S05E17 – Vote By Mail and Canada Trade War

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, we tackle two topics. We start with the Trump Administration’s efforts to restrict voting by mail. We note that elections are governed by the states, and we all agree that the federal government should have no involvement in elections. Tommy and Josh continue to be convinced there is widespread voter fraud, though they are not able to muster evidence. Ryan is not convinced voter fraud is common at all (see here and here), but is convinced that Trump’s use of the United States Postal Service is aimed at rigging the election. In the process, we learn that voting in Hillsborough County, Florida, appears to be far more secure than is voting in Utah! We then turn to the trade war with Canada… For a brief second. We go off on a lot of tangents. Tommy brings us back and reiterates that this is largely political and does not involve the vast majority of our trade with Canada. Ryan suggests that this may be the beginning of countries standing up to US bullying. Josh doesn’t agree with that. Ryan also makes the point that the trade deficit the US has with other countries has gone up under Trump, not down (Fact check: goods deficit, not services). Alas, our discussion of the trade war in Canada kind of dissolves into chaos. Oh, and Tommy is under the weather, Ryan is on painkillers as he just had a tooth extracted, and Josh is loopy because he has COVID and is on medication. So, if we’re not very coherent in this one… You’re welcome!