Politics: November 2024 Archives
The Affordable Housing Crisis May Have Cost Us An Election | by Kenya Gibson | Nov, 2024 | Medium
A grassroots Democrat city councilor in Richmond, Virginia, writes that Democrat databases are not keeping up with voters displaced by gentrification: "Software company NGP VAN, in partnership with the Democratic party, sells access to voter databases. NGP VAN is extremely costly and impacts crucial races nationwide. Because they are effectively a monopoly, when NGP VAN makes cuts to help their bottom line, their decisions could have massive implications on our national democracy. On numerous occasions, we personally knew people who had moved in or out of the district, and their voting address was only updated after they voted. The DNC and state parties owe it to us to audit its processes to maintain voter data and to investigate possible ramifications of NGP VAN's 2023 layoffs after their sale to a private equity firm in 2022."
dear washington DC - by el gato malo - bad cattitude
"i know A LOT of these people. this is what most of my friends are like. they learn for a living. they pull systems apart, see them as functional wholes, and work 16 hour days reading arcane 1000 page descriptions until they understand. then they pull the underwear of whoever thought they understood this material up over their heads in an atomic wedgie and take over a space. it's just what you do if you're a person like that. it's compulsion. it's like breathing.
"these are 3 and 4 and 5 standard deviation people who have focus and talent in quantities they do not even have maps of in washington....
"moving into a novel systems or spaces and becoming better at it than the people currently there is what these people do. it's ALL they do. it's who and what they are....
"DC was able to deal with people like this in the past because there were only a couple. you could isolate them and use the systems against them. this is a mob. and that's a very different thing."
U.S. Senate: About Executive Nominations | Historical Overview
A misleading quote from this article has been circulated to suggest that Senate confirmation of executive nominations is a new thing, but the article cites several examples going back to the earliest days of the republic where the Senate rebuffed the president's choice: "Nevertheless, political and partisan conflicts between the president and senators have at times produced dramatic fights over cabinet nominees and led to their ultimate withdrawal or rejection. For example, when opponents of President Andrew Jackson gained a Senate majority in 1833, the Senate rejected Jackson's choice for secretary of the treasury, Roger B. Taney. When Vice President John Tyler became president in 1841 upon the death of William Henry Harrison, he clashed with Senate Whigs, who rejected Tyler's nominees to head the Treasury, Navy, and War Departments."
Elsewhere on the Senate website is a timeline of notable confirmations and rejections, the first of which occurred in 1795, when George Washington nominated John Rutledge as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. "Rutledge thus became the first rejected Supreme Court nominee and the only one among the 15 who would gain their offices through recess appointments not to be subsequently confirmed. In turning down Rutledge, the Senate made it clear that an examination of a nominee's qualifications would include his political views."
Clinton Transition Left $15,000 Damage, GAO Says - Los Angeles Times
Remembering the petty vandalism of the 2001 "peaceful transition of power" from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush. "The GAO concluded that 'damage, theft, vandalism, and pranks did occur in the White House during the 2001 presidential transition.' The report stated that some incidents, such as removing keyboard keys, placing glue on desk drawers and leaving obscene voicemail messages 'clearly were intentional,' and intentional damage would constitute a criminal act under federal law. No prosecutions are planned, though."
Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
A tremendous resources that has been around since the early days of the World Wide Web, and continually expanded and updated. Great for visualizing political shifts over time. Please be aware that Mr. Leip uses the traditional convention of coloring the more socialist/leftist party red and the conservative/right-wing party blue, as he explains in the FAQ.
