vote suppression ✅
black seniors with a living memory of Jim Crow ✅
a f***ing bus ✅ https://t.co/2vR6LQtznK— Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 17, 2018
The Suthrun Tradition revanchists are getting desperate. Let’s keep working to ensure these disgraceful antics will be summed up in the future as an extinction burst. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Black senior citizens ordered off Georgia bus taking them to vote”:
Government officials in an east Georgia county told about 40 African-American senior citizens to get off a bus taking them to vote Monday, leading to complaints of voter suppression.
The bus, run by the group Black Voters Matter, was preparing to depart from a senior center operated by Jefferson County when the center’s director said they needed to disembark, said LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter…
Jefferson County’s administrator said Tuesday that the county government considered the event at the senior center “political activity,” which isn’t allowed during county-sponsored events.
Black Voters Matter is a nonpartisan group encouraging African-Americans to vote in the election, but the county government considered the event political because Jefferson County Democratic Party Chairwoman Diane Evans helped organize it, County Administrator Adam Brett said in a statement…
Black Voters Matter had received permission in advance for the event at the senior center, Brown said. The event was originally intended to encourage seniors to vote, and when some of the seniors asked whether they could ride the bus to an early-voting location, Black Voters Matter agreed to take them.
But someone apparently saw the bus, painted with the words “The South is Rising Tour,” and called county government offices, Brown said. That led to the phone call from the county clerk to the senior center. When they were asked, the senior citizens agreed to leave the bus.
“It was discouraging that they weren’t able to vote,” said Evans, who was on the bus. “When they’re suppressing votes, they’re going to come up with any kind of excuse about what your problem is.”…
Despite the obstacles, the senior citizens will find a way to cast their ballots, Brown said.
“The seniors were so resolved. They said: ‘We’re going to vote. Nobody’s going to stop us,’ ” Brown said. “It wasn’t the first time someone has denied them or tried to prevent them from voting.”
Georgia Voters: Here’s How to Legally Vote Even if You’re on Brian Kemp’s Can’t-Vote Listhttps://t.co/c2n6iDHnXU
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) October 16, 2018
Major Major Major Major
Their tricks haven’t changed at all.
Mary G
I have to believe that this is going to backfire on Kemp and the GOP in particular. If someone did that to me, I would vote if I had to crawl to the polls.
Patricia Kayden
@Mary G: Yep, there may be such a huge turnout that voter suppression tactics can’t work. Hope so.
Luciamia
GodDAMN! I wish I could give them all a lift.
Mike in NC
Trump voters wanted him to bring back the 1950s, complete with segregated restrooms and swimming pools. A ‘Mad Men’ universe where only white people counted.
Mai Naem mobile
I am waiting for white people to be the minority and have the coloreds pull this voter suppression stuff on them.
Patricia Kayden
@Mai Naem mobile: Probably won’t happen. Most POC aren’t out for revenge. We just want to live our lives.
Yutsano
@Mary G: @Patricia Kayden: I’m thinking about how North Dakota was trying to get the Native American vote suppressed and how they’re reacting to this. I can see a LOT of AA folk getting riled up to get to the polls who weren’t thinking of voting before. And not just in Georgia. Methinks the overreach of white supremacy is about to hit its backlash.
Adam L Silverman
@Patricia Kayden: As a religious minority who is considered white in most parts of the US because white Americans can’t figure out the difference between religion and ethnicity/race, I am happy to help you with the strategic planning if you all change your mind.// (sort of…)
Villago Delenda Est
This is of course outrageous, but it’s pretty much why there was a Voting Rights Act and that gutting it means that John Roberts’ legacy is one of being on the wrong side of history.
tobie
I don’t see how encouraging people to do their civic duty is construed as political activity. Campaigning for a party or candidate is political; helping people exercise the franchise is a non-partisan act. Damn…everyday there’s just more ugliness from the GOP. All this reminds me of Eastern Europe. Someone at the Senior Center secretly calls the authorities to alert them that a group of elderly African Americans wants to vote. Sounds like spying on your neighbor.
