Will 2020 Be the Election When Sanity Finally Beats the NRA? THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS FOR REAL

[applegrove]

Will 2020 Be the Election When Sanity Finally Beats the NRA?

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS FOR REAL

Margaret Carlson at the Daily Beast

Updated Jan. 08, 2020 11:40AM ET Published Jan. 08, 2020 4:21AM ET 

OPINION


https://www.thedailybeast.com/will-2020-be-the-election-when-sanity-finally-beats-the-nra?ref=home

"SNIP.....

It’s a new year, and The New York Timesreported the depressing but unsurprising news that in terms of gun homicides, 2020 is off to the usual horrible start. By the morning of Jan. 1, St. Louis police were investigating 10 different shootings. But no reason to pick on St. Louis. The mayhem was nationwide: Newsweek reported that there were 45 gun homicides in the United States on New Year’s Day, and there were 100 deaths nationwide in the first two days of this year, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

As bad as these numbers are—and however sick the public has become of the carnage and human misery of mass shootings—until now they’ve not been enough to counteract the political power and singular focus of those whose top priority is keeping their right to bear arms almost entirely unregulated. 

That’s shifted over the last year from a combination of factors—the sheer frequency of massacres in the most ordinary, everyday settings; the Democratic takeover of the House in 2018 by candidates no longer hiding from the issue; and the decline of the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups Washington has ever seen. For the first time, in an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll taken in September 2019, more people favor gun control than gun rights.

.....

As happened with same-sex marriage, the public leads, the business community follows, and then everyone waits for the politicians—they’re always last—to climb on board. Sadly, gun safety measures will require acts of Congress but, happily, fearful politicians read election returns. Even in the South—even in Texas—lockstep support for gun rights over gun safety no longer cuts clean. Former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke won the Democratic primary and almost won a Senate seat in the Lone Star state despite his fierce support for gun control he defended by citing his conscience and his kids. 

.....SNIP"

[sandensea]

1. It can be, assuming Vlad and Bibi don't electronically flip swing state votes like last time

"Can you believe it, Vlad? We switch their votes, and they'd rather pretend it never happened than actually do anything!"

"What a country!"

[applegrove]

2. Never heard BIbi had anything sinister going on in US elections.

[sandensea]

3. Sure. The media was so fixated on Russian intrference, they forgot there are OTHER intrested parties

Which are more than capable of hacking and altering vote tabulation results besides (a cinch, given the Bush-era software many state tabulation machines use).

And we know Isreal actively interfered in Senate elections as well - against Democrats. Who knows how many "surprise" 2016 GOP Senate victories were due to this (Toomey's, especially). And 2018 (Medicare Rick).

Bibi has benefited more than any other foreign leader from Cheeto's presidency - even more than Putin.

He's gotten everything in his wish list, that the U.S. could actually provide.

Golan Heights? Check. Embassy in Jerusalem? Check. Abandoning the Two-State Solution and the Peace Roadmap? Check. Ripping up Obama's Iran accords? Check. Ratcheting up sanctions on Iran? Check. Provoking a war with Iran?

Almost - but the fat bastard still has a year left.

[applegrove]

4. I agree Bibi got everything he wanted from Trump but i fail to see them interfearinng in

any election.

[sandensea]

5. That's the worst part: we'll probably never know

Votes in those electronic tabulation machines can be flipped like pancakes - and without a trace.

And with their c. 2004, read-and-write software (and in many cases, built-in modems), it's a cake walk. All the more so because they were designed to be by GOP surrogates like Diebold and ES&S.

Did Isreal and Russia take advantage of our (literally) Congo-style vote tabulation systems? We'll never know.

But in their shoes, knowing this, wouldn't anyone?

[applegrove]

6. I'm not one to think computer tabulating machines are being manipulated.

I doubt Israel is interfearing in any US election.

[sandensea]

7. I hope you're right.

Because as far as being able to, they can - and without anyone being the wiser.

[applegrove]

8. I would worry about the russians and dark money online. Changing voters opinions by

misinforming them. Not Israel.