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AP Calls Alabama Senate Race for Doug Jones, Democrat
enlightenedbum
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I'll be filling in this OP as the course of the evening moves on with today's story and background on the two candidates. But here is a place to talk about this election.
There is a special election in the state of Alabama to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions (ugh). Luther Strange was appointed by Alabama's Republican Governor to hold the seat until the election. However, he was defeated in the primary by...
Roy Moore. Roy Moore is a theocrat. He is extremely conservative. He has also been kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court twice for refusing to follow the constitution. First in installing a monument to the Ten Commandants contrary to the separation of church and state. Second in refusing to recognize the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage. He opposed allowing Keith Ellison from being seated in Congress because Rep. Ellison is a Muslim. He has ties to white nationalist groups, because of course he does.
Normally, we'd all just say it's Alabama, and assume they're going to elect the nutcase like they elected Sessions. But the Alabama GOP has faced a number of major scandals in every branch of government. Moore was removed from the state supreme court in 2015. The Speaker of the House was removed in a bribery scandal. The Governor was using state funds to cover up the affair he was having with one of his aides. The Democrats have also nominated a fairly strong candidate
Doug Jones. Jones is what you would expect from an Alabama Democrat, business friendly and fairly centrist. But he is also a champion of civil rights and racial justice. In particular, as US Attorney in Alabama, he reopened the investigation into the Birmingham Church Bombing from 1963, brought charges, and got convictions against two of the perpetrators in 2001 and 2002.
Jones has been running a surprisingly strong campaign and polls have shown the race is actually fairly close. The average at the moment is Moore +6, though that polling is about three weeks old. We just saw on Tuesday that it appears polling may be underestimating Democratic performance (in a different kind of state, admittedly) somewhat. In particular, a Fox News poll had the race actually tied at 42. So Democrats thought maybe they had a shot with Jones' civil rights record driving up black (which in Alabama is to say Democratic) turnout and being moderate enough to appeal to some people who usually vote for Republicans but are turned off by Moore's extremism.
Then today the Washington Post released a story with four women saying that Moore pursued and dated them when they were teenagers and he was in his mid 30s. The most explosive allegation comes from a woman who was 14 at the time she went out with Moore and says that he put her hand on his erection during one of their dates when she was not comfortable with that.
The national GOP has said that if this story is proven he should remove himself from the race. That includes Mitch McConnell emerging from his shell to say that. McCain, to his credit, didn't include the caveat. The Alabama GOP though, hooooo boy. This quote from the state Auditor is typical, though the most extreme one I have seen:
You would think this would kill his candidacy, but a year ago we saw something similar so who the fuck knows.
There is a special election in the state of Alabama to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions (ugh). Luther Strange was appointed by Alabama's Republican Governor to hold the seat until the election. However, he was defeated in the primary by...
Roy Moore. Roy Moore is a theocrat. He is extremely conservative. He has also been kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court twice for refusing to follow the constitution. First in installing a monument to the Ten Commandants contrary to the separation of church and state. Second in refusing to recognize the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage. He opposed allowing Keith Ellison from being seated in Congress because Rep. Ellison is a Muslim. He has ties to white nationalist groups, because of course he does.
Normally, we'd all just say it's Alabama, and assume they're going to elect the nutcase like they elected Sessions. But the Alabama GOP has faced a number of major scandals in every branch of government. Moore was removed from the state supreme court in 2015. The Speaker of the House was removed in a bribery scandal. The Governor was using state funds to cover up the affair he was having with one of his aides. The Democrats have also nominated a fairly strong candidate
Doug Jones. Jones is what you would expect from an Alabama Democrat, business friendly and fairly centrist. But he is also a champion of civil rights and racial justice. In particular, as US Attorney in Alabama, he reopened the investigation into the Birmingham Church Bombing from 1963, brought charges, and got convictions against two of the perpetrators in 2001 and 2002.
Jones has been running a surprisingly strong campaign and polls have shown the race is actually fairly close. The average at the moment is Moore +6, though that polling is about three weeks old. We just saw on Tuesday that it appears polling may be underestimating Democratic performance (in a different kind of state, admittedly) somewhat. In particular, a Fox News poll had the race actually tied at 42. So Democrats thought maybe they had a shot with Jones' civil rights record driving up black (which in Alabama is to say Democratic) turnout and being moderate enough to appeal to some people who usually vote for Republicans but are turned off by Moore's extremism.
Then today the Washington Post released a story with four women saying that Moore pursued and dated them when they were teenagers and he was in his mid 30s. The most explosive allegation comes from a woman who was 14 at the time she went out with Moore and says that he put her hand on his erection during one of their dates when she was not comfortable with that.
