11/08/2022, The Midterms, aka build on 2020 aka The Election Thread

[allegro]

My s/o has a Twitter account for two reasons: the occasional academic networking RT, and trying to get banned from Chester Cheetah.

The shit I report is truly AWFUL racist or bullying stuff, “please go kill yourself, now, you ugly fat Libertards cunt” kind of stuff, which is the expressway to Ban Town, then the Right is screaming “CENSORSHIP OMG WE ARE TARGETS!”

The bots are getting easier to spot, too.

And Twitter sends friendly little status reports to you, e.g.

An update on your report

Thanks again for letting us know. Our investigation found this account violated the Twitter Rules:

Nadya Wall-Rossi
@WallRossi

Violating our rules against abusive behavior.

We appreciate your help in improving everyone’s experience on Twitter. You can learn more about reporting abusive behavior here.

[allegro]

Mayor Pete was on Maddow tonight:

[bobbie solo]

I thought Bernie did a great job overall at his Fox News town hall tonight, and hopefully set the tone for how to handle those bastards (Brett Baier was fine actually, but that other fembot...) for the other Dem candidates that will be doing this in the future:

[ltrandazzo]

Looks like Biden is in next week - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...sident/587560/

I think this should be the last announcement of entering into the race because, quite frankly, if you've waited this long and you're still undecided, you have zero chance of an impact once Biden is in. Looking at you Seth Moulton and Bill De Blasio.

[Patrick_Nicholas]

And with Biden almost officially getting in, preparation for the opening ceremony for the 2020 shitstorm is almost complete. Then it will be another nine months and change for the Iowa caucus to officially kick off the primaries. Things are about to get ugly. Really ugly.

As for De Blasio, I think he's better off keeping NYC from falling apart. The last thing NYC needs is to turn red over the mayor having other priorities.

[ltrandazzo]

Elizabeth Warren is first major Dem candidate to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump -

[bobbie solo]

Don't forget about Stacey Abrams. She was on Desus & Mero the other day and reiterated that she will announce something before the end of the month. Guess we'll see if that means the presidency or not. She's awesome. Whatever she does, she needs to stay in the nat'l political convo & hopefully become one of the new leaders on the left.

As far as Warren, good for her. That piece of shit bully has fucked with her for years now, and she should never back down to him unlike pussies like Hoyer and Pelosi. Take the fight to that motherfucker. Again, playing hardball is the only way to defeat these monsters on the right, Trump especially. They don't compromise, they don't give an inch unless forced to at the very last possible second. Time more Dems play the same exact way for the time being. Zero sum game.

[bobbie solo]

If you need an example of how the right fights and why I categorize it as a zero sum game, the new abortion restrictions passed in Ohio are the best example of that. They have now limited abortions to only prior to when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is somewhere between 6 and 8 weeks I believe. Absurd. They know none of this passes muster, but put the new law in place anyway knowingly so it can be challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court in the hopes that it can be codified there, and/or Roe vs Wade can be challenged. The right wing never loses focus on this one issue. This one issue arguably determines a large portion of their domestic policy actually. It's what they vote on, and it drives their base and almost everything they do. They can't be reasoned with on this...they will never compromise. As such, I don't see how voting for any of them or trying to seek some common ground ever makes sense for those of us that care about women's right/being pro-choice. We have to vote as many of them out of office at every level of gov't and limit that party in size and power as much as possible. The only way for progress is to get them out of the way, not try to find an "agreement" with them.

[allegro]

Don't forget about Stacey Abrams. She was on Desus & Mero the other day and reiterated that she will announce something before the end of the month. Guess we'll see if that means the presidency or not. She's awesome. Whatever she does, she needs to stay in the nat'l political convo & hopefully become one of the new leaders on the left.

As far as Warren, good for her. That piece of shit bully has fucked with her for years now, and she should never back down to him

Abrams, I totally agree. I *LOVE* her. I really do hope she runs for President. She is totally awesome. OPRAH loves her. I just think Abrams has a GREAT chance of winning.

I love Warren, as well, and she can't go wrong because she'll still be a great force in the Senate for many more years.

[Patrick_Nicholas]

Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton is now in the race.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...-field-n996881

[ltrandazzo]

Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton is now in the race.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...-field-n996881

IBB (In Before Biden)

And yes, Stacey Abrams is the exception to post-Biden because she's a superstar and should be the governor of Georgia had they counted all of the votes and not rigged the election.

