Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Hermit]

I'm watching the results become official in Tennessee. It's depressing. The local GOP being in power redistricted Nashville killing the power of one of the only formerly blue areas. Our idiot governor, the guy who is anti education and anti weed alike crushed his foe and won re election easily.

'Right to work' is now to be enshrined into our State Constitution (really more right to fire) which many believe will be used to kill collective bargaining.

 

A previous ban on religious leaders holding public office has been lifted... and on one hand I'm okay with that even if I dread some 'Prosperity gospel' flim flam artist jumping up with joy at this, but the problem is, it is STILL illegal for an openly avowed atheist to hold public office in TN. Now, I am not an Atheist. But if we're going to allow Pastors, Reverends, etc to run for Office, then we really should have put in that amendment that atheists could also run without having to be in a closet.

 

We have amended our State constitution to add the words "Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime"  Long overdue,  But it's also pretty clear that any felons can still be treated as a free work force by for profit prisons and the like if I read that right. Still, I voted yes for the change. Gotta start somewhere. So hey, a win.

 

And there was another one about the transition of power in case of the removal , death, or whatever of a state governor that passed. In this state I wouldn't be surprised if it was used for a coup on our next Democratic governor if we ever get one again

 

Except for Memphis area, pretty much the whole state is red in results. DEEP Red, and a very pale red in the Nashville Davidson County area. I'm not sure the Democratic Party threw any money at all at our state, probably seeing it as a lost cause and I can't blame them.  The ones I feel sorry for are the blue leaning younger Millennials and Gen Z that stood up to vote only and probably feel it was for nothing. I tell myself, and I hope they see it too, that the very fact our state legislature is constantly and desperately finding ways to Gerrymander, obstruct and obscure is proof that the vote does mean something. That the GOP here IS watching that 33% of folks who are sick of them and voting against them growing. If the younger folk don't fall for the brain washing (They really hate teachers here who teach.. oh history) and they can hold on, they may just see a state government that represents them one day.

 

The cynic in me wonders if it will be in MY life time.

 

 

[Ternaugh]

Most of the Nevada map is deeply red, with pockets of purplish blue in Washoe and Clark Counties. Right now, most of the outstanding votes are in Washoe and Clark, and we still have a few days left for mailed ballots with a Tuesday postmark to be received and counted. One House seat is solidly red, representing the top of the state. The other three seats are slightly favoring staying blue, but there's enough votes to be counted that it's still not determined.

 

Our Senate race is currently favoring the Republican, Adam Laxalt, but Washoe's count swung a bit toward the incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto in the last release, and the actual gap is only about 15,000 votes.

 

There's less than 2000 votes separating Republican Jim Marchant from his opponent, Democrat Cisco Aguilar, for Secretary of State. Marchant's running on an election-denier/MAGA platform, so I really want him to lose.

[unclevlad]

2000?  That's a big margin! 

 

In Colorado, Lauren Boebert is in a near dead heat against her Dem challenger.  As in, with 300,000+ votes in, the margin's 64 votes.  Obviously going to have to go to a recount there.

 

Locally, Yvette Herrell has conceded to her challenger, Democrat Gabe Vasquez.  She blames redistricting...which one can never discount.  Both sides do it.  Margin with 98+% of the votes in is about 1300 votes.

[Lord Liaden]

If both sides do it, neither side has a right to complain. But Republicans in recent years have been more blatant about it.

[DShomshak]

According to my morning paper, Sen. Patty Murray is 15 points ahead of her no-experience Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley, which is considerably better than pre-election polls showed. Smiley has not yet conceded, saying there are votes yet to be counted.

 

In the House races, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Spokane, cruised to reelection against his Democratic opponent. The good side of this is that Newhouse is one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and he also handily defeated the several MAGA cultists who challenged him in the primary.

 

Rep. Jaime Herrerra Beutler, another Trump impeacher, lost her primary to a Democrat and Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed MAGA election deniaer (and, the local politics reporter for KUOW says, a complete loon whose speeches are Joycean stream-of-consciousness rants among multiple conspiracy theories). At the moment, the Democrat is ahead by 5 points.

 

Democrat Kim Schrier is also about 5 points ahead of her Republican challenger Matt Larkin in the 8th district, which crosses the Cascade Mountains and had been red for decades before Schrier won. Larkin's another MAGAist who tried to paint Schrier as a criminal-coddling radical; Schrier ran on protecting abortion access and her local work for the district, including law enforcement and hay farmers.

