Are Americans really clamoring to Vote?

USA Voter turnout, elected women in political office, perceptions of electoral integrity lags far behind “advanced” or “developed” nations  

U

nited States of America’s Record compared with 12 nations

Turnout as percentage of registered voters 

• 2014 off year: 42.5 percent
• 2016 Presidential: 65.4 percent 
  

Percentage of seats held by women in lower or single chamber

• 2014 off year: 19.3
• 2016 Presidential: 19.1
  

Percentage of seats held by women in upper chamber

• 2014 off year: 20.0
• 2016 Presidential: 23.0

PEI index of electoral integrity (0-100)

• 61
  

Perceptions of Electoral Integrity (PEI) Rank (1 high, 12 low)

• 12

 

D

eveloped Nations comparative Record

Turnout as percentage of registered voters

• Australia (2016): 91.0
• Sweden (2018): 87.2
• Denmark (2015): 85.9
• Netherlands (2017): 81.9
  

Percentage of seats held by women in lower or single chamber

• Norway (2017): 41.4
• Sweden (2018): 43.6

Percentage of seats held by women in upper chamber

• Australia (2016): 40.8 
• Canada (2015): 45.7
• Denmark (2015), Norway (2017), and Sweden (2018): Unicameral

PEI index of electoral integrity (0-100)

• Denmark: 86
• Norway: 83
• Sweden: 83
• Germany (2017): 81
• Netherlands: 80

Perceptions of Electoral Integrity (PEI) Rank 1 high- 12 low

• Denmark: 1 
• Norway and Sweden (each): 2.5
• Germany: 4
• Netherlands: 5
  

T

oday dawns a long fall from earlier days of human rights and voting rights campaigners, the era of Fannie Lou Hamer, and eras of those who came before her.  

Contemporary Americans evidently lacking seriousness and personal engagement as a responsible body politic, a citizenry duty bound and cognizant of their duty to scrutinize the backgrounds of politicians and contenders for public office; and based on informed choice, to consistently cast their votes—are unlikely to be familiar with the 1960s-1970s-era Fannie Lou Hamer, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; Hamer’s work and concerns she nearly died for. Many did die in that movement era for Voting Rights and Women’s Rights.

Their work peddled no lies, committed no acts of violence against other people, vandalized no stores or offices, and toppled no public statues.

Are Americans today really clamoring to Vote? I don't think so.

O

ne cannot take seriously those who are unschooled in their history, the malleable and the deliberately ignorant among us. 

One should not take seriously those who fail

to see clearly

to think rationally

to grasp true substance, the essence of the matter and treat it seriously.

 

 

Sources

International Comparisons: Voting Most recent elections https://intlcomparisons.org/political/voting/

Unicameral: (of a legislative body) having a single legislative chamber; i.e., primary legislative authority exercised through the unicameral Chamber of Deputies ♦ Unicameralism: in government (Latin uni, one + camera, chamber), the practice of having a single legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a unicameral parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature consisting of one chamber or house. (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicameralism

Fannie Lou Hamer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer

 

 

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How do you portray “Kid in a Candy Store”?

A Transcontinental bankrupting “MAGA” debtor businessman turned debtor President of a debtor nation furiously printing fake money preferably embossed with his mug shot

TheTrumpster in USA Exceptionnelle

A

merican Son Gaming Her System

Donald John Trump (quoted during a campaign rally): 

“I’ve always loved debt. I must be honest with you…. I don’t love it for countries, but I love it individually.

“If things work out, good; that’s great. If they don’t, you go renegotiate.”

MarketWatch (AP) reporting September 28, 2020

Though Donald Trump “defaulted in 2008 on a loan for his Chicago hotel and condominium tower, …the Frankfurt (Germany)-based Deutsche Bank … continued to do business with him, even after Trump had filed suit against the bank and others whom he blamed for his inability to repay.…” 

Moreover, “Deutsche Bank’s private-banking division continued to lend to Trump, including $125 million to finance the purchase and renovation of his Doral golf resort in 2012….”   

She

H

emorrhages Debt, Hemorrhages Money Hemorrhaging Debt

 Investopedia reporting January 15, 2020

• U.S. Government debt owned by People’s Republic of China (4.6 percent); owned by Japan (5.2 percent).
  

• U.S. Government debt estimate in dollars: $23.4 trillion of which $6 trillion (plus or minus) is owned by the federal government in trust funds.

Government writes itself “a really big IOU— IOUs formed and financed through joint efforts of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve—and bankrupts one account to finance another activity.”

• Roughly two-thirds (plus) of U.S. debt is owned by individual investors, corporations, and other public entities—from retirees’ individual United States Treasury securities (a/k/a/ Treasurys) to the government of the People’s Republic of China.

Treasurys are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as an alternative to taxation.

 

H

er

Money Source

Worth reporting May 7, 2020

Debt Doubles Triples Quadruples ad infinitum  

• “Government issues new debt (much, much more new debt)
• Federal Reserve System (a/k/a/ the Fed) prints money, and buys it.”

 

Out of Reach

A

verage Americans cannot afford the candy store of a transcontinental bankrupting “MAGA” debtor businessman turned debtor President of a debtor nation furiously printing fake money preferably embossed with his mug shot.

 Average Americans cannot afford USA Exceptionnelle.

