2020 US General Election Thread IV: The Battle Begins

[Senkaku]

Even if Pete isn't the evil businessman caricature of McKinsey the firm has had a great influence on him in how Pete advanced in his career to how he help fix the price of bread. Which isn't the most dastardly price-fixing scheme, but they always engage in a few price-fixing schemes here and there.

His work in Naval Intelligence is more concerning. We're approaching Soviet levels of deep state, cloak-and-dagger shit.

I believe the description I saw was less sinister super-spook and more an alum of the 101st Future Presidential Candidate Stump Speech Anecdote Battalion

[Idzequitch]

Not really. I'm hardly enthusiastic about anyone, as a non-Dem myself. I've just come to a point where I'd probably vote for anyone short of Bernie or Bloomberg to end the reign of Trump.

"reign of Trump" jesus get over yourself

Why get over myself when I'm already over Trump?

[Page]

And of course all of that isn't surprising considering a firm called Shadow developed the caucus app and the Pete campaign paid for it as shown in FEC records. Pete pulls a Guaido and prematurely declares victory when the results haven't even been tabulated.

Geez another reason to ditch the caucuses altogether.

You're correct. Prepare for liberals to accuse you of being a Russian bot.

[Kruiven]

And of course all of that isn't surprising considering a firm called Shadow developed the caucus app and the Pete campaign paid for it as shown in FEC records. Pete pulls a Guaido and prematurely declares victory when the results haven't even been tabulated.

Geez another reason to ditch the caucuses altogether.

Nevada was planning to use the same app in their contest coming up, I'm guessing not anymore.

[Senkaku]

And of course all of that isn't surprising considering a firm called Shadow developed the caucus app and the Pete campaign paid for it as shown in FEC records. Pete pulls a Guaido and prematurely declares victory when the results haven't even been tabulated.

Geez another reason to ditch the caucuses altogether.

"Christopher Krebs, director of the Homeland Security Department’s cybersecurity agency, says the agency didn’t evaluate the results-reporting app."

I dunno folks seems like a simple honest to goodness technical foul up nothing to see here :^)

[Outer Sparta]

And of course all of that isn't surprising considering a firm called Shadow developed the caucus app and the Pete campaign paid for it as shown in FEC records. Pete pulls a Guaido and prematurely declares victory when the results haven't even been tabulated.

Geez another reason to ditch the caucuses altogether.

You're correct. Prepare for liberals to accuse you of being a Russian bot.

Bernie's campaign kept tabs of some of the results and 40% of the data released shows him at 30%, Pete at 25%, Warren at 21%, and Biden at 12%. I trust Bernie's raw numbers much more than Pete lying about his victory and having suspicious ties to the counting app. Guess that intelligence experience sure comes in handy.

[Outer Sparta]

And of course all of that isn't surprising considering a firm called Shadow developed the caucus app and the Pete campaign paid for it as shown in FEC records. Pete pulls a Guaido and prematurely declares victory when the results haven't even been tabulated.

Geez another reason to ditch the caucuses altogether.

Nevada was planning to use the same app in their contest coming up, I'm guessing not anymore.

A shady app called Shadow. Can they at least be more subtle with those names?

On the other hand, nothing can beat Fraud Guarantee, a creation of Lev Parnas!

[Major-Tom]

Y'know, sometimes I tell myself that the Democratic establishment, flawed as it may be, still has a high ground in contrast to the Republican establishment.

Then I remember, on nights like tonight, well, not really, they just give away their combination of incompetence and malicious intent far more readily than the GOP.

[Torrocca]

Interestingly, the Shadow Inc. fucks that made the app used for the Iowa caucus are led by a huge fangirl of the very same Pete Buttigieg who has her husband as one of his staffers, donated over $42,000 to Shadow Inc., and declared himself the winner tonight with next to no results released.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Gormwood]

Interestingly, the Shadow Inc. fucks that made the app used for the Iowa caucus are led by a huge fangirl of the very same Pete Buttigieg who has her husband as one of his staffers, donated over $42,000 to Shadow Inc., and declared himself the winner tonight with next to no results released.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Diebold 2: Die Bolder

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Making a fraudulent ap would be trivially easy. Getting Iowa Democrats to use it would be where trickery comes in.

