Is Georgia on your mind?

[Derec]

This is what makes me pessimistic about the runoff. Biden won the popular vote by the slimmest of margins, so Ossoff and Warnock need all the votes they can possibly get.

Both runoffs are long-shots, imho. Dems are notorious for their turnout dropping off a cliff when there is not a presidential election on the ballot. And doubly so if the election is a runnoff.


By the way, what was Abrams thinking pushing Warnock on us as the party-backed candidate?
1. He is a Baptist pastor. Kinda tells you everything you need to know about his critical thinking skills.
2. He said some idiotic things about Israel.
3. He said some equally idiotic things about police.
3b. Even as Warnock has claimed that he is not in favor of defunding police, his senior advisor sure is.
[tweet]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Must read from my sister-in-service ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/paigejfernandez?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@paigejfernandez</a>⁩. The movement to defund the police isn’t as radical as some may think. It’s about a complete reimagining of law enforcement in the United States. <a href="https://t.co/1t8WWupOXO">https://t.co/1t8WWupOXO</a></p>— Dasheika Ruffin (@DasheikaRuffin) <a href="https://twitter.com/DasheikaRuffin/status/1269064917807779840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 6, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>[/tweet]
4. He continued to support radical pastor Jeremiah "God damn America!" Wright even after Obama distanced himself from him.

Still, the color of his skin should be enough to give him almost all the black vote. So he will probably do better than Ossoff.

Even that may not be enough, given that Biden did not really "win" Georgia. Trump lost it. Georgia is a purple state right now, not a blue state, and the election machinery is still firmly in the hands of Republicans. Most Republicans want to keep control of the Senate, so Georgia Republicans will be highly motivated to vote.

Unless they get disappointed when Georgia certifies for Biden. That's basically Dems' only hope for these runoffs.

Many Democrats are not as excited about who controls the Senate, and both Republicans are incumbents.

Even after Merrick Garland, they still don't learn ...

Of the two, I suspect that Loeffler is the more vulnerable Republican, but she is still a Republican. And Republicans only need one of those two to win in order to keep Mitch McConnell in a position to block any meaningful legislative progress.

I agree. Between her being a weaker candidate and the built-in advantage for Warnock regarding the black vote, she will probably do worse than Perdue. But unless there is a full-blown revolt against GOP by the MAGAs, I expect both to win.

 

[Derec]

In a Government class I took decades ago, it was explained to me that the reason we have the Electoral College is to help create various degrees of distance from "the mob" and the branches of government. Thus:

The common voter is one step removed from Congress, two steps removed from the Executive branch (via the Electoral college) and three steps removed from the Judicial branch (nominated and ratified by the other two branches) I forget the rationale behind this setup, but it made a queer sort of sense to me at the time.

Thus, we should be on an intimate, even first-name basis with our Representative, whereas in my circle of friends people are hard pressed to even name our Rep. It's all about Trump or Biden, and that's all that they'll think of until 2024.

If we "fix" this by directly voting for the President, will we want to directly elect Supreme Court justices too? Why not?

Many other countries don't have head of government elected by the people directly. In UK or Germany, candidates for Prime Minister and Chancellor are not on the ballot except in their constituencies. Instead, they get elected by the House of Commons and the Bundestag, respectively. The strangeness of the US system is that the president is on the ballot, but then it goes through the convoluted EC process.

Btw, I would welcome direct vote for president since that office is on the ballot and thus should be elected directly.
But I would get rid of directly voting for DAs and judges as many (most? all?) states are doing.

 

[southernhybrid]

https://www.ajc.com/politics/jewish-leaders-defend-raphael-warnock-after-loeffler-attacks/K57ARLIMJNFIJF6TNSNBICOKMM/

One of the ways that the Republicans are trying to demonize Warnock is by making claims that he hates Israel and is anti Semitic. But apparently some Jewish folks don't agree with that.

In the hours after a gunman in Pittsburgh opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the phone rang in Atlanta for Rabbi Peter Berg, the leader of The Temple, Atlanta’s oldest Jewish congregation.


It was the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

“Raphael was the first to call,” Berg said. “(He said that) during this horrific moment of anti-Semitism in our country, he and the Ebenezer family are with us.”

