On the plus side, it’s really, really good that @iowademocrats implemented a paper trail system this cycle!
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) February 4, 2020
THANK YOU, IOWA.
But seriously: I know you guys take a metric ton of abuse from the rest of us every four years, because civic duty and all, and we are duly grateful for your service.* But even if it is nice to get all this attention (C.R.E.A.M.) every four years, I really really earnestly believe this would be a fantastic cycle to declare that you’re stepping away from the spotlight on your own terms.
Meanwhile, all the candidate seem to be making ‘We’re gonna assume I will win this, because why not’ speeches, so there will be video clips available before the actual results come in…
*I should probably take this chance to personally apologize to commentor Stinger, who thinks I have gone beyond protesting the process to personally insulting Iowans.
Latest update on the delay in results from @iowademocrats: "We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the IDP is reporting out three data sets for the first time."
25% precincts have reported & early data shows turnout on pace for '16
— Maura Barrett (@MauraBarrettNBC) February 4, 2020
Updated statement from @iowademocrats on results pic.twitter.com/RAwOyXpc8H
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) February 4, 2020
I told y'all caucuses were bad. https://t.co/KG988T7X0l
— Caucus Error Reporter. (@CascadianSolo) February 4, 2020
At this point, it's been 3.6 hours since the start of the caucuses and 1.9% of precincts have reported results, which extrapolates out to knowing the results in a mere 189 hours, which would be at 9:30 pm next Tuesday, after voting in the NH primary has already closed.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 4, 2020
I’ll be around till about 6am, because that’s how I roll, so we’ll see if there’s anything to report for the Tuesday Morning Open Thread.
Elizabelle
What a clusterfuck.
No more Iowa caucuses. No more. Enough.
WaterGirl
You are a class act, Anne Laurie.
rikyrah
No more of Iowa going first???
My Side of Town am
Klobuchar or fy. She can run with booker or Harris. But she is the winner.
WaterGirl
That seems kind of snotty to me, maybe Nate needs to go on an apology tour with Iowa, too!
Mary G
@Elizabelle: Comment from the racist:
They must all be worried that America won’t put up with this system one more time. I remember when it took like three weeks to decide that Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses over the Mittbot by a tiny margin in 2012.
NotMax
Not at all upset, as between “ya want it fast or ya want it right” I know which side I come down on.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Call me crazy, but I like that they are going to verify the results before they release them. They are doing the right thing.
I would not, however, want to be the Iowa Communications Director right now.
dmsilev
Upside: this will help thin the media-pundit herd, as the weaker ones succumb to heart failure and apoplexy while waiting for results.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
Is he referring to the two times Iowa voted for Obama?
BR
Warren’s speech tonight was better than her usual…not quite Obama-level but getting there.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Silver lining!
*I do not seriously wish for any media people to be have anything terrible happen to them.
But I wouldn’t mind if
3/49/10 of them were taken away by aliens. Friendly ones, of course.L85NJGT
Look… you can go with an off the shelf software product and with some tweaks get 90% of what you want, or…. custom code it, which will be a shit show fail parade, but some politically connected consultants will get real paid.
different-church-lady
Look, I’d be fine if Iowa takes until December to report their results.
danielx
Anne, I hope Stinger sees and accepts your apology. But worse things have been said…
@tbogg
America: Tonight we begin the process to pick a candidate to oppose Donald Trump and his racist policies, destruction of our environment and ruination of all that we hold precious. Iowa?
Iowa: We were thinking either rock, paper, scissors or pig rasslin’.
America: Fuck my life.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Definitely with you on this one!
And with that, I am going to bed. I wonder if we will know the results by morning.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Accuracy is good. And I do kinda remember 2012, for the result changing several weeks later.
But this is such an unrepresentative process, from an unrepresentative state. You would have a cleaner result with a primary.
Elizabelle
@BR: Lovely to hear. I hope that Elizabeth Warren has done well.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: The younger ones may succumb to old age at this rate.
WaterGirl
@My Side of Town am:
It’s always so interesting on Bj, trying to figure out if something is a typo, autocorrect gone bad, or some hip new term that I don’t know.
Marcopolo
@WaterGirl: Another positive is apparently none of the campaigns used the glitch to claim some kind of “process rigging.” I for one am grateful for that.
