Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said President Donald Trump was telling 'bald-faced lies' about voting by mail to distract from his own failures https://t.co/fL9nEohG0q via @michaelvmartina pic.twitter.com/rs9DAK0ADW
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 4, 2020
FACTS about voting:
1. Trump can't ban mail voting through executive order. States run elections
2. "Absentee" & "mail-in" voting are same thing
3. Only 143 criminal convictions for mail ballot fraud over 20 years (.00006% total votes)
4. 16 top Trump officials voted by mail
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) August 3, 2020
2,212 of you signed up with @PowerThePolls last week to work as poll workers on Election Day. That’s incredible. Thank you.
Without enough poll workers, polls close & lines stretch for hours. If you haven’t signed up yet and are able, volunteer here: https://t.co/6tT6Sbuk8Z
— Vote Save America (@votesaveamerica) August 3, 2020
I’m proud to endorse this diverse and hopeful collection of thoughtful, empathetic, and highly qualified Democrats. If you’re in one of their districts or states, make sure you vote for them this fall. And if you can, vote early—by mail or in person. https://t.co/PSm3Rf3wkF pic.twitter.com/7RXrJriBz8
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 3, 2020
And, finally, CREDIT WHERE DUE –
I want to give you ten reasons (and there are many more) as to why, together, we have got to do everything we can to create the largest voter turnout in history and send Trump packing.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 3, 2020
(All the reasons Sen. Sanders supplies are He’s not Trump, but hey — I’ll settle.)
rikyrah
Ari Berman ????
dmsilev
Reading the responses to Sen. Sanders’ tweets, it’s clear that at least some of his more vocal followers are …not following him. Not surprising, and I’m sure it’s a small minority of his supporters, but man they are obnoxious.
Medicine Man
“He’s not Trump” is enough reason for the immediate battle imo.
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
The heartbreak of remora. Tiny violins for everybody!
Danielx
@Medicine Man:
I’m good with that.
terry chay
@dmsilev: They didn’t even vote for him in the primary, so losing votes we never had? I’m okay with that.
Jager
Stuart Stevens, former Romney campaign advisor, long time a republican operative had an op-ed in Sunday’s LA Times bemoaning what has happened to the republican party under trump. He laid out ways the party can be fixed for the future to create a new, more inclusive party. After reading it I thought what he described is the center-right of the Democratic party.
gwangung
@Jager: I’m OK with that.
Mary G
@Jager: I’ve always kind of thought the Republican Party would die and the Democrats split up into the Left Democratic Party and the Really Far Left Democratic Party.
Wapiti
Trump likely voted fraudulently in the last election, using a business as his residential address. So that’s about a 6% fraud rate just for the top 16 officials.
H.E.Wolf
opiejeanne and I (and a number of other Jackals) are writing GOTV postcards.
There are a lot of good organizations – Postcard Patriots, etc. The one I’ve had personal experience with is http://PostcardsToVoters.org, and I just mailed a batch of completed cards this afternoon.
Pro tip: You can draw little 5-pointed stars to cover up ink splotches/smears/blots on a GOTV postcard, and pretend it’s on purpose, to look patriotic. Some of my postcards are very patriotic. :)
lollipopguild
@Jager: The gop became what it is long, long ago. Trump was willing to say anything as long as he won. Gop voters were happy to vote for an extra large racist and sexist flaming rear end because he was saying what they said on the down low out loud.
CaseyL
Thank you for the link to VoteSaveAmerica – they’re recruiting for exactly the kind of GOTV I want to help with, ever since the possibility of RW militias or pollce intimidating voters at polling places was mentioned!
I tried to sign up with Common Cause, but never heard back from them.
I like the idea of being a pollwatcher or an escort in another state, since WA has VBM and I could mail off my ballot in plenty of time to go to another state and make sure people can vote in person there.
Baud
@Mary G:
Nice dream but it won’t happen.
MomSense
@terry chay:
Exactly.
MisterForkbeard
@dmsilev: I was thinking “Oh, it’s probably just a few people”… nope. It’s like the first 10 replies are just a bunch of idiots stepping on rakes and congratulating each other about how awesome they are.
