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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The Libertarians have one state house seat, that's it, the Vermont Progressive Party hold 6 state house and 3 state Senate.
New York seems to be the home of several small parties, the New York founded Working Families Party hold a state house seat and a state senate one (but not in New York I belive, in another state), the Convserative Party of New York State have a state house seat as do the Independance Party of New York.
Apparently New York lets candidates who are endorsed by a small party be listed under both their main party and the small party endorsement on the ballot. So small parties can exist and 90% of the time endorse a Republican or Democrat but also occasionally run a candidate of their own.
Edit:
It's far from a FPTP issue, no other FPTP country has this issue, the closest Country is Japan, which operates a hybrid method.
edited 27th May '16 2:01:47 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranWell I'd probably rather there not be parties...I just want the United States to feel united.
Differing ideas of how to run a country are fine, but the U.S. seems so differing in values. On the surface it would seem to be a country that appreciates hard work and inclusivity, but deeper down it's rife with class division and bitterness.
Could it even be united?
https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/736313529205063680
Holy shit. I'm DYING.
New Survey coming this weekend!In other news, Michigan Governor Snyder has been told
- by his own Attorney General - to stop his "independent" investigation into the Flint water thing.
Federal, local and state officials ganged up on Governor Rick Snyder and told him his efforts to investigate the mess in Flint were hampering their attempts to do so, and told him to knock it off.
And the Snyder administration basically put its tail between its legs, whimpered, and said “okay.” Anna Heaton, one of his spokespersons, put out a press release that plaintively, or peevishly, concluded, “No agency has raised any concerns with our office before now,” but then added that the governor was asking the office of the Auditor General and the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to suspend their investigations.
One of the many odd things about this is that so many different agencies ganged up together to do this to the governor publicly. I’ve written a book with former Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley about his life and career.
In his time, when a governor did or was about to do something he considered inappropriate, he would go and privately warn the chief executive before he would even think of going public. We live in a different era now. That state Attorney General Bill Schuette was willing to publicly embarrass a governor of his own party wasn’t surprising. The men have never liked each other, and Schuette desperately needs to separate himself from Snyder if he is to have any chance of getting elected governor himself.
What was surprising is that Schuette did so in a coordinated strike with U.S. Attorney Barbara Mc Quade, who is presumed to be a Democrat, and that Schuette was joined by Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, who is not only a Democrat, but the man Schuette defeated to win the attorney general’s job six years ago.
This has to be mortifying to the governor, who has been having a terrible year. Plainly, the state attorney general’s office felt blindsided by what now looks like the governor’s ham-handed efforts to investigate Flint, a crisis of his own making.
The attorney general’s main spokesman said his department only learned of the governor’s inquiry into the Department of Environmental Quality on April 20 – and then only because Mr. Snyder mentioned it in a press conference.
Again, it seems incredible to me that the governor would launch such a probe without consulting or at least informing the relevant authorities, but it would appear he sees government as a series of independent, if not warring, fiefdoms.
That’s bad enough, but both state and federal authorities said the governor’s freelance probes could have done considerable damage to their own ongoing criminal investigations. The governor then backed off; he had no choice. When the attorney general’s spokesman was asked if all this was a warning to Snyder that obstruction of justice charges were possible, he declined to answer, which really was an answer.
What’s also disturbing is that these leaders still haven’t figured out that they need to talk to each other. When Anna Heaton was asked if the governor had communicated with the attorney general, she said the press release to the news media was the response.
Well, that’s how we “negotiate” with North Korea. But you’d think two officials elected to look after the interests of our state could do better.
(CNN) - Trump's pulling the debate offer from Sanders.
ABC News Tonight played a short clip of Sanders calling Trump a bully and asking what he's afraid of.
The damned queen and the relentless knight.Oh wow. This New TYT interview with Sanders....
Dude just openly shitted on Ralph Nader and pretty much just blasted anyone of his supporters who would vote third party.
And gave every indication that he's stumping hard for Clinton in the fall.
If true. Welp. Congrats to Clinton for making history
New Survey coming this weekend!I assume that TYT heads' exploded?
