Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

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

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Sooooper Tuesday

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Sooooper Tuesday

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For some reason [glares in general direction of EM], the bulk of the tweets I’m seeing right now are MAGAts imploring each other to vote early & often. Of course, their guy has a serious (if doomed) challenger — CRUSH NIKKI HALEY FAITHLESS BROWN BEYOTCH is a common subtext. Even the most frantic doomers have trouble proposing Dean Phillips as a potential threat to Our Guy in the Oval Office.

All the details spelled out, for those who want to start marking their cards:


Associated Press writers gettin’ snarky, or maybe punchdrunk:

… ARE WE THERE YET?
As of Super Tuesday, there will be 132 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, 167 days until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and 245 until the November general election.

“For entertainment purposes only”, as the betting sites always say:



Complaints Department:

… The U.S. is “pretty close to the only democracy in the world” that has the participants of the government controlling the redistricting process and making the rules, said Michael Miller, a political scientist who specializes in democratization at George Washington University. “For a huge swath of our country, it’s still parties picking what’s best for the current party in control.”

What several experts said they find most striking about the U.S. compared to some other democracies is that the right to vote is not enshrined in the Constitution.

The amendments make it illegal to deny specific groups the right to vote, “but there is no provision in the Constitution that gives you the right to vote generally, other than the anti-discrimination provisions,” said Paul Smith, vice president of the Campaign Legal Center.

What is there is “not the same as saying every citizen has the right to vote and to participate in a free and fair electoral process. If I could wave a wand, I would start there,” said Nathan Stock, associate director of the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program. “That lack of a codified right allows for a lot of other mechanisms, voter suppression, all kinds of issues that at this point are fairly unique to American democracy.”…

There is one notable bright spot. Despite hurdles to voting and a selection process for presidential candidates that can exclude much of the country, Miller, of George Washington University, said the actual administration of elections is “exceptional in the United States.”…

“Even well-established democracies have much higher degrees of errors or even some degrees of violence,” he said. “We don’t really have that — so far, anyway.”

Small print minutia:

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Doesn’t feel that super.

    Anything interesting other than the California Senate primary?

  2. 2.

    different-church-lady

    [glares in general direction of EM]

    You still won’t admit you have a problem.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Is Alex Thompson a professional reporter or just some schmo?

    The editorializing is unprofessional, but that describes so many professionals in journalism these days…

  9. 9.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Baud: Anything interesting other than the California Senate primary?​

     Electoral-Vote blog suggests keeping an eye on North Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial primary.

    “On the Democratic side, AG Josh Stein has raised more money than any of the other candidates and is the overwhelming favorite. The Republican side is much more interesting. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC), a Black Army veteran and extremely outspoken Trumpist and all-purpose bigot, wants a promotion. He is running against state Treasurer Dale Folwell and lawyer Bill Graham. If Robinson wins, Stein can break out the champagne as Robinson will be an easy target in November. All Stein will have to do is make ads featuring Robinson speaking. There is plenty of material. A Robinson victory could also affect the presidential election. Trump carried the state by about 1% in 2020, but Stein could have coattails that help Joe Biden.”

  10. 10.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I initially thought that was Emmanuel Macron, and I was very confused.

    At first, my eyes registered the closing bracket as a J, and I was even more confused than that. ‘Who the hell is EMJ?’ I was asking myself until I realized it was a bracket.

  11. 11.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Interesting article claiming that most analyses of rural voters treat them as if they have no agency. The academics being interviewed wrote a book called White Rural Rage: The Threat to Democracy. They assert that if they can’t bring themselves to vote for Ds, rural voters at least ought to be demanding better Republicans because right now, they vote for people who don’t do anything for rural America’s many problems.

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    @H.E.Wolf: Never heard of him until about a week ago, but Robinson sure sounds like a kook, and if he’d be easier to beat, I guess we should hope he wins? Rooting for crackpots is a dicey business since there’s always the chance they could prevail. But since I’m just a spectator, it’s okay. ;-)

  21. 21.

    EireIAm

    voting from abroad again this year. democrats abroad really want me to vote in their presidential primary rather than the CA presidential primary, but that means having to juggle a bunch of stuff.

  26. 26.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I feel like I’ve been saying that for years. Glad someone credible agrees.

    I’d have thought it was something that barely needed saying. Lord knows we’ve been pointing out for years that WWC folks keep voting against the people who’d lend them a helping hand. And I don’t recall anyone saying they didn’t include rural whites in that assessment.

    It’s not like they’re without power, it’s how they fail to use it well.

  27. 27.

    Percysowner

    I’m not in a state that is part of Super Tuesday but early voting has started here in Ohio. So I’m going to place my “Joe Biden is NOT too old” vote this week.

