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#this election cycle will DETERMINE what legislation gets passed
it is. so weird to me that I'm having to say this again after a real-life cartoon supervillian already once ran for president on a platform of hatred & fascism and won, but.
it's November, please fucking vote
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cyarskaren52 · 8 months
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https://web.archive.org/web/20210106235601/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/raphael-warnock-georgia-senate.html
Raphael Warnock’s Win Is One for the History Books
A Baptist preacher born and raised in Georgia, he will become his state’s first Black senator, breaking a barrier with distinct meaning in American politics.
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GARDEN CITY, Ga. — There have been so few Black Democrats elected to the Senate that when Vice President-elect Kamala Harris campaigned for the Rev. Raphael Warnock in Savannah this week the pairing spoke volumes, even if unintentionally, about racial representation in statewide office.
In purely partisan terms, a leader of the Democratic Party was seeking to rally voters in an important Senate runoff election, the results of which will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the chamber. But it was also a rare chance for one Senate barrier breaker to pass the torch to another. Ms. Harris was the first Black woman and woman of color to serve as a senator from California. Mr. Warnock will become the first Black senator from Georgia.
During his speech at the event with Ms. Harris, Mr. Warnock described being arrested by police officers at the U.S. Capitol during protests and political action over the years.
“I wasn’t mad at them. They were doing their job and I was doing my job,” Mr. Warnock said. “But in a few days I’m going to meet those Capitol Hill police officers again and this time they will not be taking me to central booking. They can help me find my new office.”
Mr. Warnock’s victory over Senator Kelly Loeffler early Wednesday is a fitting culmination to an election cycle in which, hours after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the president-elect, he told Black voters, “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.”
It is also a generational breakthrough for Southern Black Democrats.
Mr. Warnock, 51, the pastor who took the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, spoke on the campaign trail about his life experiences as a Black man born and raised in the South. He ran for office in a state where people in predominantly Black neighborhoods waited in disproportionately long lines to vote last year, and where one study found that more than 80 percent of the residents hospitalized for coronavirus in the state were Black — vestiges of systemic racism in the democratic and health care systems.
Political power in the former Jim Crow South, where few Black Americans have been elected to statewide office, is inextricably linked to race. And Mr. Warnock’s place in the political universe is distinct from the election of Ms. Harris, or Northerners like former President Barack Obama, previously a senator from Illinois, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.
Together, Mr. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the other Democratic candidate, have the chance to expand the legislative agenda of Mr. Biden. But Mr. Warnock alone was seeking to overcome a barrier reinforced in the South over and over again, crystallized in a saying that became popular during the civil rights movement: “The South doesn’t care how close a Negro gets, just so he doesn’t get too high.”
On Tuesday, Black Democrats in Georgia said such history was not lost on them. Neither was how long it took the party to seriously pursue the possibility of success in Georgia.
“It took Democrats forever to invest in Georgia,” said Frazier Lively, a 71-year-old who lives in Macon and attended a recent rally. “Now you would hope what’s happening here is a message to what’s possible going forward.”
Felicia Davis, an organizer who has worked for years in Clayton County, said it was important to think about the coalition that is supporting Democrats as the next iteration of organizers who worked in the civil rights movement. She drew a direct line from their work to the current push to register and turn out Black voters for a Black candidate.
“You have to know the names: Joseph Lowery, Reverend James Orange, Rita Samuels, everybody knows these names,” Ms. Davis said. “All of them are dead now. But people have come together to continue that work. We register. We travel around the state, and we’ve gotten our voices heard.”
Throughout the presidential primary and general election, Democrats have had to wrestle with questions of racial representation, electability and how to balance a rising multicultural coalition with those who are more focused on transformational policy. In the primary, older Black voters balked at Black candidates like Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris in favor of Mr. Biden, on the belief that he was best suited to defeat Mr. Trump. Progressives — and particularly younger voters — supported more liberal candidates like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The Rev. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said all politicians, including Black ones, are in the end judged on policy even if they are barrier-breaking figures.
“Policy, Policy, Policy, that’s the only reason you elect people in the office is to push policy,” he said, repeating the word to emphasize the point. “A Black person is not elected just to hold the position. And the truth of the matter is Black politicians, from the state, to the Congress, to the Senate, they have to ask themselves the question, have we put these issues at the center?”
One urgent issue for all candidates in 2020, especially Democrats, was the summer of racial reckoning. In Georgia, the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020 ignited protests, isolated instances of property damage, and put intense pressure on public officials — including Black ones.
Mr. Warnock, then in the early stages of his Senate race, navigated the social justice movement for the first time as a candidate for public office rather than solely from behind the pulpit. The words were more measured, the indictments of White America less stinging, as he and other Democrats tried to channel the anger of the community into an electoral purpose.Supporters of Mr. Warnock at an event in Hephzibah, Ga., on Monday.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
This week, during a campaign stop in Brunswick, Ga., Mr. Warnock spoke with Mr. Arbery’s father.
He did not mention the killing in his speech, but talked about his own family’s history as sharecroppers and victims of racial injustice.
“That’s why I love America because you always have a path to make a great country even greater,” Mr. Warnock said.
But no amount of careful word choice — or television advertisements with hopeful slogans and puppies — could stop his candidacy from becoming a lightning rod in an era defined by race, racial grievance and those who seek to capitalize on its backlash. After the general election was over, and it was clear there would be a runoff against Ms. Loeffler, Mr. Warnock became the subject of an all-out conservative assault, which sought to define him as an out-of-touch radical who was against Georgia’s values. Ms. Loeffler, a Republican, seized on snippets from his sermons from his pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, presenting out-of-context statements on the military and Israel as ammunition.
While Republicans largely ignored Mr. Ossoff’s candidacy at their rallies, they took aim at Mr. Warnock repeatedly.
“Warnock is the most radical and dangerous left-wing candidate ever to seek this office, and certainly in the state of Georgia, and he does not have your values,” Mr. Trump said at his rally in Dalton, Ga., on Monday.
Mr. Trump does not get to define Georgia’s values, however. Voters made that clear in November, when Mr. Biden won the state — a result the president is baselessly continuing to question. Georgia’s population, and with it, perhaps, its values, is changing. The state’s Latino and Asian-American populations are growing, and the suburbs are drawing younger voters and college-educated moderates as well.
That is perhaps why Mr. Warnock the candidate sounded less like Mr. Warnock the preacher and more like Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat whose strategy of voter turnout specifically emphasizes multiculturalism rather than Blackness.
Ms. Abrams, in a recent interview, said she tries not to focus on one group over another when talking about how Georgia became a Democratic bright spot.
“I want us to be really clear that this requires the investment and support of multiple communities,” Ms. Abrams said. “This is a multiracial, multiethnic, multigenerational coalition. And the extent to which we give primacy to one group at the exclusion of the other, I become nervous.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Warnock’s journey from Black pastor to Black senator is an exercise of a different type of faith: It’s a belief that American politics can change from the inside, that the Democratic Party’s most loyal voters can see themselves represented in Congress. That there is room to push the country forward within its institutions, rather than diagnosing its problems from outside.
The latter is something Black pastors, who by tradition often tell uncomfortable truths, have done for centuries. The Black senator is a singular road, occupied by few people in American history, and none from Georgia at all.
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msclaritea · 1 year
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A Betsy DeVos-backed group helps fuel a rapid expansion of public money for private schools
The American Federation for Children has found success amid a 20-year low in support for K-12 education and protests over lessons involving race and identity.
A growing number of states have enacted laws that offer families money for private education, which could significantly upend how K-12 schools are funded.NBC News / Getty Images
March 30, 2023, 4:00 AM MST
By Tyler Kingkade
DES MOINES, Iowa — A conservative nonprofit group founded by former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said it poured about $9 million into state elections last year, backing nearly 200 candidates. Now, some of those candidates are pushing a wave of legislation boosting DeVos’ longtime goal: subsidizing private schools with public dollars.
Using at least $2.5 million from DeVos and her husband, the American Federation for Children has played a pivotal role in getting what supporters call “school choice” policies passed into law in at least three states and introduced in several more, according to current and former GOP legislators, lobbyists for teachers unions and academics.
Republican lawmakers in over a dozen states have recently cited complaints about liberal ideology in public schools as a reason to support helping parents pay for private education. That shift in strategy has been hailed by organizations like the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that helped spur parent protests over lessons about racism. And it has helped cement funding for private schooling as a benchmark of Republican governance.
The nonprofit group has found success amid a 20-year low in approval for the K-12 education system and after two years of protests over lessons involving race and LGBTQ identity. It is now on the verge of ushering in a transformation in how large swaths of the country fund schools.
“They’ve been quite strategic,” Patrick Wolf, an education policy professor at the University of Arkansas, said of the group. “They’ve particularly targeted rural Republicans who are opposed to school choice. They just had to take out a few marginal incumbents, and thereby put the fear of God into the rest of them.”
It’s difficult to determine whether the laws would have been enacted without the American Federation for Children’s involvement; other groups supporting the same “school choice” policies also targeted lawmakers with campaign ads last year. Each state’s political landscape is unique and subject to myriad factors. But the federation’s spending preceded a marked increase in both the scale of private school subsidies on the table at the state level and the rate at which the laws have been enacted.
In Florida, where the American Federation for Children’s state political action committee spent $1.7 million during last year’s elections, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law Monday that will allow more families to receive public funds to pay for private education, regardless of their financial need.
In Iowa and Arkansas, where the organization’s PAC put money into ousting incumbent Republicans who had resisted past proposals to subsidize private education, GOP governors signed sweeping legislation this winter to offer money for school tuition for every child in their states.
And in Texas, where the American Federation for Children’s PAC spent $1 million during last year’s election cycle, and in Georgia, where it spent $380,000, bills recently advanced in the GOP-controlled legislatures to create programs to fund private schooling.
“We’re doing a lot of winning — I’m almost getting tired of winning so much because we’re winning all across the country,” Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the federation, said in a Twitter Space on Sunday.
DeVos and other conservatives have long advocated for financially supporting families who want to move their children from public schools to private ones, calling these policies “school choice,” and arguing that they would help poor children get a better education. Opponents, including teachers unions, educators and Democrats, have pushed back, arguing that such policies would siphon students and money away from public schools.
DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist, was unsuccessful in pushing for “school choice” bills in Congress during her time in the Trump administration and was stymied in attempts to reroute federal dollars toward private education, but the political winds among the GOP base have changed since then.
Republican lawmakers in over a dozen states have recently cited complaints about liberal ideology in public schools as a reason to support helping parents pay for private education. That shift in strategy has been hailed by organizations like the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that helped spur parent protests over lessons about racism. And it has helped cement funding for private schooling as a benchmark of Republican governance.
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DeVos said in a June 2022 C-SPAN interview that parent protests had driven increased interest in “education freedom” policies, and that this was having an electoral impact.
“Importantly, we’ve seen this issue really inform many of the primary races this year in states where there haven’t been programs and where there’s been legislation introduced in the past but there simply hasn’t been enough support,” she said. “But this issue has really popped to the top of the list for many states. And so I think in this next year or two, we’re going to see some major gains.”
Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children, said the group targeted 69 incumbents in state legislatures last year and ousted 40 of them.
The group is “willing to beat opponents of either party who oppose the desires of parents who want these educational options,” Schultz said in a statement.
“Especially after 2020 and the chaos created for parents by the teachers’ unions and the education establishment,” he added, “parents are now winning one of the most important domestic policy issues of our time: school choice.”
Removing incumbents is a move that sends a strong signal, said Maurice Cunningham, a University of Massachusetts-Boston professor who studies the impact of dark money groups: “Get in our way, and you’ll be gone.”
“Politicians are rational,” Cunningham said. “It intimidates people. Who wants to be next after that?”
DeVos left her role as chairman of the American Federation for Children when she joined the Trump administration, but she remains one of its largest financial backers. She and her husband, Dick, gave at least $2.25 million to the nonprofit group’s national PAC and $250,000 to its Texas PAC last year. The organization’s national political arm also drew $1 million from Cleveland Browns co-owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam for its national election efforts. Jim Walton, a billionaire banker and son of the Walmart founder, put in $100,000 toward the group’s work in Arizona last year.
The American Federation for Children “helps make sure what’s best for students comes first by ensuring parents, not just the unions, have a seat at the table when it comes to education policy,” Nate Bailey, DeVos’ chief of staff, said in an email.
The Haslams said in a statement that they support the American Federation for Children’s efforts “to help students from all different areas and backgrounds have a chance for a quality education and a brighter future.”
You know what comes next, after the DeVos family and the Catholic Church succeed in destroying public schools? Our children under the control of an organization that historically are known as extreme abusers.
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disillusioned41 · 3 years
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Since the Civil War, midterm elections have enabled the president’s party to gain ground in the House of Representatives only three times, and those were in single digits. The last few midterms have been typical: In 2006, with Republican George W. Bush in the White House, his party lost 31 House seats. Under Democrat Barack Obama, his party lost 63 seats in 2010 and then 13 seats in 2014. Under Donald Trump, in 2018, Republicans lost 41 seats. Overall, since World War II, losses have averaged 27 seats in the House.
Next year, if Republicans gain just five House seats, Rep. Kevin McCarthy or some other right-wing ideologue will become the House speaker, giving the GOP control over all committees and legislation. In the Senate, where the historic midterm pattern has been similar, a Republican gain of just one seat will reinstall Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader.
"Truly bold political actions—culminating in landmark legislation to improve the economic and social well-being of vast numbers of Americans—will be essential to improve the slim chances that Biden's presidency won't lead to a Republican takeover of Congress midway through his term."
To prevent such disastrous results, Democrats would need to replicate what happened the last time the president’s party didn’t lose House or Senate seats in a midterm election—two years after Bush entered the White House. The odds are steeply against it, as elections analyst Nathaniel Rakich points out: "Bush was very popular in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11. According to a retrospective FiveThirtyEight average of polls at the time, he had a 62 percent approval rating and 29 percent disapproval rating on Election Day 2002. And in this era of polarization—where presidential approval ratings are stuck in a very narrow band—it's hard to imagine (President) Biden ever reaching that level of popularity."
It's not just history that foreshadows a return to Capitol power for the likes of McCarthy and McConnell. All year, Republican officeholders have been methodically doing all they can to asphyxiate democracy. And they can do a lot more.
With new census data, the once-in-a-decade chance to redistrict means that Republican-dominated state legislatures can do maximal gerrymandering. "Because Democrats fell short of their 2020 expectations in state legislative races," FiveThirtyEight politics reporter Alex Samuels says, "Republicans have the opportunity to redraw congressional maps that are much more clearly in their favor." All this year, awaiting census figures to manipulate, Republican legislatures have been enacting outrageous new voter-suppression laws, many of the sort recently greenlighted by the Supreme Court and calculated to destroy voting rights.
Related Content
In Leaked Video, GOP Congressman Admits His Party Wants 'Chaos and Inability to Get Stuff Done'
Jake Johnson
In the face of impending election disasters in 2022 and beyond, denial might be a natural coping mechanism, but it only makes matters worse. Reality should now spur a sustained all-out effort—in courts, legislatures, Congress and public venues—to safeguard as many democratic processes as possible for next year's elections, while organizing against the dozens of major voter-suppression tactics of recent years.
At the same time, truly bold political actions—culminating in landmark legislation to improve the economic and social well-being of vast numbers of Americans—will be essential to improve the slim chances that Biden's presidency won't lead to a Republican takeover of Congress midway through his term. Though largely drowned out by the din of mainstream punditry urging "bipartisan" approaches, many astute voices are urgently calling for measures that could transform political dynamics before the 2022 general elections.
"We've got to go big, and take it to another level," first-term Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman said in an email to supporters this week. "We've got to deliver and get this done for our communities. So why on earth are we wasting time trying to compromise with Republicans?" Bowman added: "If we do not fight for our communities and put them in the center of the work we do—if we continue to prioritize the myth of 'bipartisanship' over the people we were elected to fight for and represent in Washington—we will lose elections. If we want to maintain control and the opportunity to do great work beyond 2022, Democrats need to deliver in this very moment."
Nina Turner, who's likely to become a member of Congress in November after a special election for a vacant seat in a northeast Ohio district, said recently: "When are we going to learn? Republicans plan for the long term. What can we do right now before the next election cycle and get it done and go big? Because power is fleeting. You've got to use it while you’ve got it."
Days ago, in a Washington Post column, The Nation's editorial director Katrina vanden Heuvel posed "the critical question" as Congress reconvened after a holiday break: "Are Democrats ready to act?" She wrote: "While President Biden is selling the bipartisan infrastructure deal as a 'generational investment,' the real effort will come from using the budget reconciliation process to pass vitally needed public investments with Democratic votes only. For all the focus on Biden's ability to work across the aisle, the true challenge is whether he and the congressional leadership can work with all Democrats. That test will do much to determine whether the party can retain or increase its majorities in the next election—and whether the country will begin to address the cascading crises that it faces."'
