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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
You know if Republicans wanted to give themselves another advantage, they should find a way to give Las Vegas to California. It'd give California a bigger share of the electoral vote but it'd give Republicans a bigger boost.
Maybe they could ask California to take Las Vegas if they secede.
edited 27th Feb '17 12:11:03 AM by MadSkillz
@Ambar Yes. Most Democrats are owned by Wall Street same as Republicans.
Many companies frequently give money to both sides so no matter who wins, the elites stay in their good graces.
Companies show preference to Republicans but Microsoft, Time Warner, Comcast and Goldman Sachs seem to prefer liberal candidates.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University:
For decades, Wall Street gave more to Republicans than Democrats.It's only until 2010 that Wall Street started giving a little more to Republicans than Democrats. This is from 2011 so I don't know if it's turned again.
Heart and soul the Republicans represent the 1% and occasionally form coalitions with social reactionaries who are so driven by so much fear and self-loathing they will disregard the economic dimension of their lives - see What's the Matter With Kansas? - and empower the 1% further if they agree to crush their Culture War enemies. Those social reactionaries are the useful idiots for the Republican Party of the 1%. Ironically the 1% tend to rarely actually deliver on their promises to the reactionaries (abortion... still legal).
But if the Republicans represent the 1% and occasionally a few self-hating 99ers... who do the Democrats represent? When it comes to issues of finance (which is increasingly more issues) the Democratic Party is the Party of Wall Street.
Wall Street generally gives more money to Democrats. Only until recently, and by recently I mean very recently has this trend started to turn - it took a major financial crisis, from ABC News:
Because the Democratic Party:
1. Was happy to have the money and once taking it would become reliant on it.
and
2. The Democratic Party is supposed to be looking out for the 99%, bribe the Cop on the beat and you can get away with murder. And oh how Wall Street has. ZERO PROSECUTIONS. Eric Holder might as well work for the SEC he's been so ineffective at laying a glove on rampant fraud on Wall Street.
But the Democratic Party did more than simply take the bribe, they were Wall Street's chief advocates in DC. Particularly during the Clinton Administration. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a major cause of the financial crisis was signed by Bill Clinton after having been lobbied for by Robert Rubin, Clinton's Treasury Secretary and like Jon Corzine a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and later Chairman of Citigroup as it was bailed out by the Federal government.
Here
More at the link of how it's owned by Wall Street.
This is what I was talking about earlier when I heavily implied there's rot in the Democratic Party that needs fixing.
It's still leaps and bounds above the Republican Party, sure.
edited 27th Feb '17 12:37:02 AM by MadSkillz
Hillary got so many votes in Texas at least in part because a lot of people here were truly turned off by Trump. I was very much expecting that Trump would win this state anyway, but it ended up being closer than I thought it would. It's not necessarily indicative of a larger trend, considering that Trump is a very polarizing figure. And remember, Texas like forty seven other states apportions EC votes by the winner takes all principal. This means our liberal urban areas are outvoted by the rural areas.
We're not likely to see a landslide of Democratism in the next few elections, but all in all I think it's worth the DNC's time to pursue the ground here. There is a place for it in this state, and with things like Wendy Davis having happened there is support to be found here.
This is, of course, just one Texan's opinion, and a lazy Texan at that.
Blue dogs do make it harder to fight the perception down here that the parties are functionally identical.
I mean, if I go to look at the democratic candidates and find out they don't think I'm people, then I'm not exactly going to feel a strong desire to give them governmental power.
That actually happened in the first year I was able to vote in an election. The candidates held, for the most part, the same views, which meant that no matter who I voted for the best I could hope for as a queer person was neglect and apathy.
It makes it hard for me to defend the differences between the two parties, both because of the dilution of their political stances and because it just makes me sad and tired.
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's acceptance speech:
"I'm sorry I'm not with you tonight. My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of the other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. Dividing the world into the 'us' and our 'enemies' categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression. Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. They create empathy between us and others, an empathy which we need today more than ever."
(mic drop)
A big part of that is how incredibly incompetent said executive order was in implementation. He's done one big thing since he got in, and he screwed it up so badly that the tourism industry took a huge hit.
Granted, that's nothing new to him. All the businesses around Mar-A-Lago are in huge trouble because the security for Trump means that no one can get to them on weekends. The businesses in Trunp Tower are having problems too.
For a president who campaigned on bringing jobs back, he's flat out awful at maintaining jobs that already exist and that actually benefit his own businesses.
Yes, that one E.O. was just the perfect Establishing Character Moment for what we should expect (dread) in this administration. Malice and incompetence in abundance.
If the tone and dance don't change this will be the summation of Trump's presidency.
We didn't think this through: the presidency.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Either that, or It seemed like a good idea at the time: the presidency.
edited 27th Feb '17 6:18:17 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedClash in Sacramento over state versus local control for housing development
.
Noting this here because I wanted to discuss a theory that the housing crisis in Cali is people to red states, thus augmenting their political weight in the House and electoral college.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman![]()
I think of it as more Devil in Plain Sight / Poor Communication Kills: The Election and
Do Not Go Gentle: The Presidency
Does that inclusionary housing include requirements to build multi-family homes? And is local government actually the problem of the NIMBY/ "But my Housing values" kind or is it applying more of the environmental/historical preservation instinct?
![]()
A book about this whole debacle:
2016-202X — the Disaster Years
- Devil in Plain Sight: The Candidate
- Divided We Fall: The Primaries
- From Bad to Worse: The Campaign
- Darkest Hour: The Election
- After the End: The Lame Duck Months
- Day of the Jackboot: The Inauguration
- Epic Fail: The Presidency
edited 27th Feb '17 7:21:15 AM by CrimsonZephyr
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
La Résistance, We ARE Struggling Together, etc.
edited 27th Feb '17 7:26:43 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised![]()
That's Do Not Go Gentle.
Though, I'm near convinced that Silas has the right theory: The gods have given up on humanity and we're all really in purgatory paying for the Sins of Our Fathers, while the gods watch the Earth burn from Mt. Olympus.
edited 27th Feb '17 7:36:42 AM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives![]()
If I weren't an atheist, I'd just think it's a case of Jerkass Gods screwing with us for no better reason than their amusement.
Or maybe you need to talk a bit more about things that can improve the world - such as the topic I brought up - and less about irrelevancies such as the latest escapades.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Year 2014
Majority-minority states + DC:
Hawaii - 77 % minority
Asians are 36.4% of the population here with the white population standing at 23 %. That's not going away anytime soon.
DC - 64.2% minority
California - 61.5 % minority
38.6% of the population is Hispanic to the 38.5 % white population. But California's Hispanic is share increasing because of immigration and higher birth rates and an older white population dying off.
New Mexico - 61.1% minority
47.7 % Hispanic to its 38.9% white population. Same reasons as California.
Texas - 56.5% minority
Texas is different than the rest in that its white population is still the biggest ethnic group at a whopping 43.5 % of the population while the Hispanic population is at 38.6%. That's probably one reason it still votes reliably Republican. It's different than the others in that it actually has a very high African American population at 11.7 %. California, Hawaii and New Mexico actually have low African American populations. Much lower than the national average.
Soon to be majority-minority states:
Nevada- 48.5% minority
Most of this is concentrated in Las Vegas. Nevada is literally a state where if you nuked Las Vegas, it'd be a heavy Republican stronghold.
Maryland- 47.4 % minority
Georgia: 45.7 % minority
Florida- 44.2% minority
Arizona- 43.8% minority
New York - 43.2% minority
edited 27th Feb '17 12:08:39 AM by MadSkillz