2018 Democrats thread

[caulfield12]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/03/opinions/tru...nion/index.html

 

I guarantee if Greg reads this article in isolation he will argue that he should have voted for Trump instead...

[Balta1701]

This Republican also claims to be the former head of the American Nazi Party.

Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs.

 

“Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times.

 

Indeed, Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’” where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the biggest blackest lie in history.”

[bigruss]

The Republican party has at least said they won't endorse him or anything, but that seems odd that you can label yourself a candidate of a party without their support/say so.

[GoSox05]

Why Did This Congressman Give A Holocaust Denier A State Of The Union Ticket?

 

 

Yeah, definitely not a party that would support anything like that.

Edited February 5, 2018 by GoSox05

[StrangeSox]

This Republican also claims to be the former head of the American Nazi Party.

 

I wonder how many thousands of my 3rd district neighbors are going to vote for the literal Nazi

[StrangeSox]

Why Did This Congressman Give A Holocaust Denier A State Of The Union Ticket?

 

 

Yeah, definitely not a party that would support anything like that.

 

 

must just be another weird outlier

 

Trump ambassador nominee promoted fringe conspiracy theories on Twitter

 

(CNN)President Donald Trump's nominee to be the ambassador to Barbados and several other Caribbean countries spread fringe conspiracy theories and unfounded attacks about Trump's political opponents on Twitter, including ones about Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, during the 2016 presidential election.

 

The revelation that one of Trump's ambassador nominees peddled conspiracy theories comes as dozens of ambassadorships across the globe remain vacant. A CNN analysis shows that 31 ambassador posts are awaiting presidential nominations and 10 nominees are still awaiting Senate confirmation.

 

Among the unfounded claims Rizzuto promoted were allegations that Cruz was unfaithful to his wife and that Heidi Cruz was a leading member in an effort to combine the governments of the US, Canada and Mexico.

 

I mean that's just a couple of

 

GOP Senate candidate Lou Barletta did interview in 2006 with Holocaust-denying publication

 

 

but it's just an interview from one "hopeful" and not someone with a big public profile who's loved and endorsed by the leader of the GOP who received a nakedly political Presidential pardon??

 

Arizona Senate candidate Joe Arpaio 'unaware' he granted interview to anti-Semitic publication

Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who is now running for US Senate, is distancing himself from a fringe publication that promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that he's given multiple interviews to.

 

 

well okay you're always going to get a few insane conspiracy racists in any administration, right? but that's all there ....

 

Trump nominee for U.N. migration post called Muslims violent, Christians top priority

The Trump administration's nominee to coordinate billions of dollars in assistance to migrants around the world has suggested in social-media posts that Islam is an inherently violent religion and has said Christians in some cases should receive preferential treatment when resettling from hostile areas.

 

In tweets, social media posts and radio appearances reviewed by The Washington Post, Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, made disparaging remarks about Muslims and denied climate change — a driving force behind migration, according to the agency the State Department has nominated him to lead.

 

In June, after a terrorist attack in London, Isaac reposted and commented on a CNN International story that quoted a Catholic bishop saying "This isn't in the name of God, this isn't what the Muslim faith asks people to do."

 

Isaacs responded: "CNN, Bishop if you read the Quran you will know 'this' is exactly what the Muslim faith instructs the faithful to do."

 

yeah but that's just..

Trump judicial nominee defended ‘first KKK’ in online arguments: report

 

President Trump's pick to be a federal district judge in Alabama defended the early Ku Klux Klan on a University of Alabama fan online message board, according to a report from Slate.

 

"Heaven forbid we let the facts get in the way of your righteous indignation, but Forrest, when he decommissioned his men, told them to make peace with the men they had fought and live as good citizens of the United States," Brett Talley wrote on TideFans.com, using his online alias "BamainBoston."

 

okay okay okay so there are a few...

Another Trump appointee resigns after racist comments come to light

Carl Higbie, appointed by President Donald Trump to direct external affairs for the federal government’s volunteer service organizations, resigned from his post on Thursday after a number of racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ, and other offensive statements made in the last five years were brought to public attention.

