The pro-Sanders types are now blaming the Democratic Party - and most of the Democratic voters - for having chosen the moderate progressive instead of the radical, capitalism-hating, system-hating, mad as hell socialist who spent most of his campaign shouting about corrupt Hillary and the corrupt Democratic Party to be their nominee.
And they are wagging their fingers, insisting the Democrats can win back the working class only by lurching left.
The Clinton supporters are blaming people who voted for minor party candidates as well as the media for giving Trump free publicity and giving maximum effect to the email craziness.
Oddly, only Michael Moore so far seems to be blaming the Electoral College system, because of which Trump is President Elect though Hillary got the most votes.
[Correction: KOS has a petition up calling for abolition of the EC. Won't happen, but I signed on anyway.]
But USA Today has come out with a defense of the EC appealing to the usual claptrap, all the same.
Moore is right.
Though Huffpo writers are now calling for the EC to reject Trump there is no real chance they would dare ever to save us from this or any future demagogue, the proper occasion to filter out characters like Trump being the process of candidate selection carried out by the individual political parties.
No smoke-filled room was ever going to give us Donald Trump.
Given that, the real impact of the EC in our time is to give an edge to voters in red states that has twice in less than 20 years put a minority president in the White House - he and his party both times claiming a firm mandate.
So we should get rid of it.
But that won't happen.
Anyway, all of this is a bit like blaming everybody but the Nazi voters for the rise of Hitler.
I suppose in a while we will be hearing that we are all guilty, we are all to blame for this.
That's usually how this stuff ends.
Phooey.
Friday, November 11, 2016
Wow. Reality based, huh?
The Electoral College Was Designed to Prevent Trump. You Can Make This Happen.
Douglas Anthony Cooper writes.
So, how do you accomplish this? The process is simple: write to Republican electors in states that went red, and beg them to vote their conscience. You can download a template for a short petition — a joint letter from you and your colleagues — on this site. The complete list of relevant electors can be found here, with contact information: United States presidential electors, 2016.
I’m urging everyone to do this: not simply Democrats, but responsible Republicans. Modern history has witnessed few events more admirable than bipartisan efforts to thwart racist demagoguery: most recently in France, when decent people on the left and the right combined — despite their mutual loathing — to prevent the election of Marine Le Pen.
So, embrace decency. It’s not just a civic duty; it’s a moral duty. It is a categorical imperative.
. . . .
Trump supporters will scream; there will likely be violence, and perhaps riots. But these people did not write the Constitution; they do not get to rewrite it; and they are bound by it. It will not be civil war. Genuine Trump supporters are a minority within a minority; they will be opposed by genuine Republicans, as well as Libertarians, Democrats, and Greens. They will lose.
Occupy the Constitution. The alternative is unthinkable.
Douglas Anthony Cooper writes.
So, how do you accomplish this? The process is simple: write to Republican electors in states that went red, and beg them to vote their conscience. You can download a template for a short petition — a joint letter from you and your colleagues — on this site. The complete list of relevant electors can be found here, with contact information: United States presidential electors, 2016.
I’m urging everyone to do this: not simply Democrats, but responsible Republicans. Modern history has witnessed few events more admirable than bipartisan efforts to thwart racist demagoguery: most recently in France, when decent people on the left and the right combined — despite their mutual loathing — to prevent the election of Marine Le Pen.
So, embrace decency. It’s not just a civic duty; it’s a moral duty. It is a categorical imperative.
. . . .
Trump supporters will scream; there will likely be violence, and perhaps riots. But these people did not write the Constitution; they do not get to rewrite it; and they are bound by it. It will not be civil war. Genuine Trump supporters are a minority within a minority; they will be opposed by genuine Republicans, as well as Libertarians, Democrats, and Greens. They will lose.
Occupy the Constitution. The alternative is unthinkable.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Inclusive Trump
The victory speech
Short, happy, and gracious.
Not a word about mass deportations, the wall, or putting Hillary in jail.
I guess that all comes later.
When does the sick feeling in my stomach go away?
Short, happy, and gracious.
Not a word about mass deportations, the wall, or putting Hillary in jail.
I guess that all comes later.
When does the sick feeling in my stomach go away?
The mad lemmings of the markets
The same market that panicked at the prospect of a Trump victory in recent days is up more than 200 points so far, today.
Go figure.
The skinheads of Europe are thrilled.
Donald Trump’s Win Hailed by Europe’s Populists
Will the wave of crazy finish off the EU?
And what about NATO?
Go figure.
The skinheads of Europe are thrilled.
Donald Trump’s Win Hailed by Europe’s Populists
Will the wave of crazy finish off the EU?
And what about NATO?
