UPDATE: 16 states now have new voting restrictions for 1st time in a pres election in 2016 https://t.co/oQ7LuIkVew pic.twitter.com/LjYxjeYpyJ
— Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa) February 29, 2016
And a KKK approved front runner. Weird how things work out sometimes. https://t.co/4h3yij8m3k
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) February 29, 2016
WaterGirl
These restrictions in the South and Texas… those I understand. They are discouraging and wrong, but at least I understand.
But the midwest? We have got to get rid of these god-awful republican governors! And Maine, that’s a travesty. :: sigh ::
We need every single democrat to vote in this election. Time to turn over the table like Jesus did in the temple a long long time ago. Or what I like to call 52-card pickup, just turn everything on its ear and turn back the tide of all this hate and prejudice.
Germy
I keep seeing Otto Frederick Warmbier on the tv news. Of course, they don’t explain, just show him weeping. I don’t understand the background on this story. He was on a tour in North Korea? I though that country didn’t allow American tourists?
danielx
It’s a feature, not a bug!
Bill Arnold
@WaterGirl:
New Hampshire (but still a travesty? Don’t know details.)
Edit: Voter Identification Law
Germy
They mean to win, one way or another. If that means keeping “the other side” from the polls, they’re fine with it. I suppose they justify it in their minds by seeing “the other side” as pure evil. They love their country (based on freedom and democracy) too much to allow it to be wrecked by the wrong people voting.
Twisted logic.
Old Dan and Little Anne
But Hillary said Robert Byrd was her mentor so both sides do it. That’s what I learned on the book of faces today.
Steve in the ATL
@Germy: It’s hard to be sympathetic to someone who willfully visits DPRK, especially if his intent was harming the work ethic and the motivation of the North Korean people (that’s what the government said he did when he stole a “motivational’ poster as a souvenir. Sounds like was on a Christianist missionary trip.
WarMunchkin
@WaterGirl: Are there any organizations dedicated to finding voters without eligible ID cards and funding them or helping them through legal challenges?
If we have to play by their rules, that sucks, but I’m still gonna want to win.
Germy
@Steve in the ATL: Thanks for providing some background. All my local news station did was show him weeping, and then they said “some say his confession was coerced.”
When I saw him, my first reaction (without knowing his story) was that he was some sort of missionary.
Amir Khalid
@Germy:
Maybe he snuck in through China. As I understand, that’s the best way to get into North Korea.
singfoom
We must preserve Individual Liberty!
By preventing individuals we don’t agree with from voting
Oh cognitive dissonance, thy name is Grand Ole Party.
I’m trying to remain optimistic here kids, but with all this shit going on, a sliver of me worries about Der Trumpenstein winning the general. Thanks SCOTUS for gutting the Voting Rights Act.
And a hearty Fuck you to Brownback, Kris Kobach and all the awful democracy perverting minions shitting on my birthstate of Kansas. (Yes, I know Brownback was reelected, thanks Frank Luntz)
Mike R
@Old Dan and Little Anne: Well Byrd was a democrat and that means no amount of apology or contrition is going to be enough. Now if we was a republican then it is only required to say God forgives me and the slate is wiped clean.
Germy
@Amir Khalid: I just checked wikipedia. It says:
dedc79
Cole’s twitter feed reads like Democrat on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
ETA: Re the voting rights restrictions – It’s the Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire and Virginia ones that have me super nervous.
WaterGirl
@Bill Arnold: Okay, you heard it here first. I completely suck at geography.
Mike R
The Young Pioneer Tours company website states they specialize in tours your mother would object to.
trollhattan
@Germy:
Indeed, it would appear Jesus made him do it, with a bit of encouragement from…the Methodists?!?
WaterGirl
@WarMunchkin: I surely hope so, but I am not up on that. Would you have time to do some googling? I bet Anne Laurie or Adam Silverman or Cole would be willing to front page that kind of information for those of us who want to be more active, donate to that, etc.
boatboy_srq
@WaterGirl: um that’s [cough] New Hampshire. Live Free or STFU and all that.
trollhattan
@Mike R:
I wonder if they’re the tour group that featured the gasoline clam roast?
prob50
I’d like to believe that a party that can only retain power by blatant voter suppression is eventually going to end up in history’s dustbin. I only can hope it happens sooner rather than later.
