......And We're Off!
The 2024 election officially begins tonight in Iowa
(Note for new subscribers: On Monday, I recap some of the positive stories/funny memes I’ve come across in the last week. Please add your own in the comments!)
Hello voter, do you have time to talk about our cat-idate in tonight’s paw-cus?
Tonight, Republican caucusgoers in Iowa will brave “global boiling” sub-zero temperatures in order to begin the long slog of electing delegates to the Republican National Convention in July. I’m including this story in today’s positive post because starting the 2024 election means we’re closer to FINISHING the 2024 election. (Sadly, this will probably also kick off the 2028 election season.)
While the first round of voting occurs tonight, it’s important to note these results won’t actually tell us how many delegates each candidate will ultimately earn from the state. Tonight, precincts (roughly neighborhood-sized areas) vote for delegates to the county conventions, which in turn vote for delegates to the state convention, which (finally) vote for delegates to the national convention. In this way, the caucus system not only measures width of support, but depth of it as well — only the most enthusiastic voters show up for the repeated conventions. (It should be noted many states have abandoned the caucus system because it leads to candidates such as Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders doing very well.)
To give a real-life example of how this plays out, in my 2008 precinct caucus, 6 people showed up and we had 5 county convention delegate slots. Of course, I (being the only Paul delegate), ended up being the odd-man-out and was slated as an ‘alternate’ for the county convention — to be seated only if somebody from our precinct didn’t show up.
When the county caucus rolled around, I was the only one of the six of us who actually attended. This meant that instead of 0% representation at the county convention for Ron Paul (as would have been reported after the first round of voting), our precinct had 100% representation for Ron Paul. (Though we went from 5 voting delegates to 1.) In turn, our county ended up electing a majority of Ron Paul delegates to the state convention.
A similar story played out in Iowa in 2012, when the race was essentially a three-way tie in the first round of voting between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul (Google him), and Rick Santorum (DON’T Google him). However, by the time the process played out, Paul had captured the overwhelming majority of Iowa’s 28 national delegates — 22 to 6 over Romney.
Wiki explains:
So while tonight’s vote will give us our first ‘real’ look into voting preferences of Iowa Republicans, it won’t actually provide hard delegate numbers — which are ultimately determined by where the votes are located and ongoing voter enthusiasm.
This brings us to our first 2024 election poll! Please only answer if you’re planning on voting in the Republican primary this election.
(I realize I screwed up Ramaswamy’s name, but if I edit it now, it will wipe out the existing votes — I guess you get to laugh at my expense!)
I’ll post this poll every couple weeks so we can see how support shifts during the campaign!
Now, onto the good stuff!
Today is MLK day, and the FBI continues its annual tradition of trolling all us.
Last week I promised a dog jumping on a trampoline, so here is a dog jumping on a trampoline:
I stumbled across this graphic and realized it perfectly describes simulation command:
After her neighborhood was devastated by a tornado, this woman’s dog was missing….until it wasn’t.
“No cap.”
Instead of letting the cold weather get him down, Dad-of-the-year candidate uses it to his advantage:
Me in real life:
Who says moral support isn’t real? (Sound required!)
I found the only ‘hard work’ some people are willing to put in:
Finally, we mark this MLK day with one of my favorite clips of him speaking. Forget “I Have a Dream”, here King rips into the American government for not upholding American ideals.
Wonder what he would have to say about today’s censorship?
That’s it for today, Screamers! Your turn! What made you happy this week?
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you had me crying there with the lady who finds her dog unharmed in the rubble. That is my prayer too. Whatever happens, let the dog be unharmed.
Positive, hm.
That old lady, you could tell she didn't care nothing about her house being gone once she saw the dog was alive. That's as real as it gets.
Over here, tried out my new organ the other day. (No not that kind of organ, nor /that/ organ, get your head out fo the gutter!)
One of them old pump organs what you pump with your feet as you play, used to be one in every classroom when I was little. Would you believe they only wanted about the eq. of a $7:50 for it? I even asked them if the tag was correct.
Now, it's the terror of the dogs. First time I tried it, the older dog went and tried to put her head in the oven.