On Deck: 2022

[lpetrich]

Jane Mayer on Twitter: "One billionaire with an inherited fortune accounts for half the spending behind the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate. He also secretly funded the lawsuit giving the GOP more gerrymandered districts. via ⁦@nytimes⁩ (link)" / Twitter
noting
Ronald Lauder: New York’s Billionaire Political Disrupter - The New York Times - "The cosmetics heir has pumped at least $11 million into efforts to elect Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican, as governor of New York."

Ronald S. Lauder, a 78-year-old cosmetics heir, philanthropist and art collector who is among the richest men in New York, has become the most prolific state political donor in memory this fall, fueling a Republican’s surging candidacy for governor in one of the country’s most liberal states.

Mr. Lauder has long been a gale-force disrupter, throwing millions of dollars behind conservative causes and candidates, including creating term limits in New York City and even his own failed mayoral campaign. Now at the twilight of his public life, he is marshaling his multibillion-dollar fortune behind an extraordinary intervention into this week’s midterm elections.

As a lead donor to two super PACs, he has spent more than $11 million to date trying to put Representative Lee Zeldin, a Trump-aligned Republican, in the governor’s mansion. Millions of dollars more, some of it not previously reported, have gone to successful legal and public relations campaigns to stop Democrats from gerrymandering the state’s congressional districts.

The Republican surge in contests across left-leaning New York can be traced to myriad factors, from rising crime to lackluster Democratic enthusiasm and the usual midterm backlash.

But there is little doubt that Mr. Lauder has single-handedly tilted the playing field for his party. Since he began spending on a barrage of attack ads, Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Democratic incumbent, has watched polling and fund-raising advantages that once looked insurmountable dwindle. And Democrats fighting to hold the House of Representatives have seen their blue firewall crumble.

 

[lpetrich]

Why does he do that?

But in a rare sit-down interview last week, Mr. Lauder said his overriding goal was straightforward, even selfless: He fears rising crime is driving people from the city, and wants to capitalize on an unusually favorable political climate to try to revive New York’s moribund Republican Party after years of losses.

“I’m no ogre,” he said, over tea at Café Sabarsky, a Viennese-style cafe in the Neue Galerie, his Upper East Side museum devoted to the culture of prewar Austria and Germany, another of his lifelong, and costly, passions.

“It’s a question of one thing I believe in, always have,” he continued. “I want two parties. I want a Republican and a Democratic Party. When you have just one party, I believe things go wrong.”

Just like all those Republicans who campaign on wanting "balance". Which Democrats do they support to create balance in Republican-dominated areas?

Mr. Zeldin’s campaign declined to comment for this story, but he has welcomed the super PACs’ support in the past and encouraged large donors to follow Mr. Lauder’s lead. And as Republican spending has ramped up, wealthy donors and labor unions have raced to fund their own pro-Hochul super PACs, albeit at a fraction of the size.

Mr. Lauder’s efforts have not been limited to individual candidates. Last year, he bankrolled a $3 million campaign by the state’s Conservative Party to defeat three constitutional amendments that would have lowered barriers to vote but would also have made it easier for Democrats to gerrymander congressional maps this year.

Later, after Democrats in Albany pushed through maps favoring their party, Mr. Lauder quietly put up money to sue, helping convince other donors to join him. His funding has not been previously reported.

 

[lpetrich]

In 1993, he mounted a successful campaign to impose a limit of two four-year terms on New York City politicians, to their nagging chagrin. (In 2008, he briefly reversed himself and gave his blessing to Michael R. Bloomberg, a fellow billionaire, to seek a third term as mayor.)

Despite his willingness to back Republican causes, Mr. Lauder’s own politics do not neatly align with his party’s, or with Mr. Zeldin’s. He said he supports “a woman’s right to choose,” while Mr. Zeldin has long sought to limit abortion rights.

In Mr. Lauder’s view, he is more of political outsider — a remnant of a once thriving strain of moderate Rockefeller Republicanism.

But he ought to finance the rebuilding of such moderate Republicanism rather than go along with that party in its current form.