There aren't really many Jewish people in Georgia, other than in the Atlanta area, but I hope that Jewish leaders will defend the false claim against Warnock and perhaps at least help some realize the disinformation that his opponent is proclaiming. Plus, by making it obvious that Loeffler and the Republicans are lying, maybe this will motivate more people to get out and vote for the Dems, or it might keep some Republicans from voting.

As we've said before, it's all going to be about turnout, and just because Democrats haven't been reliable in the past when it comes to runoff elections, doesn't mean that won't change. No, I'm not optimistic, but I think it's foolish to simply give up.. So many false claims are being made about the two Democrats, that it's disgusting.

 

[Copernicus]

...

Of the two, I suspect that Loeffler is the more vulnerable Republican, but she is still a Republican. And Republicans only need one of those two to win in order to keep Mitch McConnell in a position to block any meaningful legislative progress.

I agree. Between her being a weaker candidate and the built-in advantage for Warnock regarding the black vote, she will probably do worse than Perdue. But unless there is a full-blown revolt against GOP by the MAGAs, I expect both to win.

Oh, don't worry so much, Derec. It's pretty clear that the color of Loeffler's skin will matter much more in Georgia than the color of Warnock's skin. It's probably her gender, lying to voters about the dangers of COVID, and insider trading deals that will cut into her victory margin.

 

[southernhybrid]

I just received a card in the mail from the Democratic Party with lots of information regarding the run off election. Naturally, my husband and I are well informed about early voting, absentee voting etc. But, I think this mailer was a good idea, since there are some people who don't follow elections and politics that closely. It appears as if the Dems are doing as much as possible to get out the vote. Again, it's all about turn out.

 

[Angry Floof]

If Biden thought like Trump, he'd be demanding 16 more electoral votes every time he wins in GA.

 

[Copernicus]

Some of Trump's ardent supporters are calling upon fellow MAGA-ites to take action to protest the rampant fraud that led to Biden's win in Georgia: Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott.

President Donald Trump’s demonization of mail-in voting may have cost him votes in the recent election. Now, his demonization of Georgia’s entire electoral system is hurting his party’s chances at keeping the Senate.

Driven by Trump’s insistence that Georgia’s elections are indelibly rife with fraud, conspiratorial MAGA figures are calling for a boycott of the two Senate runoff races, slated for Jan. 5, that will determine which party controls the upper chamber.

Their reason: The two GOP candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are not only insufficiently pro-Trump, they may be complicit in Georgia’s electoral fraud...

This is a stunningly important discovery for all Georgia Republicans, and I hope that they can get the word out far and wide before they make the mistake of voting for those two devious, disloyal RINOs.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Some of Trump's ardent supporters are calling upon fellow MAGA-ites to take action to protest the rampant fraud that led to Biden's win in Georgia: Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott.

President Donald Trump’s demonization of mail-in voting may have cost him votes in the recent election. Now, his demonization of Georgia’s entire electoral system is hurting his party’s chances at keeping the Senate.

Driven by Trump’s insistence that Georgia’s elections are indelibly rife with fraud, conspiratorial MAGA figures are calling for a boycott of the two Senate runoff races, slated for Jan. 5, that will determine which party controls the upper chamber.

Their reason: The two GOP candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are not only insufficiently pro-Trump, they may be complicit in Georgia’s electoral fraud...

This is a stunningly important discovery for all Georgia Republicans, and I hope that they can get the word out far and wide before they make the mistake of voting for those two devious, disloyal RINOs.

Whatever keeps Mr & Mrs Hogwallop away from the polls.

 

[Copernicus]

The Washington Post is also reporting on the MAGA movement's anger towards Loeffler and Perdue: Trump’s baseless election fraud claims in Georgia turn Senate runoffs into a ‘high-wire act’ for Republicans

Sen. David Perdue was encouraging a crowd at a gun club south of Atlanta to support him and fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler in their bid for Georgia's Senate seats, which he called the only thing standing between America and "a radical socialist agenda."

But five minutes into the senator's speech, a man interrupted.

“What are you doing to help Donald Trump and this fraud case?” the man screamed, as one woman said “Amen” and the crowd applauded. “What are you doing to stop what’s been going on here and this election fraud?”

One prominent Trump ally, Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, who unsuccessfully sued Georgia election officials to stop the certification of the vote, has urged Republican voters not to vote in elections with Dominion machines.

