#Turkey Election

[taratarotgreene]

Turkey Election Astrology

On May 28,2023 Turkey has its first run off vote. This is only the third time Turks have voted directly for their president. Election turnout is incredibly high in Turkey 89% of the population voted in May 14 and an expected 84- 85 % turnout will happen tomorrow. Erdogan won the 2014 and 2018 polls in the first round. In the May 14 polls, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored 49.5…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

During the Obama years, some of the Republican Party’s leading finance wing bosses started playing with fire. The Koch Brothers poured a fortune into the creation of the Tea Party, a hardline group that made it clear that the would rather lose elections than lose the culture war. They primaried career GOP politicians and replaced them with swivel-eyed loons (and normie politicians who were willing to vote like swivel-eyed loons).

These hardliners changed the conservative coalition’s balance of power. By making it clear that they would rather see Democrats in office than Republicans who reneged on their culture war promises, they put the fear of (an evangelical) God into their leaders.The Tea Party marked a turning point for the US conservative movement and then conservative movements around the world.

Hardline conservative policies — total abortion bans, groomer panics, institutionalized racism, historical revisionism, support for white nationalist — are not popular.

Ideas like universal medical care, expanded transit, humane immigration policies and infrastructure spending enjoy commanding majority support among both Republicans and Democrats.But the hardliners threw the steering-wheel out the window. They’ve made it clear to GOP party bosses that they would rather lose elections than lose the culture war.

- The Right's Hardliners Would Rather Lose Elections Than Culture Wars: and the finance wing knows it

[mapsontheweb]

2024 Turkish Local Election results. Social-democrat CHP became the most popular party nationwide, defeating Erdogan’s AK Party. CHP also won big in Istanbul (10% margin) and Ankara (30% margin) against Erdogan-backed candidates.

by u/ThereIsNoStoppingMe

[odinsblog]

The Turkish government asked Twitter to censor its political opponents right before an election, and Elon “free speech” Musk complied.

Make no mistake: Elon Musk will use Twitter to manipulate the US. elections in 2024.

[jamesadomian]

It remains unreported that the far-right Heritage Foundation thinktank behind Project 2025, is also the most violently anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish/ pro-Azeri/ pro-oil thinktank in the entire DC establishment.

Heritage was a loud and gleeful cheerleader of Azerbaijan’s recent total genocide in Artsakh, and their guys openly favor the extermination of all Armenians in the region, because pipelines.

No news has done any basic reporting on this, like even summarizing what the Heritage Foundation death champions have publicly written about Armenia, because there is a broad political consensus to ignore and suppress anything related to Armenians across left right and center. 🤪

[eldestsiblingsyndrome]

post-turkish election moodboard

[nerd-in-distress]

wish your Turkish friends best of luck tomorrow.

[tomorrowusa]

Turkey/Türkiye held local elections over the weekend and the secularist democratic opposition did surprisingly well. It spells bad news for authoritarians – both at home (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) and potentially across the Black Sea (Vladimir Putin).

The Turkish party led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suffered big losses in local elections held on Sunday. Ekrem Imamoğlu, the incumbent from main opposition party CHP, led the mayoral race in Istanbul by nearly 10 percentage points after more than half the votes had been counted, Reuters reported early on Monday. CHP also retained its mayoral seat in Ankara and gained another 15 seats in cities across the country. Erdoğan conceded defeat for the AK Party, the AFP reported. The opposition's win is a blow to Erdoğan, who has been in power as Turkey's prime minister or president since 2003. Since he is also a close partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin — even though Turkey is a NATO member — the defeat of Erdoğan's party could change the two countries' relationship. If Erdoğan's AK Party had won resoundingly, the victory would be used in Ankara to "justify a close relationship with Russia in the eyes of the Turkish public," Marc Pierieni and Francesco Siccardi, researchers at think tank Carnegie Europe, wrote last week. [ ... ] Erdoğan's administration has been talking to Moscow about setting up a gas hub in Turkey as Europe weans itself off natural-gas imports from Russia.

The Financial Times has more specific figures on the shift in fortunes for the two largest parties. Erdoğan's AK Party is often called the AKP.