Also seems clear that the delay in announcing numbers will seriously dilute whatever impact the results will have going forward. Tomorrow’s news coverage is going to focus in on the SOTU address.
different-church-lady
@Mary G: You know, the Santorum administration was pretty miserable, but compared to Trump those were good times.
My Side of Town am
Now we have the gay guy telling us something. Like he is going to be the queer that saves us all. Man, he doesn’t realize.. I wish he was right.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Also too, if sometime later in the day tomorrow, will wrench the spotlight away from the SOTU for a bit.
different-church-lady
@Marcopolo:
…yet.
My Side of Town am
huh?
Major Major Major Major
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Was it 2016 when the person who “won” Iowa didn’t end up being the person who got the delegates? Oopsie!
Mary G
Buttigieg’s Iowa Comms guy is tweeting out photos of precinct results where Mayor Pete came in first, such as
Pete has apparently decided to claim to be the winner:
The Dangerman
The election board should just come out with a song and dance number:
Iowa’s your shipoopi
Shipoopi, shipoopi, shipoopi
The results are hard to get
Shipoopi, shipoopi, shipoopi
But you can win the State yet
different-church-lady
@Mary G: Ah, so Pete gonna do well with the incoherent, is he?
Major Major Major Major
@My Side of Town am:
Huh?
Amir Khalid
I haz a bigly confused. Can someone explain this “three sets of results” thing to me? Especially, why is it good to potentially wind up with three different candidates claiming the win?
Mike J
We vote by mail in Washington and we NEVER know the winner for several days. Everyone lives through it. it’s perfectly alright.
WaterGirl
@Marcopolo: I think I’m with NotMax, thinking that maybe Iowa results will help take the spotlight off of Trump’s state of the union.
I could save him a lot of time: It’s fucked up.
But I digress. This could be a win-win, if each one (SOTU & Iowa) helps take the focus off the other one.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
A la Andy Warhol, everyone gets 15 minutes as the declared winner.
:)
@My Side of Town am
Phrasing unworthy of response aside from a hearty raspberry.
WaterGirl
@My Side of Town am: Am I reading your tone right? It seems like you are being dismissive of gays here. If so, it’s not appreciated.
PJ
@Marcopolo: The Berners on Twitter have been claiming just that for a few hours now (see ebruenig, etc.).
Mary G
@Marcopolo:
MAYBE:
Someone else said lawyers are being hired.
different-church-lady
@PJ:
Martin
@L85NJGT:
This is not a big system. There’s just under 1700 precincts, so that’s how many simultaneous users you have to deal with, give or take.
This is a pretty straightforward app. Have a registration process for captains and backups. You have all the time in the world ahead of time. You’re collecting two tallies for a fixed number of candidates, and a photo of the paper(s) being used on site.
The security around it is the hardest task, but overall, this is a very, very straightforward thing. Done right, you cloud host it, run it off AWS with a failover to Azure.
My Side of Town am
@WaterGirl: That was what you think it was. I have been watching this for months now. Our only hope is to elect a younger woman.
Major Major Major Major
Buttigieg seems to be tweeting out a victory speech ?
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
Personally in this goat rodeo of a caucus, I’m going to go with the saying “Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought an idiot, than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Marcopolo
@WaterGirl: If I recall, in 2012 Romney was declared the winner on election night, it turned out Santorum had actually won, then Ron Paul’s folks managed a heist at the state convention that gave his campaign the most delegates out of the state to the RNC.
anarchoRex
@My Side of Town am: wtf dude
different-church-lady
@Martin:
Right, so four different results.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid:
Iowa, one little state that is not very diverse, traditionally has oversized influence on what happens to candidates.
It drives the narrative, and it can be make or break for even good candidates, specially because of all the media hype and spin on the results.
If I can claim I won because I won the first round vote count, and you can claim you won because you won the second round vote count, and Mary G can claim she won because she got the most delegates, based on how the second round vote count…
Then the media isn’t able to spin it the way it would have the year before, and good candidates whose funding might have dried up because the media has declared that they LOST, could live to fight another day.
Personally, I’m thrilled about the change.
JGabriel
@Mary G:
I guess that tells us Biden didn’t win.
