US Election Day 2020

[Shiloh Lyric]

This guy misunderstands (or is just unaware of) the power of "SOCIALISM" as a scare word, even if people generally like some socialist ideas.

Omg, this. This, this, this. I have said it more times than I count...after knocking on doors 2 years ago in a very conservative town, I can tell you that, to many people with any sort of conservative leaning whatsoever in the US even the word "progressive" is synonymous with "socialism" which is synonymous with "communism". You can point out that the roads the drive on are possible through "socialism". That the Social Security they collect is "socialist", but they'll refuse to see that. Instead, to THEM, "Socialism" is them having to, apparently, give up all rights and freedoms and carry a million lazy people who refuse to work on their backs. Or something. It's one of the worst evils ever.

 

[Pamela]

I have been saying this for months: most of the Fox News team has been heroically trying to tell watchers the truth, and taking a huge amount oF abuse From Trump and the audience. Shep Smith had to quit. They should not be lumped in with the non news people.

Today they are fact checking every Trump lie to Fox watchers.

 

[Willow Matthews]

Ah Shiloh, you are a fucking hard working cherub.
Where would the fucking WORLD be, without people like you?

Keep on keeping on. <3

 

[Shiloh Lyric]

Ah Shiloh, you are a fucking hard working cherub.
Where would the fucking WORLD be, without people like you?

Keep on keeping on. <3

Aw, thank you, Willow. I can tell you that on Tuesday night, I was starting to feel like it was all for nothing. But I should have been more patient.

I WAS proud of myself, though, when I was greeting at a poll on Tuesday night. For NOT throwing something at the swaggering, snickering lady with the Trump flag draped like a shawl around her shoulders when she came in to vote. (but it wasn't 'hard work' there at all. It was actually a very boring 4 hours. It was almost an interesting break to see HER! LOL)

 

[Chin Rey]

I do not know how many are left to count there;

More than 420,000 according to NBC News. Maybe AP did call it too early then. However, most of the uncounted votes are in Phoenix and Tuscon which should be fairly safe for Biden

 

[Sean Gorham]

Holy crap this thread blew up overnight! Twelve or thirteen pages...
Time to catch up. MULTI-QUOTE MAGIC ATTACK, GO!

And we are not stuck with FPTP. Maine, for example, is using ranked voting. They also split their electoral college votes rather than winner take all like other states. So work on getting ranked voting used in more local elections, so people get used to it. Then push for it at the state level.

I know all about ranked-choice voting and the electoral college differences in Maine. I live here. I would absolutely love to see ranked-choice everywhere, for everything. It would be a significant hit to the existing two-party system. I'm not holding my breath though. The GOP here in Maine fought against ranked-choice voting for years and will undoubtedly continue to fight it. They know it means fewer votes for themselves.

CGP Grey has a good explainer for ranked-choice/alternative/instant-runoff voting for those not familiar with it:

[...] in every single one of his ads, he hammered on the word "socialism", equating every Democrat out there as "far-left socialist radicals". And it worked.

For those outside the United States, "socialism" means "Soviet/Chinese communism" to a majority of Americans. (Thanks, Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare, among many factors.) The big American bogeyman. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. So yeah, American socialists need to rebrand if they're ever going to truly make headway.

Ed Glaude (James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University) is always articulate and on-point I think. This segment on MSNBC I thought was more poignant and thought provoking than usual:

That... was freaking amazing. It's like Beebo said when she replied to my earlier post: all the Americans who voted for Trump again just proved "this is who we are, no really."

People vote with sharpies?

I seem to remember two or three elections previously, the voting forms here had these broken arrows >-- --> that you filled in with... a Sharpie. Or maybe it was an "electoral ballot marking pen", which is basically the same thing.

I was just thinking, I have been reduced to uttering curse words frequently, such as fuckers, dirty rat bastard and so on.

My favorite new curse word is "ratfuck" and its derivitives. "ratfuck", "ratfucker", "ratfuckery". It's so versatile! "Republican Ratfuckery," it just rolls off the tongue.

Meet Trump's new fanboy/girl/whatver television network: OAN!

If you're not familiar with One America News, John Oliver did a piece on them a while back. OAN is so far out there that they make Fox News look normal (and ethical) by comparison.

