Category: 2020

House Democrats summon Trump Postmaster General to explain sabotages, may return from recess early

Posted on by Hunter

The sudden collapse of the United States Postal Service's ability to do their core job—deliver mail—is now so widespread a problem as to be stoking widespread public outrage. This may finally result in substantive congressional action—sort of. Perhaps.

House Democrats are now asking (but not subpoenaing) Trump Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on August 24th to explain his actions. DeJoy, who remains heavily invested in for-profit competitors to the USPS even as he guts federal mail delivery capabilities, was previously scheduled to appear on September 17; moving his appearance up by several weeks is an indication that Congress no longer thinks waiting until mid-September is defendable. Democrats ask that DeJoy confirm his plan to appear by tomorrow; DeJoy has also been asked to deliver requested documents by Friday, August 21.

The House is putting off the "urgent" hearing until August 24 "to give Committee Members adequate notice to prepare for your testimony" but also "to avoid conflicting with the Republican convention" beginning later that evening." Which is nice, given that DeJoy is a Republican megadonor who no doubt needs to (virtually) mingle at the now-virtual gathering.

While House Democrats' non-subpoena-based request for DeJoy's testimony gives mixed signals as to just how "urgent" Congress believes the intentional pandemic sabotage of the USPS truly is, there are other signs Congress may begin to move more rapidly. CNN reports that House Democrats are "seriously" considering calling the House back into session "as early as" this week to take actions to protect post offices. "Members are getting heavily criticized in their districts during this recess period for not coming back and trying to do something," notes CNN.

It is not clear what remedies may be plausibly available to the House. The Republican-held Senate is likely to continue to back Trump's sabotages of the USPS, moves he has explicitly said are meant to harm mail-in voting efforts, for the same reason the Senate refused to examine impeachment charges against Trump for using federal funds to extort a foreign nation into providing election help: to assist their own re-elections.

But that's becoming a more and more dangerous move to make. The United States Postal Service is one of the government services Americans most interact with, and the sabotage is creating nationwide problems that Americans are now witnessing in large numbers. Urgently needed medication taking weeks to arrive; "overnight" deliveries of live animals being delayed by over a week; checks, bills, and packages that once took mere days to ship now delayed for a month, or longer; it is untenable for both businesses and individuals. And people are getting furious.

Republican estimations that restricting vote-by-mail will prevent more Americans from casting ballots than are spurred in anger to vote against Republican incumbents come hell or high water or pandemic—it is certainly an all-or-nothing play.

Democrats are also requesting Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, currently engaged in an intentional effort to pipeline Russian election disinformation to benefit Trump, to summon DeJoy to testify about USPS sabotage to his own controlling Senate committee. Johnson, however, is a traitor to this nation, and is therefore certain to refuse.

Trump House sycophants now concerned about being Trump sycophants

Posted on by kos

Next year’s collective Republican amnesia will be something to behold. Forget “I didn’t read this tweet” responses to the latest outrage from America’s buffoon “leader” Donald Trump. They’re all going to pretend that he never existed as they rediscover their supposed “values” like not surrendering to Russia, family values (for thee, not me), and concern over budget deficits. 

But for now, Republicans are still marching in lockstep toward that November cliff called “Election Day.” At least they’re doing so publicly. Privately? They’re being extra ridiculous. 

“Discontent with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is on the rise in the House, as Republicans increasingly fearful of a loss by President Trump on Election Day gear up for an intraparty war over the future of the GOP,” reports The Washington Post. “A cluster of GOP lawmakers is starting to privately question whether the California Republican is putting loyalty to the president over the good of the conference. And a small group of members is discussing whether someone should challenge him for minority leader if Trump is defeated Nov. 3.”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. 

[Deep breath]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. 

This is rich. 

Every single Republican in the House voted against articles of impeachment against Trump. The lone conservative who voted yes, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, had to leave the party and become an independent to do so. 

And now, as House Republicans face further decimation in the House, two years after they got body slammed into the minority, they’re wondering if someone else has been too close to Trump? 

Oh, and these profiles in courage still can’t talk on the record, “[T]he frustration with McCarthy had already been brewing for weeks as Trump’s polling has sagged behind presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. According to interviews with more than 10 House Republicans — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank — some GOP lawmakers are worried that McCarthy has tied the conference too much to Trump, refusing to stand up to the president or act as a buffer to distinguish the conference from him.” [Emphasis mine.]

Those 10 “worried” Republicans sure didn’t vote to impeach, that’s for sure. And when it came time to vote for the now-stalled coronavirus relief measure in May, only one voted yes—New York Rep. Peter King. And we know he’s not one of the 10 fretting GOPers. How do we know? Because he already announced his retirement.

That’s not Kevin McCarthy casting those votes. 

