I told you who won the Minnesota primaries, but I should probably mention the wacky and unloveable losers of that race.
First and foremost is Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy. Despite the fact that Donald Trump endorsed him, he lost by 11 points to Lisa Demuth. Before the election night, he was saying that win or lose, he’d back the Republican nominee. During election night, he was getting visibly flustered as he tried to suggest that the election returns were flawed, and he’d need to examine the data closely, and he refused to concede. Now he’s singing a familiar song.
Mike Lindell, well-versed in denying election results, has cast doubt on his distant second-place primary finish Tuesday night in his effort to secure the Republican nomination for governor of Minnesota.
The MyPillow founder, speaking to reporters at his watch party in a downtown Minneapolis hotel after The Associated Press called the race for Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, raised the specter of fraud in the vote count and was not ready to concede the race.
Lindell said there were “deviations (that) came right at the end,” when the final unofficial results came in showing him losing by more than 45,000 votes, or 11%, to Demuth.
You know this is going to be the game plan for every Republican loser come November. How do we know there’s election fraud? Because I lost!
I’m just surprised he got as many votes as he did. He’s a crackpot.
We had another big loser that night: Royce White, a former basketball player (and by all accounts, not a very good one) was running for the Senate. He lost bigly, coming in third place. His dalliance in crazyville was distinguished by his announcement that he was also declaring his eligibility for the WNBA, because he was a transgender woman. He proved it by putting on a wig.
Yeah, I’m convinced.
He also made an insincere public announcement.
He’s not getting drafted into the WNBA, and he lost the senate primary, so what’s a certifiable kook to do? Announce that he’s running for the presidency.
Now the real fun begins —I will be starting my campaign for President next week. I don’t care how much money they say I need or how much ass I’m supposed to kiss. It ain’t going to happen! We win MVP of the WNBA and then head to the oval office. What I witnessed today in Minnesota is disgusting. We have not had enough yet. Minnesota nice has killed our state. We still believe in moderates, it’s embarrassing.
Now that’s a delusional lunatic!
Primaries are a within-party race, right? So he’s not (yet) accusing those Evil Democrats, he’s accusing his fellow Republicans of fraud. I suppose I should hope for this to become widespread in the GOP — confusion to our enemies!
I, for one, look forward to MyPillowGuy being found suffocated, with bits of pillow foam in his mouth.
He’s not accussing repugs of fraud. It’s always the Democrats. Why. Because they were askeered of him and couldn’t allow him to face their candidate this fall because his awesomeness and total non-whackjobness would be overwhelming.
How’d they commit this fraud? Dunno.
Where’s the proof? Look, over there. A sqwerl!
When are Americans going to get tired of this same old rhetoric?
If I lose the election, it was rigged, if I win the election, it was just. At what point does the boy who cried wolf make an appearance?
stevewatson @ #1 — “Primaries are a within-party race, right?” Depends on the state. California has open primaries. We almost had two Republicans for the final round of governor this year. Elections are run by the state, not the party, so they could claim in a Democrat controlled state that the election was rigged to put a loser in the lead for the Republican side.
stuffin — The boy who cried wolf made an appearance but went back to the White People’s House in a secret plane transported to the airport in a Port-a-Potty delivery vehicle.
In Minnesota, you vote one party or the other, not both. They even warn you that if you try to cross party lines, they’ll throw out your ballot.
The main election you get to mix and match.
mike lindell is too stupid to understand his election fraud lie doesn’t mean the democrats were mean to him. his fellow deplorable republicans were mean to him.
I’m a bit disappointed that he lost. Not a resident of Minnesota, but I was looking forward to watching the gubernatorial debate between a sane Democrat candidate and the self-proclaimed “former” crack addict.
@ stuffin : If I lose the election, it was rigged, if I win the election, it was just. At what point does the boy who cried wolf make an appearance?
If it hasn’t already and I have my doubts about the last ever USoA presidential election it’ll be the mid-terms. The Repugs have alwasy had things tilted in their favour (Electoral College, gerrymandering, vioetr sppression) but now expect that their previous accusations will be confessiosn and the mid terms will be neither free nor fair. If they even occur at all.
Neither is the losing pillowman. He relocated to Texas.
Im sure the former sportscaster will provide some ridiculous entertainment in her attempt to become a Senator.
@ ^ I really hope I’m wrong about that too.BTW.
But honestly, the USóA as a Democracy died when Kamala wasn’t elected POTUS – or maybe was actually elected but was robbed by at least voter suppression and maybe by Musk cheating as well.
Of course, the Repugs have also poisoned the well with their now numerous false accusations and lies and so now its going to sound conspiracist & hypocritical when its actually true. Becoz the Repugs will do what they accuse of doing. Every accusation, you know how it goes.
@StevoR
We are having midterms, just like we had a primary.
Elections are run by the states, and none of them are going to cancel elections at the whim of the demented buffoon.
Even the remnants of MAGA aren’t going to support such nonsense.
@ ^ Tethys : Umm, what?! MAGAts do support that nonsense.have since y’know Jan 6th. The Trump cult already oppsoe democracy and support and worship a tyrant and are fine with losing democracy.
MAGAts have captured a lot of states and in those Red states theyhave already been undermining Democracy, making it harder to vote. Intimidating and suppressing voters, worsening gerrymandering ad nauseam.
Have you really forgotten all that?
