From our onsite reporter: Fulton County is having technical difficulties. They are on the phone with tech support.
I'm not joking.
— Drew McCoy (@_Drew_McCoy_) April 19, 2017
Updated at 11:45 PM EDT:
JUST IN: Rare data error from one of the cards means Fulton Co. will have to manually go through hundreds of cards to find the culprit.
— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) April 19, 2017
Now back to Peggy at tech support!
Open Thread!
patroclus
54% in – Ossoff at 50.3%.
NYCMT
This would be the ratfucking phase.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh??
Bill E Pilgrim
Never gets old
Raoul
Just saw that GA is one of the electronic-only, no paper receipt voting states. So let the games/theft begin!
JPL
I know the city council results are in for Roswell so the 6th district results can’t be far behind. It’s actually No. Fulton that votes in the 6th which is a different demographic that Fulton County. It’s the conservative area or some call it the old white men in a truck district.
BlueDWarrior
So yeah, would this be a good thread for posting favorite “technical difficulty” bits or production cards. I’m partial to the “drunk cameraman” from the Treehouse of Horror Simpsons specials.
Like so…
GregB
@JPL:
The douchebag demographic.
Anya
Is Fulton Ossoff friendly or GOP strong?
Bill E Pilgrim
That Discover ad also reminded me a little of this.
weaselone
So…I suspect that Handel was going to take just enough in Fulton to get Ossoff below 50% without any shenanigans. The question is that as she was the SOS that oversaw the installation of these machines and was previously a member of the Fulton Board of Commissions, does this bit of weirdness hurt her in the runoff?
JPL
@Anya: GOP strong.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raoul:
This has been the case for years. Can get a paper receipt when I withdraw $$ from my bank account, when I fill my tank with gas, but it’s too fucking impossible for my VOTE??
As rikyrah would say:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Phuck. Outta. Here.
JPL
Ossoff will be in a runoff and if Trump does something stupid, he has a good chance. Believe me, Trump will do something stupid.
I awoke at 4:30 am and put out signs, and tomorrow, I have to collect those signs by seven. night
Anya
@JPL: Thanks!
efgoldman
@patroclus:
It’s been stuck there forever. Apparently they had to borrow fingers and toes from other counties for tallying.
In this part of the country, we’re used to most races being called within a few minutes of the polls closing. I thought Georgia had come at least into the late 20th century.
Anya
@JPL: I am hoping for indictments resulting from the Russia investigation.
MomSense
And this is after the data breach in Cobb County.
Yarrow
patroclus
@efgoldman: So did all of us. Here’s the latest update: 54% in – Ossoff at 50.3%. Same as it ever was.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Here you go, I’ll update up top:
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: I thought that’s what I just posted in my comment? I just can’t do the fancy tweet commenting like you front pagers can.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Rare data error, well can’t have anything to do with Trump. He only goes for well done.
burnspbesq
Cards?
As in SD cards?
This has the scent of rat. The only thing that ever goes wrong with SD cards is that they get lost.
BlueDWarrior
@SiubhanDuinne: Because people don’t want to make the logical leap. Every electronic voting machine is perfectly capable of spitting out a receipt or Scantron-like slip that can be manually recounted if need be. The problem is you have partisan executors of elections who don’t want to do that for varying reasons.
To me the simplest thing to do would be to go to bubble-fill ballots that take ink, so you can feed to a machine for initial results, and then recount manually if need be later.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: It is, that’s why I wrote here you go. I went back and prettified it for you!
BlueDWarrior
@burnspbesq: they could be like old ZIP drive cards, never know
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman: If Edmonton has any brains, they won’t come out for the third period.
Feebog
I wonder how bad it would be if it was a fucking common data error?
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: The helmets are to keep them in their heads!
Adam L Silverman
efgoldman
@BlueDWarrior:
IBM cardboard punch cards, the way things are going.
@BlueDWarrior:
That’s what we use in most of New England. Easy to use, easy to count, hard to fuck up.
Luthe
@BlueDWarrior: That’s what we have here in the great state of Connecticut. You fill in the bubble with the special pen, feed it to the machine, and poof! your vote is counted. With a nice paper back-up just in case.
amk
hanging chads, here we come.
patroclus
Here’s the latest – 54% in; Ossoff at 50.3%.
mai naem mobile
@JPL: have you seen the clip on twitter of some guy stealing Ossoff signs? The person recording it zooms into the guys license plate after the guy shoves the signs into his trunk.
Gian
it said open thread, and this is I think a big biden deal
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dreamer-protected-daca-deported-mexico-presid-article-1.3071333
A California Dreamer protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been deported to Mexico — the first under President Trump, according his attorneys.
Juan Manuel Montes, 23, was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers on Feb. 17 in Calexico, Calif. after he was on his way to take a taxi home from seeing a friend, according to a complaint filed Tuesday.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
@Luthe:
California has the same thing. I think ours is called Inkavote.
Though they do usually have at least one electronic machine available for the disabled or people who prefer it.
