New York, Dec 13 (IANS) An extremist Republican accused of molesting teens lost the Senate election in Alabama, buoying the Democratic Party and delivering President Donald Trump a stinging blow that endangers his agenda.
Roy Moore lost on Tuesday to Democrat Doug Jones by about 1.5 per cent in the traditionally staunch Republican state where Trump had won by a margin of 27 percent.
The Democratic victory that followed party's wins last month in governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well in several other contests across the nation, is a morale booster for the party reeling from Hillary Clinton's loss to Trump a year ago.
"We have shown the country the way that we can be unified," declared a triumphant Jones, who carried the votes of minorities and women in a year of political polarisation.
The Republican defeat set the stage for soul-searching within the party of its strategies and politics and of the divisive style of Trump himself.
Moore, a former state chief justice with conservative Christian religious pretensions, has been accused by nine women of molesting or assaulting them, one of them while she was 14 and another when she was 16. Most of the allegations are from the 1970s.
The allegations came as the nation is in the throes of dealing with sexual misconduct by men in power, whether in politics or in the media and entertainment. Two Democrats, Senator Al Franken and Representative John Conyers, who was the longest serving Congressman, have resigned in recent days after being accused of sexual misconduct.
The allegations against Moore, especially those involving young girls, split the Republican Party, with several leaders demanding that he withdraw from the race. They included House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the other Alabama Senator Richard Shelby and 13 other senators.
Some of the leaders suggested having a write-in candidate for the party. Although it was not formally organised, there were 1.7 per cent write in votes that cost him the election.
Trump uncharacteristically conceded defeat and reached out to Jones. "Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory," he tweeted minutes after the results became known.
"The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win," he added. "The people of Alabama are great."
The vacancy arose when Jeff Sessions resigned the seat to become the Attorney General, confident his party would hold it.
Trump had himself opposed Moore in the primary election in which party members selected the candidate for the main election. But the candidate backed by Trump, Luther Strange, who was appointed to temporarily fill the Senate vacancy, lost the primary in an early blow to the president.
After initial hesitations, Trump endorsed Moore but did not visit the state to actively campaign for him.
Moore's candidacy exposed wide fissures in the Republican Party between an extremist wing represented by Trump's former strategist Stephen Bannon who was behind Moore's candidacy, and the others, including Trump.
The defeat is a blow to Bannon and his brand of politics which is more extreme than Trump's, but was spawned by Trump's own populism. The party and Trump are sure to re-evaluate strategies ahead of next year's elections when 33 senators will be up for election, eight of them Republicans.
The Republican Party's majority in the 100-member Senate is now trimmed to 51, putting Trump's radical agenda at risk - he could not find enough support among his party's senators to repeal the universal health insurance programme of former President Barack Obama and only after several compromises was he able to muster the majority to pass his tax reform bill.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
Washington, Dec 13 (IANS) Democrat Doug Jones knocked off Republican Roy Moore in the race for an Alabama Senate seat "dealing a stunning blow" to US President Donald Trump, who endorsed the latter.
Jones defeated Moore on Tuesday, becoming the first Democratic senator to represent Alabama in two decades, further narrowing the Republican's slim majority in the upper chamber, media reports said.
The 63-year-old former prosecutor's victory deals a blow to Republicans and narrows their majority to 51-49 in the Senate, the BBC said.
The election took a turn after Moore became embroiled in allegations of sexual misconduct with teenaged women. He was accused of pursuing and molesting multiple teenage girls while in his 30s, a charge he has denied.
Trump had called Moore "a better choice than a liberal Democrat".
Why editor allows Anthappa use non parliamentary word F here. Are we not decent readers ? 100 percent evidence needed in harassment or criminal cases. Modi respects trump and Ivanka. Trump will win a second term. Donkeys have no future.
Your Hero- few highlights.
USA today Editorial Board does not hold back: “A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.”
Poll: "Idiot" most common word used by voters to describe Trump http://hill.cm/7fCyEVi
Alabama GOP senator: "I'm relieved" Moore lost http://hill.cm/dWJv3dw
This fucker [moore] hasn't even conceded the Civil War so this could take a while
Like
Direct message
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th established equal protection, the 15th prohibited denying the vote based on race, and the 19th extended the vote to women and your hero’s bootlicker moore wants these Amendments nullified.
Sen. Cory Booker says President Trump's tweet about Sen. Gillibrand is "vile and despicable" and is another tweet that illustrates "this is who he is"
rump's kids should all be investigated, then help fund our investigation below.
Jailed Russian hacker told a Moscow court in August he hacked the DNC under the command of Russia’s FSB (formerly called KGB)
Your hero is a traitor. He did not win the election. Russia hacked the election, Many GOP leaders are funded by Russians.
