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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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You are here: Home / Fuck This Lady and Her Obvious Grift

Fuck This Lady and Her Obvious Grift

by John Cole|  May 30, 20188:19 pm| 133 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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This is no surprise to anyone with an iq above room temperature:

Shortly after the 2016 election, Jill Stein raised more than $7 million from shell-shocked liberals eager to pursue a swing-state recount. Nearly two years later, the U.S. Green Party’s last candidate for president is still spending that money.

Ongoing litigation, travel costs, and staff salaries are also likely to eat up whatever is left, meaning those who donated to Stein are unlikely to receive a once-promised chance to vote on how the post-recount money would be spent. Nor have donors been given much of a window into how Stein is actually spending their donations.

The last FEC filing from the Stein campaign was for the month of September 2017. And the last update from the campaign itself came in a post on April 20, in which it said it was down to $932,178 in recount funds.

“It is strange that they would just stop filing reports given they were a legitimate, professional campaign, and despite still having more than a million dollars in cash on hand,” Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, told The Daily Beast.

All these idiots do is run spoiler campaigns and waste people’s money. I am fully aware that the Democrats are a deeply flawed party, as I am once again going to have to go to the polls in November to vote for Joe fucking Manchin to keep a knuckle dragging oaf from defeating him. But the way to fix this is to do what the Democratic Socialists in PA are doing:

Over the past six months, three women running in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primaries have grown to be close friends. Summer Lee, Sara Innamorato, and Elizabeth Fiedler, all candidates for the State House, are endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the hard-left organization founded in 1982 and revitalized by Bernie Sanders. Like many millennial Democrats, they’ve been drawn to the D.S.A. in response to what they view as their party’s failure to address the needs of people like them.

Lee, who is thirty years old, was jobless when she graduated from Howard University Law School, in 2015, and moved home to live with her mom and find work as a political organizer. Innamorato, who is thirty-two, feared that she wouldn’t be able to afford college, after her mother left her father, who was suffering from an opioid addiction, but she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and went to work at Apple. Fiedler, who is thirty-seven and the mother of an eleven-month-old and a three-year-old, struggled to find health care last summer when she left her job in Philadelphia public radio to run for office.

Their races, each in districts of roughly sixty thousand people, were small, but the outcomes were to serve as a nationwide referendum on which direction the Democrats should go. “Conventional wisdom is that you have to govern near the middle,” Joseph Sabino Mistick, a law professor at Duquesne University and a Pennsylvania political analyst, said of the Democrats, last night, as he awaited returns. This is what the Party had recently done in Trump country, with moderates like Conor Lamb. “That’s the struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party: Should it go left, to its F.D.R. roots, or to the center, which is more advantageous? It’s playing out on a national level, but here on a local level, too.”

They announced their intentions to run, they stated their views, they build solid campaigns with grass roots support, they participated in the Democratic primary, and they won. In other words, they built shit from the ground up, and didn’t just tear shit down and hand everything to opportunistic Republicans who LIVE for this shit.

Anyone who gives a penny to Jill Stein or votes for asshole spoilers like her in a general election should be held personally responsible when the Republicans win.

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Reader Interactions

133Comments

  1. 1.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 30, 2018 at 8:25 pm

    Wow. Dr. Stein is a straight up thief. Between that and hobnobbing with Putin, I hope she never runs again.

  2. 2.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    May 30, 2018 at 8:26 pm

    “That’s the struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party: Should it go left, to its F.D.R. roots, or to the center, which is more advantageous? It’s playing out on a national level, but here on a local level, too.”

    Oh JFC. Can we just let candidates run their own campaigns based on what their localities are like and not worry about the “fight for the soul of the party”? Connor Lamb is just as left as FDR ever was IMO.

    ETA: Agreed on Stein. She’s a total grifter and it’s sad the Green Party is the way it is. Other countries have functioning Green parties.

  3. 3.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    May 30, 2018 at 8:26 pm

    I’m here to co-sign every word of Cole’s righteous rant. That is all.

  4. 4.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 30, 2018 at 8:29 pm

    The twitter feeds around this are a mix of great and flabbergastingly awful, full of “Clinton-allied reporters in the mainstream media taking down Jill!” and “Jill’s getting attacked because she’s doing a great job of getting through the Hillary-imposed media blackout” and “Jill’s connections to Russia are fake news and YOU’RE like Trump!”, etc.

    There are some super stupid people out there.

  5. 5.

    errg

    May 30, 2018 at 8:29 pm

    She’s not even subtle about the con she’s running.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne

    May 30, 2018 at 8:30 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Can we just let candidates run their own campaigns based on what their localities are like and not worry about the “fight for the soul of the party”?

    This. Connor Lamb ran on preserving Medicare and Social Security, but he’s part of the problem because he didn’t declare fealty to St. Sanders first?

