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wrenseyeview · 2 years

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I truly don't want to be a doomer. I don't want to be exhausted and full of impotent rage. And I think that state of mind is actually solvable, and in great part due to not having any control or options for action. So, why are so many of the calls to action still exhausting and upsetting?

Going down the line:

Vote! - did that

Volunteer for a political campaign! - did that

Email and call your elected officials! - did that

Donate to relevant groups/funds! - did that

Talk to your family to convince them! - did that, wish I didn't, never ends well

Get informed on the issue! - did that, maybe blissful ignorance would be less depressing? (/j... mostly)

Volunteer for local relevant groups! - pin in that for below

Go to protests! - second pin

Okay. So. Out of that list, I've done most of them and try to continue doing them when able, and this general tidal wave of shit still keeps coming. So how about the last two?

Volunteer has a few issues depending on location. Where I am, I'm an hour drive each way from the little LGBT+ center downtown, and it has kinda limited meetings or offerings. I still want to get involved, but it'll take some planning and a lot of effort to make anything regularly when I'm tired after work, and their events tend to be small group meetings to just chat. The nearest Planned Parenthood, also over an hour away, burned down, so.... the next nearest one is at least 3 hours away. Nearly every community impact type of group I've found through local news and bulletins have been through churches or Republican/conservative clubs. The exceptions are an animal shelter and maybe Habitat for Humanity, though I think that one's also managed by churches here. The most I can have a local impact is probably via the Friends of the Library donations or conservation groups for certain strips of woods. None of which help ensure I get to keep legal rights and access to healthcare.

Protest is... so. I just. Really don't understand how it's effective. There have been protests around here of various things, like a group of maybe 30 people stood in downtown in favor of Ukraine. Okay, I guess? What's our city council gonna do about that?? Do they even care about 30 people with some signs standing outside for a few hours? If it gets to summer 2020 levels maybe, though I actually don't know how much actual action resulted as compared to the harm endured by the protestors (not at all to disparage their efforts or their rage).

Ultimately the entire political landscape feels like job hunting. That complete drudge of putting out effort after effort with no indication of reaction or even receipt, just slowly hitting your head against a brick wall at a steady beat for months on end. It's the same feeling of exhaustion and is this even worth it and what if I just disappeared into the mountains and forsook human society and concepts like money or gender and... yeah, not a great thought cycle. With the extra added bonus of having mostly old white men continually spew diahrettic levels of smug hipocrisy while remaining unfortunately out of nut-kicking range. If he wants to legislate my uturus so badly, I should be allowed to kick Alito in the nuts at least once.

Anyway! Yeah, so it feels like the main issue of doomer-ism around all this comes down to lack of options, lack of control or impact. Which is naturally not helped by these measures being centered around taking away control and options. So what are more options besides those usual ones above that either aren't doing much, or at least not much in immediate view?

Well there's the individual self care kind of level, of doing something small and immediate where you can see the impact and feel those good brain chemicals of having influence on your life. This is the step of stop doomscrolling and go sew something, cook something, color, garden, put out bird seed, feel the results of your will in your hands. Be intimately aware that you are not a passive object in your life.

Okay, so now we're a little more present, a little less a disembodied cartoon cloud of rage and despair, we have hands again. Now we can look past individual present to individual future. What do you personally need to feel insulated at least a little from the danger and uncertainty carried on this tidal wave of shit?

Individually, I can:

Have the locations and approximate budget written down for driving to stay with a friend in a state that protects abortion

Research options and potentially order abortion pills now

Ask my doctor about options for a hysterectomy

Any or all of these may not actually be options, largely depending on cost. Hopefully there's actually more options I'm just not thinking of because that's a short list and there's a lot that's left outside of individual control, but at least having the information is a start. Make plans, know where the fire exits are. If we can establish some level of firmer foundation of individual safety, then we can free up some of that anxiety brain space to think more about community and society options.

So after figuring out my fire exits and a few more laps around the self-care track to maybe eventually get more energy for all this, what are some community-level actions besides that first list? What actions can insulate your community from harm imposed by larger society?

Okay. Let's see.

Keep some money set aside for requests for aid from your specific community (narrowed down to your pride center, religious group, dnd group, something small enough to know the people and feel like you are fostering a community that will also support you in turn, reciprocity rather than charity, and ideally in person)

Make a list of who in your small group can offer what kind of aid (who can drive places, who can babysit, who has medical knowledge, etc.)

Meet with the small group on a regular basis. Foster connections, bring food.

Trade favors, establish the gifting cycle among the group, so no one feels bad having to ask for help. Of course we can pool money to help get you a trip a couple states over, because you helped fix my fence because I watched your kids because you brought soup when I was sick because. Everyone should feel important and like they're not relying on charity if they need help.

So all these ideas come down to what ends up formally as mutual aid, but that often feels a little too expansive and hard to get into as a community rather than charity if you start at the "look up local mutual aid groups" level, hits the same problem as the top list in my experience at least. So this is more of a bottom-up approach of turn your friend group into an informal mutual aid network, aka make friends in real life. Which... is hard, it is, but it's gotta be worth the effort and is really the best starting point, and also good for you.

So after all that, it looks like my steps for getting out of the doom cycle are

Stop doomscrolling

Find my hands again by making stuff

Make some emergency plans to file away

Go find some more in person friends and bring food

As much as I am the kind of person that very happily will stay in my house alone for way longer than the average human being, it's fundamentally necessary to feel the support structure of "there are at least five people within a 30 minute drive of me that would not kill me for a corn chip, and in fact would provably prefer that I not be killed" when it feels like the entire rest of the "doing stuff" arm of society would happily kill you. You spitting at the government isn't going to have any impact you can see, but if you make your friend a scarf, he has a scarf now, and he might be the friend that keeps a stocked medicine cabinet.

#long post #current events #mutual aid #personal?#idk what to do at this point #but there has to be an option besides just stewing and wanting to beat a supreme court justice with my steering wheel #donating to abortion access funds is good but doesn't solve the individual safety step #ordering abortion pills is fine but what if I'm overweight and abortion is still banned once they expire #I had to vote in a republican primary for local elections because no democrats ran at all #so we are well away from just vote around here #everything feels pointless which means it's time to go back to basics

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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With the fight over abortion rights looming large over the midterm elections, voters in Florida ousted two prominent anti-abortion elected officials in separate races on Tuesday.

Florida Rep. James Bush lost his reelection bid, a notable defeat for the sole Democrat in the state legislature who voted on a 15-week abortion ban and the anti-LGBTQ "Don't Say Gay" bill.

His opponent, 37-year-old lawyer Ashley Gantt, ran on a platform focused on affordable housing, public education, and criminal justice reform. Gantt, an attorney and former public school teacher, has criticized Bush for siding with Republicans on the abortion ban and the "Don't Say Gay" bill, which bars "classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity."

"As a Black woman, I was offended when he voted to restrict my rights, our right to make decisions over our bodies," she said last week. "As a former teacher, I was insulted that he voted to inject Tallahassee extremism into our classrooms and deny local control over our school systems."

Gantt and Bush were the only two candidates vying for District 109. As the winner of the Democratic primary, Gantt is now the representative-elect.

Bush was first elected to the Florida state House in 1992. He was elected again in 2008, then in 2018. His penchant for supporting Republican-sponsored bills drew the ire of his fellow Democrats, some of whom publicly voiced their support for Gantt in the election; Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo recently accused him of "voting against Democratic values and kissing the Governor’s ass - all day, everyday."

Florida voters also ousted Jared Smith, an incumbent circuit judge for Hillsborough County who gained notoriety for rejecting a teenager's request for an abortion because her grades were low.

The race between Smith and his opponent, Nancy Jacobs, was relatively contentious for a typically low-key nonpartisan judgeship election, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Smith had denied a 17-year-old seeking an abortion without parental consent in January this year on the basis that her grades were low and that she lacked "intelligence or credibility," and was therefore not mature enough to get an abortion. An appeals court later overturned his ruling.

Jacobs did not directly criticize Smith over his decision (Florida bars judicial candidates from making public statements on legal issues), but she has shared posts on Facebook regarding the ruling.

In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Jacobs said she looked forward to taking the bench in January and "ensuring that the people of Hillsborough County who enter my courtroom are treated with respect, dignity, and integrity every day."

She said that Smith's decision in the abortion case was possibly "one factor among many in voters’ decisions on whom to cast their ballots for in this race" given that it made national headlines.

Smith had made his Christian faith central to his reelection campaign. His wife, Suzette Smith, once told supporters that Jacobs, who is Jewish, "needs Jesus."

"We pray for her. She needs Jesus," Suzette Smith said. "To deny God and to deny the Bible is a person that’s — the heart is very hard toward God.”

Jacobs called the comments "troubling" and accused the couple of "using their religion to insult and disparage the faith of an opposing candidate."

Florida is set up for a riveting general election in November, with abortion rights expected to be a central issue in races all the way up to the gubernatorial election.

Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor, won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, setting up a challenge against Gov. Ron DeSantis. Crist fended off accusations of being "pro-life" from his primary opponent, Nikki Fried, arguing that he struck down anti-abortion bills during his time in office.

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arizonaconservativegal · 2 years

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Wasn’t John McCain considered more of a middle ground politician rather than typical Republican?

John McCain was... well. It's complicated.

He wasn't a bad guy. Not really. He was a trigger happy war hawk but I get that, considering his history. He was a son of a bitch, no question. If you crossed him, he'd tear you to pieces. But he was also a very generous kingmaker in Arizona, and not just with an endorsement or occasional stump speech. His say-so would bring your campaign a metric fuckton of cash and behind the scenes support. He was a powerhouse. When I say the McCain machine ran Arizona, I don't mean that lightly. He wasn't part of the establishment - he was the establishment.

He wasn't especially conservative - he certainly wasn't Goldwater - but to call him a RINO isn't fair either. If I were going to call him anything, I'd call him a neocon. He wasn't always the most reliable vote on big controversial bills, as you probably recall, but most of the time he was right there with the rest of the party. And he was a good vote on national bills that had a specific local impact on Arizona.

Hardline activists hated him. The thing with that, though, is that they hate everyone. The bulk of the party was fine with him. Was he anyone's perfect first choice candidate? Probably not. But we'd take him over a Democrat any day of the week. Even if there had ever been a primary challenger who could have beaten McCain, they wouldn't have won the general. McCain always could. He was popular among moderates and independents because he didn't do anything crazy and that support was more than enough to offset the 10% of Republicans who hated him.

And what even people in Arizona don't understand about Arizona is that although we usually vote red, we've never been an ultra conservative state. McCain was pretty mainstream for us. If he hadn't passed away, he'd be up for re-election right now and he'd win it easily. And if for those who haven't made the connection yet, that would have given us a 51-49 majority in the US Senate the last couple years. Even if we lost him on a couple votes, we'd have him for most and his sheer existence would have been enough to stop a lot of the Democrats' agenda. I wish he was still there.

He just didn't get along with Trump. And like I said, if you crossed him, McCain would tear you to pieces. Trump is the same kind of guy. Neither one was ever willing to back down, which is a shame. If it weren't for that fight, I think McCain would be remembered quite fondly by Arizona Republicans, even the ones who didn't love him before. Unfortunately, the McCain family seems determined to keep that feud alive and I think that is really tarnishing the senator's memory unfairly. It seems to me that they're using his memory to try to cling to power. If they were smart, they'd be trying to work with people like Kari Lake to usher in this new era of Republicans in his name. Their machine could still be quite powerful with a few adjustments. I think John McCain would have been willing to do that.

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rachelbethhines · 2 years

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Is that a verified fact? I remember reading an article on Politico about the guy MYG beat - some old school genial conservative doctor type who was pretty shook on how the voters rejected him for her. I mean she didn’t hide how horrible she was when she ran, so why are her voters getting cold feet now? And if they are why the heck can’t the same thing happen to the Flordia and TX governors?

Ok, first off, I was born and raised in the district that Greene ran in so here's some facts for ya.

Only 10% of the population actually votes, maybe 15% at a push when it's a presidential election.

This is because there is no functioning democracy in the area and hasn't been in over 60 years.

The GOP is the mafia of the south. They have all the money, control all the business, and have the local authorities in thier back pocket. No one normal can run. They have to be backed by the Republican party, because the Democrats refuse to invest in running candidates in the area.

So only rich folks, people with connections, can run for office and they don't give a shit about the ordinary folks on the ground because if they got the GOP backing them, there's nothing anyone can do. They are in.

So the only time your vote might matter is during a primary, but, since only hard core Republicans vote in primaries (i.e. rich people and nut cases) then these hopefuls court the donors, most of whom don't even live in the district, rather than thier actual constituents.

So that leaves us with Greene. She phiscally harassed and bullied her primary opponent and, quite literally, ran him out of the district. His wife divorced him because of the harassment. She kicked him out of the house, and he was forced to move. Which meant he had to give up the election, because he could no longer live in the district he was running in.

Without an opponent Greene won the primary by default and then won the main election by default, because no one ever runs against the GOP here.

She literally 'won' an election without needing a single vote cast.

That is how the GOP operates.

They don't win elections. They steal them.

That's the way it's been for over 60 years, and unless the Democrats pull their heads out of their asses and start supporting candidates in rural red areas, then the Republicans will strip away democracy from the entire country... Same as they've done for all the districts they've stolen already.

It took and actual God Damn Nazi, sneaking in and trying to support a coup, before the Dems ever even thought to run here!

They didn't lock her up, where she belongs. No, they saw a money making opportunity by advertising how shit she is and putting someone against her.

Now, the current Dem candidate, Marcus Flowers, is the first Democrat to run in over 50 years! I'm not saying he can't win, but I fear it may be too little to late.

He sure is doing a shit job of actually convincing the voters to get out and vote, yet he's sure got a lot of donations... All from outside the counties he's running in.

We're stuck between two grifters, with no means to actually represent ourselves, so of course no one is going to turn out because if both candidates are screwing you over what does it matter?

Of course, it does matter. I'm doing my best to volunteer for the Flowers campaign and will be voting Dem come election time. However, it's really hard to convince people to care when no one cares about them.

So, always remember. The people who are trapped in GOP controlled areas, are just that... Trapped. They're the Republicans' first victims, not thier 'supporters'.

#gop #dem #Republicans #Democrats #MTG #Marcus Flowers #politics

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chargetheintruder · 4 years

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My one-year pandemic anniversary.

I likely won't have much time tomorrow, the 17th to actually do much online, to honor my fifty-two weeks of strangeness with COVID-19, beyond mark my calendars with something like:

One Year does not equal two weeks, damn it.

But even so, I should likely post something, even if a day early, just to take note of what happened to me, what I've lost, and so on.

Because you see, I went into 2020 on meds for everything (mood disorder, prostate issues and all that) and with plans. I did. I was still thinking I could recover some clothing and furniture for this penalty box of an apartment I'm half-stuck with, and that I could maybe get some new friends or a girlfriend sometime soon.

Then this pandemic hit. Only at first it was an outbreak and I had gotten it twisted because like a lot of folks early on I was working on partial info at best. I live in a blue state and near a University campus, so I jumped to some conclusions about how this was going to be a "campus illness" and how red staters were just partying it up because no campuses meant no outbreak, right?

Wrong. This was a pandemic, at least partially because a) some 5 million people went to the Wuhan province in the PRC to celebrate the Lunar New Year and many of them likely were Patient Zeroes, and b) because a lot of those people spread the thing to Europe first, insuring further spread.

