Where the Grifting Takes the GOP

You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you.
-- Lester Freamon, The Wire

In a followup to last week's bombshell that a New York Republican Representative-Elect was a gaslighting fraud, I need to note that the authorities are finally paying attention to George Santos and opening criminal investigations on him. O the irony of grifting your way into elected office letting prosecutors find out you were grifting in the first place.

While the mainstream media is busy assigning blame on who's responsible for Santos getting as far as he has - blaming Democrats for not doing enough Oppo Research, blaming local press for not digging into Santos' bogus resume - the most blame should be aimed at Santos himself for setting himself up for this exposure and ridicule (if not future jail time). After that, most of the blame should be aimed at a Republican Party that is not only vulnerable to con artists buying their way into their ranks, but happily defending the grifters even when their scandals threatens to expose all the other corrupt sins hiding in the GOP closets.

As Jill Dennison notes at her blog:

I could point to so many, such as Marge Greene who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives despite being a follower of QAnon, despite believing that Jewish space lasers (hint, in case any Republicans are reading this, there ain’t no such thing as Jewish space lasers) started the California wildfires.  Or the pistol-totin’ barhop, Lauren Boebert who proudly put a photo of all her children holding big guns on her Christmas cards.  And then, there’s Kevin McCarthy, vying to be the next Speaker of the House, whose only platform is revenge against any and all liberal democratic policies and those of us who support those policies.  But for now, I want to focus on one incoming member of the House, a person who will be seated in the House of Representatives next Tuesday, a person who has broken the boundaries of dishonesty:  George Santos...

This is a new low even for the Republican Party and if, in fact, they allow him to be seated in the House on Tuesday, it will be the most definitive statement yet that there is no conscience, no morals, no values, and no integrity within the Republican Party.  One lie of any substance would have disqualified any Democratic candidate, but Mr. Santos told lies about every single aspect of his entire 34 years!!!  I imagine there are some Republicans who are wishing they could crawl under a rock right about now – Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney – but the rest seem to be scratching their heads and wondering how to get this out of the news, how to make it disappear.  Not a single word from the otherwise garrulous Kevin McCarthy… funny that.

This is, for the Republicans, as bad a nightmare as the former guy, an egomaniac, planning to run for the Oval Office again.  I would pity the Republicans, but … they brought this mess on themselves when they first began letting unqualified circus clowns run for office.  It seems to me that a person who cannot even be relied upon to tell the truth about where he went to college (he didn’t), property he claims to own (but doesn’t), where he has worked, his ancestry, his criminal past, where he lives, cannot possibly be trusted to be an honest lawmaker!  I thought Herschel Walker told some mighty big lies, but Santos even makes him look like an amateur.  Santos is right up there with the former guy, who wouldn’t recognize the truth if it smacked him upside the head!  This is NOT what this nation needs … lawmakers who cannot ever be trusted, whose words and actions must always, always be fact-checked!  But alas, this is the new GOP – which, by the way, no longer stands for “Grand Old Party”, but rather for “Gaslight Or Perjure...”

Dennison - and others - are calling on the Republican leadership to do the right thing, the ethical thing, but the likes of Kevin McCarthy cannot afford to kick Santos to the curb because their control of the US House is on a precarious - 5-seat margin - footing already. McCarthy himself is facing an unheard-of fight of his life for the Speakership, and he needs all the grifters he can find to save his own ass in this moment. Even though Santos will condemn McCarthy - and the rest of the GOP - down the road.

This scandal with Santos is exposing the reality that the Republican Party for all historic purposes is no longer a political party, it's an ongoing criminal conspiracy. As Amanda Marcotte points out at Salon, entire decades of lusting after power has turned a once-proud Party into a haven for grifters: 

One thing was dead certain within moments of the New York Times publishing its exposé on the many lies of George Santos: There was zero chance that this brand new Republican congressman-elect from New York would be shamed into giving up his seat. Perhaps that didn't seem obvious to everyone at first, especially those with lingering memories of the pre-Trump era, when we all pretended to believe that Republican voters cared about hypocrisy, lying, overt racism, sexual abuse or any of the other personal or professional scandals that used to take politicians down routinely. But I never doubted for a moment that Santos would move onward toward being seated and that the incoming Republican House majority would allow it...

Despite all this, the only way he doesn't join Congress as an esteemed member of the Republican caucus is if New York prosecutors can nail him for something first. I believe this in the way I believe that chocolate is delicious and cats are cute. After all, what is the modern GOP, if not a holding station for every two-bit criminal and grifter who wants the job security that can only come with exploiting the endlessly credulous Republican base? The party can no more start kicking out the fraudsters than it can stop trying to cut taxes for the rich. This is just who they are and what they do. George Santos is in no sense an anomaly. He is the Republican present and, even more to the point, the Republican future...

This is what gets delicately described as "negative partisanship" in mainstream media and political science textbooks, and all too often treated as an equal problem on both sides. Of course it's true that both parties include some voters who are more motivated by dislike of the opposing party than by support for their own. But with Democrats, that at least has some basis in real-world concerns, given that Republicans are the party of abortion bans and the Jan. 6 insurrection. But on the other side, Republican voters mostly coast on hyperbolic vitriol about the evils of Democrats, which are at best vague insinuations of corruption, and at worst outright lies and QAnon-style conspiracy theories. 

Convincing Republican voters to believe that Democrats are literally the worst people imaginable certainly helps Republicans win elections. But it's also destabilizing the party from within, because shady characters of all flavors now understand that no sin or crime is so great that it cannot be wiped away by running for office as a Republican. The result is a party full of cranks, chronic liars and petty criminals, a situation that gets worse every election cycle, as demonstrated by the Santos fiasco...

We still don't know where George Santos got the money that allowed him to run and win a congressional election in a pivotal swing district. But he's still likely to be seated next week with no serious impediment, offering America's swindler class another reason to believe that going into Republican politics is like getting a license to commit fraud. There's no real chance of political backlash in a situation like this, with the GOP voter base heavily dosed up on Fox News hate. Worse yet, it seems increasingly clear that federal law enforcement is too afraid of looking "partisan" to prosecute Republican politicians over anything, so there are no serious legal consequences either. Sam Bankman-Fried may be kicking himself for getting into cryptocurrency instead of GOP politics, if what he wanted was the ability to defraud whoever you like with impunity...

I wrote in 2015 that the Republican Party was dead in spirit, with only a decaying body shambling about going through the motions of politics in order to keep all the money and power in their undead uncaring hands. With the 2016 election of donald trump, the Republicans were stuck with the reality that he paved the way for all the other grifters to yell and scream enough on Far Right media outlets to win offices in safe gerrymandered districts (or safe Red states full of Culture War angst). 

With these political offices in their hands, they can con their way to put more government funds in their own pockets. They can then campaign and fundraise to their hearts' desires, sucking up every last penny from the suckers who buy their vitriol and eat it like caviar. This is the new con game, where the liars can make money even if they lose by declaring themselves victims and fundraising off of that.

This is where the modern GOP is. A party filling up with George Santos and a hundred other grifters. Now literally "trumps all the way down." 

trump can't go to jail for his crimes fast enough. Here's hoping he shares a cell block with Santos sooner rather than later. Along with the other Republican grifters thriving off of fear and hate and greed.

Who IS This Guy?

So a rather bizarre scandal reared its head this week - in a month, nay a life cycle of utter madness ever since 2016 Gods help us, so this being cray-cray is saying something - when the New York Times started looking at the newly elected people from this midterms cycle, and discovered this George Santos who won a US Congressional seat in the Long Island part of New York was, well, lying about his entire goddamn resume and parts of his personal biography.