Kay
I’m fine with everyone being watchful about attempts to jack with absentees/mail but I do think it’s worth mentioning that Trump isn’t alone on these ballots and GOP electeds want their races called, and valid.
their interests diverge from his as far as causing chaos – we’ll see a postal service bailout.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Not with that attitude, Spanky.
Barbara
@Baud: It is dying in certain states. It’s not dead, exactly, but increasingly, those who are elected look more like the odd one off independent who gets elected from time to time. E.g., Charlie Baker in Massachusetts and Larry Hogan in Maryland. The Republican party in California might as well be dead. It has simply doubled down on the things that made voters leave it in the first place. It feels like the Virginia Republican Party is headed in the same direction, at least for statewide contests, but the prognosis is not yet fatal.
CaseyL
VSA has GOTV ops planned in Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Minnesota, Maine, and Georgia.
I think a swing state would be the most logical one to go to. As someone with two extra risk virus risk factors (age and Type II diabetes) , I should probably avoid states that have basically offered up their citizens to die.
Where should I go???
Frankensteinbeck
@lollipopguild:
How did they phrase it? “He says what everyone knows but is scared to say?” And most of them would evade wildly if you asked what exactly that was. The rest would spit out something ugly and bigoted.
Baud
I don’t know if it hasn’t penetrated my information bubble, but I’m disappointed I haven’t seen more campaign action from young freshman Dems. This is the time to step up.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I think it’s also really important that USPS is a lifeline to a lot of exurban and rural people. Destroying it would be terrible for a lot of red districts, and I think the people who represent those places understand that.
Barbara
@Kay: I will never understand Republican hostility towards the USPS. People in rural locations in particular rely on the USPS.
Baud
@CaseyL:
The GOP is moribund in California, but I think that’s partly because of California’s jungle primary where party affiliation is less important.
The situation in places like Maryland and Massachusetts hasn’t really changed. They’ve been pretty strong Dem states for a while now except for a penchant for electing sane GOP governors.
Ken
@Barbara: One theory is that the USPS contradicts the Republican philosophy that says that government can’t do anything right.
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
It’s indicative of the underlying dynamic of the Republican party: their goal is to use racism to get middle class and poor white people to vote for policies that benefit the rich. There are very few people who dislike the Post Office- it’s literally the most popular part of the US government- but some of its enemies are rich and well connected, and they desperately want it out of the way. The Republicans will always side with the rich and connected over the population at large.
Yutsano
@CaseyL: Arizona would be the top of my list. You could help flip the state to Biden plus if all goes well you might end up meeting Future Senator Mark Kelly and his lovely bride Former Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
And I would be insanely jealous.
Kay
@Barbara:
me neither but every time I hear “trump will do THIS to screw with the ballot” I remind myself there are gop’ers all up and down that ballot and no one knows how “incompetents executing complex scheme” will actually play out – a lot of gop polls don’t want to find out
hes not alone. It’s thousands of races and they’re all different w/50 sets of rules
Cheryl Rofer
I love that Biden is just saying these things quietly and flat out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore:
I think I heard Amy Klobuchar say last night she’s working on a post office bill with Roy Blunt of Missouri.
piratedan
I was bad, I got out of the boat and read the comments on the Sanders tweet… its incredibly sad, we have the leader of their self-proclaimed movement asking for their vote, the guy who they all said was the one to right wrongs and they all pretty much said that Joe Biden was “pro-incarceration, pro-endless wars, with no discernible change they could see in his economic and health care platforms…” Jaysus, people marching in the streets demanding social justice and these fuckers are on about there not being ANY reason for them to vote for Joe Biden.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
They have been known to side with hurting the population at large over helping the rich. Dragging their feet on this second stimulus is a fine example. Refusing it does nothing for the rich. In fact, it’s a fine opportunity to lard the bill with good stuff for the rich, because the Democrats would consider that an acceptable sacrifice to help Americans in general. But helping Americans in general? UGH. It revolts them. McConnell is having to be dragged over the line by his central life’s goal of remaining majority leader, and it’s still a tough choice.