Of course, all Republicans have every reason to worry about November. Democrats maintain a healthy 8-10 point lead in the Civiqs generic congressional ballot daily tracker. (The same tracker spotted Democrats a 6-point 50-44 lead in 2018, an election in which the Democrats won the House popular vote by 8.6 points, 53.4-44.8.) 

And for sure, being tied to Trump has been an electoral disaster for the GOP. Look at college-educated white women, the lone demographic to have significantly moved in the past four years:   

National vote,

college white women

Vote Margin 2016 exit polls (Prez) 2018 exit polls (House)
51-44 Dem +7 Dem
59-39 Dem +20 Dem

Polling this year has consistently shown continuing trouble among all college-educated whites, and especially women. (Trump and his party are even losing ground among non-college whites, but I don’t trust them to deliver Democratic votes just yet. They’ve been shown to be susceptible to racist appeals in the past.)

Trump is going down. He’s taking down his party’s Senate majority, and another chunk of House Republicans in mostly suburban districts. All that is clear. 

But anonymously whining that some guy is too pro-Trump, while every one of your public actions are explicitly and proudly pro-Trump, is a new level of ridiculous. 

Everyone who has enabled Trump, and that’s a near-unanimous calculation when it comes to Republican elected officials, deserves to be wiped out electorally. That entire QAnon-fueled party needs to be burned to the ground. And if a science- and reason-based conservative party emerges from its ashes? Fine. Let’s have debates on the future of our country based on observable reality. 

But unless your name is Mitt Romney, you don’t get to complain about the sorry, sad state of the modern GOP.

Adam Schiff Says ‘No Racist Appeal’ Or ‘Political Dirty Trick Beyond The Pale’ For Trump

Posted on by John Hanson

House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff told MSNBC on Wednesday that President Donald Trump would stoop to any level to win the election, saying there was “no tactic beneath him, no bigotry too great, no racist appeal too much, no political dirty trick beyond the pale.”

Guest-host Ali Velshi said to Schiff, “A lot of people just don’t like Donald Trump. They forget the impeachment was about a dirty election trick. A dirty election trick is something you and I talked about I think a week ago with the intelligence that you have had that you like Americans to find out about, but you can’t right now.”

RELATED: Pelosi Says Trump Executive Orders Were Not To Help Hungry Children But To ‘Bolster Stock Market’

Schiff: We have ‘a president of the United States who will break any law, rule, abuse of power of his office, who will cheat…’

“This is another one,” Ali Velshi said. “If he’s helping Kanye West to run with the aim of defeating Joe Biden, falls into the same basket.”

Schiff replied, “Well, it does. It falls into the basket of a president of the United States who will break any law, rule, abuse of power of his office, who will cheat, and no strategy is beneath him.”

“You know, this idea of recruiting a third party candidate that you hope will siphon votes from your opponent, it is an old ploy, but it is among the dirtiest of the dirty tricks,” Schiff said. “You never wanted to be associated with it. But here it is all out in the open.”

 

Schiff accuses Trump of racism: ‘It is not even a dog-whistle anymore. It is a whistle that everybody can hear’

“The president’s son-in-law dispatched to meet with Kanye,” Schiff continued. “They’re not even hiding it.”

The Democrat added, “You know, Barbara Boxer, who was just wonderful on your show, talked about the dog-whistle in terms of the suburban households. It is not even a dog-whistle anymore. It is a whistle that everybody can hear.”

RELATED: Flashback: Biden VP Pick Kamala Harris Blasted Him for Racist Past

Schiff claims ‘Republicans in the Congress won’t say a word’ about Trump supposedly destroying the Republican Party

Schiff went on, “This is where the president has descended to low, no tactic beneath him, no bigotry too great, no racist appeal too much, no political dirty trick beyond the pale. And the terrible thing is the Republicans in the Congress won’t say a word.”

“They are watching their party destroyed,” he said. “They’re watching the ethics of the party leader just tear their party asunder, and they don’t have the guts to do anything or say anything about it.”

“That’s what enables this,” Schiff insisted.

The post Adam Schiff Says ‘No Racist Appeal’ Or ‘Political Dirty Trick Beyond The Pale’ For Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.

‘Masterful’ McConnell’s GOP caucus now in an all-out defensive crouch clinging to seats

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

Remember when political reporters crowed about what a masterful play Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had made when he lined up his caucus to acquit Donald Trump without hearing from a single witness? Yeah, that acquittal came on February 6 when U.S. senators were already getting briefed on the seriousness of the coronavirus' spread abroad. 

But Senate Republicans, led by McConnell, fell all over themselves to make sure Trump was at the helm when the pandemic hit U.S. shores. Now, what once looked like a promising cycle for Senate Republicans has turned entirely treacherous precisely because the caucus is saddled with Trump as their standard bearer. 

Let's give Mitch McConnell and his GOP majority the boot. Give $2 right now for bragging rights on election night!

Politico reports the party is directing nearly its entire $100 million war chest at saving the seats of eight incumbent senators while the few GOP candidates aiming to defeat a Democrat have been left almost entirely to their own devices. With the exception of funneling a little money into the effort to defeat Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama, they simply don't have the resources to play offense. 

