Thursday, July 05, 2018

Nose Holding Time Approacheth

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This is hard for me. I've been running my mouth over the past several years that I'm done with the "lesser of two evils politics" the Democrats (and, I guess, the Republicans) thrive on. The Democrats persuade base voters to back their putrid candidates by threatening us all with how bad the Republican is in comparison. In a moment of somewhat ironic truth-- if no self-awareness at all-- the DCCC, actually came up with the proposed bumper sticker above. Yes, that was them, not me. Someone with half a brain prevented them from actually manufacturing it.

But now the Trump situation really is dire enough-- and the need to check him crucial enough-- for me to urge any people who may care what I have to say, to just forget how horrible many most of the DCCC candidates are and vote for them anyway. Not in the primaries, of course, when we still have a chance to put in place sterling candidates like, for example, James Thompson and Brent Welder in Kansas, Kaniela Ing in Hawaii, Randy Bryce in Wisconsin, Ellen Lipton, Rashida Tlaib and Rob Davidson in Michigan, Alan Grayson, Matt Haggman, Sanjay Patel and Chardo Richardson in Florida, Sarah Smith in Washington, Mary Matiela or Matt Heinz in Arizona, Ilhan Omar, Jeff Erdmann and Adam Jennings in Minnesota...

My sister recently moved to south Jersey, a development near Somers Point, in Frank LoBiondo's district, a swingy seat that Obama won both times he ran and that Hillary lost narrowly. The PVI is R+1. LoBiondo is retiring and NJ-02 is considered a top Democratic pick-up opportunity. I urged my sister to forget for this cycle everything I've been saying and just vote for the Democrat. The Democrat is, literally, the single worst member of the New Jersey state Senate, Jeff Van Drew. He has an "A" from the NRA. He's anti-Choice, homophobic (and a closet case), anti-environment and a self-admitted Blue Dog. There is a strong likelihood that he'll be the worst member of Congress next year. He has exactly one good attribute: the "D" next to his name.

I've been writing for the better part of a year about what a disaster Andrew Janz is. Immediately after declaring his candidacy, he told me there are two reasons that motivated him to run: protecting the Second Amendment and trying to make sure there is more use of the death penalty. When I asked him if he's a Democrat, he assured me, condescendingly, that Democrats in the Central Valley are different from coastal Democrats. Janz has two good attributes: the "D" next to his name and his opponent: Devin Nunes. Last week, the Fresno Bee reported that Janz is gaining on Nunes. A PPP survey shows that in the very red 22nd district (PVI is R+8) Nunes is down to 49% and Janz has climbed to 41%. (Trump beat Hillary there 52.1% to 42.6% and Nunes' last Democratic opponent only managed to get 31.8% of the vote.) As of the May 16 FEC reporting deadline, Nunes had raised $4,877,671 and spent $3,021,097, while Janz had raised $1,852,763 and spent $1,254,917.



Blue America isn't ready to endorse candidates like Van Drew of Janz or to raise money for them... but if you really do want to stop Trump from continuing to lead America into outright fascism... there is no choice at this point but to hold your nose and vote for them. Blue Dogs, New Dems, corrupt corporate whores... the whole vile lot of them that are wrecking the Democraps from inside. As sickening as it is for me to say so, November is only about one thing: Trump.

Harley Rouda, an ex-Republican from Ohio, has reinvented himself as an Orange County New Dem with a very good shot to beat one of Putin's top 3 members of Congress, Dana Rohrabacher. Not my cup of tea, but not nearly as bad as Van Drew or Janz. Kamala Harris' endorsement of Rouda this week explained, between the lines, just why she made the move to back someone noticeably to her right: "In these challenging times with so much at stake, it’s more critical now than ever that we elect people to Congress who will bring common sense back to Washington and fight for inclusivity and decency. That’s why I'm pleased to strongly endorse Harley Rouda for Congress. Harley is a compassionate, principled, and savvy leader who will fight to move Orange County forward, and I’m with him 100%."

Goal ThermometerIt actually makes me physically ill that the DCCC's call for party unity is just party unity behind their crap candidates and not party unity around progressives who have won their primaries as well. In fact, that's what the thermometer on the right is about-- supporting progressive primary winners like Kara Eastman and Jess King who have won their primaries and have been abandoned to the Republicans by Pelosi and her pack of vile, nefarious scumbags at the DCCC. Never give any money to the Van Drews and Janzes; but, please give all you can to the men and women who have been chosen to represent the real Democratic Party by Democrats in their districts who the DCCC continues to sabotage. I'm not going to let my disdain for the establishment Democraps get in the way of my knowledge of what Trump has planned for America. Afterwards, of course, we'll have to wrestle with the fear of what candidates like Kyrsten Sinema and Jeff Van Drew will do once Trump starts wooing Democrats-- or figuring out how many of these right wing candidates will jump the fence and become Republicans. My bet: Sinema will be the first. (She's already announced, out of the blue, that she won't vote for Schumer as Senate majority leader if she's elected-- Schumer, the crook who selected her as the Arizona Democratic candidate!) We just can't take the chance that the Republican enablers and rubber stamps will maintain control of Congress while Trump is in the White House.



