Poor attention starved Jim, just makin’ it up now.
Again.
VOTE in 3 days: “I will not vote for another Republican until Trump is out of office.” My independent-voter wife to a Republican pollster who randomly called our house.
“Falsehood shames Clapper, Brennan and pledge to protect whistleblowers”
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“In the summer of 2014, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter assuring Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that enhanced monitoring of Intelligence Community workers was designed to find leakers and insider threats, and was not intended to thwart lawful whistleblowing.
Specifically, America’s top spy told the two senators that if any protected whistleblowing was intercepted by the Obama administration’s new monitoring, it wouldn’t be used to tip off spy agency leaders.
“In the event a protected disclosure from a whistleblower somehow comes to the attention of personnel responsible for monitoring user activity, there is no intention for such disclosure to be reported to agency leadership under an insider threat program,” Clapper declared in his July 25, 2014, letter.
Clapper even cc’d then-CIA Director John Brennan on his letter, an apparent heads-up to America’s most famous spy shop, the Central Intelligence Agency.
It turns out that entire pledge was false and disingenuous. And it took us four years and a new presidential administration to get the truth.
Just four months before Clapper penned that letter, the CIA intercepted one or more whistleblowers’ disclosures, legally submitted and intended to go to Congress through the Intelligence Community’s official whistleblowing office.
And the intercepts were briefed to CIA leadership, contrary to Clapper’s assurance.
The disclosure was contained in two memos declassified this past week from the Intelligence Community’s inspector general.
“On 19 March 2014, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) security notified me that they had conducted an inquiry prompted by routine counterintelligence (CI) monitoring of Government computer systems,” then-Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III wrote in a memo dated March 28, 2014.
“As a result of this inquiry, CIA CI personnel obtained emails between our Executive Director of Whistleblowing & Source Protection and Congressional staff,” the memo added. “Most of these emails concerned pending and developing whistleblower complaints. CIA security compiled a report that includes excerpts of these whistleblower-related communications, and this report was eventually shared with CIA management.”
You have to stop for a second to appreciate the magnitude of what that memo discloses.
Whistleblowers who legally submitted concerns and believed they were being protected had their communications intercepted and unmasked. And sensitive oversight communications with Congress potentially protected by the Constitution’s separation of powers were intercepted. And all the information was briefed to CIA leadership, contrary to Clapper’s representations.
And, lest you wonder, yes, Clapper was sent a copy of the McCullough memo, which makes his letter to Congress a few months later all the more laughable, if not despicable.”
——————–
Huh. And yet I’ve been assured repeatedly that these are good, honest, upstanding men……
And the combined number from respondents on their personal satisfaction with the economy is an eye popping 74% positive number. That’s off the charts. If it really is “It’s the economy stupid” then @SenateGOP and @HouseGOP are feeeling wind at their back. https://t.co/yb6pP1ec2N
“President Donald Trump urged West Virginia to oust Senator Joe Manchin during his final rally blitz before Election Day, and found an approving audience among disaffected Democrats.
Trump supporters who gathered at the Huntington Tri-State Airport were optimistic about Patrick Morrisey’s chances of upsetting the Democratic incumbent on Tuesday. Some stood in line as early as 11:45 a.m. Friday, more than four hours before the rally began.
“I like Joe,” Trump said. “The problem is, I’m just not going to get his vote. He’s a friend of mine. I’m just not going to get his vote.”
Allegiance to the president’s agenda was on the minds of supporters, many of whom are former Democrats. The audience was full of them, some personally convinced to change parties by the president himself, like Gov. Jim Justice and Dorothy McPhee.
“I have been a Democrat sixty some years of my life,” said Dorothy, who grew up in Winfield County. “I switched over a couple years ago to Republican because I no longer can tolerate the Democratic stand on a lot of things.”
Dorothy said the most important issues to her are the economy, taxes, immigration, “draining the swamp,” and the opioid epidemic.”
Ben Sasse really seems to enjoy life, no matter what he is doing. Nevertheless, over the next few months he must make a decision about his future. There are at least three options.
we took a break from campaigning for some folks tonight to attend the Nebraska OneBox Pheasant Auction…. unfortunately some very bad people are trying to teach him to bid on puppies pic.twitter.com/TTBWl4Btiz
The Senate Judiciary has released a trove of Kavanaugh related materials.
And the media should be ashamed of themselves.
The texts between Kerry Berchem and Karen Yarasavage are in the new Judiciary Committee report.
They not only clearly refute NBC's bogus perjury hit on Kavanaugh, but they include some very interesting context from Berchem, a key supporting player in the Ramirez smear.
Karen Yarasavage says NYT reporter @rpogrebin tried to force feed her this false quote that would have supported the Ramirez smear: "she became a different person, a lot more liberal." pic.twitter.com/ce5B5bjGxj
1. Challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential primaries and seek to restore honesty, decency, intelligence and consistent conservatism to the Republican Party.
wow WOW directly quoting: "violations of Senate rules, potential witness tampering, and potential false statements made to the Committee in violation of federal law." https://t.co/lqOxCvqRJa
3. Go home to Nebraska and write, teach, spend lots of time with his wife and children, be active in his local church and see what God will do with the United States.
At this point, I would support Ben Sasse for option #2. Although he is a Never-Trumper, he doesn’t actively work against the President in Congress most of the time, and I do believe there should be, to some degree, a divergence of thought and opinion in Congress. I read his book “The Vanishing American Adult” and I think he’s a smart, honorable man. We can always use more of those in government. If he were to become or be revealed to be as much a globalist as Ricky, I would not support him for anything other than local government, because I think those guys do some good and less damage on the local level than on the national scene. Of course I may revise my opinion after I read his latest book, “Them”. We’ll see. :–)
“CNN reporter Randi Kaye was conducting interviews at a rally for Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on Friday when she “randomly” interviewed Gillum’s mother.
Former President Barack Obama spoke in support of Gillum, who currently serves as the mayor of Tallahassee, at a Miami, Florida rally on Friday. Gillum is squaring off against Republican Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis.
Kaye was asking rally attendees if Obama’s speech would affect their vote. One woman, who had not been identified to the audience, replied, “Um, I believe that it will.”
“We picked her randomly out of the crowd, but at the end of our interview when I finally asked her name, it sounded strangely familiar,” Kaye claimed in a voiceover.
“My name is Frances Gillum,” the woman told Kaye. “As a matter of fact, my son is running for governor.””
———————–
“Despite the headlines about an eight-point advantage for Democrats in the generic congressional ballot, the detailed results of today’s Washington Post/ABC News poll should make most Democratic Party leaders and their billionaire benefactors sweat.
First, the eight-point gap represents a five-point drop from the same poll just three weeks ago, when Democrats had a 13-point advantage. (Like most polls, the sample favors Democrats by six points among registered voters.)