The seat of Democratic Sen. Gary Peters from Michigan, for instance, once seemed like a flippable seat. But as Trump has tanked in the state and Joe Biden is presently positioned very well there, Senate Republicans have left Republican candidate John James to fend for himself. 

Instead, GOP groups, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund have been trying to bolster their defenses in Georgia, Iowa, and Montana—three states that weren't even on the radar as potential Democratic pick ups when the cycle started. 

Perhaps even more striking has been the GOP spending to protect seats that Democrats weren't even truly contesting yet. In Montana and Georgia, for example, Republicans went up with defensive ads before Democrats even got there.

“It's unusual when the other side goes there first and expands the map for you,” said J.B. Poersch, president of the Democratic super PAC Senate Majority PAC.

The bottom line is that Republicans have been left with little choice but to protect a growing map of incumbents who are inextricably linked to a president who has presided over 165,000 American deaths and counting while decimating a decade of economic growth. In fact, Trump is such a drag now that McConnell has reportedly given GOP senators the green light to distance themselves from him whenever necessary. Yeah, good luck with that after four years of letting Trump trash the country without raising hardly a single objection. 

"They're just not making the early investments they would if the president or the party was running better in the polls," said Saul Anuzis, a former GOP state party chair in Michigan.

And a giant part of the party's downfall is due to McConnell jamming that acquittal vote down the throats of his caucus members. Masterful. 

Want a safe, effective way to get out the vote this fall? Set up an account with Vote Forward, and start writing personalized letters to infrequent, but Democratic-leaning, swing state voters.

Kamala Harris Is The Biggest Gift Biden Could Have Given To Trump 

Posted on by Wayne Dupree

Sen. Kamala Harris used to be a Joe Biden critic, and now, willing to run on his ticket all for her own ambitions and also knowing that she is ONLY being picked because she is a black female.

On Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden chose Harris as his running mate for the 2020 Democratic ticket. With all the attacks she laid on him during the primary, he looked past that and chose her, eh?

Democratic Party politicians are the lowest of the low who have no morals or principles – and if they do, they are willing to trade on them in a heartbeat.

MORE NEWS: Kamala Harris Once Stood By Biden Accusers – ‘I Believe Them’

As a Trump supporter, I could not be happier about this pick. She has a horrible record. Not to mention that Biden is going to win California no matter what.

Trump-Pence will win in a landslide.

WEIRD AND INTERESTING CHOICE

Biden choosing Harris is an interesting choice since. She couldn’t even finish the Democratic race for the nomination.

This woman allegedly has so much baggage. I don’t live in California and know a lot about her. She was Willy Brown’s alleged mistress, so Democrats can’t say anything about Trump’s supposed womanizing any longer. They won’t dare find another woman to use.

Also, as California Attorney General, she stomped hard on Blacks and also deliberately withheld evidence that might have freed a man from prison. Weird indeed.

I’m not seeing Rust Belt swing states swinging behind Kamala-as-President. And, if they think this is going to guarantee massive Black voter turnout, they are sniffing [pardon the pun] glue.

MORE NEWS: Michael Moore Floats Conspiracy Theory About ‘Rehearsal’ For Coup Against Trump

ON THE OTHER HAND, TRUMP’S A SHOE-IN

I feel our country dodged a bullet when then-candidate Donald J. Trump was elected. I wanted to break into St. Mary’s Church, downtown, and ring the bells in the middle of the night, except I would not want to damage the church by breaking in.

Disregard personality and you have a courageous fighter who has a backbone, tenacity and keeps marching onward helping our country become stronger, more stable (less dependent on foreign ties), with more manufacturing work right back here in River City.

It is disgusting that our politicians and American corporations have allowed thousands, if not millions, of our jobs to go to Communist China. I cannot think of a single other politician who could have plowed onward while constantly being shot with hurtful accusations of racism, sexism, impeachment, hatred, and threats of all kinds. Trump worked for much better trade deals with Mexico, Canada, and China.

MORE NEWS: Flashback: Biden VP Pick Kamala Harris Blasted Him for Racist Past

He pulled us out of WHO, which seems to be a fraudulent self-serving organization.. He has insisted our immigration laws be enforced, which, by the way, will actually decrease suffering and separations. Just lately he fired the CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority for trying to fire American IT workers and outsource those jobs. The man was paid over eight million dollars, which is obscene and Trump limited that position to $500,000.

Trump is working for our own people and country. He knows nonsense and rip-offs when he sees them. He has a genuine love for this country as do thousands of immigrants who are thrilled to be here to freely build a prosperous life.

Trump is the only president in my 51 years that I have sent a Christmas card to thank him for working so hard.

WAYNE’S RECOMMENDATIONS

 

The post Kamala Harris Is The Biggest Gift Biden Could Have Given To Trump  appeared first on The Political Insider.

