Democrats trying to unseat each other IV

[Toni]

Monetary abbreviations in financial writings are M, B, and T. In Europe I believe they’ll use mn, bn, and tn.

Exactly.

 

[thebeave]

Eh, until I saw it here, I’ve never seen it.

Actually that was "Jigawatts". I actually had no idea for decades that they meant gigawatts. They fixed it in the musical.

I've always heard it pronounced with a hard G in my science/engineering background, but apparently the original pronounciation going way back is with a soft G (as in J), and I thought it was a made up term (like bazillion) in the movie. Apparently, either pronounciation is considered correct:

What the hell is a Jigawatt?

You will be relieved to know that the flux capacitor remains a fictional device, however, made up of two real technical terms combined to create sciencey gibberish. Apparently, this person didn't get the memo though:

 

[ZiprHead]

Ok, I’m dumb: What is the G in $1G?

It stands for "giga", which means 10⁹ or (short scale) billion. Just like 'k' stands for "kilo" or thousand and 'M' stands for "mega" or million.

That’s what I thought but it seems silly not to use $1B.

It seems silly not to use SI.

Everyone in the world does, except Liberia, Myanmar, and the USA.

B is Bel or Byte, depending on whether the context is acoustics or computing.

G = 1000 in cop shows and gangster films. Or movies about drugs.

G or more conventionally, g = gram

Gazillion.

 

[lpetrich]

California Governor: Xavier Becerra (D) 28.1%, Steve Hilton (R) 24.7%, Tom Steyer (D) 22.8%, Chad Bianco (R) 10.2%, Katie Porter (D) 4.4%, Matt Mahan 3.6%, Antonio Villaraigosa 1.1%, numerous others

So it's XB vs. SH, and XB is close to guaranteed a win.

• CA-04: Mike Thompson (inc) (D) 41.0%, Eric Jones (D) 22.2%, Ray Riehle (R) 20.8% -- EJ is endorsed by Our Revolution
• CA-06: Republican Kevin Kiley became an Independent.
• CA-22: David G. Valadao (inc) (R) 40.8%, Randy Villegas (D) 32.3%, Jasmeet Bains (D) 26.9% -- RV is endorsed by Blue America, Our Revolution, and the Working Families Party

In NJ-11, Analilia Mejia got 81.7%, and the others 6.9%, 6.1%, 5.4%. Looks like AIPAC stayed home.

With >95% counted, the Maine US-Senate Democratic primary: Graham C. Platner 71.9%, Janet T. Mills 19.3%, David A. Costello 8.3%, Andrea LaFlamme (write-in) 0.5%. Only about 0.1% different from the 94% result.

 

[lpetrich]

'Shaping Up to Be a Clean Sweep': Sanders-Backed Candidates Prevail in Tuesday Primaries | Common Dreams - "Sanders has said his endorsements are about “building a movement for the future” capable of not just taking on the GOP, but also the Democratic Party establishment."

Adam Hamawy NJ-12, Analilia Mejia NJ-11, Randy Villegas CA-22, Sam Forstag MT-01.

 

[Derec]

'Shaping Up to Be a Clean Sweep': Sanders-Backed Candidates Prevail in Tuesday Primaries | Common Dreams - "Sanders has said his endorsements are about “building a movement for the future” capable of not just taking on the GOP, but also the Democratic Party establishment."

Adam Hamawy NJ-12, Analilia Mejia NJ-11, Randy Villegas CA-22, Sam Forstag MT-01.

It shows the utter lack of judgment of Bernie Sanders that he endorsed the terrorist supporter Hamawy. He used to be better, but changed for the worse after 2016.

 

[lpetrich]

Progressive Champions PAC is a GOP front - by Judd Legum

Progressive Champions PAC, a super PAC created last month, says on its website that its mission is to “elect bold, progressive candidates up and down the ballot.” On Friday, according to FCC records, it booked nearly $400,000 worth of broadcast television ads attacking Cait Conley, a Democratic candidate in New York’s 17th Congressional District.

Conley is facing off against Democrat Beth Davidson in the June 23 primary. The general election is expected to be one of the most expensive and hotly contested races in the country. The incumbent, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY), is one of three Republicans who represent a House district won in 2024 by former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Progressive Champions PAC’s ads, which are also running online, claim that Conley is “not progressive” and tie her to President Trump.

However, Progressive Champions PAC has connections to Republican campaigners.

