Above is a live feed of a collection of folks in Washoe County, quietly going about the business of tallying votes. They’re not partisan apparatchiks, they’re just a collection of your neighbors, some of them employees, many of them retirees, just sitting around, following the election rules, and doing the thankless job of government. They’re probably mostly volunteers, but if given a stipend, it is most certainly a pittance.
These are the people who Republicans are villifying. These are the people Donald Trump is trying to whip up armed mobs against.
I am so sick and tired of the Republican party’s assault on America.
Elizabelle
Three cheers for poll workers, registrars, the whole of the election apparatus. They are indeed not appreciated fully.
I have been suggesting to people who complain about Democrats “stealing elections” that they should sign up to be poll workers. It is a long, long day — 5:00 am to 8:30 or 9:00 pm, earliest. And days after. Clear procedures; accuracy.
No takers from the whingers so far. Better to be fact-free, the better to whine.
hueyplong
Ralston on the verge of calling Nevada. For Biden.
Yarrow
Feel like we should send them pizza or one of those giant cookies with “Thank you” on it. They’re working so hard.
God, yes. When Biden is President (fingers crossed) he can declassify a lot of stuff and his DOJ can begin cleaning up some of the mess. No quarter for traitors.
JPL
Volunteers in Fulton County counting the vote worked all night, and then went to their day jobs. Amazing dedication to democracy.
Baud
I don’t understand the process, but that can’t be much fun in PPE because it looks like it would be hell even without PPE.
Baud
@hueyplong: Since he earlier said it wouldn’t be close, I’m more skeptical of him now. That said, I assume he knows better than to take a risk again.
unrelatedwaffle
Via
WE PROCLAIM THAT *covers mic* how many votes are we down? like 10K? ok we’ll say 10K *uncovers mic, brandishes index finger* TEN THOUSAND VOTES ARE INVALID!
I think what I’ll miss most (when I die) are the lies that everyone knows are lies, in real time, as they are being said, but no one has the guts to call lies. Which is to say…everything a Republican has ever said.
hueyplong
@Baud: Ralston: “I see no path left for him (Trump) here (Nevada)”
I’m counting Nevada.
Either GA or PA now finishes him and it’s all over but the whining.
LeftCoastYankee
That looks like a lot of chicanery happening there….
I think the most consistent characterization of all of us in the US is how bad we are at understanding that work takes time. Other people’s working is always too slow (ours is always unfairly rushed).
I hope they take as long as it takes to be thorough and accurate.
Good on them.
patroclus
@Baud: No offense to Ralston, but I think I’ll go by the raw vote now.
Mart
CNN reporter last night showed idiots outside the Maricopa county vote count center shouting stop the vote; then walked past the significant police presence into the count center and highlighted the Democratic and Repub judges working together to certify the ballots. WTF is wrong with the knuckle draggers. Everything is working fine, once a ballot gets past voter suppression, post office delays, etc.
Skepticat
@Elizabelle:
Dunno. Then we might have actual vote fraud. Fox, meet henhouse.
Baud
@hueyplong: I’m glad to hear he said that, for whatever it’s worth.
Or AZ, no?
John S.
@hueyplong: I believe the song you were looking for is It’s All Over But The Crying by The Ink Spots. ?
Betty Cracker
Fox News and AP (which both called AZ for Biden) will have to call the race if Biden wins Nevada, correct? Ahahahahaha!
MazeDancer
@hueyplong:
Fox News Decision Desk must be having some lively discussions. Either they make the obvious call on NV, and thus, according to their lights, the whole 270 ballgame.
Igniting Trump ire.
Or they don’t get to go first. Which they love to do.
Skepticat
I have been wishing for a way to express my appreciation for these people. I have friends who’ve been poll workers, and I know it’s demanding even when things are going smoothly; it must be really rough right now.
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker:
Yep.
Standing by…
MisterForkbeard
@hueyplong: Eh. If we get Nevada it’s over. PA and GA would just be extra humiliation for Trump. And GA would be a nice boost for us and demoralization for the republicans for the Senate runoffs there.
MisterForkbeard
@Mart: John has this right: I’m sick and tired of this assault on American and our institutions. It needs to stop now.
hueyplong
@Baud: Yes but I haven’t seen a vote added to either side’s total today in AZ. That’s the only reason I left out AZ.
For all the worrying, we may run the table (not including NC)
Benw
I did it in NYS! We setup at 5 am, opened 6 am (about 1.5 hour long line was waiting) to 9 pm and then it took until 10:30 to close. Lots of first timers, including me, and it was so nuts all day that no one really took a break except for a quick snack or bathroom until about 7 pm when things slowed down enough to get some pizza. Opening and closing were pretty stressful because a lot of us were working with checklists for the first time and minimal instruction but we got about 3000 votes cast!
Every volunteer was committed to doing it right across the board. I’m definitely doing it again and I think it’ll be a lot less stressful the second time when I have some idea what the hell is going on.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: No, I think Biden needs NV plus one other state called for him. AZ or GA. (Or PA, but when he wins that, he wins everything anyway).
The Moar You Know
@MazeDancer: My bet is Fox calls it tomorrow morning, but frankly I’d prefer if they wait until Monday so that all eyes will be on Trump for all of next week. Because that cheating motherfucker is going to try every cheat his dimwit gang of indictees can think up.
ETA: they don’t give a shit what Trump thinks anymore and their actions are making that extremely clear. Which should be a real reassuring indicator to everyone of how this is going to end.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One can’t rule out Fox News trolling Trump for the LUZ. I mean the guy is an unlikable dipshit so it can’t be fun sucking up to Trump.
Plus think of the rating for Fox if Trump goes full Downfall on them.