 

For state senate, Democratic incumbent Emily Randall is ahead of her R challenger, state rep. Jesse Young, whom the legislature stripped of his staff due to repeated complaints of abusive behavior; and who, when Gig Harbor had its own tiny Black Lives Matter protest, chose to stand with a few Proud Boys who showed up to counter-protest. Young ceded his house rep position to try for the senate. So it looks like I will no longer be represented in the state legislature by a white supremacist. And in the race to replace Young, the Democrat is also ahead.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ternaugh]

Nevada Question 1 officially passes with 57% of the vote: https://www.fox5vegas.com/2022/11/10/ballot-measure-adding-equal-rights-amendment-nevada-constitution-passes/

 

Quote

 

The measure, also known as Question 1, adds a new section to the Nevada Constitution that states, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this State or any of its political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”

 

 

[unclevlad]

Well, to give Smiley a *bit of* benefit of the doubt, report is only 2/3 of the votes are in.  But AP called it, and reversing a large gap at this point isn't likely.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-washington-us-senate.html

 

Note that Smiley's leading in the rural counties, while Murray's crushing it in the big ones.  And judging by the totals and percentages...King County has another 300,000 votes or so to come in.  That's +49...or basically 75-25, or 3 to 1 in Murray's favor right now.  I also find the map interesting, showing how sharp the geographic divide is.

 

I haven't looked exhaustively, but there are at least 3 Republicans coming from the media...Kari Lake was a TV anchor, Tudor Dixon was a streaming anchor, and Mark Ronchetti a TV meteorologist...that ran to be their state's governor.  All 3 lost.

[Cancer]

With the update 15 minutes ago, Washington Secretary of State estimates 775,000 votes left to be counted, but more than half of those are in the populous and strongly Democratic counties: King (234,500), Pierce (65,000), Snohomish (107,000), Clark (70,000).

[unclevlad]

And actually, report is, Smiley conceded some time Wednesday night.  

 

On the big fear...widespread election fraud claims appear to be limited to Trump's macabre, private reality.  CNN reports some small issues, but nothing that interfered and certainly nothing systemic.  That's hopeful.  Push comes to shove, it looks like the *loud* fraud claimants lost much more often than they won.  It does seem to open the door for someone to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, altho all the presumptive, plausible candidates are different types of horrific.

 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Lord Liaden]

I think steriaca has a rival for the title of "Mispellian Master."

 

[unclevlad]

That's assuming it's actually from who it's purported to be from.  Elon's new Blue Check Mark has been faked and exploited rather mercilessly.  

And unfortunately, she's winning in a landslide.  

[Cancer]

Hey, I could quack in my boots once I got them out of the back of the closet.

 

Does the phrase mean "wear the boots while quacking", or "put mouth over boottop and quack into it"?

[wcw43921]

Could it be an autocorrect error?

[Lord Liaden]

It would be very far from the first time MTG has misspelled/mispronounced or just plain used the wrong word.

[Ragitsu]

I'm popping in to say that one of the healthiest lifestyle changes I have ever made was abandoning all of the (online) political channels I used to regularly view.

[Cygnia]

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/nick-fuentes-says-the-results-of-the-2022-elections-prove-why-we-need-a-dictatorship/

 

Quote

Nick Fuentes, the racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, America-hating, Christian fascist leader of the white nationalist America First movement, reacted to the results of the midterm elections by declaring that the failure of Republican candidates to take sweeping control in a “red wave” is precisely why this nation needs to be taken over by a far-right-wing dictatorship.

Fuentes has been very open about his desire to see a “white uprising” in the United States that will install former President Donald Trump as a dictator, cancel all future elections, and imposeChristian fascism throughout the country, allowing for women to be burned at the stake.

During a Wednesday night livestream, Fuentes admitted that the election results showed that his agenda is wildly unpopular and therefore the only way he can achieve his goals for this nation is by literal force.

“You gotta recognize the fact that this is a godless country,” Fuentes said. “I hate it. It’s immoral. It’s wrong. It’s heinous. It’s evil. But this is an evil country, and this country will surprise you with how evil it is. And that’s why you’ve got to get this out of your head that there is some silent majority cavalry that’s going to come out of the woods and save us at the last minute. It’s not.”

“We are in the minority,” he continued. “There are not as many of us as there are of them. If they all had to vote, if you forced every man and woman in America to vote, there would be more of them than us by a lot. That’s why they win the popular vote. That’s why they win the House. That’s why it is the way it is. And I hate to burst anybody’s bubble, but there is simply no evidence that there is a silent majority. There is no evidence of this. There are too many non-white people in the country, frankly, for that to be the case.”

“When you look at these things like abortion, it’s popular,” Fuentes added. “And you can thank the Jewish media for that. Abortion is popular, sodomy is popular, being gay is popular, being a feminist is popular, sex out of wedlock is popular, contraceptives—it’s all popular. That’s not to say it’s good. That’s not to say I like that. Popular means that people support it, which they do. It sucks, and it is what it is, but that’s why we need a dictatorship. That’s unironically why we need to get rid of all that. We need to take control of the media or take control of the government and force the people to believe what we believe or force them to play by our rules and reshape the society.”

 

[csyphrett]

I would not cry if Nick Fuentes fell down on an elevated train track. 