But some around Mr. Lauder have another, less charitable theory for what is driving his push to elect Mr. Zeldin. For years now, Mr. Lauder and his wealthy neighbors in Wainscott, a hamlet in the Hamptons, have been fighting to stop the state from allowing a wind-powered transmission cable to run near their properties.

Kathy Hochul on him:

“It’s not a beef. It’s what he’s going to get in return,” she said, citing Mr. Zeldin’s promise to slash taxes, including on large estates. “Ron Lauder is going to get a lot more than a thank-you note from Lee Zeldin.”

 

[Elixir]

The truly terrible beauty of the Republicans' fascist anti-truth campaign is that even pointing out what they are doing gives perverse validation to their lies. So many shenanigans going on, I'm sure a "normal" person with a life outside of politics has plenty of reason to believe the electoral system is corrupt, given that both sides say so.

 

[lpetrich]

Fueled by Billionaires, Political Spending Shatters Records Again - The New York Times - "In the money race between America’s billionaires and small donors, the emerging political oligarchy is showing staying power. Both parties have megadonors, but Republicans have far more."

Fueled by an expanding class of billionaires, political spending on the 2022 midterm elections will shatter records at the state and federal levels, with much of it from largely unregulated super PACs financed with enormous checks written mainly by Republican megadonors.

“We’ve broken records with our broken records,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the nonpartisan Open Secrets, which estimated on Thursday that total spending in 2021 and 2022 would reach $16.7 billion when tallied after Election Day, easily surpassing the previous midterm record of $14 billion set in 2018.

...
The American campaign finance system increasingly mirrors American society, with hundreds of thousands of small donors trying to keep pace with a billionaire class whose spending appears nimble and bottomless.

...
While both parties have their billionaires, Republicans have many more. Of the 25 top donors this cycle, 18 are Republican, according to Open Secrets, and they have outspent Democrats by $200 million. Billionaires make up 20 percent of total Republican donations compared with 14.5 percent of Democratic donations.

Among the contributors on the Democratic side is favorite right-wing villain George Soros.

The largest donor of 2022, by far, was a Democrat, George Soros, whose contributions of at least $126 million were nearly double the roughly $67 million that the next two largest donors, the Republicans Richard Uihlein and Kenneth C. Griffin, ponied up each.

But the Soros total is deceptive. Virtually all of Mr. Soros’s contributions, $125 million, went to his political action committee, Democracy PAC, which in turn disbursed only a small fraction of it, about $15 million.

In contrast, the $135 million from Mr. Uihlein, head of the Uline packaging giant, and Mr. Griffin, founder of Citadel, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, has flooded the Republican ecosystem with political advertising that may soon help secure Republican control of Congress.

Former NYC mayor and Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is another big giver, having given $70 million to Democratic candidates so far.

 

[ZiprHead]

MSN

Zahra, then a 23-year-old small-business owner who was a little more than a year away from enrolling in law school, is now a state judge and up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court.

“I’m grateful I had a choice, and I think he’s grateful he had a choice,” Jones said in an interview.

In early September, thirty-nine years after Jones says she terminated the pregnancy, Zahra voted to block a ballot initiative — known as Proposal 3 — that would enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, arguing in a dissenting opinion that insufficient spacing between some words on the petition rendered it incompatible with Michigan law.

"Choice for me but not for thee" is the GOP view on abortion. This hypocrisy comes as no surprise.

Evidently you don't understand what hypocrisy is. Zahra did not author or endorse legislation that made abortion in Michigan illegal (it is currently legal). Nor indeed did he dissent on ideological grounds, but on the legal propriety of the initiative as proposed.

The majority of the other members of the court disagreed.

 

[Metaphor]

MSN

Zahra, then a 23-year-old small-business owner who was a little more than a year away from enrolling in law school, is now a state judge and up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court.

“I’m grateful I had a choice, and I think he’s grateful he had a choice,” Jones said in an interview.

In early September, thirty-nine years after Jones says she terminated the pregnancy, Zahra voted to block a ballot initiative — known as Proposal 3 — that would enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, arguing in a dissenting opinion that insufficient spacing between some words on the petition rendered it incompatible with Michigan law.

