Voting On My Mind
It seems to me that everyone here is somewhere on the spectrum of voting or not-voting, and belief or not-belief in the process. I am interested in people's experience before and after.
I’m sitting here on the deck as the day comes to an end, wondering if and how one’s vote may make a difference; and thinking that in some cases it’s possible, and in others not. Obviously local is the place to start, even if time is limited, hopes possibly unattainable, and outcome inconceivable. I could have voted if I had requested an absentee ballot. I gave up requesting at the last election, the whole time thinking I should so that I could tick Green, but I didn’t. I think, in part, it was a sense of apathy, disgust, distance, laziness, etc ……
Yet after listening to coverage of the election on my way home, I started to feel a kind of conflict between my scepticism regarding the significance of voting and my interest in the results. It was interesting to hear the response of the two people on The Panel to the news being reported, by a kiwi correspondent and a US correspondent.
I found this comment especially insightful and sad …
So I am wondering how others felt about their perceptions of voting, before and after.
Balancing the dissonance, to some extent, was an email from the NZ Green Party …
Back in April headlines around the world celebrated our historic ban on new offshore oil and gas. It was a momentous result of decades of campaigning on climate change. It showed what the Greens can achieve at the heart of Government.
Today, we changed the law to make this ban a reality.
This means that no new offshore oil and gas permits can be issued. This is a big win for our climate and our oceans … We worked to improve this law change. However, our proposed amendments, to close a loophole that allows big oil companies to apply for extensions to their permits, weren’t possible under the current laws.
Enjoy the results that are positive, is what I am currently wishing.
ps. If I’ve disappeared, it’s because it’s past my bedtime, and I’ll catch up late tomorrow ; ).
Comments
Rick Scott, a proven criminal, wins Florida.
And so does trumpeted DeSantis. I don’t know what to make of that, except that many Americans are subjectively blind and ridiculously senseless.
Or somebody is
rigging the elections. I just can't believe the outcomes in 'red' states. It answers why Americans seem to consistently vote against their own well being.
@Snode this. So much this.
this. So much this.
I live in a red area of SWFL and I couldn't find a single person, not One, that I talked to about Scott's last gubernatorial run that voted, or at least admitted to voting for pRick Scott.
The man is detested by people from all across the spectrum.
Same with DWS.
How, after all the shinanigans she pulled,could even the most fake of Democrats have voted for her?
Most of the early polls showed her being in a tight race with Tim Canova.
He ends up with less than 5%?
I guess that old Russian Bastard was right. It's not who votes that matters, it's who counts the votes that has the real power...
It seems like across the board on every important race whatever position or candidate I support has at best a 5% chance...
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
I know
The republicans (and some d's)are pulling so many out in the open dirty tricks to disenfranchise voters, even bringing back Jim Crow. But the majority of democrats cannot conceive of their vote being rigged.
Sure they can
They spent the last 2 years imagining that Vladimir Putin rigged their vote. What they can and cannot imagine has more to do with the blue glasses they wear over their eyes than any reality they are perceiving.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
True that
they can also see voter suppression, but actual tampering with the count, or machinery just doesn't compute. Exit polls used to be a big deal, now they skip it since the press just can't figure out how they can be so off. They ended up concluding that, recently, voters lie to them. Why would they? Dunno.
Elections do only one thing
elections are for giving tptb
legitimacy to govern, nothing more
especially nothing less.
At Zero Hedge
The Morning After: S&P Futures Surge On Gridlock, Dollar Slides
Headlines give legitimacy to markit/politician/military actions
a functioning country/markit/military just aint happening
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
As if some entrenched circle were taunting Canova with its power
Making an example of him and sending all would-be reformers in the party a stark message. Game of Thrones stuff, one clan humiliating another clan, demonstrating its helplessness for all to see.
“You folks thought you were polling much better, didn’t you? Ha ha, check this out, we can make your percentage of the vote count be single digits. That’s how powerful and entrenched we are. What’re you gonna do about it?”
yep. exactly. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
There were no published polls in Fla-23
Canova and others cited an article that said that a Republican who wished to remain anonymous said that there was a secret poll in which Canova and DWS were running neck and neck. I think Canova cited this in his fund raising, it gained a false concreteness. This smells of like a Republican attempt to shift votes from DWS to Canova. 538.com could find no poling information. They predicted 65% DWS, 32% Kaufman and 3% Canova, base on historical trends and models. For the record, I dislike DWS as much as anyone and supported Canova. However, the risk/reward ratio for rigging a race like this would preclude rigging.
