Andrew Gillum: "I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromised and unapologetic call that we count every single vote." pic.twitter.com/JqlL025lhL
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 10, 2018
The margin in the Nelson-Scott races is less than .25 percent.
Under Florida law, that means there are mandatory machine and hand recounts.
Republicans are describing this process as “stealing the election.”
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 10, 2018
Per the Washington Post:
Three statewide contests in Florida — including the closely watched Senate race — headed for history-making recounts, election officials confirmed Saturday, with the lead by Gov. Rick Scott (R) over Sen. Bill Nelson (D) in the marquee contest shrinking to 12,562 votes out of nearly 8.2 million cast.
The 0.15 percent margin is narrow enough to not only trigger a machine recount, which by law must be completed by Thursday, but is likely to result in a recount by hand across the state — a complicated logistical task in the nation’s biggest battleground state.
The new tally in the governor’s race was not quite as close, but it also met the threshold for a voting machine recount. Numbers posted on the state election website showed Republican Ron DeSantis leading Democrat Andrew Gillum by 33,684 votes…
Under Florida law, a statewide machine recount is conducted when the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent, and a manual recount is ordered if the margin is less than 0.25 percent. The governor’s race probably will not meet the manual recount standard, if Saturday’s tally holds…
A manual recount is of ballots in which voters skipped a race or voted for two candidates in one race. That pool of ballots will be in the tens of thousands in heavily Democratic Broward County, where nearly 25,000 ballots showed votes for governor but not senator…
Broward County officials need police protection to tally Florida election results https://t.co/HCLWQgb69S
— Steve Bousquet (@stevebousquet) November 9, 2018
Klassy as ever, GOP:
… On Friday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he was sending attorneys to South Florida — even though nationally prominent election attorneys representing both parties are already in Florida monitoring the process. He also claimed to know that Snipes had planned to steal his 2016 victory in Florida from him…
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Panhandle congressman serving on the (perhaps prematurely constituted) DeSantis transition team, made an appearance in Lauderhill to call for the Florida secretary of state to enact a state of receivership over Broward County. He accused the office of making up votes to help Democrats win and repeatedly called Snipes corrupt and incompetent…
Fla Department of State say election monitors sent b/c Broward violated state and federal law in May have so far found no fraud. Same finding from Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Also confirm there is no work product/report produced by monitors.
— Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) November 10, 2018
… Despite his own administration and state law enforcement saying there is no evidence of voter fraud, Scott held an event organized by his Senate campaign Thursday night to ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Broward County and Palm Beach County, which are playing a big role in a recount involving his race against Nelson.
Those counties have drawn the ire of many Republicans, who have cried fraud because vote counts have increased by tens-of-thousands after Election Day. Because those are Democratic-leaning counties, the new votes have benefited Democratic candidates, narrowing leads held by Scott in the Senate race and Republican Ron DeSantis in the governor’s race. Some have suggested fraud might have caused the vote tallies to grow, but state law allows local election officials to count votes until noon on Saturday. A recount is set to begin Saturday.
The unprecedented Scott request amounts to a sitting governor asking state law enforcement to investigate local election officials involved in counting ballots for a race in which he is a candidate…
(She’s talking about you, Senator @marcorubio) https://t.co/F62yfEaiXE
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) November 10, 2018
Former Congressman chimes in:
Hey @MarcACaputo, just saw notice from @PBCounty that my absentee ballot wasn’t counted due to ‘invalid signature’ match. Should be +1 @NelsonForSenate @AndrewGillum. Must overhaul these ridiculous barriers to voting #FloridaRecount #FLSen #FLGov
— Patrick Murphy (@PatrickMurphyFL) November 9, 2018
Heads up, Florida. https://t.co/j4ZeDxrYbh
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 9, 2018
Another crappy reboot we didn’t need. You’d think a “professional” like Stone would’ve figured out by now that the internet (and hopefully the electorate) have gotten consideraly more sophisticated about ratfvcking over the last eighteen years!
A loose coalition of fringe right-wing personalities, local political activists, and associates of Roger Stone are in Broward County to protest recounts in the senate race https://t.co/MZKhZH2RF3
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) November 10, 2018
Repubs: They are what they say they are…
weird thing to confess to but okay https://t.co/tsAbAKLVcG
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 10, 2018
rikyrah
They are afraid of the manual recount
Sebastian
Scott and Co were panicking because a manual recount will show a considerate discrepancy to the machine count and expose their cheating in Florida and beyond.
I have of course per tradition zero proof for this allegation but it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Sebastian
@rikyrah:
You beat me to it.
Matt McIrvin
Even if the Republicans win the final counts in Georgia and Florida, their paper-thin victories will be stolen in ways we all know: purged registrations, long lines, voting machines kept wrapped up in warehouses, all perpetrated by officials with an interest in their own election. But it’s a kind of theft that we have no constitutional remedy for.
Kelly
Welp, kitten Phoebe is hiding under the couch. The combination of the kitchen smoke alarm, us fanning cookie sheets and worst of all turning on the ceiling fan has terrified the poor wee beastie. Pretty sure she thinks the ceiling fan is a raptor about to swoop down and carry her away.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mike in NC
If it wasn’t for fucking Florida, we’d live in a pretty boring country.
