The Election Was Very Close. Republicans Do Not Have A Mandate.

Thursday Reading

U.S. government checks constituted 40% of farmers’ income in 2020

A New Congressional Budget Office Study Shows That Medicare for All Would Save Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Annually

Trump’s Businesses Raked In $1.9 Billion Of Revenue During His First Three Years In Office

Ronald Reagan Paved the Way for Donald Trump

Republicans won in rural Wisconsin again, now comes the hard part — governing

Trickle-down economics doesn't work but build-up does – is Biden listening?

Trickle-down economics is dead. It’s time to tax the rich harder

NBC's Chuck Todd to GOP senator on Electoral College challenge: 'You're the arsonist here'

A decade ago, this scientist predicted 2020 would bring 'peak' chaos to the U.S.

The Senate’s coup-staging ‘Dirty Dozen’ shouldn’t be allowed to hold office

Federal Judge Tears Apart Election Lawsuit

Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to Zero

Capitol attackers have long threatened violence in rural American west

The Covid Tracking Project

St Croix County Republican Party tells members to 'prepare for war' and to remove 'leftist tyrants' from local office

Amendments

Pelosi introduces bill under 25th Amendment for commission to evaluate fitness of future presidents

While the Democrats are introducing new Amendments, how about a few of these:

• Abolish the Electoral College
• Make the number of Senators a state has dependent on the state's population
• Make elections free and fair
• Correct gerrymandered districts, bi-partisanly establish how districts are to be drawn 
• Set term limits for the Supreme Court

Weekend Reading

Bernie Sanders Leads Donald Trump By Widest Margin Of All 2020 Candidates: Election Poll

Foxconn's Midwestern disaster is still unfolding

Mississippi unveils job count, pay and incentives for Milwaukee Tool expansion

City Okays Convention Center Expansion

Virginia House passes bill to award electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote

Trump’s 29th Trip To Mar-a-Lago Brings Golf Tab To 334 Years Of Presidential Salary

Weekend Reading

There Is No Labor Shortage
We Don't Have Labor Shortage. We Have A Pay Shortage.
Fighting Climate Change May Be Easier Than We Think
Heavy Job Loss Since The 1970s Hit Milwaukee's Black Community The Hardest. Here's Why.
The Case Against The Electoral College In Stronger Than Ever
Journal Sentinel Slams "Liberal" News Site
David Koch's Monstrous Legacy
I Helped Create The GOP Tax Myth. Trump Is Wrong: Tax Cuts Don't Equal Growth.
Humans Versus Earth: The Quest To Define The Anthropocene
New Inequality Numbers Are A Gift To Campaign Sloganeers
No, Productivity Does Not Explain Income
How Trump's Foxconn Deal Conned Wisconsin Out Of Billions
The Financialization Of The American Elite
The 'War On Cars' Is A Bad Joke
Social Security Does Not Add To The Federal Deficit
Brazil, The Amazon, and Global Warming: It Ain't Quite What The Media Tell You
The Trump Vs. Obama Economy - In 15 Charts

Republicans: The Real Hypocritical, Crybaby Snowflakes

Republicans Seek to Limit Governor’s Veto

Wisconsin Republicans Advance Lame-Duck Power Grab

McConnell Would Fill Potential Supreme Court Vacancy In 2020, Reversal Of 2016 Stance

Fox News’ Chris Wallace Hits GOP for Complaining About Investigations: Remember Benghazi?

Republicans who held 33 hearings on Benghazi complain that Cohen’s testimony was a waste of time

Republicans tried to turn a hearing about white nationalism into a venue to complain about attacks on conservatives

Abolishing the Electoral College Was a Republican Idea

The disgraceful kowtowing of the formerly anti-imperial Republicans

After Reagan and Trump, Republicans don't get to complain about liberal celebrities anymore

The Republicans Are Deficit Hypocrites. The Democrats Should Be, Too.

