fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Republican Party has been less interested in democracy than the Democrats for at least 20 years.
By: Jeff Swift
Tags: Autocracy, Democratic Party, Democracy, Elections, Republican Party

The Republican Party has been less interested in democracy than the Democrats for at least 20 years. Unsurprisingly, ever since Trump took over the party, the gap between the two parties has grown even bigger.

This might not be all that concerning if the Republican Party stood for some sort of platform. They essentially threw out their party platform earlier this year, adopting instead a strategy of doing whatever Trump says.

If that sounds concerning, that’s a party without standards will do anything to maintain their power. Perhaps worse is the similarity between this situation and a straight-up autocracy, defined as “government in which one person possesses unlimited power.”

What policies do the Republicans support? They took over all both chambers of Congress and the White House in 2016 and . . . cut taxes on rich people? And then tried to strip health care coverage from millions without proposing a serious alternative? And then obsessed over persecuting refugees and immigrants?

And then a significant majority of Republican voters (and elected officials!) simply aren’t accepting their electoral loss. Are they trying for an autocracy?
That’s my point Trump is neither a republican nor a democrat that why both parties came after him…
By: Corrado Rosca
Tags: Republican Party

That’s my point Trump is neither a republican nor a democrat that why both parties came after him like rabid dogs in the 2020 election. He had an uneasy truce with the GOP but they hate him as well and were happy to not disturb the steal perpetrated by the democrat bosses. You will have noticed how friendly obama clinton and bush became in 2020.
Republican Electors Cast Their Votes for President Trump
By: Jhonsen Renedy
Tags: Republican Party

Republican Electors Cast Their Votes for President Trump

Republican electors from a number of swing states cast their Electoral College votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence Monday afternoon.

site : https://unworldoceansday.org/user/5917

“Today, Arizona’s 11 Republican presidential electors met to cast their votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. With ongoing legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election still being heard in the courts, and state legislatures across the country holding hearings on election fraud and voting irregularities, it is imperative that the proper electors are counted by Congress,” Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward released in a statement.

site : https://www.peeranswer.com/question/5fd83c114b07954e2df87b44

Republican electors from Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania made similar moves.

site : https://newssubmit.tumblr.com/post/637541888755384320/unworldoceansday

“At the request of the Trump campaign, the Republican presidential electors met today in Harrisburg to cast a conditional vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence for President and Vice President respectively. Today’s move by Republican party electors is fashioned after the 1960 Presidential election, in which President Nixon was declared the winner in Hawaii. While Democrat legal challenges were pending, Democratic presidential electors met to cast a conditional vote for John F. Kennedy to preserve their intent in the event of future favorable legal outcomes,” the Pennsylvania Republican Party released in a statement. “The conditional resolution states that electors certify their vote for the President and Vice President ‘on the understanding that if, as a result of a final non-appealable Court Order or other proceeding prescribed by law, [they] are ultimately recognized as being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Pennsylvania.”

site : https://paiza.io/projects/d6GGn8CNn8BswGFASiIC6w?language=php

https://onlinegdb.com/rkIe1aSnD

https://steemit.com/news/@cgv-movie/republican-electors-cast-their-votes-for-president-trump
What Happened To The Old GOP?
By: Floyd Mori
Tags: GOP, Politics, Donald Trump, Republicans, Republican Party

What Happened To The Old GOP?

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

Trump changed the party

The Republican Party has changed over the past four years. That has been stated by many strong Republicans who have been members of the party for decades. Some have embraced the changes which came along with Donald Trump. After winning the presidency, Trump became the leader of the Republican Party. He had never been in politics before and had never held an elective office. He was a businessman with multiple bankruptcies and lawsuits. There were claims against him of sexual harrassment. His morals were in question. He became the Republican Party leader.

Members of Congress who had served for many years started to follow him and support him in everything he suggested or did. Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are prime examples of people who seemingly became completely devoted and dedicated to Trump.

They did not care that he bullied people continuously or that he told lies regularly. It has been documented by fact checkers that he has told more than 20,000 lies during the past four years. He caused division and was quick to condemn others.

Books have been written by former leaders within the Republican Party denouncing Trump and his actions. He and his wife have been the subjects of derogatory “tell all” books which disclose some of the “secrets” in their public and personal lives. Although these strong Republicans no longer like or support Trump, millions of Republicans still follow him as he continues with his claims that he won the election against Joe Biden.

The cult-like following of those who support Trump has changed the party. According to some Republicans, it has become inundated by people who are apolitical. They have no interest in government and politics. They are just interested in the words of Trump.

