Sweet Home Alabama -- Election Open Thread

by wj

I was intending to put up a thread like this Monday evening, on the thought that we might have something to say as events unfolded in Alabama Tuesday. But today brought something worth starting early.

The election in Alabama seems to be very close, with the result hinging on (primarily) turnout, and (secondarily) how many staunch Republicans will vote for someone not-Roy-Moore. Both of those feel, from the far side of the country, like a matter of permission.

Then this happened**. The senior, Republican, Senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, got up this morning and said:

"I didn't vote for Roy Moore. I wouldn't vote for Roy Moore. I think the Republican Party can do better."

(He also said that believes the women, and that his former counterpart, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has likewise said he had no reason to doubt Moore's accusers.)

He not only said he hasn't voted for Moore yet, he said that he plans to write in someone else on his ballot. (He declined to say who.)

Think about that for a moment. If you are a totally tribal Republican partisan in Alabama, you just got a top guy in your party saying that it's just fine to not vote for your party's nominee. In a race as close as this one looks to be, that could tip the balance.

Now we get to see how the vote counts go.

** The Alabama Media Group is local. It publishes several of the biggest papers in Alabama, and also runs some TV news. They date back a couple of centuries in Alabama. That is, they aren't some coastal elite telling Alabamans what to do. And they ran an editorial this morning saying Our View: Conservatives should consider Senator Shelby's example.

Comments

[Nigel]

This is encouraging, to say the least.
And it perhaps vindicates the Democrats stand over the Franken affair (though I know some disagree with me on this).

Meanwhile another hint of Republican decency...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/12/nikki-haley-says-trumps-sexual-misconduct-accusers-should-be-heard.html

[Countme-a-Demon]

I turned away a wine the other night that had a hint of dog shit in it, with allegations of fascism and a varnishy finish of death to the Other.

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/where-did-roy-moore-learn-to-speak.html

It would be nice to learn that doing the right thing vis-a-vis sexual harassment, or anything else, would be the winning formula in 2017 America.

Wrong vintage, wrong vineyard.

Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake, and Richard Shelby have the identical murderous voting record as Roy Moore hopes to.

[wj]

Count, if you can't see Moore as substantially worse than those 3 (regardless of how much you disagree with them on anything or even everything**), I really feel sorry for you.

** Personally, I disagree with Shelby on virtually everything. Except that Moore is scum who shouldn't be elected. And I submit that you, too, agree with Shelby on that one point.

[Nigel]

It would be nice to learn that doing the right thing vis-a-vis sexual harassment, or anything else, would be the winning formula in 2017 America.

We'll see.
In any event, 2018 is likely to be more consequential, and on a cynical calculus, either result helps the Democrats. A win makes the electoral calculus of gaining control of the Senate significantly easier; a win for Moore will be a festering sore for the Republicans, and could just tip the balance next year.

[byomtov]

I am uncomfortable about this election. A good friend who lives in Alabama tells me he suspects the polls are underestimating Moore's popularity because of a sort of "Bradley effect."

Voters are reluctant to admit to pollsters that they support Moore, but will vote for him in the booth.

[cleek]

it's Alabama, of course the Republican is going to win.

it's not like he was diddling boys.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

If Dems were competent at ratfnckery, there would be signs all over "deep red" voting districts in AL, informing the locals:

"PEDOPHILE SUPPORTERS VOTE HERE--->"

Unfortunately, the people who knew how to do that stuff are now to be found in those voting queues, eager to pull the lever for their pedophile fellow tribe-member.

[Nigel]

Jones has a 10% lead according to the latest poll... unfortunately, it's a Fox poll, so pinch of salt etc.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/11/poll-alabama-senate-race-roy-moore-doug-jones-217287?lo=ap_a1

And other senior Republican protests the support for Moore:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/11/nebraska-rnc-official-resigns-roy-moore-support-289308?lo=ap_b1

[cleek]

Tee hee

A Democratic lawmaker in the House is calling on the Senate Sergeant at Arms to take steps "to prepare the Page Program for the possible election of Roy Moore." In a letter to the Sergeant at Arms Frank Larkin, Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin, said she urges him to protect Senate pages.