Marcopolo
@Mary G: Well, word on the street is that Biden fared by far the worst when it came to meeting expectations–like he was in a not particularly close fourth place but for god’s sake the numbers have not been reported.
I’m going to bed. No doubt there will be a gazillion takes on it in the morning for me to mostly ignore.
Shalimar
@Major Major Major Major: You already know he is only going to get more offensive with each post.
PJ
@Major Major Major Major: SHIT! If only I’d thought of that — who knows who won?!! I’d better get my victory speech up on Twitter now, too.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, I wasn’t too pleased with that comment, either.
My Side of Town am
@WaterGirl: I don’t think a gay guy has a chance of unseating Trump. Do you?
NotMax
Buttigieg speaking fluent fortune cookie.
different-church-lady
IT IS NOW FEBRUARY FOURTH, AND I AM MIDDLE AGED AND A GODDAMNED RACIST FREAK IS STILL PRESIDENT OF THESE HERE UNITED STATES.
(DCL AND I’M NOT EVEN PLUS ANYTHING…)
Marcopolo
@WaterGirl: Really like Brian Schatz’s idea to make HI the first in the nation contest. Hell, I might even go to HI for a few weeks in January to volunteer for a candidate I’m not even that excited about.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
Thanks, but I think I’m still confused.
different-church-lady
@My Side of Town am: That’s not our point, clown.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Aren’t they all?
stinger
Anne Laurie, your apology is both gracious and unnecessary — if you ever wrote here that my entire state stinks like pigshit, I missed it, and I read all your posts — but thank you, and I certainly accept.
The results reporting tonight is a mess — I’m reminded a bit of the ACA rollout, among other technology failures — and I’m as eager as anyone to learn the overall results. We do have a paper trail of individual “votes” this year, for maybe the first time since caucusing began. Caucusing is annoying, fascinating, informative, not accessible to too many people, slow, loud, and fun. But there are still 49 states’ worth of people to weigh in, and the media makes far too much of one state’s results.
There is a WHOLE LOT about the American election process that needs to change, and I’d love to have a reasoned, informed discussion of it here.
AxelFoley
@Elizabelle:
This.
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: @Major Major Major Major:
Maybe this is a good time to pull random items from the comment policy. I’ll start with this one:
The Lodger
@Elizabelle: A primary? You would have a cleaner result with dueling pistols at 50 feet.
My Side of Town am
@different-church-lady: What is your point, then? I am all for gays running for president. but if you think they can win you are crazy.
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: OKAY, I’M SORRY I WAS WHINING ABOUT BEING MIDDLE AGED!!
PJ
@The Lodger: Monkeys with sharpies would give you slightly better results – even if they don’t know where Iowa is.
different-church-lady
@My Side of Town am: And playing dumb is not a good look.
NotMax
@marcopolo
Sweet FSM, please, no. Paradise is tenuous enough as it is.
MisterForkbeard
@Marcopolo: None of the campaigns, but I’m seeing a lot of “Bernie wuz robbed by the DNC” whining on facebook already.
Those people are mostly being laughed at by everyone else. I wonder if they’re finally getting too ridiculous for the rest of the Dems.
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: ha!
stinger
Because of ONE precinct in CEDAR County? hahahaha
cokane
I think people could have some power themselves on the issue of Iowa. The results are going to be important for some of the marginal candidates like Klobuchar or Buttigieg, who might not be able to stay in the race without a strong showing. But it’s not going to decide the nominee. It has a low number of delegates and those are likely to be split, without anyone getting a strong advantage. We don’t have to make a bigger deal of it than that.
And in a month or so it could easily be forgotten who even ended up the winner.
Anne Laurie
Buttigieg / Harris, then? I’d be happy to vote for that ticket!
Or Buttigieg / Gillibrand. Or Buttigieg / Abrams, if you wanna watch *all* the RWNJ heads explode…
My Side of Town am
@different-church-lady: And I thought we were all trying to defeat Trump. What a asshole I am.
Anne Laurie
@stinger: EVERYBODY HUG!
(Don’t think I’ve ever been to Iowa, so I can’t complain about the climate. But I have met a number of perfectly lovely Iowa natives… )
James E Powell
As a left coaster, I assumed this would all be settled and we would know who the next president of the United States will be before I went to bed. I am disappointed in the entire state of Iowa.