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    May 30, 2018 at 8:31 pm

    Seen plenty of stories about Republicans running for Congress across the country eagerly embracing the Trumpian idea of keeping out as many immigrants as possible, passing laws making English the official language, building the stupid wall, and related bigotry. MAWA!!!

  8. 8.

    Steve in the ATL

    May 30, 2018 at 8:34 pm

    I’m finally getter by around to watching the season finale of “Homeland”. It nicely hits the themes of Russian interference with our government, republican treasonous conspiracy with Russia, and republican inability and/or unwillingness to govern.

  9. 9.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    May 30, 2018 at 8:35 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:
    That’s not stupid that’s just out of delusionally out of touch. So Dr. Jill Stein’s fan base, then. John Oliver made that woman look like the fraud she is when he did his candidate overviews before the election.

  10. 10.

    David Anderson

    May 30, 2018 at 8:38 pm

    Just a note as someone who lived for 12 years in the district that Ms. Lee will able represent. It is a base blue district. My precinct for instance would have a bad election day if a Republican got more than 30% of the vote.

    She fits the district. And she would get creamed in PA-18. Lamb if he ran in the district would get primaried every other cycle. Different folks for different districts.

  11. 11.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 30, 2018 at 8:38 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: This same thing really bugs me. Conor Lamb isn’t especially moderate. He’s not in sync with all the Dems on like… 3 issues. There wasn’t a need to make it a Bernie V. Clinton thing AGAIN, but that’s they story they want to tell.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 8:39 pm

    Their races, each in districts of roughly sixty thousand people, were small, but the outcomes were to serve as a nationwide referendum on which direction the Democrats should go. 

    Congrats to them, but three primary wins for state legislative seats do not a national referendum make.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    Where the fuck did everyone go?

  14. 14.

    kindness

    May 30, 2018 at 8:47 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Running for President is Jill’s day job, sadly. We can’t stop a professional grifter like Jill but we might be able to reach some of our fellow progressives who did vote for her.

  15. 15.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 30, 2018 at 8:47 pm

    @Baud: I have to go walk the dogs now.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    May 30, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    I’m shocked, shocked to hear that Jill Stein has been less than open about how she spends her donors’ money.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 8:52 pm

    Somewhat On topic, I had the pleasure of coming across this dribble today.

    It is increasingly clear that the absence of a leader and chief spokesperson for the Democratic Party has been a major impediment in countering the nativism and the regressive policies focused on helping the rich get richer that are the central tenets of Trumpism. If the party waits until after the 2018 elections are over, and for a potentially divisive primary process, before they rally behind a standard bearer, it will likely not only fail to achieve the best midterm results possible, but Democrats will put themselves at a severe disadvantage in 2020.

    I assume they aren’t talking about Baud!

    https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/what-the-democrats-need-now/

  18. 18.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 8:52 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Ok, I’ll grant you leave.

  19. 19.

    Wild Cat

    May 30, 2018 at 8:53 pm

    Pacifica Radio is the Fox News/Paul Weyrich of the Left, albeit with less capital and influence. However, they’re experts at grifting, and Jill Stein learned well.

  20. 20.

    Major Major Major Major

    May 30, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    @Baud: I mostly stopped commenting on mobile.

  21. 21.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    Jill Stein is long overdue for an appointment with a CIA black op site for interrogation.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 8:55 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: I blame Europe.

  23. 23.

    Ruckus

    May 30, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    @dmsilev:
    I’m shocked to hear that it took her this long to steal 7 million.

  24. 24.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    May 30, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    I can’t understand why anybody would give that bunch of clowns and con artists any money at all. When have they shown any willingness to do anything in good faith? I wonder where the money did go. I’m guessing some of it went to their own accounts.

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    @Baud:

    It is increasingly clear that the absence of a leader and chief spokesperson for the Democratic Party has been a major impediment in countering the nativism and the regressive policies focused on helping the rich get richer that are the central tenets of Trumpism.

    Uh no, it would be because Republicans are unrepentant assholes and the media and VSP are incapable of behaving like decent human beings and shunning them for the rest of their lives.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    @Baud:

    I blame Europe.

    I blame Baud for this.

  27. 27.

    No One of Consequence

    May 30, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    @kindness: not sure the fellow progressives you mention (if they were a Stein voter in the general) have the mental wherewithal to remotely accurately evaluate probability and best use of relatively weak power of the Franchise…

    – NOoC

  28. 28.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 30, 2018 at 8:58 pm

    @Ruckus: To be fair, I think she actually did spend ~5 million on the recount. It didn’t DO anything, but she did hire some lawyers and then spent a couple million on it.

    She also continued to raise money for it AFTER the recount was finished, which is awfully grifty of her.

  29. 29.

    geg6

    May 30, 2018 at 8:59 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Every word. ?