These are many “poorly educated” as Trump calls them. The masses are white men and women who do not have college degrees. They believe they are superior and may follow the white supremacy views. They feel they are entitled because they have white privilege. They are anti-immigrant and are happy to build a wall so that Latinos cannot come across the southern border of the United States. No one wants illegal immigration to occur, but they seem to be against all immigrants. Trump is not against white immigrants since his three wives were all immigrants. They like Trump’s views and ideas.

There are many wealthy and successful Republicans also in the party who follow Trump faithfully. They may not have supported him in the beginning, but they have rallied around him during the past four years. They wanted him to win again and voted for him.

Some Republicans have stated that the party should do better when Trump is gone. They may be able to return to how they were before the party became Trumpsters.

There are many good Republicans and many good Democrats. Perhaps those in Congress just might be able to get along better when Trump is gone. That is possible but maybe not likely.
Diabetic Cyborg Life 12/13: Party of ME Not WE
By: Adam, Diabetic Cyborg
Tags: GOP, America, Trump, Optimism, Republican Party

An easy way to change democracy for the better here is drawing fair and non-racial motivated, and not biasing it for liberal or conservative reasons, in voting districts. Also, using simple geography and reasons for the ease of voting is another simple way we could be more democratic in America. Alas, it is not the desire of the GOP to help at all.

The Republicans, in modernity, only care about ‘me’ with all their efforts and legislation/law making. It does not matter if you’re talking state or national laws and policies. The only thing that is desired by the GOP is helping themselves get more profits and money.

Not caring for fellow Americans or humans, their bottom line is all they are concerned with in life. Ignore the unemployed, unfortunate, underprivileged, deprived, and hobbled masses we once welcomed and took unmatched care of in this nation. Also, overlook the environment, health and health care, the jobless, the young, the fair application of rules and laws and things that we all need.

The party only cares about things that affect them and their loved ones. We all know a Republican that’s been moved to care when a family member is in need or has an issue. Yet, that is usually short lived and only as long as their loved one is affected.

The selfish, sociopathic party of “me” was the perfect political party for Trump. So, why is anyone surprised that he took it over and was able to do so?
Why Do They Like it So Much?
By: Yvonne Owens
Tags: Propaganda, Trump, 2020, Civil Rights, Republican Party

2020_Election_Civil_Unrest

Why does Trump’s base, and the elected Republican officials who are catering to them and their still all-powerful vote, actually seem to like what he’s doing — to somehow enjoy the sacking of their nation — the vandalizing of their vaunted ‘democracy,’ even if (in the case of elected Republican officials) it means their own recent re-elections are cast into doubt, delegitimized and invalidated, along with all the other People’s choices?

In the case of the base: They don’t understand. They don’t know that their as yet all-powerful vote is in the breach, is endangered, and on the brink of being lost forever in a civil disaster and ideological coup — the death of democracy in America. And they don’t care. They only want to land some punches. They are moral “deplorables.” And — morally, ethically, civilly, compassionately, humanely, responsibly and cognitively — they are the ‘lost.’

In the case of the elected Republican representatives: They are so cynical, it is questionable if they even signify as more that cyphers at this point. They knew each and every one of the 60-odd fallacious law suits were absurd, and doomed to fail, but they lusted to sign-on to gain the support, and avoid the violence, abuse and dismissal, of that sad and deluded base.

Because they know it’s a cult — one of their own making — having cultivated it for decades of propagandizing and gerrymandering as ignorant, uneducated, misled, hopped up on fear-based delusion and evangelical hysteria, high on fear and loathing of the ‘Other’ — and they’re afraid of it.

This beast is way, way worse, more malignant, more vast in its import and scope — and more terrifying — than Frankenstein’s monstrous creation.
…As well as Republicans, who instead of gerrymandering and suppressing the black vote, need to…
Tags: Republican Party

In reality, it's a lot more complicated and Democrats should have the humility to understand how they almost lost to such an "obviously" terrible president. Taking minority support for granted is a good place to start. Also, advocating for very unpopular policies like defunding the police that would disproportionately hurt communities of color.
106 House Republicans And 18 Republican Attorneys General And 1 President Are Urging The Supreme Court To Overturn The Election Because The Dear Leader Lost…
By: Eric J Scholl
Tags: Sedition, Politics, Election 2020, Republican Party, Supreme Court

“Contemplation of Justice” Statue in front of U.S. Supreme Court

106 House Republicans And 18 Republican Attorneys General And 1 President Are Urging The Supreme Court To Overturn The Election Because The Dear Leader Lost…

No one is charging fraud. No one. I mean, the President is, out loud, but even he isn’t in this case. Instead, Trump’s sycophants — who now include more than 1/2 the Republicans in the House of Representatives — are asserting if Trump is not allowed to win, it puts in peril the bedrock concept of this country, based as it is on the “consent of the governed”. Huh? Trump lost. The “governed” elected Joe Biden by a margin of 7,059,782 more votes.

