US Politics: In Through the Out Door

[JGP]

22 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

With a bigger margin in the Senate, they can nominate a drooling ghoul like Giuliani or Kobach.

Careful, man. Naming calls. According to rumors K's name has been bandied about.

[Martell Spy]

The Cruelty of Jeff Sessions
He used his immense power to make America a more vengeful, brutal place.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/jeff-sessions-donald-trump-resign-disgrace.html

Quote

While Sessions doesn’t identify as a white nationalist, his agenda as attorney general abetted the cause of white nationalism. His policies were designed to make the country more white by keeping out Hispanics and locking up blacks. His tenure will remain a permanent stain on the Department of Justice. Thousands of people were brutalized by his bigotry, and our country will not soon recover from the malice he unleashed.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

28 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

With a bigger margin in the Senate, they can nominate a drooling ghoul like Giuliani or Kobach.

Kavanaugh showed that as long as Republicans have a majority and want to get someone through no matter what, they can do it, which is why I'm less concerned about them going from a two vote margin to a six to eight vote margin. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

@DMC,

First, from last night, . I have no idea how I woke up without a massive hangover.

Now back to a prior topic: hardball. Now that the House is in hand, the real hardball can begin. I know a lot of you hate Pelosi, and personally I would prefer a different leader too, but she is great at two things: raising money and whipping her caucus. I think many of you have forgotten just how prolific a Speaker she was. Democrats will pass an insane amount of popular legislation and force House and Senate Republicans to vote against it or ignore it, and they will use that to bludgeon them in 2020. They can even triangulate and use Trump to hurt Senate Republicans on issues like infrastructure. And they have the naked emperor by the balls when it comes to funding for the wall. Retaking the House was so critical. Losing a few Senators was more than worth it. The cherry on top is that we'll now have seven more governors when redistricting comes along, which is the issue that's been killing us for a decade. We may lose Louisiana in 2019, but it's still an important gain overall.

[Martell Spy]

House Intel Democrats’ New Mission: Protect Mueller, Use Subpoena Power
Firing Jeff Sessions could spark a ‘Wednesday Afternoon Massacre,’ one Democrat on the intelligence committee says.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-intel-democrats-new-mission-protect-mueller-use-subpoena-power?ref=home

Quote

 

Devin Nunes broke the House intelligence committee. The Democrats who are about to take it over consider putting it back together to be almost as big a challenge as investigating President Trump’s ties to Russia.

The day after the Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives, three members of the committee outlined a list of priorities for what’s become one of the highest-profile perches in Congress. They told The Daily Beast they’re ready to subpoena the documents and witnesses relevant to Russia that current House intel committee chairman Rep. Nunes (R-CA) wouldn’t, particularly those that may shed light on the intersection of Russian money and Trump allies’ wallets.

And, along with the rest of the Democratic caucus, they have another urgent task: protecting special prosecutor Robert Mueller now that Trump has fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“I think there’s a potential of a Wednesday Afternoon Massacre, and we’re not going to tolerate it,” one of the committee’s Democrats, Jackie Speier of California, told The Daily Beast, referring to Richard Nixon’s cascade of Justice Department firings during Watergate.

“This is a democracy, not an autocracy. The Senate has got to grow a backbone [and] put a check on [Trump’s] executive maniacal efforts to get rid of something that he does not want to have going on.”

Hours before Trump fired Sessions, another of the panel’s Democrats, Mike Quigley of Illinois, told The Daily Beast he was “concerned about what [Trump and his allies will] do in the lame duck” session to obstruct Mueller’s inquiry. Protecting Mueller is “among the highest priorities,” Quigley said, vowing that if Trump acts to constrain Mueller’s Russia inquiry, “we’ll be ready… I think the House needs to move forward as soon as it possibly can” with a long-stymied bill to preserve Mueller’s independence.

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

Last year, Quigley visited Cyprus to investigate Russian money laundering. Illicit cash potentially passing through Trump’s campaign or businesses is likely to be a restored focus of the panel, he indicated. With its record of being fined for its role in laundering money, and its longstanding relationship with Trump, “Deutsche Bank seems like an obvious point of investigation,” Quigley said.

 

[DMC]

20 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I know a lot of you hate Pelosi, and personally I would prefer a different leader too, but she is great at two things: raising money and whipping her caucus.

There's plenty of other Speakers/minority leaders that could be as adept at fundraising and whipping.  My preference for Pelosi to be gone has nothing to do with her.  It has to do with the fact the GOP has used her as a boogeywoman for over a decade.  Time for that to stop.  But it won't, because she'll cling to power like any other douchebag instead of doing what's best for the party.

[Gertrude]

I know raising money and whipping votes are crucial skills for a successful politician, but it depresses me to no end.

[DMC]

I haven't read any of this thread for the last eight hours.  I'm assuming a lot of it has to with the Sessions firing.  On that, the GOP Senate told Trump he couldn't fire Sessions until the midterms.  After that, whatever.  Graham said this publicly a few months ago.

