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General politics thread (was: General U.S. politics thread)

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Comments

  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
  • Trump backed away from the Wall to avoid a government shutdown.
  • edited 2017-04-27 17:09:13
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Two special elections in Connecticut yesterday:
    * State House District 7 - a Working Families Party member (and non-Dem) (see note below) defeated a Dem, an independent (and former Dem state house member), and a write-in, for a Hartford-area seat.  Joshua Malik Hall won with 41%, and 34%, 24%, and 1% went to the other three candidates in order, though vote totals were all in the mere hundreds of votes.  Seat was formerly Dem-held.
    * State House District 68 - a Republican won this formerly Repub-held seat.  However, Joe Poletta (R), who defeated Louis Esposito (D) yesterday 78.1% to 21.9% (2444 to 686 votes), formerly ran against former-incumbent Eric Berthel (R) in 2014, wherein Poletta had the Dem, Independent, and Working Families party lines; Poletta (D at the time) lost with 47.4% of the vote while Berthel got 52.6%.  Berthel was entirely unopposed in 2016.  Not sure what happened here; Poletta says he switched party and worked on Berthel's (successful) campaign for state senate.

    Correction: Joshua Hall is a registered Dem and even a former state Democratic Party treasurer, though he was not endorsed by the party for this seat and won it under the WFP ballot line.
    https://ctmirror.org/2017/04/25/wfp-wins-hartford-seat-gop-keeps-seat-in-watertown/
  • edited 2017-04-27 16:39:57
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2017/Pres/Maps/Apr27.html#item-4

    NAFTA, Obamacare, and the current tax code all seem to be in good shape for now.
    Net Neutrality, by contrast, is on life support, and the priest is on his way to deliver
    the last rites. FCC chair Ajit Pai
    spoke
    at the Newseum on Wednesday, and laid out his blueprint for allowing broadband
    providers to sell preferential access to some websites. Broadband companies were
    thrilled, of course, since this means more money for them. Prominent GOP members of
    Congress, including Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
    Chairman John Thune (R-SD); House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg
    Walden (R-OR); Senate Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee
    Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS); and House Communications and Technology
    Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) were also pretty happy, issuing a
    joint statement in which they declared, "Consumers want an open Internet that
    doesn't discriminate on content and protects free speech and consumer privacy."
    It's unclear if that is wild spin, or if they don't understand what they are talking
    about, since eliminating net neutrality—by definition—means
    discriminating on content.

    Pai's proposal will be voted on by the full FCC on May 18, and will presumably pass,
    since the commission is majority Republican. Then it will be open to public comment,
    which will be ugly, since more than 80% of Americans prefer net neutrality, and many
    of them feel very strongly about it. Perhaps the angry commenters will somehow
    impress the FCC, or maybe they will somehow persuade members of Congress to step in
    and do something. Most likely, however, Pai will take all the negative comments,
    throw them in the circular file, and then do what he wants. (Z)

    pinging @Unknown_Entity because relevant

  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/332132-fcc-probing-colberts-trump-putin-joke

    Ajit Pai's (i.e. Donald Trump's) FCC: killing net neutrality, dinging comedians.  Great priorities there.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, on how Democrats could improve their electoral performance and general appeal in the mountain west: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/opinion/steve-bullock-democrats-montana.html?ref=opinion&_r=1
  • edited 2017-05-09 07:01:00
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    dafuq?

    http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Blum-walks-out-of-exclusive-interview-with-TV9-421676713.html

    (TL;DR Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA-01) walks out of an interview with a local station)
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    I wonder if i missed something that might have been big.

    http://www.newson6.com/story/35388179/republican-zack-taylor-elected-to-vacant-oklahoma-house-seat

    With all 17 precincts in House District 28 reporting, [Republican Zach] Taylor garnered
    50.48 percent of the vote to 48.16 percent by Democrat Steve Barnes and
    1.36 percent by Libertarian Cody Presley.

    this is a seat that went 69-31 Romney and 67-33 for the previous incumbent (R)
  • I appreciate John Oliver trying to keep net neutrality alive like he did before, and all the energy going into keeping it. But the article is right; Ajit Pai gives jack shit about what we think. I don't think even the billionaire Web companies can convince him to back down.
  • I'm curious.

