JaneAusten

I didn’t mean to sound flippant and careless with that remark. I have family who live in North Carolina and that was a stmt my cousin made. More in relation to what the state legislature did to Roy cooper and the shutting down of polling places. Not that this hasn’t happened but that according to my cousin many believed maybe the state had gotten past it. But we all know that’s not the case. Same as with the country where many thought because we elected ObAma, just by that fact, the inherent biases and injustices disappeared. It’s just causing those who are not the minority dig in with the power they feel they are entitled to. Oh I did want to ask, Cooper does have control over the new maps for legislative disc tricks still right?

Michigan is guaranteed pretty much election of a democratic Governor as is Illinois and it looks like Walker in Wisconsin may be toast. Illinois in fact looks like we will have a super majority and a democratic governor. We'll see what happens then. I believe Pritzker winning Governor by a projected wide margin in Illinois may help some of those congressional races.

Bloomberg believes in Climate Change Bloomberg has been the primary funder for Everytown and Moms Demand Action There are many policies I would hate but I hope he learned from Stop and Frisk, My worry would be he might lead to someone after worse than Trump. A lot of these folks are not acknowledging this is a worldwide problem and their own economic policies partially contributed to it. Unless he's like an FDR who turns his back on his own class to put programs and policies in place to actually help the little guy, I can see this being revisiting in 2024 if Bloomberg were to run and win in 2020,

Of course we have more in common. I remember when there used to be decent discussions here with Max who was a republican but one could have a policy and an ideology discussion reasonably and with respect. The hyper partisan ship has made that impossible. And that started long before Trump. The problem with Trump is character matters. Attempts at nationwide unification matters. None f that us happening now. As a democrat I could even get behind some of Trumps ideas on tariffs if he were more focused on outreach. Well and also put tariffs in that were well thought thru with a start and end goal. But he makes that impossible. And when I have to point to GHWB and his "proper" handling of the Anita Hill allegations as a high point, that says a lot. There IMO is plenty to compromise on. Electing people who want to legislate and not just vote on budgets and increasing military spending repeatedly would be a start. And if these people are not prepared to do that then they need to go home. I go back to the GOP and their hatred of gvmt, gvmt being the problem(ie Reagan), leading to this idea that the gvmt should do nothing which means congress sits on their asses and does nothing period. John McCain after Citizens United was passed introduced a bill to overturn it and to put into law practices that prohibited that kind of campaign funding. And his own party overwhelmingly voted against it so it went no where. How are the voters of those senators(ie; Collins for example) ok with that. That I would expect is a bipartisan issue. And 2 term Collins 22 years later(who vowed to only run for 2 terms) is no Margaret Chase Smith or Olympia Snowe, 2 GOP senators from Maine who were principled. Snowe left the senate in 2012 after citing the hyperpartisanship as a problem and her reason why she was not re-running. Snowe was always cited as one of the top 5 senators in the senate.

I want to have a serious discussion about congress and it's effectiveness or lack of it over the past 40 years plus. Beyond LBJ, what big legislative achievements can we point to. What big wins did Reagan have(tax overhaul?), Bush1 and Bush2, Clinton? Obama had the ACA. I'm asking because why are we relying on the courts to set law. Roe V Wade should be a bill. Abortion and reproductive rights should have been a law that should have been passed by both houses of congress back then. I am not old enough to know what happened to prevent that. Was it just that both parties intended to use this as a wedge issue going forward? There are many others, but shouldn't we be asking our congressional leaders to legislate and to set law. Why are we letting them off the hook and relying on our judicial system to make law in a sense? Have we lost sight of what our congressional representatives should be doing?

This is interesting in North Carolina a state that is basically operating as an apartheid state

Machin was ahead by 10 points. 10 points. Heidi Heidkamp who was already behind voted no. I see very few in the media giving her any attention.

Pray for sanity in Brazil over the next 3 weeks. They are close to electing their own version of Duerte. It’s time we ask again the reasons for the pushbacks against liberal democracies all over the world. Corruption is the main source yet those getting elected are even more corrupt and their lawlessness on display without a care in the world. Bolsonaro now has the support of the establishment media in Brazil as he had brought in an economics advisor from the US from the Univ of Chicago to push Neoliberal economic policies. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45780176

ITA. I think he loves it when the talking heads discuss how much of a political genius he is. Yes McConnell is going to go down in history as the worst of the worst followed by the media and press who endlessly praised him.

Kanye I mean "ye", brags about never reading a book. Dude is running around saying we should get rid of the 13th Amendment. Does he even know the purpose of the 13th Amendment. Maybe he meant to say the 18th Amendment because there are men across the board who I believe would love that.

I'm not surprised by Collins what I am shocked by are the fabrications about his record, comparing him to Merrick Garland (she voted for every Supreme Court justice not one), And Her husband is a DC lobbyist so she likely needed to vote this way to continue to secure her husbands business and her own future as a lobbyist

Jason Van Dyke the police officer in Chicago who shot Laquan McDonald has been found GUILTY on all counts including second degree murder. I'm shocked and relieved and finally some accountability. It matters little to Laquan's family but hopefully they get some peace with this.