Cain't misunderestimate the predatory effect of Fox News
Ailes was onto this idea since he was part of Tricky Dick's free penal colony of unconvicted criminals running the country. Years later, after being told his idea of starting a
partisanpropaganda network wouldn't fly, he struck gold literally and figuratively with the malicious, privileged and pampered boy of Daddy's newspapers fortune, slander and libel-slinging monster Murdoch, who threw down the dough for it.Think about it: Fox has been running outright, pure, vile RW extremist Propaganda now for over two decades. And a swath of lemmings who go home at night and turn on the tube to get their "news" have been watching it with a childlike trust that they're getting informed. Meanwhile, Fox has ruthlessly pursued both the most venomous bigoted voices and given them huge opinion platforms (sometimes with radio simulcast too) disguised as "news," crafted a heavy entertainment angle and become a monopoly tied in with other RW extremist media companies (thanks to Bubba in the 90's deregulating FCC standards) such as Clear Channel or whatever the fuck they are now (more public relations "re-branding, maybe I Heart Radio or some shit, just like Eric Prince's Christian Death Cult mercenaries Blackwater are now XE or some other innocuous cover).
Their signals blanket the country. And preys upon people who see themselves as conservative, proud Americans, who are also Christian, with subtle and overt nationalism, xenophobia, racism and resentment for the oppressed, who they're told don't work hard enough.
My parents have been lost to the abyss too. My sister and I are beyond aghast, disgusted and distressed about my Dad, a former international finance guy (who agreed with almost everything I sad about Occupy) and learned world traveler, having become a complete Republican/ Trump zombie stooge.
I keep telling my sister, who is beside herself because she has a closer relationship to my Dad, that she must watch "The Brainwashing of My Dad" and read Hedges's "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America" to understand the cultural cesspool our parents unfortunately have been wading in, along with millions of other mostly senior citizen Americans. Doesn't make it any easier for me. But I understand it clearly. They of course have been so brainwashed with Rapture-brainwashing that it, to use an unfortunate but perfect metaphor, "trumps" everything - all the ugly shit about Trump personally and professionally is cast aside for the ultimate goal. They're gonna be whisked up to Jesus's house on that great day coming soon, thanks to Pence and fellow jackals whispering in the empty, vapid Buffoon's ear all day, with the requisite stroking of his ego that the thin-skinned moron requires.
Very disturbing shit. And to me explains a lot of the situation
we're inwe've been in.Which begs the question, where are the real Christians to expose this fraud and fight back? In my view if just 8-12 percent of self-professed Christians actually followed the basic tenets of Jesus we'd have a different world literally overnight.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Here's hoping that Trump meets Jesus soon.
And the Koch brothers and Murdoch are there to greet him.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
a
reporter went to a Hairball rally and there confronted cultists with some of the shithole's most frequent Lies. One old dingbat denied Reality because it hadn't upchucked out of her Fox tube.
What you say is true
Still, I find it hard to see Murdoch, the Kochs, the big players being racist, hate gays and women. No, they could be, but I don't think they really care about it. They care about capturing the government and having it do their bidding. They captured the judiciary. They burrowed deep into national and state governments. They co-opted the military. They also know their base is dying off fast. Eventually the next economic downturn will bring everyone except the wealthy to their knees. They know that also. So if they have an electorate that will be screaming for relief how do they hold on to power? The blue wavelet may bring about change, I really hope so, but TPTB will throw the foot soldiers to the mob and just stay in a holding pattern until the next opportunity presents itself. Everything the d's do will end up being stalled by the republicans as much as possible. People will be disappointed that not much change happened.
I feel for you. My father was a Bircher, and that was 1965. He worked hard, played by the rules and got screwed by the system. As long as the system keeps manufacturing screwed bitter people there will always be someone to tell them why, and by who, kicked them when they were down.
