The future of the democracy of the U.S. government

The biggest threat to democracy is Big Tech. As it stands now they are not subject to the First Amendment (Prager University vs. GOOGLE LLC, FKA Google, Inc.;
YOUTUBE, LLC, decided by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) so they can censor people as they wish. They have already done this to various GOP figures including former President Trump as well as to Yair Netanyahu. They have also interfered in other countries, among them Australia.

Participant, that is correct. They can block and deplatform whomever they want.

Reb eliezer,

1) so cashing a check should require an ID (didn’t know it doesn’t)

2) according to your reasoning, why require an ID to buy liquor or cigarettes, fly on a plane or virtually anything else

Apps/ATMs or check-cashing services that do not require ID. The former requires a bank account and presumably, an ID was presented to open it. The latter charge hefty fees which presumably reflect losses from bad checks. Banks and most check-cashing services do require some ID.

I meant depoisting a check by using signature recognitiion rather than actually cashing.

“Because there is an age requirement to buy does things. Currently we vote through signature recognition.“

There isn’t an age requirement to vote?

Is there a citizenship requirement to cash a check? What about to vote?

@AviK
The First Amendment applies to GOVERNMENT ACTION. It has nothing to do with big tech or other private concerns.
A private concern has the right to decide who it allows to post or not.
If the government ordered a private concern to allow an individual to post, that would be a great threat to Democracy

Way back when most TV and radio (in the USA) was broadcast over the ‘public airways’ and the FCC ordered equal time provisions for opposing viewpoints. That could NOT be extended to cable, satellite or internet platforms. It has since been dropped for broadcast networks, who claimed it was an unfair burden since most of the competition wasn’t subject to the same requirements

I doubt there are any honest posters on this thread. But for the record, these stricter voting measures hurt both major parties. They are involved in a suicidal struggle, all the while convincing themselves that the other side is hurting more. The only winners in this vicious political cycle are progressives who are too stupid too think up a real platform.

“I doubt there are any honest posters on this thread.“

במומו פוסל

Not sure why there has to be a dig at posters over here, but hey I guess it comes as second nature to some people that aren’t comfortable with themselves

Dr. Fauci and Bill gates together came up with this Coronavirus pandemic plan together quietly to bring it upon the nation and the world so they can access to your entire life and all your information. As well as the entire tech world now of Google, Facebook and Twitter that are conquering to take over our entire freedoms and privacy of our lives and share it with whoever they want.

This is so nutty that it discredits everything else you wrote.

CTL,

1. That is exactly my point. They set the limits of discourse. If they do not want an opinion or argument to become known they simply erase it. Sometimes they even cancel people forever. I think that your use of the term “could not” is incorrect. Congress can pass a law declaring social media to be public forums. It just has not. Why would that be a greater threat to democracy than the “equal time” rule? I do think that that there might be strong grounds for an antitrust action when they act in concert, as they did with Parler.

2. A person’s picture certainly changes. Is there a requirement for a picture to have been taken within a certain number of years?

@Reb Eliezer
The affidavit requires a lot of personal info that is verified with records in the Registrar’s office
Full Legal Name
Date and place of Birth
Address
Phone
Social Security Number.

Remember CT is a small state. Our town has only about 26,000 registered voters and 7 polling places. With 3 checkers from each party on duty at all times, plus two moderators, two asst, Registrars of Voters, two ballot clerks and two clerks working the tabulating machine the chances are near 100% that at least one of the poll workers will know any voter who shows up.
I’ve worked the same polling location for 15 years, I probably know 60% of the voters who come in.
I won’t know new arrivals in town or the 18 year olds voting the first time, but chances are they will be known.
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Quick story….
My father always went to NYC by train on Tuesdays and then voted on his way home from the train station, back in 1974 (before we had an ID requirement and drivers licenses didn’t have pictures), I was a poll worker. At 7:45PM a man walked in gave his address as his own and then my father’s name. I yelled out Challenge and asked the Moderator to have the man arrested. The moderator said how do you know? I said, that is not my father, whose name and address were given to get a ballot.
Three minutes later my father walked in to vote. The policeman asked for his ID, then cuffed the first man and led him away.

SK -“How much time do YOU think or feel this country has left to breathe before a civil war breaks out C”V?”

It should have happened already – with the DemonCrats stealing the 2020 election!
But most of Americans are too stoned out to know what’s going on!
Both the Right & the Left are either Alcoholics or Drug Addicts.
Why do you think that the Government never stopped the influx of drugs into this country?!?
And now – a lot of States legalized Marijuana.
Oregon has even Legalized Hard Drugs!

The medical fact is – all these things affect the Brain.
That’s why it’s Illegal to Drink and Drive.
What do you think is happening Now in this Country – with all the Recreational Drugs becoming Legal?!?