[allegro]

Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton is now in the race.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...-field-n996881

Gotta admit, I *LOVED* this guy in “No End in Sight.” He totally earned 100% of my respect in that documentary, and I’d hoped he would eventually run. I’m glad to see him throw his hat into the ring.

[ltrandazzo]

Mayor Pete not wanting to discuss policy at a televised town hall on the day Elizabeth Warren continues to make headlines about her policy proposals is a mistake on his part. However, his answer on if currently incarcerated people should be able to vote is a major fucking bummer.

Kamala Harris had a good night saying that she would take executive action on gun control if congress can't pass legislation. She also said she supports congress taking steps towards impeachment of Trump.

Elizabeth Warren kept talking about her student loan debt cancellation proposal along with impeaching Trump.

Bernie waffled on reparations again - https://twitter.com/EmersonSOC/statu...02108917248000

Amy Klobuchar was overly cautious about a lot of things - https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/22/polit...ays/index.html

[allegro]

Klobuchar is still REALLY smart, a REALLY good Attorney. She’s being truthful, vs. just saying stuff people want to hear to win.

As much as I think coordinated background checks between states and shutting down online gun sale sites likes Armslist is a great idea, the Executive isn’t there to create laws and Harris knows that. Harris bitches about Executive overreach, then promises to do just that and set more precedent for it. Nope.

Warren’s (public college) plan is brilliant. Seriously, these are PUBLIC institutions totally acting as profit-generating entities where every student is paying a fortune in tuition and either T.A.s (grad students) or grossly-underpaid adjuncts are teaching most of the classes and NOBODY is receiving tenure, anymore. While the compensation to public university presidents is INSANE:

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/loc...-pay-rise.html

[theimage13]

Better half is a professor. At least, she wants to be. Been on the market full time for four years and no offers for anything - anywhere in the country - for a job that isn't a below-minimum wage adjunct job, and she's won multiple prestigious grants and had some pretty major things published. So help me, I will vote for anyone who helps fix that broken ass system and makes it easier for people like her to get proper jobs instead of this gig economy bullshit. Pretty sure I've already earned more this year than she will all year, and she works her ass off.

As for Harris saying she'll take executive action on guns: good luck. As soon as you get the "they're coming for your guns" nuts, you're losing a lot of independent voters. It doesn't matter that you're not talking about literally banning all guns nation-wide. You say you're going to take executive action on guns and people will immediately stop listening to you. I'd rather see her (or anyone) play dirty on that one...talk about legislation and cooperation all day long, then just flip everyone off and bust out the executive orders once you've actually managed to win. (I mean, go ahead and TRY to get legislation crafted first, but we all know that will NEVER happen.)

[bobbie solo]

Bernie waffled on reparations again - https://twitter.com/EmersonSOC/statu...02108917248000

Bernie needs to have a firm answer on this. It's hurting him. There is no harm to him backing it fully, b/c imo that issue is DOA in Congress anyway. There's not enough support for it to get through either part of Congress. He's so virtuous that I guess he won't hedge his bets on something he isn't well versed in, but they're going to continue to dog him for this.

[allegro]

ANY Presidential candidate who wants the black vote (Democrat or Republican) MUST AT LEAST back H.R. 40 from now on, it’s gained that much momentum in the black voting community (since 1989).

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-.../house-bill/40

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...merica-n723151

Yet there’s ample legal precedent for reparations, be it financial settlements in the 1980s for Japanese Americans who were placed in U.S. internment camps during World War II, restoration of lands to Native Americans, or billions that Germany paid Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Kamm Howard, a legislative committee co-chair with the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) said despite the hurdles around reparations, advocates would push forward. He said the next step is drumming up more legislative support for H.R. 40—which references the “40 acres and a mule” promised by the Union in 1865 to an estimated four million newly freed slaves.

[allegro]

Better half is a professor. At least, she wants to be. Been on the market full time for four years and no offers for anything - anywhere in the country - for a job that isn't a below-minimum wage adjunct job, and she's won multiple prestigious grants and had some pretty major things published. So help me, I will vote for anyone who helps fix that broken ass system and makes it easier for people like her to get proper jobs instead of this gig economy bullshit. Pretty sure I've already earned more this year than she will all year, and she works her ass off.

That’s pretty much the norm, has been for decades, and it’s terrible. At these “Fight for Fifteen” minimum wage rallies, the organizers were fast food employees but ADJUNCT COLLEGE PROFESSORS were showing up in big numbers to protest. (See “Faculty Forward.”)

College professors have grad school degrees and huge student debts but they get these shitty limited gigs at terrible hourly pay and zero benefits while the school takes in disgusting levels of profits and the professors AND the students pay huge financial sacrifices.

