What they doin ova der IS GRIFTING!!!!!
I’ve now seen several posts on social media by the usual suspects amplifying conspiratorial thinking about the 2024 election. While this stuff isn’t originating with the “hopium – we’re the resistance” grifters since 2017, they are amplifying it. No matter what Mueller She Wrote retweets, the Harris-Walz campaign is not raising post election funding to do a manual recount in the battleground states. That isn’t going to happen under any circumstances.
No matter what Pam Keith from Florida tweets, she doesn’t understand that undervotes are regular occurrences and that an undervote, or undervoted ballot, is any ballot where the top line/highest office on the ballot was voted for, but one, more, or all of the rest of the races on the ballot where not voted. No one tampered with the actual ballots.
There are some legitimate calls for people to phone bank to cure ballots for the still being counted PA Senate race and helping out on that is legit, but that’s not what’s being peddled. Again. By the usual suspects looking to steal your money.
These two, and dozens and dozens of others, have stolen enough of you money, your time, your hope over the past decade. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MORE OF ANY OF IT!!!!!
The only way out of where we’re are, as I’ve repeatedly explained, is Counter-Guerrilla Warfare+Counter-Political Action+Civic Action. You all did an amazing job on the Civic Action. With a few notable exceptions, the people – primarily the Democratic elected and appointed officials – that had to do the Counter-Guerrilla Warfare and the Counter-Political Action didn’t do their jobs.
Maybe someone will step up and fill the gap of their myriad failures, maybe not, but you now need to protect your time, your finances, and your physical and emotional well being. You need to do this in order to be able protect yourselves, your families, those that will not be able to protect themselves. We will all have to do the small work that because the people that had the power and the positions to be able to take action did not.
Don’t give these grifters, charlatans, and thieves pushing or promoting these ridiculous scenarios any more. They’ve stolen enough from you. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MORE!!!!!
Open thread!
*Genesis Rabbah (300-500 CE)
TBone
Not being on any social media, I’m not clear on who is grifting what (I’m in PA and still cheering on Senator Casey).
Is the repeated email money begging from
housemajoritypac.org
an example of the grift you’re talking about?
(I don’t send any money to PACs, ever.)
hrprogressive
Yeah it’s unfortunate to see Spoutible and Reddit explode with people amplifying this stuff.
The thing is, as we’re well aware, foreign disinformation ops have been going on *a loooooooong time* – why wouldn’t this be another one?
Adam L Silverman
@TBone: No, someone read the fine print in a Harris-Walz fundraising email about funds might/could be used for manual recounts – it’s boiler plate – and then announced this means the election isn’t over, the President-elect didn’t win, and Harris-Walz are going to demand and pay for manual recounts in the 7 battle ground states. That Mueller She Wrote grifter nutter lady then rebroadcasted the post.
hrprogressive
@TBone:
People are losing their shit over a no name account claiming to have evidence that voting machines were hacked with Elon-Approved Code to steal the election for Trump.
Being amplified by a lot of “Resistance Twitter” types.
Adam L Silverman
@hrprogressive: Whether it’s foreign or just desperate people clutching at straws, the usual hopium peddler grifters are now promoting it. For their own profit.
Which is a good chunk of how we got into the mess we’re in.
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to was and wax my car.
hrprogressive
@Adam L Silverman:
Desperate people should probably be yelling at their duly elected Reps and Senators (see Mrmix thread) to get off their asses during the Lame Duck instead of trying to tinfoil hat a scenario where the American people didn’t willingly vote for Fascism.
Enjoy the car wash.
Adam L Silverman
@hrprogressive: They’re not going to do anything.
japa21
Much as it would be nice to believe that there was some kind of conspiracy to hand the election to Trump, and therefore the voters are not to blame, there wasn’t and they are.
JerseyBeard
Thank you for posting this Adam. I greatly respect your assessment and voice.
Kirk
@japa21: And the non-voters. ESPECIALLY the non-voters.
frosty
I signed up for a shift of ballot curing for Casey, who is being a stand-up guy and refusing to concede until all the votes are counted. The sign-up was through mobilize.us which is where I signed up for GOTV, so it’s legit.
This is the last two hours I’m giving to the election. I’ve already given my last dollar; except I’ve still got to cancel an automatic weekly one. Time to get my life back, such as it is.
KatKapCC
Thank you. That Mueller She Wrote person has always aggravated me, and the fact that so many people seem to take her supposed expertise (in whatever area she decides she is now an expert in) as gospel only adds to it.