Baud
@hueyplong: Agree about the possibility of running the table. Which would be great for bragging rights, but not as good as how bad it would be if Trump somehow pulled it out, so that’s why people are worrying about the 1% chance that Trump still has.
Cheryl Rofer
@Betty Cracker: Lol, I just posted that on my thread.
hueyplong
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I admit I’d watch.
Shades of their humiliation of Rove in 2012, which remains a classic.
cain
@MazeDancer:
You have the con, gold leader.
rk
If I know Trump’s psyche, he’s going to scream and shout about cheating, but he’ll turn on republicans and blame them for the loss. He’ll blame them for not doing more to ensure victory and doing the impossible things he’s demanding. I can’t see him helping any of the Georgia senators to win id it’s a run off.
Betty Cracker
PA secretary of state says she thinks they’ll wrap up ahead of schedule — today instead of tomorrow.
Elizabelle
@Skepticat: Is a risk.
These whiners are, I believe, the “sunshine patriots” and “chairborne commandos” type.
Soprano2
Do you think that they know people can be living in another state and yet still vote in NV if they’re a Nevada resident? (I knew a guy who lived in MO but kept his Alaska residency because of the yearly check!) That’s a thing. I’m so tired of the idiocy and ignorance, and how the press gives them so much of a pass on both. I was listening to 1A this morning, and it was driving me crazy, as one after another they talked to “disappointed Democrats”. There was one good panelist who pushed back against a lot of that, but they never talked about what a heavy lift is it to unseat an incumbent president, or how so many of those Senate seats were stretches for Democrats. I’ve been listening to the O-boys this morning, and it made me feel better. They said that even though losing the Senate is bad, the party building and outreach than went into the Senate races in those more Republican states will pay dividends down the road, and they credit Stacy Abrahms with turning GA into a competitive state. They said you can’t discount how important all of that stuff is.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Whoa. I’m surprised that could process all those remaining ballots that quickly.
hueyplong
@rk: Lil Lindsey survived and Trump didn’t. That’ll stick in his craw.
patroclus
There are 51,000 votes in Clark County which will be reported tomorrow morning. That’s out of roughly 63,262 total and whatever comes in later, plus provisionals that might be cured. Because of that, I don’t think anyone calls Nevada until tomorrow. The press conference will be at 10:00 a.m. local time and the votes will be uploaded on their website right before that.
Sloane Ranger
I feel for the grey haired guy in the foreground. I don’t know what he’s doing but he looks dead on his feet.
It looks like they’re proceeding with due deliberation and utmost seriousness.
It looks very different and high tech from British counts.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Right, but AP and Fox News already called AZ for Biden. I just want Trump to be watching Fox News when they call it. :)
cain
@hueyplong: On the other hand, if Trump has anything on Lindsey, he’s gonna release it.
ETA: if it is going to be about some gender or some other stuff – hooo hum. Nobody cares. If it is a federal crime though…
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Oh, true. And the rest of the media hasn’t called AZ, so those two outlets either will have to withdraw their AZ call or declare Biden the winner.
Spanky
Alexandra Petri
Ouch.
Steve in the ATL
@Sloane Ranger:
The British don’t have counts; they have earls. Shouldn’t you know that???
The Moar You Know
@hueyplong: One thing Trump assuredly will do on the way out is a document dump on all the Republicans who he will have decided betrayed him. Which will be all of them. That is going to be a really bad day for Graham
@cain: Graham has committed multiple felonies over the years to keep his sexual preferences under wraps. You and I, we don’t give a shit. He does. Very, very much. I suspect he may kill himself if that comes out. I’d really like to avoid that. His testimony would be very valuable, if for no other humane reasons.
hueyplong
It’s going to be fun from now on out.
We’ll finally get some protection from these armed RWNJs when one of them offs a FoxNews star for “treason.”
Bokonon
@unrelatedwaffle: Classic Joe McCarthy tactic. “I have here in my pocket a list of 10 thousand known fraudulent votes … “
Yarrow
@rk: Agreed. As a narcissist he’s only going to do things that he sees as “good for Trump.” If he loses, holding rallies where he’s not on the ballot and he has to tell those losers who didn’t work hard enough to elect him to vote for someone else, well, that’s not going to happen.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Kids these days.
Baud
@unrelatedwaffle:
Knowing Trump, he’ll win the legal battle and all the fraudulent votes will turn out to be his voters.
Bostondreams
Read a piece, I can’t find now, that featured someone convinced that there was rampant fraud. He signed up to be a poll worker and was stunned that there was nothing, and left completely disillusioned about the Republicans and what they had been saying. I think we would see more of that…
LuciaMia
Yup, Rudy Guiliani and Eric Trump.
Benw
@Baud: MSNBC has Biden at 253, so as far as I’m concerned Biden needs PA or any other 2. Come ON, PA!
germy
Remember this guy?
Aaron Coleman, Revenge Porn Perpetrator, Officially Elected to Kansas House
What’s the matter with Kansas?
Baud
@germy: I thought he had dropped out.
hueyplong
@Benw: PA SoS expects to get it done today.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Oh gross.
cain
@LuciaMia:
I’m not sure legal is the right team – more like the people you to get a good cocaine score.
Eljai
@Soprano2: I got pissed off listening to public radio this morning too! Mara Liasson on NPR was repeating the stuff about how disappointing the results are for Democrats and said that “both parties will have to do a lot of soul searching.” First, we’re removing a disastrous authoritarian incumbent. That was our job. That is not nothing. Second, Mara, I voted for the decent party up and down the ticket. My soul is good, thanks.
cain
I suppose if we have dirt on him we could get him to switch sides again. lol. That will really fuck people up if he turns into a never trumper and rat out his fellow colleagues to avoid prison and his gender preference being hidden.
I heard rumors of having sexual congress with underaged boys. That would definitely kill him.
