All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

I never cared for Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary being the first two states. But the current primary system and what you are proposing are both wasting gasoline for the candidates to ride in airplanes, buses and automobiles to rallies and contributing to the climate change.

So Better start a straight campaign trail zig-zagging from California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and the final destination will be Maine.

To Be Honest, my idea was more inspired by what I read and saw others say. My original idea was to simply have all of the primaries in the same month May or June. February and March are way too early. April, maybe. Best to have it mid-year and have the winner announced quickly instead of dragging everything out.

[Tami]

Ohio US Senate candidate @JoshMandelOhio believes “coronavirus, January 6th, the entire BLM and Antifa looting and riots,” were operations organized by the Deep State and funded by George Soros.

[Tami]

Jefferson Griffin, an elected Republican judge in North Carolina (and a white man), declares that there is no racism in America’s justice system—then condemns former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, a Black woman, for claiming that there is.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ohio US Senate candidate @JoshMandelOhio believes “coronavirus, January 6th, the entire BLM and Antifa looting and riots,” were operations organized by the Deep State and funded by George Soros.

That cretin should've been wearing a tinfoil hat when he spewed that nonsense. And, boy, he sure looked serious too. Anything to whip up the clueless, Faux News watching rubes.

[worstblogever]

How big can WBE's Queue grow?

Multiple GOP 2022 candidates haunted by domestic violence allegations

Already had all three of them clocked for profiles.

Alas...

[Gray Lensman]

I never cared for Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary being the first two states. But the current primary system and what you are proposing are both wasting gasoline for the candidates to ride in airplanes, buses and automobiles to rallies and contributing to the climate change.

So Better start a straight campaign trail zig-zagging from California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and the final destination will be Maine.

I think what Tami is suggesting is based on state population - start with the lowest population states first and work up to the biggest ones, reducing the chances that late primaries have voters checking out because the race was decided before they even get a turn to vote.

[Tami]

I think what Tami is suggesting is based on state population - start with the lowest population states first and work up to the biggest ones, reducing the chances that late primaries have voters checking out because the race was decided before they even get a turn to vote.

That was the theory as I heard it, though not spelled out in as much detail as what I posted.

By letting the smaller states and territories vote first, their contribution the total vote isn't enough to sway voters in the larger states, in theory.

Of course, the only other way to be absolutely sure that there is no 'swaying' going on, is to have all the states vote in the same month. It would certainly take the stress off in more ways than one.

[Mister Mets]

That was the theory as I heard it, though not spelled out in as much detail as what I posted.

By letting the smaller states and territories vote first, their contribution the total vote isn't enough to sway voters in the larger states, in theory.

Of course, the only other way to be absolutely sure that there is no 'swaying' going on, is to have all the states vote in the same month. It would certainly take the stress off in more ways than one.

There is a bit of a problem if the states vote all at once that it really helps the better-known and better-financed candidates.

Barack Obama would not have been the 2008 Democratic party nominee if all the primaries were on the same month. Hillary Clinton would've won it as the frontrunner, and likely been a less effective candidate with worse coattails in key races (it would have likely made at least a 0.01% difference in Minnesota, which means Republican Norm Coleman would've been reelected, and it would have been impossible for Democrats to get to sixty Senators when Arlen Spector changed parties.)

There's also the question of how crowded primaries would've gone. In 2004 and 2020, it's conceivable the winner of a national primary would have under 25 percent of the vote, which comes with a lack of credibility. An advantage of a drawn-out primary fight is that there is a clear winner. Ranked choice voting is available as a potential workaround, although it would be hard to administer nationally (that said it could illustrate the Democratic party's commitment to nationwide voting standards and fairness.)

[CaptainEurope]

Wyoming has a single Representative, because the Constitution guarantees that every State will have at least one. If things were truly proportionate, then Wyoming would have only a fractional Representative. Of course, in the Senate Wyoming and California are represented exactly equally!