 

I haven't looked at any results but have heard that the local school board is still 5-4 democratic. Online stuff says most of the maga people running for governors lost. Walker and Warnock are in a runoff in Georgia. The only voter intimidation that I have heard of was in Arizona and those people were told to F off or else, so they did.

 

I live in NC so we're lucky to have Cooper as the governor, because this state is red as I don't know what and the state legislature is full of morons. I feel bad for people who live in redder states.

CES 

[BarretWallace]

Oh, how I wish this could be a real ticket in a couple of years......

[BarretWallace]

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.

 

These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.

 

I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

[DShomshak]

As far as Fuentes' desire for a Christian nationalist dictatorship, the anti-Trump conservative David French recently pointed out that the world's largest avowedly Christian Nation is currently getting the pants beat off it in Ukraine. Putin made Christian Nationalism part of his dictatorship from day one. It's everything Mr Fuentes wants. It's not doing so well.

 

https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/the-spiritual-lessons-of-a-christian/

You have to subscribe to read the whole article, though it's free. My sister printed it out for me, so I can summarize Mr French's three "Spiritual Lessons from a Christian Nationalist Military Defeat":

 

* Power corrupts. Not exactly a new observation, but Putin's Russia offers one more example that corrupted, self-serving leadership inevitably hollows out institutions and the country as a whole.

* Christendom dilutes Christianity. French argues that Christian nationalists focus on the collective institutions of the faith, not the "radical personal renewal and redemption that is the heart of Christianity." Putin's invasion of Ukraine was supposedly, in part, to defend Christendom against the Satanic corruption of the West. And their methods for doing so...?

* Brutality isn't strength. "Bullies look strong. They strut and peacock. Russians bomb civilians. They rape women. They loot empty homes. They're ruthless. They make commercials casting themselves as fearless, fearsome warriors. And now they're fleeing by the thousands, thrown into headlong retreat by a far smaller nation, fighting with a fraction of the resources, in one of the most shocking military setbacks in modern times. Brutality is meeting courage, and courage prevails."

 

If Mr Fuentes truly wants to live in a "Christian Nation," well, nobody's stopping him from moving to Putin's Russia. They would seem to be made for each other.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Pariah]

I was a RINO for a long time. I still consider myself fiscally conservative. In an ideal world, I think small government is a good idea. I believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

And if the Republican Party still stood for those things, I might still be one of them.

 

But the Modern GOP has gone completely off the rails. Conspiracy theorists, science-denying charlatans, christian nationalists, war profiteers, and thinly-disguised bigots of every flavor have taken over the Party. They've become isolationist and exclusionary. They refuse to listen or talk to anyone who doesn't believe all the same things that they believe. They don't talk, they shout. And they don't listen to anything but money and power.

 

Reasonable Republicans are as rare these days as balanced budgets these days.

 

I don't see that changing any time soon, sadly.

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, BarretWallace said:

I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

 

Sounds to me like you do have an idea of what the Republican party has even become...

 

It may be hard to believe but I, too, once considered myself a centrist and often voted for Republicans until approximately 2002.  I would still vote for Republicans like Eisenhower or Roosevelt (the first one) today.  But those guys would be considered left wing Dems by today's standards.

[Pariah]

Hey, I have a radical idea. How about we celebrate Veterans Day in the U.S. by demanding that our 'leaders' fund the VA and other programs to take care of all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines when they get home from deployment? Someone who survives action in Kandahar or Fallujah shouldn't die from homelessness or suicide once they get back home.

[unclevlad]

So what's going on at Twitter?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/technology/elon-musk-twitter-takeover.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20221111&instance_id=77325&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=101745266&segment_id=112913&te=1&user_id=618f95a4931087ea799b0e9f4a9d3344

 

If it's paywalled for you...I'll keep the quote short, since it is.  

 

Quote

Twitter, which is under financial pressure from debt and a slumping economy, is now unrecognizable compared with what it was a month ago. Last week, Mr. Musk slashed 50 percent of the company’s 7,500 employees. Executive resignations have continued. Misinformation proliferated on the platform during Tuesday’s midterm elections. A key project to expand revenue from subscriptions hit snags. Some advertisers have been aghast.

 

And for Musk's attitude???  

Spoiler

“There’s a massive negative cash flow, and bankruptcy is not out of the question,” he said, according to a recording heard by The New York Times.

 

 

Mr. Musk added that they would need to work strenuously to keep the company afloat. “Those who are able to go hard core and play to win, Twitter is a good place,” he said. “And those who are not, totally understand, but then Twitter is not for you.”

 

Draconian doesn't even start to express it.  Those who simply can't afford to leave will be worked like dogs, and it's a practical certainty, IMO, that they'll get no appreciation for it whatsoever.  

 

EDIT:  after reading the whole story, if Twitter survives to next summer, I'll be surprised.  It really is that bad.