Me voting in every election. pic.twitter.com/UL02UIxPXG
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 5, 2018
Equal time for felines:
Meisui-kun is a mix of a cat and a ballot box (the stripes on its head are slots) who reminds the people of Japan to vote. pic.twitter.com/S22tYSoU79
— Mondo Mascots (@mondomascots) November 5, 2018
"If you don’t vote, they have won, and you are a captive, one of their prizes."
-Roger Angell, FTW https://t.co/s3ybIw0bZZ
— Greg Olear (@gregolear) November 5, 2018
Trump just said he doesn’t think the election is a referendum on him. That means he thinks Republicans are going to get creamed tomorrow. Just think of the Dow Jones. It goes up, Trump takes credit. It goes down, it’s not his fault. He’s predicting bad news for tomorrow :)
— John AraVOTEsis ?? (@aravosis) November 5, 2018
The only caravan storming the nation this week will be the caravan of angry suburban women hitting the polls.
— Jon Vespasian, Supporter of Thanksgiving (@JonVespasian) November 5, 2018
Oh, I voted all right. I moved on that ballot like a bitch. I got there, w/ blood coming out of my wherever! I’m auto attracted to polling stations—I just start filling in ovals. It’s like a magnet. And when ur registered, they let u do it. U can do anything.#Grabthembytheballot
— Dee2?? (@deedeeflagg) November 1, 2018
I hope young adults vote in such massive numbers that they can tell Olds like me to shut the fuck up about how few of them vote.
— shauna (@goldengateblond) October 30, 2018
Useful map from @DKElections on when polls close on Election Day. pic.twitter.com/722UufeZ9j
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 5, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
I hope young adults vote in such massive numbers that they can tell Olds like me to shut the fuck up about what their future will be.
Mary G
I can’t sleep.
Felicitator
Hello. Not my country; got the jitters anyway. Xmas Eve and a dentist’s appointment combined.
You know those fascist orcs masquerading as Republicans? Just trounce them. Douse them with eau de loser and drown them in votes.
Thanking you in anticipation.
A well-wisher
OzarkHillbilly
@Mary G: I’m still on DST.
JPL
@Mary G: There’s reason for all of us to be concerned, but rest when you can. I’ve been averaging about 5 hours a night.
Matt McIrvin
Someone really doesn’t want voting to happen in Kentucky and Indiana.
WereBear
Yup, getting up waaaay to early and can’t get back to sleep. We are going to do a breakfast vote for the first time. Polls open in NY at 6 am.
TS (the original)
But if the republicans had been ahead in the polls – of course it would be all about him. So predictable, such a wimp.
JPL
@WereBear: GA polls open at 7 and shortly after that heavy storms will move on through. The major storms should be past the Atlanta area by mid morning though.
JPL
@TS (the original): No matter what, he’ll tweet that the results were much better because of his help. It would have been worse..yadda yadda yadda
Baud
@TS (the original): Trump is his own Jesus.
OzarkHillbilly
“Be the person your dog thinks you are.”
Good advice.
Sloane Ranger
@TS (the original): But he’s been telling his fans at all his Nuremberg rallies that it IS Referendum on him. Surely that’s the meaning of him telling them to vote like he’s on the ballot?
Oh, sorry. I forgot, it’s Trump.
Best wishes to you all from across the pond. I want to turn on CNN tonight and watch gobsmacked pundits talking about even the safest Repub seats falling like dominoes in a Blue Tsunami.
WereBear
@JPL: That’s good, GA is such a battleground.
Rooting for Gillum. Very impressive candidate for FLORIDUH. (Sorry Betty… I’m entitled, I grew up there.) Great candidate for anywhere, really.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Personal Jesus?
TS (the original)
@Baud: I see him as the old patent medicine huckster – he doesn’t understand the bible enough to be his own Jesus. Maybe he could be his own Corinthian.