But even more ominous for Democrats is how specific voting blocs responded. If Democrats are going to win control of the House, they need to pull votes from independent women and women in the suburbs, and support for the generic Democratic congressional candidate has dropped significantly among these two groups. Independent women now are split between Republicans and Democrats; this is a seismic shift from the results of its October poll, which gave Democrats a 33-point lead in this group. Further, Democratic women appear less likely to vote than Democratic men, Republican men, and Republican women.
Suburban women now favor a Democratic candidate by 11-points, a lead that’s been cut in half since last month. Since many of the Republican toss-ups and “lean Democratic” seats are located in suburban areas, this could portend trouble for Democrats. At the same time, the GOP has made big gains among non-college white men and rural residents.
The top two issues—health care and the economy—cut both ways for each party. Registered voters trust Democrats to handle health care, but trust Republicans to handle the economy. Voters prefer Republicans to handle taxes, while they prefer Democrats to handle immigration and global warming.
The biggest headwind for the GOP remains Donald Trump. Fifty-two percent of registered voters disapprove of how he’s handling his job as president versus 44 percent who approve. (This is his highest approval rating in the history of this poll.) But the president is at a 16-point deficit among independents.”
Debra, Sadly, I am afraid that Sasse is as much a “globalist” as I am since I sell no goods and services to foreigners, employ no foreigners and even drive an American car. We have high ranking Trumpkins who drive vehicles from South Korea.
I know Sasse’s political advisers will counsel him to choose option #2. I suspect his wife and family are pleading for option #3. The tough thing about being a Christian for Sasse is that God may be calling him to Option #1. He wouldn’t want to be like Jonah.
I don’t think calling Comey a liar for saying his wife is independent was called for. The point about being independent is that a person may vote Republican some and Democrat some, or even Libertarian or Green Party some. So the fact that she supported Hillary doesn’t necessarily mean she is not Independent. She may even lean mostly Democratic (I don’t know if she does or not) but still consider herself Independent.
I wish people on social media (and in life in general), especially Christians, would be more careful about throwing that accusation around. Often people who are merely mistaken or wrong (or perceived as wrong) are accused of lying. (This is a distinction I am trying to get across to my eight year old grandson. Adults should know better.)
Interesting that the 9th commandment covers both lying and carelessly accusing someone of being a liar.
Ricky, then I can only say that if Sasse shares your apparent misunderstanding (or disingenuity) regarding globalism, I could in good conscience recommend him for the governmental office of dog catcher. Maybe. He certainly does not seem to understand the Trump movement or what caused it. I have ordered his latest book, so I should have more to say on the subject in a week or so. :–)
11:26 As I have mentioned before, I am rooting for the Rs to hold the Senate for purposes of confirming judges and as a tiny possible check on boondoggles like infrastructure that might come from a Trump/Pelosi alliance.
My interest in the House (as was said in Casablanca) is purely sporting. The Dems are very bad but so are Nunes and a few of the other Cultists.
2. I buy less from foreign sources than the average Trumpkin.
3. I am not Jewish.
4. Unlike many Trumpkins, I do not work for a company involved in international trade and neither does my spouse or child.
5. I employ no immigrant (legal or illegal) and never have.
6. Protecting the sovereignty of our country’s laws is important to me.
7. It is true that I understand comparative advantage and the economics of trade. However, this is true of all American high school students who passed the 11th grade and all semi-educated people on earth. Is every high school graduate a “globalist”?
I would guess that Mrs. Comey has voted for Republicans before. Trump turned a lot of educated independents into educated Democrats. Trump also turned a lot of educated Republicans into educated independents. We all know some of those people. One lives in South Denial and another lives in North Denial.
You misunderstand globalism or you’re disingenuous, don’t know which, but I’ll be charitable and say it’s the latter. I sell to foreigners. I work for a company that sells to foreigners. Although I check labels and prefer American, I often buy from foreigners. I’m not Jewish but I married a foreigner from a hated country. And from reading your comments I’m pretty sure I understand economics as well or better than you do.
I do not think you give much thought to your #6. I do. And that’s where globalism does the most damage because it sets the governmental framework for all other trade. Including employment policies internally.
You’ve been so busy building fictitious cults, you don’t even understand the real issues. Just because you say Trumpkins hate international trade doesn’t make it so.
Debra, Keep all those facts secret. They will kick you out of the Cult.
Tell me why I am a globalist.
I thought long and hard about #6. Two of my ancestors died defending the sovereignty of the laws of their states. Southerners understand that issue quite well.
Debra is at work. Can anyone else help her define “globalist” or explain why they think I am a “globalist”?
To be fair, I will define “Trump Cultist”. A Trump Cultist is a person who will reflexively defend almost any act, statement or behavior of Trump, who reflexively attacks anyone who is critical of Trump or whose personal loyalty to Trump exceeds their commitment to any ideology or party.
Debra – I took that to mean that she is an Independent voter, not that she necessarily voted for a Independent. There are not many candidates who list themselves as Independent, although there are some.
The point is that even on the simplest of matters, Comey is less than forthright and honest. It’s a pattern with him, so he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.
“If you’d asked me even six months ago, I would have told you that the Republicans were the party of shooting themselves in the foot. That, even when given great advantages by the American voting public — simultaneous majority control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the presidency — their leaders managed to squander those and disappoint their most ardent supporters. That, when given the power to deliver on key promises made to their constituents such as balancing the budget or reducing waste of taxpayer money, the GOP too often devolves into power struggles, indecision, conflicts of interest and, sometimes, corruption.
But as we move into the final days before the 2018 midterm elections, the Democratic Party is giving Republican tone-deafness and incompetence a very public run for the money — and then some.
Some leading Democrats haven’t seemed to figure out that the harder they’ve worked to expose, silence, scream at, attack and bully those with whom they disagree, the more they’ve invigorated the other side.
Radical “Antifa” protests covered on cable TV news only serve to energize the Republican base.
Viral videos of leftists attacking Republican politicians in public places only motivate formerly apathetic conservatives.
Efforts to silence certain views on social media only inspire impassioned defenses of free speech.
And #MeToo accusations-gone-wild transform a largely sympathetic populace into eye-rolling skeptics.
Suddenly, a Republican constituency that had grown disgusted by the disappointing do-nothingness of their own party, is confronted by in-your-face visuals of what life in America could be like if they don’t vote.”
Remember Arizona. There’s no need to replace one Flake with another….
