Calling their bullshit, part the second

And another thing...

After all the horrid diatribes against Latinos, Muslims, women, a Gold Star Family, Hillary Clinton, the disabled, ad infinitum, republicans pick now, a month before the election, to disavow statements made by Donald Trump.

Awfully convenient, ain't it?

Let's face it, republicans jumping out of the burning building is a craven maneuver designed to hold onto majorities in the House and Senate that they so richly deserve to lose--they've had since June of 2015 to renounce the actions and statements of Donald Trump but they chose to cower like cowards before their party's base.

In the business speak republicans are so fond of, they broke it and now they get to buy it.

Peace,
emaycee

But on the other hand...

Having a candidate like Donald Trump at the top of the republican ticket is a boon for Democratic chances for the White House...but my biggest fear with Trump wallowing in his own shit has always been that the republican party and its (deep-pocketed) donors will cut their losses and instead of throwing half a billion dollars into a losing Presidential ticket, use that money instead for down ballot races, trying to convince swing voters not to give Hillary Clinton a blank check.

David Nir at Daily Kos thinks this strategy is a recipe for disaster (depress republican voters, running against President Obama didn't help Dems at all in 2014), but I'm not so sure.  We generally have trouble keeping pace with republicans in the money wars (at least down ballot) and even more money being spent on republican candidates certainly isn't going to help.  The big hitch I see, though, is the mainstream media--not only are they going to be much more interested in the dichotomy between a republican Congress and a President Hillary Clinton, the whole idea of a republican Congress being a check on Hillary Clinton has to be spot on for their misguided "let's be fair to each party regardless of the damage done to ordinary Americans" type of journalism.  Or their willful ignorance of just how crazy the republican party's ideas and candidates have become.

Four more years of a Democrat in the White House would be a sweet, sweet victory (and a safety valve for keeping republican bills from being passed into law), but at the very least we need a majority in the Senate for the upcoming Supreme Court nominee battles or the victory of the first woman President will be for nought.

Peace,
emaycee

You heard it here first

After republicans get their clocks cleaned this fall, there is going to be all kinds of noise in the media and in republican circles about soul searching and what changes they need to make to win back the American people.  And here is what they're going to do:

Nothing.

As long as they have billionaires and enough simpletons throwing obscene amounts of money their way, can get 45% of the vote regardless of what buffoon candidate they have chosen, and win enough seats to continue to obstruct, obstruct, and obstruct some more they have no reason whatsoever to change their ways.

Unfortunately for those of us who'd like to see America embrace its better angels, the republican gravy train for the wealthy elite will keep rolling along regardless.

Peace,
emaycee

Run, Marco, run

Apparently republicans are shitting themselves so much over their prospects in this year's Florida Senate race, that Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are begging Marco Rubio to get back in the race and seek re-election for his current seat.

Rubio may very well be the best candidate republicans have in Florida, but it's hard to see where he's the best candidate for Floridians.  I mean, Jesus, the guy literally hated being a Senator (missed more days than any other Senator), ran a brutally bad Presidential campaign (highlight:  discussing penis sizes in a debate), and was proven time and again to be a reactionary lightweight (example:  Rubio is one of about three Americans who think normalizing relations with Cuba is bad for the country).

It'd be one thing if the majority of Floridians were as fucking nuts as the majority of Texans, but they aren't.

And they can do a lot better than Rubio.

Peace,
emaycee

Call me an asshole, but...

Being active in politics, I get numerous e-mails daily requesting my signature on some petition or another.  Most of them I'm more than happy to oblige--it usually only takes a few seconds and it's a way to guarantee your voice gets heard (or annoy a republican politician).  However there are two these days that I absolutely refuse to sign.

The first is any call for republicans to give Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing as our next Supreme Court Justice.  Nothing against Garland--while he wouldn't have been my choice (too old, not liberal enough), he seems like a decent man and would still give the court a solid leftward tilt.  But I think the American people have an inherent sense of fairness and realize that Barack Obama was elected President until January 2017 and thus the decision on our next Supreme Court Justice is rightly his.  And I want to absolutely hammer republican Senatorial candidates over this issue for the next five months--I want to us to show Americans that Ayotte in New Hamshire, Johnson in Wisconsin, Portman in Ohio, Toomey in Pennsylvania, Kirk in Illinois, Grassley in Iowa, and McCain in Arizona are undemocratic jerks who are dismissive of the will of the people.  And greatly improve our chances for taking back the Senate.

The second is those asking Donald Trump to release his tax returns.  Why on earth would I want that?  The longer he keeps it up the longer it looks like he has something to hide--and the longer it looks like republicans are truly the party that looks after the wealthy and doesn't give two shits about anyone else.  Hell, we can even contrast him with Hillary Clinton--she's rich, she released hers...so what exactly is he hiding?  While I think Trump is toast in November, the bigger the victory the longer the coattails for down ballot Senate, Congress, and state and city candidates.

