The US state of Wisconsin pressed ahead with an election on Tuesday, despite a state-wide stay-at-home order amid the escalating coronavirus outbreak.And this:
Voters braved long queues at a limited number of polling stations where some staff wore hazmat suits.
The governor had tried to postpone the primary to June, but was blocked on Monday by the state Supreme Court.
In Milwaukee, where just five of 180 polling sites remained open, voters who hadn’t already cast absentee ballots — an overwhelmingly black and Hispanic population — waited in lines for hours.When a chance came to hold an election in which huge obstacles to voting would be placed in front of minority voters, the Republicans glommed onto the opportunity with both hands. Milwaukee is the center of the pandemic in Wisconsin; of the 180 polling places in the city, five were open.
Elsewhere in the state, especially in areas that have not yet been hit hard by the outbreak, officials reported shorter lines and polling sites that remained open for business as usual.
Republicans might as well start burning crosses. Using the pandemic to suppress voting was evil as fuck.
How is voting any more (or less) dangerous than going shopping, or getting Take-Out, or going to the liquor store or buying stuff at a convenience store?
ReplyDeleteAFAIK that is all still happening.
I would have thought that postponing would have been a good idea, however.
And yet, B, that is exactly the point of Comrade's post. The Republican controlled legislature in Wisconsin is the group that rejected the call to postpone the election. Rather than postpone the election, the precincts in minority areas were mostly closed. Those that were open had long lines, thereby increasing the risk of exposure of the Corona virus to those same minorities. The danger is that those voters may contract the disease. If they do and pass away, well that's fewer votes in the future. If they do and survive, they may not want to expose themselves in future elections. Either way, those are potentially less votes for the Democratic party which would benefit the Republicans.
ReplyDeletePretty transparent really.
Dale
D: That's pretty twisted logic there.
ReplyDeleteWho controls the closure of the polling places? The "Republicans" in the legislature? Or some election board? Why were there so few polling places in the larger cities "minority" areas? (why do you have to hide behind "minority" instead of using the term "black" anyway?) but almost everywhere else the polls were open? Who controlled those polling places?
The lack of workers to man the polling places was a big part the reason for the lack of polling places. But you only need to look at the picture of Robin Vos (( the republican assembly speaker) that's trending. Telling everyone there's no danger but dressed up like take your son to work day at the butcher shop. I wouldn't worry too much B,this is the part where you roll your eyes and shake your head and thank God you're a good common sense conservative republican.
ReplyDeleteReally? Let's look at the facts presented.
ReplyDelete1). Nationwide, a Covid-19 pandemic is occurring.
2). Governor of Wisconsin (a Democrat) wants to suspend the primary election during #1.
3). Wisconsin legislature (Republican controlled) rejects #2.
4). Democrats wanted to delay the vote and extend the write in period.
5). Republicans blocked both moves in the court system.
6). Case is taken to Wisconsin Supreme court which ruled along ideological lines. (Majority of conservatives)
7). Of 180 polling stations in Milwaukee, only FIVE were open. These were in an area largely populated by minorities, namely Black AND Hispanic.
Historically, the Republican party has been shown not to support voter's rights. You, B, have been a person in the past who has advanced conspiracy theories. Some recent examples:
The infection rates of this virus don't appear to be even as high as the "Swine Flu"/H1N1; If they REALLY believed the hype about the transmissability of the Coronavirus...; ...this current virus appearing to be even LESS virulent and LESS transmittable..; China has ALLOWED the Covid-19 virus to escape. These statements are all from YOUR blog roll, which I would assume only you have control over. These are your words.
I am just stating my opinion based upon the articles presented here on Comrade's blog. I don't see any twisted logic in what I typed. Not any more twisted than what you yourself have espoused.
Dale
So you blame the R's for the lack of polling places in a Democratic stronghold? Or because the R's didn't trust the Dems to not cheat again with the extended write-in and other rules?
ReplyDeleteI do agree that postponing would have been the best thing to do, however, from what I am told, simply postponing wasn't an option without changing the other rules for voting.
