Links for 2/11/20

Links for 2/11/20
As I write, the New Hampshire polls have closed. Amy has leapt forward, which I expected. I did not expect Mayor Pete to survive. He may not much longer. Biden is the big loser (and anyone placing lower).

The Clio is the advertising award. It is an annual thing and it's too early to judge this year's entries. I agree that there should be political categories (both for nomination and general elections).

I am sure Jonathan Swift would appreciate George Conway's article. The reality is that the call was perfect, as a diversion from the fact that Trump was serving Putin in withholding aid and in much else. If Pelosi, Schumer and Schiff did not know that, they are not as smart as we think they are. If they did know and focused on election meddling anyway (or if they could prove a pattern of presidential  insanity), then they took a dive for electoral purposes. Which side is worse?

The Supreme Court will like hear the DC Appeals case - although CUA should not be concerned with what they can do, which is different than what they must do. These are very different questions.

No parent should have to pay for education. Public, charter and religious chartered primary, secondary, remedial and ESL schools should be unionized and publicly funded up to grade 14, with students over 16 paid for their time. Employers should pay for Vocational/Technical School and higher level academics.

Rachel "The Doc" Bitecoffer is right where everyone else is wrong. Kudos for MSW for mentioning her. She thinks out of the box. Everyone, including Rachel, is assuming Trump and not Pence in November. Everyone has their blinders.

The logic of the Arizona decision is that faithful action cannot be obstructed. Civil rights are about restricting government from  acting - not empowering their leaders control the choices of their members.

The fixes for the nomination and the electoral college are the same: allocate votes by congressional district rather than by state, with 2 at large for each state. This is not because we let land vote but because the Senate represents governments. We have gone from congressional selection of nominees to machine caucuses and conventions toward primaries. It is time to go full circle.

Presidential contenders can recruit congressional and senatorial candidates in each district and state to serve as delegates.  After a national primary in September (using instant runoff voting), nominees and senators not facing election will caucus to select the presidential nominee. If no candidate gets a majority, the nominees supporting the candidate with the least number of votes are bound to support the next place finisher from among the remaining candidates in their district.  This process continues until there is a majority nominee. The other option is to free nominees to vote for the candidate of their choice once their candidate is eliminated or to allow the candidate to pledge those nominees to another candidate (or at least encourage them to do so).

Funding would come from the bottom up. Donors would contribute to a central blind trust, with matching public funds. No funds may be added after the primary.  Sixty percent of the funds raised by Independence Day will be allocated to the primaries.  A caucus would be held in each congressional district. To qualify for public funding, a congressional candidates must have a 12.5% share of caucusers in their party and their party must have a congressional candidate in 219 districts. The primary pot will be divided equally among all qualified congressional candidates in any qualified party. Unfunded candidates will be taken off of their party's ballot.