Never Forget: Repugs Win Only By Cheating

Whether by the subtle cheat of voter suppression through denying voting rights to felons, as here in Kentucky (how many McGrath supporters could not vote because of a long-ago one-ounce pot possession?), or poll taxes by another name (demanding street addresses from Native Americans in North Dakota) or the blatant daylight theft of votes we're seeing in Georgia and Florida, the story is the same:

Repugs cannot win a fair election.  They have to cheat. If they don't, they lose.

Every single repug "victory" is stolen.  Every single elected repug is illegitimate.

Remember, and pass it on.  They cheated.  They always cheat.

Because they know that when everybody votes, Democrats win.

Vote Against Fascism

Paul Campos at LGM:

(1) Donald Trump is a fascist.  Whatever the “fascist minimum” may be, he’s now exceeded it as surely as Mike Trout has already exceeded the Hall of Fame performance minimum (Trump and Trout have both constructed first ballot resumes in record time.)

(2) The Republican party is now controlled in every relevant respect by Donald Trump, who is a fascist.  This makes the Republican party Donald Trump’s party, which makes it the party of fascism.

(3) Voting for a Republican candidate for anything is voting for fascism. It’s not “arguably analogous to voting for fascism,” or “uncomfortably close to giving support to fascism,” or “potentially helping the advancement of American fascism.” It’s voting for fascism.

(4) Voting for Democrats is voting against fascism.  You don’t have to like your local Democrat, or even any Democrats.  You just have to hate them less than you hate fascism. Vote against fascism by voting for Democrats.

(5) If you’re even thinking about voting for a third party candidate you need to think again.  A vote for a third party candidate is, objectively, a vote that is not against fascism. A vote not against fascism is, functionally, a vote for fascism.  Don’t vote for fascism.

3 days

McGrath finally fights back against Candy Barr, and the Herald has it, but can't resist opening with a mendacious slap at the girl in the race.

Democratic congressional candidate Amy McGrath has spent the past few months talking about how she plans to run a different kind of campaign, one without negative attack ads to help restore civility in politics.

But from the opening question of the only debate between U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and McGrath on Kentucky Educational Television, the two candidates went on the attack.

In fact, McGrath has been running a high-road campaign all year, while Candy has run nothing but vicious, lying attacks on McGrath.  Shame on you, Herald.  Bothsiderism is not journalism, it's cowardice and incompetence.

Though the candidates talked about tax reform, the national debt and election security, the majority of the debate centered around the one issue McGrath has made the centerpiece of her campaign, health care. Not mentioned were immigration and abortion, two issues Barr has featured prominently in his attack ads.

At one point, as McGrath was accusing Barr of lying about her stance on health care, the congressman interrupted her.

“Is this a positive campaign?” Barr said. “Calling me a liar?”

McGrath paused.

“Are you done?” she said before continuing.

Across the country, House Republicans have had to defend their votes for an unpopular bill to replace the Affordable Care Act that ultimately failed in the Senate.

Barr defended the bill, saying it was one of the best opportunities Congress had to reform entitlement programs, while emphasizing that he supported replacing the Affordable Care Act in a way that wouldn’t eliminate protections for people with preexisting conditions.

McGrath said she wants to make the Affordable Care Act better and emphasized her support of a Medicaid buy-in plan for people over the age of 55 and a public option for health insurance.

SNIP

McGrath pushed back, calling Barr a liar for continuing to say she supported a single-payer system.

“Look, I came from an institution where if you lie, cheat or steal you get kicked out,” McGrath said.

And Candy belongs to a party that has to lie about everything, because its real agenda of stripping the middle class and giving everything to the idle rich wouldn't get five votes anywhere.

Tuesday.  THIS Tuesday.  6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  If you don't know your polling place, go here. 

The Republican Party IS the problem

And until we defeat it into the ground - with votes! - it will get exponentially worse and harder to solve.

Steve M:

Outside of deeply progressive media, our pols and PACs never simply say simply that the Republican Party is the problem. And we don't link right-wing extremism to the GOP -- Republicans now are pounding the message that Antifa equals the Democrats, even though Antifa despises both major parties, whereas Democrats aren't even running ads linking the pro-violence Gavin McInnes and his Proud Boys to the GOP, despite the fact that this unabashed advocate of violence was invited to deliver a talk at a Republican club, where he valorized a right-wing political assassin from Japan, after which his followers rioted in the streets.