  30. 30.

    mali muso

    Here in VA, the polls are open and my kiddo’s school is closed as it’s our polling place.  Planning to take her with me to go cast a vote for Biden in a bit!

  33. 33.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Spanky: Yeah, saw that, and I read it as “they’re desperate to find a candidate who can generate even Joe Manchin levels of excitement”, which isn’t the same thing as saying Joe Manchin generates a lot of excitement. It sounds to me like No Labels is at the point where they should seriously consider courting Bill and Opus from the Bloom County Meadow Party ticket.

    Or if they’re truly desperate, Baud!2024!

  37. 37.

    Scout211

    Our primary is today but the media is predicting a lower than normal turnout.  The last opinion poll had Garvey and Schiff in a “statistical tie.”   I hope that polling is wrong but the low turnout and the fact that three really good Democratic candidates are in the race and may split the Democratic vote is now a possibility.

    And the national media is focusing on “Democratic infighting” as another thing that “may” give Republicans an “edge” in California.

    LOS ANGELES — Democrats have dominated  California politics for years, but party infighting heading into Tuesday’s primaries could give Republicans an edge in swing U.S. House districts that are expected to help determine control of Congress.

    In Southern California’s 47th District, which includes famed surf breaks in Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach, Democrats Dave Min and Joanna Weiss and their respective supporters are bickering through a haze of back-and-forth charges involving a drunken driving arrest and allegations of profiteering from sexual predators.

    In the Central Valley farm belt, bitter exchanges between Democrats Rudy Salas and Melissa Hurtado in the 22nd District have prompted fears in the party that two Republicans could end up on the November ballot, with the Democrats boxed out.

    Fingers crossed for good night for Democrats.

  42. 42.

    R-Jud

    @EireIAm: I’m volunteering at a Dems Abroad event tonight here in the UK. Since the state where I vote (PA) doesn’t have its primary until late April, I’m going to vote in the GPP.

    Remotely, of course. I’m not schlepping down to London to vote in person.

  45. 45.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: Is Alex Thompson a professional reporter or just some schmo?

    IF his twitter profile is to be believed, Thompson is a ‘national political correspondent at @Axios. writing a book on Biden’

    So this, I presume, is a form of advanced self-promotion.

  49. 49.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @rikyrah: Yes, they are. The authors of that article are criticizing press coverage as much as anything else. Diner interviews treat rural voters like children who don’t know what they’re doing to themselves.

  53. 53.

    JAFD

    The New Jersey primary is June 4, which may put us last on the schedule (May 14th is the registration deadline.  Beat the rush.).  Looks like both Menendez’, father and son, will have primary challenges.

    Hoping that I’ll be working at polling place a lot closer to home, not a mile away.  At my age, working from 5:15 AM to set things up, thru to 8:45 to get the results triple-checked and submitted and the tables and chairs folded up and put away – easier if not a half-hour trip there and back.

    Anyway, your local Board of Elections (or whatever your locality calls them) probably needs people to work on Election Days.  Mayhaps you’ll find it a rewarding experience.

  54. 54.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    They are.voting for Whiteness

    Yep, and it’s so important to them that they fuck themselves over, year after year.

    The weird thing is, outside the South, rural America is very, very white.  It’s not like they have to worry about those awful black people (/s) trying stuff in their small towns.  Rural white voters outside the South don’t need to vote for white dominance, they have it and there’s no threat to its going away out there.  They could vote their interests, but they won’t.

  55. 55.

    mrmoshpotato

    Enjoy it, Milwaukee.  Enjoy it.  (And keep all that trash north of the state line.)

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @H.E.Wolf: North Carolina Democrats also have a strong candidate for Attorney General in Rep. Jeff Jackson. The 41 year-old Jackson currently represents a district that includes part of Charlotte and its suburbs. Republicans gerrymandered him out of it so now he’s running for AG.

    Jackson is an Army veteran and according to at least one commenter here, a “thirst trap.”

  64. 64.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    Lots of migrants on farms outside the South. Don’t necessarily need black people to vote whiteness.

    Bet they’re really, really pissed at the landowners who employ the migrants. /s

  66. 66.

    H.E.Wolf

    @mali muso: Here in VA, the polls are open and my kiddo’s school is closed as it’s our polling place.

     Our elementary school in small-town MA didn’t close for elections. Instead, voting booths were set up along the wall in the cafeteria.
    These were the old-fashioned booths, with a curtain across the front, and a lever that voters pulled to cast their slate of votes. I don’t know about the other kids, but I was wildly intrigued. Grown-up things! And mysterious machinery!​

    ETA: The internet tells me that everyone now votes at the middle school….