So in order to believe their argument, you pretty much also have to believe that voting for a Democrat is not a legitimate thing for a U.S. citizen to do, and areas of a state with lots of Democrats (or more generally, non-White people), should certainly not be allowed to count. Because in what other context does trying to conjure up an alternate reality Trump win make any sense? Because 81,281,890 people have given their consent to President-elect Joe Biden, which is more than the 74,222,108 Trump got.

Because the election belongs to the people, and not just one set of people, and not just Trump.

Is this all — as a lot of law and political experts and reporters are saying today — a pretext for Republicans to launch a broad assault aimed at taking voting rights away from people in the next few years because such “space age” innovations as mail-in voting worked too well, and too many people voted and that made them nervous? Or is it because jumping onto Trump’s crazy train at this point is something that costs these Republican AGs and Representatives nothing with no effort needed on their part? Especially because it’s so unlikely to work, yet might have some political upside for them, or downside if they don’t join in?

Who the hell cares right now?

Because whatever their motivation, everyone signed onto this is spreading lies and undermining free elections. Eagerly and gleefully.

As the Attorney General in Pennsylvania, in his response to the suit, plainly states:

“The Court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated.”

President-elect Biden won 306 electoral votes. Same number as Trump 4 years ago, which he and his people called a landslide. In Georgia, for instance, which is named as a defendant: every single vote has been counted, then counted by hand, then recounted again. Election results have already all been certified by whomever is legally required to certify them in every single state, some by Democrats, some by Republicans. The Electoral College meets on Monday. Period. End of discussion. At least it should be.
Day 1,421: Trump’s last legal folly and the 106 undemocratic GOP members of Congress forever ruining their reputations over it
Tags: Politics, Democracy, Election 2020, Donald Trump, Republican Party

Day 1,421: Trump’s last legal folly and the 106 undemocratic GOP members of Congress forever ruining their reputations over it TrumpTimer Dec 11, 2020·2 min read

Donald Trump’s team is trying to forge a legal farce in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race. The strategy will surely fail, but that hasn’t stopped over 100 Republicans members of Congress from jumping into the antidemocratic pit with him.

The legal challenge is aimed at having the Supreme Court issue an order to invalidate millions of votes in four very specific states in an effort to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

They’re asking for the court to block the electors from Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, pushing Biden back under the magic 270-vote total to win. First the court would have to allow [Texas Attorney General Ken] Paxton to file the suit. Then the court would have to block certification of the Electoral College vote, determine that the four states had allowed massive amounts of “illegal” votes, have the states revisit their vote counts and then resubmit the numbers. The court could also, Trump’s filing suggests, let state legislatures determine who wins each state or throw the entire election to the US House of Representatives, where each state delegation would have one vote — and since Republican delegations outnumber Democratic delegations, Trump would win.

Pennsylvania pushed back on the legal filing calling it “seditious abuse of the judicial process.”

When history judges Trump, there should be ample room for his many enablers within the GOP. Signing on to the lawsuit were 106 congressional Republicans.

Trump isn’t Trump solely because of things he can or can’t do. It’s also because those that have been and are around him that have left him wholly unchecked, from both democratic norms and reality.

The latest legal challenge will fail, because if it succeeds, the American experiment of democracy is gone and the country goes with it. But 106 Republicans are signing their names to a futile legal effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans without a scintilla of fraud. May they wear the scarlet “A” of antidemocratic for the remainder of their time in office and beyond.

1,421 days in, 41 to go
Diabetic Cyborg Life 12/11: Election Analysis
By: Adam, Diabetic Cyborg
Tags: American History, Biden Harris, Election 2020, Optimism, Republican Party

Boy, that was close, eh? The machinery, that is the liberal democratic process written and embedded in the US Constitution of September 17, 1787, saved American democracy. No doubts that is the worst and hardest test this constitutional democracy, or this experiment in democracy, has ever witnessed.

Not the War of 1812, the Civil War, World Wars, Great Depression or the Great Recession even came close to the threat in democracy of a petulant child, who is POTUS 45. The show of the greatest con/grift ever seen in America was the biggest most historical threat. The 233 years since our final constitution’s ratification bore witness to a treaty made over the last years of GOP governance 50 years in the making.

The worst ideas of Reagan were warped and amplified. That’s edifice, Mitch McConnell and a pack of power drunk “RINOS,” Republicans in name only, used to threaten us all. Trump is mostly just a symptom of the problem.

Election 2020 was just a check for the symptom that killed over a quarter of a million people in 2020. Recognize that we are all in this together in one nation-state that enables us to coexist.