Pengie
@hrprogressive: I found this one really funny. Weren’t people watching how Elon’s technical management has affected Twitter since his takeover? Rolling out code that’s supposed to run undetected with no possible way to fully test it, to thousands of disparate voting machines throughout the country, and have it work perfectly the first time without having any huge and embarrassing blowups anywhere, just isn’t something that guy would be able to do. I don’t think anybody could. There’s a paper trail for a lot of these systems, and it does get audited as a matter of course. People just voted like morons.
japa21
@Kirk: My opinion on that has changed slightly. In Wisconsin, for example, she received more votes than Biden did. I haven’t done a state by state analysis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the biggest drop off was in places like FL and TX.
TBone
@Adam L Silverman:
@hrprogressive:
Thank you! I’m sure it’ll be mentioned (mocked) sometime soon where I read on my travels, but your early clarification is much appreciated!
Barbara
@TBone: I gave some money directly to Casey and have ignored every other appeal.
White & Gold Purgatorian
Thank you, Adam, for this excellent advice. There is a lot of grieving in our community and it makes us more vulnerable to this stuff.
Baud
@japa21: Interesting. If that holds true across the swing states, then maybe bigotry and not economics is back on the table as the primary reason for the loss.
(In all this discussion, I haven’t seen any account taken of population changes since 2020).
trollhattan
@Baud:
“I’d vote for a woman for president, just not her” remains evergreen from 2016.
“Jenny Ubeatable, please report to the on-deck circle.”
TBone
@Barbara: thank you. Yup, direct to candidate is my only way. This year, just as I was about to do a money blitzkrieg using interest money earned on a CD, a tooth broke! I had to use that money at the dentist. My new dentist is an ex-military Korean immigrant and I adore him. He saw I was still wearing my baby blue Chucks and spoke about being Antifa during my entire visit last Friday. He is NOT playing, he is training his daughter at the gun range and his female dental assistant and I had a lovely time discussing our resistance plans with him. I didn’t divulge too much in public, but I now know where to go keep my skills sharp AND take care of my teeth 😁
japa21
@Baud:
She is running behind Biden in PA and MI, but not by a lot and not enough to overtake Trump.
Baud
@japa21: Yeah, I didn’t think a comeback was on the table. Just saying that people are analyzing things with incomplete data.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
We get mail. Main text from one that just appeared.
The minuscule print.
Am frankly, quite done with campaign 2024, thanks.
TBone
My money will go to the ACLU and Mark Elias, among other institutions I’ll continue to support.
K-Mo
Thanks Adam. Your wisdom is appreciated.
Harrison Wesley
@hrprogressive: There’s an article about it in Newsweek. A friend of mine sent me a link but I’m not going to read it. Oddly enough both this friend and LOML thought of it on their own and decided it was too far-fetched.
Eunicecycle
I use Facebook to keep up with friends only, not to do politics. But one friend put up a post about people not voting, like WTH? Responses from her friends (not mine but some mutual acquaintances) were stunning. These are mostly white women, who said they voted for all the offices except President. They hated both of them. I know my friend voted for Harris, so that’s some comfort to me
ETA I don’t know if this was widespread but maybe one explanation for the low totals for Harris.
Eunicecycle
@hrprogressive: I saw that on Twitter (which I left yesterday and joined Bluesky!) and knew it was ridiculous. We shouldn’t turn into crazy conspiracy theorists that we criticized in 2020.
prostratedragon
“Tango del diablo”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes.. this. I mean in a way it proves there are a hell of lot people in our country who buy into bullshit when people on our side still insist Musk is a real life version of Tony Stark in the face of mountain of evidence that’s been presented he is nothing more than a salesman who got lucky on a corporate buyout.
Steve LaBonne
I do no social media except a fairly low level of Facebooking (mostly for keeping up with selected relatives and friends and for the excellent classical music recordings group) and commenting on one blog at a time, formerly LGM, now BJ. And the kind of craziness discussed in this post is a major reason why. Even the Democratic Party-oriented center left is disturbingly prone to the conspiracy mindset, never mind the territory to the left of that- it’s not only a disease of the right. What to do right now is make sure our personal and family affairs are in order and strengthen our ties to other communities we are a part of (yesterday’s service at my church was truly a balm for the soul). Let party pros and activists sort out what to do next. The rest of us can’t even know what most needs to be resisted until the mofos are actually in power. Have a peaceful holiday season and recharge your batteries.