നാട്ടിന് പുറത്തുള്ള വഴികളില് കൂടി പോകുമ്പോള് ചില കൊടിച്ചി ശുനര് കുരച്ചു ബഹളം കൂട്ടുന്നതു കാണാം, സൂഷിച്ചില്ലേല് അവ പുറകില് കൂടി വന്നു കടിക്കും. ഇവറ്റ വെറും തെരുവ് സുനകര് എങ്കിലും ആരുടയോ കാവല് നായിക്കള് ആണെന്ന് ഉള്ള മട്ടില് മണ്ണ് മാന്തി ചീറ്റി അവ ശൌര്യം കാണിക്കും. ആരുടെ എങ്കിലും വീട്ടില് ചെന്നാല് നല്ല തല്ലും ഏറും കിട്ടും. ഇനി കാറിലോ ബൈക്കിലോ പോയാലും ഇവ കുറച്ചു കൊണ്ട് പുറകെ ഓടി വരും. അത് പോലെ ആണ് ട്രുംപിന് സപ്പോര്ട്ട് ചെയുന്ന മലയാളികള്. പെണ്ണ് പിടിയനും കബളിപ്പിക്കുന്നവനും, വര്ഗ്ഗീയ വാദിയും അയ ഇവനെ എങ്ങനെ പിന്തുണക്കും?. അവിടെയും ഇവിടെയും ഒക്കെ ആയി ഇന്ത്യക്കാര് ദിവസവും വെളുംബന്റെ അടിയും വെടിയും കൊള്ളുന്നു എന്നിട്ടും അത് കാണാതെ ബില് ക്ളിന്റെന്, ഹിലരി ഇവരെ ചീത്ത വിളിച്ചു നടക്കുന്ന എബ്യന് മലയാളിക്ക് എന്ത് കിട്ടും. അവന്റെ ആസനം തൂത്ത് നടന്ന ഒമരോസയെ വലിച്ചു പുറത്തു ഇട്ടതുപോലെ ഇവനിട്ട് ഒക്കെ കിട്ടിയാല് വളരെ നന്നയിരുന്നു.
ആരോ മുന്പ് എഴുതിയതുപോലെ - നിന്റെ വീട്ടില് ഇ പെണ്ണ് പിടിയനെ താമസിപ്പിക്കുമോ ?
it is a quick patch up for your inferiority.
it makes you barbaric, selfish, egoist
you will use cunning tools to fool the public
One of “pussy-grabbing” former playboy Donald Trump’s greatest sources of political support has been, disturbingly, white evangelical Christians.
Under the pretense of promoting their socially conservative values, these evangelicals are now enabling President Trump and Republican legislators to put in place new policies (such as those found in the tax bill) that will further entrench poverty in America. An African-American pastor recently called these white evangelicals out for how they have created “systemic poverty.”
Civil rights leader and CNN contributor Rev. Dr. William Barber debuted a movement called “The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival” during an appearace at the North Carolina General Assembly. This name harkens back to the “Poor People’s Campaign” created by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Wrote Barber together with Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis in an articlefor The Guardian, “Half a century later, the conditions that motivated the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign have only worsened, making the need for a new moral movement more urgent than ever.”
In their article, they tackled how white evangelicals’ political control has directly led to voter suppression and great poverty. They wrote, “The states with the highest poverty rates are in the south. And those same states have the highest rates of voter suppression of black people. Through this racialized voter suppression, politicians who support policies that hurt the poor get elected.” Barber and his co-author added, “So-called white evangelicals are omnipresent in the poorest areas of our country, and they say the least about systemic poverty, which is the foremost issue in authentic Christian religious theology. After our denominations splintered over the moral question of slavery and the nation stood on the brink of civil war, Frederick Douglas said, ‘Between the christianity of this land and the christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.’” Barber previously threw his weight befind the successful effort to defeat extreme-right Republican evangelical Roy Moore in the recent Senate special election. Stated Barber before the election about white evangelicals who backed Moore, “This is not Christianity. Rather, it is an extreme Republican religionism that stands by party and regressive policy no matter what. It’s not the gospel of Christ, but a gospel of greed. It is the religion of racism and lies, not the religion of redemption and love.”
Dr.Beena, Psychiatrist.
In my 36 ears of experience as a psychiatrist, I have come across men of different caliber. Most of them were very rich, some of the unfortunate were refereed by Court.
Why I used 'unfortunate'? You may boast whatever you want, your beauty, ability to make money, smart, educational qualification, whatever. Being born in a well to do family is just an accidental occurrence. Once you have that strong base, you can be very successful. Many are unfortunate to be born in richness.
Most of the malayalee men patients were very typical. These are few of their characteristic:- egoists, narcissists [ they think they are very attractive to women, like Mohan Lal, Mamutty}, selfish, unconcerned about own children and wife, money hungry, pleasure seeking, power thirsty,... list is long.
They all were hypocrites hiding under some religion but simply followed it.
Their problems: excessive drinking, gambling, spending money on prostitutes, abusive, some were afraid of their wives and children. The root cause was their inferiority as most of them had very low educational level.
Some of them were 'house husbands'- wife's salary was the only income, some are owners of small to medium businesses – grocery store, restaurants, gas stations, daily rent motels.
These people were 'day time gentlemen', officials in associations, churches, temples etc.
the problem with them was their insulted ego. They wanted to be big, but they were not getting the attention they wanted.
You see them in every day life. Politics gives them a big relief, being part of a big something.