So what, like 5/3 of a representative?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District, Glenn Grothman, a man whose record on women’s issues as a state legislator is bad enough that he didn’t just vote against emergency contraception for rape victims so that they couldn’t avoid get pregnant, he has publicly gone on record to say that women who seek it out are “trained” to say they were raped so they could get the morning after pill. He also has spent a lot of time badmouthing Planned Parenthood, calling the organization “racist” at times, and at others accusing them of allowing pregnant women to have sex-selective abortions, and arguing against funding them because "as a guy" he didn't think their services would do HIM any good. Grothman would also like to cancel Martin Luther King Day, called Kwanzaa “a fake holiday for black people”, and while he’s at it, has tried cancelling the weekend for workers. Grothman has pledged to cut all government assistance from others because "it's a bribe to not work hard" and has encouraged his constituents to scrutinize people using food stamps in public to determine if they are "genuinely poor". Rounding out his delightful personality is his support for the anti-gay laws Uganda pushed forth, where the punishment for being gay is death, and that he feels the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling should not be honored because it would be disrespectful to the American Soldiers who gave their lives fighting for their deeply held religious beliefs in the Civil War (because that makes sense). Back in 2012, Grothman claimed that President Obama and Sen. Tammy Baldwin only won office in 2012 because of widespread voter fraud, so voting record in Wisconsin supported repeated measures on Voter ID In two consecurtive presidential elections now, Grothman straight up predicted Republican presidential candidate would have a better chance of winning Wisconsin because the Voter ID law was put into place, straight up admitting in April of 2016 that it would help stop Hillary Clinton (and sadly, he was proven correct).

Glenn Grothman has managed to weigh in on more issues in ways that we can only describe as inexplicably d***ish. In March of 2017, he went on a rant against college Pell Grants, arguing that they shouldn’t be funded because they, we s*** you not, “discourage marriages”. Don’t think about why attendance in college might discourage someone from settling down with a spouse too hard, because there is no statistic or logic behind Grothman’s stupid argument. But he was far from done… as the Supreme Court will be making a ruling in the Gill v. Whitford case, which is aimed at overturning an outrageous level of gerrymandering that was set up in Wisconsin several years back. And yet, Glenn Grothman is challenging that the Supreme Court shouldn’t have the authority to do that.

“I’m not sure there should be any restrictions whatsoever, because I don’t think it is the court’s business to draw lines. There are many rules right now — that the courts have laid out — that if you want your redistricting map approved you have to meet.”

Now, Grothman has made various insensitive racial comments through the years, and since we last updated his profile, he was asked about his feelings about Donald Trump’s “s***hole countries” remarks, and Grothman responded that it really wasn’t as offensive as things other presidents have done, like just for example, the time that Barack Obama met with the Reverend Al Sharpton:

“The past president brought Al Sharpton into the White House something like 80 times. That was kind of stunning to me, but nobody ever made a big ruckus out of it.”

Yes, Grothman just equated meeting with a civil rights leader with disparaging the entire African continent and Haiti as a “s***hole”. Making it worse? His comments came, of on all days… Martin Luther King Day.

Glenn Grothman withered in front of a town hall back in his home district in April 2017, and when faced with outrage over an attempted “Repeal and Replace” plan for the Affordable Care Act, straight up lied to his constituents and claimed that it would still cover pre-existing conditions (See Above, it didn’t). He was also his usually abrasively conservative self, acknowledging he supports a highly expensive but almost certainly ineffective border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, lying by claiming that Planned Parenthood is the "biggest abortion provider in the country," and took time to s*** on the country's welfare system, falsely claiming that it "discourages" work and marriage.

[worstblogever]

The +8 Republican lean of Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District was enough to see Glenn Grothman was re-elected to a third term in 2020 with 59% of the vote. Do you think he has a large swath of partisan votes that he’s made? You bet your ass he has:

• December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
• December 18th, 2019: Grothman ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Grothman votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Grothman votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Glenn Grothman votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Grothman votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Grothman votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Glenn Grothman votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Grothman votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Grothman votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 19th, 2021: Rep. Grothman votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.

Grothman has been doing the political calculus and seems to think that eliminating all of the social safety net for all Americans isn’t a winning formula for him, so instead, he’s specifically attacking the social safety net that’s available for immigrants, who he has also been demonizing in discussions about the U.S./Mexico border. He's always had a white nationalist bent in who he makes the targets of his rhetoric, so this stance tracks with his overall brand of being an ***hole.

