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US politics: Just another Mueller Monday


IheartIheartTesla

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53 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

Yes, but in practice, strangers who are coming to the door, not just running direct mail or even phone campaigns, but showing up at the front door, commenting about party affiliation, is creepy and intimidating, especially in this climate of political hysteria.  Of course, one wonders, why if the list says the people who live at XX address are GOP and Independent, did they still send more than half a dozen people for the same exact reason?  I don't actually think that who you vote for should be accessible to the "public" but it's a fairly long standing tradition I think? so unlikely to be changed.

ETA: Also, if I got a direct mail piece like what the other poster mentioned:  NAME: your vote is public your neighbors are watching, I would, again be completely creeped out and would believe the purpose was to intimidate me.  

I agree that this could be a bit problematic. The approach should be a little more subtle than that I think if there's any expectation to change minds. Something like, "I see you typically vote Republican" or something like that.

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12 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Ok, imagine what you want.  She was pretty upset about Gillespie's comments on monuments.  She was equally upset with the maybe/maybe not exclusion of Justin Fairfax from campaign literature (she had met him - he's an alum of the same college - was actually a year behind me - and she had gone to hear him speak - think she voted for him; she can't stand Vogel).  And, look, it's her vote, there's no "right" and "wrong" about it.

I'm with Ormond on what they are trying to do, btw.  It's pretty upsetting overall.

Ok, but there are often right and wrong ways to vote.  Much of these threads spend a lot of time discussing how wrong a choice a minority of American voters made one year ago.  It just seems hard to imagine someone is going to switch their vote based on a missent text.  They were already inclined in such a direction (I'm excluding outright ignorance as a possibility in this particularly situation). 

Though perhaps Ormond is right and it's an intimidation technique to keep potential voters from polls with the added benefit that some might willy nilly change their votes out of spite.  

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1 hour ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

(Response to Tywin) MN? Thats weird, that was almost certainly in the bag. The big uncertainty for me was Florida, which Obama ultimately pulled off (and therefore I underestimated his final numbers by ~ 28, had him pegged for ~305, which I even wrote on a whiteboard somewhere)

Well that was kind of the point. None of us had any reason to believe he’d lose the state, but still, they were terrified. The only thing that shocked me was how quickly the race was called. I was expecting a longer night.

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20 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

In my program I've been lucky enough to have been given a number undergrad RAs.  The stuff I've had them do is agonizingly boring, but that just seems downright cruel and unusual.  It also is to be expected - if anyone's going to have to be subjected to such type of data collection, it's inevitably going to be the lowest on the totem-pole, which are of course undergrads looking for course credit.

Tell me about it. The most boring one I had to do was examine the Congressional records for every “key vote” in 2005 that my professor identified and record every time a MC said something negative and positive about their party, the opposing party and President Bush. The psych labs were a lot more fun. In one of them I had five fake girlfriends, though my actual girlfriend was none too pleased.

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1 hour ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

 

My mother's vote was literally changed by a barrage of text messages [purportedly] from Democrat-linked PACs.  One of them (she forwarded) was "Your vote is public record, MARY.  Your Neighbors are Watching."  Another was "Polls are open until 7 PM DAVID.  Improve your voting record!".  Her name is not David.  She has only missed two elections EVER.  She will be voting for Gillespie.

Do the texts say which (purported) Democratic PACs are sending the messages? The tactics seem familiar to some of the controversial ones sent out last year, like the Ted Cruz mailer for the Iowa caucuses.

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12 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

 

Though perhaps Ormond is right and it's an intimidation technique to keep potential voters from polls with the added benefit that some might willy nilly change their votes out of spite.  

It is clearly an intimidation technique in my mind.  Whichever side is ultimately responsible - shame on them.

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Just now, The Great Unwashed said:

Do the texts say which (purported) Democratic PACs are sending the messages? The tactics seem familiar to some of the controversial ones sent out last year, like the Ted Cruz mailer for the Iowa caucuses.

At least one purports to be from Forward Majority Action, which is Democratic-linked.

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23 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

But here's the thing, it's not just a missent text. It's designed to make you think twice about your vote. "Neighbors are watching you".

If this does come from Democrats or any organization affiliated with them, I'll be extremely pissed with them for this.

If isn't clear, I have an extremely very low opinion of the Republican Party. I wouldn't be caught dead voting Republican. Still, this type of tactic is utter crap.

