US Politics, October 2018: next week will be even longer

on top of all the terrible things kanye is, he's also *of course* that asshole who's always showing you things on his phone.

that Leonard Cohen poem is wonderful

kanye is not picasso, but is definitely an asshole

That’s the worst thing Leonard Cohen ever wrote

― Trϵϵship, Friday, October 12, 2018 8:33 AM

that Leonard Cohen poem is wonderful

― El Tomboto, Friday, October 12, 2018 8:50 AM

You're both right.

All three of you are right.

if we're talking some alternative kind of right

is there any other kind

Co-opting the word 'alternative' is not the least of their crimes. Though I like to think that 'alt' is really just German for 'old', 'cause ultimately they're just a bunch of senile neo-nazis, regardless of age.

So, here's what we're up against.

Two AZ GOP staffers, under falsified names and a bogus "communist" organization, walked into #AZ01 Democrat @TomOHalleran's office to make a donation.

Tom's finance director smelled a rat.

Here she is, returning the money to the GOP office. pic.twitter.com/wfc6EAiapA

— Holly Fιɢυeroα O'Reιlly (@AynRandPaulRyan) October 12, 2018

“This is OSCAR”

wow, she's a champ

that was pretty much the definition of When they go low, we kick them

Hope they bring those two up on charges. Like Graham's threat to invent abuse survivors, if you're willing to cheat to win, get ready for consequences.

The pair initially walked in to sign up to volunteer but had brought along a jar full of money that they wished to donate. After being directed to a finance staffer, they were told to fill out paperwork. In doing so, they identified themselves as members of the Northern Arizona University Communist party. They made clear they were not an official group but were holding meetings. But they also insisted upon a receipt.

When told they get only an emailed receipt, Rosales immediately scratched out one email and wrote another. The entire process raised eyebrows among O’Halleran’s staff.

Pretty sneaky. Clearly their commie disguises needed more work.

when you make James O'Keefe look like a pro...

the "what campaign are you with again?" question suggests they've done this more than one place.

I just think the two idiots didn’t tell anyone else what they were doing. They were gonna be heroes!

in other "voter suppression" news:

https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/report-indiana-has-cancelled-the-voter-registrations-of-469-000-voters-gqyBXQkzEk6AIESavuIVpA/

The Supreme Court Just Ensured That Thousands of Native Americans Won’t Be Able to Vote in November

and Georgia, of course

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/suppression-critics-charge-georgia-gop-gov-candidate-purging-voters-election-n918761

"conservative" america: "if you can't win, cheat! states' rights! we're a republic not a democracy!!"

Looks like Beto's chances are steadily declining

You could say that about anyone in this country

feel like texas republicans could have at least done the country the favor of primarying out cruz

how is a dude who is so inherently dislikable a career politician?

See: Nixon, Richard Milhouse

First, “inherently dislikable” is often a prerequisite for choosing politics as a career - no normal person ever gets accustomed to spending so much time trying to be liked, or becomes so inured to failing at it, and that’s a big part of the job.

Second, have you ever spent much time in Texas?

teacher who talked about Miller eating glue suspended.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/education/article/Teacher-suspended-after-saying-Trump-aide-ate-13302114.php

i agree w/that, as a teacher you've gotta keep any shit with your students locked down, and it's not exactly a valuable revelation. just more stupid noise that has zero bearing on anything.

kinda can't blame them for suspending her.

xp

See: Nixon, Richard Milhouse

apparently, even ted cruz's kids don't like him, either

TEDD.

Dick got lots of supportive telegrams after the Checkers speech, which if you watch it is the most transparent self-serving bullshit

Nixon stood upon the shoulders of midgets.

Nixon's party supported Nixon. I don't think he was much liked.

Eisenhower detested Nixon, but he put him on the ticket twice. That's politics for you.

It's kind of a nice break to have our president out rallying the hinterlands. It makes him happy as a toddler with his security blanket and the pace at which he ruins things slows down. We can safely ignore much of what comes out of his mouth during the rallies, no matter how inane or reckless, because it isn't being spewed in his official capacity.

Nice illustration of his priorities that while parts of the country he supposedly governs is facing a disaster he's out talking elsewhere, mainly to feed his ego, particularly since he's got a history of giving out about previous incumbents' focus days after similar events.

