Tag: DNC

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Kurt Bardella: 2022 Midterms Might Be The Last Free And Fair Elections We Have. WHOA!!

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MSNBC’s Katie Phang show(05/21/22) did a segment on WaPo’s bombshell revelation that Ginni Thomas’ involvement in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results was much more than has been previously reported. The conversation then turned into how ruthlessly Republicans would have dealt with a similarly situated liberal justice. Guest Kurt Bardella slammed the perennial weakness by congressional Democrats, who he said always played defense as opposed to the attack-minded Republicans. Bardella then made a startling assertion, telling host Katie Phang that if the January 6th Select Committee doesn’t go on the offense by making top Trump officials testify in public like Republicans did Hillary Clinton during Benghazi, then “this[2022 midterms]might be the last free and fair elections we have.”

MSNBC host Katie Phang(video at 5:11): “Kurt I saw you tweeting about how you were surprised that Democrats didn’t immediately start investigations into the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic as soon as they got into power. Now we see the January 6th Committee is apparently fine with not even getting him to testify…What will it take for the Dems to go on the offensive?”

Kurt Burdella: “I just think back to the Benghazi Select Committee, when Republicans didn’t blink to bring up Hillary Clinton to testify for more than 11 hours and face that type of grilling. I don’t know how you can have a system that has Secretary Clinton at the time having to do that, but you let Donald Trump, and people like Mike Pence, and Ginni Thomas, and Rudy Giuliani, and Steve Bannon, and Mark Meadows avoid that type of public setting. It’s such a parity and I’m telling you, we’re seeing right now, at this very second, Republicans campaign for the midterms on the idea that they are going to do this to the Biden administration. That they are not going to hesitate to use the reins of power to go after the president’s son…to try to impeach the president, to try to impeach the DHS secretary…Democrats are about to get a lesson on how to wield power, whether they like it or not, if they don’t step up right now because they are the last line of defense of stopping Republicans from hijacking democracy. It’s not about 2024 Katie, it’s about 2022 because I promise you, if Republicans are allowed to regain a congressional majority, they will not certify a Democrat win in 2024…This check and balance that we are about to see with the January 6th Select Committee is perhaps the last guardian of defense that we have of our democracy and our process, and if we don’t get answers from everybody who was involved, especially at the very top, this might be the last free and fair elections we have.”

As outlandish as Kurt Bardella’s assertion sounds, rank and file Democrats know it is absolutely true. A lot of the crazy things we’ve witnessed from Trump Republicans are rooted in their belief that Democrats will never muster enough courage to hold them accountable in any meaningful way–all bark no bite. Let’s hope the January 6th Select Committee breaks this expectation of weakness by Republicans, by holding them accountable through lengthy public testimonies, under oath. If the January 6th Select Committee fails to hold Trump and his top lieutenants accountable, then as Bardella correctly points out, democracy as we know it, will be dead this year, not in 2024, and Dem weakness will be partly to blame. This of course, also apples to President Biden’s Department of Justice.

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Elie Mystal: The “Chief Architect” Of The Assault On Voting Rights Is Chief Justice John Roberts

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The Nation’s Justice Correspondent, Elie Mystal, dropped a major bombshell on MSNBC’s American Voices (01/16/22), when he slammed U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as the “chief architect” of the assault on voting rights. Unlike many mainstream media pundits who engage in incendiary rhetoric just for ratings, Elie Mystal backed up his bombshell assertion with very good examples that would make any reasonable person either agree with him, or at the very least, find his assertion quite plausible. The fact that Elie Mystal’s bombshell claims pass the plausibility test, should compel Chief Justice Roberts to address them, for the sake of the Supreme Court’s integrity.

Elie Mystal specifically said: “The chief architect of this assault on our voting rights is not Mitch McConnell, it’s not ot David Duke, it’s not whatever boogey man you think is hiding under the closet. The chief architect is Chief Justice John Roberts. It is he who has been an enemy of voting rights and racial equality from his very first job out of law school, which was to oppose the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act. It is John Roberts who authored Shelby County v Holder in 2013 which eviscerated section 5 of Voting Rights Act which is basically why we are here right now, it is John Roberts who authored Rucho in 2020 which swung wide the doors towards gerrymandering, and it is John Roberts who provided the crucial 5th vote in last year’s Brnovich decision which eviscerated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This is all being done by Federalist Society conservatives that have been put on the Supreme Court, and until we stop them, until we do something about the court–you want to pass your Freedom to Vote Act, I think that’s a great bill, we should pass it, I think we should have passed HR1, but always remember that John Roberts and his conservative cronies are waiting at the Supreme Court level to strike down whatever laws we put forward. As long as you let Republicans control the Supreme Court, you cannot have a fair and equal just society.”