So really, losing my chance to vote on that Election Day in the Democratic Primaries (because of lockdown) so that someone other than Biden would get chosen was the least of my worries. I had to get used to distancing, abusing my sleeves for coughs and sneezes, THEN masks, and also dealing with crazy people and only those being anti-mask for any reason, while LOTS of people were still against WASHING THEIR HANDS.

And also. . . I had the problems I had with my forced moveout of August 28, 2018, largely because I needed to be IN TOWN, since I had no car, true, but also because I had problems with LACK OF HUMAN CONTACT. Guess what this pandemic, then, shoved down everyone's throat (except for people with very nice internet connections)? Right. And here I was desperately trying to keep it together for the longest time with no internet connections because of outdated equipment, but also because I didn't want to give in to Comcast's monopoly power over this entire damned town (right next door) where I was forced to move. Yeah.

Fast-forward to October of 2020. I didn't like Biden but Trump was hellbent on becoming Hitler Lite, and it was clear everyone with half a brain had to stop Trump. So I took my mail-in ballot, filled out and everything, to a ballot box that I thought would be safe. That entailed a short bus ride on a route I was no longer familiar with. I came masked up. I rode in the center of the bus as usual. An older lady up front was coughing up a lung and not, NOT wearing her mask over her nose, and barely over her mouth.

I got sick about a week later and looking back, I'm pretty sure it was COVID-19. I took no chances and self-quarantined for a month to be safe to everyone else around me. I gave in and had internet by then, even if my access to my own Chromebook was super-limited still (thanks Google, you jerks). I could make it. The virus itself seemed to only give me digestive/GI issues and body aches, no big deal, right?

Problem was, I started coughing and feeling tired and dizzy all the time afterward. Long COVID, made worse by my being in a sick-house of an apartment building where the lease said it was a "no-smoking building" but the tenants and especially my neighbors, just gave no fucks and kept lighting it up in their apartments and polluting my own (under and through the baseboards). And it was all I could do to stay online and push others to vote, and support Georgia, and to be patient with Team Victim in the hopes that something would be done about the bastards who got us into the mess. You know, the landlords and rich bitches, and yes, the local University too, who invited all of the Han Chinese exchange students here to my hometown, had out-of-state, red-state landlords show up and pander to them exclusively, to the point that locals were ran out of town wherever possible? Those guys.

Those red-state, Republican guys. But in the process, I got re-addicted to chatting with my long-distance flirt on the internet, among lots of other things, my health got worse and it got to where I barely got out once a week, then once every 2-3 weeks, because of virus surges. Getting out was rough anyway because of the masks--nobody had a face, which made it hard for me to talk to people and not be freaked out and paranoid. The only uncanny valley issue I really have--facelessness--and it was the one I had to deal with. And I had lost my friends, mostly, except for the last pen-pal I have out-of-state, and she's busy with her husband and family too.

Point is, here I am now. A year into this. Worn-out, ragged, depressed when I already had depression, in bad health when I already had old-fart health issues, nothing to do anywhere outside when I had little to nothing to do inside to begin with. No, really, I don't go out to eat, just to eat out of a bag in the parking lot, or to walk it home and it gets cold, sorry. And ordering pizza and cheesy bread really only does so much. My life and finances were already ruined from the forced move-out and now there's literally nothing, no friends locally, no social contact, nothing, nothing, nothing, thanks to this plague, this plague, this plague, and people get to hurt us again, a thousand-plus times as badly as 9-11-2001 did, and they get to walk, and walk and walk. Meaning the Han Chinese, the landlords from Trumps on down, and also the alt-reich supporting the shit-show.

I hope you can see where this would make a fellow a bit crazy. More so than usual. I would hope the vaccines make things all right again, but even that has problems since it lets people off the hook. And also, since I have a bit of a ruined trash-mouth that's maybe half my fault? *lol* Meaning I might look better with a mask on in perpetuity, ugh, even if I don't feel like it.

What do you do?

#One year in #COVID 19 #depression #lonliness #ruined life #ruined society

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vettingsanders · 5 years

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He Did Nothing For Years

The Bernie Sanders Story

I was going to title this post something that more adequately expresses my rage, like “Bernie Sanders is a Grifting Fuck and a Garbage Human,” but then I decided to be classy and paraphrase a quote from Evita instead. But I’m also petty so consider the subtitle of this rant to be “A Grifting Fuck and a Garbage Human.”

I was going to wait to post this until the primaries are over because if by some unholy hell miracle Sanders wins the nomination, obviously we all have to unite behind even the shittiest, most doomed to fail candidate, but fuck it. Vote blue no matter who, that goes without being said, but Sanders is the worst possible choice and was even when there were a dozen plus horses in this race, and now y’all are going to hear all the reasons why.

The Early Years: Sanders the Deadbeat

Sanders graduated from the university of Chicago in 1964 with a BA in Political Science and chose not to work until he was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981

I say “chose not to work” because he was fully capable but preferred being a bum. He had no student debt, he had no health conditions that prevented him from working, and the 1960s were characterized by rapid growth of the workforce, with three out of four college graduates holding high level positions by 1970

Sanders occasionally did some freelance writing and carpentry during these years, according to his resume, probably so he could claim he was trying to work in order to collect unemployment. Let’s take a look at some of his writings:

At age 28, he wrote an article for alternative newspaper The Vermont Freeman entitled “Cancer, Disease, and Society.” In the article, he argues that sexual repression can cause cancer, and women who are virgins, have fewer orgasms than their peers, or simply don’t enjoy sex are more likely to develop cancer. The article includes statements such as “the manner in which you bring up your daughter with regard to sexual attitudes may very well determine whether or not she will develop breast cancer, among other things” and “How much guilt, nervousness have you imbued in your daughter with regard to sex? If she is 16, 3 years beyond puberty and the time which nature set forth for child-bearing, and spent a night out with her boyfriend, what is your reaction? Do you take her to a psychiatrist because she is “maladjusted” or a “prostitute,” or are you happy that she has found someone with whom she can share love?” He also argues that the education system contributes to cancer, as does having “an old bitch of a teacher (and there are many of them).” https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2157403-sanders-cancer.html

In 1969, in another article for The Vermont Freeman, he wrote, “In Vermont, at a state beach, a mother is reprimanded by Authority for allowing her 6 month old daughter to go about without her diapers on. Now, if children go around naked, they are liable to see each others sexual organs, and maybe even touch them. Terrible thing! If we [raise] children up like this it will probably ruin the whole pornography business, not to mention the large segment of the general economy which makes its money by playing on peoples sexual frustrations.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-freeman-sexual-freedom-fluoride/

His resume, incidentally, also lists him as a freelance youth counselor during his period of unemployment, which is just great. The man who thinks thirteen year olds should be getting pregnant and children should touch each other’s genitals, counseling your kids. Fantastic.

In the 1970s, Sanders stole electricity from his neighbors rather than paying his own bill. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-119927

He stole food from the refrigerator of The Vermont Freeman’s publishers https://newrepublic.com/article/122005/he-was-presidential-candidate-bernie-sanders-was-radical

He was asked to leave a hippie commune in 1971 due to sitting around engaging in “endless political discussion” rather than working. Let me repeat, he was too lazy for a hippie commune. https://freebeacon.com/politics/bernie-sanders-asked-leave-hippie-commune/

Now, all of this apart from the theft is arguably okay. It’s his own life, and if he wants to squander it publishing poorly written essays and doing jack shit, whatever. Except it wasn’t just his life, because he had a son, Levi. And he was a deadbeat, paying no child support and causing Levi’s mother, Susan Mott, to rely on welfare, which made her face discrimination when trying to find housing. https://twitter.com/m_mendozaferrer/status/1093295853907922946

Bernie Sanders is a deadbeat dad. No respect.

Failing Upwards: Sanders the Politician

In 1971, Sanders joined the Vermont Liberty Union Party, a socialist political group. From 1971 to 1977, Sanders was the party chief and habitually ran for office, failing every time. He left the group in 1977, stating that they did not do enough to fight banks and corporations during non-election years. This is just one example of Sanders decrying everyone else as too impure for him.

In 2016, the Vermont Liberty Union Party voted to brand Sanders as a war criminal. Their general secretary, Peter Diamondstone, said of Sanders, “ He never was a socialist!" https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bnjby3/the-vermont-political-party-bernie-sanders-founded-isnt-into-him-anymore This is just one example in the long list of Sanders alienating his allies.

He finally won the mayoral election for Burlington in 1981, by only ten votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Burlington_mayoral_election

Sanders was only elected to the US House of Representatives in 1990 because he had the support of the National Rifle Association. The incumbent Congressman, Republican Peter Smith, advocated for an assault weapons ban, so the NRA flooded Sanders with money. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/stickin-to-his-guns-the-nra-helped-elect-bernie-sanders-to-congress-now-hes-telling-a-different-story/Content?oid=27816693

In 2006, 2012, and 2018, when running for the Senate, Sanders ran as a Democrat in the state primaries, then declined the Democratic nomination, and ran as an independent in the general. This made it basically impossible for any Democrat to run against him. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/bernie-sanders-democrat-independent-vermont-601844

After a landslide loss to Secretary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary, Sanders demanded changes to the DNC primary structure that would make the process easier for him to win with just a plurality of delegates instead of a majority. These rule changes were the reason the 2020 Iowa caucus was such a clusterfuck. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/bernie-sanders-iowa-caucus-winner-trump-democrats-a9317761.html

Despite all his talk of getting out the youth vote and inspiring disenfranchised voters, Sanders planned all along to squeak by with only thirty percent of the delegates in the 2020 primary by provoking infighting among other candidates to split the moderate vote. The supposed movement he claimed to lead is a sham. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/04/bernie-sanders-thinking-he-will-win-it-all-2020/587326/

“I Never Saw Him”: Sanders and Civil Rights

Sanders touts his participation in the March on Washington in 1963 as proof of his devotion to civil rights activism. He loves to remind people that he marched with MLK, as seen during the She the People 2019 forum where he repeated that old chestnut for the millionth time and was booed by the attendees. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-met-with-boos-after-name-dropping-martin-luther-king-at-she-the-people-summit

In actuality, Sanders was one of 250,000 people at the march, along with Mitch McConnell, who is clearly no champion for civil rights. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/7-things-know-about-sen-mitch-mcconnell-r-ky-part-flna6C10621413

Representative John Lewis, an actual civil rights hero who worked with Dr. King and whose skull was fractured by police on Bloody Sunday, said that he “never saw [Bernie Sanders]. I never met him,” during the movement. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2016/02/11/john-lewis-never-saw-bernie-sanders-during-civil-rights-era/80263450/

Sanders was charged with resisting arrest during a segregation protest in Chicago in 1963, and was charged $25. He later white flighted to Vermont, one of the whitest states in the country. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/bernie-sanders-core-university-chicago/

Sanders never bothered to vote during the Civil Rights movement, only putting forth the effort when he himself was running. https://imgur.com/gallery/mmS40Gq#460q6bS

During his speech in Jacksonville on the 50th anniversary of MLK’s death, Sanders rewrote history and tried to claim that King’s real focus was economic justice and not civil rights. "All of us know where he was when he was assassinated 50 years ago today. He was in Memphis to stand with low-income sanitation workers who were being exploited ruthlessly, whose wages were abysmally low, and who were trying to create a union. That’s where he was. Because as the mayor just indicated, what he believed — and where he was a real threat to the establishment — is that of course we need civil rights in this country, but we also need economic justice.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/bernie-sanders-revolution-needs-black-voters-to-win-but-can

In thirty years in Congress, Sanders has not sponsored any bills pertaining to civil rights: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse?sponsor=400357#current_status[]=28&enacted_ex=on

Sanders voted for the 1994 crime bill https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/bernie-sanders-has-dodged-criticism-crime-bill-vote-while-others-n1020726

In 1994, he praised the bill and stated that the US needed more jails. https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1221468426855755776

He touted his vote for the crime bill on his website at least until 2006, as proof he was “tough on crime” and “strong on the cops” https://web.archive.org/web/20061018180921/http:/www.bernie.org/truth/crime.html

In 2015, during a meeting with police reform activist group Campaign Zero, Sanders responded to being asked why he thought a disproportionate amount of people of color were incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses with “Aren’t most of the people who sell the drugs African-American?” Those present at the meeting stated, “Even confronted with figures and data to the contrary, Sanders appeared to have still struggled to grasp that he had made an error.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/bernie-sanders-revolution-needs-black-voters-to-win-but-can

In 2018, fifteen racial and social justice leaders in Vermont, including multiple NAACP branch presidents, ACLU organizers, and BLM activists, sent an open letter to Sanders and the Sanders Institute to complain that they were “excluded” from the “national progressive movement that Senator Bernie Sanders is trying to foster.” The letter asks “how could Senator Sanders host what is supposed to be an intersectional, progressive event without inviting the very people whom he serves?” http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/vpr/files/201812/sanders-letter-2018.pdf

Curtiss Reed, Executive Director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, stated that the exclusion of Vermont POC from the Sanders Institute’s event was “a catastrophic failure of his sort of tone deafness to marginalized communities in the state of Vermont” and added “I’m tempted to say this is no longer a question of benign neglect on the part of the senator, but willful ignorance on his part not to include marginalized voices in this national conversation on the progressive movement.” https://www.vpr.org/post/we-find-ourselves-excluded-racial-justice-leaders-ask-bernie-sanders-get-program#stream/0

Vermont Black leaders stated they were “invisible” to Sanders, and that the senator “was just really dismissive of anything that had to do with race and racism, saying that they didn’t have anything to do with the issues of income inequality. He just always kept coming back to income inequality as a response, as if talking about income inequality would somehow make issues of racism go away.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/vermonts-black-leaders-we-were-invisible-to-bernie-sanders

In his 1998 autobiography, Sanders repeatedly and needlessly used the n-word. He chose to keep the word in the text when republishing the book in 2015. https://www.inquisitr.com/5620596/bernie-sanders-under-fire-for-use-of-n-word-in-2015-book-clip-from-audiobook-version-goes-viral-friday/

“I Will Not Make It a Major Priority”: Sanders the Ally

During an interview as mayor of Burlington, Sanders said LGBTQ rights were not a “major priority” for him and he would “probably not” support a bill to protect gays from job discrimination. https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/10/bernie-sanders-on-marriage-equality-hes-no-longtime-champion.html

Also during his time as mayor, Sanders signed a resolution affirming that marriage is between “husband and wife.” https://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/02/06/clinton-surrogates-pounce-on-sanders-over-82-marriage-resolution/

Sanders and his wife stated in 1996 that they opposed the Defense of Marriage Act simply because it would weaken states’ rights. Only later did he claim his opposition was due to support for same-sex marriage. https://time.com/4089946/bernie-sanders-gay-marriage/

Sanders argued same-sex marriage was a states’ rights issue in 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=57&v=kej9QAsS3uI&feature=emb_logo

In that same year, after same-sex civil unions had been legal in Vermont since 2000, he responded to a reporter asking if same-sex marriage should be legalized in Vermont with “Not right now,” after the “very divisive debate” preceding the civil union legislation. https://web.archive.org/web/20160407064606/http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060607/NEWS/606070302/1003/NEWS02

In thirty years in Congress, Sanders has not sponsored any bills pertaining to LGBTQ rights: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse?sponsor=400357#current_status[]=28&enacted_ex=on

Sanders the Warmonger

Sanders loves to tout his opposition to the Iraq War as proof of his moral superiority. But in 1998, he voted for the Iraq Liberation Act, which states that “it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.” He also supported Clinton’s airstrike on Iraq. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/105-1998/h482