Baud
@Eljai: The only soul searching we have to do is about the EC, which is the only reason this election was a nail biter (as well as the only reason Trump was elected in the first place).
Bush II “won” two narrow elections without the GOP searching his soul.
Dan B
Christiane Amanpour had a Yale professor on last night. He wrote the book on how fascism works and explained, with great animation, that grievance and victimhood is a key tactic. The Nazis had The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Mussolini had the unionists and communists. Trumpists have a whole laundry list.
Trump is different. He has no discipline or strategy. Everything eventually becomes a source of grievance as Lindsey, Mitch, and Murdock are discovering.
sdhays
@Baud: This was my thought too. Also, Biden’s lead could end up being well above 10k, for all we know. Based on the Ralston tweet, we should expect his lead to grow some. So even if they are all fraudulent Democratic voters (which is extremely unlikely), it wouldn’t change anything.
Josh Marshal thinks that the Dump team is humoring him, and I think that looks like a real possibility. Or maybe they’re just so stupid and incompetent that they can’t even figure out how they should swing for the fences.
LuciaMia
So now Nevada is saying theyll be counting votes for “several more days”?
Fuck, even Pennsylvania said theyd be done by Friday. Aaaaaarrrggggh!
marcopolo
Yes.
I guess it is a part of human nature (especially during Trump) to focus on the negative–including bemoaning the half or so of the country that thinks Trump & R senators should be re-elected even as their action/inaction has led to more of our fellow citizens dying than just about any other event in our history, but I say screw them…and
Let’s fucking celebrate all the good stuff that is happening!
Kamala Harris is about to be the first female/POC VP in our history!
We apparently still have a chance of electing a 50-50 senate–just think what would happen if a few million people pulled up stakes next week & moved to GA for 6 months. My reading of the GA voter registration laws implies this would be legal. You have to be registered 1 month prior to the election and the runoffs will be Jan 3 so just move there prior to Dec. Something to think about.
Last but not least, though we lost some great D electeds last night, we also elected a bunch of new, vibrant, diverse, young, progressive folks to offices at the state & local level. I’d recommend checking out posts by Daniel Nichanian, who tweets under the nym Taniel tracking down ballot races to hear about successes like Cobb & Gwinnett Counties in GA electing their first POC Sheriffs, or Harris County TX electing a young POC County DA (who replaces a 60+ yr old white dude).
And also check out the twitter comments of Amanda Litman, a founder of RunForSomething. Of the ~500 candidates they recruited, supported & had running at least 177 won on election day with lots of races still uncalled.
Steeplejack
@unrelatedwaffle:
“We hereby proclaim . . .” You forgot Trump’s magic word!
Yarrow
LOLOLOLOL.
Chris Johnson
That’s an interesting thought. Imagine Trump flipping out and attacking the republicans for being traitors, and being able to prove it since he’s been in with Putin this whole time and expected loyalty and victory.
‘If I can’t have it, I’ll burn it all down!’. Except, for the Republican Party.
hmmmmmm
mrmoshpotato
@Steve in the ATL: Obligatory
Dan B
@Baud: Aaron Coleman, revenge porn. And there’s the new rep from North Dakota who died of Covid a month ago.
Am I missing anybody?
Sloane Ranger
@Steve in the ATL: LOL!!
marcopolo
@Dan B: That’s Tim Snyder. The book is On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century. It is a great, though a bit depressing, read.
The Moar You Know
@cain: nope. literally the last two people in the world who I would trust to get:
if they somehow managed to pull that off, they would also snort it all on the way back and then tell me they got beat up for it
As a former gigging musician, I have dealt with far, far too many cokeheads in my life. Their behavior pattern, once they’re “all the way under” is scarily identical. I’d love some scientists to look at that.
marcopolo
@Steve in the ATL: Hey Dude, glad to see you back in the BJ saddle.
mrmoshpotato
@Yarrow: How THE FUCK does Jake Tapper just not blurt out, “Does he think he’ll live to see 2024?”
sdhays
@Yarrow: If he’s still alive by that time, I wonder how much of his “brain” the worms will have left by 2024.
Steve in the ATL
@marcopolo:
giddyup!
Baud
@Yarrow: He’s going to be a media darling again.
Oklahomo
@germy: As a born and bred Kansan, it’s still a mystery. But it’s one of the reasons I don’t live there. The late 80s and early 90s were insane; that was when Operation Rescue was raging in the streets of Wichita.
The Moar You Know
@Yarrow: Has to. That way he can keep whatever campaign money he has left, and promptly start the grift up to get some more.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: It took a couple of years for me to switch my official residency from Virginia to Massachusetts, after I arrived for graduate school–basically I decided it would be easiest to do it when I renewed my driver’s license. Up to that point I voted in Virginia by absentee ballot and had a complicated state tax situation. I imagine these people would regard me as a fraudster.
The Moar You Know
Someone in Germany has Trump2024.com. At least that’s where the server is. I’m blocked at work from seeing if they’ve got anything up or no.
Yarrow
@Baud: Maybe. But he’s also going to be dealing with a whole lot of lawsuits and massive debts coming due.
Aleta
Acc. to the Wa Post map, Chatham County has 85% of its votes counted. Chatham County is where the judge just threw out the T lawsuit “alleging that a witness had said that late-arriving ballots had not been properly stored and may have been mixed in with timely ballots.”
So the remaining 15% of that part of the vote will be recorded soon …
Rommie
So – since there’s the WV connection in this blog – how much of a chance does the GOP have to turncoat Manchin, especially if there are two runoffs in Georgia with Senate control on the line? Sinema is in a barely-blue state, so it’s a huge risk for her to switch. But Manchin is in a cherry-red state, and could be Senator for Life if he switched parties.
