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2018 mid-term election

Anyone else's state have any important/interesting/weird Referendums they want to talk about? I'm sort of interested in what other states vote on.
 
LSSBB said:
I changed in the same way in my view, coming to accept gay marriage. I figure though that it was I became more Libertarian.
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Memory is fallible and we flatter ourselves, but I think I was in favor of gay marriage for libertarian reasons as early as 1990 or so.

I'm less libertarian now.

Eta: not to say my position or reasoning has changed on this issue.
 
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Slings and Arrows said:
"Ugly Democrats always take their clothes off then falsely accuse men of sexually assaulting them."
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This is very late to the party, and probably well beyond discussion by this point, but I really couldn't just let it sail by.

'Ugly'

Really?

Regardless of your personal preferences, the best argument you could find against that statement was based on a subjective assessment of aesthetics? Good effort.

Also, for what it's worth, every single one of those women is beautiful. My opinion of course, and entirely not the point.
 
Slings and Arrows said:
Then:
"If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."

-- Maxine Waters (June 23, 2018)​

Now:
"It is obvious that the president of the United States of America is placing a target on my back and he keeps calling my name and lying about me in order to make the target work. The president is divisive and he continues to dog whistle to his constituency out there. He’s promoting violence."

-- Maxine Waters (Nov 4, 2018)​
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Yeah, because encouraging people to use their words are just the exactly same as encouraging them to body slam reporters and to attack protesters with a promise to pay their legal fees. Kinda like how rocks are just the same as rifle bullets. :rolleyes:
 
Worm said:
This is very late to the party, and probably well beyond discussion by this point, but I really couldn't just let it sail by.

'Ugly'

Really?

Regardless of your personal preferences, the best argument you could find against that statement was based on a subjective assessment of aesthetics? Good effort.

Also, for what it's worth, every single one of those women is beautiful. My opinion of course, and entirely not the point.
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Forget it Jake. It's Trolltown.
 
So a rather more subtle lie of the great orange one. Trump is claiming that the US Economy is the best in the world, you know cause USA #1 and all that.

According to the IMF, as of Oct 2018 the US annual growth in GDP is 2.9%, which is pretty good, and well above some other countries, particularly Europe.

But is it the best in the world? Well.... No. Libya's is 10.9% Ethiopia's is at 7.5%

Even if you look at just the "Western" and "modern" nations, Ireland is at 4.7% growth, Hong Kong is at 3.8%, Australia 3.2%, New Zealand is at 3.1%, and Switzerland is at 3%.

Okay so what about GDP itself. If we look at nominal GDP per capita then we find that the US is at #9, behind the like of Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, and Denmark.

If we look at GDP(PPP), then the US comes in at #12, again behind the likes of Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland.

So where is the US #1 in economy? Well when just looking at GDP alone, but the reality is that the US has had the highest GDP in the world for decades, well before Trump. In 2012 under Obama, and recovering from the worse financial crisis since the Depression, the US GDP was double of China's, who held the #2 spot.

So yeah... if his claim is that by pure GDP, well okay it might be true, but only because it's been true since the middle of the last Century.

Ok, and here's a interesting check...

2012 GDP (billions of dollars)
US - 16,244
China - 8,229

2014 GDP
US - 16,768.05
China - 9,469.13

2016 GDP
US - 18,624.48
China - 11,218.28

2018 GDP
US - 20,412.87
China -14,092.51

The two things to note here are that:

1) China's growth since 2012 is 50% greater then the US's
2) The growth for the 2 years under Trump is comparable to the growth under Obama in his last 2 years.

Point two is also emphasized by noting that while in the 21 months under Trump there have been 4 million new jobs created in the US, under Obama, in his last 21 months, 4.4 million jobs were created.

So while, yes the US Economy is holding strong, it's not because of any wonders that Trump is doing, all he is doing is keeping it steady as it was going anyways, but it certainly is not, under conventional ways to measure the greatness of an economy, the best in the world, as he claims.
 
Trump Tweets

"There is only one way to stop this Democrat-Led assault on our sovereignty – you have to VOTE Republican TOMORROW! Polling locations: (link: http://Vote.GOP) Vote.GOP"
 
Trump's schedule is interesting. He's an idiot but his pollsters generally are pretty sharp. Cleveland? Does he really think he can keep the governorship? He has much more riding on Ohio than is apparent.

He ran all the regular party hacks out of Ohio and replaced them with Trump stooges. It's a stop en route to other airports so he decided to throw in a second visit in three days to Cleveland. In '16, those last minute changes were pretty accurate in predicting the important shifts in PA, MI, WI.... If it's his pollsters/advisers call, then look for a GOP comeback in the governor's battle. Mostly, I think he split the Ohio GOP and if his slate fail to produce a "hold" then other state organizations may not be so quick to put his hand picked maroons in positions of power.

Alternately, I don't think you'll see a lot of GOP operatives citing his personal charisma and vote-getting. His weekend rush includes Montana, where the GOP will lose and Trump's most hated enemy (Tester) wins. Florida... they're going to lose the Senate seat and the state house. West Virginia... why does he even bother? Just the reliable rowdies in the rally audience? They're not going to top Mnachin. To his political credit, he's also been to GA, MO, IN. All are close and at least he's making an attempt. They're bound to get a win in one or the other so he can claim it was That Old Orange Magic that won where they won and it was Mexicans who stole the other ones.