Schlemazel
We need Federal election standards. Among the standards all ballots must have a paper copy that can be recounted and there must be a random sample of precincts in every district in every state (selected by a lottery run by both major parties) must be manually counted to verify the electronic counts.
ruemara
@Schlemazel: This. In fact, the reason why so many conservatives have resisted federal election standards is because so many of them used that local state control aspect to steal elections.
jl
@Sebastian: We are in weird territory, so we look for explanations of what seems to be self-destructive behavior by Scott and GOP. Might be that they just think it will work. But loser stink is going to reduce their base further to the hardest of the hard core White nutcases and bigots.
McSally in AZ is declining to join in this particular fascist roadside attraction, and I read the national GOP is pissing all over her for not making a damned toxic fool of herself in front of the whole country. I’ve read it could be because she has a political future, either will get seat of late McCain, or she sees good chance for herself in a future election. So, that argues for GOP is doing it because they think they can get away with any old crazy shit now. I think they are very mistaken. Loser stink will peel off quite a few supporters of the Trump slo mo crazy train wreck.
Eolirin
@ruemara: Not just steal, but specifically disenfranchise minorities. This is all about racism, and always has been.
The Midnight Lurker
Somewhere… a chad is hanging.
Chyron HR
As Republicans literally put on blackface to protest Andrew Gillum, it’s important to remember the words of our lord and savior Bernie Sanders: “They’re not racist.”
FlyingToaster
If the republicans are worried that the machines can’t count, then why the fuck did they buy crappy machines?
One election 20-odd years ago, in Somerville, MA, there was an alderman’s race that was won by 8 votes. We used scanners and black markers in bubbles, just like nowadays. They hand-re-counted the ballots in the HS gym, with the basketball overhead cam, live on local access cable. The hand count — wait for it — was decided by 8 votes.
D’oh.
If you have a paper ballot, you can recount it. You can count it in the first place, relatively quickly. You can take the ballots from a precinct and count them on a different, zeroed-out, scanner just to make sure you have working equipment. And not a single one of these activities is fraudulent.
Edited for crappy typos.
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
I think they’re just mean-as-shit assholes driven to frothing fury by seeing a black president. The ones still able to make calculations are mostly operating on ‘We’re outnumbered badly, now. If we lose control even briefly, white power is broken forever.’ Arguing whether they’re right is moot, that’s definitely how they feel and it terrifies them into madness.
MobiusKlein
@Mike in NC: We would have to start a California Man series, I imagine.
Just call us Florida with mountains.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: I think its broken forever. Just a matter of timing now, and how much damage they can do in the meantime. With more votes counted, looks like forces of decency can at least get us to a stalemate even in the South, where their nonstop racist and xenophobic smears seemed at first to give them a few hard percentage points advantage. That’s gone now. GOP stunts backfired badly in most other parts of the country.
A few dem challengers for House seats who came close didn’t give concession speeches, they gave ‘see fascist jackasses later’ speeches. Or tweets. Ojeda will be back. Scholten will be back.
Platonailedit
The rw wurlitzer poutrage machine has been started. Will the fucking media amplify their false claims yet again? This is 2000 redux.
Platonailedit
Per fynyt, dems won over 57% votes in 2018 and lost 3 senate seats. Rethugs won only 41% votes and yet gained 3 seats. And the tyranny of minority goes on.
Schlemazel
@ruemara:
a lot of the garbage that happens is because states are cheap-screwing the elections. Buy cheap, don’t maintain, don’t verify just get by & hope nobody notices. This helps with the disenfranchisement for sure but both are a problem. We need to spend money. Buy the machines, fund poll workers, fund validation, require adequate ballots and machines & have reserves ready in the event of an issue.
jl
@Platonailedit: So far no Brooks Brothers riot. Flying down and getting photo doxed in a fake riot to stop a vote count might not be a Congressional staffer’s idea of a good career move in this situation. Seems like local law enforcement and election officials are quick to shut down BS this time, for whatever reason. Maybe even just that they don’t want to be featured in a repeat of the humiliating 2000 circus. Want to avoid their photo around the nation with the caption Floriduh ‘lection official.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
On my county voter lookup system, in my voting history, it still doesn’t show I voted in the general election. And they just updated it yesterday. I voted absentee in Ohio.
It’s strange because when I click on the “Check the status of absentee ballot” the one that will show up is the primary election one from back in May. However, when I use the absentee lookup feature it will show they received my ballot for the general election and that it was counted.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Platonailedit:
It was the mix of seats that were up in the Senate this year, more than anything.
Bill Arnold
@Sebastian:
Yes. (By Rule of Republican Projection, even DJ Trump is complicit. :-)
The Republicans might be finding this timeline very “interesting”.