    Can somebody besides the FBI peeps investigate Trump's links with Russia? Namely, someone he can't just fire.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    There are the congressional committees, which are run by the separately-elected congresscritters, though they get to choose amongst themselves who gets on the committee.

    And then there's the press.
  • On Thursday, the FCC will vote 2-1 to begin rolling back net neutrality.

    They will vote on the proposal, then open it up for public comment.
  • edited 2017-05-16 07:03:16
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    meanwhile, in the file of "things only GMH will do": listening to trance remixes of anime theme songs at the same time as reading about Montana politics
  • Paul Ryan and Jason Chaffetz are looking to subpenoa Trump over the Comey memo where Trump allegedly conducted obstruction of justice.
  • edited 2017-05-24 04:20:24
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Four special elections were held this past day:
    • New Hampshire House District Carroll 6: previous incumbent Harold Parker (R) was appointed policy advisor to Gov. Chris Sununu (R).  The seat went for Romney 56%-43% and is in ancestrally Republican Wolfeboro, but Edith Desmarais (D) won the seat 51.8%-48.2% for a D pickup.
    • New Hampshire House District Hillsborough 44: previous incumbent Andre Martel (R) passed away.  This seat went for Romney 51%-48% and probably a similar margin for Trump.  Mark McLean (R) won this seat 55.1%-44.9% for an R hold.
    • New York Senate District 30: previous incumbent Bill Perkins (D) was elected to the New York City Council.  The seat is overwhelmingly Dem-leaning, and Brian Benjamin (D) defeated a Republican and a Reform Party candidate with over 90% of the vote for a D hold.
    • New York Assembly District 9: previous incumbent Joseph Saladino (R) was appointed Town Supervisor of Oyster Bay.  While Trump won this district 60%-37% at the same time Saladino won re-election 69%-31%, Christine Pellegrino (D) turned this result almost on completely on its head, winning 58%-42% for a D pickup.


    We have the first seats changing party control of the year, one for the Repubs back in March (see note at bottom) (which was uncontested by the Dems) and two for the Dems.

    The big attraction this week, though, isn't a Tuesday special but a Thursday special -- for Montana's lone at-large U.S. House of Representatives seat.  That pits folk singer Rob Quist (D) against California-born businessman Greg Gianforte (R).

    Edit: This list previously contained the following item:
    [*]Louisiana House District 42: previously occupied by Jack Montoucet (D) who was appointed to be secretary of LA Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D).  The seat has a lot of "Dixiecrats" apparently because despite its overwhelming Dem registration advantage it voted overwhelmingly for Romney (like 69%) and Trump (like 77%).  No Dems filed for this seat and the election was between two Repubs.  John Stefanski (R) won the seat for an R pickup.
    However, this actually happened on March 23, not May 23.
  • edited 2017-05-25 08:19:04
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Montana's at-large U.S. House seat has a special election today, and just this past evening, businessman and Republican candidate Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter who was asking him for his opinion on the AHCA, i.e. the Republicans' repeal-and-replace bill for Obamacare, which just had an analysis published by the Congressional Budget Office showing that it might result in 23 million people losing health insurance.  Apparently, Gianforte pushed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs to the ground and broke his glasses.  Gianforte was subsequently given a citation for assault by the Gallatin County police and is due to appear in court between now and June 7.  A couple of major-city newspapers (the Billings Gazette and the Missoulian) have resciended their endorsements of Gianforte following this incident.

    On one hand, much of the vote may already be in because of Vote By Mail.  This election is not entirely VBM, though, because Montana state legislature Republicans blocked an effort by the (Dem) governor to implement all-VBM for this election -- despite the fact that it might save the state money, state senate majority leader Jeff Essmann (R) literally remarked that "All mail ballots give the Democrats an inherent advantage in close elections".  On the other hand, this incident may affect is election-day voters, who (by conventional wisdom) are more Republican-leaning, so if they turn against Gianforte that might be a problem for him.

    Gianforte, a businessman and tech millionaire, faces Democratic candidate Rob Quist, a local folk musician.