"I would like to know what preventative steps are being undertaken to safeguard Senate Pages from predatory conduct of U.S. Senators and Senate staff," she wrote. "It would be unconscionable for Congress to not be vigilant and proactive in taking precautions to safeguard these children given the well sourced allegations against Roy Moore."

[wj]

A good friend who lives in Alabama tells me he suspects the polls are underestimating Moore's popularity because of a sort of "Bradley effect."

Voters are reluctant to admit to pollsters that they support Moore, but will vote for him in the booth.

That is, of course, possible. On the other hand, there may also be people who are uncomfortable admitting that they are voting for a (shudder!) Democrat. We shall see

[byomtov]

The Fox poll is interesting because it includes cell phone users.

It also used a sample of about 1100, which I think is bigger than some others.

[Doctor Science]

I just tossed Jones another few bucks, now I'm NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT until tomorrow evening. Right?

[Ugh]

When do the polls close?

[Nigel]

Pollsters conclude, with some degree of certainty... that they don't have a clue:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/11/alabama-senate-moore-jones-polls-290501

[wj]

OK, I'll get brave and make a prediction: IF cell phone users (i.e. younger voters) turn out at the same rate as those with land lines (i.e. older, more rural voters), Jones not only wins but wins big.

That's because I believe what Fox News (at least their poll) tells me. ;-)

[cleek]

That's because I believe what Fox News (at least their poll) tells me.

i'm finding it harder and harder to believe anything Fox News says - even polls.

as the prophet David Byrne tells us : facts all come with points of view

[wj]

Understood. But given their known point of view, if they say that Jones is up by 10%....

[Countme-a-Demon]

Other than sitting in his lap and addressing him as Daddy, this little girl did everything in her power to scoop FOX, Breitbart, Leni Riefenstahl, and Vlad Putin in the new conservative fake journobanalism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIa_m1cu7Hc

Moore didn't speak Russian in this one, but there were tongues and lip service.

I hope Moore wins. I hope North Korea launches everything they have at America. I hope global climate change hurries up. I hope the entire safety net, including my Medicare, is abolished. I hope the Yellowstone lava dome goes kablooey.

Asteroids, please hurry. Grow larger and more destructive as you approach Earth. Take the shape of Jesus so fucked up death loving conservative sadistic Americans run outside into the open to greet you as you enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Anything to rid us of this murderous republican pigshit from the face of the Earth.

My instincts are to believe with Rod Dreher ...

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/douthat-sullivan-colorado-cake-baker/

...that the conservative cake maker in Lakewood, Colorado, about ten miles from me, should not be forced by law to bake cake for gay weddings.

However, I also know the Rod Dreher of the Benedict Option is summed up in these commentators words:

"sponder says:
December 11, 2017 at 8:40 am
Rod, I want to take this at face value, but it absolutely has to be put in context of where you stand. I am going to list (once again) your stated positions. I understand these are nuanced, but they are your positions just the same.

-The state should reserve the right to make illegal homosexual sex.

-Individuals, some institutions and some businesses should be allowed to deny services, employment and housing to gays.

-Homosexuals should not be allowed to serve in the military

-Gays and gay couple should not be allowed to adopt or be foster parents, or at the very least be at the bottom of the list.

-Those engaging in homosexual sex are the moral equivalent of adulterers- namely unfaithful liars and cheats.

I light of this, where is the “live and let live’ on your part?"

The cake baker is merely small, like a vaguely poisonous, but otherwise harmless toad, but live and let live. He won't bake a cake for Halloween parties either, somehow believing that America, via its vast, banal commercial deracinating power, hasn't already emptied every last enchantment out of that holiday, too.

Happy Halloween? Why haven't the Evil One and his minion worshipers protested THAT greeting like Happy Holidays just as taken as butt hurt by demagogic dumb shits like ump.

I do believe, however, that Neil Gorsuch, who wrote his Oxford philosophy thesis on the unconstitionality of gay marriage and other issues, will be joined by far-right judges as rump packs the Court in future years and the gay marriage decision will be reversed.

Then, as well, all Federal law disallowing discrimination in America will be overturned, in the name of the crabbed, conservative conception of freedom.

They and their donors want it all.