Someone pointed out that we have in this generation all the chesronos of the Dor haMabul, Dor haFlaga and Sedom. It’s both amazing and frightening that America could have taken such a drastic dive into sheker and toeiva as it has, especially recently.

(To his credit, President Trump brought back some decency to the country, but to no avail, as the current administration has dictated a total reversal of that and then worsening the same.)

The good news in all this is that we have a mesorah from Rav Chaim Volozhin that the last station in Galus for Torah is America. And since America (meaning the USA), as we knew it, seems to be fading into history, that means that Mashiach’s arrival must be imminent BB”A.

@always
I did not ask him how he planned to vote.
That said your supposition about Jews and Democrats is inaccurate. When we were growing up the Republican Party of the northeast was liberal, and may Jews voted for people such as Nelson Rockefeller, Kenneth Keating, John V. Lindsay. Lowell Weicker, etc.

@AviK
You defeated your own argument when you wrote that the government can create public forums on the internet. If the Government creates the forum, it is Government action and the First Amendment applies.
Back in the early days of the internet, when we paid to belong/use the bulletin boards such as Compuserve, AOL, etc. The Interstate Commerce Clause might have applied. BUT, when there is no fee for Facebook, Instagram or Twitter it would be a far stretch to call participation Interstate Commerce.
There are thousands of FB groups that are geographically local in scope. I am the admin or moderator of a number of them that require proof of local residency to join and/or participate. No Interstate Commerce there. My Democratic Town Committee has a private FB group. Only members of the DTC, who must be registered voters in the Town can see the group and participate, again nothing Interstate about it.

CTL,
1. You are correct if you mean that the government cannot make it only a public forum for liberals. However, it makes no sense to say that if they create a public forum they cannot create it because of the First Amendment.
2. What does paying have to do with it? Are you saying that they cannot prohibit the sending of WMOs as gifts? BTW, what about applying anti-discrimination legislation to purely local businesses like so out-of-the-way diner?

@Always
“I am not sure why humanity needs to offer control over their thoughts to corporations instead of writing on open internet, like this site does. ”

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YWN decides who can join/post, edits/moderates, approves/rejects posts posts. Ascribing First Amendment Rights would force posting of non-conforming religious content, sexually explicit content, anti-Semitic opinion, etc.

BTW, I don’t know the business structure of YWN, it might be a corporation (or not).
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In 1967 Joseph Einhorn ran for Mayor of New Haven on the Republican ticket. His wife had gone to Hunter College with my mother and played Mah Jongg with her on Thursdays night. Although, Democratic Ward Chairman and Chairlady, my parents voted for Joe. He lost, but so has every Republican city wide candidate in New Haven since 1953

Today, liberal Republicans are called RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). I, BTW, would write the former NYC Mayor’s name L—-y. In my family his name was mud. He destroyed NYC.

@AviK
“CTL,
1. You are correct if you mean that the government cannot make it only a public forum for liberals. However, it makes no sense to say that if they create a public forum they cannot create it because of the First Amendment.”
This is not what I wrote. If the government creates the forum it IS subject to the First Amendment (creation is Government Action_.
#2…what does paying have to do with it? If the forum (such as CompuServe or Aol in the old days) took fees from people in other states than their HQ it was Interstate Commerce and could be attacked under those rules. Gifts are not considered commerce (although the purchase and deliver may be commerce and interstate).

CTL, I mean the software protocol, not the business structure. www is accessible to everyone. You don’t need a company like facebook to access postings. Search engine can index them. If one search engine downgrades sites, you can switch to another search engine. If ywn is too restrictive, you can create your own website and post there. In contrast, fbook and twitter own the data itself. People volunteer to post on the private property, so “we the people” are at fault for losing freedom of speech.

Somehow millions of people were following Trump on twitter. They could as well read his blog, but it appears too hard for many ..

CTL,

1. Did you read the decision? You can see it on Oyez. One basis was food coming from out of state. Another basis was that in general discrimination discourages blacks from travelling to certain places. You are going even further in raping the Constitution. According to your thesis, if a person got a property tax abatement Congress can regulate his yard sale.

2. You are having another senior moment. It was the Ohio National Guard. I looked up Jeffrey Miler. He was cremated and the ashes placed in Ferncliff Cemetery. Getting there by public transportation involves a number of buses plus an eighteen-minute walk. Another possibility is a train plus a taxi.

3. Lindsay coddled criminals and rioters at City College. It was on his watch that what was once “the proletarian Harvard” developed an inferior reputation because of open admissions. Most of those admitted were sorely disillusioned because they could not handle the academic demands. He only won re-election because the anti-Lindsay vote was split (he lost the Republican primary and ran on the Liberal party line. BTW, my father voted for the Democratic candidate and my mother voted for the GOP candidate. The year before my father voted for Nixon and my mother voted for Humphrey. In those days it was no big deal to disagree on politics.