I’m sure they still hold a gigantic grudge about Jeffords and this is a chance for revenge.
mrmoshpotato
More perspective.
germy
@Baud:
He had dropped out, and then decided to jump back in again. A strange story.
Yarrow
@Rommie: He holds a lot more power as a swing-Senator than he would as a turncoat R that no one will trust at the next election.
Baud
@Rommie: Machin has earned the benefit of the doubt IMHO.
Cermet
@Yarrow: If he isn’t destroyed via tax issues and loss of properties that pile of human waste will most certainly be running for 2024 and starting this year.
mrmoshpotato
@The Moar You Know: ”
The domain name
Trump2024.com
has already been sold
There are millions of other domains available on DAN (doot) COM. You can probably find the one that fits you best!”
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Betty Cracker: Thank you for posting his tweets!
prostratedragon
“Freedom Sound,” Jazz Crusaders, live
Aleta
@Yarrow: But I heard he’s a loser—his belief system has no respect for losers.
marcopolo
@Steve in the ATL: Hey, do you have tent pitching room on your property for, say, a couple hundred thousand folks who want travel there to become GA voters for the Jan. 3rd runoff election? It would be sort of like a modern day political Woodstock but would last 5 weeks instead of 3 days.
(yeah, yeah, the sanitation issues might be a challenge but we are talking about the future of our country.)
mrmoshpotato
@Cermet: Trump trashettes and trash!
Continue!
Your!
Grifting!
Barbara
@Soprano2: Does Donald Trump live in Florida, where he voted? Do these people have two brain cells?
Yarrow
We should be donating to Run for Something now. If they get a lot of money now they can help candidates be ready to go for 2022.
MazeDancer
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Yarrow: As predicted. That dimwit GOP billionaire donor money isn’t going to grift itself you know.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: I have relatives in Kansas.
I remember one of my uncles telling me he was very skeptical and disappointed in another nephew because he… hung out with black kids at his school.
Yeah.
sdhays
@Rommie: Jim Jeffords was a liberal Republican in a time where they still existed. Manchin is a moderate Democrat, but actual conservative Democrats became Republicans long ago.
Manchin has been on the right side of just about every vote where he was needed. He won reelection as a Democrat comfortably in 2018. He might be an impediment to things like filibuster reform, but speculating that he’ll just up and switch to Republican is pretty unfair.
hueyplong
DJ Quinlan says Arizona is in the bag, just like FoxNews.
Gonna get PA, but don’t need PA.
GA would put Biden over 300 EVs.
Re pu dia tion
Baud
@hueyplong: Who is DJ Quinlan?
Betty Cracker
@Rommie: Not a West Virginian, but I’d be surprised if Manchin went for that. He’s in his 70s and only two years into a six-year term (I think). He’d be in line to take over chairmanship of the energy committee if the Dems controlled the Senate. He can be a putz, but he votes with the party when needed, e.g., impeachment.
Yarrow
@Cermet: He will likely try to start running. And then there will be lawsuits and when he has a media appearance he’ll be asked about them. And then treason stuff will come out and he’ll get asked about that. And debts will come due. He might have to sell Mar-a-Lago or the Scotland golf course or Trump Tower and he’ll get asked about that instead of whatever it is he wants to talk about. It’s just not going to go as well as last time when he was just a “smart businessman.”
Full Metal Wingnut
@MazeDancer: Well…McConnell has to agree to bring it to a vote doesn’t he? If Biden (knock on wood) nominates Collins to something, why would McConnell go along? I guess it depends on how the media narrative can be spun-reaching across the aisle versus cynical ploy by democrats. I know which way I’d bet given our media.
randy khan
@sdhays:
Or they’re billing by the hour. It’s probably grift all the way down.
germy
hueyplong
@Baud: Some guy that others cite to on twitter when getting details about Arizona votes remaining. Kind of a nobody but probably ok on that one limited point.
Barbara
@Yarrow: This is most likely nothing more than a scheme to keep raising money to pay salaries and travel expenses of Trump family members.
MazeDancer
Biden been getting at least 70%, up to 78%.
Aleta
@Aleta: Correction: News says the lawsuit only affects the processing of 53 absentee ballots in Chatham County.
Baud
I wonder if there will be a new interest in math after this election is over.
MazeDancer
@Full Metal Wingnut:
Yes, it is, mostly, an interesting parlor game.
But Biden could offer Mitch some incentive – like we won’t prosecute your wife.
burnspbesq
@Bokonon:
And when the judge says “let’s see your evidence,” much hilarity ensues.
Yarrow
@Barbara: He’s gonna need the money. He’s got massive debts coming due.
Can someone run for President if they’ve fled to Russia or the UAE?
cain
@The Moar You Know:
My apologies – I will retract ‘good’ from my comment. Thank you sir.
Full Metal Wingnut
@MazeDancer: I think there are also a great deal of rejected ballots that Stacey Abrams et al are working on curing/remediating (I forget the technical term) by tomorrow’s deadline.
randy khan
@Full Metal Wingnut:
Playing it out, it could work. If we pick up a single seat in Georgia to get to 51-49, Collins (let’s go with Collins) would have to agree to resign before the hearings and the vote to bring the Senate to 50-49, with her replacement making it 50-50, and giving Harris the tie-breaking vote.
marcopolo
@Yarrow: I’ve been giving RunForSomething $10/month since Jan ’19–they are one of my “finger in the dike” monthlies (other groups include PP, the ACLU & Mom’s Demand Action). I’d love it if some of my fellow BJers joined me as regular donors. Lasting change will only happen if we start by electing amazing folks at the local level.
If you want to check out the kinds of candidates they recruit & support here’s a link to their “Candidates Wall” (all the folks they helped run in 2020).
