2023-2024 Presidential, senate, house, state and city election thread

[weatheriscool]

In GOP Primary Bubble, Nobody Gives a Damn About Climate Change
by Oliver Milman
January 22, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) In the wake of an Iowa primary election chilled in a record blast of cold weather—which scientists say may, counterintuitively, have been worsened by global heating—Republican presidential candidates are embracing the fossil fuel industry tighter than ever, with little to say about the growing toll the climate crisis is taking upon Americans.

The remaining contenders for the US presidential nomination—frontrunner Donald Trump, along with Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis (who has since dropped out of the race - caltrek) —all used the Iowa caucus to promise surging levels of oil and gas drilling if elected, along with the wholesale abolition of Joe Biden’s climate change policies.

Trump, who comfortably won the Iowa poll, said “we are going to drill, baby, drill” once elected, in a Fox News town hall on the eve of the primary. “We have more liquid gold under our feet; energy, oil and gas than any other country in the world,” the multiply indicted former president said. “We have a lot of potential income.”

Trump also called clean energy a “new scam business” and went on a lengthy digression on how energy is important in the making of donuts and hamburgers. The Trump campaign has accused Biden of trying to prevent Americans from buying non-electric cars—no such prohibition exists—and even for causing people’s dishes to be dirty by imposing new efficiency standards for dishwashers.

Haley, meanwhile, has called the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate bill that provides tax credits for renewable energy production and electric car purchases, a “communist manifesto” and used the Iowa election to promise to “roll back all of Biden’s green subsidies because they’re misplaced.” DeSantis, who came second in Iowa, said that on his first day as president he would “take Biden’s Green New Deal, we tear it up and we throw it in the trash can. It is bad for this country.”

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -science/

caltrek’s comment: Ummm…can somebody explain to me again how there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats on the climate issue?

Honestly, the republican base hate science, hate the planet and pretty much live to force their narrow minded religion up our ass. They won't be caring about climate change and will just blame sin and their angry god for it if it does. IT is truly fucked.

[spryfusion]

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[caltrek]

In GOP Primary Bubble, Nobody Gives a Damn About Climate Change
by Oliver Milman
January 22, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) In the wake of an Iowa primary election chilled in a record blast of cold weather—which scientists say may, counterintuitively, have been worsened by global heating—Republican presidential candidates are embracing the fossil fuel industry tighter than ever, with little to say about the growing toll the climate crisis is taking upon Americans.

The remaining contenders for the US presidential nomination—frontrunner Donald Trump, along with Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis (who has since dropped out of the race - caltrek) —all used the Iowa caucus to promise surging levels of oil and gas drilling if elected, along with the wholesale abolition of Joe Biden’s climate change policies.

Trump, who comfortably won the Iowa poll, said “we are going to drill, baby, drill” once elected, in a Fox News town hall on the eve of the primary. “We have more liquid gold under our feet; energy, oil and gas than any other country in the world,” the multiply indicted former president said. “We have a lot of potential income.”

Trump also called clean energy a “new scam business” and went on a lengthy digression on how energy is important in the making of donuts and hamburgers. The Trump campaign has accused Biden of trying to prevent Americans from buying non-electric cars—no such prohibition exists—and even for causing people’s dishes to be dirty by imposing new efficiency standards for dishwashers.

Haley, meanwhile, has called the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate bill that provides tax credits for renewable energy production and electric car purchases, a “communist manifesto” and used the Iowa election to promise to “roll back all of Biden’s green subsidies because they’re misplaced.” DeSantis, who came second in Iowa, said that on his first day as president he would “take Biden’s Green New Deal, we tear it up and we throw it in the trash can. It is bad for this country.”

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -science/

caltrek’s comment: Ummm…can somebody explain to me again how there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats on the climate issue?

Honestly, the republican base hate science, hate the planet and pretty much live to force their narrow minded religion up our ass. They won't be caring about climate change and will just blame sin and their angry god for it if it does. IT is truly (f....d).

Agreed (as edited).

[caltrek]

Delegate count as of this writing:

Trump - 32
Haley - 17
Desantis - 9
Ramaswamy - 3

Haley has indicated that she will soldier on. Apparently, here financial backers are willing to continue the flow of cash into her campaign.

South Carolina may be a make-or-break state. Haley was once governor of that state, and it will look pretty bad if she loses it in double digits to Trump. It will also become increasingly difficult for Haley for demographic reasons and because many upcoming states operate on a winner take all basis, or at least a winner take all on a congressional district by congressional district basis. So, if she doesn't improve her showing, she is likely to fail to win additional delegates beyond a certain point in the process. A complicating factor will be whether certain states such as Colorado and Maine are allowed to disqualify Trump from being on the ballot. Also, if he is convicted of a felony that the Supreme Court finally decides is disqualifying, and this is done before the convention, having a block of delegates would give Haley and her allies some skin in the game of choosing an alternate candidate.

