Putin Wins 4th Term as Russian President

"There was no real need for extensive rigging, however, because of Mr. Putin’s genuine popularity." It's difficult for many to believe, brought up on much anti-Putin reportage in the MSM, that Russia has actually conducted a free and fair election, as far as these kinds of elections occur anywhere, and a popular president has been democratically reelected by the Russian people. I know it's difficult to believe, but this particular Russian election was more democratic than our own in which the winner was the person with the lesser number of votes than the loser. All the comments about election sham, rigged election, voter suppression, etc., is better reserved for the US electoral system than for the election that has just been won by Mr. Putin.
The CPRF got 13% of the vote -- what kind of undemocratic authoritarian government allows a Communist Party to openly exist, run in elections, and be the second largest political party in the country?

Putin Wins Russia Election, and Broad Mandate for 4th Term

Voters came out in smaller numbers than the Kremlin had hoped, but the result showed that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia enjoys broad approval among the people.

NYTIMES.COM

How Democrats Can Regain the House

"In their quest to pick up 24 seats, congressional Democrats have focused heavily on courting moderate, suburban voters who dislike Mr. Trump, and for whom issues like trade and union rights are remote considerations." To focus on this group of basically middle class professionals to the neglect of an equal focus on the blue collar union and non union working class would be fatal to any Democratic attempt to retake the House. The Party has to undo its Clinton era blunders resulting in its retreat from the traditional alliance with the union movement. The Left should be agitating for working class issues both within and outside of the confines of DP thus exerting a progressive "gravitational pull" on wavering so-called moderate Democrats.

Why Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren Are Eyeing Ohio in 2018

After President Trump won a landslide there in 2016, Ohio has become a crucial test for populist Democrats seeking a comeback in the midterm campaign.

NYTIMES.COM

Republicans & Democrats Join Forces to Help Wall Street Banks

"In the typically gridlocked Congress, with the Trump legislative agenda mostly stalled, members of both parties will come together to roll back financial rules, during the 10th anniversary of the biggest banking crisis in nearly a century. And it’s happening with virtually no media attention whatsoever." The article also points out that some "populist" center-left Democrats are sponsors of this anti-people and pro Big Banks legislation. The author concludes that if a "populist Democrat feels they can sponsor such a bill and see political benefit — or at least not face much pain — [it] represents a stark failure on the left to adequately frame and define the conversation around banking, Wall Street, inequality, and the economy." Some think we failed miserably in our duty to the working class by not so framing these issues enough in the 2016 election; let's not repeat our mistakes in the upcoming midterms by uncritically supporting candidates on the Center-Left we are working to elect when they support measures that put profits before people.

Instead of Taking on Gun Control, Democrats are Teaming with Republicans for a Stealth Attack on Wall Street Reform

THEINTERCEPT.COM

Xi Jinping and the "Forces of History"

"That history [term limits] suggests that Beijing’s leaders are on what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once called a “fool’s errand”: trying to uphold a system of government that cannot survive in the modern era." Granted that Ms. Clinton is an expert on fool's errands, both she and this article are way off base. The mystical and unmeasurable "forces of history" are always trotted out to cover up ignorance of the real situation and to justify mere speculation as knowledge. China introduced term-limits in 1982 to stabilize and strengthen the political situation in the aftermath of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Nevertheless, Deng Xiaoping remained the "paramount leader" both in and out of office until his death in 1997. The real source of a leader's political power today is in the office of General Secretary of the CPC which is not subject to term limits. The change being proposed is purely cosmetic and all the hoopla in the Western press is nonsense. The stability of the Chinese government is due to the CPCs ability to properly perceive the economic and political realities of the modern world and to guide the Socialist project embarked upon with the triumph of the revolution in 1949.

Xi Sets China on a Collision Course With History

China kept a half-century of global democratic growth at bay by at least nodding to the importance of institutions and rules. Now what?

NYTIMES.COM|BY MAX FISHER