NR
@dedc79: He’s right though. Just look at the latest CNN poll. The number of Republicans who say they would never vote for Trump is dropping like a rock.
Cole nailed it. Trump will pick someone like Perry for VP (and he might not even have to do that), and the Republicans will all fall in line. And he will be a serious threat to beat Hillary.
Peale
@NR: Cole isn’t having a nervous breakdown about the elelction. Today’s nervous breakdown is finding out that a 30 day sentence for poisoning the water of 300,000 West Virginian’s is too steep a price to pay.
Steve in the ATL
@NR:
Was that a typo and you meant to say “a serious threat to beat Bernie” or have you already sold out to the bankers and free traders and Vince Foster murderers?
Germy
And then what? A military coup d’etat? Didn’t some retired military guy say on TV that Trump’s orders would be disobeyed?
NR
@Peale: Yeah, there’s that too, but he was talking about the election less than an hour ago.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@WarMunchkin: VoteRiders works very hard to try to help people get registered to vote. (I donate to them when I can.) The League of Women Voters does as well. (I donate to them when I can, too.)
Cheers,
Scott.
boatboy_srq
@dedc79: Virginia is last gasp territory. Outer NoVA and the Roanoke/Lynchburg nexus of
evilFundiEvangelical Xtianism working to make sure Those People know their place. I’m still gobsmacked at the subdivision sales rep who, when I told her where I was said she used to live there “when it was aWhitenice places live.” Honest to FSM you could hear the dogwhistle with that one.Elizabelle
Check out today’s Leap Year Google doodle. It’s adorable.
Lighten up, Francises.
Also, how in hell is Donald Trump with Rick (Moron) Perry as VP a more attractive candidate? You guys are losing the thread.
And second WarMunchkin about making sure our voters have ID and are able to vote. That’s a great project, and we’d be finding even more voters as we contacted them and their families.
dedc79
@NR: We underestimate Trump and his appeal at our own peril. But we have without a doubt been handed an incredible break with Trump being the nominee. I’d be much more worried if we were facing Rubio or Kasich.
A good portion of the Republican party will fall in line behind Trump. Indeed it’s already happening. But I am confident (and i think there’s ample evidence to back this up) that pulling the same trick with the broader american electorate won’t work.
Elizabelle
Here’s a link to the Leap Year critters. Full service blog.
http://www.google.com/
NR
@dedc79: I hope you are right, but I have my doubts.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy: I don’t know about that guy, but Koryo Tours is a Chinese-based company run by Brits that has been taking tourists to the DPRK for years. They say US passport holders are allowed entry, but only by plane (i.e. fly in from Beijing to Pyongyang.)
Elizabelle
@dedc79:
Tis fixed.
Germy
@Gin & Tonic: I would have no desire to visit North Korea.
Elizabelle
@Germy: The North Koreans aren’t real thrilled about being stuck there either.
That Google Earth at night satellite view is astonishing.
Germy
Good god… from their website:
dedc79
@boatboy_srq: Yeah, I live in DC and spend a bunch of time in Virginia. It is really a tale of two states.
My recollection is that VA was a much closer call in 2012 than 2008 and that blue victories for governor (McAuliffe) and senator (Warner) were much closer than initially predicted. Hillary is going to need a very impressive GOTV operation in arlington/alexandria.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy: I visited the Ho Chi Minh memorial in Hanoi for a couple of hours. I’d expect a tour to the DPRK to be like that, just 24/7.
Elizabelle
@Germy:
Mr. Warmbier has just learned how high.
That website copy reads like a parody. Does it have a “Darwin Awards contestants: Enter HERE” portal?
Gin & Tonic
@Germy: I have heard that there is excellent skiing in Iran, and have vaguely wondered if I could arrange a trip at some point. But skiing in DPRK would top that for sure.
Germy
@Elizabelle: like climbing into a wood chipper.
