102 Comments

I'm also in the "old" category and have been hoping young people would get involved in our elections. This young lady was AWESOME! I hope people of all ages take this upcoming election seriously - and, that the leadership roles across America start filling with people like Nse.

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David, you are so right! Seeing young people getting involved is a real treat. I know my dad was pleased when we went with him to the polls each election where he and we kids stood outside in all kinds of weather encouraging passers by to be sure to vote and to vote for people who cared about their needs. We would be there from the end of the school day till the polls closed at 8:00. Mom would bring sandwiches or something else for us to eat when she came to vote. I did wonder why there were not more kids like us hanging around the voting place because it was fun and interesting talking to the people. I did that through high school. Now when I see people like Ms. Ufot, I feel the same kind of pride my dad felt with our enthusiastic participation.

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Now there are places, including Georgia, I believe, where your mother would be arrested for providing refreshments to people standing in line for hours. That is 1 of the most cruel of many strategies Republicans have been using to discourage voting in areas they deem to be heavily Democratic. Actually, more than 1 of the strategies, since limiting number of voting polls & machines in Democratic areas, eliminating dropboxes, limiting voting days & times, are all used to create long lines & make people sick & tired of waiting (as well as thirsty & starving) so that they will go home without voting. Cruel & unusual punishment

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Seriously bullying people to deprive them of needed hydration and food while they are forced to wait in line to vote! This is criminal interference in voters rights and not only should be illegal, it should be stopped!

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I think that was Florida.

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Could be Florida, too. DeSantis is quick to adopt any bad idea he can find.

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deletedOct 8, 2022·edited Oct 8, 2022
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Janet R ; You are right ; Republicans are outnumbered, and would pretty much disappear if it was not for all the cheating and dirty money and legal bribery like Citizens United. Democracy is a cruel sham these days. The totally corrupted courts topped by the 'Supreme' extremes is the 'cherry' on top.( Cherry bomb, that is).

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I agree Janet, except "without outright cheating" that is obviously the plan for allowing the State legislators to override the will of the voting public. (:-)

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Fay Reid ; that too.

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And I wouldn't be surprised to find that - bringing your own food, drink, and collapsible seating (camp chairs) would be outlawed too. Make it a day of

'picnicing' while waiting to vote.

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That's how it should be. Make Election Day (which should be a national holiday) a special occasion to be celebrated, not punished or made a day of torture. Especially if you're going to be at the polls for hours because they didn't provide enough facilities or times & places & means to vote.

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You are fortunate to have a father who inspired you. My Dad was like that also. When WW2 broke out he explained to me, his 6 year old daughter what fascism meant and why it was important to fight against it. He also encouraged me to debate about political standards and 'political' promises. Funny story, my Dad was a life long Liberal, he even had a picture taken of himself with Canada's long time Prime Minister William Lyons McKenzie King, so when I joined the Progressive Conservative Party he was aghast. When I explained to him the Liberal Party was too socially conservative and the Progressive Conservatives were more socially liberal, he did sort of agree, problem is neither of us were fiscally conservative.

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What a great video! I too, remember the Bush v Gore debacle in 2000 as a real turning point for me as far as politics go. The election was clearly stolen right in plain view and the public was supposed to just accept it. There was no civil way to challenge it. The 'Brooks Brothers' gang showed up in Broward County appearing on the streets as supposedly legitimate citizens, to intimidate and disperse those citizens who were demanding that the recount not be stopped. these mostly white young men were dressed in a conservative uniform ; all alike; hence the 'Brooks Brothers' name. This in Florida, where George W. Bush's brother was governor, and there were things going on which were not quite right.

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Oh Laurie, you are so right about the 2000 election. My sister and I have discussed this often. She and I both contend that the Supreme Court, knowing what was going on in Florida should have given the election to the candidate who had wone the popular vote, Al Gore. That is what a truly unbiased court would have done, but we have not had a respectable court for decades, and we the people have so little we can do about it. There should be no ideologues on the Court, but it seems the conservative Catholics and Gorsuch have already decided cases before they even hear them. Case in point, they said nearly nothing in the critical hearing earlier this week leaving the questioning to the other justices. That says to me they already know all the answers and care to hear nothing more. That is not what we the people need. We need the court expanded and expanded until there is a majority of justices who actually can hear cases without having been previously instructed what a "good little conservative soldier" would rule. IF we the people don't get to that soon, we may not be able to do anything about it and just have to endure their idea of "the Kingdom of God" and Catholic theocratic rule. I, personally don't want that for anyone, having been raised in the Catholic patriarchy.