In 1999, Sanders had anti-war protesters at his office arrested. https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/27/bernie-sanders-savior-or-seducer-of-the-anti-war-left/

The Iraq War Bill that Sanders voted against required Bush to first try diplomatic efforts and abide by UN rules of military conduct. It also required transparency and progress reports. https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-joint-resolution/114/text

The Authorization for Use of Military Force Act (AUMF), which Sanders did vote for, required none of that and is the reason the Afghanistan War was so much of a clusterfuck. Bush would have used the AUMF to invade Iraq even if Congress had voted down the Iraq Liberation Act. The only person to vote against the AUMF was Representative Barbara Lee. Sanders voted in favor of it. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/107/sjres23/text

Sanders claims to oppose the defense industry. But he brought Lockheed Martin and their 1.2 trillion dollar, over budget, outdated stealth fighters to Vermont. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-loves-this-dollar1-trillion-war-machine

During his tenure as mayor of Burlington, he fired the assistant city treasurer when she was jailed for an anti-war protest. https://academic.oup.com/publius/article-abstract/21/2/131/1917641?redirectedFrom=PDF

Sanders the Healthcare Crusader

Sanders was chairman of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee during a 2014 scandal when dozens of veterans died while waiting for medical care. During his tenure, Sanders only held seven hearings on VA Oversight, as opposed to the House committee’s forty-two hearings. Veterans argue that Sanders was too invested in the idea of the VA as a shining example of government healthcare to address its failings. Despite the scandal and tragedy, Sanders as recently as 2017 bragged that he was involved with “the most comprehensive VA health care bill in this country.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-veterans-scandal-on-bernie-sanderss-watch

He voted against the Clinton plan for universal healthcare in 1993. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/14/1501210/-Where-Was-Sanders-on-Health-Care-in-93-and-94-Against-the-Clintons

Sanders also voted against CHIP, the children’s health insurance program that AOC relied on to see a doctor in her youth: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/105-1997/h345

Despite campaigning on Medicare for All since 2015, Sanders was unable to explain how much the program would cost during a 2020 60 Minutes interview. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/24/politics/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-2020/index.html

When Senator Warren did the math for him and released her detailed M4A plan, Sanders attacked her, calling his plan “more progressive” and saying hers would “have a very negative impact on creating jobs.” https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-health-care-plan/index.html

Sanders claims that his healthcare plan is standard in other countries. But his M4A plan would ban private insurance, which is not done in any country but Canada. In the Scandinavian countries Sanders loves to hold up as an example of government healthcare, the market for private insurance is growing. https://aapsonline.org/no-bernie-other-countries-do-not-ban-private-care/

“Too Brassy, Too Bitchy”: Sanders the Feminist

In his autobiography, Sanders quoted an article calling his 1996 primary opponent Susan Sweetser “too brassy, too bitchy.” https://books.google.com/books?id=_2YjBm2_JGUC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=sanders+too+brassy+too+bitchy&source=bl&ots=SWrIR5Xa8m&sig=ACfU3U2-Hj1-UXIOM0Zz274h6_Nu8juoBg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHhtObq6LmAhWvUt8KHc8mDVUQ6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=sanders%20too%20brassy%20too%20bitchy&f=false

In his Vermont Freeman article “Cancer, Disease, and Society,” Sanders called teachers “old bitch[es]” and blamed them for men developing cancer. He also said women developed cancer due to sexual repression. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2157403-sanders-cancer.html

Referring to their 1986 governor race, his opponent Madeleine Kuhn stated, “When Sanders was my opponent he focused like a laser beam on “class analysis,” in which “women’s issues” were essentially a distraction from more important issues. He urged voters not to vote for me just because I was a woman. That would be a “sexist position,” he declared.” https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/04/when-bernie-sanders-ran-against-vermont/kNP6xUupbQ3Qbg9UUelvVM/story.html

Sanders called Planned Parenthood “a part of the establishment” because they endorsed Secretary Clinton for president. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/planned-parenthood-bernie-sanders-218026

Sanders called Hillary Rodham Clinton, former law firm partner, former First Lady, former Senator, and former Secretary of State, unqualified to be president. https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/06/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-qualified/index.html

In January 2020, leaked phone banking scripts from the Sanders campaign called Warren a candidate of the affluent who wouldn’t bring any new voters to the Democratic base. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/11/bernie-quietly-goes-negative-on-warren-097594

In response, members of Warren’s campaign leaked information that, at a dinner in 2018, Sanders had told Warren he did not think a woman could win the presidency. Sanders and his supporters decried this as a lie, even though reporters knew of the dinner and had been asking Warren if Sanders had discussed women’s electability there for over a year. https://twitter.com/mlcalderone/status/1104477933886935040?s=19

Sanders supporters then flooded Elizabeth Warren and her supporters’ Twitter mentions with snake emojis.

Sanders said of Secretary Clinton, “It is not good enough for someone to say, ‘I’m a woman! Vote for me!” https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/21/13699956/sanders-clinton-democratic-party

Bending the Knee: Sanders the Dictatorship Fanboy

During a 2020 60 Minutes interview, Sanders inexplicably decided it would be a good idea to start praising Fidel Castro’s genocidal regime, stating, “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but, you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. When Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?” https://www.vox.com/2020/2/24/21147388/bernie-sanders-cuba-60-minutes-nicaragua

He doubled down on this praise at the next debate, whining, “Really? Really?” when the crowd booed him. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article240627047.html

In 2014, Sanders visited Cuban prisoner Alan Gross, who lost over 100 pounds and five teeth during his captivity. During the meeting, Gross recalls Sanders telling him, “I don't know what's so wrong with this country.” https://www.npr.org/2020/03/04/811729200/former-prisoner-recalls-sanders-saying-i-don-t-know-what-s-so-wrong-with-cuba

In 1985, Sanders praised bread lines and food rationing. “American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That's a good thing. In other countries people don't line up for food. The rich get the food, and the poor starve to death." https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/21/1920767/-Time-to-switch-out-from-Bernie-he-praised-nations-with-bread-lines-that-s-a-good-thing-Danger

Sanders hung a USSR flag in his office as mayor of Burlington. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/24/bernie-sanders-reveals-his-radical-inclinations-ov/

He honeymooned in the USSR, and praised the state of the Soviet Union. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-bernie-sanderss-1988-10-day-honeymoon-in-the-soviet-union/2019/05/02/db543e18-6a9c-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html

In the 1980s, Sanders attended a Sandinista rally in Nicaragua where the attendees chanted, “Here, there, everywhere, the Yankee will die.” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/bernie-sanders-pro-sandinista-past-problem.html

Sanders recently praised China, saying that it has made "more progress in addressing extreme poverty than any country in the history of civilization." https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/458976-sanders-china-had-done-more-to-address-extreme-poverty-than-any-country-in-the

“They Can’t Stop Us”: Sanders the Conspiracy Theorist

Despite conceding the 2016 primary and stating that “Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nomination and I congratulate her for that” (https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/index.html), he later made the Trump-esque statement “Some people say that if maybe that system was not rigged against me, I would have won the nomination and defeated Donald Trump.” https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-defeat-donald-trump-2016-rigged-primary-dnc-nbc-kasie-hunt-1446116

On February 21, Sanders tweeted, “I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us.” https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1231021453270769664

After Super Tuesday, Sanders stated that Buttigieg and Klobuchar were pressed to drop out as part of an establishment plot to defeat him. https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/486503-sanders-klobuchar-and-buttigieg-ended-campaigns-under-great-deal

Sanders has repeatedly attacked the press as “paid by the corporations and billionaires who own the media.” He’s promoted the conspiracy theory that Jeff Bezos makes The Washington Post write negative articles about him. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/27/bernie-sanders-attacks-media-press-fair-or-trump-2020-democrats

During the Nicaraguan conflict, Sanders accused American reporters of ignoring the truth and told a CBS reporter, “you are worms.” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/bernie-sanders-pro-sandinista-past-problem.html

Sanders accused The Washington Post of trying to harm him in the Nevada caucus by reporting on Russia’s attempts to boost his campaign. https://www.mediaite.com/tv/bernie-sanders-takes-a-shot-at-washington-post-good-friends-when-asked-about-timing-of-russia-report/

“We Support Them”: Sanders the Spoiler

Robert Mueller’s investigation found that Russian interference sought to boost both Sanders and Trump’s 2016 campaigns, stating “we support them.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/17/indictment-russians-also-tried-help-bernie-sanders-jill-stein-presidential-campaigns/348051002/

Sanders was well aware of the Russian efforts, stating “What we knew is–well, of course we knew that. And of course we knew that they were trying to cause divisiveness within the Democratic party. Uh, that’s no great secret.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYbHult0Do

When The Washington Post reported on Russia’s efforts to boost Sanders in 2020, Sanders had already known for weeks and said nothing. After the report came out, he attacked the Post and accused them of trying to tank his performance in the Nevada caucus, stating “I’ll let you guess, about one day before the Nevada caucus. Why do you think it came out? It was The Washington Post? Good friends.” https://www.mediaite.com/tv/bernie-sanders-takes-a-shot-at-washington-post-good-friends-when-asked-about-timing-of-russia-report/

The Fish Rots from the Head: The Sanders Campaign

The 2016 campaign breached the Clinton campaign’s voter data and harvested and stored voter information https://time.com/4155185/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/

The 2016 campaign received a 645 page letter from the FEC detailing the campaign’s finance violations (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-bernie-sanders-donors-who-are-giving-too-much/482418/) and had to pay a $14.5 K fine to the FEC after receiving donations from non-citizens. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/376373-sanders-campaign-pays-145k-fine-to-settle-fec-complaint

The 2016 Nevada campaign director sought to rig the state’s caucus by urging staffers to buy double-sided coins for tie-breaking coin tosses http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sanderss-nevada-director-floated-two-sided-coins-for-tiebreaks-report/ar-AAhHiAI?getstaticpage=true&automatedTracking=staticview

The 2016 campaign initially decried superdelegates as “undemocratic” (https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/opinions/superdelegates-democratic-party-kohn/) before attempting to persuade them to go against the primary’s outcome and back Sanders instead of Clinton https://www.npr.org/2016/05/19/478705022/sanders-campaign-now-says-superdelegates-are-key-to-winning-nomination

The 2016 campaign was accused by staffers of sexual harassment, demeaning treatment toward women, and pay disparity by gender https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexism.html

Weeks before the 2016 general election, Jane Sanders retweeted a video from an April town hall of her husband telling an attendee to “make these decisions yourself” regarding whether or not to vote third party if Secretary Clinton won the primary https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/26/retweet-bernie-sanders-wife-jane-raises-questions/91140254/

The 2020 Sanders campaign appointed Russian interference denier and Jill Stein 2016 voter Briahna Joy Gray as the campaign’s National Press Secretary https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/status/888555665865814017?lang=en

Following promises to run a civil campaign, Sanders hired David Sirota, a man who’d spent months attacking other primary contenders online, as a speech writer. The campaign also confirmed that Sirota had already been serving in an advisory role prior to his official hiring https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/sanders-promised-civility-hired-twitter-attack-dog/585259/

Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray called for the doxing of a Sanders critic on Twitter. If there was any repercussion for this behavior, it has never been made public. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/14/1879124/-Bernie-Sanders-s-Campaign-Doxed-a-Critic-on-Twitter

The 2020 campaign hired and fired YouTuber Matt Orfalea within 24 hours after being alerted of his sexist, racist, homophobic, and ableist content, suggesting he was not vetted before his hiring https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/bernie-sanders-matt-orfalea-mlk-youtube-video/

Despite his firing and the campaign decrying his behavior in October 2019, in January 2020 Jane Sanders was still retweeting and praising Orfalea. https://twitter.com/Rob_Flaherty/status/1236861997398048768

In March 2020, Orfalea posed as a Biden volunteer and made calls to voters claiming that Biden has dementia. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgeanp/a-man-fired-from-sanders-campaign-is-calling-biden-voters-and-saying-he-has-dementia

They hired and fired Darius Khalil Gordon after two days after being alerted of his sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and ableist Tweets https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/12/bernie-sanders-new-head-organizer-called-people-fgs-bhes/

The campaign also hired former Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour as a campaign surrogate. The Women’s March cut ties with Sarsour following anti-Semitic statements. https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/womens-march-founder-calls-on-current-leadership-to-step-down/

Sarsour was also condemned by the Anti-Defamation League for the statement that “a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else.” https://forward.com/news/national/435964/bernie-sanders-linda-sarsour-jewish-voters/

Sanders National Campaign Co-Chair Nina Turner claimed that Biden’s strong support among Black voters is due to the voters’ “short memories” and “not a true understanding of the history” https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/473161-top-sanders-officials-hits-biden-over-riding-on-obamas-coattails

The 2020 campaign paid staffers working 60 hours a week an average of 13 dollars per hour despite Sanders campaigning on a 15 dollar per hour minimum wage https://www.vox.com/2019/7/20/20700841/bernie-sanders-minimum-wage-staff-pay

Bernie Bros attacked Biden’s Detroit rally on 3/9/20, striking senior aide Symone Sanders in the head with an iPad and knocking her down. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/10/joe-biden-detroit-protests-sanders-124874

“Nobody Likes Him”: Sanders Himself

In 1996, Congressman Barney Frank said of Sanders, “Bernie alienates his natural allies. His holier-than-thou attitude—saying in a very loud voice he is smarter than everyone else and purer than everyone else—really undercuts his effectiveness.” https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2016/04/11/history-barney-frank-bernie-sanders-criticize

In her recent Hulu documentary series, Hillary Rodham Clinton briefly spoke about Sanders, saying “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.” https://twitter.com/Burkmc/status/1235863901813661697?s=09

A former campaign staffer called Sanders “unbelievably abusive.” Another campaign insider called him an asshole, and a former Senate staffer recounted, "He yelled in meetings all the time.” https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/anger-management-sanders-fights-for-employees-except-his-own/Content?oid=2834657

One aide stated that Sanders “never makes you feel like you’re good enough to be in the room with him.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/us/politics/bernie-sanders-image.html

Sanders voted in favor of dumping nuclear waste on the poor and predominantly Latinx community of Sierra Blanca, Texas https://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/28/Sanders-Nuclear-Waste-Votes-Divide-Texas-Activists/

When asked if he would visit the site in Sierra Blanca, Sanders answered “Absolutely not.” https://archives.texasobserver.org/issue/1998/09/11#page=11

Sanders voted five times against the Brady Act which required universal background checks and a waiting period to buy firearms. https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/13/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-voted-against-brady/o

He also voted against the AMBER Alert System. http://archive.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/09/21/sanders_vote_on_amber_alert_emerges_as_key_campaign_issue/

He wanted to primary Obama in the 2012 election cycle. https://www.thenation.com/article/yes-bernie-sanders-wanted-obama-primaried-in-2012-heres-why/

After saying millionaire senators are immoral (https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/politics/bernie-millionaire-senators-immoral/index.html) and railing against millionaires and billionaires in his 2016 campaign, Sanders responded to criticism of his millionaire senator status by saying “if you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” His stump speech now only rants about billionaires. https://theweek.com/speedreads/834228/bernie-sanders-says-millionaire-like-write-bestselling-book

Upheld a ban on rock concerts as mayor of Burlington like a Footloose villain https://i.redd.it/atpybo1rcwa31.jpg

Despite running on forgiving student loan debt since 2015, when pressed for specifics during an interview with Dana Bash, Sanders responded, “I don't have the plan in my pocket right now,” because, you know, why on Earth should he know the details of his key campaign promises? https://mobile.twitter.com/DanaBashCNN/status/1137779734467792897

Two days before the 2016 general election, Sanders tweeted “I do not believe that most of the people who are thinking about voting for Mr. Trump are racist or sexist.” https://twitter.com/berniesanders/status/794941635931099136?lang=en

Sanders had a heart attack at age 78, making his continued life expectancy 3.1 years. https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/acute-coronary-syndrome/study-65-older-mi-patients-die-within-8-years

He could have dropped out of the race after his heart attack and endorsed Warren, and she could have spent the primary building coalitions with the demographics where she was the weakest, and could well have been the front runner by now. Instead, he selfishly stayed in the race, screwing her over and knowing full well the odds are against him living through a single term. He continued to do the only thing he’s good at: fucking everyone over.