Peale
@Germy: Yep. Don’t really feel all that sorry in this case. If you want to go somewhere where your mamma doesn’t want you to go, go to Cuba. It’s easy. I’ve never really heard of US tourists being arrested and sent to labor camps and whatnot. The Cubans at least don’t think they’d get a lot of political capital with their people by parading captured American tourists in front of the cameras. Our government doesn’t want us to go there, so going on your own can be that fun rush. But just stay out of North Korea. It doesn’t really offer much anyway.
singfoom
@Elizabelle:
I’m concerned that Trump has the asshole vote locked up, be it Republican assholes, Independent assholes or self-identified Democratic assholes. I think a lot of the time this group of people are not politically motivated, and Trump gives them an opportunity to say fuck you to the electoral system.
As always, I could be massively YOOUGELY wrong. I sure hope I am.
Germy
I spent four years in Hackensack.
Villago Delenda Est
The North Koreans, for internal political purposes, make Americans out to be the devil. They don’t bother to draw a distinction between the American government and the American people, as Iran does.
Germy
@Peale: perhaps he thought a trophy from North Korea would be worth more than a trophy from Cuba.
delk
I’m going to early vote in Chicago tomorrow if the snow we are expecting is not too bad.
#myownsupertuesday
Peale
@Germy: Shudder. I know the feeling. I thought about going there because of the pristine beaches – practically get them all to yourself. But the idea of turning off Route 4 onto St. Anne Blvd turned me off.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Germy: If I could afford it, I’d be curious as hell and probably consider going on one of those tours. Not that I think I’d see the real North Korea — I’m sure I’d have minders and a bugged hotel room in the very least, and I’d have to watch what I say and do the entire time I was in the country. But even knowing that I’d only see what they want to show me, it would still be an experience unlike any I’ve had before.
But then I think of the regime my imaginary tourist money is supporting, and that daydream dies pretty quick.
A Ghost To Most
You want to act like a fool in the worst place in the world to act like a fool, I got 0.0 fucks to give.
Germy
@Villago Delenda Est: Exactly. Which is why I fail to see the charm of visiting. It would be like our cat taking a tour of a dog park.
Or a mouse taking a day trip to a cat cafe.
Or a… ok, I’ll stop.
Bob In Portland
@prob50: Then the next stage is no elections.
daveNYC
@trollhattan: The North Korean side of the story is the usual batshit crazy mix that I expect from them. Dude could have been a missionary who did something stupid, or he could just be a regular tourist who was a convenient target for the NK government to use to score political points. Or what they think are political points, the NK’s concept of ‘winning’ is all over the place.
WaterGirl
@Germy: Yep. Not Iran, either. If something goes wrong, it can go really wrong. Just not worth the risk.
J.
Speaking of funny, not funny… http://bit.ly/1QHiwE8
A Ghost To Most
@Germy:
Sorry for your loss.
Mike R
A list of their tours for 2016 sounds exciting and very unwise.
Doug R
@WaterGirl: Well, at least south Carolina is listening to you
Mary G
We need to revive Acorn. I may be too optimistic, but I think these laws are going to come back and bite the Republicans in the ass, because people will be pissed off that their rights are being taken away and will jump through whatever hoops they have to. I’m sure President Obama will give a real barnburner of a speech at the Democratic convention and campaign vigorously with Hillary exhorting people to preserve his legacy. Hopefully it will be enough.
Peale
@singfoom: I’m a bit worried about the type of Democratic voter that handed Christie two elections and put a Republican in Massachusetts. And no, those weren’t folks who were upset about the bankers.
schrodinger's cat
Kitteh is all dressed up to practice his Oscar speech.
Aleta
Evan Osnos http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-and-the-ku-klux-klan-a-history
Peale
@daveNYC: Yep. They don’t appear to have a law for “petty larceny” or “vandalizing a hotel room.” Every crime seems to carry the most extreme sentence. It’s like the laws were written by Miss Piggy.
Steve in the ATL
@Mary G:
I was thinking exactly this as well. What would it take in terms of time, money, and staff?
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
One can be arrested for the act of folding a newspaper across a photo of Dear Leader. I strive to avoid places that nuts.
Germy
@schrodinger’s cat: Posters for Key & Peele’s new cat movie spoof the oscar nominees:
http://screenrant.com/keanu-key-peele-posters/
Steve in the ATL
@trollhattan:
I was about to give you a “hell yeah!” but remembered that I live in a carry-everywhere state….
WarMunchkin
@Steve in the ATL: @Mary G: @Elizabelle: @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
I sent out some e-mails to some people within castle D about what’s going on to target this. I’m still not convinced that there’s a large-scale effort going on to get people their ID and so on.
