131 Comments
User's avatar
Garvin's avatar
3hEdited

"...progressive challenger Nithya Raman, who had been in third place in the early stages of the counting process, gradually caught up to and passed conservative candidate..."

My god, have these people never seen a track event where one of the runners begins to outpace another and pulls ahead? Of course they have, but that doesn't fit the narrative does it? Hell, if they found out the runner was a liberal, they'd swear she'd concealed rockets in her shoes ala Wiley Coyote - though I take your point that they wouldn't bother to offer any excuse at all.

Justin Lee's avatar

I knew it! The ACME Corporation is stealing the election!

Garvin's avatar

Trump needs to buy a government stake in the company and replace its board, fast!

Kate Fall's avatar

It's all fake. These people spend 350 days a year complaining that everyone in California is liberal. They obviously expected a liberal win. I hate the constant lies, I really do.

Don Gates's avatar

After Republicans spent the last six years attacking the integrity of mail-in ballots, very few mail-in ballots were for the Republican! What a shock!

Mike Lew's avatar

To be fair, the Acme rocket shoes always backfired. 😀

Sue's avatar

Who watched this year's Kentucky Derby? The horse who led for most of the race didn't even finish in the top three.

Dave Yell's avatar

And the horse that won came from way back in the field.

Mike Lew's avatar

If there's no evidence of the winner cheating, that's PROOF of fraud in MAGA Land. 😀

Tim Coffey's avatar

Andrew: "Meanwhile, it becomes clearer every day: The GOP base is going to go along with Trump on any major election he decides to claim is fraudulent this November. All it will take, again, is for Democrats to do better than they expected. And what Republican base voter is expecting a blue wave? Trump is going to do this, and they’re going to fall in line. Somehow, some people will be surprised by this. Don’t be among them."

Regarding Pratt, I saw an interview last week where he was asked which political figure he looked up to. Without missing a beat, he answered "Jesus Christ". If my eyes weren't rolling into the back of my head, I would have burst out laughing. The target audience for such a comment is mindlessly credulous and unable to think critically for themselves. Pratt was insulting the intelligence of the MAGAe, and it doesn't even register.

Mike Lew's avatar

Hey, that was W's favorite political philosopher too!

Tim Coffey's avatar

Yeah, and I don't take his claim seriously, either. Note I have nothing against Christ. What I do object to is people using His name to give themselves a patina of virtue in the public square while behaving like reprehensible pieces of shit the rest of the time.

Kate Fall's avatar

Did they offer quotes from Two Corinthians?

Dave Yell's avatar

And hold the Bible upside down?

Keith Wresch's avatar

The Life of Jesus Christ would make great reality TV. You’ve got miracles, scandalous hangers on, betrayal the whole works for great interpersonal drama plus the cachet of him being the son of god.

Tim Coffey's avatar

Hosted by Joel Osteen.

Linda Oliver's avatar

Osteen has been remarkably low-key about it, if he is MAGA. I don’t get that vibe off him, and I had expected it.

TJ's avatar

And it starts with a teenage pregnancy with the benefit of it being against her will.

Keith Wresch's avatar

The current rhetoric around the California election from the MAGA crowd has to be taken extremely seriously, and is merely an appetizer for what will likely come in November. Something which didn’t get much attention nationally was when the Riverside County sheriff, Chad Bianco who was also running for governor, seized over 600,000 ballots over last year’s vote on redistricting in the state over alleged discrepancies between returned ballots and voted cast. His team even unsealed and started counting the ballots before the courts finally brought the process to a halt. But it took time for both the courts and states to respond. But this is a template come November where MAGA conspiracies in conjunction with local, not necessarily federal, law enforcement who support MAGA could be initial locus for interfering in the counting and seizing ballots when allegations of fraud arise though in this case not after the fact but before counting is complete. In these scenarios we could have elections which may never get a fair and complete count due to interference from those who mo longer believe in people voting and election integrity. After what happened in Riverside County though my fear is that much of this will be initiated and coordinated by local MAGA supporting law enforcement which once in a standoff with the state will be an invitation for the Trump administration to intervene as well. I really hope the states are prepared for this as California was not when Bianco seized the ballots earlier this year.

max skinner's avatar

It's not being ignored in California. There is a bill working through the California Legislature that would prevent acts like what Bianco did from getting to the counting ballots phase. There is another bill preventing local elections officials from turning over any voting equipment, ballots, or letting people not from the Secretary of State's office touch anything unless there is a court order requiring it. There are others too. States are charged with running their elections and they take it seriously.