Mary G
I hope all this still matters. After reading some of the climate change reports and the story in the WaPo about disappearing insects, my mood is bleak today because:
NotMax
First day in-person early voting totals reported to be over triple what they were on the first day during the last midterm election.
Adam L Silverman
I’m putting $50 on Soledad O’Brien kicking Senator Graham’s dupa.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Yep 69K and high change compared to 20K.
I could very well be wrong, but as I’ve been saying here for several months, I think the models are way off because the people that are angry and who are motivated to vote, especially for all the women, women of color, and men of color candidates, aren’t the people that the surveys are designed to capture.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Wow, when he goes to the dark side, he goes all the way. Every once in a while I tweet at him that John McCain is shaking his head.
PhoenixRising
hey, is that in John Lewis’s district?
Get real. Those elders have been through worse shit trying to vote than some petty Stasi wanna be getting the bus taken off site. This is not strategic vote suppression–how many of the 40 can reasonably be expected to not vote in the coming 21 days? Hell, now they’re grabbing a grandchild in each hand for the trip. Just petty and the kind of thing that makes people get mad.
tobie
@Mary G: Do you have a link for the Post article? I’m curious. Elizabeth Kolbert sounded the alarm pretty forcefully in The 6th Extinction but even there many of the dying species were remote (e.g., frogs from the rain forest). Sounds like the disappearing insects are much closer to home.
trollhattan
Word to the wise: In VA #7, you evidently don’t want to be Nancy Pelosi.
REALLY wish she’d had a bingo card handy.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: His life long nickname is Little Stinker. The sad thing is he learned nothing from McCain. I’m not saying McCain was the great maverick that the media has made him out to be. Or that he was always on the right side of the issues, or even most of the time was on the right side of the issues. Or that he didn’t all too often have feet of clay when it came time to put his money where his mouth was. But what Graham has revealed himself to be now that McCain is gone is just pathetic.
Mary G
And for Georgia voters who do get a ballot, will it be counted?
Stacey Abrams can’t lose to this clown.
(((CassandraLeo)))
Can we please get a new showrunner? There hasn’t been anything remotely resembling subtlety in about three years now.
(Wish I had something helpful to add.)
Mary G
@tobie: ‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss
Birds that eat plants – seeds, etc. are still around, but some birds who eat only insects have disappeared completely.
Brachiator
@Yutsano: We have already seen black voters get energized and vote in large numbers, with Roy Moore in Alabama. Voter outreach efforts have been strong in Georgia. So the question might be whether white voters will show up in large numbers.
Mary G
OK. time for me to go watch The Good Place season 2. The tubes are getting too crazy tonight.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
So the Senior Motherfucker from South Carolina is supporting Rafael Cruz, apparently. The same one that was born in the psycho ward in Calgary? Well, maybe not born there, just belongs there with his old man.
Lindsey Graham is Example # 43,976 or so of proof that there is no such thing as a Just God.
SFAW
I’m sure the Department of Justice is looking into VRA and Constitutional violations being perpetrated by Racist Kemp and company — “with all deliberate speed,” of course.
Gex
@Brachiator: To that extent, I suspect they are banking on this kind of brazen racism being more motivating to their base than something more subtle which would still motivate the opposition.
Adam L Silverman
And now you know why it’s called the Grand Old Party!
eemom
Uber and Lyft are both offering free rides to the polls on election day….so at least that’s something.
patroclus
538 is projecting a 5 in 6 shot at winning control of the House. And the odds are only getting better daily.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Until I learned of this man’s death, “Republican celebrity brothelkeeper” was a description I believed could never apply to a real person.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: There are more things in heaven and earth…
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Funny, I remember very similar phrases being used for both Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay during their respective House reigns!