Complaints about a Trump disqualification can be compared to Obama being disqualified because of restrictions against serving a third term. If it should be left to the voters, then why has Obama been disqualified?

Source of delegate count: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-p ... e-tracker

[caltrek]

It turns out there is a slight difference between Trump and Haley on climate change.

Haley Is More Climate Conscious Than Trump—Which Isn’t Saying Much
January 23, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Mones) In her recent memoir, presidential candidate Nikki Haley recounted a telling anecdote about her role in pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 when she served as the nation’s United Nations ambassador.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pleaded with her not to do it, she said. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Tillerson was the chief executive of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest non-government owned oil and gas company, and had spent his career overseeing the extraction of the very fossil fuels that made a global climate agreement necessary. He argued that the US needed to stay in the Paris agreement as part of a larger effort to save the country from Trump’s worst instincts.

Haley wouldn’t have it. In With All Due Respect, a book she published in 2019, she writes that Tillerson and other cabinet members who opposed the President’s policies were “dangerous” and “disloyal.”

Fast forward five years: Haley is now running against her former boss in the Republican presidential primary. Unlike Trump, who maintains that climate change is a “hoax,” Haley says global warming is real and needs to be addressed.

She positions herself as a moderate alternative to frontrunner Trump and the “chaos” that follows him. The American Conservation Coalition Action, a conservative environmental organization, gives the former ambassador its highest ranking among Republican presidential candidates for efforts to address climate change.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... mp-hoax/

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[caltrek]

Representative Nancy Mace Faces GOP Primary Challenge from Ex-chief of Staff
by Andrew Solender
January 26, 2024

Introduction:

(Axios) The former chief of staff to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Friday filed to run as a Republican primary challenger against his onetime boss.
Why it matters: It sets up what could be a high-profile primary after Mace angered and perplexed some in her party by voting to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last October.
Driving the news: Daniel Hanlon filed to challenge Mace in the state's June congressional primary on Friday, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
• Hanlon worked as a senior staffer for Mace from when she first entered Congress in 2021 until last December, including as chief of staff for nearly two years, according to LegiStorm.
• He previously worked for former Rep. Mick Mulvaney, another South Carolinian, as well as former Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi.
• Mace declined to comment on Hanlon's entry into the race. Hanlon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/rep-n ... ef-staff

caltrek’s comment: This one ought to be fun to watch in that South Carolina will also see a significant face off between Trump and Nikki Haley. Both the presidential and the congressional district primary described above will thus be an insurgent moderate versus far-right establishment figure face-off. So, Haley may have more allies in the state than many suppose, despite the endorsements of Trump by establishment party figures.

[weatheriscool]

Illinois election board hears objection to Trump candidacy based on January 6 insurrection

Source: CNN Politics

Published 3:14 PM EST, Fri January 26, 2024

CNN — A retired judge hired by the Illinois State Board of Elections held a hearing Friday on whether the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban” applies to former President Donald Trump.

Several voters filed the challenge against Trump, arguing that Illinois should join Colorado and Maine in removing him from their 2024 presidential ballots based on his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. The decisions in those states were paused pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal of the Colorado case to the US Supreme Court.

Retired Illinois judge Clark Erickson presided over the roughly two-hour hearing in Chicago on Friday. His recommendation is expected to be announced on Tuesday when the full election board meets. The panel will then vote on the recommendation.

An attorney for the challengers, Matthew Piers, asserted that Trump filed “false” paperwork with Illinois election officials when he certified that he was “fully qualified to serve as president.” As a result, Piers argued, Trump “may not be placed on the ballot.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/26/politics ... index.html

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Haley Responds to $83 Million Trump Verdict: “I Absolutely Trust the Jury”
by Inae Oh
January 28, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) After appearing to shrug off E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump, Nikki Haley is now suddenly paying attention.

On Sunday, the former South Carolina governor said that she “absolutely” trusted the jury’s decision last week to order Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming Carroll after Carroll accused Trump of having raped her in 1996. Last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not for rape under New York state law. The federal judge hearing the case, however, has gone to great lengths to make clear the gravity of that verdict, writing:

• The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.

“I absolutely trust the jury and I think that they made their decision based on the evidence,” Haley told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, in response to the recent $83 million defamation verdict. However, Haley declined to say that the verdict should disqualify Trump from being her party’s presidential nominee, insisting that voters would eventually reject his ambitions to return to the White House.