Kay
@Barbara:
so a gop pol can rely on actual ballot rules OR a gop pol can rely on Jared screwing with balloting with such finesse and precision that it only disadvantages D’s
i know I’m going with the rules in that scenario and trying to win under them. It’s safer
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: What is VBM (Vote by Mail) and what is VSA (Vote Save America)?
edit: I hate acronyms!
japa21
OT. A warning. What follows is an expression of a father’s tremendous pride as well as frustration. It may go over the top at times.
I have mentioned before that my older son is career Army, currently stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and a Lieutenant Colonel. He originally was going to retire the end of June but because of reasons it was delayed until August 31. Today was his official retirement ceremony.
Mrs Japa and I have been through this with him from his coming home from high school and our informing him he had received an ROTC scholarship to college, to his senior ROTC banquet where he learned the branch he was being assigned to, to his commissioning as a second lieutenant and at every promotion he received from then to now. We were there when he left for Iraq and there when he returned. (Yes he does have a family and they do take precedence as they should.)
Today we could not be there to celebrate the end of a career that, in effect, started in our living room. Due to Covid the Army allowed a maximum of 10 people and only immediate family. Parents are not considered part of immediate family. In many ways, it is just as well, as we would have quarantined ourselves on our return which would not have been practical for many reasons.
We were, however, able to watch via Zoom, as well as some other family members, aunts and uncles and his brother, which meant a lot to him. Nonetheless, it was bittersweet. And that is the frustration part.
Now for the pride part. Needless to say, we have always been proud of both our boys( yes, even at their age they are still “our boys”.) But something special was added to the ceremony today. He was awarded the Legion of Merit, something usually only awarded to colonels and above. We discovered there are only two medals worn around the neck, the other being Medal of Honor. It is the 7th highest award given in the military.
I would like to say that he is a chip off the old block. But he is so far beyond me that to do so would be demeaning to him. He actually may remain in the service until the end of February due to physical issues they would like to see resolved rather than have him have to start from scratch basically with the VA. But he actually does have the retired after his rank now.
Baud
@japa21: Congrats to your kid!
p.a.
@Roger Moore:
@Barbara:
They can try to focus the sabotage on urban POs a là urban voting machines and polling places.
I wonder if Dem govs can declare emergencies an get state Nat’l Guards to supply the manpower needed- one already active tactic is the ‘no overtime’ ploy; let the mail sit.
Wonder how our wonderful business interests feel abt it?
Barbara
@japa21: It’s just really nice to hear about hard work as a parent paying such rewarding dividends. I am sorry you didn’t get to be there, but what a tremendous accomplishment and reason for pride.
Barbara
@p.a.: It’s just like roads and power lines. The urban ones are the ones that can sustain themselves.
WaterGirl
@japa21: Congratulations and wow!!!
That is most definitely a big Joe Biden deal.
I assume your son knew he was getting that? Or was it a surprise to him, too?
p.a.
@japa21: ??????????????????
Redshift
OT, but I had to share: The head of the GOP in neighboring Arlington (VA) County was kicked out of a neighbor mutual-support Facebook group for doxxing people who report businesses that aren’t enforcing the mask mandate, calling them “snitches” and comparing them to nazis. Oh, and also saying it’s like turning in Anne Frank or Harriet Tubman. Because they’re “try[ing] to destroy businesses via the health department”.
Pretty much par for the course in the Virginia GOP these days, but Arlington is the most Democratic county, and it does seem like in places where they have no shot, the only people they can get are even bigger wackadoodles.
japa21
@WaterGirl: He found out yesterday.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
The main thing that’s wrong with the Republicans in California is the way all politics has become nationalized. They’ve been forced to adopt policy prescriptions that were designed for places like Wyoming and Alabama because that’s what the nationalization of politics does, and those policies just don’t make sense for the dense coastal parts of California where the vast majority of the voters are.
Schwarzenegger thought he could fix what was wrong with the California Republican Party by tweaking voting mechanics, because he thought it would force them to adopt more centrist policies in order to win*. Instead, they toed the national line and became ever less relevant.
*To his credit, he is a genuine supporter of redistricting reform, which he has continued to push even though it didn’t help the Republicans in California.