It’s worth pointing out here too, that Elie Mystal is not only decrying Chief Justice Roberts’ questionable history on voting rights, but crucially, also making the point that minorities are doomed going forward, with him at the helm of the Supreme Court. This naturally raises the question as to whether Chief Justice Roberts is the right person to lead the high court.

Bottom line folks, these are questions that the mainstream media needs to take up with Chief Justice Roberts. At a time when voting rights are a red hot topic, and minorities are increasingly concerned about Republicans infringing upon their right to vote, the public deserves to know whether the Roberts Supreme Court will be a neutral arbiter in the fight for voting rights, as it should be.

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Lindsey Graham’s Potential Dem Challenger

A South Carolina Democrat, Jaime Harrison, has launched an exploratory committee to run for the South Carolina U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Lindsey Graham. As you know, Lindsey Graham is one of the 22 Republican Senators up for reelection in 2020.

It cannot be left unsaid that Lindsey Graham remains very popular in South Carolina and is heavily favored by pollsters to win reelection in 2020. That however was true for Senator Ted Cruz when Beto O’Rourke declared his candidacy against him yet as we now know the Cruz-Beto race went down to the wire.

Bottom line, the lesson for Democrats from the Cruz-Beto contest is never to cede any ground to Republicans based on initial unfavorable polls. If and when Jaime Harrison officially declares his candidacy(assuming no other Dem declares) the DNC must fully throw it’s weight behind his candidacy and help him fight vigorously against incumbent Lindsey Graham. Simply put there’s great enthusiasm among grassroots Democrats to knock off Trump’s Senate enablers Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn in 2020.

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GOP Senators Stalling On The Secure Elections Act


Yahoo News today reported that at the request of the White House(read Trump), GOP members of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee that overseas federal elections today stalled a bill–Secure Elections Act–that enjoys bipartisan support and would have significantly shored up election system defenses against the threat of Russian hacking in the  midterms and beyond. Listed below are the shameful GOP Senators in the Rules Committee who don’t want to secure our voting machines. Notice the list includes two of the most despised U.S. Senators–Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell–truly deplorable!!

There is no valid explanation as to why any member of Congress would be opposed to a bill that seeks to protect our election systems from the threat of Russian hacking. It is very clear as Yours Truly has repeatedly stated that the GOP is banking on Russian hacking in the 2018 midterms.


The reason given by Trump’s White House, that this bill is redundant because DHS is already capable of performing what the bill proposes is also unavailing. Just the other day MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow had a segment where a cyber security expert blamed DHS for leaving local county election officials to defend themselves against Russian hacking. If DHS is already capable of defending our election systems why are they letting the counties do it on their own?

Bottom line Dems and the mainstream media need to keep their eyes on Trump’s GOP as regards Russian interference. Folks if they know we are watching their every move, maybe just maybe they may get deterred. Under no circumstances however should Dems trust assurances from Kirstjen Nielsen’s DHS or the Trump White House regarding their efforts to secure our vote.

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Did Michael Cohen Pay 50K For Russian DNC Hack?


MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow yesterday made a bombshell revelation that right around the time that Trump’s “independent” trust fund run by his sons Eric and Don Jr reimbursed Michael Cohen for the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Model Karen McDougal, he(Cohen) also received a mysterious “election-related” payment of $50,000 for “tech services”.


As Maddow correctly points out this raises a lot of questions because Team Trump has said all along that Cohen was not part of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Why then would Team Trump pay someone who is not part of the campaign and not known as a tech expert $50,000 for “tech-services”?


Well it turns out the answer to this mysterious question lies in the Christopher Steele Dossier aka TrumpRussia dossier. According to the TrumpRussia dossier, Cohen was part a scheme that worked to make “deniable cash payments” to European hackers working under the direction of the Kremlin against the Clinton campaign.

Given the fact that Cohen at this time was using Trump’s money to “fix” his problems regarding Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal and others, it is not totally inconceivable that he was also using money from the same source to “fix” Trump’s ultimate problem–defeating then presumptive favorite Hillary Clinton by paying Kremlin-tied European hackers $50K to hack into the DNC servers.

Bottom line because this attack was on the DNC, they have a duty to find out exactly what Michael Cohen’s “election-related” $50K payment for “tech services” was all about. Grassroots Dems demand that the DNC inquire as to this $50K payment Cohen received, and specifically whether it was used to pay for the Russian cyber attack on the DNC.

The full Maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below

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Is Russia Helping Trump In GOP Primaries?