KatKapCC
@Steve LaBonne: I think the difference can be that the conspiracy-adjacent stuff on the center-left is usually at least partly based in reality. Republicans really do cheat at elections and Russia really did meddle and all that. Whereas on the right, it’s all Jewish space lasers and pizza parlor child sex rings.
Baud
I’ll note that, unlike on the right, the baseless conspiracy theories receive pushback from other people on social media and aren’t being stoked by party leaders.
Steve LaBonne
@KatKapCC: I completely agree. But the conspiracy mindset is still damaging, however and wherever it turns up. It completely disables clear thinking.
way2blue
So. California has not finished counting the votes. By a long shot. Many races still undecided. And. A few days ago there was a bomb threat directed toward a vote counting center in Santa Clara County. That shut counting down for 5 hours. Russians? Anti Antifa? The vast right-wing conspiracists?
KatKapCC
@Steve LaBonne: Very true.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes this, and the whole “We need to have a purge of wrong thinkers in our ranks!” reminds me too much of the RINO hunts the Republicans were having before Trump that got them into this mess were Trump is their god king.
TBone
@Baud: 👍
PIGL
@Steve LaBonne: As a recent refugee from LGM, may I ask why you left?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@way2blue: From what I’ve seen SF Bay Area wingnuts are even more vile and disgusting example of humanity than the Red State ones. As one conservative friend told me, the reason why the San Fransisco Republican party collapsed was because they couldn’t even stand each other. So, most likely our own local assholes are behind it.
TBone
OK, I now have the wherewithal to start reading tankie blogs & comments again to keep an eye on Pooty’s preferred narrative(s). I’ve been staying in the positive lane a lot this past week. I’m now rested enough to go lurking again.
trollhattan
@way2blue:
We’re sufficiently large to generate our own crazies and attract them from offshore. We’re important, damn it!
Steve LaBonne
@PIGL: The proximal cause was Campos’s foot Parkinson’s nonsense. He and Loomis had previously behaved idiotically at the height of the pandemic (Loomis banned me but I just created another account.) I finally had enough.
KatKapCC
@Steve LaBonne:
???
PIGL
@Steve LaBonne: Thanks for answering. Those were pretty much my reasons. Got fed up with Loomis’ bs.
Adam L Silverman
Car is washed and waxed.
KatKapCC
@Adam L Silverman: Ready for its hot date? :P
Steve LaBonne
@KatKapCC: The garbage he kept posting over and over that someone he knew knew someone who was sure that Biden had Parkinson’s, that he was shopping around an article about this supposed fact, and that when Biden had to drop out because of that becoming public it would save the Democratic Party (that worked out well didn’t it). I began to understand why Campos’s colleagues seem to hold him in minimum high regard.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Boilerplate that’s been in the fine print for months.
Steve LaBonne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I mean, they believe Trump is a successful businessman because of a reality TV show.
Marmot
@japa21:
Voter participation was down here in Austin, and we went from 72%-27% (D-R), with 71% turnout to 70%-29%, with 63% turnout.
State wide, turnout dropped 6% points to 61%.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman:
Thank you.
BeautifulPlumage
If you’re on BlueSky there is a list of “resistance grifters” you can subscribe to which lets you mute or block the most common accounts.
Steve LaBonne
@Marmot: Turnout in Cleveland OH was only 46% though much higher in the rest of Cuyahoga County. Actually poor people don’t vote, which is a big obstacle to the political system actually doing anything to help them.
Quinerly
@frosty:
Emailing you later today. Got WG’s email re your info re February.
Friends in Bourbon, Mo on the Meramec River (our Ozark’s neck of the woods) are flooded out of their home. Trying to get info about them. Didn’t realize it was that bad in Crawford County.
Marmot
@Steve LaBonne: Damn, that’s pretty low. And I live in a low-turnout (and -registration!) state.
What’s the usual turnout in Cuyahoga?
Quinerly
@trollhattan:
I unsubscribed after receiving that email.
KatKapCC
@Steve LaBonne: I get the Parkinson’s part, but what about the “foot”? Did he think Biden had the disease because of something with his feet?
Steve LaBonne
@Marmot: I think somewhere in the 60s, as this time, but the southern part of the county is pretty red. I think the usual Cleveland turnout is a few points higher than in this election.
KatKapCC
@Steve LaBonne: “These are people of the land…”
Steve LaBonne
@KatKapCC: Honestly I don’t really remember how the joke got started. It took off from something particularly stupid that Campos said and became a running joke.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@KatKapCC:
Several FPers do the same thing with other sources (Yglesias is simply one of the more prominent ones) and it’s equally aggravating.
