2022 Midterm Elections

[GreyhoundFan]

I wonder if TFG's allies recruited Walker because they thought he'd be easy to control.

 

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I wonder if TFG's allies recruited Walker because they thought he'd be easy to control.

 

Yes, I will admit he definitely presents as someone who's not intelligent. But is he much less intelligent than Lauren Bobert, MTG, or Jim Jordan?

[GreyhoundFan]

More from insane candidate Spicer:

[GreyhoundFan]

Ozzie is wishful thinking.

 

 

 

Full pics under spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I wasn't quite sure which thread was the most appropriate for this worthy read, but this seemed as good as any: :"The Trumpists are winning. Here are 3 hidden reasons to fear them."

Quote

As the noxious dust settles from this week’s GOP primaries, some big storylines are coming into view: The Trumpists are ascendant, and in their hands, the threat of Trumpism will far outlast Donald Trump himself.

The Trumpists in question are Republicans who won nominations for positions such as governor and secretary of state in critical swing states. The alarming truth is this: Many of them deny the legitimacy of President Biden’s 2020 victory, even as they are seeking positions of control over the certification of future presidential elections.

But the reality of the threat this poses keeps getting lost in euphemisms. There’s an unwillingness in the media to state the true nature of their project in plain, blunt, clear terms.

These Republicans include the following:

• In Arizona, Kari Lake, who’s closing in on the gubernatorial nomination, has said she wouldn’t have certified Biden’s 2020 victory in the state. Mark Finchem, the nominee for secretary of state, was involved in Trump’s fake-electors scheme and has pushed for the state legislature to have the authority to reject election outcomes.
• In Nevada, secretary of state nominee Jim Marchant participated in the fake-electors scheme and has said he wouldn’t have certified Biden’s victory.
• In Pennsylvania, gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano is a full-blown insurrectionist who helped lead Trump’s effort to overturn his loss and endorsed the appointment of presidential electors regardless of the popular vote, based on lies about fraud.
• In Michigan, gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon has flatly declared Trump won the state, though she has sometimes moderated that position. Kristina Karamo, the GOP candidate for secretary of state, has spread all kinds of lies suggesting Trump won the state in 2020.

Here are three reasons to fear these candidates that should help clarify the real nature of the threat.

1 They are running on a promise to nullify future election losses.

These candidates are often described with mealy-mouthed language, such as “election denier” or even “election skeptic.” The implication is that they genuinely believe Trump won, or harbor sincere suspicions about our elections and can’t accept “reality,” as if they’re hostage to delusions about some mythic event rapidly receding into the past.

But that soft rendering won’t do. Let’s be clearer: They are essentially running on an implicit vow that, as long as they are in power, no Democratic presidential candidate will ever win their state again. No Democratic victory in their state will ever again be treated as legitimate.

Megan McArdle: In boosting Trump acolytes, Democrats become what they once condemned

Can it be conclusively proved that this is their intention? Perhaps not, but many are running on the explicit claim that they would not have certified Biden’s win, or that the certification process could legitimately disregard the popular vote, based on fictions about the voting.

Given that they are simultaneously running for positions of control over that same process, their meaning is plain: They would use that control to ensure that Democratic victories aren’t binding and are subject to nullification.

Former GOP operative Tim Miller recently suggested some GOP candidates pledge “fealty to Trump’s delusions” without believing them. That’s undoubtedly true. But it’s also a reason to be clearer that their implicit promise is to nullify future losses. If these candidates are willing to nourish those delusions, why wouldn’t they act on those delusions next time? They’re telling us they will.

2 Trump’s grip on the GOP might be slipping, but that’s beside the point.

Sarah Longwell, who runs focus groups of Republican voters, recently tweeted:

These GOP primary outcomes illuminate the true nature of this development. Loyalty to the “big lie” isn’t some eccentric obsession that these candidates inexplicably won’t relinquish. Nor is it merely a cynical trick designed to gin up turnout among angry Trump voters. Instead, it seems to be morphing into a clear, forward-looking political project.

