Politics: 2018 midterm elections
 

It was suggested a while ago that we start another thread to keep up with all the news regarding the midterms.

There is a lot happening.

I read yesterday that Mitch McConnell is worried about Republicans losing the senate, in addition to the house.

Trump, it seems, is a millstone around Republican political necks.

Then, this morning, I read about internal squabbling at the DNC.

It left me wondering if Democrats will, once again: grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

Just how big is the Democratic wave going to be this fall?

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 12:36 PM ET, Wed April 25, 2018

(CNN) If you're wondering whether the 2018 midterm elections will be a Democratic wave, you're asking the wrong question. The fall contests will undoubtedly be a national referendum on Donald Trump's first two years in office and, if polling (and history) is to be believed, Democrats will reap the electoral rewards from the negative views of the President among a majority of the country.

The real question you should be asking yourself is how large will this wave be? Will it be small (15-20-seat Democratic pickup), medium (25-35-seat pickup) or large (35-plus-seat pickup)?

Reminder: Democrats need to net 23 seats to retake the House majority.

Judging by what happened in an Arizona special election on Tuesday night, the "large" wave option now looks to be very much in play.

"If the only data point you had to go on was last night's #AZ08 result, you'd think a 30-40 seat Dem House gain in Nov. would be way low," tweeted David Wasserman, the House editor of the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

Here's why.

Yes, Republican Debbie Lesko beat Democrat Hiral Tipirneni in the 8th District special election triggered by former Republican Rep. Trent Franks resignation amid claims of sexual harassment.
But, Lesko's margin -- 5.2 percentage points -- is far less than the 25 points Mitt Romney won the district by in 2012 or the 21-point margin for Trump in 2016.

In a vacuum, that result could be dismissed as simply a one-off -- a special election with two little-known candidates yadda yadda yadda. The problem is that what happened in Arizona on Tuesday -- dramatic Democratic overperformance of the party's candidate -- is far from an isolated incident.

According to CNN's own resident big brain Harry Enten, "the average improvement for the Democrats has been 17 percentage points versus the partisan baseline. That's better than any party out of power has done in the lead-up to a midterm cycle since at least 1994."

The lesson here is obvious: Driven by their distaste for Trump, the Democratic base is turning out in droves. The Republican base, fat and happy with control of the House, Senate and the White House, is less galvanized. And, loosely-affiliated partisans seem to be acting much more like Democrats than Republicans in the elections since Trump won the White House.

The threat to Republicans should also be obvious: A month removed from Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb winning a southwestern Pennsylvania seat that Trump carried by 20 points in 2016, Lesko eked out a victory in a seat where Trump won by 21.

If seats like Pennsylvania's 18th and Arizona's 8th are competitive, then the number of Republican vulnerabilities is bigger than anyone thought.

"There are 147 GOP-held House seats less Republican than #AZ08," tweeted Wasserman. "It's time to start rethinking how many of those are truly safe in November." (A bit of quick math produces this: 62% of the 237 seats Republicans will hold -- once Lesko is sworn in -- are less friendly for the GOP than Arizona's 8th.)

Tweeted The New York Times' Nate Cohn: "There are a bunch of open districts that aren't considered top-tier races by most analysts --TX-2, TX-6, FL-6, OH-16, TX-21, FL-15 -- that, by the numbers, look plausibly competitive in a wave election. On paper, they're better Dem targets than, say, AZ-8/KS-4/PA-18."

If the Republican playing field is anywhere close to that 147 number, that makes it at least twice as large as most non-partisan political handicappers currently believe it to be.

CNN rates 73 Republican seats as potentially competitive. The Cook Report puts 84 Republican districts in that competitive category while Inside Elections, another independent campaign tipsheet, has 58 competitive GOP seats.

What we know is that in a wave, seats get washed away that many people didn't even know were competitive. The larger the number of vulnerable districts, the more that could potentially get washed away.

And, from a more practical standpoint, Republicans and their aligned super PACs have only so much money to spend in 2018. The more of their own seats that come online as competitive, the more hard decisions party committees and super PACs will have to make about who gets money and who doesn't.