Kyrsten Sinema, asked twice, does not say she regrets, what she calls, her “off hand” remark in a 2003 radio intvw about being “fine” with an individual joining the Taliban. pic.twitter.com/AUGmONZZuB
“While Sinema was belittling American servicemen who were risking their lives overseas, McSally was fighting alongside them. The first female U.S. fighter pilot to fly in combat and the first woman to command a fighter squadron, she was deployed to Kuwait in January 1995 and flew combat patrols over Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch. In 2000, she reported to Saudi Arabia for a temporary assignment. Later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, she commanded the A-10 equipped 354th Fighter Squadron in July 2004, later deploying to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, where she dispatched weapons for the first time from her A-10 in combat.
While serving in Saudi Arabia, McSally sued Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the military requirement that servicewomen wear Muslim garb when off base in Saudi Arabia; that policy was then changed. According to some news reports, McSally had been fighting to change the policy for seven years, and even the threat of a court-martial if she did not comply with the regulation did not stop her from filing the lawsuit.”
In May 2010, McSally retired from active duty with 22 years of commissioned service in the U.S. Air Force.”
I was thinking of surprising you by putting you on moderate before the polls close tomorrow, just for my own amusement. That way even if things go your way, no one will have to deal with your gloating. You’ll be ranting to the SPAM filter, not us. 🙂
And when it dawns on you what’s happening, you’ll know I’m laughing hysterically at the same time, while you sulk over your inability to pontificate.
But the most likely scenario is looking like the R’s barely keep the House, pick up seats in the Senate, and we all laugh while we watch a video Debra sends us of her eating your brisket. 🙂
While I gloat endlessly about how wrong you were…… 🙂
“Midterm Open Thread: Forecasters tempering their confidence about Blue Wave
NYT: “Even modest late shifts among undecided voters or a slightly unexpected turnout could significantly affect results.”
Tomorrow is Election Day and for the longest time, we’ve heard that a massive blue wave will crash into the House and Senate.
But now it looks like the confidence has gone down and forecasters have started to admit that the blue wave has a possibility to dissipate.
You know what I find hilarious? While I update this post with the latest news, who knows what’s going to happen. After all, everyone was sure as the sky rises in the east that Hillary Clinton was going to demolish Donald Trump in November 2016.”
———————
And as a bonus, Nate Silver admits he has no clue, and neither does anyone else..
“However, he noted that “polls aren’t always right.”
“”The range of outcomes in the House is really wide,” he explained. “Our range, which covers 80 percent of outcomes goes from, on the low end, about 15 Democratic pickups, all the way to low to mid 50s, 52 or 53.”
“Most of those are under 23, which is how many seats they would need to win to take the House,” he said.”
“But no one should be surprised if they only win 19 seats and no one should be surprised if they win 51 seats,” Silver added. “Those are both extremely possible, based on how accurate polls are in the real world.””
3:31 Silver was teaching statistics to Trumpkins yesterday. He was patient with most of his students, but was launching double entendres at Dinesh D’Souza.
I expected something like 3:20 since it is obvious that The Cult is much more scared than it will admit. I really didn’t plan on gloating. Watching The Cult pontificate about how Dear Leader kept things from being much worse will be fun enough.
Silver says there is a 70% chance of the Rs retaining the Senate AND the Ds taking the House. There is a 15% chance of the Rs holding both and a 15% chance of the Ds taking both. I have been waiting for the article about the tiny, tiny chance that the Ds would take the Senate and the Rs would hold the House. Alas, it has not appeared. Silver should give that project to an intern. The odds of that happening are lower than 1%, but I have no idea how much lower.
Hardly. As I said already a few times. Most likely scenario follows the historical record. The sitting President’s party nearly always loses House seats in the midterms, and occaisionally Senate seats as well. The average says the R’s lose in the House, yet gain in the Senate. That’s what I believe will happen again.
The only thing in dispute is will their be enough seats lost/gained to swing the majority in the House?
I don’t believe there will be, but if the House is lost it won’t be a surprise, just history repeating itself. Either way, the Senate is secure.
“Just remember, it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you. In this case, though, it’s likelier to be paranoia than prophecy. The Daily Beast reports on the existential angst facing progressives if they come up short in their bid to win the House:
Nearly two years of organizing, marching, candidate recruitment and unprecedented fundraising has led the Democratic party to a critical moment. On Tuesday, it can either reassert itself politically or fall short, prompting an utter and complete psychological meltdown.
Most in the party believe that the path they will go down will be the former; that they will gain a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since former President Barack Obama’s first term. But paranoia is part of the Democratic DNA, especially after the shock of the 2016 election. And in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, a scenario in which the party is unable to flip the requisite 23 House seats looms in the dark recesses of the mind.
“It will be paralyzing for a while, it will,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. “Candidly, I think there will be a fair amount of soul searching and people will feel back on their heels… We will have to rebuild. But the resistance is built on opposition to [Donald] Trump’s extremism. And the more extreme he is, the more we will have.”
Or, as veteran Democratic strategist Paul Begala put it: “After all this work, all these volunteers, it would be absolutely shattering.”
Actually, the Dems are angry with me because I will not vote for any Democrats though I share their disgust for Trump. They do have fairly strong views about who are the “idiots”. Sorry, but I can’t defend the old Cult in conversations with them. You give me no material to work with, and almost every Dem has a cultist in his or her family.
Like the Cult, the Dems have their delusions. They have always thought that Beto would win. Silver now gives Beto a 21% chance of winning. That is not zero, but I have been telling the Ds that Cruz is likely to prevail. We will see if Silver moves the Cruz percentage in the morning. AJ, Are you still giving Beto and 10 points? I have a lot of takers for that bet.
“The non-government organizations are suddenly silent, too, no more noisy press conferences to browbeat the gringos. Was it their consciousness about the impact of the news photos showing thousands of migrants streaming across bridges and rivers, and strewing trash all over Mexican towns, that dried their money up? Organizing these caravans obviously isn’t paying off for them, either, particularly since some, such as the Sorosian groups, have been harshly criticized already.
Or was it the increasingly tattered legal case for allowing the migrants in? So many migrants marching behind the Honduran banner told the press they were coming to the U.S. to escape poverty and get jobs in the U.S. and better their lives (through access to free stuff) and in their words “fulfill the American dream,” it rather negated the media’s “narrative” that they were just harmless refugees fleeing “violence” that Americans would be heels not to allow in. Who wants to finance such a shifting and failed narrative, given the billions of impoverished, illiterate people from badly governed places worldwide who’d also like to have a crack at America?
Or was it the Democrats’ weird silence about the whole thing that dried the caravan’s money up? The fact that the press is now reporting, vigorously, that the migrants are harmless and President Obama is insisting that President Trump is using those news photos for his midterm purposes (as if the photos were not motivating in themselves for action to stop the caravan) pretty well signals that the migrant caravan, far from being a heartstring-tugger, as the organizers seemed to think it would be, is political poison for the Democrats. That would explain their silence and general efforts to change the topic and pretend it doesn’t exist. It would also explain why the NGO money is not flowing.