    Conor Lamb is doing the same thing, out and about and being exactly what this district needs. Rothfus still hasn’t shown his face anywhere around here except for invite only crowds in years. I hope Lamb blows him out of the water.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 8:59 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I can’t understand why anybody would give that bunch of clowns and con artists any money at all.

    Trump showed how it was done and how campaign finance laws are now a fucking joke with no realistic enforcement mechanism that actually delivers any effective consequences.

    This is going to be a feature, not a bug unless something drastic changes.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 30, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    @Baud:

    I was driving home. I never Juice and drive.

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    JFC the Big Island on the Puna side is on fucking fire.

    Mandatory evacuations there no fooling because that lava be fucking moving.

    Evacuation area expanded as lava from Kilauea volcano advances

    Crews began work today on opening an emergency evacuation route for Lower Puna on the Chain of Craters Road and should be able to complete that that work in about a week or two, according to a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

    That news comes hours after the hottest lava yet in the current eruption from Kilauea volcano emerged from a fissure in Leilani Estates subdivision and raced northeast down a slope toward the sea, moving at speeds that at times reached 600 yards per hour early this morning.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    May 30, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    Glad that she has been obviously exposed. Throw it in the face of her supporters.

  34. 34.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    May 30, 2018 at 9:06 pm

    And your take on the Democratic Party is dead on. Yes, it’s a flawed party. Any political party made up of people is going to be flawed. And, no, it isn’t as liberal as I’d like. That isn’t some conspiracy; that’s just how political parties work. They’re coalitions. As long as a lot of people are less liberal than I am, I’m going to have to live with a party that’s somewhat more conservative than I’d choose in my unicorn-infested magical candyland.

    This is what I don’t understand about people. Why do they assume everybody else thinks just the way they do? Politics involves coalitions and compromise. That’s just how life works. Do they really not get this? We have a system that naturally brings about two broad parties that are made up of coalitions. The factions within the coalitions see eye to eye about some things, and don’t about others, but as long as they see eye to eye on more things than they don’t, they’ll hold.

    People here sometimes whine about how parties are corrupt, and we need third parties, and all that shit. But it’s shit. We don’t have third parties here, not over any long stretch, because we can’t. Our system is built for two parties. Not three. Not more than three. Two. The only time a third party has risen up and made it more than one or two elections was in 1856, when the Republicans arose, and the only reason they lasted was that one of the theretofore two major parties, the Whigs, withered and died.

    People talk about scrapping the Constitution and putting together a whole new system that would let more smaller parties rise and thrive, but that wouldn’t really change anything. There would still be coalitions, only they’d be coalitions among parties rather than coalitions within them. As long as we have people in politics, we’re going to have to deal with never getting everything we want. Normal, healthy, grown up people can deal with this. People who give money to Jill Stein can’t.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    May 30, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Connor Lamb is just as left as FDR ever was IMO.

    This. The New Deal was great for its time, but people shouldn’t romanticize it into something it wasn’t. It was a cobbled together program of whatever they could think of. It was frequently hobbled by opposition from a conservative Supreme Court. It left a ton of good work to be done by later generations, including removing the gaps for minorities deliberately engineered into its programs as a concession to the racist wing of the party.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/8lr4zb/perspective_what_people_think_the_hawaii_lava/

  37. 37.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Good. Safety first.

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    May 30, 2018 at 9:12 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:
    Where and how did she spend it? Hire someone to move it from one account over to one of her’s for a small cut?
    I wouldn’t trust her to make toast.

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    Trump, fast food lover and exercise avoider, lectures nation on importance of fitness

    Not the Onion. Actual Wapo headline.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    May 30, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    @Baud:

    If the party waits until after the 2018 elections are over, and for a potentially divisive primary process, before they rally behind a standard bearer, it will likely not only fail to achieve the best midterm results possible, but Democrats will put themselves at a severe disadvantage in 2020.

    If the Democrats choose a leader today, the biggest effect will be to give Trump and Co. a target. There’s nothing the Republicans love more than having a single Democrat they can demonize and project all their own failings onto. The reason they’ve spent so much time since the election attacking Hillary is because the Democrats haven’t presented them with a convenient alternative. I see no reason to give them one until we absolutely have to.

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    May 30, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    Normal, healthy, grown up people

    Now where ya going to find any of those?

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 9:18 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Oh JFC. Can we just let candidates run their own campaigns based on what their localities are like and not worry about the “fight for the soul of the party”?

    Well said.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    May 30, 2018 at 9:18 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    Maybe we should give them Jill Stein. They can’t attack one of their own can they?

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    @TenguPhule: Europe isn’t Baud’s fault. This time.

  45. 45.

    burritoboy

    May 30, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    I’m a member of the Democratic Socialists, and the New Yorker being completely unable to decipher it is……….well, disappointing, at minimum.