Likewise. But peoples’ eyes for possible anomalies are getting rather sharper than in previous elections. And there is also increased defensive vigilance and sophistication about computers and networks, perhaps including network monitoring.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@jl:
I think I’ve said before I’m worried this is only temporary and that memories are short. I think the toxicity of Trump (and subsequently the GOP as they’ve gone along with him) has had a lot to do with our wins as well as being genuinely better on issues important to voters.
jl
@Bill Arnold: Yes, as I typed above, seems like local law enforcement and election officials really really don’t want to get caught up in some fraudulent BS partisan circus again. Adam posted enough info to persuade me the Florida law enforcement is, in accordance with appropriate institutional protocol, telling Scott to GTFO of our faces with this crap.
jl
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The are so ignorant and incompetent that they turn everything into a shit sandwich. Reagan, GHW Bush, even Dub, managed to dredge up enough competent help that they could keep the illusion that they could do something positive for anybody on life support. That is gone. They only have nutcases and racist crazies now. That might be a third of any country, but that kind of coalition can’t win on a regular basis.
Eolirin
@Platonailedit: Well, it’s looking like we only lost two seats. AZ count is now 30k in favor of Sinema. If the recount flips FL back to Nelson, it’ll just be one.
Bill Arnold
@Platonailedit:
I’m betting no. My middle-right feeds (hvper.com gives headlines and hover-opened summaries) are half-heartedly repeating the accusations but with counterbalances.
e.g. (Washington Examiner) Sen. Bill Nelson predicts ‘we’ll win this election’ after Florida recounts
And as noted in a tweet linked in the OP, DJT confessed: “Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!”
:-)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Eolirin: two, MO and ND, but we took NV and AZ, so if FL does flip back to Nelson, that will mean the Senate votes are right where they’ve been for the last two years.
japa21
I really don’t think the recounts will change the results but I enjoy seeing the vermin squirm.
japa21
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Indiana as well
Patricia Kayden
Good to see that the recounts will go forward in Florida while Republicans continue to show that they’re anti-democratic. Count all the votes.
Gin & Tonic
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: That, plus the fact that the Senate is, for lack of a better term, gerrymandered anyway. Wyoming, population 574,000, gets two Senators. California, population 39,777,000, gets two Senators.
Bill Arnold
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The closer the Senate is to 50/50, the more power each individual Senator has to be a swing vote, or to switch parties or caucus.
gene108
Damn, right-wingers are a bunch of whiny-ass-titty-babies. They saddled the nation with two of the worst Presidnts in our history, in the last 18 years, who both lost the popular vote, but can’t keep their shit together because election officials are following state law, on the chance they might lose.
Fucking cry babies.
If they want to live in a dictatorship so badly they can move to Russia.
Fuck ’em
NotMax
About this close to having had it up to here with Florida.
The U.S. obtained control of it from Spain for zero dollars. Another example of ya get what ya pays for.
jl
@Bill Arnold: The fat old asshole is losing it. He’s always had a bad habit of slipping in veiled confessions when he went on one of his compulsive spurts of lies. Getting worse now, because he senses his scam won’t work, the situation will get tighter, escape routes fewer and narrower. And he is losing it.
I’d prefer to think he is just too stupid to know it, because if he knows he’s cornered, that ups the chances he will do something desperate and dangerous. But, maybe he just senses it.
No place for him to move on from here, except for exile in Russia, Saudi Arabia or some similar joint. Not like when Trump University went belly up, when he could just pay off the suckers with a fraction of the profits, and move to the next con.
NMgal
Hey, my computer and connection are slow at the moment — has any of the FPers done a call for protest gathering/march photos from today?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@japa21: oh shit– forgot about Donnelly.
@Bill Arnold: yup, though I don’t see much chance of a flip. Susan Collins has shown her trumpista ass to the world. I think Murkowski’s more likely to go indy, and that’s bloody unlikely.
Another Scott
@japa21: Weird crap happened in Indiana as well. IndyStar:
Yup. And that breakdown always seems to help the GOP. Imagine that… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in DC
If all 4 recounts go our way–AZ, FL Sen, FL Gov, GA Gov–it does reshape the narrative a great deal. The only bright spot for the GOP becomes considerably less bright, only +1 in the Senate, while losing nearly 40 House seats, 9 governorships, several state legislatures and around 400 state lege seats. All while the Dems didn’t significantly improve their standing with WWC voters. The shape of things to come.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
That’s not gerrymandering.
Equal senatorial representation to each state as a sovereign entity within the union is guaranteed by the Constitution. Each state (currently) gets one fiftieth of the votes in the Senate. Changing that requires major retooling of the Constitution, which ain’t about to happen.
The modern problem isn’t the number of senators per state, it’s the number of bozos elected to the chamber by some states
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: y
I definitely want the DNC to Target Collins.
Suzanne
Classy shit is happening in my state, too. Sinema is ahead, so now the GOP is attacking the Dem Maricopa County Recorder, Adrian Fontes. Fontes was elected last cycle after Helen Purcell, a Rethug, closed huge numbers of polling places (many in majority-Latinx communties) for the 2016 presidential primary, resulting in over-three-hour-long lines to vote. In May. In Phoenix. Jon Kyl is acting like rural Arizonans are disenfranchised by Phoenix and Tucson residents having their ballots counted.
This place is a fucking pit.
Achrachno
@gene108: Seems you’re feeling better. Good!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
It’s funny how many US states have had new constitutions over the years yet the US has had the same constitution since almost the beginning (not counting the Articles of Confederation)
Suzanne
@jl:
McCain’s seat is up next cycle. If she doesn’t get this one, she wants the other one. She was not going to be re-elected in her district.