Michael Bersin
The uncomfortable reality is that a lot of people voted for Donald Trump (r), and that a sufficient number of other people sat on their hands. At least we know who we are now.
In my county the turnout approached 68%. In the two city precincts I checked in which Amendment 3 (choice) and Democratic Party candidates carried the majority the turnout was 42%. There are only two explanations – voter turnover (they moved) or they sat on their hands. Most probably both.
Meanwhile, the talking heads are busily normalizing Trump:
We welcome the re-ascension of our most holy Fascist overlord
The Truffle
Question: is it time to boycott some of these states?
I have a business trip to Texas. Can’t back out now. After that I will never set foot in the state again. I know there are people who didn’t vote for this. Just not enough to matter.
At least now we can drop the myth that the state is “trending blue.”
I just don’t want to support the state anymore. It’s like going to Sun City during the apartheid era.
Michael Bersin
@Pengie:
“…People just voted like morons…”
The usual suspects.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Eunicecycle:
If asked would they have voted for Biden, would they? Lemme stress I am not on that particular bandwagon post-election but turnaround on that subject is fair play in that we were repeatedly told how different things would be if Biden stepped down.
Of course Biden might then have lost another tranche of voters who were energized for Harris, whothehell knows.
But how white voters ended up voting this time, or not voting, is another useful data point…if we ever get it.
Who am I kidding, it’s race and misogyny.
Bupalos
Folks also need to understand that Putin and the other post-truth right-wing authoritarians are just about as happy to feed and nurture the conspiratorial left as they are the conspiratorial right. Anyone attacking democratic elections and eroding public trust is in effect helping welcome our kleptocratic authoritarian overlords. Bonus points if it’s done in terms of traditional fault lines like ethnicity.
Obama and Biden are congratulating Trump because that is an element of how you fight the post-truth anti democratic movement. We need to spend 100% less time hyperbolizing “the American people just declared they want fascism” and concentrate on framing this election in terms of its closeness, with the balance tipped by legitimate democratic reactions that we believe will accomplish effects opposite to what voters say they want. But we also need to acknowledge that we failed to explain ourselves in terms voters could hear.
Steve LaBonne
@Michael Bersin: We’re all going to have to come to terms with the likelihood that 2020 was the fluke, not 2016 and 2024. That’s what makes looking for somewhere to place the blame so pointless.
KatKapCC
@Steve LaBonne: “something particularly stupid that Campos said”
Oh, so literally anything he’s ever said. Har har.
Steve LaBonne
@KatKapCC: I find myself having a lot of empathy for the dean who unsuccessfully tried to screw him over.
frosty
@Quinerly: Got it. I’ll look for your email and best of luck to your friends dealing with flooding.
Princess
Mad props for citing Genesis Rabbah.
Bupalos
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think you’re just broadly wrong here, but as I accept that we’ve been and still are talking counterfactuals, we don’t know.
From my perspective, you’re ignoring the evidence we do have – the polling, which turned out to be fairly accurate but once again with a D bias – in favor of reference to anachronistic comparisons. Harris moved polls around 5 points in our direction. She did a much better job of campaigning. I can’t see the argument that Biden would have done better in 2024 by reference to 2020 as realistic at all.
we just weren’t speaking the electorate’s language, and reached out for a coalition with the reasonable conservatives over ethereal themes of democracy that simply didn’t work.
Barbara
@Steve LaBonne: In its own way every presidential election is a fluke. It’s why other less flukey elections are so important.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Marmot:
Dropoff here in CO, a state that does everything but pickup your ballot and drop it off for you, was significant in terms of percentages:
87% of eligible voters voted in 2020.
69% in 2024.
I then looked at Denver’s numbers as calculated as a percentage of registered voters:
76% in 2020, the 2024 numbers haven’t been posted yet but everybody anticipates a similar decline.
In terms of number of ballots cast statewide, it was about the same as 4 years ago but the decline in percentage cast when compared to registered voters accounts for the drop off.
WereBear
I still say it was fear that made most of them stay home and sit on their hands.