States unning things is part of the problem in my view – reckon you need(ed) an Aussie style Independent Electoral Commission to set electorate boundaries, etc .. See :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Electoral_Commission
Among so many reforms to improve a system that was always badly flawed and has clearly failed siunce you got the results you did and are now so stuck with them and govt shutdowns that, far as I’m aware doing happen anywwhere else, etc..
The USoA would have been much better off with a standard Westminister style system or a French style with run-off elections or pretty much any other system of actual Democracy.
If you get a chance for a total reboot and new system in the future post the Trump tyranny – your current state – I hope you Americans take it and remember your false idol slave owning ancient~ish founding fathers did get your governance system very badly wrong.
PS YT Short Trump Lawyer: U.S. Democracy Won’t Survive 2026 – Ty Cobb interviewed by Mehdi Hasan.
I know I’ve shared this before albiet not for a while but the Electoral Collegge already renders the USoA a non-Democracy and is deeply anti-Democratic and rigs things for the Repugs :
Source : https://www.huffpost.com/entry/its-time-to-end-the-electoral-college_b_12891764
It absolutely needs to go and the popular vote needs to be the winning one and the USoA also absolutely needs to have preferential voting or run off elections to prevent the third party spoilers problem and also end the voter suppression rules, gerrymandering, having elections on a work day, etc ..
Really better for everyone on the planet especially themselves if the USoAites started over totally. Maybe they’ll be a chance if you don’t end up as separate countries or radioactive ecocided ruins quite possibly taking the rest of us on this pale blue dot with you. Of course, so much horror is now (almost?) inevitable and you are so fucked over there and have fucked the rest of our planet over so badly as well.
Now you’re just being obtuse. Elections here are in fact happening all the time, and no fascist rhetoric from cheetolini can’t stop them happening. There is no army that can stop us having elections.
Additionally, maga and its leader are actively dying. He currently enjoys the lowest approval rating ever recorded. Gas prices over $4.00 and unaffordable food means that Dems are going to take over Congress this election.
The pendulum swings, and suddenly Socialism and DSA candidates winning elections is the new trend in American politics.
I had rather hoped someone would put up an actual pillow as a candidate to see if it got more votes than Lindell.
Impeachment 3.0, third times the charm is far more likely than the states allowing the federal government any authority over their elections. Even red states have sued and won over giving Cheeto access to their voter rolls. Current score is 21 to 0 in favor of states rights.
@ 11 StevoR
So you’re saying Democrats destroyed democracy by putting forward an unpopular candidate.
@ 15
Stevo, you really need to decide if you’re for or against insurrection. X-D
BTW, just a pet peeve Stevo, but can you knock off the misogyny of always calling Harris “Kamala” as though she’s a little girl.
It’s never “Donald” or “Joe” but it’s always “Kamala” and “Hilary”.
Women are not children Stevo, show some fucking respect.
Silentbob @20: Speaking of misogyny, have you apologized to chigau yet for persistently, knowingly misgendering her for years? Fucking hypocrite.
I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the future of democracy here in the US. I feel we’re on the razor’s edge and could go either way. Now may be the time for good people to do what we can for truth, justice, and the American dream.
Maybe the actual act of denying election results – not mind you, asking for a recount, or the like, but actively denying the result, when even the recount fails you, should also fall under “fraud”, and require actual f-ing jail time. Not a fine, not a slap on the wrist, but actual time in jail for it.
Silentboob@19: “So you’re saying Democrats destroyed democracy by putting forward an unpopular candidate.”
There was no candidate that the Democratic Party could ever put forth that was worse than the Orange Führer, and that even includes a dead spider. The fix was in, and no non-GQP could ever win, so the MAGA loons invented their “bad candidate” apologetic for cover. Of course, they will never actually compare the two on real issues, because the Orange Idiot has no actual policies, other than destroying US democracy, as per Putin’s orders to his WH asset. By continually refusing to remain silent, you continually expose your irrationality, but that may be your actual plan since MAGA can’t ever reason at all.
Garland was never going to put Felon45 in jail or prison since he was the moderator for the Heritage Foundation on multiple occasions. The fix was in, voting didn’t actually matter since so many democratic voters were intimidated and their votes were simply discarded to make Mango Mussolini the winner. Somehow the Muskrat knew the voting outcome even before it was reported by any news organization. Of course, Musk contributed $288M to aid the Orange Idiot, since that also bought him the opportunity as the DOGE leader to lay off scores of people who were investigating him for fraud. And he had accrued over $2B in fines, which imply disappeared as a result of his layoffs; an excellent return on investment. It literally did not matter who the democrats ran in that election. The narcissistic psychopaths united.
https://sdvoice.info/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won-here-are-the-numbers/
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-04-28/elon-musks-companies-face-at-least-2-37-billion-in-potential-federal-penalties-trump-doge-tesla-spacex-blumenthal
Typo: “imply” ==> “simply”, although it may work either way.
A good loser: Count Binface, the satire candidate from space, got 27% of the votes in the Clacton by-election against Britain’s Temu Trump, Nigel Farage.
More than a quarter of the voters in a high-turnout election preferred the candidate with a bin for head over Farage.
Been seeing a lot of videos about this Count Binface fellow in my YouTube recommendations. Leaves me wondering if we should get American joke candidates to expose how absurd things are. I could probably use a summary video on the UK politics for my uninformed American brain.
@16 Tethys
“There is no army that can stop us from having elections.”
I hope that statement ages well!
