2024 Election - Thread #1

[Jinx999]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/po...234875333/

Very strong "voting only counts when we win" energy here.

[robkelk]

All The Tropes has a trope titled "The Presents Were Never From Santa"... which I just misread as "The Presidents Were Never From Santa". The misreading is something to keep in mind when voting: They aren't running for your benefit.

[Mamorien]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/po...234875333/

Very strong "voting only counts when we win" energy here.

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."
-- Henry Kissinger, c. 1970

[aku]

Sigh.
https://boingboing.net/2023/11/13/trumps...-word.html
and
https://boingboing.net/2023/11/13/critic...erson.html

[robkelk]

AP: Colorado Supreme Court bans Trump from the state’s ballot under Constitution’s insurrection clause

The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

Said section of said amendment being the one intended to keep Confederates from re-taking government jobs.

The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case.

Because the decision is likely to be appealed.

Oh, and Colorado doesn't have enough Electoral College votes to tip the balance... but the state's example in banning a particular candidate for supporting an insurrection could set a precedent for other states.

[Bob Schroeck]

And I can't find an article about it now, but last night I saw a headline about some Trump lickspittle in Congress reflexively proposing a bill to strip federal funds from states "misusing" the 14th Amendment (read, "applying it to a Republican").

[RMH999]

Here's a link regarding the "Misusing the 14th Amendment" headline

Sen Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is the one behind it.

[robkelk]

Chris Christie ends 2024 presidential campaign

“It is clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for President of the United States,”

Well, yeah -- when you stand on your principles and call the voters' favourite “devoid of character”, you're not going to get a lot of votes.

The silver lining: "The survey found that 65% of Christie supporters – 12% of the total – listed Haley as their second choice. She trailed Trump 39% to 32% among likely primary voters. "

[Labster]

For most voters, voting for Chris Christie was a bridge too far.

[Bob Schroeck]

As a New Jersey resident, I wouldn't vote for him as dogcatcher.

[robkelk]

If you're an American citizen and you live outside of the USA, see Vote from Abroad for information on how to register to vote.

I've been lead to believe that Georgia, for one, had more votes cast from outside the USA than the difference in votes between the two parties.

So, yes, it makes a difference.

Register to vote. And then vote.

[robkelk]

So, who's running?

• Vivek Ramaswamy
  

Wants to build a border wall to keep Canada out.

Good luck building a wall in the middle of the Great Lakes, dude.

Well, he's dropped out of the running.

I believe the GOP's down to three: DeSantis, Haley, and "His Orangeness",* with the first two fighting it out for second place.


* He's an attention whore. I refuse to give him that attention by using his name in public.

[classicdrogn]

There are videos posted about the crowd at Republican caucus locations passing around paper grocery bags and popcorn buckets to stuff the ballots into while the person who's supposedly collecting them waits in the aisle to have it passed back. How secure was this election supposed to be again?

I mean, sure, it's Republicans, so they're just donating pages to line the jailbird's nest, but in theory it could matter who gets second place if SCOTUS makes their saving throw against corruption and rules he's disqualified by the 14th amendment.

[robkelk]

DeSantis has dropped out. Could the GOP nomination be decided in New Hampshire?

[classicdrogn]

The Republican nomination isn't even in question unless SCOTUS rules Orange Jesus is ineligible on 14th Amendment grounds, and I don't have a lot of faith in the politically stacked court doing so except to preserve their own authority.

[Labster]

I feel sorry for little Ronny DeSantis, dropping out so early while his archrival Gavin Newsom is still running for President (in 2028).

I do think that the Supreme Court will allow Trump to remain on the ballot, and that this will ultimately spell the doom of the republic. Perhaps not right away, or even in our lifetimes. But we don't get Octavian becoming Augustus without Caesar, and we don't get Caesar's seizure of power without the example of Sulla. Normalizing seditious behavior becomes precedent for the next would-be dictator.

[robkelk]

It's a little early in the election cycle, but I may as well post this now:

Government of Canada: How to emigrate to Canada

[robkelk]

Oopsie...

What's at stake for Biden in New Hampshire: Avoiding embarrassment

Biden is not actually on the ballot in New Hampshire

[Labster]

Eh, it looks like Biden won as a write-in, which is bad news for every other Democratic hopeful. And Trump beat Nikki Haley, which is bad news for literally everyone besides Trump and Putin themselves.

