The 2022 Election Year ~ part 2

THE THREE-MONTH COUNTDOWN

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/arizona-establishment-republicans-sound-the-al...
Arizona Establishment Republicans Sound the Alarm After a Kari Lake-Led MAGA Primary Sweep: ‘A Catastrophe’ for ‘Our Democracy’

“I think the only way back is by humiliation at the ballot box, and the problem is the Democrats aren’t strong enough to do that,” Bill Gates, a Republican Maricopa County supervisor, told Siders.

“I think they are electable, which is frightening,” Gates added.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/he-is-a-coward-dick-cheney-eviscerates-donald-...
‘He is a Coward’: Dick Cheney Eviscerates Donald Trump as ‘Greatest Threat’ Ever to Our Republic in New Ad For Daughter Liz

Lynne and I are so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth, doing what is right, honoring her oath to the Constitution when so many in our own party are too scared to do so.

Credit: Scott Utterback / USA Today Network / Reuters

From a photo essay of KY flooding in The Atlantic.

McConnell isn’t on the ballot this year; but this seems symbolic.

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 11:24 AM · Aug 8, 2022:
What idiots! Hurting millions of diabetics makes a really dumb campaign slogan. Even fascists should be smart enough to count!
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Republicans block cap ($35 per mo.) on insulin costs for millions of patients
Evan Halper and Tony Romm | August 7, 2022

...The fight was a policy loss for Democrats, but it was also a political win, as lowering the price of drugs like insulin is popular with voters.

...GOP lawmakers had earlier tried to offer their own, more scaled-back version of an insulin price limit, but Democrats rejected it as too narrow...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/07/insulin-cap-budget-congress/

When it comes to election years, the GOP always appears to have deep candidate benches. But the present-day GOP voters are showing us again and again that they will never allow the cream-of-the-crop to rise to the top.

As soon as election is won me must impeach de facto president Joe Biden and his clique.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-the-jaw-dropping-moment-trump-backed-candida...
WATCH: The Jaw-Dropping Moment Trump-Backed Candidate Reveals He Thinks ‘Banana Republic’ Refers to the Store

BO HINES: I mean, we have to. I mean, we’re at a point in our country now where we have a unregulated fourth branch of government that’s targeting middle class Americans on a daily basis. I mean, it’s unbelievable, what we’re seeing. A lot of people have likened the situation that’s going on right now is, you know, they say we’re in a Banana Republic. I think that’s an insult to Banana Republics across the country. I mean, at least the manager of Banana Republic, unlike our president, knows where he is and why he’s there and what he’s doing.

***
And dudes like this wonder why they are unprepared for life in 21st Century America.

>6 Kuiperdolin: For what exactly?

Donald Trump was impeached by the House in December 2019 for abuse of power by soliciting Russian interference in US elections and for obstructing Congress in its investigation. He was impeached a second time (never before occurred) for incitement of the January 2021 insurrection attempt.

What impeachable offense has President Joe Biden committed?

And who's "we"? Congress is responsible for impeachment of a president.

For treason, or anything that sticks.

>10 aspirit: And this right here, folks, is an example of why the upcoming elections in October and November are incredibly important.

>10 aspirit: Do you sometimes get the feeling we're being trolled?

I wonder - I mean, this is someone who literally claimed to believe that Trump wrote a book. Even for a troll, that seems a little too on-the-nose, doesn't it?

And now this sort of babble... it's just too much, just cannot be serious. My theory: >9 Kuiperdolin: is actually Obama, just having a giggle. (Other theories may be available on request)

>9 Kuiperdolin:, >10 aspirit:, >11 kiparsky:

One of the things that many of us foreigners always admired about the USA was its respect for due process and constitutionality, even if that can be frustrating at times. One of the concerns that many of us now have is the apparent disregard for these same values being shown by many on the political right. I think many of us were surprised at how quickly these values crumbled in just four short years. Your institutions were robust enough to meet the challenge in 2020, but only just, and it's apparently still a major challenge.

Incidentally, it is not only in the USA that 2022 is an election year. We've just had elections in Kenya. After a long delay, the result has now been announced and, buoyed by the example of the USA, the losing party is rejecting it. The atmosphere is tense and it's quite possible that there will be violence. And now the tired old narrative that disputed elections and suppression of voters followed by violence only happens in places like Africa is no longer tenable, given the recent experience of the USA.

>12 John5918: It's interesting that you say "four short years". From where I've been sitting, these institutions have been under constant attack since the 1990s, starting with the militia movement (whose adherents rejected the legitimacy of the federal government and laid the groundwork for today's secessionists) and proceeding with the Tea Party, which explicitly stated that its aim was to destroy the American government through to today's frankly insane right-wing rejection of America as a whole. I mean, the idea that a failing president could respond to losing an election by attempting to mount a coup does not just come out of nowhere, and the fact that a majority of that president's party support this coup confirms that the idea of "due process and constitutionality" no longer has a firm hold in America.

Posts like >9 Kuiperdolin: are not a spontaneous expression of contempt for American values, any more than a carpenter ant's desire to climb to a height of 25 cm is a spontaneous desire for fresh air.

>14 kiparsky:

Thanks. Fair comment. I suppose to us outsiders it's become more visible in recent years, very obviously so in 2020.

Many modern-day GOPers ~ including a number of so-called Reaganites ~ have pushed the Cheneys and the McCains out of their 21st Century click.

>16 Molly3028: The Cheneys and McCains were initially supporters of Donald Trump as POTUS. Some members of their families have continued to be close to the Trump family. Liz Cheney (R) didn't take office until a few years ago. So I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

>15 John5918: It's true, Trump (and his handlers) really did make the fissures pretty evident. But if we look at the Obama era, I would have thought they'd been showing pretty clearly for a long time now

>17 aspirit:

Wyoming and Arizona are two chapters in a cautionary tale. They represent the tip of an iceberg which is going to take America's democracy down into the waters surrounding the Titanic if a majority of voters don't take the '22 and '24 elections very seriously.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/morning-after-loss-liz-cheney-repurposes-campaign-...
Morning After Loss Liz Cheney ‘Repurposes’ Campaign Account as Lincoln-Themed PAC Called ‘The Great Task’

Explanation of the PAC name ~

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

>19 Molly3028: I now see what you mean.

"8 Of The 10 Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump Won’t Be In Congress Next Year"
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-liz-cheney-impeach_n_62fd00f4e4b071ea958bcb...

Almost no one has been talking about Governor DeSantis's opponent in Florida this season, and... hey, look.

The Democratic primary election is next Tuesday. The four candidates are former (Republican) governor Charlie Crist, small business owner Cadance Daniel, weed-focused lawyer Nikki Fried, and charter school teacher Robert Willis.

(Florida never fails to disappoint.)

Candidates that may be picked by any Florida voter regardless of party registration are the Libertarian candidate Hector Roos, no party affiliate candidates Carmen Gimenez and Jodi Jeloudov, and write-in candidates Piotr Blass, Kyle Gibson, and James Thompson.

https://www.clickorlando.com/results-2022/2022/08/10/results-2022-meet-the-democ...

https://www.mediaite.com/news/warner-executive-john-malone-weighs-in-on-stelter-...
Warner Executive John Malone Weighs in on Stelter Ouster, Says He Wants the ‘News Portion of CNN to Be More Centrist’

***
Sadly, Trump and his "there are good people on both sides" crap is winning the day. Now that the fight for our democracy is at a very critical two-year juncture, the powers-that-be at CNN want to pretend ignoring the elephant-in-the-room is somehow going to keep our democracy from falling into the ash heap of history. The decent GOPers have been ostracized by the Trumpers. Murdoch and his on-air hires have won the first battle with little or no effort.

US supreme court backs Black voters challenging Georgia election rules (Guardian)

Black voters challenging Georgia’s method of electing members to the state’s public service commission scored a preliminary US supreme court order in their favor late Friday. The decision came after conflicting rulings from lower courts earlier this month, offering up a rare example of the supreme court’s 6-3 conservative majority’s siding with voters over state officials. Earlier this month, a federal district judge found that the current system gave Black residents’ votes less weight. Each of the commission’s five seats hold jurisdiction over a specific district, but each seatholder is elected in a statewide race that dilutes Black voters’ power, said that ruling, which came from Trump White House-appointed judge Steven Grimberg...

America's voters have got to wake up. The modern-day GOP is using the same type of tactics that the tobacco industry used for decades in the past. Trump is its Marlboro man. The MAGA slogan is the equivalent of a nicotine-laced cigarette.

I was on a mock trial team in high school. We had a Big Tobacco case. The team advisors and competition judges were actual legal professionals who worked in the courthouse where we held our trials.

My team played the prosecution against a tobacco company. We lost the competition because our witness didn't cry hard enough. That was the deciding factor, not who made the best case that a law had or hadn't been broken.

That event was a valuable lesson in how the American legal system works. I am coming to understand many years later how much it says about elections specifically.

Mainstream media continues to block out pro-healthcare protests, BLM protests, and Democratic candidates (who have almost no news or ad coverage where I live) even as influential fringe media pulls people away. Democratic supporters need to somehow cry out much louder to win this upcoming season. With Republican gerrymandering, changes to election laws that most affect Democratic voters, and the conservative shift in who owns media platforms, the filters will continue to thicken if there's not a significant flip in GOP-controlled areas.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/howard-kurtz-whacks-cnn-over-demise-of-brian-stelter...
Howard Kurtz Whacks CNN Over Demise of Brian Stelter, Attacks Network’s ‘Relentlessly Anti-Fox Programming’

***
I guess this FOX dude was in a coma during the Chris-Wallace-is-leaving-FOX episode. CW has a nose for factual news, and he still possess a functioning moral compass.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/22/conservative-grassroots-biden-trump-000...
‘We got rolled’: How the conservative grassroots lost the fight with Biden because it was focused on Trump

In years past, it would have been a political Waterloo moment for Republicans: President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats racing frantically to finalize sweeping legislation to hike taxes on corporations and spend trillions on climate change and health care subsidies.

But instead of mounting a massive grassroots opposition to tank or tar the Inflation Reduction Act, conservatives and right-wing news outlets spent the past week with their gaze elsewhere: the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion.

***
Thank you DJT, FOX News, etc.

This grassroots crowd should finally be waking up to the fact that DJT, his enablers and TV and radio outlets have been using them in profit-making schemes for years. Increased viewership/listenership numbers equal more ad dollars for them ~ governance has not been on their radar screens.

(From City Journal, New York) | Eye on the news ||
"Trump Derangement Won’t End with Trump |
Already, progressives are branding the GOP’s next generation as “a threat to democracy”—sound familiar?
| by Steven Malanga | August 22, 2022 | Politics and law

>29 proximity1: What else do you call Secretary of State candidates for many states who deny with no evidence that their own states conducted a fair election. We're being set up for a conspiracy to throw the next presidential election to the House which will be undemocratic for structural reasons that we are all aware of

>29 proximity1: Yes, as many have observed Trump is not a cause but a symptom. The American right wing has for decades been moving in a dangerous and profoundly anti-democratic direction. While Trump exposed and to some extent exacerbate this trend, it was happening before him and it will continue without him until the right wing decides it wants to be a pro-American movement. It was that once, and it can be so again, but not as long as it's committed to the path of white supremacy, misogyny, and servile kowtowing to corporate elites.

As much as they support Trump’s unsupported by any evidence claims of 2020 election stealing Republican candidates and would be candidates are a threat to our democracy. If you cannot lose without trying to undermine the vote I’m sorry but you have no business running for office. If every election they lose becomes another claim of election fraud which seems to be a tactic that so many Republicans have picked up from Trump and seem to have in mind for the future. It only further divides the country and exacerbates the tension and anger of the electorate to no one’s good at all. I don’t know what the be all end all is for people like Prox who seems to think this is okay. Civil war? It’s not okay.

You want to know why I happily voted for Biden who I don’t like at all….it’s all in the above paragraph.

>29 proximity1: and >31 kiparsky:

Trump is the present-day face of a political party which has lost its way. The modern-day GOP appears to be using the same playbook that was used successfully by the tobacco industry during the last century. Why relinquish a gambit that could work for decades in the 21st Century? The cult just needs a few more Marlboro-man types to pick up where Trump leaves off.

I wonder if dudes like Prox believe that the high-profile lawyers who apparently passed up the supreme opportunity of defending Trump, a former president, in courts across the country are also carriers of the Trump-derangement syndrome.

Florida appears to be devolving into a big-brother-is-watching-you-24/7 hellhole. Do Floridians really want to vote for DeSantis-type reps going forward? Will a majority of Americans want to vote for DeSantis or a DeSantis clone in 2024???

Sadly, rural America has always provided a rich target environment for unscrupulous people who devise investment, religious and political cons. The Electoral College is exacerbating the problem in this political era.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/gop-fundraiser-claims-universal-frustration-in...
GOP Fundraiser Claims There’s ‘Universal’ Frustration in Party Over Trump, Except for Those ‘Too Stupid to Understand the Need to Be Frustrated’

The gist is forget about defending Trump (leave that in his capable hands) and concentrate on the Biden agenda.

***
GOP Fundraisers would be correct if this were a normal political era in America. However, GOP reps understand that they need the 2022/24 votes of Trump's cult followers and in order to get them they must openly defend Trump 24/7. The GOP's candidate (whoever that may be) winning the Electoral College demands loyalty of the clueless to a lunatic during this tribal political era ~ keeping that 25% of the base engaged is crucial.

https://www.mediaite.com/election-2022/new-poll-herschel-walker-pulls-ahead-of-r...
NEW POLL: Herschel Walker Pulls Ahead of Raphael Warnock in Georgia Senate Race

***
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Herschel Walker ~ two Georgia peaches who may be doing-their-thing under the Capitol Dome in DC all too soon.