It wasn’t until
I moved to NZ 22 years ago that I started paying more attention to American politics. The growing Evangelical involvement in politics there was the catalyst of my concern and greater attention. Even though some advances contradictory to Evangelical purposes have been achieved, it still seems like a concern.
some
10% of Floridians, including more than 20% of all black adults, were unable to vote Tuesday because of state laws disenfranchising convicted felons.
Skeletor ran the program where such people could appeal to have their rights restored. If Skeletor said you could have a vote, you could. If he said you couldn't, you couldn't.
But all that is over now, because Tuesday state voters returned the right to vote to over one million state residents.
So Skeletor and other animals of his ilk will in the future presumably have a rougher time of it.
Man, you live in a lawless state.
Can't understand why old people move there.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
i
don't live there. I don't know that it's particularly lawless. I do know its goal in stripping felons of the right to vote was racism uber alles. Then:
And now:
10% of the adult population are felons?
Worse than Chicago
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
is it?
did you notice that 20% number for african americans? well, those are all the folks who pled guilty to some two-bit felony possession charge, or resisting arrest, or whatever, under the threat of rotting in jail waiting for a trial, which if they lost would get them thrown in the slammer for who knows how long?
this is all a well-documented component of the new Jim Crow -- active disenfranchisement of minority voters by abusing the judicial system to extort guilty pleas from them.
and yet, several weeks ago i had to defend my contempt for the entire culture of our jurisprudence, against folks who somehow believe that at its core it serves TRVTH and JVSTICE.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
One step forward, cheers hecate.
I have never voted in my life
and don't regret it. When I was young in the sixties in Germany, I thought it was not necessary, because those I leaned for where strong enough. In the US I was not allowed and I am sure if I could have voted I wouldn't have, because heh, hard to understand the Americans, so for the first ten years in the eighties, I was totally dumb, in the nineties I got interested, but couldn't stand the Clintons, in the 2000 I would never have voted for that idiot, you know who and in the 2010 I just suffered under dizziness caused by the fog and lack of oxygen in the air. Today I am totally sure that I will never vote in the US. And Germany is so FUBAR too that I refuse to vote.
So, there is no before and after.
Take care.
I am out of being interested in politial issues no matter where they happen. Capitulation. White Flag. Ready to die.
https://www.euronews.com/live
"dizziness caused by the fog and lack of oxygen in the air. "
I like your analogy and description of voting or not, here or there, before or after.
'furchtbar' is also more descriptive, because it includes 'fear'.
Cheers, mimi.
tell me, do I have to be a reborn hopey-changey gal again?
What does it all mean? The result! US gone Bananas, as is appropriate for a Banana Republic. May be they start sharp shooting all the coconuts out there...
Can't in earnest give up, can I?
Can't capitulate, that would be 'furchtbar', can't be fearful. I can be mad, though. That is appropriate.
Tomorrow is another day.
https://www.euronews.com/live
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!”
Howard Beale in the movie Network was the first Wutbürger.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_%28Film%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_%281976_film%29
In Pennsylvania, . . .
. . . we saw four of the nation's House flips to the D side -- mostly because our redistricting eliminated the gerrymandering that had given Rs the edge before this. That's the horse-race view.
The Greens in PA got a smaller total number of votes and smaller percentage of the votes than they did in the 2016 Presidential race, so it looks like the shaming had an impact. The Greens probably will never recover, much less grow, here.
Jess King's was the only race worth watching in PA. Sadly, she lost to Lloyd Smucker, who outspent her bigly in a race that was always going to be a steep uphill climb.
There were some (predictable) disappointments to be seen in other states (FL, GA, take a bow), but the two-party agon doesn't have the potency to me to elicit more than a meh. Real folks are still screwed.
Thanks for the info
about your state. I wish there was a time and financial limit to campaigning.
Disbelief Despair
The math doesn't add up in my mind. Where did the republicans in Texas get new voters? In my household we had three new Beto voters, my husband who has flipped and two teen first time voters. How do you win the major cities and lose? Beto enthusiasm was strong in my rural county, where a previous dem presence was publically nonexistent. That's the disbelief part.
The despair part comes from realizing that the right-wing fundamentalist religious sector is far stronger and larger than I had imagined. That's a very large brainwashed segment of the population. And where were the teachers who got screwed so badly by the repub state legislature this past year?
I feel sick.