The mainstream media is fawning over Trump with stories about how the GOP has become “the party of Trump”. To prove this, they point to the GOP candidates that have won their primaries as a result of Trump’s endorsement–the latest one being Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

What is missing from the mainstream media’s narrative on this so called ” Trump effect” is the yet unanswered question–are the Russians helping Trump?


Think about that folks, from a purely logical standpoint–If Russians were accused of helping Trump against his GOP opponents in the 2016 presidential primaries(especially Ted Cruz), and Russians helped Trump beat Hillary Clinton, is it a stretch to assume that the same Russians who are interfering in 2018 would be pushing for a Trump-friendly congress? A Congress full of people who “owe” Trump/Putin for their election would be more inclined to say, vote to lift Russia sanctions.

The mainstream media needs to stop fawning over the so-called”Trump-effect” and start asking whether this is really “Putin effect”. If the mainstream mefia was curious enough to pursue this valid line of questioning, it may encourage the Republicans being “upset” in the primaries by Trump endorsees to challenge the election results.

Bottom line the mainstream media should develop a little skepticism surrounding the so-called ” Trump effect” in the GOP primaries. If Russians helped Trump in the GOP presidential primaries, then in the 2016 general election against Clinton, it is not too far fetched to assume they would be tinkering with the GOP primaries now. A Trump-compliant congress is key to Putin’s central mission–lifting of the crushing Russia sanctions

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Ted Cruz The Ultimate Trump Referendum

Yours Truly has stated for months, even when it seemed a ridiculous idea that thanks to the disastrous Trump admin, Dems could pick up Sen Ted Cruz’s seat and that they should fight tooth and nail for it.

Luckily Dems have done just that and per the latest poll, it appears Dem challenger Beto O’Rourke is within 5 points of points Ted Cruz.

Remember back in January, Sen Ted Cruz was said to be up by as much as 18 points

Any reasonable person presented with these set of facts–that a prominent Republican senator whose lead in the polls has shrunk from 18 to 5 points with roughly 4 months left before the elections would conclude that TeamCruz is in trouble, and it appears TeamCruz has done just that–gone into panic mode. Things have gotten so desperate for Sen Ted Cruz who thought he would just fly under the radar and coast to victory, that he is now demanding five debates with Beto O’Rourke.


Of course TeamCruz is banking on the fact that he is an excellent debater. They figure he will crush Beto on the debate stage and thus kill his momentum. Yours Truly readily admits that under normal circumstances Cruz would probably out-debate Beto on any day, but given the myriad scandals surrounding the Trump admin, these proposed 5 debates should be Beto’s strongest weapon–his perfect opportunity to seal the deal.

Beto’s debate strategy should be very simple–make Cruz synonymous with the Trump admin because he has stood idly by and even supported a lot of Trump’s actions that will never fly with Texas independents, a sizable voting block. Why for example has Cruz stood idly by as Trump continues to hide his tax returns? Texas is big on government transparency–open records laws. Why has Cruz stood idly by as Trump attacks the media or the Justice department? Why does Cruz, a so-called fiscal conservative who opposed the 2008 TARP bailout now support Trump’s bailout of rural farmers who are hurting because of Trump’s unnecessary tarrifs? Why isn’t Cruz more vocal about the plight of innocent migrant children ripped away from their parents as a result of Trump admin’s inhumane Zero Tolerance policy? You get the drift folks, serious questions abound and given the disastrous Trump admin, the debates strongly favor Beto or any other Dem hopeful nationwide for that matter. The only question left is how effectively Beto can tie Cruz to Trump–make his race against Cruz a referendum on the Trump admin.

Bottom line Beto O’Rourke can seal the deal with the proposed 5 debates if he not only makes his senate race a referendum on the Trump admin but also tie Sen Ted Cruz to it. If he does that, he wins the sizable Texas independents and thus the coveted U.S. Senate seat–like Yours Truly has predicted all along.

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#Dem2020Poll Status Report–Biden Still Leading But….

Yours Truly recently concluded after analyzing the various #Dem2020Poll results that Joe Biden was the leading Dem in the 2020 presidential nomination sweepstakes(#BidenTheory). Shortly thereafter the Mainstream Media, reached a similar conclusion–#Dem2020Poll is the real deal folks!!




After several iterations of the #Dem2020Poll it appears Biden is still ahead of the 2020 pack of likely Dem nominees. Interestingly grassroots Dems are very receptive to a Joe Biden/Sen Kamala Harris ticket in 2020(more so than Joe Biden/Rep Joe Kennedy III)

However there’s a “but” to the #BidenTheory and that is, it appears there are a lot of grassroots Dems who for whatever reason, (age being the most prevalent) don’t want him on the 2020 ticket.