America is a cake. And only white Christian conservatives get any.

The highest form of life to these ilk is the white corporate pass-through fetus.

All other life on Earth is subhuman to them.

[Michael Cain]

Understood. But given their known point of view, if they say that Jones is up by 10%....

Everyone thinks this one is all about turnout, yes? So if you don't want your voters to get complacent...

[JanieM]

Everyone thinks this one is all about turnout, yes? So if you don't want your voters to get complacent...

You took the words right out of my...fingertips.

I thin wj is just too trusting. ;-)

[Countme-a-Demon]

A vote against Doug Jones is a vote for Eric Rudolph and the the bombers of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14409208/alabama-racism/

What, did we think Moore and the republican party will only pass laws making it illegal for women to hold public office or to NOT be discriminated against in employment because the little minxes just can't stop trying to sexually assault we good, Christian white men?

Mike Pence doesn't have his wife along to stop HIM from pussy-grabbing. He wants the wife there because knows in his tiny black, bizarro Jimmy Carter heart that he is irresistible to overheated, always wet womankind.

Why, they can't help themselves. Especially those liberal women who have the sex drives of gay male sailors and black pimps.

[Countme-a-Demon]

re Gorsuch. He lied to Congress in his confirmation hearings when he said that he believed Obergefell vrs Hodges is settled law.

For him and his libidinous, dead, right-wing mother, no case law, Constitutional Amendment, or government practice established since 1776 is settled.

[wj]

I thin wj is just too trusting. ;-)

Not trusting. Just determinedly optimistic.

After all, suppose Jones wins. Trump's ability to scare Congressional Republicans into doing what he wants plummets. (Yes, I know a bunch of them are true believers, who don't need to be scared. I'm talking about the othets. After all, the actual balance of power in Congress isn't anywhere as skewed as it sometimes seems.)

Not to mention that, with a Jones win, the odds of McConnell's reign in the Senate ending just massively improved.

[Countme-a-Demon]

I hope these rump republican terrorists are successful in their legal ploy and are acquitted.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/three-men-accused-kansas-mosque-bomb-plot-request-pro-trump-jurors

I want truck bombs, as does the NRA, to be protected weaponry, to be driven in public without limitation, under the Second Amendment, as God intended.

I want threats to murder to be protected speech. Hell, God, his own hermaphroditic self, with Allah's approval, casts murder threats all the time, like when Eve took Roy Moore's hands and forced them up her skirts, or when Sodom and Gomorrah made their reputations and the first global flooding caused Noah to ask: "Kangaroo? What's that? Set sail, mates!"

Now, under the new tax law, christian churches in America can finance their bringing of fire and brimstone down upon the heads of their enemies with ample Koch (not pronounced "cock") money.

I want these freedoms too.

[Countme-a-Demon]

"Not to mention that, with a Jones win, the odds of McConnell's reign in the Senate ending just massively improved."

It could end with Moore's election, too, as ump and bannon, with ryan's smirking gee-I-wouldn't-presume-to-know-anything-bout-dat-approval, successfully connive to elevate Moore to Senate Majority leader, with the help of whatever grotesque monster defeats McConnell in his next Kentucky primary.

Either way, McConnell gets its, and good riddance.

One day, by hook or by crook, but probably via revolutionary catastrophe, and I favor the latter, Merrick Garland will get his hearing in Congress to replace Clarence Thomas.

[Doctor Science]

omg i just saw Roy Moore's wife joking (?) that they're not anti-Semites: "One of our attorneys is a Jew."

And yes, we have been thinking that they maybe ARE anti-Semites, thank you for confirming that.

[wj]

Well, it probably says everything you need to know about her that she is willing to be married to him. (My, that was snarky of me, wasn't it?)

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"Well, it probably says everything you need to know about her that she is willing to be married to him. "

Love is blind.

And oblivious to the stench of corruption too, it seems.

[Sebastian H]

I'm afraid that the weather looks like it is going to work in Moore's advantage. The forecast is calling for it to dip into the teens.

[bobbyp]

The forecast is calling for it to dip into the teens.

I saw what you did there.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Since November 2016, not even the weather is consensual.

[wj]

The forecast is calling for it to dip into the teens.

I saw what you did there.