I have dear friends here who attend fundamentalist churches and probably voted repub. I can't be mad at them. That's counter-productive. It won't change anything for the better.
It's a bit of a creepy thing to hope for, but I hope for a Mother Nature miracle. The kind that will provide enough of a shock to wake people up from their slumber. Of course, I don't want anyone to get hurt either. Maybe those two don't go together.
What's wrong with these preachers? Totally sold out to arrogance, greed, and presumption.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
they
don't make it easy, to vote in Texas.
Getting driver's permits for 3 teens
last year was insane. It was like 10 proofs of ID and residency. Since we get most of our bills come to a post office box (they don't count), it was quite an effort to find enough.
Also, a birth certificate from the doctor does not count. You have to get a special deal from the county seat.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
My grandson registered to vote by the deadline, and
Michigan never managed to get him registered. So, he couldn't vote.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Preachers are professional con artists.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
The Christian Right was
all but dead in the 2nd
Bubba term, circa '97, and admitted by none other than... crap, can't remember his name, the blowhard that had the Christian University in Virginia, Falwell, who said, "the Libruls have won." Alas, they weren't dead enough, and soon after Dubya's election - and opening rounds of his Christian War on Ragheads - the Christian Right was reborn! Or, more properly, born again! And has been growing ever since, kicking non-Christian Librul ass in the process! Cakes for homos?? Over our dead body!! You have two mommies?? Not in Christian Virginia!!
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Thanks Marilyn
So many questions, and too little attention to finding productive answers. Sad.
Wouldn’t have missed this for the world.
Michigan passed all three ballot proposals: legal rec pot; expanded absentee voting; and legislation to stop gerrymandering. We flipped two Congressional seats, a miracle as gerrymandered as we are. We elected a Muslim woman to Congress, and a gay female running for AG is ahead in a race still too close to call. We elected a female Dem Gov, and we sent Jesus Schuette and his pals (Pence, DeVos, Kochs) packing. We also elected a Dem SoS. Dems appear to have made a big sweep in MI. Except for two blue US senators, We used to be red from head to toe. I am pleased as punch the GOP lost big in MI. The bad news is Dems won, Stabenow and Pelosi will return.
Lots of other state victories in Gov races. Scott Walker lost. WI is dancing in the streets.
I am delighted I voted, and I take pride and pleasure in helping to hand the GOP their asses in Michigan. Now to do the same for the Dem leadership. Big, big national party presence and lots of money spent MI. Instrumental I’m sure in the sweeping victory.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
that's so nice to hear you are happy - makes me smile
t
all over the face. If you can be confident then it means something...
https://www.euronews.com/live
Scott Walker, ugh, good riddance. How did the recall ever fail?
Can’t understand that to this day.
I hope that's good news for Flint
n/t
Beware the bullshit factories.
It sounds like Michigan
is quite progressive in their thinking. I hope it continues to grow and spread.
I voted
They had free cookies. Yum.
My state fared much like MI.
Like dkmich, I, too, was happy to vote straight blue. The GOP got handed their asses in New Mexico, too. Even our state house squeezed out the rethugs even further - went from 37 to 45 dem seats. The only "loss" was our southern district US congress rep, but votes are still being counted and the dem challenger is only down by 2,000. As our political blogger stated, the GOP will have to regroup in our state because they fell hard in this mid-term.
We had been governed for 8 years by a rethug who tried to bring austerity to us much like happened in Wisconsin, Kansas, Florida, etc. She got in with that wave in 2010. She had successfully kept our state from recovering from the 2008 recession. We are in deplorable condition - at the bottom of many lists, even below Mississippi. She didn't care and took pride in it. Well, our citizens just threw the Reds out. I hope to see real progress in our legislative session starts in January. We'll see how it shakes out.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Thanks for the positive news, Raggedy Ann.
Recount the paper ballots
They have a duel electronic and paper voting system in Texas now. I want a recount.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I'm just glad that
Doug 'The Purge' Wardlow lost here in Minnesota. Proto-fascists tend to be dreadful.
Everything else is gravy.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Voting in Alabama...
is an exercise in futility....but I voted anyway. Perhaps out of a sense of public duty, but probably to just let them know there are other points of view. It was a red wave here 60% R to 40% D in most races. Plus the amendments that passed like the one allowing the posting of the ten commandments in public buildings, and the rights of the unborn. A common sign this cycle - Vote your values, Vote Republican.
