@obrien_kat nice. Though picking a favorite building in Barcelona seems impossible, given the overwhelming number of possibilities there.

We worried that there would be checkpoints and arbitrary stops where innocent people would face the dreaded "Your papers, please" demand. But that was wrong. They don't say "please".

https://wapo.st/41IZKeF

Love them or hate them, mid-century rectangular glass curtain buildings like this are easy to dismiss as being "boring", but I think that misses something.

Reflections of the surroundings become part of the facade, which changes at different angles and throughout the day. I visited several times and made dozens of photos, all quite different, before I settled on this one, and there are infinitely many photos others could make, all unique. (Similar to the new World Trade Center in this regard).

Captured with the Phase One Achromatic back and the Rodenstock 32mm/4.0 HR-Digaron lens, with the back shifted down 8.5mm to maintain the building's geometry. I brought out contrast in the sky with a polarizer, but otherwise used no color contrast filtration. The camera was positioned across the avenue about 10 meters up from the plaza level (at the bottom of the "canyon" of the skyline reflected in the bottom center of the building).

United Nations General Assembly Building, NYC, 2021.

All the pixels, but still no world peace, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51381729335

#photography

US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, 2021.

A quorum of pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51221569646

#photography

You know what's really great? Not getting polio.

@ahltorp Again, I apologize if you found my analysis insufficiently broad. However, I think you have also mischaracterized it.

Again, my best advice is to find posters to follow who better serve your needs.

I am sorry that I am unable to be of further assistance.

@ahltorp The reason I posted my thread was to add context to a current event that touched upon an area of my expertise. I apologize if you found it lacking. Hopefully you can find a source of analysis and information elsewhere that better suits your needs.

This thread brought to you by someone who researches and teaches election stuff at a still-somewhat-reputable school.

Finally, the federal government has no role in actually running US elections. States do that (usually via counties). So there is no one subject to this order in a position to follow it.

There are plenty of things to worry about with Trump. The legitimate power of the presidency is already vast, and he constantly pushes at its edges to abuse the office further still. But this “order” is just empty blather on his part, not something that he has any ability to actually implement or require.

It's also worth noting that the measures he calls for - voter ID, no vote-by-mail, etc - are nothing new. He and others have long advocated for them, and some states already implement versions of them. So everything in this "order", which has all the legal force of a "suggestion", is also old news.

Also, “Executive Orders” are not laws. They’re orders to the executive branch of the federal government. If you don’t work for the executive branch of the federal government (say, for example, you’re a state election official), presidential executive orders don’t apply to you.

Now, Congress might well be able to legislate some or all of the things in Trump’s putative elections order. And the current Congress has been generally compliant with Trump’s legislative wishes, so it’s not out of the question that they might advance a bill with provisions along these lines, or that some state legislatures might do the same. But no executive order can require them to do so. It’s meaningless.

And this is not some borderline edge case. It’s addressed directly in Article I of the Constitution. See https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript for this and other fun facts about how our government is organized.

Just for the record, Trump can’t do this. The Constitution is very clear that the “times, places, and manner“ of elections for federal office are determined by individual states (though can be altered by Congress).

The president simply has no role in US elections (except to sign into law or veto whatever election-related bills that congress might pass).