>38 Molly3028: We could look at Emerson or we could look at pollsters that have a history of being predictive. FiveThirtyEight shows Senator Warnock in the lead.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/2022/georgia/

Anyway, to vent... I made the mistake of reading Mediaite's comments. Too many posts are about how Democratic voters are against Walker, the Republican challenger, because he's Black.

Walker is Black. So is Warnock.

They're both Black, Southern men.

The frustration is really from how one of these candidates is capable of talking coherently about government policies, he's known to be honest, and he's willing to participate in a public debate for voters. The other candidate isn't.

According to GOP talking-pointers, Biden isn't even attempting to bring the country together like he said he wanted to do.

The non-MAGA crowd is playing a disingenuous see-no-evil/hear-no-evil game. These clowns prefer that the vast majority of Americans ignore the fact that GOP voters elected a number of 2020 election deniers during the primary election months. They also want everyone to ignore the fact that Impeaching Biden is the very first thing GOPers plan to do when/if they gain control of the House during this election cycle. No American president can allow the MAGA crowd, about 33% of the GOP base, to bring down our democracy.

Palin goes down in Alaska to democrat Mary Peltola who is a Native American. I like the idea of rank choice voting. I think there are two states that do it and the other is Maine. But anyway you vote for the person you like best but then you have a second choice if no candidate gets above the 50% threshold and your first vote is not one of the two highest. In this case the runoff was between three candidates Peltola a democrat and Palin and Begich two republicans. Begich came in third and his voters 2nd choice showed that for enough Begich voters Palin was a bridge too far and their second choice went Peltola. This was a special election to fill the seat of the recently deceased Don Young and will be done again in November.

Young had held that seat for 49 years. Very few democrats win in Alaska. I have two takeaways off the bat 1) that Peltola has a chance and I wonder if the Dobbs decision that killed Roe might have energized a lot more voters to vote D and 2) Palin is a terrible candidate propped up by Trump loving extremists.

Talking about a boomerang effect on things---the Dobbs decision that knocked down Roe looks like it might be very costly to Republicans in November. The signs from Kansas and even NYS and now Alaska don't portend well for the GOP. They got crushed in the Kansas referendum......lost the lean Republican house seat in NYS and now the solid Republican seat in Alaska.

>41 lriley:

But Tom Cotton is having a post-election meltdown:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/a-scam-to-rig-elections-tom-cotton-attacks-ran...
‘A Scam to Rig Elections’: Tom Cotton Attacks Ranked-Choice Voting After Sarah Palin Loses to a Democrat

>41 lriley:, >42 Molly3028:

I believe variations of this type of voting system are in use in many parts of the world, including Ireland. It gives a much better representation of which candidate is acceptable to the most people than does the first past the post system.

>43 John5918: For me I like to take more left politicians than the Democratic Party almost always seem to offer. To me the Democratic Party pretty much much falls into a few that I might call left like AOC or Ilhan Omar--some center/left but more center or center/right office holders. Still the trend and direction the Republican Party is on particularly since the arriviste Trump came on the scene is so appalling that I don't even want to contemplate looking at 3rd party candidates anymore even in a safe democratic state like New York because for me they have become a truly existential threat to our democracy. Almost every time now it seems that a Republican loses an election they cry election fraud and not just when they lose to democrats.....they're doing it to each other in their own primaries. This is a very very dangerous precedent which undermines our entire election system and millions and millions of conservative are buying into it.....and some of them talk incessantly about civil war like it's justified and going to be some walk in the park. Trump is the main reason for much of this......he's encouraged right wing fascists, white supremacists have pretty much engaged with evangelical and Catholic fundamentalists in large numbers and right wing militia groups. We saw what may be just a preview of where they intend to go on Jan. 6, 2021. They will take that farther IMO if allowed to and if Trump ever gained the White House again I don't think he'll have any intention of ever leaving again. He is not interested in being POTUS---he wants to be a King and millions and millions of his voters I think want that too.

Anyway rank choice voting gives people more opportunity to vote for who they like most regardless of party but also provides at least something of a safety net if their favored choice doesn't make the cut.

>42 Molly3028: Palin was losing among first choice ballots so if this had been a normal most votes win even if they aren't a majority election then she would have lost anyway

>45 jjwilson61: Yep. The breakdown went this way:

Round 1
Nick Begich—Rep. 53,756 votes 28.52%
Sarah Palin —Rep. 58,945 votes 31.28%
Mary Peltola—Dem. 75,761 votes 40.20%

Begich is eliminated and his votes are redistributed for those who made 2nd choice picks.

Round 2
Sarah Palin—Rep. 53,756 + 27,042 (Begich) = 85,987 48.53%
Mary Peltola—Dem. 75,761 + 15,445 (Begich) = 92,206 51.47%
Begich votes exhausted 11,222 (Begich voters who did not make a second choice)
Begich overvotes 47 (my guess—those who voted for Begich again).

Peltola + 6,219.

The GOP's attacks on rank voting speaks volumes about their disgust for fair and free elections. Trump's election fraud claims gave them the impetus they needed to forge ahead on a mission to change how, where and when the chosen few can vote.

>47 Molly3028: Tom Cotton was complaining about it but if you prorated the 11,222 exhausted Begich votes at the % rate his voters had Palin or Peltola it garnered for those who did make 2nd choices Palin would have gotten about 7,200 more and Peltola around 4,000 and Peltola won by over 6,200 votes so Palin would have still lost by over 3,000 + votes. Sorry Tom Cotton it's just simple math or maybe he's delusional enough to think the entirety of those votes would have gone to Palin. Either way Palin loses. Her best hope is that Begich drops out for November but Begich was close to her in round 1 and is not nearly as toxic so maybe he decides he doesn't want to.

>48 lriley: Math? "I love the poorly educated" says Trump. ;)

>49 margd: As well reading some of the responses to Cotton’s tweet on this people rightly bring up Hilary Clinton getting 2.9 million more votes in 2016 and yet didn’t win because the electoral college went about 60/40 for Trump. Cotton certainly didn’t complain about the unfairness of that.

As for rank choice voting Alaska has always been a conservative state but it was the voters who approved of doing that in a state wide referendum. So apparently Mr. Cotton doesn’t trust the many conservative voters who voted for that. Good to know.

In the beginning, Trump maybe had a reasonable message, but he soiled it when he invited white nationalists and white supremacists under the MAGA umbrella. Unfortunately, the substantial increase in cult followers became much more important to him than the message he had formulated for the average American citizen.

All the right wing snowflakes: ‘Our feelings are hurt. Biden said mean things about us the other night. He has to die!’ Same people who’ve been chanting and yelling and stickering their gas guzzlers with Fuck Joe Biden the last two years. Really….Can these people be any more fragile?

THE TWO-MONTH COUNTDOWN

Going back to another 2022 election, Kenyan elections were held peacefully last month. William Ruto was declared president with 50.5% of the votes compared to Raila Odinga's 48 point something. Odinga challenged the result, citing some of the same type of issues which Trump raised after the 2020 election in the USA. The Kenyan Supreme Court considered the arguments, rejected most of them (as US courts did with Trump's arguments), and confirmed Ruto as president. Odinga has publicly stated that although he disagrees with the verdict, he respects the Supreme Court's decision. Ruto will be sworn in next week. Seems Kenya's democracy is maturing while democracy in the USA struggles.

Kenya's Al Gore.
(PBS News Hour covered Kenya's election BTW.)

John Fetterman's Hometown Paper Questions His 'Ability to Serve': If He's Not 'Well Enough' to Debate Dr. Oz, That 'Raises Serious Concerns'

“If Mr. Fetterman’s communication skills have not yet recovered sufficiently to effectively debate his opponent, many voters will have concerns about his ability to represent them effectively in Washington,” added the editorial. “While he has gamely undertaken more campaign events and media interviews in recent weeks, Mr. Fetterman still speaks haltingly and relies on closed captioning to fully understand his conversation partners.”

***
Apparently, members of this board would prefer to have a GOP celebrity, who resides in NJ, representing PA in the U.S. Senate. The power of celebrity in the Trump era is highlighted again.

Wonder what the people at that newspaper would think of the article out today about a guest appearance of Oz on the Breakfast Club in 2014. Oz opines on incest with this 'If you're more than a first cousin away it's not a big problem'. He doesn't stop there though he voluntarily offers this 'You know, that's why children, girls don't like their fathers smell. Their pheromones will actually repel their daughters because they're not suppose to be together. My daughter's hate my smell.'

>57 lriley: Eew! Kind of like Trump saying he'd date Ivanka if she wasn't his daughter...

Advice from faith leaders to Kenyans after the 2022 election may well be useful for other countries too.

Focus Attention on Holding Elected Leaders to Account: Faith Leaders in Kenya to Citizens (ACI Africa)

Religious leaders in Kenya have urged citizens of the East African country to shift their attention from the general elections to holding elected leaders to account as the electioneering period has ended... In their Tuesday, September 6 statement shared with ACI Africa, the religious leaders representing Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM), Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK) urge political actors to seek the implementation of the Kenyan Constitution and realize the country’s “policies and strategic plans”. “Having elected those who will be our leaders for the next five years, let us now focus our energies on holding them to account so that they deliver justice and faithful implementation of the Constitution and Laws of Kenya as well as policies and strategic plans,” faith leaders in Kenya say...

>57 lriley: Republicans like weird sex fantasies, as a rule they're a pretty sick bunch. Look at the way they systematically groom schoolkids into their S&M fetish.

I guess we shouldn't wonder why kuiper and prox turned out the way they did, really. More to be pitied and all that.

Nora Neus @noraneus | 7:31 AM · Sep 8, 2022:
Writer and journalist. 🏳️‍🌈 CNN. Anchor producer to @johnberman. Author of MUHAMMAD NAJEM, WAR REPORTER, out Sept 27, 2022!

CNN EXCLUSIVE: shocking new video obtained by @DrewGriffinCNN
shows Republican leaders in Michigan training poll workers to **break the rules** so they can act as "undercover agents" during mid-term elections in November.

5:44 ( https://twitter.com/noraneus/status/1567838109349339137 )

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/they-aint-got-no-shame-biden-brutally-mocks-re...
‘They Ain’t Got No Shame’: Biden Brutally Mocks Republicans Bragging About Projects They Voted Against

President Joe Biden took some congressional Republicans to task for voting against legislation whose provisions they later took credit for.

***
Bridge building in their locales is a major example.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/biden-republicans-dont-have-a-clue-about-the-power-o...

Biden: ‘Republicans Don’t Have a Clue About the Power of Women,’ But ‘They’re About to Find Out’

‘Huge mistake’: DeSantis’ migrant transports could undercut support in South Florida
Gary Fineout | 09/17/2022

The move by DeSantis dominated the radio and television airwaves in South Florida — where large swaths of Hispanic voters live.

“From a Miami perspective, it’s a huge mistake,” said state Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democrat challenging incumbent Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.). “All these Republicans — including my opponent — historically talk about socialism and communism and that we are standing up to these horrible dictators. The migrants are fleeing exactly what Republicans say they are fighting against.”...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/17/desantis-migrant-transports-south-flori...

PA MAGA Gov nominee Doug Mastriano rally:
“Put your right hand in the air … America will have a new birth of liberty.”
0:33 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1571567482049298432 )

- Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 @RonFilipkowski | 2:31 PM · Sep 18, 2022:
Attorney, Marine, Triathlete, Historian. Fmr Fed Prosecutor & Repub; now Defense Att & Democrat. Track & Report on the Right-Wing. Seen on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS
_____________________________________________________

ETA:
0:33 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1571567482049298432 )

Women seem to be driving Biden's poll numbers up according to recent polling by Emerson College. We know that women are registering in greater numbers since the Dobbs decision that derailed Roe. Conservatives who celebrated that decision want to downplay that and focus on the economy.....though job rates are better than they've been in a long while and some of the worse economic indicators have been improving as well. All that said I think the Dobbs decision is a lot more important than conservatives make out and likely to have as much or even more significant impact on the midterms......maybe not enough to keep the republicans from gaining control of the House but if they do not nearly by the margins they expected before the Supreme Court ruling and I don't expect the Republicans to win the Senate. If anything I'm thinking the Democrats gain a couple seats or three.

Way to go, Betsy DeVos! (Not.)

The party that gave us governors Romney and Milliken, now nominate for Governor of Michigan, Tudor Dixon:

Here’s the full kidnapping quote from Dixon today. waiting on a response from @gretchenwhitmer
0:21 ( https://twitter.com/GrantHermes/status/1573372566399492098 )

- Grant Hermes @GrantHermes | 2:03 PM · Sep 23, 2022:
AP award winning anchor/politics reporter @local4news. Weekend AMs
-------------------------------------------------------

For Attorney General of Michigan, the GOP candidate is Matt Deperno:

CAUGHT ON TAPE: GOP Michigan attorney general nominee Matt DePerno says Plan B should be banned.
“You have to stop it at the border. It would be no different than fentanyl.”

1:37 ( https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1572246813163548672 )

- Heartland Signal @HeartlandSignal | 11:30 AM · Sep 20, 2022
Covering politics and policy from the Midwest.

________________________________________

margd: Uninformed, knuckle-dragging pols apparently don't know that certain brands of birth control pills can be used in increased doses as emergency contraception, equivalent to Plan B.

>67 margd: A state AG nominee wants to criminalize the sale or distribution of a safe, over-the-counter medication that's made legally in a neighboring state...?

Wow.

The holier-than-thou manure GOP members have been spreading over the country for decades has managed to produce a flourishing garden for Dems this election season. The modern-day GOP unknowingly set into motion its own demise years before it hooked up with Trump and his hand-picked candidates.

Vote!

Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC | 10:15 AM · Oct 9, 2022:
PRESIDENTS OF WAR, 9 other books. @NBCNews. Presidential Historian. Host, “Fireside History,” MSNBC on Peacock. PBS contributor.

Republican nominee for Nevada secretary of state as Trump stood at his side at rally last night: “When my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected, we're gonna fix the whole country and President Trump is going to be President again in 2024.”

There's an interesting turn of events over in my section of the country. All of the usual campaign ads are starting to roll into the mail box and, so far, not one of the Republican candidates has bothered to identify themselves with the Republican party. The front of the latest arrival has a big, smiling, portrait of the individual on one side of the ad. The central part of the ad has a shamrock intertwined with a cutesy initial, his last name (obviously Irish) in bright green, and a big notice to Re-elect - so and so. You have to turn the card over and read the various endorsements in order to figure out the guy is the Republican candidate. I have to wonder if this is just local or if this practice is more widespread.

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis pivoted his stance on election rules during an emergency—but only for three Republican-dominant counties.

The areas where voting laws have been relaxed were devasted by Hurricane Ian (for which he also shifted toward previously-demonized federal funding for public crises). However, the devastation in the Democrat- and independent-dominant areas is being ignored in the state's decision.

Each of the 0.87-million voters in Democrat-leaning Orange County are expected to either vote in person in the smaller election period or successfully mail their ballots from their own (previously) registered addresses. This is despite Orange County's historic levels of flooding that impedes safe access to many people's homes and polling sites.

Main source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/14/ron-desantis-florida-hurricane-i...

(Local sources such as WFTV and ClickOrlando also referenced to confirm what Orange County residents are facing in hurricane recovery.)

Note: DeSantis (R) is running for reelection against former-Republican Charlie Crist this month.

>71 alco261:
I've noticed a similar approach in my state, from both parties. There's a reluctance to come out and announce affiliation. I suppose it's an attempt to court independents. It shows how toxic labels have become for some voters. Even though you'd have to be a pretty stupid independent not to decode the party rhetoric: "My opponent advocates abortion up to the point of birth!" etc.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Exxon want Rs back?
Wonder why? ($? war? climate?)
American voter: "But the gas prices."

Exxon closed above its June high last week, also setting a new record high...

Graph ( https://twitter.com/robanderson_stl/status/1583809635152109569/photo/1 )

- Rob Anderson @robanderson_stl | 9:16 AM · Oct 22, 2022
U.S. Sector Strategist at Ned Davis Research

The Uncomfortable Truths That Could Yet Defeat Fascism
Oct. 17, 2022

...the right is outcompeting small-d democrats in its psychological insight into voters and their anxieties, its messaging, its knack for narrative, its instinct to make its cause not just a policy program but also a home offering meaning, comfort and belonging. They worry, meanwhile, that their own allies can be hamstrung by a naïve and high-minded view of human nature, a bias for the wonky over the guttural, a self-sabotaging coolness toward those who don’t perfectly understand, a quaint belief in going high against opponents who keep stooping to new lows and a lack of fight and a lack of talent at seizing the mic and telling the kinds of galvanizing stories that bend nations’ arcs.

Command Attention
Make Meaning
Meet People Where They Are
Pick Fights
Provide a Home
Tell the Better Story

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/opinion/midterm-democracy-crisis.html

I hope the media is wrong to now be predicting R wins in the midterms, but should the ds win, it had better be by a substantial margin, or else they will play into Trump's teeny little hands...

Trump Plans to Challenge the 2022 Elections — Starting in Philly
The former president is fixated on challenging the results of Pennsylvania’s Senate race, which he views — as one source puts it — as a “dress rehearsal for Trump 2024”
Asawin Suebsaeng, Adam Rawnsley | October 23, 2022

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-midterm-elections-chal...

The big picture ~ the long view

During every woman's lifetime inflation will go up, down and all around. This November, American women have the fate of all living, and yet-to-be-born females, in their hands. If Dems don't take control and codify Roe next year, it is unlikely that a majority of American females will ever have autonomy again. Modern-day GOPers are betting/hoping that women will vote against their own long-term interests and well-being.

Five takeaways from the only Florida governor debate between DeSantis and Crist
Steve Contorno | October 25, 2022

...DeSantis appeared less at ease on the debate stage than at his hand-crafted news conferences orchestrated to showcase his signature combative style. It was a conventional performance of a front-runner – and with a comfortable lead and almost $100 million left in the bank...

DeSantis won’t commit to full four-year term
DeSantis ducks on abortion
DeSantis defends his most controversial actions
The hurricane test
Pandemic pandemonium

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/politics/florida-governor-debate-takeaways-desant...

USAFacts @USAFacts | 7:02 PM · Oct 13, 2022:
Our nation, in numbers. USAFacts is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative making government data easy for all Americans to access and understand.

Before you vote this November, get the facts. See what the data says on the issues before deciding on your state's candidates.

Federal spending 2019, 2020, 2021
https://twitter.com/USAFacts/status/1580695478580441090

usafacts.org
Vote Facts 2022

With Republicans on the verge of congressional control, science is on the line
Sarah Owermohle and Rachel Cohrs | Nov. 1, 2022

...Some of the most vocal critics of scientists and science agencies like the NIH and the CDC, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, are poised to ascend to powerful committee chairmanships that will enable them to conduct sweeping investigations and put health officials on public trial. The new chairmanships could also give them the ability to tighten the purse strings for health agencies’ budgets — and to deny funding outright for new Covid-19 measures or other Biden health priorities. At the same time, some of the Republican party’s biggest defenders of science and science policy are poised to retire...

...even if (Rs) win both chambers, veto power sits with President Biden. Subsequently, the party’s overall agenda is less about legislation that tears down Biden’s recent record — like a sweeping reform to let Medicare negotiate drug prices — and tipped more toward oversight.

...That’s not to say that public health experts don’t see a need for accountability around the Covid-19 response. (Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association) described hopes for a bipartisan, 9/11-style commission to examine spending, management, and gaps in the federal response.

...retirements...

https://www.statnews.com/2022/11/01/with-republicans-on-the-verge-of-congression...

‘A renewed sense of urgency’: climate on the ballot in US midterm elections
Amy Westervelt | Thu 3 Nov 2022

From senate and governor races to industry-regulating board contests, outcomes could influence policy for years to come...

...“If the worst case comes to pass and the GOP does get the House, what should the strategy be? It should not be to cower and cling to the middle, it should be to go after corruption,” (Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org and founder of the non-profit climate communications organization Fossil Free Media) says. “Eighty-seven per cent of voters want the government to crack down on big oil, and 80% of voters support the windfall tax on fossil fuel companies – I don’t know why more candidates aren’t running on accountability.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/03/climate-crisis-midterm-elections...

Republicans, Eyeing Majority, Float Changes to Social Security and Medicare
Jim Tankersley | Nov. 2, 2022

Democrats have seized on Republican proposals to limit retirement benefits to galvanize voters ahead of the midterm elections...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/us/politics/republicans-social-security-medic...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/oprah-snubs-her-old-pal-dr-oz-and-endorses-john-fett...
Oprah Snubs Her Old Pal Dr. Oz and Endorses John Fetterman for U.S. Senate

On Thursday, Winfrey hosted “A Virtual Voting Conversation” where she underscored the need to vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The legendary talk show host went even further by endorsing Fetterman over the cardiothoracic surgeon she made famous.

***
AMEN

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3718196-sunny-hostin-suburban-women-backing-g...
Sunny Hostin: Suburban women backing GOP ‘like roaches voting for Raid’

***
I consider the act as the equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot.

..."The Democrats’ democracy-or-death mantra is not just demagoguery. It is defamation of a constitutional system that has proven itself, time and again, to be up to any challenge. Democrats indeed may be in danger in this midterm — but democracy is not."
--------------
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.



in the words of "Ice-T", Dems,

"You played yourselves,
Ain't nobody else's fault: you played yourselves .

---------------------------

Impeach, convict and remove Biden in 2023.
Re-elect Trump in 2024!

>86 proximity1: The source of your quote appears to be a Trump-obsessed opinion piece in The Hill.

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3721139-constitutional-defamation-democrat...

Note: As a Republican witness, Jonathan Turley supported the impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton for abuse of power in obstructing the investigation of a marital affair and lying under oath about the affair. In contrast, Turley opposed both impeachments of Republican President Donald Trump. Those most recent House impeachment were for "abuse of power", "obstruction of Congress" in the investigation of foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, involving Russia and Ukraine, and of "incitement of insurrection" after Trump's attempt (for which he's continuing to be charged in a Georgia-based court) to interfere with federal elections.

Turley's concern about democratic processes and his priorities when it comes to human lives is... clear, isn't it?

By the way, which Congressional candidates on (legal) ballots this Tuesday are saying they will vote to impeach President Biden?

>86 proximity1: The source of your quote appears to be a Trump-obsessed opinion piece in The Hill.

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3721139-constitutional-defamation-democrat...

Note: As a Republican witness, Jonathan Turley supported the impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton for abuse of power in obstructing the investigation of a marital affair and lying under oath about the affair. In contrast, Turley opposed both impeachments of Republican President Donald Trump. Those most recent House impeachment were for "abuse of power", "obstruction of Congress" in the investigation of foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, involving Russia and Ukraine, and of "incitement of insurrection" after Trump's attempt (for which he's continuing to be charged in a Georgia-based court) to interfere with federal elections.

Turley's concern about democratic processes and his priorities when it comes to human lives are... clear, aren't they?

By the way, which Congressional candidates on (legal) ballots this Tuesday are saying they will vote to impeach President Biden?

(edited for verb agreement; I'm overly fond of is)

I'm reluctant to go as far as calling The Hill a decent news source, because there's been too much evident against that in the past several years. (Example) However, it goes through the basic motions of decent journalism.

One of the old journalistic principles was to offer opposing opinions. Here's a counter to Turley published last Wednesday.

"Seeing politics clearly: a rural perspective" by Todd Tanner (an outdoorsman in Montana)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3715138-seeing-politics-clearly-a-rural-per...

Too many of us are either unaware that democracy is on the ballot or unconcerned about the existential threat we face. Unless we commit to voting for candidates willing to uphold the basic tenets of our democracy, and repudiate those seeking to overthrow our electoral process, we may well lose both our constitutional republic and our most important freedoms.

edited to add a link

Your Democratic party candidates in virtually all but the so-called "safest" seats are set to lose "big-ly" the upcoming election and there's nothing that the Democratic national party, despite its fraud-ridden tactics of the in the 2020 races, can do to materially change that fact.

Too many voters now are generally sick-to-the-puking-point of the Democratic party's ugly frauds upon democratic practices.

Jo3 13iden to receive honorary Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for "outstanding performance by an amateur actor in the portrayal of a Alzheimer's-stricken octogenarian."

Told of the honor, the president replied that he welcomed
seeing this award given to Crimea's resistance leader when that woman next visited her fellow partisans in North Korea. Biden announced that he would be sending Vice-President Hillary Clinton to represent Jamaicans at the awards ceremony in January of 2021.

"I'm --- who am I, again?-- alderman? governor? -- what do I say next? (whispered) "I approve this ad"----
"I'll prove to you that this is an ad"-- I will? How do I do that? Why is that camera there? Who are all these people?"

proximity1, perhaps you haven't seen an official ballot for the current elections, but US President Joe Biden is not on any of them for any race (ETA:) unless someone writes in him as a joke.

Which Congressional candidates on (legal) ballots this Tuesday are saying they will vote to impeach him?

>93 aspirit: And the reason for an impeachment, please?

>94 2wonderY: I can only guess. It probably has less to do with reason than revenge for not allowing the previous president to stay in power.

I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out what's the deal with >86 proximity1: "Impeach, convict and remove Biden in 2023.
Re-elect Trump in 2024!" That makes no sense within this topic unless it's a line from Congressional candidates.

aaand now this page isn't updating correctly

The following was posted to the wrong topic, so I'm moving it here with an update.

=====

Aug 25, 5:21pm

Georgia's governor (R) continues to fight acting as a witness in his state's investigation into the POTUS (R) calling on Georgia's Secretary of State (R) to "find" the president votes in the 2020 federal elections.

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-georgia-presidential-subpoenas...

Governor Kemp is arguing that the timing is bad for his election campaign.

Not mentioned in the AP article is that both SoS Raffensperger and Governor Kemp are running for reelection this November (against Bee Nguyen and Stacey Abrams, respectively). Raffensperger showed up without fuss before the grand jury when summoned.

Also not mentioned was that prior to Raffensperger, Kemp was the SoS, overseeing his own gubernatorial election in 2018.

=====

Update: Kemp has continued to refuse the court summons. Meanwhile, Burt Jones the Republican running to be lieutenant governor, has been identified as one of the fake Electors for the 2020 presidential elections.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/12/brian-kemp-trump-election-georgia-00061...

Jones' Democratic opponent is Charlie Bailey.

Are America's voters going to give the keys of the country to the Trump Insurrection Party on Tuesday? Did they not learn anything from the outrageous deeds and talking points its members have been perpetrating over the last two years? Voters voting in favor of the country's best LONG-TERM interests may no longer be an attribute of this waning democracy.

>90 proximity1: If voters were sick of voting for democrats, then republican politicians wouldn't need to prevent voters from voting. The fact that they're doing everything they can possibly do, including putting armed thugs at the ballot boxes, suggests that your analysis falls short of the mark.

>98 kiparsky:

For me that is a very important point. Anybody who truly believes in democracy would try to encourage as many people as possible to vote, regardless of their political affiliation. Someone who is in favour of their own political party gaining and/or remaining in power at any cost and who tries to make it more difficult for (some) people to vote is behaving undemocratically.

>98 kiparsky:

And if the election deniers win their elections this time around, the 2024 GOP efforts to thwart voters will be super-charged.