Connecting socialist to democrat could have a tamping down effect on enthusiasm for some in the party, democrats need to be better at communicating exactly what socialist means and how it’s defined; otherwise, it will be defined for them as repub’s release schools of red-herrings’ enabling them them to obfuscate even more than they already do (and it’s one of their strengths). They are throwing the socialist label at Talerico trying to slow his momentum and hide the fact they have nothing of substance to run on. Their priggish attitudes are not so effective against Talerico, especially when contrasted against the bone-spur polishing corruption of Paxton.
As far as having elections, we can have those, but what happens when the results get ignored? Or, mired in webs of frivolous lawsuits? There is an existing law that mandates the release of the epstein-files, how’s that working out? Laws are inconvenient obstacles that the ‘morbidly rich’ can afford to avoid. I imagine those files are generating numbers with lots of zeros into repub’s dark money schemes. There may be no army that can stop us from having elections, but there could be a government that won’t accept the results of those elections.
Yeah, I’m not confident elections will remain significant. With the US having overthrown a lot of socialist or left-leaning elections in other nations, I don’t doubt there are forces that would overturn the results at home. While I hope that a wave of Democratic socialist victors extinguish this extinction burst, I won’t hold my breath. Everything’s messy and shows few signs of cleaning up.
Yeah, me too.
This is more of an aspirational statement than a factual one.
It turns out democracies die all the time.
This was one of the last books I read. It is in most public libraries, which is where i got my copy.
As George Bush said once, the Constitution is just a piece of paper. It is the people who enforce it and keep it from becoming irrelevant.
We see democracies die all the time.
The latest were Chile, Venezuela, Hungary, Turkey, Syria, Nicaragua, and Russia among others.
The good news is that they can also come back from the dead.
That is what happened to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Hungary.
It is ridiculous fear-mongering to claim that America won’t have midterm elections in light of the fact that said elections are in process, and DSA candidates are actually winning. This is an excellent and surprising development, though it does have some historical precedent. Last time was with FDR and the New Deal.
Additionally Americans of all political stripes have arms, and vastly outnumber any force that would attempt to forcibly subvert elections on behalf of the fascists.
The only way the fascists could exert influence is to make the voters apathetic about voting, which obviously is not happening. MN just broke records for primary turnout, and other states are seeing similar trends in voter participation. Neither Missouri or Tennessee are known as progressive states, but the voters recently turned out in force to defeat attempts to disenfranchise them from their constitutional rights.
Cheeto has sued 30 states for their voter rolls, and has been told to pound sand 21 times so far.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/jim-crow-voter-suppression-tool-back
No you didn’t. The top candidate, Democratic, got 27.98%. The second, Republican, got 24.59%. The third, Democratic, got 22.79%. The fourth, Republican, got 10.17%. So you actually came within 2% of having two Democrats.
What makes you think the Democratic winners will be allowed to take their seats? The Vice-President swears in the senators. The Clerk of the House (Kevin McCumber, appointed by Kevin McCarthy and confirmed by Mike Johnson) reads out the roll of newly elected members of the House. According to Wikipedia:
If he hasn’t suceeded in rigging the elections, or got his Supreme Court toadies to do it for him, Trump will order these minions to refuse to accept enough newly-elected Democrats – on spurious grounds of electoral fraud – to maintain Republican majorities. You know he will, if you think about it: what did he do in 2020? Then, you were lucky: to his credit (and there’s not much that is), Pence refused to obey. Do you think Vance will? I know nothing of McCumber, except that he was nominated by and later confirmed by Republican speakers, but will he stand up against Trump? American democrats (lower-case “d”) need to be preparing now to exert such pressure that Vance and McCumber are more scared of them than of Trump.
Your complacency is both astounding and deeply worrying. Primaries are in process, and it is those some DSA candidates are winning. Trump and his minions may think they will be easier to beat than “moderates”, and may not want to show their hand – the specific forms of cheating they will use – before November. Also, see my #33 – on the whole I think it likely the Democrats will win a majority at least in the House, despite Republican cheating, but there’s no way Trump will accept that result.
Citation? I put “Garland Heritage Foundation” into a search engine. It came up with one substack, owned by one kdsherpa, saying Garland was a Republican and a member of the Heritage Foundation, and a lot of reports of the Heritage Foundation attacking Garland and accusing him of various nefarious deeds. I agree that Garland appeared to slow-walk the prosecution of Trump for his attempt to overthrow democracy, and that Biden should have replaced him, but I’ve put both failures down to a stupid belief in “bipartisanship”. similarly, I’d like citations for your claim that Democratic votes were “simply discarded”. If there’s real evidence of that, why have there been no attempts to bring court cases against the perpetrators? Absent serious evidence, I disbelieve such claims.
Are primaries somehow not part of the elections? Calling me complacent because I’m stating facts is rather bizarre. StevoR is being ridiculously over the top with their claims about the death of democracy and fears over the midterms. Trying to score rhetorical points by bringing up slavery is nonsense. Oz started as a penal colony. Neither slavery or the British Empire exist anymore, because of the power of the people. (Also a civil war and multiple revolutions)
It truly doesn’t matter what Cheeto will accept, assuming he doesn’t drop dead before November. (Highly likely given his rapid decline into advanced dementia)
The states have the power over elections, not the federal government. American states aren’t going to concede that power regardless of political affiliation.
[meta]
Tethys, even though the general public votes in American primaries, that vote does not elect anyone to public office, does it?
It is purely a preliminary step to decide who gets on the ballot for the actual election.
We have the same here in Oz, but we call it preselection and it”s not done by public votes.