Virginia went blue but Pennsylvania went red
Depressing, but not surprising.
The white working class has utterly lost its senses, driven into the arms of a party that would reduce them to slavery by lunatic preoccupations with race.
Years of mocking and angry propaganda on the left that the GOP had become the white people's party while the Democrats had become the party of everyone else is now also all but openly the propaganda of the right.
And it has now become pretty much the fact of the thing, with the Buchananite takeover of the party's leadership and of the White House.
Most white men, most white women, most educated whites, and most uneducated whites, most whites over 65, and even most poor whites, all voted for The Duce.
The wife and I survive on Social Security, Medicare, and savings that have been just adequate.
We both have chronic medical issues that cost us thousands every year, thanks mostly to the donut hole in Part D.
I cannot help but dread what the Republican radicals in the congress and Trump will do to us, both by wrecking entitlements and by undermining the value of our savings through damage to the economy.
Elections have consequences.
Sometimes we all pay for the fecklessness of others.
The white working class has utterly lost its senses, driven into the arms of a party that would reduce them to slavery by lunatic preoccupations with race.
Years of mocking and angry propaganda on the left that the GOP had become the white people's party while the Democrats had become the party of everyone else is now also all but openly the propaganda of the right.
And it has now become pretty much the fact of the thing, with the Buchananite takeover of the party's leadership and of the White House.
Most white men, most white women, most educated whites, and most uneducated whites, most whites over 65, and even most poor whites, all voted for The Duce.
The wife and I survive on Social Security, Medicare, and savings that have been just adequate.
We both have chronic medical issues that cost us thousands every year, thanks mostly to the donut hole in Part D.
I cannot help but dread what the Republican radicals in the congress and Trump will do to us, both by wrecking entitlements and by undermining the value of our savings through damage to the economy.
Elections have consequences.
Sometimes we all pay for the fecklessness of others.
The Electors choose the president and veep
Hillary has conceded.
Come to that, so has Obama.
The irony is she is ahead and still expected to win in the popular vote.
She will not be president only because the Electoral College chooses the president, with electors in nearly all the states chosen by the rule that all go to the winner in that state's popular vote.
Once you have enough votes in a state to get all its electors, all additional votes for you in that state are wasted.
They would have done you some good in other states where you lost only by a little.
Of course, the Electors could still save us from The Duce and choose Hillary on the plea that she is the popular vote victor and anything else would be a slap in the face of democracy and the people; but they won't.
And if they tried the Supremes would announce that faithlessness of Electors is in fact unconstitutional, though of course it is not.
It is absolutely out of the question, in any case, that the Republicans or the supporters of The Duce would accept that.
And probably the entire political establishment, Hillary and most Democrats included, would reject it.
So we need to remember.
Not every Italian was a Fascist on October 28, 1922, or at any time thereafter
Not every German was a Nazi on January 30, 1933, or at any time thereafter.
Not every Spaniard was a Nationalist on April 1, 1939, or at any time thereafter.
At no time was every Russian a Bolshevik.
To live in profoundest opposition is possible.
A kind of internal exile familiar to people who have lived through Latin American dictatorships, too.
Oh, Scott L thinks we should get rid of the Electoral College.
The Electoral College - and the states' equal representation in the senate - effectively rig the system to disproportionately empower the voters of red states full of Trump and GOP loving white and rural folks.
Real Americans, in other words.
And that plus Article V are why we won't get rid of it.
Come to that, so has Obama.
The irony is she is ahead and still expected to win in the popular vote.
She will not be president only because the Electoral College chooses the president, with electors in nearly all the states chosen by the rule that all go to the winner in that state's popular vote.
Once you have enough votes in a state to get all its electors, all additional votes for you in that state are wasted.
They would have done you some good in other states where you lost only by a little.
Of course, the Electors could still save us from The Duce and choose Hillary on the plea that she is the popular vote victor and anything else would be a slap in the face of democracy and the people; but they won't.
And if they tried the Supremes would announce that faithlessness of Electors is in fact unconstitutional, though of course it is not.
It is absolutely out of the question, in any case, that the Republicans or the supporters of The Duce would accept that.
And probably the entire political establishment, Hillary and most Democrats included, would reject it.
So we need to remember.
Not every Italian was a Fascist on October 28, 1922, or at any time thereafter
Not every German was a Nazi on January 30, 1933, or at any time thereafter.
Not every Spaniard was a Nationalist on April 1, 1939, or at any time thereafter.
At no time was every Russian a Bolshevik.
To live in profoundest opposition is possible.
A kind of internal exile familiar to people who have lived through Latin American dictatorships, too.
Oh, Scott L thinks we should get rid of the Electoral College.
