Make The Call, Bernie

News item:

An Electoral College voter from Washington state told the Associated Press on Friday that he would not vote for Hillary Clinton under any circumstances, even if, as is firmly expected, Clinton wins his state’s popular vote. 

The elector, Robert Satiacum, is a Native American who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic Primary and told the AP that Clinton is a “criminal” who hasn’t done enough on Native American issues. 

“She will not get my vote. Period,” Satiacum said in a phone interview with the news service.

"Criminal?" Get on the phone, Sen. Sanders, and straighten out this seriously misinformed supporter to do the right thing, not the purity thing.  Every vote -- most importantly, every electoral college vote -- counts.

As Louis C.K., said, "If you vote for Hillary, you're a grown up, if you vote for Trump, you're a sucker, if you don't vote for anybody, you're an asshole."  That goes double for electors.

Today's Cartoons - It's Not Just Trump!

(click on images to enlarge)

 (Jim Morin, Miami Herald)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

It bears repeating:  it's not just Trump; it's the racist, nativist, low information, neo- fascist right wing Republican base that's fueling this un- American ugliness.  And every Republican candidate will cater to this, to one degree or another, out of conviction, cynicism, desperation, or all of the above.

Budget Deficit Shrinking, Public Blissfully Ignorant

More information that will likely never penetrate the noodles of "average Americans" (thanks, "mainstream media"!):

The budget deficit for 2015 is expected to drop to roughly $425 billion, according to a report released Friday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

That’s down from the $486 billion the CBO projected in March.

If it drops to $425 billion by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it would be a seven-year low for the government’s annual budget shortfalls.  (our emphasis)

We would also note the utter lack of awareness of this trend (as noted by Steve Benen at MaddowBlog):

... The vast majority of Americans are absolutely certain -- thanks to deceptive Republican rhetoric and unfortunate news coverage -- that the deficit has soared in the Obama era. Late last year, a Bloomberg Politics Poll found that 73% of the public believes the deficit has gotten bigger over the last six years.

We expect Republicans to be running around, hair on fire, at every opportunity ludicrously screaming that the Obama administration is a "disaster" ("death panels!", Benghazi!!!, etc. ad nauseam).  We expect the right-wing media to provide a megaphone for their dishonesty.  Now we also expect the corporate "mainstream media" to continue either echoing Republican talking points or burying the "good news" stories somewhere where no one can be expected to look.  That's because the narrative can never be "This African-American Democratic President succeeded in bringing us back from the brink of economic collapse to economic recovery, while shrinking the deficit, while expanding affordable health care, while extracting us from Dumbya's wars."  No.  It must always be, "Yes, but he hasn't done enough (compromising/ schmoozing/ cutting/ etc.)."

Meanwhile, for the Beltway deficit hawks (=cough= Washington Post editorial board =cough=), there will be no credit given, nor any cessation in their demands for utterly wrong-headed "Grand Bargain "- style austerity to address a non-problem.  Go figure.

Clueless: A Tragi-Comedy In Two Scenes

Here are two prime examples of why we can't have nice things in this country (with editorial asides). First, regarding Donald "Rump" Trump supporters:

Bloomberg Politics' John Heilemann sat down Wednesday night with a focus group of 12 Trump supporters in the Granite State who riffed on why they thought the billionaire was the best candidate in a crowded GOP presidential field.

“He's like one of us," Janet, a former dog breeder, explained. "He may be a millionaire (sic), which separates him from everybody else. But besides the money issue, he's still in tune with what everybody is wanting.” [Ed.:  Yes, aside from his TEN BILLION DOLLARS, he's a man of the people!]

Many also cited Trump's vast wealth in identifying with him.

"I knew that he was a wealthy, successful man and I remember asking my mother if I could write him a letter to ask him how he made his money so that I could do it too," Jessica, a data analyst, said.  [Ed.:  He inherited it from his daddy. And he filed for bankruptcy 4 times.  A regular Horatio Alger success story.]

Heilemann further asked the focus group what they believed a Trump presidency would look like.