Since the Times is definitely behind a firewall for me, I'm pilfering much of the info from Raw Story so do help a blog out and donate or subscribe to Raw Story please and thanks. Oh, the report via Travis Gettys (I can't see who the Times reporters are, my bad):

George Santos, a son of Brazilian immigrants who presented himself as a "seasoned Wall Street financier and investor" who owned 13 properties and operated an animal rescue charity, became the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, but a New York Times review of public documents and court filings called into question his résumé.

Both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs told the newspaper they had no record of Santos working there, as he had claimed, and Baruch College found no record that he had graduated in 2010, also as he claimed.

The Internal Revenue Service also found little evidence that his animal rescue group, Friend of Pets United, was a tax-exempt organization.

It gets crazier.

Santos loaned more than $700,000 to his campaign and donated thousands of dollars to other candidates in the past two years, but his company, the Devolder Organization, has virtually no online presence and his financial disclosures don't reveal any clients -- which election law experts say could be a problem if those clients actually exist.

The Times also could not find any records of the properties his family allegedly owns.

This part of the story quickly raises a ton of red flags. If Santos doesn't have a verified source of employment or income (if he's not earning money from the properties he claims to have, for example), then where the hell did that $700,000 he "loaned" to his own campaign come from? This reeks of money laundering. I mean, for all of the fakery surrounding trump's questionable finances, at least he actually owns stuff he can use as collateral to get loans. 

All anyone can confirm at the moment is that George Santos was caught committing checking fraud in Brazil back in 2010, and that Santos had been evicted from residences several times for missing rent payments. 

With a hot scandal to follow, there's been denials and recriminations and further exposure of Santos' falsehoods. He claimed he lost employees in the tragic Orlando Pulse mass shooting, but nobody can tie any of the fallen to his alleged businesses.  The latest report is that Santos may be lying about his family's Jewish background that they fled due to the coming Second World War and Holocaust. 

There's open questions now if Santos is really gay. After all, he's lied about everything else about himself. (Update: Santos was married to a woman before divorcing in 2019. It could just mean he was bi/closeted and came out afterward. It happens. But he never mentioned the marriage when he campaigned, so... Lie of Omission.)

This story is exposing a lot of sins right now, and not just Santos'. 

The Republican Party at the New York level has to deal with the reality one of their bright new stars is a goddamn fake, not to mention the thousands of campaign dollars they've gotten from this guy puts everyone's ledgers under scrutiny. The entire GOP party in that state has a lot of answering to do.

The Democratic Party at the New York level is also getting yelled at. In this day and age of extreme partisan politics, Oppo Research should be Campaigning 101. This wasn't Santos' first attempt at elected office, and one thing you're supposed to do is go through your opponent's work history and background to find ANY questionable acts and weak spots in their narratives to exploit. While Santos' opponent reportedly did some digging, and then tried to get the papers to follow up, nobody really paid attention until he'd actually won (and ironically getting the attention as a "future GOP star" in a mostly-Dem state). There's a growing push to remove the current party head in New York - who's floundered at keeping the party organized already, this is one more faux pas on him - and this could get ugly.

This is also a massive indictment of our electoral process, especially for the Congressional and state legislative offices. I've complained about this before, that our choices for candidates are barely - if ever - vetted for qualifications to the jobs we're supposed to elect them to. The parties are so desperate to draft celeb candidates - or too beholden to the religious and cultural extremists to allow the more unhinged and vulgar - that they don't care about actual QUALITY of that candidate until it's too late. You would think a stronger background check would be run on these candidates - especially to make sure you don't get anyone like Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott embezzling from your own party's funds - to guarantee you're presenting the Best and the Brightest to reflect your party's ethos. Guess what Republicans, someone like Santos - and so many others - are proving your party has no ethics at all.

It does not help that the only ones who can even put their names on the ballots for consideration are the only ones who can AFFORD - by clean money or laundered - to run in the first place. It costs money to file for an election primary, it costs thousands of dollars to run any kind of campaign. You can see it with Santos working to buy a win with $700,000 that nobody can confirm came from honest business. Elections have turned into a racket, a billion dollar industry that buys you a lot of political influence that can siphon even more taxpayer money into your own pockets later on. Gods help us with that open scandal.

Everything about Santos demands a full criminal investigation.

Hell, we need to run a criminal investigation to find out who George Santos really IS.

Thoughts About the 2022 Midterms

A lot of post-midterms articles are out there on the Intertubes, a number of wry observations and urgent recriminations towards Republicans, and I would recommend glancing at Rude Pundit's to get a taste of the schadenfreude getting served over the GOP's historic failures.

I say "failure" even as the Republicans claimed (slim) control of the U.S. House of Representatives - and retained control of a number of Red states - because it's been traditional in the modern era of partisan politics that the party in opposition to the White House - this year the Republicans in opposition to the Democratic President Biden - wins big in the following midterms. This year, the Republicans were expecting a "Red Wave" to counter the 2018 "Blue Wave" that gave Democrats control of the House vs. donald trump.

The polling - mostly from conservative-leaning providers like RCP - were all pointing to a huge 30-seat flip of the House. There were a number of projections Republicans could regain a tightly fought Senate, even in spite of the crazed candidates running in various campaigns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and Arizona (and several others).

Republicans were beating the war drums hard on the economy, railing against signs of a recession as inflation (re: gas prices) soared to levels that hurt any President's standing with voters.

This was also all happening with the 2022 district realignments for the House, where the updated Census numbers required new maps and allowed the parties - yes, Democrats did it too - to aggressively gerrymander those districts to give them advantages. Republicans held the gerrymander advantage due to controlling enough battleground states to outduel the Dems (who also shot themselves in the foot by not gerrymandering New York to their advantage, screw you Andrew Cuomo).

Throw in the Republicans attempts at voter suppression - far greater than what they had in 2018 and 2020 - and there was every likelihood that turnout would drop, hurting Democratic chances.

And with all of that going the Republicans' way... they STILL failed to retake the Senate - which added an extra Democratic seat meaning the 50-50 power-sharing is no longer working and Mitch McConnell can suck it - and their win in the House was by a meager five seats, causing headaches for party leadership they weren't expecting.

It is, according to historians, the worst midterm performance for an opposition party since 1962. There was a similar situation for Democrats in 2002 failing against Dubya, but the 9/11 attacks and the patriotic fervor clearly skewed the situation. There were the Republicans failing against FDR in 1934, but the Great Depression was still happening and a lot of Americans still hated them and Hoover for screwing them over.

The Republicans ought to be rejoicing in that they control the House, which they can use to investigate Biden's administration family for scandals every day they meet on the Hill, and file every impeachment complaint until all they do is vote on embarrassing Biden and Harris for the 2024 campaign (lacking control of the Senate, no impeachment will go their way: For the Republicans it's all about making the Democrats look corrupt and weak to their own voting base). They are openly planning repeated hearings over Russia's planted evidence Hunter Biden's laptop, as it's the only thing they can do other than force federal shutdowns to break the entire government.

Instead, the Republicans are in-fighting over the poor results. They were expecting a wave and all they got was a trickle. The My Pillow guy Mike Lindell - who is constantly shilling conspiracy theories for trump's Big Lie about "stolen votes" - is challenging for control of the RNC, arguing the current head - Mitt Romney's daughter Ronna McDaniel - failed to inspire better turnout. There were a number of reports of GOP leaders railing against trump's involvement, pushing on them unstable and unpopular candidates like Hershel Walker in Georgia who hurt turnout among needed independent voters.