 

 

Sources

MarketWatch (Associated Press) “Report that Trump is $400 million in debt raises national-security concerns” September 28, 2020 Associated Press https://www.marketwatch.com/story/report-that-trump-is-400-million-in-debt-raises-national-security-concerns-01601332900

 Investopedia “Fiscal Policy Government Spending & Debt: How Much U.S. Debt Does China Own?” January 15, 2020 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp

Worth “A Leveraged Buyout of the US: Why America Can Print Its Way Out of Any Crisis Governments have always been tempted to print their own money to get out of debt, but this wasn’t easy—not until the U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency and the gold standard was abandoned.” George Salapa May 7, 2020 https://www.worth.com/a-leveraged-buyout-of-the-us-why-america-can-print-its-way-out-of-any-crisis/

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Treasury_security

United States Treasury securities often referred to simply as Treasurys; since 2012, U.S. government debt has been managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, succeeding the Bureau of the Public Debt.

 

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Dems and Republicans took his money, did his bidding, never whimpered about his character, or color of his money

Big Businessman Trump Beneficence to Big Two: the Buying of Public officials and Public Office

What happens when every American boy can grow up to be president of the United States, any American felon or questionable character can become president of the United States of America

• A man or woman who buys and sells public officials can be president. 
• Any American woman or man whose candidacy for “service” in U.S executive or legislative office can be and is bought, directly or indirectly, through the entrenched—a status quo sustained by all major U.S. political parties—mechanism of a patently corrupt, anti-democratic campaign finance system can hold a seat in the U.S. executive or legislative branch (and by extension to the judiciary branch) of government.  

Mr. Obama seemed to wish for his children the wealth of a Donald Trump. Songwriters’ song lyrics long to be “as rich as…” a Rockefeller; those lyrics later revised longed to be “as rich as that Trump fellow.”

Americans admire, praise, and take the money handed out by “the rich”—without asking the nature, source or aims of a rich man’s (or woman’s) wealth. How the rich stay super rich.

B

uying Power and Public Office 

Trump Money 1989-2015: 

• $1,845,290 worth of political donations
• Republicans received $1,150,540
• Democrats received $694,750
  

Pre-2011, Democratic Party recipients of Trump money exceeded Republican Party recipients of Trump money

2011, 2015 years: 

• Democratic Party members received $8,500 in Trump money
• Republicans received $630,150 in Trump money
  

Trump reportedly has donated to the Clinton Foundation and to prominent Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada), and President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

In New York State, Trump has donated $553,390 to New York politicians, of which $344,900 went to Democrats.

D

onald Trump’s Political Donation History

Federal Contributions	1989-2010 Federal Contributions
Republicans: $718,300	Republicans: $294,000
Democrats: $328,600	Democrats: $328,600
Total: $1,046,900	Total: $622,600
State Contributions	2011-present Federal Contributions
Republicans: $432,240	Republicans: $424,300
Democrats: $366,150	Democrats: $0
Total: $798,390	Total: $424,300
Total Federal and State Contributions	1989-2010 State Contributions
Republicans: $1,150,540	Republicans: $226,390
Democrats: $694,750	Democrats: $367,650
Total: $1,845,290	Total: $594,040
	2011-present State Contributions
	Republicans: $205,850
	Democrats: $8,500
	Total: $214,350

Trump’s last contribution to a Democratic member of Congress: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), September 2010, two campaign donations: $2,400

Trump’s last contribution to the Democratic Party September 2010 to the Democratic Committee of New York State: $10,000.

 

N

otable donations to federal-level Democrats

14 donations to Charlie Rangel (New York): $15,750

9 donations to Chuck Schumer (New York): $8,900

8 donations to Hillary Clinton (New York): $8,700 (of which two donations totaling $4,000 were refunded)

4 donations to Harry Reid (Nevada): $7,400

7 donations to John Kerry (Massachusetts): $5,500

2 donations to Anthony Weiner (New York): $4,300

2 donations to Joe Biden (Delaware):

$1,000

 

N

otable donations to federal-level Republicans

7 donations to U.S. Senator John McCain (Arizona): $10, 600 (of which two $1,000 donations were refunded)

12 donations to Frank LoBiondo (New Jersey): $8,250

3 donations to Mitch McConnell (Kentucky): $6,200 (of which one $1,000 donation was refunded)

1 donation to Lindsey Graham (South Carolina): $2, 600

1 donation to George W. Bush (Texas): $2, 000

Today in blaring headlines, New York Times (the rag that gave the world nonexistent WMDs in Iraq and contributed to the decimating of a civilization) brought news that “Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the U.S. presidency.

In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.”

In ten years of the previous decade and a half, the two-party beneficent Donald “paid no income taxes.”

 

Really? What is not mentioned is this. 

T

here is nothing new here. This is another episode of political expediency, plutocrats playing with one another, at the public’s expense.

The New York Times, public figures and media personalities, politicians stretching from Washington to California to New York City have long known the native son of Queens. They have protected Donald John Trump—as they have protected the Gates, Bezos, Buffett, Sackler, Walton, et.al, empires. Wined, dined, and danced with them; and conspired to keep the general public dumb and in debt, paying their taxes, and consuming stuff they don’t need.

 

Sources

Ballotpedia “History of Donald Trump’s political donations” last updated: October 26, 2016 https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_Donald_Trump%27s_political_donations https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_Donald_Trump%27s_political_donations#Trump.27s_political_contributions_by_year.2C_1989-2015

OpenSecrets “Senators overseeing impeachment trial got campaign cash from Trump legal team members” by Karl Evers-Hillstrom January 27, 2020 https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/01/senators-overseeing-impeachment-got-campaign-cash-from-trump-team/

New York Times “The President’s Taxes: Long-Concealed Records Show Trump’s Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance” September 27, 2020, Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire with contributions from David Kirkpatrick, Kitty Bennett and Jesse Drucker, illustrations Justin Metz https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html

Democracy Now! (New York-based) “A Criminal Tax Cheat? Bombshell NYT Report Shows Trump Paid No Federal Income Tax for 10 of 15 Years” September 28, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/28/elie_mystal_trump_taxes_nyt_report

 

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