EBT
https://twitter.com/TerahBoyd/status/854544086153531392
bemused senior
Actually there is a lot of SD card error. The following linked article goes into excruciating detail but is fascinating.
mai naem mobile
I know it’s not likely but is there an automatic recount is the win is < 0.5%?
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
You’ve put your finger (heh) on it.
I have a friend/former colleague who used to refer to the South as “Land of the Six-Toed Sisters.” Trying to convert between base 10 and base 12 is daunting for even a few New Englanders, I reckon, let alone The Suthren.
amk
48.7% with fucking fulton reporting at 72%. ratfucking mission accomplished.
BlueDWarrior
To complete my thought on election mechanics: I am not so much afraid of voting machines (aside from normal mechanical failure), but more of the people who run the machines. If we had non-partisan electoral mechanisms, I would be far more willing to accept the status quo with election machines writ large. But as it stands now, I want proof in triplicate that votes are what we believe them to be.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, okay! I was wondering.
Adam L Silverman
patroclus
84% in – Ossoff at 49%.
Just 33 precincts remaining.
CNN projecting a run-off.
GregB
@Gian:
Totally humane. Bigly.
Feebog
@Mnemosyne:
In LA County it’s all ink-a-dot, except for a special machine for the blind.
bluehill
Wonder if GA called Turkey for some advice on how to run “fair” elections.
BlueDWarrior
It looks like he’s going to hit what his number is in polling, which was right at 49-50%. So him not ending the election tonight won’t be a terrible shock; disappointing yes, in a purely partisan sense, but not entirely shocking.
tobie
@amk: Ah man…it felt so close and now there has to be a round 2. I’m afraid this may dampen Dems spirit. It does mine.
Gian
@BlueDWarrior:
I remember when Bartcop was around in the early 2000s and Bev Harris of http://blackboxvoting.org/ was mocked.
I can’t say I’ve followed it all that well since, I have vague memories of it all.
BlueDWarrior
@tobie: It will for the time being, because it’s hard to not hit a goal in electoral politics, but you have 2 months to get spun up again.
rikyrah
@Gian:
This story makes no sense to me. They stalked this young man ??
Adam L Silverman
Sab
Not funny. Repubps steal another election.
Adam L Silverman
amk
@tobie: For an unknown till a few weeks back, this is a bfd. Runoff is not the good time to run off.
Yarrow
@tobie: When Trump, his family, and his cronies get indicted by the FBI then I think Dems’ enthusiasm might increase. I expect indictments soonish and I doubt the whole thing will be wrapped up by June 20, which is the date of the runoff. People will be angry at what Republicans have done to this country.
amk
@Adam L Silverman: wow.
Adam L Silverman
@amk: Yep.
Mnemosyne
@mai naem mobile:
That’s what I’m wondering, too. You’d think that Ossoff would have a good case because of the acknowledged error, but IANAL and don’t know anything about GA election law.
tobie
@BlueDWarrior: True. And two more months of the orange turd will be two more months of disaster for the country which will hopefully wake more people up. One thing that’s fallen by the wayside though is any faith in the integrity of elections. I mean the actual balloting process. I’m with @Sab: and @amk: on this one.
Gian
@rikyrah:
the California legislature has been quite confrontational with Trump, especially WRT immigration, I suspect this was a factor in targeting this guy. I anticipate they’ll hang their hats on what was probably a petty theft as their reason.
IMHO the idea is to terrorize the immigrants so they won’t complain about wages, working conditions, or ask for SCHIP for their kids.
patroclus
95% in – Ossoff at 48.6%.
The Dangerman
PEBCAK
amk
Icing if it is true. This might give some rethugs to stand up to twitler at least.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
Really, the guy got as many votes as the 5 Republicans combined in a deep red county in fucking Georgia and you’re discouraged?
Man. Up. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
sharl
Adam, I have an OT question for you: in your world, is there a distinction made between Wahhabism and Salafism? From stuff I’m seeing around the internet, they are almost used interchangeably. On the other hand, I’ve seen at least a few people knowledgeable about MENA include both terms in a tweet or whatever, implying (to me) that however small the differences between the two may be, those differences must be significant to someone, somewhere.
Omnes Omnibus
This is a jungle primary, right? Choosing two people will participate in an actual election? Or am I missing something?
amk
another good point.
efgoldman
@rikyrah:
Makes perfect sense to me. ICE clearly sees itself as free to practice whatever Gestapo tactics they want to try.
danielx
OT, but yet another brick in the wall…
The gang that not only couldn’t shoot straight, they couldn’t find the damn trigger.
“By the time the White House was asked about the Carl Vinson, its imminent arrival had been emblazoned on front pages across East Asia, fanning fears that Mr. Trump was considering a pre-emptive military strike. It was portrayed as further evidence of the president’s muscular style days after he ordered a missile strike on Syria that came while he and President Xi Jinping of China chatted over dessert during a meeting in Florida.”