Simply stated: Arizona's 8th District results suggests that the coming wave is big -- and getting bigger.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/polit...rms/index.html

So glad you got this up and going, Anya. I'll be reading and I've subscribed to your forum thread. It's super critical to stay committed to progress we make in the coming weeks and months ahead.

Thanks so much,
Kätzchen :bouquet:

2018 midterms are our only chance to survive. It is so critical that people vote and that voter suppression efforts are stopped.

The area I live in is blue, true blue (NY, VT area). Anything I
can do to help folks in states at risk? Have a great deal of
open time. Money, well...that's an issue best not discussed. :|

Yeah, we'll probably screw it up. :whoop:

This is a very good question. If I hear of anything I will pass along the info.


No, we can't afford it! But yeah, anytime things start to look favorable for the Democrats, I too wonder how they are going to manage to screw it up. :|

(after close to 20 years on BF sites I have learned how to multi-quote. So proud, lol.)

Ted Cruz: the gift that keeps on giving. Fingers crossed for Beto.
 

Beto O'Rourke wants to debate Ted Cruz 6 times, including twice in Spanish

"A debate in Spanish would not be very good because my Spanish isn’t good enough," U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said at a campaign event Tuesday afternoon, "but I look forward to debating Congressman O’Rourke."

BY PATRICK SVITEK MAY 1, 2018 UPDATED: 4:25 PM

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, has invited U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to participate in six debates with O'Rourke across Texas, two of them in Spanish, during their U.S. Senate race.

O'Rourke campaign manager Jody Casey made the proposal in a letter last week to Cruz's senior staff, adding that the debates should have "media reach to all twenty markets in the state."

"I would like to begin direct coordination of the debates with your campaign team between now and May 10th," Casey wrote to Cruz advisers Bryan English and Eric Hollander in the April 24 letter. “Please advise my best point of contact on the Cruz campaign team."

Cruz previously suggested he is open to debating O'Rourke. Cruz's campaign said in response to the letter that it was exploring its options.

"Sen. Cruz has said he's looking forward to debates," Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said in a statement. "We are considering all possibilities in front of us and will be working with potential hosts and the O'Rourke campaign to determine the best platforms available so that Texans from all corners of the state can hear from the candidates directly about their views for Texas' future."

Regardless of what the campaigns ultimately agree to, debates in Spanish between the candidates seem unlikely. While O'Rourke is fluent in the language, Cruz is not known as a proficient speaker.

After a campaign event Tuesday afternoon in San Antonio, Cruz admitted to reporters that his Spanish "remains lousy" before offering a sentence in the language: "I understand almost everything, but I can't speak like I want to." Cruz, whose father came to America from Cuba, chalked up his shoddy Spanish skills to "the curse of the second-generation immigrant," adding that he suspects many in the Hispanic community can relate.

"A debate in Spanish would not be very good because my Spanish isn’t good enough, but I look forward to debating Congressman O’Rourke," Cruz said.

Still, Cruz has professed little resistance to sparring with O'Rourke so far. Asked in March if he would debate O'Rourke, Cruz told reporters he is "sure we'll see a debate in this race." Cruz noted that he debated U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., multiple times on national TV last year before adding, "I am not remotely afraid to debate left-wing liberal socialists."

During a conference call with supporters Thursday, O'Rourke alluded to the letter while fielding a question about whether there will be a debate between him and Cruz.

"We certainly want a debate," O'Rourke said, adding that his campaign is working to "make sure that we give every voter in Texas the opportunity to know the difference between the two candidates, their track record of service, what they hope to achieve for the state of Texas and the way in which they are campaigning."

O'Rourke suggested he was undeterred by Cruz's past as a college debate champion and a lawyer who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court nine times.

"While I know that Cruz is a master debater, a very skilled politician, a very shrewd person ... I would love the opportunity to talk about what all of us have been doing together over the course of the campaign and what we want to achieve for Texas," O'Rourke told supporters. "I’m very much looking forward to it."

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05...ent=8304509940

Oh California! From the Cook Political Report:
 

NOTE: Analyis of 7 districts can be found at link at the bottom. Article too long to post.

