If you believe everything Trump says, he is already unable to run for the office of the Presidency.

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Tuesday February 06, 2024 · 6:28 PM PST

2024/02/06 · 18:28

...and presumably any woman, but whose counting?

I don’t know if you have heard, but Donald Trump thinks he won in 2020. I mean, he is absolutely positive that he was re-elected President of the United States, and that the his rightful place on the throne.. er, I mean in the Oval Office, was stolen from him.

Well, if we are going to take him at his word, then I think we probably need show him this thing called the 22nd amendment. (That’s the one with two 2s, not the one conservatives usually get all hyped up about.) For those who don’t remember, here is the initial verbiage:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

So if Trump was already elected twice, then I guess he can’t run again, correct?

So what is it Donnie? Care to drop the pretense of being elected twice already, or do you want to go ahead and find yet another way to defile the constitution with this Quixotic adventure of yours?

Conservative college creates it's own '1619 Project,' because of course they did.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 01, 2021 · 8:08 AM PDT

2021/10/01 · 08:08

Judge Amy Coney Barrett speaks at Hillsdale College on May 21, 2019 — You know what you are going to get with this place when she was distinguished guest....

It really is a shame, because it is such a beautiful campus. Nestled in the nether regions of Southern Lower Michigan is Hillsdale college. It is a small, liberal arts college founded in the 1800’s. Hillsdale is an example of how a word like ‘liberal’ can have very different meanings, as it is currently a hotbed of modern reactionary conservative thinking in America. It also is an example of how the conservative mindset infiltrated not only Religion, but Republicanism itself over the course of American history.

Hillsdale College was founded in 1844 by an Abolitionist group of Free Will Baptists. Because of it’s abolitionist roots, Hillsdale is one of the few colleges in America that has always been open to both African Americans and females. Hillsdale’s second president, Edmund Burke Fairfield, helped to found the Republican party, and invited speakers such as Fredrick Douglass to the campus.

That original progressive spirit began to fade from Hillsdale into the mid 20th century, as the college’s leadership began to rail against ‘governmental control’ and ‘overreach,’ especially concerning the concept of Affirmative action. By 1984, Hillsdale chose to forgo all government funding, in order to keep programs like Title IX and affirmative action off their campus.

Hillsdale’s full descent into a right wing reactionary hotbed has continued unabated since then and had become the model of what modern Education should look like in the eyes of Mark Levin and Hugh Hewitt. It’s current faculty includes former Heritage Foundation director David Azerrad and Trump national security official, Michael Anton. Clarence Thomas is also noted as a visiting faculty member and fellow.

So it makes sense that this past July, Hillsdale put out what they are calling the 1776 Curriculum, an obvious response to the much heralded (and conservatively derided) 1619 project from the New York times. The curriculum, aimed at k-12 students, “springs from a sincere admiration and respect for America’s Founders and the principles they expressed so beautifully in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. The recognition that all men are created equal, that our natural rights pre-exist government and that governments are formed to secure our natural rights — the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of all citizens,” according to Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost of K-12 education at Hillsdale. Even taken at face value there is enough dubious subtext in that statement to fill the Grand Canyon (the idea that the point of government is to basically put pre-ordained commandments from God into order, for example) but when you just peak at the curriculum, one can observe that it is just a playlist from modern conservative’s greatest hits playlist of historical gripes that white guys are being erased from history.

Here a just a few of the curriculum’s assertions:

The Civil Right’s movement lead to explicit group privilege and identity politics.
Social Justice explicitly sorts citizens into protected classes
Critical Race Theory teaches a person’s race is the single important factor in thinking about the value of a person

Apparently, the free curriculum has been downloaded 46,000 times so far (hopefully more from curious people who enjoy looking at train wrecks and not teachers actually wanting to implement it) and the college plans on extending its current work to other parts of US History in the near future (currently its focus is the founding fathers, civil war and civics), including the great depression and modern America. I am sure the text will be a wealth of opportunity for anybody that wants to see how many times their eyes can roll before they fall out of their sockets.

The one question reporters must ask any Republican.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 10, 2020 · 3:49 PM PST

2020/11/10 · 15:49

Grammar-police-corgi-lawyer-questions-attb-memegenerator-dot-net.jpg — Woof Blitzer perhaps?