One way to understand this is with writer John Ganz’s formulation: Like other political myths, the myth of the stolen 2020 election is a statement of intent to act. Here, the intended future act would be to refuse to acknowledge future Democratic victories as legitimate. We don’t know whether this will happen, but these candidates are declaring this intent, and it has taken on a life of its own.

3 The promise of future election sabotage is linked to the abortion wars.

When the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, it claimed to be returning abortion to democratic control in states. But as Adam Serwer argues, conservatives who gerrymander state governments and suppress votes are simultaneously working to constrain democracy from allowing the majority pro-choice position to prevail, revealing the hollowness of that claim.

Something similar can be discerned in these gubernatorial candidates.

Notably, they have far-outside-the-mainstream positions on abortion. Mastriano and Dixon favor a ban with no exceptions. Mastriano is a Christian nationalist who believes God wants him elected governor to serve as an instrument of God’s will. Lake saw the demise of Roe as a providential sign of God’s will that women are “meant to be” mothers.

In a forthcoming essay, political theorist Matt McManus argues that politicians who take their cues in this fashion from a transcendent order sometimes treat that order as the only necessary source of their rule’s “legitimacy.” That leads to authoritarianism.

If you believe such things, it’s a short step to telling yourself that subverting elections is not only justified, but also affirmatively good. You can’t disentangle such positions on abortion from these candidates’ declaration that democratic outcomes should be nonbinding when the “wrong” side loses.

 

[47of74]

Old man Cheney did an ad for his daughter

Quote

Former Vice President Dick Cheney criticizes former President Donald Trump as a "threat to our republic" and a "coward" in a new campaign ad for his daughter, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who's facing a competitive Republican primary later this month.

"In our nation's 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump," the former vice president says in the 60-second spot released Thursday. "He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him."

"He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it and, deep down, I think most Republicans know it," Cheney says.

He goes on to say he "proudly voted" for his daughter, who is the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection. "There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office."

I wonder how long it'll be until the Branch Trumpvidians turn against him

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, this so makes me want to visit Texas. /s

[Audrey2]

1 minute ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Gee, this so makes me want to visit Texas. /s

If I saw my friends welcoming me like that I would think they don't want me to visit and are no longer my friends so I would get out of there as quickly as possible.

[GreyhoundFan]

Creepy Scott trying to defend some of the horrible GQP senate candidates:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

She is so typical of the GQP now.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

She fits right in with the GQP

 

[Audrey2]

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

She fits right in with the GQP

 

I am so glad I moved from Arizona, where my first post college job was. There are so many wackadoodle politicians there that it's hard to narrow them down. Although I will say, I meant many very nice people there as long as we didn't talk politics.

[47of74]

Well I went and did my civic duty and voted in the Minnesota primary election today;

Of course I voted DFL even for the non-partisan part of the ballot.

First time ever voting in a state other than Iowa today.  Polling place is just a block up the road from me too so it made for a nice bike ride.

[fundiewatch]

As a former lifelong Minnesotan I just love hearing DFL. It’s hard for me to break of my habit. 

[47of74]

What surprised me a little was they used one ballot for all the parties.  In Iowa they have separate forms for each party. It was fairly easy to vote today. 

[47of74]

Walz and Omar held off primary challengers

Quote

There were few surprises, and most incumbents will move on to November following Minnesota's 2022 primary election. 

Based on early returns Tuesday night, the Associated Press quickly projected the anticipated victories for DFL incumbent Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Dr. Scott Jensen in their respective primaries, setting the governor's race for this fall.

Perhaps the most-watched race Tuesday took place in Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District, resulting in a close win for incumbent Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.

The showdown between Omar and former Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels proved close throughout the vote tally, but as Omar pulled slightly more ahead, Samuels made the choice to concede.

Looking at some of the other results the R won the special election in MN-1 to replaced the deceased Rep. Hagedorn but it was really pretty close which I am taking as a good sign.  Southern MN might lean more towards the GQP but by the same token it wasn't a blowout win for them.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Beto O’Rourke confronts heckler laughing during speech on Uvalde shooting"

Quote

Beto O’Rourke on Wednesday railed against Texans’ easy access to AR-style rifles like the one used in May to massacre 19 students and two of their teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex.