And yes, those were my words. So far, if you ARE SMART ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO LOOK AT AND UNDERSTAND THE STATISTICS you will see that they are correct. You gotta get your data from somewhere else besides the Network News. They aren't telling you the truth, but rather scaring underinformed and ignorant folks. You can get a much better picture from the CDC and the Hopkins website.....if you can understand what the data is.
Of course, you have to have an open mind as well.
This was a dry run of the Republicans' plans to steal the November election, plain and simple. What better way to suppress turnout than a fucking plague?
ReplyDeleteThey didn't start the plague, but they'll damn sure use it to keep American citizens from voting against them.
Cheerleading for these tactics is anti-democratic and despicable, and I certainly hope voters recognize them for the attack on their rights that they are and vote as if their lives depended on it.
Because they do.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
B,
ReplyDeleteNow you are putting words in my mouth. I didn't blame the R's for the lack of polling places, I blamed them for having an election during a pandemic. Which, during a stay indoors order, (when someone logically draws out to a conclusion) means that the turnout will be lower both for the voters AND the poll workers. And which party stands to benefit most from a low turnout? I can't say with 100% accuracy so I won't. But it stands to reason that the election is tainted and unfairly represents the will of the people.
Also, you are making a claim that is not in evidence of the D's "cheating" with the voting process. I have see reports that both the D's and R's have tried to manipulate the process. The last report I saw about the 2018 election was an R trying to vote multiple times. When caught, he claimed that he was just trying to show how easy it was for the D's to taint the process.
And as far as statistics go, anyone can manipulate data to "prove" their point of view. One has to understand the concept of the data and the way it is presented in order to understand the numbers. For instance, if last year's failure rate in school was 5% and this year it is 10%, is that a 5% increase or a 100% increase? You seem to infer that myself and many others here do not have the capability of understanding the data as well as you. That, my friend, is wrong.
Dale
It's deep here, need scuba gear.
ReplyDeleteThis was a move of desperation by the Wisconsin Republicans and the national Republicans who support them.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin is heavily gerrymandered, to the tune of Democrats getting 53% of the vote while Republicans get 64% of the congressional seats.
The census is coming up meaning those gerrymandered districts will be redrawn soon.
Wisconsin's Democratic governor could veto those new gerrymanders, and the Republican controlled (because of the gerrymanders) state lege could sue, landing partisan control of an important swing state in the lap of the state supreme court.
The election yesterday included a race for state supreme court justice between a rabid Fergus supporter who would definitely deliver the gerrymanders for them, and a progressive challenger who would most emphatically not.
That's why the SCOTUS voted (remotely, for fuck's sake) not to allow extra time for counting absentee ballots, which were late getting mailed to voters who asked for them because of COVID-19, in a 5-4 Republican decision.
Those ballots will now be thrown in the trash.
If you think this was OK, that tells me all I need to know about you.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
If you can fully comprehend statistics, then explain how this current plague is so much worse than the Swine Flu plague? The numbers just don't support that.
ReplyDeleteThe PANIC was from incredibly "optimistic" estimates that were greatly in error, with little basis in fact, grossly overestimating the Covid-19 based on past epidemic spreads. Like by a factor of at least 10 in some cases.
If you look at the FACTS, the real numbers, not the hype by the media, you might lose a few blood pressure points and slow your heart rate. Probably need less of that hard-to-find Toilet Paper as well.....
This is a serious disease, make no mistake, It is *not* as serious as the wildly outlandish predictions put forth by the media or even the WHO.
But don't let reality get in the way of your panic.
Here's a hint: When the model doesn't meet reality, you change the model. We had models that worked and more or less accurately predicted the spread and the death rate and the hospitalization rate. Those aren't the ones that the media told you about.
Several thousand dead New Yorkers might disagree with you. The doctors treating the patients in makeshift ICUs might disagree with you.
ReplyDeleteGo to the main page of this blog and read the words just under the title.