Well I’ll be back tomorrow for the punch line of the joke.
different-church-lady
@My Side of Town am: At this point the only thing you’re trying to defeat is your commenting privileges.
L85NJGT
@Amir Khalid:
Smells like some media consultant told them they needed to drive social media buzz.
We’re talking about a totally outrageous paradigm!
The Dangerman
Ya know, it’s said that you’ll always remember your first pie.
Buh-bye, Pie Guy.
PJ
@My Side of Town am: James Buchanan would beg to differ.
But the point is that you aren’t making an argument that America is too homophobic to elect an openly gay man, which is just like the arguments that America is too misogynistic to elect a woman, or too racist to elect a black person – it sounds reasonable based on history, but the effect is to dissuade gays, and women, and people of color from running, or to dissuade other people from voting for them. And then one of them runs and wins and that argument is done until its ready to be deployed against the next marginalized class of people.
The point is that you’re just saying, “Ha Ha, the gay guy thinks he can win – what a joke!” You are treating Buttigieg’s candidacy like a joke because he’s gay, and it’s not. He’s probably not going to win this time, but for someone who was basically unknown at the beginning of 2019, he’s come a long way, and when the next openly gay person runs for the Presidency, it will be easier.
Anne Laurie
@Mary G: Yeah, for the last couple weeks it’s been conventional wisdom that Biden wouldn’t win, but early reports from IA are that he was doing even worse than expected. Legal letter has been sent to the Iowa Democratic Party ‘questioning irregularities’.
Which is absolutely predictably traditionally how Retail Politics Has Been Done. Entirely within the Biden campaign wheelhouse… and probably the best recourse at this point… but one more factor in the ‘never again an IA caucus’ argument!
stinger
@Anne Laurie: So you know a lot of Californians, eh? ;-)
My Side of Town am
@Anne Laurie: Klobuchar, or Warren/Klobuchar.
L85NJGT
@MisterForkbeard:
They were going to do that even if he wins the nomination. May as well get it started now.
different-church-lady
@L85NJGT: Bernie is going to become the second president in a row to complain he was cheated out of the presidency after he’s inaugurated.
My Side of Town am
@PJ: I am making that argument. I don’t like doing so, but if you want to lose, what can I say.
Anne Laurie
@My Side of Town am: If Klobuchar’s at the top of the ticket, we don’t need to take another Democrat out of the Senate. I could see Klobuchar/Buttigieg… or Klobuchar/Castro… I’d suggest Klobuchar/Biden, but I doubt Joe would go there.
hilts
The people overseeing this Iowa farce are the Keystone Cops of the 21 st century. It’s time for an economic boycott of Iowa until they agree to give up their first in the nation voting status. Either that or vote this goddamn state out of our Union. Fuck Iowa and fuck their stupid caucuses.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: @WaterGirl: Okay so I’m not the only one who thinks something is sideways here.
different-church-lady
Did somebody say something about pie?
Kraux Pas
@My Side of Town am: Yo, what is your problem? For the record I’m pretty sure anyone who won’t vote for someone over their sexuality is unlikely to vote for any Dem.
YMMV
WaterGirl
@My Side of Town am: I’d like to think I’m wrong, but you’re kind of coming off like an arrogant, homophobic prick.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
I threw my back out coughing, so I beat you at being middle-aged. So there. ?
Anne Laurie
@WaterGirl: Look on the bright side — maybe they’re just, um, elevated from an undue consumption of adult beverages?
Lotta people on political twitter seem to have been hitting the bottle tonight; gonna be a bad day tomorrow for the State of the Union…
NotMax
Interview with one precinct captain just now reporting that it took him 15 or 20 minutes on the phone, once connected, to report all the data that is required in the format required.
Multiply that amount of time by lots of precincts and an unexpected demand for reporting by phone and one can see what’s behind some of the cunctation.
Major Major Major Major
@My Side of Town am: It’s an interesting question, whether a gay candidate could win, but then that’s not really the question you were asking, is it?
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: I’m pretty sure any day is a bad day for the state of the union address from the orange one.
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: can you check your email?
My Side of Town am
@WaterGirl: I’m a realist. You aren’t.
Kraux Pas
Ok, now that’s beyond inappropriate. Besides, when was the last time you were made to watch what was happening in a president’s bedroom?
different-church-lady
Oh for crissake, invoke policy already.
