World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[prfsnl_gmr]

BTW, and on a completely unrelated subject, the haze in Charlotte today from the NC/TN forest fires is absolutely unbelievable. I hope that those of you living further west are OK.

We're fine over here in Washington. So we know the smoke fizzles out somewhere between Charlotte and the west coast.

Oh, thank God! Since I have no understanding of geography, I was most worried about our members in the Pacific Northwest!

[Sarge]

[Ack]

BTW, and on a completely unrelated subject, the haze in Charlotte today from the NC/TN forest fires is absolutely unbelievable. I hope that those of you living further west are OK.

You can smell it here in Atlanta. Yesterday it looked like we had a fog, and today we're under a mid-level smog warning. Fastbilly tells me that it looks like an oncoming storm up in Tennessee due to all the smoke in the distant sky.

[bmoc]

The firefighters working on the wildfire closest to me appear to be having pretty good success. Right now it is being reported as 43% contained. Around this time last week it was 12% or so.

I got an emergency notification last night that Clay county NC is giving out free smoke masks via the health department. The smoke is pretty bad up here. I'm just staying indoors as much as possible.

It is looking like we will get some rain on Saturday and few more times next week. I think the last time we got rain was during Hurricane Matthew.

[J T]

Stay safe over there y'all. Keep your smoke alarms filled with fresh batteries, keep a fire escape ladder in upstairs rooms, keep updated fire extinguishers in easy to reach places, have a family fire evacuation plan, and have emergency drinking water in storage.

[prfsnl_gmr]

The firefighters working on the wildfire closest to me appear to be having pretty good success. Right now it is being reported as 43% contained. Around this time last week it was 12% or so.

I got an emergency notification last night that Clay county NC is giving out free smoke masks via the health department. The smoke is pretty bad up here. I'm just staying indoors as much as possible.

It is looking like we will get some rain on Saturday and few more times next week. I think the last time we got rain was during Hurricane Matthew.

Stay safe. We got a few sprinkles last weekend in Charlotte, but they wouldn't have made a dent in those fires (which I could also smell when I left the office today).

[ElkinFencer10]

No smoke or anything over near the general Raleigh area, thank goodness. Is anyone near the wildfires? I think we've got one member over in far western NC somewhere near Asheville IIRC.

[CRTGAMER]

The Electoral College really needs to be abolished
I stated this before and this election emphasizes it! Glad that Trump won, but this is so wrong. Clinton could have won if decided by Popular Votes, Trump won due to the Electoral College! This has happened four times before in past Presidential elections!

My California Blue Democratic state was posted as such immediately after the polls closed! The Electoral College "winner take all" decided without even bothering to count the Republican votes. This too is wrong!

Oh and lets get rid of the term "Popular" Vote and call it what it is. The ACTUAL vote count of the people!

Finally, Democrat Senator Boxer in my state of California does something right for a change! A long uphill battle, this is one bill I hope passes. Even Trump who I voted for has stated the Electoral College is rigged!

https://www.boxer.senate.gov/?p=release&id=3355

Boxer Introduces Bill To Abolish The Electoral College

Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Washington, D.C.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will introduce legislation when the Senate comes into session later today that would eliminate the Electoral College and determine the winner of presidential elections by the outcome of the popular vote.

Hillary Clinton currently leads the popular vote by nearly a million votes (990,758). By the time all the ballots are counted, the New York Times estimates that Clinton may win the popular vote by more than two million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points. Donald Trump will become the fifth President in U.S. history to lose the popular vote and still win the election.

"In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote," said Senator Boxer. "When all the ballots are counted, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a margin that could exceed two million votes, and she is on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama. This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency. The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts."

"In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted, 'The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy,' " Boxer added. "I couldn't agree more. One person, one vote!"

During his interview on "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Trump said his views on the Electoral College haven't changed. "You know, I'm not going to change my mind just because I won. But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win," he said. This morning, he tweeted that the Electoral College is "actually genius."

As of early Tuesday, Hillary Clinton had received 61,929,605 votes (47.8 percent) and Donald Trump had received 60,938,847 votes (47.0 percent), according to the Cook Political Report national popular vote tracker.

Senator Boxer's legislation would amend the Constitution of the United States and abolish the Electoral College. The amendment would take effect when ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years after its passage in the U.S. Congress.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... pular_vote

In the following five elections, the candidate elected president by the electoral college lost the collective popular vote.

1824: John Quincy Adams
1876: Rutherford B. Hayes
1888: Benjamin Harrison
2000: George W. Bush
2016: Donald J. Trump

[Exhuminator]

Isn't the Electoral College vote designed to give each state proportionate voting power versus other states though?

[CRTGAMER]

The Electoral College really needs to be abolished
I stated this before and this election emphasizes it! Glad that Trump won, but this is so wrong. Clinton could have won if decided by Popular Votes, Trump won due to the Electoral College! This has happened four times before in past Presidential elections!

My California Blue Democratic state was posted as such immediately after the polls closed! The Electoral College "winner take all" decided without even bothering to count the Republican votes. This too is wrong!

Oh and lets get rid of the term "Popular" Vote and call it what it is. The ACTUAL vote count of the people!

https://www.boxer.senate.gov/?p=release&id=3355

Boxer Introduces Bill To Abolish The Electoral College

Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Washington, D.C.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will introduce legislation when the Senate comes into session later today that would eliminate the Electoral College and determine the winner of presidential elections by the outcome of the popular vote.

"This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency. The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts."

Isn't the Electoral College vote designed to give each state proportionate voting power versus other states though?

It does, but at the cost of some voters having less power. In my huge populated state of California, my vote for Trump was not even counted! Come to think about it, California, Oregon and Washington reported as Democratic wins IMMEDIATELY after the Polls closed! The Electoral College decided without counting any votes!

During the campaign, the traditional swing states was where most of the debates took place. Traditional red and blue states were ignored. Hold off on election results until ALL votes are counted NATIONWIDE. Some will vote based on who is winning which is ridiculous, but does happen. Alaska and Hawaii which can see partial election results up to six hours before their polls close (due to time zones) may be discouraged from even voting!