There are going to be post-mortems, autopsies, follow-up reports, what have you, which the Republicans will ignore like they did after they were stunned in 2012, when they expected four years of Tea Party fauxrage would turn America against Obama. The GOP's response after that loss was to double-down on the Far Right fearmongering to encourage their voting base to stay faithful, and they've been spiraling downward ever since thanks to trump's takeover in 2016.

If the midterms are showing me anything, these are the observations I've made:

Like Bob Burnett points out at Common Dreams, the American electorate is polarized to the point of frozen stasis. In previous eras before the Culture War shifted all of the Conservative votes to the Republicans after 1994, there was an expectation of centrist/moderate party voters crossing the aisle to vote for candidates or issues regardless of party. By 2014, branding won out: Republicans (tm) can no longer find themselves voting for ANY Democrat (tm) (and the same goes for Dems refusing to vote for any GOPer) even when the issues should compel them to vote for the other party that's in favor of those issues.

While this means you can rely on your party base, it means you can't expect any more voters to flip your way. Whatever independent/No Party Affiliate voters are out there, you find yourself praying for them to show up for you to overcome any demographic limitations you've already set for your party with the gerrymandering and suppression. And voter turnout for NPAs is unreliable at best.

The results are also telling me that for the Republicans this is the best they can do for turnout, and they STILL screwed up. This is as far as they can get for voter turnout and numbers going their way. Even WITH the extreme gerrymandering favoring them, even WITH the voter suppression laws they put in place to reduce turnout numbers... the Republicans STILL couldn't pull off a Red Wave of their own.

For every voter the GOP had on their side showing up angry over inflation, the Democrats had voters showing up angry over the loss of abortion rights. For every Red state they held onto, the Republicans lost control of a couple of state legislatures they could not afford to lose.

And this was the midterms. Voter turnout for Presidential election cycles are higher, and 2024 could well be a repeat of 2020 in that regard.

This is also something hurting Republicans in the long run: The inevitable demographic shift of older (Boomer) voters to younger (Gen Z/Millennial) voters is starting to happen. One of the things the Republicans realized in 2012 was that by 2028, simple dying off of the older generations that make up the Conservative voting base will increase just as the kids who grew up watching Republicans burn everything down will get old enough to vote. (The divided Generation X sitting between the two generations is too small a voter bloc - they're the ones not showing up to vote at all - to help Republicans) We are looking at a one-two punch for Liberal-leaning younger voters that could flip even Red states Blue in ways that suppression and gerrymandering can't stop. 

It's one big reason why the Republicans doubled-down anyway: They figured that the 2028 demographic shift was unstoppable, so they worked in the short-term to dominate Congress and the White House to ensure the one thing that could counter that Blue shift - a Far Right Supreme Court - would be in place to prevent the full liberalization of America that would undo everything they've done since Reagan's tenure.

In the short term, the Far Right won. In the long term, the bill for all the damage they've done - the racism, the deficits, the corruption made worse by trump's rise to power - is coming due. This middling, frustrating midterm fiasco for the Republicans is the beginning of the end of the control they've had on the public discourse since 1980.

And it terrifies them. The Far Right Republican base have a pretty good idea what these midterms mean, and the panic showing through their ongoing performative outrage is going to get worse.

The Wingnuts are about to double-down on the previous double-down to turn crazier than they've ever been. Stay safe, people.

And Io Saturnalia!

A Few Things To Be Thankful For 2022

I am thankful that the Democrats held onto the US Senate this midterms.

I am thankful that we are one day closer to donald trump facing criminal charges for violating the Presidential Records Act.

I am thankful we all survived to witness the 10th anniversary of the almighty Butt Fumble.

I am thankful that today at Thanksgiving dinner I get to meet a nephew I haven't seen in 20 years and a niece I've never met.

I am thankful I get one more chance to share the greatest Thanksgiving television episode of all time.

 REPEAT AFTER ME: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Let the GOP Backstabbing Begin (w/Update)

I'm not entirely in the mood to discuss the Shitgibbon's attempt tonight to use the excuse of a Presidential campaign to avoid DOJ prosecution, so I'll discuss the entire act of party implosion happening for the Republican Party this post-midterms.

While the Republicans reaped huge gains in Florida thanks to DeSantis' gerrymandering and the state Democrats' ineptitude, the national party didn't do so well. High expectations of a "Red Wave" - bolstered by historical trends of the President's party suffering in midterms (at least since the 1960s) - turned into a self-immolated debacle of bad Far Right candidates losing key races. Instead of gaining 25 seats in the US House, Republicans are looking at either missing control (there are still two-three seats that can favor Dems) or gaining the House with the slimmest margin in modern history (which would embolden the wingnut factions to make impossible demands on the Speakership).

It got worse in the Senate, where the GOP were expecting to break the 50-50 deadlock - which favored Democrats with Vice President Harris as the tiebreaker - by flipping Senate races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada to their favor. Instead, they lost those races leaving the Dems at that 50-50 advantage, with one outstanding recount for the Georgia race where Dem incumbent Warnock ought to outgain the hypocritical and addled Republican challenger in Herschel Walker. Dems should count on having a 51-seat majority in 2023 that should improve their ability to free up legislation from Senatorial gridlock.

There's a lot of anger among the Republican ranks, with finger pointing and accusations in every direction. Even their standard bearer trump got attacked because he pushed a number of extremist candidates who mostly flamed out, killing the "Red Wave" narrative. Other factions are lashing out at the existing party leadership, using this opportunity to seize the reins of power for their own greedy ambitions.

This is where Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott enters the picture. He is openly challenging Republican stalwart Mitch McConnell for party leadership in the Senate. Via Brian Slodysko and Mary Clare Jalonick at AP News:

Florida Sen. Rick Scott said Tuesday that he will mount a long-shot bid to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, opening the latest front in an intraparty battle between allies of McConnell and former President Donald Trump over the direction of the GOP following a disappointing showing in last week’s midterm elections.

The announcement by Scott, who was urged to challenge McConnell by Trump, came hours before the former president was expected to launch a comeback bid for the White House. It escalated a long-simmering feud between Scott, who led the Senate Republican’s campaign arm this year, and McConnell over the party’s approach to reclaiming a Senate majority...

It should be noted that Scott is a junior member of the Senate, having been elected into the seat back in 2018. There are a number of other Senators with more seniority some of whom aren't in Mitch's corner on this, and part of me wonders why they're not making this move.

Because Rick Scott is a goddamn hypocrite on this challenge. Scott was the one in charge of the campaign financing this midterms, and he's the one who failed to keep a lot of those Senate campaigns afloat, squandering money on his own self-promotion. If anyone among the current GOP Senate ranks deserves most of the blame, it's Rick "What Part of Fraud Did You Overlook" Scott. I mean, I wrote this back in August:

The other thing mentioned in that WaPo article is how Scott has been spending a lot of the party's money on himself, filming his own campaign spots - even though he's not running this cycle, his so-called buddy Marco Rubio is instead - as though he is the only one who matters. Scott also pushed out - against the advice of other party leaders - a policy agenda for Republicans that was a mix of "Contract On America" calls to patriotism, vague promises of culture war victories, and slashing popular federal social programs like Social Security.

If Scott thinks any of this is going to help him run a Presidential primary in 2024, he's not only a crook he's a goddamned idiot...

Rick Scott is quickly showing his true nature: A self-serving creature looking to put himself above others at their expense. Granted, you can say that about half the Senators who ever served in that capacity, but Scott is making himself far worse - well, okay, he's at par with Ted "Cancun" Cruz now - than any of them.

None of the other Senators should back Scott on his power play, because all it will do is expose them to the dangers of allowing this fraud to keep ripping them off for his own benefit.

And yet they will, because donald trump is backing Rick Scott, and for all the blame and public denouncing trump's been getting, the second he demands the party fealty he will get it because they dare not antagonize the MAGA voting base still in love with that con artist.