Asked whether Trump wants election delayed, will accept foreign help, Trump team refuses to say

Posted on by Hunter

It was another typical day on the Sunday shows, the place where America's most powerful people congregate to, for the most part, brazenly lie to us. Today's version came with one thing that the Trump team Very Much wants to talk about—banning social media app TikTok—and several they very much did not.

The two things they didn't want to talk about: Whether Donald Trump has asked his staff about delaying the November elections, and whether Trump's White House and/or campaign will accept foreign "assistance" in defeating former Vice President Joe Biden.

WATCH: Trump adviser Jason Miller is asked three (3) times whether the Trump administration or campaign would accept foreign assistance in this election. Three (3) times, he refuses to say no. pic.twitter.com/Kcgm021pHP

— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) August 2, 2020

That Trump campaign creature and deadbeat dad Jason Miller was so aggressively unwilling to answer straight-up whether the Trump team would be willing to accept foreign election assistance to beat Biden, on Fox News Sunday, is probably not surprising. Miller instead called it a "silly question," which to his credit is true: Trump himself faced impeachment for extorting a foreign government to provide such help, using the tools of his office, so pretending there is some remaining doubt about whether Trump and his team of people who did such a thing would do such a thing is indeed "silly."

This one is on Fox host Chris Wallace. If you book the oozing gastropod Miller on your show, you know what you're going to get: Lying. Gaslighting. Dear Leader-isms a-plenty. And you would still talk to him ... why? The point of bringing on a spokesperson who you can be absolutely sure will lie about anything and everything pertinent is what, exactly?

Newest Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, plucked from his House seat after a campaign of vigorously defending Trump from both the thing Trump was impeached over and every last thing he wasn't, had his own moment of not-gonna-answer-that when asked on Face the Nation whether Trump, after suggesting in a tweet that the presidential election be delayed, asked "you or anybody else in the administration to look into" delaying it.

Meadows couldn't answer that one. Or rather, wouldn't answer that one, instead swerving to attacks on pandemic vote-by-mail efforts with the usual aplomb of a treasonous dirtbag man with no particular attachment to seeing those elections happen. He can't answer whether Trump administration members were specifically asked, by Trump, if there was a way to delay the elections? Really now?

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows doesn't answer John Dickerson's question about "did the president ask you or anybody else in the administration to look into the idea of delaying the election day?" pic.twitter.com/dclXhW8ZcE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 2, 2020

If you can't give an emphatic no to that one, we can all read between the lines. All right then, so it's come up.

None of this bodes very well for the elections, of course. Meadows was among the House Republicans most willing to be crooked on Trump's behalf back in Congress; presumed foreign agent Rep. Devin Nunes has been getting anti-Biden packets from pro-Russian Ukrainians while ex-House Republican Mike Pompeo, of the same vintage, uses his State Department perch to distribute anti-Biden materials to House Republicans while hiding it from Democrats.

There's a coordinated Republican strategy to manufacture foreign dirt, using pro-Russian foreign forces, to attack Biden with conspiracy theories in the final months of the election so that the best American pal foreign autocrats ever had can cling to power for another four years. From Pompeo to Barr, from Nunes to Meadows to Giuliani to Miller, they're sifting through disinformation to see what they can plausibly use before the press, the American people, intelligence services and federal investigators catch wind of it.

It'll probably be very stupid things, given what Giuliani has presented so far, but that doesn't mean they won't go all-in on the effort. If Trump and his team cannot be bothered to form even a mediocre plan for combatting the pandemic that has now killed 150,000 Americans and which may kill 250,000 before November—and they clearly can’t—then arguing that whoever Trump’s running against would be even worse is the only remaining play.

A Democratic wave pickup of 10 Senate seats is a real possibility

Posted on (Updated by kos

Early in the cycle, the big question was wether Democrats could pick up the net-four seats they needed to get control of the U.S. Senate (assuming they won the presidency, and the tie-breaking vote). It was a tall order, given that only one top pickup opportunity (Colorado) was in a 2016 blue state. But Donald Trump’s disastrous and deadly presidency hasn’t just crushed his own reelection chances, but is now threatening Republican Senate seats no one would’ve ever thought would be at risk, even in some solidly red states. 

Welcome to my inaugural ranking of Senate races, by most likely to flip. 

TIER ONE (expected to switch)

1. Alabama, Doug Jones (D)

Our two-year Democratic rental, thanks to a narrowly won special election against a child predator, should come to an end this November as Alabama’s strong Republican lean and a run-of-the-mill Republican challenger ends Jones’ term. No regrets. It was great while it lasted. 

2. Colorado, Cory Gardner (R)

Joe Biden will win Colorado by double-digits. There’s no way Gardner overcomes that margin, and especially not against former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who remained popular throughout his two terms in office. In fact, Gardner has acted as someone vying for a spot on a second Trump term, reliably defending his president during the impeachment proceedings, rather than a blue-state senator trying to differentiate himself from the top of the ticket. 