Yutsano
@Yarrow: Theoretically yes. There is nothing in the Constitution that says that the candidate has to BE in the US. S/he just has to meet the qualifications as laid out. Sometimes the Constitution is open like that.
randy khan
Not to suggest I’d be unhappy with 270 (or 290, with Pennsylvania), but getting Georgia would be so sweet. You might even say peachy.
Bruce K
@MazeDancer: I saw speculation about that on electoral-vote.com as well. Give out a couple of spicy Cabinet appointments to R senators from states where the replacement would be a Democrat – they mentioned a couple of Senators who plan to retire but I can’t remember which ones – and all of a sudden, there’s the trifecta.
I still stand by my analogy of the election as D-Day. Hell of a near-run thing, not nearly as easy as we would have liked, but it looks like we’ve got our beach-head. Now we need to really take the fight to the enemy.
Step by step, like the movie said. Gotta take Caen to take St. Lo. Gotta take St. Lo to take Valognes. Valognes, you got Cherbourg; Cherbourg, you got Paris; Paris, you got Berlin, and then that big boat home.
(What would the analogies be in 2020 American political combat, I wonder?)
Gin & Tonic
@Dan B:
Timothy Snyder, perhaps?
mrmoshpotato
@Yarrow:
Is some Russkie gonna buy Soviet-shitpile-a-mobster-conman?
ETA – as for Scotland, could the Scots seize the good course and just tell Dump, “Fuck off, you orange ball bag!”?
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow: Of course, gotta keep the grift going. But I think a 78-year-old DJT will be about able to drool in his oatmeal.
Barbara
@MazeDancer: The obvious choice might be Senator Burr of NC, who is retiring, and who was basically hounded by Trump minions because he played it straight as a member of the intelligence committee. That said, I don’t know what the replacement rules are for NC.
Full Metal Wingnut
@randy khan: this is where relationships come in, I imagine. They served in the senate together about a decade before the 08 election, and we all know Joe is chummy with everyone. Maybe. Maybe.
Baud
I think I know what Trump will tweet about next.
Steve in the ATL
@marcopolo:
hmmm…how many will be bringing pets?
hueyplong
@Barbara: NC replacement rules call for a GOPer
burnspbesq
@marcopolo:
‘Speaking of good things happening, I’m still trying to figure out how. a gay African-American Democrat got elected to Congress from a district that has the biggest Hasidic population outside Brooklyn.
Jerzy Russian
@Dan B: To be clear, did he die with covid or of covid? That not withstanding, I assume there is some requirement about being alive in order to be in Congress?
chopper
@Mart:
it’s just mindblowing how stupid these people are, that they’re demanding the vote count be stopped while their guy is behind.
marcopolo
@Steve in the ATL: The only appropriate reply to this is….
All of them Katie.
Baud
@Dan B:
That’s happened before, I’m sure. Not really that interesting. If Biden had died on the eve of voting, I still would have voted for him.
patroclus
@Bruce K: Leonard Cohen’s was “First we’ll take Manhattan, then we’ll take Berlin.” “Allelujiah.”
Well, Georgia narrowed slightly (to 13,220) and Pa. may come in within a few hours. I don’t think we’re likely to get anything more our of Arizona, North Carolina or Nevada today. Alaska is taking a looong time.
The Moar You Know
@Yarrow: Keith Judd ran against Barack Obama in the 2012 Dem primary while serving time in prison for a felony.
Got 40% of the vote.
So I’m going with “yes”, you could. That being said, Trump cannot and dares not go to the UAE. Not paying your debts will get you a date in the public square with the executioner. You can’t pull the “business” (defrauding) shit he pulls in Islamic nations.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I get the sense if Manchin has one issue keeping him in the Dem caucus– and IIRC trump lobbied hard to get him to switch when McCain made a narrower majority shakier– it’s health care.
Also, sorry to be that guy, but the odds of Dems winning one of those GA seats, much less both, are long.
LuciaMia
Still feel like were gonna get to the end of the day and “Yoink! Wait till tomorrow!”
Mallard Filmore
@The Moar You Know:
I just surfed on over there. The name’s been bought but the new owner has not taken possession (redirected the internet address to their own server).
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq: Because that district covers more than just KJ.
Baud
@LuciaMia: I don’t care about the final number. I just want to be at the point where Biden overtakes Trump.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Baud: they’re clearly trolling us. Ugh.
Aleta
@Steve in the ATL: And only one country has a duke of earl.
marcopolo
I am off to mow a lawn in St Louis where it is 71 degrees on November 5th, but first here is an awesome tweet thread from Ben Wikler, head of the WI Dem party giving a bit of history of WI politics for the last decade & laying out some of the hard work that led to that Biden’s win there. Give it a read:
Calouste
@Bruce K: Pretend you’re going to appoint a Republican Senator to something. Ask the CIA etc for the files they have on that person. Invite said Senator for a talk in the Oval Office with the files displayed on the Resolute desk. Explain to said Senator that you expect them to resign their seat in preparation for the nomination, and that the nomination will never be submitted to the Senate because information will have come to light.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Bruce K: Of course you know “near-run thing” is a quote from the Duke of Wellington about Waterloo.
burnspbesq
@MazeDancer:
‘Finding a Republican Senator with subject-matter expertise could be a heavy lift.
patroclus
Trump Pennsylvania lead down to 108,689.
Barbara
@hueyplong: That’s what I figured. There are not many candidates whey you work through all the potential possibilities.
hueyplong
“Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs told the @AP that the final margin [in GA] may be as small as 1,000 votes.”
Did not say whether or not that includes provisionals.
Sm*t Cl*de
@Steve in the ATL:
This is unpossible. Britain is divided into counties, not earlies.
MisterForkbeard
@Yarrow: This is going to look very different after Trump’s loans are all called in by Deutsche Bank and his assets start to get liquidated.