Republican Leaders Vow to Obstruct State Budget, Then Complain About Lack of Negotiations

Senate Republicans can’t explain why they keep blocking a resolution calling for the release of the Mueller report

To GOP, Obama’s immigration orders were ‘executive overreach.’ What is it when Trump does it?

We Wouldn’t Have Let Obama Get Away With This

Sparks fly on Fox News as liberal nails Republican hypocrisy on outside questioning of Barr: ‘Like they did with Kavanaugh?’

Steve Wynn Is a Shining Example of Republican Hypocrisy

Why are Republicans so cruel to the poor? Paul Ryan's profound hypocrisy stands for a deeper problem

Ocasio-Cortez rips ‘horrifying’ Republican hypocrisy on support for 9/11 survivors after Ilhan Omar controversy

The Republican hypocrisy over Ilhan Omar's comment

Republicans Aren't Just Hypocrites, They're Nihilists

More Republican Hypocrisy On Separation Of Powers

Minister Calls Out ‘Hypocrisy’ of Republican Lawmakers Toward Unborn During Wisc. Republican State Convention

The Appalling Hypocrisy Of The Republican Party Exposed In Three Simple Charts

Weekend Reading

Do Corporate Tax Incentives Work? 20 States, And Most Cities, Don't Know
Trump Nominates Famous Idiot Stephen Moore To Federal Reserve Board
Neil Gorsuch's Bad-Faith Ploy To Save Partisan Gerrymandering And Doom American Democracy
Fossil Fuel Industry Gave $2,371,680 To Senate Democrats Who Blocked Green New Deal
Putting Number In Context: A Winnable Battle Our Side Doesn't Want To Fight
The 4 Arguments In Defense Of The Electoral College Are Wrong
Why You Shouldn't Listen To Self-Serving Optimists Like Hans Rosling And Steven Pinker

Power Begets Power

Weekend Reading

Choice Schools Must Share Data
Tom Barrett Signs Milwaukee Lead Pipe Removal Ordinance
5 Ways of Redrawing The U.S. Electoral Map That Actually Makes Sense
All This Talk of Voter Fraud? Across The U.S., Officials Found Next To None
Did Voter ID Laws Hurt Election Turnout? Look At Milwaukee
Tom Brady's Personal Guru Is A Glorified Snake-Oil Salesman
The Electoral College Is Great For Whiter States, Lousy For Cities
The Irrationality Within Us
Keynesian Economics: Is It Time For The Theory To Rise From The Dead?
Under Trump, Red States Are Finally Going To Be Able To Turn Themselves Into Poor, Unhealthy Paradises
Obama's Economy
Trump Inherits Obama Boom
Seattle Offers Lesson For Milwaukee
Minimum Wage Foes Tripped Up By Facts
Memo To Corporate America: Pay More. Treat People Better.
The Really Rich Got Richer, According To IRS's Top 400
The U.S. Is A Low-Tax Nation

Hillary Clinton’s Popular Vote Victory Keeps Growing

Hillary Clinton’s Popular Vote Victory Keeps Growing

She is up by 1.8 million votes, with millions still being counted in California.

Hillary Clinton not only won the popular vote in Tuesday’s election. It is now clear that she won it by a margin larger than two candidates who went on to win the presidency. 

David Leonhardt, a columnist for The New York Times, noted on Friday that with a 1.7-percentage-point popular vote lead over Donald Trump,Clinton will have a larger margin of victory than Richard Nixon had over Hubert Humphrey in 1968 or John F. Kennedy had over Nixon in 1960. (Her edge is also larger than Al Gore’s popular vote victory over George W. Bush in 2000, though he too was stymied by an electoral college loss.) 

In raw numbers, that amounts to an edge of roughly 1.8 million votes as of Saturday.

Deplorables 1, Sanity 0

A few things we can glean from the Wisconsin exit polling:

Third party candidates either held Trump back from a blowout or cost Clinton the election, more likely the latter. Again, third party candidates are a wrench in the system. Unless we move to something like an instant run-off voting system, third party candidates are destructive. Other than a sense of smug self-righteousness, what do Johnson and Stein voters have to show? 