“…the president’s muscular style…”? Villager, please. It hurts too much when I laugh.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Exactly. This is one of the most defeatist threads I have read in a long time.
Adam L Silverman
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: if somebody gets a bare majority there’s no second election.
ETA: and seriously, guys, that was always a reach goal. Calm down.
BlueDWarrior
@Mnemosyne: This also gets Osoff’s name out there. If he comes up short on 06/20, he can try again in 2018 proper, when Trump might be even more radioactive for the Republican Party.
So yeah, there will be half-steps and false starts – that’s just how electoral politics are. But we have to push forward even if we do end up tracking off to the side here or there.
Adam L Silverman
@sharl: One sec, let me pull up the doc file with my official explanation and I’ll be right back to you.
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
I expect indictments, but nowhere near “soonish.” I’m thinking a minimum of a year from now for most of them.
They’ll get some low hanging fruit first, and squeeze them to roll.
Lizzy L
@Omnes Omnibus: Effectively, yes. Run-off in two months.
ETA: Our guy almost won the damn thing! This is a damn good result.
tobie
@Mnemosyne: I’m not a man and I reserve the right to kvetch tonight, though I will no doubt wake up tomorrow and fight on.
Sab
My late lamented German Shepherd understood politics. I could bitch to her (yes she was a bitch and proud of it) about politics and she understood me. My current lovely canine is a not very bright possibly mostly st bernard.She mostly wishes I was not so anxious and would walk her more. I cannot get her to understand that I would walk her more if I was not so anxious about our safety.
Doesn’the help that she is breed aggressive and a major jerome about meeting other dogs in the park. How the fuck do you expect me to walk you when you want to eat every dog you meet.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Unless someone gets 50%+1 tonite. Doesn’t look like it.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s my understanding. And, as I said in the other thread, I doubt that Karen Handel’s position as the woman who personally wrecked the Susan G Komen Foundation is going to play well in the general election. I could write that commercial myself: Handel made money off her sister’s death from breast cancer while trying to deny mammograms to other women.
sharl
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks! Just curiosity on my part, so don’t go out of your way.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
In a special election no less.
Go go go!!
Adam L Silverman
@sharl: Here you go:
Major Major Major Major
@BlueDWarrior:
He’s also like 30 or something, so he’ll be around a while.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
True story: my sister-in-law ruined Christmas last year because her mother brought her a vanilla shake when my SIL wanted caramel.
Don’t be my sister-in-law.
(Yes, my SIL is in her 40s, which just makes it that much worse.)
sharl
@Adam L Silverman: Oooh, Ossoff is beating expectations, if that 49% holds for the remaining 16% of precincts. In any event – unless he has a last minute mad dash to 50% + 1 (I think) – there will be an election on 6/20 for the seat.
sharl
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks Adam!
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
Also, too: Trump did last minute robocalls and tweeted all day long about this election like the madman he is and Ossoff still came within 1 or 2 percentage points of pulling off a flat-out win in a jungle primary. In a red county in GEORGIA.
amk
@Mnemosyne: Which was fucking thug newtie’s seat for years. And then obamacare ratfucker price’s. I don’t think kill obamacare is gonna be their the thugs’ ‘platform’ any more.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: so you’re saying we’re all going to die and should light our hair on fire right?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: With you on this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Also burn the crops and poison the wells.
Yarrow
@tobie: @Mnemosyne: It’s okay to be disappointed and even comment about it. People handle disappointing losses in different ways. Tobie, whenever you’re ready to get back in the fight there will be a bunch of people with you.
Meanwhile, I just saw this. I’ve been wondering what McConnell has been hiding. This could be some of it.
Adam L Silverman
@danielx: We were damn lucky that Kim and the DPRK didn’t do something stupid in response to all the inaccurate reports and inaccurate statements that were being reported about the task force heading to the coast of North Korea to show the flag.
As I’ve written here before: strategic communication is very important. It is also easily misinterpreted by the receiving side. Given the almost hermetically sealed context of the DPRK that is even more likely when dealing with them. That everything stated and reported turned out to be completely wrong, including Secretary Mattis’s statement of correction from earlier today, when we need to send an accurate message for the DPRK to hear, based on this stupidity, which reinforces their belief that we are always lying, they’ll believe we are lying.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Please explain how this result is a loss.
ETA: It was a win in a jungle primary. Would getting to over 50 % have been awesome, yes. But this is Georgia and this result is good.
Adam L Silverman
@sharl: The file is on the same computer I do Balloon Juice posting and commenting on. So other than having to put footnote numbers back in because WP won’t recognize them, no trouble at all.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Well, that’s why I linked to a funny song from Book of Mormon in my first reply. Though I suppose I could have gone for the classic, Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? clip instead.
