Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

So many bastards, so little time.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

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It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

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Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Let there be snark.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

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Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Boston Labor Day Weekend Meet Up and Primary Election Eve Open Thread

Boston Labor Day Weekend Meet Up and Primary Election Eve Open Thread

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We can probably use a new election eve open thread, and since I’ve been waiting till we got within three weeks or so to post this Boston Meet Up request, consider this an open thread to comment about either or neither or, as usual, anything else that strikes your fancy.

So primary returns are coming in. Balderson is currently barely ahead in OH12 with 100% of the precincts reporting by 1,766 votes. There are 3,435 provisional ballots outstanding that still have to be verified and counted. And the rules in Ohio is that provisional cannot be counted until 10 days after the election. Right now the margin is at .9 for Balderson. Ohio law requires an automatic recount if the margin is .5 or less. So the provisionals have the potential to push this to a recount. This one won’t be finalized and certified for a while. And once it is, because this is a special election, Balderson and O’Connor will be running against themselves for this seat in the regular midterm in November. Regardless, this was a huge swing in this district from Republican to Democrat, which is, itself, a positive indicator of the mood of the electorate.

In Kansas, Krish Kobach is currently trailing the incumbent Kansas governor with 57% of precincts reporting. I know a lot of folks want him to win so that the Democratic candidate can run against him as an extremist. Personally, I just want him out of office. And since, because of his legal issues and the fiasco that was the President’s special committee to investigate non-existent voter fraud, which will make it almost impossible for him to get a Federal appointment. So if Kobach loses this primary, he’s out of government, back in private practice, and a senior fellow at some anti-immigrant institute. He’ll still be able to cause trouble and be a nuisance, but he won’t be able to directly negatively impact people’s lives.

As to the Boston Meet Up. Here’s the details from mostly lurker Big R:

I’ll be in Boston for the American Political Science Association over the Labor Day weekend. My schedule is fairly light; I have a teaching mini-conference on 8/29, I present on 9/2, and I have a few interviews lined up here and there. If BJ readers wanted to get together for a meal and/or a drink, I would be delighted to join them.

So those of you in the greater Boston area, if you’re interested, please chime in in the comments about availability for a meet up over the Labor Day weekend. I’ll run this again on Sunday and next week to make sure we get some good feedback.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    @StringOnAStick: Thanks. It happens I think I got dehydrated while detailing the car on Saturday evening, despite regularly hydrating while doing the work, and then caught a chill when I came back inside to clean up. I just feel bleh. Achy, sometimes flushed, sometimes chilled, sometimes muzzy headed, sometimes light headed, bit of a headache. I just had some chicken soup. I’m back to being properly hydrated, I had some electrolyte powder in water last night to make sure that wasn’t an issue. Basically I’ve been taking it easy for the past two days. And you know I’m not feeling well if I ditch the gym two days in a row.

  4. 4.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    I’m with you on Kobach losing. Remember how Trump being the GOP nominee made Clinton a shoo in? That worked out really well for all those kids our government put in concentration camps.

  5. 5.

    lamh36

    So is it the Green Party’s new goals in election life to be ratfuckers? Cause IDK, but if one of the party most likely to win (and come on the Green party aint’ winning nothing), is full of climate change science deniers, that you’d vote for the other candidate, ESP in an election you KNOW will be close?

    IJS…a wasted vote is a wasted vote. I mean thanks for voting, but let’s call a spade a spade…the Green Party will NEVER win a majority in a close election. So if you know an election could be close (and if you learn one thing from the 2016 elections, it’s that even when you think it’s NOT close every damn voter coutns) voting Green Party is basically wasting your vote…period!

    And these so called Green Party voters are ok w/the Chump co/GOP and their climate change denials?

  6. 6.

    lamh36

    In other news, out of all the political news tonight…I might just be happiest that McCullough is goind down in Missouri.

