RationalWiki:What is going on with the elections?/July 2016

July 2016
Support for Scottish independence hasn't increased since Brexit. Why Hillary's nomination is important even though you may disagree with her. Tom Donohue and Jennifer Pierotti, two lobbyists at the Chamber of Commerce, believe Hillary Clinton will support the TPP. Hillary Clinton's campaign was also hacked during the cyberattack against the Democrats. Clinton's Vice-Presidential pick Tim Kaine is against repealing the Hyde amendment. A federal appeals court has struck down North Carolina's voter ID law. Clintonite Democrats open the campaign funding floodgates to lobbyists. Jill Stein makes a mockery of her professional title by suggesting "people have real questions" about vaccines. Leon Panetta was heckled by anti-war protestors at the Democratic convention. Trump Campaign will not release Trump's taxes (Autoplay video). This makes him the first major party nominee to not release his tax returns since Tricky Dick. There is nothing unprecedented about the Russians hacking the DNC. The DNC is one big corporate bribe. Give Bernie's distraught supporters a break. Dem convention chaos: Yes, Sanders's delegates staged a walkout after Clinton became the nominee. No, Nina Turner wasn't ejected but she was mistreated. No, this is not 1968 all over again. Feelings trump facts at the Republican ultra National ist Convention. Surprise! Samantha Bee on the Twilight of the gods GOP. Hillary Clinton secures the Democratic nomination. George Will, long time GOP columnist, suggests Trump is hiding his tax returns so as not to reveal how much he owes Russian oligarchs and bankers. The DNC has voted to keep the superdelegates but will reduce their independence. Leaked DNC emails reveal the inner workings of the party’s finance operation. Trump's convention speech previewed the future of fascism. Mounting evidence that Russia was behind the DNC hack, and they're doing it specifically to help Trump. I'm sure his anti-NATO stance is a complete coincidence. Obama's estranged half-brother will vote for Trump because he's unhappy with his brother's leadership. The very important reasons he cites for endorsing Trump are that he's "down to earth", "speaks from the heart" and is anti-PC. CNN Poll after RNC: Donald Trump 44%, Hillary Clinton 39%, Gary Johnson 9%, Jill Stein 3%. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has resigned. Update: Clinton's response, "You're hired". Prior to his selection as Clinton's VP, Kaine sent two letters pushing for financial deregulation, praised the TPP and voted to fast track it. He has an anti-labor record. Tim Kaine's governor campaign slogan was "I'm conservative." Right-wing moll Phyllis Schlafly says there's no need for a female President, because [http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/07/phyllis-schlafly-no-need-for-a-female-president.html "our greatest presidents have all been men." Somebody should tell the crone that ALL the Presidents have been men.] Thanks to Tim Kaine's past as a civil rights lawyer and a well respected white mayor of a black city he also has support among black voters and his pick has already secured Virignia in the General Election. Tim Kaine's voting record: Planned Parenthood: 100%; Brady Campaign: 100%; NARAL: 100%; Human Rights Campaign "HRC", get it?: 100%; AFL/CIO: 94%. Tim Kaine is already driving a wedge into the GOP. Turns out it's hard for establishment Republicans to badmouth a highly respected senator. With this Kaine also positions himself as the sort of person who will help Hillary forge good deals with Congress and pass good legislation. Wikileaks releases 20,000 hacked DNC emails. The release has so far only revealed tons of credit card and Social Security numbers. Update: One of these, however, might indicate that the DNC was biased in favor of Hillary Clinton. Another reveals that Sander's campaign was a mess as DWS had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they'd either ignored or forgotten to something critical. Further emails reveal that Kenneth Vogel, Politco's chief investigate reporter, made an agreement to send advanced Clinton story to DNC, that DWS put pressure on MSNBC to censor itself after they criticized her treament of Sanders, that the DNC leaked a letter from Sanders, that Super PACS were paying young voters to push back against Sanders supporters online. TL;DR: There was bias but no conspiracy. Russia may be involved. The Virginia Supreme Court has overturned the governor's order to enfranchise felons. Hillary Clinton has confirmed Tim Kaine as her VP pick. Don't be shocked by Donald Trump. David Duke announces his run for the US senate in Louisiana while being overjoyed about Trump and "many Americans" embracing the issues he championed for years and pledges to stop the "massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America " white people. A fact-check of Donald Trump's RNC speech. For whom still believes the DNC wasn't actually anti-Bernie: they plotted on using his religion against him. (More anti-Bernie schenanigans by the DNC here.) Trump family would get $7 billion from his plan to eliminate the estate tax. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-johnson-ad-buy_us_578fdbe0e4b00c9876cdd156? The Koch brothers have pulled $2.2 million dollars from Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson campaign in retaliation for his support for Trump.] Laurie Penny attended Milo's Twinks for Trump party at the RNC so you didn't have to. "Since that day, there is absolutely nothing I have been able to say to Milo to persuade him that we are not friends." [http://giphy.com/gifs/election2016-rnc-election-2016-republican-national-convention-l0Hlvh1us2dpuNglO Goodness, Laura... if you really wanna do that, use your left arm instead!] "I want to see the principles our party believes prevail in November." Cruz gives Trump a non-endorsement and gets booed off the stage Trump plans to delegate all of his domestic and foreign responsibilities to his VP if he is elected president. Because that worked so well the last time. Nate Silver: Clinton's lead is as safe as Kerry's was in 2004. (And safer than Obama's was in 2012, but that wouldn't get as many clicks.) Trump currently has a 38% chance of winning the election (polls-plus forecast). Millenials strongly prefer Clinton over Trump but 60% of them disapprove of her. This is a continuing trend with Clinton's candidacy as her disapproval ratings hit a record high. Fresh statistics reveal that Gary Johnson is polling at 13%. Not a politician, but their spouse. Melania Trump copied and pasted passages in her speech at RNC from Michelle Obama's at the