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16 Comments:

At 5:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

For the record, you HAVE been documenting pretty well how the democrap P A R T Y is getting worse partly via promoting openly neofascist and even a few neonazi candidates while suppressing better candidates.

But for every single dissertation on the above, you ALSO call for supporting the P A R T Y even though they're shit and continue to get shittier.

This is the schizophrenia of this page.

Your years of work have either enabled the P A R T Y to get worse and worse every cycle... worse and worse, *OR* have made no impact at all as they inexorably follow, nose in ass, the Nazis as they goose-step into the territory last explored in 1938.

YOU still want voters to continue to support that shit party even as they get worse than the Rs were in 2000. One might think that when the democraps have a RECORD of corruption, torture, war, extrajudicial murder, mass deportation, affirmation of bank fraud and foreclosure fraud, corporate consolidation and crime and so forth **AND** now are dabbling actively in the various hate issues, you would have your epiphany...

I, otoh, have said that the only way anything will ever turn around is to totally kill the democraps and find another way.

Your way won't change anything except making the democraps even worse.

We can either continue making things worse and worse... or we can try something else that might work.

I wonder whether Rev. Niemoller ever felt any guilt about doing nothing when there may have still been an opportunity to improve conditions.

 
At 8:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nobody is going to support the impotent, incompetent Greens, or any "other way" that feckless saboteurs like you propose. We live in a two-party system. Why don't you support search and rescue and get lost? Howie's being realistic here. You don't know the meaning of the word. Your fucking unicorn doesn't exist.

 
At 9:31 AM, Anonymous Jack said...

I’m afraid Howie is right. As horrible as Jeff Van Drew is, the alternative is clearly worse. If you don’t believe me, see NJ-2 Republican Seth Grossman’s campaign web site (before they change it):

https://grossmanforcongress.com/platform/

The sections on his platform page bear these headings:
[1] Enforce Immigration Laws
[2] Support President Trump
[3] Repeal Remnants of Obamacare
[4] Allow Americans To Defend Themselves

Under “Enforce Immigration Laws,” Grossman vilifies not only the late Sen. Ted Kennedy for supporting the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and every Democratic president since for changes in immigration laws during their administrations, but also “Bush Republicans” who made changes “to give big profits and cheap labor to their corporate donors.”

The section titled “Support President Trump” is outrageous enough to quote in full:

“President Trump has been in public life since he first came to Atlantic City some 36 years ago. His strengths and weaknesses are well known to many of us. We know that Donald Trump was never accused of being racist, crazy, or an agent of the Russians until he got active in politics and demanded the enforcement of our immigration laws and the repeal of Obamacare. Only then did the FBI and other federal agencies lie to judges so they could illegally tap the phones of Trump and his top officials.

“After failing to remove Trump and block his agenda for the past 16 months, Democrats now want majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives so they can impeach him on fake charges and continue Obama’s agenda.

“If elected, I will forcefully defend and protect President Trump and his agenda every way I can.”

But it gets worse. Grossman actually out-trumps Trump on guns in schools!

While Trump himself has only proposed arming teachers, Grossman goes further. Under the heading “Allow Americans To Defend Themselves,” he proposes “allowing qualified, trained, law abiding school employees to carry weapons.”

So he’d have not just the teachers, but the janitors—and even the lunch ladies—packing heat?

No, we absolutely can’t have that schmuck in Congress!

 
At 10:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

'Anonymous Democrap' (at 5:57 a.m.) again shows who the real schizoid is - himself. And he's a delusional schizoid at that! He wants to kill one-half of the duopoly, the Democratic Party, and then magically hope for something better to appear on the scene all of a sudden and stop the Republonazis? No. He's a liar. All he wants is for Republicans to have one-party rule. Because no one, not even the cynical King of 'Crap, 'Anonymous Democrap', can be so delusional as to so completely misunderstand how the system in the United States works. He's trolling DWT and anyone naive and frustrated enough to read his weasel nihilistic arguments in favor of total capitulation to Republicans. Enough magical thinking on the part of people who say they're for progressive politics or against fascistic rule in the U.S. Hold them accountable for the destructive mentality they ignorantly espouse. They've already given up, because they don't have the heart or the work ethic to make the difference that's really needed. DWT has both attributes, for instance. All 'Anonymous Democrap' knows how to do is whine, whine, whine, sneer, and gloat how smart they are because they know better than anyone else. That's 'Anonymous Democrap', the commenter at 5:57 a.m. That's the real bag of 'crap.