    @keithboykin
    Following Following @keithboykin
    More
    With nearly 90% of the vote counted, Ferguson City Council Member Wesley Bell, 43, leads St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, 67, who was criticized for his handling of the Michael Brown shooting case.
    https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1027032786048311296

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Missouri seems to have figured out the scam:

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    @Adam L Silverman: I did…get the reply, I fell asleep before I could respond back…sorry!

    As for the Green party voters, will the closeness of tonight, at the very least, make them want to stop the ratfucking come November?

    I doubt it right?

    BTW, I’m having trouble with the edit function, and I’m having to put my name and email every time I comment now?

  13. 13.

    MisterForkbeard

    Regardless, this was a huge swing in this district from Republican to Democrat, which is, itself, a positive indicator of the mood of the electorate.

    This is my take on it as well. This district had massive structural advantages for Trump and Republicans. If the Republicans held the seat by less than 5%, they were generally considered to be deep in trouble. Now *at best* they have a 1% victory, and because of the way provisional ballots tend to skew Democrat (due to voter suppression efforts by the GOP) there’s still a small chance of winning the seat.

    Not the BEST result, but one of the really good ones. It’s a good day for Dems.

  14. 14.

    Ohio Mom

    @Adam L Silverman: Ohio Fad and I swear by zinc cough drops at the very first hint of a cold. We are both convinced we have headed colds off at the pass with them. Though they do have a strange aftertaste.

    Too late for you this time around but not too early to pick up a box for next time.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    Also, it appears that Muhammed Bin Salman has declared war on Canada!

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Edit isn’t working for me either. Alain is aware and will be working on this stuff again in the AM.

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    @Major Major Major Major: I mean I guess, but jeez…the time for protest votes has long past…it’s not too much to say that these November elections and 2020 are more important than they’ve been even more so now even w/the knowledge of the Russians fuq’n w/shit in 2016.

    SMH…

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    For a really good understanding of how things are going to go down in Ohio, I recommend Michael McDonald. He came to UF’s polisci department as a faculty member shortly after my post-doc there ended and I moved on to an assistant professorship.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @StringOnAStick: Other than to take the dogs out, and to run an errand earlier today, I’ve been inside the whole time. I don’t think it was sunstroke given that I started working on the car late enough that I wasn’t in direct sunlight, but I am being very careful to not overdue anything.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig. 16 hours exactly from exiting Mom’s place to entering my abode.

    After 2 weeks of looking at either a tablet or at her laptop’s screen, the 24″ computer monitor at home appears to be about the size of Montana.

    :)

  31. 31.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yup, and admitting to 9-11 and threatening Toronto with the same.

    The War Wagon Contract’s gonna be cancelled and we’re going to reopen the Embassy in Tehran in response.

    Also follow the EU model of saying FU to the US Sanctions.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Amir Khalid: Unfortunately he has the resources to hire whomever Jared recommends to run active measures against the Trudeau government. Most likely Black Cube out of Israel and whatever SCL/Cambridge Analytica has morphed into.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

  34. 34.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @Calouste:

    He was also the best known beer writer in the world. I used his book as a guide through Belgium 15 years ago.

  36. 36.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: None of that surprises me in the least. Right now MBS is being egged on by MBZ, Jared, Putin, and Bibi. None of those four are good influences.

  38. 38.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That truly is transformative. If we want to support BLM in a meaningful way then electing reform minded DA’s and AG’s is real progress.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    They hate Democrats more than they hate Trump. In fact, they hate us more than they actually love anything they claim to care about.

    And if you try to talk rationally to one of them about voting strategically to get the result they want, they melt down into a toddler-style you’re not the boss of ME! tantrum, because they care more about their own self-image as outsiders than anything Trump might do.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    We are LOFA of here. 10% of the local University students here are on Saudi Scholarships. They just arrived for the fall term, have to go back home, have no money, ( scholarships cancelled) and there are no direct flights home for them.

    In addition, the Saudi threat to crash aircraft into Canadian cities has the CBP searching and probing every Saudi.