  68. 68.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    NC will be a good test for that young woman who took the reins of the state party.  I’ve got my fingers crossed for her.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From that Rolling Stone article:

    Keith Bass, who led the White House Medical Unit from 2017 to 2019, confirms that these sorts of debriefs did, in fact, happen after counseling sessions. But he says they never went into details; they were merely to determine whether a “medical/behavioral health event” would prevent a “military/DoD staff” member “from performing their duties or impac[t] their ability to maintain a [top secret] clearance while assigned to the White House,” Bass says in an email. “Detailed clinical notes were not required from the psychologist; only a broad overview to determine fitness for duty status.”

    Yeah. Sure. Right. They were concerned about maintaining top secret security in trump’s White House. My ass.

  72. 72.

    Scout211

    Some good legal news yesterday.

    A federal appeals court in Florida blocked enforcement of employer provisions in a law state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” in a unanimous ruling on Monday.

    The big picture: In upholding an earlier ruling, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in an opinion Monday said the legislation “exceeds the bounds of the First Amendment.”

  78. 78.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Geminid: ​
     Fingers crossed for Mr. Jackson!

    “Thirst trap” made me laugh. One of my grandmothers had a crush on Seiji Ozawa, then the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

    …and *her* grandmother, per her diary entries, had season tickets to the BSO in the early 1900s. The conductor was likely Karl Muck, who (thirst-trap-wise) was a fine type if you like that type.

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Good article — thanks for linking! My dad is a rural white wingnut who was a small business owner until he retired in 2020 — a notoriously Republican demographic. We’ve had countless unfruitful arguments about politics over the years, but probably the closest we’ve ever come to agreement is on how shitty and corrupt the Republicans he votes for are. And yet he and the rest of his cohort keep voting for these shitty and corrupt Republicans and getting nothing in return. It seems to be a vicious cycle with no end in sight.

  84. 84.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Dropped off my ballot yesterday. The presidential primary was the only race on it. Felt good to mark it for Biden/Harris.

  88. 88.

    EarthWindFire

    @TBone: I think they should run a race, since Biden’s in such bad shape and Trump is such a perfect physical specimen. /s

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I attribute a lot of Republican voting these days to “negative partisanship,” voting not so much for your your side as voting against the other side. The Republican Party relies very heavily on this dynamic now because they are on the wrong side of public opinion on.major issues, and can only succeed by demonizing their opposition.

    I think the term “negative partisanship” was coined by a political scientist a decade or so ago, but this dynamic is as old as political life itself. Rachel Bitecofer explains it well in her February, 2020 New Republic article “Hate is on the Ballot.”

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    From the Biden superfan article in the NYT:

    Ms. Russell, the Biden backer on Earp Street in Philadelphia, said there was only one thing she would change about Mr. Biden — the flip of white hair on the back of his neck, which sometimes sticks out over his suit collar.

    “It drives me nuts,” she said. “Just trim it!”

    She’s right. There’s an actor whose name I forget — a guy who played a handsome baddie in “Lost” and more recently in “Yellowstone” — with the exact same hair issue. Trim it! ;-)

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @H.E.Wolf: Rep. Jackson is not a thirst trap for me, but I can see how he would be for others. He’s lean, dark and handsome, a Gary Cooper type.

  101. 101.

    R-Jud

    @EireIAm: The chapter I’m working with is less than six months old, so it’s hard to say. We’ve established some links with the local unis to see about registering expat voters a little later in the spring. Tonight’s thing is more of a social event.

    Anecdata: of our 15 or so members, only the three people over 60 are concerned about Biden’s age.

  102. 102.

    H.E.Wolf

    @mrmoshpotato: @H.E.Wolf: Haha! Interesting.​

     I am just full of long-ago MA trivia this week! “Lowell millworkers unions” was yesterday’s feature. :)

    @Miss Bianca: ​@H.E.Wolf: I am not sure I can even guess at what the term “thirst trap” means. 

    I gather it has more than one meaning… I went with the most positive interpretation (since we want this guy to win), which would be “good-looking”.

    (At which point, I Googled his campaign website. Another case of “fine type if you like that type.”)​​

  104. 104.

    H.E.Wolf

    @NotMax: ​@H.E.Wolf
    There have to have been a plethora of Big Dig quips?

     Alas, no! The Big Dig was after my time in MA. I was only featuring antediluvian trivia. :)

  106. 106.

    TBone

    @OzarkHillbilly: Joy Reid last night discussed the possibility of the traitor being read in on national security secrets again when he’s the official Nominee.  I hope he’s fed disinformation and left out swinging in the wind.

  111. 111.

    Geminid

    @Baud: According to this morning’s Political Playbook, the Republican primary in Texas’ s 23rd CD is worth watching:

       TX23 GOP Congressman Tony Gonzalez faces a challenging primary, driven by his past moderate stances on gun safety and immigration. Gonzalez faces multiple challengers, and the runoff threshold could kick the primary into overdrive there as well.