Of course, the big campaign issue in 2020 was Covid-19, and on that, Grothman almost certainly didn’t do himself any favors, turning up maskless at the Wisconsin GOP convention in July 2020, and while speaking, going into a savage coughing fit that sent respiratory droplets into the crowd. He insisted he was never sick, and it was just “a dry throat”, but with all the other evidence turning up right now, the more likely thing is that he just doesn’t care if he spreads Covid-19 or any other disease to anyone else.

[Zauriel]

How many defeated candidates have sought a rematch against the same opponent?

Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams ran for the office of president. Jackson won the election, but he didn't get enough electors to secure his victory. So the House of Representatives elected Adams. in 1828, Jackson sought a rematch against the President Adams and won.

William Henry Harrison ran twice against Martin Van Buren. Harrison lost to van Buren once in 1836 but won the rematch against him in 1840.

Grover Cleveland ran and lost the election to Benjamin Harrison. Four years later Cleveland sought a rematch against him and won reelection. He was the first and only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Richard Nixon lost to John Kennedy in 1960. But in 1968 he ran again but against a different candidate and won.

Gerald Ford didn't seek a rematch or a reelection. Jimmy Carter didn't seek rematch against Ronald Reagan or a reelection against a different candidate. George H.W. Bush didn't seek a rematch against Bill Clinton or a reelection.

It would be wise for Donald Trump to not seek reelection in 2024 but I doubt it.

[Tendrin]

https://time.com/6103284/india-hindu...cide-bjp-modi/

Baniya is merely the latest face of India’s state-driven Hindu radicalization. In a country where 84% of the population is Hindu, and just 14% Muslim, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has achieved the astonishing feat of creating a deep sense of Hindu victimhood, stoking the othering of Muslims via disinformation, hate speech, opening old religious wounds, manipulating a servile media, silencing progressive voices, and empowering Hindu supremacist vigilante groups. “Hindu khatre mein hain” (Hindus are in danger) is a right-wing refrain that resonates deeply today.

As a result, many Hindus have now been persuaded to believe that India’s biggest problem is its Muslims. Before Modi took over in 2014, most citizens thought their chief concerns were poverty, insufficient economic growth and corruption. He rode to power on the promise to fix all that. But as the economy has continued to worsen, and unemployment and poverty have risen under him, the BJP has increasingly fallen back on supremacist politics to deflect attention and evade responsibility. To keep winning elections, it needs to keep polarizing Hindu voters against Muslims, and spinning ever more outrageous campaigns to demonize Muslims.

If only someone was still here to tell us all about how the BJP is the west's fault and all this is Very Reasonable from an Indian perspective.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

How many defeated candidates have sought a rematch against the same opponent?

Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams ran for the office of president. Jackson won the election, but he didn't get enough electors to secure his victory. So the House of Representatives elected Adams. in 1828, Jackson sought a rematch against the President Adams and won.

William Henry Harrison ran twice against Martin Van Buren. Harrison lost to van Buren once in 1836 but won the rematch against him in 1840.

Grover Cleveland ran and lost the election to Benjamin Harrison. Four years later Cleveland sought a rematch against him and won reelection. He was the first and only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Richard Nixon lost to John Kennedy in 1960. But in 1968 he ran again but against a different candidate and won.

Gerald Ford didn't seek a rematch or a reelection. Jimmy Carter didn't seek rematch against Ronald Reagan or a reelection against a different candidate. George H.W. Bush didn't seek a rematch against Bill Clinton or a reelection.

It would be wise for Donald Trump to not seek reelection in 2024 but I doubt it.

Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that Trump will run again, it's only a question of who he'd face as I doubt it'll be Biden who's got one and done written all over him.

[Tami]

Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that Trump will run again, it's only a question of who he'd face as I doubt it'll be Biden who's got one and done written all over him.

Don't rule Biden out. Much like the 2020 election, it will likely be a matter of if there are any other candidates up for the job. if the other candidates don't inspire voters to turn out, then Biden might not have a choice in the matter.