3. Arizona, Marth McSally (R)

McSally narrowly lost in the Democratic wave in 2018, and since appointed to fill Sen. John McCain’s seat after his death, she is headed toward another defeat at the hands of Democrat Mark Kelly, an astronaut and husband to former congresswoman and gun violence victim Gabby Giffords. Polling is showing both Biden and Kelly pulling away, in a state in which resurgent Latino voters and suburban white women are heavily engaging. 

4. North Carolina, Thom Tillis (R) 

Democratic Iraq and Afghanistan war vet Cal Cunningham has proven a surprisingly strong challenger to first-term Republican Thom Tillis, handily leading him in all recent polling. It’s not even looking close, in a state in which Biden has also led (albeit more narrowly). Tillis runs weakly against Republicans, who see him as a traitor to Trump’s cause. And the double-whammy of Trump losing the state, and Tillis losing Trump voters, looks too much to overcome. 

5. Maine, Susan Collins (R)

Collins survived decades as a Republican in blue Maine by pretending to be a “moderate” independent-minded legislator. The Trump years have torn that facade away, as she’s sided with the wannabe despot in both his Supreme Court nominations, and in voting to acquit him during the impeachment proceedings. Democrat Sara Gideon, Speaker of the Maine House, is leading in all recent polling, and would be the first woman of color (Indian American) elected in Maine. 

These five races would net Democrats the +3 seats they need for a 50-50 Senate, with Biden’s vice-president casting the tie-breaking vote. But what a nightmare that would be, right? We’d have the nominal majority, but well-short of the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and without the Democratic votes needs to eliminate that stupid filibuster. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has already declared he’d vote against any such efforts. So it is imperative that Democrats pad their majority in order to have the votes to get rid of the filibuster and push through critical legislation like statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico (if its residents vote for it), voting right protections, economic stimulus, police reforms, measures to address climate change, and other Democratic priorities. 

TIER TWO (toss-ups)  

6. Montana, Steve Daines (R)

How can Democrats be competitive in a state which Trump won by over 20 points? First, convince popular Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock to run, then watch Trump’s numbers collapse to the point that Biden is actually competitive. Recent polling in this hard-to-poll state show Republicans with the narrow edge, but it’s narrow. 

7. Iowa, Joni Ernst (R) 

This wasn’t a state that was supposed to be competitive, with Trump winning by nine points in 2016. Yet Trump disastrous trade wars decimated Iowa farmers, and the coronavirus pandemic has only added to anti-GOP sentiment. So this state of rural non-college whites—the core base of the modern Republican Party—is suddenly flirting with voting Democratic. Most recent polling shows Trump leading by a hair, the same as Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield. 

8. Georgia, Kelly Loeffler (R)

Georgia has a racist Jim Crow-era election system, in which candidates require 50% in the first round, otherwise the race moves to a January runoff. This is a special election, thus features a “jungle primary” in which all candidates, of all parties, run on the same ballot. If none reaches 50% (and none will), this gets decided January next year. Democrats are running several candidates, and would be best served if they rallied around Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (where Dr. Rev, Martin Luther King preached). 

While Democrats have traditionally suffered turnout woes during the runoff elections, I doubt that’ll be an issue this cycle. January will be HOT in Georgia. 

9. Georgia, David Perdue (R)

Same as above, except that there’s no jungle primary. Democrats nominated Jon Ossoff to take on the incumbent. Polling has been mixed in this race, with some showing a tied race, and others showing Perdue close to 50%. But at the same time, almost all polling is showing a competitive presidential contest. If Biden can extend his lead in this coronavirus-stricken state, he could very well pull Democrats across the line with him, at least into January runoffs where defeated and demoralized Republicans might just sit things out. 

TIER THREE (lean Republican)

These solidly Republican states shouldn’t be competitive at the Senate level, yet amazingly, they are! 

10. Kansas, Open (R)

The conventional wisdom is that if Republican nominate crazed right-winger Kris Kobach, that this seat in this +20 2016 Trump state becomes far more competitive in November. That would make sense, since Kobach cost Republicans the governorship in 2018. Our own Civiqs polling, actually, found Democrat Barbara Bollier competitive no matter who Republicans nominate. A tough state, for sure but Kansas is one of the few remaining Republican states with high educational attainment (the other being Utah). Given the nation’s partisan stratification based on college education, we can expect Biden to narrow the gap from 2016, improving Bollier’s chances down the ballot. And if Republicans nominate Kobach? That can’t hurt, either. 

11. Alaska, Dan Sullivan (R)

Alaska is competitive at the presidential level (more here), despite the fact that Trump won it by 15 in 2016. No polling has shown the Senate race competitive, but that’s because 1) there is no Democratic nominee—an independent is filling that slot, and 2) that nominee, Al Gross, has a name ID of about zero percent. Gross is now up in the air, and that should boost that name ID in this cheap state. Also, Democrats will now learn that he is their guy, and will answer accordingly the next time they’re polled. 