WaterGirl
@My Side of Town am:
Kent
Here’s an idea. Let Iowa go first but embargo their results until after Super Tuesday. They can still be first, we just don’t actually know who won until after CA has voted. Heh!
Mary G
@Kraux Pas: Ditto. I think that comment is in banning territory.
John Revolta
Well now admittedly this looks pretty bad people, but don’t let’s forget that they only had THREE YEARS TO GET THEIR SHIT TOGETHER FOR THIS, THEIR BIG FUCKING MOMENT ON THE NATIONAL FUCKING STAGE FOR GOD’S SAKE
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Catcake only improves this thread.
Extra large economy size Catcake for that one.
Kraux Pas
@My Side of Town am: Real talk. If someone came along who was in every other respect your perfect candidate, but happened to be homosexual, would you refuse to vote for that person?
Even if they already had the nomination and were by definition one of the only two people with a discernible chance?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I ❤️ it!
This was supposed to be Wilmer’s BIG night. He waited 4 years for this. The triumph of Bernism!
and pooooooof!
The Bernouts on MSNBC look so depressed.
West of the Cascades
@Kent:
Isn’t that pretty much what’s happening tonight?
WaterGirl
@Kraux Pas: @different-church-lady: @Mary G:
In accordance with Cole’s policy, he won’t be making any more comments until John has reviewed the situation.
Kraux Pas
@WaterGirl: Aww, man…I really needed some more of his insightful, er, insights.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: CatCake makes everything better!
I ?CatCake.
mrmoshpotato
Haha, Nate Silver’s tweet is hilarious.
Kent
@West of the Cascades: Yeah. Just lock them up and don’t let them out until March 1st or so.
Mary G
@WaterGirl: Thank you. A time out is definitely a good idea.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Total derailment averted.
Yutsano
@mrmoshpotato: Share for the class please?
Mike J
Bernie wants the Iowa vote counters to run the healthcare system.
Mary G
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: It’s in the post at the bottom.
Kent
On the plus side, there was this: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/cnn-iowa-results-coverage.html
mrmoshpotato
@Mike J: I have no idea what you mean by that, but I found it funny.
Sister Golden Bear
@Kraux Pas: And here I was about to enjoy heaping helpings of tasty pie.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: @NotMax: Anne Laurie and I talked it over. Seems like the verdict was unanimous. Cole has been notified.
mrmoshpotato
@Kent:
Bwhahahhaha!!
WaterGirl
@Sister Golden Bear:
May I offer you this cupcake instead?
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: MSNBC should make that into one of their banner thingies, and report the story:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@stinger: They used to have Iowa festivals here in Southern California. I don’t think I know any Iowa transplants myself.
Kent
@WaterGirl: I think Slate is actually owned by Microsoft, or MSNBC or something. So that is actually what they are doing! Dishing on CNN. The whole story reads like that:
phdesmond
@WaterGirl: hear, hear.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Is Steve Kornacki hyperventilating?
WaterGirl
@Kent: That is awesome! Off to read the whole story.
Anne Laurie
@stinger: Fifteen years at a state agricultural college in Michigan. As a raw 17-year-old from the Bronx, I met some fellow freshpersons who were astonished at the urbanity of Moo U!
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Drowning his sorrows over being denied the expected opportunity to play with the electronic gizmo.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: That was the final show I gave up on at MSNBC. I loved Chris Hayes in the morning for 2 hours on Saturdays. Then he moved to 7pm, and i tried to watch, but he turned into a hack.
I watched Steve K. in his place all the way through Bridge-Gate, and then he started to suck, too.
That was the final straw, and I broke up with MSNBC.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: (Didn’t make the edit window…) I, however have been to Iowa.
different-church-lady
Maybe in the future don’t place your election results onto a technology that everyone believes can’t spell correctly?
BethanyAnne
@WaterGirl: I still love Maddow. She’s been all I watch there for years.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Load the paper ballots into self-driving cars?
:)
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: haha, I thought the same thing, it’s a cute attack, merits aside.
BethanyAnne
And an app? To collect like 6000ish numbers and do addition? Sounds like something to solve with a damn shell script.
WaterGirl
@BethanyAnne: If I watched anyone, it would be her.