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Trump lacks the stamina for the job. Weak. Sad.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Yeah, I know it’s not gerrymandering. But the fact remains that Dianne Feinstein has approximately 70 times as many constituents as Mike Enzi, and there’s not a good name for that phenomenon.
Yutsano
@Suzanne: So…if she blows her goodwill with the national party in an election again that will probably tilt Democratic…she might be even more unemployed come November 2020.
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax:
True, but what I think G&T is getting at, is that the Senate apportions equal representation to each -state-, not to each -voter-. This is …. anti-democratic, and while some of that is good (b/c we don’t want majorities running roughshod over minorities as a matter of course), pretty soon (as they say) 70% of the population will reside in 30% of the states, and that will be bad karma. Many people note (as you do) that that just means we need to elect decent senators in the other 70% of the states. But as they hollow-out and become more and more racist asshole crackers, that gets harder and harder.
And something else: part of how some states became Blue, is that people of color moved there in large numbers. I realize it’s happening in the Red states (e.g. Dodge City, KS) but that’s a large and long-term lift. Lots of stuff can happen between now and then. With the way things are, there’s no way that (for instance) some major tech company will set up shop in some interior Red state — imagine Amazon deciding to set up a major software development HQ in … Kansas. Lots of people who look like me, would look askance at that, after what happened in Olathe just … last year. This also puts a cap on the extent/rate at which these red states can be turned blue (or purple).
gene108
@NotMax:
More to the point, it is Republicans standing for nothing other than what their sugar daddies want done. If Republicans had any interest in governing it wouldn’t be such an issue that each state gets only 2 Senators, regardless of population.
FlyingToaster
@rikyrah: I don’t think anyone’s waiting for the DNC.
CrowdPAC fund against Collins
jl
@Suzanne: Thanks. I didn’t know she blew her electability in her own district. OK, then. If she has half a brain in her head, she’ll sit out this shit show so she doesn’t blow it in the whole state. Though, as a Dem, I’d prefer that she did blow her political future to pieces asap. But, we have to face the sad reality that McSally might not be as dumb as your average Trumpster.
Chetan Murthy
@Gin & Tonic:
I think the term of art is “malapportionment”, viz https://www.dictionary.com/browse/malapportioned
Sab
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Same result when I looked up my voting, but I think that is just because they don’t post anything until it is final.
In Ohio if you vote early in person I think your vote is pretty safe.
The two risk points are voter registration purges, and mailed in votes being lost or not properly cancelled by the increasingly damaged Post Office system.
Frankensteinbeck
@gene108:
If Republican voters had any interest in electing people who would govern, it wouldn’t matter what the sugar daddies want. This goes right down to the voters, and the Senate system gives the craziest populations vastly disproportionate power.
Raven
Go Dawgs!
Jackie
@Suzanne: I read that somewhere, too. Is that true?
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: You’re up late.
Suzanne
@Yutsano:
I would be shocked if Dems can field a good Senate candidate in 2020. Dems really struggle statewide here. Sinema is a bit of a unicorn. Kirkpatrick failed already, O’Halleran is too new and unknown, and Grijalva and Gallego are too progressive for the electorate. Maybe Stanton.
jl
@Yutsano: Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. She has to take her chances with the best decision she can make now. If she can see California from her house, she’ll see that the national GOP can dump whatever it wants into your district and if your electorate hates your guts, you have a problem nothing can solve. I think that is the case with half the slimeballs in the CA GOP House delegation. Either lost or are barely squeaking out a win.
khead
@Mike in DC:
I was gonna post “there ain’t gonna be another Brooks Brothers riot”. But If all 4 recounts go our way it may happen. And then some.
Another Scott
@gene108: I wouldn’t be surprised if he burned himself out with all of his late MAGAt rallies. From Wikiville:
Saturday, September 29, 2018 Wheeling WV
Monday, October 1, 2018 Johnson City TN
Tuesday, October 2, 2018 Southaven MS
Thursday, October 4, 2018 Rochester MN
Saturday, October 6, 2018 Topeka KS
Tuesday, October 9, 2018 Council Bluffs IA
Wednesday, October 10, 2018 Erie PA
Friday, October 12, 2018 Lebanon OH
Saturday, October 13, 2018 Richmond KY
Thursday, October 18, 2018 Missoula MT
Friday, October 19, 2018 Mesa AZ
Saturday, October 20, 2018 Elko NV
Monday, October 22, 2018 Houston TX
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 Mosinee WI
Friday, October 26, 2018 Charlotte NC
Saturday, October 27, 2018 Murphysboro IL
Wednesday, October 31, 2018 Fort Myers FL
Thursday, November 1, 2018 Columbia MO
Friday, November 2, 2018 Huntington WV and Indianapolis IN
Saturday, November 3, 2018 Belgrade MT and Pensacola FL
Sunday, November 4, 2018 Macon GA and Chattanooga TN
Monday, November 5, 2018 Cleveland OH and Fort Wayne IN and Cape Girardeau MO
Plus, flying to France for the WWI ceremonies, etc.