And was word sent to Venezuela diplomatically that it’s on thin ice as another round of sanctions came down from El Norte? Or, more likely, does Venezuela simply not have the money, just the acolytes in Tegucigalpa, as the president of Honduras told Vice President Mike Pence? Just the fact that the conservative Honduran president’s far-left Chavista political opposition has been accused of doing this as a political stunt suggests, as a former Honduran consul general in Arizona told ABC15, that the migrants are being used. At about this point, the migrants probably know they are being used.
The lack of money, the silence, the lack of support, all of these things, along with the utterly grueling journey (seriously, how easy is it to walk twenty miles a day, day after day, with little or no money for food?) pretty well add up to an enterprise ripe for breaking apart. Who, seriously, would want to stay with it?
But here’s the big thing that is probably breaking up the migrant caravan more than anything: President Trump’s resolve to enforce existing rule of law. He’s sent troops. He’s sent reinforcements. He’s thrown up the razor wire. He’s warned the invaders that they will not be treated at all differently from all the other people asking for asylum, and they will have to wait their turn in line. What’s more, if they get into the U.S., there won’t be the freedom to do what they want for awhile, no catch and release, because they will have to wait in tent cities for their cases to be adjudicated, same as other people. The two- to three-year period of working in the states and going home to Honduras with earned (or not so earned) money after the final deportation order isn’t going to be there anymore. For quite a few of them, news reports suggested that all they wanted were those two- to three-year periods to work, either legally or illegally, in the states, and they’d go home happy with the money.
Trump also put pressure on Mexico to encourage it to keep its immigration system regular, something it did with spotty results, but news reports do say the caravans are getting smaller, and Mexico is insisting on passports for passage through.
Bottom line: There’s less and less advantage to being in the caravan, no special privileges, and more and more advantage to immigrating legally.
The break-up of this caravan is clearly the result of the leadership and resolve of President Trump. Funny how he can do that across borders, without so much as firing a shot.”
The last caravan also broke up on its own accord. Eleven people reached the US. Believe it or not, it is hard to walk all the way across Mexico. The caravan, like Trump University, his marriages and his plan to rekindle large scale manufacturing in the Rust Belt was just another Trump fraud.
AJ: The point is that even on the simplest of matters, Comey is less than forthright and honest. It’s a pattern with him, so he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.
Then your argument is backwards. You’re not using his statement about his wife being an indpendent voter to prove what a liar he is. You’re using your foregone conclusion that he is a liar to insinuate that his statement about his wife is a lie.
Kizzie is right. An independent voter is one not wedded to one party or the other. Having supported Ms Clinton does not disqualify Ms Comey as an independent voter. Unless we know she is a faithful Democratic voter, we have no cause to insinuate that Comey is lying in this case.
“Globalists” has often been used as a codeword for Jewish economic conspiracy. There is of course no conspiracy. Economies are too complex to be governed by a secret elite.
The real problem is unscrambling an egg. Once trade ties have been established they can’t be arbitrary changed without consequences. Trade isn’t a problem, its who benefits from trade. Modify the rules which govern trade so the people benefit. In the EU this is the policy of left of center parties. Slapping on tariffs in some vain hope or economic nostalgia is right wing populism. There was no golden age to return to. You can’t go back and you can’t unscramble the egg.
My left wing reading is excited about the increase of the youth vote. Their optimism is a mirror to the optimism of right wing blogs AJ cites. Both cite different “facts”and “trends” to justify it but in all likelihood voter turnout is the key and polling is based on previous turnout which may be wrong. Personally, if I was an American Democrat I wouldn’t worry too much about the results. The House Republicans are so incompetent that even if they keep the House they will still achieve nothing. They’ve had two years and they accomplished less than Trump. Now that’s embarrassing.
The Democrats have a ready made excuse ready to roll. The voter suppression techniques occurring in Georgia, North Dakota, etc will allow the Democrats to continue think there is nothing wrong with their program. In addition, the Democrats will win, like in previous elections, the popular vote but due to gerrymandering and the extra weight of rural votes it will be close. And this will renew the calls for electoral reform.
My argument is that in this, like numerous instances which have come to light in the recent past, they demonstrate Comey’s dishonesty. This yet another example, which other’s have shown to be false. While it is my opinion/conclusion as well, that’s irrelevant.
And really, that’s some serious mental gymnastics there on the whole what he meant by independent thing. His meaning was obvious, and that’s why he was quickly called on it.
He pretended his wife wasn’t a Hillary Democrat, and was an independent instead, which it’s easily disproven by her known service to the Clinton camp. Be serious.
The late polls are breaking against The Cult. 538 has the Rs chances of holding the House down to 12% and the Ds chances of winning the Senate up to 19%. They may update again.
I don’t mind being called “a globalist” or “a traitor”. I am simply trying to figure out what Trumpers mean when they use the word. I figured that Debra meant something completely different than did the Pittsburgh shooter (who regarded Trump as “a globalist”). For The Cult, “globalist” can mean whoever Trump is attacking that day as cultists have no fixed ideology, only loyalty to a man. However, Debra is not a cultist. She is one of the few Ideological Trumpkins, a person who actually believed what Trump was saying on the economy. If Trump (as now expected) cuts a trade deal with China which essentially restores the old pre-2018 trading arrangement with China with a few cosmetic changes, The Cult will sing Dear Leader’s praises, but Debra is smart (and intellectually honest) enough to know that she was betrayed and/or conned.
I figure Comey knows his wife better than does The Trump Cult. Most of the Trump Administration has just been a farce (the fight with Nordstroms, bizarre writers roaming the White House while Omarosa is taping the other staff, briefings ending with Trump storming out while Cabinet members declare him to be a moron, the Helsinki debacle, the humiliating laughter that followed the ridiculous lie at the UN and the love affair with Kim). However, the harsh treatment of career public servants like Comey by Trump and his cult was worse than all the buffoonery. The jury is now out. In a few hours we will get the verdict.
Wandering Views 
Poor attention starved Jim, just makin’ it up now.
Again.
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But he gets called on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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LikeLiked by 1 person
Meanwhile his lying buddies are in hot water.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/414737-falsehood-shames-clapper-brennan-and-pledge-to-protect-whistleblowers
“Falsehood shames Clapper, Brennan and pledge to protect whistleblowers”
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“In the summer of 2014, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter assuring Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that enhanced monitoring of Intelligence Community workers was designed to find leakers and insider threats, and was not intended to thwart lawful whistleblowing.
Specifically, America’s top spy told the two senators that if any protected whistleblowing was intercepted by the Obama administration’s new monitoring, it wouldn’t be used to tip off spy agency leaders.
