I remember when I got jury duty summons a couple years after I moved out of the US. My mother called the jury duty office up and told them I had moved. I doubt the jury duty person believed her but I recall my mother saying her reply was „well that is certainly far away“

The other time I ducked jury duty is because I openly stated that I cannot trust a police officer to tell the truth. Judge actually thanked me for my honesty and used that to speak to the rest of the potential jurors that they needed to be honest about how or what could sway their opinions. Which is kind of weird, you would want skeptics on your jury, no? Nobody who blindly believes a cop automatically tells the truth just because of his profession?

It doesn’t matter, it was all ages ago now, well before the BLM movement.

So my two little jury duty stories.

Guys, go vote. Please! I don't care who you will be giving your vote, just vote. Make your voice be heard. Okthxbye.

And don't get mad if the other side wins. Because the real slogan for US elections should be:

MAKE AMERICA SANE AGAIN!

Good luck, friends from the US, with your elections.

Whatever happens, whoever wins, I hope they will do what is best for the people of USA and its allies.

Voting is the easy part.... Good luck with the counting

My message is completely opposite. Don't vote; stay home and get drunk/stoned out of your mind.

I feel like I should get a button or a T-shirt after the election cycle. "I survived Presidential Election 2024".

Or maybe it could say "Asteroid 2028"

This comment was edited on Nov 5, 2024, 12:11.

With 80 million early votes already cast I'm really curious what percentage of eligible voters won't be voting again as usual. I suspect it'll be much lower than usual - 30%+/-. And the Presidency is overrated anyway. It's about who's controlling government at federal, state, and local levels that really matters. That's where democracy lives and dies. Given how close the polls are on all those races I suspect a lot of this will probably take a week or more to get resolved anyway. Still, I'll have a few beers and watch the returns for a while in memory of the good Doctor.

On of the last day of the Constitutional Convention on September 18, 1787,
A lady asked Ben Franklin "Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy" – "A republic," he replied "if you can keep it.”

20 states have activated members of the National Guard to keep the peace.
https://www.khalifaihler.org/proudboys

theglaze wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 11:49:
Voting is the easy part.... Good luck with the counting

Yes, create smart bombs, create AI controlled drones, but creating a reliable machine that correctly counts votes? Impossible.

I voted last week. Straight D ticket. Which, at my age, I find more than a little amusing.

However, the choice is between two people:

1. A convicted felon, rapist and grifter who lies as easily as he breathes and has never met an authoritarian tyrant he didn't love. These are facts in evidence.

2. A woman who fully believes in democracy, science, and not letting old white men strip away rights from ~50% of the population. These are also facts in evidence.

Let your ethics, should you have them, guide you.

Or you could take inspiration from my late grandfather's slightly humorous statement "I didn't go fight and die in Europe to let goddamned Nazis move in to my country."

El Pit wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 12:12:

theglaze wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 11:49:
Voting is the easy part.... Good luck with the counting

Yes, create smart bombs, create AI controlled drones, but creating a reliable machine that correctly counts votes? Impossible.

I'm not so much concerned about the machines than I am the folks running the faculties. Missouri and another state already said no to allow monitoring devices within the voting facilities. Don't want those pesky monitors getting in the way of some fraudulent activities that can and probably will occur

How 'bout dem Cowboys, huh?

Good deal on the jury duty--hopefully, you won't even have to show up...;) People who don't vote have no reason to complain, imo. We voted early some time ago.

I voted a week ago via mail (although I took it to an official drop off) and it was counted the next day according to the website. So convenient.

Xero wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 12:33:
I'm not so much concerned about the machines than I am the folks running the faculties. Missouri and another state already said no to allow monitoring devices within the voting facilities.

And, naturally, it's the Republicans that are fighting being monitored.

It's funny that when I was a kid the joke was that everyone became a Republican when they got older. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I've definately become more liberal the older I get. When I was young, I believed that in general people were kind and fair. That they would and should take care of each other with compassion. But as I got older I realized that a sizable chuck of the general public are real shitheads that only care about themselves -- and some of them have gathered vast amounts of wealth and power. The only way to protect myself against them is a strong government that at least tries to work for the people.

Prez wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 12:34:
How 'bout dem Cowboys, huh?

Sorry, Prez, but no. I know you're exhausted and grumpy about politics but today is a very important day for both the US and the world. It's also, indirectly, a very important day for the Ukrainian people. People are going to talk about it.

/---\

Apropos of absolutely nothing, today is a good day. In the past, I have mentioned that I own an M1. It is my aforementioned grandfather's that he carried in Europe so it is quite special to me. Due to age and just the sheer amount of rounds that have been through it over the decades, the barrel was shot out. I lamented this because it meant that it was going to become an object d'art. However, my local gunsmith that I use called and let me know that he found a NOS USGI barrel for it! I'm super stoked. The old girl will live to shoot for many more decades to come!

Well you can't fault a guy for trying. I hope that your team wins. It's all just sportsball really.

Civic duty accomplished. Although my vote for president is pointless since I live in Florida, there was much more to vote for and maybe some day....

Also @Prez, what if no vote = you cannot comment on BN for the next 4 years? I think that's the incentive you need. Talk is cheap, action (voting) is not...unless you believe one of the many voting conspiracy theories.

Well if that was the case then I would show up to the polling place, write your name on the ballot as a write-in, and vote for you. You got my vote Mr Xeth!

Bodolza wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 13:33:
It's funny that when I was a kid the joke was that everyone became a Republican when they got older. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I've definately become more liberal the older I get.

Likewise. In fact, I went from being conservative to liberal as I became older. In my case, it was a combination of factors:

1. As I grew older, I gained more experience and a little wisdom.
2. I married a woman who was not from the US so I was able to see the US from a different perspective.
3. We travelled extensively. We didn't drag our asses to cathedrals and art museums to take pictures. We dived deep into the local culture. When you get away from the tourist traps, keep your mouth shut and your eyes open, and seek to learn and understand, it really opens your eyes and your heart.
4. In her own gentle way, my wife cured me of the jingoism that I grew up in. Once you get over the "My country is the bestest ever", you learn that no, it really isn't and that adopting some of the best practices of other places would go a long way to improving the lives of the average individual.

I think the shift happened with the advent of the internet when people could more easily connect on a global level. Even if you lived in Podunk, TX, you could still easily access the ideas and thoughts of cultures and people well outside of your one stoplight town.

Prez wrote on Nov 5, 2024, 13:43:
Well you can't fault a guy for trying. I hope that your team wins. It's all just sportsball really.

Respectfully, it is not. We could ask the young woman who recently died here since she couldn't get reproductive health after suffering a miscarriage if she thinks it's just sportsball but she's dead. It goes beyond being "Sportsball" when the lives and rights of 50% of the population is at stake.