[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

trichy wrote:
cheeze_pavilion wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Stele wrote:

McGrath is running on being a Democrat that works with Trump. That was her complaint about Mitch in 2019, that the people of Kentucky voted for Trump and their senator should support him.

She should have f*cking primaried Mitch, not run as a Democrat.

Oh and did you hear she's a fighter pilot? ;)

Wait; her stance was that Mitch McConnell doesn’t support Trump enough??

One of the things that prevents Democrats from motivating their base is that they often run as *embarrassed* Democrats. They practically apologize for not being Republicans.

oh, and yes--they're *always* trying to get someone from the armed services to run just to make sure people don't think Democrats are a bunch of hippies.

I don't necessarily think that's as true anymore as it used to be, but it's definitely the case in conservative districts/states.

From reading what Rachel Bitecofer has been putting out there, it's still true to a significant enough degree, though, and not just in conservative areas. I can't find it now, but I'm certain I read that she thought Dem's could have done *even better* in the 2019 Virginia state elections if they understood better how the electorate is re-aligning.

I do a lot of work with the Democratic Party in the Tennessee 4th. This district went for Trump by 23 points in 2016, and has only gone blue once in the last forty years. If an AOC-style candidate were to run, they'd get absolutely crushed in this district. The only way for a democrat to be even remotely competitive is to run as a moderate, try to position themselves as someone who will work with republicans and listen to their ideas. It sucks, and I can tell you that most of the potential candidates do NOT actually feel that way, but realize that if they want a chance in hell, it's the way it has to be.

One idea that keeps getting floated is interesting, though. A lot of these red locked districts either don't bother to run a candidate, or just float whoever is willing to go on the news and get their ass kicked. Several people have pushed for those races to be platforms for FAR left candidates, with the idea that they have the opportunity to get their ideas out there, and to continue the sales pitch of why liberal policies benefit rural communities more than voters actually think. The idea is that after four or five election cycles like that, the message may have sunk in enough that they'd have a fighting chance.

The two biggest problems are finding candidates willing to take the public beating they get running as a liberal candidate in the TN 4th, and convincing anyone to fund a doomed effort. No one's figured that out yet.

I'd think it really comes down to what the chances are and how much that seat is worth. If it's an extra Democrat in the Senate like Joe Manchin, it's worth the money and the mixed message. On the other hand, there's a cost to running an 'embarrassed Democrat' both in money and in the mixed message it sends. Especially if all it gets you is (edit) a competitive race but not an actual win. Your district may be worth it, but from what she's written, the Kentucky Senate seat maybe wasn't:

As an aside, many people have an eye on the Kentucky Senate race because of the perceived quality of the Democratic nominee, Amy McGrath, who made a failed bid for Kentucky’s sixth House district in 2018. At R+9, and with low college education rates, my model was unequivocal that McGrath could not win that race (I manually overrode it to predict she could win it) and the state, at R+15, is an even heavier lift. Still, the race attracts a lot of national attention, and money, because her opponent is, of course, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, Democrats’ second-least favorite Republican. Negative partisanship can take you a long way, but for this seat, McGrath needs more than the Democrats and independents, she needs actual Republicans to cross over to topple McConnell. When she announced her run, I told people, unequivocally, she could not win. Then the Kentucky gubernatorial race happened and a similarly unpopular Kentucky official, the state’s incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin, lost due to large turnout surges of Democrats and independents and a revolt by some suburban Republicans who voted for GOP candidates for the other statewide offices and the Democratic nominee on the governor’s spot. Although not common, such activity is not unheard of, but it should be noted, it is more common in state-level races than Senate races, which are more nationalized and thus, more polarized. Right now, I don’t think McGrath can win because the data doesn’t think so, and the data was right last time. BUT, if I should see evidence of crossover support in polling in that race, I will reassess.

of course, the worse the Trump failure on the pandemic gets, the more chance there is for appeals to Republicans to work, but that's a one-time event limited to just running against a dumb narcissist like Trump who is so selfish he can't even put the needs of Trump-six-months-from-now over the needs of Trump-six-minutes-from-now.