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Republicans claim that Democrats thinking Bush didn’t win his election justifies their insistence that “fraud” happened in 2020. They use the presence of their own venality to insist that venality is present! Then they blame it on their opponents. In 2000, there was ONE state where votes were challenged, and the count was opposed, and Republicans [“The Brooks Brothers” gang] tried to actively stop it, and the court gave it to them without finishing the count. And Democrats said we have to accept the ruling. And see where the R’s behavior has gotten us.

Every time Republicans behave badly and get away with it, they are emboldened. Nixon and his dirty tricks and out-right criminality. The guys in the basement of Reagan’s White House. Bush’s 2000 “win.” McConnell and his court packing. Every-first-and-last-thing about Donald J. Trump.

They try to pin stuff on Democrats — like “her emails” [which were investigated and shown not to have more than I think three secret documents among zillions, not even highly secret] — like “Hunter Biden” who is not even in the government — like QAnon bullsh*t. But there’s nothing that approaches actually undermining the government like the Plumbers, like Iran-Contra, like The Brooks Brothers gang, like Trumpism.

The Left outnumbers the Right, but the Left never elevated Dirty Tricks and Get Away With Whatever You Can to the level of a Political Virtue like the Right has done since Nixon.

That is what worries me.

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Pat Goudey OBrien ; All good points! and the beat goes on ; MAGA rethuglicans are turnimg our attempt at self rule into a s#^t show!

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Saddddd, and true, Laurie Blair.

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Wait, did she say she wanted the Supreme Court to award the election to the guy who didn’t get enough electoral votes? Or did she want the vote counting in Florida to be allowed to continue to DETERMINE who got the most electoral votes? If the counting stopped, the vote appeared to go to Bush. If the counting continued {which it actually did, after Gore conceded, though], it went to GORE.

Gore actually GOT more electoral votes — enough to win — but the court stopped the count.

Maybe you need to check your history a little. Gore conceded BEFORE the count was done.

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Sorry, she said that when Florida was in contention. NEITHER candidate had enough electoral votes to win without FLorida. So giving it to the candidate with the most popular votes would have been an alternate choice — since Florida was in contention!!!! In the end, they called Florida for Bush without counting all the votes, and that’s all she wrote. You need to see what people are talking about in the context of actual facts, Mr. Velten. You seem to pick and choose the facts you like to support your accusations. No one was saying the court should decide on an election based on a popular vote when there’s an Electoral Count that is certified. There wasn’t. The Florida vote was a mess. Going for popular would have been an alternative. But they gave Florida to Bush, and that threw it back into the Electoral College. Got that?

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Military votes were questioned for a number of causes, mostly for lack of a signature or date or witness. In the end, the were counted. I wonder if TODAY’S arguments against mail in votes stems from Republicans knowing they game that system. Republicans accuse Democrats of doing all the nasty things they know Republicans have already gotten away with. It’s called projection.

I’m just brainstorming here. Many election experts — even on the conservative flank — say the 2020 election was the most secure ever.

I believe it was. I hope we can do it again, even with Republicans trying to mess it up again.

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It is disconcerting to find out that your truth Mr Velten, is quite different than my own - both then and now.

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His "truth" should be in quotes.

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Yes - it's because we hold different "truths" it has altered our perspective.

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MR. VELTEN — One thing you said wrong? You said “why did he” — assuming you meant Gore - want military serving overseas to not be able to vote? That’s ludicrous. You were and are wrong about that. Equating a question about some military ballots with a desire to deny them the vote. Just wrong.

There were questions about how the votes were verified. Some had no signature. Some had no witness. Some had no date. They were dealt with. Especially the “postmark,” which military mail often did NOT have, so it was not needed for their vote to count.

The entire state of Florida was not in question. Only some counties were asked for recount. But of course, you see a conspiracy around ever corner. The real conspiracy that happened back then was, the mechanical vote counting machine had a glitch that discounted perfectly reasonable votes, and the place where it discounted them was a Democratic stronghold, so loads of perfectly rational Democratic votes were being thrown out, so they wanted people to count them by hand— visually—but the Republican “Brooks Brothers” gang created a stir to disrupt that, and the Supreme Court put a phony deadline on the vote counting and let them get away with discounting perfectly good votes and giving the nod to Bush, who proceeded to drop the ball on Al Qaeda, ignored the Bin Laden threat that resulted in 9-11, and got us into a massive decades-long sinkhole of a mess in the MIddle East, starting with a criminal invasion of Iraq and getting worse by the decade….

Anything else you gotta say?

