I’m watching the DNC where Republicans are denouncing Trump and coming out for Joe Biden. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this before.
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I’m watching too. This is weird. It’s also strategically very smart. So far, they are nailing it. Not that it should be that tough to nail a message that is essentially about not dying in a pandemic, having a post office send people medication, and being able to vote.
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My neighbors and I have started hanging out on Sunday evenings and yesterday we decided Biden’s Cabinet and it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
Then we had to open wine when we started talking reality lol
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I 
Michelle Obama. Empathy, what a concept.
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Michelle Obama should give all the speeches.
I did not have Joe Biden rides the train on my convention bingo card. (I did have Bernie Sanders has no inside voice and yells his speech.)
And every time they went to the ‘host’ who asked for $5 donations, I felt like I was going to get a DNC tote bag.
Same Bat time tomorrow!
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I’m catching up on the DNC and I’m going between bitter anger that yet again we’re propping up the problematic (though vastly less so than trump) old white guy, when we could have had better and a small flame of hope when I hear people talking enthusiastically about policies I agree with.
Just got to Michelle Obama and she always makes me feel better, so at least there’s that.
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I’m confused. I’ve never paid much attention to conventions in the past, but why did two people just nominate Bernie Sanders for President? I know Biden is only the presumptive candidate, but why would anyone go against him publicly at this point?
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This is the part where they pledge the delegates based on what % they earned in their primaries. It is extra weird and boring in this format.
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Definitely weird. I understand now why each state is declaring, but why would AOC not be behind Biden? Seems strange to go against your party nominee? I probably should have paid more attention over the years lol.
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Well, last time one of these happened, it was my job to explain the delegate system to press as I was the communications director for my state’s dem party.
The first ballot happens during “roll call” when all the states announce themselves.
So, in many states, depending on the by-laws of of the states’s dem party’s nominating processes (they are different in each state) - the delegates will be allocated based on the percentage of the popular vote (in the primary, those things every state had) each candidate will get on the first ballot. So if a state is 80% biden and 20% bernie, and there are 100 delegates, 20 delegates would be for bernie, regardless of the overall nominee.,
The delegates usually will be nominated at regional and then state nominating conventions and they will go for the candidate they are supporting, and then be elected by other people who care to show up to the damn nominating convention.
Usually these are the people that have the resources or fundraising skills to get themselves out to the convention city, stay in a hotel way outside the city, and spend 5+ days walking 30,000 steps a day around a convention center and onto buses while collecting pins to wear, in order to show up on screen for 30 seconds while their state does roll call and ballots.
There are superdelegates for each state as well (people high up in the party), of which AOC would be one, as a congressperson. In 2018, they changed it so superdelegates cannot vote on the first ballot but they can vote on later ballots.
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Oh, I’m not watching (much to my mother’s chagrin - also a former campaign manager) but just heard AOC did the nominating speech for sander’s roll call. Anyone who got enough of the ballots will get a roll call nominating speech before roll call happens.
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Oh no why is that so correct
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So my home state, which has amazing gorgeous mountains and a coast, and a beautiful extinct volcano located in the middle of our largest city, decided to use the site of a deadly high-profile stabbing by a white nationalist on public transit - with really, really poor audio quality as well because it is filmed 25 feet from an interstate! Come on, who’s your state’s comms person?
Oh wait, it was me 4 years ago but I quit.
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The shirt I designed in 16 was better, too. It had a donkey riding a bicycle.
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What does the donkey represent? Here a donkey vote is where we order candidates as they appear on the ballot and as a result isn’t counted. It’s one way to “get out of” mandatory voting. Clearly donkeys are very different in the US.
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Oh, that’s interesting. We don’t have ranked choice voting here so that definitely isn’t it.
In the US the two main parties have kinda “mascots”
Republicans - also know as the GOP (Grand Ol Party) is represented by red and an elephant
The Democrats - who don’t get a cool nickname - are represented by blue and a donkey.
You see them a LOT in political cartoons.
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I am Unhappy 
about Pelosi’s endorsement of Joe Kennedy over Ed Markey, especially since Markey is the incumbent. And annoyed that the US seems to always fawn over the Kennedys.
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The donkey originated in the 19th century and was popularized by a cartoonist (Thomas Nast). He wasn’t a fan of the democrats at that time (which doesn’t track with the current version of the party anyway).
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People who understand how to analyze spatial data:
Is there any way to figure out how the reductions in postal sorting equipment outlined in the charts at the end of this article map to voting districts? Quick glance through makes it look like liberal areas were taking the brunt of the cuts, but it would be really cool to have a visualization.
@brute @MonkeyJenga @anomalily – who else does fancy data stuff?
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