So, in the sense that it is an election process relating to what candidates will represent the party, it is part of the election.
But then, so it is here in Oz, except the voting is not public, but party internal.
Point being, the ‘election’ is understood to be the process to elect people to public office, not to the process of choosing endorsed party candidates.
I don’t think that’s meta John, as sore losers in the MN primary is the OP. I’m well aware of our process, and Mr pillow can cry about losing all he wants. It won’t change whose name is on the ballot for Senator this November.
Likewise, the head fascist and his cronies attempts at voter suppression. Judging by every single election that has happened in the last two years, the efforts to subvert our elections are resulting in increased voter turnout and openly socialist candidates gaining support.
That’s not what I expected, but I’m happy to see that the American people are far more progressive than the legacy media or either political party.
It’s about the little disputation regarding whether selecting candidates is part of the election itself, which is not the topic.
StevoR has vociferously asserted this was the case, and that Harris would have won were not for that.
So some people believe it is the case.
Datum: https://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present
Not every blip is a trendline, and the trendline is pretty static best as I can tell.
Presidential years peak in the low-to-mid 60s, and midterm years drop into the 40s.
Here in Oz, we have mandatory voting, though that only entails getting your name crossed off the list.
Turnout is not a big thing, and therefore nor is mobilising any particular bloc to actually vote.
Result: here, political parties do not need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to convince people to show up to a polling booth; they only have to persuade them how to vote.
I do wish voting was mandatory, but changing that first requires progressive candidates actually getting elected to office. That has been happening despite (or perhaps due to) the buffoons attempts to cast doubt on our elections. MAGA is indeed dying.
I’m not interested in a pissing contest between our systems. Both are imperfect. Both are better than monarchy.
We will have elections. He can’t stop the democratic process. It’s going to be a GOP bloodbath because of him. How ironic.
KG@35: “Citation? I put “Garland Heritage Foundation” into a search engine.”
Those original links have obviously been removed. They stated that he had been the moderator for that creationist organization multiple times. However, not all traces have been removed. Try using more of what I said next time: “garland moderator for the heritage foundation”, soon, before that link gets removed as well.
https://xony.org/merrick-garland/federalist-society/
The Reich Wing attacked Garland, pretending that he was a “moderate”, which fooled both the Democratic Party and Biden sufficiently to get him appointed as attorney general. Remember, creationists have over a century of experience in honing their deceptive tactics. “Equal Time in the public schools*, “Creation Science”, and “Intelligent Design”, anyone? By very publically attacking Garland, they assured that the Democrats would want to put him in charge. And he slow-walked the Orange Führer’s sentencing until it could not even be applied. That was not accidental, it was by design. He appointed the apparently competent Jack Smith as a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the Orange Führer’s actions regarding the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, but then he took no action on Smith’s results. Gosh, his hands were tied.
https://www.facebook.com/heritagefoundation/videos/jack-smith-is-an-illegitimate-special-counsel-and-attorney-general-merrick-garla/507514385021026/
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/17/heritage-foundation-biden-hur-audio-00158762
*Since they kept losing court cases, and underfunding public education has not worked all that well for them, now they are totally destroying public education. Perhaps you have noticed this?
**”Please don’t throw me in that briar patch”. Given the opportunity, the leaders of the Democratic Party will nearly always steal defeat from the jaws of victory. They are far from the brightest bulbs in politics, and largely serve as the foil to the GQP. And that does not even include the corporate democrats in the party, that somehow end up very wealthy after getting their sinecure in congress. Voting democrat is just voting for the lesser evil. There are never any better choices, by design. A few democrats in congress are actually trying to do good for the public, but they are in the, often vilified, minority.
KG@35: ” I’d like citations for your claim that Democratic votes were “simply discarded”.”
Really? Bipartisanship is the Democratic Parties excuse for every failure. “Reaching across the aisle”, to the opposing side that continually does not compromise, and it also takes a step back at every “compromise”. “When they go we go high”, has resulted in democracy likely dying in the US, if not the world. Note that Musk is actively propping up the Nazis in Germany, etc. And I see that you have somehow ignored the link that I previously provided:
https://sdvoice.info/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won-here-are-the-numbers/
“If there’s real evidence of that, why have there been no attempts to bring court cases against the perpetrators?”
So you have also completely forgotten the Democratic Party having correctly pointed out that the 2020 election was not stolen. And yet you refuse to even think of what would happen politically if they actually investigated the voter fraud (which they have steadfastly refused to do), since that would reopen the 2020 election all over again, something that the Orange Führer and the MAGA cult desperately wants to happen. Are you even trying to be serious?
Word disappeared, WordPress is so last century.
“When they go we go high” ==> “When they go [low] we go high”
zetopan,
Um.
If one defines political competence as the functional capacity to acquire, consolidate, and retain power within a human hierarch, then perforce the actual leaders must be politically brighter than those who did not manage to become leaders by virtue of their accession and continuance.
(Or are you literally attempting to assert that only the politically-dim get to the leadership level?)
John Morales@44:
John Morales@44: Of course, you just have to interject your nonsensical interpretation. So, is it your thesis that the Democratic Party losing to feeble-minded creationist B-movie actor Ronald Reagan, twice, then the equally dim G.W. Bush (the most incurious president that far, and “Mission Accomplished”, while wearing a flight jacket), and then finally to the dimmest of them all, the Orange Führer, twice, shows that the Democratic Party leadership is NOT dim? Water kills magnets, The Continental Army took over the airports in 1776. Windmills kill whales, cause cancer, and have enormous piles of dead birds around the towers. And he also reduced the prescription drug prices by 1,599%, and an encyclopedic volume of other wildly counterfactual claims. Pelosi got very rich with insider trading, Schumer is merely a cheerleader, etc.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” — H.L. Mencken, in 1920
Nope. I have no such thesis.
