https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/10/manchin-praying-for-end-to-50-50-senate.html

Well, Joe, so am I. I'm praying that no Republican running for the senate in 2022 wins a mid-term election. That's a big request, but it would be the absolute best thing that could happen to the country.

Next to that, I am hoping that Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida and Iowa Democrats deliver the goods. A couple of those are long shots, but in five of the six, polling data is showing Democrats running strong and ahead, or neck and neck, or winning in enough of the poll numbers to make it open to the possibility.

If that is indeed what Manchin is praying for, then he is praying to make himself and Kirsten Sinema irrelevant, and I must say, I'm praying for the same thing. And I'm contributing to that end, making phone calls on behalf of the DNC, and planning to vote to help bring that outcome to fuition. I can't imagine that's really what either of them want, given their rhetoric and their manipulative actions of the past two years, but they're thinking of their own self and their shot at getting re-elected. I wouldn't bet on the odds of that happening for either one of them at this point.

...if they get the chance.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-strange-ways-of-doing-business-in.html

I include this information as a warning. If we continue to elect right wing leadership connected to the religious right, this is what we will get. There is an appeal here to the appearance of "democratic values." But the fact of the matter is that within this particular religious denomination, control by an oligarchy is the status quo, and it always has been that way. It's a throwback to the antebellum south, to a culture and time when prestige and prominence, in the form of wealth and influence, mattered, and nothing else did. It was a society based on class, with the lower classes there to serve the wealthy and preserve the status quo, as well as someone else's wealth. That's the Southern Baptist Convention in a nutshell.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-reality-for-republican-candidates.html

In short, they're very likely not going to get control of either house of Congress, and everything that's happened to cause it, including Dobbs, can be laid at Trump's feet.

It's become apparent, with all of Trump's screaming, raging, ranting and raving about the election that he clearly lost, and the blatant ignorance he has demonstrated in what he points to as evidence that he didn't, that he doesn't understand that getting elected is a matter of getting the most votes. He leans much more to the side of those who believe that manipulating the right people will get you what you want. Why not? That's worked for him in business all his life. And this isn't a sarcastic statement, either. It's a conclusion that can be made by listening to him, if you can keep from throwing up during his rants. He doesn't think ballots matter, what matters is having enough influence or putting enough pressure on the right people to change outcomes.

So his campaign rallies and speeches and the support and publicity he puts out tends to run to the extremes he supports, mainly those whose politics are the same as his. He's all about exchanging favors, a process he calls "making deals" to gain an advantage. He doesn't follow any pattern that is aimed at expanding his voter base. He only wants a cheering crowd in increasingly smaller venues, as a backdrop for his proclamations, which now feature background music that sounds eerily like Q-Anon themes, which he buys into like a kid with an unlimited allowance in a candy store.

The more he holds rallies and campaigns for those candidates he's endorsed, the more percentage points in the polls they lose, especially among independent voters. At the beginning of this election season, the Republicans held an advantage that, combined with the gerrymandering they've done, put them in a position to take control of Congress. The Democrats faced an uphill battle. But as Trump continues to insert himself into the campaigns, in places where his endorsees won nominations, though those who won did so by very slim margins among Republicans, the Democratic party advantage grows.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/thou-shalt-not-bear-false-witnessunless.html

As we suspected all along, the case involving the football coach in Bremerton, Washington, Joseph Kennedy, wasn't about the prayer meeting itself, or his job. It was about the political publicity that it could, and now has, generated.

Kennedy sued the Bremerton school district claiming that he was fired because he refused to comply with their instructions that he should not lead a prayer meeting at the 50 yard line following games. But, here's the catch, he wasn't fired. He was suspended, with pay, received the full stipend for coaching for the season, and was offered a renewal on his contract. He no longer works for the school district as an assistant football coach, not because he was fired, as he claims, but because he never showed up to sign the contract renewal he was offered.

That wouldn't fit with the narrative that these mean, old liberals were trying to interfere with his religious freedom, even though what he was doing actually contradicted the constitution's establishment clause. But, and here's where the Supreme Court shows its incompetence and bias, he was not fired for failing to follow their directive.

and the members of his cabinet.

They must pass a basic history test in order to qualify to run for office.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/hawley-gets-f-in-history-and-theology.html

A United States Senator should know better. And if he, or she, doesn't know their history before assuming office, they need to get a crash course in it, so that they don't embarrass themselves by making statements and assumptions such as those made by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley in a recent speech, reported by the Kansas City Star.

In the theology courses I had in graduate school, it was a requirement to corroborate doctrinal claims with an accurate reference to scripture, interpreted in context and itself corroborated by at least one other Biblical reference. Hawley's statements are neither historically accurate nor consistent with any Biblical theology or doctrine. If he's as up on the law, as an attorney, as he demonstrated in this speech that he is on history and theology, then he's not a very good lawyer, either.

