There was a pretty energetic push to get primary voters in the state of Washington to vote “uncommitted” to protest the administration’s Israel policy. It got 7.5% of the vote representing 48,600 votes which is quite a few. It’s not a state with a large Arab American population but there are a lot of lefties there and they made their voices heard. Still, it’s not a battleground state so perhaps it’s not as relevant as it was in Michigan. Dave Weigel reported on the project for Semafor: Next week, they’ll try again in Kansas. Next month, they’ll do it in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin — all states where “uncommitted” efforts have come together quickly, inspired by campaigns in Michigan, Minnesota, and Hawaii that have denied Biden 20 delegates so far. “We’re focused on ensuring that President Biden and his campaign listen to us,” said Rami Al-Kabra, the 47-year-old deputy mayor of Bothell, a city in Seattle’s suburbs. “What happens in November?
Uncategorized
Judging from the bots on my social media feeds none of this reality makes any difference. People are convinced that their lives are the worst they’ve ever been, they’re are all barely getting by, unable to buy food or gas and have no jobs and no future. Americans are starving while “illegal” criminals are killing them in their beds. We are in a dystopian nightmare from which we cannot awaken — at least until Donald Trump makes America great again. Here’s just another little reminder which will be refuted immediately because as it happens, Trump’s term actually ended in 2019 rather than 2020 according to many Americans. He bears no responsibility for anything bad and gets credit for Obama’s recovery. Isn’t that special?
We now know the recipients for the next Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Awards. This year’s RBG Awards will go to entrepreneur Elon Musk, actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, lifestyle expert Martha Stewart, philanthropist Michael Milken and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. This award is given out by a right wing foundation through the Library of Congress so I guess that explains it. But why is the Library of Congress involved in something like this? And they couldn’t find more than one woman for the RBG award? Sylvester Stallone?
It’s a winner. Huge. You go boys and girls: Republicans leading the party’s effort to defend the House in this fall’s elections are pushing GOP colleagues to openly discuss their positions on abortion, rather than try to sidestep the issue like many did in the previous campaign, arguing that doing so will be critical to winning competitive races. A memo prepared by House Republicans’ campaign arm and viewed by The Wall Street Journal says Republicans have a “brand problem, not a policy problem,” as their reluctance to discuss the issue left it to Democrats to define where the GOP stood. Many voters view the party’s hopefuls as opposing abortion under any circumstances, when there are actually a variety of positions held by candidates, particularly in swing districts, the memo states. The guidance tells candidates that they must “confidently articulate” their stance and that “being unwilling to stake out a clear position with voters is the worst possible solution.” Abortion has weighed on the party’s success in recent years.
Another time for choosing Indulge me. I still struggle to get campaigns here to rethink their strategy and to cast a wider net for “low-propensity” voters Democrats here cannot win statewide races without. Without getting into the weeds, a short thread by Anat Shenker-Osorio gets at what I was already recommending. It’s related to how Jay Rosen a full year ago recommended the press approach this election: Not the odds, but the stakes. For individual voters, the stakes are also high, but democracy may seem an abstraction. Shenker-Osorio’s observations are based on preliminary findings, but what seems to move voters is reframing how Democrats pitch their message: from vote for us to vote for you. “We must shift folks from seeing election as contest between 2 (or more) people to seeing it as fork in road between 2 different futures.” It is old hat to ask people if they are better off now than they were four years ago. But they might disagree that they are, no matter how much data you throw at them. It’s almost reflex on the left to try to browbeat people into submission with our supposed superior command of the facts.
Today, the United States House of Representatives voted to require the Chinese company Bytedance to sell its stake in the popular service Tiktok. If the company does not comply, the bill would ban the use of Tiktok in the US. The bill still needs to pass the Senate and get delivered to President Biden’s desk, … Continue reading Tiktok and the Fediverse
This is the person who runs 538 now: I always remember that time Michael Dukakis came out of his convention 18 points ahead and we all sat back on our laurels thinking that the election was over. Yeah, that didn’t work out.
I didn’t watch the whole thing but from the reports it appears that the Republicans held a hearing in which the Democrats showed a bunch of clips of Donald Trump sounding demented, illustrating that Donald Trump’s classified documents theft is a serious crime and getting the Special Prosecutor to admit that he said that Biden had a photographic memory but didn’t include that in his report. Other than that it went really well for the Republicans.
According to the Hur transcripts Biden had very detailed and distinct memories of the past including time he spent in Mongolia. George Conway recalled Trump’s embarrassing ignorance about world geography and linked to this article in the Independent about a list he made a few years ago: Mr Conway’s Twitter thread came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly berated an NPR reporter who was asking him about the president’s Ukraine scandal which sparked an impeachment inquiry in Congress. Mr Trump has been accused of withholding crucial military aid to Ukraine as it fought a war with Russia while demanding the country’s president announce political investigations into his own 2020 political rival, Joe Biden.
I don’t know if Biden will get credit for this but he should. It’s from the Hur transcripts: It’s important not to get too carried away here. Biden may not have owned stock but he wasn’t called the Senator from MBNA for nothing. Representing Delaware he took up for a lot of banks in his day, including shepherding through a punitive bankruptcy bill back in 2005 on their behalf. He played the game. But there is no evidence that he personally enriched himself while in office. He bought some real estate back in the 70s that ended up being worth quite a lot. And he sold books and gave speeches like they all do. But of all people accused of influence peddling he’s one of the least likely.