I am noting you are proposing the idea is only the dim political types reach the leadership of that one party., but the non-dim politicians don’t make it there.
That implies that reaching (and remaining at) the top of a political hierarchy does not entail political competence.
I directly quoted you!
(You could try quoting me too, instead of putting words into the dummy and bashing the dummy)
Morales:
Imagine living through not one but two Trump administrations and still believing this to be true X-D
Some people simply will not accept the evidence before their very eyes.
Morales, if a fucking carrot got elected president would you finally admit people can vote for idiots, or would you be insisting we should all be in awe of the political acumen of carrots?
Morales is a naive believer in meritocracy. He’s the same with billionaires. He simply cannot except Musk is not a special genius.
@ 48. Silentbob : ” if a fucking carrot got elected president would you finally admit people can vote for idiots”
We already know all too well that people voted for “idiots”* notably those who voted for anyone OTHER than Kamala Harris at the last election and thos ewho then support those people. Like you frex..
.* To use your own choice of ableist words. Apologised to chigau (違う) for your bullying and misgendering her yet?
@8. kukulkan :
Problem with political jokes is all too often they actually get elected.
Then they ain’t so funny.
Exhibit A : Trump.
Not that Aussies can talk. Recall back when Lil’ Johhny “War Criminal “Howard was a punchline not a PM.
Ouch. You’ve made me feel old. Fucking hell adecade since 2016 already.. Let alone
..1996& the Tampa * election. Fuck.
@19 Trump supporting Troll supporter Silentbob : “Stevo, you really need to decide if you’re for or against insurrection.”
Context is a thing y’know.
Insurrection against a democratically elected legitimate choice o’th’peeple Democrtaic party President who legitimately won an election eg. Jan 6th? Fuck no!
Against a fascist tyranny a la the attempted assassination of Hitler and then coup in Operation Valkyrie when other less violent, less problematic options are no longer realistically available? Fuck yeah!
^ (#52) Fix :
I’m not. (Which you know already but still.)
Kamala Harris was NOT unpopular bit rather popular given she probly actually won voter suppression and maybe Musk cheating aside.
Certainly many times more popular than any of the Third party spoilers – who got 1% of the vote or less. But crucial given the fucking tiny margin.
The Democratic * party did NOT destroy your Democracy.
Those that did NOT vote for and fully unite behind and support Kamala Harris destroyed your democracy taking the rest of our planet with them. To a very large degree – Climate implications and consequences of Trump’s 2nd term a-fucking-alone.
People like third party spoilers Putin shill Stein & West and their supporters and advocates like the Trumpy troll “Beholder” who you support.
I dunno why that Trump supporting troll bothers commenting here really given they got what they wanted already in the imposition of the Trump tyranny and have ultimately killed many (even most or all) of us in the process.
What the fuck is wrong with you that you cannot see the reality here and keep supporting them? Honest question. WTF Silentbob?
.&&&
.* Leaving off the ~ic suffix in Democratic party is a tell for bad faith anti-Democratic party folks FWIW. Has been for decades. Of course, there’s arguments against the validity and applicability of both USoA party names. Semantics. Which sometimes matters. Repugs = Trump cult party now. Democratic party = the left wings ONLY fucking chance and hope in the shitty, fatally** flawed system the USoAites have.
.** Literally fatally becoz the election of Trump that should NEVER have happened once let alone twice has already resulted in at least hundreds if not many thousands or even tens or hundreds of thousands of needless fatalities. This ain’t a fucking game. This is life or death. Understatement not hyperbole. USAID alone then Global Overheating, Ukraine, Gaza, ad nauseam consequences.
^ Fixiing that last fix for clarity becoz my italics fail & I can’t edit these posts here post submitting. (Like you used to be able to do on the old BA blog years ago for a 5 (?) minute window. Sigh. Okay. Mea culpa. I fucked up too. I suxck at typing and previewing.) :
The Democratic* party did NOT destroy your Democracy. (Specifically th’*** USA’s as Silentbob falsely alleges. – ed.)
Those that did NOT vote for and fully unite behind and support Kamala Harris destroyed your Democracy taking the rest of our planet with them. To a very large degree – Climate implications and consequences of Trump’s 2nd term a-fucking-alone.
People like third party spoilers Putin shill Stein & West and their supporters and advocates like the Trumpy troll “Beholder” who you support.
I dunno why that Trump supporting troll bothers commenting here really given they got what they wanted already in the imposition of the Trump tyranny and have ultimately killed many (even most or all) of us in the process.
What the fuck is wrong with you that you cannot see the reality here and keep supporting the Trumpist troll here? Honest question. WTF Silentbob?
.&&&
.* Leaving off the ~ic suffix in Democratic party is a tell for bad faith anti-Democratic party folks FWIW. Has been for decades. Of course, there’s arguments against the validity and applicability of both USoA party names. Semantics. Which sometimes matters. Repugs = Trump cult party now. Democratic party = the left wings ONLY fucking chance and hope in the shitty, fatally** flawed system the USoAites have.