I know that many Republicans have been asked about whether or not Trump should concede, and this question is important to ask, but allows them to hem and haw about legal processes and proper channels and all that nonsense.

Here is the question I want every Republican on record answering: Do you hope that no voter or election fraud is found and that Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, 2020?

Republicans have four ways to answer this:

Yes (meaning they must incur the wrath of Trump by saying they don’t want him in office after January 20th)

No (meaning that they are actively hoping that fraud has been committed and would then have to stand on that record in front of the American public forever)

Yes, but I already know it has (meaning that they are strapping themselves to the conspiracy flag pole, come Hell or high water)

No Comment (the most likely answer, showing their cowardice)

Yeah, have fun answering that question, boys and girls.

Guess who isn't going to be helping Perdue and Loeffler anytime soon?

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday November 07, 2020 · 2:12 PM PST

2020/11/07 · 14:12

When the dust settles, there will be two fantastic candidates for United States Senator out of the state of Georgia, running to oust two sycophants from the dying vestiges of the Trump era. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have already run great campaigns (and debates) against both *incumbent Kelly Loeffler, and resident stock market guru David Perdue.

You can expect many different people will spend time in the Peach State over the next couple of months, as Georgia becomes the center of the political universe. But can you guess who won’t ever step foot in Georgia? Well, I know you can, but just for clarity sake, it’s Donald Trump. If Trump where to spend time rallying for two of his more boot-lickery bootlickers, a couple of things would have to be true, which are not:

1) Trump would have to give a shit about anybody but himself. In the next couple months, he will start to become persona-non grata in the Republican party. Not super overtly, but subtlety. Do you think he is going to let that slide? The guy that talks smack to teenagers on twitter? Nah, Donnie ain’t gonna play ball with a group that was only a tool for him to use, never actually help.

2) He would have to admit he lost. The obvious line that will come from the Incumbent candidates will be that they will need to be re-elected to be a check on President Biden (gosh it feels good to type that). Trump will never say he lost. He isn’t going to stand on a podium in Savannah and tell people to vote for Perdue and Loeffler because he screwed up.

3) He will be busy solving Covid-19, unemployment and Racism. Hah, just making sure you are paying attention! More than likely he will be spending that time deciding whether or not to just ‘buy’ OANN or start up his new media empire from Scratch. I am sure Kimberly Guilfoyle will do lovely in the 8’clock time slot. He won’t have any time to do any actual governing and definitely not campaigning for anybody not named Donald Trump.

Trump got over 70 million votes in this election, but I am positive that 60 million of those were Republicans holding their nose and 10 million were Trump worshippers. Those 1 in 7 aren’t going to show up for a special election if they can’t vote for their hero, so that is 15% of down ballot love sheared off of Perdue and Loeffler’s score card.

So now it is time for Democrats and like minded independents to step up to the plate. A full court press, with enthusiastic campaigning from the leaders of the Democratic party can carry Raphael and Jon over the top, and ensure an actual functioning national legislature for at least two years.

Don’t hesitate to visit and donate to the next U.S. Senators from Georgia!

Warnock for Georgia

ElectJon

For the good of the Country, Trump must get moderately to seriously ill, and not die.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 02, 2020 · 8:32 AM PDT

2020/10/02 · 08:32

coronavirus-covid-19-illustation-cdc-medical-illustrator-dan-higgins_dezeen_2364_col_3.jpg — This gets the picture, because it is much more appealing to look at than Trump

No, I am not publicly or privately rooting for Donald Trump’s demise. It is not in my personal nature, but also would not be beneficial for the United States. However, I also hope that his symptoms, which are currently reported as mild, do not stay as such. Donald Trump needs to get sick. Very sick. Boris Johnson sick, Not Jair Bolsanaro sick. But also not Herman Cain sick. Here is why:

1. Trump gets Bolsanaro sick. He experiences mild to no symptoms, much like a common cold. He overcomes it quickly and is able to promote whatever snake oil drug he has taken in the past six months and his superior genes for the recovery. Also, this would reassure his base that this is a ‘nothing’ disease, that even if you contract wont effect you unless you are weak or feeble, unlike the great Donald Trump.