Vote, run and believe in the liberal democratic process that can right the ship for the future. Please, breathe deeply, mask up, when necessary, and believe that America is the place that we can all excel.

to be continued on (last years of GOP governance 50 years)
Republicans — The Real Victims in All This
By: Dr. Dion
Tags: Politics, Election 2020, Donald Trump, Republican Party, Voter Suppression Laws

If you missed Donald Trump’s first rally since losing the presidential election to Joe Biden by almost 7 million votes, the entirety of his nearly 2-hour rant can be summed up in three sentences he bellowed to an adoring Georgia crowd:

“We’re all victims. Everybody here, all these thousands of people here tonight, they’re all victims. Every one of you.”

Donald Trump’s message to the largely White, male, conservative, Republican crowd is a simple, yet sinister one. Whenever you don’t win, whenever you lose, it is not because you tried and fought hard, but were bested by a stronger competitor. It is because you were cheated.

Someone cheated you. The system is rigged against you. Your loss is due to someone else’s fraud and deception. If the competition had been fair, there is no way you would have lost.

“We’re all victims. Everybody here, all these thousands of people here tonight, they’re all victims. Every one of you.”

This message of White, male victimhood is so antithetical to what the Republican party claimed to stand for just a generation ago that it frankly boggles the mind to process it.

The previous Republican standard bearer, Ronald Reagan, said:

“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”

Reagan believed that personal responsibility was an “American precept.” What happened to this ethos? Where did this spirit among Republicans go?
Has The Republican Party Changed?
By: Floyd Mori
Tags: Politics, Hate, Donald Trump, Republicans, Republican Party

Has The Republican Party Changed?

Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash

Republicans and Democrats are not so different

There are some Republicans who think that their party has changed drastically under Donald Trump. When he became the presumptive head of all the Republicans by his surprise election (his words) to become the President of the United States, the Republican Party became his personal party. Millions of people apparently like it that way. They like Trump.

President Barack Obama has a new book out about his first term as President of the USA. Most Republicans, and certainly not Trump fans, will ever consider reading it. Trump shows his disdain for Obama even though a video of Trump shows him saying how nice the Obama’s were to him and his wife during the transition into his presidency.

Because Trump shows hatred toward Obama (for whatever reason), Trump’s followers do the same. They express the same feelings as their leader. Is it because Obama is part Black? Is it because they cannot accept that a Black person became President of the United States? Is it because Obama is a Democrat? Are they racists?

It is unlikley that Trump will be around for long. He still contests the election that declares that Joe Biden won, but he will need to accept it in January. He thinks there was election fraud on a massive scale although the Republican elected officials in states that Trump is trying to overturn say that everything was above board. In fact, many election officials say this was the best run election ever. They say the results are certified and honest.

There will always be some minor cases of election fraud by some dishonest individuals or people who make mistakes. According to the experts, there was no widespread voter fraud in this election. It is time for Trump to accept that fact.

Republican Trump followers go along with everything he does or says. He can lie and bully continuously. They have no problem with that or with the way he conducts his life or his past misdeeds. The strange thing is that almost all the Republican members of Congress also support Trump’s every move. They should know better.

There are all kinds of people in both of the major political parties in the United States. It used to be that the Republican Party was the party for the rich and the middle class. The Democratic Party was for the middle class and poor. Now the parties could be interchangeable. There are wealthy and poor in both. There are conservatives and progressives in both. There are straight and gay in both. There are young and old in both. There are extremes in both parties. There are differences, but there are similarities. Both parties are open to all, and people make a choice.

Has the Republican Party changed? Some top Republicans hope that it will move back to how it was before Trump was elected. Others accept it as it now is. Maybe it is not that different than it was.

The political parties are alike in many ways. Both could use more love and less hate.
About the “states supporting Texas” in the appeal to the Supreme Court for Trump
By: J Jefferson
Tags: Politics, Trumpism, United States, Trump, Republican Party

The fact that state-level Republican elected officials in 18 states would join fascist Donald Trump in appealing to the Supreme Court to overturn the results in 4 other states should make Republican voters take a close look at themselves. Do you really care about state rights? This is very very authoritarian, guys. There have been 20+ lawsuits from team Trump that all failed because there is no evidence. There have been more than 15 recounts in those 6 important states. Georgia had 3 recounts! So, you Republican voters who stick with the current Republican officials are saying: screw independent states’ rights. You’re saying screw the process and the popular vote. You’re saying all that matters is: _____. You fill in the blank. You really love Donald nasty Trump more than states rights, federalism, the Constitution, and “the People”? I guess this is why Russia is the way it is.
When is enough enough?
By: Bill O'Brien
Tags: Politics, Election 2020, Donald Trump, Government, Republican Party

When is enough enough?