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: “Family Values”
Yutsano
I just saw a clip of the woman who’s running against Peter King of New York. Holy shit is she impressive! And not just for getting the FEC to approve childcare expenses for campaigns. Even if she doesn’t win, she’d better have a future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAmKPE8SRZw
@Adam L Silverman: So…do we get to call Amir Horatio now? :D
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: That was a good interview. Especially her comment about King holding that seat since she was 12. I lived in that district for one year, she has a heavy lift to beat him.
tobie
@patroclus: I don’t want to jinx anything but I think we may be seeing a turn. People were super depressed last week because of Kavanaugh’s appointment in spite of everything we learned about him during his hearings. But what I’ve seen in my own district and phone banking for Claire McCaskill is a Democratic electorate that can’t wait to go to the polls and wants to kick butt. Kick butt, I say, and throw the bums out. All of them, Katie.
Gretchen
@Adam L Silverman: People like Beto O’Rourke have been energizing and registering a lot of young, First-time voters who won’t be included in the polls. That’s my hope, anyway.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano:
Doesn’t bother me, but you’ll have to ask him.
dww44
@Mary G: As a lifelong resident of the state, I fear this won’t be the case and that we aren’t seeing all the methods being deployed by Kemp and the GOP to frustrate voters, a goodly number of whom won’t go to the extra trouble it will take to vote. I hope I’m wrong. I also hope that voters will be turned off by Kemp’s arrogance and departure from previous norms and practice. But then his voters also all voter for Trump and his approval here has only gone up.
I contacted Gov. Deal’s office today, first by phone to thank him for issuing an executive order to extend voter registration deadline for counties, all rural, impacted by Michael. I also asked him to issue an executive order mandating that the SOS step down and have the governor appoint a replacement for the duration. The staffer sounded a bit surprised and timid when I asked her to relay the request. I then did the same thing via the convoluted email request form that had no appropriate category under which to submit my request.
Adam L Silverman
@Gretchen: The models always undercount people of color and certain religious and other ethnic minorities. I think in this cycle, based on other indicators I’m observing, that this is going to be a significant undercount because this year’s models are based on past years’ models. That said, I could be wrong. And, of course, it is all going to come down to turnout. Beto’s biggest hurdle is going to be either turning out LatinX voters who don’t normally turnout or turning out enough other voters to overcome the fact that LatinX voters don’t normally turn out to vote in Texas and of those who do, Cruz has solid support of 33% of them.
Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Republican of course:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/dead-reverends-rubber-fetish
@Amir Khalid:
Yutsano
@Gretchen: I have yet to see many polls account for a cell phone gap. Not to mention many folks (like me) won’t answer a number we won’t recognise.I’m really thinking focusing on polling alone isn’t going to catch the energy that’s coming. Add in all the vote suppression stories gong around the country, and that anger is only going to increase. I said it earlier: the overreach may have already happened. So much so that I wonder if we’re ignoring a race that we shouldn’t, like Deb Fischer in Nebraska.
@Adam L Silverman: She doensn’t seem like the type to ignore it’s a hard lift. But she’s doing things King isn’t. She’s talking to people in her district and reaching out wherever and whenever she can; But the story about campaigning with a 2 year on her chest because she couldn’t afford child care? That’s a massively relatable story.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: I saw Ron Jeremy about 2 years ago, he didn’t look too good either; and he’s really short(point of reference, I’m 5’4″).
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
If you like.
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Ron Jeremy is not the hunkiest hunk of man ever. How did he of all people manage a career in adult film?
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
:)
Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Genitalia
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Don’t get, um, hung up contemplating it.
:)
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: From the reporting I’ve seen, and admittedly I’ve not been following her campaign, she’s doing everything right. But you have to understand she’s running in Long Island. This is not a progressive part of the greater NY metro area. It’s not Staten Island, but that’s not saying much.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: The main thing about guys in adult film is the ability to perform on command; most guys can’t do it, especially with a bunch of people around.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s not the years, though he is getting up there, it’s the mileage. Also, he’s a short altacocker.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax:
@NotMax: You’re on the list.