Hillary is probably the only person who could handle a schedule like that at his age… ;-)
If he is exhausted, then he shouldn’t have gone in the first place. But him behaving sensibly is never in the cards, so instead he just disappears. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We’ll see, I guess.
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
@Jackie: Is what true?
sukabi
Getting tired of his shit, republicans letting loose, or how losing sets you free…
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@FlyingToaster:
That’s the same fund that Collins was whining about being a “bribe”.
pk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I hope his sour mood corrodes his insides and causes a stroke.
Mart
@Platonailedit: Yes the fucking media are still clueless asshats. I posted this earlier.
Article link at CNN.com has the lead:
When you click through the title of the article is:
It is not until over halfway through a long article you get (my emphasis):
And their grammar sucks too.
This from CNN, the network with a real solid chance of one of their reporters getting seriously hurt, one banished complete w/SS pimping fake video, etc.
jl
I think we should remember Shiloh and take Grant’s advice to Sherman
Sherman: “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”
Grant: “Yes. Yes. Lick ’em tomorrow, though.”
Villago Delenda Est
No Rethuglican can be trusted to be an honest broker in this, at any level.
Fair Economist
@Sebastian:
Nelson’s lawyer might have been dropping hints about this when he said that the Broward County undervotes are not the biggest issue.
Gvg
@jl: it’s not just Trump, it’s at least some racist voters. They don’t know they are in the minority, and therefore if the wrong ones win, it must be cheating. Yes I know Obama won twice. They don’t believe that either. Different ones have different cheating in mind, but it can’t be real to them. I remember how many were surprised Obama won and overheard comments. They didn’t know a significant number of whites were going to vote for Obama, even though the polling was pretty clear way ahead. I know the majority of whites still vote R but a pretty significant number don’t. The Moran contingent of that party doesn’t know it even now and Trump is a part of it. In a way, he a mark as well as a con. He believes the GOP con game for the rubes. This is why the money Republicans lost control to the evangelicals and racists.
I think denying reality explains the rise of conspiracy theories in that parties mainstream.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Sab:
That sounds sensible. I really do like voting by mail though. It’s so convenient!
Mike in NC
Our friends in the Tampa area are looking to bug out of Florida ASAP. We have no recommendations. They have lived in KY, TN, and VA. They hated Naples. Maybe Asheville, NC would work out. Loved it myself when we were there several years ago.
Raven
@Gin & Tonic: 7pm kickoff and a couple mile walk back after the game. A great way to cap off my 69th with a thrashing of the hated Tigers!! And it was wonderfully cool at 49 degrees!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott:
It’s generally good form to show up for your performance review in person.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s totally bullshit, especially with how important the Senate’s functions are.
piratedan
@Suzanne: entirely possible that McSally is banking on no “charismatic” Dem candidate showing up in 2020 to fill McCain’s old seat. She eked by on her last congressional campaign in 2016 by about 150 votes and the people in the district took note that she dropped all pretense of being a moderate with her ACA votes and in her visibility in doing it. So she’s toast here in Pima County and all the folks I know would just as soon watch her burn rather than put out the fire. While Sinema is a rather calculating pol under the surface, I can hope that she’ll be better than Jeff Flake who is simply a waste of oxygen. It’s possible that Ducey appoints McSally to the McCain seat since Kyl has indicated that he didn’t want the financial burden of serving beyond 2018 (because he’s not on the GOP Gravy Train, he’s under the GOP lobbyist hose bib drinking away, so being a Senator is a financial burden for him) and it would give McSally the benefit of incumbency but since she’s not adhering to the GOP rules of conduct (lying, bitching, moaning) the powers that be may inflict someone else on us (say perhaps Gov. Ducey himself, or who knows, the GOP has a deep rabid bullpen of cray-cray to pull from).
Kirkpatrick relocated to Tucson and snagged McSally’s old seat pretty easily and I have no idea who else the Dems could reasonably recruit to challenge in 2020, it may be a complete political outsider with name recognition or someone looking to cut their teeth on sensible policy with gun reform, immigration reform and actually reforming the state lege to stop stealing all of the education budget. Maybe you should run Suze :-)
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
She’ll retire
Gvg
And just got a forwarded email asking for recount volunteers 4 hour shifts starting tomorrow…oh god, do I have the stamina?
jl
@Gvg: I agree. We need 50 percent plus one vote, and the country will have to figure out how to manage them, as it has done for many decades in the past.. We can lick ’em, then shoot for some landlslides to keep them out of trouble. Probably at least a quarter of any country has serious issues with reality. We’ll figure out how to keep them from being a danger to themselves and others after we can win consistently. It’s one of the responsibilities of good governance.
Barbara
@Another Scott: It’s the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. He had to go. It’s astounding he couldn’t rise above petty annoyances to attend a memorial service.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Maybe Trump will snap and try to kill Vlad. The guy sure seems wound tight and has to be pissed Putin evidently failed him in the midterms. //
Another Scott
@Raven: Happy Birthday! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
sounds like trump did show up for the dinner, but came in the back so no one saw him
Fair Economist
@piratedan: There has got to be *some* charismatic AZ state legislator. That’s a perfectly reasonable base to run for Senate.
Jackie
@Suzanne: McSally replacing McCain’s place if she loses.
