I concede the fact that I could have been more articulate in my point, which is not so much about California and New York as the fact that the population density of the northeast and the west coast would make it virtually pointless to campaign in many of the middle states, because there simply isn’t enough votes in…

Right, of course it would be cheaper. My point is that Trump is, ahem, unconventional in his dealmaking and would find some way of getting it done even if—as the commenter to whom I’m responding speculated—there are some ranchers who don’t want to sell. Secondary point being that Trump doesn’t care what’s “legal” as…

Flying in the cold isn’t the same as flying in the arctic but nice try, troll.

Not one of them can get to the arctic without an icebreaker escort. And that’s assuming the air power on the carrier is capable of operating productively in such a harsh environment.

That’s not how PR works asshole.

Right, I understand that issue. What I’m saying is that it’s a way less important issue than redistricting, automatic voter registration, voting holidays, etc.

Dividing congress into two separate bodies is hardly the same thing as the checks and balances set up among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

I don’t oppose changing the electoral college system, I oppose it as a first line of voting reform because of one shitty election.

It also says the video in question was taken down.

Come on, man. Don’t do the strawman thing. I didn’t say “changing the electoral system” = throwing out the baby with the bathwater. But most who criticize it seem to think it’s just as simple as getting rid of it and using a strict popular vote, which I don’t believe is true. Not to mention that politically it would…

What law would it be violating, exactly? I mean it’s easy to shriek “HE CAN’T DO THAT!!!!!1!” but what law are you citing, precisely?

Do you think churches install cell phone tower repeaters because they like them? Newsflash—they do it because they get paid. Ranchers are the same as any other business, if the lease income is greater than the supposed economic loss of the leased land, there’s no reason to believe they would not make the rational…

This misses the point, which is that we shouldn’t make rash decisions because we’re mad and scared. Automatic voter registration and a national voting holiday would, in my view, democratize our system more than getting rid of the electoral college. I’m all for tinkering with the EC, but most sane rational people would…

I don’t think I said any of those things about the electoral college.

I thought that was shameful too, but it didn’t end up costing her party the whitehouse, so it can hardly be considered the “exact same thing.” McCain never had the groundswell that Trump had, Bernie should have bowed out for the strength of the party and nominee.

Maybe, but there’s nothing stopping Trump from ordering DHS or Interior to do it and then defending it in court later. He may lose, but he will have won the PR battle of building the wall.

What the fuck are you talking about? There is no prohibition on the federal government leasing the necessary land for the wall.

Republicans were only afforded that additional power because democrats were so self-satisfied electing the first black president that we gave up entirely on state races, which led to heavily-republican redistricting after the 2010 census.

Could be paranoia but I also worry about what sort of shenanigans can be gotten up to over the course of a couple weeks. Voting on a single day means there are a lot of eyeballs and attention being paid to the ballots and systems in place. Mail in voting seems second only to electronic voting in terms of risk of…

The fascist right has dozens of talking points with which to bash Obama. No need to project all of that onto Chelsea for speaking the truth.