Abrams just lost my vote (campaign, democratic, Republican, drug)

[Columbus1984]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I assume you must really hate women to your very core, to oppose their bodily autonomy over some stupid position about gambling. You'd have them be slaves, forced birth, literal forced labor.

The ballot box is a war zone, and we don't have time for minor issues right now. The Republicans are against democracy itself (if we didn't have the anti-democratic 'electoral college', they could never get elected and appoint their 6 conservative supreme court justices with life tenure), they're against the public welfare and health, and they're freaking trying to instill theocracy. Georgia already has done so. Complete unhinged nutcases like Marjorie Taylor Greene are actual elected representatives. We are living in an apocalypse situation.

To vote anything but Democratic (or to not vote), is essentially the equivalent of saying that you view women and their bodies as property, and that you desperately want nut-job right-wing religious extremism (with a side of unrestricted gun fetishism) to dominate America. Period, end of conversation. You as a sane person have one job, here. Don't screw it up.

Stay in Seattle.

[Esteban5]

Originally Posted by primaltech

To vote anything but Democratic (or to not vote), is essentially the equivalent of saying that you view women and their bodies as property, and that you desperately want nut-job right-wing religious extremism (with a side of unrestricted gun fetishism) to dominate America. Period, end of conversation. You as a sane person have one job, here. Don't screw it up.

Wow. Just wow.

[columbusboy8]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Meh.

There seems to be much more money in online gambling (including online sports gambling) at this point in time.

I personally don’t like gambling, including for the exploitation factor that you mentioned.

But I’m also pragmatic enough to realize that it’s going to take a lot of money to provide the increased amount of government services (including an expanded HOPE scholarship, Medicaid expansion, increased incomes for teachers and law enforcement officers, fully-funded public schools, etc.) that a more socially and politically progressive gubernatorial candidate like Stacey Abrams wants to provide.

People generally will vehemently rail against having their taxes increased for expanded government services, but many of the same people will willingly shuttle huge piles of money into gaming.

So if you’re a progressive who’s unhappy that a progressive candidate like Abrams supports legalized gaming in the state of Georgia, just think about legalized gaming as a good way to motivate voters to voluntarily pay more money in taxes.

When politicians tell voters that they want them to pay more taxes, voters will often angrily resist.

But when politicians tell those same voters that they can gamble as much as they want, many of those same voters often will happily oblige giving their hard-earned money to whoever will take it.

Just think of legalized gambling as another way to collect more tax money that many taxpayers often will more-than-willingly agree to pay.

Casinos provide jobs, and nobody forces folks to gamble at casinos! If you want more giveaways (socialism), paid for, of course, by ever-increasing taxes on the rich AND middle-class (nobody else pays taxes), Abrams is your man! By pushing her "Voting Rights Act," she has somehow convinced African Americans that they have no voting rights---despite the fact that blacks VOTED in record numbers to elect the "greatest" president/vice-president in our country's history! Wink! Wink!

[Seguinite]

Originally Posted by columbusboy8

Casinos provide jobs, and nobody forces folks to gamble at casinos! If you want more giveaways (socialism), paid for, of course, by ever-increasing taxes on the rich AND middle-class (nobody else pays taxes), Abrams is your man! By pushing her "Voting Rights Act," she has somehow convinced African Americans that they have no voting rights---despite the fact that blacks VOTED in record numbers to elect the "greatest" president/vice-president in our country's history! Wink! Wink!

Righto.

I think it's a sad commentary that casino gambling is what pushes someone away from Stacey Abrams.

[ArmyBrat619]

Casino gambling is just another tax on the poor, just like the lottery

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ArmyBrat619

Casino gambling is just another tax on the poor, just like the lottery

Middle-income and upper-income people gamble, too.

But your comment does raise an important point that lower-income people have less income to gamble with, but do it anyway.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I don't blame you for taking either position on the Casino/Gambling, but if you're choosing to vote for or against a candidate on just this issues you're missing the bigger picture.

Too often those of us on the left tend to be a fickle group of voters that are not always as loyal or unified as a fundamental group. The other side is.

If we continue to keep letting rightist politicians get elected they will work hard to make taxes as cheap as possible for the rich, particularly the investing class.