Russia Reactivates Its Trolls and Bots Ahead of Tuesday’s Midterms
Researchers have identified a series of Russian information operations to influence American elections and, perhaps, erode support for Ukraine.
Steven Lee Myers | Nov. 6, 2022

The user on Gab who identifies as Nora Berka resurfaced in August after a yearlong silence on the social media platform, reposting a handful of messages with sharply conservative political themes before writing a stream of original vitriol...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/technology/russia-misinformation-midterms.htm...

>101 margd: Funny, I was just thinking I haven't seen a lot of posts from prox lately...

{GA's candidate for US Senate} Herschel {Walker}:
“If you’re a Martian and you live in the United States of America, I’m gonna protect you, too. Because you belong to my family.”

0:06 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1589376446333845506 )

- Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 @RonFilipkowski | 4:57 PM · Nov 6, 2022

British Defence Intelligence Update Ukraine – 6 November 2022
Kyiv Post | Nov. 6, 2022

British Defense Intelligence

On 03 November 2022, Major General Alexander Linkov was reportedly appointed acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District. Linkov replaces Colonel General Alexander Lapin who was purportedly removed from office at the end of October 2022.

If confirmed, this follows a series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion in February 2022. The Commanders of the Eastern, Southern, and Western Military Districts were replaced earlier this year.

Lapin has been widely criticised for poor performance on the battlefield in Ukraine by both Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. These dismissals represent a pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve Russian objectives on the battlefield. This is in part likely an attempt to insulate and deflect blame from Russian senior leadership at home.

https://www.kyivpost.com/russias-war/british-defence-intelligence-update-ukraine...

GOP Candidate Arrested for Masturbating by School Might Still Win Election
Gerrard Kaonga | 10/20/22

Randy Kaufman, the Republican candidate for the Maricopa County Community College District governing board, was arrested and charged with public sexual indecency after police said he was masturbating less than 200 feet away from a preschool.

...October 4 around 4:40 p.m...a subject on a bicycle pedaling east approximately 8 feet by...driver's side."

https://www.newsweek.com/gop-republican-randy-kaufman-allegedly-masturbating-sch...

Another post about this, the 2022 election-year races--going on by polls opened/opening today :

We're about to be given a clear object-lesson in just what Democrats' recent (since their fraud upon the 2020 races) claims that electoral outcomes must be respected! are actually worth in practice---as though that matter had not already been made abundantly clear: free and fair elections are recognizable by our party's candidates "winning" them--or our claims to that effect.

Get-Out-The-Vote, -- "bigly" !!!!!

>93 aspirit:

LOL!!!!!!!!!

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=republican+candidates+say+they%27ll+impeach...

------------------

Psssst!

Someone even leaked this to the so-called president (Biden) himself and either he remembered that mention himself or someone reminded him of it because he is quoted as having said--or having been told/prompted to say,

"(President Joe Biden on Thursday warned that Republicans will seek to impeach him if they win the House majority next week.) "I'm already being told if they win back the House and Senate, they're going to impeach me," Biden told a crowd at MiraCosta College near San Diego, California, while stumping for the reelection of Rep. Mike Levin.

Good enough for ya?

LOL !!!!!!!!!!

On The Good Ship Lollipop
It's a night trip, into bed you hop
And dream away
On The Good Ship Lollipop

You'll awake with a tummy ache

Guam, a "safe seat", turns Red for the first time in 30 years. Unless the election gets stolen again it's going to be a Demonrat bloodbath.

>108 Kuiperdolin: Can you explain to me how the political party of a little-known terrority, which has no voting representive in Congress, matters in nationwide politics elections? I feel there's a connection missing in your assumption there.

>107 proximity1: Sure, thanks. What I picked up from scanning the results is that Congressional Republicans are making closed-door plans to impeach the current president because they don't like him.

Too many of our current politicians act insane.

Generally the results coming back so far are a bit disappointing for the Republican Party. Odds are they retake the House but with a narrow majority. So far they’ve flipped 9 but the Dems have flipped 3. This idea they were going to flip 40/50 maybe 60 is not going to happen. The Senate looks likely to stay the same at 50/50 with the VP Harris in place as the decider in case of tie. The Dems have flipped 3 governorships—Massachusetts, Maryland and Arizona. The Republicans look like they’re going to flip one in Nevada. Also looks like Boebert’s Colorado seat is likely to flip to her Democratic opponent. Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all southwestern states not being as kind to the GOP as Texas and this time around Nevada. Otherwise states pretty much acting like they have in the recent past.

I think Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s rulings this summer…..however much they energized the Republican base brought out women and younger people and very much reenergized a backlash. Also poor candidate choices doesn’t help. Oz and Mastriano in Pennsylvania for instance or Walker in Georgia or Bolduc in New Hampshire.

>108 Kuiperdolin: Sorry, you were saying what now?

Oz concedes. More class than Trump.

>110 lriley: younger people...

BREAKING: According to the Edison Research National Election Pool exit poll, the national youth vote choice for the U.S. House of Representatives was 63% for Democrats, 35% for Republicans.

Voters 18-29 are the only age group in which more than half of votes supported Democrats.

- Antonio Arellano @AntonioArellano | 11:44 PM · Nov 8, 2022:
Vice President of Communications @NextGenAmerica
— the nation’s largest youth voter mobilization organization.

>109 aspirit: it's called a bellwether, and way to disparage an American Territory and its inhabitants just because they don't happen to vote your way. In contrast Donald Trump loves all Americans even the haters and losers.

Tudor Dixon concedes in Michigan. If you lose man up….woman up. Don’t be a shitbird.

>115 lriley: Tim Ryan's concession speech starts at 6:45...

Ohio US Senate race: Tim Ryan gives concession speech after losing to JD Vance (14:13)
WKYC Channel 3 | Nov 9, 2022

Ohio's open US Senate seat will remain in Republican hands.

NBC News projects Republican JD Vance, a venture capitalist and best-selling "Hillbilly Elegy" author, has defeated longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman. With the Senate currently at an even 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats (with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break ties), this race took on added importance across the nation...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoutQNfTrsc

Vance in the Senate? Oy gewalt.

>114 Kuiperdolin: I understand the concept of a bellwether. What I don't understand is why anyone thinks Guam is one.

Are Republicans mass killing others, and that's not making mainstream news, or is it that despite all of the actual political violence and death threats, you're using "bloodbath" as a metaphor for one of Trump's elections fantasies?

>117 kiparsky: I know. Here in se MI, we caught a lot of their commercials. Ryan's concession speech--to Vance--was all the more commendable as well as a teachable moment...

>117 kiparsky: A lot of us over here did everything we could to keep that from happening. Portman is the poster child for the wealthy welfare sponge and I guess more people wanted to replace him with his equivalent as opposed to someone who might actually do something positive for the state.

I'm within walking distance of my polling place and I've taken that walk for every election we've held. Usually I go first thing in the morning and a) I'm the only one walking in that direction b) when I get to the polls I can walk right up to one of the registration windows, get my ballot, go over to one of the 30 booths (of which maybe 4 are in use), fill it out, hand it in and leave.

This time a) I was just part of a crowd heading in that direction b) I had to stand in line and wait for an open registration window and c) I had to join a line of more than 20 people (mostly women) and wait for one of the 30 booths to be vacated. I've never seen a turnout like this at that hour in all time I've been here. I had really hoped what I was seeing might portend a change for the better but it was not to be.

>120 alco261: Same thing in Kentucky. The line started and remained wrapped around the building.
Though Charles Booker ran a great campaign and Rand Paul was nearly invisible, the red is deep here. In town versus out in the country, the signage was starkly different.

>120 alco261: I do appreciate that you can simply report "we tried to beat the Republican, but he won" without bringing in weird dark fantasies about mystical vote-stealing fairies that magically replaced your votes with those of Venezuelan immigrant pedophiles or whatever it is that the nutcases of this world like to bang on about.

>42 Molly3028:, >43 John5918: They're better than most US systems, but there's better out there. In this case, I find it funny that for all of Tom Cotton's complaining, it produced the same results as a normal primary/general election would have; Palin would have beat Begich and would have lost to Palin, just like she did. Begich would have won in a system using the Condorcet method, because he could have beat Palin and Peltola in one-to-one races, but that's not what the Republicans were pushing.

>118 aspirit: it's a bellwether because Demonrats thought they were untitled to a safe seat and now it's Republican

the blood bath is metaphorical

Listening to governor elect of Maryland, Wes Moore, speaking on Morning Joe this morning. Remarkable person. Looked him up and confirmed he is the author I admire who wrote The Other Wes Moore at age 30 or so. Someone to watch with hope.

>124 Kuiperdolin: FWIW Guam is considered a US possession like America Samoa, Puerto Rico etc. The representatives of these 'possessions' do not have the right to vote on actual legislation advanced through that chamber. They are pretty much ceremonial positions. It's a reason why the republicans for the most part are against Puerto Rican statehood. It would mean probably two voting house members and two Senators as well and the likelihood is they'd all be democrats. They don't want to countenance dealing with that keeping in mind that the majority of the Senate is quite often a Senator or two difference and Puerto Rico would tip the scale against them.

>126 lriley:

Sounds like colonialism to me.

Don't Tell DeSantis, Tuesday's Big Winner Was Gretchen Whitmer (6:12)
MSNBC | Nov 10, 2022

An MSNBC panel discusses Democratic midterm success in state legislatures and in particularly in Michigan where reelected Governor Gretchen Whitmer will head a Democratic controlled state government for the first time in decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiAt_IdfPvo
_______________________________________

Whitmer 54.5% v. Dixon 43.9%
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-michigan.htm...

Colorado. This is how conspiracy theories...and a season of MAGA lawsuits...start? (Hope that's all--this is the woman who likes to brandish firearms.)

George Conway🌻 @gtconway3d | 8:42 AM · Nov 10, 2022:

Frisch up by 64 votes with 99% in.
Recount required if margin less than 0.5%

Colorado, District 3, AP
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1590701437054758912/photo/1
from Chevy Chase, MD

>127 John5918: Sounds like, smells like, feels like, looks like. Might in fact be.

>124 Kuiperdolin: the blood bath is metaphorical

Actually, I think the word you're groping for is "mythical".

>127 John5918: Doesn't it though. Mind you there are some Puerto Ricans who don't want statehood but unless they want outright independence I really don't see why because they're left in a kind of state of limbo otherwise.

Speaking of America Samoa--- there used to be stories for a while that it was a favored work/vacation destination of loads of republican politicians. I don't know if it still is to some degree but 10-15 years ago there was a lot of graft going on there. It had been set up as a manufacturing platform whereas they could legally pay the working population under the minimum wage laws of the United States and still stick on Made in the USA labels. Profit is patriotism and patriotism is profit. Whether that's still in effect I'm not sure....but a lot of owners of these factories and plants were big donors to Republican Party aparatchiks. That's pretty much colonialism too.

>128 margd: Dixon also formally conceded.

Liz Cheney for speaker?

Democratic lawmakers float striking deal with McCarthy for speaker's vote
Juliegrace Brufke | November 10, 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/democratic-lawmakers-float-strikin...
------------------------------------------------------------

House conservatives withhold support for McCarthy, press for delay to election
Emily Brooks | 11/11/22

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3730340-house-conservatives-withhold-support-...

Kelly wins in Arizona and it looks like Cortez Masto is going to come back and take Nevada. That would be 50 US Senators for the Dems and mean they hold on to the Senate. There is still the Warnock/Walker runoff in December. The Dems could/should get to 51.

Even if the Republicans take the House this election has to go down as a massive disappointment for them. In the early summer they were expecting to win not only the House but the Senate. I was seeing guesstimates they would flip 50 maybe 60 Democratic seats in the House. Right now they are a +12 and it's still to be determined whether they'll win back the House of Representatives. Right now Republicans are ahead 211 to 202 with more of the 22 to be determined seats likely to be Democratic holds. If the Republican do win the House it will be by a very narrow margin. They've also lost 2 governorships in Massachusetts, Maryland and it looks like Arizona might be 3 while only taking away one in Nevada. On the state level Democrats also out battled republicans and won a number of legislative houses and Senates across the country.

The question of what went wrong in the 6/7 months prior to the election is what Republicans on the whole need to answer but as a party going increasingly to its extremes we could start there. One could also look at the Supreme Court rulings.....particularly Dobbs. One might also look at how they turned on their own if they had the temerity for not lining up behind 45.....for their election denialism, for their support for an insurrection. These weren't things that could just be ignored and to just run on the economy, inflation, crime and immigration. Trump is toxic.....there is no denying a massive part of the Republican base is ready to WWG1WGA behind him but that part is not nearly large enough to win another national election and with him expected to announce a 2024 run on Tuesday he becomes a major albatross to the Republican Party moving forward. Independents and moderate conservatives have jumped off the ship and are not going to vote for him. They are looking for other alternatives.

Should Rs win House, speakership for McCarthy will come with strings:
Freedom Caucus (they don't like him)
Trump (support Trump's 2024 presidential candidacy)
Dems (No way, says McCarthy. Maybe Liz Cheney, then, say the Dems.)

>136 margd: Where do you see Cheney being suggested for Speaker? I’d like to read about that.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/11/10/tucker_carlson_why_did_republ...

How are you proud of an electoral system which requires weeks for the now-very-practiced "Democratic" party to again defraud the system?

>136 margd: I've seen Dems nominating Cheney discussed on Twitter, and also at end of Washington Examiner article: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/democratic-lawmakers-float-strikin...

I can't see Ds nominating Cheney doing it unless
1. they haven't forgiven McCarthy for his many sins against the spine and civility;
2. MAGA Freedom Caucus types abandon McCarthy and nominate Jim Jordan or someone like him;
3. they really want to save the Rs from themselves.