CALIFORNIA HOUSE
House: Democrats Risk Disaster in California's Top Two Primaries

David Wasserman May 2, 2018

Republicans badly need a few lucky breaks to hold their House majority in November. So far in 2018, it's been the opposite story — from an unfriendly new Pennsylvania map to Speaker Paul Ryan's retirement and bleak special election results. But with five weeks to go before California's June 5 primary, Democrats are at risk of squandering several seats that would otherwise appear to be golden pickup opportunities.

Democrats' path to a majority depends on California more than any other state: they have excellent chances in seven GOP seats that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016, and a few more could be long shots in a wave. But in at least four districts, Democratic over-enthusiasm has produced crowded fields that could lock Democrats out of the fall race altogether.

Under California's unorthodox "top two" primary system — first implemented in 2012 — all candidates appear on the same June primary ballot and the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to a November runoff. In 2012, catastrophe struck Democrats when their top candidate in the new 31st CD, Pete Aguilar, took third place in the primary behind two Republicans, locking them out of a highly winnable race (Aguilar won the seat in 2014).

The same fate could befall other Democrats in 2018. In the 39th, 48th and 49th districts -- all Orange County GOP seats that voted for Clinton — the "blue wave" has generated throngs of viable Democratic candidates in districts where GOP voters traditionally make up a majority of the primary vote. And while Democrats have struggled to break out of their packs, there are at least two viable Republican candidates on the ballot in each of those races.

At the moment, Democrats face the greatest danger of a shutout in the 48th CD, where Rep. Dana Rohrabacher faces a credible challenge from former Orange County GOP chair Scott Baugh and three credible Democrats will be dividing their party's vote. But it's also possible Democrats could fail to make the fall ballot in the 39th and 49th CDs, where Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa are retiring, as well as tarnished Rep. Duncan Hunter's 50th CD.

Democrats have had nightmares about "lockout" scenarios all cycle. And in some ways, the DCCC is in a paralyzing predicament. If top House Democrats don't insert themselves in races and a Democrat fails to advance to November, they would get blamed for whistling past a train wreck. But whenever they do, they risk looking like aloof meddlers and tarring their intended beneficiary as the candidate of "Beltway insiders."

The DCCC has been most assertive in the 39th CD, adding retired Navy officer Gil Cisneros to its Red to Blue list to try to help him break out of a six-Democrat pack. Democrats have also succeeded in pressuring several lower-tier candidates to drop out of races to improve their odds, including Phil Janowicz and Jay Chen in the 39th CD and Laura Oatman and Rachel Payne in the 48th CD (though it's too late to take their names off the ballot).

But over the next month, it may have no choice to take more aggressive action in the 48th and 49th CDs to avoid lockouts. That could involve engineering high-profile endorsements for one Democrat or strategically attacking certain GOP candidates with independent expenditures.

It's an unenviable task, because DCCC Chair Rep. Ben Ray Lujan and House Democrats are operating in a much different media environment than the one 2006 DCCC Chair Rep. Rahm Emanuel faced. In 2006, activist blogs were a relatively new political phenomenon and it was easier to maneuver behind the scenes. In 2018, jilted campaigns routinely leak damaging audio to The Intercept and social media, not DC, makes or breaks candidacies.

The GOP's lack of viable statewide contenders and Trump's unpopularity on the West Coast could be an existential threat to the 14 remaining Republicans in California's 53-member delegation. But the state's top-two system could throw some of them a life raft. Traditionally, the state's June electorate is much older and more Republican than its November electorate, and Democrats must increase their own voters' participation to avoid catastrophe.

Democrats' potential for Golden State gains hinges on high-stakes primaries in the seven districts below — especially those in the 39th, 48th, and 49th.

https://cookpolitical.com/analysis/h...-two-primaries

From BallotPedia.org (2018 midterm seats up for election, etc)
 

Here's an interesting article of information regarding seats up for election or reelection, in terms of Democratic seats vs GOP seats.

LINK: https://ballotpedia.org/United_State...lections,_2018

I went online and googled "ways to help northern NY and VT" and got this. There are ways to help other than just money. I'm glad that you asked the question.

I think this applies to all states! Even blue states should take nothing for granted. All states have a League of Women Voters organization.

The League of Women Voters of the North Country do things like community education and assisting in registering new voters.

http://www.plattsburgh.ny.lwvnet.org

https://www.northcountrypublicradio....iberal-vermont

Bump Bump! Swing State News....
 