"Choice for me but not for thee" is the GOP view on abortion. This hypocrisy comes as no surprise.

Evidently you don't understand what hypocrisy is. Zahra did not author or endorse legislation that made abortion in Michigan illegal (it is currently legal). Nor indeed did he dissent on ideological grounds, but on the legal propriety of the initiative as proposed.

The majority of the other members of the court disagreed.

...so?

Are you now making an appeal to popularity? So, you agree that the SCOTUS used correct legal reasoning to overturn Roe v Wade, and the three dissenting justices were all wrong?

 

[lpetrich]

(oops)

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

GOP suing in battleground states to kill ballots here and there.

In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has agreed with the Republican National Committee that election officials should not count ballots on which the voter neglected to put a date on the outer envelope — even in cases when the ballots arrive before Election Day. Thousands of ballots have been set aside as a result, enough to swing a close race.

In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, sued the top election official in Detroit last month, seeking to toss absentee ballots not cast in person with an ID, even though that runs contrary to state requirements. When asked in a recent court hearing, Karamo’s lawyer declined to say why the suit targets Detroit, a heavily Democratic, majority-Black city, and not the entire state.

And in Wisconsin, Republicans won a court ruling that will prevent some mail ballots from being counted when the required witness address is not complete.

In some cases targeting specific voting areas, in others scrounging for technicalities to get to toss out ballots. We are on the edge of elections being formalities for the GOP to maintain power.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Well, it is up to minorities and woman to again save America from white men (particularly the apparently numerous evangelical/racist ones). Women, need to vote if they want their rights to their reproductive system, because the apparently numerous evangelical/racist white males don't want them to have those rights, and enough other conservatives just don't care about it enough to ponder voting outside of their petty self interests.

African Americans and Hispanics got Biden elected. African Americans won Biden the Senate. So, it can happen, and in unusual places, but let it be clear... if women and minorities do not make their voice heard with the ballot, those elected will gleefully cede your rights and rewrite our history (preferring to leave you out of it).

No pressure.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

MSN

Zahra, then a 23-year-old small-business owner who was a little more than a year away from enrolling in law school, is now a state judge and up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court.

“I’m grateful I had a choice, and I think he’s grateful he had a choice,” Jones said in an interview.

In early September, thirty-nine years after Jones says she terminated the pregnancy, Zahra voted to block a ballot initiative — known as Proposal 3 — that would enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, arguing in a dissenting opinion that insufficient spacing between some words on the petition rendered it incompatible with Michigan law.

"Choice for me but not for thee" is the GOP view on abortion. This hypocrisy comes as no surprise.

Evidently you don't understand what hypocrisy is. Zahra did not author or endorse legislation that made abortion in Michigan illegal (it is currently legal). Nor indeed did he dissent on ideological grounds, but on the legal propriety of the initiative as proposed.

The majority of the other members of the court disagreed.

...so?

Are you now making an appeal to popularity? So, you agree that the SCOTUS used correct legal reasoning to overturn Roe v Wade, and the three dissenting justices were all wrong?

No, they believe that a woman's right to self-autonomy and herself aren't ceded at birth. SCOTUS agreed to this, including some quite conservative Justices like Kennedy and O'Connor. Souter and Stevens as well, who were moderates. A woman's right to self-autonomy, especially regarding her own body, shouldn't be at the whim of hyper partisans.

And it has gotten ridiculously cliché to read and hear about how evangelical or conservatives rail against abortion rights, when they've taken advantage of abortion in the past to make their own lives more convenient. It is probably why the speak of "abortion on demand", as it is the only way they are familiar with it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

And in Ohio, this is my district now. One of the only competitive ones left. It is Emelia Sykes, family political daughter who has been stepping up the electoral ladder over time, current in the state Legislature. She faces Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, a conservative AOC... who... like AOC seems to be very attractive and have absolutely no qualifications for the job, but unlike AOC, doesn't seem to have charisma and isn't seen much. She also seems to lack a plan... other than Dems bad, Trump good.