It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, happen to the #BidenTheory in a month’s time, especially now that Trump is ramping up attacks on Sen Elizabeth Warren.

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

Is Sen Warren the Dem Trump is most afraid of? Would grassroots Dems prefer an all-female Liz Warren/Kamala Harris ticket?Hmm–As Trump himself regularly says, “We’ll see what happens.”

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Michael Avenatti Running For Prez In 2020

Attorney Michael Avenatti

Attorney Michael Avenatti who has become a household name for his fearless attacks on Trump and his long time lawyer Michael Cohen over their cobduct regarding pornstar Stormy Daniels(his client), has apparently made a July 4, 2018 announcement that he is willing to run for President in 2020 if Trump is the GOP nominee.


This is undoubtedly music to the ears of grassroots Dems who have been urging Avenatti to run for President (#Avenatti2020) because they believe his fearlessness towards Trump will work well for him in 2020 against the inevitable attacks by TeamTrump.  There are a lot of upsides to a potential #Avenatti2020 but Yours Truly will focus at the moment on the effect of Avenatti’s announcement on our #Dem2020Poll analysis.


When we first began the popular #Dem2020Poll, it was very clear that grassroots Dems were excited about Sen Kamala Harris and Rep Joe Kennedy III and wanted them to run together, with Harris on top of the ticket.

Roughly around mid-May 2018 we saw a shift towards Joe Biden with most grassroots Dems favoring either a Biden/Harris or a Biden/Kennedy ticket. Various iterations of #Dem2020Poll have shown that Biden/Harris is slightly popular than Biden/Kennedy but that overall grassroots Dems prefer Biden on top of the 2020 Dem presidential ticket(#BidenTheory)

With Avenatti officially in the 2020 mix, the question now becomes will he upend the prevailing #BidenTheory(topple Biden) or will grassroots Dems prefer him as Biden’s running mate? Also how will Avenatti’s entry affect the other two prominent contenders Sen Harris and Rep Kennedy III?

As always, Yours Truly with the vibrant #Dem2020Poll community will get to the bottom of all these pressing questions for the benefit of the DNC– and the #MSM who’ll never admit it but are deeply captivated by the highly civilized, exceptionally well informed #Dem2020Poll community.

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Senate Dems Already Caving In Supreme Court Fight

In one of the most depressing segments on MSNBC’s AM Joy Show, Yours Truly was saddened, although not surprised, to find out that even before the opening bell in the fight to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has been rung, Senate Democrats are already throwing in the towel. Absolutely pathetic!

MSNBCs Joy Reid, citing a New York Times article says Senate Dems have apparently decided not to demand that Kennedy’s replacement be made after the midterms but instead are going for a “policy alternative” where they plan to build opposition to Trump’s nominee by highlighting the threat to abortion rights and healthcare. Simply put, Senate Dems have caved.

Interestingly, Joy Reid pointed out that when Republicans feared Hillary Clinton would be elected President, they vowed to block her Supreme Court nominee(s) for 4 years–her entire first term. Think about that folks and then contrast it with our weak Senate Dems who are afraid to stall for 4 months, when the GOP was willing to stall for 4 years. Grassroots Dems have always lamented the perennial weakness of Congressional Dems that has allowed people like Mitch McConnell to walk all over them and this is just the latest example. Yours Truly constantly encounters this Congressional Dem weakness complaint from grassroots Dems and as it turns out, it’s a legitimate gripe after all.

The key legal term that pops up in federal court when one is seeking an injunction is "irreversible harm". Dems have an easy case to make in federal court that once Trump's Supreme Court nominee is confirmed, their harm is irreversible(can't undo it). The court will most likely issue an injunction to let the case play out all the way to the Supreme Court, a process that will most likely last longer than 4 months.


Alternatively, Senate Dems can compell  any Trump nominee to pledge recusal on any issue dealing with TrumpRussia, something they'll either decline or if they accept, Trump would withdraw their nomination (remember Jeff Sessions). If Trump's nominee refuses to commit to recusal that gives Senate Dems a perfect excuse to stall because the conflicts of interest here are real and easily explainable to voters. The fight over TrumpRussia recusal if well played by Senate Dems could last more than 4 months. In addition to that, Senate Dems will look good in voters eyes because they will not be stalling for stalling sake, but will be seen as fighting for the integrity of the Supreme Court(removing Trump's conflicts of interest)

There are many other stalling tactics Senate Dems could employ. The only question is whether they have the guts to do  so. Bottomline Senate Dems need to get the message from grassroots Dems very clearly--If you don't put up a fight over Justice Kennedy's Supreme Court replacement, don't even bother about midterms 2018, do everybody a favor and just quit today!

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