The Electoral College - and the states' equal representation in the senate - effectively rig the system to disproportionately empower the voters of red states full of Trump and GOP loving white and rural folks.
Real Americans, in other words.
And that plus Article V are why we won't get rid of it.
What should the Democrats have done?
Well, should the Social Democrats have "stolen the Whigs'" - the Nazis' - "clothes" by promising to make Europe Jedenfrei?
What should the Democrats have done to win back uneducated whites, of whose economic interests they have been the staunch champions for over a century, as compared to the Republicans?
In a nutshell, robots, not coolies, have killed the high paying manufacturing jobs in America.
Clueless blowhard and faker Trump is not going to fix that.
Called for Pat Toomey in PA. Podesta says go home.
0157 hrs EST.
Rachel says Roe is at risk more than ever before.
The GOP will get to appoint more than one dangerous judge if they have the White House and kill the filibuster for judges.
Podesta at 0203 hrs EST tells the folks at Javits to go home and get some sleep.
Nothing more will be said tonight by the Hillary people.
Mussolini in the White House?
Brexit strikes America.
Even if Hillary wins - which seems very unlikely right now - the polls have been so astoundingly wrong it is barely believable.
The Clinton crowd in New York at the Javits Center is in despair.
Trump may be about to become the most disgraceful president in American history.
Chauncey Gardner with the soul of George Wallace.
Except that George Wallace was a real politician with plenty of experience and achievement behind him as an actual politician.
Donald Trump has not spent one day of his life in public service.
He has never run for or won or served in any public office in all his life.
Add to that that this is the best day in David Duke's life.
Rachel is weirdly and repeatedly pointing out that the Johnson vote is bigger than the lead Trump has over Clinton, castigating those who opposed Trump but could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary.
As if the second choice of Libertarian voters would have been Hillary, of course.
On the other hand, she is the only one in the pack of talking heads at MSNBC who insists on taking him at his word, in contrast to Chris Matthews who is now saying campaign rhetoric is all bullshit so we shouldn't be scared.
She is right that he is winning by spiking the white vote and she is, I fear, right to fear he will be in the awful ways many feared a man of his word.
At 0130 on 11/9 she and Chris are arguing hotly and he is defending the white working class and blaming Hillary for being soft on illegal immigration, and the Democrats for being that for the sake of the votes it gives them.
Chris may be right about that but she is right to insist on taking Il Duce's rhetoric seriously, and he is wrong to forget that even if he is right that white workers are suffering Trump is a malignant airhead with not a hint how to make anything better.
Gene Robinson more than once, but more or less alone (except for Rachel), has expressed alarm that a huge wave of white voters totally overwhelmed a giant turnout among blacks and Hispanics for Hillary.
And he's right that it's so much about race.
On policy and agenda the Democrats are and have been the party of the white working class since FDR.
That has not yet ended.
But the white working class has deserted the Democrats en masse over issues of culture and race, and in truth it seems to be mostly race.
This loss to The Duce was not brought about by fastidious leftists who went for Jill Stein.
But all the same we may have to face the Trump presidency people like Ron Chusid said would be better for America and its future than a Clinton victory.
I guess we'll all see how that works out.
As for me, I see this as something shockingly close to a victory for Buzz Windrip.
It looks like the GOP will control both the senate and the house, and in that case they will certainly not do anything to stop Trump from even egregious violations of the constitution by, for example, abolishing Obamacare by executive order, as he has said he would.
Their only real tool, after all, would be impeachment.
And who thinks a GOP house will vote to impeach a GOP president, no matter what he does?
MSNBC is now explaining how Hillary can win big in the popular vote while losing the Electoral College vote and hence the White House.
Still undecided at 0150 hrs EST.
I must say I will never take pollsters more seriously than my own gut, ever, again.
My gut told me for long this could be a Trump election.
And even if she wins . . . .
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Huffpo optimistic, for sure
Wow.
Just now, at their site.
HuffPost Forecasts Hillary Clinton Will Win With 323 Electoral Votes
The HuffPost presidential forecast model gives Democrat Hillary Clinton a 98.2 percent chance of winning the presidency.
Republican Donald Trump has essentially no path to an Electoral College victory.
Clinton’s win will be substantial, but not overwhelming.
The model projects that she’ll garner 323 electoral votes to Trump’s 215.
Just now, at their site.
HuffPost Forecasts Hillary Clinton Will Win With 323 Electoral Votes
The HuffPost presidential forecast model gives Democrat Hillary Clinton a 98.2 percent chance of winning the presidency.
Republican Donald Trump has essentially no path to an Electoral College victory.
Clinton’s win will be substantial, but not overwhelming.
The model projects that she’ll garner 323 electoral votes to Trump’s 215.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)