Persons 45 and older seemed to have tipped the election to Trump. Amazing that folks receiving, or close to receiving, Medicare and Social Security would vote for the party that wants to end those programs. I really have no clue what these people think Donald Trump or the Republican party will do for them. 

Those with only some college or a high school diploma or less tilted toward Trump. Ignorance is bliss.

The US Elections Project estimates that 128.8 million Americans cast a ballot in 2016, out of 231 million eligible voters — a turnout rate of 55.6 percent. Thus, around 45% of eligible voters did not vote. In 2012, there were 153 million registered voters out of 235 million eligible voters. Nearly 133 million people voted in that presidential election.

Wisconsin, by a thin margin, went for Trump. Odd. Has the state learned nothing from the disaster that has been Scott Walker? 

Persons identifying as religious leaned toward Trump. How is this even possible? Trump is one of the most obscene and deplorable candidates to ever run. He's mean-spirited, twice-divorced, sexist and racist. Not really in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. So, how about this, all you conservative gas-bags talking about values and family and church, shut the fuck up! You are full of shit. You have no spine and Jesus is ashamed of you. Grab 'em by the pussy!



The majority of non-college educated white women (64%) voted for Trump. Unbelievable. Do they really think Trump gives a shit about them? I can only play armchair psychiatrist and assume these women must really hate themselves to vote for such a vile and sexist man.

The fact that any women or any person who calls him or herself religious would vote for Trump is sad and disturbing. As a John Mulaney joke states, "You have the moral backbone of a chocolate éclair."



Lets flash back to the George W Bush presidency. Mired in war, economy in ruins, retirements wrecked, there really wasn't any good news from the two terms. Since President Obama, millions now have health care, unemployment is down from over 10% to under 5%, the stock market is at all-time highs, and the country has seen years of steady job growth, to name a few positives.

Trump voters were supposedly voting for change. Do they want to go back to the recession economy of George W Bush? I guess I'm still feeling a bit squishy about what the Trump voters actually want. I mean, platitudes are great, we want our country back, make America great again, build a wall, kill health care...but how and what exactly is Trump going to do? Exit polling showed Trump voters believe he can "bring needed change." (Although, again, the things they seem to want to change would make all of us worse off, not better.) Their most important issues were terrorism and immigration. Funny, Obama was actually Commander in Chief when Osama bin Laden was killed. Net migration from Mexico has been negative every year since 2008. So, really, what are you talking about? I have a hunch (as always) it's about taxes, deregulation, racism and sexism.

They really can't logically claim Trump would be better for the economy. Just leading up to the election, with the chance of a Trump victory, the market began a downturn. As the headline the day after the election stated, Trump Win Leaves Dollar, Stocks, Mexican Peso Reeling. Investors fear a Trump victory could cause global economic and trade turmoil and years of policy unpredictability.

Hillary Clinton actually won the popular vote. More of the people that actually voted wanted Hillary Clinton to win (and 45% were either discouraged, disenfranchised or didn't vote). Yet the antiquated Electoral College gave the victory to Donald Trump. The Electoral College is gerrymandering at the Federal level. If we must keep the Electoral College, why not just give the electoral votes that match the percentage of votes won? Using Wisconsin as an example - Trump got 48% to Clinton's 47%, thus, of Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes, Trump would get 4.8 and Clinton 4.7. Or we could just go by the popular vote, seen as that best represents direct democracy.

One of the lessons we can take from this election is that Republicans, or at least those voting that way, really have no principles. Voting has become a contest for them. The ends justify the means. They really don't care about the details. They just want their guy to be in power...and then they make excuses and outright lies when the reality of that candidate doesn't match the rhetoric.

Another lesson Democrats need to learn, which I thought they would have by now, is that they need to, just as the Republicans do, passionately and relentlessly pursue and push the policies they want, win, lose or draw. Can we make elections public? Get rid of Citizens United? Get rid of the Electoral College? Get rid of gerrymandering? After Gore v Bush one would have thought this would have been a more pressing issue for Democrats.

