The Midterm Elections

[Cartmann99]

My Beto yard sign is supposed to be delivered on Friday. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

More economic anxiety: 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Your next president: 

 

[Cartmann99]

My Beto O'Rourke yard sign arrived today! My neighbor a couple of houses down from me has one too, so now when I give directions to our house, I'll just say we're on the Beto side of the street. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm not quite sure where to post this thoughtful op-ed: "An explosion is coming"

Spoiler

Eight years ago, when Congress was about to pass Obamacare, John A. Boehner, leader of a powerless Republican congressional minority, gave a passionate, prescient speech on the House floor.

“This is the People’s House, and the moment a majority forgets this, it starts writing itself a ticket to minority status,” he said. “If we pass this bill, there will be no turning back. It will be the last straw for the American people . . . And in a democracy, you can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it.”

This was Boehner’s famous “hell no, you can’t” speech. But the Democrats could. They had the votes, and they passed Obamacare. Boehner was correct in his prediction, though. The Democrats were soon on their way to minority status in the House and would later lose the Senate and the presidency.

Now I think I know how Boehner felt in 2010. We see Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowing to ram through the Senate the confirmation of the decisive fifth hard-right justice on the Supreme Court, quite likely signaling the end of legal abortion in much of America and possibly same-sex marriage and other rights Americans embrace, in far greater number, than they ever did Obamacare.

One wants to cry out: Hell no, you can’t! But Republicans can. They have the votes. Democrats can and should fight, but the GOP controls the schedule, sets the rules and already eliminated the procedures that gave the minority a say in Supreme Court confirmations.

If anything, the fury should be far more intense on the Democratic side right now than it was for Boehner in 2010. The Affordable Care Act was the signature proposal of a president elected with a large popular mandate, it had the support of a plurality of the public, and it was passed by a party that had large majorities in both chambers of Congress and had attempted to solicit the participation of the minority.

Now we have a Supreme Court nomination — the second in as many years — from an unpopular president who lost the popular vote by 2.8 million. The nominee will be forced through by also-unpopular Senate Republicans, who, like House Republicans, did not win a majority of the vote in 2016.

Compounding the outrage, each of the prospective nominees is all but certain, after joining the court, to support the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has held the nation together in a tenuous compromise on abortion for 45 years and is supported by two-thirds of Americans. For good measure, the new justice may well join the other four conservative justices in revoking same-sex marriage, which also has the support of two-thirds of Americans. And this comes after the Republicans essentially stole a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, to a vacant seat.

You can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it.

Republicans have been defying gravity for some time. As New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait reminds us in a smart piece, they lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections. Electoral college models show Republicans could plausibly continue to win the White House without popular majorities.

Because of partisan gerrymandering and other factors, Democrats could win by eight percentage points and still not gain control of the House, one study found. And the two-senators-per-state system (which awards people in Republican Wyoming 70 times more voting power than people in Democratic California) gives a big advantage to rural, Republican states.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has protected Republican minority rule. It gave the wealthy freedom to spend unlimited dark money on elections, while crippling the finances of unions. It sustained gerrymandering and voter-suppression laws that reduce participation of minority voters. And, of course, it gave the presidency to George W. Bush.

Control of the judiciary, and the resulting protection of minority rule, has been the prize for Republicans who tolerated President Trump’s starting a trade war, losing allies while getting cozy with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, flirting with white supremacists, paying off a porn star and attacking the justice system while his former advisers are indicted and convicted.

Now Republicans will seize their solid fifth vote on the court without pause or compunction. But how long do they think they can sustain this? What happens when Roe is overturned?

The backlash is coming. It is the deserved consequence of minority-rule government protecting the rich over everybody else, corporations over workers, whites over nonwhites and despots over democracies. It will explode , God willing, at the ballot box and not in the streets.

You can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it.

 

[fraurosena]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I like Alexandria's response to Faux:

 

[milkteeth]

Quote

"Editors Note:  Joe Cunningham is an editor at the conservative news and opinion site, RedState.com, and a contributor to TheHayride.com. You can follow him on his Twitter account, @joepcunningham. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own."

 

Hmmm yes I hope Democrats listen to this Joe Cunningham fellow about not moving too far left for 2018....also I'm sure he is totally right that painting fences isn't actually a boring chore, but a super fun activity that we should do for him! 