2. Trump gets Herman Cain sick. Trump suffers for a few weeks and dies. Half the country mourns and the other half feels sheepish at best. There is a rally around the flag effect for Mike Pence, and a ‘win one for the Gipper’ (Ironically, played by Saint Ronnie Reagan in the movie) effect at the polls. “Trump” wins re-election, and we have to deal with President Pence for the next 4-8 years.

3. Trump gets Boris Johnson sick. He spends the next 2-3 three weeks in bed or in the hospital, maybe even with a quick trip to ventilator town. He is unable to campaign, and spread his actual or metaphorical virus around the country. He emerges in late October, recovered, but looking weaker, older and frailer than ever before. This, coupled with Biden being able to campaign unchallenged throughout the month of October slowly moves the needle to a 1984 level election landslide. 6 or 7 Republican senators receive down-ticket blow back, and President Biden is sworn in on January 21st with a Democratic majority in the Senate and House, and just maybe, a vacant Supreme Court seat to fill.

So here is to Donald Trump’s recovery. Just not for awhile, and not until after it hurts.

These numbers don't lie, you can feel good about November right now.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 11, 2020 · 6:25 AM PDT

2020/09/11 · 06:25

Okay friends, just a little Friday breath of fresh air, because I think that is what many are longing for right now, metaphorically and literally.

I studied the current (as of 9:00 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 11th) ‘winding path to victory’ on 538, which I believe is the most accurate amalgam of polls and found these numbers:

Biden’s current forecast for winning the Presidency: Favored (Forecast designations include: toss-up, slightly favored, favored, clearly favored, very likely)

Biden’s chance to win the Presidency: 75 out 100

Biden’s current electoral cushion (votes he could lose and still win the EC): 60 votes

538’s most common outcome in their simulation(approx.): Biden 400 electoral votes, Trump 138

States that Biden has a 1% or less chance of losing: 12 (Connecticut, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island, Washington, New York, Maryland, California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Vermont, DC) Totaling 162 electoral votes.

States that Trump has a 1% or less chance of losing: 5.2 (Nebraska’s 3rd district, Wyoming, West Virginia, Idaho, Oklahoma, North Dakota) Totaling 23 electoral votes.

And just for some current perspective:

Biden has a better chance at winning Ohio than Trump does of Florida (45% to 39%)

Biden has a better chance at winning Georgia than Trump does of Pennsylvania (34% to 26%)

Biden has a better chance at winning Alaska than Trump does of winning Michigan (20% to 14%)

and my personal favorite… Biden has a better chance at winning the Presidency than Trump does of winning Texas! (75% to 68%)

Yes, these numbers can change. Yes, we shouldn’t rest on our laurels. But regardless, these cold hard numbers should fill us with warm feelings for the weekend. The media abhors a sure thing, so you know something is going to make the numbers tighten before November, but 7 ½ weeks out, I think our horse is doing just fine.

I have the new Daily Kos front page, and I like it.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 07, 2020 · 1:51 PM PDT

2020/07/07 · 13:51

The top/start of a diary draft, showing the big black&orange ''toolbox''after the white-print-on-gray-bar ADD A PUBLISH GROUP button has been clicked, displaying all the groups where the author is a member, in order to choose which one or more for where the diary will be published. — Don't worry, this didn't go away.

Just a quick diary to say that I am experiencing the new Daily Kos front page (it is my understanding that not everybody automatically is) and so far, I like it.

Yes, it is different. Yes, it will take some getting used to.

But guess what, all my non troll friends? We are progressives. So embrace the progress!

That is all for now.

This is ingenious, and could be the end of voter suppression in all major cities.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 29, 2020 · 6:05 PM PDT

2020/06/29 · 18:05

You won't see this on the court in November, but you may see something even better.

Allow me first to give credit to where the story is coming from…

For any who haven’t clicked yet, State Farm Arena, in Fulton County Georgia, home of the NBA Atlanta Hawks is being turned into a massive polling place for upcoming elections, including the general. The logistics have been worked out, the okays have been given by local officials, and it will serve as a polling place for primaries, early voting and election day!