Cute. Definitely cuite.

But note that younger voters, i.e. Jones voters, are more likely to be able to brave the cold. Us ancient specimens, especially in climates where we don't have gear to deal with it, tend to find it harder to deal with. Easier to just stay home....

[Sebastian H]

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/12/16762816/roy-moore-alabama-tv-data”>This is what happens when you water down phrases like sexual misconduct. It is a pet peeve of mine, but I HATE HATE HATE when groups try to amp up their causes by watering down strong offenses so they can inflate statistics.

It made me absolutely crazy to hear about Franken allegedly going for a kiss when someone wanted a hug as ‘sexual battery’ or ‘sexual misconduct’. Being unwilling to draw lines plays DIRECTLY into protecting predators because they can invoke the ambiguity of the language of misconduct to dial down the seriousness of their offenses just like the activists used it to inappropriately amp it up.

[Sebastian H]

Ugh I bargled the link. Lets try again.

This time did it work?

The key takeaway is that in Alabama most of the reports link Moore to 'alleged sexual misconduct'. But not allegedly molesting teenage girls or even allegedly trying to date underage girls.

For years I've seen activists try to get big headline numbers for things like "X% of women subjected to sexual misconduct" but blatantly lumping in an unwanted hug with rape. This strikes me as the exact opposite of offering solidarity with rape victims and people who were forced to choose between sex with the boss and getting fired.

But it also promotes an ambiguity about the seriousness of the charges. Activists want this ambiguity because it allows them to emotionally link the less serious parts of their cause with the more serious parts. But the problem is that this muddying of the water primes the opportunity for predators to co-opt the activist language to DOWNPLAY their offenses. They will try to downplay it anyway of course, but it is much more effective if activists have already done the work for them. If the predators are the ones who start using the downplaying language on their own, it can be easily called out as a distraction. But when activists have been plowing that field for a decade or more, it is incredibly easy for predators to use that to their advantage.

[wj]

Candidate for quote of the day (I know, the day is young yet):

“They tried to destroy Donald Trump, and they’re trying to destroy Roy Moore,” Bannon said. “There’s no bottom for how low they’ll go.”

One has to wonder if he realizes that the reason there is "no bottom to how low they'll go" is that there is, apparently, no limit to how low his candidates will be.

[Countme-a-Demon]

I demand a rec......

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/12/1723544/-Alabama-Supreme-Court-rules-the-state-can-destroy-ballot-images-right-after-Tuesday-s-election

Well, then I demand an armed rebellion.

[Countme-a-Demon]

When Moore wins today, this will follow soon after:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/12/12/a-dangerous-republican-assault-on-mueller-is-building/

By the end of next year, the United States will be in full blown bloody Civil War.

Street to street, house to house.

[Countme-a-Demon]

I wrote here the other day that the rump alt-right will begin accusing female Democratic lawmakers of sexual harassment and assault.

ump just set the campaign in motion:

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/12/12/well-that-escalated-quickly/

The next time Gillibrand meets ump face-to-face, she should punch him as hard she can in his glass jaw, so that his barely adhering dentures fly out of his mouth and hit the far wall.

This is not figurative speech.

Assault all conservative republicans.

[russell]

Count, it's time to take a walk outside and chill out.

[Michael Cain]

By the end of next year, the United States will be in full blown bloody Civil War... Street to street, house to house.

Damn, and people laugh at me when I talk about peaceful partition.

[Nigel]

The Count has been spouting violent (I hope) hyperbole for so long now that I'm almost inured to it.
Which doesn't really seem a good thing.

[liberal japonicus]

I don't think I read this here (and if I did, apologies), but this echos Sebastian's point

https://medium.com/@SIIPCampaigns/a-survivors-defense-of-al-franken-ea994c5bbc9a

[Tony P.]

Seb: Being unwilling to draw lines plays DIRECTLY into protecting predators ...

THIS. And by "this" I mean every word of Seb's comments at 12:11 and 12:24 above.

I note with some consternation that the Senate Democrats explicitly rejected this when calling for Franken's resignation.

Michael Cain: Damn, and people laugh at me when I talk about peaceful partition.

I do not laugh. I do wonder how a "peaceful" partition could work without an exchange of populations.