[Cartmann99]

 Juanita Jean's blog has a post up about Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller:

Quote

We all know Sid Miller, childish Ag commissioner of Texas, is a complete jerk, devoting much of his time to insulting half of Texas’ population and publicly displaying his stupidity on social media.  We also know about his weird obsession with the “Jesus Shot”,  which apparently  maintains whatever feel-good it provides, and his use of taxpayer funds to finance his trips to get those shots.  We also know that he wants to replace healthy food options in schools with deep-fried garbage, and are very familiar with his battle against the non-existent “war on cupcakes” for kids’ birthday parties.  One of his most infuriating habits is posting bullshit on Facebook to foment fake outrage against fictional grievances.

We get all that.  Ol’ Sid is a self-absorbed weirdo with an affection for stuffed animals on the walls of his office and screwy conspiracy theories.  In truth, he is the Sas to Louie Gohmert’s Shay.  Between the two of these clowns, it’s all goofball, all the time, and they regularly compete for the title of National Embarrassment of Texas.

.http://juanitajean.com/don-quixote-in-a-white-cowboy-hat/

Miller's up for reelection this year, his opponent is Kim Olsen:

 

[JMarie]

Kelli Ward's back in the news

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/05/politics/kfile-kelli-ward-husband-tweets/index.html

[Cartmann99]

26 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Kelli Ward's back in the news

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/05/politics/kfile-kelli-ward-husband-tweets/index.html

I hate that the process of finding a new doctor now includes checking to see if they are nutters on social media. 

[AmazonGrace]

So this dude is running in California and he is a Nazi. https://shareblue.com/california-republican-congressional-candidate-john-fitzgerald-holocaust-denial/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[JMarie]

6 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

So this dude is running in California and he is a Nazi. https://shareblue.com/california-republican-congressional-candidate-john-fitzgerald-holocaust-denial/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

That article highlights six Republican crazies, but not a single Democrat one.  Where are all the Democrat crazies?

[AmazonGrace]

Because of course they are.

 

[AmazonGrace]

More Nazis running for office 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Another GOP candidate: only white males in the Supreme Court please 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

The Repugs want to suppress minority voters, no big surprise: "Virginia Republicans ask U.S. Supreme Court to postpone new legislative boundaries"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — Republicans in Virginia’s General Assembly have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay a requirement that the state redraw legislative district lines by October, arguing that a lower court erred in finding the districts to be discriminatory against African Americans.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled on June 26 that the lines for 11 House of Delegates districts had been drawn with the purpose of concentrating black voters.

The 2-to-1 ruling was a victory for Democrats, who hope that new district boundaries will help them retake control of the House for the first time in nearly two decades. Last year’s elections wiped out a 2-to-1 GOP advantage in the 100-seat House, leaving Republicans with a narrow 51-to-49 majority.

House Speaker M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights) and other GOP leaders on Monday asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal, arguing that the lower court reached incorrect conclusions.

The district court erred by “ignoring objective evidence of neutral redistricting decisions” and by “discarding first-hand testimony . . . in favor of theoretical and post-hoc expert opinions about motive,” the Republican leadership argued in its motion filed with the high court.

While the case is under appeal, the Republicans asked the court to postpone a requirement that new legislative boundaries be drawn by Oct. 30 for use in next year’s state elections.

Redrawing the map now “will result in voter confusion and disruption to the primary process,” the Republicans argue. “And that is to say nothing of the immense waste of scarce resources” if they win their appeal, the motion continues.

The 11 districts are in Hampton Roads and greater Richmond. But changes to those districts could have a cascading effect, altering the demographics of some of the 22 adjacent districts.

The boundaries were drawn after the 2010 Census, when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats controlled the Senate. With new boundaries, Republicans took control of the Senate and extended their majority in the House — until last year’s wave of Democratic victories in reaction to an unpopular President Trump.

"...confusion and disruption...",  yeah, the Repugs NEVER want that... (end sarcasm)

[AmazonGrace]

Ocasio-Cortez wins another primary 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Look what crawled out from under Trump’s rock"

Spoiler

Behold, a new breed of Republican for the Trump era.

Seth Grossman won the Republican primary last month for a competitive House seat in New Jersey, running on the message “Support Trump/Make America Great Again.” The National Republican Congressional Committee endorsed him.

Then, a video surfaced, courtesy of American Bridge, a Democratic PAC, of Grossman saying “the whole idea of diversity is a bunch of crap.” Grossman then proclaimed diversity “evil.” CNN uncovered previous instances of Grossman calling Kwanzaa a “phony holiday” created by “black racists,” labeling Islam a cancer and saying faithful Muslims cannot be good Americans.

