President Trump

Chateau Vin · Post by **Chateau Vin** » Wed Nov 07, 2018 9:27 pm

I guess DJT wants to shut down Mueller before the new congress takes office and starts investigating DJT in January...The interim guy will oversee Mueller and his investigation, close the investigation by firing Mueller et al... Let's see what happens...

Harry C. · Post by **Harry C.** » Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:16 pm

I heard an interesting comment. They were betting Mueller planned for this scenario and will submit to Grand Jury that they rule on the evidence presented, get their OK then submit to the court all illegal evidence and charges ASAP. If he just submits a report to the DOJ it gets buried. Also, expect to hear about Ivanka, Jerrod and Don Jr soon.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:58 am

Ten observations about yesterday's midterms, as the battle against fascism commences:

1. This was a good day for the Democrats, make no mistake about it. That 9% gap in the vote between Democrats and Republicans nationwide in the House races is a borderline wave, a resounding repudiation of Herr Trump.

2. One of the most exciting votes yesterday for me was the Florida referendum allowing felons to vote. Those laws are blatantly racist. 1.5 million votes, most of them from the poor and minorities, could shift that infuriating state from the right side of the razor's edge to the left... with yuge potential consequences in presidential elections, obviously, in 2020 and beyond.

3. Maine went back to resoundingly blue, electing our first female governor and giving the Democrats strong control of both chambers of the state legislature. We are coming to the end of a very dark 8 year period of our mini-Trump governor Paul LePage, who said recently that he is moving to Florida. Hallelujuh. He's all yours, Florida.

4. I was thrilled when I woke up this morning to see that Jon Tester eked it out in Montana. When I went to bed last night it appeared he had lost. I like that guy. And I was especially happy to see him win despite Orange Head's vicious personalized campaign against him.

5. Scott Walker lost in Wisconsin. Remind me to cry. At various times he has garnered the "Jim How Most Phony Politician Award," currently held by Mike Pence.

To be continued....

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 1:26 am

6. I'm sorry, I've tried, I just can't wrap my arms around Beto. Maybe that feeling will change, but I'm not there yet with him. I see a lot of platitudes and yummy feel good speeches, but I'm not seeing a lot of depth. Having said that, I'm hoping he is part of the evolution of Texas to Blue. If Texas becomes Blue, we will not see many more Republican presidents in our lifetime.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 1:29 am

7. And the Gillum guy in Florida struck me as kind of a glad hander from afar, but I admit I don't know much about him.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 1:58 am

8. That governor's race in Georgia was stolen. I didn't really follow the legal challenges, but I'm assuming the Democrats must have run into Republican judicial roadblocks to obvious conflicts of interest and electoral violations?

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 2:33 am

According to the failing NYTimes, the Dems margin of victory in total votes cast for the House (the closest thing to a ‘national’ vote after the presidency) exceeded what they got in 2006 and what the Reps got in 2010.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:06 am

9. Make no mistake. We do NOT live in a democracy. Last night, Democratic Senate candidates garnered 45 million votes, and Republicans just 33 million (57 percent to 42 percent). Yet, the Republicans will gain perhaps three seats. We need a revolution.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/opin ... e=Homepage

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:14 am

JimHow wrote:9. Make no mistake. we do NOT live in a demicracy. Last night, Democratic Senate candidates garnered 45 million votes, and Republicans just 33 million (57 percent to 42 percent). Yet, the Republicans will gain perhaps three seats. We need a revolution.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/opin ... e=Homepage

I was literally just about to post the same thing. How f-ed-up is that shit?!?! In a perfect storm, something like 18-20% of the US populace can elect 51 senators. Insane.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:16 am

By the by, great list/summary, Jim.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:33 am

10. Rick Scott is the luckiest goddamned politician in America. He wins every one of his goddamned races by like a few thousand votes.
Now we gotta put up with that shithead for 6 more years. I thought we had the bastard beat, at least according to Mr. Fivethirtyeight "I get it wrong Every Year But Everyone Keeps Quoting Me Like I know What I'm Talking About"....
Every year someting like a hurricane comes in to save him.
Man, I'm sorry Stuart, but at least in politics, Florida is one pathetic state.
Every year it's the same old story. The Dem takes the lead. The Republican pulls ahead when the middle of the state and the panhandle come in.
Then the Democrats hold out hope that there are enough votes to be had in Broward and Miami-Dade.
And then... we end up falling short in excruciatingly close and CONSEQUENTIAL Florida elections.
We get the images there EVERY year of 8 hour voting lines in black precincts.
How can that be happening in 2018, the era of Apple, Elon Musk, etc.
WTF, Florida, will you get your goddamned act together?
It's ALWAYS something in Florida. I'm tired of the fucking Forida election night drama every year.
Jesus H. Christ!

