high inflation and a floundering economy would paper over their blemishes and beliefs and catapult them into Congress. But the opposite happened.

Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas), a candidate who has shared QAnon hashtags on social media, lost to Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas).

Florida Republican Carla Spalding, Texas Republican Johnny Teague, and Massachusetts Republican Donnie Palmer—all of which have helped spread QAnon-linked conspiracy theories—witnessed devastating defeats as well.

Ohio Republican J.R. Majewski, who once stated that he believed “in everything that’s been put out from Q,” lost to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).

Unlike his fellow losers, Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) refused to concede after numerous major media outlets including Fox News called the governor’s race for his opponent Democrat Josh Shapiro.

“There’s about 30 percent of the votes still to go, we’ve got a ways to go,” he told supporters on Tuesday evening. “Have faith, we’re gonna, uh, of course, we’re gonna have faith and have patience. We’re gonna wait until every vote counts, right?”

In the wake of the defeats, a number of prominent Republicans online decried candidate quality, realizing that the conspiratorial, election denying aura pervasive in the Republican party did not appear to ingratiate itself with the voting populace.



Other candidates appear to be holding out hope as well. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), another prominent QAnon-linked politician, was trailing behind Democrat Adam Frisch as of Wednesday afternoon. With 93% of the vote counted, Frisch led with 50.6% to Boebert’s 49.4%

A loss for Boebert would represent a significant blow to QAnon’s presence in Congress. But QAnon’s biggest political promoters losing their races does not signal an end to the conspiracy theory.

The outlandish beliefs that originated with the QAnon movement have now become central to Republican politics. QAnon has evolved to no longer need Q, the conspiracy theory’s de facto leader, and if Republicans do take the House, Greene is set to take a powerful role.

She may not have a caucus, but it might not matter as long as she has a gavel.
 
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gorfias

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One "defense" the Republicans are using in light of their luke war "win" in these terrible times is that their candidates sucked.

Starting to think quality of the candidate is not an issue. Example:

1668092495820.png

 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
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One "defense" the Republicans are using in light of their luke war "win" in these terrible times is that their candidates sucked.

Starting to think quality of the candidate is not an issue. Example:

View attachment 7367

About that...


AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. DeLuca, 85, died a month before Tuesday’s midterm elections. State law stipulates that substitutes, in the case of the death of a candidate, cannot be submitted after ballots have started printing — late September, in this case. A special election will be held to fill his seat.

THE FACTS: As of Wednesday afternoon, DeLuca had received nearly 86% of the vote, according to state election results, beating Green Party candidate Queonia “Zarah” Livingston.

Some social media posts, however, are suggesting the election of a deceased candidate is indicative of shoddy elections or even fraud.



“You got dead people voting and dead people winning…” reads one tweet, which was then followed by a screenshot of a headline about DeLuca’s reelection. “You can’t make this up, America’s elections are a hot mess.”

Another user on Twitter responded to the news by stating: “Exactly what happens when massive amounts of fake ballots blindly checking democrats are received. No other explanation in Pennsylvania.”

DeLuca was an Allegheny County Democrat who represented the state’s 32nd Legislative District for 39 years. He died of cancer Oct. 9, with less than a month to go before the election.

If a candidate dies, Pennsylvania state law only allows replacement candidates to be submitted if ballots have not yet started printing.

In Allegheny County, officials sent data for the ballots to the printer on Sept. 28, county spokesperson Amie Downs told The Associated Press.

“The state has an election calendar that outlines dates for withdrawals, substitutions, etc. and all of those dates had passed when the Representative died,” Downs wrote in an email. “This is not the first time this has happened either.”

Trevor Southerland, executive director of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee, told the AP that “under Pennsylvania law, there was no way to remove Rep. DeLuca from the ballot." He also said the deadline is when ballots begin printing.

Southerland confirmed that DeLuca’s win simply means that the seat will be vacant until a special election is held. The date of that election has yet to be determined.

“While we’re incredibly saddened by the loss of Representative Tony DeLuca, we are proud to see the voters to continue to show their confidence in him and his commitment to Democratic values by re-electing him posthumously,” the committee wrote in a tweet. “A special election will follow soon.”
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
 

gorfias

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I would not think fraud, but leaving a dead man on the ballot on election day? Shoddy. That 86% voted well before the end of an election. Troubling. But those 86% were voting for something, maybe not the candidate themselves so quality may not matter.
Brain damaged Fetterman, who beat Oz like a drum, didn't win due to his quality.
 

crimson5pheonix

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Forgive my ignorance but I'm assuming the presidential election has a significantly higher turn out? I dunno, Ireland's president is essentially a mascot who can't really do much so no one really cares.
Correct. Even with this high turnout, it still wasn't as high as the 2020 election.