What remains to be determined is whether such warnings will end up being the tragically prophetic voices of Cassandras—or clarion calls for action that are heeded in time to prevent an unhinged Republican Party from taking control of Congress when 2023 begins.
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The American Political System: explained
The results of the United States’ high-stakes 2020 election have immeasurable impacts on the rest of the globe, thereby thrusting itself onto the world’s growing list of anxieties. The next president would determine the foreign policy, priorities, and values that the world’s most powerful country would hold for the next four years, and regardless of the victor, the results will undoubtedly deepen the divide between the supporters of America’s two largest political parties.
The United States is the third largest country in the world, home to a population of about 330 million people. The population of the United States is incredibly diverse in terms of ethnicity, culture, age groups, education levels, incomes, genders, and backgrounds, and these factors usually play a large part in affecting the way certain demographics vote. The political system in America is called a representative democracy, which means that each of the 330 million US citizens have a role in electing officials who represent their interests and views to positions in all three levels of government: local, state, and federal.
America’s election process is hazy, especially when it comes to voting for a president, one of the most influential governmental positions. In the American system, each state is assigned a number of electoral votes depending on its population size. In its entirety, the United States has 538 electoral votes up for grabs, and whoever manages to get the largest majority of them wins. When ballots are being counted, they’re separated by state. Once they determine the candidate with the most votes in that particular state, all of its electoral votes are assigned to that candidate (with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska). For example, considering Florida with its 29 electoral votes: if the vote was split 47.4% to 48.6%, all 29 of its votes would go to the leading candidate.
This system’s relevance and efficacy has been the subject to vigorous debate ever since Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Electoral College loss. Though she won the popular vote by over 3 million, she didn’t win enough states to be awarded the presidency. A common concern with the Electoral College is that it invalidates the key promise of democracy – every vote counts. The situation in Florida (which is what happened in 2016’s race) showed that 47.4% of the population’s vote was technically ignored. Evidently, it’s possible for a candidate to win the majority of the country’s votes and still lose the presidency.
Although America isn’t officially a two-party democracy, its Electoral College inherently prohibits the entry of a third. Given the strong pull of partisanship and the winner-take-all nature of the Electoral College, it’s extremely unlikely for a third party to garner much support. Americans are heavily divided over several core issues, like the economy, reproductive rights, sustainability, immigration, and racial justice. Political parties consistently take advantage of this divide by demonizing each other and aligning themselves with either liberal or conservative takes, thus ensuring a solid voting base that they can count on regardless of who their candidate is or how unsuitable they might be for office.
This system seems to have worked out for politicians so far. Over the years, voters’ belief that the victory of the opposition would mean utter devastation has only strengthened, encouraging Americans to forget about third parties and vote either blue or red. The media has been increasingly emphasizing the importance of each successive election cycle over the years: “This election could break America”; “This is the most important election of our lives”; “This is the test to determine who we really are as a nation”. It’s only gotten more apocalyptic over the years, and this narrative only serves to keep America in the throes of the two-party system.
Many Americans believe that voting for a third party, no matter how good their policies are, is a lost cause and would only increase the risk of the other party winning. Citizens whose political beliefs overlap more with a third party candidate often choose to vote for either a Democratic or Republican candidate to ensure their votes are used on a candidate who actually has a chance of winning. A good example of this mindset is the mayhem following the announcement of Kanye’s 2020 presidential run. The minute he declared it, millions of Democrats all over the country began warning against voting for him: “It’s an attempt to divide the Democratic base”, “He’s colluding with Trump”, “Whatever you do, please don’t vote Kanye West.” Despite not knowing what he stood for, his chances were immediately blown because it was “the most important election of their lives” and they couldn’t afford to “waste their votes” on a third-party candidate. Instead of voting for the greater good, US elections have become a battle to determine the lesser evil; and choosing candidates has become less about who has better policies and more about who has a better chance of winning the vote of the majority of the country.
George Washington, America’s first president, warned the nation of the ills of hyper-partisanship in his 1796 farewell address: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.” Similarly, John Adams, one of America’s founding fathers and Washington’s successor, worried that “a division of the republic into two great parties… is to be dreaded as the great political evil.” Although America’s two-party system does ensure that whoever wins must cultivate support from a wide majority of the country, it demands cooperation post victory. The two-party system may have worked centuries ago, but America today faces a new series of challenges. Back then, the two parties contained enough overlapping beliefs within them that the sort of bargaining and coalition-building natural to multiparty democracy could work inside the two-party system. Today, the two parties are so far apart that the government has been rendered ineffective; if the House has a democratic majority and the Senate is Republican led, it’s likely that they’ll be incapable of working together to pass new legislation or bills even when their interests align.
The American multiparty democracy may not be perfect, but it’s the most efficient form of government when partisanship doesn’t take over. The answers to the problems of America’s political system don’t lie in abolishment of all political institutions or even doing our best to keep the ones we have up and running. America needs to build a new set of establishments that take the views and interests of the broadly diverse set of people in America into account, and work on bridging the gap between the left and the right so our government can rebuild the coalition that multiparty democracy stands on.
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bustedbernie · 4 years
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Oh hai. Lately there have been a slew of think pieces about Bernie Sanders being the front-runner, discussing how his movement has threatened to withhold their votes from Democrats if Bernie isn’t the nominee. Hidden between the lines is the idea that Democrats, in general, owe their votes to Sanders if he is the nominee, regardless of the fact that his voters do NOT owe Dems their votes if he is not. So, rather than call them out for using the same tactics that lost the 2016 election, there is a faction in the media that is growing more and more permissive to the idea that Bernie and his Revolution are somehow the victims in all this, and that mainstream Dems have done them wrong time and time again when picking a candidate that appeals to the Dems masses.
Let me let you in on a little secret.
I don’t owe Bernie Sanders or his fucked off revolution of stanerific emo-marxist cyber-terrorists a goddamn bit of shit the fuck all. When these utter fucking geniuses in the media reflect on how energized and dedicated his enthusiastic fans are when engaging in their harassment of the average Dem, they seem to think the people who have been abused don’t fucking matter. These Dems are people who have never done anything whatsoever to deserve the constant bullying, cyber-stalking, targeting, threats, or in my case, being falsely reported to the FBI by fans of Bernie who seek to silence dissent. What these media personalities don’t understand is that the abuse by Bernie fans, in his name, actually causes the gap between MAGA and Berners to shrink to the point where it is non-existent. There is no real difference between the abuse from either side, and since Sanders isn’t the warm and fuzzy type that reaches out to the people who have been abused, often there appears to be no real difference between Sanders and Trump.
Slate:
Still, the Bernie-or-Busters, small as they may be, have spun their position into an argument for why others should vote for Bernie Sanders too, regardless of the platform they prefer. As efforts in political persuasion go, this contingent puts forward an openly hostile argument. Sanders is the only electable candidate, they suggest, not just because of his policies, but because of the single-mindedness of his followers. The reason you should vote for Sanders is that we won’t vote for anyone else. You don’t want Trump to win again, do you?
No. But I also don’t want Bernie Sanders to win. In a case of one not liking either candidate, people look to see which movement they feel most comfortable with, Bernie’s or Trump’s. If it turns out that both movements engage in racist behavior, sexism, and homophobia, it really doesn’t matter what they profess to be in favor of as far as policy is concerned, what matters is how they treat their fellow citizens by and large. We all know that unless we take back the Senate with a large majority that can defeat Republican attempts to stop legislation from hitting Sanders’ desk, nothing will pass anyway. So, if you’re not in favor of Bernie’s policies in the first place, and do not like him or his movement, why would you be enthusiastic about showing up for the guy who leads the movement that engages in attacks on you?
Yes, it sounds like ugly hostage taking—not a brilliant persuasive strategy but a crude ego-boosting exercise for a group of leftists who can’t resist the impulse to lord some power over an electorate that doesn’t normally consider them relevant. But that’s exactly what makes it so normal, even understandable, in a depressing “we’re all human” sort of way. [NO.] Because the truth is this: Every threat these Sanders stans are explicitly making is one the venerated Centrist Swing Voter makes implicitly—and isn’t judged for. The centrist never even has to articulate his threat.
Excuse me, it IS ugly hostage taking, it is NOT normal, and no, it doesn’t make me see them as more human.
Another thing is this: not everyone opposed to Bernie Sanders is a Centrist, Moderate, or a Swing voter. Many of us are as far left or to the left of Sanders, I for one am definately to his left, and had supported him in 2015. That was until his racist abusive Bern Mafia targeted me for expressing concern about his lack of outreach to black voters. I noticed his lack of history in hiring black people (D.C. is Chocolate City, we could not find one black staffer in 2015; I am open to correction on this point; if he had black staffers prior to 2015, please send me receipts because I have been looking for them.), lamented and mocked his poor showing at Netroots, fumed over his constant MLK appropriation, jeered at his white ass crowds, and felt humiliated by his inability to discuss black people in ways that were not centered on Poverty or Prisons. It is HIS FAULT that his voters have no clue how to engage Black people without resorting to stereotypes and outright bigotry, because he does the same thing.
Buzzfeed:
Sanders, seated across the table, a yellow legal pad at hand, responded with a question of his own, according to two people present: “Aren’t most of the people who sell the drugs African American?” The candidate, whose aides froze in the moment, was quickly rebuffed: The answer, the activists told him, was no. Even confronted with figures and data to the contrary, Sanders appeared to have still struggled to grasp that he had made an error, the two people present said.
No. He did not apologize for spreading this stereotype, and yes, it shows how he views black people in general.
Slate:
One of many disorienting factors in this election cycle is the fact that the left is more popular and more viable than it has been in a long, long time. They have not one but two exciting candidates, and both are offering policies closer to what leftists actually want than most presidential contenders in U.S. history have.
I wanted the party to move to the Left towards the direction of where I stood too. I can’t really name my ideology because it’s so far left I am almost hitting the wall. Additionally, I am more Libertarian than Sanders, who trends more authoritarian. Yet, I instinctively know that playing a game of “my way or the highway” won’t lead to a place where poverty programs are expanded up and out, ensuring all necessities of life are provided. It will lead to gridlock and we will make zero progress.
Because folks at the center tend to be wooed by multiple candidates, they’re used to having options, and they’re used to the experience of their vote determining who ends up with the nomination. This means that they usually like the candidate they vote for, in the primary and in the general. Not so for leftists, who get to merely tolerate the candidates they end up having to vote for in order to mitigate the damage from a worse result.
Here’s the rub… I’m Black. None of this shit applies to me, because as a Black person, I rarely even LIKE or TRUST any of the candidates I have been voting for over the years. I also usually, especially in State and Locally, don’t have any say so in determining the nominee of any race. I am always stuck voting for whoever White People choose as the candidate, and as such, am merely tolerating whoever is chosen to prevent a worse outcome, which usually means preventing a racist shitmonger from winning a race.
Speaking of race… Progressives refuse to address race as a factor in anything; they like to ignore race in everything they do and allow Prison Policy to stand in for Racial Policy, so it’s impossible to get them to see my reality. They get this shit from Bernie.
From Buzzfeed:
“The real issue is not whether you’re black or white, whether you’re a woman or a man,” he said in a 1988 interview. “The real issue is whose side are you on? Are you on the side of workers and poor people or are you on the side of big money and the corporations?”
Not much has changed with Bernie, as you know, Bernie never changes, because he was born as a 72 year old yelly man, just like Benjamin Button, but louder and not as cute.
“It’s not good enough for someone to say, ‘I’m a woman! Vote for me!’” No, that’s not good enough. What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industry,” the Vermont independent senator and former Democratic presidential candidate said in a not-so-subtle rebuke to Hillary Clinton”
Bernie’s attacks on Identity Politics filtered down to his base, causing them to feel confident in their attacks on Blacks, LGBTQ, and Women who brought up issues of race, sexuality, and gender over the past few years. They love to say shit to black people online that they would never say to an actual Black person IN PERSON, because they are scared as fuck of Black people. Kinda like Bernie. The refrain of “that’s identity politics, not real policy’ rang out constantly on social media the past few years to the point where pointing out racism, homophobia, and sexism was met with swarms of white men attacking Black people, All Women Who Dared To Be THAT Bitch, LGBTQ, and really, anyone worried about social justice issues that focused on identity. The attacks were and ARE bigoted in the extreme.
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This is racist as fuck and is one of the ways the Bernie Titty-Babies managed to marginalize Kamala Harris and drive a wedge between her and Black Voters. Somehow they thought keeping it going would make us like dusty ass Bernie more, but they’re stupid, because we don’t even like that geriatric Bernadook now.
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This is homophobic.
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Bernie’s supporters are engaging in a hate campaign against Mayor Pete and are trying to convince the world that they are not being homophobic, they are just saying Pete is suppressing his dangerous serial killer nature by being so straight laced. This is fucked up because they are attacking a gay man for being “straight appearing” in spite of the fact that his seeming straightness is how he interacts with a world that hates gay people, and has at times (and Still Does) MURDERED men and women who are gay for not assimilating or conforming to hetero-normative stereotypes. Bernie ignores this behavior from his fans like he ignores all of their nasty hate campaigns. I blame him.
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This is misogynistic. No explanation needed.
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Racist and fat shaming. Black hair is not your fucking business, bitch. Back the fuck up.
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This is just blatantly false and caused people to harass Kamala Harris supporters until they stopped using the Yellow Circles she asked supporters to wear, it stems from the misogynoir his fans engaged in towards Kamala. Bernie has never said shit, so I blame him.
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Bigotry. Also erasure of Biden’s Black support in a effort to make it seem as if Bernie is the candidate of diversity. Bernie is at fault, he also erases minorities.
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Sexist. Also, damn near all of his fans seem to hate Obama on the same level and with as much heat as MAGA. Why the fuck would we want to join in unity with this man when his fans HATE the first black President. Oh, you think Bernie has nothing to do with setting the tone?
“The business model, if you like, of the Democratic Party for the last 15 years or so has been a failure,” Sanders started, responding to a question about the young voters who supported his campaign. “People sometimes don’t see that because there was a charismatic individual named Barack Obama, who won the presidency in 2008 and 2012.
“He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy. But behind that reality, over the last 10 years, Democrats have lost about 1,000 seats in state legislatures all across this country.”
Bernie doesn’t fucking like Obama either.
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Sexism. Racism. Bernie does the worst with Black Women, and is often dismissive when asked a question by one of us. So, his fans see nothing to lose by targeting us in particular, and we in turn are likely the largest group of people willing to sit this one out if Bernie manages to come out on top. The media is no help whatsoever to marginalized people, because they ultimately weave a narrative where Bernie comes out the victim.
We can already see it happening amongst the Children of the Bern, where they have taken to labeling K-Hive, a movement started by a Black Woman (Me) for a Black Woman (Kamala Harris), “Liberal ISIS” for our resistance to Bernie and willingness to defend the other candidates from the attacks levied by the Berner Swarm.
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Oh, cry me a fucking river! We don’t dox, cyberstalk, harass, abuse, try to get people fired, engage in bigotry, we learn from our mistakes, and we never make it our mission to ruin someone’s life.
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We simply turn the tables on the bros and ask tough questions, like Kamala Harris. If that breaks you down, you were already broken before you found us. Oh, yeah. That’s another thing. We don’t go looking for Berners to abuse; we wait until they come to abuse US and refuse to play along.
Regardless of what poor Peter Daou says, there is no “Unadulterated Hatred” in asking if someone has checked on him.
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So, yes, I can blame Bernie for the nastiness of his movement and choose not to ever join it no matter what. Progressives love to play forever victims, even while they engage in their vile abuse, but I do not have to empower their movement or help them elect Bernie. Maybe if enough people sound the alarm and let him know we will not be helping him in November while suffering constantly at the hands of his Branch Bernidians, then he will have no choice but to be a leader and fucking lead these assholes into being decent people. I don’t expect the abuse to magically end if Bernie becomes President or loses to Trump, and I also don’t expect him to do shit about it, so I guess I’m just Never Bernie. What I am now stuck with is the same as always; White States get to vote first and create the narrative that Dem voters are in favor of whoever these powerful white voters choose, and I am sick of it and sick of Sanders. I didn’t become a Democrat to not only be marginalized by the White Moderate, but to also suffer abuse from the punk ass White leftist bitchmade humdinger of a Revolution. I’m not here to empower shitfucks that search me out no matter where I am just to heap abuse on me, threaten me, or report me to the FBI as a possible MASS SHOOTER, all because I think Bernie is an old bigot who minimizes Black oppression to appease the white voters he thinks he’ll need to win the General.
I’m just Never Bernie, deal with it or die mad about it. I don’t care which.
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mitigatedchaos · 4 years
Text
Quick Concept: Public re-election funding based on political policy “contracts.”