If New York were really worried, they'd shut down the Mass Transit. They haven't.
ReplyDeleteAnd, except for a woefully underprepared city of New York, the health care system is handling things quite well. Even Kalifornia is doing well. Also Chicago and Boston, and even Philadelphia and Miami.
Again, stop "learning" from the media, get your facts and information from someone who doesn't earn their money from readership/viewership, and whose stock in trade isn't drama, hype and scare tactics.
I'd provide links, but y'all won't accept them, so use Google on your own. Just don't get yer data from a media outlet and you might see what I am talking about.
Mass transit is at 10% of pre-pandemic use, B.
ReplyDeleteAnd how are medical workers suppose to get to work if they don’t have a car,
Which is very common unless you’re made of money in NYC.
B, it is no one else’s task to do your research for you. DA is right; travel for a large number of NYC residents is by bus or subway.
ReplyDeleteOkay. So let’s compare apples and oranges. And I’ll type slowly so some people can understand.
ReplyDeleteSwine flu - predicted flu for the season; Covid 19 - mutated strain with no prior prediction
Swine flu - vaccine available early; Covid 19 - currently no vaccine available
Swine flu - no widespread social distancing; Covid 19 - early advisories for social distancing.
Swine flu - gradual global spread - Covid 19 - rapid global spread
Swine flu - free range humans wandering around; Covid 19 - Stay Home Stay Safe recommendations/orders
Swine flu - mortality rate of .02%; Covid 19 - mortality rate varies between countries (9%+ in Italy, ~4% in Europe, 1.5%+ in US)
In short the argument that the Corona virus isn’t as bad as H1N1 is ridiculous. Early social distancing and stay home procedures prevented the mortality rate here in the US from skyrocketing like other places. And maybe in Hicksville, USA the hospitals are doing well, but in the major urban areas there is a shortage of space in the medical community. You think they converted the Jacobs Center in NYC or Cobo Hall in Detroit just for something to do?
Facts and real life may be difficult for some to understand. But like my father once told me: “Remember son. Fifty percent of people finished in the bottom half of their class.”
Dale
Actually, the hospitals in Hicksville (like the ones near me right now) are in for a shock very soon.
ReplyDeleteWhile the curve is slowly, and with a three week incubation lag, bending downward in the areas that began shelter in place early, the case numbers in the more rural areas (like where I now live) are doubling every four days.
The hospitals near me have an advantage over the ones in rural areas of states that refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA and have been closing down in alarming numbers for years, as they were not already insolvent before the deluge of COVID-19 patients hit, the uninsured of whom tend to cost hospitals $40,000 a pop.
I'm really glad that I got this year's doctor visits over with last month. I think they wanted me back in September, but I have a feeling that they'll renew my prescriptions over the phone then.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Are they using those field expedient hospitals? Not yet. Likely won't either.
ReplyDeleteNor the Comfort in the harbor.
Nor are they close to the "expected" number of deaths even in New York.
And those folks in the subway aren't getting healthier by using the subways and busses. Crowd lots of people in a bus or a subway car and they spread airborne(ish) diseases.
If the critical folks need to get to work, they they can find other ways to transport them. The trains and busses are part of the issue in NY. "Social Distancing" isn't happening in Mass Transit.
As per Dale's numbers for the Swine Flu vs the Covid outbreak. We shall see. THe newest numbers for Corona ...the "adjusted" figures, look more like 200-300K in the US. Probably closer to 100K when it all settles out.
Here is a thing you seem to fail to realize. Social Distancing doesn't change the area under the curve, is simply flattens it. Same number of people get the disease, they just get it over a much longer time. And it appears that the peak is already here even for places like NY. And NY seems to be the worst for cases.
You seem to be using old numbers because they fit your meme of fear, death and tragedy. Look for some newer ones. You might be surprised. Still worse than Swine Flu, but only slightly.
Another set of unsupported assertions. Quite unimpressive, B. Do you know how much the alternatives to public transportation in NYC cost?
ReplyDelete