[robkelk]

And Trump beat Nikki Haley, which is bad news for literally everyone besides Trump and Putin themselves.

And he complained about Haley acting as if she'd won.

Well, if he didn't want people doing that, he shouldn't have set the example in 2020.

[Labster]

Every once in a while I think about the election of the Doge of the Most Serene Republic of Venezia:

New regulations for the elections of the doge introduced in 1268 remained in force until the end of the republic in 1797. Their intention was to minimize the influence of individual great families, and this was effected by a complex electoral machinery. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine, and the nine elected forty-five. These forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally chose the forty-one who elected the doge.

Election required at least twenty-five votes out of forty-one, nine votes out of eleven or twelve, or seven votes out of nine electors.

Got that? So obvious!

I think that's kind of ridiculously complex, but then I remember that the United States has the electoral college. And the primaries. And states with different election rules. The Iowa Caucuses, the New Hampshire primaries starring Dixville Notch.

And now we have Nevada, who held a primary election on Tuesday... and a Republican Party caucus today. Under party rules, any candidate who participates in the primary cannot participate in the caucus, and vice versa. And with two candidates left running, that means that Nikki Haley was the only one in the primary, and Donald J. Trump the only one in the caucus. Unlike candidates, voters can vote in both events. Oh, and in the primary, there was a "None of the Above" option which beat Nikki Haley by 30 points. Literally every step of this is fucking bonkers in multiple ways, the net result of which seems to be an embarrassment trap for Haley to lose to literally no one.

I'm going to go slightly off-piste by talking about Congress for a little bit, because it's an important bit of context about our system. After recently ejecting Kevin McCarthy for a more effective Speaker of the House in the person of Mike Johnson (most boring name ever), so how has that been working out? Well, after lambasting McCarthy for "giving up" for passing a temporary budget (continuing resolution), Johnson's Congress immediately passes another continuing resolution. They prioritize an impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas from the office of Director of Homeland Security, for the great, great high crime of letting hordes of migrants stream across the southern border, picking our vegetables, cooking our tacos, and many other heinous activities. Which is dumb enough, except then it proceeds to a floor vote, and then fails by two votes! Republicans are quoted on the record missing Nancy Pelosi, whose vote-counting ability they respect, if nothing else.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, leadership from both parties has just negotiated a bipartisan compromise, giving Republicans a lot of their demands on securing the border in exchange for foreign aid in Ukraine and Israel, including military aid. They announce this deal with great fanfare, and Donald Trump freaks out, and starts calling senators to kill this "bad deal" that lets Democrats have things. And so two days later, the deal is killed by the GOP leadership in the Senate. Who would assume good faith in any negotiations in the future?

The Supreme Court just heard argument on whether to disqualify Trump from office, given that he tried to exploit loopholes in the Constitution and staged an insurrection. Most likely, this will be decided on political grounds by our illegitimate Supreme Court.

And so when I think back to the Venetian process, I have to remember that they stayed a republic for a thousand years. This process that we have here, right now in these United States, is much crazier, and less likely to endure.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Well, I gave up assuming good faith from the Republicans years ago, so that's nothing new to me.

[Mamorien]

"The Republicans will never forgive the Democrats for Watergate."

[Labster]

Well, the most important day of the election has already arrived, Superbowl Sunday.  I'm not sure if you've heard, but the game is fixed so that Biden will win.  See the thing is, Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce on the team, and because she's dating a football star, this is all part of a CIA black op to fix it so that his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, will win, and Taylor will use that to endorse Biden and s(t)eal the election victory.  The 49ers have no chance, but that all makes sense being West Coast Liberal Elites they will throw the game for Biden.

I wish I was making that up, not reading it in the news.  Let's just say they will be watching the game in a lot of DC pizza places.

Oh, and Trump has his latest line of attack on Nikki Haley: her husband is never around to support her campaign, why is that?  Isn't it strange how he's never around?  Well, would you believe he's on active duty as a major in the Army Reserve, deployed to Africa?  It's not really a new low for Trump, since we've seen so many lows, including towards soldiers.  It's more of a repeat, been-there-done-that low.

[Jinx999]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68266447

Meanwhile Trump is "respected abroad".

Kidding Kidding.

Honorless, Irresponsible, Delusional and Coward are not generally considered terms of respect.