On running for election, the candidate supplies a public list of which policies they’ll get signed into law, and what % of the total re-election fund (with estimated $ amount) they’ll receive if it’s determined that legislation is passed.  The list is sorted by amount ‘wagered.’  A copy of each politician’s list is sent out to all registered voters in the area.
Compliance is determined by a 60% supermajority of a bipartisan commission of lawyers selected at random from party lawyer pools.
Hmn, to prevent completely shutting down the opposition party, perhaps whenever any wager from a politician from a party is completed, the same amount of funding is divided equally among all politicians of the opposing party.
Probably results in a bunch of small centrist feel-good legislation, but currently parties have incentive to completely shut out the opposition even on issues they agree on, to get a partisan win.  
For @the-grey-tribe ‘s previously mentioned problem of “sure, everyone likes $POLICY, but because of that it doesn’t differentiate us from the other party,” so popular $POLICY never goes into law - in this system a popular policy is an easy way for all the politicians to get lots of re-election money.
Also part of the reason we’re in this situation is parties using issues to ‘bait’ groups to get them to show up on election day, then not following through, then baiting them again for the next election cycle.  Well, if it’s not on The List, then you know they’re not serious about passing the legislation - and if it is on The List, then it’s tempting to find a way to pass it.
Need to chew on this concept more.  
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jadejedi · 4 years
Text
The Young Queen
Padmé Amidala, as seen through the eyes of media across the galaxy, from her election as Queen until after her death. 
This fic came out of my deep, enduring love of Padmé Amidala, Naboo, and also third party POV fics. I used a conglomeration of Legends and new canon, as well as a lot of my own world building. Most of the Nubian politicians are some version of canon, except for Padmé’s successor as Princess of Theed, who I made up. Unbeta’d. 
Find it here on AO3
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THEED TIMES
Princess Amidala of Theed Wins Election Against Veruna
By Suballé Tanvoll
The current Princess of Theed, Amidala, was elected the third youngest ever monarch of Naboo last night. While a fourteen year old political prodigy, who has only served as an elected official for a little over a year, beating an older, more experienced fourth term incumbent, might be surprising to off-worlders, it comes as no surprise to the Naboo. Amidala’s ani-corruption, pro-arts, and pro-social programs platform has become extremely popular in the wake of King Veruna’s recently discovered corruption in the dealings with the Trade Federation. 
Amidala was elected as Princess of Theed last year, having served previously in both the Refugee Relief Movement and the Legislative Youth Program. After one year in office as Princess, Amidala had an approval rating of 89%, and is seen as a thoughtful, compassionate leader. For the Age Exception Political Aptitude Test (AEPAT), Amidala scored amongst the 90th percentile. Her intelligence was made obvious to the public in her time as Princess of Theed, where she spearheaded improvements to the capital’s infrastructure, and helped Theed as it continues to transition to a more industrial based economy by passing laws that strengthened unions, imposed stricter regulations on landlords, and ensured the health and safety of industrial workers in and out of the workplace.  Amidala won the election against King Veruna with 67% of the votes, a very comfortable majority. The Queen- Elect had the support of Governor Bibble as well as Senator Palpatine. 
While she gained popularity as Princess of Theed through her social programs and focus on infrastructure, her campaign largely rested on her harsh criticism of King Veruna and the corruption of his administration. King Veruna, now in the fourth term of his rule, is the longest serving Nubian monarch in over a hundred years. While he is popular with some for his expanding Naboo’s galactic influence by exporting plasma through the Trade Federation, and his founding of the state-of-the-art Naboo starfighter corps, he has lost much of that popularity in recent months. Recent revelations about his involvement with Damask Holdings involving side deals with the Trade Federation have caused outrage both amongst several of his elected advisors and the public at large. 
Amidala will step down as Princess of Theed at the end of the galactic month, and then two weeks later will be crowned as Her Royal Highness, Queen Amidala of the Naboo, in the Palace of Theed. In her victory speech last night, Amidala emphasized her desire to fight corruption and move Naboo forward into prosperity. 
“For too long our politicians have forgotten that we serve the Naboo. It is the duty of politicians to always seek the best interests of their people. Today, you have spoken. You have told this corrupt government that the Naboo will no longer tolerate a leader who thinks of himself before he thinks of his constituents, and who involved Naboo in risky deals at the cost of our precious ecosystem. I promise you that I will defend Naboo’s honor in rooting out all corruption, and that this will once again be a government for the people.”
--
“Welcome back to the Planetary Broadcasting Network, Alderaan’s most trusted news source. I’m Cair Pash, and I’m here with my co-host, Yvonne Utelu.” Both hosts smile serenely at the camera.
“Before we get to our main story of the afternoon, Yvonne has some interesting news from the Mid Rim this afternoon.” The good looking, olive toned news anchor turned to the brunette sitting next to him. “Isn’t that right, Yvonne?”
The woman smiled blindly at the camera. “Absolutely, Cair. Today, the planet Naboo, a small Mid Rim world with relatively small galactic significance just shocked the galaxy by choosing a fourteen year old girl in favor of the incumbent, King Veruna. The Queen Elect is a young woman by the name of Amidala, currently the Princess of Theed, their capital city. Despite Naboo having a long history of youth involvement in politics, Amidala’s election is unusual even for them, by being their third youngest ever monarch!”
Cair shakes his head. “Truly amazing that the entire planet would trust a mere teenager to rule them! I understand that this might happen in a hereditary system, such as ours here on Alderaan, but to willingly hand over a planet to someone so young? What seems to be behind this?”
“Well, there has been much dissatisfaction with the current King lately, as he has become mired in several corruption scandals involving Damask Holdings, loosely associated with the Banking Clan, the Trade Federation, and Naboo’s rare natural plasma deposits. Not to mention, Naboo is a very small, peaceful planet, with a heavy focus on art and education. The Naboo place a lot of emphasis on intelligence and purity of heart, rather than age or experience. 
“While it is an entire planet, there is still relatively little at stake for the newly elected Queen Amidala, as Naboo has little galactic significance.”
“Hm,” Cair hummed thoughtfully. “Still, a very interesting story. Thanks, Yvonne for that look out into the Mid-Rim.” He turned and faced the center camera. “Now, let’s turn to our main story for the day, also involving a corruption scandal, and this time with Chancellor Valorum…”
--
“Hello, and welcome to everyone joining us for the coronation of Queen Amidala,” greeted a dark skinned human woman in her forties. Rather than being in a newsroom, as per usual, she was standing in the courtyard of Theed Palace. “I am Nira Strellan, your host, and I am here with NPBC’s Palace correspondent Iarás Thal, as well as the Coruscant Daily’s Mid Rim correspondent, Jak Rils.” 
The younger woman and the thirty-something Zabrak man both smiled at the camera. Both women wore elegant, yet reserved Nubian gowns and hairstyles, while Jak wore more typical Coruscanti business wear. 
“We are here to bring you coverage of the day’s festivities live from Theed, eventually culminating in the coronation of our new Queen,” continued Nira Strellan. “The mood here in Theed is one of both hope and relief, as Amidala’s election a month and a half ago was seen by many as a sharp turn away from the corruption that mired the previous administration.” 
Iarás nodded in agreement. “Absolutely. I think that those can both be used to describe the mood of the whole planet right now. In Theed, I would say there is also a sense of excitement surrounding this coronation. Amidala was Theed’s Princess for over a year before her election, after all.”
Nira nodded and turned to her co-host. “Irás, why don’t you tell Jak and the viewers at home not familiar with our culture what we can expect from today?”
“Well, right now we are about an hour away from the start of the coronation ceremony,” Iarás began with explaining with a smile and a smooth voice. “Amidala is currently in Theed’s temple of Yena with her advisors that were also elected and re elected this election cycle, including Senator Palpatine and Governor Bibble. Yena is one of Naboo’s four deities; she is the goddess of politics and governance. It is this deity that Amdiala, like all monarchs, will associate most heavily with during her reign.”
“Now, what does it mean that she will “associate” with Yena?” interjected Jak.
“Generally, in our culture, people choose one of the four dieties based on their life at the time, and honor that god or goddess in the way they dress, worship, and in the way they conduct themselves,” Iarás explained. She motioned to the green gown that she was wearing, and to the tan and gold gown that Nira wore. “We both associate with Civ, the god of industry, and so we favor greens, golds, and neutral tones, especially for formal occasions such as this.”
Nira nodded in agreement. “Exactly. So Amidala will most likely be wearing either blue or possibly black or white, all colors associated with Yena, as blue represents the pure waters of Naboo, and therefore a purity of heart, and white represents transparency and integrity, and black represents determination and honor. All attributes that Amidala will certainly want to project, considering whose administration she is following.”
Jak nodded in understanding, and Iarás continued with her explanation of the day’s festivities. “So, while Amidala is in Yena’s temple, King Veruna and other members of his administration not re elected await inside the palace for the exchanging of power.” Iarás motioned out of the courtyard to the street that extended in front of them and into Theed. “Until the beginning of Amidala’s procession from the Temple to the Palace, street vendors have lined the streets and people have gathered for food, art, and games.”
“From what I understand, Amidala is extremely popular here in Theed, isn’t that right?” asked Jak to the two Naboo hosts. 
“She certainly is,” Nira agreed with a bit of a grin, clearly proud of the new monarch, despite her professionalism. “She has served as Princess of Theed for over a year, and very effectively at that. But, it isn’t just in Theed. No matter where you go in Naboo, from Varykino to Dee’ja Peak to Moenia, Amidala won every major settlement. We here on Naboo value, above everything else, intelligence and purity of heart in our leaders. The people no longer saw King Veruna as representing those values.”
“Here on Naboo, we see politicians as intermediaries between two parties,” Iarás explained, both to Jak and to the camera. “Our Senator intercedes on behalf of the monarch to the Galactic Senate. The Governor intercedes on behalf of the people to the monarch. The role of the Monarch is to intercede on behalf of the people of Naboo to the Galaxy at large. She is who will represent us and be the face of our planet to the galaxy. That is why royals on Naboo choose regal names, because they no longer belong just to their family, but to all of Naboo, and why they wear ceremonial make-up, to present not their own face, but the face of Naboo and our traditions.”
Jak shook his head. “That is truly fascinating.” He turned back to the camera. “ I’m Jak Rils from Coruscant Daily, here with Nira Strellan and Iarás Thal here covering Queen Amidala’s corunation. There much more to come in this ceremony, after the break.”
--
YOUNG NABOO
Amidala Coronated- The Young Will Lead Us
 By Jorvol Brinn
Yesterday at the Theed Palace in a ceremony full of pomp and circumstance, Amidala, former Princess of Theed, was coronated as the third youngest ever Queen of Naboo. The citizens of Theed lined the streets from Yena’s Temple to the Palace, eagerly awaiting their new monarch. 
Beyond just the planning for the ceremonial coronation and exchange of power, there is a lot that goes into the arrival of a new administration. From the handmaidens, chosen from both the Royal Guard academy as well as scouted for specific talents, these individuals are chosen the moment the new monarch is elected and trained intensively the six weeks leading up to the coronation. There is also an entire royal wardrobe to create individually for the incoming monarch, which has to incorporate artistic beauty, Nubian tradition, and practicality, as every outfit that the monarch wears is not only for looks, but for safety. The most important part of this six week transition period, however, is of course the change over of power, as yesterday’s ceremony was largely symbolic. Amidala has been in constant meetings with both the newly elected Princess of Theed, Modlora, as well as now-former King Veruna and the advisory council, both new and old. 
Many outside of Naboo question how someone as young as Amidala, who is only fourteen, could possibly be trusted with so much responsibility. We here on Naboo know that age is not what matters, but it is what is one’s heart and in one’s mind that truly counts. In the process of running for Princess of Theed almost a year and a half ago, Amidala gave up her birth name in favor of a new regal name. She has claimed all of us as her family and as her priority. In her speech announcing her candidacy for Queen last year, she said, 
“When I first entered public service, I believed that everyone who served did so for the same reasons that I did: to make Naboo a better place for not just its citizens, but for the planet as a whole. Since then, I have learned that I was wrong. But that does not make me naive. It means that we have not held our leaders to high enough standards. Our leaders cannot put personal gain above the good of the people. When I ran for Princess of Theed, I chose this name, Amidala, to show that I choose all of Naboo as my family and as my duty, and King Veruna did the same when he ran for King. He has forgotten this. I will not. Together, we will make a government for the people.”
 She has shown again and again that she is a leader of wisdom and integrity. Her youth is not a hindrance to her leadership, but an advantage. She is not bogged down by the same cynicism that poisons so many politicians. She has proven that she doesn’t see what can’t be done, rather she sees what hasn’t been done yet. 
As young people here on Naboo, we are fortunate to live in a society that encourages us to reach as high as we can from an early age. Queen Amidala is an example of the best of our society, and proof that our age is not something that can stop us from making our world a better place.
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blogsills · 5 years
Text
After Democrats Surged In 2018, Republican-Run States Eye New Curbs On Voting
April 22, 20195:00 AM ET
ASHLEY LOPEZ
BRET JASPERS
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN
A sign directs voters to a polling station on Nov. 8, 2016, in Cave Creek, Arizona. The state is one of several considering new voting laws that could make it more complicated to vote in 2020.
Ralph Freso/Getty Images
After high turnout in last year's midterm elections propelled Democrats to a new House majority and big gains in the states, several Republican-controlled state legislatures are attempting to change voting-related rules in ways that might reduce future voter turnout.
In Texas, state lawmakers are considering adding criminal penalties for people who improperly fill out voter registration forms. Arizona Republicans are proposing new voting rules that could make it more complicated to cast an early ballot. In Tennessee, GOP lawmakers are considering a bill that would fine groups involved in voter registration drives that submit incomplete forms.
POLITICS
Georgia Governor Signs Law Addressing Some Criticisms Of Contested 2018 Election
Republican lawmakers in those states say new laws are needed to maintain the integrity of voter rolls and prevent fraud. Voting rights advocates and Democrats dismiss those claims and argue that the policies are designed to dampen turnout among younger, nonwhite and poorer voters, who are less likely to back Republicans.
If enacted, these proposals could have an impact on future elections, especially in Arizona and Texas, where demographic and political trends are making both states more competitive on the national level for the first time in decades.
Last fall, Arizona Republicans saw their total control of all statewide offices shattered by surging Democratic turnout, losing four of nine statewide races — including a U.S. Senate seat. Democrats view the state's other Senate seat as one of their best pickup opportunities in 2020. In Texas, record turnout helped Democrats flip two congressional and 12 state legislative seats — not to mention come closer than they have in decades in the Senate race. While Tennessee wasn't ultimately competitive in 2018, there was a surge of newly registered voters in the Democratic strongholds of Memphis and Nashville.
House Passes Extensive Election And Campaign Finance Overhaul Bill
The bills in Republican-controlled states that could curb voting come as many Democratic-run states are heading further in the opposite direction by expanding access to early and absentee voting and adopting automatic voter registration (several traditionally Republican states have also adopted automatic voter registration).
"We are seeing both the good and bad side of the fallout of the 2018 election," said Danielle Lang, co-director of the voting rights and redistricting program at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
Democrats saw a major increase in voter turnout in Texas last year. Now, in the name of combating voter fraud, the Republican-controlled state legislature is looking at a new law that could increase criminal penalties for those who don't fill out voter registration forms properly.
Texas: from misdemeanor to felony
Texas Senate Bill 9 — which was recently approved by the state Senate and is under consideration by the legislature — would make it a felony, punishable by jail time, for anyone who provides false information on a voter registration form or casts a ballot when they are ineligible, even if it's by mistake.
Ahead Of The 2018 Election, Texas AG Ramps Up Voter Fraud Prosecutions
Voting groups in the state say they are concerned this effort could result in jail time for people who don't properly fill out their voter registration forms. Currently, providing false information on an application is a misdemeanor.
"If Senate Bill 9 passes, a person who makes a simple mistake — puts the wrong ZIP code on a voter registration card — could be prosecuted, fined and even put in jail," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which registers young voters, among other things.
She described the bill as "one of the most strict voter suppression laws in the country," noting that Texas is already one of the most difficult states in which to register voters and that the proposed new penalties could make it even harder.
Texas Officials Begin Walking Back Allegations About Noncitizen Voters
This latest push to tighten Texas' voting laws comes months after Texas election officials launched a troubled effort to remove alleged noncitizens from the state's voter rolls.
The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican from rural east Texas, says the point of the bill is not to crack down on people who "inadvertently check a wrong box." He says the point is to make sure local prosecutors "are prioritizing these crimes."
"This bill is aimed at people who are intentionally cheating," Hughes says. "This is not to catch people who make an honest mistake."
Cases of intentional voter fraud are rare in Texas — in many instances in which authorities have prosecuted someone, the people being prosecuted said they did not realize they were ineligible to vote.