Long way of saying I'm not surprised in the slightest that Trump fired Sessions.  Actually kinda respect the fact he did it immediately.  Whatever Mueller has will still be fine.  Wouldn't be surprised if he was waiting til after the midterms himself.

3 minutes ago, Gertrude said:

I know raising money and whipping votes are crucial skills for a successful politician, but it depresses me to no end.

It'd be nice if they actually had policy goals, I guess.  But they don't.  Suppose I've been in it so long I don't even bat an eye at that.

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

Schiff offered one example of a theory about the president that he would seek to verify: Whether or not Trump was on the other end of a call that Donald Trump Jr. placed to a blocked number in June 2016. That call happened while his son was in the midst of arranging a meeting with Russians affiliated with the Kremlin who were peddling damaging information about Hillary Clinton, a detail that Democrats first flagged last spring as a point for further inquiry.

“We know the president used a blocked cellphone during the campaign, and so naturally we sought to subpoena the phone records to determine whether the president, despite his protestations to the contrary, was knowing and approving of this meeting with the Russians to get dirt on his opponent,” Schiff said, without elaborating on the source of the claim that Trump frequently used a blocked number. “The Republicans refused. They said, ‘We don't want to know.’ And that's the attitude they have taken during their role in the investigation.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump used a blocked number during the campaign, or on the other allegations and concerns Schiff mentioned.

Read: Do liberals have an answer to Trump on foreign policy?

The scrutiny from a Schiff-led committee and others may intensify the Russia probe. But he plans to dig even deeper.

 

Trump Repeatedly Threatens Retaliation Against Russia Investigators
Congressman Adam Schiff has plans to probe several uncomfortable subjects for the Trump administration, and the president is ready to fight.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/11/democrats-schiff-trump-russia-mueller/575221/

[Martell Spy]

Quote

Instead, the deal was just a way to flush out taxpayer money, without getting much from Foxconn in return. Walker was nothing but a bagman for a coordinated hit on Wisconsin’s treasury, and he paid for it. On Tuesday, he ran into a little-understood fact of modern political life: corporate welfare is deeply unpopular.

 

Quote

 

The $3 billion subsidy to Foxconn quickly grew to over $4.5 billion, including local government tax abatements, new roads to connect to the plant, and a ratepayer-funded power transmission line. “Since Wisconsin already exempts manufacturing companies from paying taxes,” Dan Kaufman wrote at The New Yorker, “Foxconn, which generated a hundred and fifty-eight billion dollars in revenue last year, will receive much of this subsidy in direct cash payments from taxpayers.” About $1 billion in subsidies will be paid regardless of whether Foxconn builds anything at all.

At the same time, Foxconn, famous for backing out of promises made around the world, radically changed the type of plant they would construct, from big-screen TV panels to panels about half the size. That would reduce investment to about one-quarter of the $10 billion initially planned, and cut assembly-line workers to only 10 percent of the total personnel, according to an interview with Foxconn spokesperson Louis Woo in August. Most assembly work would be done by robots. Those forgotten men and women, the laid-off Midwestern factory workers looking for a new career, Foxconn isn’t hiring.

The plant would now be staffed, Foxconn said, with “knowledge” workers devising new uses for the glass panels. And just this week, The Wall Street Journal let slip that Foxconn “is considering bringing in personnel from China” to staff those knowledge jobs, citing difficulties in finding skilled labor. In the same article, Foxconn said they would “ultimately” hire 13,000 employees. But The New Yorker’s Kaufman pegged the new cost per job as high as $1 million.

 

Scott Walker Thought He Could Get Away With Corporate Welfare
The Wisconsin governor's disastrous deal with Foxconn cost him his seat in Tuesday's midterm elections.

https://newrepublic.com/article/152123/scott-walker-thought-get-away-corporate-welfare

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I think the original plan did not involve a two year time limit. But rather four to eight before retiring, or running as governor or whatever.

That's of course assuming Session was to some degree just (willfully) oblivious to the legal troubles this administration would face.

Also, you have to understand - this was Sessions's dream job. To be able to dictate how the entire US government attacks drug dealers, immigration issues, race issues, etc - this was what he's always wanted. 

[Kalbear]

Y'all aren't talking about how Jim Acosta got his press creds pulled today? 

Seriously, Trump in less than 12 hours has:

• Fired a person responsible for protecting oversight against him
• Put into his position someone who was not nominated by the Senate and thus is ineligible for the position, acting or otherwise
• Revoked press credentials based on actual lies

 

[Kalbear]

Also, in bits of data that make you go hmmm...exit polls had black women voting for DeSantis 18% to 82%. 

They were polled prior to the vote with a 92-3% split. 

Seriously?

[lokisnow]

12 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Also, in bits of data that make you go hmmm...exit polls had black women voting for DeSantis 18% to 82%. 

