Dan Kelly Throws Emotional Tantrum After Losing Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
Dan Kelly, the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who lost a second race for the bench Tuesday night, delivered less of a concession speech and more of a lengthy, emotional whine.
Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated Kelly easily, by 11 points. It’s a similar margin of loss to the one Kelly faced in 2020, when he was beaten by now-Justice Jill Karofsky.
“Now this didn’t turn out the way we were looking for. And I think there are a couple of reasons for it and I think we need to address them head on. It brings me no joy to say this,” he said, haltingly. “I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent. But I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede.”
“This was the most deeply deceitful, dishonorable, despicable campaign I have ever seen run for the courts,” he added. “It was truly beneath contempt.”
Kelly only got more personal from there, railing against the “rancid slanders that were launched against me,” calling Protasiewicz a “serial liar” who “disregarded judicial ethics” and “demeaned the judiciary with her behavior.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running for president in 2024
Source: Politico
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is running for president as a Democrat, according to a statement of candidacy filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.
Kennedy, an outspoken anti-vaccine activist and the chair of the anti-vaccine nonprofit group Children’s Health Defense, is the second Democrat to officially enter the 2024 race. Self-help author Marianne Williamson launched her second White House bid in March.
Both Kennedy’s and Williamson’s bids are seen as long-shots in a Democratic primary that will likely pit them against President Joe Biden. Though Biden has yet to officially enter the race, he has repeatedly said he plans to run for reelection.
Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has long led the charge in the anti-vaccine movement, spreading conspiracy theories about the dangers they pose to children. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he was among those who attacked vaccine requirements, accusing Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease doctor, of orchestrating “fascism” during the pandemic.
I use to like and admire RFK Jr. The first sign of his departure from the liberal fold was his opposition to windmill installation in one of those not-in-my-backyard type occurrences. Then he was further derailed by the anti-vaccine campaign. Somehow, I doubt his father would have approved. RFK Jr. never really new his father as he was assassinated when RFK Jr. was still in his early childhood.
weatheriscool wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 5:37 am
Progressive Brandon Johnson wins Chicago mayor's race
Source: NBC News
Brandon Johnson will be the next mayor of Chicago, NBC News projected Tuesday, marking a stunning turn for a staunch progressive and former teacher whose campaign leaned into messages of racial and economic disparities and who overcame blowback over past comments about decreasing police funding.
Crime Mattered in Chicago’s Mayoral Race—Just Not How Pundits Implied It Would by Samantha Michaels
April 5, 2023
Extract:
(Mother Jones) In the weeks leading up to Chicago’s mayoral election, polls showed that voters were especially concerned about crime. This led plenty of journalists and political pundits to suggest that the candidate with a tougher, police-centric approach to public safety would have an advantage. They were wrong.
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Every election is unique, and Chicago’s mayoral race won’t tell us how voters might lean in other places. But Johnson’s victory does show that progressives can have a persuasive response to gun violence—one that neither denies it exists nor claims “law and order” as the only solution.
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Johnson, who is Black, did not shy away from the problem of crime. He lives in a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side that is no stranger to shootings, and said in his victory speech that he’s had to protect his kids “from bullets that fly right outside our front door.” Johnson argued during his campaign that the city needed to take a new approach to violence by focusing on community development and hiring more social workers, while also being smarter about police resources. He wants to promote cops internally and to increase the number of detectives by about 200, so the department can focus on closing cases.
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Still, Johnson does want to rethink how the department spends its money. He has argued that about $150 million of the police budget was allocated wastefully. One likely reform: Johnson opposes the police’s use of ShotSpotter, a gunfire detection technology that has been criticized for poor accuracy and for fueling police discrimination against communities of color.
…
If polling is to be believed, Johnson didn’t win despite crime. In fact, he may have won at least partly because of it. Like many cities, Chicago experienced a drastic increase in gun violence during the early pandemic. Though the number of shootings began to ebb last year, Chicago still recorded 697 murders in 2022. One election survey conducted for the conservative Manhattan Institute found that 57 percent of Chicagoans (and 61 percent of Black Chicagoans) believe the city is unsafe.
WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump has widened his lead over his rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest, even as he faces criminal charges in New York, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday.
Some 48% of self-described Republicans say they want Trump to be their party's presidential nominee, up from 44% in a March 14-20 poll.
Some 19% back his closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, down from 30% last month. Other likely rivals polled in the single digits.
Democrats choose Chicago as the site of the 2024 convention
Source: NBC News
The Democratic Party has chosen Chicago as the site of its 2024 convention. President Joe Biden called Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to tell him about Chicago’s selection Tuesday morning before leaving for Ireland.
"Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention," Biden said in a statement. "Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down."
The City of Big Shoulders last hosted a convention in 1996, when then-President Bill Clinton ran for re-election and Democrats helped make famous the “Macarena” dance.
“The last Chicago convention was a huge success. It makes sense to put the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024. Every facility where it will be located will be a union facility. Every hotel is a union hotel,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth told NBC News Thursday. “We are a state that guaranteed in multiple ways the right of women to have reproductive choice. And in fact, we are a beacon of hope and security for women’s health care from all of the states around us.”
SC Sen. Tim Scott takes another White House step: Launching 2024 exploratory committee
Source: Post & Courier
Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator who has built a national profile pushing a message of hope and unity in a divisive Republican Party, is taking his biggest step so far toward running for president in 2024, The Post and Courier has learned.
According to two sources with knowledge of his plans, Scott plans to launch a presidential exploratory committee on April 12 — the same day he plans to be in Iowa, the leadoff state in the presidential nominating process.
He will travel to New Hampshire the very next day before returning to South Carolina on April 14 to meet with voters in Goose Creek ahead of his Faith in America Summit in Charleston that night and the next day.
Scott, 57, is the first could-be 2024 Republican candidate to create a formal committee devoted to raising money to explore a presidential bid even as other GOP contenders have filed into the race.