What I get laughed at for is advocating boycotts. Imagine libruls refusing to do business with local conservatives and vice versa. Naturally, the conservatives would pout that they should be a protected class. The libruls, rejecting "discrimination" in any form, would cave. So boycotts would become just another arrow exclusive to the conservative quiver.

Pitchforks and torches are sounding better all the time.

--TP

[wj]

"Partition", as I read it, implicitly assumes that everybody in a particular state (or whatever) agrees with the position of the majority there. Which is manifestly not the case -- witness the fact that Jones has even a remote chance of winning tonight.

So if you support partition, you are explicitly (whether you admit it or not) proposing to hang a huge number of people out to dry.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Doctor Science referenced Moore's evident anti-Semitism above.

This exchange is revealing:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/moore-campaign-spokesman-silent-when-told-bible-not-necessary-for-swearing-in

You'll notice Tapper used the example that an elected public official could choose, absolutely legally (expect that to be changed as the Supreme Court becomes Gorsuched) to use the Torah to be sworn into office in America, and that stopped the republican moore fuck in his tracks.

That rump swore himself in with a Bible makes about as much sense as Porky Pig swearing himself into the Presidency by placing his hand on the score to Mary Had A Little Lamb.

The species isn't even close.

Jewish Bible, you say, the Moore SS is thinking. We'd better get Jerusalem up and running as the capital of Israel so the Lord returns and winnows the Jew tribe down to its remnants for the end of the fucking world, because obviously we have a Soros Jew problem in the media that this probably liberal fag Jew asks me such questions.

These are sick psychopaths and sadists. Knowing nothing is the mark on their backsides.

There has never been anything like these filth in power in American history.

The healthy should not be forced to Pay for the healthcare of the unhealthy. They guy who said that, a killer, walks around the White House eating food off trays I paid for, even with his swollen prostate.

Bring it on, filth. The Second Amendment cannot coexist with living Republicans.

Moore is your garden variety anti-Semite, like rump. He'll hire a Jew to manage his finances, a short Jew-boy wearing a yarmulke, to quote Aryan ump vermin in the White House.

Sure, Moore's attorney is Jewish. So is his abortionist, don't you know.

I grew up with this shit, though my parents, decent human beings that they were, learned by living in neighborhoods side by side with Jews, to throw off the generalities and prejudice of pigfucking white Christian America, more or less.

And yet here we are. It never fucking stops.

Now, as to my threats of violence. I get it, kids, it's bad form. I went for a walk, as Russell suggested, and sat back down at the computer ... I should really quit and tend my garden like Slart ... and America looked exactly the same.

I'm going to be right. Each iteration of the republican Party over the past 40 years has been like looking at a timeline of 1930s Germany year by year.

lj's cite, echoing Sebastian, but the latter is a subtle, sensitive thinker, is plain English.

I think she's ready to join me.

I'm not backing down. But I'll take a break.

[Countme-a-Demon]

More fucking shit:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trump-nominee-has-history-of-suing-colleges-over-israel-boycotts/

Moore fucking shit:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/senate-approves-trump-judicial-pick-not-qualified-rating

I'm right

[Areala]

I don't live in Alabama, but I do live in Indiana, which is basically Alabama-lite in terms of general political leaning and education statistics. Roy Moore's acceptance, to me, as an outsider, appears to be a knee-jerk reaction on the right as "I'll vote for whoever I think will make the Left cry hardest, because it's hilarious to watch them melt down."

Never mind that this is about the worst way to go about selecting your government, at a certain point you reach a Dunning-Krueger event horizon among your voting populace that makes it nearly impossible to pull out of the death spiral.

Alabama is already one of the hardest-right states in the union, but despite this fact, it seems large numbers of people feel the only way their state will improve is to get rid of the few remaining Democrats...otherwise known as the only people left who are trying to help. Considering the state's statistics on things like obesity, access to health care, annual income, economic opportunity, and crime, it appears the people of Alabama are deep-sea diving in a raincoat, actively pushing away the rescue divers trying to fit them with scuba gear, while preaching that if more of them just try really really hard, no even harder than that, to breathe underwater it will become a reality because that's what (Trump/The Bible/Fox News) says, and you just gotta fake it 'til you make it, brother, and you too can be saved!