It's the Republican Party, stupid. Democrats will struggle to gain power until they make this their explicit message.

Here's Your Winning Democratic Speech Calling Out Repug Hate, Lying, Corruption

Courtesy of Kevin Drum.  Send it everywhere.

The entire Republican Party is dedicated to lying all the time. Climate change is a hoax. Sexual assault victims are making stuff up. Tax cuts are for the middle class. Heh. That’s because the closest they ever come to a real middle class voter is some Wall Street broker making a million dollars a year. And now they’re lying about terrorists marching their way up through Mexico to kill us all. They’re all just lies and everyone knows it. The Republican Party has turned into the party of lies.

There used to be at least a few Republicans compassionate enough to feel bad about ripping immigrant children from their mothers. Not anymore. The ugliest, meanest parts of the Republican Party love it when Jeff Sessions takes those babies away. It gets big cheers at all those creepy rallies that Donald Trump puts on for Fox News. The Republican Party has turned into the party of hate.

Democrats believe in the rule of law. Donald Trump believes the attorney general’s job is to help his friends and punish his enemies. And what do Republicans think of this? Well, the ones in Congress sure don’t seem to have any problem with it. The Republican Party has turned into the party of corruption.

13 Days

Wisdom from Zandar:

The rest of us have to show up and vote, because there's about a 99% chance guys like Talmadge Strickland will show up and vote.  If we don't, they win every time.  And there's every reason to believe that Americans have been so burnt out by the Trump regime that they just don't see the need to vote, maybe ever and have simply tuned everything out.

So no, I don't buy the big turnout numbers at all.  Like I said a month ago, I'll be shocked if total turnout is above 40%.

But we have to vote or it really won't matter, ever again.

I don't care how many double-digit leads Democratic candidates have in the polls.  Every race is going to be dead close because of repug fuckery.  

Of course repugs are cheating everywhere.  They know that if everybody votes, Democrats win.  They will stop at nothing to prevent Democratic voters from getting to the polls.

The only way we can beat them now is just by overwhelming the polls with every single Democratic, Democratic-leaning, Democratic-curious and Democratic-lapsed voter out there. 

Camping Overnight in Line: Not for Ticket, But to VOTE

C'mon, Kentucky: you gonna let FLORIDA show you up like that?


And if you miss voting because you didn't get a flu shot and are too sick to get to the polls Nov. 6, Wonkette's own Carlos Sagan will come to your house and slap you with an octopus.

15 Days, Bitches!

17 Days

Andrew Gillum ✔ @AndrewGillum

Governor candidate, FL 

 

When they go low, we go vote.

18 days to #BringItHome.

1:05 PM - Oct 19, 2018

Dare to Do Our Duty

Christine Blasley Ford is still in hiding from right-winger threatening to kill her and her family.  She knew that would happen, knew Kavanaugh would be confirmed regardless, but testified anyway.

It's going to get a lot uglier even if Democrats do not take the House.  And if we do ....

Digby:

Lincoln had this to say to his fellow Unionists about how to proceed in a situation such as this:

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

Amy McGrath and Joe Biden: Video and Live Tweets From Bath County

2,000 people in tiny Owingsville screaming "Amy! Amy! Amy!"

Bluegrass Politics brings it. 

Embracing Malice

From LGM:

This is a great piece from Serwer about the significance of Trump’s mockery of Christine Blasey Ford:

The Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track.

SNIP

Once malice is embraced as a virtue, it is impossible to contain.

28 Days. VOTE.

Here's the Message

From Digby:

Make Karma a Real Bitch for Repugs

We tried "going high," and it got us a Supreme Court that is going to reverse not just the 20th century, but the entire Enlightenment.

This time, no "looking forward" until we have tracked down every motherfucking traitor and thrown them in Guantanamo.

This time, no more "working across the aisle" until we have eliminated every illegal path to power for the GOP. 

This time, no more pretending voters will vote Democratic if we just act repug enough.

David Atkins:

Bipartisanship is dead.

Susan Collins dealt the coup de grace, armed with a dishonest and partisan speech capping a norm-destroying extremist far-right conquest of the Supreme Court. And upon regaining power in Washington, Democrats will need to behave accordingly.

SNIP

Despite a recent upsurge for Republicans, Democrats are still likely to win the House in November 2018. And it’s a good bet that Democrats will ride a wave of electoral fury compounded by the investigative findings of Mueller’s probe and likely House investigations into a White House victory and a solid majority in the Senate.