DNC in 2008. Tony Schwartz, co- author of The Art of the Deal: [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all yeah, Trump is a sociopath. Sorry for helping craft his image.] Bernie Sanders:"My job is to make sure Hillary Clinton is elected president" Most Americans fear election of Clinton or Trump. The GOP has adopted Trump's platform positions on building a physical wall on the US-Mexico border and impose "special scrutiny" on foreign nationals seeking to enter the US from countries with Islamic terrorism. Peter Thiel will also speak at the Republican convention, here is how his policy views align with Trump's. Donald Trump's VP, Mike Pence, was responsible for one of the nation's most restrictive anti-abortion laws. When he ran for a seat in the House of Representatives he promised to cut funding for HIV funding in order to fund anti-LGBT education. Trump's VP selection was the usual unorganized disaster, with Trump initially denying his decision after it was leaked, and even phoning up people and asking if it was too late to change his mind. Bernie Sanders will launch organizations to spread his progressive message. (Autoplay video) Clinton Calms Silicon Valley’s Worries, Promises To Preserve High-Skill Visas. In other news, Trump has edge in key states. The Great Republican Crack-up. A VP pick means a new campaign logo, and, uhh, well, you can't say it doesn't represent Pence's "job", if you will. Trump picks Mike "But cigarettes don't really kill you, right?" Pence as his VP running mate. Staunch Obama critic and Sanders appointee on the DNC platform committee, Cornel West, decides to support Jill Stein for president. No comment necessary: polls in Ohio and Pennsylvania show Trump with 0% support from blacks. In preparation for the Republican convention, Cleveland bought 2,000 sets of riot gear, 2,000 steel batons, and surveillance equipment. Donald Trump has allegedly picked Indiana governor Mike Pence as his choice for vice president. UPDATE: Pence confirmed as Trump's Vpprentice [http://time.com/4402823/glaude-hillary-clinton/? My Democratic problem with voting for Hillary Clinton] A policy committee for God's Only Party has voted down platform provisions that would have overturned their support for traditional marriage, bans on LGBT adoption, and trans bathroom bans. Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition has won Japan's upper house in a landslide election. This makes changing Japan's pacifistic constitution more likely. [http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/index.html Bernie Sanders officially endorses Hillary Clinton for President and start the hashtag #Stronger Together. (Autoplay Video)] And then there was one: Andrea "who?" Leadsom drops out of the running. Theresa May could be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by the end of the week. Hillary and Bernie have created a new state funded college tuition plan. Newt Gingrich believes that it is harder to be black person than white person in America. There is still widespread dissatisfaction with both US presidential candidates. Bernie Sanders argues, "The goal isn’t to win elections, the goal is to transform America" and promptly gets booed by House Democrats(?!). Bernie Sanders is "expected" to endorse Hillary Clinton next week. The Parliamentary Conservative Party has finished its leadership race for party leader and Prime Minister, ousting Michael Gove with only Home Secretary Theresa May and Climate Change Minister Andrea Leadsom remaining. 150,000 registered party members are set to decide who out of the two will take charge. Bob Corker and Joni Ernst take their names out of the running for Trump's VP. Wonder if the latest neo-Nazi retweet spooked them. Eric Trump calls up The Washington Post and rants at them about their reporting on his father's (lack of) charitable contributions. Of course, he declined to provide any information about his father's supposedly prodigious giving. Gee, I wonder what the reaction from the right would be if Chelsea Clinton yelled at a news organization about their coverage of Hillary? Trump has been praising Saddam Hussein again, continuing his pattern of praising dictators for how they "take care of" "problems". This of course has led to another round of Paul Ryan and other endorsers saying they think Trump is crazy and wrong and should be President. (Don't miss Chris Collins saying ISIS was created by Obama because Obama had no plan for Iraq after Saddam.) Alternative für Deutschland is in full-on crisis mode over one of their MPs' anti-Semitic writings. Co-leader Jörg Meuthen is leading a mass walkout. In the Australian elections, Malcolm Turnbull struggles, nobody has a clear majority and Pauline Hanson comes back as a senator. Trump meets with possible VP pick Mike Pence, Indiana's anti-gay evangelical governor. Other members of his VP contender brain trust include Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Jeff Sessions, and Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin. Trump continues to court the fascist vote, posting on Twitter an image featuring Hillary Clinton, a pile of money, and a coyly-placed Star of David. The image was later deleted and replaced with the Star of David removed. Update: the image came from 8chan's /pol/. Trump's campaign apparently knows who his fans are. The U.S. political media has been going nuts after Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch ran into each other at the Phoenix airport and talked. While some reasonable criticism has been made that the Clintons and Obama administration should try harder to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the right wing of course sees this as more proof of the Obama-Clinton conspiracy. The Austrian Constitutional Court has ruled that the presidential elections must be held again, giving the far-right Freedom Party another chance to win. Workers strike at Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The latest Trumpalooza news: another one of Trump's scams used plagiarized materials. Also Trump has been lying for decades about donating to charity. None of this will matter to Trump supporters, because they're really members of an incipient neo-fascist movement, and Trump is just a figurehead. Meet Misty Snow, Democratic Senate nominee from Utah and the US's first transgender candidate. You're welcome Brits: Leave campaign's biggest donor hired U.S. firm to help with campaign. Their advice: "facts don't work." Pro-Clinton Democrats are confused about Sanders's endgame. Trump is illegally sending fundraising emails to elected officials in multiple foreign countries. Hillary sold an intelligence board seat to a rich donor.