If we go with a sportsball metaphor, this was part of a series, like in hockey. We tied this one on their home ground, and now we go for the win in the next game.
tobie
@Mnemosyne: I get it. I just wanted to indulge in a schadenfreudelicious event tonight. Now I’ll have to wait till June. On that note, good night, BJers!
amk
patroclus
The AP still hasn’t called it (although others have), so I’m still awaiting more results. But none have come. so they may have called it a night and will finish up the count tomorrow morning. In any event, it’s a HUGE win for the Dems who, as others have pointed out, took a majority of all votes cast and the voters for the 4 other Dem candidates (about 1600) assuredly won’t be voting Republican. The question is turnout in June, so we need to keep the momentum up. Plus, other than Gray, I think Handel is the weakest of the Republican candidates. It could have been better, but it’s still a very good night.
Adam L Silverman
@sharl: You’re welcome.
Sab
@Yarrow: Yarrow: are you a Briti or are you a Brit in America. Makes a lot of difference about how I feel about your comments.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t have enough to waste like that
weaselone
@Omnes Omnibus:
All candidates. R 50.5, D 49.4. We still need to find a way to grab about .6 % from the R’s and add it do the D column or get enough additional D voters to turn out and R voters to stay home to accomplish the same thing.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: This has been widely known for a while. Because of Citizen’s United there is so much foreign money floating to Congressional elections, a lot of it being Russian, that rubles should be taken in the Congressional cafeteria. Also rials.
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: I think Yarrow was trying to cheer me up. Loss meant not outright win which is what I was moaning about. Anyhow…I need my beauty sleep before a long day at work tomorrow so good night to all night owls and/or residents of the west coast.
mai naem mobile
I flipped to CNN coverage after MSNBC went to Maddow repeats. Jeezus, when did CNN become Fox Jr.
Also, Brian Williams had Amy Parnes and Jonathan Allen on their HRC campaign book. I I actually felt nauseous when they started talking about election night and switched channels. Not sure when I am getting over the 16 election.
PhoenixRising
@BlueDWarrior:
And that, ladies and germs, is the exact system in use in my county and state, where the elected officials who run elections are all, and have been since statehood, Democrats*. Who want people to vote.
*Some exceptions apply; due to some graft we had a R replacement put in after the elected Dem took a plea and resigned, and the appointed-by-the-GOP Gov got herself into a spot of trouble by taking campaign funds to the casino so many times they opened her a charge account. Oh, and some of her campaign funds were donated by people who never heard of her & don’t have bank accounts. For her closing outrage she had her grandchild’s father arrested for kidnapping when he arranged to take his son out of state to see his mama. She got 60 days and turned in her keys, reminding all New Messicans that there are some things too sacred to let Republicans handle, like your remaining fingers on that hand after they shake it.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: Ossoff didn’t reach 50% to avoid the runoff. People might perceive that as a loss, even though technically it isn’t. Not attaining what was thought to be possible (or perhaps even probable, depending on the person), can feel like a loss.
I don’t think it’s super helpful to police people’s emotional responses to tonight’s results. People will respond in different ways. Not everyone feels great about it and ready to fight right now. Some people need to retreat and regroup so they can fight again. Sometimes that includes bitching about it.
@Adam L Silverman:
I missed this. What was this correction about?
efgoldman
@tobie:
I’d think Dems, and especially women, will crawl thru the cliche broken glass to vote AGAINST Karen Handel.
She seems an even worse version of Snarly Fiorina.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: You have a special Balloon Juice computer? Fancy!
amk
(((CassandraLeo)))
@efgoldman: I’m honestly having a difficult time thinking of a worse candidate the Repubs could run at this point. Being known as the woman who destroyed Komen at the expense of other women is not likely to be a particular advantage.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Fix’d. It’s weird to me to say that the guy who got the same number of votes as his next 5 opponents combined “lost” tonight. I know that some people may be feeling it as a “loss,” but it’s not one, and I hope those people will realize that after a good night’s sleep. We can’t afford defeatism since we just spit in Newt fucking Gingrich’s eye and the Republicans are going to be even more panicked than they were before this run-off.
ETA: What happened tonight is that Ossoff WON the nomination in the jungle primary. He didn’t lose. He WON.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Not to police people’s reactions? Cool. I find despairing comments disheartening. Don’t police my reaction.
PhoenixRising
@patroclus:
If for no other reason than because the line to dope slap each of them in sequence forms at the Alabama border. They’re not going to have time or energy to fuck up the NEXT election.
efgoldman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Right here
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: He explained that they had pulled the Vinson Task Force out of the exercise with the Australians, which is not true. They are on station and participating in that exercise. The port call is what has been cancelled.
I think part of the problem here is that Mattis has NO STAFF!!! He’s got no SecNav. He’s got no Service Secretaries at all. He’s got no deputy or assistant or under or assistant deputy or deputy assistant secretaries and he’s got none of the equivalents at each Service. And there are no directors, deputy directors, deputy assistant directors, and/or special assistants in place either. It’s Mattis, whatever Trump Campaign loyalists were on the Landing Team, a political commissar doing business as the DOD Liaison Officer to the White House, and then the civil service and uniformed service personnel. There’s an entire couple of levels of personnel missing and, as a result, nothing is working correctly. Same thing at almost every department and agency and bureau. This is not optimum.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Where’s the ‘Any Key’?