Grossman gave an interview claiming that he supports diversity in part because he likes “to go to Chinese restaurants.” He called the oppression of African Americans “exaggerated.” And this week, the liberal group Media Matters found that Grossman had previously posted a link on Facebook to a white-nationalist website’s piece claiming black people “are a threat to all who cross their paths.”

After weeks of delay, the NRCC finally withdrew its nomination.

Many such characters have crawled out from under rocks and onto Republican ballots in 2018: A candidate with ties to white nationalists is the GOP Senate nominee in Virginia (and has President Trump’s endorsement); an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier is the Republican candidate in a California House race; a prominent neo-Nazi won the GOP nomination in an Illinois House race; and overt racists are in Republican primaries across the country.

Many will lose primaries, and the rest will lose in November. GOP officials have disavowed this crop of unsavory candidates, though sometimes hesitantly. It is an indication of where Trump has taken the party that Republicans need the support of people like this.

By the president’s own standard, it is fair to identify these candidates with the national Republican brand. Trump has called Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) “the Face of the Democrat Party” because she advocates harassment of administration officials — an irresponsible opinion shared by few Democratic lawmakers.

Some of these candidates go well beyond the bounds of anything Trump has said or done, but many have been inspired or emboldened by him. Corey A. Stewart, the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia, said he was “Trump before Trump.”

The party won’t back Stewart, but Republican lawmakers are tiptoeing. Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R-Va.), declining to disavow Stewart, noted to the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that people won’t see him as racist because “my son is named after a black guy.”

In California, the Republican facing Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, John Fitzgerald, has appeared on neo-Nazi podcasts, claimed the Holocaust is a lie and alleged an international Jewish conspiracy. In Illinois, the Republican nominee against Democratic Rep. Daniel Lipinski, Arthur Jones, has a campaign website that mixes anti-Semitic propaganda and support for Trump, and has pictures of him speaking at a neo-Nazi rally for Trump in 2016 and making a Nazi salute with other “white patriots.”

Russell Walker, Republican nominee for a North Carolina state House seat, is a white supremacist whose personal website is “littered with the n-word” and states that Jews are “satanic,” Vox reports.

Running in the Republican primary for Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s congressional seat in Wisconsin is Paul Nehlen, who calls himself “pro-white” and was booted from Twitter for racism.

Neo-Nazi Patrick Little ran as a Republican in the California Senate primary, blaming his loss on fraud by “Jewish supremacists,” according to the website Right Wing Watch.

The party establishment has no use for any such figures, thankfully, but it supports some with other eye-popping views. In North Carolina, nominee Mark Harris, in the NRCC’s “Young Guns” program for top recruits, has suggested that women who pursue careers and independence do not “live out and fulfill God’s design.”

Another Young Guns candidate, Wendy Rogers of Arizona (where Joe Arpaio is fighting for the Republican Senate nomination), has said the Democratic position on abortion is “very much like the Holocaust” and the Cambodian genocide.

The Kansas GOP asked state Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, a Republican congressional candidate, not to repeat his claim that Planned Parenthood is worse than the Nazi death camp Dachau. Fitzgerald did it anyway — and also declared that “outside of Western civilization, there is only barbarism.”

What makes so many think such exotic views are welcome?

Maybe they see the wife of former Fox News executive Bill Shine defending racists on Twitter. Her account was deleted when her husband became Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications.

Or maybe they see David Bossie, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, telling a black man on TV that “you’re out of your cotton-picking mind” — and then returning after a brief suspension and apology.

Or perhaps they see Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) retweeting a Nazi sympathizer, refusing to delete it and saying he doesn’t want Somali Muslims working at a meatpacking plant in his district because they think people go “to hell for eating pork chops.”

Is it any wonder the likes of Seth Grossman think this party is theirs?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Daily 202: Leaked recordings of Ga. governor candidate highlight why people mistrust politicians"

Spoiler

THE BIG IDEA: Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle privately complained to one of his GOP primary opponents that their race for governor had become about “who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck and who could be the craziest.”

Cagle, the establishment favorite, is facing Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp in a July 24 Republican runoff that polls show is neck and neck.

Kemp this week posted a snippet from a secretly recorded conversation between Cagle and Clay Tippins from two days after the May primary. Cagle was seeking the support of Tippins, who finished in fourth place.