Two “progressive” super PACs linked to House GOP - "Real Change" and "California Blue". Real Change, “dedicated to electing grassroots candidates who are committed to progressive values,” attacked Rebecca Bennett of NJ-07 as not progressive enough, supporting her opponents. California Blue is supporting a Democrat in CA-40, so as to keep that race from becoming Republican vs. Republican.

A GOP dirty tricks operation, exposed - by Judd Legum “Lead Left PAC stands against MAGA extremists who will infect our country with Donald Trump’s agenda.”

But, as Punchbowl News and others have noted, Lead Left’s spending patterns are unusual. It is backing Democratic candidates in competitive districts with major political liabilities. For example, in Texas, Lead Left has spent over $900,000 supporting Maureen Galindo in the Democratic primary. Galindo, a sex therapist, has made a series of antisemitic comments. In an Instagram post, Galindo pledged to transform ICE detention centers into a “prison for American Zionists” and a “castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.” Galindo’s campaign has raised less than $11,000, of which $4,100 was a contribution from the candidate.

Galindo is running in Texas’ 35th District, a seat that was redistricted to favor Republicans. The DCCC has endorsed Galindo’s primary opponent, Johnny Garcia. Lead Left has also intervened in Democratic primaries in swing House districts in Nebraska and Pennsylvania.

Though Maureen Galindo was a bit ahead at first, she lost the runoff by a big margin. Good riddance to that disgusting bigot.

"Lead Left has gone to great lengths to conceal its identity and backers." But it has Republican connections. With further connection to the "Roosevelt Society Action" PAC: "Roosevelt Society Action appeared abruptly and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)."

Also: Mystery PACs roil Democratic primaries

 

[lpetrich]

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed these three candidates, and all three of them won, unseating two incumbents.

• In NY-07, with 94% counted, Claire Valdez won, with 56.1%, and with others 35.8%, 6.3%, 1.7%, 0.1%
• In NY-10, with 92% counted, former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander won, with 65.8%, with incumbent Dan Goldman 34.0%, and with others 0.2%.
• In NY-13, with 88% counted, Darializa Avila Chevalier won, with 49.4%, with incumbent Adriano Espaillat 45.9%, and with others 3.5%, 0.8%, 0.4%.

Others:

• In NY-14, with 89% counted, AOC won again, with 86.9%, and with others 6.7%, 5.9%, 0.4%.
• In NY-17, with 88% counted, Ritchie Torres won again, with 72.0%, and with others 21.8%, 5.6%, 0.7%.
• In NY-12, with 87% counted, Jack Kennedy Schlossberg placed third at 10.8%. He is JFK's grandson.

Threads, karend242

CD17 is our District. Cait Conley has tremendous support here, no one is coming close. Cait’s primary opponent is all in on using Republican smear and lie tactics. They are running scared cause Cait is the real deal and can oust the incumbent.

With 88% counted, CC has 48.6%, her main opponent Beth Davidson 32.2%, others 15.8%, 1.8%, 1.5%, 0.1%.

 

[lpetrich]

Some of the seats were vacated by retiring Congressmembers. CA-11: Nancy Pelosi, MD-05: Steny Hoyer, NY-07: Nydia Velázquez, NY-12: Jerry Nadler.

Looking back to when I started keeping track of Democrats trying to unseat each other, none of the challengers from 2020 and 2022 are running in 2026, as far as I can tell. Such challengers run 1 or 2 or 3 times, then quit.

• Republican-linked PACs funding Democratic US primaries: Why it matters | Elections News | Al Jazeera - Republicans and Democrats have both employed tactics to boost weaker rivals ahead of midterms.
• Israel, AIPAC and Zohran Mamdani take center stage in Tuesday’s NY primaries | The Times of Israel
• AIPAC is helping boost Espaillat against DSA challenge - City & State New York - But who’s funding outside spending in the final week of the election isn’t always clear.
• $50 Million Spent on N.Y. Primaries Includes A.I. and AIPAC Money - The New York Times
• As AIPAC spending surges, it faces big tests in New York and Maryland - POLITICO
• Pro-Israel politics just took a huge hit in New York - POLITICO

AIPAC supported NY-13 Adriano Espaillat, and Darializa Chevalier made a big issue out of that support, but DC was also supported by some big PAC's, like Justice Democrats and "American Priorities", reportedly supported by anti-AIPAC Muslim business leaders.

AIPAC also supported NY-10 Dan Goldman, something that Brad Lander attacked him for.