The 18-year-old gunman had legally purchased his rifle, which was “originally designed for use on the battlefields in Vietnam to penetrate an enemy soldier’s helmet at 500 feet and knock him down dead,” O’Rourke told supporters during a campaign rally, imitating a warfighter by dropping to one knee and extending his arm as if lining up a shot.

A heckler cackled.

O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee running to oust Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in November, initially ignored the laughter. He kept stumping, saying that the Uvalde shooter had used the rifle not to fight enemy soldiers off in the distance but “against kids” five feet away.

But then he stopped and pointed at the heckler: “It may be funny to you,” O’Rourke thundered, interjecting a swear word, “but it’s not funny to me.”

One video of the exchange went viral, racking up more than 3 million views by early Thursday, just hours after O’Rourke wrapped up the campaign stop in Mineral Wells — a town some 40 miles west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area and 260 miles north of Uvalde. O’Rourke’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request from The Washington Post late Wednesday for comment about the exchange.

Shortly after the event, O’Rourke tweeted that he considers nothing more serious “than getting justice for the families in Uvalde and stopping this from ever happening again.”

The town hall was part of what’s shaping up to be the most expensive campaign in Texas history, dwarfing the $125 million O’Rourke and Sen. Ted Cruz spent in 2018 in the Democrat’s failed attempt to unseat the Republican incumbent, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday. O’Rourke and Abbott raised a combined $52.5 million between late February and June alone, with O’Rourke’s $27.6 million haul setting a state campaign fundraising record, the Texas Tribune reported last month.

Gun control has been a staple of O’Rourke’s platform to defeat Abbott, especially after the massacre in Uvalde. A day after the shooting, he interrupted Abbott during a news conference at Uvalde High School as the governor updated reporters, The Post reported at the time. As Abbott introduced Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), O’Rourke came up to the stage to declare that the governor and other high-level state officials had dithered for far too long, not taking action after previous mass shootings in Texas, including those at Santa Fe High School in 2018 and at an El Paso Walmart in 2019.

“The time to stop the next shooting is right now, and you are doing nothing,” O’Rourke said. “You’re offering us nothing.”

Moments before O’Rourke interrupted him at the May 25 news conference, Abbott told reporters that tougher gun laws are “not a real solution” to preventing more mass shootings. Instead, a week later, he called on the state legislature to create special committees that would make recommendations about how to take “meaningful action” that might stop something like Uvalde from happening again. At the time, O’Rourke knocked the idea, imploring the governor to “do your job” by calling a special legislative session to specifically tackle the issue.

At Wednesday night’s town hall in Mineral Wells, O’Rourke promised supporters “common-sense” gun control if he’s elected governor. He mentioned raising the minimum age for buying an AR-style rifle from 18 to 21, implementing universal background checks in Texas and enacting a red-flag law, legislation that allows judges to order law enforcement to seize gun owners’ firearms if convinced that they pose a danger to themselves or others.

O’Rourke ended his pitch by saying that “Democrats and Republicans, gun owners and non-gun owners” — maybe even himself and the heckler — might still find common ground on gun restrictions.

“You either accept that we are inherently evil and violent and deadly and love to kill each other and slaughter kids where they sit,” O’Rourke said, “or that there is something that you and I can do together regardless of the differences between us.”

Here's a video of it:

 

[WiseGirl]

Rufus, I hope so.

 

[fraurosena]

5 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Rufus, I hope so.

 

If true, then let's just hope that the red states voter supression laws don't throw a spanner in the works. And that they concede their losses, and concede to them peacefully.

But honestly, I think that the weeks after the Midterms are going to be an extremely dangerous and volatile time for the US.

[GreyhoundFan]

More nonsense from Lavern:

[fraurosena]

Cover him in the blood of Jezus? Good grief what a disgusting image... 

[GreyhoundFan]

I can't believe this man is a contender to be a senator:

 

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow, I didn't realize Dr. Oz had so much in common with Kelly Jo Bates, "...I forgot my kids' names..."