Our tax system, across all taxes, is often not flat or progressive. It is collectively regressive for most. It often isn't because the wealthier workers (ie. Doctors, surgens, lawyers, etc...) aren't paying larger amounts into an income tax, it is that the investing class that is primarily earning most their wealth not through wages, but investing is able to pay less in taxes on their investment income. This is the primary reasons wealth inequality has been growing.

I think casinos could be a good thing for us, in that we have casinos bordering us on all sides and they are taking money from Georgians when we could be creating bringing those jobs and money in-state, especially when we are a huge convention hub.

Even if you don't agree, please realize that is just one small industry and a drop in the bucket compared to the bigger ticket political issues that impact tax policy and state expenditures (like expanding medicare under the ACA, which is mostly federally funded). I'll take going 1% backwards, to go forwards 20% any day.

And by all means make it a voting issue in the primaries, but during the general election issues on heathcare and tax code are huge relative to a small isolated issue for one industry.

Yep. 100% of the cost of Medicaid expansion under the ACA is paid by the federal government for the first 3 years after a state accepts Medicaid expansion.

After the first 3 years, the feds are supposed to pay 90% of the cost of the expanded Medicaid program, and state government has to pay the remaining 10%.

If one supports the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, legalized gaming can be a good way for a state like Georgia to come up with the money to pay its 10% share of the cost of an expanded Medicaid program after the first 3 years of 100% federal funding ends.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I assume you must really hate women to your very core, to oppose their bodily autonomy over some stupid position about gambling. You'd have them be slaves, forced birth, literal forced labor.

The ballot box is a war zone, and we don't have time for minor issues right now. The Republicans are against democracy itself (if we didn't have the anti-democratic 'electoral college', they could never get elected and appoint their 6 conservative supreme court justices with life tenure), they're against the public welfare and health, and they're freaking trying to instill theocracy. Georgia already has done so. Complete unhinged nutcases like Marjorie Taylor Greene are actual elected representatives. We are living in an apocalypse situation.

To vote anything but Democratic (or to not vote), is essentially the equivalent of saying that you view women and their bodies as property, and that you desperately want nut-job right-wing religious extremism (with a side of unrestricted gun fetishism) to dominate America. Period, end of conversation. You as a sane person have one job, here. Don't screw it up.

Is this really you posting? Usually you seem rational but this post is just out there.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

Is this really you posting? Usually you seem rational but this post is just out there.

Son, opposition to Christian Nationalism is quite rational. And yes, I may have moved away to the northwest, but I am a Southerner and I love my South more than some of the mouth breathing idiots a few posts up.

Your state ranks near the lowest of health, health care access, health care quality, quality of life, investment in infrastructure, upward mobility, many metrics in education, and general happiness and well being. And y'all know this. So, you know, maybe my posts are not your biggest issue right now?

Distance yourself from the other Deep South states, as a relatively moderate, blue island. Georgia has been making great progress- continue on that path. Change the legislature and the governor's office. The conservatives and Republicans (and conservative Dixiecrats before them), the Good Old Boy Status Quo Southern Drawl Gentleman's Club that is the politics there, have run things and failed most Georgians for far long enough.

And, of course, voting rights are constantly under attack. So, absolutely go vote, and encourage others to.

I'm pretty much a libertarian- I'm not even a progressive. But as a reasonable person, as far as I am concerned, vote for Abrams, or you hate Georgia or Georgians. And you hate all the women in your life.

I hate that that is the state of politics right now in this country, but that is the reality of the current situation.

Anyway, please continue your discussion about casinos or whatever.

[Born 2 Roll]

There has been bipartisan support to expand gambling in Georgia, including online sports betting, casinos and horse racing tracks. But that support hasn’t been enough to get the two-thirds majority needed in the legislature to set up another referendum to further amend the Constitution.

Some Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly have expressed their moral objection to gambling, while some Democrats are concerned with where the revenue from expanded gambling would go.

The stalemate in Georgia comes as dozens of states, including neighboring Tennessee, have legalized online sports betting in the aftermath of a 2018 Supreme Court decision that allowed all states to do so.

Georgia is in no rush to expand gambling and Gov. Kemp says that’s okay (WABE Atlanta)