It All Started With Horrific Videos of Chinese People Walking Down the Street…

 …groceries in hand, and basically stopping, and falling straight down, never to move again. I remember those, widely circulated during the first days of the Wuhan infections, but since hard to find online. 

Here’s one of them 

Now, I can hardly believe that we took the Chinese government’s word for the truthfulness of these rather obvious pieces of propaganda. The many lies that came out of that region, coupled with the lies of much of our own government, have changed the ways that citizens view official sources.

Where We Are Today:

• Masking is less common, but many will NOT give up the covering. Masked "Peaceful Protesters" are common, despite public safety concerns about not being able to identify those committing crimes.
• Kids are back in school, but too few school systems have been forced to back off on CRT and DIE education. This is despite both literacy and math scores hitting the lowest point in years. Too many teachers are more concerned about pushing their personal agenda, than in teaching the subjects/grades they are being paid to teach.
• Social Media is as awful as ever. Blatant bans/deplatforming/abuses are probably down, but the undercover squashing of 1st Amendment rights continues. Project Veritas is doing an extraordinary job in exposing abuses, but many more underhanded actions are escaping notice.
• The recent midterm elections were, in some states, a not-funny joke. The outright fraud was in-your-face, unapologetic, and unashamed. And that fraud was made possible by the massive increase in absentee ballots, 'justified' by COVID. If not for that, there would have been some other excuse, however, the fears of the American public made is easier.
• Welfare, EBT, housing subsidies, and other forms of government support of allegedly not working adults and their minor children have skyrocketed. What might have been expected - people flooding the job market to apply for jobs that were now available in abundance - did not happen. Those who were given money to sit on their a$$, continued to do so. A FEW took advantage of increased opportunities - kudos to them - but most did not.

And, Trump has announced he is running.

Eh. 

It's a long time until the next election, and I don't believe that his presence - or absence - will make the difference in the 2024 election.

What WILL make a difference is tightening up the election infrastructure:

• No more absentee ballots, without a doctor's note on file at the election board. That excuse is ONLY good for 1 year. After that, another note will be needed. The exception will be for serving military and their families. Other than that, a person who will be out of town on election day may vote - in person, with ID - at the election office, not more than 1 month early.
• Any resident in institutional care must have a DOCTOR willing to swear that person is mentally competent to vote. No votes may be collected from any person without that certification on file at the election office.
• Votes must be counted at the location they were cast. If there is a discrepancy between the voter book/ballots, votes from that precinct will not be counted without an audit, on site, in front of observers of any party that chooses to participate.
• No ballot may be scanned except at the local election site. Any absentee ballots must be scanned and counted before being moved to another location. All signatures must be verified before being scanned.
• If rejection rates exceed at certain percent, the ballots must be hand-counted before poll observers.
• No counting site may close down, or eject observers, before the final count is complete. No person may leave and return to the site. No vehicles may approach the site before the count is complete.

These are just a few ideas. The point is, this needs to be changed at the local level. No more transporting ballots before counting them/scanning them, or otherwise giving nefarious people access to them.

With the state-level GOP having made inroads into government, this should be a priority. Rather than enact "comprehensive" changes, it would be better to do it a few changes at a time. Better to get a few improvements through the legislative process than to make compromises that water down the effect of the changes.