American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money

that being said, there are third-party candidates in every mayoral election in SF, often unaffiliated with any party

Totes false at the local level. Indeed many local races are explicitly nonpartisan (e.g. school boards). Candidates may sometimes slyly say something like "endorsed by Gulch County Democrats" but the race is supposed to be nonpartisan. Third-party candidates often run in and win these races, then use those wins as stepping stones to more prominent positions.

My home town has invented town-specific political organizations that take pains to say they are not "parties" - e.g., Citizens for a Better Gulchville vs. Gulchville Improvement Coalition. They only hazily overlap with the national party organizations. When they differ, they differ over weirdly small zoning or water-pressure issues. Maybe everyone but me has a secret decoder ring that tells them CfaBG = Republican or whatever. If so, I never found out.

i don't think the green party's visibility in the USA--such as it is--is due largely to the folks they run for president (who haven't gotten much attention aside from nader) but for their general high profile globally, esp. in europe. if they have credibility as a left-wing alternative in the USA it's because the greens have actually won a fair number of elections in european countries. (not so much recently, though.)

and the green party's success in the states has been largely limited to highly-educated enclaves that might be expected to have a little understanding (or at least knowledge) of what's going on in the rest of the world. i imagine the green "brand" doesn't mean much outside of those enclaves.

if they have credibility as a left-wing alternative in the USA it's because the greens have actually won a fair number of elections in european countries. (not so much recently, though.)

Wait, what? Where?

germany, austria, belgium, scandinavia... though they've long since peaked in those places.

Ehh, I'm skeptical that Green successes in the US are due to candidates getting secret decoder ring messages from Caroline Lucas and not, say, them being clearly on the right side of the only long-term issue.

sure, but there's a reason why the party to have capitalized at all on that issue is the green brand and not some other one...

i say "capitalized" with my tongue in and tears rolling down my cheek, of course

I've tried and check, and I really can't find those victories you're talking about?

Except for Alexander van der Bellen. But that's very recent.

sure, but there's a reason why the party to have capitalized at all on that issue is the green brand and not some other one...

Because that's their core issue? If you want a party that will prioritise that over all others and not subsume it to popular policies (With the obvious effect on their electability), that's the one for you. Or at least, that's my assumption on the US party based on the UK one - literally the only time I hear about it is Dr Morbius yelling that he'll turn this car around and vote for Jill Stein on the Presidential threads.

Lol cmon Morbz doesn't know how to drive

plays decent defense though tbf

Huge victory for voting rights in NC: Voting law targets black voters “with almost surgical precision”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/north-carolina-voting-law-fourth-circuit-ruling

Glorious. District court reversed and case remanded for permanent injunction.

if they have credibility as a left-wing alternative in the USA it's because the greens have actually won a fair number of elections in european countries. (not so much recently, though.)

Wait, what? Where?

― Frederik B, Thursday, July 28, 2016 12:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Green-SPD coalition in the 1998 German election was a big deal. The Greens were the third party there, but they were an important part of the coalition and given leadership positions. Joschka Fischer got to serve as the Foreign Affairs Minister in addition to vice chancellor.

iirc it was in the first left-wing governing coalition in postwar Germany; all the previous times SPD held power it did so by pairing with FDP, the classical liberal party.

none of the green victories have been the case of totally replacing the two major parties, in stable multi-party parliamentary democracies that's still pretty hard to do

God fuck this motherfucking country forever, and fucking Obama

https://www.aclu.org/news/chelsea-manning-faces-new-charges-indefinite-solitary-confinement-related-suicide-attempt

"the Army threatened Chelsea with solitary confinement for possession of LGBTQ reading material and an expired tube of toothpaste."

I mean, there's nothing in that piece that isn't appalling, but jeezus!

i'm in the same TV market as paul ryan's congressional district, and seeing his ads on TV every 10 minutes is making me nauseous.