 
At 11:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I see the delusion of democraps being the saviors is strong among readers and writers here.

I wonder how you will react when trump ends democracy and voting for your precious democraps becomes an historical footnote.

Will you feel ANY guilt at being the firewall that prevented a true left movement from coalescing at any time in the past 4 decades?

I didn't think so. Sleep well.

 
At 11:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks like 5:57 hit a nerve, for the Party attack trolls sans information (PATSI) are out in force.

You guys should be ashamed of yourselves! You are almost as ignorant of fact as the average Trumpzi. Following your path would mean that the Party never changes or improves, and they would be just fine with that. You will still end up being taken for a ride and then overcharged for the privilege.

 
At 12:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

5:57 is actually a very eloquent commentator who backs up statements with facts. That people on this blog are motivated by fear to attack his efforts, just reinforces his views, that Dems will only serve/be herded through fear and never do anything of substance. As the fear moves right, so do the fearful/ ad nauseam. There are 49 "by title only" Dems in the Senate right now and they have the power to use tactics to stop the next Supreme Farce nominee, among other Trump bullshit. But they will not, because no matter what their constituents say, vote or write; they're corporate donations will not be changed. Would you vote for big Dick Cheney in 2020 to stop Trump? That the DCCC has openly opposed every progressive candidate in the mid-terms means that they would support Cheney if it meant they could keep the lesser evil gaming table open for business. Look in the mirror and ask yourself who/what is a Troll?

 
At 3:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

@ 12:49:

Eloquent, my ass. He's a fucking saboteur, is what he is. He has no platform, he has no strategy, he has never put forth an alternative of any kind. All he has is his one note: "Down with the 'Democraps.' " Exactly what does that get us? You know what. You know fucking what. What good is supposed to come from that, and how? Our one-note troll never deigns to tell us -- except to say vote for the Greens, as if that pathetic lot are going to get us anywhere.

He's telling us the corporate Dems are baddies, which we know already, or we wouldn't be reading this blog at all. We can all stipulate that in the long run, they have to go, and that in the short run, we'd prefer to replace them with better Democrats.

But before we deal with the long run, we have to deal with the short run, and Mr. "Democrap" troll boy is so busy gazing up at the cosmos for his cosmic solution that he doesn't see the open manhole at his feet named TRUMP. And he doesn't give a fuck how many people get hurt by Trump. He just wants to fuck the Dems.

First, like the little Dutch boy, we have to stick our thumb in the dike to stop the flood. Then, after we have stopped the flood, maybe then we can build a better dike. Mr. "Democrap" troll boy doesn't want to get his thumb wet. He'd rather keep it up his ass.

 
At 3:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

12:49, my gratitude. However you are incorrect. The 49 'craps in the senate ARE, in fact, impotent to stop or even slow down the federalist society's next Nazi justice. Mcturtle, displaying gonads that harriet reid never had, went nookyuler on justices. So all it takes is the Nazis on the committee voting to pass herr Janning to the full senate where at least 49 of the 50 (McCain is unlikely to make the trip for any vote) Nazis will affirm. I'm sure 6 or so democraps will prefer to look like Nazis in their home Nazi states and will also affirm. But if they don't, saint pence of the American rapture will break the tie.

3:12, how many fingers you got? The dike is crumbling. has been for 35+ years. If you think you can plug all the holes before it goes down and inundates us/US all, you are delusional. And further, you've been delusional since the Reagan admin, which would have been the time to punish that party for going totally corrupt and acquiescing to everything Reagan and his handlers wanted to do.

For how many more years and how MUCH more worser can you experience and still NOT recognize that trying to plug the dike ain't working?

You are like all religious zealots. The more I prove that your belief system is horse shit, the more fervently and unconditionally you believe in it.

That might be the crux of America's and humanity's problem.

 
At 4:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

@:38:

The more you "prove?" You prove nothing. You offer nothing. You got nothing.

 
At 5:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What I DON'T have is blind faith in that which is nonsense. You, otoh...

Will you ever realize that every single cycle, we are told to hold our nose and vote for democraps; and every single cycle the democraps get more corrupt, inept, timid, fascist, racist, indifferent to labor, the elderly, the poor, LGBTQs, kids, immigrants and women?

Where and when does this downward spiral end? with fucking FAITH??

THAT'S what you got?!?

 
At 5:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All we get from you is faith that if we ditch the "democraps" things will get better. Here's a clue for you, you smug, ignorant asshole. Things will get WORSE. And you haven't told us your plan, because you HAVE no plan. Now fuck off and die.