He's a politician who has an awful lot of contempt for the intelligence of those to whom he is speaking. He must not think they're very bright or knowledgeable. And I guess most of those in his audience probably aren't, which is why he seemed to get away with it.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/a-contrast-in-character.html

Not having lived my life under a rock, I have no frame of reference to explain anything that's led to the development of an "extreme right" with the capability of gathering the kind of support that it has. And when I run into someone I know who thinks this way, my first thought is, "How did that happen?"

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/are-we-headed-toward-1994-midterm-in.html

There's still plenty of evidence visible among Republicans in political campaigns to indicate that the outcome of the Kansas referendum on abortion rights was a lightning bolt that shocked the party to its core. The outcome defied just about every means of predicting it, including polling data and any predictable voter turnout. Both the turnout and the outcome came as a complete shock, especially to Republicans. The result has changed conventional thinking about where abortion now ranks on the scale of importance as a political issue, and how it will affect the outcome of the upcoming mid-term elections.

The GOP has invested most of its resources into a very traditional platform dependent on the long-established "trend" of the party in power losing control of Congress in the first mid-term after gaining the presidency. And earlier in the year, it appeared that the issues they've been banking on, like the economy in general, inflation in particular, might yield the traditional result, though to be honest, they really didn't have a post-Presidential election "bump" anywhere close to either the Democrats' 2006 or 2018 waves, or the notable 1994 GOP landslide following President Clinton's election.

The Dobbs decision was monumental. It has led to the voter registration advantage that was being experienced by the GOP to be wiped out, and to millions of new voters planning to head to the polls with women's rights at the top of their priority list. The President has engaged in the debate in what appears to be an incredibly effective manner which links his administration to the issue that is energizing Democrats and independents. We are seeing a presidential administration working on behalf of the people while at the same time mobilizing its political strength. Did we ever expect anything less from President Joe Biden? You'll note, from reading The Signal Press that our support for, and confidence in this President has never wavered.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/michael-gerson-in-washington-post-trump.html

Gerson says that right-wing Christian voters are attracted to Trump, not because he is some kind of virtuous example of their values, but because he's a right wing hard liner who bullies his way through the law to get what he wants and in order to get their votes, which he needs, he promises to fight their culture war for them. They don't care if most of his agenda will be to their economic disadvantage, he's agreed to appoint the judges to the federal bench that they name for him. As long as he gives them what they want, they're willing to ignore his immorality and dishonesty. And that, as far as I am concerned, says an awful lot about their faith. Being willing to throw Jesus under the bus to get a few political favors is anti-Christian.

The continued existence of a Christian presence in the United States is wholly dependent on the freedom we have under the umbrella of democracy. And the only way that umbrella will continue to exist is under the leadership of the Democratic party. Democrats will protect religious freedom as vigorously as they will defend the civil rights of all Americans. Freedom of conscience, which would be required to practice true Christian faith as opposed to the pseudo-Christian cult of Trumpism, would not exist under a white, Christian nationalist regime.

ALL elections matter, people. Get out and vote!

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/polls-lots-of-them-so-which-ones-to.html

My preference is the most recent one showing Biden at 49% job approval, opposite 57% disapproval of the orange headed buffoon.

Considering the data runs about two weeks behind the trend lines, I would say that Democrats just need to keep up the momentum, keep spending the money and keep up the pressure. The narrative has shifted from "red wave" to "the GOP is in deep trouble" and it's getting less likely that McConnell or McCarthy will be anything more than a senator and a representative that no one appreciates.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/09/we-keep-calling-it-out-white-christian.html

There are two specific examples of just exactly how this has come about. The first is the images of all of those people wearing Christian symbols, carrying crosses and banners, headed into the Capitol on January 6th, some even pausing to pray, intent on overturning a legitimate election and the authority of Congress, which two of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, both make clear is authority "established by God." So in effect, according to the Christian scriptures, the insurgents who were involved in the January 6th act of sedition against the United States were rebelling against the very authority of God himself.

The other is the influence that an immoral, adulterous, sexually abusive, potty-mouthed, morally bankrupt, completely corrupt, pathological liar has over those among Evangelical Christians who are politically engaged on the right. They give him a measure of loyalty that nullifies their claims of being loyal to Christ and faithful to God, because that is what he demands from them. The incongruity that exists between Trumpism and Christianity is blasphemous, according to the Christian scripture. AS the Bible says, salt water and fresh water cannot come from the same spring. Christ cannot be served along with Belial. Loyalty cannot be given to a man whose lifestyle is exactly the opposite of that required of practicing Christians and who, himself, is not Christian by his own declaration and testimony.