When a less chewed up and spit out Jeff Sessions vacated his Senate seat in 2017 to become Donald Trump’s first U.S. Attorney General, it forced a special election in Alabama to replace him. And that’s about the only way a Democrat like Doug Jones was ever going to win in that state.
The reason is straight ticket voting (STV). Alabama (and six other states*) still offer this option for those who have one concern when casting a ballot: party affiliation.
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§30121. Contributions and donations by foreign nationals
(a) Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for-
“A growing number of Republicans are privately warning of increasing fears of a total wipeout in 2020: House, Senate, and White House,” Axios reports.
“All of this is unfolding while the economy still looks strong, and before public impeachment proceedings have officially begun.”
“Planners were having difficulty selling table sponsorships to the Statesman’s Dinner, and money that Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to raise for the event has yet to arrive. Event planners also couldn’t land a keynote speaker for the dinner, which was scheduled for Nov. 9 in Orlando.”
Among the findings:
• Of the 10 factors rated for contributing to the Washington, D.C., “swamp,” the top four are specific to politicians: politicians too concerned about getting re-elected (72%), politicians using their influence to make money for themselves or their families (69%), intense partisanship (68%) and politicians spending too much time raising money for their campaigns (62%).
• Republicans and Democrats polled found common ground in their frustrations. Seventy-two percent of Republicans and 75% of Democrats blame politicians who put getting re-elected ahead of acting on their principles. Corruption concerns both groups as well, specifically when it comes to using power and influence to make money while in government. Seventy-three percent of Democrats and 67% of Republicans said this is a major problem.
• The two factors on the list considered least problematic were the use of PACs by companies, nonprofits and unions to support candidates (39% concerned); and the fact that not enough good people want to go into politics (48% concerned).
View the full survey results here: pac.org/pulse
Axios: “Public support for President Trump’s impeachment is higher than it was for Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton when the House launched impeachment inquiries against them.”
Why it matters: Support for impeachment of Trump is still less than half the country — 44% in the Monmouth University poll shown here; 47% in CNN. And the polling reflects a 50-50 country. But the Ukraine scandal is pushing the numbers up.”
Dear Dr. Democrat,
Should I be worried that the Democrats appear to have gone all-in on impeaching Trump?
Tangled Up in Tucson
Dear Tangled,
I hope they have more than we’ve seen so far. Knowing Trump, they do.
Fortunately, the standard for impeachment is a very low bar: perjury in
a civil lawsuit unrelated to the president’s time in office. That rules
in just about every infraction greater than a parking ticket.
I also think we’re at an advantage now because the Trumpsters have been
blindsided and so haven’t had time to muddy up the charges like they did
on the Russia scandal. You wouldn’t know it today but there were 10 or
so charges of obstruction of justice in the Mueller report, for example,
and obstruction of justice was one of the articles in both the Nixon and
Clinton impeachments.
I’m the first guy to get a whole circle, it’s terrific. They evicted the Kennedys to put it in. Nobody, and I mean nobody else got this much abyss. Moody Judy Iscariot lives in a studio apartment in Satan’s mouth. Sad! Welcome to Mar-a-Lava.
Look at my pit. I have the deepest pit with the sharpest knives. These other guys, they have shallow fork holes, it’s pathetic. You should have seen how many demons came to my desecration. Packed like sardines. The noise was incredible. Biggest horde ever. They all wanted a piece of me. Good thing the pieces grew back. Very powerful agony!
It’ll take us ten minutes to get across the snake field. Huge hassle, but every time I ask for a golf cart a maggot-eyed horror pokes me with a solid gold pitchfork. Watch. Can we get a golf cart? [A moist crunching followed by an agonized shriek]. They have to send [several seconds of gasping] their biggest and strongest demon because gold is so soft and the pitchfork is so heavy.
Over at Buzzflash, Mark Karlin has an article up that sheds light on the real motivations behind Trump’s embrace of Evangelicals, and vice versa.
Evangelicals’ motives stem from “Revelation,” the last chapter in the New Testament, a bizarre acid trip that prophesies the various stages of the End Times. One element of the prophesy has come true: the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948. During the next phases, however, multi-headed beasts, the four riders of the Apocalypse appear and Israel is destroyed. All nonbelievers on earth must be converted or else face eternal damnation.
So be aware that when Evangelicals root for Israel, they’re really cheering on its destruction and the forced conversion of the Jews to Christianity. In the real world, fortunately, it’s all bunch of hooey. But because Trump, the conman, is determined to appease his Evangelical marks, this dark mythology is shaping our internal politics and our foreign policy toward the Middle East.
For more, read “Christian Zionists Want to Hasten Armageddon. That’s Why Trump Attacked US Jews,” at Buzzflash.
With impeachment, it looks like Donald Trump’s heading for a fall.
And most Republicans don’t seem to be helping much at all.
But if you want to out the whistleblower,
Just turn to a rhetorical missile-thrower,
That smarmy libertarian asshole, Rand Paul.
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