 

On Thursday, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported that Higbie made a series of offensive statements during various radio appearances since 2013, with many of his comments squarely aimed at African Americans, women, military vets with PTSD, Muslims, immigrants, and those who have used public assistance. In a 2015 appearance on “Where’s Obama’s Birth Certificate” radio, Higbie openly questioned the authenticity of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, picking up on the birther arguments seeded by Donald Trump years before his presidential campaign.

 

During the December 2013 episode of his Internet talk show, Sound of Freedom, Higbie argued that “the black race” had “lax” morals while recounting an experience giving away firewood.

 

“Only one person was actually cordial to me,” Higbie said, according to CNN. “Every other black person was rude. They wanted me to either load the wood, completely split it for them or some sort of you know assistance in labor. Now, mind you the ad was for free firewood, come take it all you want. And I believe that this translates directly into the culture that is breeding this welfare and the high percentage of people on welfare in the black race. It’s a lax of morality.”

 

During that same episode, Higbie proclaimed that black women think “breeding is a form of government employment.”

 

okay okay a couple of ambassadors but no one

 

New US ambassador to Netherlands regularly made unsubstantiated 'no-go zones' claims, speculated 15% of Muslims could be jihadists

(CNN)The new US ambassador to the Netherlands, who was confronted last month by a Dutch reporter with comments he made in 2015 about Islamic "no-go zones," repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims about the nature of Muslim communities in Europe and pushed a hardline view of Islam, a KFile review of his public appearances and writings shows.

 

Pete Hoekstra, a former 18-year Republican congressman from Michigan who served for several years as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was nominated by President Donald Trump last July to serve as ambassador to the Netherlands and confirmed by the Senate in November.

 

After leaving Congress in 2011, Hoekstra in 2014 joined the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a non-profit group that describes itself as the "world's most comprehensive data center on radical Islamic terrorist groups."

 

at least it's not like the leader of the party and the President of the United States launched his political career with racist birtherism and openly defends white supremacists who murdered a protester after chanting literal Nazi slogans at their free speech white supremacist rally!

 

 

 

Oh, right. So weird how the GOP in general and this administration in particular keeps attracting racist conspiracy mongers from the top on down

[StrangeSox]

The Shock Doctrine is real and it is terrible

 

Adrian Florido

@adrianflorido

On live TV, PR Governor @ricardorossello just announced the introduction of charter schools and school vouchers to the island's public school system.

 

Adrian Florido @adrianflorido

1h

When I interviewed PR's Education Secretary @SecEducacionPR a couple weeks after Hurricane Maria, she said the storm presented an opportunity to reform the island's public school system. This is what she meant. She's looked to New Orleans after Katrina for guidance.

[caulfield12]

Lol @ the position the GOP House will be when Trump blocks the memo and they have a vote of the full House late this week or early next week. House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to release Democratic ten page memo.

 

Btw, Democratic House candidates are blowing away most GOPers in “money on hand” as of late December. In some cases, 2-3 primary candidates have more than the Republican incumbent.

 

Not to mention PA went from 13-5 to now opening up 4-6 additional races in PA alone due to gerrymandering decision to redraw.

[StrangeSox]

With 90% approval from Republicans, I will say it again: Donald Trump embodies what Republicans want in a president and political figure. He *is* the Republican party. He *is* conservatism.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 6, 2018

 

[StrangeSox]

must just be another weird outlier

 

Trump ambassador nominee promoted fringe conspiracy theories on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

I mean that's just a couple of

 

GOP Senate candidate Lou Barletta did interview in 2006 with Holocaust-denying publication

 

 

but it's just an interview from one "hopeful" and not someone with a big public profile who's loved and endorsed by the leader of the GOP who received a nakedly political Presidential pardon??

 

Arizona Senate candidate Joe Arpaio 'unaware' he granted interview to anti-Semitic publication

 

 

 

well okay you're always going to get a few insane conspiracy racists in any administration, right? but that's all there ....