Anya? BullDog?? Andrea???

Did any of you see last week that Ohio is trying to create legislation in favor of the far right political view that impedes an woman's choice to exercise abortion?

I mention this because Swing States are the proverbial wild cards to watch out for in any election cycle....especially Ohio.

Here's an NPR news article about the Ohio GOP trying to pass an Anti-abortion bill in their House of Representatives.

LINK:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...o-ban-abortion

President Obama endorses Diane Feinstein (May 4th, 2018)
 

Here is an article from Politico about Obama endorsing Diane Feinstien.... for re-election during the midterm election process for California.

LINK: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...rsement-569178

Sorry have been up to my eyebrows in work but thanks for the link. Ohio is definitely a critical state to watch and if things continue to look bad for Republicans they will probably try to cram more legislation through while they have power - both at the state and federal level.

The corruption from the White House continues to astound (not necessarily surprising but well beyond any level of corruption we have ever seen. )

Oh, I am so distraught with the way they make it look like they care about policies when in fact they don't care at all, except for how they will cash in on setting up their own version of x, y or z.....Which will help no one.

And yes, corruption is exactly what's going on.

I agree with you Bulldog!

Upcoming midterms June 5th, June 12th, June 19th, June 26th and 30th
 

June 5th

California primaries
Senate: Dianne Feinstein is up for re-election.
House: 10 out of 53 races are competitive in the general election.

California offers some of the biggest opportunities for Democrats to take back the House, given changing demographics, the decline of the Republican Party in the state and policies being pushed in Washington. Two of the most vulnerable Republicans — Ed Royce in the 39th District and Darrell Issa in the 49th District — have already announced that they are not seeking re-election.

Mississippi primaries
Senate: Roger Wicker is up for re-election.
Senator Thad Cochran’s decision to retire set off a game of musical chairs. Instead of Senator Roger Wicker defending his seat from a major rival in a Republican primary on June 5, the state’s big battle is expected in November, when there there will be a special election to finish Mr. Cochran’s term. Chris McDaniel, a state senator who almost unseated Mr. Cochran in 2014 and had previously decided to challenge Mr. Wicker, will run in a growing field for Mr. Cochran’s seat instead.

Alabama primaries

Iowa primaries
House: 2 out of 4 races are competitive in the general election.

Montana primaries
Senate: Jon Tester is up for re-election.
House: 1 race is competitive in the general election.

New Jersey primaries
Senate: Robert Menendez is up for re-election.
House: 5 out of 12 races are competitive in the general election.

New Mexico primaries
Senate: Martin Heinrich is up for re-election.
House: 1 out of 3 races is competitive in the general election.

South Dakota primaries
Senate: Martin Heinrich is up for re-election.
House: 1 out of 3 races is competitive in the general election.

June 12th

The Nevada Senate seat is crucial for Republicans.

Nevada primaries
Senate: Dean Heller is up for re-election.
House: 2 out of 4 races are competitive in the general election.
Mr. Heller no longer faces a primary fight against Danny Tarkanian, a Nevada businessman who had fiercely criticized Mr. Heller, after Mr. Trump persuaded Mr. Tarkanian to drop out of the race. In the Fourth District, Representative Ruben Kihuen, a Democrat, said he would not seek re-election after sexual misconduct accusations surfaced.

Maine primaries
Senate: Angus King is up for re-election.
House: 1 out of 2 races is competitive in the general election.

North Dakota primaries
Senate: Heidi Heitkamp is up for re-election.

South Carolina primaries

Virginia primaries
Senate: Tim Kaine is up for re-election.
House: 4 out of 11 races are competitive in the general election.

June 19

Arkansas primaries runoff

June 26

New York Democrats are energized to run in Republican-held districts.

New York primaries
Senate: Kirsten Gillibrand is up for re-election.
House: 5 out of 27 races are competitive in the general election.

Eight Democrats have combined to raise nearly $4 million in the Democratic primary to challenge Representative John Faso, a Republican, in New York’s 19th Congressional District, which covers much of the Hudson River Valley.