    We’re not hard-left. In much of the world, the DSA would likely be more conservative than the main Left parties. It was founded by people who are the definition of moderate democratic socialists (Michael Harrington, primarily.) It’s explicitly a big tent democratic socialist organization – all you have to believe in is democracy and be willing to consider aspects of socialism extremely broadly understood. One speech that happened two weeks ago was the speaker discussing (mostly positively) the German SPD party – which is still the main left of center party in Germany now, as it has been for more than 100 years.

    We have a few people who want to believe they are Maoists, but they’re regarded as far from our mainstream. Our chapter headquarters is full of election materials for city propositions, weird posters of Garfield telling Trump where he can shove it, and a library of mildly progressive books. Oh yeah, and a fridge full of old hummus and cheap beer. Hard leftists, we’re not.

  46. 46.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    May 30, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): You get a third party running and you wind up with minority government. Maine is scary example of what happens.

  47. 47.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Its Infrastructure Week!

    The Trump administration is reportedly planning to impose import tariffs on European steel and aluminum after finding no satisfaction in its effort to win trading concessions on the issue.

    An announcement dropping the EU from an exemption to global tariffs of 25% on imported steel, and 10% on aluminum, could come on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    The move is likely to bring retaliatory action from European Union trade regulators who have warned they will target American products as motorcycles, jeans and bourbon if additional US tariffs are imposed.

    Signs of increasing friction between the US and Europe over trade came early Wednesday when Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, drew a sharp line with the EU over Chinese trade negotiations, telling counterparts at a trade development panel in Paris that Europe is using tariffs as an “excuse” to refuse trade negotiations.

    “China are paying their tariffs,” Ross told the panel. “China hasn’t used that as an excuse not to negotiate … It’s only the EU that is insisting we can’t negotiate if there are tariffs,” he added.

    The stupid, it burns with the fury of a thousand INCELS.

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    May 30, 2018 at 9:21 pm

    In 2016, I was surprised by the support this obvious phony Jill Stein got from people whom I had considered too smart and sophisticated to fall for her bullshit. I have learned not to be surprised if there are still loyal supporters who intend to support her if/when she runs in 2020.

  49. 49.

    TenguPhule

    May 30, 2018 at 9:22 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Other countries have functioning Green parties.

    Other countries have parlimentary democracies.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 9:23 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I had considered too smart and sophisticated to fall for her bullshit.

    Privilege is a hell of a drug.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 9:25 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    There would still be coalitions, only they’d be coalitions among parties rather than coalitions within them.

    In parliamentary systems, they have elections and then form coalitions. Here, we form coalitions and then have elections.

  52. 52.

    Jager

    May 30, 2018 at 9:29 pm

    @Wild Cat: Ever check out how Amy Goodman grifted Pacifica to build her “Brand”?

  53. 53.

    M4

    May 30, 2018 at 9:35 pm

    @burritoboy: having not read the article, just the excerpt… is your beef only with the once-used phrase “hard-left”?

  54. 54.

    Calouste

    May 30, 2018 at 9:37 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Nothing to do with having a parliamentary system or not. It depends on whether you have first-past-the-post voting or not. Great Britain has a parliamentary system, but coalitions are very rare.

  55. 55.

    Bobby Thomson

    May 30, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    @Baud: I blame Triumph.

  56. 56.

    chopper

    May 30, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    exactly. lamb is the most left-wing person who had a reasonable chance of winning his district. that’s the end of it.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    May 30, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    Let Dems be Dems. Lockstep is not a good look. Leave pearl clutching about the soul to the holy rollers.

  58. 58.

    Bobby Thomson

    May 30, 2018 at 9:42 pm

    @Roger Moore: they used a lot of words to complain that Democrats aren’t rallying around Sanders.

  59. 59.

    sdhays

    May 30, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    @burritoboy: Maoists, eh? Why not just call themselves Stalinists? The people who actually lived under Mao try not to talk about him much because there’s nothing much good to say, and criticizing him could be considered delegitimizing the CCP which is still in power. He was a stupid, insane butcher who engineered the death and misery of millions for his own personal whims, leaving his country just as impoverished as it was when he came to power.

  60. 60.

    Platonailedit

    May 30, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    So much concern trolling about the dems, while the other party has gone full blown treason.

  61. 61.

    M4

    May 30, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    @sdhays: while it is generally considered eyeroll-inducing on the left to point out that communism is awful, I will admit, I’ve never met a self-professed Maoist who thought we should kill all the sparrows.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 9:47 pm

    @sdhays:

    But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
    You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow

  63. 63.

    Baud

    May 30, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    @M4: The Wikipedia entry on that makes our current domestic predicament look like a walk in the park.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    May 30, 2018 at 9:52 pm

    @Baud

    Picturing the remainder tables at Chinese book stores piled high with the little red books.