Say whatever you want about Biden, it’s not like there aren’t things to say. But I’ve seen so many posts about how “Sure, Biden’s the worst EVER, but he is EVER SO SLIGHTLY less worse than Trump,” and excuse me, fuck off. Biden horribly lost his wife and daughter before his 1972 Senate term even started, and instead of dropping out, he continued to serve his constituents while commuting home two hours every night to raise his sons. Meanwhile, in 1972, Sanders was a deadbeat bum stealing electricity. There’s no comparison.

#long post #Bernie Sanders #politics #2020 election #election 2020 #primary 2020 #2020 primary

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 years

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 4, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

While coronavirus continues to burn across the country, Trump is focusing instead on continuing to contest the election results and on the Pentagon.

The main story in the country continues to be the coronavirus. As of tonight, according to the New York Times, more than 14,441,700 people in the U.S. have been infected with the virus and at least 278,900 have died. Official daily death counts are well over 2000.

As several states continue to count votes from the November election, President-Elect Joe Biden’s popular vote margin over Trump is now more than 7 million. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan, all states in which Trump contested the vote, have already certified their election results for Biden. In all six of those states, judges have ruled that Trump’s lawyers have provided no evidence of fraud. They have used words like “baseless,” “flimsy,” “obviously lacking,” “dangerous,” and “not credible.”

Trump’s obsession with winning an election he has clearly lost has brought into relief the struggle for control over the Republican Party. Trump is clearly trying to turn the party into a vehicle for loyalty to him and him alone. He has always turned on those who no longer serve his interests: Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was one of the first elected Republicans to support Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy, giving it an air of legitimacy. He left the Senate to become Trump’s first Attorney General, only to have Trump turn against him when he recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, because he had lied about his own contacts with Russians. Trump forced Sessions to resign, and when Sessions ran again for the Senate, endorsed his rival and attacked Sessions on Twitter. Sessions lost his primary.

Now Trump has turned on men who similarly sacrificed their careers for his. Three days ago, Trump’s loyalist Attorney General, William Barr, undercut Trump’s election fraud arguments when he said that he had not seen such fraud. This apparently so infuriated Trump that he is considering firing Barr. Then, this morning, Trump turned on loyalist Louis DeJoy at the head of the United States Postal Service, who removed mail sorting machines and changed USPS rules to slow mail-in ballots expected to be for Biden. Trump tweeted that the USPS “is responsible for tampering with hundreds of thousands of ballots” and thus stole the election from him. He called the USPS a “long time Democrat stronghold,” although DeJoy is a major Trump supporter and donor.

While Trump is talking about running again in 2024, his turning against his most loyal supporters in the Republican Party will not inspire others to rally to his banner. Instead, it may simply be that he’s keeping the idea of his candidacy alive because it keeps money flowing in. Since the election, he has raised more than $200 million in donations.

While he is fighting over the election results, Trump has done very little else except to replace civilian employees at the Pentagon with his own hand-picked loyalists. This is unusual in a lame duck period, when presidents usually try to smooth the transition to the next administration.

Far from trying to smooth that transition, Trump is making it as bumpy as possible. His appointee at the General Services Administration delayed the start of the transition for weeks. Now that Biden’s team finally has access to Trump’s people to learn about their planning for the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, it turns out there hasn’t been much planning. Biden today noted that “There is no detailed plan that we’ve seen, anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody’s arm…. It's going to be very difficult for that to be done and it’s a very expensive proposition…. There’s a lot more that has to be done.”

Also disturbing is that the Trump administration has denied the Biden team access to U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Defense Department, including the National Security Agency (which is the nation’s largest U.S. intelligence service), the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence services with a global reach. The Biden folks have, though, been able to meet with their counterparts at the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The refusal of the Pentagon to meet with Biden’s people comes at a time when Trump has been shaking up personnel there. Immediately after the election, Trump fired his fourth Defense Secretary, Mark T. Esper, and replaced him with an acting secretary of defense, Christopher C. Miller. Miller, in turn, has presided over the installation of a number of Trump loyalists both in the Pentagon leadership and on the Defense Policy Board, a group of advisors who consult with the Defense Secretary on specific issues when asked. Pushed out were about a dozen advisers, including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, as well as former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Today, there was another major purge at Defense, this time from the Defense Business Board, a nonpartisan group of about 20 volunteers from the business sector who are appointed to give business advice to Pentagon leaders. The White House threw nine people off the board—informing them with a terse email—including its chair, Michael Bayer. Trump replaced them with his former 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and that year’s deputy campaign manager, David Bossie, among other loyalists. Both Lewandowski and Bossie are outspoken Trump supporters who have led the fight to contest the election.

So has another Trump nominee for a Pentagon post, Scott O’Grady, who has endorsed the idea that Trump won by a landslide and that Trump should declare martial law. Trump has nominated him to become an assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, overseeing operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Exactly what Trump is doing with this packing of the Defense Department is unclear. There are, though, three major issues on the table right now that may or may not be involved, but are worth keeping in mind.

The first is that Trump is trying to remove many U.S. troops from around the world before he leaves office, and had gotten serious pushback on that from the people he has now purged from the Defense Department. Today, he ordered nearly all of about 700 U.S. troops out of Somalia, where they have been training local soldiers to hold ground against terrorists. They will not come home, though; they are being sent elsewhere in Africa.

There is also still hanging out there the administration’s sudden announcement of a $23 billion sale of arms to the United Arab Emirates, including a number of advanced F-35 fighter jets and Reaper drones. Lawmakers of both parties object to this sale, concerned about risks to Israel and that the UAE could transfer the technology to China and Russia. The Senate will vote next week on banning the sale.

There is also the effort by the White House to force the Pentagon to lease its airwave spectrum to a private company, Rivada Networks, to create a nationwide 5G network. Rivada is backed by major Republican figures, including operative Karl Rove, but established Pentagon officials have little interest in the project, pointing out that there is no proof that Rivada knows what it’s doing or that the plan would be legal. It’s also not clear that the use of this spectrum for private carriers wouldn’t impact its use for national security. The Defense Department spectrum the White House would like to lease to private investors is worth between $50 and $75 billion.

I always believe in following the money, and that’s especially true now as Trump’s years in the White House, which have given him access to huge sums, are drawing to a close.

—-

[FROM COMMENTS]

Scott M. Krasner

I waver between bewilderment and rage when reading these daily summaries. I can almost "understand" his more political moves - installing loyalists, withdrawing troops, even trying to sell access to the Defense Department's wavebands. I don't agree or condone these actions, but they're consistent with his approach to governance to date.

What's comprehensible is ignoring - in any and every way - the coronavirus and its impact. Unconscionable doesn't begin to describe his failure to acknowledge the deaths of 280,000 Americans, or to endorse any means of protecting each other as best possible. It's inhumane. It's devoid of empathy, morally vacuous, and ethically deplorable. It is unequivocally and unalterably wrong.

And yet 74,000,000 thought it acceptable to return him to office. McConnell has personally obstructed any efforts to extend relief for 8 months and counting. It's Hobbseian in its social brutishness. Even Hobbes might be appalled. And Republican leadership is mute.

I'm almost beyond shock. Since the beginning, many thought each of Trump's transgressions would be the last straw, yet nothing happened. The only apparent imposition of accountability is his having lost the election. Court losses haven't swayed him. Our perverse campaign finance laws have given him license to steal despite the misleading fine print. His Cabinet, always incompetent for the task, is asleep, silent, or in on the game. Each day goes by with no visible effort to limit his efforts to salt the earth in advance of his successor. And Republican leadership ignores or enables him to proceed unhindered.

He's unmoored. He's looking to preemptively pardon family and loyalists who are most likely would be criminally liable but haven't yet been charged. His most ardent supporters are almost insane (read Giuliani and Powell) or seditious (read Flynn and Lin Wood). And still the Republican party watches with bloodless faces and dead eyed stares, saying not a word.

What is one to think? How does one explain this to children? How can one reason with any family, friends, or acquaintances who somehow believe Trump is in the right, brought low only by a grand, silent conspiracy of wrong minded citizens and foreign actors?

Perhaps history can look upon Trump's reign of terror more dispassionately. Today, however, I and many others feel like we're helpless, our minds and sensibilities best represented by the visage of horror in Edvard Munch's The Scream.

Linda Mitchell

Hannah Arendt's book (based on her reporting for The New Yorker), "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" encapsulates the issues TCinLA and the people who posted replies to it raise. I have read only bits of it but what she presents is a picture of evil that is stripped of glamour and that indicts everyone. As she says about Eichmann, "Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all." If you have access to JSTOR (you can read online for free but not download if you don't have access through a library) there is a great short article in The History Teacher (1981) that discusses Arendt and her book in clear and concise terms. https://www.jstor.org/stable/493684

Miller and most everyone else surrounding the Deranged Cheeto--including the criminal enablers in Congress--fit Arendt's description perfectly. They are not monsters. They are not (most of them) pathological narcissists. They are sterile, unoriginal, uncreative people who have decided that personal advancement through doing terrible things is fine with them. It is actually harder, in our modern world, to be a good person than to be an awful one. Empathy, emotional maturity, awareness, and wisdom all require effort on the part of the individual. One has to engage, one has to become self-aware, one has to be brutally honest with oneself. Evil simply requires reaching down to that lowest common denominator of the id: a desire for self-advancement by any means necessary.

This is why they all seem so petty, so puerile, so childish, so joyless. This is why their tantrums are so infantile. And this is why Biden and Harris seem, by contrast, so refreshingly mature, so willing to allow joy. Both have been radically affected by what Hegel referred to as the "slaughter-bench" of history. The subhumans surrounding the Unelected Ex-President have not got enough imagination to be affected by anything except their own hunger.

[LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #political #election 2020 #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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🚨 BREAKING NEWS ALERT 🚨 🚨

John Conyers Jr., long-serving congressman who co-founded Congressional Black Caucus, dies at 90

By John Otis | Published October 27 at 4:36 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 27, 2019 |

John Conyers Jr., who became the longest-serving African American in Congress, co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus and helped create a national holiday in the name of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. but whose career rapidly crumbled at 88 when he resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, died Oct. 27 at his home in Detroit. He was 90.

His spokeswoman Holly Baird confirmed the death. Additional details were not immediately available.

A liberal Democrat from what is now Detroit’s 13th Congressional District, Mr. Conyers was first elected in 1964, becoming one of five African Americans in the House. His overwhelmingly Democratic constituents reelected him 26 times over a period spanning 10 presidents, from Lyndon B. Johnson to Donald Trump.

As the longest-serving member at the time of his resignation, Mr. Conyers earned the title “dean of the House of Representatives,” and this job security allowed him to promote progressive, sometimes controversial causes that won him a national following.

He co-sponsored the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited discrimination at the ballot box. His fierce criticism of the Vietnam War led to clashes with Johnson and landed him on Richard M. Nixon’s “enemies list” of political opponents.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Conyers voted against the USA Patriot Act because he feared it would roll back civil liberties. He later suggested that President George W. Bush should be impeached, saying he misled the country ahead of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Mr. Conyers’s twilight years were marred by allegations of sexual harassment. According to legal documents published by the online publication BuzzFeed in November 2017, several of his female staff members claimed that he had approached them to request sex and that he had engaged in unwanted touching and other impropriety.

One former staff member received a settlement of more than $27,000 from Mr. Conyers’s office after alleging in 2015 that he fired her for not accepting his sexual advances. The congressman denied any wrongdoing. But after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation and numerous representatives called for him to step down in November 2017, Mr. Conyers step down from hs post as top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The next month, he announced his resignation, after 52 years in office.

“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we are going through now,” Mr. Conyers declared defiantly. “This too shall pass.”

Before the scandal, Mr. Conyers had been an inspiration to African Americans from Detroit to the Deep South and became, in effect, a member of Congress at large.

“In many districts around the country, black voters did not feel represented by their leaders so they would reach out to African American congressmen, like Conyers,” said Michael Fauntroy, who interned for Mr. Conyers in the early 1980s and is now an assistant professor of political science at Howard University.

Mr. Conyers, in turn, urged skeptical African Americans to get involved in politics. One of his early mottos was: “Register, vote, run for office. It’s power that counts.” To better harness that power and secure passage of legislation on poverty, racism, human rights, unfair tax policies and health care, Mr. Conyers and 12 other African American House members founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971.

Mr. Conyers strongly backed the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and was an early supporter of candidate Barack Obama, who was then a Democratic senator from Illinois. Yet Mr. Conyers also could be caustic of fellow Democrats to demonstrate that he was not blindly loyal to anyone.

In 1979, he described President Jimmy Carter as a “hopeless, demented, honest, well-intentioned nerd who will never get past his first administration.” Decades later, Mr. Conyers criticized Obama for making foreign policy too dependent on military muscle. His intention, Mr. Conyers said of Obama, was “to make him a better president.”

He presented himself as an emeritus member of the Washington establishment, and had participated in many high-profile political battles.

Mr. Conyers was the only member of the House Judiciary Committee to take part in impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon in 1974 for the Watergate bugging scandal and coverup, and against President Bill Clinton in 1998 for lying about his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

Mr. Conyers considered Nixon a criminal and helped draft articles of impeachment against the president before he resigned. However, he called the effort to impeach Clinton a Republican coup d’etat and “the most tragic event in my career.” He voted no when the House voted to impeach Clinton. Eight years later, Mr. Conyers became the first African American to chair the Judiciary Committee.

All along, Mr. Conyers was a master of the politics of symbolism. He hired civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who worked in his Detroit office for 20 years. He introduced numerous bills calling for reparations for the descendants of slaves, an issue that resonated among blacks but did not gain traction in Congress. More successful was his 15-year struggle to recognize King, the civil rights defender.

Four days after King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and with the support of his widow, Coretta Scott King, Mr. Conyers proposed the first of many bills calling for a federal holiday in his honor.

The proposal met resistance from Republicans, notably Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.), who accused King of Communist sympathies and complained that only one other holiday, Columbus Day, was named after a person.

Mr. Conyers kept pushing, millions of people signed petitions and entertainer Stevie Wonder pitched in with the hit single “Happy Birthday.” President Ronald Reagan in 1983 signed legislation setting aside the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day; the day was chosen because it was near King’s Jan. 15 birthday.

In a 2008 interview, Mr. Conyers called it “far and away the thing I am most proud of.”

But as the Detroit Free Press, his hometown paper, once described it, “For every brilliant move, there’s a dud.” Mr. Conyers was famous for missing votes on the House floor. Critics claimed that his effectiveness was dulled by growing arrogance and a refusal to compromise. He was prone to gaffes, prompting Time magazine political columnist Joe Klein to call him “foolishly incendiary.”