Will see what the response to Michael is going to be reflected as next month.

& can't wait to find out what next year's going to be like, more of the same.

what did nixon bring to eisenhower's tickets? commie-bashing? california? party machine support? whatever it was, i doubt it was necessary

youth

Kind of wish Beto would genuinely go on the attack. His team is currently just running this plain-spoken ad denouncing the mud-slinging. Meanwhile, Cruz and GOP PACs are going to town on him on TV rn, Cruz backed out of one of the debates, and it's just so easy to get some licks in on ol' Ted. O'Rourke needs to do some nut-kicking.

re: eisenhower/nixon: the 1952 convention fight was really ugly between eisenhower's supporters and those of bob taft, who was sort of the mitch mcconnell of his age. if he was alive and in the senate now we would be devoting a huge percentage of our ire and outrage at his attempts to stall, contain, and roll back the new deal. picking a well-known conservative and commie-purger like nixon was seen as a hedge against paleocon types staying home or voting a third party. (bear in mind that eisenhower had never held office before and was even being courted for the democratic ticket at one point.) nixon was also famously an asshole, and if eisenhower wanted to basically run on being a beloved war hero that every veteran was already going to vote for, he might want someone else on the campaign providing the newspapers with the meaner, more aggressive quotes... your basic "attack dog" type deal.

Beto needs to spend all his money on turnout imo

^^ otm. attack ads would be more emotionally satisfying, but GOTV would be more effective.

everybody knows who he is at this point. If his election is hinging on turning out minority and youth vote, driving people to the polls will be more effective than ads, because those votes pretty much never materialize.

not on their own anyway

Cruz backed out of one of the debates

two now iirc? one to vote on Kavanaugh, one to be a giant crybaby pussy

re: eisenhower/nixon: the 1952 convention fight was really ugly between eisenhower's supporters and those of bob taft, who was sort of the mitch mcconnell of his age. if he was alive and in the senate now we would be devoting a huge percentage of our ire and outrage at his attempts to stall, contain, and roll back the new deal. picking a well-known conservative and commie-purger like nixon was seen as a hedge against paleocon types staying home or voting a third party. (bear in mind that eisenhower had never held office before and was even being courted for the democratic ticket at one point.) nixon was also famously an asshole, and if eisenhower wanted to basically run on being a beloved war hero that every veteran was already going to vote for, he might want someone else on the campaign providing the newspapers with the meaner, more aggressive quotes... your basic "attack dog" type deal.

― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), F

and the moment Nixon suggested in the Checkers speech that BOTH candidates reveal the source of their finances Ike loathed him. The way Ike dangled power and withdrew it in front of Nixon for the next eight years would be pathetic and awful if Nixon hadn't deserved it.

Many XPs

Well, yeah. That's really how his election should go, by getting enough people out to vote who wouldn't have normally. Part of why Texas has become a GOP stronghold is that the big state offices (the Govs. and Attorney General) are always up during nationwide midterms, and only GOP voters show up.

The problem is that alot of the attack stuff is shading the election against him. Talking points covered in ads and sanctioned/unsanctioned memes by Cruz/PACs are skewing dialogue towards stupid stuff from O'Rourke's past (the DWI and Burglary/Trespassing stuff) and political things of no consequence (a PAC is still running an ad linking O'Rourke as an El Paso councilman to an eminent domain deal that in reality (A) he recused himself from voting on due to his Father-In-Law's involvement in the project, and (B) ended up not happening) without counterpoint illustrations of Cruz's ineffectiveness as senator. Almost every positive thing Cruz is running on (disaster relief a big one) is something someone in his position would have been able to do no matter what party affiliation, and many voters are not getting that.

so what's to be done about these blatant and possibly illegal voter suppression techniques the GOP is flagrantly getting away with right now? do we just point our fingers and say "SEE!! I told you they cheat!!" while letting them steal (yet another) election?

My old org is doing civil disobedience on voter suppression in Florida rn, but the "democracy movement"
more broadly conceived is just way too milquetoast and bought in to decorum as a practice for the likes of Common Cause and others to really throw down on this.