Wood has attacked Perdue and Loeffler for not doing enough to help, and told his 631,000 Twitter followers last weekend that if the senators don’t step up their support, he would take a pass on Jan. 5.

“If not fixed, I will NOT vote in GA runoff,” he tweeted.

Asked whether his efforts would depress GOP turnout, Wood told The Washington Post via email that the Dominion machines “have no integrity” and insisted that “Georgia can vote by written ballot if necessary in January.”

Raffensperger, among the most outspoken who have said such talk will hurt Loeffler’s and Perdue’s chances, expressed exasperation at Wood’s comments. After all, a statewide audit of the presidential result, in which every ballot was recounted by hand, disproved the claims about the voting machines.

 

[Angry Floof]

The Washington Post is also reporting on the MAGA movement's anger towards Loeffler and Perdue: Trump’s baseless election fraud claims in Georgia turn Senate runoffs into a ‘high-wire act’ for Republicans

Sen. David Perdue was encouraging a crowd at a gun club south of Atlanta to support him and fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler in their bid for Georgia's Senate seats, which he called the only thing standing between America and "a radical socialist agenda."

But five minutes into the senator's speech, a man interrupted.

“What are you doing to help Donald Trump and this fraud case?” the man screamed, as one woman said “Amen” and the crowd applauded. “What are you doing to stop what’s been going on here and this election fraud?”

One prominent Trump ally, Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, who unsuccessfully sued Georgia election officials to stop the certification of the vote, has urged Republican voters not to vote in elections with Dominion machines.

Wood has attacked Perdue and Loeffler for not doing enough to help, and told his 631,000 Twitter followers last weekend that if the senators don’t step up their support, he would take a pass on Jan. 5.

“If not fixed, I will NOT vote in GA runoff,” he tweeted.

Asked whether his efforts would depress GOP turnout, Wood told The Washington Post via email that the Dominion machines “have no integrity” and insisted that “Georgia can vote by written ballot if necessary in January.”

Raffensperger, among the most outspoken who have said such talk will hurt Loeffler’s and Perdue’s chances, expressed exasperation at Wood’s comments. After all, a statewide audit of the presidential result, in which every ballot was recounted by hand, disproved the claims about the voting machines.

So Wood thinks that a bunch of trump followers, who are already mad at the Republican candidates in the runoff for not doing more to support Trump's fraud conspiracy theory, are going to go to the trouble of obtaining and handing in a paper ballot. Riiiight.

 

[Angry Floof]

The army of rabid stupid created by Fox News and their right wing mouthpiece bedfellows over the last couple of decades and then revved up by Trump is no longer under their control. The calls to boycott the GA runoff are continuing among the QAnon/Parler crowds. Fox no longer guides the army of rabid stupid, and the talking heads there seem like they might be noticing this reality... Not that they'd ever have an honest to goodness moment of clarity about what they've been doing, but at least they see that the force they've created can slip right out of their hands. I don't think they saw that coming.

 

[southernhybrid]

I just read that article and I'm laughing, early because this rally was in the little city where I live. While many of my neighbors have taken down their Trump signs, there are still plenty that remain. I am hoping that enough of these idiots will avoid the runoff. Right now, it appears as if the local Dems are more motivated to vote in the run off then the local Trump supporters, but I have no idea what's going on in the rest of the state. Atlanta voters will most likely be energized to vote for the Dems.

Plus, Perdue is also making claims that he already won in Georgia. OMG! This is insane.

 

[Swammerdami]

How much GOP cheating will there be in the January run-off? Are heavily-black districts provided with adequate voting booths?

Jimmy Carter is still alive; it would be sooo... logical for this ex-Governor to stand in as an international organizer of a FAIR election. We all know that GOP state governments cannot be trusted to do it themselves.

 

[southernhybrid]

...

Of the two, I suspect that Loeffler is the more vulnerable Republican, but she is still a Republican. And Republicans only need one of those two to win in order to keep Mitch McConnell in a position to block any meaningful legislative progress.

I agree. Between her being a weaker candidate and the built-in advantage for Warnock regarding the black vote, she will probably do worse than Perdue. But unless there is a full-blown revolt against GOP by the MAGAs, I expect both to win.

Oh, don't worry so much, Derec. It's pretty clear that the color of Loeffler's skin will matter much more in Georgia than the color of Warnock's skin. It's probably her gender, lying to voters about the dangers of COVID, and insider trading deals that will cut into her victory margin.