Major Major Major Major
@Kent: Slate is owned by WaPo, which is owned by Jeff Bezos.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: I did not know that.
Sister Golden Bear
@WaterGirl: Mmmmm. Catcupcake!
Kent
So over on Lawyers Guns and Money (which I read when this blog starts getting slow) they are reporting in the comment thread that apparently it wasn’t just Iowa, the DNC or DNC-affiliated venders were responsible for this crap-tacular app.
So, my proposed solution. Ditch Tom Perez and put Buttigieg in his place, which was what he originally wanted to do anyway. Buttigieg needs a place to land if he doesn’t win out which seems unlikely but who the fuck knows.
I also learned that the biggest force arguing for keeping the Iowa caucuses instead of going to a primary were the Bernie-stans. So this cluster is 1/2 Bernie and 1/2 Perez as well as the Iowa Dem Party apparatchiks.
Kent
@Major Major Major Major: OK, somehow I thought it was Microsoft. Maybe in the distant past and they sold it?
EDIT…yep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_(magazine)
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: “MSNBC, it’s you, not me.”
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Naw, have the robot dogs carry them in their claw-heads.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Or “They left me; I didn’t leave them.”
Never mind, I’m not important enough for that one to work.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: “And the cars drove into a cornfield, never to be seen again.”
NotMax
@WaterGirl
O’Donnell’s show, especially guest discussion-wise, is generally more succinct, IMHO.
WaterGirl
I see that over an hour and a half ago I declared that I was going to bed. Being a woman of my word, I will now proceed to do just that.
Good night, all.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Slate was founded by Microsoft.
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: Hell, that’s nothing: 25 years ago I declared I was going to write a book.
moops
@BethanyAnne: Pen and Paper and Cars are more than adequate to count all of the Iowa ballots. Give it two hours and you can do two more manual recounts before you announce the winner.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Merry Christmas to all!
Major Major Major Major
I love how freaked out the professional take-havers are being on twitter tonight.
BethanyAnne
@moops: Yeah. I was thinking of the old “Go away, or I will replace you with a very small shell script”. But truly, there are problems that don’t need any sort of new tech to solve.
BethanyAnne
@moops: And I do love that my first reaction to “Pen and Paper and Cars” was to immediately wonder if that was an RPG :)
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Major Major Major Major: Slate is still owned by Katherine Graham’s neo con son Donald Graham.
Bezos didn’t want it.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major: Good! Screw the talking heads that are going to be speculating themselves stupid until November.
Major Major Major Major
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: today I learned!
joel hanes
@BethanyAnne:
I could do a first implementation in perl in a day, maybe —
but testing it adequately without a verification engineering staff …
So would you use tcsh, bash, or what ?
Patricia Kayden
November can’t come quickly enough. Until I read these comments, I had forgotten that SOTU was tonight. Boycotting as usual.
Major Major Major Major
Apparently it wasn’t just the app, the phone-in alternative also didn’t work! Or so says the chatter on Twitter.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major: The machines know caucuses suck. :)
Ninedragonspot
Coronavirus Update from the past couple of hours:
2800 medical workers in Hong Kong go on strike, demanding the government close the border with Mainland China.
Taizhou and parts of Hangzhou (c 9 million people) join Wenzhou and Ningbo on lockdown. Each family can send one member out every two days to collect supplies, everyone else has to stay home. These four cities have about 20 million people and are located in Zhejiang province, not Hubei. Will this happen to Shanghai?
Macau is closing its casinos for half a month.
Taiwan is refusing entry to all foreigners who have been in China for the past 14 days, except under special circumstances.
Mnemosyne
@Ninedragonspot:
We have a vendor in Singapore that sent us an email telling us what their plan is to try and avoid having coronavirus spread. Good thing our folks aren’t scheduled to head back there until the end of March.
lgerard
I long for the 1970’s when “Uncommitted” won a resounding victory in both the 1972 and 1976 Democratic primaries.
Barb 2
@Elizabelle:
No more Iowa caucuses. No more. Enough.
————————-
what she wrote re caucuses — they are the most undemocratic way of voting. Plus Sanders’ cult members are experts at rigging the results. I know – I was a witness in 2016 when the Bernie slobs invaded WA state.