“In the event a protected disclosure from a whistleblower somehow comes to the attention of personnel responsible for monitoring user activity, there is no intention for such disclosure to be reported to agency leadership under an insider threat program,” Clapper declared in his July 25, 2014, letter.
Clapper even cc’d then-CIA Director John Brennan on his letter, an apparent heads-up to America’s most famous spy shop, the Central Intelligence Agency.
It turns out that entire pledge was false and disingenuous. And it took us four years and a new presidential administration to get the truth.
Just four months before Clapper penned that letter, the CIA intercepted one or more whistleblowers’ disclosures, legally submitted and intended to go to Congress through the Intelligence Community’s official whistleblowing office.
And the intercepts were briefed to CIA leadership, contrary to Clapper’s assurance.
The disclosure was contained in two memos declassified this past week from the Intelligence Community’s inspector general.
“On 19 March 2014, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) security notified me that they had conducted an inquiry prompted by routine counterintelligence (CI) monitoring of Government computer systems,” then-Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III wrote in a memo dated March 28, 2014.
“As a result of this inquiry, CIA CI personnel obtained emails between our Executive Director of Whistleblowing & Source Protection and Congressional staff,” the memo added. “Most of these emails concerned pending and developing whistleblower complaints. CIA security compiled a report that includes excerpts of these whistleblower-related communications, and this report was eventually shared with CIA management.”
You have to stop for a second to appreciate the magnitude of what that memo discloses.
Whistleblowers who legally submitted concerns and believed they were being protected had their communications intercepted and unmasked. And sensitive oversight communications with Congress potentially protected by the Constitution’s separation of powers were intercepted. And all the information was briefed to CIA leadership, contrary to Clapper’s representations.
And, lest you wonder, yes, Clapper was sent a copy of the McCullough memo, which makes his letter to Congress a few months later all the more laughable, if not despicable.”
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Huh. And yet I’ve been assured repeatedly that these are good, honest, upstanding men……
Lying frauds is more accurate for all 3.
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Now for some good news. 🙂
For Republicans.
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Cool.
More cult members. 🙂
https://freebeacon.com/politics/former-democrats-flock-see-trump-hope-oust-manchin/
“President Donald Trump urged West Virginia to oust Senator Joe Manchin during his final rally blitz before Election Day, and found an approving audience among disaffected Democrats.
Trump supporters who gathered at the Huntington Tri-State Airport were optimistic about Patrick Morrisey’s chances of upsetting the Democratic incumbent on Tuesday. Some stood in line as early as 11:45 a.m. Friday, more than four hours before the rally began.
“I like Joe,” Trump said. “The problem is, I’m just not going to get his vote. He’s a friend of mine. I’m just not going to get his vote.”
Allegiance to the president’s agenda was on the minds of supporters, many of whom are former Democrats. The audience was full of them, some personally convinced to change parties by the president himself, like Gov. Jim Justice and Dorothy McPhee.
“I have been a Democrat sixty some years of my life,” said Dorothy, who grew up in Winfield County. “I switched over a couple years ago to Republican because I no longer can tolerate the Democratic stand on a lot of things.”
Dorothy said the most important issues to her are the economy, taxes, immigration, “draining the swamp,” and the opioid epidemic.”
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Ben Sasse really seems to enjoy life, no matter what he is doing. Nevertheless, over the next few months he must make a decision about his future. There are at least three options.
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The Senate Judiciary has released a trove of Kavanaugh related materials.
And the media should be ashamed of themselves.
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1. Challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential primaries and seek to restore honesty, decency, intelligence and consistent conservatism to the Republican Party.
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2. Run for re-election to the Senate in 2020, understanding that he is young and the plague of Trumpism will eventually die out.
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More…
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3. Go home to Nebraska and write, teach, spend lots of time with his wife and children, be active in his local church and see what God will do with the United States.
I would love for him to choose option #1, understand completely if he chooses option #3 and will await his decision.
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At this point, I would support Ben Sasse for option #2. Although he is a Never-Trumper, he doesn’t actively work against the President in Congress most of the time, and I do believe there should be, to some degree, a divergence of thought and opinion in Congress. I read his book “The Vanishing American Adult” and I think he’s a smart, honorable man. We can always use more of those in government. If he were to become or be revealed to be as much a globalist as Ricky, I would not support him for anything other than local government, because I think those guys do some good and less damage on the local level than on the national scene. Of course I may revise my opinion after I read his latest book, “Them”. We’ll see. :–)
ps Has anyone here read the book yet?
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I don’t understand none of this.
But if Ted Cruz loses Texas, it will be my fault.
That’s what they tell me. Because I haven’t sent any money.
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I just got a call from Donald Trump. I didn’t answer the phone because I have already voted.
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This is yet another example of why few trust the media.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/03/cnn-random-andrew-gillum-mom/?utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social
“CNN reporter Randi Kaye was conducting interviews at a rally for Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on Friday when she “randomly” interviewed Gillum’s mother.
Former President Barack Obama spoke in support of Gillum, who currently serves as the mayor of Tallahassee, at a Miami, Florida rally on Friday. Gillum is squaring off against Republican Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis.
Kaye was asking rally attendees if Obama’s speech would affect their vote. One woman, who had not been identified to the audience, replied, “Um, I believe that it will.”
“We picked her randomly out of the crowd, but at the end of our interview when I finally asked her name, it sounded strangely familiar,” Kaye claimed in a voiceover.
“My name is Frances Gillum,” the woman told Kaye. “As a matter of fact, my son is running for governor.””
———————–
Yeah, like totally random….
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More ominous news for Dems and Ricky.
“Despite the headlines about an eight-point advantage for Democrats in the generic congressional ballot, the detailed results of today’s Washington Post/ABC News poll should make most Democratic Party leaders and their billionaire benefactors sweat.
First, the eight-point gap represents a five-point drop from the same poll just three weeks ago, when Democrats had a 13-point advantage. (Like most polls, the sample favors Democrats by six points among registered voters.)
But even more ominous for Democrats is how specific voting blocs responded. If Democrats are going to win control of the House, they need to pull votes from independent women and women in the suburbs, and support for the generic Democratic congressional candidate has dropped significantly among these two groups. Independent women now are split between Republicans and Democrats; this is a seismic shift from the results of its October poll, which gave Democrats a 33-point lead in this group. Further, Democratic women appear less likely to vote than Democratic men, Republican men, and Republican women.
Suburban women now favor a Democratic candidate by 11-points, a lead that’s been cut in half since last month. Since many of the Republican toss-ups and “lean Democratic” seats are located in suburban areas, this could portend trouble for Democrats. At the same time, the GOP has made big gains among non-college white men and rural residents.
The top two issues—health care and the economy—cut both ways for each party. Registered voters trust Democrats to handle health care, but trust Republicans to handle the economy. Voters prefer Republicans to handle taxes, while they prefer Democrats to handle immigration and global warming.
