60 comments

  3. As an outsider looking in until you have straight up and down votes the minority will always call the tune . Other countries have straight up and down votes and they do not have gridlock . Britain has straight up and down votes ,Australia has straight up and down votes you don’t have to have to reach a threshold of votes to bring anything to the floor . Australia’s system is similar to America we have an elected House and Senate . One difference we do have is with the two main parties there are other parties represented and some times the government has to cooperate with them to get legislation through . The minority does not rule !!

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    1. @c D Shows how little you understand about Australian politics, British politics, Canadian politics or the politics of any British Commonwealth country. The monarchy has zero executive power. The monarchy of today are mere figureheads. Yes, technically the Governor-General in theory is a representative of the Queen or King, but in reality the King or Queen has zero power over the Governor-Generals decisions. I don’t know if you’re a Trump supporter, but the irony is that 35% of Americans that think they’re patriots are actually supporting an authoritarian neo-fascist wannabe dictator. Isn’t that worse than a figurehead monarch?

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    2. 12 Points to Reform US Democracy and the Electoral System.
      1) Get rid of First Past the Post (FPP) (sometimes called plurality) voting, and introduce some form of Proportional Representation (PR) Rank Choice Voting (RCV) preferably – Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP(R) with Multi-Member Districts. MMP has voters select both a candidate in their local district and a party they’d like to win a majority. Everyone who wins a district gets a seat, and then additional seats are given out to ensure that parties are represented in proportion to their share of the party vote. This has a number of advantages. Unlike party list representation, people still have representatives with at least some ties to their local area. Voters get 2 votes: one for their local representative, and one for their favorite party. Mixed Member Proportional has familiar local representatives, and simple ballot.

      2) Eliminate/abolish the Electoral College (Article 2, Section 1, of The Constitution). This would normally be difficult, because the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. Over the past 200 years more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College – without any becoming law. It requires two thirds of the House, two thirds of the Senate, and three quarters of the States to vote in favor. There is another easier way to effectively end the Electoral College without technically abolishing it. Agreement of the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote. An organization called the ‘National Popular Vote Interstate Compact’ (NPVIC) is pushing to eliminate the Electoral College without tampering with the Constitution. Once the NPVIC has reached 270 electoral votes, the passed bills from all the states will kick in and guarantee that the candidate with the highest vote total nationwide would become the president. So far, 15 states (CA, IL, NY, CO, CT, MD, MA, NJ, NM, OR, WA, DE, HI, RI, VT) and the District of Columbia (Total = 196 electoral votes) have committed to the cause. The bill has also passed at least one chamber in 9 additional states with 88 more electoral votes (AR, AZ, ME, MI, MN, NC, NV, OK, VA). So, we need 74 more electoral votes to eliminate the unfair influence of the Electoral College. A total of 3,408 state legislators from all 50 states have endorsed it. https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation *American citizens need to become politically active to make this happen before the 2024 election.

      3) Go back to reliable ‘hand marked pen and paper’ ballots publicly counted and scrutinized. Design simple to understand paper ballots, Standardize the voting system nationally across all states, and do NOT use ‘Black Box’ electronic voting machines (EVMs) or ballot marking devices (BMDs), because any electronic devices are too easily hacked or manipulated to rig voting figures even if using ‘block-chain’ technology. Cyber-attacks can also be undetectable. https://www.coindesk.com/mit-paper-rejects-blockchain-based-voting-systems-elections Paper ballots are more reliable and can be recounted if necessary. Democracy is too important to allow the possibility for cheating.

      4) Install an independent Election Management Body (EMB) to be responsible for the polling, conducting and tabulating of votes in elections and referenda, and the registration of political parties, oversight of campaign finance, design of the ballot papers, drawing of electoral boundaries, resolution of electoral disputes, civic and voter education and media monitoring for the safeguarding the legitimacy of democratic institutions and the peaceful transitions of power. They need to ensure all aspects of any electoral contest meets global norms and follows the fundamental guiding principles of elections, including independence, impartiality, integrity, transparency, efficiency, professionalism and service-mindedness, that perform in the best interest of the voters.

      5) Shorten the Election Campaigns to 4-8 weeks maximum (like most other advanced democracies. This also helps to get money out of politics). Ridiculously long campaigns (18mths) are a waste of money, resources and time; time that should be spent governing the country and providing social programs for citizens needs, not campaigning for re-election.

      6) Voting Days to be held on the weekend (not Tuesday), and possibly in conjunction with Veteran’s Day Holiday. (Make it easier for all citizens to be able to vote).