    Maylasia’s also shut down the Saudi Salman Center for Deradicalization, after the change in Govt and noting it was actually the Saudi Salman Center for Islamic Radicalization.

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: I have a friend who lives in the area and he’s very excited. McCullough was an 8x incumbent, 28 yes I believe, and not ONCE ever tried a cop doe anything! Mike Brown was the straw that broke that camels back in the eyes of many people in St. Louis and they voted him out!

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    A long-lost second cousin on my dad’s side tracked me down on Facebook. Fortunately, they’re cat-loving Democrats.

    Hey, I was a little worried — I know how wypipo are these days.

  52. 52.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    Speaking of the Fermi paradox, here’s a scary solution:
    A Physicist Has Proposed a Grim Explanation For Why We Never See Aliens

    Now, theoretical physicist Alexander Berezin from the National Research University of ElectTechnology (MIET) in Russia has devised his own explanation for why we’re seemingly alone in the Universe, proposing what he calls his “First in, last out” solution to the Fermi Paradox.

    […]

    The actual “First in, last out” solution Berezin proposes is a grimmer scenario.

    “What if the first life that reaches interstellar travel capability necessarily eradicates all competition to fuel its own expansion?” he hypothesises.

    As Berezin explains, this doesn’t necessarily mean a highly developed extra-terrestrial civilisation would consciously wipe out other lifeforms – but perhaps “they simply won’t notice, the same way a construction crew demolishes an anthill to build real estate because they lack incentive to protect it”.

    So is Berezin suggesting that we are the ants, and the reason we haven’t encountered aliens is because we simply haven’t had our own civilisation unthinkingly demolished by such unimaginably superior life forms yet?

    No. Because we are probably not the ants, but the future destroyers of the very worlds we’ve been looking for this whole time.

    “Assuming the hypothesis above is correct, what does it mean for our future?” Berezin writes.

    “The only explanation is the invocation of the anthropic principle. We are the first to arrive at the [interstellar] stage. And, most likely, will be the last to leave.”

    Again, such potential destruction wouldn’t need to be wilfully designed or orchestrated – it could just play out like a completely unrestricted system, bigger than any individual’s attempts to control it.

    One example Berezin gives is free market capitalism, and another could be the dangers of an artificial intelligence (AI) untethered by constraints on its accumulation of power.

    “One rogue AI can potentially populate the entire supercluster with copies of itself, turning every solar system into a supercomputer, and there is no use asking why it would do that,” Berezin writes.

    “All that matters is that it can.”

    It’s a pretty terrifying outlook on Fermi – basically, we may be the winners of a deadly race we didn’t even know we were competing in, or as Andrew Masterson at Cosmos put it, “we are the paradox resolution made manifest”.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: That was my impression of the response. It appears that MBS has been overtly playing footsie with al Qaeda in his attempt to accomplish whatever it is he’s trying to accomplish in Yemen. Which means that thanks to MBS and MBZ and Jared, the US has both a policy of destroying al Qaeda and is supporting them at the same time.

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jay:
    The closure may be at least as much about the Pakatan Harapan Government’s deNajibification exercise as it is about countering Saudi Wahabist radicalisation.

  60. 60.

    Bobby Thomson

    Looks like FYWP ate half your post about Kris. Seems fitting. The guy’s been a massive douchebag at least since high school.

  62. 62.

    Mary G

    Much good stuff in today’s elections on Twitter:

    Check out the trend in #MO02, a suburban St. Louis seat designed for Rep. Ann Wagner.Total D vote in 2014: 54,557Total R vote in 2014: 55,322D vote in 2018: 96,972R vote in 2018: 74,933— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 8, 2018

    Kansas is still brainwashed – after two terms of Brownback destroy the economy, many more people voted in the Republican primary than the Democrat. Also, too, Kobach is pulling ahead a bit, which is suspicious as hell.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    “One rogue AI can potentially populate the entire supercluster with copies of itself, turning every solar system into a supercomputer, and there is no use asking why it would do that,” Berezin writes.