When Mr. Conyers ran for mayor of Detroit in 1989, challenging Democratic incumbent Coleman A. Young, he announced his bid by saying, “Move over, Big Daddy, I’m home.” Mr. Conyers finished third in the primary and then lost again in 1993.

Mr. Conyers could be a demanding boss. In addition to the allegations that he sexually harassed staff members, the House Ethics Committee investigated him for pressuring staff members to babysit for his children and to chauffeur him to private events in government vehicles.

After an investigation that lasted more than two years, the panel announced a deal in 2006 in which it dropped the inquiry in return for Mr. Conyers’s promise that he would not ask his staff members to do nonofficial work for him.

In 2009, Mr. Conyers’s wife, Monica Esters Conyers — a former campaign staff member 36 years his junior — was convicted of bribery while serving on the Detroit City Council and was sentenced to 37 months in prison.

John James Conyers Jr. was born in Detroit on May 16, 1929. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War. With the help of the G.I. Bill for veterans, he graduated from Detroit’s Wayne State University in 1957 and its law school in 1958.

His interest in public affairs was partly because of his father’s position as an international representative for the United Auto Workers and, for a time, Mr. Conyers worked as a labor lawyer. He also was a legislative assistant to Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), one of the few House members to serve even longer than Mr. Conyers.

In the early 1960s, local Democratic Party elders considered Mr. Conyers too young to pursue federal office. Despite their opposition, Mr. Conyers ran in the 1964 Democratic primary for what was then Detroit’s 1st Congressional District and won by a mere 45 votes. He then scored a landslide victory in the general election.

Mr. Conyers had two sons, John III and Carl. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.

In office, Mr. Conyers went on to fend off challenges from candidates who hadn’t yet been born when he was first elected.

#african american history #african american #house of representatives #houseofrepresentatives #democratic party #democrats #democracy #us politics #politics #u.s. news #u.s. politics #in memoriam #rip #trending topics #top stories google news #top news

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berniesrevolution · 6 years

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Let’s begin with the good news from last night. In Missouri, voters overwhelmingly rejected (by 2 to 1!) the “right to work” law passed by the state’s Republican legislature. This is very good news indeed. It rebuts the Republican position that American workers want laws banning job contracts requiring union membership. These laws are always touted as expanding people’s “economic freedom” because they prevent businesses from “forcing” their workers to join unions. But even Milton Friedman, in Capitalism and Freedom, pointed out that that was spurious: Actually, the laws themselves are an infringement on the classic conservative idea of “economic freedom,” because they prohibit certain kinds of “freely made” contractual arrangements.

Right-to-work laws don’t come out of a principled commitment to free markets. They’re just an attempt to destroy unions using the power of the state. Missouri voters have indicated that they’re not having it. Now, the left should try to get every other state’s right-to-work laws put up to a democratic vote. We’ll quickly see whether people agree that the “freedom to not join a unionized employer” is more valuable to them than the freedom that comes with having your interests represented at work. This is an important moment, especially because of just how overwhelming public opposition to the law was. And in Missouri of all places!

Another bit of good news from last night: In Michigan, DSA-backed Palestinian state legislator Rashida Tlaib won her primary! She’s in a deep blue district, so she is now almost certain to become the first Muslim woman ever elected to Congress. That’s a historic milestone, and very exciting. She had to defeat the local political establishment in order to pull it off, so it was far from a guaranteed victory. However, she did bring in far more money than her opponents, which may be evidence that it’s very difficult (unless you’re Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) to compete unless you’re well-funded.

Ah, but then there’s the bad news. Abdul El-Sayed did not win. This was very disappointing, because over the last few months I’ve gone from skepticism about El-Sayed to total certainty that he is exactly the sort of candidate the left needs. He had a well thought-out policy agenda, a solid background, a charismatic personality, and a powerful ability to inspire people. So many people who saw Abdul speak developed a sense of hope, and a belief in the possibilities of politics, that they had never felt before. I felt it myself: Abdul made it difficult to feel jaded or cynical about the political system, because he had such clear plans for how to use it to make people’s lives better. The young people who flocked to his campaign did it because he moved them and made them think they could actually achieve something beautiful together. His defeat will be very hard for many of them. It will be hard for me. If you didn’t see him up close, you may not realize just how good he was. But damn, he was good.

Abdul will be back, of course. And I hope that he takes the right lesson from this: not that you should try to appear more “moderate” and disguise your left politics, but that it’s a long struggle and support needs to be built bit by bit. The reason people loved Abdul was that he told the truth, and unlike so many other Democrats, he didn’t seem afraid. It seemed like he’d never back down. And that was just so refreshing. I hope he never, ever changes, and that he keeps on pushing.

What does Abdul’s loss “mean”? The New York Times said it is “a reminder that Democratic primary voters across the country are not necessarily motivated chiefly by liberal ideology.” Well, that’s technically true, but not as meaningful as it seems. The result does mean that Democratic voters don’t just vote automatically for the most progressive candidate. But nobody thinks that anyway; we all know it requires organization and money to win as well. We have to be careful about what lessons we draw from this: Leftists will point out that the other two candidates had far, far more money than El-Sayed. Millionaire businessman Shri Thanedar spent $12 million of his own money on the race, and managed to pull 17.7 percent of the vote. He seemed to be running for purely opportunistic reasons, and pretended to be a Bernie Sanders progressive despite having recently supported Republicans. He was a borderline fraud (and is actually being sued for fraud). He had once tortured a hundred beagles! I mean, Thanedar was an utterly ridiculous candidate, but he had one thing: $12 million. And he flooded the race with advertising. He was everywhere.

The fact that Shri Thanedar got 17.7 percent of the vote tells us something sad but obvious about American politics: It’s driven in large part by money. Money isn’t everything. Shri was never going to actually win. But money can do a hell of a lot. When I visited Michigan, I watched Abdul on the phone trying to convince medium-sized donors to give several hundred dollars so he could afford to run another local TV ad. He had to spend 35-40 hours per week doing this, just to have any television advertising at all. That’s a second full-time job in addition to all the other campaigning, and it’s a full-time job that Thanedar, being self-funded, didn’t need to do. The advantage that money gives you is absurd. If you don’t have it, you have no alternative but to try to build an organization from scratch, hoping you can inspire people enough to work for you for free. If you’re running on a platform that wealthy people aren’t going to like, as Abdul was, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get your word out to voters, because who will fund it? The race certainly proves, to some degree, that our politics is corrupt: A millionaire could simply buy nearly 20 percent of the vote. Others will see the result differently, and think it proves that progressive politics aren’t viable in the Midwest or whatever. I don’t think that’s tenable. Bernie Sanders won Michigan with the exact same political platform as Abdul. The ideas did not change. And let’s remember that Shri Thanedar, fraud that he was, lifted the Sanders platform as well, and ran on single-payer healthcare. If you add the two single-payer candidates together, they got very nearly half the vote.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #Abdul El-Sayed #rashida tlaib #Justice Democrats #progressive #progressive movement #current affairs

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apartyofone · 6 years

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Who is this guy?

Read in the NYT about the mayor of a medium sized town in Indiana who has announced his candidacy for Democratic Primary in 2020.

For President.

Huh?

And then I saw his uncommon name - Pete Buttigieg - and remembered this very memorable post on Medium after 2016:

Take a read. And open your mind to the crazy, longshot possibilities...

https://medium.com/@buttigieg/a-letter-from-flyover-country-5d4e9c32d2ac

A Letter From Flyover Country

Most people have trouble pronouncing my name, so they just call me “Mayor Pete.” My surname, Buttigieg (Boot-edge-edge), is very common in my father’s country of origin, the tiny island of Malta, and nowhere else. Dad came to America in the 1970s and became a citizen; he married my mother, an Army brat and umpteenth-generation Hoosier, and the two of them settled in South Bend, Indiana, shortly before I was born thirty-five years ago. At the age of 29, the city elected me mayor. Being the mayor of your hometown is the best job in America, partly because it’s relatively nonpartisan — we focus on results, not ideology. Yet, precisely because of what it means to my community, I am paying closer attention than ever to national politics and the direction of my party.

The Democratic Party matters more than ever, now that a hostile takeover of the Republican Party has brought to power a thin-skinned authoritarian who is not liberal, nor conservative, nor moderate. Yet the party today stands at its lowest point of national and statewide influence since the 1920s, just when a robust opposition is needed most. Much will depend on whether Democrats can organize and deliver a consistent alternative — principles, proposals, and candidates — in the face of what is about to come out of Washington and various state capitals under unchecked Republican control. They will keep some of their promises and break others. Things they will do, and things they will allow, stand to hurt America and Americans. We need to be ready to put forward a better way.

Among Democrats responding to the last election and organizing for the next one, the conversation, inevitably, is moving in the direction of organizing and tactics. This is vital, but it cannot come before the fundamentals. We need to begin with the values that make us Democrats in the first place. If we don’t talk about values, many Americans will tune us out. Again.

I am a Democrat because I believe in protecting freedom, fairness, families, and the future.

(Emphasis is mine)

First, freedom — not just the thin idea of freedom from overregulation but the freedom to choose our destinies, not to mention our spouses. Freedom from things like crushing medical costs and student debt, from dishonest banking practices and anything else that affects the most basic of freedoms: freedom to live a life of our choosing.

Next, fairness, in the sense Democrats have always cared about deeply, fairness in access to voting and to public accommodations, fairness in the face of discrimination and privilege, fairness in our systems of distributing financial and political power. Donald Trump got elected because, in his twisted way, he correctly asserted that there is great unfairness in our economy and our democracy.

Next, family: because we are made happy or unhappy mostly by what happens in our families, because you can’t raise a family on less than an adequate wage, because shaping our families is a personal right, and because you can’t raise a family at all if your government doesn’t have your back.

And finally, the future: because the national security of our people, and the habitability of our land, almost totally depend on those we elect, their judgment and wisdom and willingness to pay attention to facts and evidence when making decisions that will have consequences for centuries.

None of this is theoretical for me. I didn’t see Afghanistan on the news, I saw it through the armored windshields of the vehicles I drove or guarded on dozens of missions outside the wire, and as a Reservist I could be sent back to war if a reckless president leads us into peril. I don’t think about gun violence as an abstraction, not when I’ve had to attend funerals and console the mothers of victims in my city — and swear in police officers alongside family members who pray they will come home safe every day. Marriage equality isn’t a political rallying cry for me, it is a legal fact without which my future family cannot even exist. Obamacare isn’t a political football for me, it’s a matter of household finance: it’s how my partner pays for his health care and how his mother pays for the chemotherapy on which her life depends. Climate change isn’t about polar bears for me. It’s about the South Bend families whose homes I stood in last summer, their basements flooded with muck and excrement while children wandered around the porch the night before school started, because our city had just experienced one of those unprecedented rainfalls that science kept warning us about.

Commentators have focused on candidates and their antics as though that mattered most. But politics, for our city and for most Americans, isn’t about The Show. Its consequences don’t happen in the Beltway or on Twitter or on television. Politics happens in, and to, our homes, in the lives of the people we care about, like the people in my household, my family, and my community. That’s why this all matters so much. The process matters because of what it means to us voters as human beings, not the other way around.

At home, I ran and won, twice, by telling my blue-collar community that Studebaker was never going to come back and make cars in our city, and that it was all right, because there is a way forward. Now Democrats need to absorb the fact that winning the popular vote is not enough, see that the future trends of the electoral map alone will not save us, and know that it’s all right, because there is a way forward.

Our values are American values, and a values-led strategy (backed by a formidable organization) will prevail if we are true to it, and if we keep it close to the earth. I am not a candidate for a position in the national party, but I am watching closely to see if any of the declared candidates will articulate this message: it is time to organize our politics around the lived experience of real people, whose lives play out not in the political sphere but in the everyday, affected deeply and immediately by how well we honor our values with good policy.

With over 40 per cent of voters in my generation describing themselves as independent, our future as a party will depend on reminding people how their lives have been improved by good Democratic policies, and when a voter thinks that isn’t true in her life, we had better listen closely and try to understand why.

When it comes to my part of the country, we will recover our ability to reach people only when we take them seriously, connecting our plans to their actual, personal lived experience rather than focusing on The Show. We need to invite individual people to assess how their individual lives changed — how their safety, their income, their access to health care, their gun rights, their marriages — have actually been affected, if at all, by what goes on in Washington.

Taking people seriously also means treating the constituency groups that traditionally support Democrats as more than a disconnected patchwork of interests to cater to, served by a great political salad bar of something different for everyone. The various identity groups who have been part of our coalition should be there because we have spoken to their values and their everyday lives — not because we contacted them, one group at a time and just in time for the next election, to remind them of some pet issue that illustrates why we expect them to support us. Laundry lists will not inspire.

Democrats need a true turnaround, just like my city did when I ran for mayor. In the last five years, my “rust belt” city went from being described by Newsweek as one of America’s ten dying communities to seeing its fastest pace of population and investment growth in recent memory. That’s how I got re-elected with 80 percent of the vote last year, in the seat of a county that would split its vote evenly between Clinton and Trump a year later. We earned support from residents on both sides of the aisle, not by becoming ideologically conservative but by listening to people about what matters to them, facing our problems, and delivering results on the ground to earn confidence and trust. In the same way, I am convinced that, for our politics and for our nation, salvation begins with the local.

