"Pay no attention to the House Republicans’ substance-free “Commitment to America.” The actual GOP plan, if the party takes control of the lower chamber in January, is a campaign of performative revenge. Ginned-up investigations, cruel attacks on the marginalized, even a concocted impeachment of President Biden — that’s what the nation has to look forward to if Republicans win the House. Those are the only things the party agrees on, except fealty to Donald Trump and an all-consuming desire for power." - Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post, The only agenda that unifies the Republican Party is revenge
Early, in-person voting for the midterm elections started Friday in Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming. But from the current projection polls broadcast this morning, too many independents - who could make the difference - are still too obsessed with inflation and the economy, actually believing the GOP's renegades are better at the economy, (i.e. When asked in a Sept. 13 NBC News poll which party was better on the economy, 47% said Republicans, 28% Democrats).
But this is a fantasy, a mirage. The Reeps will not solve inflation or the economy, they will make it worse. Much worse. They have no plan at all. Still, many conservative Repub hacks - like Karl Rove in the WSJ - are clearly elated that (according to new polls) "inflation" is ranked the top priority by 61 percent of likely voters. (He asserts abortion is "way below" that at 21 percent). But my bet is that those "priority" polls are off.
They can't solve it because it is a systemic problem of our national economy, originating in the Fed taking too long to halt their quantitative easing program. So now they must catch up and only the Fed can bring it under control, not the Repukes.
For this reason, independents and whatever sober thinking Republicans are left, must keep their heads and vote responsibly. That means NO votes for ANY Republican in the House. Recall 147 of these Reep Reprobates voted to overturn the 2020 election and hand it over to Trump. Many also supported the insurrection, while making cockeyed excuses like "it was just their expression of free political speech". No, it was not! It was treason, trying to block the electoral certification of votes. Some may think this is being hyperbolic, if so they're not paying attention. Especially as we now know, from a former NSA security head (Denver Riggleman, see e.g.
Report reveals data breaches that could affect millions of Americans - CBS News
that the White House was in telephone contact with at least one insurrectionist during the violence.
These Pollyannas may not even be aware that a Rogues' Gallery of Political misfits are just itching at the bit to grab power. To put an end to inflation? Hell no! To conduct endless bogus investigations - into Biden, VP Harris, Anthony Fauci., the January 6th committee, the list is endless. Adam Kinzinger, former Republican congressman - now a member of the J6 Committee - made it clear from last week that GOP is determined to conduct "one impeachment proceeding per month". Think inflation or the war in Ukraine or anything else will get their attention? Then you're gobbling too many shrooms and MJ candies.
According to CBS projections for the House, the GOP is likely to take control of that body with 223 members, to 212 for the Dems, telegraphing the peril we still face. While millions of women - incensed at the SC Dobbs' decision - have registered to vote, millions more need to. Especially older, suburban white women, who seem to have been distracted by the GOP sham appeals to parents to block "Trans grooming" and "critical race theory teaching". Both of these merely distractions to get voters to take eyes off the ball, as with inflation. See e.g.
"It’s Not the Economy; it’s the Constitution!' -
More voters are needed to keep the House from falling into fascist GOP hands, given we already know millions are being energized by the Reep governors' political stunts of dispatching migrants to blue cities, like NYC and Washington, as well as to Martha's Vineyard. According to the CBS polling analyst (Anthony Salvanto) yesterday morning, 57 percent of independents are positively energized to vote Reep based on sending the migrants to the blue states, cities. This has increased from 50 % 3 months ago. At the same time 89% of Reep voters are now energized, compared to 67% three months ago.
Oblivious voters also may not be aware that 27 states with 118 election deniers are competing to grab those states election machineries for Trump. The effort to torpedo the midterms will begin with the attempt to plant GOP secretaries of state in strategic positions to thwart the will of their states' voters. Dem candidate wins in Arizona? 'Hey, no problemo! We just decertify the result!' .
This is exactly what U.S. history guru Jon Meacham warned about in his appearance a week ago Friday night on Real Time. You want particulars? In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, a community college professor who signed an affidavit to a lawsuit seeking to throw out President Joe Biden’s win, is running to be the state’s top elections official. In Arizona, GOP candidates for the three top statewide offices all backed setting aside Biden’s victory in their state. The breadth of election denial among Republicans is a reminder of the grip that Donald Trump has on the party.