Tanglebones wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

As a Canadian, most of your democrat policies would fit right at home in the center to center-right of our political spectrum.

I mean, your DNC voted down universal health care, didn't they? Up here, any party putting that as it's platform (removal of universal health care) would find it relegated to "well, our entire elected party can fit in a VW bug."

Nah. They voted against including Medicare For All, one specific plan for universal healthcare. It's not the same as voting against Universal Healthcare in its entirety.

It is when they reject the one plan we have without even an attempt to include an alternative plan for it.

The platform's not actually done yet; the 2016 platform had a call for a public option and medicare buy-in. You really think this one's not going to have anything at all?

Yes I really do, Biden et al are literally and metaphorically invested in maintaining the heathcare for profit system. I'll be happy to be proved wrong, though.

One thing I think McGrath can do is point out that Trump's not doing the things he promised to do either. The smart move she can make IMO is to start with "Trump promised to bring back jobs. He promised to lower drug prices for so many Kentuckians. And that is very important." and continue "but he and McConnell didn't do that. Republicans didn't do that. But I can do that, Democrats can do that, and this is how." That may be an excessively charitable view of what she's doing, but it is Kentucky not Massachusetts (where we have our own problems, like Kennedy primarying Markey because... reasons?)

On facebook: I'm down to about three minutes a day there. A couple of weeks ago I added an older relative that I happened to meet in person, and it took me about three days to perma-mute them because all they did was repost right-wing garbage. I still talk to my brother and a couple of old high school friends, and a couple of small gaming-related groups but that's it. Not worth my time.

ETA: on M4A, my theory is that in an election where they're ahead the Dems don't want to make any controversial promises - and any specific health care plan will have to be controversial. I support some kind of universal coverage and I think the combination of pandemic and massive job loss shows why tying medical insurance to employment is untenable, but I also see why a divisive fight now is counterproductive.

So many threads this story can be placed in

OR GOV: FEDS TO LEAVE PORTLAND

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday that the federal officers brought in to quell anti-racism protests in Portland will leave the city after weeks of violent clashes with demonstrators.

“These federal officers have acted as an occupying force, refused accountability, and brought violence and strife to our community,” Brown said in a statement.

“After discussions with the Vice President and administration officials this week, the federal government has agreed to my demand and will withdraw these officers from Portland. They will also clean up the Courthouse, removing the graffiti.”

Local officials have been outspoken about their opposition to the federal officers’ presence, arguing that they had made the situation worse.

Probably moving them to another city.

Cops are disappearing people off the streets of NYC now.

And NYPD statement says they were getting attacked with bottles and had to defend themselves.

Anybody see bottles flying in the video?

Stele wrote:

And NYPD statement says they were getting attacked with bottles and had to defend themselves.

Anybody see bottles flying in the video?

There's multiple videos from different angles. None of the rocks or bottles materialize in any of them. NYPD is, per usual, lying bastards.

SallyNasty wrote:

Fuuuuuuck.

Okay, I echo this sentiment.

farley3k wrote:

So many threads this story can be placed in

OR GOV: FEDS TO LEAVE PORTLAND

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday that the federal officers brought in to quell anti-racism protests in Portland will leave the city after weeks of violent clashes with demonstrators.

“These federal officers have acted as an occupying force, refused accountability, and brought violence and strife to our community,” Brown said in a statement.

“After discussions with the Vice President and administration officials this week, the federal government has agreed to my demand and will withdraw these officers from Portland. They will also clean up the Courthouse, removing the graffiti.”

Local officials have been outspoken about their opposition to the federal officers’ presence, arguing that they had made the situation worse.

Feds say they aren't leaving Portland.