If and when that happens, there will be a temptation to attempt to restore a sense of bipartisan normalcy. But that would be a mistake. Republicans, having made their bed as an anti-normative, anti-democratic party of wealthy white male privilege enforced by anti-majoritarian structural advantage seeking, will not become responsible minority governing partners. And Democrats should not treat them as such.

Instead, Democrats will need to embrace their own inner Mitch McConnell. Their leaders will be tempted to immediately move to tackle the enormous legislative priorities their Republican opponents sabotaged or neglected, from climate change to healthcare to economic policy. But it will be just as important to secure structural initiatives that will make it difficult for Republicans to continue thwarting the will of an increasingly progressive majority. That is precisely what McConnell would do if a man of his instincts and temperament were serving the public welfare and society’s marginalized, rather than corporations, the wealthy and the privileged.

SNIP

It is the instinct of many liberals to shy away from such moves as overly partisan or process-focused. But they are essential if democracy is to survive in the face of an opposition determined to hold onto anti-majoritarian power at all costs through illegitimate and socially destructive means.

We start by voting the mother fuckers OUT.  29 Days.  VOTE.

Make Every Repug Candidate Pay For Kavanaugh

Rapey McLiarFace is now the raping, lying face of the republican party.  His despicable performance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the screaming hysteria of repug fanatics spouting ludicrous conspiracies have laid bare the true nature of their party: despising and degrading women in order to promote and protect privileged, rich, straight, conservative, freakazoid white men.

 

To repugs, either you are one of them, or you are scum to be assaulted and kicked into the trash.

 

Which side are you on?

 

29 Days.

VOTE

A Democratic House Can Stop Rapey McLiarface

Paul Campos at LGM:

Speaking of questions, if Kavanaugh is confirmed and Democrats take the House, he needs to be impeached immediately.  Of course he won’t be removed by a Senate vote, but I more than suspect that an actual investigation of Brett Kavanaugh, by people with subpoena power, will uncover enough dirt to at a minimum delegitimize him even further, and it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that the revelations could be ugly enough to force him to resign.  In particular, I’m pretty confident that Kavanaugh’s finances are not going to withstand any serious scrutiny. 

This guy is really dirty.  Whether or not he’s confirmed in the next few days, the battle against him needs to continue.

VOTE!  Vote early, vote often.  Take your family, take your friends, take your neighbors, take your dogs.

32 Days.

Run on This

33 Days.  Do you know what your Democratic candidates are saying?

Down with Tyranny:

GOP Delenda Est

The entire GOP and all of its donors, voters, consultants, officials appointed and elected are now a clear and present danger to the national security. It has to be stopped, and stopped by overwhelming and repeated electoral defeat.

 

This is a call to democratic and Democratic arms: voting repugs out of office and out of public life is a patriotic duty.

Erik Loomis:

In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh quickly, then Roberts fast-tracks Roe repeal and assigns the decision to Kavanaugh, just to give a big “fuck you” to Democrats. That sentiment is after all the primary motivating factor for Republicans, other than giving money to the rich.

This is a revolting party, a threat to the republic, one openly flirting with fascism. When Graham threatens that Republicans will simply make up sexual assault claims to destroy future Democratic court nominees, that is fascism. This is a party that combines racism, misogyny, and crushing the poor as its core features. There is no redemption here. We must destroy the Republican Party, making it so toxic that it cannot win elections and is forced to reconstitute itself as something less extreme. That begins in November, but that’s only a first step. Defeating Donald Trump in 2020 is only a second step. In 2009, way too many liberals sat back and thought Barack Obama would take care of their problems. We saw how that turned out in 2010 and after. To save this nation from the Republican menace, we have to continue our onslaught against them under the next president, both in terms of passing policies and confirming judges that move justice forward, but also in terms of candidate recruitment, grassroots activism, and everything else that fuels our wins now. The nation’s future relies on it.

And Kevin Drum

The problem here is not that Republicans were grandstanding over imagined liberal schemes to destroy anyone and anything in pursuit of their poisonous schemes to crush everything good about America. The problem is that most of it wasn’t grandstanding. They believe this deeply and angrily. And it explains the lengths Republicans are willing to go to these days—even to the appalling extent of accepting a cretin like Donald Trump as a party leader. If you believe that your political opposites aren’t just opponents, but literally enemies of the country, then of course you’ll do almost anything to stop them. I would too if that’s what I thought.