Keith Wresch's avatar

Which may help for November, but Bianco did have a judge sign off on warrants which were originally sealed, but revealed that he relied on wild accusations from an extremist group for his *evidence* and yet the judge approved then. When it happened the state was clearly caught off guard, so I am glad they are responding, but there are other states that don’t or won’t have laws and actors who will try and create facts on the ground supported by local judges.

max skinner's avatar

The judge had been endorsed by the sheriff in a 2022 election for judge. https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/04/chad-bianco-election-warrants/

Keith Wresch's avatar

Yes, I know. But it is these sorts of relationships and connections which may well create movement and allow for situations that the administration will take advantage of come November while claiming support for local law enforcement and judicial actors challenging fraud while the state is permitting the fraud to go forward. But this is also why I stated what happened in Riverside County needs to be better known as it is a weakness/point for abuse in the system which I don’t think enough people are cognizant about.

Duane Pierson's avatar

Ppl like Dem election lawyer, Marc Elias, are prepping in CA for the scenario you describe in the general election.

Charlie Rockman's avatar

"Programs for surveillance against the parasite and for animal disease control and prevention were among the cuts implemented by DOGE at USAID and the USDA last year." - DOGE will end up costing us exponentially more than it ever saved us

Hortense's avatar

There should be billboards all over Texas stating this, with pictures of smiling Trump and Musk saying "I did this".

Dave Yell's avatar

Rick Wilson might have this idea.

Hortense's avatar

I hope he acts on it.

TunedMass's avatar

2026 will be too, of course... but man, 2028 is going to be one hell of a stress test on this here republic.

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Not too bad if Trump has been expatriated to hell.

Duane Pierson's avatar

I'm not sure expatriation would be involved. His tortured existence would be hell for most ppl, other than the MAGA who've dipped their toes toward the flames.

Tai's avatar

When one of the two parties no longer accepts election results that does not go its way, there goes our democracy. The future is bleak.

Diana E's avatar

However, unlike previous attempts, those who voted for Trump believed his promises. Now, inflation is high, gas is unaffordable and health care coverage has been decimated. Add to that the obscene and public consumption of things by the wealthy makes the disparity glaringly obvious. When people feel betrayed, and struggle to exist, they get angry. The number of Trump signs where I live have dropped precipitously in the last year. Instead of chiding people for voting against their own interests in the past, if our democracy is to survive we need to band together to get rid of the infection in our republic.

Tai's avatar

Thank you. Do not disagree the stove touching helps erode the support, whether they believe in the election lies or not. My worry is people expect instant gratification assuming a Dem has the WH next time. Whether it is a Shapiro/Beshear type or a President AOC, inflation won’t come down on day 1 and people will be angry at the incumbent.

Diana E's avatar

Of course they will, but that is the fault of social media, reality tv and faulty media reporting. We need to get in office first to right the ship.

Dave Yell's avatar

and simplistic American voters who rely on bumper stickers to cast their votes. (far too many)

Dave Yell's avatar

In 5-10 years you will have a hard time finding people who claim to have been Trump supporters.

Diana E's avatar

I hope so. The fever needs to break. When Trump and his personality are gone (and given his current age and physical condition, plus the stress of being president which prematurely ages everyone who has had the position, may come sooner than we think) the hold will be broken. He may be a sociopath, but he has a unique charisma and style that sucks people in. His replacements, like Vance, Hegseth, Rubio, Carlson etc. don’t have the same nefarious “gift.”

Tai's avatar

Hopefully we don’t trade that for an even worse one (like Chavez to Maduro in Venezuela).

Duane Pierson's avatar

Discouraging. It's like even if a bipartisan elections commission is set up after Trump, like after 911, there will still be so much election mistrust as it was w the events of 911. So much of rightwing media and the internet is poisoning ppl's minds.

Tai's avatar

These right winged politicians and influencers are poisoning the well to gain power, money and influence. The incentive structure is deadly.