  65. 65.

    Jager

    May 30, 2018 at 9:53 pm

    @M4: Of course if all the sparrows were gone, what would the hungry people under the bridges roast on their curtain rods?

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    May 30, 2018 at 9:54 pm

    @Jager

    Tofarrow.

    :)

  67. 67.

    M4

    May 30, 2018 at 9:55 pm

    @Jager: with the sparrows eliminated the wonders of fully realized Maoism would bring them food. Obviously.

  68. 68.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 30, 2018 at 9:55 pm

    @TenguPhule: Yeah. If the system is constructed such that the third party can’t be a major player, then you won’t get a good class of third-party politicians. They’ll be people who are fine with being no-hopers: cranks, trolls and romantics.

  69. 69.

    schrodingers_cat

    May 30, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    Does the sage of Vt have a primary challenger?

  70. 70.

    El Caganer

    May 30, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    @TenguPhule: A cunning plan to get the Euros to support our sanctions on Iran! So much winning!

  71. 71.

    Doug R

    May 30, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    46. In or around the latter half of 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, through their ORGANIZATION-controlled personas, began to encourage U.S. minority groups not to vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election or to vote for a third-party U.S. presidential candidate.

    a. On or about October 16, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the ORGANIZATION-controlled Instagram account “Woke Blacks” to post the following message: “[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we’d surely be better off without voting AT ALL.”

    b. On or about November 3, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators purchased an advertisement to promote a post on the ORGANIZATION-controlled Instagram account “Blacktivist” that read in part: “Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it’s not a wasted vote.”

    I have a hard time taking people seriously that parrot paid Russian propaganda.

  72. 72.

    Citizen Alan

    May 30, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    In 2016, I was shocked speechless when an acquaintance of mine, who I had previously considered a very sensible and well-educated person and who was also a somewhat highly-placed corporate executive, told me that he was supporting Eugene Puryear. As I had never heard of a Eugene Puryear despite being politically aware to the point of obsession, I went to look the guy up. Eugene Puryear at the time was the VP candidate for the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL). And he was running for this office despite the handicap of being too young under the Constitution to hold the office even under the absurdly unlikely chance he won. After learning this, and doing a little research on the PSL, I asked my friend if his employer’s knew of his desire to completely abolish capitalism and pass laws to nationalize most businesses, which was in the PSL platform at the time. We haven’t spoken since.

    TL DR. Clinton derangement syndrome combined with Progressive idiocy drove a lot of people bug nuts crazy in 2016.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    May 30, 2018 at 10:03 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Wow. Dr. Stein is a straight up thief. Between that and hobnobbing with Putin, I hope she never runs again.

    Her supporters are just as stupid as Trump’s. They quietly put up with her grift, and refuse to hold her accountable for anything.

  74. 74.

    Citizen Alan

    May 30, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @chopper:

    I remember saying back in 2012, that if Travis Childers pull off a miracle and beat Roger Wicker in the Mississippi senate race, Childers would simultaneously become by far the most conservative Democrat in the US Senate and also by far the most liberal Senator ever to come from Mississippi. Democrats and especially so-called Progressive Democrats who do not live in red States are utterly incapable of understanding ideas like that

  75. 75.

    smintheus

    May 30, 2018 at 10:05 pm

    It’s all about the economic insecurity:

    White Americans are increasingly critical of the country’s social safety net, a new study suggests, thanks in part to a rising tide of racial resentment.

    The study, conducted by researchers at two California universities and published Wednesday in the journal Social Forces, finds that opposition to welfare programs has grown among white Americans since 2008, even when controlling for political views and socioeconomic status.

    […]

    Researchers have also shown that white Americans’ racial prejudice affects their views on everything from healthcare policy to the death penalty to dogs. On the same day Wetts’ paper published, a separate study in the journal Environmental Politics found that people with high levels of “racial resentment” are more likely to believe that the scientific consensus on climate change is false.

    “[White] racial resentment has become much more highly correlated with particular political attitudes, behaviors and orientations,” political scientists Adam M. Enders and Jamil S. Scott wrote in a January analysis for the Post’s Monkey Cage blog. “More and more, white Americans use their racial attitudes to help them decide their positions on political questions such as whom to vote for or what stance to take on important issues including welfare and health care.“

    The study was co-published in the journal Annals of Duh.

  76. 76.

    Mike J

    May 30, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    Any word on Simone Giertz?

  77. 77.

    Jack the Second

    May 30, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    Hey now, holding people responsible for the consequences of their actions is BLACKMAIL.

  78. 78.

    Viva BrisVegas

    May 30, 2018 at 10:07 pm

    @Calouste:

    It depends on whether you have first-past-the-post voting or not.