Redshift
@p.a.: States with Democratic governors should institute ballot drop-off sites if they don’t already have them, to reduce reliance/load on the postal service.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@japa21: Congrats.
MomSense
@CaseyL:
Maine’s CD 2 is the swing district here. CD1 is solidly D. The problem is that CD2 is impossible to canvass because it is so spread out. You could make calls into CD2 and not have to travel anywhere.
Hey we need a music thread.
Redshift
@japa21: Wow! Congratulations!
geg6
@Jager:
Tom Nichols does the same in a video interview with Josh Marshall at TPM. It’s a good interview and Nichols is a smart and interesting guy.
MomSense
@japa21:
Congratulations proud papa!!!
WaterGirl
@Redshift: That fellow has really lost the plot.
WaterGirl
@japa21: He must be over the moon.
Yutsano
@japa21: First of all: MAZEL TOV! Even if you couldn’t be there he knew you were watching and he will feel your love later.
Second: there’s nothing that should be keeping him from at least starting to talk with the VA. I know that military medicine is really good, but if the issue will continue after February, then alerting the VA now will help them get the care he needs once he does get his DD-214. There could even be some continuity of care that can be arranged. I’m sure the VA has a procedure for this.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: “VSA” is “Vote Save America,” the organization coordinating volunteer efforts in multiple states to protect the vote.
@japa21: That is wonderful! Big huge kudos to your kid – and you do deserve to take a bow, since you raised him to be such an outstanding individual.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@japa21:
Congratulations to your son!
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think the thing about refusing to vote for the new relief bill- I prefer calling it COVID relief to stimulus- is about favoring the policy beliefs of the rich. It doesn’t really matter whether more COVID relief would be good or bad; what matters is that the rich people the Republicans listen to don’t want money to go to poor people.
Redshift
@Frankensteinbeck:
“He tells it like it is” is what I recall. Meaning, basically, “he says what I want to believe, whether or not it’s true.
The thing I found most amusing was the people who said he “tells it like it is” but then when he said something too horrible, would insist “what he really meant was…”
FelonyGovt
@H.E.Wolf: I’m writing postcards through my local Huddle group. This week we are writing for Katie Porter!
Redshift
@Roger Moore: It’s also that they refuse to believe government can be a force for good, and they’d rather let people become homeless or die than vote for something that would prove that wrong.
Martin
@Redshift: That’s why Trump is suing to ban drop-off. He’s currently suing PA for that.
The decision to fall behind on mail delivery is a precursor to a decision to fall behind on postmark. Right now postmark happens on pickup and before sorting. Guarantee that by Nov. there will be a process change in place that denies overtime, etc for pickup and postmark. This will of course only be implemented where postal volume is high – cities mostly.
Trump is clearly setting the stage for declaring victory before mail-in counting happens, and using the USPS to invalidate votes by waiting to postmark or waiting to deliver.
Part of the Dem message needs to be to vote as early as their state allows. In some states that’ll get ballots counted before election night, and in all cases it should prevent ballots from being delayed and then invalidated.
States should also do what CA has done and have the return envelope be postage paid. One more bit of insurance for voters.
Martin
@FelonyGovt: Thank you! She’s the best!
MagdaInBlack
@japa21:
Congratulations !
Stacib
@dmsilev: Looking at you, Nina Turner.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
Wow. What a nutjob. In what universe is wanting business to enforce a mask mandate during an out of control epidemic mean “destroying businesses through the health department”?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kanye West aligning himself with the Wisconsin GOP? Not on my list of New Year’s predictions…
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: I am really familiar with Vote Save America
I have just never seen it abbreviated.
geg6
@Martin:
Yes, we’re being sued to stop drop boxes like they had for the primary. This is the first election year since voters approved no excuse absentee. Governor Wolf announced the other day that all mail in ballot envelopes are now going to be postage paid. That’s his fuck you to Trump.
Ken
Someone needs to send him that satirical (I hope) letter from a restaurant, describing how in the interest of freedom they’re now letting their employees make their own decisions about hand-washing, cleaning the cooking surfaces, and salmonella.
