Get out and vote, if you haven't already. If you haven't, and don't intend to, you're wasting your time and ours being here.
You're wasting your time here whether you vote or not. This pastime is no better or worse than playing a video game or watching cat videos. If you're having fun, play on, and if you want to believe you're having some kind of impact posting here, power to you. Personally, I did waste 15 minutes last weekend voting, sadly the only choices on the ballot were politicians so I was forced to vote for evil (the lesser evil, IMO of course).
I saw Google has a new banner today that says "Go Vote". Interesting. With a link that allows you to put in your address to then send you to the correct voting precinct. Of course, they aren't storing your address... right?
I have no idea whether they are storing my address or not. It's more likely that they are tracking the GPS location of the machine you're using. Anyone who assumes that your location isn't being tracked online is either not paying attention or a fool. Of course, you Trumpsters didn't say a word when we learned that Cambridge Analytica was doing it. It's all right if it's part of the Russian effort to elect Trump!
So, since you missed it in your reply, you seem uneducated in the difference between application consent and data collection consent. IE, you, as a mobile user (this is actually specific to mobile since the average lap top doesn't contain the ability to reference GPS [I know, you don't know this already so consider this an opportunity for you to become educated], may, or may not have allowed applications access to their GPS location. In any event, this information exchange is actually an agreed to standard of use as part of your use of a mobile application which, clearly, you can turn off, or otherwise not make available to your mobile application. Regular laptop/computers use IP addresses that aren't actually geographically locatable unless the ISP provider is locating your modem or other device that translates your network to theirs. Which, then, still means that your laptop isn't providing GPS location. Further, your "location" doesn't mean what you think it means. As use of a website constitutes "location" as much as your actual physical location does. So, if you're browsing Australian shoes, the subject becomes the "location" then used to tie advertising to which isn't tied geographically. I have said much about Cambridge. Ive pointed out, for YEARS, that Facebook et all are a sieve through which, if you're stupid enough to use the platform, all number of things about you are publicly available for anyone to harvest. Do you suppose that FB was somehow "unaware" of their application APIs that are publicly available to connect other applications to wasn't doing exactly this? Do you suppose that isn't how mr Obama "ruled the social media" in his own election? Can you imagine just for a moment that most of us already understood that usage, hence why so many of us don't use it? Of course not. Suddenly, you became aware of the thing that so many of us already understood, and you decided to use your own ignorant misunderstanding as rationale to be angry and try to fling it at others. Got it.
You made it sound as if you didn't. Frankly, most Trumpsters don't. Either that, or they're just in denial about how the Russian influence operation actually works.
Do you really suppose that continuing to double down on ignorant is going to be an effective position to take here? Also, it would be super nice if you didn't attempt to assert positions that clearly you don't even understand as positions that I have, or would, or might likely try to hold. You label with a brush that frankly is too large for you to understand just how ridiculous it makes you appear when you try using it. Do you understand that, from a behavior standpoint, that frankly much of what you do, regularly on this board, is very similar in fact to what folks might expect a Russian disinformation broker to try foisting on this board? Are you then a representative of the thing you are now whining about? Hard to say. I assume that since you vacillate on topics that perhaps there are more than one of you behind your account, so asking for consistency might actually be difficult do achieve for you or the potential group of you who write using this account. But fear not, I don't actually see you having that much influence here, so, who cares, right?
Thinking voting is a waste of time is a relevant political opinion and therefore belongs here as much as your pro-voting opinion. If you're looking for a circle jerk forum where everyone agrees with you, maybe you don't belong here.
For and interesting perspective, watch this talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/eric_liu_there_s_no_such_thing_as_not_voting
I strongly disagree. The idea that voting is a waste of time is flatly refuted by history. And recent history, at that. If you're going to come here and go on about politics, and then assert that actually using your only power to influence the outcome is a waste of time, you should stick to sports or entertainment. No one who cares at all about politics or government sees voting as a waste of time.
Perhaps you saw the 100% participation in Russia, or China? Do you think it's a useful pursuit for them? As far as what happens here, in the US, we all welcome the participation of those who are legally allowed to vote in our system. All of them. All of the time. So, follow the law, get an ID, and welcome to the party.
I constitute proof that this statement is false, as I believe voting is a waste of time but also care about politics and government. Also, I do stick to entertainment. I'm here because I find this particular waste of time entertaining.
Really? Then why has the GOP repeatedly tried to enact laws that make it harder to vote? Why did the GOP Gubanatorial candidate in Georgia try and keep 60,000 people from voting? Why did the Florida Secretary of State run an operation that disenfranchises 200.000 people without their knowledge (a key factor in voter caging operations, making sure the victims don't know they've been disenfranchised until its too late)?
And that kind of thinking is how we got tabloid flakes like Sarah Palin and con men like Donald Trump. When you regard the process of running your country as no more than a form of entertainment, that's all you're likely to get out of it. Hence your claim that you're picking the lessor of two evils. The reality is that folks with attitudes like that have contributed mightly to the dumbing down of the public discourse, and promoting marginal candidates whose only real talent is entertaining a television audience.
Balderdash. My attitude had no impact at all on McCain's selection of Palin or the election of Trump. The political system that you support did those things. My position is that the entire system should be round filed and we should start over. Until that possibility comes to pass I'll watch the political circus and occasionally laugh at the suckers who think their vote counts for something. When the reboot comes I'll be in there trying to help design a better system but until then I'll be watching the clowns, magicians and acrobats in the center ring. What has dumbed down the public discourse is the media, the political parties and our egregious "education" system.
Have it your way, for what it's worth. I see a few folks like you around. No one I know in politics gives folks with attitudes like yours the time of day. So, why, exactly, did you vote? Since you've repeatedly said you were wasting your time.
While I disagree about voting being for entertainment purposes (its a huge part of democracy and pretty damn crucial) I will attest that what contributed to Trumps win was the fact that the candidates in 2016 were a bizarre mix of bland, predictable, sketchy, uninteresting or some combination of them. At the end of the day, people ended up just settling for that because we don’t expect better from a country of 320 million people.
I've voted in a local election where the margin was 3 votes. If my wife and I and two other people hadn't voted, the outcome would have been different. It can make a difference in all elections.
I'm not a Trumpster (I was NeverTrump and voted against him twice (primary and general)). I don't buy the whole Russian influence on the election causing Trump to win bull. I think the Russians were involved in both sides in different ways, and their goal was disruption of the American electoral process, which for the most part is exemplary. They are succeeding in seeding that dissension and distrust with our election process.
Harder? Really? So like getting a state issued ID hard? Cause why wouldn't you already have one. The fantasy that somehow being able to prove who you really are with a state ID that the state recognizes you as being a citizen is too hard? Really? Frankly, how many 116 yos do you think are really voting in OH? And since we can actually show from the voter roles from the last election cycle that these folks did actually vote, do you really believe there were that many 113/4 yos in Ohio? Really? You know what? Folks must follow the law, right? If I don't give my correct address, or I don't give you proof of citizenship, or I'm a felon and my state kicks me off the rolls, is that actually suppression or just good house keeping? Should I use your shoddy methodology then to justify the same kind of diligence for folks who buy guns? Or drive cars? or pay taxes? Your breathless enthusiasm for hyperbole not withstanding, I cannot for the life of me believe you'd agree to your standard for just showing up to vote being the one you want to show up and take an AK home with you from the sporting goods store. And yet, one of these is actually a constitutionally protected right. And isn't that interesting about your willingness to violate civil rights?