    Not a hard or fast rule. Australia does not have first past the post voting, yet genuine coalitions are very, very rare.

    For those in the know, the current Australian government calls itself a Coalition but the difference between its partners is purely a rural vs city branding exercise.

  79. 79.

    Peale

    May 30, 2018 at 10:11 pm

    @Baud: Lol. O.K. Let’s just choose the winner of the primary now. It’s not like the holier than thou left would settle for anyone but old man Bernie. If we do, can we complain for months that he’s running for “coronation” as and entitled “has been”. I for one will pen many a post about my “Bernie fatigue” and complain about his wrinkles and frumpy clothing.

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    May 30, 2018 at 10:14 pm

    @smintheus:

    On the same day Wetts’ paper published, a separate study in the journal Environmental Politics found that people with high levels of “racial resentment” are more likely to believe that the scientific consensus on climate change is false.

    I don’t know if you can blame racism for everything. You gotta leave room for plain ass stupidity.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:14 pm

    Jonathan S. Abady, an attorney with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, the New York-based firm that represents Stein and her campaign, told The Daily Beast that legal efforts on the recount persist to this day.

    Guffaw.

    The Green Party in Ohio has always been a grift organization. In 2012 they injected themselves into voting based on some ridiculous conspiracy about how Mitt Romney’s son owned a piece in a company that did digital patching on voting machines…?

    They didn’t get their court order, thank God, or it would have been chaos and we couldn’t have gotten people voted.

    I think it was actual ratfucking, and have for years. It was too ludicrous to be anything else. I used to think they just wanted to list-build by collecting names of Democrats or liberals but after the 2012 near-debacle I now believe it was malicious.

  82. 82.

    raven

    May 30, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    Sunset on the gulf.

  83. 83.

    raven

    May 30, 2018 at 10:17 pm

    Casting over the second sandbar.

  84. 84.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 30, 2018 at 10:17 pm

    @Kay:

    legal efforts on the recount persist to this day

    He means billable hours persist to this day.

  85. 85.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 30, 2018 at 10:18 pm

    @raven: How cold is the water?

  86. 86.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:18 pm

    Here’s the story from 2012, which I believe was also mentioned on Balloon Juice. Not by me! :)

    Those worries about a rigged election were given new urgency today as The Ohio-based Free Press editor-in-chief Robert Fitrakis, also a Green Party candidate for Congress, announced plans to file a lawsuit later today seeking an immediate injunction against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the ES&S manufacturer to halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized “experimental” software in 39 counties’ tabulators in an alleged violation of state election law. His attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, has also referred the case to the Cincinnati FBI for a criminal investigation. Arnebeck says, “It’s a flagrant violation of the law. Before you add new software, you need approval of a state board. They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between the a county’s vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators.”

  87. 87.

    oatler.

    May 30, 2018 at 10:19 pm

    “Indignantly Condemn the Wang-Chan-ChiangYao Gang of Four”, or, “The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People’s Front”.
    It was the slag on Pacifica that lost me. Amy Goodman’s taken more beatings and done more jailtime than any Confederate “Democrat”.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It’s great. Definitely stealing that. “Legal efforts persist to this day“

  89. 89.

    raven

    May 30, 2018 at 10:22 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s 82, I don’t think the gulf got below 70 all year last year. The water is pretty brown, a good bit of sea grass and no hits but ocean cats but, hey, part of the deal. I only fished for about 5 hours but it’s kicking my ass.

  90. 90.

    smintheus

    May 30, 2018 at 10:24 pm

    @Brachiator: I think the argument goes like this: Racists identify as Republicans because Republicans identify as racists; therefore they “believe” whatever that tribe believes, including things that have no obvious appeal for them like all the corporate-fluffing stuff, the anti-science hysteria, and the GOP’s gunning down of schoolchildren credo.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    “travel costs”. Where is she traveling to? How much can it cost to go to Wisconsin?

  92. 92.

    debbie

    May 30, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    @Kay:

    I should have known Fitrakis’s name would come up sooner or later. He’s a self-styled muckraker from around here who’s lost all credibility since deciding to try and run for political office.

  93. 93.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 30, 2018 at 10:26 pm

    @raven: 82-degree water? Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 10:28 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: In what primary?

  95. 95.

    raven

    May 30, 2018 at 10:28 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: And upper 80’s air with a nice breeze down at the water.

  96. 96.

    Peale

    May 30, 2018 at 10:30 pm

    @Kay: were the Democratic Party ever involved in a scandal so big that they needed to shut down and cease to be, I still can’t see the Greens getting more than third place in an election. I get why they want to destroy the Democratic Party – disaffected Democrats are where their voters are. Even though they claim that there’s an abundance of lefty non-voters sitting on the sideline, they don’t do anything to find them or activate them. You’d think with 40% of the eligible voters not showing up ever, these disaffected Greens would be easy to find.