 

Trump nominee for U.N. migration post called Muslims violent, Christians top priority

 

 

yeah but that's just..

Trump judicial nominee defended ‘first KKK’ in online arguments: report

 

 

 

okay okay okay so there are a few...

Another Trump appointee resigns after racist comments come to light

 

 

okay okay a couple of ambassadors but no one

 

New US ambassador to Netherlands regularly made unsubstantiated 'no-go zones' claims, speculated 15% of Muslims could be jihadists

 

 

at least it's not like the leader of the party and the President of the United States launched his political career with racist birtherism and openly defends white supremacists who murdered a protester after chanting literal Nazi slogans at their free speech white supremacist rally!

 

 

 

Oh, right. So weird how the GOP in general and this administration in particular keeps attracting racist conspiracy mongers from the top on down

 

 

To add to this list:

 

Seb Gorka, Hungarian Nazi supporter and former White House Terrorism "expert," is joining a publication that's printed such great articles as "10 things I hate about Jews" and criticized Charlottesville police for not cracking down on counter protesters in defense of the Nazis.

 

Sebastian Gorka’s role as a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump ended in August 2017. A series of investigative articles tied him to Vitezi Rend, a Hungarian group the State Department characterized as collaborating with the Nazis. He’d also endorsed a racist and anti-Semitic militia in Hungary in a 2007 television interview.

 

A favorite of Beltway institutions like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Heritage Foundation before he joined the Trump campaign, Gorka became the president’s attack dog on cable news interviews. He eventually departed the White House under questionable circumstances: he says he resigned, other sources say he was fired.

 

Now he has drifted to the fringes of the alt-right with his new job as a contributor at The Rebel, an online Canadian publication with a long history of anti-Semitism, extremism, and Islamophobia.

 

“’Fasten your seatbelts…’ NEW Rebel contributor Dr. Sebastian Gorka untangles the latest Trump/Russia reports,” said the headline above Gorka’s first video blog for The Rebel, posted last Friday. In his contribution, Gorka downplays the reports of Russian interference in the U.S. election—“Russia mucking around in other people’s democratic elections isn’t a new phenomenon”—and focused on the alleged anti-Donald Trump bias in the FBI and Justice Department.

 

Joining The Rebel brings Gorka into contact with political figures on the extreme right of the conservative political movement.

 

In August, The Rebel’s co-founder Brian Lilley quit his job at the publication after Rebel correspondent Faith Goldy’s coverage of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville included criticism of the police for shutting down the rally and not cracking down on the counter-protest. Goldy was fired after appearing on a podcast associated with the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer, in which she praised white supremacist Richard Spencer’s manifesto as “robust” and “well thought-out.”

 

totally a coincidence that you have to play racist Nazi whack-a-mole with so many of these people

 

[StrangeSox]

Chris Hayes‏Verified account

@chrislhayes

Follow Follow @chrislhayes

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Right now the Pennsylvania GOP is threatening to impeach the state supreme court for ordering them to redraw their wildly partisan gerrymandered districts, while Scott Walker in WI refuses to call specials election for open state senate seats because he doesn't want R's to lose.

 

Taniel‏Verified account

@Taniel

Follow Follow @Taniel

More Taniel Retweeted Chris Hayes

While the North Carolina GOP & Virginia GOP have passed or are passing laws to strip election boards of their Dem majorities; the New Hampshire GOP concocts ever-new laws to block college students from voting; & Texas lost 3 "intentional discrimination" lawsuits in 2017 alone.

 

If an institution can't be co-opted to strengthen the GOP, it's attacked and delegitimized until it either can be used to support or is rendered irrelevant. Don't worry, though, authoritarianism could never take over in the US.

[StrangeSox]

Democrats pick up a state house seat in Missouri in a blood red district with a 31 point swing from 2016

[StrangeSox]

If an institution can't be co-opted to strengthen the GOP, it's attacked and delegitimized until it either can be used to support or is rendered irrelevant. Don't worry, though, authoritarianism could never take over in the US.