Also, how about making voting a national holiday? Turnout for elections in the U.S. is embarrassing. Not to mention the fact that Republicans are continually trying to restrict voting rights and disenfranchise voters. (Yes, Republicans are cheaters, just like Donald Trump.) How about more polling places. Newer, modern voting equipment. More early voting. If anyone really cares about the will of the people, democracy, the constitution and all the other bromides that get shouted around, voting would be a mandatory duty of American citizenship.

And, as far as elections laws are concerned, can we put some rules in place for what can be televised in election ads? We allow outright lies to pass as persuasive campaigning. Can we exercise some control over the allowable content of campaigns like the Canadian Elections Act, which sets out various provisions regarding the publication or broadcast of election advertising?

As Bruce Bartlett put it, "The lesson of this election is that when the media normalize racism, sexism, fascism, lying & stupidity, it has political consequences." This is truly horrifying; to think that our nation is still so sexist, racist and stupid. Donald Trump and a pliable media have normalized our national discourse into a reality television program.

All of this has left H.L. Mencken's quote ringing in my head, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Indeed, a good portion (but not a majority) of America has now shown itself to appreciate lies, chest-thumping and stupidity over all else.

Deplorables 1, Sanity 0

For Further Reading:
Election 2016: Exit Polls (NY Times)
Election 2016 National Exit Poll Results and Analysis

U.S. Election Results 2016

America hits new landmark: 200 million registered voters

Voter turnout in 2016 looks low so far — and that may have helped Donald Trump

Clinton clenched the popular vote, but both candidates missed out on half of voters
Michael Moore: Morning-After To-Do List

More Americans Voted for Hillary Clinton Than Donald Trump
America Elected A Man Who Said ‘Grab Them By The P***y’ Over The First Female President
Trump needed a huge drop in turnout to win and that’s exactly what happened

Hillary Clinton’s campaign was crippled by voters who stayed home

Win, Lose, Or Redraw

In 2012, the GOP lost the presidency, they lost the Senate, they lost the vote count in the House of Representatives by a combined 1.1 million votes. Republicans haven't gotten an ass paddling like that since D.C. shut down Madame Kink's Rump Dungeon. If it's Wednesday, ask for the "trickle down".

And it is getting so bad, that to win the presidency next time, some are saying that Republicans might have to change their messaging, or change their policies, or change the constituencies that they serve. Now thankfully, there's a better answer, and it brings us to tonight's Word: Win, Lose, or Redraw.

Yes, even though they lost the popular combined vote, the GOP kept control of the House by a 33-seat margin. And they did it without watering down the Republican Party platform. ("Rape Is So Misunderstood.") 

Now, just how did the Republicans do it? (Missionary Style?) They did it with a little thing I call gerrymandering. (Named for Gerald Mander, The Third) You see, back in 2010, Republican state legislatures across the nation redrew Congressional districts to make them a lock for the GOP. And in some cases, just to send a message to the Democrats. 

Because that's the beauty of gerrymandering. Instead of voters getting to pick their leaders, leaders get to pick their voters. (Me, The People) And I say, why not? We should trust our leaders. After all, we voted them in. (Once, Back in the 70's.) 

Well, now that the GOP has its gerrymandering game down, they are ready to take it to the next level. Republican legislators in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, are lining up behind proposals that would allocate presidential electoral college votes by congressional district. As a supporter of this idea, Pennsylvania state senator Dominic Pileggi argues, "the current winner-take-all system is inherently unfair because the losing party... gets no credit in the electoral count". 

Yeah, the losing party never gets to pick the President. This legislation just allows Republicans to level the playing field. (And Turn It Into A Golf Course) Because folks, here's the great part. If you applied this plan to the 2012 election, even though 5 million more people voted for the Democrat, the Republican would've won the presidency by 22 electoral votes. [source]

Also: Scott Walker: Electoral Vote Proportional Allocation An Interesting Idea