DSGamer wrote:
farley3k wrote:

So many threads this story can be placed in

OR GOV: FEDS TO LEAVE PORTLAND

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday that the federal officers brought in to quell anti-racism protests in Portland will leave the city after weeks of violent clashes with demonstrators.

“These federal officers have acted as an occupying force, refused accountability, and brought violence and strife to our community,” Brown said in a statement.

“After discussions with the Vice President and administration officials this week, the federal government has agreed to my demand and will withdraw these officers from Portland. They will also clean up the Courthouse, removing the graffiti.”

Local officials have been outspoken about their opposition to the federal officers’ presence, arguing that they had made the situation worse.

Feds say they aren't leaving Portland.

Really feels like (and I feel dramatic saying it) that he is trying to trigger a coup to say in power.

First a manipulated photo of John Ossof with a larger nose (because he’s Jewish) but that was a “mistake” not intentional.

Now this.

(CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham's reelection campaign posted an advertisement to Facebook earlier this month featuring a digitally altered image of his opponent [Jaime Harrison] -- who is Black -- with a darker skin tone.

Meanwhile the President's using Twitter to scream "Hey white people, if you vote for me I'll continue to keep all the minorities out of your neighborhood!"

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/AtpALqr.png)

Wow. Talk about hating on poor people. What is the opposite of a racist dog whistle? Is that a racist elephant trumpet?

As with all good dog whistles, there's not even any there, there.

The rule he's rescinding basically did bugger-all anyway.

OG_slinger wrote:

Meanwhile the President's using Twitter to scream

Ugh, spoiler warning on that image, OG. I had just finished my lunch. :hurl:

=)

Reminder: The Make America Kittens Again browser extension is clinically demonstrated to reduce nausea.

OG_slinger wrote:

Meanwhile the President's using Twitter to scream "Hey white people, if you vote for me I'll continue to keep all the minorities out of your neighborhood!"

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/AtpALqr.png)

This sounds like how my father-in-law wistfully remembers the highway tolls on Long Island to keep black people off public beaches. Blech.

Saw some posts from people that USPS has been instructed to slow the mail down by Trump just in time for an election.

If you do mail in ballots mail them early.

The election thing is a trial balloon to see if rebulbicans get behind it - i.e. if Hannity and Fox say it is good.

farley3k wrote:

The election thing is a trial balloon to see if rebulbicans get behind it - i.e. if Hannity and Fox say it is good.

I wonder how many Republican Senators will claim they haven't seen Trump's tweet and have no idea what reporters are asking about today?

I think that number will be a factor in if he keeps pushing the idea.

There's Trump abandoning democracy.

to abandon something don't you have to have embraced it in the past?

Yeah, that's like me abandoning abstinence from videogames.

Another respected politician's funeral where every former president gives a eulogy, but Trump isn't invited.

W is giving a fantastic speech about John Lewis right now. For all his faults as a president, Trump isn't even worthy to shine his shoes.

Delay the election and make Pelosi temporary president? Well, okay. I guess theoretically a situation could get bad enough for that to make sense, even if a bad idea. If Trump is suddenly concerned with the safety of having the election, surely he would be fine with this...

Delay and let Trump stay? Haha.

Shadout wrote:

Delay the election and make Pelosi temporary president? Well, okay. I guess theoretically a situation could get bad enough for that to make sense, even if a bad idea. If Trump is suddenly concerned with the safety of having the election, surely he would be fine with this...

Delay and let Trump stay? Haha.

It would actually be the president pro tem of the Senate as the entire House, and 1/3 of the Senate, will be out of office Jan. 3.

The good news is that the remaining 2/3 of the Senate would be majority Democratic, and they can select their own pres. pro tem. That means if there isn't an election we could actually see President Sanders.

Who takes control?

JLS wrote:

That means if there isn't an election we could actually see President Sanders.

Although I could imagine Pelosi leading to a higher heart attack rate among republican congress members, I guess we could all learn to live with a President Sanders as well