Don Gates's avatar

The conspiracy theory without the theory has been happening on the right for a while, now (credit to Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead). There was never any evidence President Obama was born in Kenya; this did not stop the theories. The online environment is relatively new, and that environment is largely to blame, I think, for the changing threshold for conspiracy belief.

Today, you just shout accusations; there is no obligation to provide any evidence, justification, or rationale. You just say it and people who are skeptical of the most obvious explanation suddenly turn credulous regarding the most outlandish and unlikely explanation, based on nothing at all.

Kate Fall's avatar

Once we accepted birtherism as a valid strategy, it was over. That was our death knell.

Dave Yell's avatar

Rumors can go around the world where as the truth is just getting out of bed and putting its shoes on.

Mike Lew's avatar

If the first precinct shows the MAGA candidate ahead, vote counting should stop. What's so hard to understand? Anything else is fraudulent. /s

max skinner's avatar

You've hit on it. A fancier way of saying if our favored candidate wins, the election is fine. If the favored candidate loses it is clear evidence of fraud. Or, as the Senator says, if you can't find evidence of fraud, that is evidence of fraud. It just means the fraudsters are very sneaky.

Dave Yell's avatar

Sounds like Squeaker of the House Johnson.

max skinner's avatar

Yes and also Senator Ron Johnson.

Justin Lee's avatar

"That may be enough to quiet at least some of the Democrats who had been angling for him [Platner] to step aside."

But will it be enough to quiet the writers and podcasters at The Bulwark (who have spent more words and podcast minutes on Platner than nearly any other politician the last few months)? ... TBD

Keith Wresch's avatar

If Mamdani is any precedent, no.

ABQTRQ's avatar

Trump doesn’t care about desecrating anything, including Arlington National Cemetery. He believes it is chock full of suckers and losers. Let’s make sure he is never buried on that sacred ground.

Linda Oliver's avatar

Put him next to Ivana on the golf court.

Jeri in Tx's avatar

And give his grave the same tender, loving care he gives hers (not).

Second thought, they better not ever let anyone know where his rotting carcass is. Open air public restroom anyone?

Duane Pierson's avatar

Andrew laid out masterfully why the early 3rd place candidate, Nithya Raman, moved up to 2nd in the LA mayoral jungle primary. I'd add one more debunking fact: only 18% of registered voters in LA are Republicans.

Yet the beat goes on, evidence free, that it was rigged. The argument I hear most frequently from Republicans I know is the Guv DeSantis one: "[He] accused California of 'dumping votes' until 'you get the result you want.'" Ron, you gotta up your game. Try some canard like it's mathematically impossible - like conservative, I love Russian money, Benny Johnson, threw out there.

Paul Brady's avatar

Complaining "stop the steal" will be the least of our problems. Republicans will try to strip registered voters off the rolls, ban mail ballots, intimidate voters at the polls with armed government agents, seize ballots and refuse to seat elected Democrats. We ain't seen nothin' yet!

max skinner's avatar

These are the real dangers and the president's executive decree has already started to try to ban vote by mail and demands the states turn over the voting rolls to the federal government's faulty SAVE database. States are in court fighting those things now.

Mark Rubin's avatar

If the Ds were into "stealing," why didn't they shut out Steve Hilton? And, if the Ds cheated in 2020 to screw Trump, how did R elected officials get elected in 2020. If the Ds were into screwing, why did they only screw Trump?

Dave's avatar

Stop being logical. You'll break MAGA's brains

max skinner's avatar

Oh now logic has nothing to do with it and never has. Think of the Congress members who hopped on the Big Lie despite the fact that they were elected on the very same ballots that elected Joe Biden president in 2020.

Dave Yell's avatar

Logic, shmogic!

Jeff Bernfeld's avatar

"“an arrogant fool,” a “low IQ individual,” “dumb as a rock,” a “loudmouth huckster,” and “totally unqualified to ever think of running for high political office, or even low political office, for that matter!”

There he goes, still/again projecting.