Jay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s not Ron Jeremy’s “Marquee” feature.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: @?BillinGlendaleCA: Also, there is a significant difference between what the men in the industry aimed at straight males looked like in the 70s and 80s and what they look like now.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: A good number of the guys in the business are Bi and work both sides.
ETA: Adam, I’d extend that point to guys working the the 90’s.
Mnemosyne
@PhoenixRising:
That was my first thought, too. Each of those seniors is going to be dragging multiple family members to the polls with them just out of spite.
Steve in the ATL
Just finished writing a brief and this is what you people talk about when the adults are busy?
You’re all grounded for two weeks!
Emerald
@Adam L Silverman: This.
Yeah, I think the pollsters don’t have any idea whom to call this year. And if that’s true, there’s gonna be a blue tsunami that will sweep all before it.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Well, before redistricting handed the seat to the execrable Al D’Amato, Long Island readily elected the progressive Lester Wolff.
In the last county election, Nassau county elected a Dem supervisor for the first time in several dogs’ ages. So ya never know.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
I’ll take June 11 – 25, 2099.
;)
Honus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ron had a massive heart attack a few years ago if I recall correctly.
Mohagan
@Yutsano: I saw it too. She was great – very articulate and made great points. And don’t get me started on that POS Peter King who she’s running against …
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Decades ago I used to bank at the same bank as Ron J. I found that out one day because he was in line in front of me. He is one slimy and ugly dude. I considered changing banks. But I lived in Van Nuys, and supposedly that was at the time the adult film capital so I figured it might not make a lot of difference.
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
When the hell did you get to adult?
And remember we’ve met.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t think Latinx has a capital x…
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @Adam L Silverman: On the gay side of things, during and shortly after the AIDS crisis there was a big shift towards an aesthetic that emphasized “manliness” and “health”–on either side of that era, you see an aesthetic that tilts towards… nubility, though of course there’s a veritable rainbow of options these days. (And back then too, cf. Tom of Finland)
JoeyJoeJoe
@NotMax: Nassau did have a Democratic executive between 2001 and 2009. Tom Suozzi’ in Congress now, representing much of the area that Lester Wolff used to represent until he lost in 1980. The guy who beat him, John LeBoutiller, was even worse than D’Amato. He wrote a book titled Harvard Hates America and is most famous for calling Tip O’Neill fat bloated and out of control. After redistricting, a guy from Huntington, which was added in 1982, unseated LeBoutillier
NotMax
@JoeyJoeJoe
Thank you. Obviously my memory is both fuzzy and faulty, confusing D’Amato with LeBoutiller, though do remember living in Nassau county and voting for Wolff. And it was Suozzi who broke the decades long R hold. IIRC, the current D serving as county exec’s win was a surprise result.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
THIS!
We just want to live our lives in peace.
opiejeanne
@Mary G: There was a horned lizard we called a horney toad when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s in the San Gabriel Valley. My kids have never seen one. They used to be pretty common and I just thought they didn’t live in the area where my kids grew up (Riverside & Castro Valley, CA), but now I’m reading that they have been disappearing in all the places they used to live. We used to hear meadowlarks really often in SoCal. I haven’t heard one there in years.
In the 1990s I had to stop my car on the freeway in Orange County down near Irvine because of the massive butterfly swarm that was coming from the fields next to the road. It was amazing, but I don’t think it’s as common an occurrence as it used to be even thought the fields are still there.
NickM
@NotMax: Good news – and I have a hard time believing that all the extra voters are elderly douchebags fired up by the (almost) martyrdom of St. Brett of Yale.
JoeyJoeJoe
@NotMax: The county exec race was pretty close; Curran was behind until late; then Uniondale, Hempstead, Roosevelt, and maybe Westbury all came in at once and put her ahead
Original Lee
@tobie: It’s the new version of Voting While Black, where Karen in the front office calls the county government instead of the police. It’s an improvement, I suppose.