“What if he wins? We’ll be on the enemies list. I think we’re going to make excuses until it’s too late.”
mr perfect
@Steve LaBonne: Loomis put out a lot of “See I told you I was right” posts after Biden’s stepping down yet was awfully silent on November 6. I’ve deleted my link to LGM, not interested anymore in what they have to say. Professor Juan Cole also seems to have figured it out, he thinks Biden’s Middle East policy cost the Dems the election, not mentioning anything about how an anti Israeli stance in the face of the Israeli Lobby in a close election would have cost the Dems even more Senate and Congressional seats. I’m finding many academics aren’t any smarter politically than the rest of us.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Steve LaBonne:
That being said, the utter lack of self-awareness and introspection he puts forth in his posts about his professional status are massively entertaining.
And, as you said, ample demonstration of why my alma mater (for which I have little regard for) is trying to kick his ass out.
dww44
@Steve LaBonne: well he has a post up this am that it looks like the GOP will end up with a 6 or 7 seat majority in the house. Is that a data documented conclusion on his part?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Bupalos:
I’m not suggesting that Biden would have “done better” but 2020 is the only data point we have at the moment to make any comparisons.
My main interest is the specifics of the voting block mentioned, white women who voted for Biden in 20 and didn’t vote for Harris in 24. Why? Other than the usual assumptions we make about white voters: race.
The Truffle
@dww44: They are still doing recounts. I am still getting fundraising emails for them.
BellyCat
@Adam L Silverman: Suggestion for two people who avidly read here and enjoy A.G. (Mueller She Wrote, Daily Beans, Jack, Cleanup on Aisle 45) podcasts:
Rather than repeatedly snipe at her from the sidelines, might you provide a detailed post about your (clearly negative) opinion about her?
Because, frankly, given that Andy McCabe, the former Deputy Director of the FBI and Peter Strzok (FBI special agent) , trust her enough to do podcasts with her, your unsupported comments seem a bit, shall we say, “shitty”?
I recall seeing some stuff from you on this topic in the way-back past, but if you’ve already addressed this topic convincingly, might you provide a link?
Jacel
@way2blue: Here’s where the statewide status of vote counting is presented. Overall, about two-thirds of the votes have been reported as processed, with nearly 5 million still to process.
https://electionresults.sos.ca.gov/unprocessed-ballots-status
Betty Cracker
@Bupalos:
How?
Steve LaBonne
@dww44: I’m not really following the agonizingly slow counting of the remaining races.
Bupalos
@Baud: I can’t tell if this is what I’m hearing here or not… but it is profoundly distorting to compare the support of Biden in 2020 to Harris in 2024 as if conditions are otherwise equal and the candidates make the difference. By all measures we have Biden was slated to do much much worse in 2024 than he did in 2020. By all measures we have Trump was rather remarkably slated to do as well or better.
I’ve seen a lot of “let’s never run a black person/woman again” and I think it’s insane. Harris did a great job and I’m about as sure as I can be that as a candidate she improved our performance over some generic replacement and over Biden by a lot.
dww44
@The Truffle: Thanks. I kinda knew that but was wondering if any here could support or not Campos’ conclusion that the overall trend was leaning into a GOP majority of 6 or so seats.
Baud
@Bupalos:
Biden isn’t the only white guy in the Democratic Party.
Steve LaBonne
@dww44: That seems to be the general expectation. I don’t have any reason to question it right now.
TBone
@Betty Cracker: President Biden is hosting Donold in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Not sure about President Obama, and not sure the Biden meeting will be congratulatory. (I seem to remember a “he’s a sick fuck” comment made in the recent past.)
Marmot
@The Truffle: May I remind you that our problem is nationwide? Taking snooty revenge on your least favorite state does fuck-all.
TBone
The tankies are all having a good laugh about Mark Cuban as well as our recriminations/blame and finger-pointing. Jaime Harrison is a particularly rich target for them.
zhena gogolia
@mr perfect:
Truer words were never spoken.
theturtlemoves
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Yeah, I was struck by the old saying about how if you meet one asshole in the morning, you’ve met an asshole. If you meet assholes all day, you’re the asshole. Campos seems to meet an awful lot of assholes.
Bupalos
@Betty Cracker: Because you’re affirming the reliability of elections, the importance of the voter’s voice, and the primacy of the peaceful and willing transfer of power under constitutional democracy.
Now after doing that you can (as they all are) outline the way voters just bought a pig (in this case literally) in a poke, with reference to how we’ve failed them in preventing this mistake. But from the point of view of the health of democracy and our ability to inflect the future going forward, there’s nothing Putin would like more at this point than our democratic leaders questioning the legitimacy of the result. Which would include saying some true things they should not. Like that the only way Trump got here was by lying his ass off.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: why I reread “Everything I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” at periodic intervals. Fulghum.
zhena gogolia
@Bupalos:
I basically agree with you here, but I’m afraid it’s over.
