Election 2020

[BoSoxGal]

She’s still supporting him despite his catastrophic mishandling of intelligence warning that this pandemic was coming?



https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/25/c ... -covid-19/

[Guinevere]

Who cares, she isn’t the only one taking voters to the polls.

[Econoline]

Who cares, she isn’t the only one taking voters to the polls.

[Jarlaxle]

4 years ago, she wound up >400 miles on my car. She'll probably match that this year. I might even help, if I'm not working days.

[Scooter]

And Trump still lost your state. And will again.

[Econoline]

If you can't call this an open-and-shut case of "voter suppression" what else could you call it?

The Supreme Court’s disturbing order to effectively disenfranchise thousands of Wisconsin voters

The Supreme Court’s Republican majority, in a case that is literally titled Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, handed down a decision that will effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters. It did so at the urging of the GOP.

The case arises out of Wisconsin’s decision to hold its spring election during the coronavirus pandemic, even as nearly a dozen other states have chosen to postpone similar elections in order to protect the safety of voters. Democrats hoped to defend a lower court order that allowed absentee ballots to be counted so long as they arrived at the designated polling place by April 13, an extension granted by a judge to account for the brewing coronavirus-sparked chaos on Election Day, April 7. Republicans successfully asked the Court to require these ballots to be postmarked by April 7.

All five of the Court’s Republicans voted for the Republican Party’s position. All four of the Court’s Democrats voted for the Democratic Party’s position.

The decision carries grave repercussions for the state of Wisconsin — and democracy more broadly. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg notes in her dissent, “the presidential primaries, a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, three seats on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, over 100 other judgeships, over 500 school board seats, and several thousand other positions” are at stake in the Wisconsin election, which will be held tomorrow. Of all these seats, the state Supreme Court race, between incumbent conservative Justice Daniel Kelly and challenger Judge Jill Karofsky, is the most hotly contested.

The April 7 election is shaping up to be a trainwreck. Most poll workers have refused to work the election, out of fear of catching the coronavirus, which forced Gov. Tony Evers (D) to call up the National Guard in order to keep polls open. But even this measure appears woefully inadequate. In Milwaukee, election officials announced that the state only has enough election workers to open five poll locations — when the city would normally have 180 polling places.

Meanwhile, the state has received a crush of absentee ballot requests — about 1.2 million, when it typically receives less than 250,000 in a spring election. That’s left state officials scrambling to send ballots to voters in time for Tuesday’s election. And on top of all of these complications, a state law required all ballots to be received by election officials by 8 pm on April 7, or else those ballots would not be counted.

Tens of thousands of voters are not expected to even receive their ballots until after Election Day, effectively disenfranchising them through no fault of their own.

[link to full article above, in the headline]

[MajGenl.Meade]

Let me fix that for you

All five of the Court’s judges nominated by Republican presidents and confirmed by Congress voted for the Republican Party’s position. All four of the Court’s judges nominated by Democrat presidents and confirmed by Congress voted for the Democrat Party’s position

At issue was, could a Federal judge change the date by which absentee ballots were accepted.

The justices in the majority, in an unsigned opinion, said the wisdom of proceeding with an election in the midst of a health crisis was not before them.

“The court’s decision on the narrow question before the court should not be viewed as expressing an opinion on the broader question of whether to hold the election, or whether other reforms or modifications in election procedures in light of Covid-19 are appropriate,” the opinion said. “That point cannot be stressed enough.”

The question for the court was, the majority wrote, a technical one: Was a federal judge entitled to change a state’s absentee-voting procedures just days before an election? The answer, the majority said, was no (NYT)

The Federal judge (D) had already declared he was not authorized to move election dates themselves.

It is a more open question as to what the Supremes would have done if they were asked to overturn the WiscSupCo's 4-2 decision to disallow the Governor's (D) moving the date of the primary.

One wonders what Conservatives are so desperate to conserve. One does not wonder long.

[Econoline]

From RBG's dissent:

The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic. Under the District Court’s order, they would be able to do so. Even if they receive their absentee ballot in the days immediately following election day, they could return it. With the majority’s stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own. That is a matter of utmost importance—to the constitutional rights of Wisconsin’s citizens, the integrity of the State’s election process, and in this most extraordinary time, the health of the Nation.

[Lord Jim]

I hope Bill packed a lunch, (and a dinner) when he went to vote today:

Wisconsin votes as National Guard is called out, many polling places closed



WASHINGTON — Wisconsin’s primary election went on as planned Tuesday despite the state’s stay-at-home order and a day after two courts ruled that the election couldn't be postponed.

Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET for voters to cast ballots in person, though according to the state's elections commission, voters' designated polling places may have changed because of poll worker shortages. Voters in Milwaukee, many donning masks, faced long lines and large crowds after thousands of poll workers stepped down, forcing the city to reduce the number of polling sites from 180 to just five.