Only 59% of Georgia residents are white and plenty of us white folks are Democrats while something like 95% of Black folks here are also Democrats. They currently make up about 32% of the population her. The rest are an assortment of other minorities. Since Stacey Abrams only lost by 55k votes and there were very obvious signs of voter suppression during her race, I don't think anyone's skin color is going to matter in this race. When I attended a rally for Stacey, there were a good percentage of white folks there to support here and that was in my Black majority city. It's all about turn out and ideology. Georgia is far more racially integrated than the northeast, so I doubt that skin color is an issue.

Still, there are so many questionable things about the two Republican candidates, along with the Trump nuts claiming they won't vote unless the two Repugs do more to change the election outcome, that I'm slightly more optimistic than I was previously. Purdue has also been investigate for insider trading, but I doubt that matters to many Republicans.

Since 79% of residents in Georgia identity as Christian, I doubt that Warnock being a pastor is a negative for most. In fact, that might be an asset for him among Black voters. While it's a negative for me, most of the Dems I know will vote for him simply to try and take the power away from the Republicans. I have a lot of atheist and non religious friends here and they will all vote for Warnock. In fact, overall, he seems to be more popular than Ossoff, but those who vote for Warnock will most certainly vote for Ossoff as well. I didn't vote for Ossoff in the primaries. There was a woman with a lot more experience who I liked, but Ossoff had name recognition and that imo, is why he became the nominee.

I've voted for plenty of people who I wasn't enthusiastic about, so this is nothing new. There is always one candidate who is better than the alternative. This election is not so much about the candidates as it is about who controls the Senate.

I will share something funny. Some of the Republicans are worried about people temporarily moving to Georgia to vote in the run off. They even considered changing the voting rules out of fear of that. I mean really. How many people would be able to afford to do that?

 

[lpetrich]

Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott - POLITICO

"President Donald Trump’s demonization of mail-in voting may have cost him votes in the recent election. Now, his demonization of Georgia’s entire electoral system is hurting his party’s chances at keeping the Senate."

It doesn’t matter that both candidates are essentially lock-step with Trump, or that there is no evidence of links to electoral malfeasance. On Twitter and its less-restrictive alternative Parler, Trump’s more hardline followers have linked the duo to the president’s favorite — and untrue — voter-fraud theories. Hashtags like #CrookedPerdue and #CrookedKelly are flying around. The two lawmakers’ Parler accounts are brimming with posts accusing them of being secret “liberal DemoRats.”

The swelling anger is not just emanating from everyday QAnon believers in the MAGAverse. It’s also coming from prominent lawyers working on Trump’s behalf, including Sidney Powell, who was briefly a lead attorney in Trump’s push to overturn the election.

The growing chorus has caught the attention of some of Trump’s top surrogates, who have scrambled to push back against the movement. “I’m seeing a lot of talk from people that are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters not to go out & vote for @KLoeffler and @Perduesenate. That is NONSENSE. IGNORE those people,” implored Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son and typically a MAGA world leader, in a Monday tweet.

The top comments below the tweet disregarded the plea: “We’re telling everyone to write in Donald J Trump!” one read.

Seems like an own goal in the making.

 

[lpetrich]

Sen. David Perdue 'invites' AOC to state to campaign for his opponent | Fox News - "Incumbent offers to buy congresswoman ticket to help his campaign in high-stakes runoff election"

Perdue said Ocasio-Cortez “wants the Green New Deal without compromise.”

“When the Democrats have total control, which is what they want, you will end up with massive sweeping changes in America that you would never be able to do with a bipartisan requirement,” the senator said.

Loeffler, who is facing off against the Rev. Raphael Warnock, has also dragged Ocasio-Cortez into the race, responding to a tweet the congresswoman posted last week that said people needed to stay home in order for the country to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.

“AOC wants to lock down our economy, lock the American people in their homes, and put the government in charge of every single part of our lives,” Loeffler wrote on Twitter, adding it was “no wonder” that Ocasio-Cortez supported Warnock.

Ocasio-Cortez fired back that “disclosures show you seem to have gifted yourself private jet on public dime & exploited corrupt tax loopholes to do it,” citing an article from Salon.

“If you’re happy helping yourself to public funds, maybe take a seat before arguing against stimulus checks to help everyday people in a pandemic.”