    “All that matters is that it can.”

    This is the plot of one of the terrible Dune prequels written by Frank Herbert’s son.

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @Amir Khalid:

    Maybe, the Official noncomment on reasons while also noting the Saudi Wahhabist proliferation seemed to be a statement/non-statement.

    Malaysia, Malaysia, Malaysia

  67. 67.

    Citizen Alan

    @lamh36:

    IJS…a wasted vote is a wasted vote. I mean thanks for voting, but let’s call a spade a spade…the Green Party will NEVER win a majority in a close election. So if you know an election could be close (and if you learn one thing from the 2016 elections, it’s that even when you think it’s NOT close every damn voter coutns) voting Green Party is basically wasting your vote…period!

    It’s not just the wasted 3rd party votes either. I am firmly convinced that for every person who voted for Jill Stein, at least 3 were persuaded by the essential Bernie/Green argument — that there was no meaningful difference between Democrats and Republicans — but didn’t vote at all because they had better things to do than go all the way to the polls to make the futile gesture of voting 3rd party. It wasn’t until I realized for the first time how foolish I was to support Nader in 2000 even though I was in a red state where Gore never had a chance.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    Two weeks of near total divorce from the news and come back home to this:

    A tropical storm warning has been issued for the Big Island as Hurricane Hector continues its march westward as a powerful Category 4 storm, bringing the threat of monster surf and strong winds starting late Tuesday and into Wednesday.
    [snip]
    At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Hector was packing maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, with occasional higher gusts.

    On the current forecast track, the center of Hector is slated to pass 100 to 150 miles south of the Big Island on Wednesday. Forecasters note that hurricane-force winds extend up to 40 miles from the center of the storm, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles. Source

    If track is maintained, Maui will get off not totally scot free, but outside of prudent severe weather precautions, nothing to get wrought up about.

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: I had. I knew that Perlmutter, who’s a misogynist schmuck, was involved. And I knew one of the other two are as well. They’re the ones that pushed the stupid IT solution change at the VA through Jared. I did not, however, know just how much power they were exercising over the VA until I read that article a little while ago. What ProPublica is reporting violates all sorts of laws. I expect Senator Tester, as the ranking member, is going to be pushing Senator Isaakson the chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee to move on this. Regardless, it is disgusting and it is illegal.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    @ruemara:

    Log out from Twitter and you can go to the page just like any other Web page. You’ll be “nobody,” so nobody to block.

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The Option’s for “messaging” are fun,

    From filling the JCPOA’s empty slot, through PLA funding and support, to repositioning to Qatar and FinCen targetting of Saudi money laundering.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: The Canadian Foreign Ministry tweeted out support for several voting rights activists who had been arrested in Saudi. One of whom was a dual Saudi-Canadian national. The Saudis, to use the official diplomatic term, lost their shit. In addition to that twitter thread where they’ve threatened to interfere in Canadian politics and society, including backing separatist and First Nations movements, they also went on a twitter rant delineating just how terrible Canada is as a state, a society, and an economy. They also tweeted this:

  86. 86.

    Mike J

    Looks like my Rep, who is very, very good, is over 50% right now, with the Republican at 26.5% and the Wilmerite at 23.15%.

    Also, Rossi is only at 43% and the Democrats combined at 49.92.

  88. 88.

    PJ

    @Mnemosyne: Somebody needed to ignite the New American Century. And then we’d help them out by bringing down Saddam Hussein. What could go wrong?

  89. 89.

    ruemara

    @lamh36: All the better. You want oversight of the cops? Vote against the unions. It’s the only union I want to bust

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    “One rogue AI can potentially populate the entire supercluster with copies of itself, turning every solar system into a supercomputer …”

    One day, the cosmologists will confirm it: the answer really is 42.

  94. 94.