Without strength at the presidential level, this seat isn’t in play, but Alaska has been trending Democratic for several cycles now, and this year may be the year when that vast swath of land is painted in glorious blue. 

12. South Carolina, Lindsey Graham (R)

Pinch me I must be dreaming. Infamous Trump bootlicker Lindsey is vulnerable? Yes. Yes he is. The polling has shown the state tightening at the presidential level, and the pandemic is hitting South Carolina hard, further weakening the state’s dominant Republican Party. Democrats have an awesome candidate in Jaime Harrison. His problem has been that while he’s running even with Graham, most undecideds in the race are conservative voters. It’s a tough hill to overcome. But this is happening: 

Civiqs Results

Every point Trump falls is a point that could cost him in the presidential election, and every point that presidential race narrows is one point less Harrison needs to overcome to win the Senate seat. The play here isn’t for Biden to win, he doesn’t need South Carolina (as nice as it would be!). We need it close enough to give ourselves a chance down ballot. 

This is a long-shot, by all means, but it’s a real shot. And Harrison has raised record amounts of cash and has the resources to wage a real campaign in this final three-month sprint to Election Day.  

13. Texas, John Cornyn (R)

The big question in Texas is whether it is competitive at the presidential level or not. It’s clear where the state is trending, and no doubt in a cycle or two it will be legitimately purple. But polling is mixed on whether this is the year. And that will inform whether the Senate race is flippable. On its merits, Cornyn should be cruising to reelection. He has none of the baggage Sen. Ted Cruz had in 2018, where he held on to his seat by just 2% of the vote. But if Texas Democrats can get the state’s chronically underperforming Latino vote to activate, then all bets are off—at both the presidential and senate levels. 

CONCLUSION

Of the 13 Senate seats currently in play, 12 of them are held by Republicans. The odds of Democrats picking up 10 or 11 seats are currently low, but the trends just keep getting worse and worse for the GOP. The toll of the pandemic isn’t just worsening nationwide, it’s currently disproportionately affecting some of the very states discussed above, like Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas. 

Meanwhile, Trump is doing nothing to reverse his precipitous collapse in his national standing, while also refusing to allow Republicans to distance themselves from him. 

So can we get to a double-digit pickup in the Senate? Not today, we wouldn’t, but Republicans still have three months to fall. 

A weakened Trump desperately tries to preserve his delusions of grandeur

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

An enfeebled Donald Trump made a desperate bid this week to snatch victory from the jaws of electoral defeat. Baselessly impugning mail-in voting as a drag on election integrity, Trump offered, "Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

Not only does Trump lack the constitutional authority to do anything of the sort, no one was going for it. Not the pro-Trump co-founder of the ultra conservative Federalist Society, Steven Calabresi, who called it grounds for "immediate impeachment." Not the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which suggested that perhaps Trump should scrap his reelection bid and "let someone run who isn’t looking for an excuse to blame for defeat." And even some vulnerable Senate Republicans up for reelection this cycle managed to part ways with Trump on something for basically the first time ever. 

In case you missed it, Trump is now at the weakest point of his presidency. Facing electoral doom and threatening to sink the GOP with him, some Republicans smell freedom are breaking out the pitchforks early. 

After Trump's 'delay' trial balloon drew a legion of arrows, he was back Thursday afternoon to assure Americans that we "must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months, or even years later!" No, we must not. Hopefully, we will know the result of the presidential contest that night, but there's nothing constitutionally imperative about getting immediate results. 

What is true is that the longer the results are delayed, the longer Trump will have to sow the seeds of doubt in Americans’ minds about the election’s integrity. Trump voters are already predisposed to refusing to accept the results of November's election, with 55% of respondents in a Yahoo/YouGov survey saying they would not accept a close election result if Biden wins due to "an advantage in mail-in votes.” And Trump is already very actively laying the groundwork for that skepticism to take hold, with a particular focus on “mail-in voting,” which is the same as absentee voting even though Trump likes to pretend there’s some meaningful distinction. 

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump wrote in his deranged “delay” tweet.

As the Washington Post reported Thursday, Trump has "attacked mail voting nearly 70 times since late March in interviews, remarks and tweets, including at least 17 times this month." Naturally mail-in/absentee voting are also the safest way for Americans to vote amid the pandemic. 

But pre-doubting the election results isn't just a strategy for Trump, it's also a psychological necessity for someone who's entire persona and sense of self-worth is delicately balanced on a mythical house of cards. Trump's whole adult existence has been nothing but a deceptive smoke-and-mirrors fabrication aimed at convincing others of his greatness. But along the way, Trump fell for his own delusions of grandeur, and now it's imperative to his being that he safeguard them at all costs. Losing fair and square simply isn't an option for someone who's convinced himself he's a "killer," a term he inherited from his sociopathic father, Fred Trump.