If Mitch McConnell has anyone to blame, it's himself. Through his long game of obstruction - to ensure a packed Federalist Society judiciary and a twisted conservative Supreme Court - McConnell pandered to the Far Right elements of the GOP that's now turning on him. He may not be at fault for the Republicans' failures to retake the Senate this cycle, but he did little to stop the avalanche of disaster to roll over them in the first place.

It will be interesting to note how this coup attempt in the GOP Senate plays out, who will side with Scott - and allow a known fraud to take over their entire Senatorial operations - and who will side with McConnell - who is honestly aging out and ought to step aside for "younger" leadership to assume a new direction - for the upcoming acts of obstruction and cruelty the GOP can inflict on the nation.

Personally, I'm rooting for that comet we keep hoping will hit the Far Right wingnuts and wash their toxins into the sea.

Update (the very next day!): Well that was quick. McConnell squashes Scott's coup attempt with a quick vote 37-10 with one abstaining. Now the fun is going to be watching how Mitch kicks Rick Scott off every committee and isolate him from every GOP fundraiser for the next four years.

Update (11/21/22): Thanks to Batocchio for adding me to this Monday's Mike's Blog Round-Up at Crooks & Liars! But Bato, my man, my brah, my mentor, you gotta give me a heads up if you want to add me to a Round-Up. I need to set the table and bake a cake! (also places the Silver trophy for Nonfiction Blogging on the table)

(I gotta crow a little...)

Dark Days for Florida in 2022

I woke up to a gray day.

Not only because of an incoming Hurricane in mid-November - remember when hurricane seasons ended in October? Thanks to climate change, not anymore! - making it a dreary rainy day.

It was a gray dreary day because here in Florida for the 2022 midterms, I woke up to news that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis - that racist, immigrant-bashing, blasphemous moran - not just won re-election but he won in a blow-out by nearly double digits over Charlie Crist.

There was a similar result with Marco Rubio - that wet noodle of a Senator who barely shows up and only for television interviews - winning big against Val Demings for the U.S. Senator seat.

It was basically a massive blowout statewide in Florida for Republicans, while at the national level the GOP suffered with poor results, failing to flip the Senate (so far, some states are undecided but the Democratic incumbents are holding on) and barely winning the U.S. House despite poll predictions having them win 25-plus seats to wreak havoc on President Biden's hopes.

So today was me sitting around waiting for a hurricane to hit muttering to myself "What the hell happened?"

Previous midterm elections - with Florida's Governor races as part of the ballots - were never this bad for Democrats. In 2018, DeSantis eked out a win over Andrew Gillum with 4.07 million over 4.04 million votes. In 2014, Rick Scott won against Charlie Crist with 2.86 million votes over 2.8 million.

But this time, 2022 with DeSantis facing Crist who was running his second chance as a Democrat (Crist was a Republican Governor 2006-2010 but switched parties when he lost favor with a growing extremist GOP), the results were 4.6 million for DeSantis and 3.1 million for Crist. The voter turnout for the Senate race was pretty much the same: Rubio at 4.6 million and Demings at 3.1 million. 

Democrats just... lost over a million Florida voters somewhere. In a midterms where Democratic voter turnout saw moderate or better gains across most of the nation. What the hell happened?

In my darkest, angriest mindset, I'm going to the conspiracy angle of hard voter suppression happening. Republicans didn't gain voters all that much between 2018 to 2022, but the Democrats obviously lost them. I would be screaming about somebody somewhere blocking Democratic voters in likely Blue districts... except there's been no reports of that on social media or regular media.

Hey, if QAnon can run around screaming "stolen elections," I have a right to scream the same thing. It's just... dammit, where's the evidence of it? Alas.

The only other rational explanation was voter disinterest. All those Democratic voters just... refused to vote for the party this year. There's two reasons why that could be the culprit.

One of the bigger voter suppression stunts DeSantis pulled this election cycle was aggressively redoing the U.S. Congressional districts with extreme Republican-friendly gerrymandering. It was so blatantly partisan a gerrymander it ought to have been voted down by even the Republican legislature, or at least stricken down by the courts. And yet, nobody fought it.

Worse, the Florida Democratic party failed to challenge for every district in spite of that gerrymandering. Several districts had no Democratic congressional candidate, increasing the voter disinterest to turn out for the other important races for Governor and Senator.

Study after study shows that extreme partisan gerrymandering affects voter turnout. When DeSantis redid the Congressional map, he not only improved the odds of state Republicans winning extra U.S. House seats, he also improved his own odds to win re-election by depressed Democratic turnout.

The second reason for the drop in Democratic voter turnout? There had been complaints before - and this time around seemed to prove it - that the Democratic voting base just didn't like or trust Charlie Crist. Due to the fact he used to be Republican, the fact he still stood as a more Centrist moderate candidate to a base that would prefer progressives, and the fact he just didn't seem to reach more people this time around all hurt the overall ticket. How this affected Val Demings - who had a better rapport with the Democratic base, and should have seen better results - still doesn't make sense outside of the anti-Crist factions just refusing to show up at all.

And for all the evidence that the Democratic Party is failing to reach Hispanic voters - especially here in Florida, where the Cuban and Puerto Rican voting blocs are heavily social conservatives - I don't think that is a major reason for the missing voters from 2018: If the Hispanics were flipping parties, we'd be seeing an increase in Republican turnout this 2022 over 2018. Still, the failure by the Democratic Party at both the state and national level to appeal better to Latino voters is a major setback that the Dems have to address.

My mood is not lightened by the reports of Democratic gains elsewhere, especially in Midwest states where Dems gained control of state legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota. There may be a chance that the Democrats keep control of the Senate - only with gaining one extra seat, which may not be enough to break the filibuster/cloture stranglehold - but the Republicans are about to gain control of the House (due in strong part to DeSantis' gerrymandering, damn him). The reports are that the GOP will have a slim lead in the House, but that a schism between more hardcore wingnut factions could undercut the fight for Speakership. I doubt it: Republicans will unite even if it's behind a spineless cur like McCarthy if there's a chance to get their Cruelty agenda passed.

So here I sit, waiting for another storm to hit Florida, praying that at least this hurricane can well hit Mar-A-Lago like a bullseye and wash it all into the sea.

I've been raging and fuming ever since 2010, ever since sanity failed my state when the Republican voters eagerly put into office a documented Medicare Fraud. It's only gotten worse since then: The cruelty, the failures of leadership, all to "own the libs" even as the state literally falls apart bit by bit, disaster by disaster.

I'd like to move away, I'm at that point of giving up on the state I've lived almost my whole life. But I'm too old to go job-hunting across states anymore, and damn it all the rent is too damned high.

Gods help us.

Election Day 2022: VOTE BLUE, DAMMIT

Today is Election Day.

I already voted this morning.

For the first time in years, there was a line formed outside my precinct in the morning. It turns out they had to merge two precincts to one spot because the place I'd been going to - a Baptist Church - apparently went out of business (the slow erosion of Christian churches - and the fact most counties use churches as voting precincts - is a discussion for another time)!

Most previous voting trips in the mornings - I've been a Tuesday evening worker ever since I worked in BROWARD County and that's been 25-plus years, people - were rarely this packed, but having doubled up a spot I guess would explain away the voting line. It's not even the longest line I've ever seen on Voting Day: I worked at a library in 2008 whose meeting room was a precinct locale and it snaked out through the entire parking lot.

I am hopeful that the voting turnout is heavily on the young and Democratic, although I am in the middle of Florida and the goddamn Far Right wingnuts are already crowing that DeSantis has won the Hispanic vote (which is horrifying considering how DeSantis is so racist about Latino immigration).

