Voter ID Nonsense

When Georgia passed its new voting law in 2021, our President and several big businesses, i.e., Delta and Coca Cola, responded on the side which criticized that State for requiring an ID to vote. (BTW, we don’t see/hear Delta Airlines fighting the requirement that a photo ID is required to board one of their flights.)

Major League Baseball canceled the planned, 2021 All Star game in Atlanta in sympathy. The damning rhetoric was deafening.

This piece is deliberate overkill of a point – indicating the inconsistency exemplified by the difficulty it would be to live in this country without a photo ID.

We’re to believe, for some reason, those of us walking around with ID’s are taking for granted the everyone has an ID – and for some legitimate reason there are millions who don’t have one and have difficulty getting one.

Some Democrats apparently think that black people are too stupid to know how to get an ID.

It’s not only demeaning to black people, but patently racist.

Most of us refuse to think that way.

Let’s list things requiring an ID in the United States. It’s a non-exhaustive list.

Driving a vehicle on the streets/roads
Boarding an airplane
Purchasing, leasing, or renting a car.
Renting a hotel room
Buying a cell phone
Entering federal buildings
Obtaining Medicare/Medicaid
Applying for food stamps
Applying for welfare
Applying for unemployment
Using Social Security services
Applying for a green card
Buying a firearm
Adopting a pet
Joining a gym
Buying alcoholic beverages
Buying cigarettes
Participating in political events
Getting married
Checking out a library book
Joining the military
Adopting a child
Opening and using a bank account
Sending a wire transfer
Applying for credit
Establishing a utility account
Cashing a check
Opening a retirement account
Applying for a mortgage
Buying a house
Renting a house
Renting anything
Donating blood
Filling a prescription
Applying for a job or school
Applying for a professional license
Buying train tickets
Visiting a doctor’s office or hospital
Picking up mail from USPS, FedEx, UPS
Getting vehicle registration
Applying for a fishing/hunting license
Buying insurance

Could it be that a number of people without ID’s don’t want to go near any government offices because there’s outstanding arrest warrants for them?

Voting Is a privilege granted to all citizens of the United States. That privilege is sacred and not to be taken lightly.

It’s nonsense to deem that presenting an ID to exercise that privilege is discriminatory.

35 States require an ID at the polls. The 15 other States have varying requirements, mainly providing some form of ID like a utility bill or bank statement. These 15 States do require a signing an affidavit and/or name, address, and signature in a poll book. Most of them put those votes in a separate ‘provisional’ category until the information provided is verified.

So, different States can have different requirements related to voter ID, but the citizen voters in each State have the prerogative under the Constitution to conduct elections in their own ways – if the courts deem those variations to be legal and not discriminatory.

Another major point to be made here relates to the recent attempt by Congress to take over the responsibility for elections in the States. Lots of people in the country have been lulled into the growth and expanding spheres of the federal government and forget that we are a republic. That simply means we are one country but made up of separate, independent States.

Different States have different laws for lots of things. For example, 11 States allow public imbibing of alcohol at age 18. That’s their business, not the feds. One size does not fit all nor should it.

That also means while each State has its own protocol for naming their assigned number of members to The Electoral College, their method of choosing those members is their business, not the feds. Recent arguments to eliminate the Electoral College would, in effect, wrest that Constitutional prerogative from the States and make presidential elections determined by a national majority vote.

With different States having different voting ID laws, there would be an outcry by either major political party that lost a presential election that the votes of the ‘former’ Electoral College would have had a different result – with different State, voting laws. You can bet if the “Voting Rights” bill passed, the next move would be on the Electoral College.

And so on.

It brings up one of my favorite sayings: “You can’t do one thing.”

Whenever you change one thing you at least change one other – and potentially many other things.

Let’s turn a deaf ear to the unsubstantiated, nonsensical attempts to eliminate voter ID laws.

It’s not too much to expect citizens to get a photo ID.

***************

Have a great and prosperous week.

Hug somebody.

References:

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-verification-without-id-documents.aspx

SPIDER Bites

After 40 straight wins and $1.4 million richer, Amy Schneider lost her 41^st match on Jeopardy last week. What a run for her and us trivia junkies!

The winter Olympics start next Friday while the two Super Bowl teams will take a week off. The Sensations are in a weak, 8^th place going into today’s games.

Are we going to war over Ukraine? What stake does the United States have in whether an apparently corrupt Ukraine has more or less Russian influence? Russia is down the list of economies in the world – 12^th – but they have a large nuclear arsenal. Ukraine is not a NATO ally and I doubt that alliance would accept it anytime soon. Let’s not let the military-industrial complex and the Washington ‘hawks’ take us into another, bloody, no-win war. And why are we mobilizing 8,500 troops here when we already have 60,000 troops in Europe? Meanwhile, Speaker ‘hawk’ Pelosi is expediting legislation to send an additional $500 million in military aid to Ukraine. The argument is we need to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine and its borders. I doubt whether our NATO allies will play ‘war’ with us if we get directly involved there. Defense contractor lobbyists are busy in D.C.

2.1 million illegal immigrants in 2021 – a record – from 100+ countries entered the US – two-thirds of them single adults – then shuttled to unknown areas of the country. We don’t know who these people are playing the system to get an ‘asylum’ court date at some time in the future, and we don’t know the number sneaking past border patrol. We also know there’s a spike in drug traffic because of our open, southern border. What a mess! Thanks, Joe. Shut it down. How much more sacred is Ukraine’s border vs. our own.

Using piezoelectricity, UConn bioengineers have successfully regrown cartilage in a rabbit’s knee. If it can be applied to humans, it will be a godsend to those experiencing great pain when trying to walk with a bone-on-bone knee(s).

The Federal Reserve Board met last week and indicated an interest rate hike is coming in March. Can you believe the Fed has literally bought all of the $4.2T debt added in the last 12 months, and now holds 16.5% of the national debt of $28+ trillion on its bloated balance sheet? It’s a house of cards, anchored on straw as over 20% of our debt is held by our government itself. Neat trick, huh? Milton Friedman is rolling over in his grave in order not to watch how monetary policy has gone amok amid fiscal irresponsibility. Correcting the situation will be painful as we’ll all going to pay dearly for those COVID relief checks. With inflation, we already are. The ‘party’s’ almost over, apparently unbeknownst to the still free-spending Congress and WH. Breaking an addiction is painful. Not breaking it is bleaker.

Pfizer contends its COVID-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid is an effective therapeutic (treatment) for omicron. Pfizer and BioNTech are also testing a vaccine to protect against the omicron variant. Vaccinations against the original COVID-19 are passé as that type is essentially gone and ineffective for omicron. Health experts say the common cloth masks do little to prevent tiny omicron particles from getting into your nose or mouth. By the time Pfizer has a new vaccine, there will probably be a new variant. Oops, there already is. Time to live with it and do what the UK and others have done – lift all vaccine and mask mandates. It’s the data.

How ridiculous is the admission by the Homeland Security’s TSA last week it’s allowing illegal immigrants to use ICE Form I-200 – and others – as ID when boarding a plane? That form, under the law, is an arrest and detain warrant for illegal immigrants. You are reading this correctly, so feel free to you shake your head in disbelief, then disgust.