Getting 3-4 robocalls per night. Interesting, as most of them have an non-ohio area code or a 1-800 number on my caller id. I think I’m actually getting more, but calls with blocked numbers don’t ring through.

Robocall from Mitt, followed by a robocall from Biden, followed by a robocall from Florida (GOP), and one from a Calif area code (GOP).

Boxturtle (Vote Robot! They care enough to speak to you!)

It appears from my perspective that the two presidential campaigns are really vying to see who will become the President of Ohio. Since I don’t live in Ohio my vote no longer means what it once did, if ever.

Wake up Ohio, vote 3rd party. Dr Jill Stein, the real deal.

I live in Ohio. I’m not voting. However, I agree with Doug Henwood that

I would prefer that Obama win the election—not so much because he’d be so much better than Romney on policy but because he will disappoint so many of his loyalists that it would be good for radical politics. Instead of people bellyaching about McCain’s awfulness, as they would have had he won in 2008, we got Occupy. Occupy faded, in part because attention was turned to the presidential campaign.

However, unlike local Obama rootslurpers (nonamesmentionedTBogg), I am able to perceive basic truths, such as, “Obama is a war criminal” — which he is. If the Nuremberg principles were applied fairly, Obama would be hanged.

This effects other elections as well. I live in a “Red” state. And by Red I mean the Republican wins by a few % every time. So if its 49 – 46 or so, MILLIONS of votes just dont count. I mean I see the vote totals for other states and they are about what we would expect for some BS county election.

So when election after election, you know that if the other side has just .5% more votes, your vote was an effort in futility, you might after a while just start saying Fuck It and just not bother.

So when people just stop bothering with the general, this leads to republican wins in most of the down ticket as well.

The Dem votes in my state are more than the total vote in any number of other states. But they are meaningless and just get added to the “popular” vote.

I am sure republicans in NY or CA feel the same way. I thik the most bothersome part is that it feels like small states actualy have more power when they have 1/10 of the population. I know the founders didnt want Baltimore having more power than say the Ohio territories but I really dont think they had a concept of post industrial america when most people lived in urban areas and some “states” had the population of a suburb and skewed to a very narrow demographic.

Their system could have worked if the electors actaully represented their people and not just a a quaint formality. If that were the case then Gore would more than likely have been elected President without all the Supreme Court shenanigans….

But then again, the entire constitution was designed so a George Bush would never ever happen and/or have no actual power….

Occupy faded, in part because attention was turned to the presidential campaign.

it faded because no one really cared about that so-called movement and had no idea what their point even was. Great you “own” the park, so? Always looked to me like more like a Phish concert than any kind of movement

Tagg’s voting machines will do the trick! Romney and Ryan need not visit.

Does anybody really believe that Ohio will be won fair and square? When was the last time there was an honest election in Ohio?

Bravo. Senate or any other elections be hanged, we’re looking for a new ruler.

You didn’t pay enough attention. The mere fact that people understand that resistance is POSSIBLE is hugely important. Cynicism is not an option; we are talking about survival.

BTW–if you actually ARE interested in what Occupy stands for (which your post suggests might not be the case), you might want to visit Occupy Wall Street, where a great number of very learned and caring people, including many Wall Streeters, are performing the very hard work of exposing the system for what it is in highly detailed and illuminating reports. If you’ve got nothing else to do, disseminate them.

I’m convinced that the “fix” is in in Ohio and Florida too.
If polling in Ohio continues to show Obama 4-5% ahead on election day and Willard wins the state and the election, there will be more than a little blood in the streets. 2000 was a bloodless coup, this one won’t be.

Nuremberg can’t be applied to America. Remember, we’re “exceptional.” Why do you think Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al are still freely walking around?

Yes, Jon, the electoral college IS idiotic. But right now, that is “good news” for Obama and his supporters, isn’t it?

It is really NOT good news, in any honest sense, as you make clear, however.

Nonetheless, the electoral college only becomes an “issue” about every four years or so, coincidentally, about the time a Presidential election “season” is “occurring”.

As usual, the day AFTER the election, which the bookies in Vegas have Obama winning, btw, the electoral college will not be in anyone’s thoughts, it will be forgotten, past history, and other things will occupy the front page of people’s consciousness … which is also, “traditional”.

In about four years time, the issue will, once again, resurface, and the very serious people will intone, “Yes, it is unfortunate, this electoral college nonsense, but it IS what we have and we shall just have to accept that. That is the way it is. So sorry. But, well, there is simply no way of changing it, and besides, NOW it is too late, the Commission on Presidential Debates has inked the secret contract, the BIG money has been invested, the stakes are high and we must do with the system we’ve got, not the system that some silly folks wish that we had, we must be realistic, practical, and pragmatic, and stop wishing for unicorns, ponies, and all the other foolish things that silly people wish for.”

This is “the one indispensable nation”, and we must get on with it and all of the expendable “stuff” is nonsense or “just a thing” anyhow, so buck up! Take a deep breath and do what must be done, get with the tradition … or get lost.