.** Literally fatally becoz the election of Trump that should NEVER have happened once let alone twice has already resulted in at least hundreds if not many thousands or even tens or hundreds of thousands of needless fatalities. This ain’t a fucking game. This is life or death. Understatement not hyperbole. USAID alone then Global Overheating, Ukraine, Gaza, ad nauseam consequences.
.*** Also why the fuck don’t we lose the “e” in “the” and just prounounce it as Shakepseare did – th’ Bard, O’course! Why does ~ing need more than the ‘n’ anyhow.. Fo-net-icks fa fucks sake! Tired now could ya guess?
Now I remember to add #52’s asterisk :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_affair
.***
@ 40 .Tethys : “I’m not interested in a pissing contest between our systems. Both are imperfect. Both are better than monarchy. “
Yet the USoA is now doing a speed run of governance failure skipping the Julius Ceaser – Emperor Augustus / King William the Conqueror / Edward I Longshanks stage to go directly to the Caligula / Nero / Mad King George III stage of the insane tyrant monarchy in very vague historical equivalence.
Not a “pissing” contest” &, yeah, our system has its flaws too – but the messed up USoA system is just utter shit. Becoz its :
(1) Lack of real multi-party system and issue of third party spoilers which is easily prevented by preferential voting or alternatively French style run-off elections. Pick either option. I’d suggest the first preferential (“Ranked choice”) voting one. Works well here. (Oz.)
(2) Lack of mandatory voting or at least mandatory getting your name ticked off the roll on election day. Spoil your ballot or just put in the box blank if you are silly and care little enough to do so, but everyone should be able to vote and then you don’t have your obscenity of non-voters either by choice or deliberate suppression and the struggle of getting people to do what is their minimal civic duty.
(3) The Electoral College : Fucking anti-democratic abomination that empowers the most poorly educated, least capable of critical thinking, most religious (but I repeat that last one), slaver scum states. Why the fuck do the majority American states put up with that shit?! Like really!? The fuck you guys!? 1 vote, one value. Everywhere. Scrap that EC shit. Give every USoAoite citizen an equal counting vote everywhere. (Peurto Rico , DC included.) If that means California decides every election. So fucking be it. People. Power to them. Democracy’s literal fucking meaning.
(4) Independent electoral Commission. Fuck the slaver states rights shit. Consistency. One system. Everyone on the one metaphorical page. No gerrymandering by party bosses in X, Y, Z. More Federal less divided. E pluribus unem for all. Less confusing, less messy. Just do it. One federal board, all elections. Fiercely independent, answerable to no party. Oh and elections on a weekend and day that the most USoAites can participate – mail in votes, most inclusive possible. Oppose all voter suppression measures. Maybe scrap mid terms full stop and just go once every four or even five years for POTUS an congress critters alike. Less elections but better ones?
(5) Age, term & other limits. Add a maximum age for running for any POTUS & Congress to stop gerontocracy – maybe 65? Scrap term limits to prevent lame ducks. Just think we could still have Obama as POTUS now. (Yay? Sure beats Trump!) Add compulsory mental fitness testing and disqualify anyone found to be sociopathic or mentally unstable from running for any significant office – all candidates must prove they are of sound mind to run every election. (Yay! No more Repugs ever! 😉 ) Add condition that every candidate for POTUS must have held at least one major governmental position – state or federal – previously. Make all campaign donations illegal and fund all political parties and candidates equally from a common pool of taxpayer money specifically set aside for that specific purpose. Make that amount a vastly smaller one than currently.
Oh and perhaps ban men for running as candidates for, I dunno, 300 years or so? Enough time to fix one fucking huge bias in your culture? Apply that toscience deniers permanently? Just cut ‘n’paste the Westminster system of England, ok, minus monarchy or Oz, ditto, or Iceland or Japan or any one of plenty, x plenty better governance systems in other nations with better quality of life and general happiness and success as measured by average citizens.
If fucking only you, USoAites, would. Sigh.
Wish I could be optimistic and no, I don’t think I’ve been hyperbolic when it comes to state of USoA politics. Fucking understated if anything I’d say.
Really wish politics of the USoA mattered to our world as much as the politics of Senegal or Mongolia or Luxemburg did. Wishful thinking, o’çourse does not reality make.
The world cannot afford the USoA to be as totally fucked up as it currently is.
You guys need regime change & WWI Allies in germany & Japan style Occupation. If only the world could do it.
Need your own Marshall plan on steroids and major re-education and de-programming from (cough, sorry, Rupes fucked us up badly too) Murdoch shit as well.
If only we could actually collectively do it as a species and a planet. Sigh. Fuck.
Tethys@36
They are not the part Trump is likely to want to disrupt, as I argued, so pointing out that they are happening is beside the point. Nor am I saying the November elections won’t take place; I’m sure they will, unless there’s a nuclear war or similar catastrophe.
I notice that you completely ignore, not only the various ways he could intervene this time, but what he actually did and attempted to do in 2020. Truly gobsmacking complacency.
In quite a number of states, including some so-called “swing states”, control of the elections is in the hands of MAGAts. You really think they are going to play fair?
The rest of your reply is aimed at StevoR; I’ll leave any response to him.
zetopan@41,
Your own link says:
So I think a foolish commitment to “bipartisanship” and to the convention that former presidents are not pursued legally is an adequate explanation for Garland’s slow-walking of Trump prosecutions.