I am begging and praying to the Divine Powers and Providence that watched over this United States for 250 years: For the LOVE OF GOD let the Democrats win the big elections. Let there be 81 million voters again this 2022 like it was in 2020, so we can ensure Congress stays Democratic and avoids falling into the madness of Republican obstructionism.

GET THE VOTE OUT, AMERICA. AND FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING VOTE DEMOCRAT.

 

Still Waiting for the Hammer on trump. Soon. It Should Be Soon.

The buzz on donald trump facing justice from the Department of Justice is picking up as the midterm elections wrap up this Tuesday. Via Alexander Bolton at The Hill website: 

Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after Election Day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum...

Gods, we gotta wait another 60 days? We've been waiting half the year ever since the Mar-A-Lago warrant search revealed trump's potential espionage and obstruction stealing documents that should have gone to the National Archives. At least hit trump with violating the Presidential Records Act, you've got him dead to rights on that.

GOP aides also warn that an indictment of Trump by the Biden administration would further polarize the nation and likely strengthen Trump’s support from the Republican Party’s base as the former president and his allies would frame the Department of Justice’s prosecution as a political witch hunt...

trump's been screaming "Witch Hunt" for years now, ever since the Mueller investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 elections (and trump's likely ties to Russia during all that). trump's been screaming "Witch Hunt" about the Mar-A-Lago search for stolen documents. None of that has changed. We're already polarized as a nation regarding trump's illegal behaviors. Just fucking arrest him already.

I understand the Justice Department has delayed this long out of courtesy to the election cycle, because any move they would do before could influence voter behavior. We've seen that when FBI Director Comey screwed up and reported investigations into Hillary's emails before November 2016, which all turned out to be nothingburgers but likely cost her voters in battleground states.

But as soon as the election's done and the ballots are mostly counted, by Wednesday November 9th at the earliest, by that Friday November 11th at the latest, just fucking charge donald trump for the crimes the Justice Department can prove he's committed. Gods.

trump will scream that the DOJ shouldn't charge him, that there's never been a history of the feds charging a Presidential candidate for office before, because trump will claim he's a candidate already even though 2024 is still two years away. trump - and his Republican lackeys - all keep forgetting that the Justice Dept. only does that as a courtesy, not as a rule or as a law from Congress. The guys at Justice have never done it before because they've never had before an openly corrupt con artist like donald trump breaking federal laws that he's broken. If running for President made a crook untouchable, John Gotti would have run for the White House decades ago.

Confronted with the reality and evidence that donald trump has violated serious federal laws - regarding the Presidential Records Act, regarding likely acts of espionage by keeping and exposing hundreds of still-classified documents, regarding likely acts of obstruction hiding away documents detailing trump's involvement in January 6th Insurrection and/or other cases the government is investigating now - the United States government has no choice but to charge trump for what he's done. Otherwise, they expose our government to the horrors of allowing trump to repeat the same crimes, and worse stop themselves from ever honestly upholding those laws ever again. The hypocrisy of letting trump walk will never wash away.

Republicans and trump can scream "Partisan witch hunt" all they want. It can't hide the facts that trump broke a number of laws, and that he's perfectly willing to break more laws to serve his own needs.

Just fucking arrest trump already. Okay. We can wait until Wednesday. You better arrest him then.

Update 11/13: Apparently the midterm elections aren't entirely finished, as Georgia is looking at a finalist round for the Senate race between Warnock and Walker (neither of them clearing the 50 percent hurdle the state requires). As I've noted above, the DOJ as a courtesy will hold off on any major politically-tinged indictments until that vote is done (mid-December, perhaps? I need to find the timeline). Although that election is technically moot as the Democrats confirmed 50-seat control of the Senate this midterms, the courtesy remains. Meaning we got to wait another month before popping the champagne. 

This also applies to other ongoing criminal matters such as Matt Gaetz's impending doom regarding his buddy Greenberg, who just got a lighter sentence recommendation from the feds for his cooperation. All signs are pointing to Gaetz facing at least one felony charge, but given the leniency shown to Greenberg there's a good chance Greenberg gave up some serious shit on Gaetz (and other Florida Republicans).

Write-In for Florida US District 18

I know this is late to the game and all, but I'm looking at my Polk County FL ballot and I'm a little perturbed by what I see for my Congressional district - 18th District, stretching from Polk County southward to Lake Okeechobee - choices.

There's no Democrat running this midterm. As a result, the choices I have are either the establishment Far Right Conservative Republican candidate, the Far Right Conservative Independent candidate with ties to the NRA (boo hiss), and a Write-In slot.

...

Fuck it, I'm using the Write-In slot. And since I don't know anybody else to write in... Fuck it, I'm writing myself in on the Ego ticket.

So if anybody else in Central Florida with the 18th District as your stomping ground, if you want a center-left candidate to vote for, well what the fuck write me in.

Here's my platform:

• I support a woman's choice to her own body and health.
• I will let teachers teach without interference from politicians and censors.
• I will raise taxes on billionaires because let's be honest they're the only ones who can afford to pay taxes anymore.
• I support universal background checks on ALL gun sales, I support a ban on ALL assault rifles, I support all laws to prevent angry guys getting any access to a gun as a means to reduce domestic violence.
• I will fight to get nurses and teachers paid like baseball players.
• I support any immigration reform that makes it easier for law-abiding families to enter the U.S. on work plans and become citizens like my ancestors did.
• I will fight to reduce the high costs of rent.
• I will punish any deejay who talks over the last 30 seconds of Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield." You bastards, when the whistling starts is not a cue to start blabbing. The song's not over yet!
• I will push for clean water and clean air laws to help Florida and the nation be balanced with our nature, and make it safe to live here.
• I will fight for election laws that will end gerrymandering, that will promote voter rights without interference from suppression, and will ensure that the majority of people will get the representation that truly reflects their needs.
• I support all law enforcement reforms that will de-escalate situations to reduce police brutality and ensure all our civil rights are upheld.
• I will serve the public trust for both Florida and the nation.

There you go. That's me.

I know this is late, just days before the midterms election itself. But goddammit, someone's got to stand up for this district and for Florida.

And the good news, I won't spam you fifty times a day begging for campaign funds!

So if you're between Lakeland to Palmdale and Lakeport, between Mulberry to Sebring, if you wanna test your handwriting, write in Paul Wartenberg for the 18th Congressional!

...

Yes, I will be surprised if you all spell my last name correctly.

Going Mad Another Midterms in 2022

I swear to God I'm gonna die of an anxiety attack some day.

I just want more Floridians to show up to vote Democratic in the big elections - Governor, Senator, at least half the Congressional seats to spite DeSantis' extreme gerrymandering, State Attorney General, et al - this midterms cycle. I'm sick of watching my state succumb to the stupidity and pandering and ignorance that the Republican campaigns bring out in people.

And yet, I just get this nagging painful feeling that too many Latino voters, too many suburban households, too many trump-worshipping coal rollers around me are going to wallow in the MAGA madness and make this state suffer another two-four years. All because God forbid Democrats ever win anything in the Sunshine State again.

Even though nearly 20 straight years of Republican misrule has led to poisoned rivers, a failing home insurance industry, collapsing condos, broke schools, and about twenty to fifty other things making Florida a sadder, angrier place to live.

Gods, please. Please reach the minds and hearts and souls of 6 to 8 million voters to make them realize we need changes in our elected leaders, that we need Crist as Governor and Demings as Senator and more Democrats in office to counter the damage the Republicans are continuing to inflict on us. 