Baud
@TS (the original): I was thinking more in terms of sportsball players who thank Jesus for their wins but don’t blame him for their losses.
Sloane Ranger
On a separate point. What are the orange blobs at the top left of Indiana and to the left of Kentucky?
Can anyone help?
TS (the original)
@Sloane Ranger:
But they would be so sad if he lost – so of course he tells the media something different – and when they call him on it – well, it’s just fake news.
You and the rest of civilization.
Cermet
Will delay going to work this morning to go and vote. Girlfriend lost/misplaced her voter card and thought she couldn’t now vote – wish she’d explain that issue to me rather than just refuse to go. Made it clear she only needs her photo ID so, now she will go. Amazing how connected she is to the current events & issues but completely lost on such a simple problem – explains a lot for many people and how insidious the thugs are at instilling fear for people to vote if they think something isn’t correct. Even my daughter who is in Germany, voted by getting an absentee ballot.
raven
@Sloane Ranger: Time zones.
J R in WV
@Mary G:
I woke up at 4 am, not unusual, but no way I can go back to sleep yet. Upset tummy, IBS acting up, first bad session in a long time. Will try to go back to bed in a while.
Then later on we WILL go out to vote in spite of the rain, which never stopped us from doing what needs to be done before.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
That’s too damn intellectual for trump – he thanks himself for his wins and doesn’t have any losses.
Just One More Canuck
Go Blue! Well wishes from the Great White North
OzarkHillbilly
@Sloane Ranger: Central Standard Time.
JPL
Tomorrow starts the 2020 election.
J R in WV
@Sloane Ranger:
Those are time zone adjustments in poll closing times. Half of KY is central time, out west. Indiana is well known as a state that can’t make up its mind about time zones and daylight/standard time, and that’s what’s going there too.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Shut your mouth.
delk
Good Morning and looking forward to a great day
Schlemazel
@Matt McIrvin:
particularly in certain parts of the state – whats up with that?
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Well, he has done more for religion than anyone in history according to himself
TS (the original)
Steve Kornacki appears to be all in for the democrats. Old Joe seems to be joining with the all in for the democrats. And now they have a lass on calling out trump for his b.s. on the caravan. WHY are they all suddenly changing their point of view?
All of a sudden the president is a racist and a liar. Guess they want access to the new leader of the house.
Baud
@TS (the original): It’s more so they can tell everyone how right they were. Just ignore everything that cane before.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: Me too dammit. Just woke up. But to be fair, I went to bed at 10.30, two hours before my usual time. I expect I’ll be up a little later tonight.
Schlemazel
Ted Crudz held a rally at a Baptist church in Huston yesterday. Drew 175 people to a venue that seats 850. It is that sort of enthusiasm that gives me hope for today
TS (the original)
@Baud: Sure is – and I just tuned out – they’ve started ranting about how “real” republicans just want conservative things – tax cuts, judges, deficit control – all those good things that ruin an economy and a country – and trump is not a real republican.
When trump is past – I wonder how many of these pundits will return to their original love of conservatives. In particular I hope I live long enough to see what Jennifer Rubin does. She spent 8 years as an anti Obama GOPer and then trump sent her into a spiraling reverse.
Baud
@TS (the original):
As you well know, the answer is All of them, Katie.
OzarkHillbilly
Anybody else having trouble with BJ loading up? It took better than 15 mins to refresh just now. (things look decidedly different on my screen after this latest dogfight with the site. I’m betting Alain is up to no good again)
Quinerly
@TS (the original): Morning Joe has been exactly like this every morning for a year and a half plus. That’s when I started listening to it a couple of mornings a week. Joe S. has been writing op eds about how he is no longer a Repug. Joe S’s transition was complete when Trump attacked Mika’s face-lift. ?
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Now everything is back to normal. The first few times I thought maybe it was a DDOS election day present from some friends on the right.