The Republican Party, once called the Grand Old Party (GOP), is being torn down from inside. The Trumps and their leader have been driving the 2020 election through an emotional and Constitutional wringer. Their claims of fraudulent election, lawsuits tying up courts, liberal conspiracies and domination of the media have all fallen flat without a shred of evidence.

From Trump's claims of Obama's birthright to the silly claim that the current pandemic has been 'blown out of proportion by Democrats, they are showing an unscrupulous streak of saying whatever they feel like to get attention from a media that is more than willing to give them time. In fact, they have a few 'news' networks that have made a ton of money spreading their false claims as truths.

At the very least their patriotism has to be questioned.

This isn't just race politics. This is a deep paranoia that has fed these people for many years. It has been on public display since their "Contract for America" in the early 1990s.

We have witnessed an organized, bloody (see: Iraq, Race Wars, mobilized police departments, middle east unrest over oil, etc.) coup than has evolved into a Trump, fear based party that has enough traction to behave like spoiled children.

The rules of political engagement have been changed due to these conspiratorial raves. Nobody is fighting Christianity or the right to enjoy Christmas or any other ritual. Nobody is coming for anybody's guns. There was never any conspiracy around Benghazi, Obamacare is constitutional, drugs are not flowing over the southern border with 'bad dudes'. Science IS BASED ON FACTS not beliefs. Putin and whoever is in charge in North Korea these days are not our loving friends. MBS of Saudi Arabia is not a friend either.

The 2020 election results is not 'fake news' or a 'hoax'.

Something, someone, sometime soon MUST rescue the Republican Party and bring them into a rational world.
Trump’s 2024 Gambit. “We have on the one side a silent and…
Tags: Election Fraud, US Elections, Donald Trump, Republican Party, Joe Biden

“We have on the one side a silent and dovish Republican party unwilling and unable to challenge Trump for fear of the wrath of his loyal supporters. On the other we Donald Trump, willing and able to wield the power of his supporters as a defensive shield against any potential challengers that may emerge on the long road back to the White House.”

Photo Credit Gage Skidmore

Mr. Trump has changed many things, the Presidential election cycle being one of them.

It used to be that an American election would begin about twelve months prior the election with the launch of candidates’ campaigns. This would be first step to winning their respective party’s nomination for the presidency and then the presidency itself. A well established norm of the American election cycle.

Until Trump.

In a surprising move by an incumbent President, Trump officially filed his 2020 campaign with the Federal Election Commission on the day of his inauguration in 2017. He’d already begun his reelection effort weeks earlier, a short time after winning the election.

By July 2017 he’d already held six rallies, launched his first advertising campaign, had his first fundraising event, and visited key swing states. By September 2020 he, along with the Republican National Committee had spent over $800 million dollars on the campaign.

This time he’s started even sooner. Every erratic tweet, impromptu news conference and untrue statements about election fraud are elements of his 2024 presidential campaign.

For more than two weeks after the November election, the U.S. General Services Administration held off on releasing funding and other federal resources to assist the transition of power between the Trump and Biden administrations. The formal transition process only began on November 23.

It can be argued that until this point Trump still held onto the belief that the election result could be overturned through the courts with the allegation of election and voter fraud. Thus it was logical for him to insist on the falsehood of large scale fraud to affect the outcome of the election. But these statements didn’t stop, even after allowing the transition to begin and de facto recognising Joe Biden’s win.

So it needs to be asked why has the rhetoric continued? Why is the insistence on election fraud as strong today as it was in the days following the election? Even as each of the legal cases raised by the Trump legal team are being thrown out of court one by one.

Because he is already in campaign mode. He has never left campaign mode.

Sources were reporting as early as November of Donald Trump’s intention to run again in 2024. By late November they were leaking his intent to launch his campaign on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration. Sound familiar?

This was proven on 5th December in Georgia by Trump himself. He’d said “we’re going to win back the White House in 2024’ and that he hopes he won’t “have to be a candidate”.
Apparently, Ivanka has bought land and is moving to Florida.
By: Manny Otiko
Tags: Politics, Trump, Florida, Republicans, Republican Party

Apparently, Ivanka has bought land and is moving to Florida. I’ve heard rumors that she wants to run for governor. I would say that’s a joke, but this is Florida …
I’ve written about the VICE show “While the Rest of Us Die” before, but the latest episode on…
By: Manny Otiko
Tags: Republican Party, Iraq, War, Defense, Afghanistan

I’ve written about the VICE show “While the Rest of Us Die” before, but the latest episode on America’s recent foreign wars was painful. I groaned several times while watching it. It’s painful because I remember writing articles condemning the war, and I talked to people who lost children in Iraq. I know families whose kids came back with PTSD. One of the soldiers interviewed bluntly said, “War is a racket.”

