Day: January 15, 2024

Iowa Caucuses–2024

College of Political Knowledge

2024 Election Series

Today will be a day to remember….the bitter biting cold all the way South to Northern Mississippi and the vote in Iowa (that is if people can actually get out of their homes to vote).

With all this adversity what can we expect from the voters in Iowa on such a day?

Today’s the (extremely frigid) day: Iowa caucusgoers will come together at 8pm EST in some 1,500 locations across the state to debate their options and then cast their secret ballots. Aside from the much-discussed weather—the AP reports temps are expected to be the coldest ever recorded on a caucus night—here are the five biggest storylines to watch:

  1. Just how big will Donald Trump’s margin be: Polling suggests Trump has a win in the bag, meaning the real question is whether he manages to hit 50%. If he does, “the notion that Republicans are hungry for an alternative becomes far less believable,” reports NBC News. “He could head to New Hampshire with an imposing air of inevitability.” If he doesn’t, that could give momentum to whoever places second.
  2. And could that margin be record-setting big? The AP reports Bob Dole holds the record for the biggest margin of victory for an Iowa Republican caucus. He finished nearly 13 percentage points ahead of his rivals in 1988, a figure that Trump has predicted he will best Monday night.
  3. Who will take second? The No. 2 position, and whether it goes to Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis, is in many ways the one to watch. NBC News frames it as a “make-or-break” finish for DeSantis, as he’s polling behind Haley in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two states coming down the pike. And as the BBC puts it, “If one of these two opens some daylight between the other … it could elevate that candidate as the top alternative to Mr. Trump in the contests to come.”
  4. Where will the turnout count land? The record number of Republican caucus participants was set in 2012, when 118,411 of them showed up. Some campaigns had been expecting the caucusgoer count could surge to nearly 200,000 people thanks to the caucuses aligning with a federal holiday. But the weather is proving to be a major wildcard.
  5. Have the rules of the ground game changed? Candidates have long tried to woo caucusgoers by spending plenty of time in the state, “but, like much else in the Trump-era, that old rule may be out the window,” observes ABC News. While DeSantis did as has conventionally been done, visiting each of the state’s 99 counties and hosting 169 events over 61 days, Trump has made only 35 appearances in 21 days. Vivek Ramaswamy, who is polling in the single digits, has held 326 events over 89 days.

I would not be concerned with the Iowa for Iowa has not picked the candidate since 2000 when they went with GW Bush.

Iowa is for political nerds like me…..other than that it is just another day for most of us.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

This Is What I Have been Talking About!

Since the US has taken it upon its checkbook to finance the war in Ukraine I have been bitching about the money that is being wasted with very little return.

I recently read a story about this conflict and the War Department’s lack of oversight.

More than $1 billion in weapons that were shipped to Ukraine have not been properly tracked by the Pentagon, a report from the Defense Department’s inspector general has found.

The report examined $1.699 billion in weapons sent to Ukraine that are subject to enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM), which includes Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, night vision goggles, AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, and other types of weaponry.

The IG report found that the majority of the EEUM arms, nearly 40,000 weapons in total worth approximately $1.005 billion, have not been accounted for after being sent into Ukraine. Smaller, more portable weapons are subject to EEUM since they’re more likely to be smuggled and sold on the black market.

Robert P. Storch, the Pentagon’s inspector general, said there’s “no record” of inventories being taken. “It doesn’t mean they’re not there, or they’re not being used,” he said, according to The New York Times. “[But] because of their sensitivity, their vulnerability to diversion, or misuse, or the consequences of that, it’s particularly important to have this additional tracking and accountability in place.”

The US policy of pouring weapons into Ukraine has been done with very little oversight, and the shipments examined in the IG report are just a fraction of the over $40 billion in military equipment the US has provided or committed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year.

(antiwar.com)

This is a continuing problem and no one seems to care that this situation continues war after war.

This is what we get when we allow lobbyists and special interests run our foreign policy.

But let’s not worry about this…..better yet lets pretend the border is more important or cutting Social Security or Food programs.

You should be shouting from the treetops that your money is being mishandled in such a way….but sadly you will not.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”