U.S. Electile Dysfunction 2018

[ewmayer]

Seems about the right time to start a thread for the upcoming midterm elections.

How Cynical Is the Democratic Party's Support for Identity Politics? (Plus a Note on the Ocasio-Crowley Contest) | DownWithTyranny

Note that last night Ocasio-Cortez pulled off a big upset by winning her primary battle against Dem-establishment-backed crooked Joe Crowley, who would have likely become the next Dem leader of the house had he won.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Seems about the right time to start a thread for the upcoming midterm elections.

How Cynical Is the Democratic Party's Support for Identity Politics? (Plus a Note on the Ocasio-Crowley Contest) | DownWithTyranny

Note that last night Ocasio-Cortez pulled off a big upset by winning her primary battle against Dem-establishment-backed crooked Joe Crowley, who would have likely become the next Dem leader of the house had he won.

Nice to see the Mighty and Smug take a hard fall. Unfortunately, the Dems won't learn anything from their bruises.
They will double down on big money and corrupt, white male pols.

[tServo]

I saw on the newz today that tRUMP and Putin are going to have a summit soon, probably to plan the outcome of the midterm elections.
"The fix is in"

My favorite quote about Putin comes from his ex:
"Be careful, he's a vampire !"

[Dr Sardonicus]

Avowed Nazi and Holocaust denier Arthur J. Jones won the Republican primary in Illinois' third Congressional district in March. The Republicans have repeatedly mouthed condemnations of him. Recently, Ted Cruz tweeted that voters should either write in a candidate or vote for the Democrat.

But the Republicans failed to recruit anyone else to run in the primary, failed to kick Jones off the ballot, and, more recently, failed to draft a third-party candidate before the filing deadline passed. The third-party route would have required gathering a lot of signatures (14,600), and so, you see, it would have just been too much effort and expense for an election the Republicans are almost certain to lose anyway.

Cruz says this bigoted fool should get zero votes. Really? He got over 20,000 votes in the primary. Besides -- what about the bigoted fool in the White House, whom Cruz supports?

Back in the days when Richard J. Daley ruled Chicago, and the Democratic Machine reliably delivered election victories, the Republicans knew perfectly well that their candidates in Chicago races didn't have a hope in hell of wining the general election. But they fielded candidates anyway, just to show they had a decent alternative to offer. And with the situation in Illinois' third Congressional District, I don't think there could be a more perfect illustration that the Republicans have nothing -- absolutely nothing -- decent to offer.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Back in the days when Richard J. Daley ruled Chicago, and the Democratic Machine reliably delivered election victories, the Republicans knew perfectly well that their candidates in Chicago races didn't have a hope in hell of wining the general election. But they fielded candidates anyway, just to show they had a decent alternative to offer. And with the situation in Illinois' third Congressional District, I don't think there could be a more perfect illustration that the Republicans have nothing -- absolutely nothing -- decent to offer.

Good that Rahm cleaned up all that Chicago corruption ... re. the nothing-to-offer, So maybe the Dem establishment should stop supporting DINOs and alt-righters, then?

Why Did the Rhode Island Democratic Party Endorse an Alt-Right Supporter Over a Progressive Incumbent? | Slate

Moira Jayne Walsh, a 27-year-old former waitress and labor organizer, captured a bit of national attention after she won a seat in the Rhode Island House in 2016…

Walsh has since been a progressive voice in the legislature and supports increasing the minimum wage and marijuana legalization. She also caused a stir in March when she said in a radio interview that there was an “insane amount of drinking” among legislators at the statehouse. All this might go some way towards explaining why the state Democratic Party has endorsed her opponent in the upcoming primaries—a man who appears to have once been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and alt-right figures.

I actually don't give a rat's patootie about a candidate's stated corrupt-establishment-party-affiliation, rather I'm interested their stance (and record) on big-picture issues:

o Imperial warmonger and Israel/Saudi ring-kisser or not?
o Neoliberal Big-Money whore or not?
o Believes the deliberate hollowing-out and rampant financialization of the US economy over the last 4 decades in the name of "free markets" and "globalization" was a mistake or not?
o Believes US healthcare-for-profit system is fundamentally broken and supports universal single-payer healthcare, not some bullshit unsurance-industry-driven "note that your new coverage will likely be too expensive for you to actually use" 'compromise' like ACA or some equally-bullshit "public option" scam, or not?