So when Trump charges that he’s been “very unfairly treated” from the get-go, the media never gives him enough credit, the "fake" polls are undercounting his voters, the "silent majority" will have its say in November, and that a “fixed” and “rigged” election has already been stolen out from under him, it's all of a piece—a function of self-preservation for a man who’s impervious to any reality that undercuts his supposed supremacy.

None of this is to say we should dismiss the strategic side of Trump's persistent "fraud" push. He is pumping the ether full of toxicity about what he’s already declared “the greatest election disaster in history.” And it's surely not beyond Republican lawmakers to survey the post-Election Day GOP ruins and decide, yeah, why not back Trump’s bid to steal the election? Without him, there's nothing left of us.

We must make certain it's perfectly clear that Americans won't stand for his betrayal of our Constitution, our democratic ideals, and our republic. Trump has made perfectly clear for years that he would like to be "president for life" and, given all the investigations awaiting him if he loses, he has more incentive than ever to barricade himself in the White House. As American-Russian journalist Masha Gessen told MSNBC's Joy Reid Friday, "the question of whether he can is really a question of how many enablers he has?" The People must provide a convincing counterbalance to those enablers.

But if Joe Biden wins, it won't matter whether it's a narrow victory or an emphatic rout, Donald Trump will go to his grave believing he was harassed as a candidate, wronged throughout his presidency, and robbed of reelection. When the truth is, he cheated his way into office and spent four years taking everything America was worth and burning it like Monopoly money, just like he did with his daddy’s fortune. Too bad Fred Trump won't be around to bail out the country.

Trump didn’t just break the GOP, he broke conservatism

Posted on by kos

Remember when you could all describe, in one succinct sentence, what the Republican Party was all about? “Family values, lower taxes, and a strong national defense.” Democrats spent decades trying to come up with their own pithy slogan and failed. We are just too diverse a coalition to condense into a single sentence. And turns out, we don’t need to, because the head of the conservative movement, Donald Trump, has exposed just how empty that statement of values always was. 

It was quite the feat, actually, to take the one man with inarguably the worst record on “family values,” and then rally around him with zero sense of irony or shame. Trump had multiples and then cheated on them with pornstars while ignoring his children. He didn’t (and doesn’t) go to church, give to charity, or show any semblance of humility. In fact, the did the opposite of charity—he used a charity to grift. 

In fact, has any one man ever embodied the seven deadly sins more perfectly than Trump? Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. He is a wretched human being, morally bankrupt and ethically corrupt. And through it all, evangelical Christians have stuck with him, proving that they never ever cared about any actual morality. 

On national defense, Republicans have acknowledged that Trump is a puppet of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. The current House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a solid Trump ally, who was recorded saying back in 2017, “There’s …there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: [California Rep. Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump … [laughter] … swear to God.” Then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, another Republican, thought that was funny, ““This is an off-the-record … [laughter] … NO LEAKS … [laughter] … alright?!”

Hilarious. 

We went through a whole impeachment process in which Trump’s attempts to enlist foreign governments to help his reelection campaign were fully exposed, and Republicans did nothing but shrug. 

But nothing tops revelations that Russia paid Taliban fighters in Afghanistan a bounty for every dead American they killed, and Trump couldn’t be bothered to give a damn. Instead, Putin’s loyal lapdog keeps checking in with Moscow every month, to discuss who knows what. You’d think Republicans would care about America’s top historical geopolitical opponent encouraging the murder of our troops, but nah. 

They did get to the “lower taxes” bit, however. Nothing like destroying our nation’s finances in order to justify the cutting of our social nets to really get Republicans excited. … Then again, “bailing out billionaires” isn’t particularly the most populist and popular policy plank on which to hang all your electoral hopes. 

So we know that all of this has utterly crushed the GOP, and we’re headed toward another anti-Republican wave election this fall. But now we’re seeing evidence that this goes deeper than simple anti-GOP sentiment. By exposing its flimsy pretenses, Trump is breaking conservatism itself. Check out Gallup’s polling on self-identified ideology over the course of this year:  

American’s ideology Jan/Frb mar/Apr May/Jun Conservative Moderate Liberal
40 37 34
34 36 36
22 23 26

That’s a stunning collapse in such a short period of time, while the long-demonized term “liberal” is making a strong comeback. (Many Democrats prefer the safer-sounding “moderate,” as you can see if you follow the link above. Black, young, Latino Americans all prefer “moderate” to “liberal,” when we know they are politically liberal.)

More Gallup:

The decline in self-identified conservatism in 2020 has been seen about evenly among men and women, and among all political party groups.

However, it was more pronounced among adults in upper-income households as well as among middle-aged adults (aged 35 to 54) than their counterparts.