Ninedragonspot
@Mnemosyne: I haven’t seen much news from Singapore yet. I wonder whether their policies will ultimately resemble Taiwan’s.
HeleninEire
JFC. CNN is now reporting that Caroline Kennedy is endorsing Joe Biden.
Who the fuck cares who she endorses? Honest to God. Her endorsement means nothing. Not a goddamn thing.
Really.
JPL
@HeleninEire: So are you in Eire?
I woke up early and made of the mistake of seeing who won in Iowa. geez
HeleninEire
@JPL: Nah. Here in NY. Can’t sleep.
PeakVT
One app to count them all, and in the darkness bind them.
Morzer
@HeleninEire: One of the revelations of the last decade has been that celebrity endorsements and newspaper endorsements are utterly worthless.
TS (the original)
We are going to hear for months about the democrats who can’t organise a vote count – how can they possibly run the country.
The main positive being the meltdown of the media. That I can enjoy.
JPL
@TS (the original): For those of use who missed the media melt down, what did that look like.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, lots of Iowans in California.
The town of Downers Grove, IL used to hold a big picnic in LA every year because so many from that little town had moved to SoCal.
Zzyzx
The Bernie conspiracy theorists are out in force now. i like how Sanders released a partial internal count – one where we just have to take them at their word of that it’s accurate and not cherry picked – and declared himself the victor.
HeleninEire
@Morzer: But they still do it. Honest to Goddess. Who cares?
No offense to her. She’s been through a lot. But I honestly did an Abe Vigoda on her. Is she still alive?
Talk to Baud. He is way more tuned in than Caroline.
Zzyzx
And I see I have a Pete email that claims he won due to reasons. It’s going to be a long year.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: This My Side person seems weird using arguments that are all over the map. It fits with my intuition that Pete has been slammed with accusations that are weak tea or without context but not examined carefully. We don’t all have time to really dig deep and some accusations serm to be basically, ‘I can see through his mask and he’s slimey / racist / corporate toady. Every candidate has imperfections. Some are disqualifying to some people but not others. I could make lists.
My favorite is Warren but she is not ideal and has madr some missteps. Getting a woman elected is tough in this USA. But I’d work for her. My Side won’t consider Pete at all even though he might win Iowa and it’s 9 months to election. And My Side wants to lecture us on how we are so blind we can’t see the light. All the logic of a bot. Insult people and they will wake up….
Mel
@Mnemosyne:I recently purchased comfy / hideous velour “lounge pants” with oversized pockets to conveniently tote all my old lady stuff (chapstick, kleenex, ink pen, reading glasses, change) around the house so, right there with you!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
This is just to say that the timed-out commenter above has already changed his nym slightly once, right after I pied him the first time.
Betty Cracker
Great googly-moogly. Glad we ignored the caucus coverage.
JPL
Mediate has a clip of a spacey trump pretending he’s a band conductor while everyone else is standing at attention for the flag. Because of the news out of Iowa, I’m sure it will not receive the attention it deserves.
bah humbug
Dan B
@WaterGirl: It seems like My Side”s entire point is “There is lots of homophobia.” Like Jackals don’t know that?
Everything I’ve seen of Pete’s retail politics is he seems to win over people who meet him face to face. That doesn’t translate very well into a national campaign. It would be nice if it did but you can’t meet one hundred million citizens face to face. We’re factoring in lots of data and, no, we didn’t miss homophobia. But it might not have been the most important factor in who we support.
And how do we think Pete will do in South Carolina? How will Warren do? The trajectory of the campaigns is likely to be wild. And if Pete did “win” Iowa (51% -nah, 20% maybe) he’ll be getting noticed by undecideds and Putin’s minions.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Baud
I can’t believe my plan to discredit caucuses worked so well. Almost too well.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Maybe that’s why she’s not doing better.
JPL
@Baud: Thanks
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Zzyzx: Tonight was supposed to be rumspringa for the Bernouts. So they’re really frustrated.
Baud
I should put out a statement about winning the Iowa caucus.
