The Politics Thread

[Juliajms]

I don't follow the court closely, but I know he's a conservative that doesn't always follow party lines.  I guess I'll hope he sticks around, since Trump will almost surely pick someone worse.

[marceline]

 

This is where I confess to working for a law firm with a huge appellate practice. I follow this stuff fairly religiously. The real threat is that not only will Trump (and let's be clear Trump won't do the picking, it will be the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society) choose someone further to the right but someone around Gorsuch's age which means they will sit on the court for decades.

[DramatistDreamer]

Speaking of the SCOTUS, a reminder that low voter turnout is a big deal that has consequences. 

 

Why do people gloss over voter suppression?  I'm genuinely asking.  Why is there no national conversation about the ways in which the U.S. makes it difficult for groups of people to vote?  If low voter turnout had such perilous consequences (as many believe), and suppression is a tactic that has been successfully used to lower voter turnout, why are there so few people having an earnest discussion of this, the way that civility is being debated and discussed?  Is it because race intersects the issue and people want to avoid the topic of race?

I'm really trying to understand.  In all the discussions about voting and midterms, it seems most people go out of their way to avoid this topic.

 

 

 

Please God. No.

 

 

[Wendy]

Granted, the midterms are still months away and things can change, but I think we need a bit of hope:

 

Jennifer Wexton (D) leads incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) in race for the Virginia 10 district race.

 

Incumbent (and Clinton VP nominee in 2016) Tim Kaine (D) leads Corey Stewart (R) - he of the White Supremacy love - by 18 points in Virginia Senate race.

 

As today's Supreme Court rulings show (since Gorsuch was allowed his seat in part due to poor 2014 Democratic midterm turnout, leading to more GOP seats), voting will never be important than this year, except for maybe 2020.

[JaneAusten]

I saw other polling in the Tennessee race which seems to be assured for Bredesen with the third party candidate running(the Trump nut), Democrats are ahead in polling in Ohio, Nevada, and in Montana. As of now Tammy Baldwin in Wi is ahead but its tight as is McCaskill.

 

In terms of voter suppression, yes it's wrong. Why it hasn't been turned into a centerpiece I can't say. But here is my frustration. If Millennials would just show up to vote at even 40%, the democrats would never lose another election. And we could fix all the problems with voter suppression, gerrymandering, voter roll scrubbing, and such. These  people complain about the GE candidates but cannot get out and vote in primaries when they could actually vote for a candidate they might be more passionate about.

 

And people can f-off about protesting(not you Carl) - I'm talking about all the white men wagging their fingers at the rest of us telling us to be civil. Enough. I am not interested in one more stupid story about Trump voters despite the Times still stupidly pushing them on people. Jeremy Peters has to be the most insufferable smug piece of work at the times and that says a lot with people like Thrush, Haberman, and Peter Baker on staff

Edited June 27, 2018 by JaneAusten

[DRW50]

WIsconsin is going to be tough, as Republicans do better there in recent years than polling seems to suggest, and Tammy Baldwin is a proud liberal as well as a lesbian. A lot of the voters coming out (no pun intended) are going to be hardcore conservatives motivated by Trump. I wonder if she is making hay of the Harley Davidson stuff.

 

Anyway - imagine if this passed under Obama. There would be marching in the streets. Under Trump, it will probably be repealed and everyone will just keep it zipped.

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/republican-tax-law-churches-employees-670362

[DRW50]

Congressman Joe Crowley was defeated by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a Bernie Sanders supporter. Susan Sarandon is also a big fan. The media will be going wild over this for their Dems in disarray and wasn't this supposed to be about Republican disunity headlines.

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/new-york-primary-election-results-2018-updates-677637

 

I had read about a lot of battles for the OK GOP primaries because of the teacher issue. Looks like a lot of incumbents are losing. @Khan have you heard anything about this?

 

https://newsok.com/article/5599510/voters-show-statehouse-lawmakers-the-door

 

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/a-wave-of-ticked-off-teachers-is-running-for-office-in-oklahoma/

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/26/17494136/oklahoma-primary-election-teacher-candidates

[DramatistDreamer]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran in the Bronx/Queens district, on a Medicare for All and Abolish ICE platform. 

She also ran against a 10 term Senator and the campaign was actually a hard fought but relatively amicable race.  In fact, most of the primary races on the Democratic side seemed to be waged in good spirit, even the highly competitive ones. 

 

Another note about the NY Primaries.  Except for Ocasio-Cortez (a former bartender who is genuinely from a working class background), all the other races were won by incumbents.

Edited June 27, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[DRW50]

Not a surprise, but:

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/27/supreme-court-deals-blow-to-public-sector-unions-678819

[Khan]

 

Not much, because I've been busy with a project for Mama Khan's church, but I am surprised to hear Todd Lamb is out of the running.  He's the kind of candidate that conservative (read: bigoted, homophobic, uneducated, Bible-thumping) Oklahomans have wet dreams about.

 

And medical marijuana is now legal in Oklahoma, which is good, because there are an awful lot of people w/ glaucoma running around in this state.

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Edited June 27, 2018 by Khan

[DRW50]

 

I read Mary Fallon said she would call a special session to try to take away a lot of the law. I hope that won't happen. 

(I know some also felt Lamb lost because of her)

 

I read Mick Cornett is the more moderate of the two Republicans who are in the runoff, but these days moderate Republican means...a whole lot of nothing.

[DramatistDreamer]

I'm hearing that Justice Kennedy is retiring.  

 

EDT:

Receipts.  

How very unfortunate.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[marceline]

Ugh. Looks like I was wrong. We're doomed.

[Juliajms]

F*ck. Also, you weren't wrong. Rumors aren't facts, but as it turns out this time they were correct.

[DramatistDreamer]

And just this morning I was reading that the bond markets are predicting a looming recession. Hope that's wrong but this person claims that bond markets have accurately predicted financial forecast for many years now. 

 

Edited June 27, 2018 by DramatistDreamer