Chateau Vin · Post by **Chateau Vin** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:51 am

DJT won MI, WI and PA, all together, by a razor thin margin in 2016. It seems that these states have turned around in the midterms. Maybe that's a good sign for dems in 2020....

Yes, Jim. I was also happy when I saw that the FL has made progress in voting rights for felons through ballot measure. Let's hope this Desantis guy doesn't put roadblocks for this. Remember, Jim, we were talking about these voting rights just recently....

Chateau Vin · Post by **Chateau Vin** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:56 am

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-walk ... -in-place/

What goes around, comes around I guess...

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 6:36 pm

The plot thickens in the Banana Rep... oops, I mean Florida:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/polit ... ssion=true

More (possible) issues with ballot design? Again? Seriously? Tens of thousands of ballots with votes for chief financial officer in Florida but not for senator?

Jay Winton · Post by **Jay Winton** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:25 pm

The whole voting process seems to be regressing. Here in Maryland we used to vote electronically then because of fraud concerns we went back to paper ballots. Voters everywhere are waiting hours to vote because of poor planning. And then some officials change voting locations to make it harder to get to polling places. There has to be a better way.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:33 pm

Jay Winton wrote:The whole voting process seems to be regressing. Here in Maryland we used to vote electronically then because of fraud concerns we went back to paper ballots. Voters everywhere are waiting hours to vote because of poor planning. And then some officials change voting locations to make it harder to get to polling places. There has to be a better way.

There is an easier way (Federal mandates and standards imposed equally on all states for federal elections), except one major party prefers it this way.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:55 pm

a) I don't think Florida is settled
b) Counting the Dem/GOP votes in aggregate is not a good metric, since in place like CA, there is no GOP representative on the ballot in many statewide offices, so any vote/participation in the ballot looks like Dem support. For example, CA Senate race was between leftist Diane Feinstein or far left Kevin de Leon, both Democrats.
c) I think the coming political battles will be more within the parties, esp on the left.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 8:12 pm

Florida Senate race down to 0.22% difference with lots of ballots and questions left to figure out.

Meanwhile, in Arizona Senate race the Republicans are suing to block provisional ballots from being counted.

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Thu Nov 08, 2018 10:16 pm

Blanquito wrote:Florida Senate race down to 0.22% difference with lots of ballots and questions left to figure out.

Meanwhile, in Arizona Senate race the Republicans are suing to block provisional ballots from being counted.

As long as there's more provisional ballots than the point spread from the regular ballots they have to be examined and either disallowed for cause or counted.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 12:54 am

Problems with the vote in Florida. Imagine that.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 1:55 am

Racer Chris wrote:
Blanquito wrote:Florida Senate race down to 0.22% difference with lots of ballots and questions left to figure out.

Meanwhile, in Arizona Senate race the Republicans are suing to block provisional ballots from being counted.
As long as there's more provisional ballots than the point spread from the regular ballots they have to be examined and either disallowed for cause or counted.

Are you talking about AZ, Chris? What you say sounds promising.

Winona Chief · Post by **Winona Chief** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 2:41 am

There are still about 400,000 ballots left to count in Arizona - and that's after the additional 200,000 that were counted yesterday and today. Sinema is now leading in the senate race in Arizona.

It will be interesting to see how the Maine 2nd district race works out with the ranked order voting.

Chris Bublitz

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:05 am

It’s going to be excruciatingly close here in Maine, Chris. We’ll know the results in about a week.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:42 am

Are you guys following this whole undervote for Nelson thing going on in Florida, where the Senate ballot was tucked in under this long boring list of instructions?
Unbelievable. It appears to have resulted in 20,000 less votes for Nelson in Broward County.
Florida, pardon my French, you are a fucking joke.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:45 am

I mean, Jesus Christ, it has been 18 years since the hanging chads. Good grief.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:48 am

Why do we not have hanging chads, 8 hour voting lines, in places like Maine? I've been casting votes in Maine since 1976. I've never once waited more than 20 minutes to vote, never had even the hint of a problem. I've never once felt that reading a ballot was confusing. To the contrary, they've always been incredibly user friendly. WTF is wrong with you folks down there?

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:34 am

My first (and only) wait to vote in my life was in Colorado in 2006. I waited about 3-4 hours, in a long and slow line at the court house in sleepy Fort Collins. A big reason for the wait was the direct-democracy model that is so popular out here, where every since ballot has literally 5,6,7+ pages of federal, state and local candidates, judges, ballot questions and referenda on it. And unless you’ve read up on the legalese behind these ballot questions beforehand, it can take an hour or even 2 hours to go through the entire ballot carefully.

Fortunately, Colorado wised up, elected a Democratic governor and state houses who passed a bunch of voter participation enhancements (mailed paper ballots, drop-off ballot boxes all over the state for those who forget to mail it back in time, same day registration, and voting in person on Election Day for the itinerant or disorganized), and now almost all Coloradoans vote by mail, and participation has gone up a lot (duh). The ballot is still really long (unlike anything I ever encountered in the NE), but since 2008 you can do it at your leisure in your home, with a nice glass of claret to keep you company. Simple.

