The decision not to invite observers from the OSCE puts the U.S. alongside Russia and Belarus, while the Justice Department prepares to deploy its own poll monitors.

The Trump administration declined to invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to witness the midterms, blocking monitors from the regional security group for the first time in more than two decades.

Their absence comes as Democrats and election integrity experts have raised concerns about potential election meddling after the Department of Justice announced plans to send its own monitors.

Washington joins only Russia and Belarus in its decision to exclude OSCE observers.

The OSCE called the U.S. decision “regrettable” and Human Rights Watch said the move “fuels fears of serious human rights concerns around the upcoming elections.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 64 points 2 days ago (49 children)
  • [–] 97 points 2 days ago (39 children)

    We are not fucked. Everyone needs to vote like their life depends on it because it does.

    If people don’t vote because of fear then we are fucked. It’s up to us to unfuck ourselves.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 39 child comments
  • [–] 25 points 2 days ago (10 children)

    Lol. Watch them sit it.out again, then blame the system for giving them 'no choice'.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    But… but, they’re both literally the same!

    I’m certain that if the Dems won we’d still be looking at a looted government, a gutted FDA, a gestapo rounding up all “undesirables”, insanely high food and gas prices, and a possible rigged election involving a president running for a 3rd term.

    And we all know voting does nothing so the best choice is to just not participate in any meaningful way so I can sit on my high horse and say I didn’t enable a a government that could have kept things together, but supported one or two things I didn’t like so if we instead eat the whole shit cake of everything we hate we just deserve it cause I made that choice for all of us.

    /s

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    While I agree with the heart of your comment, the true test is what Democrats do when they have more power. Historically, Democrats have often retained and even advanced policy they previously denounced, such as when Obama era politicians renewed and even extended parts of the Patriot Act.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    Fair criticism. However, we’d be a hell of a lot better off with the party of the status quo than we are now. Thousands of Americans wouldn’t be in foreign labor prisons or countries they have no ties to right now.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Sad to say, but it seems like some people I talk to still just don’t care enough. For them Trump is “bad”, but they don’t really follow the news closely enough to understand. So they won’t bother voting. It’s part apathy, but also part not understanding what’s really happening right now, which is the fault of mainstream media and propaganda.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    I suspect there's also some paralysis from not knowing what to do. Many US citizens seem to feel voting is futile, which is understandable: the Democrats seem to be scarcely better than Republicans save for a handful of issues, and some Democrats seem to be sliding to the right on those.

    It's becoming increasingly clear that more than voting is needed, but it's much less clear on exactly what needs to and can be done with the limited capacity of the overworked, underpaid average American citizen.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    If voting still works, and I hope it does, the other thing people need to do is run.

    School board. Town Council. County government. State government. Friggin' dog catcher.

    We need real people. People who have worked and struggled. However, as you said...

    the limited capacity of the overworked, underpaid average American citizen.

    I'm not sure how anyone could manage it.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    I'd rather watch Trump become an emperor and American "democracy" end under the kind of authoritarianism this country has spent generations imposing on other nations than cast another vote for a Zionist Democrat who tells me I have to support them because the alternative is Trump.

    Maybe then people will finally decide the system is worth resisting. At this point, I don't have much faith in that either.

    Go ahead. Downvote this to hell. Call me unhinged. Tell me I'm selfish. Tell me I have to accept sacrificing my people so you can preserve your comfort, and then keep calling yourselves our allies while you openly decide which minorities are expendable, starting with trans people.

    "First they came..." and all that.

    When you spend years teaching people that solidarity only flows one way, eventually they believe you.

    If your political position is that minorities must keep being sacrificed to protect you from something worse, don't be surprised when those minorities stop volunteering for the sacrifice. Don't be surprised when, eventually, we aren't there to save you either.

    You told us this was the deal. You keep telling us this is the deal.

    I'm done with the "vote for the lesser evil so we can live to fight another day" argument. That line stops working when the supposed lesser evil has helped slaughter enormous numbers of people and expects our votes without remorse, accountability, or even a meaningful change in course.

    You don't get to demand unconditional political loyalty from people whose lives and families you have already decided are negotiable.

    When you're ready to actually be an ally, assuming we survive long enough to have that conversation, come find us.

    Then maybe we can build something better together: a political system that treats human beings as ends in themselves, not as expendable constituencies whose suffering can always be justified by pointing to someone worse.

    You are fucked, good luck.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [+] -6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (15 children)

    Is this sarcasm?

    Even if MAGA doesn't tamper with the election to keep control of Congress, we've seen already what Dems do when they get power back. They keep most of the fascistic policies implemented by the red team, drag their feet prosecuting any of the MAGA leadership, continue our imperialist foreign policy unchecked, and refuse to implement widely popular domestic programs.

    Our only recourse is working class solidarity. General Strike.