But then, they might not do that if they think he’s a viable candidate. They’re already trying to sell those loans, and there are a LOT of people out there who’d love leverage on Trump.
But really though, I just can’t see Trump making a run in 4 years. He’s unhealthy and mentally deteriorating now – noticeably more of an idiot than he was in 2016. In a couple of years he’ll be indecipherable and the novelty of his constant rallies will have worn off even more.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Judd Gregg is IMHO the under-told story of the early Obama years. Ol Barr Bush herself reached out a gnarled talon do pull him back into the fold. Obama and Harry Reid offered Olly Snowe the sun, the moon and the stars, she wouldn’t budge. Susan Collins is every bit as partisan Mitch McConnell, IMHO. I’m so old I remember when Pat Toomey was considered a fringe right-winger who could never win a seat in John Heinz/Arlen Specter PA. I’m sure Kentucky and NC and LA have already hamstrung their govs wrt to vacant seats in the even Covid does what decency won’t… I can’t think of a state where this would be a possibility
chopper
@MazeDancer:
wow, they’re really tearing through this stuff aren’t they
mrmoshpotato
Nominated.
JPL
@MisterForkbeard: Unfortunately, his support is strong enough that they will not care if he pardons himself.
germy
@Sm*t Cl*de:
Invade their countries and take their earl.
patroclus
@chopper: The margin in Georgia is now 12,828.
MisterForkbeard
@hueyplong: I don’t think that includes the remediated ballots, either.
But yeah, could be super close.
germy
@MisterForkbeard:
I thought Deutsche Bank gave up on Trump. Didn’t someone here report they were forgiving his loans? Maybe I dreamt it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard:
I fully expect him to keep up the rallies, with charged admission, both for the ego boost and to raise money for his NYS, and possibly other states, trials.
“Contribute $50, Patriot, to help defend Our Favorite President from Crazy Tish! A thousand dollars earns you entry to a super classy buffet dinner hosted by Ivanka!
$75 and you can ride on a bus through a Taco Bell drive-thru with Eric and Tifffany”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MisterForkbeard: eh, it seems like the bigger the babbling idiot Trump is the more his base loves him. I think that’s part of the Qanon nonsense is it explains all of Trump’s idiocy and screw up as some amazing cunning plan.
Barbara
@germy: Well, forgiving Trump’s loans would be, among other things, a great big fuck you to Trump because all of that forgiven money would become income to Trump that he would owe taxes on. These are sizable loans, so it’s not even clear Trump could raise the cash required to pay the IRS. Selling the loans to a third party would probably be much more desirable from Trump’s POV.
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: Nah, I don’t think this has anything to do with pardons.
Trump lost (probably). This is a huge thing. He can’t protect himself or others anymore. We’re going to get official readouts of all the bad shit Trumpers did in office, and lots of people will turn on him. And his whole persona is “I’m a winner” so while he’ll try for a robbed narrative he’s just not going to get it – his party fucked up the election, not ours. Loser stink is really bad for him.
In addition to that, the thing with his loans is just huge. Deutsche Bank was trying to sell his loans and couldn’t find any takers. They also revealed that if Trump lost they were likely to just demand he… pay them back. On a loan which he guaranteed personally.
Trump doesn’t have the $400 million and the worth of his current hotels will go down drastically once people can’t buy presidential influence at them anymore. He’d self-destruct financially. Also a bad look.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: No, they said they were trying to sell them but weren’t finding takers… and that if he lost, they were likely to demand repayment when the loan terms are up in a year or two.
gene108
@Barbara:
I believe the replacement has to be from the same party. A Democrat replaces a Democrat, and a Republican replaces a Republican.
Barbara
Looks like Arizona is starting to update its numbers again.
chopper
@patroclus:
been there for a while.
JPL
@Barbara: How is it looking?
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: Jason Stanley “How Fascism Works”
He was very animated. The other guest from the Brennan Center mad a great companion.
Barbara
@JPL: The same. I am definitely increasing my numeracy this week.
ETA: Which is good, because it means as fewer and fewer ballots are outstanding, Trump has to win a greater and greater proportionate share. But they are up to 88% of projected outstanding ballots, with a delta of just over 68K in Biden’s favor.
mad citizen
Perhaps Biden can nominate Senator Collins to the new Department of Concern
pamelabrown53
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Are you talking about the Georgia senate seats? If so, I don’t think the reach is overly long: Trump won’t be on the ballot and our side will be STOKED.
James E Powell
@Baud:
Here is the DJ Quinlan twitter thread with AZ analysis.
I cannot attest to the accuracy.
Wolf
Hypothetical, what if on senator replacement a Democrat suddenly switched registration to being a “Republican?” He/she/they would be eligible then?
LuciaMia
And amazingly, there will be plenty to sign on and follow him around. They can be the new Dead Heads!
mad citizen
@MisterForkbeard: For some reason I googled net worth of Jared and Ivanka the other day. It said Jared was $800 million. So maybe he can give Daddy in Law a loan. I was going to google all of them and add it up, then compare to reality down the road once the Trump Org. folds.
hueyplong
First AZ update is tiny. Biden and Trump essentially split about 5-6k votes
We’re good with that all day.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@marcopolo: Wow. Gret thread. We’ve donated to WisDems monthly, but I had no real idea how much work they have done. Fuck Scott Walker and Paul Ryan.
Barbara
@mad citizen: But a lot of that is real estate in New York and Baltimore. I mean, I am sure they have made cash bank over the last four years, but it’s not all easily converted into cash, at least not without a willing banker or a sale.
Frank Wilhoit
@MisterForkbeard: GA will put the 12th Amendment strategy out of reach. NV alone will not do that.
gwangung
@MisterForkbeard: No chance of Bloomberg buying them out of petty cash?
A pity, then.