So the Jason Van Dyke verdict is in in Chicago. Verdict to be read in 1 hour. Based on how the trial went I'd say guilty but based on how these cases normally go, I'd say not guilty.

I'm not interested in listening to Susan Collins excuse her YES vote, a betrayal of her long standing Pro Choice stance. Makes me think she was never pro choice. And she's been a YES from day 1.

That Op-Ed basically shows classic abuser behavior. I am sorry but you made me do it.

The media is so in the tank for the GOP it's become blatantly obvious to me. I was listening to Tom Hartman today and he was discussing the polling numbers and how the media is twisting and turning about how it's about Kavanaugh. He's says BS. He pointed out that the Koch funded ads which start showing up in late September have kicked in across the country and that;s the influence, indicating they have been specifically Kavanaugh centric in places like ND and MO. He also mentioned that just a week ago suddenly Joe Scarborough and team along with the rest of MSNBC barring the evening shows have all turned the narrative to this just as the network started running the Judicial Crisis Network Pro Kavanaugh ads showing Kavanaugh being "attacked". In the US you don't need state TV or state newspapers when the MSM basically plays state media and a good amount of the press does the same

lol I read and I can't find it that some of Judge's testimony is damaging. Take that for what it's worth it doesn't really mean anything But Collins was very specific a few days back about hearing from Ramirez and they are not interviewing any of the people who might be able to verify or at least support parts of her story.

It means - at this point they do NOT HAVE THE VOTES.

Kind of ironic isn't it.

Yes Al Jazeera does report on the Palestinian/Israeli crisis. No US media outlet or press outlet do in a way that does not show bias. It's always slanted toward the Israeli POV. With that, it's become very hard for me to empathize with Israel at this point. Netanyahu is an authoritarian bully, but what's happened in Israel in more recent years is the same extreme right influence and messages of Nationalism we are seeing. And now there is state sanctioned segregation though the passage of that Nation-State law which basically violates Israel's own Declaration of Independence. I'm not insensitive to Israel's history and the existence of anti Semitism around the world and specifically the hatred for Jews in the Arab world, but I expected more from Israel than this.

Part of last week on my part was a total feeling of despair. I cried after the testimonies but that was not out of despair, at that point it was out of anger as to how Kavanaugh was allowed to show white male rage and be justified for it. And I'm a democrat through and through and I am not pointing a finger, but how did things get this bad that all the norms and decency has been thrown out. Trump is just emblematic of this, he's not the cause. It started heavily under Gingrich and has just gotten worse over the years. The Supreme Court has been tainted for years, but first and foremost starting with the fact that THEY decided a presidential election not the voters. And as it turns out Gore won Florida so their decision ultimately went against the will of the voters. There has always been deal making behind the scenes and maybe this level of corruption has always been there. But it's just so blatant now, no one even cares anymore. The ends justify the means. I'm running for local trustee in my community next spring. I have been leaning in that direction, but last week solidified it for me. I see local elections with an 19% voter turnout, that's apathy that I would like to influence indirectly by hopefully getting people in the community more engaged through a number of community sponsored events. But then we have a local caucus where the caucus basically picks the winners, and we can't even get a true representation of members of this so called "unbiased" caucus. On another issue following up on @Juliajms post above Crimes against humanity are going on all over the world. I won't even comment on what no one is reporting on regarding the Palestinians. Lets look at Myanmar and the fall of the great hope for democracy Daw Aung San Suu Kyi https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/world/asia/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-rohingya.html

I don't watch Bill Maher but he had Steve Bannon on his show(Bannon is peddling a new book) and I watched the segment. Bannon sure did put on a façade and really Maher was embarrassing. He did not in any way shape of form come prepared. I am curious more about this idea of economic populism. I know some about it but would like to have a better understanding if anyone has any books to recommend. Bannon I do not believe for a second supports it since it's supposed to be centered around the forgotten man and nothing being done is driving towards this. Taxcuts and a rising stock market for the forgotten billionaires don't strike me as forgotten man actions and results.

I cannot say how much I detest the media. Of course it's all "rah rah" Jeff Flake. Maybe he was despondent over that woman who confronted him with her rape story. I will never ever ever credit any of these GOPers for moving the needle one bit in a positive way when you have to do backflips to get them to pay one bit of attention. And the outrage from someone like Lindsay Graham is laughable after their behavior on Merrick Garland. I am also DONE hearing about Collins. Just STFU about her.

I don't include Murkowski in that. She called for having one last week although she hadn't vocalize her vote, but the Alaska Gov and Lt Gov both came out against Kavanaugh based on his positions on the ACA and I believe his positions/rulings related to Indigineous people. Plus she ran as a write-in in her last campaign no GOP party support. I expect someone like Ben Sasse to jump on this attempt at some level of bipartisanship along with Rubio. Both are do nothing opportunists bought and paid for but pretend to be above the fray..

I can't believe a good investigative reporter(s) have not been looking into this or maybe I can considering how in bed the Beltway press is with our government