#2020 #longshot

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clubofinfo · 6 years

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Expert: It’s more than doors between government and the businesses that they supposedly regulate that go round and round. One of the other swinging doors is between the Democratic and Republican Parties. A second door Perhaps the best known case is when Al Gore ran for president in 2000, he picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Then, in 2008, Lieberman showed up at the Republican national convention to endorse John McCain for president. Between those two campaigns, John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, was rumored to be leaning to ask Republican John McCain to be his running mate. Had Al Gore won, Lieberman would most likely have been the subsequent Democratic nominee for president. Had John Kerry won with McCain on the ticket, McCain would have been the heir apparent to the “Democratic Party” crown. Whether Lieberman or McCain, Democrats across the country would have been told to bow in reverence to their party’s red-blue nominee for president. This was hardly the first time such a switcheroo blossomed in American politics. In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln dumped his sitting vice-president to ask Democrat Andrew Johnson to be his running mate. After Lincoln’s murder, US voters, who had selected a Republican to be their president, found him replaced by a Democrat. Though such examples at the presidential level may be enshrined in history books, they happen all the time at the local level. In 1963, the Texas Young Democrats allowed high school chapters for the first time. I was 15 years old then and organized the state’s first Young Democrats chapter at Lamar High School in Houston. We invited a teacher who had been elected to the Texas Legislature to speak to our chapter on “Why Am I a Democrat?” His answer was simple. He was a Democrat because that was the only way to get elected in Texas of the early 1960s. The next year, he came out as a Republican. That was the time of the exodus of southern Dixiecrats from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Fast forward half a century and I was the 2016 Green Party nominee for governor of Missouri. I participated in the debate with Democrat Chris Koster and Republican Eric Greitens. Greitens, riding the election on Trump’s wave, has since become internationally infamous for an affair in which he allegedly tied his victim to his basement exercise equipment, hit her, took nude photos of her, threatened to publicize the photos if she ever told anyone what he did, and continued various sex acts without her consent. During the campaign, both the Democrat and Repubican made TV ads showing themselves with automatic weapons. Besides being partial to gun violence, they had something else in common. Both had switched parties. The Republican Greitens was a former Democrat and the Democrat Koster was a former Republican. Like most others greedy for power, they decided which way the winds were blowing, calculated where they could most effectively hustle votes, and adjusted their public images and party affiliation accordingly. (Greitens resigned as governor in May 2018.) Flip-flops between the corporate parties are hardly peculiar to Missouri. Evan Jenkins was the runner-up in the May 2018 Republican primary for the West Virginia US senate seat. Jenkins had been elected as a Democrat to the West Virginia legislature, but hopped to the Republican side to win the third district US house seat in 2014. During the 2018 race, the former Democrat boasted a perfect rating from the National Rifle Association as well as a 100% “pro-life” record saying, “I am a West Virginia conservative who is working with President Trump each and every day for our shared conservative values.” That was nothing new for the state. Its billionaire governor Jim Justice started out as a Republican, became a Democrat in 2015 to win the governor’s race and switched again to the Republicans in 2017 to bask in Trump’s glow. These people are as dedicated to the colors of their party as a chameleon is to staying green when it’s opportune to turn yellow. The original door Do you remember when the “revolving door” was first noticed? It was due to people like Michael R. Taylor who rotated between regulatory agencies and the corporations they were supposedly regulating. Taylor began as a Monsanto lawyer. Then he became a staff lawyer for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and helped it to hassle Amish farmers for selling whole milk while giving companies like Monsanto the green light to sell genetically contaminated products without labeling them. Then, he cycled back to Monsanto, becoming its Vice President for Public Policy. In 2010, he flipped back to being the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Foods. The scenario was quite a bit different for Richard Gephardt, former speaker of the US House and darling child of business unions and anti-NAFTA coalitions in the early 1990s. When I was working with Public Citizen to oppose NAFTA, a friend who had just been to Mexico told me that Gephardt had spoken in Monterrey promising to get NAFTA through the US House. So I spent several afternoons at the Washington University library until I found the Mexican paper Excelsior recording his comments. I documented Gephardt’s statements in an Op-Ed piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of June 1, 1993 and reported his two faces during the next Public Citizen conference call. There was stony silence for several seconds. Then Lori Wallach let everyone know “Dick Gephardt is the best ally in Washington that we have.” Though Gephardt gave clear warnings of his true colors, leftists paid to lobby politicians had a devout faith that an ally scheming to stab you in the back is better than no ally at all. A few years later, the left did turn on Gephardt – but only after he publicly displayed his contempt for progressives. In 2005, he abandoned his distinguished career as public servant and formed Gephardt Government Affairs which allowed him to pocket almost $7 million lobbying on behalf of clients such as Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Visa Inc and Waste Management Inc. Of course, Gephardt was not the typical revolving door guy. Instead of being an agency bureaucrat he was elected to public office. And he did not wait to resign from his governmental post to serve industry because he was apparently working both sides regarding NAFTA at the same time. A third door This brings us to a third way the door revolves – the way that policies and practices get tossed from one corporate party to the other. When I was a kid, the saying went “The Democrats bring war and the Republicans bring recession.” But no more. With rapacious Wall Street increasing its appetite for expansion as its human host decays, the Democrats and Republicans shadow box to see which can simultaneously be more violent and make the quality of life deteriorate faster. Perhaps the old saying stemmed from the way Woodrow Wilson won the presidency with the slogan “He kept us out of war” and then proceeded to take the US into WWI. A few decades later Lyndon Johnson ridiculed Barry Goldwater’s threat to bomb Viet Nam back into the stone age. After LBJ won the election, he did his best to carry out Goldwater’s plan. For about half a century, the Republicans won the reputation of being the most anti-Communist. Yet, it was John and Bobby Kennedy who tried to invade Cuba, went off their chain to pit bull Fidel Castro, and began the very long series of attempts to assassinate him. Years later, the rapidly anti-Communist Richard Nixon ascended the throne, recognized China, and visited Beijing. In case you missed it, the right-wing Nixon reversed course and realized a progressive idea. It was hardly the only positive event that happened during the reign of one of the most degenerate presidents of all time. The following occurred during his presidency: end to the Viet Nam war, beginning of the Food Stamp Program, creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, passage of the Freedom of Information Act, formal dismantling of the FBI’s COINTEL program, decriminalization of abortion, creation of Earned Income Tax Credits, a format ban on biological weapons, and passage of the Clean Water Act. One of the crowning achievements during the Nixon era was the April 28, 1971 founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Shaun Richman describes in The Unionist how OSHA “has the authority to promulgate industry-specific workplace safety rules and to fine companies that violate them. The law also provides for workplace safety inspectors, whistleblower protections for workers who report potentially unsafe conditions and legal protections for workers who go on wildcat strikes to put an end to a dangerous situation.” Do Democrats in power provide some sort of assurance because they “call for” more environmental protection than do Republicans? During the 1990s, St. Louis environmentalists were trying to block the construction of a dioxin incinerator. There was a Democrat in the White House, a Democratic Governor of Missouri, and a Democratic County Executive. We persuaded the Democratic majority on the County Council to pass an ordinance requiring dioxin incinerators to operate according to EPA standards, which seemed like a victory since no incinerator can meet those standards. We stopped going to County Council meetings because we thought we had “won.” Then the Council repealed the ordinance we had lobbied for. Bill Clinton got his Missouri dioxin incinerator. When do Democrats stab you in the back? Whenever your back is turned. In 2018, Donald Trump is justly despised because of his racist hate campaign against people of color, especially his ripping immigrant children apart from their parents and putting them in cages. But let’s not forget the continuity between Obama and Trump. As Tina Vasquez writes in Rewire News: When he first announced DACA in 2012, President Obama boasted of ‘putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history.’ Obama sought to ‘centralize border security’ on the pretext of deporting violent criminals and gang members—now Trump’s cause … The anti-immigrant zeal that Trump used to get elected is in many ways closely aligned with the history of America’s immigration system, which gave priority to white immigrants and sought to limit entry by other groups. Every administration, Republican or Democrat, has maintained this system’s injustices. A major difference between the two presidents is that press outlets like MSNBC tended to ignore actions by Obama but shrieked in horror when Trump followed suit. Clearly, the outrage against Trump positively lessens the attacks, but it makes one wonder: If a Democrat replaces Trump and commits the same atrocities against immigrant children, will media again muffle its anger? These examples of Democrats and Republicans swapping platforms and policies do not even scratch the surface. Their views are so interchangeable that one could write a 10 volume collection of the way they imitate each other and still barely cover the tip of all the stories out there. Progressive Democrats? Does this mean that there is no one running for office as a Democrat who sincerely wishes to move in a more progressive direction? Of course not. There are many, many candidates who start out running for local office as a Democrat and stay at the bottom of the Party’s hierarchy because it is structured to keep them there and use them as bait to lure and defang other progressives. Progressive Democrats at the base level do not script the Party’s major directions, which is as firmly controlled by big business as is the direction of the Republican Party. While they may propose reforms in their communities, they must march in line with candidates for national office if they are to get funding to run at a higher level. Those higher-up Dems are the ones most skilled at collaborating with Repubs, echoing their policies, and even fluttering over to the GOP side if the time is right. While the Republicans and Democrats are able to twist and turn on any dime lying in the street, there is at least one item for which they have a mind-meld. The top concern of their corporate benefactors is “How do we reverse the gains of the New Deal?” Bosses of both parties seek to undo the New Deal – the biggest difference between them is how to pull it off. The Dems generally use finesse with a stiletto, carving out gains one-by-one, weeping and sobbing as they do so. The public face of the Repubs screams in delight as it whacks off gains with a meat cleaver. The difference in rhetoric is vastly greater than any difference in the end result. So many politicians can alternate policies and, at times, party affiliation because they see elections as a thermometer measuring if it is the hour for the delicate blade or the butcher knife. The great virtue of the Democrats is creating hope. The great virtue of the Republicans is being a bit more honest about their long term goals. The perception of vice or virtue in either depends on the mood of the observer. Do Democrats and Republicans quarrel with each other in front of TV cameras? Obviously yes – but it’s merely a mock lovers’ spat crafted for public consumption. Once the cameras are off, they embrace in excited passion while collapsing onto the bed of cash provided by corporate donations to both parties. In our darkest hour Understanding that the unified goal of both parties is to turn back New Deal gains leads us to ask how those victories were won. It was because of the massive strikes, exploding labor movement, and unprecedented growth of the Socialist and Communist Parties that made a New Deal necessary. Key corporate players decided that it was more discreet to allow some demanded changes than to suppress mushrooming mass movements. Hop forward to the Nixon years. The many accomplishments won during his term were not because that vicious anti-communist fell on his knees, beheld a shining light, and vowed to tread the path of righteousness. It was due to a strong labor movement, a massive anti-war movement following on the heels of the civil rights movement, and a growing women’s movement demanding reproductive freedom (along with many other more radical movements). Hop forward again to the depravity of the Trump administration. As humanity faces extermination from increased production of fossil fuels, opposition bubbles up at an equal rate. Even though Republican state legislatures agreed to continue undermining public schools, in Spring 2018 teachers decided that they had had enough. West Virginia had a Republican governor and a Republican majority in both houses of the legislature. But West Virginia teachers went on strike anyway and were followed by teachers from Oklahoma and other states likewise dominated by anti-labor Republicans. Even though illegal, the strike won because teachers stood together with janitors, bus drivers, food service workers and other state employees. As Bruce Dixon laid it out in Black Agenda Report: …successful strikes are possible wherever an overwhelming majority of the workforce is committed to it, whether or not those workers are in a ‘right to work’ state, and whether or not the strike is endorsed by their union if they have a union at all. Neither of West Virginia’s two teachers unions endorsed the strike, and the leaders of both unions initially and repeatedly attempted to ‘settle’ it for far less than the striking workers demanded. The three revolving doors are just other ways that big business manages government while pulling the wool over people’s eyes. Corporate flunkies transfer between their bosses and agencies to ensure agencies do their bidding. Professional politicians go back and forth between parties according to their career opportunities. Parties grab policies from each other to see who can hoodwink the most voters. The Democrats and Republicans are parts of a single gestalt that creates the illusion of meaningful difference when there is none. If you are part of an organization that gets caught up in the revolving door, don’t keep going around in circles – find another way out. In times of the darkest despair, solidarity is still the road to victory. http://clubof.info/

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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What Republicans Are Still Running For President

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-republicans-are-still-running-for-president/

What Republicans Are Still Running For President

What Is A Voter

Republican Lawmakers Are Terrified Of Trump Running For President Again

The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect January 1, 2011, created voter-nominated offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.

Most of the offices that were previously known as partisan are now known as voter-nominated offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. The only partisan offices now are the offices of U.S. President and county central committee.

Withdrew Before The Primaries

The following individuals participated in at least one authorized presidential debate but withdrew from the race before the Iowa caucuses on February 1, 2016. They are listed in order of exit, starting with the most recent.

Name

The following notable individuals filed as candidates with FEC by November 2015.

Name

Additionally, Peter Messina was on the ballot in Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Idaho.Tim Cook was on the ballot in Louisiana, New Hampshire and Arizona. Walter Iwachiw was on the ballot in Florida and New Hampshire.

Death Threats And Conspiracy Theories: Why 2020 Won’t End For Election Officials

Kelley said members of his staff have been followed and videotaped while picking up ballots from drop boxes in recent weeks.

“I’ve been doing this almost 18 years, and I would say the end of ’19 leading into ’20 and then all the way up to today has been the most stressful period of my career,” Kelley said.

Up until now, the fraud claims have been mostly isolated to national campaigns and the occasional statewide race.

But Jamie Shew, who oversees elections in Douglas County, Kan., said he worries the tactic could trickle down to local races, where margins are often extremely thin.

“Even in candidates were going to ‘there was fraud’ rather than it was a bad campaign,” Shew said. But “2020 took it to a whole new level. And I don’t think that’s going to go away.”

In Douglas County last year, for instance, a County Commission race was decided by just three votes. Both candidates running accepted the results after a hand recount, but Shew said he worries next time, they might not be so lucky.

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List Of Registered 2024 Presidential Candidates

The following table lists candidates who filed with the FEC to run for president. Some applicants used pseudonyms; candidate names and party affiliations are written as they appeared on the FEC website on the date that they initially filed with the FEC.

Candidates who have filed for the 2024 presidential election Candidate

Sen Josh Hawley Of Missouri

Though controversial, Hawley, 41, is a fundraising machine and hes quickly made a name for himself. The blowback Hawley faced for objecting to Bidens Electoral College win included a lost book deal and calls for him to resign from students at the law school where he previously taught. His mentor, former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, said that supporting Hawley was the biggest mistake Ive ever made in my life.

Still, he brought in more than $1.5 million between Jan. 1 and March 5, according to Axios, and fundraising appeals in his name from the National Republican Senatorial Committee brought in more cash than any other Republican except NRSC Chair Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Just because youre toxic in Washington doesnt mean you cant build a meaningful base of support nationally.

One Republican strategist compared the possibility of Hawley 2024 to Cruz in 2016. Hes not especially well-liked by his colleagues , but hes built a national profile for himself and become a leading Republican voice opposed to big technology companies.

Hawley and his wife, Erin, have three children. He got his start in politics as Missouri attorney general before being elected to the Senate in 2018. Hawley graduated from Stanford and Yale Law.

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Benjamin Harrison Vs Grover Cleveland

In 1888 the Democratic Party nominated President Grover Cleveland and chose Allen G. Thurman of Ohio as his running mate, replacing Vice President Thomas Hendricks who had died in office.

After eight ballots, the Republican Party chose Benjamin Harrison, former senator from Indiana and the grandson of President William Henry Harrison. Levi P. Morton of New York was the vice-presidential nominee.

In the popular vote for president, Cleveland won with 5,540,050 votes to Harrisons 5,444,337. But Harrison received more votes in the Electoral College, 233 to Clevelands 168, and was therefore elected. The Republicans carried New York, President Clevelands political base.

The campaign of 1888 helped establish the Republicans as the party of high tariffs, which most Democrats, heavily supported by southern farmers, opposed. But memories of the Civil War also figured heavily in the election.

Northern veterans, organized in the Grand Army of the Republic, had been angered by Clevelands veto of pension legislation and his decision to return Confederate battle flags..

Roque Rocky De La Fuente

An entrepreneur and businessman whos had a career in car sales, banking, and real estate development, Roque De La Fuente, known as Rocky, is accustomed to running for public office. in 2016, he sought the Democratic party nomination, then ran as Reform Party and self-funded American Delta Party candidate in the same election, coming in eight in the popular vote. In 2018, he sought the nomination in nine senate raceswinning none. In May 2019, De La Fuente announced his candidacy to challenge Trump in the 2020 election.

De La Fuentes name is on the ballot in a dozen states, and he owns businesses and property in several of them. His program reflects the candidate bipartisan inclination. De La Fuente talks about gun control, immigration reform that unites families, not divides them, promises to match immigrants with job shortage, and supports environmental protection and investment in renewable energy.

Age: 65 Years in political office: 0

Who gives him money:;Himself.

Biggest idea for the economy:;Match immigrants with job shortages, invest in renewable energy to create new jobs.;

Social media following: 65,400, : 241,000.

Who will like this candidate: Moderate Republicans, conservative independents.

Who will hate this candidate: Trump supporters.;

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Next Test Of Trumps Influence On The Republican Party: A Crowded Gop Primary Fight For An Ohio House Seat

A GOP primary Tuesday to fill a congressional seat outside Columbus is shaping up to be a test of former president Donald Trumps influence over the Republican Party, coming after his preferred candidate lost a Texas House campaign last week and some of his allies aligned with other candidates in the competitive Ohio race.