The ads against Sykes have been great, including how she lets criminals out because of bail reform and therefore you are going to die, and she raised the gas tax (like any person that voted for the Ohio budget that was negotiated between the conservatives and the hyper conservatives in the Legislature, that isn't an exaggeration). Crime and inflation. Again, the conservatives are certain we live in Gomorrah these days regarding crime. And of course, as we see at this web board, conservatives don't know shit about inflation... or current events regarding inflation both domestically and abroad. Commercials against Madison are brief, seeing she has no like... history. She posted on Twitter I guess. But it has been heavy on abortion... again 3-1 to 4-1 sort of return on that type of voter. So, streaming with ads at my home, even the ICC Cricket World Cup, many many ads.

This could help provide a canary feel. Our district has a strong Democrat influence, but it was overlapped with a good deal of conservative territory. Not quite south of the Mason-Dixon line... that'd be between Akron and Canton/south (minus Canton).

 

[Metaphor]

MSN

Zahra, then a 23-year-old small-business owner who was a little more than a year away from enrolling in law school, is now a state judge and up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court.

“I’m grateful I had a choice, and I think he’s grateful he had a choice,” Jones said in an interview.

In early September, thirty-nine years after Jones says she terminated the pregnancy, Zahra voted to block a ballot initiative — known as Proposal 3 — that would enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, arguing in a dissenting opinion that insufficient spacing between some words on the petition rendered it incompatible with Michigan law.

"Choice for me but not for thee" is the GOP view on abortion. This hypocrisy comes as no surprise.

Evidently you don't understand what hypocrisy is. Zahra did not author or endorse legislation that made abortion in Michigan illegal (it is currently legal). Nor indeed did he dissent on ideological grounds, but on the legal propriety of the initiative as proposed.

The majority of the other members of the court disagreed.

...so?

Are you now making an appeal to popularity? So, you agree that the SCOTUS used correct legal reasoning to overturn Roe v Wade, and the three dissenting justices were all wrong?

No, they believe that a woman's right to self-autonomy and herself aren't ceded at birth. SCOTUS agreed to this, including some quite conservative Justices like Kennedy and O'Connor. Souter and Stevens as well, who were moderates. A woman's right to self-autonomy, especially regarding her own body, shouldn't be at the whim of hyper partisans.

And it has gotten ridiculously cliché to read and hear about how evangelical or conservatives rail against abortion rights, when they've taken advantage of abortion in the past to make their own lives more convenient. It is probably why the speak of "abortion on demand", as it is the only way they are familiar with it.

You've really missed the point. ZiprHead made an appeal to popularity to say Zahra's legal reasoning was wrong and the majority correct, but he would not condone any such appeal to popularity to call the majority on the Dobbs decision correct.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Evidently you don't understand what hypocrisy is. Zahra did not author or endorse legislation that made abortion in Michigan illegal (it is currently legal). Nor indeed did he dissent on ideological grounds, but on the legal propriety of the initiative as proposed.

The majority of the other members of the court disagreed.

...so?

Are you now making an appeal to popularity? So, you agree that the SCOTUS used correct legal reasoning to overturn Roe v Wade, and the three dissenting justices were all wrong?

No, they believe that a woman's right to self-autonomy and herself aren't ceded at birth. SCOTUS agreed to this, including some quite conservative Justices like Kennedy and O'Connor. Souter and Stevens as well, who were moderates. A woman's right to self-autonomy, especially regarding her own body, shouldn't be at the whim of hyper partisans.

And it has gotten ridiculously cliché to read and hear about how evangelical or conservatives rail against abortion rights, when they've taken advantage of abortion in the past to make their own lives more convenient. It is probably why the speak of "abortion on demand", as it is the only way they are familiar with it.

You've really missed the point. ZiprHead made an appeal to popularity to say Zahra's legal reasoning was wrong and the majority correct, but he would not condone any such appeal to popularity to call the majority on the Dobbs decision correct.

That'd be accurate on your part and you'll always have that technicality to hang your hat on.