He added that while he and his teammates were dying and losing limbs, some people were getting rich. Unfortunately, this scam has been going on for a long time.
Did anyone watch the Georgia senatorial debates last night?
By: Manny Otiko
Tags: Politics, Election 2020, Elections, Republicans, Republican Party

Manny Otiko writes about race, politics and sports. He has been published in Salon and LA Weekly. Follow him on Twitter @mannyotiko.
Republicans are pushing for ending Democracy.
By: Todd Zen
Tags: Republican Party, Trump

Republicans are pushing for ending Democracy. They know they can’t hold on to power so they are lying about Election Fraud. Democrats need to take this seriously. The fact is the Civil War never ended. The slaves were never given fair compensation and their descendants live in Poverty. The goal of Republicans is a Fascist Dictatorship. In many ways Republicans are similar to ISIS. Instead of Islam they want to impose Christianity on all Americans. They want more Prisons. They want to take away Healthcare, etc.
Georgia GOP Schizo Voters & January Run-off Decides US Senate Balance of Power
By: Jennifer Friebely
Tags: Politics, Trump, Georgia, News, Republican Party

Trump is set to hold a rally today in the Peach Tree State — Georgia. Some Republicans are cringing at that idea. Mainly because Trump, who has not conceded the election to Biden yet, might be more of a liability than a benefit. The two senators, Kelly Loeffler, and David Purdue are fighting for their seats against Democrats Reverend Raphael Warnock and Joel Ossoff, respectively.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, former Republican National Committee (RNC) communications director Douglas Heye wrote,

“the president’s baseless allegations could depress a part of the Republican base that seems primed to believe that the election was rigged, and even that Trump-supporting Republicans had a hand in it.”

For whatever they are worth — which pundits across all media say is not much, the polls have the Democrats up by about 5 points for Warnock and 2 points for Ossoff.

Many pundits and strategists are saying that for Trump to support the two Senatorial candidates, he would have to admit defeat. His message would have to be one of concession. For example, “we lost this, let’s work together to keep these senators in the office to continue the work I’ve done. If we don’t, we will lose all of that.”

Many wonder if Trump is capable of that messaging. Most believe he will use the bully pulpit to further ramble on and air his grievances about a stolen election ad nauseum. If that happens, he will undermine Republican voters’ confidence in the Georgia run-off election and jeopardize the GOP’s chances of winning.

Heye gives the perfect take away here:

“And by convincing his die-hard supporters not to trust the electoral process and backing a string of unfounded lawsuits while clinging to conspiracy theories, Trump will exact a cost on American democracy, and his actions may have an immediate political cost: the Republican-controlled Senate.”

Trump is shooting the Republican party in the foot. I don’t like to gloat, but having no soul and selling out the American people for a criminal — this is what you get. I hope all the Republicans in Georgia stay home on election day in January because they believe their vote won’t count. Enough of Trump and his flying monkeys.
Trump is more than mentally ill.
By: Todd Zen
Tags: Republican Party, Trump

Trump is more than mentally ill. He is an Evil Person. He is trying to destroy Democracy. He should be arrested for treasonous acts against the Nation.
The Post-Trump Roadmap for Far-Right Extremists To Build Political Power
By: Melissa Ryan
Tags: Trump, Elections, White Supremacy, Republican Party, Redistricting

GOP Rep. Dan Crewnshaw’s gerrymandered district.

In 2021, Donald Trump won’t be the president any longer but the extremists his Presidency lit a fire under and amplified will remain. The Republican Party has long been white supremacist and anti-democracy but under Trump, the most extreme voices in their fold became mainstream. Under Trump’s leadership, Republican electeds were freer than ever before to say the quiet part out loud and push for policies reflective of their extremist views.

I’m obsessed with how the far-right built political power in the era of Trump, especially extremist candidates who run for office. White supremacists marching in the streets of DC are a terrifying sight but personally, I’m more scared of the white supremacists sitting in Congress and state legislatures across the country. Expect extremists to continue running for office in the future, undoubtedly with support from the so-called mainstream Republican party leadership.

Redistricting and gerrymandering will make it even easier for extremists to win elected offices. Gerrymandering makes the task of running as an extremist and if necessary, primarying an opponent much easier. Next year’s three most notorious extremists in the new Congress, Madison Cawthorne, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert, all ran in Republican districts, all won primaries against seemingly more mainstream Republicans (and in Boebert’s case, beat an incumbent), and all faced electorates in the general that would have voted for a Republican no matter what. More than likely we’ll see even more Republican districts like these emerge after redistricting next year.

As Mother Jones’ Tim Murphy reported this week, Democrats did not win the majorities we needed in the statehouse this year, and while the situation isn’t as bleak as the last redistricting in 2010, it’s not at all favorable for Democrats or democracy. Murphy also points out that “this will be the first 10-year cycle in which Republican mapmakers won’t be bound by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required certain states to obtain ‘pre-clearance’ from the Department of Justice to ensure they didn’t discriminate,” freeing Republicans to exploit redistricting even further.