The conservative falloff has also been stronger among White and Hispanic Americans than Black Americans. Relatively few Black Americans (25%) identified as conservative in January/February, and thus there may have been less opportunity for the rate to decline.

Among those who earn more than $100,000, the number of self-identified conservatives dropped 11 points, from 40% to 29%. And since we’ve tracked suburban voters so closely for the last several cycles, they are also leaving the conservative fold, from 36% to 28%. In fact, and this is crazy—there are fewer conservatives now in the suburbs than in cities (33%)!

Still, don’t count out rural areas, getting hit harder and harder by COVID-19. They’ve gone from 50% conservative to 43%. That’s why states like Alaska, Iowa, Montana, and Ohio are suddenly back in play at both the presidential and Senate levels. 

Republicans exist only insofar as conservatives exist, as they and Trump fight to make their tent even smaller and unwelcome to anyone who isn’t ideologically pure. Seeing at close range the kind of rampant hypocrisy, corruption, mismanagement, and incompetence inherent in conservatism, Americans are ditching the label and, with it, their votes for Republicans. 

And they still have a lot further to fall. 

With Trump’s Re-Election Almost Assured, Conservatives Need To Be Focused On The House And Senate

Posted on by Wayne Dupree

The Dems aren’t playing 3–D chess while the Republicans play checkers. Dems are ruthless and power-mad, but they’re malevolently intelligent, not smart in any normal sense of the word. They know the system front, back, and sideways. They have a script and stick to it, mostly.

They have a strategy (such as it is) driven by a rancid ideology, so they don’t have to “think,” really. Dems are emoting machines, not thinking machines. Dems perform, they do not work, as in “work for a living.”

The Dem strategy for impeachment runs parallel with other strategies with the shared goal of Fundamental Transformation – of this country, the dominant culture, contemporary society, norms, rules, conventions.

Impeachment is simply more chaos, more uncertainty, more unhappiness. These are all desirable outcomes, as far as today’s Democrats are concerned. Spread the misery far and wide. It’s what the white patriarchy deserves.

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By my estimation, four Republican seats might swing but only two Democrats. So unless there is something really big in October, the Senate is about even. I would hate to lose those judges and hopefully a new budget deal.

IT IS ALL EXTREMELY DIABOLICAL

The television news, talk, and late-night shows are all highlighting how righteous the DemocRATs are and how evil, vindictive, and revengeful Trump is. The media is a powerful weapon against Trump. This goes on 24/7. Senators listen to the TV and the polls, and they continue to hear that Trump is bad and must go.

Clever sound-bites are burying the truth.

The Dems and their media partners are extremely skilled in their psychological propaganda. Now secret recordings are being paraded to boost their case. The media is not covering the Trump defense like they did the prosecution, of course. It does not see the light of day, on purpose. And even though Trump’s lawyers are confident they have the truth, he could still lose (see last paragraph).

People need to prepare themselves because God forbid, Trump could lose.

That’s exactly what George Soros and other billionaire globalists (communists) are striving for. I have said it again and again that merely reelecting Trump is not enough. Look what the House has already done with their majority. If the Dems win in the Senate and keep the House, Trump will hardly be able to move.

It’s high time to put that popcorn aside that Trump is going to win in a landslide and concentrate heavily on the House and the Senate. Other than the heavy election and ballot fraud, Trump’s reelection is pretty much assured.

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DEMS ARE LOSING THE BLACK VOTE AND ARE DESPERATE

The left knows that they are losing the Black vote (and probably the Hispanic too), so they are desperately trying to get the white moderates and independent votes thru blaming President Trump for all the staged civil unrest.

The false compassion, white demonization strategy is very risky and deadly for Democrats because it relies on violent anarchists committing criminal acts to create fear and uncertainty. At the same time, the Democrats do nothing (and enable the chaos).

Eventually, reasonable people will be looking for who can control and reverse all the damage done. How can the Democrats be the solution to the problem they created?

The most frustrating thing about politics isn’t the rabid anti-American left; it is the gutlessness of our pro-American Republicans, who, with almost no exception, I don’t doubt that they love this country. I don’t understand how they can’t understand that millions of people would cheerfully support them if they stood up to this garbage.

THE MORE I THINK ABOUT THINGS ARE COOL

No one is enthusiastic about Biden. Most Trump supporters can’t wait to vote for Trump and I would rather Trump poll a little behind as it will be a reminder to go and vote for him. At the same time, the sleepy Joe voters will hopefully repeat 2016 and just stay home thinking that Joe has it in the bag and there is no reason to waste time voting for him, and they aren’t all that excited to vote for him anyway.

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I don’t think the Democrats are focusing on the “anybody, but Trump” vote is a winning strategy.

THAT’S WHY WE MUST DO THIS

Everyone here needs to get off of their ass and vote. We need people to do more than type about their beliefs. Vote. Get your friends and family to vote. This is one of the critical moments in history. If you don’t vote, you should be too ashamed to ever chat in forums like this again.

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