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5 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

But here's the thing, it's not just a missent text. It's designed to make you think twice about your vote. "Neighbors are watching you".

I’m having a hard time seeing an actual campaign apparatus using that type of language. It’s very odd to say the least. @Mlle. Zabzie, If I were you and had the time I’d call their headquarters to verify if they’re sending messages like that out. It could be scam run by some third pretending to be them.

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3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I’m having a hard time seeing an actual campaign apparatus using that type of language. It’s very odd to say the least. @Mlle. Zabzie, If I were you and had the time I’d call their headquarters to verify if they’re sending messages like that out. It could be scam run by some third pretending to be them.

I think it very well may be a scam of some kind.  I've given my  mom a number to call (I am frantically creating client alerts re tax reform :))

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8 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

At least one purports to be from Forward Majority Action, which is Democratic-linked.

Sorry, I was in the middle of composing my post and got side-tracked, so didn't see you'd mentioned it in a prior post in the interim. I agree that the typo and the wrong addressee makes it rather suspicious, but both sides have been engaging in this voter-shaming since at least 2010, if not earlier. 

Stuff like that wouldn't affect my vote (straight-ticket Democratic every time), but if I were someone on the fence I'd vote the opposite way just because it would piss me off.

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 The Real Bowling Green Massacre

 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/us/politics/behind-rand-pauls-broken-ribs-a-trivial-dispute-lawyer-says.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

/Rand Paul gets BLOWN THE FUCK UP by an irate neighbor

//The Fark headline was Atlas Shrubbed. :D

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There's no way that a text message of "Vote Democrat!  Your neighbors are watching." is sent from an actual democratic campaign with the intention of making it more likely to vote for democrats.  That would be just about the stupidest message you could send to actually get someone to agree with you. 

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5 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

The tragedy is that this medium is inadequate to vent properly... there is simply to much nonsense to address ... I wrote a book about how Christian Dominionim is less about religion, and is actually the sociological means employed by capital interests towards achieving a two-tier, Orwellian economy...

Could you give us the title please?

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One of the great many things I will never understand about US politics is why people are comfortable being publicly registered as a member of a political party. And, for that matter, why the party itself doesn't have any control over who gets to join it, or remain in it. :huh:

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Obviously the VA gubernatorial race is getting all the attention, but there’s another important race happening too. Democrats seem all but set to reclaim NJ, which is big when it comes to redistricting, and furthermore, there are 17 seats in the lower chamber that Republicans hold that are districts that Clinton won, so hopefully the Dems can pick up a majority of them.

11 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

There's no way that a text message of "Vote Democrat!  Your neighbors are watching." is sent from an actual democratic campaign with the intention of making it more likely to vote for democrats.  That would be just about the stupidest message you could send to actually get someone to agree with you. 

I mean, we are talking about Democrats, the masters of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

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23 hours ago, Maithanet said:

There's no way that a text message of "Vote Democrat!  Your neighbors are watching." is sent from an actual democratic campaign with the intention of making it more likely to vote for democrats.  That would be just about the stupidest message you could send to actually get someone to agree with you. 

Well, it certainly is a very dumb and stupid tactic. And I hope it isn't sent from the Democratic Party. 

But, just because it's a really dumb idea, doesn't necessarily rule out the Democratic Party. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the Republican Party is such an utterly flaming mess and an utter total disaster, I'd be inclined to think the Democratic Party is the most screwed up party in existence.

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19 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

There's no way that a text message of "Vote Democrat!  Your neighbors are watching." is sent from an actual democratic campaign with the intention of making it more likely to vote for democrats.  That would be just about the stupidest message you could send to actually get someone to agree with you. 

To be clear, it didn't say vote democrat.  I will have to find the exact message which she sent to me, but it was along the lines of: Dear Mary, Your vote is a public record.  We see that you voted in 2016 but not in 2015.  Do better, vote today (your neighbors are watching).

6 minutes ago, Hereward said:

One of the great many things I will never understand about US politics is why people are comfortable being publicly registered as a member of a political party. And, for that matter, why the party itself doesn't have any control over who gets to join it, or remain in it. :huh:

Well in some states, mine included, you have to register for the party to vote in the primary, and the primary often decides the election.  But I completely agree and act accordingly.

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