Maryland primaries
Senate: Benjamin L. Cardin is up for re-election.
Chelsea Manning, a former Army private convicted of disclosing classified information, has filed to run in the Democratic primary against Mr. Cardin, who won handily in 2012.

Utah primaries
Senate: The Senate race is open. (Senator Orrin G. Hatch is not seeking re-election.)
House: 1 out of 4 races is competitive in the general election.
Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate and a critic of Mr. Trump, is expected to cruise to victory in the primary and general elections.

Colorado primaries
House: 1 out of 7 races is competitive in the general election.

Oklahoma primaries

Mississippi primaries runoff

South Carolina primaries runoff

June 30

Texas special House election
Texas is holding a special election in the 27th District to fill the former seat of Blake Farenthold, a Republican who resigned after using taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment case with his former communications director. A crowded field of nine candidates means that a September runoff is likely.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...y-results.html

Grabbing Back: Women in the Age of Trump | all about women 2018
 

Fran Lebowitz
Francesca Donner
Sophia Nelson
Julia Baird

March 4, 2018

Thanks Anya for the links. Just got them due to a personal issue which has kept me offline for awhile.
Contacted them to see what help I can offer.

Wisconsin news!
 

Caleb Frostman just clinched the democratic seat in Wisconsin's House of Representatives, tonight.

Big election upset. Huge win!!!

LINK:

HuffPost: Democrats Score Special Election Upset In Wisconsin District Trump Won Big.


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...=NEWSSTAND0001

London Breed elected Mayor of San Francisco
 

https://amp.businessinsider.com/imag...03-750-562.jpg

London Breed was elected as San Fransico's first African-American woman Mayor.

Breed's vision for the city is to develop and implement more housing opportunities and to increase diversity within the city.

Here's an link to this news story about London Breed:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sfc...n-12991871.php

Voter Issue News Update
 

Just hours ago, The Washington Post issued an press release on how the US Supreme Court is sidestepping voter issues and gerrymandering of certain districts in order for either political party to increase their odds at retaining political power.

Very interesting update and an political hot button issue for how votes are cast, who gets to vote, how certain minority sectors of US society are kept at bay and things of this nature.

We need voter reform in the worst way and I know that it's nearly impossible to address with the strangle hold the GOP has in current day political affairs... but it's worth an read because, I feel, until this is effectively addressed, voting issues (gerrymandering of districts, the electoral college issue, et al) will prove difficult to rectify, or redact poorly written codified laws, until these critical voting issues and others is addressed in unbiased, non-partisan ways.

LINK:


The Washington Post: Supreme Court sidesteps decision on partisan gerrymandering in rulings on Wisconsin, Maryland cases.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...fe4_story.html

Politico Press Release about Nancy Pelosi (D).
 

I just came across an interesting article about Nancy Pelosi (D) and am not sure if this is an omen of good or bad news or an omen of things yet not fully understood or known.

If anybody cares to expound on this article of interest, I'm sincerely interested in your thoughts about it (Anya, Bulldog, Andrea, Orema, others???).

See article below:

POLITICO: Democratic candidates vow to dump Pelosi.


https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...idterms-655484

Vox - 2018 midterms: Michael Bloomberg is going all in for Democrats.


https://www.vox.com/2018/6/21/174885...-2018-midterms

BBC News: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Millennial beats veteran Democrat.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) won her first political bid in an stunning upset over 10-term congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY).

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/C...JkLXSh3LNl.jpg
(Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & Cynthia Nixon photo courtesy of Zimbio . Com)

LINK:

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44625617

Kennedy Announces Retirement From The Supreme Court
 

Horrendous news:

America after Anthony Kennedy

What Kennedy’s departure will mean for abortion, gay rights, and more.

Anthony Kennedy, the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, is retiring.

Kennedy has, since at least 2005, been the swing vote on many of the Court’s most ideologically charged decisions, responsible for 5-4 rulings that legalized same-sex marriage, preserved Roe v. Wade, upheld warrantless wiretapping, blew up campaign finance restrictions, overturned DC’s handgun ban, and weakened the Voting Rights Act. That position has made him one of the most powerful people in America for well over a decade now, not even counting the 18 years he shared his position as the Court’s swing voter with Sandra Day O’Connor.