Bupalos
@zhena gogolia: This is both true and brings a corresponding truth we may struggle with: Trump is, politically speaking, the smartest player on the board right now.
The Truffle
@Marmot: The Texas state government is particularly horrible. And they keep voting for these people. I don’t hate Texas but let’s just say it is like a person you try to like and that lets you down.
I have donated, sent texts, letters, and postcards to voters there and seen the state candidates lose miserably.
What else should people do? Maybe some of these places deserve to be boycotted.
I used to love visiting Austin and Hill Country. Now, I’m not comfortable doing it. I feel bad for the people who voted against it. This is not a personal attack. But this is a ruby red state where venal politicians are rewarded again and again. I can’t support it anymore.
zhena gogolia
@Bupalos: A thug for a country of thugs.
TBone
@Bupalos: I thought that was the result of his team of criminals, not his IQ.
Steve LaBonne
@TBone: A UU minister, by the way.
dww44
@Steve LaBonne: Thanks, I won’t get my hopes up for a different outcome.
Bupalos
@zhena gogolia: I can’t tell you I’m not afraid of the same thing. But we don’t know where we’re ultimately headed only by the current trajectory. We need to preserve our ability to make turns, and do what we can to correct course.
We still have a lot of strengths. We aren’t Russia.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: I am extremely familiar with him/his work 💜 and have been for years. I share his stuff here sometimes (e.g., most recent journal entry yesterday and again earlier today).
Marmot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Thanks for that. All in all, this was a low-enthusiasm election, at least on our side.
And I know everybody’s always looking to pin it on a favored explanation, but first we’ve all gotta subtract out the global phenomenon of incumbent parties losing.
https://braddelong.substack.com/p/claim-chowder
Bupalos
@TBone: Let’s distinguish political IQ. Trump understands us and our strengths and weaknesses better than we understand him and his.
Marcopolo
So I have to believe someone else has mentioned this here somewhere over the past few days, but as one of the goals of the right wing/authoritarian movement is to flood the information sphere with so much slop that folks can no longer sort truth from fiction & kind of give up on it, I’d imagine an outcome of that might be more folks shutting down when it comes to voting. After all, how do you decide how to vote/does voting even matter? Just a thought but might explain some of the drop off in voting.
Alas, this polluting of information is only going to get worse going forward.
Marmot
@Bupalos:
Agreed. And it fails to take incumbent parties’ global trend into account.
TBone
@Marmot: 👍
TBone
@Bupalos: I don’t buy that. His criminal team may understand Stasi tactics better than our population does.
Starfish
@BellyCat: Adam has already done so.
There are several people that liberals like who are just grifting off of what liberals want to hear instead of knowing what they are talking about.
Mueller She Wrote lost her job because she was focusing on her podcast and not her job, and she sued everyone and accused them of discrimination.
In her divorce, she lied to the court about whether or not she was suing in other jurisdictions.
Given that she is a lawsuit-happy person who is engaging in left-wing grifting, should we be propping her up?
As an added bonus, let’s ruin Beau of the Fifth Column.
If you don’t know who is behind what you are consuming or who is funding it, you never know if you are getting taken in by foreign influence peddling or PSYOPS.
Bupalos
@Marmot: I’ve been talking about this all year. And I think Harris did a remarkable job in a nearly impossible situation.
My worry is that this is going to be explained solely as “the pandemic.” I don’t think so, the pandemic was one single example of the kind of “external” destabilization that has now become (to stay in the vernacular) endemic. Incumbency itself is no longer going to confer democratic advantage generally. That’s the nature of a destabilized globe.
Bupalos
@Marcopolo: I think this is very well put. The public intellectuals that I think do the best job of explaining this phenomena are connected to Russia analysis – Vlad Vexler, Timothy Snyder, Masha Gessen.
Marmot
@The Truffle:
It’s horrible, but not “particularly.” Sadly, we have plenty of company, and we might about to get more.
I get your frustration. However, it’s a majority, but it’s not lopsided. So your ire seems misdirected. Are you now never going to Ohio?
The current rightward shift in the electorate mirrors that of the entire country, so I can’t understand why this particular result has inflamed you against only Texas.
Goddamn do I feel that. This haunts me: A young African immigrant went out of his way, at a nonpartisan voter registration event, to tell me he’d “done his research” and decided to vote for Trump.