    (Opinion: Based on what I've seen of him, Quist seems quite chill.  You'd think that suffering a botched surgery and then going through financial hardship, or even simply that awkwardly high speaking voice, would make him mad, but he seems to show up everywhere with a smile and his guitar.  Lately the Repubs have been trying to ding Quist for said financial hardship as well as his past use of marijuana, while Gianforte's already lost a gubernatorial race in part thanks to his infamously trying to fence people off a public access path to a river that runs by his house.

    Lately Gianforte's also had trouble answering for his saying that he's "thankful" for the repeal-and-replace effort -- which, besides attempting to throw a bunch of people off of their health insurance, is also a gigantic clustercrap.  Seriously, the Repubs have been hating on Obamacare for seven years now, and they've gotten themselves elected promising that they can cover everyone better and for cheaper, and...either reality's catching up with them or they're irresponsible jerks who only know how to flame things for political points and don't actually know how to do anything right.  Maybe both.)

  • edited 2017-05-26 06:02:18
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    With 95% reporting, Greg Gianforte (R) appears to be the representative-elect for the state of Montana.  He currently has a 50.8%-43.4%-5.8% lead over Rob Quist (D) and Mark Wicks (L).

    He's also due in court sometime between now and June 7, for his assault citation.
  • edited 2017-05-30 20:32:00
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Special elections today:

    South Carolina House District 84: Jennifer Larisey, owner of a local magazine company, is playing offense for Team Blue, against Aiken County chairman Ronnie Young on defense for Team Red.  Obama 35% Romney 64%.

    Dem primary for New Hampshire House District Merrimack 18: Kris Schultz, a political consultant who’s also worked with statewide church groups, and Marc Lacroix, a physical therapist who’s worked in healthcare management, are vying for the Dem nomination.  The winner faces Army veteran Michael Feeley (R).  Here’s a local news piece on both Schultz and Lacroix.  The general election for the New Hampshire race is July 18, and Team Blue is playing defense in that race.  Obama and Clinton both got around 60% in the district.

    Meanwhile: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-bill-could-send-people-to-jail-for-driving-a-woman-to-an-abortion/
  • edited 2017-05-31 06:37:16
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human


    in case this gets deleted:

     2 hours ago

    Despite the constant negative press covfefe

    28,450 replies72,717 retweets90,217 likes
  • edited 2017-05-31 14:48:28
    huh


    (full size image is horrendously blurry)
  • edited 2017-06-01 16:38:40
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    This past Tuesday (unofficial counts):

    NH HD Merrimack 18 Dem primary: political/religious-nonprofits consultant Kris Schultz (D) 119, physical therapist Marc Lacroix (D) 68.  Schultz faces Army vet Michael Feeley (R) on July 18.

    South Carolina HD84
    local magazine owner Jennifer Lariscey (D) - 37.9%

    S. Lance Weaver (C) 90 - 3.6%
    county councilman Ronnie Young (R) 1,482 - 58.5%

    South Carolina SD3

    Richard Cash (R) - 3,034 - 81.7%

    Write-In - 679 - 18.3%
    no Dem ran. :(

    Next Tuesday:

    CA-34 runoff - Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D) vs. Los Angeles planning commissioner Robert Ahn (D)

    NH SD16 Dem primary: former state executive councilor Jim Normand (D) vs. telecom employee/union member Kevin Cavanaugh (D).  winner faces former state sen. David Boutin (R) on July 25, in an evenly-divided district (previous incumbent was Dem).

    TN-HD95 on June 15 (thursday).  Big ones on June 20: GA-06 runoff, SC-05, SC-HD48, SC-HD70.  IA-HD22 on June 27.  All of these seats whose races are on the horizon were previously R held except SC-HD70.
  • Netflix CEO still supports net neutrality, but he's convinced Trump is gonna do away with it no matter what, and so will not fight for it as strongly as they did before.

    After seeing him leave the Paris Agreement in spite of Exxon Mobile saying he should stay, I'm more convinced than ever that net neutrality is done.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Ajit Pai is a fuck, far as I know.

    Also Exxon-Mobil actually lost a vote to its shareholders who demanded that it actually tell people openly what it knows about climate change.  This was like two days before Trump decided to walk out on the Paris Agreement.
  • We're all gonna have to prepare for Ajit Pai to destroy net neutrality, sadly.
  • There is love everywhere, I already know
    Is Hillary Clinton, like, okay?
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