Tippins, a former Navy SEAL who once swam for Stanford, emphasized making Georgia friendlier to business, expanding access to medicinal marijuana and combating human trafficking during his campaign.

“Listen, the issues you talked about are issues I care about as well,” Cagle told him (it’s not clear which specific issues he was referring to). “The problem is in a primary — and you and I are talking off the record [to be] frank — they don't give a s--- about those things, okay? In a general, they care about it. But they don’t care about it in a primary.”

“This primary felt like it was who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck and who could be the craziest,” Cagle added. “That’s what it felt like. So with all that being said, I care about your issues.”

-- Tippins recorded the conversation on an iPhone in his coat pocket. Last month, he shared another chunk of it with local media outlets and gave the rest to Kemp, who has hinted that more clips are still to come. In the portion that came out last month, the lieutenant governor acknowledged that he shifted his position on an education tax credit to dissuade donors from giving to a super PAC that would support another rival.

“Is it bad public policy? Between you and me, it is. And I can tell you how it is [in] a thousand different ways,” Cagle said on the tape. “It ain’t about public policy. It’s about s--- politics. There’s a group that was getting ready to put $3 million behind Hunter Hill.”

Cagle identified the group in question as the Walton Family Foundation. The political arm of that group, which supports the expansion of charter schools, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it has not spent any money on the governor’s race and declined to comment on the recording. Hill finished third in the primary. “I was playing defense,” Cagle told Tippins. “I’m being honest with you.”

-- What’s happening in Georgia comes against the backdrop of a pattern across the country that has contributed to voter cynicism: Many Republican candidates have embraced positions this election cycle with which they previously disagreed to win primaries and sync up better with President Trump and his agenda.

-- Cagle’s caught-on-tape comments are also reminiscent of Trump White House budget director Mick Mulvaney’s acknowledgment in April that he gave preferential treatment to political donors when he was in Congress. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you,” Mulvaney said at the American Bankers Association conference. “If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”

-- Cagle campaign manager Scott Binkley defended the comments that have emerged this week. He said that the lieutenant governor was referring to his opponent’s ads. In one commercial, Kemp pointed a shotgun in the direction of a young man interested in dating his daughter. “I got a big truck just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ‘em home myself,” Kemp said in another.

“Casey talked policy. Kemp talked crazy,” Binkley said in a statement to local media outlets. “And yes, Casey Cagle called Brian Kemp out on it. Share the transcript. PLEASE. We have nothing to hide.”

On the education bill, Cagle has said he was trying to reach a compromise and no one got everything they wanted.

-- Kemp went on television yesterday with a new attack ad highlighting Cagle’s comments. “You’ve heard the tapes,” the secretary of state says to the camera in the 30-second spot. “Cagle admitted that he thought a new state law was bad policy for Georgia, but it could mean millions to his campaign, so Cagle passed it anyway. Well, if that’s not criminal, it should be.”

-- Cagle was previously in the national news in February when he vowed to “kill” a major tax break that benefited Delta Air Lines, whose hub is in Atlanta, as retaliation for the company discontinuing discounted fares for members of the National Rifle Association to fly to their annual meeting in the face of student protests following the massacre in Parkland, Fla.

The NRA rewarded Cagle with its endorsement a few weeks later. Now the gun rights group is deploying its incoming president, Oliver North, to headline three rallies for him this Saturday, the Journal-Constitution reports.

-- The intra-GOP drama increases the odds that Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams could prevail in November. She would be the first African American female governor in U.S. history.

-- This is not your granddaddy’s Georgia, which Trump carried by only five points in 2016. The Peach State was one of 11 in which Hillary Clinton improved on Barack Obama’s performance. Slowly but surely, the country’s eighth-most-populous state is becoming more purple.

Cagle’s not wrong that what plays well in a low-turnout GOP primary is different from what wins a general election. Atlanta isn’t just Delta’s hub. It’s a hub of the New South. The typical voter in many of the suburbs around the city is as likely to drive a foreign luxury car as a pickup truck.

...

 

[AmazonGrace]

So this dude is running for sheriff  and his agenda is to stalk and harass Muslims in his area.  He is an independent because the Republicans in his area aren't quite bigoted enough.

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

So this dude is running for sheriff  and his agenda is to stalk and harass Muslims in his area.  He is an independent because the Republicans in his area aren't quite bigoted enough.

 

Oh crap! Spokane is a delightful city to visit. Sure hope he doesn't win, or I'll have to boycott Spokane.