Raven
@Another Scott: Aw tanks, only 27 minutes to go!
sukabi
@Another Scott: he did finally show up to the dinner…2 hours late. I wonder who had to pry the chicken bones out of his wee fingers and wipe the grease off his face, and push his fat ass to the dinner.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jackie: I’ve seen this rumor, too, Whathisname who got appointed to the McCain steps down so that Ducey can appoint McSally and she can run as an incumbent in 20
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I replied to you at the bottom of the post headlined Friday Night Open Thread: Puppies Make Things Better. You might want to read it.
jl
@sukabi: Any McDonald’s in France? That would explain it. From my experience, McDonald’s in Europe are very good. In Switzerland, you get a little chocolate wafer with the coffee.
Edit: in Estonia, some of the concept of fast food eating hasn’t soaked in. People come in at regular meal times. If you come in between, the staff is sitting there and wondering what you want. But, the food tends to more freshly cooked that way.
opiejeanne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
it’s because so many states had crappy, poorly thought-out constitutions. California was one of them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Heh, I think Vlad has some experience killing people.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: The California Constitution is still one of the longest in the world.
Chetan Murthy
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: “try to kill Vlad” as in “try to close his umbrella”, surely. I can’t imagine Lord Smallgloves managing to kill something other than a snail.
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Trump wouldn’t dare. Putin owns him, it’s that simple.
Another Scott
@Barbara: This is Donnie we’re talking about. Remember that he pouted and refused to attend a Fox debate because Megyn Kelly dared to ask him a question he didn’t like. Of course he has no compunction about pouting and not attending important official functions. He’s transactional. He doesn’t care about anything that doesn’t personally benefit him above anyone else.
Tomorrow should be interesting, in the Chinese curse sense. :-/
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Gretchen
@Chetan Murthy: Garmin is located in Olathe KS. That’s where those Indian software engineers worked. A lot of immigrants are moving to Olathe. We just elected a Democratic woman governor and a gay Native American congressional representative. Change may come sooner than expected.
jl
@opiejeanne: @?BillinGlendaleCA:
California is special, ain’t it?
To be fair, it was completely rewritten in 1879 just for white folk. The 1849 Constitution had to be friendly to the Hispanic Californios, otherwise they might have changed their minds about supporting independence from Mexico, and the whole admission to US deal would have gone to shit. Then it got partially rewrit several times between 1910 and 1920s to free California from the grip of the Robber Baron corporations, particularly Southern Pacific. And that brought us the gift that keeps on giving, the popular referendum and constitutional initiative, which have done great good and great evil.
The California Constitution is the Floriduh man of state constitutions. Hard to say what it is, except that it is really weird and unpredictable conglomeration of conflicted principles and influences.
Gretchen
@Chetan Murthy: I admit I am uneasy about my Indian American son in law visiting after that happened though. I wish I could feel that that wouldn’t happen again.
Suzanne
@piratedan: I do not plan on staying in this litterbox of a state long enough to run for anything. Though our LD people have sought out Mr. Suzanne for school board.
McSally wants the McCain seat sooooo bad. The only Dem pol I see right now who might be solid would be Greg Stanton. He just won his first term in the House, but he was Mayor of Phoenix before that, so he has some name recognition and the city did very well under his leadership. Our state senators and state reps really tend to struggle when they try anything statewide.
That’s the hard thing about this state…..we have bright blue pockets, but the Dem pols just do not have a good track record when going for Gov, or Senate seats, or AG, etc.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: My favorite part is you can change the Constitution by a simple majority to require a supermajority to pass other things.
Chetan Murthy
@Gretchen:
Yep. I’m aware of Olathe & Garmin. BTW, I donated to Laura Kelly’s compaign, and was thrilled that she won. But there are simple facts: as America has “sorted” itself (I’ve lived in America since 1969 @age 4, a citizen since 1982), more and more parts of the country are “no-go” areas for people of color with other options. And KS isn’t alone in this: I grew up in Fort Worth, TX, and would never live in Texas. Well, maybe after a few decades of Blue governance. But not today, even if Beto had won.
I have a close relative who lives in D/FW. She was in line to vote, and got accosted by a 75-year-old white guy and his wife, told she was in the wrong line, she shouldn’t be voting, etc. This is a 73-year-old little old brown lady. Been an election judge, pollworker, multiple times. Worked for our Federal government for many years. Lived there most of her adult life.
Things like that affect people of color. When we have options, we eschew the more dangerous ones, even at some economic cost.
Suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That would be former junior senator Jon Kyl. Kyl committed to serving through the end of the year when he accepted the job.
Another Scott
Hehe. :-)
(via LOLGOP)
‘night all.
Cheers,
Scott.
guachi
With all the focus on the Arizona Senate race don’t overlook that the Secretary of State race is closing.
The Democrat is now 0.10%/2,008 votes behind.
Platonailedit
Have they stopped counting in AZ? Per fynyt, only two precincts in Pima county where Sinema is leading by over 14% and one precinct in Yuma county where the gopper is leading by 6%, are yet to be counted. And the Pima seems to have 10 times more voters. Any rethug shenanigans going on to steal this sure dem win?