I have some other ideas kicking around, like getting those old LIVESTRONG type bracelets out that just have QR codes on them that use a phone’s location services to direct you to your state’s voter registration page or forms. Really anything to start early and run up those numbers.
lamh36
So this Prez from Olympus Has Fallen and now London Has Fallen is basically like the daughter from Taken? I mean what’s gonna fall next? Tokyo, Moscow, Paris
Elizabelle
@singfoom: Perhaps the thrill of being an asshole for all your family and neighbors and friends to see will have peaked before Election Day.
Not gonna be gloom and doom. They have a candidate who is blaming an earpiece for his not being able to repudiate known racists. And said frontrunner is in many ways less scary than the stuffed suit Senators still in the race to defeat him.
We have a lot of work ahead, and time to see how this plays out.
trollhattan
Music news. Ever since falling head over heels for Neko Case I’ve most often compared her to k.d. lang. Now a crazy dream I never allowed myself is coming true.
Laura Veirs is completely new to me, but she must be very brave.
Elizabelle
@WarMunchkin: Keep us apprised. Great thing to be watching for. Someone has got to be working on voter ID and registration and feeding volunteers into that effort.
A Ghost To Most
@Aleta:
This paragraph should be broadcast nationally. So naturally, it won’t.
Kay
My favorite magistrate won’t vote for Trump. He won’t admit to voting for Clinton- says he will not vote at all- but his wife is a Democrat and he likes Clinton okay so he may actually make the big leap.
I don’t think there will be enough of those to make a difference- they’ll fall in line- but this guy is 76 years old and he’s not voting for a sketchy real estate developer for US President. That’s not happening :)
lamh36
Le sigh…this is NOT the way to go…
beltane
@Kay: Would he vote for Cruz?
Peale
@lamh36:
A Ghost To Most
@lamh36:
Christ, what an asshole.
I hope the twitterers savage him,and more.
beltane
Since this is an Open Thread, I would just like to say that I really loved Cate Blanchett’s dress last night.
randy khan
@dedc79:
2008: Obama 52.63% McCain 46.33%
2012: Obama 51.16% Romney 47.28%
So, 2012 was somewhat closer, but not particularly close.
2013
Governor: McAuliffe 47.75% Cuccinelli 45.23% Sarvis 6.52%
Lt. Governor: Northam 55.12% Jackson 44.54%
Attorney General: Herring 49.91% Obenshain 49.87%
There was a bit of a swing in the polls for Governor in the last week before the election, but it did end up closer than expected. The reality, though, is that the expectations were largely because Cuccinelli was a terrible choice for the Republicans – and what happened was that Republican voters came home towards the end. The real story, in my view, was that the Dems won all three statewide offices after a cycle when the Republicans held all three.
2014 did end up a lot closer than predicted, but on the other hand, Warner did get reelected in a year that otherwise was pretty good for the Republicans.
Elizabelle
@Steve in the ATL:
Speaking of which, this NY Times article over the weekend was fascinating.
Dean at University of Texas Resigns in Part Over Handgun Law
If you were faculty, would you want to meet in private in your office with students, particularly troubled ones or those in academic peril? Can you imagine not being able to say no guns?
And students at public universities face the risk, while private schools got to opt out.
Further, do you think Texas legislators meet in close quarters in their offices with constituents who walk in off the streets, guns at the ready?
It’s madness.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@lamh36: It’s how you get people to stay home, so, whoever is REALLY paying him to write that drivel sure is gettin’ their money’s worth. It’s a very well-done demotivator of a column.
Elizabelle
@randy khan: Some of McAuliffe’s 2013 squeaker was a “Thank you, Ted Cruz” victory. The federal employees I canvassed were incensed at his shutting down the government.
That election was way too close. And then Ed Gillespie overperformed against Mark Warner in 2014, who kind of forgot his supporters and party are Democrats. Again, the GOP voters went home, much as they made nice noises about Warner.
Mark Warner almost got pantsed, and I was not sorry to see it.
Calouste
Christie is burning some more bridges with the GOP, now says that the Senate should hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee.
gwangung
Not going to be gloom and doom, but there’s no way this will be a Dem cakewalk.
