Lest you doubt me when I repeat, for the thousandth time, that our state’s honored legislators are craven lunatics, get this: the Arizona House has approved a bill allowing greedy lenders to charge 204% on consumer loans! Why? Ohhh, well…gee whiz, there’s just no other way a person can get fast cash. Is there?
Then we have this:
Maricopa County is as large as Los Angeles County. It’s the sixth-largest city in the nation. And now we have exactly 60 polling places in the whole damn county! Down from 200, thanks to our craven legislature.
The right-wing state legislators have been working for years to disenfranchise people who might vote Democratic. They’ve gerrymandered districts. They’ve moved voting places into areas where no one in their right mind would unlock the car door, much less get out and dodge bullets. They’ve engaged in active campaigns to disallow large numbers of mail-in ballots. They’ve worked to install complicated voter IDs to force you to prove you’re who you say you are — and no, a voter registration card won’t make it. By changing the name of this election from a “primary” to a “presidential preference” election, they’ve disenfranchised every registered independent voter. Previously, independents could vote for any candidate. Now if you’re a registered independent, you can’t vote at all!
They have tried strategies to disqualify…
• The elderly
• Students
• Disabled people (this year it’s a felony to take your disabled mother’s early ballot to the post office!)
• Military members
• Anybody who even vaguely looks Hispanic
• The working poor
• Naturalized citizens
• Transient citizens
• Residents of more affluent, educated districts who tend to vote Democratic
And now, they’ve closed the polling places. Lines are already upwards of an hour long. The point being, of course, that Democratic voters are likely to have blue-collar jobs or low-level office jobs, the kind of work where you’re not allowed to be late. Or where your pay will be docked if you’re late, no excuses.
I find it astonishing that Americans seem unable to recognize when they’re being lied to and unable to recognize maneuvers designed to rig elections in favor of a specific group.
You know, people who do this kind of thing turn into tyrants when they get into office. If people of good will don’t fight back, America as a democratic republic is essentially doomed.
Oh hell. Maybe it’s already doomed.
I can sing “O Canada.” Will that help me get permanent residency status?
204%….? Arizona truly is the Wild West…once more. MAN….who would agree to such terms and conditions?
Desperate people. Or, more often, ignorant people. Most people just do not understand what they’re getting into with payday loans. They don’t understand enough math to grasp what interest rates do.
This is the economic benefit (for some) of having the third- or second-lowest-ranked school system in the country. Dumb sheeple are lots easier to shear.
The lines at the few remaining polling places defy belief! There’s one on the way to where I had to go this afternoon. There was an actual TRAFFIC JAM at the four-way intersection of two five-lane roads, what with people trying to find places to park and trying to get across the streets. The line must have extended a quarter-mile. It went all the way through a parking lot, around two corners of the building, and up the street. This was in the middle of the day, not before work!
I am really disappointed in the national coverage regarding the issue with polling locations. All American’s should be given the opportunity to vote and not have it be an extreme inconvenience. I saw some coverage of this, but no one was discussing how this would dis-proportionally affect the working class.
The whole idea is to deflect as many people as possible. Those who are most easily deflected will be people who have to get to work on time, those who are disabled and might be harmed by standing in the sun for upwards of 45 minutes or an hour, those who are students who have to get to class…those who, yessss… Are likely to be LIBuhruls!