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Go scold and interrogate your own party

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All lies Velten

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Jack Velten ; All rubbish! Even if half of this was true, it does not come close to the endless crap the MAGATs have done after 60 judges from both sides of the aisle declared the last presidential election secure. the recount in AZ showed Biden had more votes. Why don't you go to some MAGA forum where you would feel more comfortable?

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Great stuff! All the best to Nse Ufot and people like her. I can think of a US citizen or two to whom I will send a link to your Youtube interview with her.

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I like seeing younger folks getting involved in creating change in our society. It's reminiscent of the '60's when I grew up and was inspired by Dr. M.L.King, Jr., and John and Bobby Kennedy. I don't like how some of the rigid, old, lifetime career senators and reps in D.C. have conducted themselves and believe that term limits for them and SCOTUS would positively benefit politics. Current politics of MAGA, QAnon, and the largely dysfunctional, silent GOP are of great concern because of the destructive energy and behavior they've stoked. Thank you for your comments to inform and stimulate thinking and seeing things differently.

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Mary, I was also inspired by Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. I also appreciated Hubert Humfrey, a bit less dramatic, but a good soul who cared about the people of this nation. My family actively supported those people, I even thought Dr. King should run for office. My dad reminded me that if he did, he would be stuck mostly in his state house or in Washington and might not be able to lead the kinds of protests we needed. In April, 1968, the point became moot. I see Rev. Warnock as a man of faith who carries the torch of wanting equal rights for everyone, not just the rights that make a few rich men and women comfortable. The sad thing for me is the total lack of quality in nearly all the Republican candidates in this midterm election. They should be embarrassed, but they are too busy trying to outdo each other in hiding their real intentions, lying to the public, and demonstrating over and over what fools they are. Unfortunately, a significant portion of those fools will be elected because too many people vote for the "R" and not the person and what they will do for the people, this nation, and the world.

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Thank you Thank you for all that you are doing these days to inform people

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Nse Ufot’s energy and enthusiasm is so uplifting and inspiring!

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If our democracy has any chance of surviving the next two election cycles it will be young people like this and their dedication that will save us.

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Nse is inspiring! Thank you for highlighting her good work.

Another effort worthy of attention: MAGA, Mothers Against Greg Abbott.

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I sent a copy to my Field Team Six contacts.

We have a few days to register more Democrats.

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Last day in Florida Oct. 11.

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I sure hope you're right. The TV ads are blitzing for the R right. It's very tiresome. Even CNN cannot get enough of T. I'm discouraged about the future when you look at mainstream TV.

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I also feel disheartened when I glance at mainstream news, which is why I stopped looking at it.

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Jenn, I also find TV news a bit disturbing. I live near a large city, so there is a variety of stories presented, often about violence, though. I have noticed that there is nearly always just a little bit more coverage of Republican candidates. If there is something about a Republican, only occasionally a note about the Democrat, but if it is the Dem that is being highlighted there is always a Republican note. It is subtle, but definitely there. The stations are all glorying in the amount of money they are getting from political PAC ads which are pretty terrible, filled with lies and innuendos but who cares as long as the bucks roll in!

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Most young people don’t even watch TV anymore but we have to wonder how they’re being influenced by other social media outlets such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram etc.

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Eileen, the political presence on social media, particularly the platforms young people visit is intense. My 25 year-old niece tells me it is a lot and she mostly ignores it. She read or watched a lot back in the summer and has decided for whom she will vote, so pretends it does not exist on the sites she likes. She does not encourage her friends to vote, though. I an trying to get her to do that. We'll see if my encouragement works.

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Inspiration

Mug raised! to the young coming on . . .who refuse to just

go along . . .that right may prevail!

A wind in one's sails

in old age. Still on board! Feeling strong #countervailing

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Jack V ; There are more people in the Democrat party who love this country than those with blind hubris to tRump. The present form of Republicans are against the rule of law and the Constitution. They want to keep their opponents from voting and when they do vote, want to reserve the 'right' to discard votes they do not like. I don't see that as " absolute love of the United States of America". Maybe the United Arab Emirates, or Victor Orban's Hungary, or Putin's Mother Russia, but not The USA.

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Not a send em back name . . ancestrally probably not from an s-hole country . ..

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Jack, is there a reason your family are all voting Republican? Do they actually like the candidates they are voting for or is it a family tradition? I want young people to think for themselves, not just go along. I know a lot of education in certain schools is directed toward conservatism. Were their schools among those or was critical thinking expected? I am glad your family's young people are voting. I just hope they are voting as informed citizens not something else.

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May they dwell in the awareness . .of Herschel The Redeemed and Newt of The Contract . .of the

profound significance of The Ninth Commandment . ..

