@cmw The USA is still a democracy; there will be legal challenges if he attempts to go too far. One rumour is that he fancies a third term--the chances? Didn't Nixon toy with that idea?
@Adam Insanity? More than half the electorate voted for Trump. How do you account for this?
@Cerberus These missiles need to be operated from within the US., by American technicians. This is what may have stimulated the greater-than-usual Russian anger.
@tony I heard a rumor about that, but I don't think it was a legitimate idea at the time. Even Bush Jr. joked that being a dictator would make things easier. But doing away with elections was never seriously entertained. Trump has made multiple statements to that effect.
@tony This actually isn't true. More than half of the voting electorate voted for Trump, but turnout was only around 65%, and Harris lost millions more votes that Biden got than Trump gained from 2020. A large number of people just decided not to vote, but honestly, especially in battleground states, they share in the blame.
@cmw The media, here, told us there was a massive turnout?! I never looked. Harris got some 68M, Tr., 72.5M; in 2020, Biden, 81M. All those people who did not vote. No wonder you are angry. Harris was a lightweight. She wouldn't discuss Gaza--why not?! The only contentious thing she went to town on was abortion; but, still didn't get the female vote (or enough of it).
@cmw In July we elected a rubbish government which is alienating many people, including some who voted it in. A government is not usually so unpopular until 3/4 years in; this lot have managed it in 3/4 months. The only thing is to tough it out, until they implode; or, are voted out. Same position you guys are in. Make the best of it.
@Cerberus These missiles need to be operated from within the US., by American technicians. This is what may have stimulated the greater-than-usual Russian anger.
This is about missiles with a reach of about 300 km.
@Cerberus I wasn't sure of the intended interpretation. Americans guiding the missile once launched, hitting the launch button, launching it from their soil, sending assisting personnel to Ukraine, or something else?
@cmw It's all the more frustrating when he didn't get the popular vote, even with a lower turnout. It actually makes me angry when people don't vote. It's one thing we can all definitively do. You might not have money, you might not be able to argue points to congress, but you can vote.
You don't have to like either candidate but you should still show up and vote for the less bad of the two options in your own mind. It varies but it's also so much easier to vote than it used to be for a lot of people.
Meanwhile I will go back to obsessing over the mysteries in the show FROM.
@Adam Not voting makes sense if one is genuinely equally happy with either option. I don't think that applies to a substantial enough number of Americans to explain the low turnout.
I'd be curious to see if there's a study on self-reported reasons for voting in this election. Fatigue with political news? A feeling that Harris belongs to Obama's dynasty? Thinking that it doesn't matter? I really can't predict what the top reasons would be.
@Cerberus Could well be. Voting in the US is much harder than here in Finland, for example. There's no such thing as registering to vote. You just show up either the day of or during the early voting period.
@Cerberus Certainly true for some Finns, given how sparsely we populate some areas. But the majority of the population will get near a polling station in their daily routines anyway, so the threshold is low.
@Cerberus I don't exactly know how they do that, but an instant database is probably not needed. The vote is sealed in an envelope, which in turn is sealed in another one along with the voter's details and sent to their home station. Assuring that nobody voted twice can well be done after the polls close when going through everything that's come in.