Things have to get worse before they get better. I'm terrified of what that means for me, an openly gay woman in a deeply red state, but I spent the better part of two decades fighting for the right to marry the woman I love, and I'm willing to step into the ring and take the blows again if it brings us closer to a society far less divided as what we've become in the past eight years. I've got enough of a safety net among friends and family. So go ahead: come at me, make it count, and leave the rest of the poor, the disadvantaged, and the sick alone.

Punch up for once, you miserable sods, you craven cowards, you pathetic excuses for what passes for 'human' among the Right these days. I'll bite my thumb, I'll throw the shade, I'll stab at thee from hell's heart and spit my last breath at thee, but unlike Ahab, it won't be for hate's sake, it'll be for love's.

Scorched earth seems like a great idea until you get your way. We've a Republic, as Ben Franklin quipped, if we can keep it. I'm growing less optimistic of our ability to do just that by the day, but I'll be damned if I give up my Republic, or yours, or anybody else's, without a fight.

Your move, Alabama. Make it count.

[byomtov]

Looking at early results, I think Jones has a good chance. Watch Jefferson County (Birmingham), Madison County (Huntsville), and Mobile County (Mobile).

[Countme-a-Demon]

When Countme is wrong, America survives.

[joel hanes]

There has never been anything like these filth in power in American history.

Oh, come.

Maybe not at the national level, but Trump could be the archetype for a whole bunch of Territorial governors, and Moore-ism has dominated the governments of various states for much of our nation's history.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Sarah Kendzior
✔
@sarahkendzior
Alabama's Secretary of State was an election monitor in Russia, where he deemed their election "free and fair" (it wasn't) and said he'd implement Russian tactics in Alabama https://www.google.com/amp/whnt.com/2016/09/29/what-did-alabamas-top-election-official-learn-from-monitoring-russian-election/amp/ …

6:54 AM - Dec 12, 2017

What did Alabama’s top election official learn from monitoring Russian election?
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's top election official, Secretary of State John Merrill, just returned from an election monitoring mission in Russia, where he says the process he observed was "free and...

whnt.com

[Areala]

Looks like my comment either got deleted or wound up in the spam queue. If something I said in it offended someone in charge, I apologize.

[JanieM]

Areala -- The comment was in the spam filter; I released it. I'm relatively new to the back room and have no idea what the spam filter's thought processes are, but I thought the comment was fine.

Fiery, even.

[wj]

I'm betting (based on total ignorance) that what upset the spam filter was
"Dunning-Krueger event horizon"

Makes sense to me.

[JanieM]

I knew there was something weird about the spam filter's thought processes. ;-)

[Doctor Science]

Holy cow, Jones won.

Happy Hannukah, y'all.

If we can do it there, we can do it ANYWHERE.

[wj]

Just saw a couple places (including AP) calling it for Jones. Wow

Everybody who has been comparing Alabama voters to various demons (zing!) may now extend apologies. Clearly there is a bridge too far, and Moore was it.

Big question: does Bannon double down in the GOP primaries next year? And to what effect?

[Nigel]

A win for decency, and democracy..

[sapient]

A win for decency, and democracy..

Thank you, Alabama, for stepping up! No more ugly stereotyping for you. I'm going to make a tourist visit soon. So grateful!

[Nigel]

Any figures for Republican alternative write ins ?

What makes the victory particularly sweet is Trump's fulsome endorsement of Moore. The bully's hold has weakened.

[wj]

Last I saw, write-ins were around 1.7%. Compared to Jones margin of victory of around 0.7%. Note that, in the past, write-ins have been somewhere under 0.1%

[Tony P.]

"Alabama voters" tonight were evidently less insane than "American voters" were in 2016.

I can't remember everything I've said about either "Alabama voters" or "American voters" in the past year, but I am perfectly willing to "extend apologies" to the saner group, if it's any consolation to wj.

--TP

[Nigel]

write-ins were around 1.7%. Compared to Jones margin of victory of around 0.7%. Note that, in the past, write-ins have been somewhere under 0.1%

So a few decent Republican voters have helped make the difference.