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You don’t need to know…
efgoldman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Right next to the “PANIC” key, where it always was.
Adam L Silverman
@(((CassandraLeo))): Very white, very conservative, very conservatively Christian district. Yep, holding the line against the evil, baby killing, satanic Planned Parenthood isn’t going to play well at all…
Ossoff did very, very well. Exceeded his polling expectations. He has a real shot. But it is not going to be a cakewalk.
jacy
@efgoldman:
There’s also the fact that she’s an icky girl — aren’t there a stripe of Repubs that just will not vote for icky girls? Maybe they lose a little bit there…..
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: He got more votes tonight, but he didn’t win the seat. Some people are disappointed about that. I think he did great, especially in that district. If you look upthread I have commented that I think events will move in a direction that will make Republicans even less popular and mean he has an even greater chance of winning in June. All around good stuff. I do understand if people are disappointed in tonight’s results, though.
@Omnes Omnibus: I wasn’t.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
It wouldn’t surprise me if the RWNJs spent a record amount and then some for a house race.
PIGL
@Lizzy L: I don’t mean to be Debbie downer, really I don’t…and as a foreigner observing in horrified fascination my perceptions may be unreliable. And yet over and over again when it really counts the Democratic Party does really really well but loses anyway. No, I am afraid I don’t take encouragement from this I see just one more example of a long string of near misses … and a miss is as good as A light year.
Mnemosyne
Amusing non-election story:
G’s brother (my brother-in-law) has been seriously dating a new guy for over six months, so they’re at the meeting-the-family stage. I was already pretty sure I liked him long-distance via Facebook, and then my BIL reported that T was surprised to hear that when my BIL visited us in California, we did not go to The Happiest Place on Earth.
I just texted back to G that, when my BIL and T come out here to visit, T and I will be skipping hand-in-hand through the park wearing matching ear hats while G and my BIL sit at the bar in the Grand Californian sipping cocktails. G was unable to disagree with my prediction. ;-)
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: They will.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks. I did hear that, but didn’t know that’s what you meant in your comment.
Yeah, the lack of staff all through the administration and various offices is already a problem and I can only see that getting worse. We kind of have a barely functioning government, and as you have said previously, when and if some crisis happens we simply don’t have the people in place to handle it.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: You all live near the Bunny Ranch?
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: You were not criticizing my comment?
Raoul
@PIGL: I understand the sense of foreboding. But this and KS recently are heavily GOP seats. They may appear to fit (real) past patterns of Democratic not-quite-enoughism, but actually aren’t.
That said, we have a ton of work to do to start winning outright again! And part of that, I hope, is these races can act as real world tests of progressive & Dem messaging to actually reach voters. It sounds like GA-06 is one of the, if not the most educated GOP CD in the nation.
So what works there could work in other swing-ish, prosperous suburbs around the country (not in a one-size-fits-all way, but learning what can work that isn’t just D.C. focus-grouped dem paid strategist speak).
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Adam L Silverman: I dunno. I mean, her actions also prevented women from getting mammograms, which, you know, were pretty much the whole point of Komen. Abortion is one thing, but if it had just been about abortion, her actions wouldn’t have incited the firestorm they did. Her actions intrinsically harmed the cause her organisation supposedly supported. She basically completely destroyed the entire reputation of her organisation entirely on her own. That’s… quite a record, and I don’t see it as being advantageous even in a deep-red district. If you prevent women from getting mammograms, I suspect that pisses off even a lot of people who hate abortions.
I’m not saying it’s going to be an easy race. But Handel has vulnerabilities as a candidate that I don’t think any of their other nominees would have had, and I think Ossoff is capable of exploiting them.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
It wasn’t an election to win the seat. It was an election to win one of two slots to run for the seat, and he did. Outright winning the seat was always a long shot, and he came within, what, a few hundred votes of doing it?
@Adam L Silverman:
And yet the Planned Parenthood thing hits on a true area of vulnerability for the Republicans: breast cancer and mammograms. In a time when the Republicans are working hard to take away people’s healthcare, pounding on the fact that Handel tried to take mammograms away from poor women is not going to play well even in a conservative district.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Osoff basically won the general election tonight. Republicans have had a rather nasty habit of not supporting each other after primaries lately and Handel has enemies in her own party. This is not a given for them.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Uh, what part of “brother-in-law” and “boyfriend” was confusing? Unless I’m very out of touch about the services available there, there’s not much to entertain gay men at the Bunny Ranch.
ETA: Though I did hear that Obama was going to build us a high-speed train to get to the Bunny Ranch. Yet another false promise!
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
It could easily look like November’s battle for the CA 7th District, where Republicans tried to unseat Ami Bera.