There are some liberals who do think that—and more and more of them since Donald Trump was elected. But it’s still a relatively small part of the progressive movement. In the conservative movement it’s an animating principle. This is why it so desperately needs to be stopped—not by destroying Republicans, but by voting them out of office. We simply can’t afford to have a major party run for the benefit of fearful whites who are dedicated to a scorched-earth belief that liberals are betraying the nation. It has to end, and Republicans themselves are ultimately the only ones who can end it. We need a real conservative party again.

37 Days

Dok Zoom at Wonkette:

Remember that the good guys can win. We're them. We have to make it happen.

Remember Molly Ivins, who would tell you to have a good cry and then GET MAD AND PUT YOUR ANGER TO WORK:

So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.

November 6 is 37 days away. Let's get to work.

Don't assume everyone you know is registered or plans to vote.  Next Friday is Kentucky's deadline to register. Ask, and if they say no, drag them down to the County Clerk and register them.  Make sure they know where their polling place is, and they have a ride if they need one.

And fight repug/russian voting fuckery!  Check with your county clerk and make sure you are still registered and that your polling place is still where you think it is.

Repug Trumpies Trying to Swift Boat Amy McGrath

C/mon, Herald: Don't fall for this shit.  Just because these critics are "veterans" doesn't mean they are not partisan shills doing the bidding of Cheeto Twitler.

Not to mention the extreme hostility of old white male veterans toward any vagina-haver who dares to  tread on "their" turf

From the Herald:

It’s where Democratic candidate Amy McGrath, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot, was inducted into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame two years ago. It’s near where she filmed campaign ads that drew national attention last year. And it’s where a group of veterans who support U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican, rallied for more than two hours Wednesday night to say she shouldn’t be elected in November. 
 
“McGrath’s commercials accuse Andy Barr of being scared,” said Travis Cassidy, a retired Marine Corps sergeant. “I am here to tell you Andy Barr has no reason to be scared. U.S. Marines know war is won on the ground, not by the air.”

Um, Sergeant? You do know that Candy Barr has not spent a single minute in the uniform of his country, right?  You do know that Candy's response to 9-11 was to suck up to Kentucky repugs even harder, right?  You do know that Candy has yet to say a word against the "president" who has publicly confessed treason, right?

McGrath, a retired lieutenant colonel, has made her military service the bedrock of her candidacy. She calls her campaign her 90th combat mission and has featured fighter jets in each of her ads. In her stump speech, she often talks about how her experience in the military will help her cross party lines to fix the nation’s problems.

SNIP

Mostly, the event served as a way to diminish the importance of McGrath’s military experience, her largest strength as a candidate.

Precisely.  These are the same mindless repugs who libeled genuine war hero John Kerry  to promote a Vietnam War draft dodger who deserted his post in wartime.

The same blind partisans who cheered the Pumpkin Traitor - another Vietnam draft dodger - when he slandered John McCain as a "loser" for getting captured and surviving 5 years of torture.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article217570495.html#storylink=cpy

Veterans can support any political candidate they choose.  But when they use their veteran status to lie about another candidate, it is the duty of reporters and editors to call them out for it.

Candy Barr and Cheeto Twitler don't give a flying fuck about you, veterans. Stop doing their dirty work.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article217570495.html#storylink=cpy

The New Confederacy

If even after the blatantly anti-constitutional decisions of the Gorsuch Supreme Court this June you still think elections don't matter, think again.

Scott LeMeiux at LGM:

This is a flatly neoconfederate Court, refusing to enforce the Reconstruction Amendments to stop racial discrimination but willing to use them to stop integration. 

 
One of the many things that’s at stake in presidential elections is whether the Constitution’s mist critical provisions will be meaningfully enforced. If you’re wondering when I’ll stop passionately arguing against people who see elections as fora for atomistic consumer expression, the answer is “never.”

And Brett Kavanagh is going to make it exponentially worse, and for generations to come.

VOTE on Nov. 6. Vote early, vote often.  Take your family, take your friends, take your neighbors, take your dogs.  Issue non-violent threats to every Democrat you know who is not planning to vote (i.e., no more sex for you, no more homegrown tomatoes, no more using the pool, no more sharing high-speed wifi - you get the idea.)