 

GOP bid for control in Nevada raises fear of endless recalls

 

Nevada’s major political parties are locked in a legal battle over a Republican effort to take control of the state Senate by recalling two freshly elected Democratic lawmakers — a tactic that Democrats warn could undermine the validity of elections across the U.S.

 

Experts and those from both parties say the move could be the way of the future for the losing side to keep control of influential statehouses. In Nevada, no official reason was given for the recalls, and none was required. Some conservatives have been open about hoping Republicans gain partisan advantage.

 

Republicans in 2016 lost hold of the Nevada Senate, which Democrats now control by an 11-9 margin. The GOP then circulated petitions to recall two Democratic senators and one independent who caucuses with them.

 

Republicans gathered enough signatures to launch recall elections of the Democrats, Nicole Cannizzaro and Joyce Woodhouse, who had been narrowly elected the previous year from swing districts in the Las Vegas area.

 

Democrats launched a counteroffensive. They sued in federal court, arguing the recalls violate the U.S. Constitution. They also persuaded thousands of people who had signed the petitions to withdraw their signatures — likely dropping the petitions below the threshold needed to qualify for the ballot.

 

Whether the signatures are allowed be withdrawn is at the heart of the case heard in state court Wednesday in Las Vegas.

[GoSox05]

Rauner challenger Ives says she's 'a little bit surprised' about 'hysteria' around controversial TV ad

 

 

Super normal political ad.

 

[Brian]

Rauner challenger Ives says she's 'a little bit surprised' about 'hysteria' around controversial TV ad

 

 

Super normal political ad.

 

I see that ad every morning. It's horrible. Even for a political ad.

[StrangeSox]

Another state level pickup, this time in Florida.

 

the county was Trump +18

 

the Republican incumbent who resigned won in 2016 by 58-41

 

Buchanan, the Republican in this race is the son of a Congressman and raised over $1m for a state house race

 

The generic ballot polls are tightening, but the actual elections keep showing big swings to Democrats. November is going to depend heavily on the enthusiasm gap.

Edited February 14, 2018 by StrangeSox

[caulfield12]

Aside from her big 7.4 percentage-point win, what made Margaret Good’s victory Tuesday night over Republican James Buchanan so significant was that it took place in Florida’s 72nd House District. It had been held by a Republican in Sarasota County, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 12,000, or about 10 percentage points. Buchanan, the son of local Congressman Vern Buchanan, also had an advantage in name ID.

 

And Trump had carried the district by 4.6 percentage points in a state that he won by just 1.2 points in November.

 

But now Trump is too toxic even for Sarasota, say Democrats, who made sure to figuratively hang the unpopular president around the neck of Buchanan as well as the Republicans who lost in the two other recent bellwether contests: Florida’s 40th Senate District in Miami-Dade and St. Petersburg’s mayoral race. Both of those elections had Democratic-leaning electorates with significant minority populations, unlike the 72nd in Sarasota.

 

In all of the races, Democrats made sure to use Vice President Joe Biden as a surrogate.

 

“This is beyond a trend. The results are in. Republicans have a real problem in this state,” said Tom Eldon, a Democratic pollster who surveyed the race.

 

“This is the bellwether seat,” Eldon said. “This seat in Sarasota is the Republicans’ backyard. Anytime Democrats win a seat like this it’s great for Democrats. It happened in 1992. It happened in 2006. And it happened in this seat. This is a bellwether for bad Republican years.” Politico.com

[StrangeSox]

Report: The Failure of Policy Planning in California’s Charter School Facility Funding

 

Report: The Failure of Policy Planning in California's Charter School Facility Funding

4/10/2017

 

By In the Public Interest

 

California has more charter schools than any other state in the nation, in large part because of generous public funding and subsidies to lease, build, or buy school buildings. But much of this public investment, hundreds of millions of dollars, has been misspent on schools that do not fulfill the intent of state charter school policy and undermine the financial viability of California's public school districts.