Tuesdays contest in which 11 candidates are vying to replace longtime GOP congressman Rep. Steve Stivers has caused serious consternation among the former presidents advisers and even Trump himself, according to people familiar with the private discussions.

Trump railed at aides after Susan Wright, the candidate he backed in a special Texas Congressional race to replace her late husband, Rep. Ron Wright, lost to a state Republican lawmaker last week, they said.

The defeat was an embarrassing setback for the former president, who has sought to flex his hold on the party by making a slew of endorsements since leaving the White House, inserting himself into GOP primaries and going after political enemies.

Trump has made his preference clear, issuing slashing statements in which he has complained that other candidates are suggesting to voters that he supports them rather than Carey, a close friend of Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager who advisers say helped secure the endorsement.

Abortion Rights Drinking Age Drugs And More

Republican presidential nomination in 2024 is âTrumpâs for the takingâ

At present, Weld is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Self-described as strongly pro-choice when it comes to abortion rights, he is also said to believe that drug use should not be considered a criminal offense. He feels the drinking age should be lowered but has not stated at what age it should be set.;

When it comes to matters of the military, Weld also draws a conservative line. He feels that America should withdraw its troops from foreign engagements and that the countrys efforts and resources should be refocused on domestic issues, in order to prosper.;According to Aljhazeera.com, Weld previously supported bans on assault weapons in the US.

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Is Mike Pence For President In 2024 Still A Go

Pences actions since the Capitol assault have resurfaced speculations of his 2024 White House bid, as his management during the episode was largely different from Trumps hesitant approach. But despite the presidents mismanagement of the attacks, experts say Pence still has a lot of political hurdles to overcome before positioning himself as a leading contender for the 2024 GOP presidential candidacy.

After an uproarious attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, Vice President Mike Pence split from his commander-in-chief and quickly condemned the mob-like behavior from pro-Trump supportersleadership that was tested as President Donald Trump initially hesitated to act.

Pence has exercised unflinching loyalty towards Trump up until this point, as the president blasted Pences constitutional duty in certifying the electoral college results. Trump and his close allies attempted to push his political partner to reject the vote based on baseless claims of voter fraud, but Pence firmly denied the request and proceeded with his authority over the Senatea job that was abruptly disrupted with dangerous protestors on Wednesday.

The vice president is reportedly very upset that Trump didnt exert more effort in squashing the torpedo that rumbled the Capitol, a source told NBC News, since some protestors voiced support for Pences execution.

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill.;

Republican Party Presidential Primaries

;

First place by first-instance vote

;;Donald Trump

Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place in many U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories from February 3 to August 11, 2020, to elect most of the 2,550 delegates to send to the Republican National Convention. Delegates to the national convention in other states were elected by the respective state party organizations. The delegates to the national convention voted on the first ballot to select Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee for president of the United States in the 2020 election, and selected Mike Pence as the vice-presidential nominee.

President Donald Trump informally launched his bid for reelection on February 18, 2017. He launched his reelection campaign earlier in his presidency than any of his predecessors did. He was followed by former governor of MassachusettsBill Weld, who announced his campaign on April 15, 2019, and former Illinois congressmanJoe Walsh, who declared his candidacy on August 25, 2019. Former governor of South Carolina and U.S. representative launched a primary challenge on September 8, 2019. In addition, businessman Rocky De La Fuente entered the race on May 16, 2019, but was not widely recognized as a major candidate.

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Senate Republicans Are Not Going To Convict Trump

It is not likely there are enough votes to convict Trump. President Biden himself said in an interview on January 25 that Democrats did not have the votes in the Senate to convict Trump. Even though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was not sure how he would vote, signalling the first significant break between Trump and the most powerful Republican in the Senate, he and 45 Republican senators voted on January 26 in favour of a motion proposed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to dismiss the impeachment trial. The strategy behind this motion was to question the constitutionality of convicting a former president, another first in American history. Only five Republicans opposed the measure. This is the most glaring indication that nowhere close to 17 Republicans will vote with the Democrats to convict the former president.

Moreover, Trump has threatened political retribution against those GOP members of Congress who support impeachment. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and his closest aides were in discussions about creating a new Patriot Party to challenge Republican candidates. However, Trump recently disavowed these reports and reassured Senate Republicans. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota relayed to Politico that The president wanted me to know, as well as a handful of others, that the president is a Republican, he is not starting a third party and that anything he would do politically in the future would be as a Republican.

Franklin D Roosevelt Vs Alfred M Landon

In 1936 the Democratic Party nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner. The Republican Party, strongly opposed to the New Deal and big government, chose Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas and Fred Knox of Illinois.

The 1936 presidential campaign focused on class to an unusual extent for American politics. Conservative Democrats such as Alfred E. Smith supported Landon. Eighty percent of newspapers endorsed the Republicans, accusing Roosevelt of imposing a centralized economy. Most businesspeople charged the New Deal with trying to destroy American individualism and threatening the nations liberty. But Roosevelt appealed to a coalition of western and southern farmers, industrial workers, urban ethnic voters, and reform-minded intellectuals. African-American voters, historically Republican, switched to FDR in record numbers.

In a referendum on the emerging welfare state, the Democratic Party won in a landslide27,751,612 popular votes for FDR to only 16,681,913 for Landon. The Republicans carried two statesMaine and Vermontwith eight electoral votes; Roosevelt received the remaining 523. The unprecedented success of FDR in 1936 marked the beginning of a long period of Democratic Party dominance.

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Why Republicans Still Cant Quit Trump

The 2024 GOP presidential nominee is highly likely to be an acolyte of the presidents.

With Donald Trump sagging in the polls against Joe Biden, the internal Republican debate about what a post-Trump GOP might look like is growing louder. And that dialogue is underscoring how hard it may be for Republicans to abandon the confrontational and divisive direction he has set for the party, no matter what happens in November.

The debate obviously will be shaped by whether he wins or losesand if he loses, whether by a narrow margin or resounding one that costs Republicans control of the Senate. But theres no guarantee that even a substantial Trump defeat, which more Republicans are now bracing for, will persuade the GOP to change course.

Almost all observers in both parties that Ive spoken with agree that a Trump loss will embolden the Republicans who have been most skeptical about his message and agenda to more loudly press their case. Yet many remain dubious that whatever happens in November, those critics can assemble a majority inside the party by 2024one thats eager to reconsider the racial nationalism and anti-elite populism that has electrified big segments of the Republican base but alienated young people, minorities, and a growing number of previously Republican-leaning suburbanites.

Barack Obama: Campaigns And Elections

Obamas election to the Senate instantly made him the highest-ranking African American officeholder in the country and, along with the excitement generated by his convention speech and his books , placed him high on the roster of prospective Democratic presidential candidates in 2008. After spending a low-profile first year in office focusing on solidifying his base in Illinois and traveling abroad to buttress his foreign policy credentials as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama spent much of 2006 speaking to audiences around the country and mulling whether to run for president. According to annual National Journal evaluations of senators’ legislative voting records, Obama ranked as the first, tenth, or sixteenth most liberal member of the Senate, depending on the year.

From February through early June, Obama and Clinton battled fiercely through the remaining primaries and caucuses. Overall, Clinton won twenty primaries to Obamas nineteen, including victories in most of the large states, notably California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Both candidates were bidding to become historic firststhe first African American president or the first woman president.

Midterm Election of 2010

The 2012 Election

Midterm Election of 2014

Postscript on the 2016 Election

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Trumps Role As Republican Party Leader Is Becoming Stronger

This weekends CPAC straw poll results showed that Trumps popularity along with DeSantis in the Republican Party has grown in the last six months, according to Forbes.

In February, only 55% of attendees of a similar CPAC event in Orlando, Florida, said they wanted Trump to lead the ticket in 2024, Forbes reported.

If Trump stayed in political retirement, or at least stayed off the presidential primary ballot in 2024, DeSantis lead the poll with 43% attending Republicans choosing him in Februarys hypothetical presidential primary.

Inside the newsroom: Words matter, including the hateful Murder the media

Trump Will Run For President In 2024 Still Leads Gop: Top Republicans

Donald Trump to decide on 2024 Presidential run| White House | Latest English News | World News

A former Trump administration official said he believes Donald Trump will run for the presidency again in the 2024 election. Sean Spicer, Trumps former press secretary, said that the ex-president has indicated his interest in making another bid for the presidency after watching current President Joe Bidens response to a variety of issues, including immigration.

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statetalks · 3 years

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Why Do Republicans Wear Blue Ties

How Did The 2000 Election Solidify Red For Republican And Blue For Democrat

How To Combine & Wear A Pocket Square With Ties, Shirts & Suits

The 2000 election between Gore and Bush was a momentous event for American politics. The election became a constitutional crisis and dragged on for 36 days, leading to constant television and newspaper coverage of recounts and debates over which candidate won each swing state. Networks banded together on their color selection for each party for the purposes of uniformity, choosing red to represent states Bush won, and blue for those Gore won.

It was also during this election that the New York Times and USA Today ran their first full-color electoral state maps featuring red for Republican and blue for Democrat.;

Do you know where the Democrat and Republican Parties got their names? Find out here.;

But why these particular colors? Thats a difficult question to answer because all news stations want to take credit for what is now the standard.

The credit of the colors rests in part with New York Times graphics editor Archie Tse, who used red for Republicans in 2000 election maps because red begins with R, Republican begins with R. Whatever the reason, all of the news outlets certainly played a part in establishing blue and red as the colors when they collectively used them the same way.

What Does Your Tie Color Mean

Get the girl.

What do these three things have in common?; The right image.

We all know that first impressions can be influenced by what you wear.; Whether conscious or not, people make grandiose assumptions based upon your everyday appearance.

A tie is one of the most influential tools at your disposal.; Thats why you always reach for your lucky tie when you are about to close a deal or why the girl at happy hour playfully touches your tie to show shes interested.; Your tie makes a powerful statement and its important to know what image you are projecting.

Its called the power tie for a reason, and by wearing a red tie you are implying that you mean business.; Just like Tiger Woods wears a red shirt to convey dominance, the red tie is a reaffirmation of strength, authority and dominance within the professional world.; For a less aggressive approach, switch out your vibrant red for a softer shade of burgundy.

Yellow/Gold

Yellow is the approachable cousin of the power tie.; While still conveying authority, intelligence and positivity, yellow is the subtle version of a red power tie.; This is the perfect tie to wear for a first interview, because it shows you are confident and not afraid of a challenge.

Blue

Green

Orange

Orange is the wild card of tie colors.; A bright orange tie will imply that you are enthusiastic, open-minded and adventurous.; It is the perfect tie for making a memorable first impression and creating a sense of excitement within the workplace.

Trending In London: Fashion Rental Energy Healing And Pigmentation

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain take part in the first debate of the 2008 elections at the University of Mississippi on September 26, 2008 in Oxford, MS. AFP PHOTO / PAUL J. RICHARDS

;The default color scheme for presidential ties is so conservative that it is nearly impossible to imagine something like pistachio, fuchsia or neon-anything ever making the cut. Sometimes, of course, being an outlier can help secure the needed benefit of the doubt. Bob Dole wore a moderate-green tie to his 1996 debate against the incumbent Bill Clinton. Such a choice helped create an overall image that pundits found informed, thoughtful, and elevated. It briefly albeit unsuccessfully buoyed Doles campaign. Hillary Clinton did not wear ties during her runs for the presidency. Still, her accessories were scrutinized by the media with particular focus on , bracelets, and headbands. Alternately, when democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang showed up to a 2019 Democratic Primary debate with no tie at all, his historic bold move turned heads across the political spectrum from Fox News to the New Yorker. Ultimately, it was a minor side note in what cost him the nomination proving that the country is just not ready for a tie-less president.

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Desks Are Closets Too

Heather: I have an emergency blazer in my desk that I can whip out if I feel I need to, and then an extra pair of flats in my desk. You do so much walking in DC that flats wear out really quickly. Ill keep Band-Aids and Neosporin in my desk, too, for when Im breaking in a pair of shoes. Ill get new flats every four months Ill just go to Marshalls and get whats on sale.

Jen: Im a big fan of having a lot of jackets that I keep in the office. You never know what day youll need to go staff your boss on the senate floor. Jackets that you can put on regardless of whether youre wearing slacks or a dress or a skirt and a top I think thats one of the easiest things to keep on hand. Then I have a black sweater, because these buildings can be terribly temperature controlled.

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There Arent Real Forces Within The Gop Leading Change

There is some appetite for change within the GOP. In those 2024 polls, at least a third of Republicans either were supporting a GOP presidential candidate other than Trump or were undecided.;

In YouGov Blues polling, only about 40 percent of Republicans identified themselves as Trump Republicans. A recent survey from Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, a GOP-leaning firm that worked on Trumps presidential campaigns, found that about 40 percent of Republican voters didnt want Trump to continue to be a leader in the party. Those numbers dont necessarily mean that those voters want the GOP to change drastically. But there is a substantial number of Trump-skeptical/ready-to-move-on-from-Trump Republican voters. But that sentiment isnt really showing up in the Republican Partys actions during the last three months basically everything GOP officials in states and in Washington are doing lines up with the Trumpian approach. So what gives?;

related:Why The Recent Violence Against Asian Americans May Solidify Their Support Of Democrats Read more. »

It is hard to see Republicans changing course, even if a meaningful minority of voters in the party wants changes, without some elite institutions and powerful people in the party pushing a new vision. And its hard to see real anti-Trumpism forces emerging in the GOP right now.;

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The Partys Core Activists Dont Want To Shift Gears

This is the simplest and most obvious explanation: The GOP isnt changing directions because the people driving the car dont want to.;

When we think of Republicans, we tend to think of either rank-and-file GOP voters or the partys highest-profile elected officials, particularly its leaders in Congress. But in many ways, the partys direction is driven by a group between those two: conservative organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, GOP officials at the local and state level and right-wing media outlets. That segment of the party has been especially resistant to the GOP abandoning its current mix of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, opposition to expansions of programs that benefit the poor and an identity politics that centers white Americans and conservative Christians.

You could see the power and preferences of this group in the response to the Capitol insurrection.

In the days immediately following Jan. 6, many GOP elected officials, most notably McConnell, signaled that the party should make a permanent break from Trump. Pollsfound an increased number of rank-and-file GOP voters were dissatisfied with the outgoing president. But by the time the Senate held its trial over Trumps actions a month later, it was clear that the party was basically back in line with Trump.;

related:Why Being Anti-Media Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity Read more. »

When Defeated Politicians Feel Blue They Wear It

He was feeling blue.;

There he stood, front and center in his home state,;cloaked in failure. Sad Senator Marco Rubio addressed the crowd Tuesday:

“While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended…we must do all we can to ensure that this nation remains a special place.”

He certainly wore his heart on his sleeve well, in this case, his tie. It was dark blue.

Following in the footsteps of Jeb Bush, who sported a silk navy tie, and Ben Carson, who wore a powder blue striped shirt at their respective concessions, Rubio, too, wore the color.;

And it wasn’t by coincidence. Premeditated or subconscious, blue is the color when you’re feeling the shade.;

“Wearing a blue tie is the right choice for conceding in an election,” said Lauren Rothman, a Washington, D.C.-based political stylist, consultant and author of the Style Bible.

“The color communicates two emotions at the same time: optimism and sadness.”

Rothman,;who’s dressed many a politician for their concession speeches,;said that blue sends the message for supporters to continue following them on to their next chapters and that they have officially had a standstill.;

“There’s a sense of calmness to it and comfort as if showing that it’s okay, it’s going to be all right,” she said.