In NY-07, Claire Valdez claimed that opponent Antonio Reynoso was supported by a PAC, "Real Fight", that was supported by AIPAC. RF denied that.

AIPAC also supported Steny Hoyer's chosen successor in MD-12, Adrian Boafo. He won big.

franifio on the NYC primary election She appreciated DC's triumph over "racist fearmongering" and BL defeating GC "who stands for nothing". Also the Democratic Socialists of America and Hasan Piker, who arranged for 90,000 phone calls to NYC residents in the final hours of the race.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Good on you Bernie. It reminds me of the quote: "A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit."

 

[southernhybrid]

'Shaping Up to Be a Clean Sweep': Sanders-Backed Candidates Prevail in Tuesday Primaries | Common Dreams - "Sanders has said his endorsements are about “building a movement for the future” capable of not just taking on the GOP, but also the Democratic Party establishment."

Adam Hamawy NJ-12, Analilia Mejia NJ-11, Randy Villegas CA-22, Sam Forstag MT-01.

It shows the utter lack of judgment of Bernie Sanders that he endorsed the terrorist supporter Hamawy. He used to be better, but changed for the worse after 2016.

https://www.politico.com/live-updat...nomination-watson-coleman-new-jersey-00947814

Dr. Adam Hamawy, a progressive plastic surgeon whose life-saving work in the Army has been contrasted with his long ago association with a terrorist Muslim cleric, prevailed in a crowded Democratic primary field Tuesday to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, the Associated Press projects.

Hamawy was one of a dozen active candidates in the 12th Congressional District, where the liberal Watson Coleman is retiring after 12 years in office (a 13th candidate was on the ballot but dropped out of the race).

“Courageous candidates like Dr. Adam Hamawy are the fighters voters want to take on corporate power and fight for working people. Dr. Hamawy won because voters saw him as a fearless fighter for the working class against a political and economic system rigged for billionaires and other powerful interests,” Stephanie Taylor of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which endorsed Hamawy, said in a statement.

Hamawy, 56, led the Democratic field in fundraising even before a new super PAC called American Priorities, founded as a pro-Palestinian counterweight to the pro-Israel AIPAC, spent $2 million on his behalf.

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth has credited Hamawy, an Army National Guard veteran, with saving her life when her Blackhawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. Hamawy also worked as a first responder at the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks.

Hamawy’s campaign planks are unabashedly progressive, including “Medicare For All” and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which his campaign website says is “full of neo-Nazis at all ranks”) and dismantling the Department of Homeland Security.

But the heroic picture portrayed by Hamawy’s campaign and allies met a stark contrast when a publication tied to an anti-Islamic group resurfaced news reports of his 1995 testimony in defense of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “blind sheikh” who was convicted on terrorism and seditious conspiracy charges, and whose followers conducted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Hamawy, then a medical student in his 20s, had four years earlier accompanied Abdel-Rahman on a trip from New Jersey to Michigan, where Abdel-Rahman spoke at a conference and talked of “conquering the land of the infidels.” Even after the World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy acknowledged translating a document for Abdel-Rahman for a press conference.

Hamawy said on the campaign trail that he disavowed Abdel-Rahman’s calls for violence and called the critiques against him as “guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates.”

Does't exactly sound like he supported a terrorist to me. He just had a brief association with a guy who was convicted of some terroristic things, but Hamawy disavowed the calls for violence. He sounds more like a person who has done more good with his life compared to most other people, even if he did associate with a "bad person" when he was very young. It does sound like some people will attack any Muslim or Arabic candidate, regardless of all the good deeds that person has done.

 

[Derec]

Does't exactly sound like he supported a terrorist to me.

How do you figure that?

He just had a brief association with a guy who was convicted of some terroristic things,

This apologetics sounds like Ilhan Omar's "some people did something" 9/11 quip.
Abdul-Rahman, aka "the Blind Sheikh" wasn't just "a guy who was convicted of some terroristic things". He was one of the masterminds of the original WTC bombing and has been sentenced to life in prison.
And from your own article:

But the heroic picture portrayed by Hamawy’s campaign and allies met a stark contrast when a publication tied to an anti-Islamic group resurfaced news reports of his 1995 testimony in defense of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “blind sheikh” who was convicted on terrorism and seditious conspiracy charges, and whose followers conducted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Hamawy, then a medical student in his 20s, had four years earlier accompanied Abdel-Rahman on a trip from New Jersey to Michigan, where Abdel-Rahman spoke at a conference and talked of “conquering the land of the infidels.” Even after the World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy acknowledged translating a document for Abdel-Rahman for a press conference.