So, there you have it, swinging states, hanging chads, “malfunctioning” voting “machines” and so forth and so on … on top of which there is the ever-present, and compelling, danger of voter fraud.

Bank fraud is one thing, regrettable but “traditional”, while voter fraud, dear lord and hairy turnips, is the bane of democracy and honest representation.

You betcha!

Ah, well … Oh … hi … o, y’all!

Tune in, in about four years, for the next exciting chapter of gum-knashing, hair-pulling and eye-gouging traditions of the election season, when turning leaves, turning stomachs, and rapt attention turns to the pleasant vagaries of the manifest ills of the electoral “process” … all guaranteed to be a rootin’, tootin’, hoot and a half.

Amen.

DW

Thinking on the bright side, he is the first Black President, and he might be the first President to be hanged: a two-fer.

“In about four years time, the issue will, once again, resurface, and the very serious people will intone, “Yes, it is unfortunate, this electoral college nonsense, but it IS what we have and we shall just have to accept that . . .”

The “serious,” “practical” people say that one must not vote for a third party or similar alternative because only a Dem or Rep has any chance of winning the Presidency. Well, if a critical mass of people only vote for Dems or Reps, then of course only a Dem or Rep is capable of becoming President. Is this the sort of logical error touted by “serious,” “practical” people?

Ah, yes. We have to choose between one or the other because this is the only option available to us. I have heard this passive, consumerist argument all my life: I can pick Coke or Pepsi, The Bic Mac or the Whopper, Walmart or Target, . . . But goddamn it I have to pick one! To me, accepting this framing is cowardly and unimaginative. To resign oneself to this limited nonsense is to give up thinking and freedom as a citizen of the world in exchange for being a consumer who hopes to win by buying the “best” product.

When are we going to recognize that elections in America have been privatized?

My Gods, what are you saying?!!!!

Jon, Jon. Are you referencing the old Ohio Players song? If you are, lots of props to ya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Iur61iGQA

By Jove!

Therein have you quite well “got” it, and shot-put it, otto.

My aggreasement is complete.

Not too long ago, our families could choose Ford, General Motors or, for the “odd” ones “out” … Chrysler.

Before that, there were many choices, even in “the one indispensable nation … and, look at us now … autos from all over the place.

Perhaps there is hope, once we get past the, “I won’t vote for anyone who has not won an election before …” mentality … and those several things which you mention … “Coke and Pepsi” seem quite appropriate, today, little different, really, and loaded with high fructose corny syrup … but well worth either coming to blows over or deciding that the “other” was simply beyond the pale of ginger ale … and so on and so forth.

Have much appreciated your comments, otto, through the thick and the thin.

DW

About the time that we realize that “political parties” are PRIVATE entities which seek to affect and control PUBLIC policy, Palli.

Might be a while …

Most people find that fact to be so offensive that they act like it ain’t so.

What they do imagine, I simply don’t know …

DW

“Perhaps there is hope . . .”

There is. We as citizens can each do something far better than voting, which costs us nearly nothing and is therefore worth about the same. We can stop being afraid. However, that is a much harder alternative

Have you read this blog post that some others here at FDL have linked to?

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2012/10/accomplices-to-murder.html

It is long. But the nut for me was part III (about 2/3rds of the way down) when the author provides some excepts from the book, “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45.” A German engineer describing the implications of his decision to take a loyalty oath to the NAZIs:

“If I had refused to take the oath in 1935, it would have meant that thousands and thousands like me, all over Germany, were refusing to take it. Their refusal would have heartened millions. Thus the regime would have been overthrown, or, indeed, would never have come to power in the first place. The fact that I was not prepared to resist, in 1935, meant that all the thousands, hundreds of thousands, like me in Germany were also unprepared, and each one of these hundreds of thousands was, like me, a man of great influence or of great potential influence. Thus the world was lost.”

Otto, I read what you link to, several days ago. What Silber says, I agree with, completely… except that I will not term the “power” which Barack Obama has asserted; of being able to kill anyone, any where, and at any time, a “right”, it is “only” a “power”, a small quibble, no doubt, in the immensity, but one I shall not retreat from.

Beyond that, all that Arthur has to say including the example which you cite, rings true and awful.

Yet, like the engineer, I find, after years of seeking encourage understanding, that the many in this nation do NOT understand, that even more than the “good German” people, most citizens of this nation effectively choose, having been “well-coached”, not to look honestly at what is done in their name. I worry, I despair that we are caught in a trajectory which we must resist, but a trajectory that likely must be played out, hopefully not to the bitter end … but it is only a hope.

Indeed, if Arthur’s essay were to be posted here, certain members of the community would rise up and insist that it be taken down, I suspect, and then, I consider, that their demand would be acceded to …

Your thoughts and worries may differ.

In any case, I hope that we might have opportunity to speak further about this thing, this asserted power, for it is a thing apart and a threat to humanity, itself, quite as much as an intended and calculated end to the rule of law … and civil society.

DW