That or they promptly declared that after such a selfless and party unifying move he will clearly win every singe remaining delegate and end up with the majority of pledged delegates?
edited 27th May '16 4:40:23 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranWould the US drop the bomb again
Public opinion supported the strike on Hiroshima—and if provoked, many Americans might well back nuclear attacks on foes like Iran and al Qaeda. WTF!! Cross posted on the Military thread.
Good thing that the Joint Chiefs aren't stupid. The only thing (short of an Alien Invasion or the Legions of Hell coming to visit
) that would provoke an American nuclear strike would be a WMD strike on it or its allies. And even then if North Korea or AQ/ISIS (if they managed to get a WMD) did a limited strike, the US might limit itself to an overwhelming conventional retaliation instead.
Don't let your respect for Sanders rebound too much. Watching Rachel Maddow—Sanders is demanding that a bunch of Democrats—including Barney Frank—be removed from their positions in the DNC or he will slow the actual convention to a halt. Because nothing indicates your loathing of big banks and billionaires like attacking one of the guys behind Frank-Dodd.
Apparently some of the crazier supporters—not Sanders himself, thankfully—are sending death threats to the leaders of the Democratic Party in Wyoming as that convention comes up.
So I'm glad he won't run third-party, but he's still being a royal pain in the rear.
This is literally exactly what nuclear weapons are for, and also exactly why no one is stupid enough to start that kind of shit with a nuclear power (unless they're a nuclear power themselves and can rely on MAD to save them). Hell, the poll even stacked the deck by presenting a probably death toll of 20,000 US military personnel in an invasion vs 100,000 Iranian civilians in a nuclear attack. In WWII, the estimated death toll for a US invasion of Japan was in the hundreds of thousands — to say nothing of the deaths among the Japanese military and civilians. It's not an exaggeration to say that using nuclear weapons in that sort of situation ultimately saves lives, on both sides.
People have this sense that nuclear weapons are some sort of spooky thing off in its own category. They're not, not really. More people died when the US firebombed Tokyo than when we nuked Hiroshima or Nagasaki. In the right circumstances, nuclear weapons should absolutely be on the table as an option, along with conventional bombing, ground invasion, and every other means at our disposal.
edited 27th May '16 6:26:58 PM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Thought this article
was interesting. I've run into a lot of the attitudes that the author mentions, most notably the idea that if I don't support Sanders I must not "understand" how things work. That's not to say my experience is anything like that of the author—I'm both white and Canadian, so I at least get to dodge the racial part of it—but I have no problem believing that it's happened to them.
That attitude isn't necessarily racist. What is is their belief that Blacks don't vote for Bernie because they are "less educated", and "don't know their best interests", this one is often applied to poor people as well, and aren't "politically engaged", implying they are to stupid to have heard of anyone but Hillary. Racism doesn't just have to be hateful you know.
Honestly, I'm wholly convinced that if HRC, by some miracle, achieved all of Bernie's goals ($15 minimum wage, Free or close-to-free College Tuiton, Universal Healthcare, dramatically reduced influence of the financial sector, and CFR) she'd STILL be hated by her detractors on the left.
New Survey coming this weekend!
The only way she'd accomplish that would be through court packing, so I imagine a fair number of people would be decrying her for endangering the republic. That's something I'd really rather avoid as well, though I acknowledge that it might very well be necessary for us to go through another Imperial presidency in order for the current deadlock to be broken without major changes to the electoral system.
edited 27th May '16 7:03:41 PM by CaptainCapsase

His father was a libertarian but ran as a Republican. So yes, those libertarians that are successful tend to end up hogtying themselves to the Republican party. It's be interesting if one of them every tried caucusing with the Democrats.
I think some of the Greens have been successful at getting into some state level seats, but again, usually by joining with the Democrats as the party that aligns most closely with their views.
It's the effects of both FPTP and the parties being big tents; smaller parties tend to ally themselves with whichever of the two is closest to them in terms of ideology in order to get anything done and to get into positions of influence. Or, as has been the case with the Tea Party, take it over.