GET OUT THE VOTE, FLORIDIANS. VOTE DEMOCRATIC. VOTE CRIST. VOTE DEMINGS. VOTE FOR OUR LIVES AND OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURES.

November 2022: Midterms. GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT, DEMOCRATS

This is it, Florida. This is it, United States of America.

Election Day is November 8th. One week away.

Some states will have Early Voting going on until this Friday or Saturday. You can still go in early if you're worried about long lines at the precincts next Tuesday November 8th.

Early Voting turnout is reaching 2018 levels, which set a record or two for midterm cycles results. That congressional cycle favored Democrats, in spite of Republican efforts to restrict turnout.

In the face of those Far Right efforts to curtail, suppress, restrict voters from showing up this midterms, massive voter turnout is still the best way to defeat those violations of our civil right - our obligation - to vote for our government.

We need to vote, people.

And we need to vote Democratic.

We need to vote for the party (Dems) that won't take away women's rights to their health care and to control their own bodies the way Republicans are. We need to vote for the party (Dems) that won't nuke Medicare and Social Security the way the Republicans plan. We need to vote for the party (Dems) that won't steal from the poor by raiding food stamps and other poverty-fighting programs the way the Republicans have across Red States for decades.

We need to hold Republicans here in Florida accountable for their failures to fix the broken property insurance system. We need to hold DeSantis accountable for his expensive and illegal stunts of kidnapping legal migrants for political photo ops. We need to kick out Marco Rubio from a Senate job he barely ever shows up for, to which he contributes little while posing and preening on television. I mean, Grassley and Feinstein show up to serve their constituents, and they're senile and way past retirement age.

We need another Blue Wave, Florida: One that washes away the corruption and violence and gaslighting of the Far Right.

We need every pro-choice, pro-infrastructure, pro-wages, pro-environment, pro-housing, pro-justice voter to show up and support every Democratic candidate on the ballot.

Get the damn vote out, everybody.

The state of Florida, the whole bloody nation needs your voice and your commitment to each other.

I will see you at the ballot box on Tuesday (I'm a traditionalist, plus I work late so I can vote early in the morning).

This 2022 Midterms Cycle Matters, Our Lives and Freedoms Literally On the Line

Early voting for the 2022 Midterms has already started across several states, meaning we are in the final round of finding out whether America survives the Far Right attempts to degrade our democracy into a nightmare.

Every election cycle, I've been like this: anxious and hopeful and terrified and heartbroken and angry. I haven't felt safe about any election year since 2010, ever since the gaslighting of the Fox Not-News faithful using Tea Party rabble to distort the realities of an Obama administration's efforts to rebuild from the tax-cutting and deregulatory failures and wartime mismanagement of the Dubya years.

And here we are again, on the edge of an election that the polling is telling us is siding just a little bit towards the Republicans gaining some serious wins at the state and federal level that should be impossible in any sane reality, after all the damage trump and his wingnut allies have done and are still doing to the American body politic.

I know, I know: after almost a full decade of getting told how fucked up our nation's political narratives are, and how partisan and deadlocked most voters have become - mostly thanks to that Far Right Narrative overwhelming everyone's senses - I ought to be used to this situation. However, it just unsettles the mind and the soul how broken everyone else around me has to be; in order to view the Republicans' open agenda to destroy democracy, turn women into second-class breeding stock, gut Social Security and Medicare, and break the federal government in order to build a Christianist Fascist utopia dystopia as somehow "normal political campaigning".

/headdesk 

It's no secret what would happen if the Republicans even reach their modest goal of flipping the U.S. House to their control. Not only with the obvious agenda of forcing President Biden to surrender on the Far Right economic goals of nuking Medicare and Social Security, but also with the plan to humiliate Biden by attacking Biden's family especially his son Hunter. 

The Far Right still believes that all of the criminal and civil investigations into donald trump - and on trump's family, who are involved in most of what trump's done the last 20 years - are all partisan attacks on an "innocent" and "clearly great, God-anointed" trump. Never mind there are honest-to-God allegations into trump's illegal misdeeds: To the Far Right, none of those investigations and charges are legal. And so, they must have revenge.

Therefore, attacking Biden - and Biden's family - in the same manner as the attacks on trump is all fair game. There's already been a long investigation into Hunter Biden and his business dealings, which will arguably get dragged up in House Committee sessions meant to embarrass Hunter and by proxy his President dad. We'll even get Hunter Biden's laptop - a key piece of Qanon conspiracy-mongering which the FBI refused to touch because there's solid evidence too many other people have gotten access to it and meddled with its files, as well as the possibility the laptop is a Russian disinfo campaign - shoved down our throats every day of the week by gleeful GOP hacks in both Congress and mainstream media.

The House Republicans are already primed to file Impeachment proceedings on Biden and Vice President Harris, simply for winning the Presidency in 2020. Not only to promote the Big Lie that trump "really won" because of stolen ballots (or fake ballots, or the Ballot Fairy jinxing trump, or...), but in order to override the election results and put a Republican replacement - the House Speaker thanks to the 25th Amendment - in the White House in spite of the 81 million Americans who voted Biden/Harris. Don't be surprised if the Republicans win the House that they put donald trump in as Speaker - it's not a joke, ANYONE could be made Speaker it doesn't have to be an elected Representative - and then force Impeachment votes to oust Biden/Harris every chance they get.

It'll be a big stunt, the constant impeaching, because unless the Republicans win 2/3rds control of the Senate neither Biden nor Harris will get removed. But to the Far Right, humiliating Biden every time will be worth it. Five impeachments, twenty impeachments, fifty impeachments, it won't matter if they stick or not. Making Biden the most-impeached President ever - to undo the historic infamy laid on trump's twice-impeached ass - without just cause will still be worth it, because the GOP will think the history books will ignore the real reasons why (that House Republicans were partisan assholes), they will only see the impeachment counts and deem Biden the "worst-ever" just on that.

And that's all we'll really get in a Republican-controlled House. No reforms, no sensible legislation, no bipartisan dealings. They will attack and obstruct Biden at all costs, even including government shutdowns over the debt ceiling to derail our economy in the belief that those shutdowns will kill any Biden re-election hopes in 2024. The GOP even hopes their efforts to force the U.S. government to default period will work, because it will kneecap a federal government they would love to drown in Grover Norquist's bathtub. And they will never get the blame for it.

If there's any good news this midterms cycle, it's the belief from most polling that the U.S. Senate will stay Democratic. However, there is no guarantee of that. If the Republicans gain control of BOTH houses of Congress, things will get dramatically worse. A Republican Senate will deny Biden ANY further judicial appointments, and even deny him any Cabinet postings if he has to replace a department head. The Republican Congress will pass legislation looking to undo every Democratic gain made under Biden, even the infrastructure bills that promise to rebuild the entire nation. They will seek to repeal (and not replace) Obamacare again. They will pass a national abortion ban, and national bans on transgender rights and medical procedures, and an assault on any education that would dare teach the dangers of racism. They will do this knowing Biden will be there to veto all of it, but even then they will use the threat of shutdown and federal default to get Biden to "compromise" on something that will hurt people to satisfy Republican cruelty.

And Gods help us at the state level if Republicans retain control of most of our states. They're already making women suffer with their anti-abortion laws, and they are looking at ways of making it worse for women. Republican-led states are getting caught defrauding the poor families, or failing to help the citizenry recover after disasters, or allowing gun violence in our schools with nary a concern at the death tolls.

I have some hope that not all of that will happen. Voter turnout for early polling is at 2018 levels, which resulted in a nice Blue Wave for the Democrats. There's evidence from the surprising Kansas voter turnout by women in the primary cycle that suggests a lot of angry women are voting Blue to help restore Roe and abortion rights. Turnout is the one best thing the Democrats have against the GOP onslaught against our entire nation's rights.