Note that I don't think we should ignore these two issues--I think we should bring them up daily.  I just don't want anything to actually happen.

I'd much rather open a can of whoop ass this November.

Peace,
emaycee

And the winner is...

...not Donald Trump.

Look, you're going to have the media and the political parties telling you for the next six months that some poll shows him ahead of Hillary Clinton or some pundit thinks he can win.

He can't--the media just wants to claim a horse race so they can sell more advertising, and the pundits just want to sell more books to gullible republicans.

I can think of no realistic scenario whereby Trump wins--not a financial collapse and not a terrorist attack.  Both will just point out what a lightweight he really is.  Thirty percent of the electorate in this election will be minorities--with his hateful rhetoric, Trump will be lucky to get ten percent of that vote.  Even if he wins the white vote as overwhelmingly as Romney did in 2012 (not guaranteed), it's still going to be an ass kicking.

Still don't believe it?  Well the big money boys are already putting their money into races they might win--like possibly keeping control of the Senate.  And not spending it on Trump.

Frankly, I think the only mystery on election day this November is how many seats the Democrats pick up in the Senate--and I don't think 8 is impossible.

Remember, you heard it here first...

Peace,
emaycee

Day old bread

Aged and tired Senators John McCain of Arizona and Chuck Grassley of Iowa were in the news (yawn...) again this week.  McCain made the bold claim that based on republican primary turnout they won't need Latino voters in 2016 to win elections (bullshit, but please keep believing it), and Grassley for whining that he (deservedly) might well lose in his umpteenth re-election bid this November thanks to his utter incompetence as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committe, fiddle farting around while the Supreme Court opening left by Antonin Scalia's death remains vacant.  If America wants two faces to best describe everything that's wrong with Congress, I can't think of two better ones than McCain and Grassley.  McCain hasn't met an American soldier he wouldn't gladly send off to be killed in another pointless war, and Grassley has been republicans' best lap dog, following the orders of lightweights like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner for so long now that it's impossible to believe he's capable of thinking for himself.

It's hard to think of two Senators who have spent the amount of time these two have in the Senate (thirty years for McCain and thirty-six for Grassley) and have accomplished less.  McCain seems to get by because he's a war hero (plenty of war heroes in America who have not sucked on the public teat for thirty years and have actually accomplished something other than getting re-elected).  Grassley, on the other hand, is famed for visiting each of Iowa's ninety-nine counties each year (and this accomplishes for the American people exactly what?).

While it's unlikely, there is nothing better the voters of Arizona and Iowa could do this November than send these two into permanent retirement.  Stale, indolent, and inert are not what the American people need from their representatives in Washington, and at this juncture that's pretty much all we're getting from McCain and Grassley.

Peace,
emaycee

Yuuuuge

For all of our hand wringing over republican obstructionism concerning President Obama's upcoming nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, I truly believe that eventually it will be considered one of the biggest political blunders in American political history.

For one, as the republican party implodes it's looking more and more like we're going to have a Democratic administration come January 2017.  Anyone who thinks Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders is going to appease republicans with a moderate candidate (as President Obama perhaps might if republicans would meet him halfway) is absolutely kidding themselves.  I'm guessing we're talking someone in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg when Clinton or Sanders make their choice to replace Scalia.

Second, the American people have an innate sense of fairness, and very few of them--even republican voters--aren't seeing through the republican bullshit.  Barack Obama was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2012 and he serves through January 2017 and most Americans believe the choice for the next Supreme Court Justice is and rightfully should be his.

This may well have a huge impact on who controls the Senate come next year--republican Senators are taking a beating over their obstructionism and even republican Senate stalwarts like John McCain and Chuck Grassley have seen their approval numbers plummet.  While I doubt either McCain or Grassley will find themselves unemployed next January both could easily lose the crossover Democratic voters they usually garner which would make their races considerably tighter--and the tighter the races the more money republicans are going to have to spend on Senate campaigns that could have been won easily.  And that means less money for Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Hampshire, and Illinois--races where Democrats are probably even money (if not better) to win.

And that's before Democratic Senate candidates start hammering their opponents with ads over their Supreme Court obstructionism.

Mark my words:  republicans will long rue the day they took this track.

Peace,
emaycee

For posterity

In November of 2016, Hillary Clinton will win the Presidency with the same electoral votes as President Obama in 2008, less Indiana (and who cares--the only difference between Indiana and the shithole states in the South is that fewer people in Indiana have southern accents).

In November of 2016, the Democratic Party will take back the Senate by a comfortable margin (55 seats plus).

In November 2016, Democrats will pick up numerous seats in the House (10 plus).

And for all those republicans giddy today over how they're going to turn America into a corporate fellating, survival of the fittest, and third world utopia, two little words:

Fuck you.

The race for 2016 starts today, fuckers.

Peace,
emaycee