But this alarm bell doesn't begin to plumb the low quality of GOP candidates, especially in the House. Many of whom are still full bore Trumpers and Big Lie supporters. They are also full blown authoritarians who would flush our system down the sewer if given half the chance, by too many voters not thinking properly. We are talking about misfit traitors like Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy who can't wait to launch endless "investigations" with which to tie of Democrats' and Biden's programs indefinitely.
Then there are the deranged harpies Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who vow to redo the Constitution. Especially Boebert who's already made it clear she'd foursquare in favor of a Christian Nationalist state, a Theocracy. See e.g.
Lauren Boebert is a Christian nationalist, experts say (denverpost.com)
Meanwhile, Greene has achieved notoriety ahead of the midterms by blaming Jews for the California wildfires, by use of "space lasers". As usual per fascists, not offering a scintilla of evidence, probably because it's all a whole cloth fabrication. Never mind, she also has a plan to present to her caucus a proposal to outlaw interracial marriage. Then there is Matt Gaetz, under investigation for child sex trafficking, who has called for "4,000 shock troops to take control of the federal government."
Arizona nutcase Paul Gosar has already achieved his 15 minutes of infamy by having prepared an animated video depicting the execution of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It really is true, as Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (Ret.) has stated, that "Nothing less than our democracy is on the ballot this November." Julia Ioffe on the same Real Time episode as Meacham echoed that, noting that keeping a democracy is no easy thing because it isn't instinctive to human nature. She highlighted the fact that in recent polls no fewer than one third of Americans expressed a bias toward a single appointed "strong leader" rather than one elected "weak" leader.
The Republicans are ok with that, especially if they can manage to snooker enough Americans to blindly vote their favorite crackpots into office. The ones described above, but who certainly don't exhaust the list. We can start with Scott Bottoms contesting for House District 15 here in Colorado. As reported in The Colorado Springs Independent (Sept. 7-13, 'Not Keeping It Real', p 4):
"Bottoms has asserted his opposition to litter boxes in bathrooms for transgender kids, a thing that is not happening. As he put it 'They are allowing a child to identify as a cat and use a litter box in a girls' bathroom. That is grooming a child by letting them be a furrie, a pet. That's an example of what's happening in one of our schools. This is demonic stuff that should not be taught in our schools'."
Readers may not be surprised to know that Bottoms "is one of many conservative candidates in El Paso County with ties to evangelical communities." These are also, incidentally, the most hard core pro-Trump bastions with the greatest yen for an authoritarian to usher in their benighted theocracy.
Another Reep trying for a Senate seat - to displace Michael Bennett, is Joe O'Dea, resurrecting himself as a moderate on abortion. This character once supported a 20 week limit on abortion - even more extreme than Colorado's last extremist 22 week limit on abortion - part of a "Personhood amendment"
If any or all of these maggots get into office, the potential for political bedlam and mental derangement is going to be at a level of near 10, on a ten-point scale. As usual, the people most affected by inflation will be most likely to have their brains scrambled by the mixed factors in this election. One therefore hopes that one group of voters, women, will be looking not only at the potential of a national abortion ban - but also severe cuts to social programs, including Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid. Ever heard of the old saw: 'Jumping from the frying pan into the fire'? That about nails it if people vote Repuke as a knee jerk reaction to whatever economic worry clouds their judgment, especially higher inflation.
Because ultimately, the Reeps - if put back in control of congress- won't do diddly or squat to tackle inflation. In fact, they have the furthest clue regarding addressing inflation even now, period. They only want to use it as a lever with which to bash Biden and the Dems to get back into power. Their sine qua non purpose will be holding a horde of bogus investigations, even impeachment efforts. And on whose dime? The taxpayers!
The WSJ editorial of Sept. 13 noted the key point (p A13):
"Democrats want to make the midterms about abortion, not inflation, and on cue Tuesday Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced legislation to enact a nationwide ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is constitutionally dubious, and although Mr. Graham is right that Democratic abortion absolutists too often get a pass, he is taking a big political gamble."
But as I wrote in a comment in response to this malarkey about "abortion absolutists",
No intelligent woman - no matter how stretched out by high prices at the grocery checkout - is prepared to sacrifice her bodily autonomy and free choice to a pack of hyper- moralistic authoritarians. Authoritarians who will also lay down the law on what her daughters can do if they should get pregnant - however it happens. And that includes outlawing abortion even in blue states or by pill.