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
Predictions of what Trump was clearly setting the stage for have rarely turned out to be true. They run head-first into Trump being a whiny little bitch baby who thinks about nothing but what he wants NOW NOW NOW and the rest of his crew being world-class incompetents. I think it’s more likely he appointed an MBA to run the post office, an MBA is applying standard MBA philosophy to the post office, and MBA philosophy is running the post office into the ground like it does all other businesses.
Redshift
@Martin:
I’ve heard about that. Is there any legal basis for it? It’s hard to imagine, given that it’s a state function, that there could be standing or evidence of harm.
“Vote as soon as you can” is definitely part of the Democratic message here in Virginia; not sure about elsewhere. And urging people to learn about how absentee voting works, because most people voting absentee this year have never done it before.
rikyrah
@CaseyL:
Don’t go anywhere.
Do what you can from the safety of your home
rikyrah
@japa21: I
Congratulations????
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: When I lived in Maine both the districts were solid blue. When did ME become cray cray?
frosty
@CaseyL: Per David’s site below, Maine has usually been green or yellow. Michigan is yellow, although it’s looking less like a swing state now and more solid D. Parts of PA are pretty safe, generally in the Trump areas in the middle. It too is moving more solidly to D. That’s about all I’ve got for advice. :-)
https://www.covidexitstrategy.org/
And for PA. You can drill down to zip code here too:
https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx
raven
@japa21: He’ll have Tricare won’t he?
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
These are the same people who protect “nice” young rapists because we wouldn’t want to destroy their lives and will argue against prison terms for white collar criminals. Consequences are for Those People, not People Like Us. Businesses that deliberately flout the mask laws might get shut down for health code violations, and that just wouldn’t be fair.
AndoChronic
Fuck Bernie.
japa21
@raven: Yes. Just want to maintain current providers until he has complicated surgery and follow up.
H.E.Wolf
Awesome! I salute you and your Huddle group!
Fair Economist
@Roger Moore:
Their policies are messed up in AL and WY too. Arguably more so, as those states are poorer and have less slack than CA. Medicaid expansion is Exhibit A. There’s just that there are enough racists there willing to live under a bridge and roast sparrows, etc.
Mary G
@Barbara: There’s a big component of racism in hating the USPS. Well-paying union jobs open to POC sets off a lot of economic anxiety.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@japa21: Congratulations to your son. Sounds like a long and satisfying career.
raven
@japa21: Got it, what is his branch?
Roger Moore
@Fair Economist:
Their policies are messed up from the standpoint of serving society, but they work to get Republicans elected in AL and WY, which is what we were talking about. Here in CA, they don’t even accomplish that, so they’re a total failure in every way.
Ken
@japa21:
Congratulations!
frosty
@japa21: Congratulations to you and your son!
japa21
@raven: Ordnance, and for the last several years procurement. In Iraq he was in charge of getting all the ordnance to the troops in the field. Although not in a combat unit it didn’t really make any difference. Worked on several cross services projects so spent time at naval base in San Diego. All in all he served at Fort Lewis, Fort Lee, Aberdeen, Fort Stewart, San Diego, Rock Island Arsenal and finally, Fort Lost in the Woods. To be honest, don’t know what he did to deserve the award. I’ll have to read the citation some day.
H.E.Wolf
I vote for your safety above all else. We need you in the 2046 elections too. :)
One possibility, if it’s appealing – it is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea – is to look into GOTV phonebanking from your home: either for one of the swing states, or for a specific candidate/issue.
The Democratic Party of a state could be a starting place; or the local or state League of Women Voters (non-partisan); or other entities.
I recommend looking for groups which preserve one’s privacy by not displaying the caller’s personal phone number, but instead route the calls through an “impersonal” number. (There’s a GOTV term for this type of tech setup, which I can’t recall.)
CaseyL
@rikyrah: I would normally agree, but I’m enraged by the GOP’s apparent aim to use militias to intimidate voters, and consider working against that an acceptable risk.