Zetopan@42,
I did miss your link@24 – apologies for that. I wasn’t questioning vote suppression at all, simply the claim that Democratic “votes were simply discarded”, which suggested to me a process that would have been blatantly illegal, and readily proven so. Nothing at the link falls into that category, and I think your explantion of why the Democrats did not issue legal challenges is very weak. Has Trump stopped repeating that the 2020 election was “stolen” because no such challenges were issued? Are there actually any legal grounds he could have used to reopen the issue? No, clearly not, because if there were any, he would have done so. It appears to me that although there clearly were unfair and biased procedures used to disqualify Democratic votes, any challenge would not have succeeded, since even if successful at lower levels, the Trumpist Supreme Court would have found it easy to overturn such verdicts.
zetopan@45, Silentbob@47-49,
It’s a mistake to think that because Trump is an ignoramus, in many ways stupid, and a disaster at actually running a government, he’s devoid of political talent. He excels at telling his target voters, who are mostly uneducated and lack critical listening or thinking skills, what they want to hear, and persuading them that he hates and despises the same people they do, without letting on (usually – he does slip up) that he hates and despises them too. He is also good at getting the very rich on his side, because he promises – and delivers – what they want. And he has the advantage of having no scruples or moral barriers whatever. His political powers are now undoubtedly failing, because he is in (I would estimate) the middle stages of dementia. But as is often the case, well-practised skills (in his case, lying and bullying) are retained longer than anything else, so he remains dangerous. Moreover, the Republican Party is so deeply invested in him that they cannot turn against him without damaging their own interests.
My quick take is don’t trust institutions to behave as you expected them to in non-Trump times. Take the wins we can and keep pushing for other forms of direct action. Don’t get complacent.
StevoR, you are a cretin who flips the table over and shits all over everything whenever you sense criticism of your favorite sports team — that’s apparently all U.S. politics is to you, or else you would bother updating your stale script. I was content to stay out of this thread and let people articulate their criticisms of the Democratic Party without my input (it was going really well!) until you started hallucinating my presence. Maybe your invocations of me are a rote reflex, much like flipping the table or burying everything under your own brand of nauseating shit.
They were already included, unless you’re talking about giving them equal representation as a state, which, well, funnily enough you’re bringing into existence two tiny states that you claim are
.
One other thing that caught my attention:
Actually the nice thing about a popular vote mandate is that redneck Joe-Bob’s vote in the middle of Podunkville can help just as much to turn a swing election. If you really meant you just want the largest states to decide elections, then you should update your census numbers, StevoR. California is shrinking. Texas and Florida are ascendant.
False. No party controls the elections. They are administered entirely by volunteers from both sides.
Despite the noise and fury of magats, not one shred of evidence has been found that any US elections have been rigged.
Wisconsin is one of those swing states, and they just came within .4% to putting a DSA candidate (Francesca Hong) on the ballot.
I dislike the equivocation by the different senses used for ‘election’.
The election is on 3 November, so it has yet to occur. You are not talking about that, but the ‘primary’.
Elected to be on the ballot for the actual election.
Again: even though the general public votes in American primaries, that vote does not elect anyone to public office, does it? It is purely a preliminary step to decide who gets on the ballot for the actual election)
See if I can make this clear: the actual election is where people get elected to public office.
I know the word ‘election’ is used, but it’s electing candidates not elected officeholders.
Being confused by the nomenclature is flawed.
Taking a look at the reality: https://wisconsinwatch.org/2026/08/wisconsin-partisan-primary-2026-election-your-ballot-democrat-republican-gubernatorial-congress-legislature/
The mechanism is quite clear, too:
Gotta say, that seems super-open to being gamed.
—
I am somewhat amused by the seemingly endless perpetual electoral activity in the USA. Elections every two years, elections to elect the candidates for the actual elections, oh my! ;)
And again John, a primary is an election, stop mansplaining my countries election process to me.
A DSA candidate coming within a hairsbreadth of winning a primary in Wisconsin is remarkable. Michigan is another swing state where the DSA candidate won their primary. Neither state is known for its progressive politics.
You show up at the polls, sign in, they ask which party you want, and they hand you the appropriate ballot with the various candidates from that party. Then you fill it out, and feed it into the scanner. There is nothing to game.
That’s why independent voters swing the elections, since there are more unaffiliated voters than there are registered members of either party.
An increase in Democratic voters in the primary is an excellent indication of how the election will pan out.
Far more reliable than any poll.
Can’t stop what I never started. Duh.
Again: not the election. That is on November 3.
The selection of candidates for the election that will elect officials.
(You really don’t get it, do you? I honestly made it as clear as I could, but it was futile)
Good grief! If one is pretty sure that their party’s candidate is gonna win the selection, the obvious move is to vote in the other party’s primary, and vote for the worst possible candidate to oppose your party’s candidate.
It is very, very obvious. How you don’t see it allows one to vote for either your party’s candidate, or for the other party’s candidate. Positive, negative vote. And if one can mobilise a bloc, then one can maybe cruel the other mob’s chances.
(The feeblest, rankest version of ranked voting, sorta)
Hard pass on the Japan-style occupation. I read about what they did to China, it was horrific.
Now, if a few good guys managed to do a decapitation strike on Washington D.C. inshallah, I’d be out there dancing in the streets.
beholder, I think it is exceedingly likely StevoR intended to write WW2 there.
Everything fits then: the occupation of Japan, not the occupation by Japan, given Japan was an imperial ally of Germany in that war, and the corresponding for Germany.