Sensible women voters then are savvy enough to know if the Reeps managed to control congress again they won’t do much about inflation anyway. Indeed, some (like Rick Scott) are already threatening to bring Social Security to a vote every 5 years, while other want to defund the ACA. Not good stuff to run on! Add that to Lindsey Graham’s vow of a national abortion ban and the midterms ought to be a landslide in Dems favor. This is provided voters keep their eyes focused on the 'ball': abortion, abortion, abortion.
The Italians, impatient for "change", have already made the enormous error of putting fascist Giorgia Meloni on the verge of the prime ministership with 25.7 % of the vote. (Recall that Hitler assumed the chancellorship in 1933 after the Nazi party won 32 percent of the vote in the 1932 elections.) See e.g.
by Michael Leonardi | September 27, 2022 - 6:40am | permalink
Italy’s high government debt of roughly 150% of gross domestic product, combined with its weak long-term growth record, makes it vulnerable to bond-market selloffs if investors lose confidence in Rome’s fiscal policies. When the bond markets crater and Meloni's Italy falls into ever deeper malaise and debt, Italy's blase voters will finally grasp the magnitude of their foolishness. But, of course, by then it will be too late.
Will Americans make the same mistake in the midterms by putting the renegade GOP Trump cult back into power?
See Also:
The only agenda that unifies the Republican Party is revenge
And:
Think you already know crazy? Meet the House GOP Class of ’22.
And:
by Thom Hartmann | September 21, 2022 - 7:01am | permalink
Excerpt:
Last week a very reasonable sounding fellow called into my show and said, essentially, “I voted twice for Trump and would again. Why do you think I’m a threat to America?”
We ended up debating tax policy and I never did fully answer his question (I’m a sucker for “reasonable”), so here’s my shot at it.
*Trump and the GOP are endorsing Tucker Carlson’s “Great Replacement Theory” that argues, in most of its various iterations, that wealthy international Jews (“George Soros”) are collaborating with Black and Hispanic people to replace white people at all levels of society.
This has led to an explosion of antisemitic, anti-Black, and anti-Hispanic violence and the murder of numerous people, both Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Jewish, in venues from synagogues to supermarkets to churches.
And:
by David Badash | September 20, 2022 - 7:16am | permalink
And:
by Chris Hedges | September 27, 2022 - 7:52am | permalink
And:
by Bob Burnett | September 10, 2022 - 5:46am | permalink
Two-thirds of the way through 2022, the political situation is quite different than it appeared to be on January 1st. Then, Democrats viewed the midterm elections with trepidation; now, they see them as an opportunity. Here are ten reasons why the situation has changed.
And:
by Miles Mogulescu | September 17, 2022 - 6:31am | permalink
Democratic candidate: "Protect a woman's right to bodily autonomy."
Republican candidate: "Inflation, inflation, inflation, Biden, Democrats"
Democratic candidate: "Stop election deniers and insurrectionists"
Republican candidate: "Inflation, inflation, inflation, Biden, Democrats"
Democratic candidate: "Democrats helped relieve student debt."
Republican candidate: "Inflation, inflation, inflation, Biden, Democrats"
Democratic candidate: "Democrats are reducing prescription costs."
And:
by Joan McCarter | September 10, 2022 - 6:42am | permalink
Excerpt:
Two incumbent Republican senators, both up for reelection in November, pose a clear and present danger to our democracy. One, Florida’s Marco Rubio, is the leading Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is refusing to say that the former president stealing highly classified documents and shoving them in a closet in his Florida resort is a bad thing. The other, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, has admitted that he was involved in the plot to overturn American democracy on Jan. 6, and is now calling on voters to “Join us in unifying and healing and saving this nation.”
Rubio wants us to know via Politico (of course) that he is “joining forces with a top Democrat to demand a formal assessment of any damages to national security related to Trump’s handling of the documents.”
“The people who hate Donald Trump are happy about the raid. The people who support him were not,” Rubio said in an interview. That indicates immediately that he is on Trump’s side, calling it a raid. Rubio insists that he’s in a third category with “A lot of other people are wondering about the wisdom of undertaking such an effort, an unprecedented effort, before having exhausted every other opportunity or every other potential option they would have.”
And:
by Noah Berlatsky | September 26, 2022 - 7:17am | permalink
Excerpt:
“Biden and Democrats are responsible for our shrinking economy, and they’re only trying to make it worse,” Ronna Romney McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, insisted at the end of July. Republicans have consistently claimed that Biden’s policy initiatives — covid aid, money to fight climate change, student loan forgiveness — have harmed the economy and increased inflation.
Fact is, the US economy has performed strongly under Joe Biden. That’s especially true when you compare it to European economies.
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