2024 Election - Thread #1

[Bob Schroeck]

Illinois judge kicks Trump off primary ballot for being an insurrectionist

[classicdrogn]

Well whaddaya know. Illinois hates Illinois Nazis too.

[robkelk]

Nikki Haley gets a primary win. This makes her the first woman to win a primary, ever.

[classicdrogn]

So, the SDOTUS handed down the ruling we all expected - throwing the 14th amendment back to Congress, who had previously said "No, this is a matter for the courts" and furth4er saying that no state can use it in elections for a federal position - and as a unanimous decision, even if the statements of the usually more liberal members have some pretty spicy wording for a legal document.

This coming just a couple of days after agreeing to hear the ridiculous "absolute immunity" appeal and setting an unreasonably long lead up before starting that, and it's now very clear that the far right has seized that court as well. It's disgusting and I haven't been this ashamed to be an American since... no, not even Bush Jr., the Trumpniks have completely outdone both Shrubs combined. It's taken me a day and a half to calm down enough about it to even write coherently on the topic, and I don't have a link because I don't want to get fired up again. It's all over the major news outlets anyway.

Checks and balances are dead, and the voting public as a whole has always been a flock of idiot sheep running at the call of the dog who barks the loudest, so basically "fall of the Roman Empire" time this century I guess. Only at least Nero played his violin while Rome burned, instead of sitting around eating fast food and calling the rioters "wonderful people."

[Labster]

This is definitely the darkest timeline.

Checks and balances are dead, and the voting public as a whole has always been a flock of idiot sheep running at the call of the dog who barks the loudest, so basically "fall of the Roman Empire" time this century I guess. Only at least Nero played his violin while Rome burned, instead of sitting around eating fast food and calling the rioters "wonderful people."

I think your weakness in Roman History is showing here, since Nero, despite ruling like a tyrant, didn't hasten the fall of the Roman Empire — it marked the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors, but nothing so troubling like the Crisis of the Third Century.

I think the best parallel is to Sulla's role in the end of the Roman Republic. Although Sulla was using dictatorial powers to try to do the right thing, rather than enrich himself, what he did was weaken republican norms enough that the next dictator could sieze power for the rest of his life. And that was a young Julius Caesar, whom you may have heard of. Trump is dumber than all of these people (who throws away a hegemony?), but all of these rulings and practices established to suit him have made it much more likely for the next, more competent dictator to succeed.

[robkelk]

... so basically "fall of the Roman Empire" time this century I guess. ...

Ideas: The Never-Ending Fall of Rome

Set aside an hour to listen to it.

[classicdrogn]

Yeah, I'll admit that my interest in history largely begins with flying things, though I usually fact check myself better before actually posting anything. I was (and am still) upset and and so did a hand jive while tossing out some vaguely history-like words to convey feeling. My bad.

[robkelk]

So... super Tuesday (no cape!) has come and gone, and Haley took one state out of fifteen. There's no way short of a huge number of faithless electors or her opponent dropping out of the race (one way or another) that she can win the electoral college now. Press conference scheduled for a few hours from when I posted this.

[Bob Schroeck]

or her opponent dropping out of the race (one way or another)

Don't forget that if the Supreme Court rules that the President is actually a king of the sort unseen in Europe for more than a century, they are authorizing Biden to use assassination to protect the election...

[robkelk]

or her opponent dropping out of the race (one way or another)

Don't forget that if the Supreme Court rules that the President is actually a king of the sort unseen in Europe for more than a century, they are authorizing Biden to use assassination to protect the election...

I hate to say it, but... That's what your Second Amendment is for: taking up arms against somebody who you see as a despot. Actually doing so would wreck your country, but it's in your written Constitution.

[Norgarth]

then again, leaving the despot in power would also wreck the country, so ...

[classicdrogn]

The problem with that principle is that the Democrats are the party afraid of big scary guns, so any shenanigans in that direction are likely to go the far-right way. Which is why I'm for protecting the second amendment and rolling back or expanding some of the lefties' pet legislation there, even if almost every other issue sees me more or less in the liberal camp.

[hazard]

or her opponent dropping out of the race (one way or another)

Don't forget that if the Supreme Court rules that the President is actually a king of the sort unseen in Europe for more than a century, they are authorizing Biden to use assassination to protect the election...

I hate to say it, but... That's what your Second Amendment is for: taking up arms against somebody who you see as a despot. Actually doing so would wreck your country, but it's in your written Constitution.

No it's not.

The Second Amendment is not at all meant for individual citizens taking up arms against their own government.

Keep in mind the full text of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

This isn't talking about 'you can murder people for being despots', this is talking about 'we need to make sure that if we must call for a militia to defend their state/nation they can arm themselves properly'. And to no small extent it's a fossil piece of legislation, because the intended purpose of the militia has long been replaced by the army of the United States and the various states' National Guards.

[classicdrogn]

"the militia of the United sStates" is defined earlier in the document as every able-bodied man between... I think it was eighteen and forty? It's not about the semi-organised club-style groups (with cultish implications) we think of when using the word today.

[robkelk]

And defending the state, back when the first ten amendments were passed, included defending it against the King.