Voting rights lawyers are also concerned about the bill's increased criminal penalties for those who cast a ballot — including a provisional ballot — when they are ineligible to vote.
Provisional ballots were created by federal law to allow people to vote if they aren't sure they can, and a provisional ballot is counted only once election officials determine that the voter who submitted it is eligible. Provisional ballots are often used when eligible voters are erroneously not included in their state's voter roll.
Senate Bill 9 undermines that federal protection, said James Slattery, a staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.
"It would assume that if you knew the facts that made you ineligible to vote, even if you didn't know the law, casting that provisional ballot would essentially make you a criminal," he said.
A polling station in Franklin, Tenn., on Election Day 2018. Tennessee's legislature is considering a bill that would impose hefty financial penalties on groups that register voters if they submit too many improperly filled out forms.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Tennessee: "We have never seen a bill like this"
In Tennessee, Republican lawmakers point to a surge of incomplete voter registration forms submitted in Memphis and Nashville during the run-up to the 2018 midterms as the motivation behind that state's legislation.
Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said that under the state's current law, county election commissions are obligated to track down and verify incomplete registration forms.
"This is only going after folks that create chaos intentionally or knowingly," Goins told member station WPLN.
Voters Approve Major Changes To Redistricting And Other Voting Laws
The measure, which already passed in the state's House, is backed by Goins. It proposes fines of up to $10,000 for groups that pay people and that submit more than 500 incomplete forms, with lower penalties for fewer incomplete registration forms.
But for people who "intentionally and knowingly" submit incomplete forms, the bill suggests they could face misdemeanor charges.
The legislation would also require groups to turn in the forms within 10 days of the registration drive and would require training for people conducting voter registrations of over 100 people. Groups also wouldn't be allowed to pay campaign workers per registration form.
The risk of fines could deter people from organizing registration drives, said Tequila Johnson, the co-founder of the Equity Alliance, who said the bill is an attack on organizations like hers that focus on registering people of color.
"We have never seen a bill like this on the floor, until we dared to register 86,000 black and brown people to vote," Johnson said at a news conference in Nashville. "This screams racism."
Arizona voters at a Phoenix polling place on Nov. 6, 2018. Arizona is considering major changes to popular early voting rules, which could affect some 200,000 voters.
Arizona: "This is a service — it's a convenience"
The changes that Arizona Republicans are considering would focus on registered voters who have signed up to cast mail-in ballots but don't use them.
The bill would remove some people from what's called the Permanent Early Voting List. People on the PEVL get ballots mailed to them so they can mail the ballots back or drop them off on Election Day.
But Republican state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita wants counties to purge people from that list if they don't vote using an early ballot in two consecutive election cycles.
"We want to make sure that the lists are up to date. That's just good practice. That makes sense on, frankly, any kind of database that you have," she told a House committee. "That you're really communicating with those who want to be communicated with and that are using the service. This is a service — it's a convenience."
Partisan Election Officials Are 'Inherently Unfair' But Probably Here To Stay
Local election officials say that they already have ways to maintain clean voting rolls and that the proposed legislation will simply confuse voters. The Arizona secretary of state's office estimates that 200,000 voters currently on the early voting list did not vote in both 2016 and 2018. But the office also said the bill's language is unclear, making it hard to assess its potential impact.
Democratic Rep. Athena Salman called it voter suppression to purge the PEVL.
"There is a great debate around whether or not it is 'peh-vl' or 'pee-vl.' But I find it fitting that if this bill passes, the list will no longer be 'permanent,' and so one might call it 'evil,' " she said.
Republicans dispute that this is an attempt to make voting more difficult. The bill doesn't remove people from the registration rolls, just the mailing list for early ballots.
Republican lawmakers have proposed other bills this legislative session that have drawn criticism from voting rights groups, including one that bans paying workers for each voter registration form they turn in.
"All Americans care about election integrity"
This latest round of legislation lands after a decade-long push by state-level Republicans for strict voter ID laws around the United States. Those laws were criticized by voting rights advocates for adding obstacles to casting a ballot that would particularly harm nonwhite and poor voters, although a recent academic study suggests the laws have had "no negative impact on registration or turnout."
Georgia Set To Remain A Battleground For Voting Rights Ahead Of 2020
The stated basis that Republican lawmakers gave for many of those laws was to reduce the incidence of in-person voter fraud. Repeated research has unveiled scant evidence of anything more than a small number of instances of voters attempting to cast multiple ballots. But the repeated message that voter fraud was rampant has become a powerful motivator for Republican campaigns to turn out their own voters. Likewise, Democrats have also used potential threats to voting access to mobilize their own supporters.                                                 But the impact of that push has been to increase partisanship and conflict around voting, the centerpiece of a democratic system.                            Lawmakers often reexamine voting laws after an election, said Lang, of the Campaign Legal Center. For example, there was a bipartisan push from Iowa's Republican governor to make it easier for felons to restore their right to vote after release, although it ultimately failed. And Kansas, which had been ground zero for fights about election laws for years, recently passed a bipartisan voting law that will make it more convenient to cast a ballot.                                        "All Americans care about election integrity, and yet these issues get framed in very unhelpful partisan ways," Lang said.                                                      Ashley Lopez reports for member station KUT in Austin, Texas. Bret Jaspers reports for KJZZ in Phoenix. Sergio Martínez-Beltrán reports for WPLN in Nashville, Tenn.
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theliberaltony · 5 years
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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight
The Supreme Court will not end extreme partisan gerrymandering. In a 5-4 decision along ideological lines, the court ruled Thursday that partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts cannot be limited by federal courts. Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, writing that “what the appellees and dissent seek is an unprecedented expansion of judicial power.”
Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent was scathing. “For the first time ever, this Court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities,” she wrote in her opening sentence. She argued that imposing limits on gerrymandered districts is not beyond the scope of the court: “The partisan gerrymanders here debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people.”
The ruling almost certainly would have been different if Anthony Kennedy were still on the court. Before retiring last year, Kennedy had been the swing justice on previous gerrymandering cases. He had said that partisan gerrymandering was within the purview of the court but that the justices should hold off on ruling any particular gerrymander unconstitutional until a manageable standard for measuring gerrymandering emerged. Since he took that position in 2004, reformers had been attempting to find such a standard. Legal scholars and statisticians developed various measurements to try to win over the court, but without Kennedy, those efforts turned out to be futile.
The most obvious consequence of Thursday’s ruling is that, come the 2021 redistricting cycle, state legislatures will be free to draw maps that boldly favor one party over the other, without concern of having their maps struck down in federal court. (State courts are another matter, as we’ll get to.) That is not all that different from the status quo, as few — if any — states showed restraint in drawing partisan gerrymanders during the last redistricting process, in 2011.
Uninhibited partisan gerrymandering can have major implications for how our representative democracy works. In 2018, FiveThirtyEight simulated what an extreme partisan gerrymander would look like if it happened to congressional districts in every state, based on past voting records. Here’s what a Republican gerrymandered map would do to Congress:
And compare that to what a Democratic gerrymandered map looks like:
Those are extreme examples, of course, and Thursday’s ruling will not result in such a breakdown. The degree to which the next round of maps — drawn in 2021 — are gerrymandered will largely rely on the number of states under one-party control, since they can more easily pass uncompromising partisan maps. In 2011, 31 state governments were under one-party control, with almost twice as many under Republican control as Democratic. The 2020 election will determine how those numbers change during the next redistricting cycle.
Despite the ruling, reformers have a few other avenues still open to them, which Roberts himself acknowledged. The first is ballot initiatives, passed by a state’s voters, that give the power of redistricting to independent commissions. Eight states currently use such commissions to draw both their state legislative and congressional maps. However, ballot initiatives or referenda are available to voters in only 26 states, largely west of the Mississippi. Another option is to pass laws limiting gerrymandering. That’s an uphill climb, though. State legislative action is rare, and congressional action on the national level is highly unlikely in the nearterm.
A final avenue is for reformers to bring complaints in state courts, based on state constitutions. This model was first successful in Pennsylvania in 2018, when the state Supreme Court threw out Pennsylvania’s congressional map as an unlawful partisan gerrymander and ordered a redraw. In bringing these cases, reformers would likely rely on provisions in state constitutions that are more specific than anything in the U.S. constitution. For example, 26 states include language in their constitutions stating that elections shall be “free,” “free and equal,” or “free and open.” This strategy also relies heavily on state Supreme Courts having liberal majorities.
Even if the Supreme Court had ruled that partisan gerrymandering were unconstitutional, it would not have been the end of the argument. It would likely have taken years, decades, or longer for the court to settle on where exactly the line sits between legal redistricting and unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering. On the issue of racial gerrymandering, which can be unconstitutional, the court has spent decades trying to discern what exactly is legal.
In ruling that partisan gerrymandering is not an issue for the courts, the court avoided all that. A majority of Americans may take issue with extreme partisan gerrymandering, but now it’s up to somebody else to do something about it.
Read more: The Gerrymandering Project
Check out the polls we’ve been collecting ahead of the 2020 elections, including all the Democratic primary polls.
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robertfsmith · 5 years
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Robert F. Smith Commencement Address to Morehouse College on May 19, 2019
youtube
President Thomas, board of Trustees. Faculty, staff, and Morehouse alumni.
The extraordinary Angela Bassett, and the distinguished Professor Doctor Edmund Gordon.
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, family, and friends.
And most of all, Morehouse College Class of 2019: Congratulations!
Earning a college degree is one of the greatest and most impressive of life’s accomplishments.
But success has many parents -- and as hard as each of you has worked to achieve what you all have achieved today, you’ve had a lot of help along the way. We are the products of a community, a village, a team. And many of those who have made contributions for you to arrive at this very moment are here with you today.
So, first and foremost, graduates of the class of 2019, please stand and join me in recognizing the love and commitment of those who have been with you on this long and hard journey!
Graduates, standing here before you is one of the great honors of my life. And I am so proud to share it with my mother, Dr. Sylvia Smith, a lifelong educator and the greatest role model of my life, who is here today.
This is the first of three graduations in my family this week. One of my daughters graduates from NYU, another graduates from high school and is headed off to Barnard in the fall, and my niece is graduating from my alma mater, Cornell, next weekend. So I want to thank the Morehouse administration for perfectly timing today’s festivities in advance of them so that I could be here.
Morehouse was built to demand excellence and spur the advancement and development of African American men. I have always been drawn to its rich history, and I am optimistic for its bright future.
The brothers from Morehouse I’ve met -- or revered at a distance -- understand the power of this education and the responsibility that comes with it. Willie Woods, Morehouse’s Chairman of the Board, is one such man. Thank you, Chairman Woods.
In our shared history -- as a people, and as a country -- the Morehouse campus is a special place. The path you walked along Brown Street this morning to reach this commencement site was paved by men of intellect, character, and determination.  
These men understood that when Dr. King said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, he wasn’t saying it bends on its own accord. It bends because we choose to put our shoulders into it together and push.
The degree you earn today is one of the most elite credentials that America has to offer. But I don’t want you to think of it as a document that hangs on a wall and reflects what you’ve accomplished up till now.  
No. 
That degree is a contract -- a social contract -- that calls on you to devote your talents and energies to honoring those legends on whose shoulders you and I stand.
Lord knows you are graduating into a complex world. Think about what we have faced in just the years you spent as Morehouse students:
We have seen the rise of Black Lives Matter, lending voice to critical issues that have been ignored by too many for too long.
We’ve seen the Me Too movement, shining a spotlight on how far we still have to go to achieve real gender equality.
We’ve also seen the unapologetic public airing of hate doctrines by various groups.
We’ve seen the implications of climate change become impossible to ignore and become ever more severe.
Our connected world has grappled with new questions about security, privacy, and the role of intelligent machines in our work and lives.
And we’ve witnessed the very foundation of our political system shaken by the blurring of the sacred line between fact and fiction… right and wrong.
Yes, this is an uncertain hour for our democracy and our fragile world order. But uncertainty is nothing new for our community.
Like many of yours, my family has been in the United States for 8 or 9 generations. We have nourished this soil with our blood. Sown this land with our sweat. Protected this country with our bodies. And contributed to the physical, cultural, and intellectual fabric of this country with our minds and our talent. And yet, I am the first generation of my family to have secured all my rights as an American.
Think about it:
1865 was the first time that most African American families had a hint of access to the first and until now, greatest wealth-generating platform of America -- land.
The Freedmen’s Bureau was supposed to deliver 850,000 acres of land to the formerly enslaved, a program that was then canceled and replaced with a Freedman’s Savings Bank…which was then looted.
Essentially that recompense was reneged upon. We didn’t have broad access to the Homestead Act nor Southern Homestead Act where 10% of the land in the U.S. was distributed for no more than a filing fee.
It wasn’t until 1868, after the passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th amendment, that my family actually had a birthright to be American Citizens.
Then, when America decided to create a social safety net for its citizens in 1935, they created a Social Security program.
Yet that program excluded two categories of workers: maids and farmworkers, which effectively denied benefits to two-thirds of African Americans, and 80% of Southern African Americans.
It wasn’t until 1954 that my family had a right to equal education under protection of the law -- guaranteed by Brown v. Board of Education.
And while the 15th Amendment gave my family the right to vote -- the men, at least -- starting in 1890, those rights were rolled back in the South and remained suppressed until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Even today, more than a half-century after that, the struggle to ensure true integrity at the ballot box is still very much alive.
All of these landmark extensions of our rights -- and subsequent retrenchments -- set the stage for a new policy of forced desegregation utilizing school bussing that went into effect when I reached the first grade in my hometown of Denver, Colorado.
Our family lived in North East Denver, and back then, Denver, like most other American cities, remained extremely divided by race, both politically and geographically.
In my community, my neighbors were mostly educated, proud, hard-working, and ambitious. They were dentists, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Pullman porters, contractors, small business owners and pharmacists.
They were focused on serving the African-American community and providing a safe and nurturing environment for the kids in our neighborhood.
They were on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement. They were sacrificing their sons to the Vietnam War. They mourned the death of a King, two Kennedys and an X.
Despite all they gave, they had yet to achieve the fullness of the American Dream. But they continued to believe it was only a matter of time -- if not for them, then surely for their children.
I was among a small number of the kids from my neighborhood who were bussed across town to a high-performing, predominantly white elementary school in South East Denver. Every morning we were loaded up on bus number 13 -- I’ll never forget it --and taken across town to Carson Elementary.  
That policy of bussing only lasted through my fifth-grade year, when intense protests and political pressure brought an end to forced bussing. But those five years drastically changed the trajectory of my life.
The teachers at Carson were extraordinary. They embraced me and challenged me to think critically and start to move toward my full potential. I, in turn, came to realize at a young age that the white kids and the black kids, the Jewish kids and the one Asian kid were all pretty much the same.
And it wasn’t just the school itself -- it was my community back home that embraced and supported our opportunity. Since most of the parents in my neighborhood worked, a whole bunch of us walked to Mrs. Brown’s house after school and stayed there until our parents returned home from work.  
Mrs. Brown was incredible. She kept us safe, made sure we did our homework the right way, gave us nutritious after school snacks, and taught us about responsibility. And because her house was filled with children of all ages, I suddenly had older kids as role models who were studying hard and who believed in themselves. Mrs. Brown also happened to be married to the first black Lt. Governor of our state, so we saw the possibilities first hand.
Amazingly, almost every single student on that number 13 bus went on to become a professional.  I am still in touch with many as they make up the bedrock of their communities today. They are elected officials, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, professors, community organizers, and business leaders.
An incredible concentration of successful black men and women from the same working-class neighborhood. Yet when I look at my other folks from the extended neighborhood -- those who didn’t get a spot-on bus number 13 -- their success rate was far lower -- and the connection is inescapable.
Everything about my life changed because of those few short years. But the window closed for others just as fast as it had opened for me.
That’s part of the story of the black experience in America: getting a fleeting glimpse of opportunity and success just before the window is slammed shut.
The cycle of resistance to oppression, followed by favorable legislation, followed by the weakening of those laws, followed by more oppression, and more resistance, has affected and afflicted every generation.
And even as we’ve seen some major barriers come crashing down in recent years, we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t acknowledge just how many injustices persist.
Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you get educated. Where you go to school shouldn’t determine whether you get textbooks. The opportunity you access should be determined by the fierceness of your intellect, the courage of your creativity, and the grit that allows you to overcome expectations that weren’t set high enough.
We’ve seen remarkable breakthroughs in medical research, yet race-based disparities in health outcomes still persist. You are 41% more likely to die of breast cancer if you are an African-American woman in America today than if you are white.
You are 2.3 times more likely to die of prostate cancer if you are an African-American man than if you are white.
If you are African-American, you are more likely to be stopped by the police, more likely to be issued a ticket after being stopped, and more likely to be threatened with the use of force than if you are white.  
This is our reality. This is the world you are inheriting.  
Now, I am not telling you these things because I am bitter or because I want you to be bitter.  