The biggest headwind for the GOP remains Donald Trump. Fifty-two percent of registered voters disapprove of how he’s handling his job as president versus 44 percent who approve. (This is his highest approval rating in the history of this poll.) But the president is at a 16-point deficit among independents.”
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Debra, Sadly, I am afraid that Sasse is as much a “globalist” as I am since I sell no goods and services to foreigners, employ no foreigners and even drive an American car. We have high ranking Trumpkins who drive vehicles from South Korea.
I know Sasse’s political advisers will counsel him to choose option #2. I suspect his wife and family are pleading for option #3. The tough thing about being a Christian for Sasse is that God may be calling him to Option #1. He wouldn’t want to be like Jonah.
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I don’t think calling Comey a liar for saying his wife is independent was called for. The point about being independent is that a person may vote Republican some and Democrat some, or even Libertarian or Green Party some. So the fact that she supported Hillary doesn’t necessarily mean she is not Independent. She may even lean mostly Democratic (I don’t know if she does or not) but still consider herself Independent.
I wish people on social media (and in life in general), especially Christians, would be more careful about throwing that accusation around. Often people who are merely mistaken or wrong (or perceived as wrong) are accused of lying. (This is a distinction I am trying to get across to my eight year old grandson. Adults should know better.)
Interesting that the 9th commandment covers both lying and carelessly accusing someone of being a liar.
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Ricky, then I can only say that if Sasse shares your apparent misunderstanding (or disingenuity) regarding globalism, I could in good conscience recommend him for the governmental office of dog catcher. Maybe. He certainly does not seem to understand the Trump movement or what caused it. I have ordered his latest book, so I should have more to say on the subject in a week or so. :–)
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Kizzie, “my independent-voter wife” seems to say she voted for an independent—when it is rather clear that she did not.
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11:26 As I have mentioned before, I am rooting for the Rs to hold the Senate for purposes of confirming judges and as a tiny possible check on boondoggles like infrastructure that might come from a Trump/Pelosi alliance.
My interest in the House (as was said in Casablanca) is purely sporting. The Dems are very bad but so are Nunes and a few of the other Cultists.
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So why would I be a “globalist” to Trumpkins?
1. I sell nothing to foreigners.
2. I buy less from foreign sources than the average Trumpkin.
3. I am not Jewish.
4. Unlike many Trumpkins, I do not work for a company involved in international trade and neither does my spouse or child.
5. I employ no immigrant (legal or illegal) and never have.
6. Protecting the sovereignty of our country’s laws is important to me.
7. It is true that I understand comparative advantage and the economics of trade. However, this is true of all American high school students who passed the 11th grade and all semi-educated people on earth. Is every high school graduate a “globalist”?
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I would guess that Mrs. Comey has voted for Republicans before. Trump turned a lot of educated independents into educated Democrats. Trump also turned a lot of educated Republicans into educated independents. We all know some of those people. One lives in South Denial and another lives in North Denial.
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TV watching tips from your friendly nerds at 538. No math is involved.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/2018-election-polls-close/
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You misunderstand globalism or you’re disingenuous, don’t know which, but I’ll be charitable and say it’s the latter. I sell to foreigners. I work for a company that sells to foreigners. Although I check labels and prefer American, I often buy from foreigners. I’m not Jewish but I married a foreigner from a hated country. And from reading your comments I’m pretty sure I understand economics as well or better than you do.
I do not think you give much thought to your #6. I do. And that’s where globalism does the most damage because it sets the governmental framework for all other trade. Including employment policies internally.
You’ve been so busy building fictitious cults, you don’t even understand the real issues. Just because you say Trumpkins hate international trade doesn’t make it so.
Must work now. More later.
Debra:–)
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Debra, Keep all those facts secret. They will kick you out of the Cult.
Tell me why I am a globalist.
I thought long and hard about #6. Two of my ancestors died defending the sovereignty of the laws of their states. Southerners understand that issue quite well.
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Debra is at work. Can anyone else help her define “globalist” or explain why they think I am a “globalist”?
To be fair, I will define “Trump Cultist”. A Trump Cultist is a person who will reflexively defend almost any act, statement or behavior of Trump, who reflexively attacks anyone who is critical of Trump or whose personal loyalty to Trump exceeds their commitment to any ideology or party.
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Debra – I took that to mean that she is an Independent voter, not that she necessarily voted for a Independent. There are not many candidates who list themselves as Independent, although there are some.
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Kizzie,
The point is that even on the simplest of matters, Comey is less than forthright and honest. It’s a pattern with him, so he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.
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Let’s hope there’s also a backlash.
https://twitter.com/SharylAttkisson/status/1059470594809434112
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https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/412983-when-democrats-tactics-backfire
“If you’d asked me even six months ago, I would have told you that the Republicans were the party of shooting themselves in the foot. That, even when given great advantages by the American voting public — simultaneous majority control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the presidency — their leaders managed to squander those and disappoint their most ardent supporters. That, when given the power to deliver on key promises made to their constituents such as balancing the budget or reducing waste of taxpayer money, the GOP too often devolves into power struggles, indecision, conflicts of interest and, sometimes, corruption.
But as we move into the final days before the 2018 midterm elections, the Democratic Party is giving Republican tone-deafness and incompetence a very public run for the money — and then some.
Some leading Democrats haven’t seemed to figure out that the harder they’ve worked to expose, silence, scream at, attack and bully those with whom they disagree, the more they’ve invigorated the other side.
Radical “Antifa” protests covered on cable TV news only serve to energize the Republican base.
Viral videos of leftists attacking Republican politicians in public places only motivate formerly apathetic conservatives.
Efforts to silence certain views on social media only inspire impassioned defenses of free speech.
And #MeToo accusations-gone-wild transform a largely sympathetic populace into eye-rolling skeptics.
Suddenly, a Republican constituency that had grown disgusted by the disappointing do-nothingness of their own party, is confronted by in-your-face visuals of what life in America could be like if they don’t vote.”
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A Trumper (cult follower to the world most famous pathological liar) is concerned that someone else is “less than forthright and honest”?
After 3 1/2 years, that is the kind of thing that can still spark laughter.
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Remember Arizona. There’s no need to replace one Flake with another….
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Her opponent is the better choice.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/37964/watch-still-not-sorry-sinema-doesnt-regret-her-hank-berrien
“While Sinema was belittling American servicemen who were risking their lives overseas, McSally was fighting alongside them. The first female U.S. fighter pilot to fly in combat and the first woman to command a fighter squadron, she was deployed to Kuwait in January 1995 and flew combat patrols over Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch. In 2000, she reported to Saudi Arabia for a temporary assignment. Later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, she commanded the A-10 equipped 354th Fighter Squadron in July 2004, later deploying to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, where she dispatched weapons for the first time from her A-10 in combat.
