An election story….

[Rideback]

Trump's inner circle includes the Cantor CEO (think back to 9/11) in an article from Rupert Murdoch's WSJ. Pretty amazing to see the WSJ take note of Trump's intent to require fealty to him and not the Constitution.

'"Some Trump aides worry Cantor CEO is talking too much in public—getting ahead of election and a more formal decision-making process." They're particularly unhappy about his disclosure of two aspects of the Trump hiring plan: first, the requirement that all new office holders will be required to swear an oath of personal fealty to Donald Trump, and not to the Constitution or laws of the United States, and second, his disclosure that Trump would block or circumvent any FBI background review of candidates.'

[dorankj]

Sure sounds like a confident ‘winners’ (or whiner’s) reply! You never disappoint Jim, jackwagon.

[mister_coffee]

Every election is different and by definition who exactly votes in those elections and how much their votes count change over time. We might well be seeing exactly that play out in 2024.

Yeah, the 2008 election was something. I was flying into Singapore that night and the first I knew for sure that Obama had won that election was because all of the people at immigration had huge smiles. The lady who stamped my passport gave me a big smile, stamped my passport, and said "Obama!" to me. And the immigration people in Singapore aren't exactly known for showing emotion.

After I picked up my bags I went into the green line out of customs. A burly customs officer stopped me and had my drop my bags so he could shake my hand.

[just-jim]

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F*ck you, you ignorant redneck mor*n.
You cant even understand what the story was about. What a dumbazz.
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[dorankj]

But apparently that same electorate after voting (simply because of race this suggests) for Barack twice suddenly turned into a racist, misogynistic electorate (even though she got far more votes than Obama) and then suddenly went absolutely nuts (81 million votes) for the old white corrupt forever lying politician Biden? Hellova story you got there knucklehead!

[just-jim]

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I dont know why I’ve been thinking about this…..

I’ve spent most of the past National election seasons - for the last 15 years - out of the US.

But….I’ve been thinking about what US elections mean - not just to those of us in this Country - but to what our elections mean to the rest of the world. And not just to other ‘Countries’ or their Governments….but to the PEOPLE of the rest of the world….who look to America, whether we know it, or not.

I’ve been writing down some of my old stories and experiences. This from 2008, which I wrote about a few years later:


In 2008 I was in Scotland. I’d arrived with my mail in ballot as I knew I was going to be there for a month prior to the election. I’d be voting absentee. Likewise, my wife also was voting that way. After we completed our ballots, I took them with me while I went into downtown Edinburgh.

In the UK, the Royal Mail handles the mail but the customer facing side of the mail operation is the privately run ‘Post Office’. Most of their work is done by contract at small retail operations. These are outlets, many run from the back of smaller inner-city ‘bodega’ style markets; the kind of corner market stores common in any big city. The places that sell newspapers, candy bars, milk, bread, beer, tobacco and other sundries - usually from small stores of several hundred square feet.

I walked into one such store in Edinburgh. This was near the center of the population of Sikhs and Muslims in Edinburgh, near the University District, a very cosmopolitan place. There were Asian and African folks in the street. There is a Mosque, a Buddhist center, many Christian churches - and even a Synagogue - nearby. I was probably the only Anglo in the store….although I didn’t recognise it at the time. I went into the store, stood in line to mail my ballots and when I got to the window I asked the small brown gentleman behind the screen for two first class airmail postage stamps to the US. As I slid the ballots through the window he looked at them and said ‘oooohh -ballots’. He asked me; ‘are these McCain ballots?’ I said ‘well, I don’t think I have to tell you that’. And he said ‘wellll.. if these are McCain ballots I will show you what we do with McCain ballots’. He then walked over to a trash can with both ballots in his hand and made a show of ripping them up and dumping them unceremoniously into the trashcan. The entire place erupted in laughter and I stood there feeling like a fool. After he put the proper stamps and postage on the envelopes and I paid for it, he came out from behind his cage and slapped me on the back and said well we were just fooling with you. We had a good laugh.

Several weeks later after the election I was back in that part of the city and again needed to mail a couple of things. I walked into the same store - completely sort of unawares that I had been there just a few weeks before - and the same characters were behind the screens in the post office. They came from behind their screens to chat with me and were so happy about the results of the election. They slapped me on the back – hugged me – and said ‘America has finally done the right thing!’ One had tears in his eyes…and I got a little emotional, too.

It made me understand why and how America has gained the trust - and then maybe lost it - amongst people all over the world. That these people of color - who may have been in the UK for generations, or been recent arrivals - were absolutely elated that a black man had been elected to the leader-ship of one of the greatest countries in the free world illustrates that.

We can’t discount what our elections mean to others around the world.
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