But Kennedy, who turns 82 this July, is already the 14th longest-serving justice (out of 113) in the Court’s history. President Donald Trump reportedly nominated Neil Gorsuch, a former Kennedy clerk, to the Court in part to reassure Kennedy that he could trust Trump with picking his replacement. It’s not surprising he decided it was ultimately time to go.

rest of article:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...-supreme-court

Gee, it was only yesterday that I posted in CIJS that I was worried about 85-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg's health holding up until Trump is not re-elected in 2020 and then Kennedy retires.

Here comes another conservative.

I feel so angry all over again about the 2016 election.

100 million eligible voters did not vote and could have helped ensure Trump was not elected and here we are.

Hopefully This Is Something
 

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3...pect-precedent

Collins: I look for judges who 'respect precedent'

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Wednesday that she believes Roe v. Wade is settled legal precedent — and she believes judges should respect precedent.

"I view Roe v. Wade as being settled law. It’s clearly precedent and I always look for judges who respect precedent," Collins told reporters on Wednesday, referencing the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Her comments come after Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement announcement quickly reignited talk of a possible fight over abortion.

Kennedy had been the fifth vote for upholding Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that established the right to abortion in 1973.

Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are viewed as two potential early swing votes on Trump's forthcoming nominee. Progressives already are urging voters to push the two senators to oppose a nominee deemed too conservative on abortion.

Hours after Kennedy's retirement was reported, Murkowski issued a statement saying that Trump's next Supreme Court pick could expect "exacting scrutiny."

"It is my longstanding practice to carefully scrutinize the qualifications of judicial nominees and to cast an independent vote when judicial nominations come before the Senate," Murkowski wrote in a tweeted statement. There is no doubt that the President's nominee to succeed Justice Kennedy can expect exacting scrutiny from the Senate and that is the standard I will apply in evaluating the nominee."

Asked if she had concerns about a potential nominee due to their potential for being the swing vote on abortion-related comments, Collins demurred, but signaled she preferred someone moderate.

"That obviously would be my preference but what I'm most looking for is a Justice that will follow the law and the constitution," she added.

So many times before, I thought, hey, she is getting 1/2 of a backbone, but then she voted with the rest of the GOP.

She would never stand up to Trump or the GOP majority.

I'm not feeling very good about politics right now.

I'm going to watch Suoer Troopers and try not to think about politics.

Yeah Anya. She's more likely to go against on social issues. She did on health care but voted for the horrible tax plan. She supported and voted for Gorsuch, so yeah probably not and we shouldn't be looking for Republicans to bail us out.

Not good.

Anya - Not too awfully worried about Ruth Bader Ginsberg's, have you seen
her fitness workout.

Am really concerned about what right-wing, anti LGBTQ and women's rights bigots Trump will find for those SCOTUS vacancies coming up.

Shortly after 5 am (Pacific Coast Time), NPR issued an press release concerning potential SCJ nominees. It's not hard to connect the dots, but none of the so-called nominees are anyone I would ever approve of, as an American citizen. All of the nominees can be traced back as far as RR or GWB or GHB (...).

This is NOT good news at all.

In fact, it's an opportunity to see how this type of process is interconnected to intergenerational ways of retaining various forms of corrupt power in place and .....(dare to say), virtually unchallenged.

See title of article and link below:


NPR: President Trump's List Of Replacements For Justice Kennedy's Supreme Court Seat.


https://www.npr.org/2018/06/28/62394...t=nprml&f=1001

Voter Issue News (Update)
 

Here's another news article and update (as an reading companion to the article above).

The journalist lays out an compelling argument, which supports ideas about the top-heavy Conservative SCJ's lack of duty to make an concise decision in support of disrupting judicial law applications, which currently do not prevent gerrymandering of voting districts, which enables an certain political party to retain power (...).

Salon: Supreme Court makes it quite clear it won’t lift a finger to stop ruthless gerrymandering.


https://www.salon.com/2018/06/27/sup...ering_partner/

Sean Hannity just presented Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) platform as a really, really bad thing
 

The Old Boys Network Is Alive And Well
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/u...etirement.html

Inside the White House’s Quiet Campaign to Create a Supreme Court Opening
Image

By Adam Liptak and Maggie Haberman
June 28, 2018


WASHINGTON — President Trump singled him out for praise even while attacking other members of the Supreme Court. The White House nominated people close to him to important judicial posts. And members of the Trump family forged personal connections.