    If those 1,500 missing asylum seeking children are found locked in a basement in DNC headquarters, forced to do mail list data entry and subjected to Thanos blood tests, I’d probably stay home rather than vote for Stein.

  97. 97.

    khead

    May 30, 2018 at 10:30 pm

    I was expecting this thread to be about Roseanne.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:30 pm

    @debbie:

    It harms voting rights advocates when grifters exaggerate or make up voting conspiracies.

    It’s not complicated. They suppress votes by changing state law to make it harder for certain people to vote. It’s the most straightforward thing in the world- raw, state-sanctioned suppression. It’s always been done like that in the US. Poll taxes were legal. So were impossible to pass “literacy tests”. Nothing hidden about it. They put up billboards in Cleveland for God’s sake. They’re not subtle.

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    May 30, 2018 at 10:31 pm

    Ted Lieu on Maddow , talking about taking children away from their parents .

    Maxine Waters on Hayes, talking about the KKKEEBLER Elf and Dolt45.

    I will say it again, all Democrats should have the attitude of either Lieu or Waters.

  100. 100.

    Peale

    May 30, 2018 at 10:32 pm

    @Kay: there’s not a lot of direct flights. Plus they’re probably trying to book rooms in the Dells by the water parks on holiday weekends. That can add up.

  101. 101.

    schrodingers_cat

    May 30, 2018 at 10:33 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: For the senate seat in Vt.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:35 pm

    @Peale:

    I think they could be more honest about their objective. Labor unions call what the Green Party does “slice and dice” – it means a small group that pulls from a larger group (slice) and then they all lose (dice) because there aren’t enough in either faction.

    The idea is you’re supposed to EXPAND, not take an existing group of voters and distribute them differently. Distribute them stupidly, btw, in a way that guarantees they all lose.

  103. 103.

    chris

    May 30, 2018 at 10:37 pm

    @Mike J:

    Simone Giertz

    No word that I can find but she did say 12 hours ago the operation would take 8-12 hours. I keep refreshing r/ShittyRobots and her twitter feed
    hoping for good news.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    May 30, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @Kay:

    It harms voting rights advocates when grifters exaggerate or make up voting conspiracies.

    Yeah, well, oversized egos damage far more than that.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: As I said, in what primary? Is he running as a Democrat? If not, how can he face a primary challenge? Process matters.

  106. 106.

    dexwood

    May 30, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    Jill who? A footnote. A grifter flake. Fuck her and Bernie.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:44 pm

    @Peale:

    Their causes are always like this. They said Democrats weren’t putting “enough” money into the Walker recall in Wisconsin.

    Well, what’s enough? There are only 3 million voters in Wisconsin, tops, because there’s 6 million people. Should it be 1 million? A hundred million? Just an unlimited amount? They never say. It’s just “not enough”.

    Why would they be “traveling” anyway? It’s Wisconsin state law. They could just hire a lawyer there.

  108. 108.

    chris

    May 30, 2018 at 10:46 pm

    @Kay:

    “travel costs”. Where is she traveling to? How much can it cost to go to Wisconsin?

    You expect her fly coach?

  109. 109.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    @dexwood:

    Trump is still pointing to Bernie at rallies. He hates “crazy Bernie” but boy did Hillary screw Bernie! The Trumpsters eat it up and launch into a rousing chorus of “lock her up”

    He said it at his last rally. They’ll do it again in ’20. It may not be Bernie but Donald Trump will be running on saying whoever loses the D primary got screwed by whoever wins.

  110. 110.

    eclare

    May 30, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I live in Tennessee, Democrats have a decent chance with Phil Bredesen. He is running against Marsha Blackburn and has a D after his name. If people don’t like that, they should STFU.

    ETA> I’m pretty happy to at least have a chance, and will do all I can to get him elected.

  111. 111.

    different-church-lady

    May 30, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    I would say that the Greens deserve better, but they’ve let themselves be played for chumps so often, and for so long, that it really just isn’t true anymore.

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 10:54 pm

    @Kay: Umm. three point two.

    @chris: No one flies to Wisconsin; there is no good deli here.

  113. 113.

    Chyron HR

    May 30, 2018 at 10:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He runs in the Democratic primary for the VT senate seat so that there won’t be a democratic nominee, then as an independent in the general election.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    May 30, 2018 at 10:55 pm

    @chris:

    She’s bringing a team of extremely slow counting lawyers, I guess. It must be like Florida in 2000 – they have magnifying glasses out, just really scrutinizing those ballots. Legal efforts continue!

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 30, 2018 at 10:55 pm

    HAHAHAHAHA!

    Email snafu reveals White House outreach to Obama and Clinton alumni

    (Politico link)

  116. 116.

    eclare

    May 30, 2018 at 10:57 pm

    @raven: Nice!