Lee Eiseman, a color specialist and expert, agreed.;

But Eiseman did clarify that there are different signifiers of blue depending on the hue.;

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How The Colors Came To Be Red White And Blue

Of the 205 sovereign nations in the world, 21 share red, white and blue as their flags colors. But why do so many share the same trio of colors, and what do they represent?

On July 4, 1776, a resolution was passed by Congress authorizing the development of a seal for the new country which reflected the Founding Fathers values.

When presenting the seal which was officially adopted on June 20, 1782 Secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thomson, explained, White signifies purity and innocence. Red, hardiness and valor, and blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.

The meaning behind the colors have since shifted slightly. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared it the Year of the Flag, stating, The colors of our flag signify the qualities of the human spirit we Americans cherish. Red for courage and readiness to sacrifice; white for pure intentions and high ideals; and blue for vigilance and justice.

According to TIME Magazine, however, Mike Buss, a flag expert with the American Legion, points to the red, white and blue used in the Union Jack of England.

They come from the three colors that the Founding Fathers had served under or had been exposed to, said Buss.

Therefore, some of the correlation between the United States use of red, white and blue along with 20 other countries, including Puerto Rico, Australia and Cuba, could come from their historical correlation with England.

Why Politicians Wear Only Red And Blue Ties

Why does Trump Scotch tape his tie?

Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News wrote that even though President Obama doesnt like to reduce America into a collection of red states and blue states, he wore only red and blue neckties in his first 11 days in office. Is that just a coincidence?

Not according to science Robert Roy Britt of LiveScience explains why in high-stakes politics and business, there are only two color of ties, red and blue:

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What Do The State Of The Unions Purple Ties Mean

Whats in a tie? If youre President Obama giving the State of the Union address, it can mean quite a bit. Tonight, Obama, along with Vice-President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner, made a sartorial show of solidarity. The three leaders sported purple ties because as every first-grade student knows blue and red make purple, and it may be a visual signifier of Obamas desire for bi-partisan cooperation. This isnt the first time Obama and Biden have rocked the royal hue: The pair, along with thenSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, all wore purple during the 2010 State of the Union. And then, as now, pundits speculated about its meaning. There is kind of a connotation in politics that comes through color, said fashion blogger Mary Tomer, of last years tie choices. I dont think its too much of a stretch to think purple couldve been chosen;symbolically.

Has Trump Been Wearing A Purple Tie More Often Lately

The last couple of weeks Ive noticed him wearing a purple tie.

Do Republicans notice this? Care?

Does it mean anything?

Why would it matter even if he was? Its a goddamn tie. You people love imagining bullshit where it doesnt exist.

Saying you people is almost always a derogatory remark. If you dont like the OPs question, address your answer to her.

Im with . Look around at other threads. Assumptions made on behalf of Trump supporters, and even supposing to know what our president plans, knows, wants, likes. Until Trump opposers are willing to stop lumping us in a pit of lost causes, expect the same in return.

, I have had the same observation, so perhaps he has. Does it have any significance? I believe only time will tell.

I think that if he is in fact wearing purple, he is doing it to reflect the electorate and its attitudes as the American population slowly moves to embrace the democratic party.

Are the colors of his tie supposed to mean anything?And WHY do Trump supporters get all bent out of shape and when thinking Trump opposers lump them in all together, but do the exact same thing when it comes to dealing with opposers?

So he bought a new tie. He wore the red one for almost three years, and he cant ever seem to tie it right. Glad he got a new one.

I think its some kind of white power salute.

Disclaimer: The above statement is a joke.

Which you people? and I?

Read Also: Why Do Republicans Like Donald Trump

Which States Are Considered Red And Which Are Blue

To go along with the colors, the terms red state and blue state were popularized by anchorman Tim Russert during and immediately after the 2000 election. Today, these terms are used to refer to which party a state voted for during a presidential election.;

Generally speaking, the Northeast and the West Coast are considered a collection of blue states as most of them have sided with the Democrats since the early 1990s.

The Southern states have sided with Republicans since the 2000s, while the Midwest tends to be tougher to predict. For example, Illinois and Minnesota are currently considered blue states, while Missouri and Nebraska are red. Hawaii and Alaska have been traditionally considered blue and red respectively as neither has switched parties since the late 1980s .

The Southwest has been split since 2000 with Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado going blue more often than red and Utah and Arizona voting predictably red. Finally, we come to the coveted purple states or swing states,;such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These states switched colors in recent elections and are often a key focus of electoral campaigning and strategy. Swing states can vary by election year.

Color And Clothing Choices

When we see certain colors, they produce chemical reactions in our brains that can make us feel certain emotions. For example you are more likely to order more food in a restaurant that is decorated with a lot of red because that color makes us hungry. Sports teams often paint the opposing teams locker room pink because that color makes people tired. Guests on late night TV hang out in the Green Room before coming on stage because that color is the most calming and relaxing. So what could certain candidates be trying to sell you via their color and clothing choices?

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When Its Time To Head Back To The Office And On The Few Days When I Wear A Suit And Tie I Should Retire My Red Ties Right Unless I Want Everyone To Assume I Am A Trump Supporter Is It Possible For Any Man To Wear A Red Tie Now And Not Immediately Call To Mind The Former President Ken Newton Mass

Though the death of the tie is declared regularly especially given the pressures of both the long-term office-casual movement and our current working-from-home reality Guy Trebay, our mens wear critic, maintains that you should not count the accessory out quite yet. As he said, even if were not wearing them much during lockdown, you dont want to give up on an element of the wardrobe thats been around for 400 years.

Ties can, after all, be used to signal your club, your interests, whether you are a jokester, a brainiac or even a clown. Not to mention, as you say, political affiliation.

The question is whether the party dividing line between red and blue that has swept even the necktie into its maw will remain uppermost in everyones minds now that unity is the word of the moment . Given how central red ties were to President Trumps uniform, it is natural to think that we may now have a Pavlovian response to the color. But the fact is, red ties were a wardrobe staple long before Mr. Trump got hold of them.

Its the combination of shade and style that makes the statement of allegiance, not simply one or the other. Thats what you should keep in mind when getting dressed. Then go ahead: Tie one on.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-wear-blue-ties/

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creepingsharia · 6 years

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Special election results in first Muslim woman "hijabi" in Pennsylvania House of Representatives

As many reader’s regularly point out, it’s no longer creeping.

Source: Movita Johnson-Harrell Becomes Pa.’s First Muslim Woman State Rep

On Tuesday night, Movita Johnson-Harrell, the former interim supervisor of Victim Services for Philadelphia’s District Attorney’s Office, won a highly contested special election for the 190th District seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

At 9:45 p.m., with 75 of 80 precincts reporting, Johnson-Harrell had garnered 66 percent of the vote, with her nearest challenger at 20 percent. The victory makes her the first Muslim woman to be elected as a state representative in Pennsylvania.

“I’m running because I care about my community — I don’t need a job,” Johnson-Harrell told Philadelphia magazine in January when she declared her run. “Many people enter politics looking for a career, money, power, fame — I’ll be personally taking a $20,000 pay cut if I become the next state representative.”

Johnson-Harrell’s platform encompassed several key issues, ranging from socioeconomic opportunity and education reform to making gun violence prevention a top priority in Harrisburg. The longtime West Philly native felt the impact of these issues personally when she lost her son to gun violence in 2013. That tragedy inspired her to create the CHARLES Foundation, a nonprofit founded in her son’s name to empower communities and push for more gun violence prevention.

The path to victory wasn’t easy for Johnson-Harrell. She was a surprise third Democratic nominee for the seat — vacated when state Rep. Vanessa Lowery-Brown resigned following her conviction on bribery and other charges — after two previous Democratic nominees announced but quickly withdrew when each of them faced questions over their residency in the district. The situation opened the doors for Johnson-Harrell, who had run against Lowery-Brown in the 2016 primary, to enter.

“I am grateful that the Democratic party has put their trust in me,” Johnson-Harrell previously told Philadelphia magazine. “I think I can get a lot done in Harrisburg.”

Johnson-Harrell defeated community advocate Amen Brown, activist and clergywoman Pamela K. Williams, and Republican candidate Michael Harvey.

More: It was Democratic corruption that propelled the hijabi into office:

On Sunday night, Movita Johnson-Harrell, former interim supervisor of Victim Services in Philly’s District Attorney’s Office, surprised many when she became the new Democratic nominee for a March 12th special election in the 190th District of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Two previous Democratic nominees for the seat — vacated when state Rep. Vanessa Lowery-Brown resigned following her conviction on bribery and other charges — have bowed out after questions emerged surrounding their residency in West Philadelphia. This paved the way for Johnson-Harrell, who ran against Lowery-Brown in the 2016 primary, to be the party’s third nominee.

What are a few things you want voters to know about you that aren’t often asked? If elected, I will be the first Hijabi (covered Muslim woman) to be elected to the State House. It’s my faith that’s got me here and has kept me going. I’m running because I care about my community — I don’t need a job.

It’s telling that her first response to what voters should know about her is that she is a hijabi. What other aspects of sharia will she employ, but not tell citizens, while representing her “community”?

It should also be noted that Philadelphia is now known as “Muslim Town”. For a closer look at Philly’s Muslim Town, start here:

Philadelphia aka ‘Muslim Town’: A look inside

Then review posts in the Creeping Sharia archives, here.

As we’ve noted before, Muslims are making an aggressive move into elected government positions and it should be no coincidence that the implementation of sharia – specifically Islamic blasphemy laws and silencing those who speak about or question Islam or Muslims – is rapidly advancing.

This number is now up to at least 60 that we’ve posted on but likely higher – Terror-linked CAIR reports at least 57 Muslims elected to local, state, and national positions.

#Creeping Sharia #islam #law #Legal #Life #Media #Muslim #News #Politics #Random #Religion #Sharia #travel

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Conservative agenda dominates Texas, despite Democratic hopes of turning the state blue Still, Trump’s lead in Texas was the narrowest for a Republican presidential candidate in years. In 2012, Mitt Romney won the state by 16 points. In 2016, Trump won by 9 points. And with only a few days left in the session, lawmakers are still trying to push an election overhaul with new voting restrictions and legislation that would ban the teaching of critical race theory, among other agenda items. The state is changing demographically and is set to gain two congressional seats in the upcoming redistricting process, due to the state’s rapid population growth over the past decade. While some Republicans are on edge about the future of the party, many of its state leaders see the GOP’s success in Texas last cycle as a mandate to continue moving to the right. Republicans also tout the gains that Trump made in the typically Democratic stronghold of South Texas, flipping several counties that voted for Clinton in 2016 and making massive inroads in others. Of the 17 counties that Clinton won in 2016, Trump took back seven of them. In Starr County, along the southern border, for example, Trump had lost to Clinton by 60 percentage points. But in 2020, he lost to Joe Biden by only 5 percentage points in the same county. “For every Karen we lost in the suburbs, we gained a Julio,” said one GOP operative in the state. ‘I don’t want to be roadkill’ Lt. Col. Allen West walked across the street of an affluent neighborhood in a Dallas suburb, followed by a throng of supporters who gathered at a fundraiser to meet the former congressman who’s now chairman of the Texas Republican Party. He came outside for an interview — CNN had been initially invited to the event but was escorted off the property upon arrival — as dozens of donors surrounded him. He was there to speak to The Southlake Families PAC, a group that funded school board candidates who opposed teaching critical race theory in a local election that gained national attention. West, who helped spearhead the GOP agenda for the legislative session, pushed back at critics who think the Legislature is shifting too far to the right. He pointed to the droves of people moving to Texas from traditionally blue states like California, New York and New Jersey as examples of the party’s success in policy. “Texas is a strong, successful, constitutional conservative red state,” he said. As for concerns that the agenda might push away middle-of-the-road voters, West used an old political trope. “You know what my dad taught me?” he said. “I grew up in Georgia. He said the only thing in the middle of the road is roadkill, and I don’t want to be roadkill.” It’s a sentiment underwritten by Trump’s still influential and unabashed style. Many of the state’s leaders, who are up for reelection next year, are keenly aware of the power he continues to hold over the party, especially with potential endorsements. Attorney General Ken Paxton, who could soon be facing a primary challenge from Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, is among the former President’s biggest allies. He helped lead a lawsuit alleging election fraud in four states that was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court. Trump said in a statement that he’ll be making an endorsement in the primary race, which Bush is expected to join next week. Even Bush, whose family, critical of the former President, has been routinely maligned by Trump in recent years, has shown support for him. “I like them both very much,” Trump said in the statement Tuesday. “I’ll be making my endorsement and recommendation to the great people of Texas in the not-so-distant future.” Trump’s baseless claims that the election was stolen still loom large nationwide and here in Texas. For his part, West attended a “Stop the Steal” rally in Dallas after the election and refuses to acknowledge that Joe Biden got more votes than Trump. When asked three times about the election results in November, West responded with the same carefully crafted answer: “I believe that there were unconstitutional actions that led to nefarious things that happened in five battleground states.” ‘It’s a really weird place to be in’ Democratic state Rep. Donna Howard has been representing the Austin area in the Texas Legislature since 2006. She fought hard this year against the abortion bill, and she joined fellow Democrats onstage late Tuesday night to celebrate one of the few victories her party had this year: running out the clock on a bill that would prevent transgender students from playing on sports teams that aligned with their gender identities. “We’ve just swung totally to the right,” she said, standing outside her office underneath the state Capitol and reflecting on the past few months of the legislative session. “It’s been like steamrolling of all these red meat wedge issues and not focused on what we came in here to deal with.” Howard acknowledged Texas is still a red state but was among those who had expected Democrats to do better here in the 2020 election, especially after they performed well in the state in 2018 and Beto O’Rourke came close to defeating incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. Like many Democrats, Howard argued that her party suffered in 2020 from adhering to social distancing guidelines and not doing the kind of in-person door knocking and grassroots politicking that can be so effective. They’re already focused on trying to regain momentum for the 2022 midterm elections. “The blue wave is growing,” she said. “But I don’t know when it’s actually going to get here.” That’s in large part because primaries are king in Texas. Very few state lawmakers have competitive general elections, so courting the base is still the main objective for most politicians. “There’s no real political incentive for those in the state House or in the state Senate, who are Republicans, to do anything but appeal to the base,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a veteran GOP strategist in the state. “They’re not having to necessarily wage a competitive general election campaign, and so until that changes — and we are seeing trends that that’s going to happen — I think you’ll continue to see this out of our state Legislature,” he added. Steinhauser ran the campaign for Michael Wood, an anti-Trump Republican who competed and lost in this month’s special election to replace Republican Rep. Ron Wright of Arlington. Wright died from Covid-19 in February, and Trump endorsed his widow, Susan Wright, who has advanced to a runoff this summer for the final election. While many Republicans, like Allen West, think that Trump steered the party in the right direction, some conservatives, like Steinhauser, are concerned that as the electorate in Texas becomes younger and more diverse, Republicans will have problems. For Steinhauser, that fear of a blue wave down the road is very real. “We find ourselves having been very successful in the last cycle, but also kind of worried about the long-term future of the party, worried about demographic changes,” he said. “It’s a really weird place to be in.” Source link Orbem News #agenda #Blue #Conservative #ConservativeagendadominatesTexas #Democratic #despiteDemocratichopesofturningthestateblue-CNNPolitics #dominates #hopes #Politics #state #Texas #turning

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