While serving in Saudi Arabia, McSally sued Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the military requirement that servicewomen wear Muslim garb when off base in Saudi Arabia; that policy was then changed. According to some news reports, McSally had been fighting to change the policy for seven years, and even the threat of a court-martial if she did not comply with the regulation did not stop her from filing the lawsuit.”
In May 2010, McSally retired from active duty with 22 years of commissioned service in the U.S. Air Force.”
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You want laughter? Here’s a funny one for you……
I was thinking of surprising you by putting you on moderate before the polls close tomorrow, just for my own amusement. That way even if things go your way, no one will have to deal with your gloating. You’ll be ranting to the SPAM filter, not us. 🙂
And when it dawns on you what’s happening, you’ll know I’m laughing hysterically at the same time, while you sulk over your inability to pontificate.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
That Sir, is how you do comedy.
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But the most likely scenario is looking like the R’s barely keep the House, pick up seats in the Senate, and we all laugh while we watch a video Debra sends us of her eating your brisket. 🙂
While I gloat endlessly about how wrong you were…… 🙂
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Kidding about the last part.
I hope to be able to restrain myself, but you’ll still know I want to. 🙂
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Tempering expectations…..
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/11/midterm-open-thread-forecasters-tempering-their-confidence-about-blue-wave/#more-264697
“Midterm Open Thread: Forecasters tempering their confidence about Blue Wave
NYT: “Even modest late shifts among undecided voters or a slightly unexpected turnout could significantly affect results.”
Tomorrow is Election Day and for the longest time, we’ve heard that a massive blue wave will crash into the House and Senate.
But now it looks like the confidence has gone down and forecasters have started to admit that the blue wave has a possibility to dissipate.
You know what I find hilarious? While I update this post with the latest news, who knows what’s going to happen. After all, everyone was sure as the sky rises in the east that Hillary Clinton was going to demolish Donald Trump in November 2016.”
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And as a bonus, Nate Silver admits he has no clue, and neither does anyone else..
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/414759-nate-silver-says-dems-could-retake-house-or-not-both-extremely
“However, he noted that “polls aren’t always right.”
“”The range of outcomes in the House is really wide,” he explained. “Our range, which covers 80 percent of outcomes goes from, on the low end, about 15 Democratic pickups, all the way to low to mid 50s, 52 or 53.”
“Most of those are under 23, which is how many seats they would need to win to take the House,” he said.”
“But no one should be surprised if they only win 19 seats and no one should be surprised if they win 51 seats,” Silver added. “Those are both extremely possible, based on how accurate polls are in the real world.””
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3:31 Silver was teaching statistics to Trumpkins yesterday. He was patient with most of his students, but was launching double entendres at Dinesh D’Souza.
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I expected something like 3:20 since it is obvious that The Cult is much more scared than it will admit. I really didn’t plan on gloating. Watching The Cult pontificate about how Dear Leader kept things from being much worse will be fun enough.
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Silver says there is a 70% chance of the Rs retaining the Senate AND the Ds taking the House. There is a 15% chance of the Rs holding both and a 15% chance of the Ds taking both. I have been waiting for the article about the tiny, tiny chance that the Ds would take the Senate and the Rs would hold the House. Alas, it has not appeared. Silver should give that project to an intern. The odds of that happening are lower than 1%, but I have no idea how much lower.
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My Democrat friends are very happy about the latest generic ballot polls. I will wait and see if Silver adjusts his projections in the morning.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-generic-ballot-polls/?ex_cid=rrpromo
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Scared?
Hardly. As I said already a few times. Most likely scenario follows the historical record. The sitting President’s party nearly always loses House seats in the midterms, and occaisionally Senate seats as well. The average says the R’s lose in the House, yet gain in the Senate. That’s what I believe will happen again.
The only thing in dispute is will their be enough seats lost/gained to swing the majority in the House?
I don’t believe there will be, but if the House is lost it won’t be a surprise, just history repeating itself. Either way, the Senate is secure.
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It seems your Dem “friends” are the scared ones.
And you do know they only view you as a useful idiot, right?
Anyway…
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/11/05/paranoia-dems-starting-worry-blowing-midterms/
“Just remember, it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you. In this case, though, it’s likelier to be paranoia than prophecy. The Daily Beast reports on the existential angst facing progressives if they come up short in their bid to win the House:
Nearly two years of organizing, marching, candidate recruitment and unprecedented fundraising has led the Democratic party to a critical moment. On Tuesday, it can either reassert itself politically or fall short, prompting an utter and complete psychological meltdown.
Most in the party believe that the path they will go down will be the former; that they will gain a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since former President Barack Obama’s first term. But paranoia is part of the Democratic DNA, especially after the shock of the 2016 election. And in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, a scenario in which the party is unable to flip the requisite 23 House seats looms in the dark recesses of the mind.
“It will be paralyzing for a while, it will,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. “Candidly, I think there will be a fair amount of soul searching and people will feel back on their heels… We will have to rebuild. But the resistance is built on opposition to [Donald] Trump’s extremism. And the more extreme he is, the more we will have.”
Or, as veteran Democratic strategist Paul Begala put it: “After all this work, all these volunteers, it would be absolutely shattering.”
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And fun to watch! 🙂
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Actually, the Dems are angry with me because I will not vote for any Democrats though I share their disgust for Trump. They do have fairly strong views about who are the “idiots”. Sorry, but I can’t defend the old Cult in conversations with them. You give me no material to work with, and almost every Dem has a cultist in his or her family.
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Like the Cult, the Dems have their delusions. They have always thought that Beto would win. Silver now gives Beto a 21% chance of winning. That is not zero, but I have been telling the Ds that Cruz is likely to prevail. We will see if Silver moves the Cruz percentage in the morning. AJ, Are you still giving Beto and 10 points? I have a lot of takers for that bet.
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Resolve is a powerful tool, when used properly.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/11/trumps_resolve_is_breaking_the_migrant_caravan_up_fast.html
“The non-government organizations are suddenly silent, too, no more noisy press conferences to browbeat the gringos. Was it their consciousness about the impact of the news photos showing thousands of migrants streaming across bridges and rivers, and strewing trash all over Mexican towns, that dried their money up? Organizing these caravans obviously isn’t paying off for them, either, particularly since some, such as the Sorosian groups, have been harshly criticized already.
Or was it the increasingly tattered legal case for allowing the migrants in? So many migrants marching behind the Honduran banner told the press they were coming to the U.S. to escape poverty and get jobs in the U.S. and better their lives (through access to free stuff) and in their words “fulfill the American dream,” it rather negated the media’s “narrative” that they were just harmless refugees fleeing “violence” that Americans would be heels not to allow in. Who wants to finance such a shifting and failed narrative, given the billions of impoverished, illiterate people from badly governed places worldwide who’d also like to have a crack at America?