I don’t call upon you to be bitter, I call upon you to make things better. Because the great lesson of my life is that despite the challenges we face, America is an extraordinary country. Our world is getting smaller by the day. And you are equipped with every tool to make it your own.
Today, for the first time in human history, success requires no prerequisite of wealth or capital -- no ownership of land, or natural resources, or people.
Today, success can be created solely through the power of one’s mind, ideas, and courage. Intellectual capital can be cultivated, monetized, and instantaneously distributed across the globe.  
Intellectual capital has become the new currency of business and finance -- and the promise of brainpower to move people from poverty to prosperity has never been more possible.
Technology is creating a whole new set of on ramps to the 21st century economy, and together we will help assure that African Americans will acquire the tech skills and be the beneficiaries in sectors that are being automated.
Black men understand that securing the bag is just the beginning -- that success is only real if our community is protected, if our potential is realized and if our most valuable assets -- our people -- find strength in owning the businesses that provide economic stability in our community.
This is your moment, graduates. Between doubt and destiny is action. Between our community and the American Dream is leadership. Your leadership. Your destiny.
This doesn’t mean ignoring injustice, it means using your strength to restore order.
And when you are confronted with racism, listen to the words of Guy Johnson, the son of Maya Angelou, who once said that, “Racism is like gravity, you got to keep pushing against it without spending too much time thinking about it.”  
So…how do you seize your American Dream? Let me get specific. Let me give you five rules that I live by. 
The first rule you need to know is that nothing replaces actually doing the work.
Whenever a young person tells me they aspire to be an entrepreneur, I ask them why. For many, they think of it as a great way to get rich quick. Invent an app, sell a company, make a few million before you’re 25.
Look, that can happen, but it’s awfully rare. The usual scenario is that successful entrepreneurs spend endless hours, days, and years toiling away for little pay and zero glamor.
And in all honesty, that is where the joy of success actually resides. Before I ever got into private equity, I was a chemical engineer, and I spent pretty much every waking hour in windowless labs doing the work that helped me become an expert in my field.
It was only after I put in the time to develop this expertise and the discipline of the scientific process that I was able to apply my knowledge beyond the lab.  
Greatness is born out of the grind. Embrace the grind. A thoughtful and intentional approach to “the grind” will help you to become an expert in your craft. When I meet a black man or woman who is at the top of their industry, I see the highest form of execution. That’s no accident. There’s a good chance it took that black leader a whole lot more grinding to get to where they are.
I look at the current and former black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies whom I admire, and they blow me away every time I met with them. Bernard Tyson, Ken Frazier, Ken Chenault, Dick Parsons, Ursula Burns, the late Barry Rand. They may not have attended Morehouse, but they have the Morehouse attitude.
They knew that being the best means grinding every day. It means putting in the ten thousand-plus hours necessary to become a master of your craft.
Muhammad Ali once said, “I hated every minute of training, But I thought to myself, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
Grind it out -- and live your life as a champion.
My second rule to live by is to take thoughtful risks.
My Granddad took a particular interest in my career, and he couldn’t have been prouder of my stable engineering job at Kraft-General Foods. For him, to have that kind of job security at my age was a dream come true.  
When I told him I was thinking of leaving for graduate school, he was beyond worried. Then, you can imagine how he worried some years later when I told him I was going to leave Goldman Sachs, where I had achieved a good level of success, to start my own private equity firm focused on enterprise software.
I respected my Granddad and his wisdom, his thoughtfulness, and his protectiveness over me. But I had also done my homework. I calculated my odds of success, and importantly, I knew that one of the fundamental design points of achieving the American Dream was to be a business owner.
So I decided with confidence that I was willing to make a big bet on the one asset I had the most knowledge of: myself.  
There are always reasons to be risk-averse. Graduating from Morehouse can make you risk-averse, because the path you’re on, if you stick to the more conservative choices, is still pretty darn good.
That doesn’t mean you should gamble with your career or careen from job to job just because the grass appears to be greener. But it does mean that you should evaluate options for taking business and career risks…do the analysis, and trust your instincts.
When you bet on yourself -- that’s likely to be a pretty good bet!
My third rule is to be intentional about the words you choose.
I know Morehouse has taught you that you what you say carries with it enormous power.
Be intentional about the words you speak.  
How you define yourself.
What you call each other.
The people you spend time with.
And the love you create.
All of this matters immensely. It will define you.
My fourth rule -- which is my favorite -- is to always know that you are enough.
I mentioned that before going into investment banking at Goldman Sachs, I worked in applied engineering for Kraft General Foods. And I loved it!
Until one day I was at a meeting with a number of department heads in my division and as we went around the conference table discussing the divisions most important strategic initiatives, I realized that of the top six, I was leading five of them.
I was half the age of everyone, yet I knew I was making just a third as much as anyone else in the room. And I said to myself, I’m either doing something very right or very wrong. Truthfully it was a bit of both. So, it became a lesson in realizing my worth and self-worth.
It isn’t just about salary, though that always matters. It’s also about demanding respect from others -- and from yourself. A realization and respect for all of the skills and talents you bring to the table.
When you have confidence in your own worth, you’ll become the one to raise your hand for the hard assignment that may mean putting in time on nights and weekends, but also means you’ll be gaining incremental skills and experiences to enhance your craftsmanship.
Earn your respect through your body of work. Let the quality of your work product speak of your capabilities.
Know that you are only bound by the limits of your own conviction.
You are Morehouse Men. There is no room on this earth you can’t enter with your head held high. You will likely encounter people in your life, as I have, who want to make you feel like you don’t belong... but when you respect your own body of work, that is all the respect you need.
In the words of the great Quincy Jones and Ray Charles, “Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.”
You are enough.
The fifth lesson and final lesson for today is as follows:
We all have the responsibility to liberate others so that they can become their best selves -- in human rights, the arts, business, and in life.
The fact is, as the next generation of African-American leaders, you won’t just be on the bus, you must own it, drive it, and pick up as many as you can carry along the way.
More than the money we make, the awards, or recognition, or titles we earn, each of us will be measured by how much we contribute to the success of the people around us.
How many people will you get onto your bus number 13?
We need you to become the elected officials who step up and fix the laws that engender discrimination and who set a tone of respect in our public discourse.
We need you to become the c-suite executives who change corporate culture, build sustainable business models, and make diversity and inclusion a core and unshakeable value.
We need you to become the entrepreneurs who will innovate inclusively, expand wages for all Americans, and lower the unemployment rate in our communities.
We need you to be the educators who set the highest standards and demand the resources needed to deliver on them and inspire the next generation.
We need you to invest in the real estate and businesses in our communities and create value for all in that community.
No matter what profession you choose, each of you must be a community builder. No matter how far you travel, you can’t ever forget where you came from.
You are responsible for building strong, safe places where our young brothers and sisters can grow with confidence… watch and learn from positive role models, and believe that, they too, are entitled to the American Dream.
You Men of Morehouse are already doing this. Your own Student Government, in fact, sends students on a bus to underserved communities around the country to empower young black men and women to seize their own narrative and find power in their voices.
This is exactly the kind of leadership I’m talking about.
Remember that building community doesn’t always have to be about sweeping change. But it does have to be intentional.  
You can’t just be a role model sometimes. I’m cognizant of the fact that whenever I’m out in public, people are observing my actions. The same goes for you.  
Building community can’t be insular.  
The world has never been smaller, so we need to help our communities think bigger.  
I’ve invested particularly in internship programs, because I’ve observed the power of exposing young minds to the opportunity out there that they don’t see in their own neighborhoods.  
Help those around you see the beauty of the vast world out there, and help them believe that they, too, can capture that dream.
And remember that community can be anywhere.  
Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, community was a few blocks around where I grew up. Today, we, you can create communities of people anywhere in the world. Merging the physical and digital communities will be one of the great opportunities you have and you will have have in the years going forward.
Finally, don’t forget that community thrives in the smallest of gestures. Be the first to congratulate a friend on a new job, buy their new product first, and post on social media about how great it is, and also be the first to console them when they face adversity.  
Treat all people with dignity, even if you can’t see how they can be of help to you.  
And most important of all, whatever it takes, never, ever forget to call your mother. And I do mean call – don’t text, a text doesn’t count!
Speaking of mothers, allow me a point of personal privilege to end with a story that speaks volumes about mine.
In the summer of 1963, when I was just nine months old, my mother hauled my brother and me 1,700 miles from Denver to Washington, DC so that we could be there for a Morehouse Man’s historic speech.  
My mother knew that her boys would be too young to remember that speech, but she believed that the history we witnessed that day on the National Mall would always be a part of the men we would one day become.  
And Mom was right, as usual. I still feel that day in my bones, and it echoes all around us here at Morehouse.
Decades after that cross-country trip, I had the privilege to take my granddad with me to the opposite side of the National Mall to celebrate the inauguration of the first African-American president.
As we sat in the audience on that cold morning, he pointed to a window just behind the flag, in the Capitol Building and he said, “You know, grandson, when I was a teenager I used to work in that room right there, in the Senate Lounge, I used to serve coffee and tea and take hats and coats for the senators.” He said, “I recall looking out that window during Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration.”
He said, “Son, I did not see one black face in the crowd that day – so here we are, you and I, watching this.”
He said, “Grandson, you can see how America can change when people have the will to make change.”
The beautiful symmetry of our return to the Nation’s Capital under such different circumstances was not lost on us -- the poetry of time and soul that Lincoln called the “mystic chords of memory" resonated in both of our hearts.
You cannot have witnessed the history I have, or walked the halls of Morehouse for four years as you have, without profound respect for the unsung everyday heroes who, generation after generation, little by little, nudged, shoved, and ultimately bent that “arc of the moral universe” a little closer to justice.
This is the history and heritage you inherit today. This is the responsibility that now lies upon your broad shoulders.
True wealth comes from contributing to the liberation of people. The liberation of the communities we come from depends on the grit and greatness inside you.
Use your skills, your knowledge, your instincts to serve -- to change the world in the way that only you can.
You great Morehouse Men are bound only by the limits of your conviction and creativity. You have the power within you to be great, be you. Be unstoppable, be undeniable, and accomplish the things no one ever thought you could.
You are well on your way. I’m counting on you to load up your bus and share that journey.
Let’s never forget what Dr. King said in the final moments of his famous sermon at Ebenezer Baptist, “I want to be on your right side or your left side, in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world…a new world.”
Graduates, look to your right side and your left. Actually, take a moment. Stand up, give each other a hug. I am going to wait.  
Men of Morehouse, you are surrounded by a community of people who have helped you arrive at this sacred place on this sacred day.
On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we are going to put a little fuel in your bus.
Now, we’ve got the alumni over there. This is a challenge for you.
This is my class -- 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans. Now, I know my class will make sure they pay this forward. And I want my class to look at these alumni, these beautiful Morehouse brothers -- and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity moving forward -- because we are enough to take care of our own community.
We are enough to ensure we have all the opportunities of the American Dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions, through our words, and through our deeds.
So, class of 2019:
May the sun always shine upon you.  
May the wind always be at your back.  
And may God always hold you in the cradle of Her hands.
Now go forth and make this old world new.
Congratulations!
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patriotsnet · 3 years
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Which Democratic Candidate Would Republicans Vote For
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/which-democratic-candidate-would-republicans-vote-for/
Which Democratic Candidate Would Republicans Vote For
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How Are Primary Elections Conducted In California
Why lifelong Republican voted for a Democratic candidate in GA
All candidates for voter-nominated offices are listed on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary election regardless of party preference move on to the general election. Write-in candidates for voter-nominated offices can only run in the primary election. A write-in candidate will only move on to the general election if the candidate is one of the top two vote-getters in the primary election.
Prior to the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, the top vote-getter from each qualified political party, as well as any write-in candidate who received a certain percentage of votes, moved on to the general election.
The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committee, or local office.
Why You Need To Vote In The Primary Elections
True or false. You only need to vote in the November presidential election and not the primary elections.
FALSE!
For most American voters, the presidential primary elections matter more than the general election. Like Ive said before, if you live in a red state or a blue state, your vote in the presidential election wont make a difference. The rest of your state will overwhelming vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Your vote wont change your states outcome. .
But the primary elections are an entirely different story.
The presidential primaries determine who will represent the Republicans and the Democrats during the November election. Instead of voting between just 2 candidates, you have the choice of 3 Democrats or 12 Republicans. Unlike the general election, you actually have a chance of voting for your preferred candidate, not just the lesser of two evils.
How Do I Register To Vote
You have a few options:
If you have a New York drivers license or state ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles, you can register online using this tool from NYC Votes and TurboVote.
If you dont have a New York drivers license or state ID, the law requires that you sign a form and mail it to the Board of Elections office.
You can use this site to have the forms mailed to you, or you can and print the forms yourself to fill out and mail in. If you request to have the forms sent to you, they come with a pre-addressed envelope to return them.
You will be asked to plug in your name as it appears on your state ID. If you dont have one, thats OK. Just put how your name appears on official documents.
If you need language access or you want to help someone register to vote in another language, you can download the registration forms and FAQs in a bunch of languages here.
You can also request voter registration forms in various languages by calling 1-866-VOTENYC.
Lastly, you can pick up voter registration forms at any library branch, any post office or any city agency office.
After you fill them out, mail them to the BOEs main office:
Board of Elections
New York, NY 10004-1609
And make sure its postmarked by May 28.
Other materials needed: If you dont have a state ID, you will need to provide the last four digits of your Social Security number.
Don’t Miss: Democrats More Educated Than Republicans
Listen To The Podcast Episode
A dizzying selection of 46 candidates appear on the ballot in California’s recall election. Here’s a closer look at four of them three Republicans and one Democrat.
Aired: August 23, 2021 |
Early voting is underway in the Sept. 14 recall election that will decide whether California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be removed from office. The first question on the ballot is a simple yes or no: Should Newsom be recalled?
The second question who should replace Newsom if the recall passes has many voters scratching their heads. Forty-six candidates appear on the ballot, most of them longshots with little to no name recognition or political experience.
KPBS chose to examine the four replacement candidates who have most frequently polled near the top and have raised the most money. Here are details on those four.
Conservative radio host Larry Elder has led in most polls, likely helped by his national profile. But his right-wing politics would be a dramatic departure from the leftward trend in California.
Elder, who is Black, denies the existence of system racism. He opposes gun control, abortion rights and clings to the outdated term “illegal alien” to describe immigrants who are in the country without legal permission.
Elder also believes the minimum wage should be abolished.
Aired 8/23/21 on KPBS News
Listen to this story by Andrew Bowen.
Democratic Majority Whip Says He’s Disappointed But Not Surprised Republicans Voted To Block The Bill
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Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic Majority Whip, said on CNN that he was “disappointed but not surprised” that Republicans voted to block the sweeping voting rights bill today.
“I thought perhaps some of the;Republicans would step up and;say that this national strategy;of changing state laws and;making it more difficult was;just wrong, but they didn’t.;They stood together,” he said.
Durbin went on to criticize Republicans as “the party that is supporting voter suppression.”
“I hope they understand, as we;do, that going in history as a;party that is supporting voter;suppression is not a good place.;For many decades, the Democratic;party of the early 20th century;was that party.;I’m not proud of that moment,;and I don’t make any excuses for;it.;I don’t want to be part of it in;the future, and I hope many;Republicans feel the same,” he said.
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What You Need To Know
The Democrats voting and election bill failed to advance in the Senate after a procedural vote to open debate on the legislation was defeated by a tally of 50-50, falling short of the 60 votes needed to succeed.
Senate Democrats pitched the legislation as necessary to counter efforts by GOP-led legislatures to swiftly pass state laws that would impose restrictions on voting.;
All 50 Senate Republicans united in opposing the bill, having decried it as a partisan power grab and federal overreach into state voting and election systems.
Our live coverage has ended. Read more about today’s vote here.
List Of Registered 2024 Presidential Candidates
The following table lists candidates who filed with the FEC to run for president. Some applicants used pseudonyms; candidate names and party affiliations are written as they appeared on the FEC website on the date that they initially filed with the FEC.
Candidates who have filed for the 2024 presidential election Candidate
Also Check: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans
Democrats Are United In Support Of Cooperation With Us Allies Differ On Importance Of Us Military Superiority
Democratic registered voters overwhelmingly agree that the United States should address the interests of its allies when conducting foreign policy. This view varies little among supporters of Democratic presidential candidates.
Fully 87% of Democratic voters say the U.S. should take into the account the interests of its allies when making foreign policy decisions, even if it means making compromises with them. Few say the U.S. should follow its own national interests, even when its allies strongly disagree.
Republican and Republican-leaning voters are divided over whether the United States should follow its own national interests, even when allies disagree or address the interests of allies, even if this means compromises .