The national GOP has said that if this story is proven he should remove himself from the race. That includes Mitch McConnell emerging from his shell to say that. McCain, to his credit, didn't include the caveat. The Alabama GOP though, hooooo boy. This quote from the state Auditor is typical, though the most extreme one I have seen:
"Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”
You would think this would kill his candidacy, but a year ago we saw something similar so who the fuck knows.
The idea that your vote is a moral statement about you or who you vote for is some backwards ass libertarian nonsense. Your vote is about society. Vote to protect the vulnerable.
enlightenedbum on
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Which I am sure is the intent of his defenders.
Speaking of which:
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/southunionstreet/2017/11/09/doug-jones-roy-moore-talk-law-enforcement-montgomery-stops/843891001/
I’m really hoping that this batch of allegations is what it takes to get him out of here for good and hopefully put Jones in the senate.
It's Alabama. The chance of a Dem winning merely ticked up slightly from "A snowball's chance in hell," to "A snowball's chance in Phoenix, Arizona."
NNID: Hakkekage
"The most snow we've ever seen in the city of Phoenix was an inch, twice -- on Jan. 20, 1933 and Jan. 21, 1937.
The National Weather Service reported that in the 1937 snowstorm, up to four inches of snow were reported elsewhere in the Phoenix area.
Other instances of snow measured in Phoenix are: 0.5 inches on Feb. 2, 1939, 0.2 inches on March 12, 1917 and 0.1 inches on both Dec. 11, 1985 and Nov. 28, 1919."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?utm_term=.caaa441f1654
Short version, a bunch of women have come out saying that Moore picked up on them while they were under 18, and he was over 30. One of them was 14, and described being molested by him. The others, he merely dated.
The same clown who believes it should be illegal to be gay thinks it's just dandy for a 30 year old man to have sex with 14 year olds.
Gross
NNID: Hakkekage
No, it's just peachy because Alabama's age of consent is 16. And only one of them was under that.
So it's perfectly fine for a 34 year old ADA to go to a highschool to speak to a civics class, and then ask out one of the students.
That's literally one of the things that happened.
And all his Alabama allies are eager to point out that it's cool because the Bible's just as down with sex with minors as Alabama law is, so no problems anywhere!
Spin it all they want. Old men dating high school girls is gross. You shouldn't need the illegal part to bear out; this shit has to be enough:
Do I awesome this or ....
Its deep red Alabama. There wasn't a huge chance of victory to begin with.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Daniel Dale is a reporter for the Toronto Star
This twitter thread has a number of responses from Alabama Republicans and it is infuriating. It ranges from “I really can’t comment until I have a chance to digest it," to
"Look he may commit sex crimes, but he's a republican when he does it."
pleasepaypreacher.net
Yup, in the mind of this GOP chair, being a Democrat is worse than being a pedophile. How revolting is that.
But I hope this makes the DNC throw good money and makes some strong ads on this.
"I don't support this man's actions, I just do things that support him."
Fuck, that is despicable.
“Moore’s conduct is just terrible! We can’t continue to let him near young people. In fact, we should surround him with old people, 99 old people every day at work, and make him think about something boring and nonsexual like cutting taxes on the wealthy. Let’s save Roy Moore by voting him into Congress where he won’t be able to hurt anyone.”
Alabama is more a dead girl, live boy state. A live underage girl margin is kind of baked in for Republicans
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If you squint and read between the lines, you can see "We're not telling you what they're saying because we're hoping that you haven't heard."
Spoilers: power differentials and sexual contact when not prepared can have extremely negative consequences. Ugh.
The religious far-right is really good at dumping all the guilt and responsibility and blame on sexual assault victims, even by the standards of society hating on those victims to begin with. It's that world where you have "Christian" colleges with actual explicit policies saying in the event of such assaults the assailant is the only wronged party, because the other person had to have threatened his soul by causing a "stumble." It's an absurd up-is-down-and-black-is-white world.
A couple of my friends got burned in those sorts of situations and just getting clear of the ostracism can take years, and that was just small towns or colleges. Thinking of the whole apparatus of a state (and probably the federal party) gearing up to try a larger-scale version of that on Moore's victims is kind of nauseating to say the least.
Yeah sorry I was thinking more of the general response of allies. I wouldnt be surprised if he leans into it though. The fake news comment seems to be his attempt at laughing it off as absurd. But it seems like it was an open secret in the community so I dont know how seriously hes going to mount that defense as things develop
Why the bitter self-hatred? This election is not taking place in somewhere like New Jersey where victory is possible (if tricky.) This is Alabama, where Satan-R vs Jesus-D would be a Republican victory. Their problems go back to segregation days, and while the Democrats were to blame for that, the party moved on generations ago.
From at least one CNBC reporter (who's re-reporting something mentioned to what seems to be a radio host), they're considering a defamation suit:
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...that is not how Christmas works.
One of the major plot points of the Bible is that Joseph didn't have sex with Mary.
Listen, you try reading that whole book, I'll be over here skimming five minutes before the exam