28 districts in NC ruled illegal racial gerrymanders

wtf: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/08/16/it_looks_like_the_nsa_was_hacked_and_edward_snowden_thinks_it_was_russia.html

more technical details if you're interested http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/group-claims-to-hack-nsa-tied-hackers-posts-exploits-as-proof/

@DougHenwood
Ford Foundation moving in to tranquilize BLM with money

http://www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/why-black-lives-matter-to-philanthropy/

Don't think this one is going to go all that national, but isn't it good that a standing Governor can basically cut a half million dollar contract to investigate his political enemies and really there is not ANY checks and balances that can actually stop him from doing so. The contract committee that let it through really only had ability to 'advise' against the contract. I think old school politics, you just wouldn't go this way, as if you could do it to your enemies, they could do it back, but probably will now set off a chain of tit for tat back and forth blowing money on lawyers. Fxxin creeps and idiots every one of them.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-allow-pricey-probe-govs-rival-move-forward-172026217--election.html?ref=gs

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqEX25AWgAEjMcq.jpg:small

o_o

Not going to be president after all.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/08/23/scott-brown-named-fox-sexual-harassment-lawsuit/boWnrCcWqz6v3RYyuCkQHI/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Afacebook

that trent lott story is one of the most chilling things I have ever read

yeah i saw that book review the other day and just when you think yr expectations of Lott and his ilk couldn't have overestimated them....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7aG-VQYGhA&feature=youtu.be&t=37s

One question that bothers me about the Clinton Foundation stuff -- why are these requests for meetings and such going through the Clinton Foundation email system at all? Even if there's no quid pro quo it just seems odd to me, like a blurring of the lines between her govt business and her private foundation.

Or wait sorry I guess they're not, they're all going through her private email server?

But if she used the same private email server for govt and non-govt business it seems like the same sort of blurred lines, and I do in fact get why using a private email server is concerning.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/292492-lawmakers-seek-support-to-delay-saudi-arms-sale

lol http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-conservative-coup_us_57c4c63ae4b0664f13ca3715

“How can you have a gang, and have one in your gang get stabbed, and do nothing?” another member asked. “You got to stab somebody, or else what’s the point of having a gang?”

The answer lies within your curiously unstabbed face, I think.

john boehner just uploaded a 7 sec youtube of himself driving an RV

http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnBoehner/videos

(via charles pierce)

gop should nominate a cool dog to be speaker

cool dog speaker uploads 5s video of him riding a lawn mower

http://i.makeagif.com/media/7-13-2015/jEpk0j.gif

never more otm

angela corey out as jacksonville-area state attorney

i read about that asshole today in the Times Magazine, good news

Scott Walker's a real dirt bag eh:

Among the documents are several court filings from the case, as well as hundreds of pages of email exchanges obtained by the prosecutors under subpoena. The emails involve conversations concerning Walker, his top aides, conservative lobbyists, and leading Republican figures such as Karl Rove and the chair of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus.

Trump also appears in the files, making a donation of $15,000 following a personal visit from Walker to the Republican nominee’s Fifth Avenue headquarters.

In addition to Trump, many of the most powerful and wealthy rightwing figures in the nation crop up in the files: from Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, hedge-fund manager Paul Singer and Las Vegas casino giant Sheldon Adelson, to magnate Carl Icahn. “I got $1m from John Menard today,” Walker says in one email, referring to the billionaire owner of the home improvement chain Menards.

Among the new material contained in the documents are donations amounting to $750,000 to a third-party group closely aligned to Walker from the owner of NL Industries, a company that historically produced lead paint. Within the same timeframe as the donations, the Republican-controlled legislature passed new laws making it much more difficult for victims of lead paint poisoning to sue NL Industries and other former lead paint manufacturers (the laws were later overturned in the federal courts).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/corporate-cash-john-doe-files-scott-walker-wisconsin

Jesus Christ

Sometimes I wish I knew any hardcore conservative Republicans or Christian conservatives, because I dearly want to know how they can be okay with that.

how they can be okay with that

the usual: the ends justify the means, even when those means (e.g. corrupt contributions) deliver ends (e.g. corporate indemnity against lead poisoning lawsuits) that are entirely remote from the ends you desired (e.g. abortion ban or school prayer).

It's not just hardcore conservative Republicans and Christian conservatives who vote for Scott Walker, it's regular old Wisconsin Republicans, who think there are too many lawsuits in this country and etc etc lady sued mcdonalds because coffee was hot etc etc they shut down a town's factory because of an endangered turtle etc etc.

and I mean I'm sorry but as a guy who would vote for just about anyone over scott walker, this is pretty weak sauce. what's scummy about walker isn't that he takes big donations from right-wing people and corporations -- why wouldn't he? what's scummy is his habit of using state workers and state resources in his campaigns, which either steps right up to the edge fo the law without going over or actually goes over. this was the issue. and this leak doesn't deliver anything new on that score. he made it harder to sue companies that poisoned kids? sure, but it was no secret that he did that, and he would have done that even for a company that didn't contribute to his campaign. that's just who he is.