As a result of one of the court rulings on Monday, many voters who applied for absentee ballots but never received them by Tuesday will only have the option of voting in person. Voters who did receive absentee ballots have only until 8 p.m. Tuesday to hand them in in person or they can post-mark it so that it arrives by Monday.



Wisconsin's chief elections official, Meagan Wolfe, said in a statement Monday that voters who show up to the polls Tuesday should "be careful and patient" as social distancing procedures will be implemented at each site. The state is also recommending that voters wash their hands before heading to their polling place and wash or sanitize their hands when they arrive at the location before they vote.

"If you are ill and still need to vote on Election Day, curbside voting options are available," Wolfe said in a list of reminders to voters.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the only person left in the Democratic presidential race challenging the front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, said in a statement Monday night that his campaign would not participate in get-out-the-vote efforts on Tuesday.

"Let's be clear: Holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly," he said.

Biden has a big lead over Sanders in the state, according to recent polls, including one from Marquette Law School last week that showed him ahead 62 percent to 34 percent. The NBC News delegate tracker shows Biden has 1,196 delegates to Sanders' 883. A candidate needs to secure 1,991 delegates to win the party's nomination.



More than 2,500 National Guard troops were dispatched to staff the polls, where they were expected to help perform the normal functions of poll workers while also distributing hand sanitizer. In Madison, city workers erected Plexiglas barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots.

More:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-e ... s-n1178206

[Bicycle Bill]

Fortunately, I don't live in Milwaukee or Madison or even Onalaska any more.  At the beginning of the year I relocated to the village of Rockland (population 650 on a good day), about 20 miles from La Crosse.  Went over to vote after finishing my work-from-home shift about six o'clock.  I was the only voter there at that time and was in and out in less than 10 minutes, even including a mandatory hand-washing before they would let me into the building.  (I always knew politics was a dirty business, but I never realized it was that dirty!)

Interesting thing, too — registering (checking my name against the roll and presenting my photo ID) was all done with a tall piece of plexiglass between myself and the poll workers, like visitors day at the hoosegow or the viewing window to the newborn nursery at the hospital; and rather than having a few marker pens at the little cubicle where one filled out their ballot they had about forty or fifty pens on a little table; you were supposed to use one to mark your ballot and then take it with you!

So I done did my civic duty, despite the best efforts of the Repugnicans to make it as difficult as possible for me to do it.

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

And of course we won't have the results until next Monday, at the earliest.

Whatever organization or group of voters files the (inevitable) lawsuit challenging the results of this election can expect a donation from me—as large a donation as I can afford.




ETA:

So I done did my civic duty, despite the best efforts of the Repugnicans to make it as difficult as possible for me to do it.

Thank you, Bill. You done good.

(I'd like to think I would've had the courage to do the same, but if I were still living in the city of Chicago under these circumstances, I really might have chickened out.)

[BoSoxGal]

Bernie’s out; formal comments happening in moments.

[Crackpot]

As long as his parting comments aren’t filled with petty bullshit my estimation of him has vastly improved

[BoSoxGal]

They were really statesmanlike, and his motivation to continue the conversation that has reshaped American thinking on universal healthcare and living wage and universal higher education was his focus, as well as the extreme importance of removing the most dangerous president in history.

He streamed the comments from his home in Vermont and I’m sure they’re available on his campaign website. Hang on, I’ll post the link. - Not yet available in full; I’ll keep checking for those who missed it.

[Econoline]

Joe Biden's statement in response to this news:

Today, Senator Sanders announced he was suspending his campaign. Bernie has put his heart and soul into not only running for President, but for the causes and issues he has been dedicated to his whole life. So, I know how hard a decision this was for him to make — and how hard it is for the millions of his supporters — especially younger voters — who have been inspired and energized and brought into politics by the progressive agenda he has championed. Bernie has done something rare in politics. He hasn’t just run a political campaign; he’s created a movement. And make no mistake about it, I believe it’s a movement that is as powerful today as it was yesterday. That’s a good thing for our nation and our future.

Senator Sanders and his supporters have changed the dialogue in America. Issues which had been given little attention — or little hope of ever passing — are now at the center of the political debate. Income inequality, universal health care, climate change, free college, relieving students from the crushing debt of student loans. These are just a few of the issues Bernie and his supporters have given life to. And while Bernie and I may not agree on how we might get there, we agree on the ultimate goal for these issues and many more.

But more than any one issue or set of issues, I want to commend Bernie for being a powerful voice for a fairer and more just America. It’s voices like Bernie’s that refuse to allow us to just accept what is — that refuse to accept we can’t change what’s wrong in our nation — that refuse to accept the health and well-being of our fellow citizens and our planet isn’t our responsibility too. Bernie gets a lot of credit for his passionate advocacy for the issues he cares about. But he doesn’t get enough credit for being a voice that forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror and ask if we’ve done enough.