Geminid
@Baud: Forty one of the freshman flipped republican seats and are campaigning hard, but you have to check out state and local news to find out what, say, Xochitl Torres-Small, Max Rose, or Sharice Davids is up to. Veronica Escobar, on the other hand, has a fairly safe seat (Beto’s old El Paso seat), and she has been campaigning some for M.J. Hegar, the Democratic Texas Senate nominee. It’s just a handful of freshman that have figured prominently in national news cycles. Most don’t even try. But they make sure they appear often in state and local media. I get a kick out of reading about Torres-Small in The Carlsbad Argus.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
2010
raven
@japa21: I was in the Ammo Platoon in an Arty unit in Korea. All we did was drive to the ASP (Ammo Supply Point), load up the 105’s and fuses and get em to the line batteries. Not exciting but fairly mission critical. Shoot, move and communicate.
japa21
@raven: Not exciting is good sometimes.
raven
@japa21: Damn straight. Good on him.
raven
@japa21: You’ll like this shot at the Ordnance point.
japa21
@raven: Nice and relaxed.
raven
@japa21: Stupis ass 17 year old kid.
Formica
Since it’s an open thread: Michele Norris has a great piece in the Post today about the misogyny and racism in the veepstakes. Money quote:
I’m so fucking tired of “ambitious”, “shrill”, “lightning rod” and all the rest of the euphemisms for “that uppity (Black) woman”. How many more eminently qualified people are going to be looked over or crowded out in this country because of their gender? For that matter, can we please dispense with the septuagenarian white guy vetting councils? I want strong Black women in positions of power; I like Rice as Secretary of State and Harris as VP, but I would be just fine with Rice as #2 and Harris as AG or whatever. Rice as SecState comes with the added bonus lulz of forcing Putin and the other racist, misogynist dickheads around the world to deal with her as an equal.
It all reminds me of the Orange Menace and the notion that he was elected in part to show that the shittiest white man could win the presidency after such a wildly qualified, successful, and popular Black president in Obama.
SFAW
@japa21:
Congratulations on/for your outstanding son. [Well, for the whole family, of course, but it’s your son’s day.]
Patricia Kayden
debbie
@Martin:
I believe I heard that the Ohio SOS will be mailing absentee ballots to every registered voter. That’s sure to piss off Trump.
Joseph A Miller
I post a variation of this on Daily Kos every day. It is NOTHING BUT nuts and bolts information about getting out the vote. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE look at it and share it!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/3/1966228/-You-Want-to-Win-CHECK-THIS-OUT-NEW-Drop-Off-Boxes-to-Defeat-Trump-s-USPS-Sabotage
Lapassionara
@Formica: I hear you, but let’s win the election in November first, before we chose the cabinet.
Patricia Kayden
Another Scott
@Barbara: It’s two things in my mind:
The GOP doesn’t look beyond the end of their nose to see the implications of their actions. Sure, they can destroy the union if they try hard enough; sure they can hobble the USPS by making it prepay 75 years of pension obligations; sure it can break their first-class mail monopoly. But what then? Who will deliver FedEx packages to the place 50 miles outside Fairbanks? Who will deliver census forms to every household? Who will collect tax payments and send them to DC?
It’s delusional magical thinking. 8 year olds who set their army men on fire then wonder why their toys are broken think more clearly.
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@japa21: Congratulations to your son, and all his proud family!
Gravenstone
@Redshift: Assumes the governors could act unilaterally and are not saddled with an openly adversarial Republican legislature that acts to oppose or undermine every executive action. Ya know, like we’re stuck with in Wisconsin.
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Congrats to him, you and Mrs japa21!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: sounds like Dems are digging in on USPS funding. Klobuchar repeated on Maddow just now that she’s working with Roy Blunt, and I can’t imagine purple state Rs want to explain to people who get their meds by mail what the hold up is.
ETA: and
Nelle
My neighbor and I, both older and newer to the neighborhood (she has been here two years, me one) are in charge of get out the vote for this neighborhood. Every household that is registered Dem has received a postcard (most handwritten) urging them to get an Absentee Ballot Request submitted and most have received candidate brochures under their doormats. We’ve filled out the contact spreadsheet and will be expected to reach out twice more before the November election. There are about 75 registered Dems (about 55 households) in this neighborhood. But more what I like to do is stroll around in the evenings and chat with people, just get to know them. There are about ten Muslim households (mostly Bosnian, at least one Palestinian) in the neighborhood and I think most are registered D. On my siide of the street, there are five D households in a row. Across the street, another five with one exception. Feels pretty good for a Republican suburb in Iowa, though we hope to flip it in this election. The chair of the county D party is fierce and good, as are the get out the vote people in this whole suburb. I’m impressed.
mrmoshpotato
@piratedan:
Did anyone tell them Biden has a penis, and it’s ok for them to vote for him?
Baud
@mrmoshpotato: They aren’t antifa like we are.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Biden’s problem with them is his name isn’t Bernie Sanders.
Frankensteinbeck
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
They get pissed at Sanders when he tells them to vote Democratic. Biden’s problem is that he’s not yelling to burn it all down and eat the rich, with careful attention to their shibboleths so they know that things are being done their way.
mrmoshpotato
OT – so weird being able to hear a fly ball getting caught.
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato: Right. No crowd. Brave new world.
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: An LOM at retirement is usually sort of a career capper. It is a big deal award for an LTC. You should be proud.
cain
@japa21:
Congrats to your son – I’m sure that he knows that what got him there is the love the two of you showered on him and his brother.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: In fairness to Bernie, that crowd would likely be yelling at him even if he had won the nomination. Something, anything, would have caused them to become Very Disappointed and to vocally express said discontent.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Frankensteinbeck: Heh, as I said, his name isn’t Bernie Sanders.
Formica
@Lapassionara: A fair point, though I did mean it in context with the VP decision. Nonetheless, chickens, hatching, work like we’re down two points, I hear ya.
laura
@japa21: congratulations to your son and to you and Mrs. Japa in the raising of this right-raised man. I do not have children and so can only guess at the emotional impact of taking pride and great joy in watching them strive and struggle and succeed. Please take full advantage of every feel and spark that acheivement brings. Also, the honor. Wishing every bit of the same joy to your son’s brother.
https://youtu.be/aow-CzM2W-Y
Jean
@Redshift: Do we have drop-off boxes in VA in every county? I can’t find that information.
TriassicSands
I posted this at the very end of an earlier thread, but I think it is worth noting, so I’ll repeat it here.
That may not be absolutely true. The differences? 1) States that have mail-in voting are set up to handle the entire state voting “by mail.” States with absentee voting are not and may face huge fiascoes if they don’t prepare fully for November. ( See 2020 NY primary debacle.) 2) States with all mail-in voting have secure drop boxes. Will absentee voting staes? I don’t know, but it matters.
One of the key features of living in a state that has all mail-in voting is the existence of secure drop boxes. I would never mail my ballot in. The USPS is excellent, but they do make mistakes and mail does occasionally get lost or delayed. (I once mailed an insurance payment to a destination 60 miles away and it took 17 days to arrive.) My vote is too important to ever allow the possibility of something like that happening.
So, I put my ballot in a secure drop box or deliver it directly to the county clerk. It may be convenient to toss your ballot in the mail, but I recommend direct delivery, if possible. I don’t know if states that have absentee voting make secure drop boxes available. That may be a key difference between absentee voting and all mail-in voting as in Washington State. If you have to mail your ballot in that is one link in the chain that you can’t control. So, if you don’t have secure drop boxes, I’d recommend taking your ballot and turning it in in person.
We can’t afford to lose a single vote.
SWMBO
This gives me such hope.
https://twitter.com/bleacherreport/status/1290771226491682816?s=21
JAFD
To japa21 #36: Congratulations (and thanks) to your son, and good luck to him (and to you) in the future.
Falling Diphthong
In fairness to Bernie, Joe’s many good qualities pale before “He’s not Trump.”
This election, no one is talking about how Trump is about to perform a pivot. (And well do I remember that. He would nominate Merrick Garland as an olive branch to Democrats, for example.)
Redshift
@Jean:
As far as I can tell, we don’t have drop boxes. I hope they’ll address that in the special legislative session this month. I believe the only alternative is to bring your un-completed absentee ballot to an early or election day voting site and vote in person instead.
planetjanet
@Redshift: You can usually bring your ballot to the local election board office.
SWMBO
@japa21: Congratulations!