So again I implore the plurality of Americans who are registered Democrats: GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT. I implore the majority of Americans who favor the woman's rights to choose: GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT. I implore the majority of Americans who want gun reforms: GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT. I implore the majority of Americans who want more taxation and financial regulation on the wealthy: GET THE DAMN VOTE. And for the Love of GOD, vote Democratic across the entire ballot.

This election matters, more than any other previous election our nation has seen since 1860.

We dare not let the cruelty and greed of the Republican Party to win in any way this year.

Republicans Will Vote For the Devil When It Suits Their Purpose

"He may be a bastard, but he's OUR bastard!"
- standard excuse given by political cynics whenever they justify supporting a terrible, scandal-plagued candidate

It's come up again that the Republican Party has no morality when it comes to selecting their candidates. The Georgia Senate race involving Herschel Walker - a well-proven domestic abuser with an insane history of fabricating his history - just got exposed with reports from the Daily Beast that he paid a number of former girlfriends to have abortions. All of this highlighting the hypocrisy of the GOP running on a pro-life anti-abortion platform.

Just like Alabama's Roy Moore back in 2017, when he was exposed as a pedophile chasing after teen girls in shopping malls and stalking them to their high schools, the Republicans are publicly and perfectly fine with Walker paying for abortions, because GOD FORBID the political power should ever go to those radical evil Democrats instead.

As Steve M. notes at his No More Mister Nice Blog, the cruelty AND hypocrisy are the ever-constant focal points of an unhinged power-mad minority party:

Right-wing thought leaders are making it clear that they don't care whether Walker was an accessory to what they normally regard as murder -- only power matters in this case...

We all know what Frank Wilhoit said: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” But we need to realize that conservatives believe that this applies not just to what's legally permitted, but also to what's regarded as moral. If a conservative does it, that means it's not immoral. And the corollary: Liberals are immoral even if they don't commit immoral acts.

So Bill Clinton's marital troubles make him a moral degenerate, but Donald Trump's don't -- in fact, he's widely regarded on the right as a good Christian. Barack and Michelle Obama are depraved even though they've had a long, sturdy marriage. Similarly, Hunter Biden's past transgressions damn him for life, no matter how thoroughly he cleans up -- but Herschel Walker's past is irrelevant to the right.

What's the right's definition of a good person? A Republican in good standing. What's the right's definition of an evil person? Anyone who isn't a Republican in good standing, or on the way to becoming one. (Democrats who attack the "Democrat Party" get a special exemption.) So no one on the right is calling Herschel Walker an accessory to murder. It's only murder -- with, increasingly, the risk of real legal penalties -- if we do it...

Republicans keep proving that they don't care if the elected official or candidate they're backing is an imbecile, if that person is racist or anti-Semitic or misogynistic to hell and back, or if that person has so many ethical red flags they should never be trusted.

Republicans want emotionally broken, ethically vacant people among their ranks to ensure they are loyal only to themselves (and their rich deep pocket sugar daddies) and not to the states and districts they are sworn to serve. They know they are not truly representative of the needs of the majority, and they know they can't find people who are ethical and honest to run as Republicans. So they'll run the crooks they do draft into service, and use mudslinging attacks on Democrats as "leftist radicals destroying America" to rile up their base to show up and vote (while discouraging independent voters from paying attention) while doing everything to rig the midterms to discount/disqualify every Democratic vote they can.

Every Republican action exposes their gaslighting and hypocrisy as damaging to our national well-being. These midterms matter, people. For the LOVE OF GOD and for honest representation in OUR government, please show up to vote this November and PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD VOTE FOR EVERY DEMOCRAT YOU CAN. Do not let the Herschel Walkers and the Matt Gaetzes and the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the GOP win a damn thing.

Get The Damn Vote Out: 2022 Blue Wave Edition

I keep saying "Elections matter" because guess what, they do.

There has been at least since the 2008 election cycle a glaring reality - one that our mainstream media refuses to admit, because they dare not lose "access" to Republican elites - that one political party - hint Republicans - has gone batshit insane. Obsessed with retaining power even as they sink into political minority status, the modern GOP has sunk into conspiratorial alternate-reality mind screws of their own making. We've seen what happens when they had trump pose for them as their standard bearer in the White House, and it wasn't pretty. And the Republicans want the nation to go back to that... permanently.

We're at the point where Republicans are openly pushing an agenda to pass a national abortion ban - to hell what they said about states' rights - to make every American woman second-class breeding stock, and going after Social Security and Medicare as though those safety nets for our elder citizenry are threats to the Far Right's Way of Life.

We're seeing what Republicans are doing at the state level: attacking gay/lesbian/trans teens as Dreaded Other; wrecking school curricula by denying any texts that dare call out our nation's racist history; and persecuting/abusing legal migrants from Central/South America through political stunts, harassment, and lies.

And Republicans are going after everyone's power to vote, because they know damn well keeping voter turnout down is the only way they can stay in office.

This is what Republicans want, and this is what they think will keep them in minority-majority rule for the next 10 100 years.

We dare not let them win.

We've seen what happens in 2018 and 2020 when voter turnout exceeds Republicans' desires. We've seen it happen this year in Kansas already, where a massive women's turnout flipped a midterm amendment referendum on abortion on its ass. 

Massive voter turnout by Democrats and left-leaning Independents work. Massive voter turnout keeps our nation's democratic traditions alive. Massive voter turnout defeats a lot of Republican attempts to steal away our rights.

There's a lot at stake this 2022 midterms, especially at the federal level: If the Republicans gain control of either the House or Senate (or worse, both) then our government becomes logjammed and nothing will get done. The Republicans - grown increasingly rabid under trump's leadership - have already promised retribution towards President Biden for what they feel is partisan attacks on trump for what are in reality legal investigations into trump's misdeeds. They will do everything in their power to hinder, delay, or break up any current investigations into trump's role in the January 6th insurrection; they will press hyperactive attacks on Biden's son Hunter to weaken Joe Biden's standing among voters; they will stage vote overrides of Obamacare and every big-ticket bill Biden just got passed this year knowing full well Biden's veto will save them from whatever disasters would happen if any of those bills were repealed.

It's imperative that Democrats retain control of the House. This may not be likely, due to the extreme gerrymandering that happened in Red and battleground states like Texas, Wisconsin, and Florida. But it IS possible for Democrats to blunt or reduce that gerrymandering, by reaching high turnout numbers that negate the district rigging. Voting for the U.S. House matters.

The U.S. Senate numbers are slightly better only because gerrymandering doesn't affect state-wide votes. There's even a likelihood the Dems can increase their 50-50 status in the high chamber with two (and even four) seats flipping Blue. It would secure any need for Biden to fill more judicial and executive vacancies without Republican interference: It could include enough left-leaning reformers into the Senate who can end the filibuster logjam mechanics and free up future Senates to vote more clean and effective bills into law. Voting for the U.S. Senate matters.

It's harder - I will admit this - for elections to affect the state results, especially in Republican-held states that have gerrymandered everything across every corner of each state. But turnout can still work, especially for the state-wide Governor races. If Dems can gain enough Governor seats, that can setback a number of extremist legislative bodies from doing further harm to their states (although as Wisconsin and North Carolina showed, a lame-duck GOP lege can try to strip Governors of enough power to weaken such changes). Voting for the Governors and state-level legislatures matter.

Let the call go out to every registered Democratic and Indy voter: This midterm matters. Voter turnout matters. Get the vote out, and do everything you can to prevent the Republicans from denying your access to the ballot box.

If the Republicans win, this could be honest-to-God the last honest election the Republicans will ever let us have.