Chetan Murthy
@Gretchen:
I had to visit D/FW this summer (relative having operation) and at the DFW airport, I saw a mixed-race couple (black man, white wife); the man was (obvs) dropping his wife off for her flight and they did the usual domestic thing of kissing goodbye. The first thought that came unbidden was “he’s a shit-ton braver man than I”. I went to college at Rice (Houston), grad school at Cornell (Ithaca, NY) and for sure I only engaged in “public display of affection” in NY, never, ever, ever, ever in Texas. Even as a child, I understood that it was dangerous as a brown man to display any sexual interest in white females (who were the only females in my peer group in HS).
Did your son-in-law grow up here? Or come here as an adult? I hope he understands the racial dynamics? [My parents sure didn’t, or I’d hope that we’d have never moved to TX from Delaware.]
Gretchen
@Chetan Murthy: yes, I agree. Trump has given awful white people permission to be publicly awful and I think it safer for the Indian-American part of my family to stay in New York until the fever breaks. I hope it does when Trump is driven out of office in disgrace.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: See, the Floiduh man of state constitutions.
But a few good things that came out of the older constitutions. Legal challenges to public access to waterfronts and beaches are harder in CA because of old constitutional provisions. I think same provisions will make legislation to regulate aquifers harder to challenge IANAL, but old constitutional provisions that protected Californio rancheros still do some good for regulation public space (or does bad, if you blame some of CA housing shortages on public spaces). Harder to overturn local public corporations from buying land to take control of their local areas, like in Pacifica and Brentwood. The cherry orchards are leaving east Brentwoold because of climate change, not because of developers gobbling them up.
Would have been better if CA had kept English AND Spanish as official languages, but that was one of the first thing the racists went after in 1879.
Suzanne
@guachi: AND one of our candidates for Corporation Commission moved into the lead, as did the Dem candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Red state, blue city. Count our votes.
Sab
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: However, I drove my black step-grandaughter to the polls on Tuesday and it was amazing.
She was supposed to vote with her stepmother (my stepdaughter) who overbooked her time. So overbooked stepmom asked if we could help. Of course , Duh.
Took the 18 year old to the polls. Very white poll worker (also an Episcopal vestryman and choir member from the church we voted in, and probably Republican) was very kind and helpful. Kid was only African American person in the building until the guy from the Board of Elections arrived. Kid disappeared with her ballot for half an hours (can’t you kids research anything ahead of time?) This is what is what was supposed to happen, and did for this kid.
This was so different from the the people in the South and the Great Plains. Southerners have no shame re voting, but but the Great Plains? I am shocked.
jl
@jl: Though places like Pacifica and Marin Headlands, the attempts at private and public/private corporate development projects read like a history of local mini-Trump scams that led to failure, bankruptcy, endless civil suits and some jail sentences. Probably better that local cities could pool resources and just buy up the land and decide what to do with it through democratic process. Good thing California Constitution makes that easier. Marin Headlands ended up in Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Chetan Murthy
@Sab:
*giggle* I knew who I was voting for in all the races with D/R designations, but for all the rest, I had Not. A. Clue. I had to ask if I could use my phone in the little cubbyhole where I filled out my (paper FTW!) ballot, so I could look up the CA & SF Dems’ sample ballots. So your step-granddaughter isn’t alone: this 53-year-old kid didn’t -quite- do his research beforehand, either.
Nancy SMASH!
NotMax
re: some of the above.
A moment to lay out the unusual voting for County Council in Maui county.
9 members, each from a geographically defined district. BUT – everyone in the entire county gets to vote for all 9.
So, for example, Lanai (population ~ 3000) has its own member on the council, but he or she is elected countywide (population ~160,000*).
*How things have changed. Population of the county was a smidgen over 60,000 when I moved here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chetan Murthy: I’ve always got my sample ballot filled out by the night before and take it with me.
Gretchen
@Chetan Murthy: Son-in-law (actually, not quite – the wedding is in March) was born on Staten Island. I gather there’s a substantial Indian community there, although he said he was one of only 2 1st graders in the ESL class – the other was Mexican. His response when visiting here was -wow, it’s so white. So I assume that where he is from it’s not so white. Olathe attracts a lot of immigrants, but the inner-ring suburbs are more people who grew up here.
His family is from Kerala and are Catholic. When he was coming out here the first time to meet his girlfriend’s family, it was shortly after that awful Olathe shooting. His mother was justifiably apprehensive, and admonished him to wear his cross to show that he was a Christian. I wasn’t confident that anyone loony enough to shoot someone who might be a Muslim would look that closely.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: There is room in your voting booths down there for a California sample ballot, you, and the California ballot you’re voting? That is hard to believe.
Edit: I think I heard news report about official California voter guide causing a statewide hernia crisis.
Chetan Murthy
@Gretchen:
Oh good. Then he’ll be much more aware. And hence, you have a lot less to be worried about. Even in the NY area, I think people of color learn about racism. I lived in NYC (Manhattan) for 5yr (late 90s), and certainly we all thought Staten Island was the most racist part of NYC. So I’m going to guess he understands about having his radar up and functioning.