[aku]

Well, Media Matter's Guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration

[Labster]

This election has taken a really weird turn, even by the post-2016 standards of American elections. 

Independent candidate RFK Jr. says worm ‘got into my brain and ate a portion of it’.  "Around the same time, the Times said, he suffered from mercury poisoning ..."

Meanwhile, the frontrunner to become Donald Trump's Vice President -- or should I say former frontrunner -- Kristi Noem wrote a memoir.  The South Dakota governor and former rodeo queen included in this story that she shot her own dog because it was too wild and killed some neighbor's chickens, and just wasn't a good hunting dog.  Putting aside whether it was a justified or not, just imagine the judgement to tell the world about murdering a puppy and portraying that as strength.  Oh, and also she threatened to kill Joe Biden's dog if elected President in the book.

Meanwhile Joe Biden's chances of winning are getting lower due to the war in Gaza, which is a situation where there are no good options for the President to take.

[Dartz]

Donald Trump Wins Popular Vote

It's fun watching Americans be happy over this. There's a great buzz in a few forums I'm posting on.

Convicted Felon Donald Trump.

---

I'm sure you'll enjoy telling us paddy foreigners all the things a convicted felon is forbidden from doing in the US. I'm sure I could google it - but someone will devine some shadenfreude from listing each and every one out.

---

[robkelk]

Now to find out whether His Orangeness gets a sympathy "bump" from the non-analytical states.

[classicdrogn]

Unconvictable?

Sadly, I don't actually believe anywhere near as many who said they'd change their vote in opinion polls will actually break free of the trumpista cult, but every bit helps.

[Labster]

‘It’s time we put a felon in the White House,’ California sheriff says (Riverside County, basically a couple big cities to the west of a swath of desert).  I'm not even sure the "Democrats are soft on crime, therefore we should ignore this crime" argument makes sense in context.

I would love for someone at the debate to ask both candidates: "Do you believe convicted felons should be able to own guns?"  Between Biden's son being prosecuted for this, and Trump being a felon himself, it would make a very embarrassing question for both sides.

[robkelk]

Stanford Internet Observatory wilts under legal pressure during election year

The Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), which for the past five years has been studying and reporting on social media disinformation, is being reimagined with new management and fewer staff following the recent departure of research director Renee DiResta.

The changes coincide with conservative legal challenges to the US university group's online speech moderation efforts, particularly around elections. A Stanford spokesperson responded in a statement that insists SIO is not being dismantled and that the organization will continue to pursue its mission under new leadership.

Stanford's spokesperson told The Register, noting that SIO will continue working on child safety and other online dangers. Just not election misinformation it seems, which is odd considering the year. There is a presidential race in the USA, for one thing, as well as a general election in the UK.

[Labster]

In some sense, I think the answer to "is it election misinformation?" is almost always "yes" by now. Honestly the credibility of reality is stretching a bit thin these days. The ex-President is a convicted felon, the current President's son is a convicted felon. Here's an article from CNN where a guy thinks Hunter Biden should be free under the second amendment (the gun one). The House of Representatives held the Attorney General in Contempt of Congress for giving them transcripts instead of interview tapes, because they can't make attack ads with the transcripts as easily; obviously he's going to get right on charging himself with a crime.

Honestly I think the elections outside the United States turned out more interesting this year:
* The United States of Mexico elected a Jewish woman as Presidenta, beating the United States of America. Don't worry, she's attacking the judiciary the same as the last guy.
* The Conservatives are expected to lose really, really badly in the UK. Normally when you call a snap election, you are not the one caught off-guard by the election, but Rishi Sunak has surprised us (and himself!) Between announcing the election in the pouring rain without an umbrella, to giving a campaign rally where the Titanic was built, to leaving the Normandy WWII memorials early to give a TV interview... the messenger is shooting himself.
* Media are already comparing the UK Tories to the Canadian Conservatives in the 1990s, who were actually listed on the endangered species list. Not many people know that fact.
* Right-wing populist parties did really well in European Parliament elections this month -- likely not well enough to take over though. But it looks like Europe is following America's lead in anti-immigrant populism. For the most part that's not about intra-European immigration, and no one wants to go to war with their neighbors.
* Macron called a snap election for the French parliament, hoping that the moderates will be shocked into action by the EU results, but at the very least getting a government with a mandate to govern.

That's way more interesting than the old reruns in American elections.

[Labster]

The recent adage in American politics is that you can't really win a debate, but you can definitely lose one.  I didn't watch the thing last night, because who likes watching reruns?  But apparently Joe Biden did a bad enough job that people are talking about picking a new candidate at the convention.

So speaking of reruns, who's up for an election with a guy named Robert Kennedy, and a contested nomination at a Democratic convention held in Chicago?  My college housemate is getting married in Chicago that weekend, and I think I just decided I'm not going to attend.

[robkelk]

The recent adage in American politics is that you can't really win a debate, but you can definitely lose one.  I didn't watch the thing last night, because who likes watching reruns?  But apparently Joe Biden did a bad enough job that people are talking about picking a new candidate at the convention.
...

His gaffes are leading the Canadian hourly news today, they were that bad. (I didn't watch the debate, either.)

Who would contest the nomination, though? If there are viable alternative candidates, we aren't hearing about them on this side of the border.