From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

After the upcoming November mid-term elections, the 120th Congress
will convene either on Sunday, January 3, 2027 or a later date.
Certification of the results of the various Congressional elections
will take place in the individual States. As there is no Presidential
race in an off-year election, there will be no Electoral College
results to certify.
Hence, the fact that J. D, Vance is no Mike Pence won't be relevant.
Should the Republican Party fail to retain or obtain control of the
House and the Senate in the midterms, attempts to remedy that
undesired failure on the part of the American electorate would have to
take place on the State level.
This, of course, depends on issues like grocery prices and tariff
impacts leading to real Americans turning against Trump. Other persons
legally entitled to vote will, no doubt, find themselves delayed if
they attempt to vote in person, given that our heroic ICE agents will
be guarding the polls, and if they attempt to vote by mail... despite
a recent Supreme Court decision, given that the United States Post
Office is in the hands of a Trump loyalist, I think we can be
confident that America's mailmen will engage in unofficial patriotic
activity during the 2026 mid-term elections.

In other words, while understandably... with the sad exception of
January 6, 2021, Americans are not in the habit of engaging in an
armed uprising simply because their party has lost an election...

And rigging the vote by means of voter suppression is not exactly
something unprecedented in American history,

Should America decline its President's kind offer of a $5,000 cheque
to every American adult on November 3, 2026, his current activities
and statements are such as to create, in my opinion, a genuine
possibility of... dramatic events... that will lend themselves to
being interpreted as the end of representative and Constitutional
government in the United States of America.

Oh, dear. I was going to include some helpful information to assist
Americans in accessing reliable news in difficult times. However,
Radio Canada International permanently ceased shortwave broadcasting
in 2012, so I can't tell you what shortwave frequencies to use in the
event Internet connectivity becomes spotty.

The BBC is still broadcasting on short-wave radio to several regions
of the world; however, North and South America are not among those
regions.

Radio Moxico Internacional went to Internet-only in 2011, a year
before we did in Canada. There is still an educational short-wave
station operating in Mexico, but that is for providing schooling to
children living in remote areas, and would, therefore, not include English-language broadcasts or news reporting.

Ah, here we are:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/listen

Radio New Zealand still broadcasts news and current events on short
wave radio... to the islands of the South Pacific. But its signal, at
least at night, can be picked up in the United States. So there is a
way to keep apprised of ongoing events in the United States should
normal media channels become... as former Republican President Richard
Milhous Nixon would say, "inoperative".

John Savard
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

John Savard <quadibloc@invalid.com> wrote:

Oh, dear. I was going to include some helpful information to assist
Americans in accessing reliable news in difficult times. However,
Radio Canada International permanently ceased shortwave broadcasting
in 2012, so I can't tell you what shortwave frequencies to use in the
event Internet connectivity becomes spotty.

RCI broadcasting is gone but there are still local CBC outlets on AM
which are audible throughout the US. CJBC Toronto is solid and clear
most nights here in Virginia on 860kc (although they are in French and
have more big band music than news).

The BBC is still broadcasting on short-wave radio to several regions
of the world; however, North and South America are not among those
regions.

BBC still broadcasts the World Service programming to the caribbean and
that is usually audible in the US. Until this past June, I could get
Radio 4 on longwave at 198kc here in Virginia although spottily with a
loop antenna, but that service has been shut down now as well.

Radio Moxico Internacional went to Internet-only in 2011, a year
before we did in Canada. There is still an educational short-wave
station operating in Mexico, but that is for providing schooling to
children living in remote areas, and would, therefore, not include >English-language broadcasts or news reporting.

They were very much a "we broadcast the government line" operation,
in ways that the BBC never has been. The VOA has always kind of wobbled between being a mouthpiece for the US government and just trying to
promote American culture.

There's a lot more from Central America other than Radio Educacion,
though. The Bande Tropical below 80 meters is still pretty active with
small low-power central and South American stations, especially in rural mountainous countries with poor ground conductivity where AM and FM propagation are doubtful. The quality of international news is not apt to
be good but it's interesting to hear about the road to Quito being washed
out and how to detour around.

Radio New Zealand still broadcasts news and current events on short
wave radio... to the islands of the South Pacific. But its signal, at
least at night, can be picked up in the United States. So there is a
way to keep apprised of ongoing events in the United States should
normal media channels become... as former Republican President Richard >Milhous Nixon would say, "inoperative".

Last time I heard them, they were intermittent in Hawaii back in the
eighties. They were one of the reference points that the guys at the
giant elephant cage in Wahiawa would use to check propagation (along
with the Soviet letter beacons) but they weren't easy copy with a long
wire antenna and a table radio.

This is why the internet is such a big deal and why being able to control external internet access like is done in China and (to a lesser extent)
Russia is so powerful today. We need to do everything possible to keep
that from happening anywhere else and to stop it where it has happened.
Open communication is the hallmark of freedom.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

John Savard <quadibloc@invalid.com> wrote:

snip

Radio New Zealand still broadcasts news and current events on short
wave radio... to the islands of the South Pacific. But its signal, at
least at night, can be picked up in the United States. So there is a
way to keep apprised of ongoing events in the United States should
normal media channels become... as former Republican President Richard
Milhous Nixon would say, "inoperative".

On unauthorised behalf of the ACT Party, NZ's most extreme right
political party, I thank you for this information. Our Minister of
Foreign Affairs loves Americans and their wealthy tobacco companies and
our Prime Minister is a member of some weird American religion whose
main premise is that God rewards those who are worthy, not in heaven,
but with wealth on earth. Although they are multi-millionaires, they are
both paupers in comparison to Trump who must, therefore, be closer to
God. We shall shut down RNZ before next Thursday. Thank you again.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 9/18/2026 9:04 AM, John Savard wrote:

<much snippage>

Other persons
legally entitled to vote will, no doubt, find themselves delayed if
they attempt to vote in person, given that our heroic ICE agents will
be guarding the polls...

1. 'Our'? Did Trump annex you guys already? John, you have a bad habit
of acting as if you were an American.

2. Under federal law, specifically 18 U.S. Code -o 592, it is a crime for
any officer of the Army, Navy, or other federal service to order, bring,
or keep troops or armed men at polling places during elections, except
when necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.

pt
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 2026-09-20, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 9/18/2026 9:04 AM, John Savard wrote:

<much snippage>

Other persons
legally entitled to vote will, no doubt, find themselves delayed if
they attempt to vote in person, given that our heroic ICE agents will
be guarding the polls...

1. 'Our'? Did Trump annex you guys already? John, you have a bad habit
of acting as if you were an American.

2. Under federal law, specifically 18 U.S. Code -o 592, it is a crime
for any officer of the Army, Navy, or other federal service to order,
bring, or keep troops or armed men at polling places during elections,
except when necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.

It is also a crime to pay for votes, and look where we are. Problably
just a few weeks shy of the SCOTUS trying to come up with more
originalist fiction to say "no, actually that is not a crime", before or
after they rule that 1600 Penn can continue using the First Amendment as
toilet paper re: White House correspondents.
--
Nuno Silva
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

2. Under federal law, specifically 18 U.S. Code -o 592, it is a crime for >any officer of the Army, Navy, or other federal service to order, bring,
or keep troops or armed men at polling places during elections, except
when necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.

This was very much debated back in the sixties when enforcement of the
Voting Rights Act was difficult in the South. But it's still law today,
and I think some people are still on the fence about it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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