 

In the report, Spending Blind: The Failure of Policy Planning in California's Charter School Facility Funding, In the Public Interest reveals that a substantial portion of the more than $2.5 billion in tax dollars or taxpayer subsidized financing spent on California charter school facilities in the past 15 years has been misspent on: schools that underperformed nearby traditional public schools; schools built in districts that already had enough classroom space; schools that were found to have discriminatory enrollment policies; and in the worst cases, schools that engaged in unethical or corrupt practices.

 

 

 

The report's key findings include:

 

Over the past 15 years, California charter schools have received more than $2.5 billion in tax dollars or taxpayer subsidized funds to lease, build, or buy school buildings.

 

Nearly 450 charter schools have opened in places that already had enough classroom space for all students--and this overproduction of schools was made possible by generous public support, including $111 million in rent, lease, or mortgage payments picked up by taxpayers, $135 million in general obligation bonds, and $425 million in private investments subsidized with tax credits or tax exemptions.

 

For three-quarters of California charter schools, the quality of education on offer--based on state and charter industry standards--is worse than that of a nearby traditional public school that serves a demographically similar population. Taxpayers have provided these schools with an estimated three-quarters of a billion dollars in direct funding and an additional $1.1 billion in taxpayer-subsidized financing.

 

Even by the charter industry's standards, the worst charter schools receive generous facility funding. The California Charter Schools Association identified 161 charter schools that ranked in the bottom 10% of schools serving comparable populations last year, but even these schools received more than $200 million in tax dollars and tax-subsidized funding.

 

At least 30% of charter schools were both opened in places that had no need for additional seats and also failed to provide an education superior to that available in nearby public schools. This number is almost certainly underestimated, but even at this rate, Californians provided these schools combined facilities funding of more than $750 million, at a net cost to taxpayers of nearly $400 million.

 

Public facilities funding has been disproportionately concentrated among the less than one-third of schools that are owned by Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) that operate chains of between three and 30 schools. An even more disproportionate share of funding has been taken by just four large CMO chains--Aspire, KIPP, Alliance, and Animo/Green Dot.

 

Since 2009, the 253 schools found by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California to maintain discriminatory enrollment policies have been awarded a collective $75 million under the SB740 program, $120 million in general obligation bonds, and $150 million in conduit bond financing.

 

CMOs have used public tax dollars to buy private property. The Alliance College-Ready Public Schools network of charter schools, for instance, has benefited from more than $110 million in federal and state taxpayer support for its facilities, which are not owned by the public, but are part of a growing empire of privately owned Los Angeles-area real estate now worth in excess of $200 million.

 

 

 

Education was Obama's worst domestic policy platform. So much money dumped into school privatization via charters with little or negative results to show for it.

 

[caulfield12]

New Pennsylvania map gives Democrats big boost in midterms

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/19/p...midterms-354432

 

[The Beast]

Hopefully those maps get redrawn in other districts too since some involve gerrymandering and data analysis can prove that.

 

Also, it would be great if Romney gets elected to see him block the Trump agenda, since he seems unbound like McCain.

[Kyyle23]

I wouldn’t hold your breath on Mitt saving the day

[Quin]

I wouldn’t hold your breath on Mitt saving the day

 

Mittens is already folding.

[GoSox05]

Mittens will do what all other Republicans do. Publicly come out and say they are disappointed in something awful Trump does. Then vote and back everything he does.

Edited February 20, 2018 by GoSox05

[Brian]

Mitt will probably win and GOP will say it's YUGE when that state will probably will never go blue.

[StrangeSox]

Hopefully those maps get redrawn in other districts too since some involve gerrymandering and data analysis can prove that.

 

There's a couple of big cases pending before SCOTUS right now on Wisconsin and Maryland that could have significant national impacts depending on how they're decided. The PA case was based on the state's constitution rather than federal law, so it won't apply outside of PA.

 

 

Mitt, despite making a bunch of anti-Trump noise in 2016 and some last year, has already accepted Trump's endorsement.