Omnes Omnibus
@PIGL: Thanks for the helpful comment.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: The loyalty tests that are being used (from multiple reports: has candidate ever publicly made a negative statement about the President also, no one who isn’t a Republican) isn’t helping either. AMB Patterson would have made an excellent Deputy Secretary of Defense. She failed Senator Cotton’s litmus test of being the US Ambassador in Cairo when Morsi was President of Egypt and therefore interacting with him. I know AMB Patterson – she’s a sharp, effective, career foreign service officer. She was Ambassador Islamabad from 2007 through 2010 during a particularly difficult time in the region. She’s worked with senior military officials. She’s an effective administrator. So a lot of qualified folks that would be willing to hold their nose, vis a vis their personal political support for the President, because they’re professionals and believe these jobs need to be competently done, aren’t even going to get a chance to do the right thing and make sure that these jobs are, indeed, properly done.
And, of course, the President has indicated that he isn’t planning to fill a lot of these positions. He can’t just get rid of them, Congress would have to do that, but he doesn’t have to fill the billet. They did this last week with the Special Envoy for Combatting Anti-Semitism, as well as the whole section that assignment is in. Which also means we have no Special Envoy for Combatting Extremism and Promoting Human Rights. Nor a support staff to conduct these functions. Not like we’ve got a global extremism problem or anything…
Mary G
I’m feeling optimistic tonight. All the footage I’ve seen of Ossoff’s campaign people shows they are FIRED UP, READY TO GO, and will continue to fight through the June election. I will certainly be donating more money if I can scrounge some up. To get that many votes in Tom Price/Newt Gingrich territory is amazing and two months from now Twitler will have inserted his foot into his mouth about a thousand more times. Even the staunchest Republican has to be cringing at all the incompetence. I thought the story of how Kushner found Trump’s China advisor by looking through Amazon was hilarious.
Adam L Silverman
amk
@Adam L Silverman: Didn’t she also lose the previous elections that she contested? It’s not a gimme for rethugs any more.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I answered your question. I did not criticize your comment.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Methinks this triggered bunny thoughts:
“skipping hand-in-hand through the park wearing matching ear hats”
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Notice he got exactly the same number of votes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Nah, that’s up by Reno.
Adam L Silverman
@(((CassandraLeo))): The whole point of Komen was raising money for Susan Komen’s sister. Every single audit showed that the vast majority of money that Komen raised didn’t go to anything or anyone but the people running Komen. Komen deserved to die. It deserved to die for being a grift. It deserved to die for infantilizing women in regard to their fight against breast cancer. Planned Parenthood did not deserve to take a hit.
ruemara
I’ll take it. Look at that number. He beat 3 other candidates combined. And he has cash on hand for the runoff.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Raoul:
So a majority have finished 6th grade?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: It did not. I was being a smartass.
Mnemosyne
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Yeah, I’m not sure that men really get just how radioactive Handel managed to make the Komen Foundation (sorry, Adam!) They lost millions of dollars in donations and sponsorships along with their position as the premier breast cancer advocacy organization. Handel’s actions single-handedly destroyed everything that had been built, and all so Handel could exercise her personal animus against Planned Parenthood.
There are a lot of women who are still pissed off about that, and who are going to be willing to donate money to see Handel humiliated at the ballot box once again.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Must I prioritize the feelings of pessimists? If so, why?
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Adam L Silverman: Agreed; it was a vile organisation and I’m glad it’s basically dead now. But my point is that Handel’s actions in particular are going to be a bad look, particularly given that the Republicans’ attempts to take healthcare away from poor people have already caused controversy among their base. Handel’s actions are going to dovetail with an existing narrative that is already hurting Republicans. It’s an extremely effective angle of attack and I think Ossoff has the political instincts to use it well.
Adam L Silverman
@amk: She has had some issues. I’m not saying she’s going to have it easy either. I’m just saying it will still take hard work for Ossoff to win in June. It is possible. And I think he has a good chance. But it isn’t going to be a gimme.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: How many of those women are the GOP voters in GA CD 6? I understand the hostility. I was one of the people that couldn’t stand Komen before this. But if this is what it took to destroy Komen, then fine. I am sorry Planned Parenthood was collateral damage. I am not sorry that Komen finally got brought down.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne:
I understand that. I also understand that he could have won the seat outright if he hit 50% or higher. It was a goal and thought to be possible, although a bit of a reach. Some people are disappointed that he didn’t win the seat outright today. I get that. I’m just being sympathetic to those people. Personally I think he did great and it’s a great sign for Democrats. I just don’t want someone who’s feeling down to feel even worse because they’re not bucking up right away and feeling full of fight right now. Some people may need to regroup a bit.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
I have one of those sitting on a counter which I can see from here. I used to know how to work it. That was back when Jesus was a small boy though.
amk
If the counting halted for the night?
Adam L Silverman
@(((CassandraLeo))): Again, how many of the registered female voters in GA CD 6 are conservative Christian Republicans? That will determine the type of support that Handel gets from women.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman:
Hey, that’s my job!