If Trumpism can lose the election in Alabama, it can lose it anywhere.

[Doctor Science]

No, Alabama voters are not more sane. They are less white.

Though wj's post is right, probably. Looks like % write-ins was greater than margin of victory. Enough Rs couldn't bear voting for Moore, wrote in Strange (etc) though they also couldn't stand voting for a D.

[Nigel]

Republican performance (compared to historical voting patterns) was actually worst in Jefferson county, which is 42% African American.

It held up better in both 'whiter' and 'blacker' counties.

[wj]

Judging from the turnout numbers I'm seeing, some who couldn't stomach Moore went the write-in route, but even more just stayed home.

[sapient]

Judging from the turnout numbers I'm seeing, some who couldn't stomach Moore went the write-in route, but even more just stayed home.

Which worked. Thank y'all! I love the Doug Jones the best, obviously. Where can I find a spot to live down there? Seems like a purple state to me, and I'm used to that.

[Sebastian H]

Apparently it wasn't as cold as I had feared.

[JakeB]

Ah say, ah say, boy! Ah say, keep away from those girls until they ahre of age!

[Countme-a-Demon]

Great news!

This should be Doug Jones' victory speech:

http://www.upworthy.com/tempted-to-pull-out-your-peen-in-public-ask-these-4-questions-first?c=ufb1

And then on to foreign policy, raising taxes, and forcing subsidized medical care down conservatives' throats.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Course, the RNC, making shit up as always, believes now that Jones is a Republican.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cory-gardner-doug-jones-should-vote-with-gop

Even when Democrats win, asshole republicans declare victory.

[Hartmut]

I guess there will be now a GOP version of the 'blame Nader and Stein' meme. If I were the write-in candidate, I'd be careful in the near future for there might be some radicals considering doing him (or her?) harm.
[This is not meant as snark. I think there is a real risk.]

[Hartmut]

It seems The Turtle has announced that he is not going to swear in the Alabama winner (at the time not yet known) before the end of the year/session, so expect the abominable tax bill (reconciled version, now with no handwritten changes) to be put to a vote before New Year's Eve.
(Therefore, I hope that Franken will not leave before that date either since his replacement would likely face the same holding action).

[Hartmut]

According to wikipedia turnout was 40.47%.
I'd call that abysmal but the projected turnout before Moore got the unwanted attention for his past alleged conduct was 18%.

[sanbikinoraion]

Ain't it a world, when your only two choices of representative are an old white male pedophile who shares your politics, or an old white male non-pedophile who doesn't.

[cleek]

"Alabama voters" tonight were evidently less insane than "American voters" "American Electoral College Members" were in 2016.

[cleek]

oh shit.

oh shit.

[cleek]

I guess there will be now a GOP version of the 'blame Nader and Stein' meme.

commenters on the Breitbart thread on the election (closing in on 50,000 comments!) are pretty sure that it's all the fault of McConnell and Bannon.

[Ugh]

They can't swear in Jones until the Alabama Secretary of State certifies the election, which should be sometime next week.

That said, McConnell could halt all major legislative action until- bwhahahahahahhaah, ahh, almost made it to the end there.

[Girl from the North Country]

It's often the case that, as Yeats said, the world's more full of weeping than you can understand. But, on the other hand, sometimes a wonderful thing happens. Black voters came out despite obstacles and intimidation, and the man who said America was last great under slavery has been rejected. The Trump/Bannon/alt-right nexus can and still will achieve much that is malign, but the resistance is strengthened and the good people who gave money, organised and got out the vote will be energised for 2018 and hopefully beyond. As I'm sure they say in the Evangelical churches: Hallelujah!

[russell]

roll tide roll.

that is all.

[liberal japonicus]

I don't usually do this, but this killed me

Roy Moore Retires From Politics To Spend More Quality Time With Someone's Kid

[russell]

As further proof that the arc of history bends toward justice, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is now in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

So, a good day all around. :)

[Ugh]

I liked this from twitter:

Roy Moore liked this night a lot better when it was younger.

[Michael Cain]

They can't swear in Jones until the Alabama Secretary of State certifies the election, which should be sometime next week.

Per Alabama statute on the procedures, certification can be done no earlier than Dec 26 and no later than Jan 3.