As Marilyn said earlier, the religious right has powerful sway in the South. I'm thrilled for DK , RA, and others in PA and WI who saw some progress. Backwards politics is the fate of living in this biologically diverse corner of the world. Fortunately life is much more than politics.
GA next door is still counting - Palast team is working to have all ballots counted
https://www.gregpalast.com/92-year-old-georgia-grandmother-purged-from-v...
They are likely headed to a run off.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I too congratulate those states with positive results
I am very happy for the states who experienced positive change. Glad asshole Scott in WI is gone! And MI, NM, PA . . . yay!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I wonder how many blue leaning people in Alabama
Just assume it's a lost cause. The Democratic establishment sure does. I think anybody anywhere will support an honest candidate who radiates integrity and who speaks to the issues that matter and can explain why they matter, and has a spine.
Beware the bullshit factories.
in the 2016 primary
there was an 18 point discrepancy between the out come and the exit polling. Bernie got like 25% of the dim vote + 18% cheaters factor - somewhere around 40% of the dim voters might be progressive. That's in a state where about 40% vote dim.
The black power structure was solidly with the $hill - John Lewis even slammed Bernie. I just don't see politics as a way out of our mess. Money doesn't talk, it swears (Dylan).
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Fortunate for Alabama
that there's you and some others that vote your values.
"Fortunately life is much more than politics." So true.
I'm just glad that the
next election has started because I was mighty tired of that one. Can't wait until the next time we get to vote for democrat or republican politicians to make our decisions for us.
Although one "experience" I've had with this one is disappointment. I've watched people go from demexiting and claims to understand the system can't be reformed, to full and eager participation in the lesser evil anti-democracy sham. Disappointed we're in the same place we were yesterday only worse.
Only a portion of this site's members Demexited.
I stated at the time (2016) that PA's closed primaries meant I'd be able better to affect a future if I remained technically in the party. Politics is just one arena of action, and not the principal one. Community is bigger. Sustainability is bigger. We don't talk enough about those here. What are your thoughts on those?
Shaming C99ers for voting, even if you're doing it gently (you're just disappointed), when you don't offer any alternative for positive change, is kinda tacky.
And I voted Green.
I did DemExit....
I was a Bernie or Bust before I was a DemExit. Now, I am whatever in the hell I feel like being whenever in the hell I feel like being it. Life is situational. To lay down in the street and obstinately refuse to move no matter what may be right up someone's alley, but it isn't up mine.
Not voting would have kept Republicans in power, and we would have had the jesus freak, gay hating, bible preaching, Pence loving, Schuette as governor instead of the blue corporate, party dupe that ISN'T SCHUETTE. Even worse, none of the proposals would have passed, and Schuette would have been force feeding Michigan Betsy DeVos and Trump. No thank you.
I voted to take out the GOP in Michigan. We did a good job at the top but there's a lot more to do at the state level. Once we get rid of our gerrymandered districts with our newly passed proposal, I think that will get fixed. But today, the reality is the GOP can't lose if the Dems don't win, and the Dems only won because we showed up and voted for the crooks. Not voting was a vote - for the GOP.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
My sentiments exactly!
I mostly vote Green
and WFP (working families party) when candidates are worthy of a vote, and pull the D lever when they ain't. The Repubs are the default party here in -ahem- "blue" NY, so if Dims don't get out to vote it's just more of the same from tRump. At the state level. My three fave progressive lady candidates took a pounding - the kind you don't get up from - but despite those losses Dims did well in NY, taking back the state Senate by, like, 20 seats, 42-21, something like that. yuuuge! Now if we could just dump Cuomo...
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
What happened with Dana Balter?
Do you have knowledge or special insight? That is, besides the usual of the infamous DCCC not supporting her.
Mary Bennett
I don't know, and haven't
had time to look.
Our congress critter candidate in 21 lost too.
And we (supporters) pounded the District, so, wasn't for lack of effort.
I know Balter got a bunch of support too!
I suspect it's just a case of old traditional Repub districts remaining so, people going about their habit of pulling the red lever without thinking much about it. And not enough youth vote to counter.
But what do I know?? I just pick 'em up and put 'em down.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Oh come on now.