So, Hamawy accompanied the Blind Sheikh to an Islamist/Jihadist conference where they discussed "conquering the land of the infidels". I guess he is doing this more insidiously now by infiltrating Congress.
And he continued working with Abdul-Rahman even after the WTC bombing.
And there is more not covered in the Politico piece:
Leading N.J. Dem congressional candidate Adam Hamawy volunteered with Al-Qaida-tied group in Bosnia

but Hamawy disavowed the calls for violence.

Only when it became politically expedient during his Congress campaign.

He sounds more like a person who has done more good with his life compared to most other people, even if he did associate with a "bad person" when he was very young.

He wasn't "very young" at the time. Young, sure, but he was already in med school and should have known better.

It does sound like some people will attack any Muslim or Arabic candidate, regardless of all the good deeds that person has done.

More like: some people will excuse anything done by any Muslim or Arabic candidate.

 

[Derec]

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed these three candidates, and all three of them won, unseating two incumbents.

It looks more and more that the Democratic Party is in the process of a hostile takeover by the DSA, not unlike GOP was taken over by MAGA.
All three of these are also funded by a Palestinian Super-PAC.

Take Chevalier: she is a rabid opponent of Israel, and has participated in the 10/8 NYC protests in NYC organized by the so-called "Party for Socialism and Liberation" and which glorified the 10/7 attacks by Hamas against Israel. Why the DNC allows people like her (and also people like Hamawy in NJ) to run on a Democratic Party line is beyond me. In an ideal world, nobody from DSA should be allowed to run as a Democrat. They have their own party, they should run as its candidates.

 

[Derec]

AIPAC supported NY-13 Adriano Espaillat, and Darializa Chevalier made a big issue out of that support, but DC was also supported by some big PAC's, like Justice Democrats and "American Priorities", reportedly supported by anti-AIPAC Muslim business leaders.

It's pretty hypocritical to decry AIPAC but support a Palestinian/Islamic SuperPAC.

AIPAC also supported NY-10 Dan Goldman, something that Brad Lander attacked him for.

He too is fine with being supported by the Muslim SuperPAC. What a traitor.

 

[Derec]

Good on you Bernie. It reminds me of the quote: "A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit."

More like "burn down trees whose ashes they will not have to experience themselves".

Bernie has been a huge disappointment since 2016. I never agreed with his leftist economics, but in 2016 he was a paleoleftist, which means that he did support the identitarian leftist orthodoxy of the neoleftists. Since then he has fully embraced them, to his shame.

 

[ZiprHead]

'Shaping Up to Be a Clean Sweep': Sanders-Backed Candidates Prevail in Tuesday Primaries | Common Dreams - "Sanders has said his endorsements are about “building a movement for the future” capable of not just taking on the GOP, but also the Democratic Party establishment."

Adam Hamawy NJ-12, Analilia Mejia NJ-11, Randy Villegas CA-22, Sam Forstag MT-01.

It shows the utter lack of judgment of Bernie Sanders that he endorsed the terrorist supporter Hamawy. He used to be better, but changed for the worse after 2016.

 

[ZiprHead]

AIPAC supported NY-13 Adriano Espaillat, and Darializa Chevalier made a big issue out of that support, but DC was also supported by some big PAC's, like Justice Democrats and "American Priorities", reportedly supported by anti-AIPAC Muslim business leaders.

It's pretty hypocritical to decry AIPAC but support a Palestinian/Islamic SuperPAC.

Can you name this Palestinian/Islamic SuperPAC?

AIPAC also supported NY-10 Dan Goldman, something that Brad Lander attacked him for.

He too is fine with being supported by the Muslim SuperPAC. What a traitor.

Makes one a traitor??? Excuse me, Derec, but your bigotry is showing.

 

[lpetrich]

Something I'm catching up on: Three Traps for Zohran - also relevant for similar candidates.

First discussing India Walton, who primaried Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in 2021, only to be defeated by him doing a write-in campaign with the help of big donors and the Republican Party. "Back in 2021, the establishment strategy against her was to invent an endless series of supposed scandals and force her to address those instead of her actual policy agenda, thus robbing her of momentum." Like

(Byron) Brown successfully turned the election debate to the petty personal mistakes of Walton, a woman who became a working mother as a teen, before becoming a nurse: she was charged with $295 worth of food stamp fraud in 2003; she owed $749 in back taxes in 2004; she was stopped for driving with a suspended license; she visited her cousin before he went to jail; she failed to show up for a court summons sent to the wrong address; she wrote a rude Facebook post; and her car was towed just last month over unpaid parking tickets.

