JoanofArgh
JoanofArgh's JournalIn 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders told the House Democratic caucus: "The goal isn't to win elections."
https://twitter.com/JamesCarville/status/1225834943508512770Hey Democrats, it’s the winning, stupid! By James Carvill
Political parties do not exist for factions to gain power over them and lose elections so long as the faction maintains its grip. They exist to win elections. Without power, they are nothing.
In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders told the House Democratic caucus: “The goal isn’t to win elections.” Maybe the stakes involved with Donald Trump weren’t crystal clear then, but by God they should be now. Winning this election is all that matters — and the way to do it is not running some rat race to the furthest reaches of leftwing zombie land.
Never in my life have I seen the Democratic party suffer a case of political amnesia this bad. A little over a year ago, the party stormed the House of Representatives in the midterm elections with the largest winning margin ever.
And how did we do it? By running a diverse coalition of candidates — young, black, brown, women, gay, straight — with one basic message: while the president gets things done only for himself, we are going to get real things done for you. While the president targets your protections for pre-existing medical conditions, we are going to lower the cost of prescription drugs. While he marches to the orders of the National Rifle Association, we are going to protect your child’s life. We care about climate, infrastructure and broadband — it goes on.
https://www.ft.com/content/aa0677e0-48fe-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1225850398675738624
Common Cause Files Complaint Against Pro-Bernie Sanders Group Our Revolution for Violating Soft Mone
Common Cause Files Complaint Against Pro-Bernie Sanders Group Our Revolution for Violating Soft Money Ban
Today, Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reason to believe that Our Revolution, a nonprofit political organization established by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016 and now supporting his 2020 presidential campaign, violated the federal ‘soft money’ ban. Sen. Sanders has been a longtime critic of super PACs and so-called “Dark Money” groups. The complaint documents that Our Revolution has solicited contributions explicitly to elect Sanders president, received contributions far in excess of the applicable $5,000 contribution limit and spent funds in connection with federal elections, including current voter mobilization efforts supporting Sanders in Iowa.
Under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, an entity directly or indirectly established by a federal candidate or officeholder is not allowed to “solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds in connection with an election for Federal office” unless the “funds are subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements” of federal law.
According to Our Revolution’s tax returns showing contribution amounts but not contributor names, data compiled and first reported by the Associated Press, from 2016 to 2018 Our Revolution raised almost $1 million dollars from contributors who gave in excess of the applicable $5,000 contribution limit, including multiple contributions of between $100,000 and $300,000. Our Revolution has not disclosed any of its contributors to the FEC, as required by federal campaign finance law.
“Americans expect and deserve to have our campaign finance laws enforced and they expect political organizations to abide by the law, regardless of their political views,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, Common Cause vice president for policy and litigation. “The facts surrounding Our Revolution, including its founding by Sen. Sanders, its receipt of six-figure contributions, its failure to disclose donors to the FEC, and its political spending in Iowa and elsewhere, point to a clear violation of the federal soft money ban. Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization and we work to hold power accountable regardless of party affiliation or policy positions. It is critically important that the soft money ban be enforced, or outside groups founded by candidates will become a commonplace means to evade contribution limits and disclosure requirements.”
In 2018, Common Cause filed a complaint against America First Policies and America First Action, outside groups founded by President Trump’s campaign after the 2016 election, alleging violation of the same soft money ban that Our Revolution appears to have violated. That complaint is still pending.
To read the FEC complaint against Our Revolution, click here.
https://www.commoncause.org/press-release/common-cause-files-complaint-against-pro-bernie-sanders-group-our-revolution-for-violating-soft-money-ban/
GOP:He didn't do it Trump:I did it
https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1225097248020799488GOP: He didn't do it.
Trump: I did it.
GOP: He didn't mean to do it.
Trump: I wish I'd done it sooner.
GOP: He did it for benign reasons.
Trump: I did it for the worst reasons.
GOP: He's sorry.
Trump: I'm never sorry.
GOP: He's chastened.
Trump: I'm doing it again tomorrow.
The real story on Trump's Venezuela debacle by Sen. Chris Murphy
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1225156756445286400Amazing that Trump tried to put a positive spin on his Venezuela debacle last night.