There’s currently no cost to being an extremist in the GOP. The party might back a more mainstream challenger but as Roy Moore showed us in 2017, if you win the nomination Republicans will back you even if you’d been credibly accused of sexual assault against a minor. And as we learned in 2020, the GOP will also back candidates who believe in QAnon or took a field trip to Hitler’s vacation home provided they win their primary.

Defeating Trump in November was a win against far-right extremism and white supremacy. I don’t want to diminish that victory. We won a decisive battle, but the war rages on. Redistricting is the next front of this fight.
Evangelical Christians should ask themselves why they don’t support Joe Biden.
By: Shelly Fagan
Tags: Politics, Trump, Christianity, Elections, Republican Party

Evangelical Christians should ask themselves why they don’t support Joe Biden.

Instead, they have embraced a pathogical liar who is publicly abusive of people with disabilities. He cheated on his wives – with porn stars. He has never read the Bible, and doesn’t attend church.

Donald Trump is not a man of integrity. But the issue is why they don’t support the candidate who is clearly the better Christian.

Biden celebrates the Mass, conducts himself with a sense decorum, doesn’t cheat on his taxes, and he loves his family.

If their faith is the deciding factor, why do Evangelicals support the candidate doing less for Christianity?
Case Study - Bella Rubin - Medium
By: Bella Rubin
Tags: Siri, Case Study, Product Development, Apple, Product Management

Featuring Siri.

Among other tasks, Siri can search the web, manage device settings, post to social media (Twitter and Facebook), identify overhead airplanes, and virtually flip a coin or roll dice.

Siri’s intelligent software improves overtime as it learns to understand the accent and nuances of the user. With advances in AI, NLP and ML, speech recognition technology is getting better at filtering out background noises and holding longer conversations.

Tech research firm, Juniper Research, sees voice-enabled technology as the future of mobile, and predicts voice-based ad revenue to reach $19 billion by 2022.

Read an assessment on Siri with ideas for new features here.
Catfooding
By: Jay Mutzafi
Tags: Catfooding, Dogfooding, Product Development, Design, Startup

The art of learning from your competition.

Dogfooding or Eating your own dog food is the practice where an organization uses its own product as a way to know first hand what its customers experience.

Some companies naturally use their own product. I suspect practically all Apple employees use a Mac as their computer and an iPhone as their phone.

Other companies might use their product only partially. The customer support team at Zendesk, maker of Customer Service Software, uses their own software to support their customers. But do all employees use the software regularly, do their salespeople, managers, CEO, use it as well? If not, how well can they know what their customers’ experience is like?

Some companies solve this by using rotation, where every employee does even a short shift in customer support to at least talk to their customers regularly. In the case of a company that makes support software, it will also give them direct experience with their product itself.

But even companies that are great at dogfooding, might limit their product’s potential by learning about it in isolation. Sure, companies are usually aware of what their competing products look like, what specs they have, and what some of the design decisions are. But do they know what it’s like to use those products?

Catfooding, or eating your competition’s cat food, is the practice of testing and using other similar products in your industry or product category, to learn from the direct experience of using them.

Some companies avoid doing this to prevent coloring their approach on how something should be built and to avoid copying someone else’s product directly. There is a definite benefit to this. But building a product without a deep understanding of the market and alternatives that exist in it, can result in reinventing wheels that did not need reinventing, or missing customer pain points that are obvious to most consumers of a product category.
The Difference Between A Customer And A User
By: David Ijaola
Tags: Product Management, Product Development, Product Design

The goal of every product is to keep the customer happy and the user using.

THE USER

Nir Eyal published a wonderful piece on how to formulate and execute strategies to form positive habits for your product. When engaging users we must think about what value the product offers and how best we can offer value to our users so that the customer will always pay.

In this case, it is important to understand that the user will determine if the Customer will pay, I mean if the user deletes the product the money stops rolling in and that is why when designing and developing the product we need to prioritize the user and when we start acquiring users, it will be important to start thinking about customer relations because you would have moved from prooving concept to serving customers.

WHEN ARE USERS AND CUSTOMERS THE SAME?

For must B2C products, you will find that the customer and user are ideally the same. For example, Apple Music users pay for the product and the payment for the customer is exclusive to the customer. The product requires those who use it to pay for the product, anyone else who uses the product would need the personal information of the customer or hold on to the device of the user.

In this case, customer relations and user experience are not too far too much but nonetheless, it should not be the job of the designer to deal with customer relations. It is his job to manage the user’s experience and ensure that the user stays hooked to the product. Customer relations in this case would be to ensure that customer rights are protected and that there are no payment issues. To cut the blabber customer relations should be targeted at all issues dealing with what might make the customer stop paying or continue paying for the product.