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We are rednecks, we're rednecks

We don't know our a**

From a hole in the ground

We're rednecks, we're rednecks

And we're keeping the n*****s down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu8xQ8o7uIY

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You mean the truly beloved?, . .as in "I Luv the Uneducated!" Just Kidding of course , ,The Commander in Chief who didn't know where Finland was . . but had a magic sharpie for Hurricane guidance . .

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Worse Than "Sloppy"

The Donald went the red neck route . .cuz his riffs really

made em shout . .

Then one patted his back . . and Hugged Him. Holy crap!

A germ farm almost that made him pass out. # just kidding

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Jack. They call themselves rednecks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqE6KN_suU

I have lived all over the country, grew up listening to the Wheeling Feeling,, play and sing with them. Some of the most liberal people in these USA's are rednecks, like Willie Nelson and his family. Poll Outlaw Country and virtually all can take a joke.

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Apparently your two youngest have been brainwashed. If they think the republican party’s gonna do anything to make their life better they're sadly being misled.

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Daily Reminder

Lest reduced to vaguely subliminal . .daily mode

of survival cynical. Tho others did the killing

They deserved it. He was willing. This Nation

elected a criminal. # Capone Lives

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May they be among the first to be congratulated by JFK Jr when he returns

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Assumed you had to be Just Kidding .. like hunting RINOs with ammo from Santa

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Thank you again Robert. My goodness, Nse is “Awesome!” You’ve made my day twice this week. Is there a site to support their efforts? Are they organizing in Mississippi?

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Thank you for sharing that conversation Mr. Reich.

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Nse is speaking, modeling, and representing the leadership style we need. I love the fact that the New Georgia Project reminds their canvassers that they have “twice as many ears as mouths”! And also, after that listening, she offers explanations and frames for how these people who speak with them can understand their power, and their relevance in the big struggle that is Democracy.

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Oh Jack, your knowledge of history is really poor. W. Bush didn't get 50% of the vote in his first election and neither did Trump either time, then there's the past. The 2000 election was an unusual case because of the outright cheating that was going on in Florida. As for the Supreme Court sticking by the Constitution, well, they seem to do it these days only when it suits their personal beliefs and right now, it is conservative "Christian." They ignore the amendments they don't like, claim that because a particular word like abortion is not in the Constitution, women have no right to it if states don't want them to. They ignore precedent if they don't happen to agree with a previous court's decision no matter if they have no compelling reason to do it. I suspect you will rush to cite Brown v. Board of Education overturning Plessy v. Fergusson, but there WAS compelling evidence to do that and all 9, even conservative justices agreed. The non-conservative justices in the overturn of Roe v. Wade were not even consulted as far as I can see. Alito had to drag up misogynists from ancient British history to stand against it. They didn't care that letting mostly white men in the states decide what could happen to women's bodies was against other people's religious rights. They cared only for their conservative Roman Catholic beliefs. That has been true as they have permitted conservative evangelicals and Catholic nuns to discriminate against people they claim their faith doesn't approve of. That is against the first amendment, but John Roberts and his conservative crew pick and choose which amendments they will follow and discard the rest. Voting is now about to be on their chopping block just because it will allow more rich white men have more power in our country. So, tell me how wonderful the Supreme Court is. Oh yes, they also ignore Congress when what they have passed doesn't go along with the Court's support of huge white corporations like the fossil fuelers, no matter if it squashes people's rights: the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and not be destroyed by global warming when they told the EPA it couldn't control greenhouse gases because Congress didn't say "greenhouse gases" back in 1970 when the EPA was established. The Congress of the United States on several occasions voted on and to renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but that didn't matter. They gutted it in 2013 with the Shelby case and are planning on ditching the rest of it by giving those same anti-abortion white men in the states the right to ignore the vote of the people and pick whomever they want, just because. They are into states' rights unless it goes against their NRA friends who want every white man to be able to carry a gun anywhere when they overturned a more than a century old law in New York. So, they are pretty arbitrary in their use of the Constitution, but we are not to question that? Uh-huh!

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Ruth Sheets ; well said!

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Nse Ufot, (and the fact the Boebert is in a statistical tie in the polls, and may be defeated by Adam Frish,) gives me tremendous hope. I have often wondered if the younger generation had the same passion as we "oldies" did when we marched against the war in Viet Nam, and for civil rights. Nse certainly does. She may be responsible for registering enough people to ensure Warnock defeats Walker: an extremely important accomplishment in these times. Thanks for bringing us her story. What a terrific young woman!

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