      7) Ban voter suppression, upgrade the Voting Rights Act, and introduce a 28th Amendment for the right of every citizen 18 years old and over the right to vote, or introduce compulsory voting (every eligible citizen votes – $50 fine if you don’t vote) Australia has compulsory voting and because of this 95% voter turnout. By contrast in the US millions of voters are purged from voter rolls, and at least 40% of provisional ballots are thrown in the trash can and not counted. It’s just another method of rigging the electoral system.

      8) Ban gerrymandering of districts to favor one political party. Independent commission should draw district lines, not partisan political parties. Voters should pick their politicians, NOT politicians their voters.

      9) *Consider a Unicameral Congress (only House of Representatives needed to pass Bills. There’s no need for the Senate to pass Bills, so situations like McConnell and the filibuster holding up important legislation cannot happen). *(NZ is an advanced democracy and has a Unicameral Parliament which works very efficiently). *(a Unicameral System is also one step closer to a direct democracy of all the common people). Unicameral System: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unicameral-system.asp Bicameral System: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bicameral-system.asp (*The majority of international governments use the unicameral system—with a roughly 60/40 split between unicameral and bicameral.) The only other option other than a unicameral system, is to make it mandatory for Bills passed in the House MUST be voted on immediately in the Senate. Mitch McConnell has sat on hundreds of Bills effectively blocking them from passing.

      10) Campaign finance reform (donations only via private citizens with strict donation limits, ban corporate funding and influence).

      11) Eliminate the need for political party registration (there’s no need to be affiliated to any political party, and it only encourages gerrymandering). No one should be loyal to just one political party. Force political parties to concentrate on policy to attract your vote.

      12) Term limits on all politicians (Congressman and Senators) and judges (in particular Supreme Court justices – no lifetime appointments).

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  5. Its time to work together… when we work together, working together gets us to a point were we can work together.

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    1. @Flute Loop Well, your riddle was misleading with disinformation because a fetus does not have fully organized heart muscle tissue until the 20th week, and since 90% of abortions are in the first trimester, it makes the rest of your knowledge suspect too.

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    2. “It’s time to do what we need to do and that time is every day” Kamaltoe Harris.

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    3. Are you illiterate? Whatever party holds the presidential office, puts up the same person. And, after the Jan 6 committee meetings, we’ll vote for Biden as the better choice.

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  7. I can imagine Susan Collins tell Brett Kavanaugh “Stop, Brett, you had me at “Boofing” “.

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  9. Why did everyone in politics start saying “full stop”? This has happening within the past 6 months. What did I miss?

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    3. @Toya Jackson She answered directly so either your hearing is bad or your English comprehension needs work.

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    1. They want more power even thought they do have power to remover the filler buster and make law to limit SCOTUS

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    4. As she answered the questions put to her, you won’t have to. (But please the next time a Republican is on CNN for five minutes or more.)

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    2. Can you tell me the presidential action she and the President can do over Congress? I want to know what I haven’t thought about or that she didn’t say here.

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  14. “I’m glad you asked about the thing because I’m going to say things about the thing. I think the thing is important, and the thing needs to be addressed. We are working on the thing and the thing is very important to us. We hope to get support from the thing while we work on solutions for the thing. Thank you for asking about the thing, now I would like to talk about this other thing.”

    – Kamala Harris about anything, basically.

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    1. @carol Lund what she said was, vote for us and we will continue to do nothing for you except raise inflation because that’s easy to do.

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  16. Well Teamwork Makes the DreamWork but so far I haven’t been seen much of that lately🤔

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  17. “Let’s just say this…this is a very real issue”…No sh*t Sherlock. Her answer to high gas prices is lower insulin.😅

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  18. A granny in Australia says…this woman has perfected the art of talking and saying nothing. If she is convinced that Justices perjured themselves in confirmation hearings IMPEACH them, unseat them and get 4 nominations for new Justices. Dire times require bold action.

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    1. @Poopdeck Pappy In order not NOT uphold a precedent you previously said you recognised something would have happened between you stating that support and NOW. Could you tell me what that something is in this case?

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    2. @Lea Garner Roe was established law and they correctly affirmed that it was. Wouldn’t they have been lying if they said otherwise? Speeding is illegal today and established law but that doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. Court decisions that overturn established laws happen daily in this country. You need to let it go.

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    3. @Helen Martin I can’t decipher your last comment, you’re going to have to rephrase that.

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    4. @Poopdeck Pappy Sorry I forgot to ask; are you watching Jan6 Hearings? With respect, I am really interested.

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  20. This lady is absolutely right, it’s high time we stand around and protest and get absolutely nothing accomplished!!

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