They were polled prior to the vote with a 92-3% split. 

Seriously?

Russians man.

***

Raw vote totals are quite interesting. Beto got one million more votes than any democrat has ever gotten in a senate election in Texas  He got 500,000 more votes than Obama got in tx in 08. And he got 1.2 million more votes than john cornryn got in 2014. It’s literally the best performance by a democrat in raw numbers ever in Tx. Clinton in16 was the previous record holder and he beat her numbers by 200,000.

And it’s more votes than Gillibrand got in NY

and Gillum got more votes than cuomo got in NY

So they may have lost but they are already significantly more popular with their base than the two Ny  presidential candidates who would both definitely lose to trump 

Run, Beto, Run.

[mcbigski]

While NY no doubt has a higher percentage of registered Democrats than Texas, Texas's population is about 50% larger.  So the more votes than Gillibrand meme that's been popping up might be even more idiotic than "Senate Popular Vote".

As far as CT Governor race goes, I could have told you last night it was all over once New Haven had issues with 'wet ballots'.  Probably Lamont's totals were enough to put him over the top without any late night shennanigans, but if it had turned out they weren't, they'd know just how many votes to manufacture.  Same deal as in Bridgeport during Malloy's first election.

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

The journalist speculated that the fate of Georgia's elections may come down to a legal battle over whether the provisional ballots can be counted for people who have been purged. He also noted that a federal judge may tell Kemp that he can't order public officials not to count his opponent's ballots because of his obvious conflict of interest.

Then Palast fleshed out the issue by telling the stories of two voters he had spoken with on Tuesday.

"We were just at two polling stations with two voters. Both had been purged," Palast explained. "One is Rahiem Shabazz. And he didn't vote in a couple of elections... He's a filmmaker in Atlanta, a successful filmmaker here. And he didn't vote in a couple of elections, but under the United States Voter Registration Act of 1993, it says specifically you can't lose your vote for not voting. You can't lose your registration for not voting. Voting is a fundamental right. So how does Kemp get away with it? He and other GOP officials have been saying, 'Well, if you don't vote a couple times, that is evidence that you have moved either out of your county or even out of the state.' In the case of Rahiem he did move, so they sent him a postcard which they are required to do and say that they do. He wouldn't have gotten that card to save his vote. But he moved down the street within the city of Atlanta, with the county of Fulton. So he never should have been purged in the first place."

Palast added that no one has received a notice saying they had lost their right to vote, and that Shabazz only learned about it by going to Greg Palast's website. Unfortunately for Shabazz, he was told by Fulton County that they would need three weeks to verify his new address, which was a week past Election Day. Fulton County gave him a provisional ballot but told him that his vote will not be counted as a result of the rules of Brian Kemp.

 

https://www.salon.com/2018/11/07/voter-suppression-worked-greg-palast-explains-why-georgia-governor-race-is-headed-to-a-legal-battle/

Voter suppression worked: Greg Palast explains why Georgia governor race is headed to a legal battle
Journal Greg Palast explains how the race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp will break down

[Mexal]

40 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Y'all aren't talking about how Jim Acosta got his press creds pulled today? 

Seriously, Trump in less than 12 hours has:

• Fired a person responsible for protecting oversight against him
• Put into his position someone who was not nominated by the Senate and thus is ineligible for the position, acting or otherwise
• Revoked press credentials based on actual lies

 

And lied about what he did which is fully on display in video and pictures. These people are the worst. They are doing this to overshadow Sessions.

[Kalbear]

Just now, Mexal said:

And lied about what he did which is fully on display in video and pictures. These people are the worst. They are doing this to overshadow Sessions.

again, no. Stop treating this like multidimensional chess. He's doing this because Acosta pissed him off, and he's giving zero fucks today about things. He fired Sessions and put in someone who he likes who is absurdly unqualified for the job - and CANNOT HAVE THE JOB based on the government rules. But he did it because he likes Whitaker and Whitaker wants to work for him. And he got rid of Acosta because Acosta pissed him off today. 

That's it! That's all the complexity that exists. 

My wife absolutely fucking NAILED it last night. I was saying how Trump was going to take credit for this stuff and spin things, but she was worried because people with NPD like Trump absolutely go raging mad when they lose, and take it out on people around them. And sure enough, less than 24 hours later - bam, Sessions dumped, and bam, Acosta has creds removed based on lies. And we get that litany of 'you suck' to the various republicans who lost as well. 

She absolutely called it. He'll keep doing this for a while, I suspect. Expect more angry lashing out at people, more cruelty and rage. 

[Fez]

Hmm...

If the margin stays at 26,000 I don't think Nelson will come anywhere close to eeking out a win, but if there's more votes left than expected that haven't been counted, this may not be over yet. Nelson shrank his deficit by over 4,000 with the updates a couple hours ago. I don't want to get my hopes up too much though, and its way too much to hope that both Nelson and Sinema will actually win in the end.