THREAD: 1/ Here's the real story on how Trump's Venezuela policy has been an utter failure, empowering Maduro and weakening the U.S. in our hemisphere and the world.
2/ Trump's theory of the case was as simple as it was ignorant of reality: recognize Juan Guaido as the leader of Venezuela and Maduro would just back down. It was an idea, not a strategy, and it had no hope of working.
3/ Some of us counseled holding back recognition of Guaido as leverage to get Maduro to make concessions. But Trump played his most important card on day one, leaving him no room to maneuver. Diplomatic malpractice.
4/ Trump's isolation from our allies now began to hurt. We moved to impose sanctions on Maduro, but the EU - insulted time and again by Trump - largely wouldn't help. Without Europe, our sanctions were at best feckless.
5/ And then it got worse. Turkey, UAE, and India, in league with Russia, sided against the U.S. and constructed a means for Maduro to avoid sanctions. A nuclear meltdown of American diplomacy - the nations that mattered on sanctions were either neutral or actively undermining us.
6/ But it got EVEN WORSE - Trump appointed Elliott Abrams as our envoy, even though most of our Latin American allies viewed Abrams as a proponent of U.S. Western Hemisphere imperialism. Abrams, assured to alienate our allies, was probably the worst pick possible for this job.
7/ Trump's reversal of the diplomatic thaw with Cuba also meant that there was no way to work with Cuba, a huge backer of Maduro, to ease an end to the regime.
8/ Now panicking in the face of months of failure, the U.S. tried to secretly organize a military coup, but we bungled it, and it failed miserably and publicly, leaving Guaido more isolated and embarrassed than ever before.
9/ Today, Venezuela is becoming a second Cuba. Guaido is not in charge, but we pretend he is. Maduro has China/Russia/Cuba/India/UAE/Turkey on his side, and he is growing stronger by the day.
In the end, Trump was the best thing that ever happened to Maduro.
Manchin will vote to convict!
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1225160393930219520White House completely caught off guard by Romney's vote
https://twitter.com/MichaelCBender/status/1225138521364738053White House was completely caught off guard by Romney's vote. And within minutes of Romney's speech, the White House closed a Trump-Guaido meeting in the Oval Office that reporters had been invited to attend.
The fact that the House impeachment was completely partisan was a vital WH talking point. Romney removing Trump's ability to say the same in the Senate is huge, and now very eager to see/read Trump's reaction.
Trump is freaking out.
He's retweeted 25 posts (so far) criticizing Pelosi and tweeted about her twice, giving her tons of exposure. 
Trump's Speech Was a Bataan Death March of Bullsh*t - Rick Wilson
Donald’s Trump State of the Union speech Tuesday night was an example of the one thing he does better than anyone else in the political space: spectacle. The bizarre, wild show was full of reality TV tropes and moments, from surprise military families reuniting to Melania pinning the Presidential Medal of Freedom on cancer-stricken Rush Limbaugh. In many ways, the speech itself seemed to be rote filler for those moments, noise between the notes.
Those production values weren’t limited to Trump; his snub of the traditional handshake to Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the speech was bookended in its closing moments, when she literally tore the text of his remarks into shreds.Of course, this speech was, first and foremost, the usual Bataan death march for fact checkers; a slurry of lies, distorted statistics, and outrageous claims.
There was a rata-tat-tat laundry list of the biggest, greatest, longest, newest, brightest accomplishments. The usual condo-salesman braggadocio was there, with his claims of 4,000 percent economic growth, billions of new jobs, and the best economy in the universe, ever. He didn’t mention the $2 trillion unfunded tax cut, a trillion-plus in annual deficit spending, and the continued Fed borrow-and-pump injections that have an addicted Wall Street chasing the liquidity dragon. In Trump’s telling, the decade-long Obama-era boom was a radioactive hellscape where ragged children fought over scraps of rat meat by the guttering fires of the ruins of a lost American civilization.
Yes, comrades! In the glorious era of Trump, all the news is good! The beet harvest exceeds the five-year plan! We have accomplished record tractor production in the Wisconistan Oblast!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-state-of-the-union-was-half-american-carnage-half-morning-in-america
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Gender: FemaleHome country: USA
Current location: Charlotte, NC
Member since: Fri Sep 14, 2012, 01:15 AM
Number of posts: 14,971