I've offered alternatives for positive change many times. It just doesn't fit into some people's realm of possibilities. ANYTHING organized outside of this electoral circus is an alternative for positive change.
Voted mostly (D), a few (R), a few wrote in "No candidate"
Oh yes and the four Greens down ballot. It really wasn't hard to find the lesser evil.
Unlike the 2016 Presidential race.
In one down ballot race (in a neighboring district), the (R) wanted all teachers armed in class. Are you really saying that's no difference?
OTOH, in the fifth Congressional district the incumbent anti-abortion corporate Dem was defending his seat against an actual Nazi. That's not name-calling. An actual swastika wearing admirer of Adolph Hitler running as an (R). He got 20% of the vote. In Chicago!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Illinois Nazis
Sorry:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTT1qUswYL0]
Beware the bullshit factories.
That was a telling reminder
of even how more retrograde things have gone in some ways.
Was this election important?
That is the question that I was asked by Canadians all the time. In most of their minds, they saw it as a slam-dunk of "Yes, we need to refute Trump!"
All were surprised by my answer... It's not important to me. There are just Dems and Republicans on my ticket so basically no choice at all. Either the D or R will win and things will go on as they have.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Not only that, a good case can be made that this election
will see a further shift to the right of the dem party. a lot of those CIA/military types got elected for one. For another, they're already talking of compromise. Almost like it was set up for that all along. I'll try to essay that later.
I look forward to reading your essay.
I've been feeling the same way, especially after I broke a personal rule and listened to the NPR post-mortem for a little bit today.
Listening to NPR was your first mistake.
The msm is as useless as you know what. I've heard what a winner Trump was. How progressives lost and centrists won - you know, McCaskill, Donelly, and Heidkamp. It is all bull shit.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Just a part of the Invertebrate Party
The real party of many Democrats and practically all Republicans.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Voted "None of the Above" (write-in) for
every position except one (local City Councillor), and that one lost.
I have absolutely no use for Tim Kaine, and while Jennifer Wexton did unseat Barbara Comstock, she did it without my help. Remains to be seen if it's just Tweedledee replacing Tweedledum, or if there's any improvement. You couldn't tell from her campaign, which was all Comstock-bashing all the time.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Close to ditto.
Two differences:
Lieutenant Governor: David Zuckerman (Prog)
Justice of the Peace (pick 15): Picked all Progs.
Anyone with a (D) or (R): NOPE.
Oddly, there were no Green candidates on Vermont's ballot, or I would have chosen them.
Yes, no policy in the campaigns.
At least both duoploy primaries here discussed policy. the general election was all name-calling. The (R)'s had nothing but "Madigan! Madigan! Madigan!" (Madigan is the House speaker of some 27 years and widely regarded to be an old time political machine boss. And "Trump! Trump! Trump!" What a waste of money. JB Pritzker spent a record amount of money buying the office. In the end I voted for him. Not on faith, but because incumbent Rauner was such an asshole. Saying he has the morals of an alley cat would be an insult to cats.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Imagine spending $170mil to become guv, sick
Actually it's an insult to alleys as well
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
And alley rats!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Thank You! You did the right thing.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Donnelly lost and good riddance.
Not that I wanted Braun to win, but I’m sick of Republicans running as Dems.
Didn’t look like Dr. Wolf, the only Green running for anything, placed, which is hardly shocking as he was a write in. Still disappointing though.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Donelly and McCatskill are both good riddance.
I am glad that Tester held on, if only because the optics of an organic farmer holding a western senate seat and being reelected twice must be seriously embarrassing to big ag. And didn't he vote against the Wall Street bail out? I remember him during the hearings asking Paulsen--Mr. give-us-US$700B-and-don't-ask-questions--what would happen if we did nothing and Paulson couldn't answer.
Mary Bennett
One Vote
One vote victory margain
EDIT: Proud to say that I worked on the non-partisan campaign to dump Joe Walsh some years ago.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Hard to fathom why, after hearing and seeing a president
crossing the country spewing bile, hatred, racism, bigotry and violence, citizens voted in support of him and his minions; but they did and do.
"Miles to go before this culture sleeps."
Thanks for this essay.
Bile, hatred, racism, bigotry & violence a.k.a. Manifest Destiny
The sentiment is well-meant, but let’s face it.