WHEN ARE USERS AND CUSTOMERS DIFFERENT?

A case where users and customers are different would be majorly B2B products like offering delivery software to a restaurant for their new delivery service, in this case, the user would need to study the driver persona and the manager would need to study the business owner or anyone that sells the check. Even in cases like this the User greatly influences the customer and determines whether or not the customer would keep paying.

In our example of the restaurant and the delivery system, whenever the Customer in this case business owner finds out that the software has navigation issues and this increases the delivery to customer period, the business owner could decide to stop paying for the product.

HOW DO I ENGAGE USERS AND CUSTOMERS?

I found the answers I was looking for and I’m sure you also did. Just in case you didn’t it very simple, at the heart of product development and management is users but what money is the blood that keeps the product running and so a product manager should always have a customer relations strategy even when the person paying is the person using,

The user will always reflect the customer.
Selling the experience
By: Sumeet Garad
Tags: Blogs And Blogging, Product Development, Blogging, Hubspot Marketing Blog, Marketing

While there are many reasons why we buy something. Buying that product to experience its benefits is one of them.

And that is where we should focus when it comes to selling. Focusing on selling the experience the customer wants through that product.

For example, if it’s a bed, selling the experience of great sleep because of the soft mattress, or If it’s a TV, try selling the experience of enjoyment.

The reason why this method works is that, in the end, people are interested in the benefits. They want to know what will happen if they buy this or that.

They have come to buy that product keeping the end-result in the mind.

And that’s where our focus should be.

Selling the experience of the product itself than the product can attract a customer more easily. It can help you and your product stand out of the line.

Here are some of the brands/ companies that sell experience more than anyone else

Burger King — They sell the experience of being a king

KFC — They sell the experience of satisfaction through their chicken. Their tagline says so “Finger Lickin’ Good”

McDonald’s — They sell the experience of sharing the food and being in love with it

Apple -They sell the experience of high self-esteem. If you have I-phone, you are sure to get respect in the society

And there are many such who sell the experience. Well, it might not look that they selling it. Isn’t that amazing. You are buying without even knowing the way they are selling.

It’s not that the other methods are bad, but some methods more effective than others. Like this one

Try giving it a thought !!
Why We Created the TMC Feedback Portal
Tags: Product Development, Feedback Loop

By Caitlin Helgesen, Product Operations

We care deeply about providing the best possible product and experience for the users of our platform — the Transportation Mobility Cloud (TMC). For us to succeed, we need to understand what our users need to succeed. We need to collect feedback.

While we already received feedback through customer support tickets and customer satisfaction surveys, we sought to close the gap between our customers and our development teams even further. We wanted to understand what features could truly elevate our users’ experience with our product. So, leaning into our customer-focused values, we decided to offer users a way to directly influence our development process and launched the TMC Feedback Portal.

Product Development is a continuous cycle of improvement.

Users can use the TMC Feedback Portal to share ideas, elaborate on requests, and upvote community suggestions. This collection of comments and actions help us understand in greater detail the issues our users care about most and what new features might help solve their toughest problems. In addition, upvotes allow us to quickly prioritize new features and add them to the roadmap.

A key component of making the TMC Feedback Portal successful is communication, not just from our users to us but also from us to our users. Alongside the portal, we have also established a review process to ensure that each submission is read and acknowledged. Each week, we gather new portal submissions and prepare them for review with our product leads. Once reviewed, submissions are updated with a response and status label to indicate where it stands in the development process. For example, some may have enough detail to be added to the roadmap directly, some may need more information, and others may be out of scope and require a different solution. By responding directly to each portal submission, we are able to engage users in more dynamic conversation and be more transparent in our development process.

Ultimately, we created the TMC Feedback Portal so we could actively collect and respond to feedback on an ongoing basis. In order to build effective products and solve the right problems, it’s important that we listen, communicate, and collaborate with the people using them. Creating the TMC Feedback Portal helps us by making this exchange easy, approachable, and transparent. By incorporating our users’ voice in the development process, we can ensure that we are creating a product that will best serve our users and enable their success.
true value
Tags: Product Development

questions to think and act upon when developing reliable and safe medical devices and products
judgement fundamentals
Tags: Risk Taking, Risk, Product Development, Decision Making

do you work with people who consistently do the right thing, who go back to the basics of safety and product development, and work up from there to decide the best path forward?

if not, why not?
worth it?
Tags: Product Development

should you work on a great project with bad people?

should you work on a crappy project with great people?
causal structure
Tags: Risk Taking, Risk, Product Development, Decision Making

questions to think and act upon when developing reliable and safe medical devices and products