Cheney has grit and integrity, but she is perhaps more conservative than most of her R colleagues. I suspect, though, she would most want to save the institution and the GOP from MAGA's Big Lie, etc. Doing so, she certainly would secure her place in the history books!

>138 proximity1: For all the losing you people do, you're not very good at it. See >120 alco261: for an example of how to lose without being a whiny little baby.

>138 proximity1: I'm afraid Tucker Carlson's ability to convince me of anything other than he himself is a fraud is an issue for me even bothering.

I might ask you how proud you are of an electoral system in which the POTUS can achieve the presidency after losing the popular vote by almost 3 million? as DJT did in 2016. Or how proud you were watching him gin up his supporters over a bunch of lies in an attempt to stay in power after losing both the popular vote and the electoral college in 2020? Or how proud you are every time the Republican Party tries to suppress the vote or gerrymander congressional districts? I think I know that you are pretty goddamn fine with all of that.

The Dems have won control of the U.S. Senate thanks to a Nevada win.

It's going to impact the Georgia runoff, likely in a way that favors Warnock. There's speculation now that, with the Dems keeping control of the Senate, the Republican voters who held their noses to vote for Walker only to win the Senate, will sit out the runoff.

And the Democrats will be feeling more motivated to get out and vote.

Georgia is a PITA, anyway, with their 50+1 rule. Warnock already had more votes than Walker. It's exhausting to get these voters back out, and in a deliberately scaled-back time frame. That's the point, of course. Very hard for Democrats to win in that state.

Win in Georgia and the Dems will come out one ahead in the Senate.

Just to note…….the Republicans primaried Jaime Herrera Beutler who held the Washington state 3rd congressional district because she voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection and also because she had agreed to testify against him before the congress and before a last minute deal between the two parties was struck and that testimony didn’t happen. In her place the republicans put a right winger and tonight that seat flipped to the democrats.

The Republicans still might win the House but their margin might be as small as 3 or even 1. My guesstimate right now is Republicans 219 Democrats 216. It’s going to be about as tight as it can be and it’s going to be almost impossible for them to legislate or get anything done at all without help from the other side and you just know with goofballs like Greene, Gosar, Jordan, Gaetz, Biggs etc. that whoever they vote in as speaker is going to be banging his/her head against the wall the whole time.

>144 lriley: Majority in Senate means judges and other Presidential appointments can go through without R obstructionism.

Win in Georgia runoff wouldn't blunt power of D senators Manchin and Sinema any more than previous 50+VP? I can't imagine there will be much opportunity for their shenanigans, though, if Ds don't have control of House?
_________________________________________

Rick Wilson (Lincoln Project) @TheRickWilson | 11:01 PM · Nov 12, 2022:
Right now, Mitch McConnell is on the phone offering to give Joe Manchin a billions dollars in unmarked bills.

This Trump endorsee could have been the US Senator from Arizona... (Incumbent Mark Kelly won.)

2:22 (https://twitter.com/cityafreaks/status/1591329291706699776)
From Blake Masters

And if Dems take Georgia, that could prevent them from being taken hostage by Joe Manchin in future battles...

>145 margd: That's true.

As far as the House it's going to be a really really slim majority for whoever but the Dems I think can deal with that easier than the Republicans. I can see the Freedom Caucus just acting as obstructionists on just about everything. I can see them for instance shutting down the government on one whim or another. They certainly don't want McCarthy but they don't have the numbers or the consensus to put up one of their own I don't think.

>143 terriks:

Correction:

With Dems' cheating, stealing Georgia "wins" is a cinch.

>149 proximity1: No evidence needed. If it was so easy (and done), it would have been done right the first time, and no runoff needed.

>149 proximity1: Just curious, how long are you going to keep on with this nonsense before you decide that it's time to start making a convincing case for the things you believe in?

Or is there anything you actually believe in that you could make a case for?

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

(Daily Caller)
https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/20/victor-davis-hanson-who-denies-election-resul...

Victor Davis Hanson
Contributor
October 20, 2022 9:09 AM ET
_________________________

"A Democratic myth has arisen that former President Donald Trump’s denial of the accuracy of the 2020 vote was “unprecedented.”

Unfortunately, the history of U.S. elections is often a story of both legitimate and illegitimate election denialism.

The 1800, 1824, 1876, and 1960 elections were all understandably questioned. In some of these cases, a partisan House of Representatives decided the winner.

Presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 did not accept the popular vote results in Florida. He spent five weeks futilely contesting the state’s tally – until recounts and the Supreme Court certified it.

The ensuing charge that former President George W. Bush was “selected not elected” was the Democrats’ denialist mantra for years.

In 2004, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. and 31 Democratic House members voted not to certify the Ohio election results in their unhinged efforts to overturn the election. Those denialists included the current sanctimonious chairman of the January 6 select committee, U.S. Representative Benny Thompson, D-Miss.

After 2016, crackpot Democratic orthodoxy for years insisted that Trump had “colluded” with Russia to “steal” certain victory from Hillary Clinton.

Clinton herself claimed that Trump was not a “legitimate” president. No wonder she loudly joined #TheResistance to obstruct his presidency.

The serial denialist Clinton later urged Joe Biden not to concede the 2020 election if he lost.

>152 proximity1: In Trump's case it's illegitimate denialism. After the 2020 election he lost court case after court case many of which were presided over by judges vetted by the Heritage society that Trump and McConnell put into place. The reason he lost all those cases was he and his lawyers had nothing at all to present to make a case. I'm sure if he had a lot of those justices would have been more than happy to help him out. What did Georgia do? Two/three recounts. You really think Kemp and Raffensberger wanted Biden instead of Donald? All of Donald's claims were bullshit and Giuliani drunkenly waving pages of whatever around didn't change a thing and by the way he's never shown anyone a shred of real evidence either.

To go on no disputed election of the ones mentioned above ever had a disgruntled megalomaniac urging a mob to violently invade the Capitol grounds to stop a legal proceeding to install a successor---a riot that led to much injury and loss of life. Many of his followers that day are either in prison or heading there while his sorry ass walks free.

>152 proximity1: their unhinged efforts to overturn the election

Which is a clear sign of bias in the source. Not using such language is not a perfect sign of a lack of bias, but if you're trying to be unbiased, you would replace it with "despite a lack of clear evidence of problems in the Ohio election."

Presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 did not accept the popular vote results in Florida. He spent five weeks futilely contesting the state’s tally – until recounts and the Supreme Court certified it.

Wikipedia puts it as "Miami-Dade eventually halted its recount and resubmitted its original total to the state canvassing board, while Palm Beach County failed to meet the extended deadline, turning in its completed recount results at 7 p.m., which Harris rejected." So some recounts were not done or ignored.

And in summary, Al Gore, faced with losing Florida by (what, in the final count, came out to) 537 votes, asked for recounts as per Florida law, Florida alone being enough to flip the election. On December 13, 2000, Al Gore conceded the election.

Compare to Donald Trump, who needed four states to flip, with the least of them being 10,000 votes away from flipping. And on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump said he would never concede.

What Biden Has Done @What46HasDone | 10:21 PM · Nov 12, 2022:
Here's why 51 is much better than 50, even if we don't keep the House. And no, it's not (mostly), about Manchin and Sinema.

Right now, with a tied Senate, we govern with a power share agreement, where Republicans get an equal split with Democrats on committee membership 1/

This gives them a lot of power to mess things up, because they can do 2 things:

1. With a tied vote in committee, they can force a discharge petition, which is an extra vote that takes up floor time.
2. Go nuclear, and boycott committees, preventing votes from happening. 2/

Number 2 isn't theoretical. They have done it a couple of times this Congress, including to block a Fed pick. They would absolutely use it again in a major situation (such as to prevent an SC replacement for a Conservative judge).

51 Senators gives Dems majority on committees 3/

And they lose the power to do any of those things.

Next up is it allows for absences.

The Senate requires voting in person. This Congress, if any Senator is absent, Dems can't vote on party line stuff.

This happened a lot this year, especially with COVID. 4/

Lastly, it does protect against a rogue vote. Sinema and Manchin were very good in judges this year. They supported every one of President Biden's nominees, including the ones that got passed on a party line vote.

But past performance doesn't indicate future results. 5/

If Manchin decides to run again, he's going to want to be able to show some independence. He honestly would prefer 51 Senators, because then he can vote against more nominees and they still get confirmed.

At 50, he's going to have to make hard choices, and I'd rather avoid it 6/

Of course, 51 matters for more than just this Congress. Senators serve for 6 years. That means that the 118th, 119th, and 120th Congresses will have the winner of this election serving.

We are still paying for mistakes made in 2018 and 2020 Senate. Let's not do the same here. 7/

So the Georgia runoff is still of critical importance. We can't get complacent.

If you are able, please donate to Sen. Warnock's campaign. The runoff is in just over 3 weeks. 8/8

https://twitter.com/What46HasDone/status/1591632213103509505
______________________________________

Edit:

Jen Psaki @jrpsaki | 9:57 PM · Nov 12, 2022:

... 2. 2024 is a harder senate map and this is a down payment. ...

>156 Kuiperdolin: A graph with no given origin or explanation, and thus is worthless as an argument. As far as I can tell, it shows two cities releasing two large batches of votes at once, which is hardly suspicious.

I think what Kuiper is mystified by is fairly simply explained. There are counties that have larger populations than others. The smaller populated counties which tend to be rural and more conservative are much easier to count simply because there are less votes to count. Less mail in ballots too. Less signatures to check. Sometimes a lot less. In the case of Michigan they are an entirely different from the a very large city like Detroit.

This flummoxed so many people in the case of Philadelphia in 2020. What made it even harder then was the pandemic and loads more of mail in ballots which couldn't be counted until after the polls closed because the Republican controlled legislature put in place new legislation that such would have to happen. Later Trump complained 'how could this be' and the same knuckleheads who put in place that new legislation chorused Trump's complaints----that how could all these votes hit him out of nowhere? But what he understands about the electoral system is pretty much not much at all.

What it comes down to is big cities take a lot more time to count than sparsely populated counties. Conservative vote counts tend to be strongest when vote tallies start coming in. East and west coast cities along with other densely populated metropolitan areas with large minority communities like Detroit vote for Democrats. It's just the way it is. Younger people also tend to vote for democrats and women more than men.....and when you take away their abortion rights they come out in even greater numbers.

>155 margd: I agree - no complacency at this stage! I'm doing another round of Postcards to Voters, this time directly to Georgia voters about this runoff. Postcards to Voters are a good group.

Can't donate much, but I do some. :) I no longer live there, but from what I've heard from those I keep in touch with is that people feel jarred - on both sides of the aisle. How this may translate into runoff voting, only time will tell.

>158 lriley: I think what Kuiper is mystified by is fairly simply explained.

I dunno. "Mystified" seems to be the poor fellow's default state. If nothing else, it'd surely take a long time to explain all of the things that have the guy baffled.

Or are you just talking about that one graph? Meh. The county-by-county data is all here (downloadable as tab-delimited CSV). It's not going to be too difficult to see what counties reported at the indicated time points. No prizes for guessing Wayne and Oakland.

Yeah, that particular graph was not exactly a deep mystery of the universe. But then, we shouldn't make fun of Kuiper. Given his difficulties, it's wonderful the effort that he puts out, and we should give him a special gold star for Trying Real Hard.

>160 kiparsky: I don’t think a lot of people understand or even put in much effort. They see what they want to see and only listen to what they want to hear. In 2020 in Pennsylvania they weren’t even allowed to open the mail in ballot envelopes until after the polls closed so of course they were going to be collated after everything else and they were going to take some time.

Donald meanwhile spreading all sorts of nonsense about Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. I also don’t think your average MAGA voter gets how toxic he is. They get how toxic the Clinton’s are and it’s kind of the same thing only more so. They are politicians that people either unconditionally love or absolutely hate and there is no in between…..and almost always that kind of personality is going to lose.

Georgia Republicans have BANNED early voting on the Saturday before the Senate runoff election.

This is clearly voter suppression.

- Harry Sisson @harryjsisson | 7:33 PM · Nov 13, 2022
-----------------------------------------------

If one was conspiracy-minded, one would think that GA Rs intentionally cooked this up?
For 2020, the runoff was held January 5, 2021.
For 2022, it will be held December 6, 2022--a month earlier.
Hmm, that means no Saturday early voting for two weeks (not just one) before!
Should this be challenged in court, I think Clarence Thomas has last say at this point?

Saturday voting barred in US Senate runoff after Ga. holidays
Mark Niesse | 13 Nov 2022

...Early voting won’t be allowed on a Saturday before the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia because it’s the day after the state holiday formerly known as Robert E. Lee’s Birthday and two days after Thanksgiving.

Georgia election officials said this weekend that state law prohibits in-person early voting on Saturdays if a holiday is within two days beforehand.

...Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had said last week that voters would have a Saturday voting opportunity before the runoff, but his office’s attorneys later learned it wasn’t allowed under state law.

...The General Assembly passed the law restricting Saturday voting after holidays in 2016, but it wasn’t an issue in previous runoffs because at the time, they took place nine weeks after Election Day, long after Thanksgiving and the State Holiday.

The voting law passed last year, Senate Bill 202, moved runoffs to four weeks after Election Day, creating the scheduling conflict...

https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-holidays-prevent-saturday-voting-before-us-...
___________________________________________

2021 Georgia Code
Title 21 - Elections
Chapter 2 - Elections and Primaries Generally
Article 10 - Absentee Voting
§ 21-2-385. Procedure for Voting by Absentee Ballot; Advance Voting
Universal Citation: GA Code § 21-2-385 (2021)

https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2021/title-21/chapter-2/article-10/section-...
__________________________________________

What is a runoff election, and how will it work in Georgia's Senate race?
Melissa Quinn | November 10, 2022

...Georgia is one of only two states — Louisiana is the second — that requires a runoff election to be held when no candidate receives a majority of the vote. ...The other 48 states have plurality, or winner-take-all, voting, in which a candidate can win with less than 50% of the vote.