Dan B
@Jerzy Russian: NBC News says David Andahl died of Covid 19. North Dakota.
Is this due to low info voters or brain dead voters?
Omnes Omnibus
@Rommie: That is really unfair to Manchin.
Miss Bianca
@rk: In other words, the Full
MontyDownfall.Quinerly
@Dan B: we had a poll watcher here in a Red county (St. Charles, MO) diagnosed with COVID-19, told to quarantine before the election, ignored that and went on to the polls to work. He has now died.
MazeDancer
Fox likely to wait for PA or GA. But, who knows.
Amir Khalid
@Dan B:
I suppose he passed away after the ballots were printed, and Republican voters automatically did what Republican voters do: vote for the R.
hueyplong
@MazeDancer: Do it during Hannity, as God intended.
Barbara
@MazeDancer: Among other reasons, having Arizona still open makes it much easier for them to raise money. I have no idea how I made it onto Republican mailing lists but they have been trying to raise money like gangbusters over the last 36 hours. And the thing is, the messages say things like “Don’t let Joe Biden steal this election!” but they never say specifically what the money will be used for. Once it becomes more and more obvious that there is no path to victory, the amounts raised from these desperate pleas will go way down.
Mallard Filmore
@Baud:
“Republicans are nuttier than squirrel shit. #Resist”
https://margaretandhelen.com/2018/11/08/criminals-nazis-dead-brothel-owners-these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-things-thursdaythoughts/
rikyrah
@pamelabrown53:
Every Democrat with $2 will be sending money for those Georgia races.
Not just money, but, phone bank, postcards.
James E Powell
PA updates are coming more slowly and in smaller chunks than yesterday. Have no clue about the mechanics of this. I’d really like to see that gap go below 100K
NC hasn’t updated since yesterday afternoon.
Denali
My son just messaged me from Hungary that Nevada has gone for Biden and it is over. Is this true?
Yutsano
@rikyrah: I have the sales pitch.
If elected, Reverend Raphael Warnock would become the first Black Senator from Georgia.
I think it’s about damn time for that.
Aziz, light!
@Amir Khalid: Without knowing or caring whose name precedes it.
James E Powell
@Denali:
There’s nothing official, but it is the expectation. We will need to wait more.
Dan B
@Quinerly: A Boca Raton polling site was harassed by a MAGA tailgate party that blew air horns at the site and physically attacked poll workers. Fuckery in a few locations but nasty where it showed up.
Very sorry to hear about Missouri. When I was a kid we drove through the state on our way to my mother’s family in Arkansas. St. Louis was a dynamic city. Rolla and others were fun. In the 70’s I stayed with a guy in a great apartment on my way west. The neighborhood was beautiful old brick apartments, abandoned. So fast a decline!
Barbara
@James E Powell: From my understanding, we will not see any updates to NC until next Friday. Yep, NC accepts votes all the way through November 12, presumably if they are postmarked by Election Day.
Denali
@James E. Powell,
He has a friend who is working in the elections. I was napping. Oh, to be over this limbo.
Bruce K
@Baud: There is of course the famous case of Rick Santorum, who was running for re-election to the Senate and lost to a dead man. Not sure there’s been any other case at the federal level of an incumbent losing to a corpse, but I wouldn’t doubt it’s happened at state or local levels…
Bruce K
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Of course you know “near-run thing” is a quote from the Duke of Wellington about Waterloo.
I had, in fact, forgotten that. Still, I’m under the impression that it was as true for Normandy as it was for Waterloo.
Barbara
@Denali: No one is willing to call it yet, but it is highly probable.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: You can’t eat their pets, you union-busting monster.
germy
WaterGirl
@Denali: I would say that is not true.
AZ was probably called for Biden too early. Jen O’Malley believes they flipped AZ, and it was called by Fox and one other, but votes are still being counted and it doesn’t appear to 100% certain that Biden gets AZ.
So for now we need to subtract the AZ electoral votes from Biden’s total. Because of that Nevada does not put Biden at 270, so it is not over.
GA is very tight. At 16 electoral votes, GA could more than make up the 11 from AZ, but GA is not a sure thing either. Very very tight.
So no, not a done deal.
Kent
Happened in Missouri too. Mel Carhanan was elected to the US Senate after he died in a plane crash beating out his very much alive GOP opponent. His widow Jean Carnahan served out his term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Carnahan
geg6
@cain:
I saw (I think on TPM) that Kushner is in charge of recruiting the legal team for all his legal shenanigans and he’s said he’s looking for a “James Baker type.” Apparently, the only one they’ve found so far is Jay Sekulow. LOLOLOLOLOLOL!
Cathie from Canada
On a side note, as a Canadian who has worked several elections, it stunned me to realize that America – the country that ballyhoos the importance of democracy — actually expects that volunteers should do the thankless job of counting votes.
All of these people should be paid.
PsiFighter37
@Kent: Santorum lost to Bob Casey, who is still in the Senate and very much alive. Jean Carnahan also only served 2 years; her seat was put up for special election in 2002; she lost a narrow race to Jim Talent(less).
Kent
If it was true you’d be getting a bazillion different phone message alerts right now.
Hoodie
@geg6: They ran out of those daddy-type republicans a decade ago. Now all they have is an animatronic simulation (Romney) and assorted crazy uncles (Rudy).
Kent
My MAGA cousin in Michigan has been reduced to posting the following on Facebook:
“I wonder if Biden won Ukraine???”
Hah. THATS all you got?
James E Powell
@WaterGirl:
AZ feels better than GA because we are ahead.