The United States from sea to shining sea would never have come into being without the efficacious operation of bile, hatred, racism, bigotry, and violence.
It was through the concentrated bile, hatred, racism, bigotry, and violence of empire that the U.S. — against the will of the Hawaiian people — annexed Hawaii.
Investigating the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani by American businessmen and plantation owners, President Grover Cleveland and his appointee James Henderson Blount appealed to America’s better nature — “we are better than this” — but no action ensued.
U.S. voters then swept McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt into power and proved them wrong.
America and Americans are not “better than that.”
Hawaii is a part of the U.S. today because America is not “better than that.”
Edited to add this reminder from Hawaiian history: the Massie case, or how diversity plus #BelieveWomen can be hazardous to PoCs’ health.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/Oct/14/op/op03a.html
I Demexited and voted
There were ballot measures that were important. I really didn't care about top of ticket people. I did care about the one in charge of counting votes for this county, but the incumbent was re-elected. I am pleased that ballot measure results turned out well, the ones I know about. I am more pleased to find a lot of people agreed with me on those issues.
I have never seen so much campaign material mailed as in this election. And it appears that the big money behind it mostly lost this time.
Big money lost big time
Where are you?
I'm in Oregon
Oh, Oregon, you’re lucky. It’s a beautiful place,
with what looks like a continually growing progressive attitude.
I lived in Ashland for 2 1/2 years in the late 80s. I am rarely in touch with people I knew and are still there; and since I haven’t followed the political progress, I was happy to read about its current state. When I was in Ashland it was still quite ‘quaint’, although you were aware of the changes that were on the horizon because of wealthy Californians starting to buy property in the area. You never know how these changes can transform the character. I was in Ashland last, 5 years ago, and happily it was not that significantly changed.
I have also read about the gentrification of Portland. Hopefully the gains are not too much at the local population’s expense. If it is, I wonder whether places like Medford might benefit, or do more people become displaced and compromised? Do you know how the local Portland government is addressing what might be a problem? I guess it’s always a little bit of this and that, but I’m happy for you that the direction of Oregon is positive.
Thanks everyone for your input,
and relating your personal experience or perspective. It broadens the picture.
Voting in Utica, NY was like a 3-ring circus.
Pushy, angry poll worker women screaming in my face and it wasn't just me. I intend to have words with my City Council rep. Used to be, polling places were scattered around the city; now you have to go to city hall the lobby of which wasn't big enough for the crowd, and no one thought to put out signs for traffic control. Signs would have taken away the fun of getting in voters' faces.
I voted for conservadem Brindisi because I decided T-rump's gal Tenney Had To Go. I voted Green for gov., comptroller and AG. I thought a bit about the AG vote. The new AG is a smart Black lady from NYC named Letitia James, and at least she might put a stop to NYC cops shooting innocent civilians. However a check of her website showed no interest in and no understanding of rural issues at all--not even a nod to "supporting family farms", so I thought enough of us voting Green might remind her that selling the upstate counties out to Big Ag would not be a smart move on her part.
The big issue in Utica is should we build a hospital downtown, or in what is left of it, a truly bad, horrible, no good idea. The Shillary clone running for the Assembly was for it and the Republican against, so I voted for the Republican.
I declined to vote for senate. Gillibrand is a Clinton groupie who wants to run for Pres. after having exactly No major accomplishments in the Senate. I am going to really enjoy watching her fall on her face. mieou!! This cat needs her cream.
Mary Bennett
Utica has always played
hardball politics.
It ain't for the weak of heart.
Glad you participated!
(edit) oh, and yeah, Brindisi sucked as an alternative to Tenney!
Sadly, we're too often stuck with barely Dems of the blue dog variety as our a "lternative."
but Tenney was practically munching on tRump's (thumb).
gag me.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Is there anywhere in NY
that doesn't play hardball politics ; ).
believe it or not
there are a few spots.
But Utica ain't one of 'em.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Too close to Albany?
Utica has had "challenges"
(some would say "has
been corrupt") since I was knee high. If not before.
Not quite the Boss Tweed days, but not a political town for the weak of heart. Albany really not a factor, as Utica mostly out of reach, lives in its own bubble.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
That was entertaining and interesting, thanks.