Politics-What's on your mind?

[nhplowboi]

The Democrats will have to hire about 8 sage dealers to handle the White House after Trump is voted out.

[Cin]

"Dismissing glaring concerns about voter intimidation, a Michigan judge on Tuesday struck down a directive from the secretary of state banning the open carry of firearms at polling places on Election Day."

Open carry at polling places. Gee, what's wrong with that picture?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...open-carry-ban

[homoe]

[BullDog]

Another story about the surge in young voters.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...e-to-the-polls

Yes, I already posted about the topic, but with all the doom and gloom that gets discussed, I do like to point out some of the positive things that are happening. Cynicism is exactly what the Repugs want us to feel.

Georgia is very much in play and maybe even Texas.

Great job on early voting overall, it continues to surge.

[~ocean]

OMG on CNN right now Miles Taylor what he just said the reason for resigning from being the DHS Chief of Staff ~ TRUMP should be put in jail w/ a death penalty on him. PLEASE watch CNN Chris Cuomo tonight. TRUMP ordered the parents of the children at the border to be SHOT and GASSED. he is friggen Hitler reborn. why in the hell is this man alive and free??? justice ???? I am ashamed of our country to let this man get away with MURDER.

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by ~ocean

OMG on CNN right now Miles Taylor what he just said the reason for resigning from being the DHS Chief of Staff ~ TRUMP should be put in jail w/ a death penalty on him. PLEASE watch CNN Chris Cuomo tonight. TRUMP ordered the parents of the children at the border to be SHOT and GASSED. he is friggen Hitler reborn. why in the hell is this man alive and free??? justice ???? I am ashamed of our country to let this man get away with MURDER.

That is simply beyond horrible! Thanks for letting us know what Miles Taylor has said in his interview with Chris Cuomo. That right there is definitely breaking news and I sure do hope swift action is taken.

[homoe]

'Quick, quick, quick': Trump rushes McSally at rally as she fights to hold her Senate seat.


President Donald Trump offered a not-very warm welcome to Sen. Martha McSally on Wednesday at his campaign rally in Arizona, where McSally, also a Republican, is fighting to hold on to her seat.

After saying she was "respected by everybody" and "great," Trump rushed McSally to the stage at an airport rally in Goodyear to say a few words.

"Martha, just come up fast. Fast. Fast. Come on. Quick. You got one minute! One minute, Martha! They don’t want to hear this, Martha. Come on. Let’s go. Quick, quick, quick. Come on. Let’s go," Trump said.

McSally spoke for just over a minute, and said she was "proud" to work with the president — something a moderator could not get her say during her debate with Democratic challenger Mark Kelly earlier this month.

After McSally spoke, Trump called up a trio of politicians from out of state to speak — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Of the three, only McCarthy, the House Republican leader, is running for re-election in November. All spoke longer than McSally did — as did another guest speaker Trump called on, Nigel Farage of Britain's Brexit party. Trump did not rush any of those four.

IMHO...No doubt Trump thinks she's got no chance of being elected and will be of no further use to him should he win!

[homoe]

There have been few high-profile Republican politicians more publicly and slavishly devoted to President Trump over the last few years than Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Words like "toady" and "lapdog" have frequently been used to describe the senator's subservience. Apparently that near-total fealty hasn't been enough for Graham to earn a little loyalty in return.

The Trumpiest corners of the conservative ecosphere have made it plain in recent weeks that they're ready to abandon Graham — who is locked in a tight re-election race with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison — even if it means losing his Senate seat. "I don't know why anyone in the great state of South Carolina would ever vote for Lindsey Graham. It's just outrageous," Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said last week.

"It's about time" for Graham to be defeated, added a writer at the right-wing American Greatness website.