Horrified Republicans will come back to the fold. Blue collar workers, Dems AND Repubs, will be energized by someone who calls it like THEY see it (and make no mistake, there’s a lot of racism and protectionism in union and Dem ranks). And the segments for the Dems energized/horrified by Trump are the ones targeted by Voter ID laws. And folks, there IS voter fraud out there…but I’m 99% sure it’s being done by Republican operatives.
Work hard, get the vote out, especally in swing states.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Eight out of ten confederate states. Eight out of ten. But I guess that’s only an amazing coincidence.
Kay
@beltane:
I didn’t ask him. His family of origin were Mennonites (some still are) but he’s not religious. He likes Obamacare, too, so he’s probably too moderate for Cruz.
beltane
@Kay: I just asked because none the remaining Republicans can wear the mantle of sanity convincingly.
Hungry Joe
In my 50+ years of following elections I have never seen anything remotely like this XXL drawing-room farce. NO ONE predicted anything but hilarity from Trump; few — even those, like me, who agree with Sanders on almost everything — thought that Sanders would be a serious threat. In short (to steal a line from James Branch Cabell), anything is rather more than likely to happen.
Aleta
@trollhattan: I feel better now, no small thing. Thank you for that song.
Kay
@beltane:
Well, Kasich, but he doesn’t think Kasich can win. Mennonites here have some religious connection or duty to immigrants. I don’t know a thing about the religion but I do know that. Mennonites settled Laotian refugees here thru their church and business connections in the 1980’s. We have a small Laotian community in the county and that’s how they got here. Mennonites are cabinet makers traditionally- furniture and cabinets- and they staked the refugees in a business they started that makes decorative bows and the business is still here and it’s still Laotian-owned.
Anyway, I suspect that’s where the anti-Trump hard line comes from.
gene108
@Peale:
Don’t know about MA, but Christie won election for the first time in 2009, at the worst of the recession.
There was a throw the bums out attitude, because things are bad and they aren’t doing anything, and he won a relatively close race.
He played the state Democratic Party in his first term and he did not face serious opposition for his re-election bid. He received a big boost from being perceived to be doing something after hurricane Sandy to help rebuild.
If the economy had been normal, in 2009, Christie would not have gotten his foot in the door to get elected in the first place.
randy khan
@Elizabelle:
I forgot about Warner running “to the center.” The truth is that he’s a reliable vote for the things the Dems care about in the Senate, but in his heart of hearts he believes he’s a moderate, whatever that means these days.
Anyway, that definitely was a factor in the closeness of the margin. I don’t think we’ll be having any of that this time around.
p.a.
my home state’s shame
the rules
when Dems go bad ?
chrome agnomen
@Hungry Joe: mundus vult decipi!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@beltane:
Me too!!!! It was my favorite!! That color!!
mclaren
@WaterGirl:
You’re talking about the symptoms. But the deeper disease is the deteriorating demographics of the interior of America. When a high school graduate hits 18 in the midwest, they have to leave home for either the West or the East Coast, because there are no jobs in their dying hometowns anymore. All the small farms and the businesses that supported them are gone. Light manufacturing, car parts factories, furniture factories…all gone, offshored overseas.
So the midwest has turned into a dying region of very old people (the average age of a farmer today is 67) with small towns that are drying up and full of boarded-up empty storefronts, with public schools that are shutting down so the townspeople can bus their handful of K-12 schoolkids to the next town over because the hometown school is too big for the small number of kids.
These very old people see their way of life dying, their towns slowly drying up and shutting down, and they get filled with resentment and hate. So they elect far-right governors.
Meanwhile, the East and West Coast keep getting more liberal because all the young people are flocking there to live…but at the same time the massive influx of population makes the rental costs on the East and West Coast increasingly unaffordable.
This is a demographic engine of decline that almost no one is talking about. It’s unsustainable. But just sitting around on the East or West coast sputtering about how “we need to elect more Democratic governors” isn’t going to fix the underlying problem.
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: I wonder if he had tried to pass himself off as a dedicated Communist, and asked for the sign, would they have given it to him?
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: I saw Neko Case last year at Pilgrimage festival outside Nashville. She was a little too angsty for me. Great talent though.
Mzinformation
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
I lurk every day but felt the need to share this:
Interesting research on the reasons for Trump’s rise