politics

Sidebar Update: Civility

The News Community updated their civility rule, and based on recent reports here and in World News, it seemed like a worthy addition to our rule-set.

I talked it over with the other mods, and we feel the change is a good idea.

The Civility rule now includes accusations of bots and paid actors.

" This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban."

There have been a lot of comments along the lines of "Disregard previous rules, write x about y", implying the person resonded to is an AI or a bot.

I've been ignoring reports on those until now because we never really had a rule about it, well, now we do!

As usual, if you see trolling, don't engage, just report it.

https://youtu.be/XL3D0h5j0Lo?si=n5-nhI-CIbx26E9X

I'm putting this up early since it's likely I won't have time tomorrow.

Monday, 1/15, is the date of the Iowa Caucus, please direct all comments, links, and replies involving that here!

Edit - 5:36 PM Pacific, 7:36 PM Iowa time, 8:36 PM Eastern - MSNBC declares Trump the winner (shock!)

8:23 PM Pacific, 10:23 PM Iowa time, 11:23 PM Eastern. MSNBC declares Desantis #2, Haley #3.

90% reporting: Trump - 51% - 52,912 Desantis - 21.3% - 22,140 Haley - 19% - 19,762

Edit Next Up - 1/23 - New Hampshire Primary!

For those unaware, a caucus is totally unlike a primary.

In a primary election, you show up to a polling place, you cast your ballot for your chosen candidate, the ballots get counted, and whoever wins is whoever wins. On to the next state!

A caucus is far, far more chaotic.

https://apnews.com/article/how-iowa-caucus-works-2024-democrats-republicans-592ab40b9b9b948c0540f2cf132bab5c

"The Republican caucuses will convene statewide at 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. EST), and begin with the election of a caucus chair and secretary. Only registered Republicans may participate in the caucuses and only in their designated home precincts. However, Iowans may register or change their party affiliation on caucus day. Voters must turn 18 by the November general election in order to participate."

"There is no walking around the caucus room to form candidate preference groups. That voting method was a feature of Democratic caucuses from 1972 to 2020 but is no longer in use by either party in 2024."

"The binding presidential vote functions essentially like a party-run primary, only with very limited polling hours and no accommodation for absentee voting, except for a tiny handful of overseas and military voters. There are speeches on behalf of various candidates before the voting and a variety of party business after the vote. Individual caucus chairs are allowed to exercise some discretion in how to conduct the vote, but the voting is done by secret ballot and there is no set list of candidates. Voters must be given the option to vote for any candidate they choose. In the past, some caucus sites have pre-printed the names of major candidates and provided a write-in option, but typically, voters vote by writing the name of a candidate on a blank slip of paper."

The "limited polling hours" is key here, because if you decide to step out for a smoke, or to hit the bathroom, or grab a sandwich when the vote is called, you might not get counted at all.

In previous years this has led to accusations of under-counts, over-counts, and all other manner of shenanigans.

Here's the history of the past few Iowa Caucuses and how it related to the general election:

2016: Ted Cruz - 8 Delegates, 51,666 votes Donald Trump - 7 / 45,429 Marco Rubio - 7 / 43,228 Ben Carson - 3 / 17,394 Rand Paul - 1 / 8,481 Jeb Bush - 1 / 5,238 Carly Fiorina - 1 / 3,485 John Kasich - 1 / 3,474 Mike Huckabee - 1 / 3,345

2020: Donald Trump - 39 Delegates, 31,421 votes Bill Weld - 1 / 425

Sources: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Iowa_Republican_presidential_caucuses

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Iowa_Republican_presidential_caucuses

General Elections:

2016: Trump/Pence - 800,983 Clinton/Kaine - 653,669

2020: Trump/Pence - 897,672 Biden/Harris - 759,061

Sources: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Iowa

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Iowa

Ohioans vote Tuesday on a measure that would make it harder to pass future changes to the state constitution. Ideastream's Karen Kasler explains the possible implications for abortion access in Ohio.