Or was it the Democrats’ weird silence about the whole thing that dried the caravan’s money up? The fact that the press is now reporting, vigorously, that the migrants are harmless and President Obama is insisting that President Trump is using those news photos for his midterm purposes (as if the photos were not motivating in themselves for action to stop the caravan) pretty well signals that the migrant caravan, far from being a heartstring-tugger, as the organizers seemed to think it would be, is political poison for the Democrats. That would explain their silence and general efforts to change the topic and pretend it doesn’t exist. It would also explain why the NGO money is not flowing.
And was word sent to Venezuela diplomatically that it’s on thin ice as another round of sanctions came down from El Norte? Or, more likely, does Venezuela simply not have the money, just the acolytes in Tegucigalpa, as the president of Honduras told Vice President Mike Pence? Just the fact that the conservative Honduran president’s far-left Chavista political opposition has been accused of doing this as a political stunt suggests, as a former Honduran consul general in Arizona told ABC15, that the migrants are being used. At about this point, the migrants probably know they are being used.
The lack of money, the silence, the lack of support, all of these things, along with the utterly grueling journey (seriously, how easy is it to walk twenty miles a day, day after day, with little or no money for food?) pretty well add up to an enterprise ripe for breaking apart. Who, seriously, would want to stay with it?
But here’s the big thing that is probably breaking up the migrant caravan more than anything: President Trump’s resolve to enforce existing rule of law. He’s sent troops. He’s sent reinforcements. He’s thrown up the razor wire. He’s warned the invaders that they will not be treated at all differently from all the other people asking for asylum, and they will have to wait their turn in line. What’s more, if they get into the U.S., there won’t be the freedom to do what they want for awhile, no catch and release, because they will have to wait in tent cities for their cases to be adjudicated, same as other people. The two- to three-year period of working in the states and going home to Honduras with earned (or not so earned) money after the final deportation order isn’t going to be there anymore. For quite a few of them, news reports suggested that all they wanted were those two- to three-year periods to work, either legally or illegally, in the states, and they’d go home happy with the money.
Trump also put pressure on Mexico to encourage it to keep its immigration system regular, something it did with spotty results, but news reports do say the caravans are getting smaller, and Mexico is insisting on passports for passage through.
Bottom line: There’s less and less advantage to being in the caravan, no special privileges, and more and more advantage to immigrating legally.
The break-up of this caravan is clearly the result of the leadership and resolve of President Trump. Funny how he can do that across borders, without so much as firing a shot.”
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The last caravan also broke up on its own accord. Eleven people reached the US. Believe it or not, it is hard to walk all the way across Mexico. The caravan, like Trump University, his marriages and his plan to rekindle large scale manufacturing in the Rust Belt was just another Trump fraud.
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AJ: The point is that even on the simplest of matters, Comey is less than forthright and honest. It’s a pattern with him, so he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.
Then your argument is backwards. You’re not using his statement about his wife being an indpendent voter to prove what a liar he is. You’re using your foregone conclusion that he is a liar to insinuate that his statement about his wife is a lie.
Kizzie is right. An independent voter is one not wedded to one party or the other. Having supported Ms Clinton does not disqualify Ms Comey as an independent voter. Unless we know she is a faithful Democratic voter, we have no cause to insinuate that Comey is lying in this case.
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Young Texan Heath Mayo does not lack confidence. This is an interesting thread:
https://twitter.com/heathmayo/status/1059612532393103360?s=21
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“Globalists” has often been used as a codeword for Jewish economic conspiracy. There is of course no conspiracy. Economies are too complex to be governed by a secret elite.
The real problem is unscrambling an egg. Once trade ties have been established they can’t be arbitrary changed without consequences. Trade isn’t a problem, its who benefits from trade. Modify the rules which govern trade so the people benefit. In the EU this is the policy of left of center parties. Slapping on tariffs in some vain hope or economic nostalgia is right wing populism. There was no golden age to return to. You can’t go back and you can’t unscramble the egg.
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My left wing reading is excited about the increase of the youth vote. Their optimism is a mirror to the optimism of right wing blogs AJ cites. Both cite different “facts”and “trends” to justify it but in all likelihood voter turnout is the key and polling is based on previous turnout which may be wrong. Personally, if I was an American Democrat I wouldn’t worry too much about the results. The House Republicans are so incompetent that even if they keep the House they will still achieve nothing. They’ve had two years and they accomplished less than Trump. Now that’s embarrassing.
The Democrats have a ready made excuse ready to roll. The voter suppression techniques occurring in Georgia, North Dakota, etc will allow the Democrats to continue think there is nothing wrong with their program. In addition, the Democrats will win, like in previous elections, the popular vote but due to gerrymandering and the extra weight of rural votes it will be close. And this will renew the calls for electoral reform.
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Everyone’s liberal in college.
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My argument is that in this, like numerous instances which have come to light in the recent past, they demonstrate Comey’s dishonesty. This yet another example, which other’s have shown to be false. While it is my opinion/conclusion as well, that’s irrelevant.
And really, that’s some serious mental gymnastics there on the whole what he meant by independent thing. His meaning was obvious, and that’s why he was quickly called on it.
He pretended his wife wasn’t a Hillary Democrat, and was an independent instead, which it’s easily disproven by her known service to the Clinton camp. Be serious.
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The late polls are breaking against The Cult. 538 has the Rs chances of holding the House down to 12% and the Ds chances of winning the Senate up to 19%. They may update again.
I don’t mind being called “a globalist” or “a traitor”. I am simply trying to figure out what Trumpers mean when they use the word. I figured that Debra meant something completely different than did the Pittsburgh shooter (who regarded Trump as “a globalist”). For The Cult, “globalist” can mean whoever Trump is attacking that day as cultists have no fixed ideology, only loyalty to a man. However, Debra is not a cultist. She is one of the few Ideological Trumpkins, a person who actually believed what Trump was saying on the economy. If Trump (as now expected) cuts a trade deal with China which essentially restores the old pre-2018 trading arrangement with China with a few cosmetic changes, The Cult will sing Dear Leader’s praises, but Debra is smart (and intellectually honest) enough to know that she was betrayed and/or conned.
I figure Comey knows his wife better than does The Trump Cult. Most of the Trump Administration has just been a farce (the fight with Nordstroms, bizarre writers roaming the White House while Omarosa is taping the other staff, briefings ending with Trump storming out while Cabinet members declare him to be a moron, the Helsinki debacle, the humiliating laughter that followed the ridiculous lie at the UN and the love affair with Kim). However, the harsh treatment of career public servants like Comey by Trump and his cult was worse than all the buffoonery. The jury is now out. In a few hours we will get the verdict.
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