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

I actually don't give a rat's patootie about a candidate's stated corrupt-establishment-party-affiliation, rather I'm interested their stance (and record) on big-picture issues:

Arthur Jones has an official candidate's web site. Let's see...

o Imperial warmonger and Israel/Saudi ring-kisser or not?

From the candidate's official web site:

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
Our troops are sinking deeper into the abyss of unending wars in the Middle East. It’s time to end these wars that are so costly in lives lost and money wasted.

OK, looks like you can check that box.

o Neoliberal Big-Money whore or not?

From the candidate's official web site:

I am not now, nor have I ever been a follower of any political party, though I am a registered Republican.

Oh, yeah, and he is an avowed Nazi. Check that box, too.

o Believes the deliberate hollowing-out and rampant financialization of the US economy over the last 4 decades in the name of "free markets" and "globalization" was a mistake or not?

From the candidate's official web site:

REPEAL TREASONOUS TRADE TREATIES

Repeal all Treasonous Trade Treaties that have caused 93 million Americans to lose their jobs. Negotiate new Fair Trade Treaties that will create American jobs.

Check.

o Believes US healthcare-for-profit system is fundamentally broken and supports universal single-payer healthcare, not some bullshit unsurance-industry-driven "note that your new coverage will likely be too expensive for you to actually use" 'compromise' like ACA or some equally-bullshit "public option" scam, or not?

From the candidate's official web site:

REPEAL OBAMA CARE; AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE FOR AMERICANS ONLY

1. Require each medical professional to take an annual Medical Competency Test. If he or she passes the test in their specialty, the medical license is renewed for that year, and the costly malpractice insurance premium is shared between the medical professional and the state and federal government. This will reduce the cost of office visits and encourage more, less costly preventive care.

2. Establish a Federally tax-supported Medical Catastrophic Fund, to be available when an insurance policy has paid out all of the benefits for an illness like cancer etc..

3. A third reform is absolutely essential. Our people – American citizens must come first. No illegal alien should be allowed to receive free healthcare while American citizens are being denied healthcare. A law passed by Congress forbids denying healthcare to illegal aliens. That law should be repealed! A sole exception would be a life or death emergency situation as determined by medical professionals.

Check. Today's headline:

EWMAYER ENDORSES NAZI IN ILLINOIS THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT!

Happy Independence day!

[ewmayer]

Sorry, Kurt, but the "affordable health care for 'Muricans only" sounds like a band-aid on top of a left-in-place for profit Big Med racket. IOW, while Mr. Jones may be a rabid nationalist, he is no socialist. :)

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Sorry, Kurt, but the "affordable health care for 'Muricans only" sounds like a band-aid on top of a left-in-place for profit Big Med racket. IOW, while Mr. Jones may be a rabid nationalist, he is no socialist. :)

Just putting this out there for consideration...

The World used to look towards the US of A as a guiding light.

We no longer do.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Just putting this out there for consideration...

The World used to look towards the US of A as a guiding light.

We no longer do.

As to guidance, for some reason Il Duce reminds me of The Owl Who Was God.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Just putting this out there for consideration...

The World used to look towards the US of A as a guiding light.

We no longer do.

The dimming of that light has been obvious here, to those with eyes. It has been that way for over a century, and especially since the late 40s. Once the USA launched hemispheric, and then world dominance policies to feed the war machine, the chances of a relatively "clean" recovery of "US Values" seem to have seriously deteriorated. But then, those Values have always been pretenses in many ways.

[kladner]

Unauditable voting machines, secret software, voter suppression, wiped servers.....
Nothing to see here. Move along, you looky-loos.
https://www.theroot.com/exclusive-th...pea-1832472558

The nonprofit group, Coalition for Good Governance, discovered that approximately 127,000 Georgia voters simply did not have a recorded vote for lieutenant governor. Officials claimed that most of these voters simply left that part of their ballot blank. And for some reason, the “drop-off” (the difference between people who voted and people who skipped one race) was disproportionately Democrat.

They had never seen it before. The drop-off rate in Georgia was higher than almost any statewide office drop-off rate they had ever seen. So they gathered the best minds in the election data field from across country to try to figure out the mystery of Georgia’s disappearing votes. It seemed so random. Researchers researched, voting machine experts looked at the machines’ known vulnerabilities and professors ran analytics and statistical regressions. But no one could figure out the pattern.

And then, just for kicks, they decided to run a statistical analysis by race. And viola, they discovered that an incredibly disproportionate number of Georgia voters in majority black precincts didn’t record a vote for the second-highest office in the state. They found the anomaly was incredibly high in precincts where there were high percentages of black registered voters.