There is far less agreement among Democrats in views of whether U.S. policy should work to maintain its global military superiority. Among Democratic voters who name Warren as their first choice for the nomination, 65% say that in the future it would be acceptable if another country became as militarily powerful as the U.S.; just 31% say U.S. policies should try to maintain its position as the worlds only military superpower.
Majorities of those who support Sanders and Buttigieg also say it would be acceptable if another country became as militarily powerful as the U.S.
Republican voters, by a margin of about 4-to-1 , say U.S. policies should try to keep it that America is the only military superpower.
Recent History Isn’t As Bleak As Dems Might Think
California Primary 2020: Why independents can vote for Democrats, but not for Republicans
In 2020, national Democrats looked to Texas with hope and helped raise money for State House races they thought could be flipped to take control of the chamber in Austin. The goal was to have Democrats steering the wheel when redistricting maps were drawn in 2021.;
The Democrats didnât lose any seats, but they didnât pick up any either.;
That election came on the heels of 2018 when Texas Democrats flipped 12 seats in the State House and former congressman Beto OâRourke came within 2.5 percentage points of beating Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.;
While 2020 may have been a disappointment after 2018, the Democratsâ position needs to be put into perspective, Van Meter said.
“Texas Democrats have spent the last 20 years trying to build up infrastructure in a state where everyone believes that it’s not possible to elect a Democrat,â she said.;
More and more Democratic candidates have entered local and state races in recent years after decades of election cycles when there would often be no opposition challengers to the Republican candidates.
Democratsâ momentum in 2020 continued with increased registration and voter turnout, she said.;
âIt just so happened that so did the Republicans,â Van Meter said.
The fact that Donald Trump was on the ballot proved to be a huge motivator for Republicans who previously werenât registered to get to the polls.
Read Also: What Caused Republicans To Gain Power In Congress In 1938
Democrats’ Recall Dilemma: Should They Cast A Vote For A Candidate To Replace Gavin Newsom
For many Democrats and other opponents of the recall, question No. 1 is easy. They plan to vote ‘no’.
But what about question No. 2?
That’s a dilemma for Democrats because the best-known recall candidates are Republicans like Newsom’s 2018 opponent John Cox and conservative talk radio host Larry Elder. By not voting on question No. 2, Democratic voters risk ceding the recall election to a candidate whose views they oppose.
Elder, for instance, believes that the minimum wage should be abolished and supports former President Donald Trump. Cox courted Trump’s endorsement in 2018. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, another well-known candidate, supported Trump’s 2020 campaign.
There are 46 candidates on the recall ballot, including nine Democrats.
The California Democratic Party is urging left-leaning voters not to select anyone on the recall ballot’s second question.
“The California Democratic Party is activating voters to vote no on the Republican Recall and leave the second question blank. It’s the only way to stop Republicans who want to take California back to some very dark days,” said party spokeswoman Shery Yang.
Former Newsom spokesman, Nathan Click, reiterated Yang’s advice for Democratic voters.
“Leave it blank. Voting no is the only way to block the Republican power grab and prevent the Republican takeover of California,” Click said.
‘No on recall, yes on Bustamante’
Bustamante told his supporters to vote “no on recall, yes on Bustamante.”
Rutherford B Hayes: Campaigns And Elections
The Campaign and Election of 1876
As the favorite son of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes had much in his favor. Both regular and reform Republicans liked him. He was a war hero, had supported Radical Reconstruction legislation, and championed African American suffrage. He also came from a large swing state. His reputation for integrity was excellent, and his support of bipartisan boards of state institutions endeared him to reformers. Hayes ultimately, though, realized that his simple “availability” was his greatest strength. Distasteful to no one, he was the second choice among the supporters of the other leading candidates. Nevertheless, Hayes insisted on a united Ohio delegationand at the same time did nothing to lessen his availability.;
Moreover, the 1876 Republican convention was in Cincinnati, which teemed with Hayes supporters. “Availability” did work for Hayes. James G. Blaine, the frontrunner and the favorite of partisan Republicans, was tarnished by allegations of corruption; Oliver P. Morton, the favorite of Radicals, was in ill health; Benjamin H. Bristow, the favorite of reformers, was anathema to Grant; and Roscoe Conkling, the quintessential spoils politician, was unacceptable to reformers and to Blaine. In the end, none of these candidates could muster the votes of the majority of the convention. By the fifth ballot, Hayes had picked up votes; by the seventh, he had clinched the nomination.
The Disputed Election of 1876
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Harris: The Fight Is Not Over
Vice President Kamala Harris’ told reporters that “the fight is not over” after Republicans unanimously blocked the Democrats’ sweeping election and voting reform bill.
Harris expressed that she and President Biden intend to continue to push for voting reform, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is likely to come to the Senate floor later this year.
This what Harris told reporters after leaving the Senate floor where she presided over the vote:
“I was here today because obviously this is one of the most critical issues that the United States Congress could take up, which is about the fundamental right to vote in our country. And I think it is clear, certainly, for the American people that when we’re talking about the right to vote, it is not a Republican concern or a Democratic concern. It is an American concern. This is about the American people’s right to vote unfettered. It is about their access to the right to vote in a meaningful way. Because nobody is debating, I don’t believe, whether all Americans have the right to vote. The issue is the access to the voting process. Or is that being impeded? And the bottom line is that the President and I are very clear. We support S-1. We support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the fight is not over.”
Watch Harris’ remarks:
Cancellation Of State Caucuses Or Primaries
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The Washington Examiner reported on December 19, 2018, that the South Carolina Republican Party had not ruled out forgoing a primary contest to protect Trump from any primary challengers. Party chairman Drew McKissick stated, Considering the fact that the entire party supports the president, well end up doing whats in the presidents best interest. On January 24, another Washington Examiner report indicated that the Kansas Republican Party was likely to scrap its presidential caucus to save resources.
In August 2019, the Associated Press reported that the Nevada Republican Party was also contemplating canceling their caucuses, with the state party spokesman, Keith Schipper, saying it isnt about any kind of conspiracy theory about protecting the president; Hes going to be the nominee; This is about protecting resources to make sure that the president wins in Nevada and that Republicans up and down the ballot win in 2020.
Kansas, Nevada and South Carolinas state committees officially voted on September 7, 2019, to cancel their caucus and primary. The Arizona state Republican Party indicated two days later that it will not hold a primary. These four were joined by the Alaska state Republican party on September 21, when its central committee announced they would not hold a presidential primary.
Virginia Republicans decided to allocate delegates at the state convention.
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The 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Wild Cards
The first Democratic debate back in 2019 had 20 TWENTY! candidates, so dont be surprised if the Republican field is just as large or larger. We could have some more governors or representatives run, or even other nontraditional candidates, like a Trump family member, a Fox News host or a celebrity, like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, whos said hes seriously considering a run. Stranger things have happened.
No Party Preference Voters: Pay Attention
Registered Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and other party members, rest assured. You are guaranteed a primary ballot with all of your partys presidential contenders on it.
But voters who dont belong to a political party the fastest growing voting block in the state will have to navigate a more daunting set of obstacles to cast a presidential primary vote.
Some parties have members only policies:
The Republican Party
The Green Party
The Peace and Freedom Party
If you want to vote in one of these three primaries, youll have to join that party. You cant do it as a member of any other party, or even as a no party preference independent. No exceptions.;
The following three parties do allow political independents to cast ballots in their presidential primaries :
The Democratic Party
The Libertarian Party
The American Independent Party
But and this is an important caveat these voters do have to specifically request the ballot they want.
For those who vote in person, this is a cinch. Just go into your polling place when its time to vote and ask. But independents who vote by mail need to let your county know which ballot they want ahead of time.
Maybe you received a postcard that looks like this:
And if youve already received a ballot in the mail and were disappointed by the lack of presidential candidates, do notfill it out. You can always request a new ballot, but trying to vote twice is frowned upon .
Recommended Reading: Did Republicans And Democrats Switch Names
Counties Are Doing Things A Little Differently This Time
If you live in one of the counties highlighted below, voting might look a little different this year.
In 2016, California passed the Voter Choice Act, a law aimed at modernizing the states election system, such that:
Every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail
Voters are no longer required to go to a specific polling place, but can vote at any number of voting centers or drop-off points
Voters can cast their ballots in person beginning 11 days before, and up to and including, Election Day
In 2018, five counties rolled out the new system. This year, 10 more will join their ranks. Thats fifteen counties in all containing 49% of the state population.
This is key for no party preference voters living in these counties who may not get the ballot they want in the mail. See the previous section for details.
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Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats
Th Congress 2015 And 2016
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The 114th Congress was notable because Republicans won their largest majorities in the House and Senate in decades after voters used the midterm election in 2014 to express dissatisfaction with a Democratic president, Barack Obama. Democrats lost control of the Senate in the 2014 elections.
Said Obama after the results became clear:
“Obviously, Republicans had a good night. And they deserve credit for running good campaigns. Beyond that, I’ll leave it to all of you and the professional pundits to pick through yesterday’s results.”
White House: Democrat
House: Republicans held 246 seats, Democrats held 187 seats; there were two vacancies.
Senate: Republicans held 54 seats, Democrats held 44 seats; there were two independents, both of whom caucused with the Democrats.
Who Now Controls The Senate
Chuck Schumer became majority leader following the swearing in of Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Alex Padilla of California by Kamala Harris on January 20, 2021.
Warnock, 51, and Ossoff, 33, had won special elections earlier in the month that determined control of the Senate. 
Schumer said in his first speech as majority leader: We have a lengthy agenda, and we need to get it done together.
“This will be an exceptionally busy and consequential period for the United States Senate.”
The ceremony officially cemented a shift in power in the chamber in the wake of the US election.
There is now a 50-50 split in the Senate which means the new Vice President will be able to break any possible ties as she will have the casting vote.
The Vice President also serves as president of the Senate. 
What Is A Senate Runoff
The candidates in Georgia were forced into the January runoff contests after no candidate reached the 50 per cent threshold needed to win outright in multi-candidate races.
States require runoff elections when no candidate receives a majority of the vote.
The National Conference of State Legislatures said that the runoff system was intended “to encourage candidates to broaden their appeal to a wider range of voters, to reduce the likelihood of electing candidates who are at the ideological extremes of a party, and to produce a nominee who may be more electable in the general election.”
What Are Senate Runoff Elections And Why Do They Happen
Senate runoff elections do not happen in every state, and only 12 states abide by the runoff election system.
A runoff election happens when more than two candidates run for an office seat, and the electorates votes do not give one candidate a 50% majority. The two candidates that received the most votes in that election hold another election , where the electorate votes again to give one of those two a majority and decide a winner.
Georgia Election: Democrats On Course For Senate Control
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US election 2020
The Democratic Party of US President-elect Joe Biden is on the verge of taking control of the Senate as results come in from two elections in Georgia.
Pastor Raphael Warnock is projected to win one seat. Fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff leads narrowly in the other.
If they both win, Mr Biden will control Congress fully and have a much better chance of pushing through his agenda.
He said it was “time to turn the page. The American people demand action and they want unity”.
Th United States Congress
United States Congress
116th United States Congress January 3, 2019 January 3, 2021 Members 1st: January 3, 2019 January 3, 20202nd: January 3, 2020  January 3, 2021
The 116th United States Congress was the meeting of the 116th legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the and the House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2019, and ended on January 3, 2021, during the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Senators elected to regular terms in 2014 finished their terms in this Congress, and House seats were based on the 2010 Census.
In the November 2018 midterm elections, the Democratic Party a new majority in the House, while the Republican Party its majority in the Senate. Consequently, this was the first split Congress since the 113th Congress of 20132015, and the first Republican SenateDemocratic House split since the 99th Congress of 19851987. This Congress was the youngest incoming class by mean age in the past three cycles and the most demographically diverse ever.
As of 2021, the 116th United States Congress is the most recent Congress in which:
Republicans controlled either branch of the congress ,
Poll Shows Manchin Wildly Out Of Step With West Virginia Voters On Voting Rights Bill
A hail fellow well met
DP Veteran
A hail fellow well met
DP Veteran
roguenuke said:I think this is the most likely answer just in terms of the Senate races .The GOP seats are more likely to be in danger here than the Dem seats that are up but that doesn’t mean that there still isn’t risk, especially being so close.
A summer-long advocacy campaign to rally voters to support the For the People Act, a federal election bill.You can get involved by calling yourSenators at 888-453-3211 / and Zipcodeor any Senator??? Just get their Home Zipcode
Congressional Balance Of Power Odds
Note: The following odds are currently off the boards, but this is how they looked on Election Day 2020.
US Senate Control *
Republicans  +100
House And Senate Balance Of Power *
Democratic House, Democratic Senate +125
Democratic House, Republican Senate +175
Republican House, Republican Senate +500
Republican House, Democratic Senate +6600
*Odds from Nov. 1, 2020.
Which Party Holds The Advantage In The 2022 Senate Elections
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The 2022 Senate elections are expected to be hotly contested once again as the Democrats try to build on their majority while the GOP attempts to once again regain control. Which party holds the advantage following the 2022 US Senate elections will factor heavily on the performance of President Joe Biden.
If his policies during his first two years gain traction and are viewed favorably by voters, then the DNC will have a solid shot at retaining, or adding to, their current majority. The odds produced by the top legal election betting sites will be revealed before too long, and quite often, they reflect a more accurate election result than pundit predictions.
New York State Senate
New York State Senate Senate Chamber at New York State Capitol, Albany Website
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, the New York State Assembly being the lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. As of 2014, there are 63 seats in the Senate. The New York State Senate is the highest-paid state upper house and state senate in the country.
Who Controls The Senate 2021
THE Democrats are now officially in charge of the Senate – but only by the narrowest of margins.
That means President Joe Biden has inherited a -controlled House of Representatives and Senate.
* Read our Donald Trump impeachment live blog for the very latest news and updates on the former president…
If You Have A News Tip Wed Like To Hear From You Reach Out To Us Via One Of Ourtip Line Channels
Still, Democrats will have one chance per year to bypass Republicans altogether and try to pass major legislation. Each year the Senate can pass a budget reconciliation bill, which is exempt from the filibuster and only needs a majority to pass. In theory, these bills need to pertain to the federal budget, but that can be interpreted widely. Republicans tried to use a budget reconciliation bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, only to fail to gain 50 Republican votes.
The Georgia results give Bidens ability to tackle the climate crisis, one of his priorities, a big boost. The new Senate opens the door to raising spending, whether it relates to the federal budget or the next coronavirus aid package, on climate, resiliency, and environmental justice efforts. Theres also now a greater chance that Congress confirms Bidens environmental appointees.
But the incoming administration still faces an uphill battle in passing any new, bold climate laws, the kind needed to meet Bidens goal of dramatically cutting climate pollution from the transportation, buildings, and energy sectors in the coming decades.
Tied Senate: Who Controls A 50
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The results of the 2020 election continue to be finalized, but one possible outcome is an evenly divided Senate sometime after January 5, 2021. This raises questions regarding which party will hold the majority and who the majority leader will be, as well as whether we should anticipate a completely deadlocked Senate on every vote, among others. Here are seven things you need to know
Statement from Bipartisan Policy Center President Jason Grumet: BPCs Bipartisan Approach to a Partisan Process
Weve Had A Split Senate Before And They Mostly Figured It Out
The most recent 50-50 Senate occurred following the 2000 election. Sens. Tom Daschle and Trent Lott , then Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate respectively, formed a powersharing agreement to guide the chamber. Key features of the agreement included:
Majority Leader: Lott was recognized as the de factor majority leader following Inauguration Day, based on the tie-breaking vote of Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.
Committees would have equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats;
If a tie vote prevented a measure or nomination from being reported to the full Senate, the majority or minority leader could move to discharge the committee from further consideration; Debate on the question of discharge was limited, and therefore, a filibuster could not block it.
Debate: Cloture motions, which are used to bring debate on a measure or nomination to a close and prevent filibusters, could not be filed on any amendable item of business during the first 12 hours of debate. Scheduling and agenda: the leaders were to attempt to balance the interests of the parties in setting the Senates schedule and deciding what matters to bring up for consideration. An important caveat in the agreement noted that Senate Rules do not prohibit the right of the Democratic Leader, or any other Senator, to move to proceed to any item.
Tie Votes In The Senate Are Broken By The Vice President
A Senate split evenly between Democrats and Republicans raises the potential for tie votes. Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution states that, The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
The vice president may decline to vote on a tied matter. In recent history, the vice presidents presence in the Senate is a rare occurrence, but in an evenly divided Senate, he or she may need to break tie votes more often if the parties cannot agree. Senator Harris, the vice president elect, may not be getting far away from Capitol Hill after all.
Democrats Control House And Senate For First Time Since 2011 As Schumer Ousts Mcconnell
Mitch McConnellChuck SchumerKamala Harris
On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York took on the role of Majority Leader, taking the title away from Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as regained control of both congressional chambers for the first time since 2011.