[Countme-a-Demon]

This, which I picked up at Balloon Juice and via the Twitter account of someone named Vaughn Hillyard, is the most eloquent, beautiful oration of certainly the past many dreadful months of republican rancidity and rivals Martin Luther King for its knife-like directness into the black heart of hate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BY_2doFSqI

Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell Junior is left quoting Lynyrd Skynyrd as Scripture, for cripes' sake:

Jerry Falwell
✔
@JerryFalwellJr
AL voters are too smart to let the media & Estab Repubs & Dems tell them how to vote. I hope the spirit of Lynyrd Skynyrd is alive/well in AL. “A southern man don’t need them around anyhow & Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you, tell me [email protected]

5:55 PM - Dec 11, 2017

[wj]

They can't swear in Jones until the Alabama Secretary of State certifies the election, which should be sometime next week.

Even so, the tax bill may be at increased risk. Because it just takes one or two Republican Senators deciding that they aren't that scared of Trump any more, and therefore will do what's right. And Trump is looking more and more like a paper tiger.

[Michael Cain]

Even so, the tax bill may be at increased risk.

Republican leaders in Congress announced this morning that the conference committee has reached an "agreement in principle" on a tax bill. Some of the statements already out make it sound (to me, at least) as if there is some question as to whether the result meets the Senate reconciliation rules.

[russell]

Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell Junior is left quoting Lynyrd Skynyrd as Scripture

I do dig the Swampers, however.

[wj]

Some of the statements already out make it sound (to me, at least) as if there is some question as to whether the result meets the Senate reconciliation rules.

I had that same thought when I heard some of the things that the House conferees were insisting on.

But what can you expect. Getting a bill written that meets the rules is an aspect of governing. And a bunch of these folks aren't really interested in that.

[cleek]

Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell Junior is left quoting Lynyrd Skynyrd as Scripture

i was hoping for some "Oooh That Smell"

[Donald]

Ninaillingworth is normally someone I would only link here if I were in the mood for a fight, but the following link is likely to be welcome. She outlines the case against Trump as a sexual harasser and rapist ( virtually certain and very plausible) and possible child molestor ( more speculative, but far from crazy).

http://www.ninaillingworth.com/2017/12/13/the-darkness-of-donald-trump-is-a-sex-abuser/

[ral]

At the (ahem) "failing" NY Times, A G.O.P Tragedy in Four Acts

[bob mcmanus]

Yayyy Jones, and Democrats.

65% of white non-college educated women voted for Moore, and 52% of white college-educated women voted for Moore.

98% of blacks voted for Jones, and 100% of black women.

Keep this in mind, cause they are really pushing Gillibrand over Harris, even after the abject failure of white east coast women in 2016. They won't lead, they won't outreach.

No more New Yorkers please. You've done enough.

[russell]

98% of blacks voted for Jones, and 100% of black women.

From The Root.

[Girl from the North Country]

Somewhere, above the clouds, four little girls whose souls left their bodies 54 years ago are smiling. Maybe Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley looked down at what another monster had done to other 14-year-olds and said: “Don’t worry, we got y’all.

Goddamit, russell, this actually brought tears to my eyes.

[Countme-a-Demon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC3W1lZpSmY

[cleek]

Keep this in mind, cause they are really pushing Gillibrand over Harris

who is 'they', and how are they pushing her?

are they going to skip the 2020 primary?

[bob mcmanus]

In other news, in Minnesota the white woman Smith got appointed to replace Franken over the black man, Ellison. Both Smith and Ellison are committed to running in the 2018 primary. Who knows if they will be able to find anonymous accusers against Ellison, but Smith is likely to win the primary, and lose the general to the Republican based on getting a minority of white women voters. She will blame sexism.

At this point I consider Minnesota a lost Senate seat.

The same with Gillibrand in 2020, a loser, except in that case it will be the electoral college in combination with coastal disdain for flyover women.

Difference is that Harris might increase black turnout enough.

[JanieM]

this actually brought tears to my eyes.

Same for me, and so did this.

What a day!

P.S. Also, via a commenter at BJ, I learned that there's a statue called "Four Spirits" in memory of those four little girls.