CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
October 05, 2021 10:31 PM UTC
35 Comments
Begala's line describes the reapportionment process perfectly.
States like Colorado strive to be fair — giving four and at most five of our eight U.S. House seats to Democrats. States like Texas and Florida with modest conservative majorities gerrymander like crazy.
Add up the Democrats fair share in Blue States and swollen Republican majorities in Red and you have a House where Republicans may well recapture control in 2022 though Democrats are almost certain to get more popular votes.
Heads, we lose. Tails, we flip again.
Sigh.
What’s so hard to understand? Seriously?
If you’re a moral person and you believe an action is wrong for others, you also believe it’s wrong for yourself . . .
(I get that’s not power politics, but a few folks actually do value being human above being political.)
Likewise, if you’re a Republican, (e.g., McConnell, Ttump, etc.) being moral is not something that would ever prevent or delay your quest to have your way.
Some folks, those with personal agency, make choices in this life and live with them . . . some folks cast I-Ching . . .
[sigh]
If their immorality only hurt them, what a world we could have.
That is because of the asymmetry in the two teams playing by two very different sets of rules.
One side (let's call them the Blue Team) naively and futilely hopes that the other side will become nice people and play by the rules of right and wrong. And to encourage that, the Blue Team takes the high road and will not sink to the level of the morally bankrupt team, instead bathing in the cool and clean waters of self-righteousness.
The other team (let's go with calling them the Red Team) laughs and goes along on their merry way, getting away with whatever they can pull off because they can.
Guess which side ultimately wins?
I'm afraid this is not simply a Charlie Brown & Lucy morality tale. The blue team is limiting itself for some reason.
Could be this
There are some deep philosophical and moral questions implicated. What is a win? Success at the ballot box? If your ultimate goal is a humane, just society, are you justified in achieving it with unjust, undemocratic means? If your opponent is "cheating," are you justified in cheating in order to maintain a level battlefield? If your opponent is violent or cruel or immoral, are you justified with a violent/cruel/immoral response? Is the proper response to a persistent lie (the Big Lie), the truth, or a more effective lie?
“If your ultimate goal is a humane, just society, are you justified in achieving it with unjust, undemocratic means?”
If that were the question back between 1939 and 1945, we would all be speaking German or Japanese today.
I have no desire to live in a MAGAt World where facts have alternative facts and truth is a matter of opinion and/or convenience.
If it means being a bully and drawing Congressional districts in blue states to wipe out red representative and offset what is happening in Texas, Florida and elsewhere, so be it.
Sometimes you have to engage in some unseemly behavior in order to prevent a much greater evil.
It is possible to be a fierce advocate without being cruel. It is possible to speak truth to evil without lying, or being evil. It is possible to stand your ground without cheating. It is possible to be a peaceful warrior.
In fact, it is not only possible, it is essential.
Today is National Noodle Day
Perhaps it is time to have THE CONVERSATION…..
I realize that there was a war fought in 1861 in part over the concept of whether we should remain one nation or split in two, and that was resolved in 1865, but the losing side still hasn't gotten over the fact that they lost. It doesn't appear that they will anytime soon.
Maybe it is time the Blue States started negotiations with the Red States about an amicable separation. And I stress amicable because we will still share common borders with the Red States.
I think we offer asylum and Blue State citizenship to anyone living in the Red States who want to flee (primarily POCs, LGBTQs, and straight-white-cisgender liberals).
We will need to sort out the financial and economic issues (like in any divorce) but if those people really want to continue to live in some backwater Third World country, it is not our place to try to enlighten them and drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
I am absolutely ready for a divorce.
After which red states will realize they have no means of income and will scream for alimony and child support.
That's funny.😆
Isn’t that more or less what happened the last time?
That's funny, too.
Yeah, and last time we scorched some earth and took their sh*t over and ran it for a while.
I laughed at people suggesting a reconfiguration of a few counties as they pulled away from the too-liberal institutions of Colorado government.
One immediate question leaps to mind — who would be acting as the negotiators for such a split?
At the risk of bulling a davebarnes, today is Eddie Van Halen Day. It was a year ago today when he died. I will be binging Van Halen like nobody's business.
Whatever you do, unnamed, please do not post great old VH videos!
Delete
IMHO, the greatest guitar/drum intro in rock history! But if anyone can prove me wrong, I'll listen…
DIY
I miss music videos. Are they still a thing?
Yeah. Whatever happened to Youtube?
Youtube is great for watching thirty year old Van Halen vids
In this zillionth episode of "Why does Colorado have a Board of Regents?", the possible next Governor of Colorado hath introduced a Regents resolution targeting critical race theory and other things of that nature. Guess education does need thought control!
https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/10/05/critical-race-theory-cu-regents-ganahl/
Given that state government provides something like 5-10% of the funding for the "state universities," why should there be a Board of Regents at all?
Liberals (and Democrat leaders who aren't in fact very liberal) have forgotten how to fight. Or are unwilling to.
I have been watching this unfold since the 2000 election – with the GOP's gerrymandering, systematic disenfranchisement, Bush v Gore, and two stolen SCOTUS appointments, and the left's chronic hesitation when given the opportunity to go for the jugular (after being "gifted" countless GOP failures, treasons, and scandals).
Not to mention the GOPs devoted program for building a bench and controlling power through grooming locals to control school boards, take county and state elected office, and control important levers of the electoral system (State AGs, State SoS's, and even county clerks)
It is eminently clear that these people will not fight.
RIP Alan Kalter, Dave Letterman's announcer. From the NY Times obituary:
He was "a participant in a ridiculous array of comic bits…
…Another time, he turned what at first seemed like fatherly advice about attending the prom into a painful confessional about going to the prom with his own mother, 'her middle-age body squeezed like a sausage into a sequined gown, her makeup and perfume a cruel mockery of the womanhood your hormones crave."
…the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was “Oh no, not again”. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/06/arlington-texas-school-shooting-timberview/
Loren out doing the work of The Big Lie.
What a real dominion machine looks like.
I wonder which professional wrestling league Hanks’s mother dated?? . . .
Well, it's not just a coincidence their names are Loren and Lauren.
Twins…..separated at birth.
Well, there is one big difference. One is the very definition of big boobs.
The other is a woman!