Linky Friday: Midterms 2018

23 thoughts on “Linky Friday: Midterms 2018”

1. Mt20: I don’t get opinion pieces like this. Anybody who even pays the smallest attention to politics should be able to determine that people across the political spectrum believe that the world is in a state of flux. From a left-liberal perspective, we have Far Right populists movements winning elections across the democratic globe. We have the President of the United States arguing that he can change the Constitution by royal degree. There is unprecedented levels of interference in voting rights by Republicans to maintain power. The right side of politics is animated by what they are animated about.

   But then you get opinion pieces like this that ignore everything that is happening because of some statistics. These are economics above all people that hate politics. They just want it all to go away.Report

   1. Well, can you really know if it’s the most important election in your lifetime, unless you are very old and unlikely to vote in the next election?

      It is probably one of the more important midterm elections for Democrats in a while.Report

      1. I’m not sure that I remember an election that wasn’t the most important election of my lifetime.

         Maybe it was in the 90’s? ’98, maybe?Report

         1. 98 was my first election and vividly remember the “most important of our lifetime” moniker being thrown around as Whitewater/Lewinsky started to bubble and impeachment proceedings loomed. That year was the first time since the 30’s a sitting presidents party (Clinton in this case) actually gained some seats in a midterm. R’s pushed ahead with impeachment anyway and we know how that story goes. Interesting write up from the aftermath here, neat with 20 years of hindsight: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/05/us/1998-elections-congress-overview-gop-scramble-over-blame-for-poor-showing-polls.htmlReport

            1. Crap. 96?Report

               1. It rather proves you point; in my lifetime, voting lifetime anyway, it’s been said of every single election.Report

2. Turns out inviting a defrocked fake rabbi to an event is a good way to turn off lots of your fellow Jewish Michiganers,

   https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/11/lena-epstein-fake-rabbi-pence-michigan-jewish-voters.html

   Especially when the defrocked fake rabbi is a Republican partisan.Report

3. More details from Josh Marshall

   https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/never-go-full-trump-the-lena-epstein-storyReport

4. Mt1- It’s typical that ‘everything you need to know’ includes nothing about the county/city level contests.Report

   1. Catch the link to the [Mt14] piece about that very topic. The internet and smart phones has made the world big, but it’s also made it more outwardly focused and in some cases less local coverage.Report

5. The more I read about this, the more it depresses me. How did they think this was a good idea? Have they drunk the Kool-Aid that much?

   https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/jacob-wohl-jack-burkman-robert-mueller-smear.htmlReport

   1. Being rock stupid and massive desperation is a bad combo. They probably didn’t think it was a good idea. It was the only thing they could think of.Report

      1. What I find interesting and disturbing is the number of conservatives who are smart enough to figure out how to grift other fellow travelers but seemingly also believe in the Kool-Aid.

         There is a part of me that wants to believe that they are trolling and scamming but they might have thought they could really get away with this or calculated that getting caught did not matter for wingnut welfare.Report

         1. I actually have seen smarter right-leaning people on specific message boards basically upset that the Democrat’s in charge of campaigns actually believe in the Democratic Party as opposed to most people in charge of the post-Citizen’s United GOP fundraising arm, which largely exist as a way to bilk senior citizens out of money.

            I forget the exact numbers, but an immense amount of money that might’ve actually helped the GOP in other elections have basically gone to scams as opposed to Democrat’s. Now, Democratic operatives might be incompetent at times, but unlike the GOP operatives, they aren’t straight bilking people out of their cash.Report

            1. Alexa, remind me of this post if Beto loses to Ted.Report

               1. Whether he wins or not, at least Beto is an actual candidate.

                  What I’m talking about are straight up scams.

                  If somebody donates to a Democratic Senate candidate up here in Washington, it may be a lost cause, but it’s not a scam.

                  But hey, you gotta’ keep up with your gimmick after all. Kayfabe, brother.Report

                  1. That’s the joy of being a heel. You can do anything. Even tell the truth!

                     Babyfaces can only do one thing: Full Steam Ahead.Report

   2. Wohl, in addition to being a jackass, recently went to Russia and is tied into their troll networks. Report

      1. Er I was in Russia in the summer of 2017 for a wedding celebrationReport

         1. I somewhat doubt you used your trip to do social media posts on the Joy’s of living under Putin and and how much the Russian people love Trump, as young Jacob did.

            Report

   3. I suspect he’s after a pardon.

      He’s the one the SEC barred from ever trading again, due to some light felony action a few years ago.

      Which led to the best part of that little “news conference” wherein Berkman was praising Wohl as being a “prodigy and genius like Mozart” (something like that) and someone in the audience shouted “You can’t even open an eTrade account!”.

      Unless I’ve reversed them.

      In any case, they’re tripling down on the stupid.Report

6. My view of the midterms, however impolite it may be.Report

7. Man, I hate being right all the time.

   Here is National Review with their installment of “Well Actually, the 14th Amendment Doesn’t Mandate Birthright Citizenship“Report

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