In a normal year, the Arena might be busy on election day, but of course, this is no normal year. No NBA games will be played during the month of November, as the league will be winding down their ‘bubble’ season and be getting ready for a new season in late December. This means that every NBA city (29 major US Cities) will have an open arena that can do the same thing. Think about it. Major arenas with ample room for social distance voting. Large parking lots to handle the ebb and flow of people coming to vote by car, bus, or rickshaw. And most importantly, a lot larger lens to view all the shenanigans the Republican party plans to impose with their ‘voter fraud inspectors’ or whatever the Hell they decide to call themselves. This is a win -win- win.

Also, this is something that can happen in many more cities. There are plenty of minor league basketball, hockey, even baseball teams that could offer the same type of service to their communities, thereby decongesting polling places and having arena workers facilitating the process, instead of your 95 year old covid-19 susceptible grandfather.

Please, let this great idea catch fire and take root all across the country. It is already happening in Georgia.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday June 23, 2020 · 8:31 AM PDT

2020/06/23 · 08:31

Red Wolves at the WNC Nature Center outside Asheville. They are among the endangered species being targeted by the Republican Congress... and we must save them and all other species that will be next! Photo © Jeffrey DeCristofaro 2017

Paw Paw is a small township of around 7,000 people in Southwest Michigan. Since 1924, their school mascot has been the Redskins. What might have been considered an honoring of the prevalent history of First Nation inhabitants in the local area almost 100 years ago, has obviously been exposed as a racist, dehumanizing moniker for a community that is 90% white to splay across their uniforms in modern times. Or at least, you would think.

A call to retire the mascot has been building for years in and around the community. It came to a head in 2017, when a multi-session discussion with the school board that culminated with a four hour debate, ended with a 4-3 decision by the board to keep the name. The board considered the decision final and it would not be brought up again until “a single tax dollar was withheld.” Basically, a cowardly statement that begged for higher ups in the State to force them to make the decision to change their name. The higher ups in the State (then headed up by future convict Rick Snyder) did not and that was that.

However, in March of this year, the school board voted 6-1 to retire the mascot. What changed? Well, a couple of things. I believe a contributing factor is a current ACLU lawsuit against the school district, stating that Paw Paw was fostering a ‘racial hostile educational environment.’ That lawsuit is still pending, and I am sure the school board hopes the name change will alleviate that charge.

More importantly, I feel, was the arrival of Rick Reo. Reo was named high school principal in 2018 and quickly ascended to school Superintendent. He was instrumental in bringing the school board around to revisiting the issue, realizing the division it was causing the community. Reo took a more pragmatic approach to the issue, saying publicly that although he didn’t feel the mascot was intended to disparage or belittle the First Nation’s people, its interpretation by many does just that, and the controversy was doing noticeable harm to the town and its reputation. He gave the school board an out, a politically palpable way to get out of the situation, and they took it.

What happened next was the blueprint on how to heal a community. Instead of having the board arbitrarily pick a new name, a student led task force of 27 kids between grades 5-12 was put together to find the best mascot for their school. An online survey was sent out through the community to find a list of ten potential choices for a new mascot. Once a list of 10 names was culled, the task force then whittled that down to three potential mascots. Potential designs for the new mascot logos were then submitted and through that process, the final mascot was chosen. They are now (officially on July 13th) the Paw Paw Red Wolves. It was a choice popular with the community and anecdotally, I can add that many of the anti-mascot change advocates share the opinion that if they have to change, this was the best choice.

I feel that a community can grow, recover from past prejudices and assumptions and ideally this is what happens in Paw Paw. Hopefully, 8th grade student Avery Miller is a microcosm of that. She was present at the March meeting when the mascot was originally decided to be retired, saying, “I’d like to graduate as a Redskin, just like my dad did.” As a member of the task force charged with finding a new mascot, she said this just 3 months later: “We wanted a mascot that represents our community that students can be proud of. It gives us an opportunity to be united and show unity in our community.”

I hope this small town in Michigan can act as template for others. When you drop your assumptions, selfishness and stubborn attitudes, great things can happen. Sometimes it’s not about you, but instead all of you. Are you listening, Dan Snyder?

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 19, 2020 · 3:03 PM PDT

2020/05/19 · 15:03

The link to the story is here.