Anyone here still think tossing a coin is so unfair ..?

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Interestingly, the Shadow Inc. fucks that made the app used for the Iowa caucus are led by a huge fangirl of the very same Pete Buttigieg who has her husband as one of his staffers, donated over $42,000 to Shadow Inc., and declared himself the winner tonight with next to no results released.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Diebold 2: Die Bolder

That works.

[Aclion]

Interestingly, the Shadow Inc. fucks that made the app used for the Iowa caucus are led by a huge fangirl of the very same Pete Buttigieg who has her husband as one of his staffers, donated over $42,000 to Shadow Inc., and declared himself the winner tonight with next to no results released.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

It's that time again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs

[Torrocca]

Interestingly, the Shadow Inc. fucks that made the app used for the Iowa caucus are led by a huge fangirl of the very same Pete Buttigieg who has her husband as one of his staffers, donated over $42,000 to Shadow Inc., and declared himself the winner tonight with next to no results released.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

It's that time again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs

Private tech corps and companies are an absolute fucking dredge to society, don't @ me

[The East Marches II]

Interestingly, the Shadow Inc. fucks that made the app used for the Iowa caucus are led by a huge fangirl of the very same Pete Buttigieg who has her husband as one of his staffers, donated over $42,000 to Shadow Inc., and declared himself the winner tonight with next to no results released.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

I'm having a very big thonk!

[USS Monitor]

I'm not sold on this Buttigieg conspiracy theory unless he actually wins.

Or if someone comes out and proves the app was intentionally sabotaged instead of just badly made.

[Telconi]

Y'know, sometimes I tell myself that the Democratic establishment, flawed as it may be, still has a high ground in contrast to the Republican establishment.

Then I remember, on nights like tonight, well, not really, they just give away their combination of incompetence and malicious intent far more readily than the GOP.

I mean, as much as I wish they hadn't, the Republicans pulled off a fair and unbiased primary in '16.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I'm not sold on this Buttigieg conspiracy theory unless he actually wins.

Or if someone comes out and proves the app was intentionally sabotaged instead of just badly made.

It's too dumb to be true.

And anyway, I find fault with Iowa Democrats for not testing the ap. Least they could have done.

[Senkaku]

I'm not sold on this Buttigieg conspiracy theory unless he actually wins.

Or if someone comes out and proves the app was intentionally sabotaged instead of just badly made.

Given all the facts we know so far about what's happened, it actually is starting to be a bit difficult for me to put them together in a way that fits incompetence rather than intentionality

- poll gets killed due to complaint from Pete, all reports indicate he would've fared poorly in it compared to Sanders and Warren
- caucus results can't be released due to technical failures w the app
- his campaign has been paying the people at this app, who are also huge supporters of his
- Apparently Iowa state party is not communicating much with campaigns, and now results will come out late tomorrow?
- lots of people hadn't been properly trained on how to use the app
- Pete waits for the other campaigns to make statements, then after they've finished, declares victory despite there still being no results
- only after they realize Pete is trying to claim victory does Bernie put out numbers suggesting he's ahead or try and push that
- Biden's people are now trying to cast doubt on the whole thing and further slow reporting

Like it's looking REALLY bad- there's a lot of combinations of these things that together could make me say "eh, probs just a series of fuckups, nbd", but everything together is starting to strain my credulity

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Y'know, sometimes I tell myself that the Democratic establishment, flawed as it may be, still has a high ground in contrast to the Republican establishment.

Then I remember, on nights like tonight, well, not really, they just give away their combination of incompetence and malicious intent far more readily than the GOP.

I mean, as much as I wish they hadn't, the Republicans pulled off a fair and unbiased primary in '16.

Fair perhaps, but their counting rules are in no way unbiased. Trump got 40% of the vote but there was no need for a brokered convention since he had an overwhelming majority of the delegates.

Dem primaries are at least mostly proportional. The number of delegates each state depends on the vote that state.

[Myrensis]

Think the real takeaway is that Caucuses need to finally be dragged out behind the woodshed and put down for good.

[Torrocca]

I'm not sold on this Buttigieg conspiracy theory unless he actually wins.

Or if someone comes out and proves the app was intentionally sabotaged instead of just badly made.