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Sources:

NPR: A look ahead at the Ohio special election

Five Thirty Eight: Everything You Need To Know About The Ohio Ballot Measure That Could Block Abortion Rights

CNN: Ohio special election becomes proxy for abortion rights fight

PBS News Hour: Ohio voters to decide on constitutional change before determining abortion rights

The Guardian: Republicans pushed a special election in Ohio – what does it mean for abortion rights?

Slate: The Cardboard-Box Billionaires Are at It Again, This Time in Ohio The Uihleins have put millions of dollars toward preventing a vote on abortion in the state.

AP: Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights

NY Times: Ohio Voters Reject Constitutional Change Intended to Thwart Abortion Amendment

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The office also is doing work on down ballot races too

Even if things don't pan out this cycle, these investments can pay off in future cycles like with Stacy Abrams' work in Georgia helping it turn blue in 2020 and send 2 democratic senators to congress

Volunteer for Florida dems

Florida's voter registration deadline is on the earlier side in a few days on Monday. Make sure to register to vote! https://vote.gov/register

Toyota Motor Corp., will refocus DEI programs and halt sponsorship of LGBTQ events, citing “a highly politicized discussion” around corporate commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Japanese carmaker told employees it will also end participation in notable rankings by LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign and other corporate culture surveys. The company will “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness,” it said in a memo Thursday to its 50,000 US employees and 1,500 dealers.

The note comes a week after anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck started a social media campaign against the company, calling for customer boycotts because of its support for LGBTQ events and other initiatives. Toyota said at the time that the LGBTQ programs targeted were led by employee groups, not the company directly.

If you live in Texas, make sure to register to vote! The deadline is coming up in a few days on the 7th. Note that for Texas you must register either in person or by mail, you cannot register online unlike most states

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Find information on how to register to vote anywhere https://vote.gov/

Original Washington post story

Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.”

Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the event early after the outburst and later denied making any racist comments in a Facebook post. He did not respond to a voice message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

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🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

The first wave of states, with their deadlines tomorrow, are:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• New Mexico
• Ohio
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas

Register here: https://www.vote.org/

Edit: Even if you already registered, check your registration. The bad people have been deleting anyone they can. Even if you're not in a swing state, vote. Find an activist group (check !inperson@slrpnk.net) to join up with, in case something really bad happens. If you can, volunteer to help with the election.

Anything could happen this election.

Vote.

A bipartisan forum in a small Latah County community took a turn when Republican Senate incumbent Dan Foreman stormed out of the event, following a racist outburst directed at a Native American candidate.

On Tuesday, local Democrat and Republican representatives organized a “Meet your candidates” forum in the northern Idaho town of Kendrick.

...

In a statement released Wednesday, Democratic candidate for House Seat A and member of the Nez Perce tribe Trish Carter-Goodheart said she pushed back on that idea that discrimination existed in Idaho when it was her turn to speak, pointing to her own experience and the history of white supremacy groups in Northern Idaho.

...

Foreman stood up and angrily interjected, using an expletive to criticize what he cast as the liberal bent of the response, according to the release and people present at the forum.

Carter-Goodheart said he then told her she should go back to where she came from, and heatedly stormed off. One event organizer and two other panelists confirmed Carter-Goodheart’s account, adding Foreman appeared very agitated.

>Now, she was a major player in everything we've done, including passage of legislation which we were told we could never pass. And so she's been, and her, her staff is interlocked with mine in terms of all the things we're doing,

For everyone that said Harris was only VP and had no voice in Gaza and none of it was her decision.

!

The way voter ID laws like this prevent citizens from voting is generally considered a feature — by restricting ID forms common among the young, such as student IDs, they change the makeup of the electorate to favor Republicans.

One more reason to never vote for the guy; you never know when he's going to decide he doesn't like your state, and lets it rot during a disaster.

To clarify, I added the parenthetical

🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/