Anyway, I do presume NSA has your aspiration on record, now you’ve made it public.
(Lucky for you, you are impenetrably secure behind your pseudonym, no? ;)
Silentbob @47.
Imagine being so clueless as to frequently and loudly proclaim that Harris did not win the US presidency because she was a shit candidate, not see the implication in that assertion that trump and the GOP were the more politically astute group (they did in fact win), then accuse someone pointing out that very obvious fact (that the winners of a political contest must therefore be more politically adept) of not accepting the evidence before their very eyes.
@ 67 Morales
So you’re saying Stevo is singing the praises of the the Berlin Wall?!
I’m not saying you’re wrong, he’s obviously pissed again and not making sense, but your interpretation is not exactly doing him any favours
X-D
(Also I love Captain Hyperliteral saying don’t interpret what someone is saying literally, but discern what they intended to convey X-D )
No, they are not:
Those two levels of certification – in many states, done by partisan elected officials – give opportunities for cheating. Partisan officials can be restrained from cheating either by actual adherence to democratic norms, or by fear of the consequences. I am far from confident that Republican officials will be restrained by either in the Trump era.
There’s a remarkable similarity between the two narratives “Trump won the 2024 election because the Democrats put up a crap candidate”, and “Trump won the 2024 election because the Republicans cheated” – both of which, to make myself clear, have at least some truth to them. Both excuse the electorate. In a country with a decent, democratic, political culture, Trump would have lost by a landslide far too sweeping to be affected by the quality of the opposing candidate or the effects of voter suppression and biased rejection of ballots. There was no excuse for any voter not to know that he and those around him aimed at dictatorship: he had, after all, already attempted a coup in 2020-1. In a country with significant elements of democracy, citizens have a moral duty to protect those elements. A clear majority of the American electorate failed to do so, either actively by voting for Trump, or passively by not voting for the only candidate with a chance of defeating him.
@70 Troll supporting troll Silenbob : So when John Morales isn’t being “hyperliteral” as youaccuse of being and showing you are actuallywrong to do so youcrioticise him for that?
BTW. have you apologised to chigau (違う) for your bullying and misgendering her yet?
@ 67. John Morales : “I think it is exceedingly likely StevoR intended to write WW2 there.”
Correct. I intended to put WW II – a typo that, of course word spellcheck did not pick up.
The Marshall Plan part is the key one there that should have been the giveaway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
That’s what the USoA could really do with now – after its regime has been changed and an actually decent model of governance put in place.
^ Clarity fix : So when John Morales isn’t being “hyperliteral” as you (Silentbob) accuse him of being and his words show you are actually wrong to make that accusation you criticise him for that?
Just FYI but the midterms are probably the only reason why the US haven’t broken out into full riots yet as they offer a chance to counter the Trump regime in an “orderly” manner. Take that away, give the impression that Trump will cancel or somehow majorly meddle in them in another way and what are people left with? If Trump cancels or invalidates the midterms he might as well also cancel the presidential elections, then people aren’t left with any choice. Once the strategic oil reserve runs out and gas goes to $20 a gallon, what do you think will happen? Animals are always the most dangerous when driven into a corner.
Administered by as in the people who staff the polls, not the election board. Certifying the results is usually quite routine. Occasionally a recount is necessary and they have to hand count the paper ballots, but both parties participate in a recount and check each other’s counts.
Despite the maga tactic of constant complaining about rigged elections and voter fraud, not a single shred of evidence has been presented that shows significant fraud in our elections. Election deniers lost over 60 court cases in multiple states when they tried to claim Cheeto didn’t lose in 2020. Claiming maga somehow has control of elections in any state is simply false.
Missouri just voted in force (83%, record turnout!) to defeat some maga shenanigans by their local legislature, and Missouri is not known for being slightly progressive. Clearly they weren’t going to stand for the blatant maga attempts to disenfranchise the power of the people, and right now the people can’t afford food and gas.
A full 30% of voters neglected to vote in 2024. It’s good to see some numbers that show they are regretting that choice now that they had to learn the hard way that the oligarchs can’t govern, and obviously don’t care about the American people.
@69. Silentbob :
Yeah, because building the Berlin wall was famously part of the Marshall plan! Of course not, you dishonest clod.
Oh look; a variant of the “person X is being emotional about subject Y so therefore they must somehow be wrong” fallacy. That does NOT logically follow of course.
Thinking of not following, if you, Silentbob) aren’t following the arguments I made in comments #53 to # 56 then that reflects far more on you than it does on me troll supporting troll Silentbob. I notice that you failed to answer yet again basic questions directly put to you – something your beloved Trumpy troll also does – so, again :
WTF is wrong with you, Silentbob, that you cannot see the reality and keep supporting the Trumpist troll here?
Especially after they outed themselves again by advocating for an invasion of Greenland by the USA and lied about Greenland’s status here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/08/11/this-is-what-happens-when-you-let-a-senile-fool-run-the-country/comment-page-1/#comment-2309125
Left 5 questions I expect you’ll be too gutless and lacking integrity to actually answer there in #42.
There were more primary elections this week, and yet another DSA candidate won, in Florida no less.
Additionally, two different MAGA scumballs lost their primaries.
Amanda does a quick and hilarious run through of all the magats who have been completely ousted by GOP voters across various deep red states, including Wyoming. Bloodbath’s all around.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/I4v5e3T7UHs?ra=m
@78 Tethys
Down goes Vindman! I was happy to hear that another neocon war hawk got the boot.