 

[southernhybrid]

AOC is being used in some of Perdue's ads to help demonize Ossoff. WTF does AOC have to do with Georgia? I suppose that by putting her name out there, moderates might be scared. What really pisses me off is they are also calling Stacey Abrams a radical leftist, when nothing could be further from the truth. Stacey has always worked across the aisle when she was the minority leader in the Georgia congress. She understands compromise and pragmatism, but I guess the Republicans are so scared of her, that they are now putting her in the same category as AOC. Loeffler, I think, used a photo of Stacey and Collins embracing each other, in an attempt to demonize Collins in one of her previous ads. What the ad said to me is that Stacey is able to work with people who have different ideologies that she does. She was highly respected by both parties when she was in the Georgia house, but now she's being painted as an extremist, when she isn't anything like that.

So far, the Republican ads have all been extremely negative, making false claims about their opponents. Not one ad has said a thing about what the Republican candidates will do for Georgia, while almost all of the Democratic ads are very positive. So, we will see which approach works. I think most of us are tired of these stupid ads and just want this election to be behind us.

Meanwhile, Trump praises Loeffler and Purdue while at the same time claiming that the Georgia election process if full of fraud. WTF!

 

[Copernicus]

AOC is being used in some of Perdue's ads to help demonize Ossoff. WTF does AOC have to do with Georgia? I suppose that by putting her name out there, moderates might be scared. What really pisses me off is they are also calling Stacey Abrams a radical leftist, when nothing could be further from the truth. Stacey has always worked across the aisle when she was the minority leader in the Georgia congress. She understands compromise and pragmatism, but I guess the Republicans are so scared of her, that they are now putting her in the same category as AOC. Loeffler, I think, used a photo of Stacey and Collins embracing each other, in an attempt to demonize Collins in one of her previous ads. What the ad said to me is that Stacey is able to work with people who have different ideologies that she does. She was highly respected by both parties when she was in the Georgia house, but now she's being painted as an extremist, when she isn't anything like that.

So far, the Republican ads have all been extremely negative, making false claims about their opponents. Not one ad has said a thing about what the Republican candidates will do for Georgia, while almost all of the Democratic ads are very positive. So, we will see which approach works. I think most of us are tired of these stupid ads and just want this election to be behind us.

Meanwhile, Trump praises Loeffler and Purdue while at the same time claiming that the Georgia election process if full of fraud. WTF!

Republicans are playing to their strengths. They can only lose these two senate seats if their base fails to get out and vote. So Trump will visit Georgia to help the Loeffler and Perdue campaigns, which should squelch the conspiracy theorists who are calling for a boycott of the vote. Dogwhistle politics is also a part of getting out their base--reminding white voters not just of their insecurities but that they themselves are being disrespected and victimized. On the other side of the political divide, different messages resonate with the base. If Democrats expect to win the race by vilifying Perdue and Loeffler, that will help get out their own base, but it won't win them any new votes. The general election was a referendum on Trump that drove up the turnout to defeat him, but I'm not sure that there is enough anti-Loeffler and anti-Perdue sentiment to help Ossoff and Warnock. Sadly, the general election was more of a red wave than a blue wave, if you subtract Donald Trump. Divisiveness works better for Republicans than for Democrats.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump's baseless claims of Georgia voter fraud spark fears among Republicans | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Despite giving his strongest hints yet that he is coming to accept his loss of the White House to challenger Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s continuing reluctance to leave office and baseless claims about electoral fraud are increasingly worrying his own party.

In particular, Republicans are concerned that the chaos caused by Trump’s stance and his false comments on the conduct of the election in the key swing state of Georgia, which Biden won for the Democrats, could hinder his party’s efforts to retain control of the Senate.

...
On Thanksgiving – a day usually reserved for presidential platitudes – Trump broke with tradition and repeated those attacks in a now rare face-off with journalists. “I’m very worried about that,” Trump said when asked about his previous baseless claims of fraud in Georgia. “You have a fraudulent system.” He then called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who has defended the state’s election process, an “enemy of the people”.

That's got a lot of Republicans worried that Trump's statements will depress Republican voter turnout in the upcoming runoff elections. They made their bed with their Trump-loving. Let them lie in it.

 

[blastula]

Trump says he's going to campaign for the insider trading twins.

[TWEET][FONT=&quot]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1332337895584264197[/FONT][/TWEET]