"But even if the arch isn’t stopped now, the fight against it can lay the groundwork for removing it as soon as possible after January 20, 2029. The day the arch is taken down will be a fitting occasion for the next president to light up the White House, this time to mark the restoration of fidelity to the nation’s founding principles"

While I hope the arch is stopped dead before it can proceed much further, if it gets built it will not be the end of the world. Knocking it down will be a HUGELY symbolic and cathartic moment right up there w/ the demise of the Berlin Wall. And we can probably get it done for free if we auction off the right to take sledgehammer swings at the thing and/or to take a piece home.

Slide Guitar's avatar

I can't get pick up my car from the mechanic or have lunch at a sports bar without having to listen to Stephen A., but I'd defend him in this instance.

ScottG's avatar

I can say that CA needs to change the ballot arrival deadline to "election day" like we have in Oregon. There is no reason to take weeks to count ballots. That's just incompetence, and the Dems are supposed to be good at governance.

This would cut down on the main MAGA argument here that something "fishy" is going on. I know, they'd find yet another thing, but it wouldn't be as persuasive. It didn't take weeks to see who the victor was in Virginia, which is a reason Trump's lies didn't catch on.

Jeanne Golliher's avatar

Until recently, I shared your opinion that California needs to change their procedures, but several things have persuaded me to reconsider. 1st, I've seen hundreds of comments across social media and news articles from California residents who are extremely proud that their state accommodates voters with generous policies for accessing and delivering mail-in ballots. Unless the rules get changed, States decide how they handle their elections, and while I can't say for sure that a majority of Californians oppose change, apparently the vocal ones do. 2nd, does it even matter whether we have California's results on June 2nd instead of June 9th, when many states just held primaries yesterday, and some will not do so until August?

But the #1 issue is that I see no evidence that it would make any difference. MAGA is going to cry foul anytime they don't like the results. It makes no difference how careful and transparent any state’s elections are conducted. I get the argument that it would take away a convenient tool for sowing distrust, but MAGA is long past the point where facts matter. Take away one tool, they will quickly manufacture another.

Kotzsu's avatar

Yeah, the last point is the big one - the initial complaint by MAGA is irrational, so there really isn't any reason to think they'll stop complaining once a change is made to accommodate a MAGA complaint, they'll just make up something else to complain about. If the people of California themselves want to have results faster for their own benefit, that's different. But I wouldn't change anything just to head off criticism from cranks.

I personally think that saying "Your ballot has to be back by election day" for most voters is not disenfranchising and that California is over-indexed on providing voters maximum flexibility at the cost of too much utility in being able to report a result within a week of the election. But I'm not in California, so I neither know how people think in terms of their opinion on the ability to mail a ballot on election day, nor do I have a direct stake in whether or not they change it.

Linda Oliver's avatar

If California’s election laws were ported over to Republican Florida, would they get the same impatient hue-and-cry?

Dave Yell's avatar

DJT and Republicans don't seem to know that California is about + 25 or 30 Democratically. But we are talking logic here. And what does logic have to do with DJT and his cult?

max skinner's avatar

No it wouldn't. The complainers will just find something else to complain about. And as the Speaker of the House believes, it just means the fraud is so diabolical that you can't find its source. Further proof that fraud happened.

Dave Yell's avatar

They just move the goalposts like they always do.

Kate Fall's avatar

I think playing the game of MAGA gets to choose how long it should take to do a valid count is just begging MAGA to disenfranchise us.

Dave's avatar
2hEdited

I came on here to say exactly this. If we want this to stop being an issue every freaking election then we need to tighten up the process and people need to be on top of voting on time - just like submitting taxes. Also if all the mail-in ballots are there by election day then those should be counted first so everyone including Mike Lee can shut the f* up about it

Stacy's avatar

I believe tax returns are accepted as timely as long as they are post marked by April 15. So same as CA voting.

Jeff Bernfeld's avatar

Perhaps this solution is too obvious for our sclerotic "leadership." Yo Gavin! it's two thousand and fucking twenty-six!

Corinne Mitchell's avatar

Our legislature in Arizona tried to do that. The only republican notion with which I agreed. Mail in ballots have to be mailed x number of days before election day in order to be counted. There's no need to hold on to a mail in ballot and drop it off on election day.

Mark P's avatar

Kellyanne LOLOLOL! Is she now going to admit she was wrong for ever supporting Trump? I'm not holding my breath.

max skinner's avatar

I didn't realize she was still around commenting on things.