Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York’s mayors since 1942, hosted billionaire Michael Bloomberg for three terms. Continue reading
Sections
-
Recent Posts
Category Archives: Elections & Voting
For billionaire Bloomberg, trying to buy the presidency is just a sound investment
America’s wealthiest billionaires buy a national election at $100 a vote—and still make money.
Labour’s Achilles’ heel is its leader
Corbyn comes with baggage based on his previous associations with officials of Iran and Hamas
As Britain gears up for what is arguably the most important general election, one poised to decide the nation’s future for generations to come, voter enthusiasm is at an all-time low. Continue reading
Republicans, not Russians, threaten our elections
When turnout climbs, Republicans lose. No wonder they're closing polling places and purging voters all over the country.
Republicans are less likely to win elections when voter turnout is high. Continue reading
Michael Bloomberg bought Gracie Mansion. Could he buy the White House?
With personal fortunes worth dozens of billions, modern American deep pockets can afford one of just about everything
The 220-year-old Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York’s mayors since 1942, hosted billionaire Michael Bloomberg for three terms. The first term began after Bloomberg, then the Republican candidate for mayor, spent an incredible $74 million in 2001 to get himself elected. He spent, in effect, $99 for every vote he received. Continue reading
In Kentucky, a strong hint of things to come?
Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, which most people get wrong in trivia contests, may soon be in the headlines around the world. What Republican state Senate President Robert Stivers said about the close gubernatorial election that saw Democratic Attorney General Andrew Beshear edge out a close victory over Republican incumbent Matt Bevin, a Trump loyalist, should normally shock the nation. But in the era of Trump, taking non-democratic actions to maintain political power is the new reality. Continue reading
Conservative Democrats appear to be trying to elect Trump again
Whether the Democrats or Republicans had the congressional majority, the conservatives have ruled for decades. The system is rigged by having conservative Democrats vote with Republicans for an enduring majority. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: The return of Hillary Clinton
It’s not clear if smear-mongering Clinton is running for president, or just fleeing reality. Continue reading
Ms. Pumpkin Head for president: A nightmare
A few weeks ago, I had a terrifying nightmare, so gruesome was it that I awoke screaming and had to run to the bathroom to vomit in the toilet. In this dark horror show, I was carving a pumpkin for Halloween. The cap came off easily and I disemboweled the slimy interior quickly, but as I did, I felt a strange sensation on my hand, as if a tongue were biting it. When I was finishing carving the face, however, the trouble really started. The pumpkin head came alive as the eyes and mouth moved and then it started speaking in a voice that was familiar but one I couldn’t place. Blond hair started sprouting from its head as it started shrieking and bouncing on the table in an hysterical manner. I jumped back in fear and trembling as it started cackling, “I running, I running.” Blood ran from between the carved teeth and the blue eyes pulsated with the mania of a serial killer in a horror movie. Continue reading
Election laws ignored as foreign cash piles into U.S. political campaigns
The revelations that businessmen tied to Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash and other foreign interests funneled campaign cash into the coffers of several Republican Party politicians, including the president, senators, U.S. representatives, and governors is like a case of déjà vu. In 1940, the United States first began to take seriously foreign cash donations to U.S. political campaigns in the months preceding the U.S. entry into World War II. Continue reading
For supporting Medicare for All, Biden accuses Sanders and Warren of ‘playing Trump’s game and trying to con the American people’
Biden's attack comes as he is falling in the polls and being heavily outraised by his more progressive 2020 rivals
Speaking to reporters during a campaign event in Ohio last Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden accused Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren—his two top rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination—of “playing Trump’s game and trying to con the American people” by supporting Medicare for All. Continue reading
Sanders distinguishes himself from Warren by noting that she has said ‘I am a capitalist to my bones’
By contrast, ‘I'm not,’ Sanders explained. ‘We need a political revolution.’
White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders distinguished himself from Sen. Elizabeth Warren—another top competitor in the Democratic presidential primary—by highlighting their different beliefs on economic policy during an interview with ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday. Continue reading
Why 2020 won’t be won by centrists
I keep hearing that the Democratic primary is coming down to someone who’s “electable” versus someone who has “ideas.” Continue reading
The real lesson of Ukraine-gate: Trump will do anything to win in 2020
Amid the impeachment furor, don’t lose sight of the renewed importance of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election. Continue reading
The most important presidential election question (that no one ever asks!)
Once again, the American voters have dutifully begun their quadrennial march to futility at the hands of another election cycle full of false prophets. None seem to realize or remember that the monocracy that they hold so sacrosanct is not—and has not been—a democracy for decades. Yet these societal lemmings, known as “voters,” again prepare to exert their media controlled, fact adjusted opinions at the polls while singing joyfully the praises of their one chosen new demagogue and praying that this time their candidate will, post-election, actually represent them from the Oval Office of American despair. Continue reading
The real lesson of Ukraine-gate: Trump will do anything to win in 2020
Amid the impeachment furor, don’t lose sight of the renewed importance of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: The WFP, phony outrage and black misleaders
The co-founder of Black Lives Matter has struck a cynical deal with corporate Democrats to boost Elizabeth Warren by attacking Bernie Sanders forces as racist. Continue reading
As Biden falters, will Warren survive the scrutiny?