Given all the facts we know so far about what's happened, it actually is starting to be a bit difficult for me to put them together in a way that fits incompetence rather than intentionality

- poll gets killed due to complaint from Pete, all reports indicate he would've fared poorly in it compared to Sanders and Warren
- caucus results can't be released due to technical failures w the app
- his campaign has been paying the people at this app, who are also huge supporters of his
- Apparently Iowa state party is not communicating much with campaigns, and now results will come out late tomorrow?
- lots of people hadn't been properly trained on how to use the app
- Pete waits for the other campaigns to make statements, then after they've finished, declares victory despite there still being no results
- only after they realize Pete is trying to claim victory does Bernie put out numbers suggesting he's ahead or try and push that
- Biden's people are now trying to cast doubt on the whole thing and further slow reporting

Like it's looking REALLY bad- there's a lot of combinations of these things that together could make me say "eh, probs just a series of fuckups, nbd", but everything together is starting to strain my credulity

Don't forget that, in addition to all of that, Shadow Inc.'s CEO's husband is literally one of Buttigieg's staffers.

I'll be the fucking Queen of England if this is somehow declared to be one giant coincidence.

[USS Monitor]

I'm not sold on this Buttigieg conspiracy theory unless he actually wins.

Or if someone comes out and proves the app was intentionally sabotaged instead of just badly made.

Given all the facts we know so far about what's happened, it actually is starting to be a bit difficult for me to put them together in a way that fits incompetence rather than intentionality

- poll gets killed due to complaint from Pete, all reports indicate he would've fared poorly in it compared to Sanders and Warren
- caucus results can't be released due to technical failures w the app
- his campaign has been paying the people at this app, who are also huge supporters of his
- Apparently Iowa state party is not communicating much with campaigns, and now results will come out late tomorrow?
- lots of people hadn't been properly trained on how to use the app
- Pete waits for the other campaigns to make statements, then after they've finished, declares victory despite there still being no results
- only after they realize Pete is trying to claim victory does Bernie put out numbers suggesting he's ahead or try and push that
- Biden's people are now trying to cast doubt on the whole thing and further slow reporting

Like it's looking REALLY bad- there's a lot of combinations of these things that together could make me say "eh, probs just a series of fuckups, nbd", but everything together is starting to strain my credulity

I kind of agree with this:

It's too dumb to be true.

And anyway, I find fault with Iowa Democrats for not testing the ap. Least they could have done.

People can be really incompetent sometimes, and they have photos from caucus sites that they can check against to make sure the results are accurate.

[Senkaku]

Given all the facts we know so far about what's happened, it actually is starting to be a bit difficult for me to put them together in a way that fits incompetence rather than intentionality

- poll gets killed due to complaint from Pete, all reports indicate he would've fared poorly in it compared to Sanders and Warren
- caucus results can't be released due to technical failures w the app
- his campaign has been paying the people at this app, who are also huge supporters of his
- Apparently Iowa state party is not communicating much with campaigns, and now results will come out late tomorrow?
- lots of people hadn't been properly trained on how to use the app
- Pete waits for the other campaigns to make statements, then after they've finished, declares victory despite there still being no results
- only after they realize Pete is trying to claim victory does Bernie put out numbers suggesting he's ahead or try and push that
- Biden's people are now trying to cast doubt on the whole thing and further slow reporting

Like it's looking REALLY bad- there's a lot of combinations of these things that together could make me say "eh, probs just a series of fuckups, nbd", but everything together is starting to strain my credulity

Don't forget that, in addition to all of that, Shadow Inc.'s CEO's husband is literally one of Buttigieg's staffers.

I'll be the fucking Queen of England if this is somehow declared to be one giant coincidence.

[Page]

I might be wrong but I believe Sanders' internal poll numbers. It might be close, but I believe that when the dust settles Sanders will be on top.

And that is not good news for Buttigieg, Iowa might be the most favorable state for him. Lots of middle-class, white, suburban Democrats. When we get to states in which people of color are a huge part of the electorate, Buttigieg will be in single digits.

I'm also hopeful that after a few more rounds, Klobuchar will call it quits. She has no support from left-of-center voters and can't even use "vote for me cause I'm a woman" to her advantage because Warren is a woman with far better policy positions.