 

[Willow Matthews]

Aw, thank you, Willow. I can tell you that on Tuesday night, I was starting to feel like it was all for nothing. But I should have been more patient.

I WAS proud of myself, though, when I was greeting at a poll on Tuesday night. For NOT throwing something at the swaggering, snickering lady with the Trump flag draped like a shawl around her shoulders when she came in to vote. (but it wasn't 'hard work' there at all. It was actually a very boring 4 hours. It was almost an interesting break to see HER! LOL)

You should be proud of yourself. And lovie? That lady, roles reversed, might not have said the same of you around her dinner table.
But then again she might have said you were great. You'll never know. Just like she'll never know what we just typed about.

And that is how America should be.
Just without all the guns and dickhead presidents and stuff.


<3

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Holy crap this thread blew up overnight! Twelve or thirteen pages...
Time to catch up. MULTI-QUOTE MAGIC ATTACK, GO!



I know all about ranked-choice voting and the electoral college differences in Maine. I live here. I would absolutely love to see ranked-choice everywhere, for everything. It would be a significant hit to the existing two-party system. I'm not holding my breath though. The GOP here in Maine fought against ranked-choice voting for years and will undoubtedly continue to fight it. They know it means fewer votes for themselves.

CGP Grey has a good explainer for ranked-choice/alternative/instant-runoff voting for those not familiar with it:



For those outside the United States, "socialism" means "Soviet/Chinese communism" to a majority of Americans. (Thanks, Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare, among many factors.) The big American bogeyman. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. So yeah, American socialists need to rebrand if they're ever going to truly make headway.



That... was freaking amazing. It's like Beebo said when she replied to my earlier post: all the Americans who voted for Trump again just proved "this is who we are, no really."



I seem to remember two or three elections previously, the voting forms here had these broken arrows >-- --> that you filled in with... a Sharpie. Or maybe it was an "electoral ballot marking pen", which is basically the same thing.



My favorite new curse word is "ratfuck" and its derivitives. "ratfuck", "ratfucker", "ratfuckery". It's so versatile! "Republican Ratfuckery," it just rolls off the tongue.



If you're not familiar with One America News, John Oliver did a piece on them a while back. OAN is so far out there that they make Fox News look normal (and ethical) by comparison.

I'd LOVE ranked voting.

 

[Isabeau]

 

[detrius]

lol....bad Cody. Bad!

I laughed, but it's Atlanta that's pushing Biden ahead.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

pushing Biden ahead.

remains to be seen...

 

[Free]

I laughed, but it's Atlanta that's pushing Biden ahead.

I've been thinking we might need a competing entity to The Lincoln Project, after they switch gears, (hopefully) stop collecting liberal funding, and turn 180 degrees.

First thoughts on a name: The Sherman Plan.

 

[detrius]

remains to be seen...

I think Biden is going to take the lead in the next couple of hours.

It'll be fun watching Trump change his PA/GA narrative from "stop counting" to "count all the votes".

 

[Free]

 

[Pamela]

It’s going to be a blue wave.

 

[Cristiano]

 

[bubblesort]

I think a devout modeler would say, "But we can account for that."

ETA: And I suspect they try to. I don't think the modellers are really stupid people, but the problem of verifying a model comes into play then. How do they know their adjustments work?

They don't, until the event they are predicting happens or doesn't. Induction can not be rationally justified, so forecasting is always a messy business. Best to avoid technical analysis style mumbo jumbo when forecasting, IMHO. You may end up right that way, but I don't see it as anything more than blind luck if you are. Some people seem to use fancy numbers as a shield to hide behind when they don't trust their own intuition. Don't get me wrong, I love numbers! I have a bachelors in economics. I just think economics is more productive when it is used to make simple positive statements, rather than normative statements, and forecasts.

Then again, I'm probably just being bitter after spending years making bad forecasts, LOL

 

[Cristiano]

I still get the chills each time I see this video - so fucking beautiful. I could not be more proud that this man will be our next president:

 

[Isabeau]

Yeah, I think I may stay up as well. Need to witness the cheering.


(Although, I’m a tad tipsy so I may fall asleep )

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]