The news media was gleeful about these scandals.

There was a distinct note of sexism in the focus on politically irrelevant facts like her becoming a mother as a teenager, and the fixation on her supposed benefits fraud—she says she just made a mistake reporting her income one year, and paid back the extra $295 in food stamps—evoked the ugliest Reagan-era stereotypes about Black “welfare queens.” And that wasn’t the worst of it. At one point, the chair of the New York Democratic Party explained his refusal to endorse Walton by comparing her to a Ku Klux Klan leader, saying “[if] he wins the Democratic line, I have to endorse David Duke? I don’t think so.” To him, apparently, a socialist and a white supremacist would be equally unacceptable.

Noting She Got Ratf***ed by The Dems, Will the Same Happen to Zohran? (w/ India Walton) - YouTube

In a recent interview with Briahna Joy Gray, Walton says one of her biggest regrets is that she was too conciliatory: “I felt as if I needed to bend, and capitulate, and moderate, and become a part of the party that never wanted me in the first place, and I wish that I had stayed the course.” In an attempt to win over big business, she indicated she might support “school choice” and charter schools, angering the Buffalo teachers’ union. At one point she was persuaded to apologize for a 2020 Facebook comment where she’d called a white legislator, who made a pro-police post during the George Floyd uprising, a “tender [expletive] white man.” But making concessions doesn’t placate your opponents. It only emboldens them to make more attacks and demand more concessions, because it worked once, and they can reasonably expect it’ll work again. It makes you look weak. It was the same with Jeremy Corbyn, who tried his best to make peace with the people who slandered him as an antisemite, always apologizing for this or that. It only served to validate the accusation in the public’s eyes, and he lost ground each time. By contrast, one of Donald Trump’s rules for political victory is to never, ever apologize or admit wrongdoing, and it’s worked out beautifully for him. He can do and say the most outrageous things imaginable, and it all rolls off him. Tactically, Mamdani needs to be more Trump than Walton or Corbyn.

Which he has been. More recently, both Graham Platner and Darializa Avila Chevalier have survived some of the more extreme statements and actions in their pasts.

Then Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

But there’s a difference between getting elected and achieving your goals, and the mayorship of a major U.S. city can easily become a toxic job where the incumbent is blamed for everything wrong in town. Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson has been finding that out.

Then former US President Barack Obama. Like Zohran Mamdani, he has an odd name, and both ZM and BO were labeled Communists and radical Islamists. His campaigners also recruited an impressive number of campaign volunteers. After he was elected, it was a different story.

But he sold off every principle he ever claimed to have, one by one. The bankers responsible for the 2008 crash were never prosecuted; card check never happened; Gitmo was never closed; the bullets and bombs to Israel flowed unabated, and the Obama volunteer force was quietly dismantled, never to be used again.

I recall from somewhere that his campaigners had to rebuild his volunteer force for 2012.

What made him such a big sellout?

This is the greatest risk for Mamdani: not that New York’s financial and political elite will defeat him, but that they’ll seduce him to their way of thinking, and slowly, by degrees, make him just another normal Democrat. That in time, he may betray his supporters and himself. The offer would be presented subtly, in the name of “compromise” and “bipartisanship” and “trade-offs.” He’d be given cooperation from top Democrats like Governor Hochul, from the so-called “business community,” and from the NYPD if he softens his positions, with the threat of capital strikes and police opposition always waiting in reserve if he balks. We’ve seen this kind of thing countless times. Along with Obama, the transformation of John Fetterman from jovial champion of organized labor to sadistic war-crime cheerleader comes to mind. Even AOC allowed herself to be taken in by the Biden-Harris administration, and to be made the mouthpiece for their lies about “working tirelessly for a ceasefire.”

We may also add Kyrsten Sinema.

 

[Derec]

Can you name this Palestinian/Islamic SuperPAC?

They call themselves "American Priorities", and lpetrich also mentioned them in post #389.

Makes one a traitor??? Excuse me, Derec, but your bigotry is showing.

What bigotry?

 

[ZiprHead]

Can you name this Palestinian/Islamic SuperPAC?

They call themselves "American Priorities", and lpetrich also mentioned them in post #389.

Makes one a traitor??? Excuse me, Derec, but your bigotry is showing.

What bigotry?