 
At 9:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In another post it was posited that 'you must first destroy a (lost/captured) party before you can rebuild it'.

You will never rebuild a lost/captured party by keeping them intact.

I never promised that getting rid of the democraps would immediately make things better. What I projected is that once the illusion of a left party was removed, a truly left party could coalesce -- Nature abhorring a vacuum, and all that.

And, yes, it probably needs to get worse before they can get better, though Bernie gave us an opportunity before he turtled. Neither he nor us was ready for that opportunity. His chosen vehicle was the democraps. And the democraps did what democraps are going to always do. Should be instructional... for someone able to learn.

But your way guarantees things get worse too, but with ZERO chance to ever get better.

Not to waste the likes of Einstein (the definition of insanity...) on the likes of you, but you should really see a professional for your issues.

Sleep well. But when trump ends the republic, I'll expect an apology. seriously.

 
At 11:50 PM, Anonymous zeeman said...

The rubber band is being stretched and dammit it hurts when released or it breaks before reaching it's limit! It's grim and bear it time people. Give it alot of thought. A 3P candidate does not have a chance against the political machine (Dems/Reps) this country has established (look at the Electoral College map).The Democratic party is beginning to change, think of Alexandria's NY-14 victory!Vote for the Dem no matter what in the General Election! Nov is right around the corner.Change hurts! More on this later in this blog.

 
At 4:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

@ 9:13:

It takes one hell of a lot of gall -- and a lot of pseudo-intellectual white bourgeois privilege -- to say 'yes, it probably needs to get worse before it gets better.' People will die. People will suffer. People will be imprisoned unjustly, discriminated against, starved of benefits they have earned, sickened by pollution that the fascists allow in pursuit of profits. You don't giver a shit about that. 'ZERO chance to get better?' My ass.

There is no left unicorn. The left is as fragmented as it has ever been. All the Chris Hedgeses and Caity Johnstones, and all the hack wannabes like the wretched Michael Sainato, in the world can't put it together again, pontificating and fulminating from their lofty intellectual perches, until the MASSES decide to move. That was the story in France. It was the story in Russia, it was the story in Mexico and Cuba, and it will be the story in the United States.

The odds of that happening without the Democratic Party are a hell of a lot longer than the odds that the Democratic Party will be at the center of any such mass movement. We can stipulate that there needs to be a purge. People understand that a lot better than they understand the bullshit you're peddling, which is nothing, really. It's a whole lot of what -- which any fifth grader could be giving us -- without a scrap of how. And I'll 'apologize' to you? Ha.

 
At 6:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

For 37 years and counting, the democraps, bwo all the money they Started accepting and now DEMAND for their policy service, have gotten worse and worse. Voters never MAKE them change course because the Rs, now the Nazis, are always worse... scary worse. The escalator always descends.

First we needed to TOLERATE globalism, outsourcing, moving our economic engine (factories, plants, suppliers) overseas. Now we lament a trade war that this globalism started.
Clinton won an election by "feeling our pain". But nothing was done to assuage it. And since his empathetic lie, only more pain has been inflicted (2008 was Clinton's doing).
We tolerated Reagan's agressions. We supported the Iraq war 1. We then lusted for Afghanistan and supported Iraq 2. Now we must have boots all over the area because Iraq 2 created isis and they're bad. I bet Europe is happy we did Iraq again. Did your democraps undo, fix or even withdraw from any of that?
We lament trump's ICE because he's evil and openly hates. But obamanation STARTED this. You think your next democrap majority or prez will fix this? They can't. They need the issue to run on in all future elections.
We went from tolerating the indifference to labor to actively voting for the destruction of labor.
We went from supporting roe (pre Clinton) to tolerating the gradual and mushrooming hinderances to legal abortion. Now the democraps are pushing candidates who are openly anti-roe.
we went from breaking up AT&T (Carter) to blithely accepting Trusts and Monopolies in every economic sector. Their recent merger promised consumer price reductions/economies of scale. Yet they just raised prices. Nobody noticed. Certainly not your democraps.
On and on and on it goes.

2006 means nothing to you. In fact, it's your meme. You think 2006 made anything better? You think 2008 did? Both just normalized what was worse AND made everything worse still. And the eviler you were terrified of seems mild compared to the eviler today.
Bill Maher affirms my assertions every time he jokes that he wishes we had McCain or Romney or even cheney/bush back. If your democraps were going to change, they would have by now... it's been almost 4 decades. Instead, they just get worse. Don't believe me? Just read anything DWT has posted in the past ... as long as DWT has existed. Don't believe DWT? Maybe you should go to church... they believe all manner of nonsense there. You'd be right at home.

Whatever hole we're falling into, your democraps are leading you there.

You won't apologize because you're a complete and total asshole. But you should. You'll see. or not. hard to say.

 

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