As a personal note, I am currently in the path of a massive Hurricane Ian that threatens to shred central Florida. If I don't make it out alive, I want a promise, I WANT YOU TO PROMISE ME AMERICA, I want a promise that 69 percent of you - Democrats, Left-leaning Independents, Pro-Choice and Pro-Immigrant Republicans who are still out there (yes you are) - will show up this November and vote a straight-down All-Democratic Blue Wave ticket.

GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT, AMERICA.

And for the LOVE of God, do NOT vote Republican at any level. Blue Wave 2022!

Good luck.

Florida Ballot Amendments 2022: Short But Not Simple

It's September in an election midterms cycle, so you know what THAT means!!!

PIZZAAAAAAA!!!!

...wait, I'm on a diet now. Back up, let's rethink this. Oh, now I remember.

STATE BALLOT REFERENDUMS!!!

I'm gonna do what I often do - link to Ballotpedia's page on 2022 Florida Referenda - and then provide a little commentary on why certain amendments deserve your vote and certain other amendments don't.

An interesting note about this year's referenda: There were no voter-petitioned (Initiated) amendments put on the ballot this cycle. Either the requirements for those type of amendments got stricter, or nobody had an issue that reached high enough voter interest to get enough signatures to make it. There is a possibility the pandemic made it harder during 2021-22 to get volunteers and registration tables set up to get those signatures. Still, I do wonder. If anybody in the know can tell me, please leave a comment.

Now, to the issues.

Amendment One: Disregard Flood Resistance Improvements in Property Value Assessments

The title is wordy and a bit confusing. The synopsis tells us a Yes vote means "authorizing the state legislature to pass laws prohibiting flood resistance improvements to a home from being taken into consideration when determining a property's assessed value for property tax purposes." Voting No obviously means it won't let the state do this.

What this involves is giving homeowners options to make flood resistance improvements without such expensive items impact the property value assessments that tax appraisers would use to increase the tax value of that house. Meaning a form of tax deduction on what people will owe on those properties.

On the one hand, it falls under the Far Right obsession with lowering tax revenues that the state could collect on, which IMHO hurts our state's ability to build up funds to pay for shit like schools, roads, clean water, social safety nets, etc. On the other hand, it provides a tax credit of sorts for those who DO redevelop their property to better withstand flooding issues.

It should be a huge warning sign that even state Republicans admit that climate change is getting severe enough that flooding is a bigger problem than ever. It'd be nice if they passed more laws to combat the root cause to ensure flooding recedes as a problem (aheh).

This would be a reasonable YES vote for most voters. I just wish we had better amendments that didn't focus on cutting taxes our counties would need.

Amendment Two: Abolishes the Florida Constitution Revision Commission

You might recall four years ago (2018) we had a slew of amendments on the state ballot that exceeded the number we'd see for normal referendum cycles. What happened was a constitution-required Revision Commission was at work that year. Every 20 years, that Commission shows up - filled with Governor-nominated political hacks - to put any number of amendments that the legislature may have wanted done but couldn't get past their 60 percent supermajority... and maybe any popular voter initiatives that couldn't get enough signatures.

Problem in 2018 was - and if you link back to what I posted about that cycle - the Commission crammed together a series of multi-issue referenda: Each Commission amendment had two or three disparate issues under consideration, meaning people who were voting Yes for one thing were forced to vote Yes for other things they would otherwise had voted No.

As I noted on one of the amendments that had non-related matters to vote on:

They're trying to get people to vote for the one thing that matters - the victims' rights - to one thing that the legislature ought to do itself - raise retirement age - and then to one thing that would make our legal system worse - denying courts from getting administrative input.

It angered a lot of people, even some of the Republicans, and it led to the Legislature agreeing to the idea of abolishing the 20-year Commission outright.

Here's the problem: The Commission itself is not a bad idea.

The reason for that Commission is obvious: Political logjams in the Legislature prevents certain popular issues from getting resolved; also the strict requirements for public initiatives are needed to prevent our ballots from getting swamped by extremists pushing bad agendas. The Commission is a third option, one that if applied properly could allow voters to pass needed reforms that our state government might not make.

What really went wrong in 2018 was that the Commission had no set guidelines on how to proceed - it sets its own rules rather than by court or legislative mandates - and so abused their power to cram - also called "bundling" as many unpopular and partisan ballot referendums alongside popular ones in an attempt to screw over the voters. Instead of abolishing the Commission, our state needs to reform it by setting rules and requirements to ensure it works properly.

We need to make it so that the Commission CANNOT cram multiple ballot issues onto one "bundled" amendment. Each issue should stand alone. That would be a major improvement right there. Then, there needs to be a set limit of Commission-based amendments - say, a top ten of amendments that passed their committee votes - so that way the ballot doesn't get overwhelmed, and then any left over by the Commission can be converted into public initiatives for signatures and hopefully make it onto the next election cycle's ballot. I would also argue that the membership of the Commission should not be by governor appointment (which allowed then-Governor Scott to fill it with hacks) but by popular vote: Have voters choose an open ballot of candidates in the previous election cycle, make it so each major party nominates UP TO 25 candidates (the candidates should have requirements to run to ensure no extremists get on ballot), and the top 37 vote getters go in meaning it will be an automatic mix of both parties.

Just those three fixes alone would work. Straight-out abolition of a reform method would hurt the state in the long run.

I would argue NO against this amendment. There are better ways to fix the Commission, not kill it.

Amendment Three: Yet Another Homestead Exemption for Certain Public Service Workers

If there's anything predictable about the Republicans in our legislature, it's that they want to create more and more exemptions to the Homestead Exemption on property taxes. Just keep on making it harder for counties to pay for themselves, Tallahassee! /headdesk

At some point I swear Florida Republicans will eliminate property taxes altogether, at which point everything will be paid through sales taxes that hurt the poor the most... /more headdesk

This time around, the exemption idea is for "Additional homestead property tax exemption on $50,000 of assessed value on property owned by certain public service workers including teachers, law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel, active duty members of the military and Florida National Guard, and child welfare service employees." I thought they've already passed a ton of exemptions for law enforcement and military residents already, but hey let's give them $50,000 more of a tax cut shall we?

At least this time around they're providing tax cuts for the more "liberal" leaning professions like teachers and social workers, so this is not as bad an exemption push as the earlier ones. Any benefit to our beleaguered teachers and family welfare workers is a nice thing to consider

The only problem with this exemption? It doesn't seem to cover OTHER public service employees like county and city officials. LIKE LIBRARIANS!!!!!!! YES, I AM ANGRY I'M GETTING OVERLOOKED. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE HYPOCRISY, I CARE ABOUT GETTING MY CONDO'S TAXES DOWN!!! AAAAUUUuuugggg.... cough cough... um, sorry about that, got a little self-serving there for a moment.

Look, previous experience has taught me that these Homestead exemption amendments are popular and tend to get passed in spite of my pro-tax (in moderation, in short "tax the rich 'cause they're the only ones who can afford to anymore") world-view. It's likely a lot of teachers and their families will vote for this, which is a broad voting base on its own. This ballot affects enough people in what they'll view as a positive that they'll likely support it.

I'll just sit over here grumbling to myself about the slight to librarians and tell you I'm personally a No on this.

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This is, as mentioned earlier, a relatively quiet amendment cycle for Florida. It should be relatively easy for everyone to remember. If anything, the amendment that means the most this term - Amendment Two abolishing the Revision Commission - is the one I really want voters to say NO to. That's what matters here.

Also, I want a huge Democratic / Blue Wave turnout this midterms to vote that asshole DeSantis and every other Republican out of office, but you should have learned that by now.

GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT, FLORIDA DEMOCRATS!