I mean, the more important problem is the real world issues that this post Dobbs nation we have going on right now (and that I raised), but you'll always have that technicality. Kudos. You win Internet for the day. Yes, some women are needing to illicitly get access to emergency birth control, but their lives and struggle against actual governmental tyranny really don't matter as much as a "You were wrong" on the web board. Didn't mean to steal your thunder.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Meanwhile in Michigan where the GOP candidate for Secretary of State wanted to eliminate the absentee ballots in Detroit....

In a strongly worded opinion, a Michigan judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Republican candidate for secretary of state that sought to disqualify Detroit absentee ballots not cast in person with identification.

“Plaintiffs’ failure to produce any evidence that the procedures for this Nov. 8 election violates state or federal election law demonizes the Detroit City Clerk, her office staff, and the 1,200 volunteers working this election,” wrote state Circuit Court Judge Timothy M. Kenny in a 24-page opinion.

The lawsuit, filed just two weeks before the election, alleged massive voter fraud in Detroit and sought to require city residents to vote in person or get absentee ballots in person. The lawsuit initially asked that the Detroit election officials stop accepting absentee ballots returned by mail and stop counting ballots in drop boxes that the lawsuit claimed were “not effectively monitored.”

This person is running to be able to thumb the scale on elections! Continuing to provide a narrative for the MAGA clones to drool over how the elections are faked. To help justify some pretty nasty stuff in the near future.

I wish this was hyperbole. I sound like a 9/11 CT'er. But these Republicans are pushing to invalidate elections in general.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Time from the Q&A Bag:

Q: Now that you've effectively taken every possible decision, are we supposed to be awed by your greatness?
A: Firstly, there are several positions I haven't taken, including weremole invasion, Sun blackout, and parlay. Secondly, the awe is expected regardless.

Q: I've read that early voting has been high. What does this indicate?
A: Nothing.

Q: Really?
A: Yup.

Q: So nothing at all?
A: Sorry.

Q; Exhaust pipe or razor blade?
A: That more depends on how your feel about seeing blood.

Well, that's all the time I have. Enjoy Election Day everyone. It might be our last that matters for a while.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

FUCK!!!!

Under pressure from a Republican lawsuit, Philadelphia officials decided early Tuesday morning to reinstate a time-consuming process meant to prevent double voting, a move that is expected to delay the city’s ability to report a final tally — perhaps by a matter of days.

The move comes as election officials in Pennsylvania and other swing states warn that results of tight races may not be known on election night. The officials have preemptively pushed back against claims — such as those wielded by President Donald Trump after the 2020 election — that delays are a sign of fraud or nefarious activity.

Yes, a stupid technicality that means nothing (but the GOP wants to stop counting as many votes as possible) could potentially make PA unknown for a while, seeing that 1/3 of the Democrats live around it.

 

[ZiprHead]

FUCK!!!!

Under pressure from a Republican lawsuit, Philadelphia officials decided early Tuesday morning to reinstate a time-consuming process meant to prevent double voting, a move that is expected to delay the city’s ability to report a final tally — perhaps by a matter of days.

The move comes as election officials in Pennsylvania and other swing states warn that results of tight races may not be known on election night. The officials have preemptively pushed back against claims — such as those wielded by President Donald Trump after the 2020 election — that delays are a sign of fraud or nefarious activity.

Yes, a stupid technicality that means nothing (but the GOP wants to stop counting as many votes as possible) could potentially make PA unknown for a while, seeing that 1/3 of the Democrats live around it.

I don't think we'll find out much of anything tonight.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Idiots in Ohio reluctantly vote for JD Vance for US Senate in support of desire of statewide ban for abortion. Editors note, US Senators don't pass state legislation.

Mary and Jeff King, registered Independents, voted for J.D. Vance in the Republican race for Senate in Steubenville, Ohio.

“Unfortunately, because he’s a liar. We didn’t vote for him in the primary. I don’t think he’ll live up to any of the promises he made,” said Mary.

“It’s more important to defeat the Democrats,” said Jeff, who went on to explain that as a Catholic, the number one issue driving his vote is abortion. “I’d like to see a complete ban in Ohio.”

 

[Elixir]

One thing for certain Putin won again...

I wonder what the line was on that