Last March, the University of Illinois Chicago Teaching Assistants WENT ON STRIKE!

“We have students going to food pantries and going on food assistance,” said doctoral candidate Hailee Yoshizaki-Gibbons, 33.

Leaders of the Graduate Employees Organization, which represents more than 1,500 graduate student university workers, said they plan to strike indefinitely. Their previous contract expired in September, and 99.5 percent of members formally authorized a strike in February, the union said.

“Despite being highly educated professionals providing skilled labor for a multibillion-dollar institution, UIC grad workers live on the edge of poverty,” GEO leaders said in a statement. “Grad workers’ low pay, high fees, and often precarious employment negatively impacts their academic progress, professional development, and overall health, which only undermines UIC’s educational and research mission.”

On April 15th: Seven Loyola University Chicago Graduate Workers & Their Student Supporters Were Arrested During A Peaceful Protest.

“If Loyola administrators thought today’s arrests would intimidate us, they were wrong,” said Yiran Zhang a graduate worker at Loyola University Chicago. “Their actions leave us no other choice. The prospect of facing more weeks, months, semesters constantly worried about making ends meet intimidates us more than taking arrest. If this is what it takes to get a contract, so be it. We’re calling on all of our colleagues and students to join us in a walk out on April 24th if administrators don’t agree to a fair deal with graduate workers. If we don’t get a contract, it will no longer be business as usual.”

A year after a faculty strike and student walkout over working conditions, tensions are mounting as the school again refuses to provide its employees with a contract and fair working conditions. Even though graduate workers – the masters and PhD students who do much of the research, teaching and grading on campus for extremely low pay – won their union back in February of 2017, the school has refused to come to a fair agreement.

[allegro]

Bernie Sanders just gave the best political answer on impeachment

"At the end of the day, what is most important to me is to see that Donald Trump is not re-elected president, and I intend to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen.

"But if -- and this is an if -- if for the next year, year-and-a-half, going right into the heart of the election, all that the Congress is talking about is impeaching Trump and Trump, Trump, Trump, and Mueller, Mueller, Mueller, and we're not talking about health care, we're not talking about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, we're not talking about combating climate change, we're not talking about sexism and racism and homophobia, and all of the issues that concern ordinary Americans, what I worry about is that works to Trump's advantage."

Sanders went on to say that he supports the House conducting an investigation into some of the seemingly obstructive behaviors by Trump documented by Mueller and that, once that investigation concludes, he was open to reassessing.

That seems to me to be right where Democrats need to be heading into 2020. And here's why:

1) Abandoning the Mueller report conclusions is unacceptable to the party's political base.

2) Impeachment will allow Trump to paint himself as a victim of overly partisan Democrats looking to run him out because they lost an election.

3) Senate Republicans will simply not abandon Trump en masse, ensuring that even if impeachment succeeds in the House, Trump will not be removed from office.

Given those three competing realities, Sanders' position -- we need to continue to investigate but we can't build the entire Democratic case against Trump in 2020 around impeachment -- is the most politically sound place to be.

Although Sanders didn't mention the 2016 campaign or Hillary Clinton's strategy against Trump in that race, it's clear that his position on Trump and impeachment is informed by that contest.

In 2016, Clinton's underlying (and sometimes overlying) message was something like this: Trump is awful and you will never vote for him. And I am the only other person running for president.

Yes, Clinton talked policy, too, but the overarching message was entirely focused on her belief that Trump was unfit for office. And voters agreed! Exit polling from that race showed that just more than a third of all voters liked Trump, thought he was honest and trustworthy or believed he had the temperament to be president. But even some of those who didn't like Trump voted for him anyway because they didn't like Clinton much more -- and, as importantly, they had no sense of what she would do differently.

In short, the 2016 race became a personality contest between two people that voters didn't like. So they chose the one they thought might change things more.

Sanders is clearly wary -- and rightly so -- of re-running that race. To that point, this part of his impeachment answer really hit a chord:

"If for the next year, year-and-a-half, going right into the heart of the election, all that the Congress is talking about is impeaching Trump and Trump, Trump, Trump, and Mueller, Mueller, Mueller, and we're not talking about health care, we're not talking about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, we're not talking about combating climate change, we're not talking about sexism and racism and homophobia, and all of the issues that concern ordinary Americans, what I worry about is that works to Trump's advantage."