Adam L Silverman
@amk: No one knows…
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No, it is not. Get your own schtick.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s the ten thousand dollar question, isn’t it? It depends on how Ossoff plays it. He has to hit Handel hard on it without looking like a bully. And as we know from November, the Republicans that Ossoff convinces to stay home or vote third party rather than for Handel are almost as valuable to a win as the people he convinces outright to vote for him.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Loyalty tests are just…ugh.
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: Conservative Christian Women will vote for Donald Trump because they feel he will protect their interests. One of the key promises many of those women are upset about is the attack on Planned Parenthood. Because not all of them believe in lack of access of birth control services and women’s health services and more than a few have need of a discrete safe abortion (not like the ones those sluts get, one that’s for slight error god already forgave them for). Don’t underestimate the rationalization and self-interests at work.
Major Major Major Major
Ah, right, of course this stew is what I get when I order black coffee in Hanoi.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: I was here first, get in line bud.
(Damn FPer’s think they own the damn place.)
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know why you’re asking me that question.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Being that it’s a two person race at this point, there isn’t a third party.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@ruemara: Hey, it worked for President Hillary Clinton…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Eh, what stew?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne:
I have shoelaces that are bigger than Ossoff. I’m not sure he can do bully. This may be a surprise asset. If you don’t look or sound like a bully it is easier to push your opponent around.
ruemara
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Their interests and hers didn’t dovetail. It was kinda obvious.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: It is what it is.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I do think that the fact that Handel was specifically taking away women’s mammograms throws a bit of a monkey wrench in the usual anti-Planned Parenthood playbook. Republicans spend a lot of time insisting that PP only does abortions, so pointing out that not only does PP do mammograms, but that Handel specifically tried to deny them funding for those mammograms gets Republican voters all mixed up. The more Ossoff can make them think about that disconnect, the more likely they are to hesitate to vote for Handel.
Adam L Silverman
@ruemara: I don’t.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: How are things in Hanoi?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@ruemara: I’m having a problem understanding your second sentence in the context of your entire comment. Hence my snark.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Ironically, the misogyny of conservative Christian women may actually work in our favor this time since they’re going to have to choose to actively vote for a woman. It may not turn a lot of conservative voters off, but every little bit helps.
Yarrow
I wonder how the June 20 date of the runoff will affect turnout. Kids are out of school, people are taking vacations and so forth.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I was thinking that as well, or they may have other things to do that day.
sharl
@ruemara:
You reminded me of that survey Planned Parenthood took of PP-supporting, Trump-voting women in the month after the election. What a grim eye-opener.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
My understanding was that we all take turns being the smartass.
That’s how it’s been working out around here for as long as I’ve been reading.
Ef gets a turn, BinG, OO once in a while, you on a more regular basis, me…….
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Obviously, but I am not responsible for your issues.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: black Vietnamese coffee.
@Yarrow: good! It’s only about 80 degrees out so it’s a perfect day for a stroll along the lakefront.
Shalimar
@Sab: From her point of view, the possibility of confrontation with other dogs might be a big reason why she wants to walk more. Feature, not bug.
Heywood J.
Ossoff did really well in a tough district, and after two more months of mouth farts from Twitler, he’ll have a fighter’s chance. The problem is that they are more than willing to steal it right out from under him. The FEC should be investigating that moron precinct manager who had four e-voting logs swiped out of his unlocked pickup truck at the Kroger, something that most people in a position of responsibility would be summarily dismissed for.
I hope Tom Perez has a real battle plan for this one, because it’s doable. But it will take more than just money, the Dems need a team of eyes on everyone. These people are corrupt through and through, and have no reservations about stealing it if they can’t win it fair and square. I’m not sure whether sore winners or sore losers are worse, but Republicans are obviously both.
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ve heard that Vietnam is not a bad place to retire to. Any truth to this?
efgoldman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Is not!
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: Neither am I responsible for yours.
@Major Major Major Major: Excellent! Were you able to get the coffee?
I saw you mention some travel site in a comment the other day but can’t remember what it was. Did you get a good deal for this trip?
Mnemosyne
@sharl:
The more I read stuff like that, the more convinced I am that it was about race for Trump’s voters. Period. Trump hit every white supremacist button that white voters had, and they responded like Pavlov’s dogs. They ignored issues that they claimed were vitally important to them just so they could vote for him.
Adam L Silverman
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sharl: I would say I was surprised to see they didn’t know Trump’s position on Planned Parenthood, but I’m not. I’ve heard the “Oh, he’s just saying that, he wouldn’t actually do that’ dismissal quite a few times.
Adam L Silverman
I’m to bed. You all have fun!
khead
I’m tired. And old. So I will take y’alls word for it that I should be excited in the morning.
Mnemosyne
@Heywood J.:
This is my worry as well. AFAIK, the only way to defeat those kinds of shenanigans is to make it a blowout, because trying to change (say) 10 or 20 percent of the votes is impossible to do in an untraceable way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: I thought you a dozed off, goldman.