The long and short of it is that Trump is making one of his ‘victory’ tours or whatever the Hell he is calling it this week to a Ford plant in Michigan on Thursday, that is currently making PPE. The plant has asked him to wear a mask. The administration line has always been, ‘if we are asked, we would, but we haven’t been asked,’ which is obviously bullshit.

However, there is now a preemptive, public request for him to do so. No claim of ignorance can be made. So, will we finally see what we have always wanted to see, less of Trump’s face in public? My guess, highly doubtful. Especially since the appearance of kowtowing to that “Woman from Michigan” would be a bridge to far for his Pettiness in Chief.

Poll

312 votes Show Results

What will we see first?

312 votes Vote Now!

What will we see first?

Trump in a mask

9 votes

Trump's tax returns

7 votes

Trump admitting he was wrong

2 votes

President Joe Biden

294 votes

Covid-19 might be the cause of Trump's early demise, but not for the reason you may think.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday April 02, 2020 · 12:17 PM PDT

2020/04/02 · 12:17

Can't do this in the White House Basement

I just go back from a nice 2.5 mile walk with my wife and kid. The weather in my neck of the woods was pleasant today, and of course, we had the time. In fact, I must say that this quarantine is having the opposite effect on my physical health that many are worried about. I have never been a ‘eat because I am bored’ kind of person, so being stuck in the house has not led to me gaining the ‘Covid 15.’ I am eating out less and exercising more. I have lost about 5 pounds since this has started.

But I guarantee you that Donnie isn’t going on afternoon strolls with Melania and Baron. I also, with almost certainty, can say that he isn’t watching Fox and Friends and hate-watching CNN from the treadmill in the White House Basement. This quarantine has taken away his only means of exercise; golf.

Believe me, I am just as pissed as the next person at the millions of dollars of tax payer money he has wasted on extravagant jaunts to Mar-a-lago and his other properties to play a game that could easily be played on 100’s of courses in the greater D.C. area. That being said, I also understood while he played so much golf and why his handlers were okay with him playing so much, despite the optics. It is the only way they could get him to exercise. Sure, playing with a cart, thereby lessening the amount of walking you do certainly minimizes the aerobic effort put into playing 9 or 18 holes, but at least it was something. Now that this has been taken away from him, you have a 73 year old man, with the diet of a college freshman during finals week, who partakes in no aerobic exercise, unless you count shouting down minority female reporters at his daily briefing, exercise.

He is a ticking time bomb, regardless of his “tremendous” genes, and this is only hasting that eventual downfall.

Pence can't even get taking America back 120 years right.

kalspa

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday September 21, 2019 · 1:45 PM PDT

2019/09/21 · 13:45

Just think how tired he would have been on a bike.

You would think a guy whose views on society are that they belong in a mythical version of the 1950’s would be giddy at reliving a time when women couldn’t vote and all those people knew there place. However, when Mike Pence arrived on Mackinaw Island for the annual area Republican slobber fest, he couldn’t be bothered to uphold over 100 years of tradition. From Mlive:

Motorized vehicles have been prohibited on the island since 1898, with the exception of snowmobiles during winter, emergency vehicles, and service vehicles owned by the local government. Travel on the island is usually restricted to foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage, but Pence broke with the old tradition to travel from the Mackinac Island Airport to the Grand Hotel to speak at the Michigan Republican party’s biennial leadership conference Saturday.

I guess those 4 miles would have been too much for him to take on a bike or in a horse drawn carriage. I mean, what if a strange woman happened to walk past him while in transit without ‘mother’ around to protect him?

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If you believe everything Trump says, he is already unable to run for the office of the Presidency.

Conservative college creates it's own '1619 Project,' because of course they did.

The one question reporters must ask any Republican.

Guess who isn't going to be helping Perdue and Loeffler anytime soon?

For the good of the Country, Trump must get moderately to seriously ill, and not die.

These numbers don't lie, you can feel good about November right now.

I have the new Daily Kos front page, and I like it.

This is ingenious, and could be the end of voter suppression in all major cities.

The best mascot you never heard of.

Trump is being publicly asked to wear a mask, I would put the line at 300-1 that he does.

Covid-19 might be the cause of Trump's early demise, but not for the reason you may think.

Pence can't even get taking America back 120 years right.