Their goal was to assure Justice Anthony M. Kennedy that his judicial legacy would be in good hands should he step down at the end of the court’s term this week, as he was rumored to be considering. Allies of the White House were more blunt, warning the 81-year-old justice that time was of the essence. There was no telling, they said, what would happen if Democrats gained control of the Senate after the November elections and had the power to block the president’s choice as his successor.

There were no direct efforts to pressure or lobby Justice Kennedy to announce his resignation on Wednesday, and it was hardly the first time a president had done his best to create a court opening. “In the past half-century, presidents have repeatedly been dying to take advantage of timely vacancies,” said Laura Kalman, a historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

But in subtle and not so subtle ways, the White House waged a quiet campaign to ensure that Mr. Trump had a second opportunity in his administration’s first 18 months to fulfill one of his most important campaign promises to his conservative followers — that he would change the complexion and direction of the Supreme Court.

When Mr. Trump took office last year, he already had a Supreme Court vacancy to fill, the one created by the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia. But Mr. Trump dearly wanted a second vacancy, one that could transform the court for a generation or more. So he used the first opening to help create the second one. He picked Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who had served as a law clerk to Justice Kennedy, to fill Justice Scalia’s seat.

And when Justice Gorsuch took the judicial oath in April 2017 at a Rose Garden ceremony, Justice Kennedy administered it — after Mr. Trump first praised the older justice as “a great man of outstanding accomplishment.”

“Throughout his nearly 30 years on the Supreme Court,” Mr. Trump said, “Justice Kennedy has been praised by all for his dedicated and dignified service.”

That was an overstatement. Justice Kennedy is reviled by many of Mr. Trump’s supporters for voting to uphold access to abortion, limit the death penalty and expand gay rights. Conservatives have called for his impeachment. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, once called Justice Kennedy “the most dangerous man in America.”

Mr. Trump himself said he wanted to appoint justices who would overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. Justice Kennedy has voted to reaffirm Roe’s core holding. And Mr. Trump has not hesitated to criticize far more conservative members of the Supreme Court, notably Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

“Justice Roberts turned out to be an absolute disaster, he turned out to be an absolute disaster because he gave us Obamacare,” Mr. Trump said in 2016, presumably referring to Chief Justice Roberts’s votes to sustain President Barack Obama’s health care law.

There is reason to think, then, that Mr. Trump’s praise of Justice Kennedy was strategic.

Then, after Justice Gorsuch’s nomination was announced, a White House official singled out two candidates for the next Supreme Court vacancy: Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati.

The two judges had something in common: They had both clerked for Justice Kennedy.

In the meantime, as the White House turned to stocking the lower courts, it did not overlook Justice Kennedy’s clerks. Mr. Trump nominated three of them to federal appeals courts: Judges Stephanos Bibas and Michael Scudder, both of whom have been confirmed, and Eric Murphy, the Ohio solicitor general, whom Mr. Trump nominated to the Sixth Circuit this month.

One person who knows both men remarked on the affinity between Mr. Trump and Justice Kennedy, which is not obvious at first glance. Justice Kennedy is bookish and abstract, while Mr. Trump is earthy and direct.


But they had a connection, one Mr. Trump was quick to note in the moments after his first address to Congress in February 2017. As he made his way out of the chamber, Mr. Trump paused to chat with the justice.

“Say hello to your boy,” Mr. Trump said. “Special guy.”

Mr. Trump was apparently referring to Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin. The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, eventually rising to become the bank’s global head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer, according to two people with knowledge of his role.

During Mr. Kennedy’s tenure, Deutsche Bank became Mr. Trump’s most important lender, dispensing well over $1 billion in loans to him for the renovation and construction of skyscrapers in New York and Chicago at a time other mainstream banks were wary of doing business with him because of his troubled business history.

About a week before the presidential address, Ivanka Trump had paid a visit to the Supreme Court as a guest of Justice Kennedy. The two had met at a lunch after the inauguration, and Ms. Trump brought along her daughter, Arabella Kushner. Occupying seats reserved for special guests, they saw the justices announce several decisions and hear an oral argument.