...This election system dates back to the Jim Crow-era and was approved by the Georgia legislature in the 1960s. While legislation was introduced in the 1980s to repeal the majority-vote requirement and instead adopt a plurality system, those efforts were unsuccessful.

In 1990, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging Georgia's voting requirement, marking the first statewide challenge to a majority-vote system brought by the U.S. under the Voting Rights Act. John Dunne, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the practice has a "demonstrably chilling effect on the ability of Blacks to become candidates for public office." ...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/runoff-election-georgia-senate-2022-raphael-warnock...

She won by one vote in the recount!

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2022-11-14/recount-flips-n-h-house-seat-to-democrat...

Edited to clarify this is the NH state government, not the US Congress.

Michael Moore was right and basically I don't think republicans have gotten around yet to the idea that maybe Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas jumped the gun this summer with their right wing agendas and the pollsters never paid any real mind to all the women and young people registering for the first time and they were for the most part blindsided by their own blindness....they thought it has to be the economy, inflation, gas prices, crime and immigration......but you turn women into second class citizens with your Dobbs/Roe rulings and all this freedumb crap about guns, critical race theory and hating gay people and who cares about the environment and a lot of people don't want to live in that kind of world. After Dobbs I was hearing all this knuckleheadedness about 'just because all these people are registering for the first time doesn't mean they're going to vote' and it kind of turned into yeah it does mean they're going to vote--dipshits. You had the prelude in red state Kansas where the anti-abortion legislation was blown right out of the water by something like 19 points. Didn't take that warning seriously. We'll ignore choice and it will go away. Well it didn't. The right wingers and christian nationalists got what they deserved.....a kick in the ass.

Breaking News from Magalaga: Trump has given the Democrats a massive boost for 2024. Between this and the election, it's like an early Christmas for Democrats.

Republicans pols are done with him.....so many of them want to throw their weight behind DeSantis and Trump under the bus. The problem is not only Trump but the MAGA army which is huge but not growing or at least not enough where they're going to win a national election. The Republican pols know this and they know that Trump has no coherent plan apart from wanting to reattain power and keep himself out of prison if possible.....and without something serious that really addressed needs of the public he is going to lose again but that MAGA army of his they need them too.....and generally the MAGA army aren't that complicated and a good % to most of them aren't looking for a new leader. They're invested in their Trump flags and their Trump hats. I see some kind of major schism happening and if DeSantis runs he is popular enough that he is going to eat some into that MAGA army but not enough. Trump and he are going to end up hating on each other so bad. Even if Trump blows him out of the water he still won't win. He is bereft of ideas. His policy ideas are abhorrent and he's stuck on past issues that the majority of the country are no longer interested in and he's left to defend stupid shit like Qanon conspiracy theories, abortion bans, border walls and such.

>156 Kuiperdolin: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/nov/10/instagram-posts/no-this-graph-...

>166 lriley: It does make things a bit easier for the Democrats - I mean, I was worried about all the people buying into the "Joe's old" nonsense, but Trump of spikes that gun for them, since he brings the old and adds in a nice scoop of advancing dementia to boot. (ever wonder why the MAGA thought machine is working so hard to present the "Grandpa Joe" image? Dollars to donuts, it's because they know that Trump's running out of marbles, and they're trying to preemptively pin that story on Biden)

Also, with him in the race Rhonda Santis (if I'm getting their name right) is going to have to tack much harder to the right to corral those voters, which will leave an increasingly exhausted middle up for grabs.

There's still a lot of kerfuffle yet to come, but so far we're off on the right foot.

>168 kiparsky: so far we're off on the right foot

Or perhaps better to say the left or even the middle foot?!

>189 kiparsky: The middle foot! Perfect!

Jake the Peg (YouTube)

November 17, 2022
Reps. Comer and Jordan Hold News Conference on Biden Family Investigation

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the incoming House Oversight Committee chair, outlined a Republican investigation into Hunter Biden and the Biden family during a press conference on Capitol Hill. Rep. Comer said this investigation is not about Hunter Biden, but an investigation of President Biden as he alleged the president was directly involved in questionable business deals and financial transactions with foreign countries and companies. Also appearing was Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who promised to investigate reported political activity to the Justice Department.

34:44 ( https://www.c-span.org/video/?524331-1/house-gop-plans-investigation-president-b... )
------------------------------------------

Adam Kinzinger #fella @AdamKinzinger | 10:43 AM · Nov 17, 2022:
{US Congressman (R) on Jan 6 committee}

Weird, I though inflation was your big focus? Maybe it should be…

>163 2wonderY:

who, in NH, do you suppose exercises the authority to certify election results, hmm?

This is utterly part and parcel of the Dem party's ongoing electoral corruption program.

>173 proximity1: So the Governor of New Hampshire is Chris Sununu. Just been elected again. He is a Republican—his dad was John…..use to be on TV all the time and he was a Republican too. So the Secretary of State—-the guy charged with overseeing elections is David M. Scanlan. Happens he is a Republican too.

So there are 400 (believe it or not) seats in the New Hampshire House of Representatives……and you’re pitching a bitch about 1 out of 400 seats like it’s something that’s earth shattering. Guess what party is in control. Well the Speaker is a guy named Sherman Packard and the Majority leader is a guy named Jason Osborne and they’re both Republicans so I’ll let you guess what party is in the majority. There are also 24 Senate seats and the Republicans have 14 of them.

So I look at your #173 post and I think someone should have done a little homework before spouting out his nonsense and that someone is you.

>174 lriley:

LOL!!!!!!! So what? Republo-crats are happy to undermine a genuinely respectable democratically functioning system-- together

I don't need lessons on the Sununu political family. The fact that they're Republican in name means nothing about their readiness to defend free, open, fair elections in this context which regards Trump's not having his candidacy undermined by a group of Democrats who have demonstrably worked hand-in-hand with like-minded fiercely anti-Trump Republicans.

What that provides is what's called "cover"--a very thin and cynical "cover" for such pseudo-explanations as yours, laughably beside the point here.

You completely forgot to explain why a Rep. Governor Sununu wouldn't, merely because he's nominally a Republican, enthusiastically lend a hand to scuttling a Trump primary-bid for presidential nomination by corrupting the balloting over which his administration has authority.

I guess that that's because you can't explain that.

"Election Denial" for Me, But Not for Thee: YouTube Censors TK-Produced Videos, Again, Despite Factual Accuracy | "Matt Orfalea didn't lie, alter clips, or remove key context. He made edits faithful to reality and just got a strike for it. Welcome to post-Trump America, where truth is a censorable offense"
________________________

"In late September videographer Matt Orfalea made a pair of videos for TK. One, Memory Holed: “The Election Was Hacked,” seen above, was a simple montage of Democratic politicians, media officials, and enforcement officials saying the 2016 election was, among other things, 'illegitimate,' 'rigged,' hacked,' and a 'cyber 9/11.'

"The second, Memory Holed, Part II: The 'Rigged' Election, was a similar exercise, with one exception: it compared the post-2020 statements of Donald Trump to the post-2016 statements of Democratic partisans. When Trump tells Chris Wallace, 'I have to see,' when asked if he’d concede an election, Orfalea shows Hillary Clinton saying,'No, I would not,' when asked in 2017 — after her loss — if she’d contest the results. He shows Trump later saying he’ll of course respect the results, 'if I win,' and Hillary Clinton saying Joe Biden should not concede 'under any circumstances,' essentially exact analogs.

--------------------------------------------

(Posted By Tim Hains | RealClearPolitics.com
On Date November 18, 2022 ) GOP Rep. Michale Waltz explained the Trump campaign's position on the new special counsel investigating the former president's handling of classified information and role in the January 6 riot:

REP. MICHAEL WALTZ: 'President Donald Trump once said to me that if he declared today that he was no longer interested in running for president, all of this would stop.'

"This is about politics, it has always been about politics, from Russiagate and moving forward."

"And what is such a shame is the loss of trust in special prosecutors has also occurred here, because Mueller loaded up his team with so many Democrats, so many Clinton people, so many people that were tilted against Donald Trump that there is no confidence that this won't be the same. But ti is no surprise now that Donald Trump has announced for president, they will put a permanent entity in place that can hang this cloud over him until 2024."

We have a shit, third-world electoral system utterly corrupted. That's directly due to people like you who defend the now-"non-partisan" bi-party (anti-outsider, anti-Trump) corruption.

>175 proximity1: You don't check your paranoia much do you? Any recent Qanon gems you'd like to share with us? Have you been to see a psychologist lately? I think it might do you some good.

FWIW the Sununu family have a far larger claim of what a Republican actually represents than that orange colored dipshit that you've turned into Jesus Christ. The joke kind of on you is for these midterms the Republicans thought they were going to make some real inroads in New England and they got completely shut out....and I mean zero. Could it be that you run candidates like Bolduc and LePage who are so completely detached from the reality of where they live? I doubt you would think so. Keep telling yourself all the candidates that the Donald throws his weight behind (and he is kind of heavy) have been cheated and that saying so is all the evidence you need.

>175 proximity1:

I think it is sad if in the USA you have reached a stage where some people do not trust any judge or civic official to do their duty impartially regardless of their political affiliation. That is surely one of the cornerstones of a modern democratic state.

I remember the renowned human rights lawyer George Bizos, who campaigned against apartheid and defended Nelson Mandela in court, saying that the honesty of many of the South African judges at times worked against the interests of the apartheid state. Although most of the white judges supported apartheid and were happy to imprison black people, nevertheless they had sworn an oath to uphold the law and many of them did so impartially and scrupulously, even when it worked in favour of the black defendants who were their political opponents.

>177 John5918:---I think I know what it's like to be out of touch with what the mainstream of voters is. I've got a few more or less wasted votes for third party candidates in my background. I never however thought that Nader (for one) was going anywhere and was going to win or that afterwards he'd been robbed somehow. I just liked him better than the other options and I can be a bit contrary at times. It's the denialism of so many people on the right these days. We lost? How can that be?....it must be because the other side cheated. Couldn't be there were more people who didn't like the candidate I voted for.....liked the other candidate more. And they don't see how toxic to the majority of voters Trump has become. Several years worth of scandals, impeachments, an insurrection he goaded his supporters into (some of whom have prison terms now), lies galore, betrayals, kowtowing to dictators everywhere, the racism and sexism, a horrible pandemic response, his own personal stolen top secret documents library, etc. etc. and there are still those who choose to think he's popular and clean as a whistle.

>177 John5918:

I voted in this latest election. In my constituency's U.S. House Rep. race two thoroughly conventional candidates, a Republican and a Democrat, had to share the ballot with an independent candidate running a shoe-string campaign. He found, against all odds, enough popular support to gain a spot on the final general election ballot.

I corresponded with him a few times, posing questions--which he answered. He wasn't naive about how a hard a row would be his to roe even if he was eventually elected. He'd be persona non grata in both main parties as a new House member.

In the end he didn't even get 1% of the ballots cast.

I don't dispute that outcome as the product of election fraud. I accept it as reasonably accurate. His chances were always a long-shot.

Where I do object is in seeing clearly very popular and consistently poll-leading candidates suddenly turning up losers by margins which have no relationship to demonstrated popularity with the voting public.

I categorically condemn any and all election fraud and tampering, no matter the cause, no matter the party, no matter the outcome. No one who gains public office through fraud and electoral dishonesty of any kind has any claim on my respect.

Making excuses for shady election practices is disgusting--and it's now a main motif among Democrats.

Good riddance to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-run House majority. If there was a Hell, they'd all belong there for eternity.

-----------------------------------------------

RE: "And they don't see how toxic to the majority of voters Trump has become."

That is MSM's hyped bullshit propaganda.

>175 proximity1: Republo-crats are happy to undermine a genuinely respectable democratically functioning system-- together

So what we can take from this is simply that those who ratify your preferred outcomes are the legitimate officials and those who do not are somehow opposed to a "genuinely respectable democratic functioning system".

I'd very much like to know what makes you the final authority on the legitimacy of New Hampshire's elections, and not, for example, the elected and appointed officials of the state of New Hampshire acting in accordance with the laws established to ensure free and fair elections.

Each and every citizen-voter is, by right, his own judge as "the final authority" on the matter of whether or not his country's, state's, county's or city's electoral operations produce fair or of fraudulent electoral outcomes whether in general or in any particular election.

RE: "So what we can take from this is simply that those who ratify your preferred outcomes are the legitimate officials"...blah, blah, blah.

You can take and misstate as my position whatever damn fool nonsense you like. I don't give a fuck for your opinion.

>181 proximity1: So your opinions are just random spoutings without any actual basis? It's very brave of you to admit that you have nothing to support your baseless contentions. I congratulate you, facing up to that is a big step for you in your recovery. Next step, I think. will be to give yourself permission to do it without the temper tantrum, but we'll do things one day at a time, won't we?

>179 proximity1: Where I do object is in seeing clearly very popular and consistently poll-leading candidates suddenly turning up losers by margins which have no relationship to demonstrated popularity with the voting public.

Indeed, but the fact that you object is not evidence of fraud. While opinion polls are nowadays mostly accurate most of the time, they are not infallible, and there have been many famous cases of them being wrong, sometimes quite spectacularly. At most the cases you describe might warrant an investigation. In the 2020 US elections there were many objections, dozens of investigations and court cases, and most of them were adjudicated by judges from the losing candidate's party, many of them indeed actually appointed by the losing candidate himself during his prior time in office. In virtually none of them was any evidence found to support fraud allegations, and in the few cases where fraud was found, it was usually the losing candidate's supporters who were guilty. That doesn't sound to me like an electoral system one should lose confidence in.