    Texas requires a candidate to exceed 50% to advance. Otherwise, there is a runoff between the top two finishers.

    That rule came into play in 2022, when Blue Dog Henry Cuellar won his runoff against challenger Jessica Cisneros(?) by less than 400 votes.

  112. 112.

    Jackie

    @TBone: That’s been on my mind since it became apparent TIFG will win the nomination. I wonder what Joe’s plan is to thwart – or at least minimize – that? I’m sure he has something up his sleeve?🤞🏻

  113. 113.

    H.E.Wolf

    @schrodingers_cat: @H.E.Wolf: Do you come back to visit?​

     Pre-pandemic, yes. I miss my family, friends, and future friends in MA! I’m not currently comfortable with the COVID-related risks of travel. :( Thank goodness for 21st-century connectivity….

  116. 116.

    Geminid

    @Jackie: Biden officials will likely give Trump the bare minimum in his secret briefings, and not disclose sensitive information. If Trump wants to make an issue of it, that’s his problem.

  126. 126.

    gvg

    @Jackie: My memory says Trumps administration didn’t cooperate with the Biden campaign which had been traditional up until then. So I guess it’s just tradition and common sense left over from the nuclear scare era. Also, Biden has not kept Trump updated as former President which was also traditional. I would say, he is not going to be briefed.

  127. 127.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Didn’t Super Tuesday used to be pretty much all and only the Deep South?  I don’t pay attention because I don’t believe in primaries, but that map was not what I was expecting to see.

  130. 130.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud: speaking of California,  yesterday I got to do the first strategic voting in my life. I voted for Katie Porter. I think I’m voting for Adam Schiff in the general, but the jungle primary means a vote for Katie can help keep Steve Fucking Garvey off the general ballot. Anice change from Mississippi,  where I would be pleasantly surprised when there’s even a democrat to vote for.

  131. 131.

    Juju

    @Betty Cracker: I live in NC. All of the Republican candidates are crackpots, Robinson is a bigot and a giant flaming asshole in addition.  All of the Republican candidates would govern the same way, the difference is in the packaging.

  132. 132.

    Subsole

    @Miss Bianca:

    Among the youth of today, when one is unbelievably hornt, it is called being “thirsty”. As in, “this one has a passionate thirst for that one’s physical charms.”

    On social media, people will often flaunt their physical charms to goose engagement. Basically, a thirst trap is someone who uses their physical charms to get you engaged with their channel.

    It’s the Zoomer term for the age-old principle of putting gorgeous underwear models in your toothpaste ad.

  133. 133.

    Subsole

    @BellyCat:

    There is an entire galaxy worth of difference between not knowing, and not caring. 

    One is excusable. The other is not.

  142. 142.

    AM in NC

    @Betty Cracker: Robinson is a true-believing, misogynist, Christo-fascist whackaloon.  It is insane that he was elected to ANYTHING, let alone a state-wide office.

    We have a LOT of work to do to increase turnout in rural areas where Democrats feel defeated.  Our new Dem. Party Chair (Anderson Clayton) is from rural NC, and she is all over this problem.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    @AM in NC: No, but Boone is five hours away and I sometimes visit there. A nice college town with a big hiking, biking and kayaking community.

    Blowing Rock is 12 miles or so away. I really like that town. One of my favorite trips is to take I-81 south to Roanoke. From there I’ll drive the Blue Ridge Parkway to Blowing Rock. That’s a nice, easy stretch of road.

  145. 145.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Manyakitty: You probably got farther than I did. I’m a hard-SF kinda guy, but I did like the first few.

    You might enjoy some of his novels (This Immortal, The Dream Master, Lord of Light, et al.) and shorter fiction (“The Keys to December,” “A Rose for Ecclesiastes,” “The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth,” “For a Breath I Tarry,” et al.)

    I met Roger a few times while he was ensconced in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore. I recall a surprisingly courteous (by SF fandom standards) disputation with him over The Mote in God’s Eye when it first appeared. I also recall a scene at one Disclave, when I’d somehow ended up in the writers’ suite and watched with dismay as Alexei Panshin hectored him over something or other. (I very nearly volunteered to help Roger stuff that insufferable twit down the nearest garbage chute on that floor of the Sheraton Park…but Roger, the epitome of courtesy as always, let AP have at him without batting an eye.)

  147. 147.

    Geminid

    @Geminid:

     

    @AM in NC: I also am impressed that Madison Anderson graduated college a little less than five years ago. She was a double major, Political Science and Journalism.

    Plus, I like how Anderson came out of a non-“elite” school. She got where she is by virtue of her ability and work ethic, not some fancy academic credentials. It’s fitting that her University’s motto is Esse Quan Videri: “To Be, Rather Than To Seem.”

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