That tells me we have bigger problems than the ones that end at the state border.
Something organized. With other people. Not just an individual, petulant stance against your most disfavored symbol.
No argument there. I’ll add the usual caveats that we have crazily gerrymandered districts, low turnout, voter registration suppression and so forth. But the ignorance is towering.
But we as a nation have that last one too.
Bupalos
@TBone: Trump doesn’t really have a political team in this sense. He drives the entire garbage truck of Trumpism himself. Against every bit of advice he gets. And he’s constantly turned out to be right.
This isn’t a claim about Trump’s administrative chops, which appear to be that of a particularly lazy, incurious, and destructive 6 year old. I hope to god they don’t figure out that they have a deadly effective administrative apparatus and a deadly effective political talent, and that if they cooperated and stayed in their lane they probably could create the Big Russia they appear to want.
Except Trump is likely to die soon.
Adam L Silverman
@BellyCat: I did a front page post on this months ago. People got very angry at me. Which is why, after this misinformation warning post, I’m back to only doing Ukraine war updates. I spent over 2 years explaining what was likely to happen on the front page and in comments and all it got me was a bunch of angry comments and emails.
Im sorry to have intruded on your preferences. Listen to whatever you want.
Marmot
@Bupalos:
I think you may be saying “every election is a fluke,” like way upthread. If so, I also think we’ll see a lot more wild oscillation. Hell, I think I may be hoping for it, at this point.
But I believe an incumbent candidate (not party!) still has a bit of an edge, just not enough to overcome some crazy world-historical event.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Something that “Hopeium grifter” comment got me thinking;
1. Trump wining shouldn’t have been such a shock to us, since Biden had to drop out of race, that was a clear and obvious warning things weren’t going our way.
2. And while it weird someone would vote for that dumbass. Again, the imagery Trump’s supporters depict Trump as makes it pretty clear are voting for some imaginary Super Hero called Trump, not the actual half senile fool in a corset that was on the ballet. So again why the shock? Disappointment, frustration yes, but the signs were there for us to see all along.
It’s almost like some grifters played us all by suckering us along by our hopes with things like “first black woman president” that let us ignore so many of our fellow citizens are idiots who think their head cannon overrides the real world.
Suzanne
@Marmot:
It can also be multi-causal. I think the economic stuff is actually really salient, but that’s all in concert with misogyny and racism and transphobia, not ILO.
The Truffle
@Marmot: Why would I want to go to Ohio? Some states swing back and forth in elections. Even Ohio once went for Obama.
This was a sudden anti incumbent swing right. Among other things.
I’ve heard for years that Texas is “trending blue” or “purple” with no one offering proof of it. I feel sorry for someone like Jasmine Crockett, who has no political future beyond the House.
And I have a bad feeling that African immigrant is about to be deported.
I’ve heard the reasons you mention about the state’s ruby red status. I’ve visited. Taken vacations there. Supported the economy. Interviewed Texas artists about the state.
I no longer feel comfortable doing it. Even during the most recent visit it didn’t feel right. I can’t do it anymore. I’m sorry. Like I said, after the business trip, I’m done.
You are correct—Texas needs a kickass ground game, a Ben Wikler, a Stacey Abrams. Some great activists who can deliver. Maybe a Marc Elias type. I hope you can find them. As for the Texas voters who go voted against this, I wish them the very best of luck.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well, those constant rallies he does can be viewed as a bit of conversation between him an his supporters. Considering how polling is now shit useless at best, and more likely out right grifting, doing rallies is a legitimate method as anything else to take the pulse.
The Truffle
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: At the same time he can’t run again. He will never be on the ballot again. Without that, who is there as a successor? They can’t rebrand Trumpism as Vance-ism.
Marmot
@The Truffle:
That “trending blue” thing was based on closer and closer presidential vote margins, along with demographic changes and a shift toward a more-urban electorate.
So yeah. It would be nice to know where things stand, if the general global phenomenon can be subtracted out of the results.
About that young African fellow: I know. It makes my head hurt. I couldn’t stop thinking about it after it happened. He must’ve been through a naturalization ceremony, so maybe … I don’t know.
Geminid
@Bupalos: I thought Trump had a very good campaign manager in Susan Wiles. You may not have heard much about Wiles until he won, but that’s one of the reasons she was such a good manager.
Marmot
@Suzanne: Yeah. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. Just that given a global trend, we must account for its effect before jumping to our hobby horses.