FWIW there are about all kinds of different pollsters these days and some are clearly partisan. I wouldn’t bank too much on any of them.

There were warnings for the Republican Party leading up to November. The Supreme Court decisions particularly the one on Dobbs that kiboshed Roe threw a spanner in the works and led to a much stronger democratic turnout. One warning came on a Republican piece of legislation to curtail abortion in the summer in red state Kansas that was defeated by 19 points. That surprised the fuck out of a lot of people…..many of whom I guess decided it was going to be a one off never to be repeated event……but there were a few more similar warnings over the summer on abortion rights that were also ignored. Republicans decided that inflation, crime, the economy and immigration were going to be the issues but it’s pretty clear new registrations and younger voters, women voters had Roe more on their minds……also pretty clear who was going to take the blame for taking abortion rights away.

Any case having a meltdown over one seat out of 400 in the New Hampshire state House being overturned by one vote is absurd especially when all the main State offices….Governor, Secretary of State, majorities in both the state House and Senate were and still are in the hands of the Republican Party. Seeing some kind of conspiracy in that one seat being overturned is frankly nutty. That the Republican Party lost ground at the state level in states other than New Hampshire goes without saying but the Sharia like Christian nationalism of many republicans these days that would outlaw and/or criminalize abortion, contraception and what have you factored into a lot of that.

One other thing the more the Donald is seen as engaged in the body politic the more people are going to come out and vote against him and/or whoever he endorses. He is a toxic public figure. Yeah he has an army of supporters who will or would do almost anything for him but they’re not a majority at all. He is a driving factor for them but he is also a driving factor for an even larger opposition.

When I see Lee Zeldin or Elise Stefanik or the Hitler loving Carl Paladino all out supporting of his election denying bs I don’t need much more incentive than that than to vote straight line democrat.

>181 proximity1: "Where I do object is in seeing clearly very popular and consistently poll-leading candidates suddenly turning up losers by margins which have no relationship to demonstrated popularity with the voting public."

That's a pretty good description of the 2016 election

While it's true that in various ways public polling, especially in matters of elections, has seen a marked decline in its accurate reflection of real popular opinion-- which, indeed, has meant, for example, that some very "unexpected" electoral "surprises" can occur*, there are two main reasons for that, both direct outcomes of a disastrous failing in official accountability and the conniving in manipulated and skewed polls-- which have prompted a great many people to dismiss polls altogether as so much politically-driven junk from news orgs which are blatantly biased. So, the grossly abused public's confidence has at long last borne its inevitable fruits. People hang up on telephone pollster calls or deliberately feed them false responses--because the polling orgs are rightly despised.

Still worse, beyond that, there's this:

"The post, which can be seen here , perpetuates the false narrative that there was widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election ( here ). U.S. election security officials have said the election was “the most secure in American history” ( here , here ).

"In the early morning of Jan. 7, hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, the U.S. Congress certified enough Electoral College votes for President Biden to declare him winner of the election ( here ).

"As reported by Reuters here , state and federal judges - some appointed by Trump - dismissed more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump or his allies alleging election fraud and other irregularities."...

Independent experts, governors and state election officials from both parties say there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
--------------------------------------
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-courts-election-idUSKBN2AF1G1

the above shows the intellectual bankruptcy in public discourse and the amazingly callous participation of professional journalism in that:

the cart is put before the horse there. It's for the authorities to demonstrate the sound character of elections' processes and outcomes, not the burden of scattered individuals whose access to essential data is not even granted. That is why all challenges to electoral integrity must be demonstrated by impeccable evidence of a kind which compels the respect of and satisfies the skeptical who've brought the challenges, not the partisans whose interests are served by corrupt elections.

The burden of proof of fair electoral and political forms and procedures is on those officials whose responsibilities it is to ensure these, not members of or groups of the general non-official public. Those officials work for the public, not the other way around.

FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ETA

* The mainstream press took on an extraordinarily cynical and blatantly deliberate policy of "seeding" public electoral expectations by endlessly giving short-or-no-shrift-at-all to divergent (they'd call it--as, indeed, they portrayed it as "deviant" opinion). This, obviously, had been done for literally generations --starting with, in the earliest days of mass newspaper and radio audiences--early and sustained assertions, always unsubstantiated and always impossible to substantiate since they are bald-faced forecasts of the press interests' own wishful-thinking that "So-and-so has no chance of making any respectable showing in the _(fill-in-the-blank)__ electoral race."

Trump's election is a key case in point. Prior to the primaries, the press, practically without exception, treated his candidacy as beneath contempt and not even a respectable joking matter. Then, one by one, he vanquished his primary challengers at the ballot boxes in primary after primary until there were none. Now, indeed, for the part of the viewing public high on media-supplied "Kool-Aid", these returns were stunning. They were anything but that to those, including so many Trump supporters, who'd already tuned out and turned off the MSM's propaganda-machine. For them, it was, rather, just what they'd expected to see happen. Trump himself, unlike the conventional party cardboard-cutouts opposing him, understood these basics very well--one of the features which so distinguished his candidacy and endeared him to his (growing) "base".

Great strides in electoral expectation manipulation have been made since those days which now seem quaint in their more modest duplicity.

---------------------------------------

Arizona candidate Kari Lake ain't takin' fraud lying down:

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/arizona-ag-opens-inquiry-maric...

Her letter to the Maricopa County Election Administration:
(link to .pdf file)
https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2022-11/221119%20Letter%20to%20Maric...

"Dear Mr. Liddy:
"The Elections Integrity Unit (“Unit”) of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”)
has received hundreds of complaints since Election Day pertaining to issues related to the
administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County. These complaints go beyond pure speculation, but include first-hand witness accounts that raise concerns regarding Maricopa’s lawful compliance with Arizona election law. Furthermore, statements made by both Chairman Gates and Recorder Richer, along with information Maricopa County released through official modes of communication appear to confirm potential statutory violations of title 16.

"Pursuant to the AGO’s authority under A.R.S. § 16-1021, the Unit hereby requests
Maricopa formally respond to and address the following concerns that have been raised." ...
...

>186 jjwilson61:

No, it's not. On the contrary, the 2016 election of Trump to the presidency was a rare "fluke" by the very fact that, on that occasion, the smoke-and-mirrors of the MSM failed to cut through and undermine Trump's appeal. To its credit, the MSM was faced with a strange new phenomena--a candidate who wouldn't meekly salute its bullshit. And they quite clearly were not prepared for this and had nothing then effective to counter it.

Since then, they've recruited the Dept. of Justice to sideline Trump. Once more, they were confident that this measure should "take care of that annoying pest."

Rampant electoral corruption is now "baked-in" from the very start, institutionalized and ratified by the courts and press--with, in the press, only a marginalized cadre of critics -- people like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi.

>188 proximity1: You have asserted repeatedly, as if they were proven facts, a number of claims about political parties, about "media elites", election officials, stolen elections, and so forth. These claims are not particularly coherent, and you've made no effort to make them make sense, but the overall trend of them is to suggest that somehow someone unspecified (or variously specified) is "putting one over" on the American people by installing the wrong people in power.

You insist on these things in a way that suggests you want other people to believe them - that is, you're not satisfied to simply sit and be right in silence and solitude, you must also be validated in your correctness by others, in particular the readers of this group. However, you have also spent a lot of time insisting that you "don't give a fuck" for other people's opinions and that you consider pretty much every member of this group to be a contemptible idiot because they do not see the things that you see.

This does not seem to me to be a useful approach to driving the consensus more towards acceptance of your views.

Do you have an actual idea of what it is you want people to believe? Is there a list of claims that you think you could make a coherent argument about, which lead the reader inexorably, as night follows the day, to accepting your story about the political world in the US in the early part of the 21st century? In other words, is there a theory here that you would care to support, and are you willing to do the work to actually try to convince people of this theory? Or, to put it bluntly, do you actually believe that your views can be supported by rational arguments that you're willing to make?

>187 proximity1: You're setting up an impossible standard. No election of any size has ever been completely error free.

>188 proximity1: You claimed that polls not matching election results is proof that the elections are illegitimate but most of the polls predicted that Hillary would win in 2016 so I guess Hillary wuz robbed!

>183 John5918: Proximity1 is simply making excuses here. In the 2020 election, Biden underperformed the polls; he was expected to win by larger margins. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-fivethirtyeights-2020-forecasts-did-and... shows that FiveThirtyEight predicted the 2020 elections almost spot on, though Republicans were much more likely to win tossup elections than predicted. They haven't made the same article for 2022, but it's going to say much the same thing, except the tossup elections mostly went the other way, to the Democrats. They gave Trump a 33% chance of winning in 2016 and 10% in 2020, so while Trump winning in 2020 wouldn't have been completely unpredicted, Biden winning was no surprise.

>187 proximity1: the cart is put before the horse there. It's for the authorities to demonstrate the sound character of elections' processes and outcomes, not the burden of scattered individuals whose access to essential data is not even granted. That is why all challenges to electoral integrity must be demonstrated by impeccable evidence of a kind which compels the respect of and satisfies the skeptical who've brought the challenges, not the partisans whose interests are served by corrupt elections.

The burden of proof of fair electoral and political forms and procedures is on those officials whose responsibilities it is to ensure these, not members of or groups of the general non-official public. Those officials work for the public, not the other way around.

Have you ever heard Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me"? It didn't matter what evidence is presented to someone if they'll call it fraud.

Prove that Trump was elected fairly. No Presidential election has ever been proved as well the 2020 election. What would you have expected could have been shown if the 2016 election has been shown?

>190 jjwilson61:

"completely error free"

not my standard or expectation. But you're free to fail to read & to misconstrue things .

FRAUD, not honest electoral errors. Get things straight.

>194 proximity1: Yet any error is taken as evidence of fraud. Just look at all the noise Lake is making about printer errors

>195 jjwilson61:

"Yet any error is taken as evidence of fraud. Just look at all the noise Lake is making about printer errors."

No! Any "error" is to be taken as potential evidence of fraud--unless and until it is found to be innocent. Just like a smashed car-window is, on its face, potential evidence of an criminal act.

So what do you want? A presupposition, without any investigation, that errors are to be dismissed as benign by default? Now who wants to have his views taken as given at "face-value"?

Why do I have to repeat that the burden of free, open, fair and legitimate elections is on the authorities to demonstrate upon any and all challenges. If they refuse, the valid presumption is that they've got something to hide. These are precisely the same principles by which criminal investigators reason when trying to determine whether there is a case to investigate--and, note, the investigating parties must be independent not the goddamned suspect and his potential confederates ; they do not get to be investigators and deciders in their own case!

WTF is "difficult" about any of this?!?!?!?!?!

You're making excuses which, whatever your own intentions objectively facilitate election-fraud. Why?

Guess why the credibility of elections is in negative territory.

>196 proximity1: Guess why the credibility of elections is in negative territory.

This is a pretty bizarre assertion, considering that apart from Lake everyone, everyone seems to have accepted the results the recent election without contest.

Is this the sort of fact that other people can see, or is it one that you have to put on your special glasses and propeller beanie and believe real hard if you want to see it?

>196 proximity1: I don't believe that you would accept any evidence that the "authorities" would bring. Instead of having the authorities bring forth evidence that you would reject out of hand why doesn't your side bring a court challenge and stop performing in front of the cameras.

>196 proximity1: Why do I have to repeat that the burden of free, open, fair and legitimate elections is on the authorities to demonstrate upon any and all challenges.

The problem is a conspiracy theory can keep coming up with challenges and refuse to accept answers to old ones, the long form of a Gish gallop. Fox touted a mathematical proof that gave odds of a quadrillion to one of a particular election being fraudulent, based on the idea of voters being a random selection (they aren't) from the same voting pool (voters die and citizens hit 18 everyday) who voted the same way as in 2016 (voters didn't necessarily vote for Trump in 2020 if they voted for him in 2016). We had to answer >156 Kuiperdolin: even though there was nothing suspicious about it to people who know what's going on. People are claiming that not getting all the results election night is evidence of fraud, even though there are laws in many states making valid ballots sent by election day received for several days later. Did Bush steal the election in 2000, or was it just a close ballot that took time to completely count?

Note something and its opposite can be considered problematic. People are complaining about Newsome being declare victor of the California gubernatorial election a couple hours after the polls closed, despite the fact the election results of him winning by 18 points backed up the polls of him being 20 points in the lead. Anything can be suspicious if you have that mindset, and nothing will be accepted as proof in that case.

>198 jjwilson61:

You cannot read and cannot parse plain English.

I've repeatedly stated that I'd accept--and that there must be done-- a fairly-conducted inquiry by a respected independent non-partisan body --that, in effect, I do not want Republicans "investigating" and "vouching for" other Republicans or Democrats "investigating" and "vouching for" other Democrats' authorities' assertions of fairly-run elections.

If you can't get something that simple, still distorting and misconstruing it after multiple explanations then you're out of your depth here.

I'm done with you. I don't do crayon-drawings.

(For other readers :

Majority of American Voters Rightly Concerned About Vote Fraud |
COMMENTARY | By John R. Lott Jr. |

"Watching the news, you’d be led to believe that vote fraud doesn’t exist in the United States. Since the election on November 8, news article after news article has simply dismissed any claims of vote fraud as “baseless” (New York Times and CNN) and “without evidence” (NPR, New York Times, and Washington Post). Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is lambasted for “stoking fears on mail-in ballots.” And the news coverage was no different after the 2020 election.

"But American voters aren’t convinced. A Rasmussen Reports survey from late September found that 84% of likely voters were concerned about election integrity in this year’s congressional elections. It was a belief shared by every category of voters, including liberals and Democrats, though they were less concerned than conservatives and Republicans.