“Classy,” Cheryl, a real estate agent, answered confidently. [Ed.:  (head hitting desk top)]

Then there were these folks at an African American church in Manning, South Carolina, following a "sermon" by Preacher Mike "Huckster" Huckabee:

There were signs in Manning that Huckabee, at a minimum, will find a friendly audience. After the former governor led a prayer for Tricia Bouttry, a black congregant who is battling breast cancer, she said, “I didn’t know anything about him, but his speech was so uplifting and his prayer was so heartfelt, I cried.  [Ed.: Maybe you should find out more about him.]

“I’m a Democrat, but he would have my vote,” said Bouttry, 51, a mental health worker. “I want somebody who’s spiritual in the White House — a pastor that knows the word as president.”   [Ed.:  "The Christian Republic of America, Mike Huckabee, Pastor- in- Chief"]  [snip]

Huckabee preached in Manning at the invitation of Pastor Leon Winn, an active Republican who last year ran unsuccessfully against Rep. James E. Clyburn (D).  [snip]

When the service concluded, Nathaniel Pugh, 55, a black man who works as a heavy-equipment operator, greeted Huckabee and posed for a picture with him.

“I’m a Democrat, but I might cross the line to vote for him,” Pugh said afterward. “We can talk till we’re blue in the face, but until our hearts get right, there still will be racism. For Governor Huckabee to come into our little town and talk about this, that’s huge. He got my attention.”   [Ed.:  You're a discerning man, Mr. Pugh, to have identified Huckster as someone who's heart is in the right place.  Mmmhmm.]

As long as low-information, distracted, and (o.k. we'll go there) downright stupid voters like this can be swayed by demagogues like Rump,  Huckster, and the rest of the Republican field, we will suffer as a nation.  Sic transit gloria, America.

UPDATE:  Huckster goes full Juan Peron.

Today's Cartoon - Low Information Nation

Sorry...  we're still in the "anger" stage.

(click to enlarge)

(Jen Sorensen, www.jensorensen.com)

BONUS:  And then there's Andy Borowitz' "Country On Wrong Track, Say People Who Did Not Vote."

You Blocks, You Stones, You Worse Than Senseless Things

The Campaign for America's Future has a look at some pretty counter-intuitive results from a recent Washington Post- ABC News poll, in which 71% believe the economy is rigged.  OK so far.  But based on other polling, it seems the public is inclined to trust the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid party to fix it!  [Ten minutes of stunned silence.]  As far as the "why?!" we can only subscribe to what Charles P. Pierce said:

...[T]he country doesn't have the analytical skills god gave a stone, that's why. And they have been badly led. And they have been heavily -- and effectively -- propagandized.

Of course, if we had a Democratic Party that could sustain a message for more than 2 minutes, when it's not in a defensive crouch, that would be helpful.

BONUS:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has a good read on how dumbing down political reporting leads to a dumbed down electorate.

(Headline courtesy of W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene I.)

Are Self-Inflicted Wounds Covered By Obamacare?

Now that Obamacare is up and... well, limping, we see the right-wing media pulling out all the stops to develop a narrative based on testimonials from "real 'murricans" suffering harm from expanded access to health insurance ("real 'murricans" being Fox "News" viewers who don't know s**t from Shinola):

Strangely, the recent shutdown was based almost entirely on a small percentage of Congress’s belief that Obamacare, as Ted Cruz puts it, “is destroying America.”  Cruz has rarely given us an example of what he’s talking about.  That’s because the best he can do is what Hannity did—exploit people’s ignorance and falsely point to imaginary boogeymen.

The Salon piece does a good job of debunking the stories (literally) being told by these low-information shills.  C and L also did a little checking on a story being told on the Huckleberry Huckabee show:

Ashley Dionne, a recent guest on Mike Huckabee's show, claimed that her insurance premiums would jump from $75 per month to $319 per month for her family. She proclaimed the act to be the "Unaffordable Care Act" and went even further, claiming her future and that of her children had been 'raped.'

Unfortunately, someone forgot to mention to Ashley that her premiums were offset with subsidies, so she would really pay $223 per YEAR as well as receiving assistance with copayments. Oops.

Of course, should one confront these people with something called "The Facts," their tiny, prejudiced heads might explode (something probably not covered by Obamacare). Or as Digby puts it:

Honestly, if these people are such ideologues that they haven't even checked if they will benefit from the reforms before complaining about them on national television then fuck them. They can pay full market price and help subsidize the rest of us.