ETA: I thought Ruckus’ Idea is workable; we take turns being the smartass.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
Hot and humid
Ruckus
Same for me. It’s a school night and I need my beauty sleep. For those of you who wonder why that’s not working only one thing to say. You haven’t seen me when I don’t get it.
Mnemosyne
@khead:
Go scritch some kitteh bellies before bed and you’ll feel more optimistic in the morning.
efgoldman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
GregB
Ossoff should play up that he plays the character Q in the most recent James Bond films.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: No shit. I don’t like defeatist comments. I object to them. If you want to bitch at me about it, have fun. I still find defeatist comments unhelpful and object to them.
Yarrow
@sharl: Thanks for linking that. I hadn’t looked at it before. This bit caught my eye:
The Republicans want to run away from him but are scared to. Dems would do well to make them own him as much as possible.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
I heard not so bad in the north. But yeah the south is a sweat box.
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus: I don’t know, I’m 31. I would move to Bangkok though.
@Yarrow: yep, still black Vietnamese coffee though lol. The site was theflightdeal.com
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: And misogyny. The factor that seems to get the least attention from our esteemed media.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: unlike America’s retirement capital Florida.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks. Enjoy your coffee.
sharl
@Yarrow: Absofuckinlutely! Plenty of people in both houses of Congress are on the record for voting against women’s health issues every time they get the chance, and now that includes VP Pence, the tie-breaking vote for the Senate. On health care issues in general, and women’s health care in particular, group the lot of them with p*ssy-grabbing Trump then wrap the whole fetid scrum with many loops of duct tape, push them out to sea in a leaky rowboat, and as they drift away from shore toss them a few anchors for good measure.
Heywood J.
@Mnemosyne:
Exactly. I would also note that 124,917 people turned out to vote for Rodney Stooksbury just six months ago, and if just 100,000 of those folks could have bothered themselves to vote today, instead of what looks to end up at around 92,000 for Ossoff, the runoff could be avoided. I get that turnout is lower for special and midterm elections, but it’s not like this is for dog catcher or sanitation commissioner. This is a real opportunity to poke a finger in the eye of the Clownstick regime, and all they had to do was show up. On the other hand, Tom Price got 201,088 votes in 2016, and fewer than half that number turned out for the clown car side of things, so that helps a bit.
But yeah, I hope Perez is loading for bear. The next person to pull that “when they go low, we go high” nonsense deserves to be smacked. You don’t necessarily have to go low, but you should be prepared to if needed. And Handel seems to have a lot of baggage to go after.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
They can’t examine what they refuse to acknowledge in themselves.
Mnemosyne
@Heywood J.:
It’s not going low to remind people that Handel single-handedly destroyed her organization so she could deny mammograms to poor women. It’s just factual. ;-)
Anne Laurie
New post with updated results up top, if anyone’s still awake.
Heywood J.
@Mnemosyne: Yep, that’s a great place to start. She’s just awful.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Raoul: what i am curious about -both here and in Kansas – is not so much the efficacy of the message, but the scope, speed, and prowess of the GOTV efforts.
From what I read, the Georgia folks were organized to a fare-the-well – but does that include any of the precinct voter lists, checking off early voters, calling the rest, driving them to the polls, and making sure that we get every Dem vote there is to be gotten?
I hope that all the energy and anger of the anti-Trump resistance will NOT just be used as a piggy bank, but translated into ACTION – as in,
“The Precinct 245 Democratic Committee meeting will be Tuesdays & Thursdays at Judy’s house, where we will have updated lists and early-voting-call assignments to hand out. Be sure to update the database with confirmed votes, so we can iterate these lists and go after the ones outstanding. ” Hopefully with expertise, technology tools, and effective cheerleading from the national party.
Omnes and everybody here cheered me up after Kansas – but I’m hoping for a NON-moral victory soon, resulting in an actual win!
And also, I think the Jungle Primary was our best shot at getting this seat – when it’s just one dem vs one GOP, the Bible bangers will come home to Jeebus and the GOP – just you wait.
Gretchen
@Mnemosyne: I would love to hear the rest of the caramel shake story. I was criticized today because I spend too much attention on a relative’s small child rather than asking the relative herself how she’s doing/feeling. Trying to think of a single instance of relative asking me how I’m doing/feeling. Nope. I guess that’s my job.
Gretchen
@Mnemosyne: Why don’t we have a like button? I love the idea of you and T skipping through the park wearing ear-hats.
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
If necessary, I can criticize your comment. It was typed poorly, and looks unbalanced on the page. It was also wordy and needed to be edited by a severe librarian type English maven.
It also led to Jon Ossoff’s loss in Georgia, as
manysomefour people were too busy trying to conceptualize your comment into their world-view to go to the polls./ ;-)
LunarG
@Adam L Silverman: I’m really glad you answered the question! I’ve seen “tawheed” used as a bludgeon against Muslims trying to do outreach & education to non-Muslims, and have felt too shaky on the concept to comment. I’m still shaky, but you’ve given me some additional sources and keywords. Thank you, Adam Silverman!