While the Sanders campaign has been suspended — its impact on this election and on elections to come is far from over. We will address the existential crisis of climate change. We will confront income inequality in our nation. We will make sure healthcare is affordable and accessible to every American. We will make education at our public colleges and universities free. We will ease the burden of student debt. And, most important of all, we will defeat Donald Trump.

At this moment, we are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis in American history. There is enormous fear and pain and loss being felt all across the country. There are also untold stories of heroism — of nurses and health care workers and doctors and first responders and grocery store workers and truck drivers and so many others on the front lines of this crisis. Putting their own lives in danger for the rest of us. If we didn’t know it before, we know it now: This is the backbone of our nation.

Our first job is to get through the immediate crisis threatening the public health and getting help into the pockets of America’s workers. But we also need to take a hard look at what we need to fix and change in this country. Many of the biggest cracks in the social safety net have been laid bare — from health care to paid sick leave to a more extensive and comprehensive system of unemployment benefits. We will need to address these. Just as we need to address rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. And we all know — the clock is ticking — we don’t have a moment to waste in combating the climate crisis.

As friends, Jill and I want to say to Bernie and Jane, we know how hard this is. You have put the interest of the nation — and the need to defeat Donald Trump — above all else. And for that Jill and I are grateful. But we also want you to know: I’ll be reaching out to you. You will be heard by me. As you say: Not me, Us.

And to your supporters I make the same commitment: I see you, I hear you, and I understand the urgency of what it is we have to get done in this country. I hope you will join us. You are more than welcome. You’re needed.

Together we will defeat Donald Trump. And when we do that, we’ll not only do the hard work of rebuilding this nation — we’ll transform it.

Classy, compassionate, and just what he needed to say. (And unlike the Republican candidate, he sounds like an actual real human being.) I feel pretty good about Joe right now.

[Econoline]

Going back to the question of a VP pick...

I'm hoping that one of my home state's US Senators, Tammy Duckworth, might be under consideration for that position. She's got a LOT of positives and virtually NO negatives, and as an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient she might have a leg up with more conservative voters. (Well, she DID lose both both legs in combat, so "a leg up" might not be the best way to put it, but at least that makes it impossible for anyone to "Swift Boat" her record...)

[Darren]

[Darren]

There’s a moment midway through the film Chinatown (1974) in which the hero, Jake Gittes, hands us a clue—not a clue about the case he’s investigating, the one involving graft and murder in L.A.’s Department of Water and Power, but a more subtextual kind of clue, hinting at the meaning of the film’s enigmatic title.

Jake (Jack Nicholson) and his client, Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), are standing in her back yard, and she’s prodding him about his life before he became a private eye, when he worked as a cop in Chinatown. What did he do there, she asks? “As little as possible,” Jake replies. This bit of dialogue may seem innocuous, but it was, in fact, the inspiration for the entire film, taken by screenwriter Robert Towne from an actual Chinatown cop, whom he met in the early 1970s.

In Chinatown, the policeman explained, you have to do as little as possible, not because you’re lazy per se, but because you never know what’s going on, whether you’re preventing a crime or abetting one.1 Towne loved this idea, ...

[ex-khobar Andy]

Funny Darren (your post two above).

[Bicycle Bill]

We got unlucky on COVID-19
The wrong man is in charge during a once-in-a-lifetime crisis

 
At his most recent coronavirus briefing, President Trump said that determining when to reopen the country would be the most difficult decision he’d ever have to make.

He’s right.  The calculations are complex, the stakes high, the tradeoffs unimaginable.  He’s stuck between forcing millions of people out of their jobs and causing a downturn that could rival the Great Depression — or authorizing the deaths, possibly, of tens of thousands more people by reopening too soon.

If only such important decisions weren’t in the hands of a president so obviously unprepared and ill-equipped to make them. (emphasis mine)  Not only has he repeatedly shown his disdain for science and scientists, but he is also so focused on business and Wall Street that he is likely to give disproportionate weight to the views of those who want to protect the economy over the views of those who want to save lives.  He is averse to complex thinking, famously unable to concentrate on briefing books or details.  He lacks empathy.  He is an irresponsible decision-maker because of a lifelong tendency to trust his gut instincts over the opinions of experts.

It was hardly comforting when Trump was asked Friday what metrics he intends to use to decide when to ease up on social distancing and he responded by pointing to his head and saying, “The metric is right here.  That’s my metrics.  That’s all I can do.”

(Editorial from the LA Times — Read the rest on the LATimes website — or here on Yahoo)

-"BB"-