Schlemazel
Has anyone here heard about the border patrol exercise going off today in El Paso? Apparently the local press guy for CBP sent emails saying there will be crowd control exercises with streets being closed off starting at 10 today. Nothing on the CBP website though
Nice timing if true
Immanentize
@germy: (Pssst — don’t let Raven see who said that)
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Mine did it too, fine now.
Baud
@germy:
Holy crap. Most relevant Fuck LBJ quote I’ve ever heard.
Immanentize
Day four on my migraine cycle.
I get to go to my nearby fire station and vote while a little blurry on meds. I still think I can fill in ovals, however. Today is the moment for which the serenity prayer was written.
raven
@TS (the original): They aren’t changing shit, they’ve been like this for at least 18 months. (Skip the “THEY HELPED ELECT HIM).
Baud
@JPL: I am ready.
raven
@Baud: Fuck LBJ.
Immanentize
@Schlemazel:
Fuck. That is where Beto is from. And, it seems to be true.
I guess the question is how far will the Republicans go to not lose?
TS (the original)
@Quinerly: He said he became an independent – he sure didn’t register as a democrat. He has people like Hugh Hewitt on his show & as soon as trump is gone – as Baud says above – he will be back to being a “conservative republican” and telling us how good the republicans were when he was in congress. (got to admit he’s dropped that last one over the past year. Used to hear that every day). But today – Old Joe wants to be on the winning side.
satby
@Matt McIrvin:
as I said when I was jumping through the hoops to vote there.
zhena gogolia
All I have to say to you guys is Tfu, tfu, tfu, ne sglazit’.
Baud
@raven: I said that!
bemused
I’ve been awake for several hours and gave up getting back to sleep after multiple tries.
The SNL Midterm ad was pretty funny even if that’s how most of us are feeling right now.
Immanentize
@raven:
:-) I am glad you said it so others didn’t have to. And I am wishing you and all residents of the peach state very good luck today.
PsiFighter37
Posted in a thread I can only see on my phone and not on the desktop site, for whatever reason…got out there and voted in NYC. More people there at the stroke of 6 AM than I have seen in any other midterm year. Of course, I saw way more people outside in NYC in 2016, and fat lot of good that did us. That said, every bit counts. I think folks are super-fired up about this. I think it’s going to be a good day for us.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37:
Imma gonna have to go around this blog saying tfu, tfu, tfu all day long.
TS (the original)
@Immanentize: From your link
They will try ANYTHING to help Cruz. Can’t win fair – cheat.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
No edit function. That should have been “Imma have to go . . . ” I forgot that “Imma” includes “gonna.”
satby
@J R in WV: well, to be fair, that section of Indiana is commuter communities to jobs in the Chicagoland area, so it made sense for them to be in the same time zone. The rest of the state standardized timezones years ago.
Immanentize
@Baud:
I will wait until tomorrow to ask, but I am hoping for a big reversal of your mood from today’s events. Best wishes for a very Baudy day
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: @MagdaInBlack: Now it’s doing it again. This time it took 20 minutes.
NotMax
Fasten your seat belts securely, expecting turbulence ahead.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I’ve been waiting for that. Ever have a day of surf fishing like this?
satby
@NotMax: and it won’t end even with a blue wave. But a wave will be a nice seatbelt for the rest of the trip.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Election Day. May God have mercy on us all.
NotMax
Talked to Mom, who said they’re predicting rain where she is in NY Tuesday. Made a point of mentioning that if she’s therefore going to be driving to the polls, to offer a ride to a neighbor or acquaintance who might be put off by the weather. So long as they’re going to be voting D.
satby
The political ads seen to have gone away on my tablet. One good thing to be grateful for. They were veering into Reefer Madness levels of absurdity on the Republican side.
Baud
@Immanentize: Thanks, man.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Happy Election Day
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It was an omnipotent God who cursed us with election day.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Good morning from Poco and his tribe! Happy voting day!
Sloane Ranger
@J R in WV: OK, thanks for the info. It makes sense now!
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia:
In some of my circles “Imma gonna” is acceptable.
As in “Imma gonna kick yer a**” ” ☺️
= “I am going to”
Colloquial American English
OzarkHillbilly
Must read: Georgia Officials Quietly Patched Security Holes They Said Didn’t Exist
………………………
Quinerly
@TS (the original): I’m not predicting the future. I’m just saying the days I listen to MJ, it’s a Trump slam fest. Every day. This morning is nothing different from the last almost two years. Can’t bear looking at Joe S… that’s why I stress the “listening” part. We’ll see what happens in the future but I think Trump has killed Conservatism/the Repug Party for many. Have a great day! I’m off to vote for Claire. I’m hopeful.
Kay
Two pollworkers at the BOE say the early vote was Democratic.
We think we may win a court of appeals seat based solely on the incumbent Republican’s name “sounding” Spanish – he is not Latino, he just has a name with three vowels in it that could kinda be construed as maybe Latino. Judicial races aren’t identified R or D and we think Republicans are voting for the Democrat with the German surname :)
Quinerly
@raven: agreed.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Tony Jay
On a purely selfish note I’m hoping for a truly massive, crashing, “We’re going to need new maps after this” blue tsunami that gives Democrats the House and Senate and a wide swathe of Governorships and State legislatures, because of the equally seismic effect that will have on the Brexit debate over here.
I’m pretty sure that the prospect of Democrats using Congress to launch honest investigations into whatever Mueller reveals about the corruption and collusion between Russia, the alt-Right and the wider Establishment Right that changed the 2016 Election in America will have a substantial knock-on effect over here. Removing the ability of Republicans to cover-up the truth stabs a genuine fear of exposure into the shady networks that propagandised the 2016 Referendum. The very real likelihood that the truth will start tumbling out will change the political calculus and force the powers-that-be in London to rethink their Brexit policy. Suddenly political space will open up for politicians to go after the liars and con-men of the Right without having to worry about how picking a fight with their backers might impact on Anglo-US relations. And when that happens, a 2nd Referendum and an escape from the disaster of Brexit starts looking a lot more likely.
No pressure, but we’re all counting on you.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
@Baud: virtual hug!
TS (the original)
@Quinerly: I’m hopeful too – sorry I misunderstood what you were saying – and yes Joe has been slamming trump – but not conservatives – and until recently he was still attacking too many democrats.
I really really want Beto to win – I know it’s against all odds but it would be a reward for the last 2 years of misery.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay:
Wow. Yes, the stakes have never been this high in my lifetime.
satby
@Tony Jay: “you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Tony Jay: In my fantasy life, the Ds win that kind of victory today and then tomorrow Mueller indicts a whole bunch of people named Trump. This is why I write fantasy novels. If I could, I’d add a dragon to tomorrow’s events.
hueyplong
If the fix is in, Trump doesn’t seem to know it. Kind of hesitant to go beyond that, other than a vague hope that the vast majority of voters comprehends and embraces the phrase “better angels of our nature.”
Gotta run up the score to overcome the gerrymandering.
Ocotillo
@OzarkHillbilly: Love it, want to steal that!
satby
I have to leave for the market. Hoping it will be a distraction, but it’s usually dead.
Stay strong everyone, no matter what happens, this is still just a start.
Schlemazel
@Kay:
Names are funny things. We had a pol here, Martin Sabo, who made a point of always using his middle name when – Olaf – when he ran. In his district I am sure that helped him. Of course we all know ‘Ted’ is not Crudz first name.
Glad to hear that wingnuts may trick themselves into voting for the better candidate
NotMax
Election day, in art.
zhena gogolia
I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but I feel I’m getting a taste of what our ancestors must have felt during the Civil War. May God grant that we prevail.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Feel better Imma.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ocotillo: Go for it. I did.
Kay
@hueyplong:
IMO, “the fix is in” (nationally) ignores how voting works. The fix can be in in a precinct or a county or even (I suppose) in a state (although that would be really, really difficult) but the fragmented nature of US election administration would require a massive, complex, coordinated conspiracy where no one ever leaks and none of the tens of thousands of election officials who are partisan Democrats notice, for the fix to be in.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Our death count isn’t quite as high yet, and hopefully won’t get there.
But her emails!!!
@Kay:
So like Georgia where they’re pretty much just doing everything right out in the open.
JPL
@zhena gogolia:If the blue states secede, I’m packing my bags.
germy
Baud
@JPL: You’ll be a blue state after tonight.
Tony Jay
@zhena gogolia:
The ‘Rise of the Right’ (or whatever you want to call it) didn’t just happen. It’s obviously something that’s been planned and strategized and co-ordinated and budgeted for over the course of years by a wide range of interested parties who all see personal and political profit in breaking down the very idea of a ‘Progressive Future’. They’ve enjoyed quite a bit of success, so much so that if you look around the world it’s hard to find any major nation-state where the wankers aren’t in control. Every victory for the forces of greed and resentment promoting the kind of societal bleakness and despair that’s been rampant since the turn of the millennium.
I guess what I’m saying is that America falling to the Right in 2016 was a big old domino in a series of dominos that have crushed a lot of hopes. If America starts getting back on its feet tonight thanks to the fire and determination of millions of men and women who simply refuse to let hope die, well, that will be one hell of a message, and it’ll be heard worldwide.
Fingers crossed.
Baud
@Tony Jay:
We did that in 2006 and 2008, but we didn’t fight hard enough to keep it. We have to do better this time.
Kay
@But her emails!!!:
That’s true, though. Voter suppression is right out in the open. That’s why I hate the conspiracy theories. The thing is right in front of us- we don’t have to craft scenarios. The people who work in elections – on the ground, in counties, the career people, are not rabid partisans. They joke that their favorite election outcome is “landslide!” because then they’re not there until 2 AM.
OzarkHillbilly
Oh goody, it looks like Crystal City, VA, and Long Island City, NY are both about to take it right up the ass.
Kay
@germy:
I would worry about it except the Trumps are such sleazy liars I think it’s just as likely she inflates the viability of her business by taking these actions and they don’t mean anything at all. I’ll need elaborate verification of anything any of them say or do. They’re dishonest and she’s as bad as her sleazy father.
hueyplong
@Kay: The “fix” I was referring to isn’t a hidden thing. It’s whether the stuff we can see will be enough for Republicans to win. I’m guessing that if Trump has taken his eye off the mirror enough to ask someone how effective the voter suppression has been, the response has not been a strong “we got this.” Otherwise he’d be bragging about how he alone saved all the majorities.
danielx
@Matt McIrvin:
???? Just got up.
Baud
Check out Google search page.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m OK with that. Only, he’s a little confused as to who the power hungry radicals really are.
frosty
@zhena gogolia:
When I read Battle Cry of Freedom I had the feeling we were reliving the 1850s, nullification and all. Not a good time; hoping for a better ending this time around.
MomSense
@Mary G:
I crashed at 730 or 8 last night and then I was wide awake at 1 am.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
And per Oprah, “Jesus don’t like ugly”.
frosty
@Kay:
Let’s send ’em home early tonight then!
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: Great, just what Northern Virginia needed. More traffic and more demand for housing. I worked there — commuted from Baltimore on the train. There’s no place affordable until you get to West Virginia.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Sorry to hear you are still dealing with a migraine.
One of my kids voted absentee and the other texted at 700 to say the line was longer than in 2016. It’s cold and rainy this morning, too.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh my god.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I know. I love that. Yea Google.
Good morning, jackals.
Light rain in central VA now, but we’re expecting clearing later, and maybe a T storm this afternoon. (Although, maybe not.)
I like our chances. Democrats worked this as hard as they could; reached out and are still reaching out. Now it is up to our voters.