That's a correct assessment. Democrats don't need to convince voters that Donald Trump isn't presidential or isn't their cup of tea. Most -- outside of Trump's hardcore supporters -- already believe that. What Democrats need to do is prove to voters that on the issues they care about, Trump's policies are dangerous. Whether that's on his call to repeal the Affordable Care Act or his decision to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accord or his hardline immigration policies.

What Sanders is arguing is that the way you beat Trump is on policy, not on personality. And that if Democrats spend the next 18 months litigating whether Trump should be impeached for his decidedly unpresidential conduct during the course of the Mueller investigation, they are allowing the race to be about personalities, not policies.

[Demogorgon]

"What Sanders is arguing is that the way you beat Trump is on policy, not on personality. And that if Democrats spend the next 18 months litigating whether Trump should be impeached for his decidedly unpresidential conduct during the course of the Mueller investigation, they are allowing the race to be about personalities, not policies."

YES. This is exactly what i have been saying for months here in this very forum. Stop making your platform the "We hate Trump" platform, stop playing his brand of politics, STOP sinking to his level. Talk about policies, craft legislation, and SHOW the voters why you are the better choice.

[ltrandazzo]

Biden is officially in.

[Jinsai]

Biden is officially in.

And it seemed like his opening pitch is "Trump is going to be a disaster if he's re-elected."

Y'know, I'm glad a prospective candidate is clearly spelling that shit out, rather than trying to seem cool by talking about their iPhone playlists or offering vague platitudes or inspirational BS.

I'm not saying other candidates don't have important issues that they're holding central to their point, but the looming threat of a Trump re-election is almost becoming an elephant in the room here because everyone's afraid of being branded as a candidate running on "Trump hate alone."

[bobbie solo]

@Jinsai , I agree that the "Trump is a disaster" message needs to be a large part of messaging for whoever the candidate is. I feel like Biden should have talked more about what HE wants to do as president in his very first video to be seen by people. That's the best way for any of these candidates to differentiate themselves from the 300 other Dems running. They all agree on Trump is a criminal dumpster fire. To launch with only that message and say nothing about your own platform and goals will not help him in the primaries imo. Am I wrong?

[Sarah K]

Watching The View because I was curious about Biden would have to say. When asked about apologizing to the women who have come out about his behavior, he basically said "Sorry if they felt uncomfortable, but I'm not sorry for my behavior" in about 700 words. He just keeps digging this hole deeper and deeper. They just gave him about 6 outs to realize what he was saying and doing, and he just kept doubling down.

Joy just direct asked him to apologize to Anita Hill "I'm sorry she was treated the way she was treated", and AGAIN never apologizes for his conduct in the matter.

Joy again asks him to apologize for his conduct, and again he says he was sorry for the way she was treated.

[Jinsai]

@bobbie solo , yes, though I guess Biden has that “you guys know who I am already” advantage, so we can presume where he’ll side on most issues; regardless if that presumption is correct or not, it’s a way to skip the ice breaker blips that are often landing as phony and forced.

Also, I’m not sold on the “creepy Joe” thing... I hate when people invade my personal space and get touchy... one of my best friends has always been like that and occasionally it bordered on “get the fuck away from me man.” He’s that way with everyone though, and it was not sexual. I don’t see Biden’s contact as really dissimilar, though he should wake the fuck up about these sort of optics and understand why he should stop, and yeah, apologize.

Call me crazy, I want a president who will apologize when he fucks up.

Meanwhile, Trump just doubled down on his Charlottesville comments...

[allegro]

My Mom is 81. She campaigned for Obama in 2008; I mean, drove to one of his campaign offices and made phone calls, etc., every day for months.

Yesterday, in the car, she turned to me and said, “I got email from Joe Biden. Totally out of the blue.”

I said yeah probably because of all that work you did for Obama.

Mom: “I’m voting for Elizabeth Warren.”

[Sarah K]

I wish that Warren was about 20 years younger, but she is my favorite at this point.

[bobbie solo]

If Warren was 20 years younger, didn't have a penchant for longwinded personal stories when a simple answer would suffice, and in general didn't have that professorial manner of speaking, this race would be hers to lose imo. Sanders/Warren or Warren/Sanders let's gooooooo.

[Sarah K]

I'm no huge Mayor Pete fan, as his stance on voting rights for incarcerated folks turned me off, but is anyone following this shit?

https://www.businessinsider.com/pete...l-stunt-2019-4

Brief statement from the person who they created profiles to mimic.

https://www.facebook.com/hunter.kell...93871731467948

[allegro]

^ Ugh, wtf. Jacob Wohl is an evil little turd.