Barbara
@geg6: When Kushner and Ivanka got into a spot of bother over their security clearance filings (had to be “refiled” many times due to inaccuracies and omissions), they hired Democratic powerhouse Jamie Gorelick. She was definitely an outstanding choice (although she was promptly distanced by a lot of her Democratic powerhouse friends). I am sure some of the attorneys that have served and maybe who are currently serving in the White House would be perfectly capable of taking this on, but for some reason they don’t seem to be reaching out. Or maybe they have declined. But neither Giuliani nor Pam Bondi is a credible person for such an undertaking.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Bruce K: I’m no expert, and admittedly Omaha Beach was a terrible meat-grinder, but my impression is that American, British and Canadian forces landed and established beachheads at the other beaches without too much trouble. Not to take away from the brave men who fought on all the beaches, since “not too much trouble” is a very relative thing and lots of men died on all the beaches
Then again, a whole lot of things had to go right for the invasion to succeed, so yes, I’ll agree it was a “near-run thing” overall.
Ruckus
@LuciaMia:
I believe that is high powdered, not high powered….
evap
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not so sure! Warnock beats Loeffler in head-to-head matchups. It’s just a question of turning out the Democrats.
Winston
@Cathie from Canada: Poll workers are paid in Florida.
geg6
@Bruce K:
I’m from PA and I don’t remember this happening. Bob Casey beat him in 2006.
Bruce K
@geg6: Oh, right, it was Ashcroft, not Santorum, who was defeated by a corpse. Sorry, I got my scumbags mixed up.
lowtechcyclist
@Cathie from Canada:
You’re absolutely right.
But I don’t expect it to change anytime soon.
So when I retire at the end of 2023, this is something I can volunteer to do in 2024, at primary time and election time. So I think I will.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@LuciaMia: I think we should call them “Dead from the Neck ups”
Suzanne
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, election workers!
I am sick of that phrase being reserved for those who served in the military. Everyone serves.
catclub
I think in terms of finding idiots to attend his rallies, they are more popular now than in 2016. You and I are not the target audience.
Suzanne
Also, I am hearing that Allegheny County (blue-ass Pittsburgh) will not have their totals released until tomorrow.
Bonkers.
r€nato
This is a true story, I swear I did not embellish this, I am not relating a conversation that happened only in my head.
First of all, I ran a voter center in a somewhat high-profile location in Maricopa County, for several days of early voting as well as on Election Day. My team was excellent, in case anybody wants to keep count it was about half no party declared, and I think slightly more GOP than Dem registration. My boss in turn was an excellent employee of the elections department who happened to be a Trump supporter. I am a diehard Democrat my entire life but when it comes to helping people vote, I am Switzerland.
The morning of Election Day I had to announce to the line of dozens of voters that a technical issue that we were working hard to resolve might delay us from opening on time for in-person voting, so here’s the nearest voter centers or just wait in line. It might be fixed shortly, it might be several minutes or more. I had no way of knowing at the time and we were due to open in minutes.
As I am moving through the line delivering the news, I happened upon some white-haired older woman. She started bitching about how this was a Democrat-run site trying to something something the vote, I do not recall her precise words but she was definitely flat-out telling me to my face that shenanigans were going on here.
I pointed right at her and told her VERY firmly, “Ma’am I am a Democrat and I run this site and I resent that remark. Everyone here is working very hard to make sure everyone who deserves to vote gets to vote. You don’t know me, don’t impugn my reputation like that.”
The sour old biddy backed the fuck down though I didn’t get an apology and didn’t want it anyway. I am sick and tired of playing nice with these people. Me and my team worked way way too hard to make the voting experience as easy and as friendly as possible, and we were about to start a 16+ hour day, for me to listen to that crap without barking back.
And now the Sharpiegate nonsense, even relatives of mine are peddling that crap and you bet I’m setting them straight about it. And then that angry mob of armed sore losermen outside Maricopa County’s elections center.
Folks, if you can find the time to do so, volunteer to be a pollworker. Now more than ever good people are needed to uphold democracy and being a pollworker is a great way to do it. It will give you insights into how the election and balloting process is run so that you can educate family, friends, and neighbors and as well ammunition to fight these crazy quarter-baked conspiracy theories, such as the ludicrous idea that elections departments are handing out Sharpies to all voters regardless of their party affiliation in order to fix the election. You might even get to bust a dirty pollworker as I did on one occasion. I’ll give you three guesses what party he aligned with, and the first two guesses do not count.
Comrade Colette
@r€nato:
I’d love to hear that story, if you’re willing and able (and, I assume, can anonymize it).
And thanks for the hard work at the polls!
r€nato
@Comrade Colette:
I am satisfied with how it was handled, so I’ll pass. But thanks and thanks. It’s one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever loved.
r€nato
@Comrade Colette: I will tell you this, though: on one other occasion I was confronted by ballot fraud shenanigans in an HOA election. It led directly to me taking on the presidency of the board because nobody else was crazy enough to volunteer to deal with this crap.
It was a hare-brained conspiracy of three homeowners who all happened to be dyed-in-the-wool Fox News-loving right-wingers. We’re not even sure what they were trying to accomplish, the three of them together still didn’t make up a quorum and they had no allies on the board. They did this shit two years in a row, the 2nd year the shenanigans were much worse than the 1st time they tried it. There’s much more I could tell about that, such as the crazy letters they anonymously sent to targeted homeowners, replete with very serious and very hysterical, fact-free allegations against the current board printed in BOLD and colored type throughout. The kind of thing that if you wrote it as a script you just might get laughed right out of the producer’s office except this really happened. A good thing for the neighborhood in the end, anyway: I was president for eight years and along with a dear friend who passed away much too soon very recently, we did some solid fucking work for the HOA that will benefit the homeowners for years to come, long after I’ve sold and moved away.
WaterGirl
@geg6: They are just now starting to put together their legal team???
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
They are none too bright. Looking for their brightness is like trying to find a 10 watt bulb in bright sunshine 20 miles away.