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 11:02 pm

    @Chyron HR: Okay, that changes my view; I doubt it changes what Vermont does. And would you sacrifice a year of your life on a Quixotic effort to defeat Sanders? If you can’t say yes, then step off of the rest of the Vermonters.

  118. 118.

    Peale

    May 30, 2018 at 11:03 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: there’s a mustard museum, though. That’s a big part of a successful sandwich. Sadly, Ella’s is closed I hear. Not the greatest deli, but a fun place for kids that is probably sorely missed.

  119. 119.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 30, 2018 at 11:03 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes, he’s running as a Democrat and then will decline the nomination if he wins(which he probably will).

  120. 120.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 11:09 pm

    @Peale: I live in Madison. Near Middleton where the mustard museum is. And Ella’s isn’t closed.

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 11:12 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: See above.

  122. 122.

    Peale

    May 30, 2018 at 11:18 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You need to go shopping at East Town Mall more often.

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    May 30, 2018 at 11:18 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I wonder where the money did go.

    Well, of course there’s payroll for all……~!! No one can deny that’s appropriate, right? Right?!!!

  124. 124.

    dexwood

    May 30, 2018 at 11:23 pm

    @Kay:
    I hear you and agree. Traitor Trump gets away with saying whatever sprays from his fucked up mind. His base loves his contradictory bullshit. The media laps it up. He and Bernie were symbiotic throughout the campaign. Still, “tick tock, motherfuckers” gives me hope.

  125. 125.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 11:27 pm

    @Kay: @dexwood: Worrying about what Trump may say in 2020 is silly. Let’s work on this year.

  126. 126.

    dexwood

    May 30, 2018 at 11:36 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Agree with you, too. Just venting.
    Good night, Balloon Juice.

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 30, 2018 at 11:53 pm

    @dexwood: Venting happens.

  128. 128.

    L85NJGT

    May 31, 2018 at 1:01 am

    Party of FDR? For serious? That was a long time ago, and ran aground on civil rights. It was codified in ’72 when McGovern took his beating.

    That framing is a really stupid way of saying make America white again.

  129. 129.

    Mel

    May 31, 2018 at 2:24 am

    Made me think back to John Oliver’s commentary on Jill Stein (and unqualified, vote splitting third party candidates in general) in 2016.

  130. 130.

    cmorenc

    May 31, 2018 at 9:16 am

    @john cole:

    Anyone who gives a penny to Jill Stein or votes for asshole spoilers like her in a general election should be held personally responsible when the Republicans win.

    A discomforting portion of folks who voted for Nader in 2000 (including from Florida) are still unrepentant for voting their principles instead of the lesser of evils. It takes a bit of a leap of faith over experience to hope that the folks who voted for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein have learned something since Nov 2016 about how deeply self-destructive their votes were, in practice, for the principles these voters were purportedly supporting thereby.

  131. 131.

    sherparick

    May 31, 2018 at 9:37 am

    I just love the un-biased reporting that calls the DSA a “hard-left” organization because they want universal health care coverage, a minimum wage, and equal rights for all people (you, know, the opening line of the Declaration of Independence – see below). Somehow the “Tea Party” was never “hard-right” but ordinary Americans concerned a about “Government spending” (e. g. concerned that someone other than them was getting medical care and food stamps with Government help).

    I am not DSA , but New Deal, which is also considered pretty far Left these days, but never forget that the media is owned an works for suits who believe the ascendancy of the rich. Sulzbergers appreciate that tax cut as much as the Koch brothers, sad to say.

    Reference the Greens, I always remind myself that these vanity trolls are only about 3% of the electorate. Of course in 2016 3% of the electorate would have turned the votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. (By the way if Sanders had won, Stein would still have run against him as a “sellout” and between Stein, the MS, and the Republicans we would have all become painfully aware of Bernie’s pro-NRA votes over the years as well as the Burlington College saga (I don’t hold Bernie’s NRA votes particularly against him since Vermont is a rural, gun owning state – he was representing his constituents and wanting to reelected – what I hold against him is the holier than thou attitude toward Clinton and Gillibrand who both represent a State whose major industry is Wall Street).

  132. 132.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    May 31, 2018 at 9:56 am

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Yup. Been watching the fabulous Danish series Borgen and the main take-away: wow, a system with several more parties has…all the same problems we have. Xenophobia, small-government BS conservatives, NIMBY, “Family Values” etc., etc. And the difficulty of managing coalitions is just as bad. It’s tv and fiction but still…

  133. 133.

    Wild Cat

    May 31, 2018 at 11:18 am

    @Jager: Yup. I was there from the start. After she stole “Democracy Now” from Bernstein, she then stole it from Pacifica with the aid of Leslie Cagan. They’re a bunch of shits, on both sides, if their endless civil war is still going on.

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