Gretchen
@Chetan Murthy: The young couple are negotiating to buy a house on Staten Island. I’m sad that my grandchildren will be so far away, but also feel that it’s safer that they are there. It breaks my heart to have them far away and breaks my heart again to think that they will be safer far away from me. I hope the fever breaks after Trump. Two steps forward with Obama, one step back with Trump, two steps forward with the next sane, decent President.
Suzanne
@Chetan Murthy:
So after resisting voting by mail for a number of cycles, I gave in and signed up in 2016 to receive all future ballots by mail. And I have to say that this specific issue has been the biggest benefit. It is much more streamlined than filling out the sample ballot. I just sit down at the kitchen table and knock it out, and usually my mom and my husband do it at the same time as me. If I don’t finish it all at one time, I can come back to it. My local LD has been putting together very nice “suggestion lists” and posting them to social media. I have to say that this change in my voting behavior was as unexpected surprise—I used to leave all the judges blank, for example.
However, we are currently seeing the downside of voting by mail in this shithole. EHHHHHHHH.
burnspbesq
@jl:
All over Paris, including one on the Champs Elysees.
patrick II
I can’t find a link now, but sometime after the 2000 election the votes were recounted manually by a group sponsored by some newspapers and Gore won Florida easily. The key was some voters both filled in the circle selecting Gore and wrote Gore’s name in the write-in candidate’s line to be doubly sure. The machines threw the votes out, but the intent of the voter was clear. Republicans know this and want to avoid a manual recount like the plague.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Not to mention the Hasidic neighborhoods and Little Russia in Brooklyn, as well as the old line German and Italian enclaves in Queens.
Gretchen
@Suzanne: My dad was Director of Probation in Detroit and one judge was a particular thorn in his side – wanted to get him fired. When my sister voted for the first time, she didn’t know the judges, so just voted randomly. Dad asked her if she voted for his nemesis? Yes, she thought she might have. Lesson – if you don’t know, much better to leave it blank.
NotMax
@burnspbesq
“You want frites with that?”
:)
burnspbesq
@NotMax:
Et Coca-Cola Light.
Bess
There was a McDonald’s in Paris in the mid-1970s. It was in a storefront with name and small golden arches painted on the window.
jl
Looks like the lying loon made the big dinner in France. Just slipped in the side door. Good news I guess. He no so far gone that he can’t appear at all in public.
I was wondering where Theresa May was in all this, was it a joint Anglo-US diss? But read that the Brits have a special ceremony in Belgium, and May was there laying memorial wreaths to first and last UK soldiers who were killed in WWI. Wonder if it was raining there too?
Fair Economist
@Chetan Murthy: The South is not quite as racist about relationships these days. I was eating out with my mother in my home town in Alabama a few years ago when a mixed race group came in including an obvious black-white couple. Nobody even looked, even my Rethuglican stepfather.
Fair Economist
@jl: haha, but I have seen much worse California ballots. 10 propositions, most fairly simple, isn’t that bad by our standards. Some areas like SF had a lot of local propositions but that was not statewide.
Chetan Murthy
@Fair Economist: My instant reaction is “wow, that’s amazing”. But OTOH, I haven’t lived in the South since …. 1986. So not like I really know.
Anne Laurie
@jl:
My read is that the protesting GOPers are afraid McSally makes their indignant, hissy-fitting menfolk look like luzers… or, more accurately, like grifters who can’t believe they’ve been busted after so many successful scams. If McSally acts like a normal decent politician, think how bad Brian Kemp and Rick Scott look in comparison!
divF
@burnspbesq: We once went to the one on the Champs Elysees for the express purpose of getting a soft drink with **lots** of ice (it was a hot day, and we had been walking).
At the time, it was the one thing you could not get at any other establishment in Pairs.
Sebastian
@Fair Economist:
Wow. Do you have a link perhaps?
Fair Economist
@Sebastian: Sorry, I can’t find a link amidst all the news reports on the FL Senate race. He wasn’t saying there were shenanigans, just that he didn’t think the undervoting was the main issue. He’s sued now on signature verification, which is a place to hide dirty tricks (just be a lot stricter on African-American sounding names).
Darkrose
@Chetan Murthy: Sacramento is one of the pilot counties for the CA Voters’ Choice Act, so it was all vote by mail. I’ve been doing it that way anyway, because it’s easier than having to remember all of my research because we have to do the legislature’s job for them, apparently. Then my wife and I dropped our ballots off at the library. For the primaries, it was a bit of a mess because the drop box filled up, but this time everything was outside, and it was nice and easy.
Darkrose
@Fair Economist: It was only two pages! That’s short!
Steeplejack (phone)
@burnspbesq, @NotMax:
Paris street scene with a Lumière camera.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Eolirin:
So right now the net is what? We lost IN and MO, but picked up NV. We *might* pick up AZ, and FL could go either way. So if Sinema holds, we have a net loss of 1. Which is pretty damned amazing, given how favorable the 2018 map is to Rs, holding them to a pickup of one would be incredible.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Bill Arnold: I hope Bill hangs on (FL is my home state after all) but I would expect anyone in his position to say that. He needs to keep his supporters energized at least until the recounts and legal battles are over.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I miscounted earlier- we lost three incumbents (IN, ND, MO), but picked up (so far) NV. So it’s an R net of 2. If Sinema holds on to her lead (which I think she will) its R+1.