The remarks—which follow a Friday tweet in which Haley said America “could do better” than nominating a man in constant legal peril—come as she sharpens her attacks against Trump. Those jabs include Haley questioning Trump’s mental competency and calling him “totally unhinged” during a recent appearance on Fox News.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... verdict/

caltrek’s comment: A lot have folks have criticized Haley for not going on the offensive much sooner. Yet, she is following a typical pattern: the closer it comes to votes actually being cast, the more the negative rhetoric is escalated. She is also now the recipient of a lot of Trump’s wrath, making her counter attacks more a matter of responding in kind. As she has said “If he starts telling lies about me, I will start telling the truth about him.” (Or something to that effect).

[weatheriscool]

Joe Biden Speech Blasts 'Loser' Donald Trump on Economy

Source: Newsweek

Jan 28, 2024 at 5:11 AM EST

President Joe Biden called his Republican rival Donald Trump a "loser" during a campaign speech in South Carolina. Biden visited the Republican stronghold on Saturday, which has not backed a Democrat for president since 1976, as he kicked of his reelection campaign ahead of the 2024 general election.

During his speech, which took place at a Democratic Party dinner in Columbia, Biden criticized Trump, the GOP frontrunner and former president and called him a "loser," while he also slammed his handling of the economy.

"I look at veterans very differently from Donald Trump," he said. He said Trump refused to visit a U.S. cemetery outside Paris and called them "suckers and losers," referring to a 2020 report in The Atlantic that claimed the then president referred to members at the Aisne-Marne cemetery in these terms during a November 2018 trip to France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Trump has denied the reports.

"How dare he say that?" Biden said. "I call them patriots and heroes. The only loser I see is Donald Trump," he added, as the audience applauded.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-spee ... my-1864599

[weatheriscool]

Haley Responds to $83 Million Trump Verdict: “I Absolutely Trust the Jury”
by Inae Oh
January 28, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) After appearing to shrug off E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump, Nikki Haley is now suddenly paying attention.

On Sunday, the former South Carolina governor said that she “absolutely” trusted the jury’s decision last week to order Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming Carroll after Carroll accused Trump of having raped her in 1996. Last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not for rape under New York state law. The federal judge hearing the case, however, has gone to great lengths to make clear the gravity of that verdict, writing:

• The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.

“I absolutely trust the jury and I think that they made their decision based on the evidence,” Haley told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, in response to the recent $83 million defamation verdict. However, Haley declined to say that the verdict should disqualify Trump from being her party’s presidential nominee, insisting that voters would eventually reject his ambitions to return to the White House.

The remarks—which follow a Friday tweet in which Haley said America “could do better” than nominating a man in constant legal peril—come as she sharpens her attacks against Trump. Those jabs include Haley questioning Trump’s mental competency and calling him “totally unhinged” during a recent appearance on Fox News.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... verdict/

caltrek’s comment: A lot have folks have criticized Haley for not going on the offensive much sooner. Yet, she is following a typical pattern: the closer it comes to votes actually being cast, the more the negative rhetoric is escalated. She is also now the recipient of a lot of Trump’s wrath, making her counter attacks more a matter of responding in kind. As she has said “If he starts telling lies about me, I will start telling the truth about him.” (Or something to that effect).

If Haiey believes in the jury then she needs to call Trump what he is...A rapist monster that needs to be kept away from any and all power.

[weatheriscool]

[Ken_J]

how the hell is this liar, con man, narcissist man child still a feckin option for presidential election. How the hell are so many americans so feckin stupid as to desperately want him, after all the things he has been exposed for, after doing worse with the confidential documents he had than his election opposition was accused of and the outrage over which he rode to victory the last time. After he dismantled the pandemic preparedness plan because he was so insecure about anything with obamas name on it, and then used the pandemic as bargaining chips for political compliance from cities around the country, and lied to the population about it going away, and then pitched a fake cure that his son in law owned shares in the production of... while using tax payer money to pay for the secret service to stay at the resort he owned, enriching himself on public money.

If the country hadn't worked so damn hard to recover from his presidency, and was still on the precipice of the economic collapse, I'd say let the morons have it. let it crumble under their touch.

[erowind]

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[caltrek]

Why didn't Cornell West run for the nomination of the Democratic party? Why does he insist on siphoning votes needed to beet Trump away from the only candidate who stands a chance to do so?

If West had tried to secure the Democratic nomination, I would have seriously considered voting for him in the primary. I am truly not happy with Biden as the only choice (excluding two other very week alternatives). As it is, I will reluctantly stand by Biden as being demonstrably and dramatically better than Trump. Philosophical platitudes are nice, but somebody willing to make the hard decisions is better.