Other pyrrhic victories.... Get Walkerism out of Wisconsin!
 
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Most observers think that Trump's rallies are organized according to his 2020 campaign, not for the Midterms.
 
quadraginta said:
It's probably to expensive for dark-skinned people to be homeless there. They migrate to places with a lower cost-of-living.
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That would not surprise me.

But it also wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of Hispanics had more family resources in the US to house them.
 
Baylor said:
There's nothing racist about facts. People of color are not offended by facts nor do they need racist white non-Americans to protect them from facts. Your thought-leaders led you to believe you could play the white savior for People of color in America when all you're doing is perpetuating white supremacy. They cashed in on your racism.
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What facts? Because all the vomit coming from Trump's mouth are the farthest from facts one can find.

White savior? WTF? I've rarely seen such BS in this forum.
 
The Great Zaganza said:
Most observers think that Trump's rallies are organized according to his 2020 campaign, not for the Midterms.
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That's one of the points mentioned in the Clevelander article I read that brought up him doing this because it's now the New Improved Ohio GOP(T). He talks in buzzwords and one of his favorite notes is that no one wins the presidency without Ohio. They're going to get trounced in the Senate race, there will be no changes in the House (maybe +1 Dems), but the loss of the governorship will hurt him real bad.

I think the same can be said for Florida. That looks like a lost cause across the board, but he needs it in 2020. I don't think the votes matter so much but he likes the dirty-gritty WV miners' vote, possibly because the state was Blue Dog Dem for so long.

Missouri and Indiana? Not so much. He'll take both in 2020. Ditto Montana. And he's given all three a lot of attention.
 
Eight years ago or so hundreds of young Latino people in my city stood up as if on cue and calmly walked out of their classrooms, some walking miles to get to a central gathering point, as part of a social-media political action. They were protesting a law that I think would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. Latinos gathered by the hundreds of thousands in a few later events. Those former HS students are young voters now and if they don't turn out in force I'll be baffled. They'll have to live with the consequences of these votes longer than I'll have to. I hope they stand up and be counted en masse, if they haven't already done so in early voting.
 
Foolmewunz said:
They're bound to get a win in one or the other so he can claim it was That Old Orange Magic that won where they won and it was Mexicans who stole the other ones.

Other pyrrhic victories.... Get Walkerism out of Wisconsin!
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I've been a little bit impressed by Trump's campaigning for GOP candidates. Does this mean he's realizing that he doesn't own the federal government, and that he needs continuing support from Congress? Working well with others has not be a particularly strong suit.

ETA: Something else I am hoping: That some staunch Trump fans are significantly less invested in congressional races. They're used to believing Trump can fix things on his own (he certainly likes to give that impression). And they're maybe not quite as fired up about races that don't actually involve their MAGA emperor. I'm clutching at straws, I know.
 
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Minoosh said:
I've been a little bit impressed by Trump's campaigning for GOP candidates. Does this mean he's realizing that he doesn't own the federal government, and that he needs continuing support from Congress? Working well with others has not be a particularly strong suit.

ETA: Something else I am hoping: That some staunch Trump fans are significantly less invested in congressional races. They're used to believing Trump can fix things on his own (he certainly likes to give that impression). And they're maybe not quite as fired up about races that don't actually involve their MAGA emperor. I'm clutching at straws, I know.
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Trump has campaigned heavily on the idea that the midterms are all about him, so I wouldn't get my hopes up :( .
 
Safe-Keeper said:
Trump has campaigned heavily on the idea that the midterms are all about him, so I wouldn't get my hopes up :( .
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Yes. We're dealing with an egomaniacal narcissist. Like in Ohio, he's remade the party. The "new improved" GOP is the Trump GOP. For him, the brilliant thoughts and great actions will come from Trump and the GOP electees and appointees will just follow. Campaigning for "his people" is just a form of noblesse oblige in Trump World.
 
dudalb said:
Thing about California is the California Consitituion includes a number of things that in most states are done by simple statute law,and in order to change the constitution you have to go the voters. Thus the prop on savings time. Every elections we get a few "non controversial" props that in other states would be handled by the state legislature.
We do thing right occasionally....taking redistricting out of the hands of the state legislature and putting it into a non partisan commission has worked out fairly well....but we do some dumb things also. The "two candidates with the most votes in the primary face off in November regardless of party" needs to be changed.
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Hang on a moment, who gets to represent a political party in an election is set by state law?
 
Foolmewunz said:
That's one of the points mentioned in the Clevelander article I read that brought up him doing this because it's now the New Improved Ohio GOP(T). He talks in buzzwords and one of his favorite notes is that no one wins the presidency without Ohio. They're going to get trounced in the Senate race, there will be no changes in the House (maybe +1 Dems), but the loss of the governorship will hurt him real bad.

I think the same can be said for Florida. That looks like a lost cause across the board, but he needs it in 2020. I don't think the votes matter so much but he likes the dirty-gritty WV miners' vote, possibly because the state was Blue Dog Dem for so long.

Missouri and Indiana? Not so much. He'll take both in 2020. Ditto Montana. And he's given all three a lot of attention.
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They've calculated the house as a lost cause and are trying to keep the Senate. Missouri, Indiana and Montana all have vulnerable Dem Senators.
 
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