Despite early polls which showed some of the ‘top tier’ Democrat candidates beating Trump in a general election, the last DNC debate left considerable question as to whether there was enough substance on that stage to win the White House. Continue reading
‘Unfortunate but not surprising’: Sanders responds to report Biden-linked firm poll testing attacks on Medicare for All
A senior advisor to the Sanders campaign said it was ‘disgusting’ that the former vice president's campaign would be "echoing bogus GOP talking points."
Sen. Bernie Sanders hit back Monday after news broke that the centrist group Third Way is focus-testing attacks on Medicare for All to see what will stick, using a firm with close ties to former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Continue reading
American voters apparently fear Sanders’ ‘socialism’
A Hart/McInturf (NBC/WSJ) poll of 900 registered American voters, issued on September 22, shows apparent negative consequences for Bernie Sanders’s characterizing his views as “democratic socialist” as opposed to his instead calling them “progressive,” though the two characterizations are actually the same in meaning. The “socialism” phrasing apparently still triggers a Cold War response in millions of Americans, even among many who actually favor progressive policy proposals. (Perhaps they equate democratic socialism, such as in Sweden, with dictatorial socialism, such as in the former Soviet Union. If so, Sanders should just drop the “socialism” term altogether, so as not to confuse those people about the ideology that he represents. The “socialism” term is gratuitous and counterproductive for him.) Continue reading
The secret GOP plan to keep power
In 2020, we need to pay attention to state elections as well as elections for president and Congress. State elections could decide whether the Republican Party further corrupts American democracy. Continue reading
Biden’s brain is swiss cheese and it’s creepy that we’re not talking about it
I didn’t watch the last Democratic presidential primary debates because I figured that without Tulsi Gabbard in there shaking things up it would be a boring, vapid parade of insubstantial verbal foam, and I love myself too much to go through such a horrible ordeal. By all accounts my prediction was correct, but I did miss one thing that’s been making the rounds in video clips for the last couple of days which I find absolutely bizarre. Continue reading
Democratic debate’s top ten in Texas
Candidates debate guns—and much more—in an open carry state.
Well, as CNN’s Jake Tapper told Stephen Colbert Thursday night after the Democratic presidential debate, one thing’s for certain: Beto O’Rourke isn’t leaving the race to run for the US Senate from Texas. Continue reading
The DNC debates are a sham
In the aftermath of the third Democratic National Committee (DNC) presidential debate, it was mind boggling that viewers were forced to suffer through a rehash of the same, worn out regurgitations that had already been harangued previously. There was no stunning moment where a star stepped forward as in the two earlier debates, nor any momentous policy pronouncements worth pondering. Continue reading
The war ahead: Netanyahu’s elections gamble will be costly for Israel
On September 1, the Lebanese group Hezbollah struck an Israeli military base near the border town of Avivim. The Lebanese attack came as an inevitable response to a series of Israeli strikes that targeted four different Arab countries in a matter of two days. Continue reading
Trump’s re-election strategy: Pit us against each other
I’ve seen firsthand how communities get hung out to dry when politicians scapegoat immigrants for the crimes of corporations.
You would think after a white nationalist murdered 22 people and injured dozens more in El Paso, Donald Trump would lay off the hate, even just for a moment. Apparently, he’s not capable. Or not willing. Continue reading
The Empire is coming for Tulsi Gabbard
The second debate among Democratic hopefuls was notable for two things. The lack of common decency of most of them and Tulsi Gabbard’s immense, career-ending attack on Kamala Harris’ (D-Deep State) record as an Attorney General in California. Continue reading
Debating Democrats, please, no fighting in the war room
Direct your artillery at the real enemy and not each other.
I’m not one of those people who insists that every kid on the T-ball team receive a group participation trophy, sweet as that may be. But equally, my teeth grind when I see a flurry of post-debate articles headlined, “Winners and Losers.” They reduce this most important presidential campaign of our lives to a game where a single swing or a miss matters more than the heinous presidency we’re enduring or any of the issues vital to all of us terrified about the future for our families and ourselves. Continue reading
‘I don’t have a racist bone in my body’
Those were the words of presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden when confronted about his comments regarding his cooperative working arrangement with two racist, white supremacist Dixiecrats, James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia. Continue reading
The Democratic Party’s AIPAC candidates
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris might as well be Israelis, though they’re both running for the presidency of America. Continue reading
Kamala or Tulsi
It has been decades since a bona fide antiwar candidate ran for US president; that is, a candidate who ‘felt’ peace in their bones rather than a political calculation to be exploited. By my reckoning, that last campaign would be Sen. George McGovern’s 1972 peace candidacy which came at the height of the Vietnam war. Post 911, there have been no comparable presidential peace candidates although an alternative on economic issues in 2016, Bernie was not considered a ‘peace’ candidate. Continue reading
A front-running Biden, looming catastrophe for the Democrats
Joe Biden is using Republican talking points to attack single payer health care. One wonders why he doesn’t just run as a Republican. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Say no to Bloomberg
Posted on November 29, 2019 by Margaret Kimberley
Bloomberg says he wants to stop Donald Trump but he’s really running to stop Bernie Sanders. Continue reading →