Control of the Senate shifted over to a 50-50 party split on Wednesday as Democratic Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were both sworn in as the 49th and 50th Democratic senators, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris as the deciding vote should the chambers’ votes ever end in a tie.
Also sworn in on Wednesday was Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California. Padilla was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the vacated seat of Vice President Kamala Harris, who had previously served as a Californian senator. On Wednesday, Harris swore in Padilla, Ossoff and Warnock.
At the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention, Schumer said that Democrats would work with Biden to help him achieve his ambitious agenda.
“We will make health care affordable for all, we’ll undo the vicious inequality of income and wealth that has plagued America for far too long, and we’ll take strong, decisive action to combat climate change and save the planet,” Schumer said.
Lindsey Graham Thinks Donald Trump Will Remain Strongest Republican Voice
Newsweek contacted Schumer’s office for comment.
The Winding Road To Democratic Control
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Following an anxious four days of waiting after the 2020 general election, nearly all major news networks declared that Joe Biden had exceeded 270 electoral votes and won the presidency. Democrats also retained control of the U.S. House, although their majority has been trimmed back .
But the U.S. Senate still hung in the balance, a tantalizing prize for Democrats dreaming of a trifecta, and a bulwark against a Democratic agenda for Republicans who seek to hold onto some power under the new Biden administration that will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021.
Republicans claimed 50 Senate seats after the November election, two more than the 48 seats claimed by the Democratic Caucus at that time.
The Senates balance of power teetered on the fulcrum of Georgias two seats, both of which were decided by the January 5th runoff election. Georgia law requires candidates to be voted in with at least 50% of the votes cast; if a candidate does not reach that threshold the two candidates who received the highest number of votes face one another in a runoff election.
Georgias runoff election featured these match-ups:
Incumbent David Perdue versus Jon Ossoff .According to Georgias Secretary of State, received 88,000 more votes than , but came up just shy of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. This is in part due to the 115,000 votes that went to Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel who will not appear on the January ballot.
Republican Memo Warns Us Senate At Risk Of Falling Into Democratic Control
Memo summarizes senate races of 10 states and how the outcome of each could determine who controls the Senate
A memo by Senate Republicans campaign arm has admitted that control of the upper chamber is at risk and that Democrats could win the Senate in Novembers elections.
The September 2020 political update from the National Republican Senatorial Committee summarizes the state of the race of 10 states with Senate races around the country and how the outcome of each could factor into whether Republicans or control the chamber in January.
The memo, obtained by the Guardian, has been circulating among political operatives, donors and interested parties. It comes just shy of 50 days before the November 2020 elections.
The next few weeks will define the future of our country for generations to come, the NRSC memo reads.
Memos like these are often shaped like dispassionate updates but in actuality they are often used to convince interested parties that races slipping out of reach are still in play. They are also often used to juice donations to lagging candidates and counter trending narratives.
Democrats need to pick up three or four seats to take control of the Senate. The fact that the NRSC memo categorizes seven Senate races as ones that simply cant be lost or deserve serious attention suggests that its possible, but not certain that Democrats can take control of the Senate.
Who Will Control The Senate In 2022; Democrats Or Republicans
$1.9 trillion Covid relief legislationOn infrastructureinfrastructure RepublicansOn voting rightsFor the People ActRepublicans even filibusteredindependent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.First Read is your briefing from “Meet the Press” and the NBC Political Unit on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter.www.nbcnews.com
After President Biden signed his $1.9 trillion Covid relief legislation into law back in March, political observers were calling him a transformational president.Since then, however, there hasnt been a lot of transformation in Washington at least when it comes to Bidens legislative agenda.On infrastructure, Senate Democrats dont have 50 votes to go it alone, given Sen. Joe Manchins desire for a bipartisan deal. And there still isnt an obvious path forward to cut a bipartisan infrastructure deal with Republicans.On voting rights, Manchin said hell the For the People Act that the Senate will take up later this month.And last month, Senate Republicans even filibustereda bill to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.First Read is your briefing from “Meet the Press” and the NBC Political Unit on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter.www.nbcnews.com
UnTrueManchin is opposing his own voters.This is an understatement. THEY LOVE HR-1But on HR1, they support it far more.
Us Election 2020: Democrats’ Hopes Of Gaining Control Of Senate Fade
Democrats are rapidly losing hope of gaining control of the US Senate after underperforming in key states.
Controlling the Senate would have allowed them to either obstruct or push through the next president’s agenda.
The party had high hopes of gaining the four necessary seats in Congress’s upper chamber, but many Republican incumbents held their seats.
The Democrats are projected to retain their majority in the lower chamber, the House, but with some key losses.
With many votes still to be counted, the final outcome for both houses may not be known for some time.
Why don’t we have a winner yet?
Among the disappointments for the Democrats was the fight for the seat in Maine, where Republican incumbent Susan Collins staved off a fierce challenge from Democrat Sara Gideon.
However, the night did see a number of firsts – including the first black openly LGBTQ people ever elected to Congress and the first openly transgender state senator.
The balance of power in the Senate may also change next January. At least one run-off election is due to be held that month in Georgia, since neither candidate has been able to secure more than 50% of votes.
This year’s congressional election is running alongside the battle for the White House between Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs, 23 were Republican-held and 12 were Democrat.
Senators serve six-year terms, and every two years a third of the seats are up for re-election.
What Democrats Want To Do
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Democrats widely agree a new Covid-19 relief and response package should be their first priority. A new bill would likely be modeled on the House-passed HEROES Act, which included $75 million for testing and contact tracing, strike teams to tackle challenges around long-term care and prisons, and funding to help cash-strapped state and local governments.
Next, Democrats say they want to deal with the stagnating economy. Biden has released a $2 trillion green jobs plan, aiming to create millions of jobs through green infrastructure, retrofitting houses, and manufacturing electric cars, among other things. There are a number of ways Bidens White House can work on achieving these goals, but he needs Congress to fully realize it.
In addition to fighting and containing the coronavirus, we will work aggressively to create jobs and improve the unemployment crisis caused by President Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Vox in a statement earlier this fall.
Biden shares the broad goal of getting the United States to net-zero emissions by 2050, but hes also set more aggressive targets, like getting to 100 percent clean electricity in the US by 2035. House Democrats also passed a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill in July, which could be merged with Bidens climate plan.
Democrats will likely push for a climate component in any future infrastructure package, but Republicans may balk at that idea and push for a more targeted bill.
Diversity Of The Freshman Class
The demographics of the 116th U.S. Congress freshmen were more diverse than any previous incoming class.
At least 25 new congressional representatives were Hispanic, Native American, or people of color, and the incoming class included the first Native American women, the first Muslim women, and the two youngest women ever elected. The 116th Congress included more women elected to the House than any previous Congress.
Democrat Jon Ossoff Claims Victory Over David Perdue In Georgia Runoff
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is expected to replace GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell as majority leader and will determine which bills come to the floor for votes.
The ambitious proposals addressing climate change and health care and other domestic priorities touted by Biden and Harris will be difficult, if impossible, to advance with more moderate Democrats especially those facing competitive 2022 midterm reelection campaigns reluctant to sign onto partisan proposals. The much House Democratic majority compounds the challenge for the party.
Instead, Biden will need to consider which domestic priorities can get bipartisan support since Senate rules now require anything to get 60 votes to advance. The president-elect has already indicated that additional coronavirus relief will be his first priority, but he has also said he plans to unveil an infrastructure plan that could get support from Republicans.
In a statement Wednesday, Biden said that “Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now. On COVID-19, on economic relief, on climate, on racial justice, on voting rights and so much more. They want us to move, but move together.”
The president-elect also spoke to Democrats’ potential total control of Washington.
Why Is There An Election In Georgia
The election is being rerun because of Georgia’s rule that a candidate must take 50% of the vote in order to win.
None of the candidates in November’s general election met that threshold.
With 98% of votes counted, US TV networks and the Associated Press news agency called the first of the two races for Mr Warnock.
Control of the Senate in the first two years of Mr Biden’s term will be determined by the outcome of the second run-off.
Mr Warnock is set to become the first black senator for the state of Georgia – a slavery state in the US Civil War – and only the 11th black senator in US history.
He serves as the reverend of the Atlanta church where assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr grew up and preached.
Claiming victory, he paid tribute to his mother, Verlene, who as a teenager worked as a farm labourer.
“The other day – because this is America – the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said.
If both Democrats win, the Senate will be evenly split 50-50, allowing incoming Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote. The Democrats narrowly control the House of Representatives.
Mr Ossoff has also claimed victory in his race against Republican Senator David Perdue, but that race is even tighter. At 33, he would be the Senate’s youngest member for 40 years.
Mr Biden won at least seven million more votes than the president.
Th Congress 2001 And 2002
youtube
White House: Republican
House: Republicans held 221 seats, Democrats held 212 seats; there were two independents
Senate: Republicans held 50 seats, Democrats held 48 seats; there were two independents
*Notes: This session of the Senate began with the chamber evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. But on June 6, 2001, U.S. Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont switched from Republican to independent and began caucusing with the Democrats, giving the Democrats a one-seat advantage. Later on Oct. 25, 2002, Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul D. Wellstone died and independent Dean Barkley was appointed to fill the vacancy. On Nov. 5, 2002, Republican U.S. Sen. James Talent of Missouri replaced Democratic U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, shifting the balance back to the Republicans.
source https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-controls-the-senate-republicans-or-democrats/
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gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years
Text
Olympic Dream Dashed After Bike Crash and Nightmare Medical Bill Over $200K
It was a race in Pennsylvania that could have sent cyclist Phil Gaimon to the Tokyo Olympics; instead, a serious crash landed the Californian in two hospitals on the East Coast.
Gaimon knows accidents are, unfortunately, part of the sport. He had retired from competitive road cycling three years earlier, but a recruiting call came in spring 2019 from a coach of the USA Cycling track team.
The coach needed speed for a four-man event. At the time, Gaimon was making a name for himself, and money, by mountain racing, and he was setting records.
“It was a dream come true,” said Gaimon, 35. “A chance at a second career in racing.”
But his Olympic dreams were short-lived. In a sprint with a pack of riders at the velodrome track in eastern Pennsylvania, Gaimon sailed over his handlebars after colliding with a fellow racer. Gaimon hit the ground hard. The result: a fractured collarbone, five broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a broken scapula — his worst injuries in the 10 years he had raced on pro road teams in the United States and Europe.
An ambulance whisked him to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is part of the health system that sponsored the cycling event. Emergency doctors admitted the athlete and he underwent surgery on his collarbone. He needed surgery on his scapula, too, which he said felt “like a collapsed taco.” But that surgery would happen days later, after he was discharged from the Pennsylvania hospital and a friend helped him find a surgeon in New York.
He chronicled the whole ordeal on his social media channels, and soon he was recuperating — painfully, but successfully — back home. And then the bills came.
The Patient: Phil Gaimon, 35, a former professional cyclist, YouTuber and blogger who earns most of his income through sponsorships. He paid about $500 a month for his insurance policy with Health Net through Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange. He also had a secondary health insurance policy with USA Cycling.
Total Bills: $151,804 from Lehigh Valley Health Network, and $49,526 from the Hospital for Special Surgery. He had additional bills from various physicians. Health Net has paid approximately $27,000 to Lehigh Valley, according to Gaimon. His secondary insurance, USA Cycling, paid $25,000 to the Hospital for Special Surgery and his surgeon there.
Service Providers: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pennsylvania, part of the not-for-profit Lehigh Valley Health Network. The Hospital for Special Surgery, an academic medical center, in Manhattan.
Medical Procedure: Surgery for a fractured collarbone at Lehigh Valley Hospital and surgery for a broken scapula at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
What Gives: Gaimon collided with three health system dangers in this physically and financially painful crash: an out-of-state emergency, out-of-network care and gold-plated prices from both hospitals that treated him. Gaimon said he could sell his house and pay these bills, “but I shouldn’t have to. I have insurance.”
His situation is a scenario many patients have encountered when they need emergency care outside of their provider’s network. It’s known in medical jargon as “balance billing.” Hospitals and insurance companies without mutual contracts often don’t agree on the price of services, and the patient is left to pay the difference.
While at least 33 states have enacted laws intended to protect consumers from balance billing, many don’t apply to out-of-state patients, said Maanasa Kona, an assistant research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
For example, in Gaimon’s home state of California, state law protects enrollees of state-licensed health plans from balance billing, but their authority is limited to California doctors and hospitals.
“These state laws depend upon the state having jurisdiction over the providers involved,” Kona said. “So, nothing is going to stop out-of-state providers from sending bills and hounding the patient. It’s a major gap.”
In Gaimon’s case, the validity of the hospital charges was also questionable. Lehigh Valley Health Network is notorious for big markups on care for out-of-network patients, said Dr. Merrit Quarum, chief executive of WellRithms, which scrutinizes medical bills for self-funded employers and other clients nationwide. “There’s no rhyme or reason as to how they’re charging compared to their costs,” Quarum said.
WellRithms reviewed Gaimon’s bills in detail at the request of KHN and determined that a reasonable reimbursement for the care he received would have been $21,000. That’s $6,000 less than what Health Net had already paid.
In an email to KHN, Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesperson Brian Downs called the calculations by WellRithms “flawed,” and said it is not appropriate to use Medicare-based rates to determine medical costs because they “are not reflective of the actual cost incurred by a provider in rendering any specific medical service.” WellRithms didn’t use Medicare rates, however. It looked up the amounts Lehigh told Medicare it costs the health system to perform a wide range of services.
One reason cited by WellRithms for Gaimon’s high bill: Lehigh Valley Hospital charged him $25,915 for a night in the intensive care unit and $29,785 for a night in the burn unit, according to an explanation of benefits sent to Gaimon by Health Net in January 2020. Gaimon understood he was placed in these specialty units because of a lack of space in other parts of the hospital. But Downs, in his statement, said Gaimon needed the burn unit because of his abrasions and the ICU after his collarbone surgery.
Still, the charges are big markups compared with the costs Lehigh reports to Medicare: $13,038.82 for an ICU patient night and $18,036.92 for a burn ICU patient night, according to WellRithms.
“$25,000 a day for a charge for an ICU is absolutely ridiculous,” Quarum said.
Gaimon’s $49,526 bill from the Hospital for Special Surgery posed other patient-billing land mines.
He recalled representatives from the hospital and his insurance plan telling him he would be billed as an out-of-network patient, but they assured him he could file an appeal because of the extenuating circumstances. And he had secondary insurance offered by USA Cycling that would cover $25,000 for the shoulder surgery, which it did, according to billing records.
He expected his primary insurer, Health Net, to pay some of the cost, too.
But in an Oct. 19, 2019, letter, Health Net denied Gaimon’s appeal because he “self-referred” himself to a surgeon in New York. They also described the surgery as “outpatient” even though he spent the night at the hospital. The letter went on to say the Hospital for Special Surgery had categorized the surgery as elective.
Given his level of pain and the fact surgeons at the first hospital didn’t perform the scapula surgery during his stay, he figured there was nothing “elective” about it. “I needed this surgery and no one else could do it,” Gaimon said.
Health Net spokesperson Darrel Ng declined to comment, saying it doesn’t comment on specific member cases, even though Gaimon gave written permission for his case to be discussed.
A reasonable reimbursement for Gaimon’s out-of-network scapula surgery should have been $13,908, according to WellRithms. Historically, the hospital’s average charge for that surgery was nearly $11,000 even though it cost only $3,094 to perform in the year Gaimon had his surgery, WellRithms found in the 2019 annual cost report the hospital submitted to the federal government.
Resolution: Battling these bills became Gaimon’s full-time job as he recovered from surgery. And, almost two years after the crash, he still faces huge bills from both hospitals despite both hospitals having been paid tens of thousands of dollars through Gaimon’s insurance coverage.
After a reporter made inquiries, a representative from the Hospital for Special Surgery called Gaimon, offering to help him apply for financial assistance based on his income.
Tumblr media
In a statement, HSS spokesperson Noelle Carnevale said, “We regret Mr. Gaimon’s dispute with his insurance provider’s classification of the surgery as elective.” And she added, “We are optimistic for an easy resolution, and look forward to celebrating his continuing achievements.”
Gaimon spent months calling and writing letters to Health Net to persuade them to cover the emergency room visit and the collarbone surgery. So far, he has been unsuccessful.
Congress last December passed legislation intended to protect patients like Gaimon against unexpected bills from out-of-network providers. Starting next year, when the law takes effect, patients can be charged only up to the amount of their deductible or copayment when receiving emergency care at any hospital.
The Takeaway: The federal protections against unforeseen medical bills for emergency care kick in Jan. 1, 2022. So, if you travel out of state this year, you should be aware that many state-based insurance plans might not cover you fully or at all in another state.
If you’re in possession of a surprise or balance bill for out-of-state emergency care, contact your health insurance plan and make sure representatives understand it was an emergency. Call the hospital and ask about financial assistance or charity care.