Graham has never been particularly popular among hardcore conservatives, but it is still shocking to see them turn on a fellow Republican candidate in a close general election race. For right-wing activists, the senator's problem is that he is only about 97 percent steadfast in serving Trump's wishes, instead of a full 100 percent. Dobbs, for example, pointed out that Graham — in his role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — had failed to pursue evidence of the fake "Obamagate" scandal that Trump has tried — and failed — to get going. It's the same reason Trump has talked about getting rid of FBI Director Christopher Wray after the election. "He's done absolutely nothing to investigate Obamagate except to tell everyone, 'Stay tuned,' time and time again. Stay tuned," Dobbs said. "Senator Graham needs to be tuned out in South Carolina."

The rhetoric could endanger Graham's campaign: If even a small portion of South Carolina conservatives decide to withhold their support, he could lose his seat. Trump could possibly discourage the attacks on Graham if he wanted to, but so far, he hasn't. One has to wonder if the president had Graham in mind last week when he told GOP donors there were some Republican senators he just couldn't support for re-election. "There are a couple senators I can't really get involved in," Trump reportedly said. "I just can't do it. You lose your soul if you do. I can't help some of them. I don't want to help some of them."

[~ocean]

Graham is a shameful person homoe ~ 2 good posts !!!

[homoe]

Trump wants to prosecute Miles Taylor and New York Times; Taylor says president wants to lock up critics
Kicking off his campaign day Thursday, Trump again called on authorities to prosecute political opponents – this time the once-anonymous aide Miles Taylor, who criticized him in a high-profile New York Times column and subsequent book.

There "should be major criminal liability for such scum like that," Trump said of Taylor during a campaign rally in Tampa, Fla.

"Are you listening to me back in Washington?" Trump added. "He should be prosecuted."

Taylor, who on Wednesday disclosed he is the anti-Trump writer known as Anonymous, responded on Twitter that Trump is trying to use the legal system to punish and silence opponents.

"The state of open dissent in America: the President derides critics as 'traitors' and 'treasonous'; threatens to 'prosecute' & 'lock them up'; and ominously warns 'bad things' will happen to them," Taylor said. "Is this who we are?"

In the 2018 column and a 2019 book called "A Warning," Taylor said that Trump routinely urged aides to take illegal actions and suggested that the president might refuse to leave office, even if he is defeated for re-election.

“He will not exit quietly – or easily,” Anonymous wrote in "A Warning."

Taylor worked for Trump as an official in the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump also called for prosecution of The New York Times, never mind the First Amendment protections for newspapers (and critics).

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — Two years ago, when Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced that she would vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after he was accused of sexual assault, liberal groups vowed to oust her in the 2020 election — and they haven’t hit the brakes since.

Her opponent, Sara Gideon, who currently serves as the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, has posted stunning fundraising numbers, raising more than $63.6 million since she launched her campaign last summer, while Collins raised just $25.2 million over the last two years.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...cal-journalism

[nhplowboi]

So let me get this straight Tucker Carlson. You had ALL the information to take down Joe Biden and you just dropped it in the mail (USPS) to send to ???? and the envelope was opened and all the evidence is missing?! Wow.......no copies of such valuable evidence? You didn't hire a currier or hand deliver it? Yep, that is believable. You are disgusting.

[~ocean]

Originally Posted by nhplowboi

So let me get this straight Tucker Carlson. You had ALL the information to take down Joe Biden and you just dropped it in the mail (USPS) to send to ???? and the envelope was opened and all the evidence is missing?! Wow.......no copies of such valuable evidence? You didn't hire a currier or hand deliver it? Yep, that is believable. You are disgusting.

lololol NH you crack me up ~ obviously TUCKER has the " Pinocchio " syndrome ~ see Tucker has faith in the USPS but, but , the envelope was empty ~ oh my !

[homoe]

WINDHAM, Maine — Both Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Sara Gideon are hitting the campaign trail hard in the final days left until Election Day. Recent polls show the race for Collins' Senate seat is a statistical dead heat.

A Colby College Poll released this week showed Gideon had a slight lead 47 percent to Collins' 43 percent. The margin of error was three percent.

"I'm feeling great," Collins said at a campaign stop in Windham Thursday. "I'm taking the campaign bus all over the state. We've already logged more than 4,500 miles, and it's such fun to come to the smaller communities in Maine."

Sidebar: but Susan you said this remember?

[homoe]

Graham is being challenged for his seat by Jamie Harrison, a 44-year-old former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party

South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is less popular than ever, according to an exclusive new poll for the Independent. Mr Graham, 65, is facing a surprisingly tough re-election battle, and is locked in the fight to save his political life.

His hopes of clinging on to a seat he has held since 2003 have not been helped by his enthusiastic backing of Mr Trump.More than a third of American voters — 34 per cent — say they have a worse view of him than four years ago, according to a new poll for the Independent, carried out by JL Partners. They spoke to 1,002 people between 26 October and 28 October.

[Cin]

What is on my mind (and has been on my mind a lot since this endless election counting began) is what it might mean that over 72 million Americans voted for Trump to be the US President for another 4 years. They came out in droves to support him. It was mostly white people of course, although 34% of Asian voters, 32% of Latinx voters, 13% of black voters, and 41% of other voters chose Trump. I assume non white voters support Trump and the Republican party for tax reasons, fiscally conservative reasons, and/or socially conservative/religious reasons. However I don't believe those are the primary motivators for white republicans any longer, if they ever were. And any non white American supporting Donald Trump needs to understand this, anyone with a soul needs to understand this regardless of anything else. Although I suppose people could understand this completely and just not care. It does seem an odd thing not to care about, but then so is a pandemic and plenty of people don't seem to care about that. But to get back on track, 1972 was the year the Republicans succeeded with their Southern strategy and they have never looked back. I personally believe religious zeal drives many Republicans, but I also think nothing is as important as white nationalism. Here is an interesting article that speaks to this issue.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/20...-get-better-us

Things May Get Worse Before They Get Better for the U.S.

For many, Trump’s ouster is a relief. But his steadfast support among white voters puts his party on a crash course with democracy.

byWalden Bello

I’m one of those kibitzers who supported Joe Biden reluctantly from a distance, mainly because I felt that for both the U.S. and the world, he was the lesser evil. And like many, I breathed a sigh of relief when Biden crossed the 270 electoral vote marker.

Then the political sociologist in me took over as I looked at the electoral breakdown by race.

The electoral coalition that was behind Biden’s win was a minority of whites (42 percent, most likely the people with more years in school), the vast majority of Black voters (87 percent), and a big majority of Latinx voters (66 percent) and Asian American voters (63 percent).Whites make up around over 65 percent of the electorate of the US. Surveys show that 57 percent of white voters (56 percent women, 58 percent men) went for Trump, despite everything—his awful mismanagement of the pandemic, his lies, his anti-science attitude, his divisiveness, and his blatant pandering to white nationalist groups like the Nazis, Klan, and Proud Boys.

Trump’s support among whites was essentially the same as in 2016, with support from women rising to make up for a slight decline in that of men. White solidarity continues to be disturbingly strong, and, more than opposition to taxes, opposition to abortion, and unqualified defense of the market, it is now the defining ideology of the Republican Party.

How did the party of Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation, become so completely opposite of what he stood for?

The Party of White Reaction

Over the last five decades, the key feature of U.S. politics has been the unfolding of a largely race-driven counterrevolution against progressive and liberal politics.

The year 1972, when Richard Nixon beat George McGovern for the presidency, was a watershed, since it marked the success of the Republicans’ “Southern Strategy.” It had been Nixon’s aim to detach the American South from the Democratic Party and place it securely in the Republican camp as a reaction to the Democrats’ moving to embrace—albeit haltingly—the civil rights of Black people.

From 1972, the racist colonization of the Republican Party steadily progressed, reaching a first peak with Ronald Reagan, president from 1981 to 1989, whose extremely effective “dog-whistle” was the “welfare queen,” which whites decoded into “Black woman with lots of children dependent on state support.”

His successor, George H.W. Bush, memorably owed his election to his playing up the charge that his opponent Michael Dukakis, owing to a prison furlough bill the latter had supported as governor of Massachusetts, was “responsible” for a Black man, Willie Horton, going on a weekend leave from which he did not return and went on instead to commit other crimes.

This does not mean, of course, that people flocking to the Republicans during this period did not have other reasons for doing so, like opposition to abortion and to tax increases. There were a variety of reasons, but the central driver of this political migration was racism.

That racist Republican base, the majority of whom still believed as late as December 2017 that former President Obama had been born in Kenya, was the key factor that catapulted Trump to the presidency in 2016 (though Obama’s pro-free trade policies also played a crucial role in costing Hillary Clinton white working class voters in the deindustrialized Midwest states).

Turning Away from Democracy

What Trump has managed over the last few years as president is not so much to transform an already racially polarized electoral arena but to mobilize his racist base extra-electorally, combining dog-whistle race-coded language with rhetorical attacks on “Big Tech” and “Wall Street” (and on the latter, it’s just a matter of time before his followers will start zeroing in on the immigrant Indian roots of some very visible members of Silicon Valley and Wall Street’s elites, like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit.)

History has shown that when large social groups no longer feel they can win by democratic elections, the temptation towards extra-parliamentary solutions becomes very tempting. As the aggregate minority population in the U.S. moves toward parity in numbers with the white population over the next few decades, white nationalism is likely to become more rather than less popular among whites of all ages and across gender lines. That is where the danger lies now: the fascist mobilization of a white population that is in relative decline numbers-wise.

Many people are wondering why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and most other Republican top dogs aren’t telling Trump to concede, though they most likely know his claims of fraud are bogus. The reason is that they know very well that if they do, Trump’s base would turn against them, endangering their current and future ambitions.

This just goes to show how much Trump and his base have converted the Republican Party into a pliable political instrument, with a leader-base relationship much like the Nazi Party in the Germany of the 1930s.

In fact, Trump is as much a creation of his base as he is creator of that base. What liberal commentators do not understand is that it is not only a case of Trump whipping up his base for his personal political ends. It is that, but it is much more: that base wants Trump to lie for them and cheat for them and go to hell for them—and if Trump were to stick to the conventions of the transition process, he himself would run the risk of being disowned by them.

For Trump’s people, what is at stake is the maintenance of white supremacy, the enduring material and ideological legacy of the genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of African Americans that are among the key foundational elements of the United States of America. Just as the South was willing to stake everything on the roll of the dice of secession in 1861, a very large part—perhaps the majority of the Republican base—is probably now willing to resort to extra-parliamentary means to stop the tide of equal rights and equal justice for all.

In this connection, the armed pro-Trump convoys that paraded against Black Lives Matter supporters in Portland in September, and the armed band that showed up to intimidate electoral workers counting the votes in Maricopa County, Arizona, on election night, may not be aberrations but a taste of things to come.

It is now evident that the Republicans’ emerging strategy is to refuse any formal concession on Trump’s part and boycott the inaugural ceremonies, then mobilize against the Biden administration as “illegitimate,” paralyzing it over the next four years.

I hate to spell this out, but the current mood in the U.S. approximates that of civil war, and it may just be a matter of time before one side, the Trump forces, translates that mood into something more threatening, more ugly.

Can Biden’s victory be the equivalent of Lincoln’s in the elections of 1860, which led the white South to support the secession spearheaded by the slave-owning aristocracy? Lincoln’s words unfortunately ring true today as they did then: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

[BullDog]

I agree with Cin and the article above. I am sickened by how many people voted for Trump and the high percentage of white voters making up that number. I can't say I am completely shocked but it is disgusting. I kept hearing how white suburban women were fleeing Trump in droves. Well, apparently not. I guess they really don't care about children being separated from their parents, having no viable healthcare, or all of the atrocities Trump has committed and his incompetence.

I too believe white nationalism is the driving factor, although to make themselves feel better they will cite economic and other factors. The tax cuts favor the wealthy, not the middle or working classes. They are deluding themselves.

That's why any in-fighting among various factions of the Democratic party or telling Democrats they need to have better messaging, etc. I think is pretty much bullshit. We have an overwhelming problem with 65% of the electorate. They overlook their own economic interests, health, and more not to mention justice and standing up for democracy. That doesn't mean that I think we shouldn't keep fighting or trying harder but let's be clear what the huge problem is.