"Voters thought that “making sure that there is no cheating in elections” was more important than “making it easier to for everyone to vote.” The margin was 62% to 36%. The highest-paid individuals and those with graduate school educations are the most concerned about making it 'easier for everybody to vote.' Those who didn’t complete high school and high school graduates were the most concerned about fraud. That hardly fits with fears that voter IDs and other anti-fraud measures will disenfranchise the poorest and least educated." ....

Prox sure does have a habit of introducing us all to all kinds of right wing hacks and journalists. It would be nice if they came with a disclaimer. This Lott worked in Trump’s Justice Dept. and is another one obsessed with the idea that the Donald was somehow or other cheated out of Pennsylvania and Georgia in 2020.

So are a lot of liberals and democrats as concerned about voter fraud as he maintains or does he misconstrue other electoral concerns such as all the voter suppression and redistricting strategies that Republicans use so their representatives can maintain themselves in power? I’m kind of thinking the complaints about our electoral system from left and right points of view aren’t exactly the same and Lott’s intention here to blend them is kind of missing a lot of nuance. Just a thought I had anyway.

I think it largely depends on the question asked and the interpretation of the answers. It's not surprising to find that many people are concerned about "election integrity". Look at Georgia, where Kemp was re-elected to the governorship which he originally took by scrubbing tens of thousands of Black voters from the rolls. There's very good reason to be concerned about "election integrity" in a country where a demented obese gasbag has managed to convince his most gullible followers that they should show up armed at voting places to police the voting, and where hundreds of elections officials have reported that they've been threatened with physical violence for running fair and honest elections that didn't turn up the results that some partisans would have preferred.

None of that goes to validate the central claim of the dark fantasy that proxette is painting for us, where some unspecified or variously specified bad actors (how did Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise get mixed up in this?) are "stealing votes", or even to support the claim that " the credibility of elections is in negative territory", with the implication that this is due to the Dark Fantasy.

And I'll just point out once again, since it doesn't seem to be getting through, that the Dark Fantasy remains a black box. There is literally no coherent narrative proposed which would explain the panic and paranoia on display here. None at all. So not only is there no support for proxette's thesis, there isn't a thesis to support.

This is especially weird considering that prox has created a whole thread about Karl Popper, and therefore can be presumed to be familiar with the idea of the falsifiable hypothesis. There can be no claim of ignorance here: they know what they're doing. So, why do they run a mile every time they're asked to frame their thesis in a way that could be disproved?

I can come up with a few scenarios. All of them could be disproved if prox were willing to lay out their claim about the elections in a coherent way. But I'm pretty sure that will never happen, because if they were able to do that, they'd have done it a long time ago, and they have never done so despite repeatedly being challenged on this. Needless to say, until they do so nobody is under any obligation to refute an argument that they're not willing or able to make.

>200 proximity1: I've repeatedly stated that I'd accept--and that there must be done-- a fairly-conducted inquiry by a respected independent non-partisan body --that, in effect, I do not want Republicans "investigating" and "vouching for" other Republicans or Democrats "investigating" and "vouching for" other Democrats' authorities' assertions of fairly-run elections.

In >175 proximity1: you said Republo-crats are happy to undermine a genuinely respectable democratically functioning system-- together. So it's not good enough for you.

I go back to >199 prosfilaes:. There's no incentive to give you what you claim to want, because there's no reason to believe it will change anything. Cyber Ninja ran a very biased count, and yet found no evidence of fraud in Arizona; I see no evidence that changed people's minds. If it doesn't come up with the result you like, you'll just reject the results.

If you want an independent body, check out the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights report: https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/7/7/477823_2.pdf Note that none of their complaints are that the election was fraudulent.

I found this interesting. It comes from the outgoing Michigan state republican speaker who's found himself on the opposite end of some of his caucus playing whack-a-mole with their electoral conspiracy theories.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/half-baked-political-stunt-michigan-164226002.html

To quote him he tells his fellow republican legislator: 'The Legislature cannot be in the business of authorizing pop psychology opinion surveys. Perhaps you are really saying, though, that if over half of Americans distrust a process, that gives us the right to launch an investigation to see if their distrust is justified. Is that really the standard you want?'

It apparently is for Prox.

He goes on to tell this republican Michigan representative. 'Suppose over half of Michiganders surveyed said they distrusted your motives in sending your November 17 letter---that is, they believed this is a shameless and half-baked political stunt to inflame an already troubled section of our party. Do you think that would justify the Legislature subpoenaing you? Don't you think it's bad practice to justify legislative subpoenas based on opinion surveys?'

>200 proximity1: I've repeatedly stated that I'd accept--and that there must be done-- a fairly-conducted inquiry by a respected independent non-partisan body --that, in effect, I do not want Republicans "investigating" and "vouching for" other Republicans or Democrats "investigating" and "vouching for" other Democrats' authorities' assertions of fairly-run elections.

Are you not missing the point that in most of the complaints about the 2020 elections, complaints made by Republicans were largely investigated and adjudicated by election officials and judges who were Republicans, and far from "vouching for" their fellow Republicans, most of them did their duty honestly and impartially and found that the facts did not support the complaints? Some Republicans have responded by issuing threats of physical violence against them for, er, acting as an "independent non-partisan body".

>205 John5918: may as well add that when Trump insists without evidence that he was cheated he inflames an already angry mistrusting voter base and that some of these people have turned out to be very violent as witness to the events of January 6, 2021 or the threats and occasional acts of violence afterwards which can range from anything to death threats to politicians to actual attacks on them or their loved ones as in the case of Mr. Pelosi or even the kidnapping attempt on Ms. Whitmer in Michigan or intimidation of voters as we've seen in Arizona. It has brought out a lot of would be vigilantes.

>206 lriley:

Perhaps that leads to a further question. Prox, how confident are you that Republicans would respect the verdicts of an independent electoral body, given the way they have turned on their own Republican electoral officials, and attacked a Republican vice-president when he was certifying the election?

Perhaps the USA is currently so polarised that it would be impossible to create an independent electoral body which Republicans would accept? The solution is simple. Request the UN, OSCE, NATO or some other credible multilateral international body to send a multinational team to monitor your elections, and to investigate any complaints of fraud. They have a lot of experience of this type of thing.

andrew kaczynski (CNN) @KFILE | 9:57 AM · Nov 23, 2022:

NEW: Hershel Walker got a tax break the last two years on his TX home intended only for your primary residence — possibly running afoul of both Texas tax law and Georgia rules for establishing residency for both voting and running for office:

Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker getting tax break in 2022 on Texas home intended for primary residence
Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck | November 23, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/23/politics/kfile-herschel-walker-texas-tax-break-ge...

Peltola wins in Alaska. Valadao a republican who voted to impeach Trump wins in California. Murkowski beats back Trump endorsed Senate candidate in Alaska. Senate is 50-49 depending on how Warnock/Walker do in Georgia. Republicans have 220 to 213 lead in the House with two races still to be called. One is a guaranteed Democrat--California 34 as it's a contest between two democrats Jimmy Gomez and David Kim. The other is a nail biter with republican John Duarte leading democrat Adam Gray by 0.4 points with 96% of the vote in. If Duarte wins republicans will have a 221 to 214 advantage or 7 more. If Gray wins it will be 220 to 215--5 more.

It's a thin majority but also puts the republicans in the house in the actual position of trying to govern.....and if they want to really legislate at all they'll have to work with a democratic Senate and POTUS. It will be up to the republican house leadership to keep the more rabid in line to accomplish really anything--to try to entice democrats to cross over when they can. The question is if the likes of McCarthy, Scales and Stefanik can do that and I have some real doubts about that or if they'll even really try. If it's just gotcha stuff...impeaching Biden without real reason, cutting social security, building walls, anti-abortion measures and shutting down the government my guess is that kind of strategy is only going to come back to bite them in the ass in 2024.

Arizona secretary of state sues after Republican officials refuse to certify county election results (Guardian)

Republican officials in a rural Arizona county refused on Monday to certify the results of the 2022 midterm election, despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count from earlier this month. Some officials who have embraced voter fraud theories held out, defying a state deadline and setting the stage for a legal battle...

>211 John5918: Cochise County's hand and machine tally came in at 100% accurate.....and yet just because the republican nominee asserts she was robbed.....the republican officials charged with certifying the count in Cochise Country have not done so. It's not something that's considered discretionary. My understanding is that yesterday was the deadline.....that without certification the votes from that county will not be counted and not just for governor but for all the other races and that the republican who won the Arizona 6 congressional race Juan Ciscomani might not have the votes now and his democratic opponent may end up taking his seat in congress instead---Kevin McCarthy's narrow majority perhaps narrowing further.

>212 lriley: I’m reminded of my toddler grandchild. Angry, illogical and spiteful, even against their best interests.

CNN, NBC, Fox, AP call the Georgia Senate runoff for Warnock. Democrats with 51 Senate seats now. They add one in this cycle.

I'm so glad. Glad for my former state, and glad this cycle is over.

Whew!

THANK GOD the Georgia voters were courageous enough to do what the modern-day GOP was unable or unwilling to do. When a large number of good people take a positive stand, good things can still happen in America.

The final shoe has dropped. It is time for the money guys to say enough is enough.

>215 terriks: So glad that Walker's concession speech was gracious, even urging his supporters to support elected officials. His finest moment! His experience as a football player, winning and losing and talking to public, apparently could not be Trumped?

>217 margd: Walker might have been referring to Governor Kemp's crew and the US Supreme Court Judges, who will possibly soon take away more voting power from the general populace.

Speaking of, >216 Molly3028: it's not so much courage as perseverance this time. Both Republican and democratic voters showed up in high numbers. (Representative of this: My extremely conservative polling station was busier on Election Day than I've ever seen it, and that was with only a single item on the ballot!)

The big win was a result of constant efforts in the judicial courts, elections offices, and largely thanks to Stacey Abrams' teams' years of preparing the ground, Senator Warnock's campaigns to ensure a hundred thousand votes weren't suppressed. The margin was small enough that if the state Republicans had been successful in shutting down Saturday polling, Walker could have won. We were that close to terrifying results. (Do you think "terrifying" goes too far? Look at who he's a mouthpiece for then think if you want that to be making choices for your daily life for the next six years.)

Courage flares in a moment. Resistance is a constant burn.

>218 aspirit:
Courage flares in a moment. Resistance is a constant burn.

Wow! I love that. Where does it come from? Googled it with no results.

>219 2wonderY: from me. Those are my words to summarize my feelings. I would have put it in quotes or acknowledged a source if it came from someone else.

>219 2wonderY: also, thank you.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/where-were-most-of-you-kellyanne-conway-puts-senate-...
‘Where Were Most of You?’ Kellyanne Conway Puts Senate Republicans on Blast After Herschel Walker Defeat

***
Trump and Walker are the bookends which exemplify the professional life of KC over the last several years. She has no use for reps who have retained and/or recaptured their moral compasses. MAGAs appear to prefer life in the Trumpy Twilight Zone.

>217 margd: "Walker might have been referring to Governor Kemp's crew and the US Supreme Court Judges"

Pretty sure Walker said support "elected" officials., which would include Kemp AND Warnock?

>218 aspirit: "Courage flares in a moment. Resistance is a constant burn."

That IS good. Take a bow, and post it in the "quotations" thread?

>217 margd: It was a curious thing, that concession speech. How did he string it together so smoothy, after bumbling and stammering his way through most of his campaign? And the message was, frankly, very un-MAGA like, wasn't it? Just the fact that he conceded at all, let alone so graciously, was out of touch with the rest of them.

My best guess is that he was finally in a moment where it was all over, and he could go off script. It could also be that someone (from college or football days?) took him aside and gave him food for thought.

>218 aspirit: I agree, the influence of Stacey Abrams can't be overstated. She has inspired marginalized Georgia citizens and encouraged even more voting rights groups since starting her Fair Fight organization. She'll likely never be Governor, but she should always be remembered as one of the most influential candidates that Georgia's ever had. Her legacy will include voting rights and helping cast that purple tone over the state. But I hope she's far from done.

That was the most white-knuckled Election night I've ever sat through (that turned out well). I've barely been out of the state 10 months, and was able to vote for Warnock/Ossoff/Abrams in the recent past, so it all feels still quite close.

I don't know if I agree that Walker was terrifying but he is a joke. He is not smart and he's not qualified for office and he shouldn't have been running in Georgia with his legal residence in Texas......and with a serious record of abuse and child neglect and all the bold faced lies, contradictions and hypocrisies and other kinds of nonsense he spewed continually One would think that someone becoming a Senator would have a lot more going for him/her than what Walker displayed which was well below the standard for mediocrity. He wasn't running on any thoughts or ideas of his own. He had nothing to offer. He was running because some in the Republican Party saw him simply as a rubber stamp.

"He is not smart and he's not qualified for office..."

Here's hoping that Joe Biden forgets to file for re-election--and that no one reminds him in time for him to do so.

>226 proximity1: Have you ever thought that you deamplify your voice when you say stuff like that? Instead of an interesting argument, whine some more about Biden (generically, not touching anything he's actually done) and convince more people not to read your posts.

>226 proximity1: Biden certainly isn't the sharpest pencil in the box but he is elderly and he's never suggested bleach or radiating people from the inside out as a covid cure or that Jewish space lasers were the cause of California wildfires or that our climate issues came down to China and India taking all our good air and sending us all their bad air. The three republicans responsible for those knuckleheaded assertions have any number of just as crazy dumbass remarks on all kinds of other subject matter. Well they borrow from Qanon and the dark web all the time.

Who would have guessed this election cycle would end with two billionaires ~ Trump and Musk ~ freaking out over the receptions garnered by their post-election activities! The burnout sagas of the two emotionally damaged billionaires continue.