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Steven Maurer

Steven Maurer's Journal
Steven Maurer's Journal
September 17, 2017

Knock Doors

And you win. Period.

Whether you win or lose a local race has very little to do with your positions. It has everything to do with introducing yourself.

Tell her to go knock doors.

Go to the state party. Get VAN access. Cut turf. Have her go to every Democrat and Independent's house. Wear out a pair of walking shoes.

She should have a little script. Maybe something like this.

<Ding><Dong> "Hi, my name is <mopinko's sister>. I'm running for <local office>, which is an election coming up. Because I want to be your representative on <county commission/state house/local city board>, I thought it would be rather unique if I asked people about what they want to see in the local metro area.

If you had one thing that you really want addressed around here, your #1 issue, what would it be?"

Smile. Have a pleasant chat.


By the way, you can canvass for her, just say you're canvassing on her behalf. List everything she's looking to do. Print up fliers for when people aren't home.

I've helped put three people in our local Legislature doing this through the summer. It works.

July 18, 2017

Its Time for Hillary Clinton to Gracefully Bow Out of Public Life, Along with All Other Women

You won’t find a bigger supporter of Hillary Clinton than me. Sure, I stumped for Barack Obama in 2008, and for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primary, but I have always been steadfast in my belief that Hillary Rodham Clinton had the judgment and experience to be Commander-in-Chief of the United States (unless there were some technical way in which Bernie Sanders could still pull it off).

So it is as one of Clinton’s biggest supporters that I say to her now: your work here is done. It is time for Hillary Clinton to disappear from our magazine covers and our television screens, and gracefully retire from public life. Ideally, taking all other women with her.

This is about moving forward, and how are we supposed to do that when we’re hamstrung by symbols of past failures, like Hillary Clinton, or Geraldine from human resources, who makes a federal case out of every bad joke around the water cooler? Let’s save the investigating for private e-mail servers, O.K., Geraldine? There are still a lot of unanswered questions there.


http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/its-time-for-hillary-clinton-to-gracefully-bow-out-of-public-life-along-with-all-other-women

May 24, 2017

No, Liberals Are Not Falling for Conspiracy Theories Just Like Conservatives Do

https://newrepublic.com/article/142828/no-liberals-not-falling-conspiracy-theories-just-like-conservatives

Senator Ed Markey went on CNN earlier this month and appeared to break major news in the investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia. “There are very strong allegations the Russians had relationships with people inside of the Trump campaign,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. “In fact, subpoenas have now been issued in northern Virginia with regard to General Flynn and General Flynn’s associates. A grand jury has been empaneled up in New York.” While it was known that federal prosecutors in Virginia had subpoenaed associates of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, the grand jury investigation was news to political reporters who were watching. Fake news, it turned out.

...

Markey’s mistake was the latest and perhaps most prominent example of the rise of conspiracy-mongering on the left, prompting some to worry that liberals are heading into the same fever swamps that have swallowed up the Republican Party. “Mensch and The Palmer Report are part of a disturbing emerging trend,” the New Republic’s Sarah Jones wrote after the Markey incident. “Liberals desperate to believe that the right conspiracy will take down Donald Trump promote their own purveyors of fake news.”

The left ought to be concerned about this trend, but some have gone so far as to apply a false equivalence to conspiracy-mongering. The Russia theories haven’t taken hold among Democrats in nearly the same way that countless right-wing theories—like those about Barack Obama or Seth Rich—have gripped the Republican imagination. That’s because the two parties are fundamentally different: Only one of them acts responsibly when faced with politically convenient, but obviously fantastic, stories.
May 9, 2017

If ever you are accused of intolerance, this is a good quote to remember

Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.

We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.


-- Karl Popper
April 27, 2017

Trump Allies with Far Right to Toss Mods Off the Island

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-allies-with-far-right-to-crush-the-moderates

Meanwhile, the President is on high single digit tweet storms over his 100 Days ego injury. Passing Trumpcare 2.0 in the House gets him something to point to that he’s accomplished during his first 100 days in office. The fact that it is highly unlikely to get through the Senate is something he’ll ignore. In any case, it’s hard to prove that it won’t pass the Senate. He’ll hold it up as an amazing achievement.

The upshot is that President Trump and House Hardliners both have fairly narrow and selfish interests in pushing this through the House, just not one tied to any likelihood of actually becoming law. But it comes at the cost of forcing moderates (who tend to be but are not all in swing districts) to vote on a bill which will haunt them when they run for reelection – even if it never becomes law.

The Democrats must scarcely be able to believe their luck. Unbridled Republican infighting and no center of gravity to bring factions to heel is leading to the best of all worlds in partisan terms. Get vulnerable Republicans to vote yes on a toxic bill even though there’s little chance the horrendous policy outcomes will ever happen. If this happens the Dems will get their cake and have it too.
April 27, 2017

REMINDER!



We have to laugh, so we do not cry.

Profile Information

Name: Steven Maurer
Gender: Do not display
Hometown: Aloha, Oregon
Home country: United States
Member since: Sat Apr 22, 2017, 02:46 PM
Number of posts: 459
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