Marmot
@The Truffle: This is another of my high hopes.
The Truffle
@Marmot: Leopard, face, etc.
This isn’t an attack on all Texans and I hope you didn’t take it that way.
As I said, there are Texans who didn’t support this. I wish them luck.
Betty Cracker
@Bupalos: I agree they shouldn’t question the legitimacy of the election and that it’s their job to participate in the peaceful transfer of power by having meetings, providing access to space and info as necessary, etc. I don’t think they should congratulate a fascist or feel obligated to participate in ceremonial bullshit to honor him. I’d love it if every Dem skipped the inauguration, for example.
BTW, I haven’t heard about Biden or Obama issuing congrats — just responding to your hypothetical. The only Dem I’m aware of who has is Jeffries, and I only know that because someone posted a statement from his office here. Maybe others have too. I don’t know.
Soprano2
@Baud: That’s a gripe of mine, they act like the electorate is static when it’s not.
Marmot
@The Truffle: Well, I kind of did take it that way. It’s phrased that way. But I appreciate your more considered responses.
From my perspective, I am constantly vilified for the actions of like 6% – 10% of the state’s voters. And Mississippi exists!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Marcopolo:
It’s called “The Firehose of Falsehood”. A Russian-style of propaganda for an age of information abundance.
-High volume/multi-channel approach
-Shameless in its willingness to broadcast lies
-No commitment to, or requirement for consistency
-Rapid, continuous and repetitive messsaging
-Point is not to persuade but to confuse and overwhelm
-Assumes a low trust environment and lowers it further
-Number of arguments matters more than their quality
-Drown out competing messages thru sheer volume
KatKapCC
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know about Biden, but this was from Obama’s Facebook post after the election:
He did not have to say this, and honestly it lowers my opinion of him a bit that he did.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Truffle:
It’s not unlike controlled, fusion reaction: always 20-years off.
The Truffle
@Marmot: six percent? Really?
if you ever wanna move, come to the northeast!
PS: I have been to Mississippi too. It is awful.
The Truffle
@Marmot: On an added note, I have no sympathy for the Texans who just didn’t show up to vote, even after all the catastrophes in the state. I know that sounds rude, but it’s how I feel.
way2blue
@trollhattan: Maybe the RW locals are disappointed they didn’t get to go to full warrior mode given Trump won the top slot…
Betty Cracker
@KatKapCC: Yeah, that’s gross.
The Truffle
@Betty Cracker: I call it “killing him with kindness.”
Marmot
@The Truffle: Yep. Biden’s loss in 2020 here was by about 5.6%, if memory serves
Edit: I appreciate the offer, but I don’t particularly like the Northeast. You’re gonna laugh, but I find a lot of folks there quite provincial.
KatKapCC
@The Truffle: It ain’t killing shit but Obama’s own credibility.
Jinchi
Agreed. Democrats don’t need to be any more gracious in defeat than Republicans are in victory.
Ramona
@BellyCat: seconded. I like Allison Gill. But I like Adam too. So I am keeping an open mind.
Ramona
@Starfish: wow! BEAU sounds real bad. But, I wouldn’t trust what Volokh says.
The Truffle
@KatKapCC: they know he won’t meet with him. This is just a gesture. They are tossing him a cookie.
BellyCat
@Adam L Silverman: You did not “intrude on my preferences”.
You have academic credentials. I have academic credentials. Neither of us should or do tolerate unsupported claims. I was simply asking what the support was for your claims.
But, if you want to take your ball and go home, that is always yours to decide. I, for one, appreciate your insights which, unlike what I could readily discern here, usually offer substantial supporting evidence from you.
BellyCat
@Starfish: Thanks for the links.
Personally, I find neither of these compelling. Divorce is complicated and these filings could easily be thought to be unrelated to her employment dispute. In fact, many family courts have separate docket numbers for custody from the divorce filing (PA being one of these).
From what I understand, A. G. has genuinely suffered some serious PTSD given that she was apparently raped in the military and there was no action taken. I tend to give someone in that situation a little bit of leeway.
What I find more interesting is that her former husband was a highflying member of the Trump circus monkeys. Talk about a house divided…
Ariobarzanes
@BellyCat: I’m fairly certain that AG and the “Alison Gill” mentioned in the story about the divorce are two different people.
For one thing, there’s the spelling difference: AG is “Allison”, with a double L.
For another, and as far as I can tell, AG secured a divorce in California in 2021, not (as in the case discussed in the story) in Florida in 2019.