Ms. Trump tweeted about the visit and posted a photo. “Arabella & me at the Supreme Court today,” she wrote. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to teach her about the judicial system in our country firsthand.”

If the overtures to Justice Kennedy from the White House were subtle, the warnings from its allies were blunt. Last month, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, went on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program to issue an urgent plea.

“My message to any one of the nine Supreme Court justices,” he said, was, “‘If you’re thinking about quitting this year, do it yesterday.’”


Mr. Grassley said speed was of the essence in light of the midterm elections in November. “If we have a Democrat Senate,” he said, “you’re never going to get the kind of people that are strict constructionists.”

Intermediaries pressed the point with Justice Kennedy privately, telling him that Donald F. McGahn II, Mr. Trump’s White House counsel, would in all probability leave after the midterms. Mr. McGahn has been a key architect of Mr. Trump’s successful efforts to appoint wave after wave of conservative judges, they said, and his absence would complicate a Supreme Court confirmation.

There is nothing particularly unusual in urging older justices to retire for partisan reasons. During the Obama administration, prominent liberals called for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire so that Mr. Obama could name her successor.

Justice Kennedy waited until the last day of the term to announce his retirement. The move disappointed liberals who had hoped that he would not want Mr. Trump to name his successor. But the justice, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family, betrayed no hesitation.

His departure is a triumph for Mr. Trump, who has taken particular satisfaction in his judicial appointments. Naming justices and judges is easier than forging legislative compromises, and Mr. Trump understands that his judicial appointments represent a legacy that will long outlast his presidency.

Replacing Justice Scalia with another conservative did not alter the basic ideological balance of the court. But replacing Justice Kennedy, who for decades held the decisive vote in many of the court’s closely divided cases, would give Mr. Trump the opportunity to move the court sharply to the right.

Justice Kennedy visited the White House on Wednesday to tell Mr. Trump of his retirement and to deliver a letter setting out the details. Its warm opening words — “My dear Mr. President” — acknowledged a cordial relationship between the two men, as well as the success of the White House’s strategy.

Wow, not a good way to start the weekend, but WTH??? I just read an press release issued, two hours ago, by The Slate on how SCJ Kennedy's son, an top banking official in Germany, lent BILLIONS of $$$$$ to you-know-who, back when no banking official in their right mind would lend big money to anyone with multiple bankruptcies on record (etc).

Who in their right mind allows that type of thing to go down, especially if you're an SCJ and the lender is your son??? Conflict of interest? Conflict of ethics???

Can we spell c o n f l i c t???

Makes one do more than wonder:

It's outrageous!

:firetruck: :firetruck: :firetruck:

I don't see any "America the Beautiful."

America is so ugly right now, it is maddening, sickening, and horribly upsetting to read this in today's news.


Slate: The Supreme Court Just Revived a Doctrine That Could Crush American Democracy (...)


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...eme-court.html

And now, for some good news. I'm all in support of Michael Bloomberg's imminent bid for the US presidency, in 2020.

My favorite thing about Bloomberg is his impeccable ethos and how one of the central tenets of Bloomberg Organizational Culture is....

Do The Right Thing.

I'm hoping everyone has an relaxing weekend. Please do be safe and take good care during the holiday weekend ahead, next week. :rrose:

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

CNN: Why Mike Bloomberg is betting $80 million on the Democrats.


https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/opini...son/index.html

You are so right. America is ugly now.

I don't even recognize it any more.

I am just going to leave this hear with my deepest condolences to all that we're duped by the orange idiot......

From former Press Secretary Sean Spicer's new book:

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/07/...n-speech-scam/

An endorsement from chump for Spicer's new book:

"A friend of mine and a man who has truly seen politics and life as few others will, Sean Spicer, has written a great new book, The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President. It is a story told with both heart and knowledge. Really good, go get it!" — President Donald J. Trump

Guess it's perfectly fine that he lied to the LGBTQ community - he lies so often. Not that most of us were fooled. Ugh.

Here*. I have a stupid auto-correct on my stupid phone. I have no idea why it would have thought I "heard" anything. UGH