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 12:07 pm

Blanquito wrote:
Racer Chris wrote:As long as there's more provisional ballots than the point spread from the regular ballots they have to be examined and either disallowed for cause or counted.
Are you talking about AZ, Chris? What you say sounds promising.

I don't know Arizona electoral law but I think this is the same in every state. There would be no point in allowing provisional ballots otherwise. They are examined if and only if they could affect the outcome.

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 12:10 pm

30+ House seats gained by dems. It could still go as high as 40 since at least 11 haven't been certified yet.
nationwide, dems outscored reps by 6%
#blue wave

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Fri Nov 09, 2018 2:40 pm

Robert Reich tweeted this last night . . .

"Let me get this straight: a secretary of state running for governor can drop thousands of voters from the rolls, but counting every vote in a tight race is election fraud?"

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Nov 10, 2018 2:17 pm

Trump attacking the vote counting in Florida and Arizona.
Just imagine what this is going to be like in two years when he is actually on the ballot, and he has the judiciary in his back pocket.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Sat Nov 10, 2018 4:11 pm

JimHow wrote:Trump attacking the vote counting in Florida and Arizona.
Just imagine what this is going to be like in two years when he is actually on the ballot, and he has the judiciary in his back pocket.

Indeed. Imagine if he loses outright, will he start beating the drums of voter fraud? Of course he will, because he did that in 2016 when he won!

Even worse, imagine if he loses in a close, contested manner? All hell will break loose and if he sends in ‘law enforcement‘ to ‘protect’ the vote,,I doubt the left will sit idly by this time and let yet another presidential election be stolen like 2000.

jal · Post by **jal** » Sat Nov 10, 2018 4:18 pm

I don't care if he loses outright, if he loses a close one, if he contests, kvetches, whines, yells or tweets.

As long as he loses! And a few weeks after that I want to never again hear his name, I don't even care to indict him or impeach him, I just want him out of my and our life forever. The nation will be able to heal and unite much better and faster once he's out.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:25 pm

Now that he has gotten addicted to the taste of public attention and adulation, I don't think he will go away quietly. After office, rather than relaxing into a dignified retirement, he will inevitably produce a video on demand show on TrumpTV, called West Wing 1600, which will feature himself, Omarosa, Anthony Scaramuci, and Martin Sheen as they solve the problems of a nation in turmoil. Mostly DJT will save the day from problems created by his staff, spouses, and evil foreign robot caravans. The owners of the Despicable Me franchise will sue for copyright/trademark infringement over DJT's constant chortle "summon the minions" but will lose when the case winds its way to the Supreme Court.

Sadly, at his next geriatric cognitive exam, the doctors will realize he can no longer distinguish his TV show from his time in office, and will revoke his Very Stable Genius status. Jeff Sessions will be blamed for this, and fired again.

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:53 pm

Wouldn't it be ironic if HRC was voted by the Dems to be Speaker of the House? and then Trump and Pence both got impeached/removed?
There's no constitutional requirement for the Speaker to be an elected official.
This is an idea my wife suggested to me this morning, not sure where she heard it.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Nov 10, 2018 7:01 pm

Ha, I like that, Arv, I think that'd be a good "Shouts and Murmurs" piece for the New Yorker.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Sun Nov 11, 2018 2:40 am

Agreed, but you cast the wrong Sheen Arv. Charlie is more his speed.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Sun Nov 11, 2018 4:42 pm

You're right I'd forgotten all about him. (he's still alive right?)

=========

One of my sisters friends family house burned down in the Paradise fire.

Apparently just flattened.

Like something the Romans would have done to the Carthaginians.

Their cats got terrified (rightfully) during the chaos, and escaped, and have likely perished too.

Up here there is so much smoke, especially in the hills, that at night it looks like fog in London.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Sun Nov 11, 2018 6:17 pm

Terrible news. I hope all of our BWE friends and family stay safe.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Sun Nov 11, 2018 10:58 pm

The kinds of fires now striking parts of the state are different than in the past, where they might have been idiosyncratic, potentially mitigated types of fires. The kinds where if people had burnbreaks, or rocks, or cut back trees/manzanitas etc. it might have kept their structures safe. These are really more like firestorms, like what consumed Dresden in WWII. These go so fast, and are so hot, that people are killed in their cars fleeing. The autos are reduced to ashes, maybe the wheels just molten piles of steel. It's astounding to see the pictures.

Even those who live in regular suburbs are no longer safe -- this isn't just a 'cabin in the woods' kind of risk anymore for those living in the drier parts of the west.

POTUS, desperate that he was no longer in the news, as fires took the attention away from him, quickly tweetblamed Gavin Newson for the conflagration.