Booger
Cold, grey and rainy in the Virginia Piedmont. More folks out voting at 08:00 than I’ve ever seen here…some saying they hadn’t voted in a while, others saying it was their first time. Definitely outpacing any presidential election. I really hope this is a curbstomping for the right.
Tony Jay
@satby:
And there’s the rub. You shouldn’t have to be dreaming, you should be impatiently assuming. By every standard and expectation tonight should be a blow out for the Democrats. Turn-out, voter enthusiasm, mid-term tradition, Presidential disapproval, etcetra. Every single metric favours the Democrats.
But….. they win by cheating, and they have a lot of people in a lot of places you’d need them to be if you were planning on cheating your way to ‘victory’. So everyone is on a knife edge, part of them just waiting for the bad news to start trickling in and it to be 2016 all over again. No one wants to really believe just in case the bad guys snatch the prize away and gloat “Whatcha gonna do about it?”
It’s a testament to how anti-democracy the Republicans are that the very idea of them – not – cheating is tantamount to a counter factual. Democrats shouldn’t – need – to smash them by 15 points just to scrape a 3 point victory, but until the discrepancy in state level control is corrected, it is what it is.
But I’m sounding gloomy guys now. I shouldn’t. Tonight will be special.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If someone wrote a fantasy novel featuring a dragon that landed in the middle of last night’s MAGA rally and roasted Trump, Pence, Hannity, et al, while the surviving cultists scattered, I’d immediately become a fantasy novel fan! :)
Tony Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Oh that would be sweet. There’s been Orcs in charge for too long, a bit of dragonfire is definitely called for.
Aren’t there rumours swirling around that Mueller will drop the mic tomorrow? Don’t know how much faith to place in them, since Mueller’s people famously do not leak, but if the guy is just waiting for a sign that his findings will be taken seriously……
Tony Jay
@Baud:
That’s the good thing and enduring promise of a democratic system, you can always do better next time.
Of course, if you’d stood in 2016 like you were supposed to we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we? It would be Year 6 of the New Era and we’d all be bathing in unicorn bubbles as promised. But now is not the time for recriminations, and we shouldn’t be asking who took pictures of who touching what with their whatever. Forwards, not backwards.
Wapiti
@germy: Sound like gifts or emoluments. A new Democratic Congress should have a subcommittee spend 2 or 3 days cataloging all of the stuff that was given to the Trumps; as gifts these things should remain property of the US Government. Taking them without permission is a violation of the law.
Woodrow/Asim
@Tony Jay: There are rumors that Bobby Three Sticks was waiting until just after the election to drop a report (not necessarily THE report), yes.
There are also rumors that this is because he/his team fear that Trump was waiting until as soon as today to make a play to trash the investigation in some way — for example, I heard someone say in a comment here yesterday that Rosthenstein’s replacement just got their Clearance.
But I don’t put stock in a lot of this. All of this investigation? Events out of my control.
But voting in, and supporting, Democratic House/Senate members? Yeah, that was in my control, and what I’m focusing on. No matter what (if anything) comes out of the Special Counsel’s office, without Legislative support we won’t see any accountability, much less change.
Tony Jay
@Woodrow/Asim: @Woodrow/Asim:
Exactly. There are so many things outside of your control that you’re forced to just watch while they happen, steaming with rage at the idiocy and injustice of it all, that when the chance comes around to make your voice heard as loud and as proud as possible wise people grab it and use it.
Vote good and vote hard.
Quinerly
Just voted in Soulard (St. Louis). Poll workers said steady stream all morning with a line waiting at 6 AM. Chatted up several first time (30-40’s in age) and young voters in the parking lot. Marijuana on the ballot is bringing out a lot of people in the city. It will take us and KC to pull Claire over the line. Now a big breakfast for me at Soulard Coffee Garden and the reclaimed wood place on Gravois to pick up my order. Have a great day, everyone!