Going Back

Political Cartoon is by Lalo Alcaraz at pocho.com.

Identifying Stupid

An American Hero

Is McConnell Afraid GOP Can't Win Without Russian Help?

• “It wasn't a single attempt. They're doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign,” he (Mueller) told the House Intelligence Committee of Russia’s tampering in American elections.

Last June, the House passed a sweeping election security bill -- The Securing America's Federal Elections Act (SAFE). But now over a month later, the Senate has not taken up the bill -- for debate or a vote.

Why? Because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has blocked the bill. It's one of more than 100 House-passed bills that McConnell refuses to let the Senate debate or vote on.

Yesterday, acting on the warning from Robert Mueller that Russia continues to interfere in our electoral process, three Democratic senators (Warner of Virginia, Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Wyden of Oregon) tried to bring Senate bills to the floor for passage regarding this issue. Two would require any politician contacted by a foreign power to report that to the FBI, and the third would have provided cybersecurity help for personal accounts and devices of senators and their staff. Senators can request a bill to be brought up, as long as no other senator objects.

But there was an objection. McConnell sent one of his GOP henchmen to the floor to object. This time it was Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. She objected to bringing up all three bills.

So, McConnell continues to block not only the House bill, but any Senate bills that would address Russian interference in our electoral process. Why is he doing this? Shouldn't anyone in Congress be happy to act to make our elections more secure, and keep them free of foreign influence? Isn't it obvious that any foreign power interfering be doing so for their own benefit -- not the benefit of the United States?

I can only think of one reason. He is afraid that the Republicans cannot win in 2020 unless they have as much help as they can get from the Russians -- both on social media, and in hacking state election databases. He knows the party will be going into the 2020 elections led by a deeply unpopular president (who was helped by Russia in 2016, and will need that help again to be re-elected).

Perhaps even more important, McConnell wants to keep his job as majority leader (which requires a Republican majority in the Senate) and to retake control of the House for his party. Polls show neither is likely to happen. It seems that McConnell is hoping the Russians can save him and his party.

This makes McConnell a traitor to our democracy, and it makes it very important to vote him (and his GOP friends) out of office. Democrats and Independents must go to the polls in 2020 in large enough numbers to overcome Russian interference and Republican intransigence. The fate of our democratic system is at stake.

One Word Answer

Political Cartoon is by Kevin Siers in The Charlotte Observer.

Biden Is The Candidate That Could Beat Trump In Ohio

These charts reflect the results of the new Quinnipiac University Poll of Ohio voters. It was done between July 17th and 22nd of 1,431 voters, with a margin of error of 3.2 points. The chart below only reflects the opinion of 556 Democrats and Leaners, and has a margin of error of 5.1 points.

The top chart shows that Joe Biden is the candidate that could most easily beat Trump in Ohio. He currently has an 8 point advantage over him. The other five Democrats they queried about are in a statistical tie with Trump in Ohio.

The bottom chart shows Biden with a large lead over his Democratic rivals -- more than doubling the support of those closest to him (Harris, Sanders, and Warren).

He Watched

Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.

Did Mueller's Testimony Matter? - We Don't Know Yet

(Photo Of Robert Mueller being sworn in, from wired.com, is by Jonathan Ernst / Reuters.)

Robert Mueller's log-anticipated testimony before two congressional committees (Judiciary and Intelligence) is over now. Did it matter?

Democrats were hoping his testimony would move the public to support impeachment of Trump. Republicans were hoping it would not. The media pundits are all over the place -- some saying the testimony was devastating for Trump, while others say it was boring and not consequential. Who was right?

I think Dan Rather is probably the closest to what I think. He says we don't know yet, because we haven't heard from the people yet. He writes:

A favorite saying I heard long ago and have often repeated is "No president is bigger than the country."

This thought returned this morning as I took stock of two sets of headlines: those coming from the Mueller testimony and those coming from Puerto Rico. 

In the first, we have a struggle to make sense of what took place yesterday on Capitol Hill. Was it a dud or did it lay out a striking case of criminality? Was it the death knell for the Russia investigation or will it spark hearings, oversight, and even a possible march towards impeachment? We must keep in mind that hot takes are often wrong, especially in a nanosecond news cycle like the one we live in where where we're tossed and spun more than a ragdoll in a washing machine. And the major reason why hot takes turn out wrong is because the future matters and it has yet to be written. 

That brings me to Puerto Rico, where the headlines aren't ambiguous at all. An unprecedented surge of popular protest, at a scope and scale that is almost unfathomable, chased a government from office. We saw, very literally, the power of the people. Their voices were so loud, so clear, so impossible to ignore, dismiss, or belittle, that they collectively bent the future to their will. 

And therein lies a lesson for what happened in Washington. We may have heard from the pundits about what yesterday meant, but we haven't heard from the people. Will there be an outpouring of energy and outrage, in phone calls to elected officials, at town halls, at public demonstrations and in campaign fundraising? Or will there be a general shrugging of shoulders? Will the Democratic leadership in the House see action or apathy? 

Despite how historically unpopular this president is we have seen very little mass demonstrations since the immediate aftermath of his election. And I suspect that's because a lot of energy (and money) has gone into a political response as demonstrated in the 2018 elections. Will that strategy largely continue looking into 2020? Or will the aftermath of what we heard yesterday foment a new direction? Those headlines have yet to be written. They're impossible to write at this point because we haven't heard yet from the people that really matter, the broad and diverse electorate that is bigger than any president.

Exonerated ?

Political Cartoon is by Milt Priggee at miltpriggee.com.

Irresponsible Nation

Fighting For Empire

Trump Is A Racist - And The American Public Knows It

Donald Trump says he doesn't have a racist bone in his body. He's lying. Even racists don't like to be called out on their racism. They know it's not something that is respected in our society, and so does Trump -- even though he has ha life-long history of racist talk and deeds.

Fortunately, a majority of Americans aren't listening to his lies anymore. They've seen the evidence for themselves, and they know Trump is a racist. That's the verdict of 54% of registered voters (while only 38% deny his racism). That 38% is probably Republican, because they are the only group saying he's not racist  (15% to 75%).

All other groups (both genders, all generations, all races / ethnicities, all education levels, and both Democrats and Independents) have significantly more saying Trump's a racist than saying he's not -- and in every group but whites, it is a majority. Even among whites, 48% say he is racist while 44% say he's not.

The chart above shows the results of the latest Politico / Morning Consult Poll -- done between July 19th and 21st of a national sample of 1,992 registered voters, with only a 2 point margin of error.

NOTE -- 59% also say Trump is sexist, while 32% disagree. 45% say Trump is a homophobe, while 36% disagree.

Congressional GOP

Political Cartoon is by Gary Huck at huckkonopackicartoons.com.

Demographic Support For The Leading Democrats

These charts reflect the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between July 21st and 23rd of 1.500 adults, with a margin of error of 2.7 points. The charts above show only the responses of the 600 Democrats and Democratically-leaning Independents in the poll. No margin of error was given for just this group.

The top chart shows the support for each candidate among men and women. The second chart shows support by Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics. And the bottom chart shows the support of each age group. To keep the charts readable, I only included the candidates with at least 2% support. Personally, I think if a candidate can't get 2% support at this stage, they're not really a viable candidate.