Amen.

Your Low-Information Voter Update

From today's Kaplan Daily (a.k.a., "The Once-Great Washington Post"), a look at your average "undecided voter" (who voted for McCain/Palin in 2008). Some sample quotes:

On Clint "Deadwood" Eastwood's soliloquy with a chair:

“That was funny, nice, airy,” she said. “Clint was telling us that we own the country — and we can change it.”

On Willard "One Percent" Romney:

“I thoroughly enjoyed that speech,” she said at the end. “It humanized him a little. I feel like I know him a little bit. He had his five points. I still need to see something more on his plan on health — there’s gotta be something affordable for those people like my daughter. But I think if Romney does this well in the debates, I might be leaning his way.”

Irony alert: The article is occasionally interrupted when the "undecided voter" has to attend to a possible fox raiding the chicken coop in her backyard. Willard's "plan on health," indeed.

Sic transit gloria, America.

Picture of the Day

Jim "Jimmy Boob" Wilson, a rabid fan of weird humanoid replica Willard "One Percenter" Romney, was driving his GM pickup festooned with Romney signs on the Pennsylvania Turnpike when his truck caught on fire. No one was hurt (Jimmy Boob took the photo above) and there was no immediate explanation for the fire (was Jimmy Boob drinking grain alcohol and chain smoking, or just lighting his wind?). Low information rubes like Jimmy Boob have no clue that the elitist Rethugs and their tycoon backers aren't his friends, and would ship his job (if he has one) overseas if it profited them, and foreclose on his house (if he has one) in a nanosecond.

The Informed Rethug Voter

As a new Pew Research poll indicates, the average Rethug voter has no clue about the candidates that they're voting on.

Only 53% know that plutocrat company demolisher and human weather vane Willard "Mittens" Romney served as Governor of Massachusetts (score one for Mittens), and only 45% know that South Carolina is the next primary state, despite massive coverage of the Rethug primaries. And you wonder why they vote against their own interests.....

(image: "Kin we vote fer Reagan agin?")

Your Rethug Bumper Sticker: "Don't Confuse Us With The Facts!"

"Our team wants someone authentic, creative, fresh, bold and likeable. And we don’t have much tolerance for too many facts or too much information. In politics, a bumper sticker always beats an essay." (emphasis added) -- Rethug strategist "Mr." Ed Rogers, in an uncharacteristic fit of honesty in yesterday's Kaplan Daily. When their own strategists tell you their base is fact- and information-averse, what does that say about the New Confederate/ Kook/ Rethug Party and their lowest common denominator politics?

Fighting Teh Stoopid

Today's WaPo gives us this depressing piece by Eli Saslow, "In Flag City USA, False Obama Rumors Are Flying." Jim Peterman, of Findlay, Ohio, is wondering for whom to cast his vote. He's seen the Obama ads, but he's also heard from his neighbors, like Leroy "Missing Link" Pollard who tells him Obama is a radical Muslim from Africa who's going to "bring his family over here, illegally." So, Mr. Peterman wonders about Obama:

"I haven't read his books or studied up more than a little bit. But it's hard to ignore what you hear when everybody you know is saying it. These are good people, smart people, so can they really all be wrong?"

Um, duh, lemme take my shoes off here so I can count my...oh, I guess I don't need to do that to give you an answer: YES! YES! THEY'RE ALL WRONG. And, by the way, THEY'RE NOT SMART PEOPLE (and probably not as good people as you think, either)!!!

For God's sake, is this the state of the American electorate, or is it just that all the simpletons have moved to Findlay, Ohio?

(Image: Your average (?) voter in Findlay, Ohio.)

Low-Information Voter Primary

(Pictured here are candidates "Mr. 'Moran'", Jethro Bodine, Cletus Spuckler)



Cast your vote now for your favorite low-information voter (you know, the one who thinks the country is moving in the wrong direction and is voting for McBush, or thinks Obama = Osama = Muslim, or --in short-- someone to whom the following would apply: "If you're not completely appalled, you're not paying attention"). Vote early and often!