Raralex
@Ninedragonspot: Singapore-based commenter and long-time lurker here. Singapore was probably ahead of Taiwan, but yes, similar. They barred entry to mainland travelers last week with a 14-day quarantine. 18 cases here so far, all people who had been in Wuhan or Hubei province. All quarantined and recovering. As you might expect, in a place where memories of SARS are very fresh and with a fully competent, well resourced, and empowered government, the response has been aggressive and efficient. At the same time, clear and frequent communication and thoughtful messaging from the PM down on treating people with decency and kindness, and avoiding misinformation. Other than proximity, which probably means less and less, I’d rather be here than almost anywhere (including the US, where Trump can be guaranteed to screw it up).
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
49ers just released a statement saying they really won.
Zzyzx
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: if you look at 80% of the data, the 49ers have a double digit lead. Obviously they won!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mel:
Why do you need to carry change around the house?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
You’re a sly one, Mr. Baud!
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
I dunno, but if they are waiting…then they can give ONE set of results??
Betty Cracker
joel hanes
@Raralex:
the US, where Trump can be guaranteed to screw it up
The Trump maladministration has spent three years defunding and tearing down the pandemic response apparatus that the Obama administration constructed in the wake of SARS.
So yes, you’re absolutely correct.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
The irony is during the Unity Reform Commission, Bernie’s representatives unsuccessfully pushed for more caucuses and less primaries.
JPL
@Raralex: Apparently we are going to do our best to help him reelection. Stay safe and healthy.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: If you think it’s appropriate would you put up the clip of trump acting like an ass during the national anthem.
rikyrah
rikyrah
@Dan B:
Pete is at 0 -2% with Black voters.
Good luck with that???
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Pretty impressive given the time of night.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Maybe later? Looks like there are a couple of posts in queue in the back room. I saw that clip, and the most remarkable thing to me was how tiny Trump’s hands are. But we knew that.
@rikyrah: The logic of that tweet escapes me. What does a Twitter rando’s apparently unfounded accusation have to do with anything?
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone): Coin operated vibrating bed.
Betty Cracker
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
More like “too fucked to call.” Is that a thing? It should be a thing.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
“Got a great deal on it at a motel liquidation sale!”
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I haven’t seen a plausible explanation for why this happened yet, and I’ve been looking! One reporter said there’s a numbers discrepancy that affects delegate allocation. There was a total of caucus participants, then a recording of the SECOND alignment but no recording of the FIRST? The numbers didn’t jibe because not everyone sticks around through the whole thing?
Sounds like a big fat WTF all around. There are paper trails, apparently, so that’s good. Maybe our caucus goer (Nelle?) will give us a first-hand account later.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Fog of
warcaucus.Morzer
@HeleninEire: I heard that Baud is so old, he’s the presidential candidate and the lone gum man at the same time.
Betty Cracker
Limited and therefore arguably meaningless info:
Top line results:
Sanders 30.54%
Warren: 26.48%
Buttigieg: 21.67%
Klobuchar: 13.49%
Biden: 6.57%
Other: 1.26%
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Oh that’s just great.
Jinchi
I don’t know. If those numbers are accurate and represent 10% of the vote, they’re better than any recent poll.
Biden at 5th with half the support of Klobuchar?! When all the polls had him basically tied with Sanders? That would be a pretty severe hit on his “electability”.
Jinchi
I first read that as Pete is at -2% with Black voters.
Which I guess would be within the margin of error.
mrmoshpotato
@Jinchi:
Same here!
Mel
@Steeplejack (phone): I don’t. It’s a reflexive habit from years spent teaching. Kid’s a quarter short for lunch? Reach in the pocket. Need some caffeine? Change for vending machine is at the ready.
I just broke the habit of sticking a few safety pins in my pocket every morning. One thing at a time!!!
Mel
@Baud: If only…
Kathleen
@Kent: What’s their problem? They just propagate their propatainment talking points and ignore reality anyway.
Mo MacArbie
This seemed inadvertent. He made a comment with the ” am” added and then another immediately complaining about the fucking moderation.
I say this not to defend him but because I thought it was funny.
BellyCat
@WaterGirl: Nicely handled (and well -deserved once the “misspelling” was launched).
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: hahahahaha
My first laugh out loud of the morning.
WaterGirl
@JPL: I have not looked yet.
WaterGirl
@BellyCat: Thank you!
blackcatsrule
@Mel: I’d like to know where you bought those pants!
Ninedragonspot
Great news, glad to hear it. Thanks for sharing! @Raralex: