Tag: Mid-Term Elections

Don’t Be Fooled!

Closing Thought–07Nov18

Did your fav candidate win?  Are you looking forward to a new day in DC?  Is the country better off after this Midterm?

Let me answer all questions with one statement.

“Don’t be fooled, flattered or flummoxed by the election.”

Why?

NOTHING will change and we will have nothing but chaos for the next 2 years.

But hey….don’t take my word for it……

Let’s face it. Most politicians use the mass media to obfuscate. Voters who don’t do their homework, who don’t study records of the politicians, and who can’t separate the words from the deeds will easily fall into traps laid by wily politicians.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/06/dont-be-flattered-fooled-and-flummoxed-in-todayss-election/

Whoever said that we Americans get the government we deserve was so damn right…..we deserve the shitty representation that we have now a days…..because we are too busy sucking up slogans and optics and not enough checking the accuracy of the candidates claims.

The American voters are suckers!  They proved it yet again yesterday during the 2018 midterms.

This country can not move forward until the population learns to move forward….as it is now they are stuck in the past and their voting habits prove it.

2018 Midterms Are Over!

I was gonna do this whole breakdown of the races from yesterday and the winners ….but instead why don’t you go to the media that you think has the best news and let them tell you what you want to hear……instead I want to touch on what the important stuff….the different houses of Congress…..

First the Senate……

Republicans will keep control of the Senate for at least another two years—both CNN and the AP have called it. The GOP went into Tuesday’s midterms with a 51-49 advantage, and the party appears to be on track to actually increase that margin. The bad news began early for Democrats when they lost a key race in Indiana: GOP businessman Mike Braun defeated incumbent Joe Donnelly, who had been seen as one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats, reports ABC News. Democrats also lost another seat in North Dakota and failed to flip a vulnerable one in Tennessee. Meanwhile, the GOP’s Ted Cruz won in Texas, while the race in Florida was too close to call. Notable if unsurprising winners elsewhere included Republican Mitt Romney in Utah and Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine in Virginia.

More details:

  • Missouri. Republican Josh Hawley defeated Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill by a 55-42 margin, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
  • Tennessee: Republican Marsha Blackburn will keep the seat in GOP hands. She defeated Democrat Phil Bredesen to replace the retiring Bob Corker, a Republican, reports the Hill.
  • Florida: Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson vs. Republican Rick Scott. This is shaping up to be a nail-biter based on partial returns.
  • North Dakota: Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp lost her seat to Republican challenger Kevin Cramer.
  • New Jersey: Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez defeated Republican Bob Hugin, per the AP.
  • West Virginia: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin defeated Republican Patrick Morrisey, reports CNN.

A number of other closely watched races were still outstanding, including Arizona, Montana, and Nevada.

Now the House….this is where most thought in-roads could be made…..and it seems there were…..

It wasn’t exactly a blue tsunami, but Democrats were on course to regain control of the House for the first time since 2010 early Wednesday after flipping more than the necessary 23 seats and closing in on the 218 needed for a majority. “Thanks to you, tomorrow will be a new day in America,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, per the Washington Post. Pelosi, who is expected to seek to return to her role as House speaker, said the victory “is about restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration.” She promised to “drain the swamp” and strive for accountability and bipartisanship.

President Trump called Pelosi late Tuesday to congratulate her on the Democratic victory, although press secretary Sarah Sanders had earlier suggested he wouldn’t, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Trump called Pelosi at 11:45pm “to extend his congratulations on winning a Democratic House Majority,” tweeted Drew Hamill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff. “He acknowledged the Leader’s call for bipartisanship in her victory remarks.” The AP reports that the Democratic road to victory involved flipping seats in Rust Belt states and suburban districts Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Redistricting helped the party score some big wins in Pennsylvania, where at least three red seats flipped to blue.

That “Blue Tsunami” was a fart in the bath tub….but Hell don’t believe me……Read more Election 2018 stories.

What does this all mean?

New faces for the group photos.  Beyond that a finger in the eye of the American public.

I guess there are a few things that it means……..

Well the GOP keeps the power to confirm worthless judges and the House will be on Trump’s back on many issues….but they need to not look like it is revenge but rather the search for answers…..and there are many answers that are needed.

Final word…..if you expect something different then you shall go to bed with tears in your eyes…..governing will lack….everyone can spin the successes.

Now I shall leave the 2018 elections behind and return to a world on the brink.

Peace Out!

Midterms Biggest Loser!

Today is the big day…the day that we all have been hearing about for over a year…..the 2018 Midterms (or is it mid-terms)….but no matter which way you vote….whether as a human or otherwise….there is one thing that is for sure….no matter who wins what the biggest loser will be democracy.

When Angelina Cruz, the head of the teachers’ union in Racine, Wisconsin, goes canvassing, she doesn’t just knock on doors. If she sees someone in the street she approaches them and starts a conversation.

“D’you know you can vote today,” she asked a young black man who walked by last Saturday.

“I can’t,” he said. “I’m a felon.” (A felon is someone who has committed a “serious crime”.)

“On papers or off papers,” she asked. (In Wisconsin your voting rights are only restored after prison, parole and probation have all been served, and you are “off papers”.)

“On papers,” he said.

“Well, ask your friends to vote,” said Cruz.

“Most of them are on papers too,” he yelled back.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/02/why-democracy-will-be-biggest-loser-us-midterms

This may not matter to too many people….if not please do one thing no matter what…VOTE!

Dems may win the House but that matters not because…within the Party there is a “Civil War” brewing…..

Now here is something really interesting, via Politico: there’s a growing cultural divide within Democratic ranks:

As the party’s attention turns to the presidential nominating season, one of its biggest challenges will be navigating this culture war in its own ranks. The energy at the moment is with the liberal wing, centered around cities and college towns and on the coasts, its members mostly white and college-educated and far to the left on social and cultural issues compared with the rest of the party. But its voting majority is still more blue-collar and diverse, many of whom favor an incremental approach on social issues and who are more interested in preserving the clout of longtime powers like Crowley and Capuano than in notching symbolic victories for the “resistance.”

In many of the cases outlined above, the policy differences between the candidates are microscopically small. Nearly all Democrats favor tackling income inequality, raising taxes on the wealthy and the minimum wage, and reforming the criminal justice system. There is some dispute over how fast to move and how far to go, but the broad outlines are the same. The differences, in one analysis, are stylistic, and so it is easy to imagine that they will be worked out over the next year as the party settles on another presidential nominee.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/democrats-hidden-civil-war/

The Midterms may make these divisions more pronounced…..but the real battle will begin January 2019….how will the country turn?

Will They Or Won’t They?

For months upon months we have been bombarded with election stuff…..predictions and speculation will not stop until the votes are counted…..

There is one group in this election that all pundits are concerned with that they may not go to the polls…..and they just cannot understand why Millennials would not vote.

But why would they not want to be part of the process?  The same reason that many do not want to be part of the process.  The process is broken and money plays too big in elections…..but the Millennials are a group, a generation. that could well make a difference…..

In what people are calling — accurately, in my opinion — the most important American midterm election in our lifetimes, there’s been a lot of things we’ve never seen before: like, for example. a president sending thousands of troops to the U.S. southern border or erasing the existence of more than a million transgender people, all to boost GOP voter turnout a point or two.
And then there’s this: non-voter porn.
If you read the news, you know the kind of political smut I’m talking about. Full-frontal exposures of mostly attractive 20-somethings, revealing their often lame-sounding excuses why they’re joining the more than 60 percent of eligible Americans who typically don’t vote in midterm elections.
We’re talking about 20-somethings who’ve never used the U.S. mail and are traumatized by the idea of finding a postage stamp for a registration form, or so don’t see how a small president in search of a balcony is any different than any other politician.
Tomorrow will these voters go to the polls or will they stay home and let the old farts pick their leaders….and then they bitch…..
Shut up and go vote!

 

What Do The Democrats Have To Offer?

Just days away…the mid term elections…..and as a progressive a true progressive and it is an insult to call us liberals….we are so much better than that….but as a progressive an antiwar supporter I would like to ask what do the Democrats have to offer me?

The truth of the matter after looking at policies, slogans and issues then the answer is…they have NOTHING to offer me….

Chants of “No More War” from delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention gave voice to sentiments that still resonate through the base of the party and the broad U.S. public, notably in communities with higher rates of military sacrifice.

While Trump’s 2016 victories in swing states may well have been aided by his posing as a foe of protracted war, his administration’s Mideast policies have largely exposed that masquerade. Unfortunately, the weak and confused positions of Democratic leaders on endless war and bloated military spending offer little alternative to war-weary voters.

Polls show the popularity of a progressive domestic agenda on issues from jobs to healthcare to free public college, but few Democrats in Congress are willing to strongly challenge the unaccountable military budget, which soaks up most discretionary spending that could be redirected toward the party’s proclaimed domestic agenda. By Obama’s last year in office, overall “defense” spending was higher (adjusted for inflation) than “at any point since World War II,” according to Peter Beinart (“The Democrats Keep Capitulating on Defense Spending“) – and significantly higher than during the Vietnam War.

https://original.antiwar.com/Jeff_Cohen/2018/10/15/few-democrats-offer-alternatives-to-war-weary-voters/

Like I have said….the election is just days away and I have NO candidate in mind that I can support….they are all big money warmongering toads.

I have little respect for a society that has all but forgotten that we are at war in many countries and our troops are in danger to keep the M-IC afloat……there is something wrong to put war out of mind is a sign of a defective society.

Beyond the war thingy….Dems are still really screwed…they come up limp dick slogans and half baked ideas…..

It’s always been fascinating (and revealing) how people regard the core beliefs of our two major political parties. Not how they themselves vote, which is boring, but how they go about articulating the differences between the two parties when asked to do so.

Granted, there will always be those who insist there’s no real difference between Republicans and Democrats, that both parties are worthless, etc. But because we’ve had two separate parties for more than 150 years, there have to be certain basic, fundamental, differences between them, at least in principle, otherwise we wouldn’t have two of them.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/30/no-wonder-were-screwed/

Try again Dems you are falling far short of a workable party….we are screwed…..

Truth to told…I am one that thinks today’s parties are worthless and spineless……both parties spend all their time on their knees in front of the moneyed few…they are part time help at best

My daughter knowing that I am a Boomer blames my generation for a lot of the problems….she made me a banner…..

THANKS FOR NOTHING BABY BOOMERS!

She knows that it does not mean me….for she knows how I have voted over the decades…..but she is right Boomers f*cked up society and we are now paying for that f*ck up……all in the name of Me, Me, Me………

Closing Thought–17Oct18

Before I begin I need to ask a question……for a couple of months there was a stable on the TV thingy whenever it was turned on and now it is missing and I would like to know….WHERE THE HELL IS RUDY?

Just a mere few days before we vote in the 2018 Mid-Terms……and usually the GOP would have their arms wrapped around veterans and the military and a show of FAKE support…..in other words the Vets would be used as a political prop……

It is a new day and a new GOP….a GOP of cowards and d/bags….why?

They are trashing candidates that oppose them that also served this country in the military (something most of the GOP has NOT done)……most of whom looked to their ambition and not the need of the country.  So d/bags is a mild form of what I really think of them.

Today’s Republican party isn’t exactly known for its civility or honesty — but if you thought the GOP couldn’t sink any lower, think again.

Apparently fearing an electoral bloodbath in November, House Republicans have released a series of ads attacking their Democratic opponents — many of whom happen to be military veterans and former intelligence officers — by questioning their patriotism, smearing them as anti-American, and even falsely labeling them as terrorist sympathizers.

The ads are funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund, Politico reports.

In one ad, Republicans slam House candidate Jason Crow — a Colorado Democratic candidate who received a Bronze Star for heroism in the Iraq war and an award for being a “lawyer of the year” for his veterans advocacy work — by falsely claiming he “neglected” Colorado veterans.

https://shareblue.com/house-republicans-smear-military-veterans-attack-ads/

Vets mean very little to the GOP and especially Trump after the election….this GOP is a pack of cowards and spineless drones.

Vets need to see just how little their service means to these worthless d/bags and vote accordingly.

Vets please do not let these toadies in Congress do what they want….they want to rip benefits from the people that have paid into the system……they are blaming the Dems…..a good slogan but a GODDAMN LIE!

We Will Survive!

With less than 30 days before the mid-terms the Dems are looking good for the House…..

There has been so much doom and gloom around the election of a president……and no this does not necessarily mean Dear Leader…..it could be a reference to all the trash and noise that was muttered and printed when the US elected its first black dude as president.

Now we are just days away from the Mid-Terms and the Dems are confident that there will be a Blue Wave…..and the president is saying there will be a Red Wave….and the voter is in the middle of these dueling entities totally confused.

My take is that there will be significant Dem gains….not because they have a better message…they do not…..it is that more and more voter no longer trusts the GOP to stick to traditional message.

I mean really?  Does this Dem message sound like a winner or maybe pizza ad?

“A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages.”

That’s right this is the new and improved Dem message for the elections to come.

I have heard of some crappy political slogans….but this one is by far the biggest pile of bovine fecal matter……I am sorry but this is a cop out of the old “New Deal” slogans from 75 years ago…..

The Dems have no clue what to do as far as approaching elections are concerned….this has been written by myself……https://lobotero.com/2018/03/07/dear-democrats/

Then there is the BS of eliminating ICE….really?  This is a NO starter for the election……I would like to see a good foreign policy (after all I am a Foreign policy wonk)….but so far I have nothing that would excite me to voting for a Dem……the best they can do in the more radical corners of the party is condemn Israel and the occupation of Gaza……

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has already slayed some dragons. On foreign policy, however, the Democratic candidate for New York’s 14th congressional district is wielding a dull sword. On a recent episode of PBS’ Firing Line, Ocasio-Cortez failed to explain comments she’d previously made about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Asked what she meant by “the occupation of Palestine,” she dodged the question, saying: “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.” As one of the most prominent self-identified democratic socialists in American politics, her stumble seems at odds with the political affiliation she’s publicly claimed. The website of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which she is a member, says it views “the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its inhumane siege of Gaza as the major barrier” to peace in the region.

It’s reasonable to assume that Ocasio-Cortez would be able to defend this relatively common position. But it’s become common in recent years for left-wing politicians to either botch or dodge foreign policy issues. During 2016’s Democratic presidential primary, Senator Bernie Sanders initially failed to articulate much of a foreign policy platform—a strange oversight given that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, was a former secretary of state and a former senator who’d supported the invasion of Iraq. Sanders didn’t put forward a clearer foreign policy vision until 2017. “Foreign policy must take into account the outrageous income and wealth inequality that exists globally and in our own country,” he said during a 2017 speech at Westminster College.

https://newrepublic.com/article/150317/left-wings-foreign-policy

In conclusion….the Dems will win in the mid-terms but not because they have a superior message….to the contrary……their wins will be because of a divisive Dear Leader.

And then the Dems will revert back to their corporate roots and do nothing to improve the lives of the voters.

Regardless of the mid-term outcomes this country will survive….but the question should be ….in what form?

So I have written!

Turn The Page!

New Politics, Old Ideas

As we keep an eye on yet another hurricane…this one is named Michael……and we wait to see……

The mid-terms are upon us and the so-called “blue wave” and we have a crop of “new faces” for the election……and some are even calling it a New Left.

Personally I think that is so much garbage to sell papers….there are very few new ideas just new faces on the Left….but that does not make it a change of direction.

Several articles on this subject……

Remember the “libertarian moment?” Not so long ago, commentariat from Reason magazine to the opinion pages of The New York Timesnoted a resurgence of libertarian ideas, driven by economic and technological fragmentation of power, and by the rise of a new generation of libertarian candidates such as the Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

Yet the “libertarian moment” has not ushered in a new golden age of free-market thinking and innovative market-based policies. The Tea Party movement, of which the “libertarian moment” now seems an epiphenomenon, radicalized the Republican base into demanding ever-more extreme measures only to create a zombie—Donald Trump—whom nobody could control.

The bourgeoning “democratic socialism” on the Left carries echoes of the Tea Party movement. Both may seem refreshing after decades of groupthink and complacency in the political center. But neither is offering genuinely new ideas or a coherent governing strategy.

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2018/09/11/radical-politics-old-ideas/

More information…….

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2018-08-13/brand-new-left-same-old-problems

Will the “Blue Wave” change anything?

Americans across the country will be bracing for the coming Blue Wave; a self-induced disaster that will outpace even the climate change induced storms sweeping the country. The Blue Wave is inevitable as the inaction on climate change that will come with it. Democrats feel entitled to fill more seats with hot air now that the Not-So-Great Pumpkin is an international embarrassment. Donald Trump’s speech to the U.N. was similarly full of hot air, despite the encouraging words against globalization. Trump wants less foreign aid, diplomacy and immigration. But he also wants more war and handouts for the global elites. Add this all up and it’s a pitiful resistance to the devastation to working people that globalization has caused across the globe.

Down with the globalists! Trump says he was being funny on purpose. But Trump is never funny, and he never does anything on purpose. But he is right. Down with the globalists! The words may be hallow but they are correct.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/28/the-blue-wave-is-awash-with-hypocrisy/

Of course when we talk about a New Left……the minds will go to Democratic Socialism…..which I do not agree with….but to get my readers caught up…….

Occasionally a phrase supports a wide range of political posturing while bearing little determinable relationship to actionable politics. ‘Income inequality’ is one of these phrases. Few using it are communists, a politics that recognizes concentrated economic power as both cause and effect in the skewed distribution of income and wealth. And the entire point of capitalism is the concentration of these that functions as (circular) proof of the social utility created by capitalists. As corollary to American democracy, the phrase ignores centuries of evidence that political power is determined by economic power.

Of current relevance is its place in the programs of Democratic Socialism, a rebranding of New Deal type social welfare programs that proponents (I am one) apparently intend to fit into existing American political economy. As one of ‘a multiplicity of tactics,’ the lives of the poorer 90% of the country could be vastly improved by Medicare for all, Federal government funded college educations and a job guarantee that pays a living wage and benefits. However, the improbability that Western capitalists, particularly American capitalists, will loosen their grip to facilitate functional versions of these programs was better understood in the late nineteenth century than it is today.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/28/democratic-socialism-and-political-power/

We will know one way or the other the first of next year…..

Money And Elections

The 2018 mid-terms is just days away…..and as with every election for decades the talking points will be about which party and/or candidate has put together the most donors and cash.

Everybody knows the old talking points about campaign cash…..he who spends the most wins….Dark money……yada yada…..

But there is a bit more to the effects of cash on elections than the 30 second sound bite network TV gives the listeners….

The Nerds at geeky website, fivethirtyeight.com, has put together a good piece to explain the effects of cash on elections.

To quote the great political philosopher Cyndi Lauper, “Money changes everything.” 1 And nowhere is that proverb more taken to heart than in a federal election, where billions of dollars are raised and spent on the understanding that money is a crucial determinant of whether or not a candidate will win.

This year, the money has been coming in and out of political campaigns at a particularly furious pace. Collectively, U.S. House candidates raised more money by Aug. 27 than House candidates raised during the entire 2014 midterm election cycle, and Senate candidates weren’t far behind. Ad volumes are up 86 percent compared to that previous midterm. Dark money — flowing to political action committees from undisclosed donors — is up 26 percent.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/money-and-elections-a-complicated-love-story/

SCOTUS has made corporations equal to individuals and in doing so made the dark money a driving force in elections…..it has replaced real issues with the direction of donors.

Just 15 groups were responsible for more than 75 percent of dark money political spending from 2010 to 2016, and together poured more than $600 million—out of a total of $800+ million—into campaigns in the wake of the landmark Citizens United case, according to a new analysis from Issue One, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for stricter campaign finance rules.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/13/citizens-united-just-15-groups-account-75-percent-800-million-dark-money-spent-us

Dems are just as bad as the GOP…..they talk a mean game but do little to change anything…..

For voters concerned about the bad consequences of big business spending on elections, a New York Times reportlast month promised mid-summer relief. “Tired of Money in Politics, Some Democrats Think Small,” the headline read.

The accompanying article, which focused on a Minnesota Congressional contest, noted that, “in mid-term races around the country…dozens of Democrats [are] rejecting donations from political action committees, or PACs, that are sponsored by corporations or industry groups.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/12/big-money-in-politics-are-leading-democrats-really-on-the-wagon-or-still-sneaking-a-drink/

Dems are always bitching about the money in politics and all the while are standing with their hands out.  There is only one way to remove big money from politics……by law and by making elections a federal funded operation…..no private money.