[Vincent]

I find the transitional period of 3 mths is very problematic in the US.

In a Aust,the govt of the day call an election and the parliament is disolved and is now in caretaker mode.
They cannot spend money or do any govt buisiness IE,pass bills sack public servants,as they are no longer the govt, while the election process is taking place.
After the Election,the new govt is imediately formed and then form a cabinet.
I'm afraid if the old govt maintained power after the election,they would clean out treasury,not that at the last election the current govt,believing they would loose ran up huge debt,then won,so now it is clearly the debt of their own making.
We have the westminster system,I'm wondering how other countries work?

Please don't make this a nationlalistic conversation,for me !!!!!
I am a world citizen.
I have blood ties to this land through Aboriginal elder maternal grandparents

Aboriginals had circular societies and were led by elders,not pyramid like capitalist society.

[homoe]

~~~
In the past few days, I've noticed several pundits bringing up "should Trump decided to run again in 2024"

STOP please I beg of you just stop it...

[Cin]

Originally Posted by BullDog

That's why any in-fighting among various factions of the Democratic party or telling Democrats they need to have better messaging, etc. I think is pretty much bullshit. We have an overwhelming problem with 65% of the electorate. They overlook their own economic interests, health, and more not to mention justice and standing up for democracy. That doesn't mean that I think we shouldn't keep fighting or trying harder but let's be clear what the huge problem is.

I totally agree that in-fighting is counter productive. I don't know how it will happen but Democrats need to find a way to compromise. I think there is a much better chance for Democrats to find common ground with each other than with Republicans. A focus on Bipartisanship will lead Democrats down a dark path and is an object lesson in futility.

But I don't think constantly pushing for a move away from over focusing on choices that serve Wall St and Silicon Valley, addressing overwhelming income inequality and taking action by putting more money in the hands of the middle and working class, raising the minimum wage, caring for the poor and the homeless, fixing a broken healthcare system, demilitarization, slashing the trillion-dollar-plus annual military budget, putting an end to the country's endless wars, embracing nuclear disarmament and being a part of the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, etc... means you are not clear what a huge problem white nationalism is in the US. It just means we need to keep the focus on what really matters for the average American.

I also don't think calling out the Democratic Party elite for blaming progressives for down ballot losses means you aren't clear on the huge problem white nationalism is in the United States. On the other hand pandering to the white nationalist party, better known as the Republican Party, does make it seem as though the huge problem of white nationalism in the US isn't clear to the Democratic Party. It isn't a good plan to focus on compromising with Republicans. And it doesn't makes it seem as though there is a lot of clarity as to what the huge problem in the US right now is if we chose to do that. We will not win the hearts and minds of the white nationalists who make up most of the Republican Party, so it would be better to focus on the needs of the people who put Biden in power. Don't make choices with the Republicans in mind, they will not make concessions, they do not compromise. Bipartisanship forces Democrats to blur lines and compromise values and the end result allows both parties to only focus on the interests of their donors and not the American people.

The Democratic Party needs to focus on getting those 2 Senate seats. If that doesn't go our way we will have to do the best we can with what we have and forget about the Republicans, we can't ever get them to compromise. All of the democratic party needs to work together, progressives and centrists, left and right, whatever you want to call them. It is a war for our for nation's soul, but it is NOT going to be won through bipartisanship. Working with a party whose agenda is white nationalism and causing chaos will not get us anything. They are not interested in working together and they are not interested in what is good for all Americans. Democrats working together for the common good and letting the American people, who are crying out for change, see that the Biden Administration is interested in bringing that change will do a lot to clarify a Democrat Party agenda so that voting Democrat isn't just voting against something, against Trump, against white nationalism, but voting FOR something, real change, systemic change. It is playing the long game, but it will go a lot further toward winning hearts and minds than focusing on making compromises and concessions that will never happen with the Republican (white nationalist) Party. The Republican party's idea of compromise is that the Democrats roll over every time.