    Mike J

    WA Democrats @washdems 1m
    In the 5th Congressional District, @lisaforcongress is within half a point of @cathymcmorris. In her last three primaries, Cathy led by an average of 18.7 points. Let’s repeat. Lisa Brown is within half a point of Cathy McMorris Rodgers. #FlipThe5th #waelex

  96. 96.

    Yutsano

    @Mike J: I love how their Twitter header is a picture of the Palouse.

    Also: note to Firefox peeps: PALOUSE IS A LEGITIMATE NAME!!!

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I was getting a little tired of all this nice fucking that I’m getting. So it’s nice to know why, how and who is doing it. I imagine they’d like to be tipped for all this attention to making my healthcare worse they are doing. Fucking Wankers.

  98. 98.

    Aleta

    @Adam L Silverman: Samar Badawi has dual US-Saudi citizenship. She’s a women’s rights activist who has campaigned against guardianship laws (applied against her by her abusive father) and laws that prohibit women from driving and voting. You may be thinking of her sister-in-law who lives in Canada and has received citizenship there. (Her husband is a Saudi critic of the govt who’s been imprisoned since (I think) 2012.)

  100. 100.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    And sentenced to 10 years and 1000 lashes, (whipping in public)

    Good thing that people can’t seek political refugee asylum in the US anymore, amirite?

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    At the very fucking least. My congressperson is of course a dem but seems rather, just there. And of course my senators are Harris and Feinstein. So worth a call for sure, and I’ll be holding my breath with anticipation.
    But not tonight, tomorrows a work day, Yea! Work!

  102. 102.

    Barbara

    @Mnemosyne: Greens are the anti-vaxxers of politics. Their self-image is wrapped up in the idea of not following the herd no matter how obviously stupid their choice is.

  104. 104.

    Amir Khalid

    @Barbara:
    That may be true of the particularly self-absorbed Greens in America; but I think European Greens, whose candidates have been getting elected to parliaments around the continent for a generation, are more realistic and mature.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    C’mon, man, you of all people should know what can happen when your congressperson takes an interest and decides to make a few phone calls.

    Senatorwise, I might start with Feinstein’s constituent office since I think she’s on more of the relevant committees than Harris is.

  106. 106.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The Government has instructed the Universities that they have to inform all Saudi students on their right to apply for political asylum in Canada,

    For women, it’s as simple as saying, “I am a Woman in Saudi Arabia”,

    A whole generation of Saudi’s are in Canada for their education.

  108. 108.

    Jay

    @Amir Khalid:

    Greens in Europe are a Party,

    Greens in Canada, the US and Britain are a pox of leftie wingnuts.

    Seconded.

    Malaysia, Malaysia, Malaysia

  110. 110.

    Fair Economist

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: Not really a solution to the Fermi Paradox, which is that given our (very rough) estimates of the parameters in the Drake equation, we shouldn’t be alone. First is alone, so we shouldn’t be first either. Of course the solution is simple – our profoundly uneducated guesses about the parameters are wrong. We just don’t know which ones and by how much.

  115. 115.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    When I saw Gro. W Bush hugging and holding hands with the Saudi who had been so cozy with the RWNJs in Washinton so soon after the 9/11 attacks, and learned that our government closed down commercial air travel in North America EXCEPT for special flights to allow member of and friends of the bin Laden family to leave America to return home to Saudia Arabia…

    The idea that Bush and his minions were going to blame those attacks on Afgan and Iraqi radicals, rather than the heart of Islamic fundamentalist theocratic leadership in Saudi Arabia, where it originated and is still enforced by brute oppression — it made me believe that Walker Bush was himself beholden totally to the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Perhaps because of love of the specific Saudi, the former ambassador, Prince Bandar! Whom he kissed, and hugged, and walked with hand in hand…. the most strange geo-political event in my lifetime.

  116. 116.

    David

    Regarding a Boston meet up. What day and location is contemplated. We are interested in attending

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