And be aware that the new federal law doesn’t cover everything. Should you be taken to the hospital by a ground ambulance service that’s not in your insurance plan’s network, for example, you could still be on the hook for a large bill.
“There will always be some surprises, because the hospital or the doctors are going to find a way to get you uncovered by the law,” said Gerard Anderson, director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s always a game of whack-a-mole.”
Stephanie O’Neill contributed the audio profile with this report.
Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
USE OUR CONTENT
This story can be republished for free (details).
Olympic Dream Dashed After Bike Crash and Nightmare Medical Bill Over $200K published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/
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stephenmccull · 3 years
Text
Olympic Dream Dashed After Bike Crash and Nightmare Medical Bill Over $200K
It was a race in Pennsylvania that could have sent cyclist Phil Gaimon to the Tokyo Olympics; instead, a serious crash landed the Californian in two hospitals on the East Coast.
Gaimon knows accidents are, unfortunately, part of the sport. He had retired from competitive road cycling three years earlier, but a recruiting call came in spring 2019 from a coach of the USA Cycling track team.
The coach needed speed for a four-man event. At the time, Gaimon was making a name for himself, and money, by mountain racing, and he was setting records.
“It was a dream come true,” said Gaimon, 35. “A chance at a second career in racing.”
But his Olympic dreams were short-lived. In a sprint with a pack of riders at the velodrome track in eastern Pennsylvania, Gaimon sailed over his handlebars after colliding with a fellow racer. Gaimon hit the ground hard. The result: a fractured collarbone, five broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a broken scapula — his worst injuries in the 10 years he had raced on pro road teams in the United States and Europe.
An ambulance whisked him to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is part of the health system that sponsored the cycling event. Emergency doctors admitted the athlete and he underwent surgery on his collarbone. He needed surgery on his scapula, too, which he said felt “like a collapsed taco.” But that surgery would happen days later, after he was discharged from the Pennsylvania hospital and a friend helped him find a surgeon in New York.
He chronicled the whole ordeal on his social media channels, and soon he was recuperating — painfully, but successfully — back home. And then the bills came.
The Patient: Phil Gaimon, 35, a former professional cyclist, YouTuber and blogger who earns most of his income through sponsorships. He paid about $500 a month for his insurance policy with Health Net through Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange. He also had a secondary health insurance policy with USA Cycling.
Total Bills: $151,804 from Lehigh Valley Health Network, and $49,526 from the Hospital for Special Surgery. He had additional bills from various physicians. Health Net has paid approximately $27,000 to Lehigh Valley, according to Gaimon. His secondary insurance, USA Cycling, paid $25,000 to the Hospital for Special Surgery and his surgeon there.
Service Providers: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pennsylvania, part of the not-for-profit Lehigh Valley Health Network. The Hospital for Special Surgery, an academic medical center, in Manhattan.
Medical Procedure: Surgery for a fractured collarbone at Lehigh Valley Hospital and surgery for a broken scapula at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
What Gives: Gaimon collided with three health system dangers in this physically and financially painful crash: an out-of-state emergency, out-of-network care and gold-plated prices from both hospitals that treated him. Gaimon said he could sell his house and pay these bills, “but I shouldn’t have to. I have insurance.”
His situation is a scenario many patients have encountered when they need emergency care outside of their provider’s network. It’s known in medical jargon as “balance billing.” Hospitals and insurance companies without mutual contracts often don’t agree on the price of services, and the patient is left to pay the difference.
While at least 33 states have enacted laws intended to protect consumers from balance billing, many don’t apply to out-of-state patients, said Maanasa Kona, an assistant research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
For example, in Gaimon’s home state of California, state law protects enrollees of state-licensed health plans from balance billing, but their authority is limited to California doctors and hospitals.
“These state laws depend upon the state having jurisdiction over the providers involved,” Kona said. “So, nothing is going to stop out-of-state providers from sending bills and hounding the patient. It’s a major gap.”
In Gaimon’s case, the validity of the hospital charges was also questionable. Lehigh Valley Health Network is notorious for big markups on care for out-of-network patients, said Dr. Merrit Quarum, chief executive of WellRithms, which scrutinizes medical bills for self-funded employers and other clients nationwide. “There’s no rhyme or reason as to how they’re charging compared to their costs,” Quarum said.
WellRithms reviewed Gaimon’s bills in detail at the request of KHN and determined that a reasonable reimbursement for the care he received would have been $21,000. That’s $6,000 less than what Health Net had already paid.
In an email to KHN, Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesperson Brian Downs called the calculations by WellRithms “flawed,” and said it is not appropriate to use Medicare-based rates to determine medical costs because they “are not reflective of the actual cost incurred by a provider in rendering any specific medical service.” WellRithms didn’t use Medicare rates, however. It looked up the amounts Lehigh told Medicare it costs the health system to perform a wide range of services.
One reason cited by WellRithms for Gaimon’s high bill: Lehigh Valley Hospital charged him $25,915 for a night in the intensive care unit and $29,785 for a night in the burn unit, according to an explanation of benefits sent to Gaimon by Health Net in January 2020. Gaimon understood he was placed in these specialty units because of a lack of space in other parts of the hospital. But Downs, in his statement, said Gaimon needed the burn unit because of his abrasions and the ICU after his collarbone surgery.
Still, the charges are big markups compared with the costs Lehigh reports to Medicare: $13,038.82 for an ICU patient night and $18,036.92 for a burn ICU patient night, according to WellRithms.
“$25,000 a day for a charge for an ICU is absolutely ridiculous,” Quarum said.
Gaimon’s $49,526 bill from the Hospital for Special Surgery posed other patient-billing land mines.
He recalled representatives from the hospital and his insurance plan telling him he would be billed as an out-of-network patient, but they assured him he could file an appeal because of the extenuating circumstances. And he had secondary insurance offered by USA Cycling that would cover $25,000 for the shoulder surgery, which it did, according to billing records.
He expected his primary insurer, Health Net, to pay some of the cost, too.
But in an Oct. 19, 2019, letter, Health Net denied Gaimon’s appeal because he “self-referred” himself to a surgeon in New York. They also described the surgery as “outpatient” even though he spent the night at the hospital. The letter went on to say the Hospital for Special Surgery had categorized the surgery as elective.
Given his level of pain and the fact surgeons at the first hospital didn’t perform the scapula surgery during his stay, he figured there was nothing “elective” about it. “I needed this surgery and no one else could do it,” Gaimon said.
Health Net spokesperson Darrel Ng declined to comment, saying it doesn’t comment on specific member cases, even though Gaimon gave written permission for his case to be discussed.
A reasonable reimbursement for Gaimon’s out-of-network scapula surgery should have been $13,908, according to WellRithms. Historically, the hospital’s average charge for that surgery was nearly $11,000 even though it cost only $3,094 to perform in the year Gaimon had his surgery, WellRithms found in the 2019 annual cost report the hospital submitted to the federal government.
Resolution: Battling these bills became Gaimon’s full-time job as he recovered from surgery. And, almost two years after the crash, he still faces huge bills from both hospitals despite both hospitals having been paid tens of thousands of dollars through Gaimon’s insurance coverage.
After a reporter made inquiries, a representative from the Hospital for Special Surgery called Gaimon, offering to help him apply for financial assistance based on his income.
Tumblr media
In a statement, HSS spokesperson Noelle Carnevale said, “We regret Mr. Gaimon’s dispute with his insurance provider’s classification of the surgery as elective.” And she added, “We are optimistic for an easy resolution, and look forward to celebrating his continuing achievements.”
Gaimon spent months calling and writing letters to Health Net to persuade them to cover the emergency room visit and the collarbone surgery. So far, he has been unsuccessful.
Congress last December passed legislation intended to protect patients like Gaimon against unexpected bills from out-of-network providers. Starting next year, when the law takes effect, patients can be charged only up to the amount of their deductible or copayment when receiving emergency care at any hospital.
The Takeaway: The federal protections against unforeseen medical bills for emergency care kick in Jan. 1, 2022. So, if you travel out of state this year, you should be aware that many state-based insurance plans might not cover you fully or at all in another state.
If you’re in possession of a surprise or balance bill for out-of-state emergency care, contact your health insurance plan and make sure representatives understand it was an emergency. Call the hospital and ask about financial assistance or charity care.
And be aware that the new federal law doesn’t cover everything. Should you be taken to the hospital by a ground ambulance service that’s not in your insurance plan’s network, for example, you could still be on the hook for a large bill.
“There will always be some surprises, because the hospital or the doctors are going to find a way to get you uncovered by the law,” said Gerard Anderson, director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s always a game of whack-a-mole.”
Stephanie O’Neill contributed the audio profile with this report.
Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
USE OUR CONTENT
This story can be republished for free (details).
Olympic Dream Dashed After Bike Crash and Nightmare Medical Bill Over $200K published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/
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orbemnews · 3 years
Link
5 takeaways from Joe Biden's address to Congress Coming later than usual, on the eve of his 100th day in office, Biden delivered his speech amid swirling health and economic crises he has spent his term combating. But his message went beyond simply ridding the country of coronavirus or getting Americans back to work. In Biden’s telling, the results of those efforts could determine whether American Democracy survives at all: a live-or-die proposition that escalated his calls for trillions of dollars in new spending into an existential question for his audience of lawmakers. A long wait ended — and Biden wants to move fast For more than 40 years — and after two failed presidential bids — Biden watched as the House Sergeant at Arms announced another president into the House chamber for speeches to Congress. He sat dutifully behind President Barack Obama for eight years, bantering with a succession of House speakers in the spot reserved for the number two. On Wednesday, it was Biden’s name in lights on the marquee — a testament to an extraordinary degree of political patience that few politicians can rival. “It’s good to be back,” he declared as he opened his remarks. Yet if anything, Biden’s speech reflected a distinct impatience, now that he is in office, to wait long to see his agenda passed. He made no apologies for passing a $1.9 trillion stimulus without Republican support in the first weeks of his presidency, insisted it was urgently needed. And he urged lawmakers to rapidly take up the next bills, declaring it a matter of imminent national consequence. “America is moving — moving forward. And we can’t stop now,” Biden said. “We’re in a great inflection point in history. We have to do more than just build back. We have to build back better.” “I’d like to meet with those who have ideas that are different. We welcome ideas,” he said later, addressing his willingness to work with Republicans. “But the rest of the world isn’t waiting for us. I just want to be clear: from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option.” Biden and his advisers recognize his window for accomplishing major things is narrow. In fact, he called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act by the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death next month. Biden called on Congress to come together, pointing to the ongoing discussions between Democrats and Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the GOP pick to respond to Biden’s address. The pandemic has heightened Americans’ desire for government aid. And like most presidents he is enjoying a post-inauguration polling honeymoon. But largely because of the vaccination effort Biden has overseen, the pandemic is waning. And any number of summertime troubles — a continued surge of migrants, unrest around policing, high gas prices — could see his popularity wane. And that is before the congressional election cycle begins in earnest, when Republicans will likely be even less willing to cooperate. Historical patterns aren’t kind to first-term presidents at their first midterms. Biden, who has been waiting decades to make the speech he delivered Wednesday, made clear he could not wait while the moment slipped past. Biden argues big government is better government If there was one argument animating Biden’s speech — and his entire presidency to date — is that more government, when working right, can improve Americans’ lives. It’s a simple proposition that bucks a decades-long trend in both parties toward a smaller, less interventionist Washington. “We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works — and can deliver for the people,” Biden said in his speech, referencing items he said proved government’s worth: the vaccination campaign and job creation initiatives. It’s a distant cry from President Bill Clinton’s declaration in his 1996 State of the Union that “the era of big government is over.” Speaking from the same podium 25 years later, Biden seemed to argue the exact opposite: that now is the time for big government to return — and with it the chance to prove that it’s still working. Referencing scientific investments like developing the Covid-19 vaccine, Biden said, “These are the investments we make together, as one country, and that only government’s in a position to make.” The theme isn’t new for Biden. But never before has it been more clearly distilled than when he laid out his legislative accomplishments so far, and the plans he still hopes to pass. In total, Biden is pressing for almost $6 trillion in new spending — including the $1.8 trillion plan he proposed Wednesday shoring up education, child care and paid family leave — a massive bet on government’s ability to solve the most intractable problems. Biden has on his side a generational health crisis and its incumbent economic meltdown that have altered Americans’ views of what their government can do for them. But he’s also benefited from shifting views on longer-term issues like climate change and criminal justice reform, which will require government intervention to produce the types of results more Americans are asking for. Polls, including a CNN survey conducted by SSRS, show a majority of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance at this stage in his presidency. But they also show some appetite for Biden’s expansive view of government. An NBC News poll found 55% of Americans said government “should do more to solve problems” compared to 41% who said it’s doing too much. Covid is impossible to ignore There was little question the coronavirus pandemic would occupy a major part of Biden’s speech. It’s the single greatest challenge he faces and the issue he and his advisers believe will make or break his presidency. But even had Biden said nothing about the pandemic, the scenery on Wednesday provided a constant reminder of the ongoing crisis. Gone was the familiar packed-in crowd of lawmakers. There were no guests to point to in the first lady’s box. And the two women sitting behind Biden were both wearing masks. The contrast with past years felt strange. The many empty seats caused the usual din of applause to feel more like the polite clapping at small theater, with individual lawmakers’ murmurs and clapping able to be heard during the traditional entrances before the speech. Biden’s message was one of distinct optimism about the trajectory of the pandemic, hoping to provide a high-profile boost in the national spirit after a year of lockdowns and tragedy. “Our progress these past 100 days against one of the worst pandemics in history is one of the greatest logistical achievements our country has ever seen,” he said. But his remarks also laid bare the lingering concerns within the administration about Americans who aren’t rushing to get vaccinated. In a worst case scenario, administration health officials fear the country won’t be able to achieve widespread immunity if enough people decide not to get a shot. Whether Biden’s entreaties on Wednesday make any difference remain to be seen. He’s been encouraging eligible populations to get vaccinated for months. And even he has acknowledged the still-hesitant groups aren’t likely to listen to him. “Go get vaccinated,” he pleaded from the podium. “They’re available now.” Symbolism on display Addresses to Congress are about more than just the address. What is usually the most-watched televised speech of the year is also laden with visual symbols, no more so than this year. If the most glaring symbol was the pandemic-altered room, the most historic was the tableau behind Biden: for the first time, two women were seated in the spots reserved for the vice president and House speaker. “Madame Speaker. Madame Vice President. No president has ever said those words from this podium — no president has ever said those words — and it’s about time,” Biden said at the start of his address. Later, Biden gave Harris a new assignment: overseeing his proposed expansion of broadband internet. Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, both Californians from the Bay Area, are not strangers to one another. And there was little question the historic weight of the moment wasn’t lost on either of them. “To have two women behind him as he speaks is cause for a lot of excitement,” Pelosi said ahead of the address. “I’ve been getting calls from — globally — about that they can’t wait to see.” The sparsely-filled House chamber also served to illustrate the fresh memory of the January 6 riot, where would-be insurrectionists sought to prevent Biden from becoming president. Fallout from the moment still lingers as enhanced security surrounds the Capitol. In his speech, Biden made reference to the event. “As we gather here tonight, the images of a violent mob assaulting this Capitol — desecrating our democracy — remain vivid in our minds. Lives were put at risk. Lives were lost. Extraordinary courage was summoned,” Biden said. “The insurrection was an existential crisis — a test of whether our democracy could survive. It did.” A case to the world Biden’s primary focus in his early days — and his primary audience for Wednesday’s address — is Americans. But he has made no secret that his efforts at home are also meant to signal to the world — and specifically to China — that perceptions of the United States’ decline are mistaken. On Wednesday, China was the consistent subtext — and at moments it wasn’t so subtle — of his speech. He named President Xi Jinping three times; speaking off-script about his Chinese counterpart, Biden said, “He’s deadly earnest about becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world.” Biden has framed his entire agenda as a battle between democracy and autocracy. And he believes passing major pieces of legislation are signals to the world that democracy will win out. “The autocrats will not win the future,” Biden said as he concluded his speech. “America will.” Foreign policy is usually a secondary topic in any State of the Union — “It’s never as much foreign policy as the foreign policy team wants,” Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said this week — and Wednesday wasn’t an exception. He referenced his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, competition with China, the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and relations with Russia. But even if national security wasn’t at the heart of the speech, Biden would likely argue it was there in more existential form. “In my conversations with world leaders, and I’ve spoken to over 38, 40 of them now, I’ve made it known — I’ve made it known that America is back,” he said. “And you know what they say? The comment I hear most of all from them is they say, ‘We see America’s back, but for how long? But for how long?’ “ “My fellow Americans,” Biden went on, “we have to show not just that we’re back but that we’re back to stay.” Source link Orbem News #address #Bidens #Congress #Joe #Takeaways
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