    EDIT: To clarify my point - yes, we should vote in November. But just voting - even if it results in Dem supermajorities in Congress - will not save us. The Dems generally don't go out of their way to persecute the working class, but they don't fight for us either. They are the "good cop" who gets us to cooperate with the billionaire agenda because we don't want them to send in the "bad cop" (MAGA) again. The only way they will do our bidding is if we force them, and we do that with a general strike.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 15 child comments
  • [–] 22 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    I agree with the general strike, but we also need an opposition party with power to do something during and after the strike.

    It’s not all made up fiction and both sides are not the same.

    Apathy of the populace and cynicism got us here and we have to push back against that to get out of it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    They are not the same. But they work for the same team and we're not on it (unless you're a billionaire on Lemmy).

    The Dems will only do our bidding if we make them. And we make them by having a general strike.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    Dude I full agree with you. We need all of these things.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 0 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    Yeah, but we're not gonna get what we want. We may get a Dem majority for two years. We may even get a Dem president in 28. And then most people will go back to sleep while our government continue to support genocide and imperialism, continue to fund ICE while doing the bare minimum to reign in their most egregious behavior, continue to say we can't have Medicare for All, and continue to obfuscate and delay release of the redacted portions of the Epstein files.

    Even here on Lemmy, a platform full of people with non-mainstream views, there is so much resistance to what I'm saying. It makes me feel hopeless.

    EDIT: clarity, no content changes

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    I get the hopelessness, but if you give into it then you become a part of what you’re worried about.

    The option to hope might feel pointless but it’s literally the only rational option because it gives you a chance even if it’s slim. The other path is no chance at all and I can’t accept that.

    I encourage everyone to check their cynicism, it’s a drug, it feels good, it feels practical, and it always leads to ruin.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    I will continue to vote and I will continue to advocate for and participate in collective action to put pressure on whoever is in power.

    But I can't just decide that things look hopeful. They don't. Not when the vast majority of the country still thinks the only problem is MAGA.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Joe Biden spent his first two days in office breaking the record for executive actions.

    https://politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/27/marco-rubio/how-joe-bidens-first-executive-orders-compare-past/

    I am old enough to remember that most of these were either doing things that Trump SHOULD have done to address Covid but refused to (as the article points out) or were just undoing what Trump did as the previous record holder fro his first term.

    Like,i get it. Biden was a neoliberal and a capitalist. The DOJ should have put Trump in jail long.before he had an opportunity to run for office again. But this BoTh SiDeSrhetoric is factuay inaccurate and actively pro-fascist.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    Yes, he did the bare minimum.

    And look where we are now.

    He and his party should have fought like hell to make sure this couldn't happen again. They didn't. And those of us who are old enough to have observed the trend line in our political history should already have figured out why.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (6 children)

    Por que no los dos?

    You got something to lose by voting anyway?

    Are you incapable of enacting change both within and outside the bounds of the system?

    Or is it just a zero sum game?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 0 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    I never said I wouldn't vote, and I added an edit to my comment that clarifies my position several minutes before you posted this response.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    Ah, gotcha. But yes I agree. Voting is the first step to change, but cannot be the only step.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    It will be the only step though. Even right now with fascists in power most of the working class refuse to even consider trying to shut down the economy and demand real change. What do you think will happen when Dems get power back?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Well when the cost of living is high and wages are low it’s hard for most people to think about risking their job to protest or strike when it could mean losing your housing and going hungry.

    What I think if Dems can wrestle power back is try to start fixing the shit the Repubs broke. Only issue is it’s gonna be slow af because they’ll work inside the bounds of the law and won’t force shit through like the current admin is doing.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    It'll be just slow enough that they won't finish before they lose power again.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    That’s the problem isn’t it? The Trump administration fucked shit up with speed but fixing it is gonna take forever. All those people they abducted without paperwork? They’re all gonna have to be processed somehow to bring them back home and it’s going to take a Hurculean effort in manpower to make it happen. Easier to ignore laws and break stuff than it is to work within them and fix stuff or get stuff done.

  • source
  • parent
  • [+] -8 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    What this article is positing is that they are rigging the election, so voting won't help

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    Right but it cannot be rigged it’s too decentralized. They will try to fuck with it but if everyone votes its too big to rig.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] -3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    They rigged the 24 elections, strange to assume they can't do it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    There’s a difference between outsized influence and full rigging.

    I said before I fully expect them to attempt to influence the election in illegal ways.

    If the people stand up against this, however, they can’t stop it.

    Rigging requires nationalized elections which we don’t have and never should have.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    If they're going to cheat, force them to

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 2 days ago

    No. But yes, with our leadership. But if we got new leadership we would win. But we won't, because even half of you guys trust them and our online spaces are full of chatbots and influence agents bullying us into accepting the next biden or kamala.

  • source
  • parent