Overall the CHP captured 38 per cent of the national vote, while support for the AKP fell to 35 per cent. In the 2019 local election the AKP notched up 44 per cent of the vote, with the CHP well behind at around 30 per cent, according to Anadolu data

As an aside, Turkey has a great sounding national anthem called İstiklal Marşı. It's the only anthem I'm aware of that has the word coy in its lyrics.

[themoonofblueside]

its so weird to think about how some of you have never considered election day a turning point in your life and it shows

[sucka99]

[d20brainrot]

i wish i could watch the new season rn but i feel like i should watch the 4 hour interview of the guy i'm gonna vote for in an election that could change the future of my country instead

[yakourinka]

personal post

[mostlysignssomeportents]

It’s true that the Democrats’ finance wing is just as invested in not paying taxes or workers and just as committed to despoiling the Earth as their Republican counterparts.

Sure, they pay lip service to social progressivism, but it’s the anemic form of progressivism that promises to replace a world where everything is run by 150 white, male CEOs with a world where half of those CEOs are people of color, queer, and/or women.

But there is a crucial difference between Republicans and Democrats: Republican party bosses hate their base, but also fear them. They know that the base would rather give an election to Dems than elect Republicans who sell them out.By contrast, the Democratic Party’s grandees have zero fear of the base or the party’s left wing.

For decades, they simply assumed that union members, people of color and progressives would Vote Blue No Matter Who. They sold us out and told us they had no choice, and we just ate shit.

- The Right's Hardliners Would Rather Lose Elections Than Culture Wars: and the finance wing knows it

[mapsontheweb]

Preliminary results of 31 March 2024 Turkish local elections

Turks dealt President Tayyip Erdogan and his party (in yellow) their biggest electoral blow on Sunday in a nationwide local vote that reasserted the opposition as a political force and reinforced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president's chief rival (x).

[medicinemane]

Really really don't get why so many people seem to have this burning hatred for Ukraine where they'll just... bring them up randomly purely to drag them through the mud and it's like... ok... but... do you actually know a single thing about Ukraine or what's been happening there?

Do you for instance remember when a major dam was destroyed by russia causing massive ecological damage?

Like I'm dead serious here, can you tell me a single thing that's happened in Ukraine in the last 2 years? Can you in any way demonstrate any basic understanding of the situation?

Cause if not... why do you think you should have an opinion on it, especially if your opinion is gonna be how awful people getting bombed are?

Just legit bothers me and... even more so bothers me the number of smart and caring people I see doing this. Basically I'm not even trying to be rude here, I'm trying to remind you to pay attention and remember that not everything you read on the internet is true, a tumblr post isn't a source unless they're giving you a reputable source

Cause like me? I can go track you down articles about the Nova Kakhovka dam being destroyed, and I can talk about all the reason why it's pretty clear that russia destroyed it

Can you do the same for me? Can you back up your claim about Ukraine with something concrete?

In many ways I'm not even asking you to support Ukraine, I get we have a limit to how much we can focus on, it's ok if you focus on your cause and I focus on mine and... both of us giving our undivided attention, maybe we both make some small impact on the world

What I'm asking is you don't be an asshole for no reason. You don't need to throw Ukraine under the bus. Don't you think your cause stands up on it's own two feet?

And again I'm not Ukrainian, I don't know as well as someone there, though... I spare you a lot of the stuff that crosses my dash because I don't want to burn people out with horrible stuff, but please understand it's worse than you probably think

So no, not Ukrainian, but I'll tell you why I'm still worth listening to: I've followed this every day since the invasion began. I keep my ear to the ground. I do know a fair bit and again can back what I have to say up

Anyway, my plea is to just not be a dick to people for no reason. The correct number of bombed civilians is zero, that's my stance

[bopinion]

2024 / 29

Aperçu of the week

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”

(Elmer Holmes Davis, US-American news reporter, author, Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II and winner of the Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont Award and many more)

Bad News of the Week

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has often been called “Trump with a brain”. The same could be said of James David “J. D.” Vance. And that's what makes him so dangerous. And his selection as Trump's running mate a clever move from the Republican perspective. Vance stands for the American Dream like no other. From nothing, as a working-class child with a drug-addicted mother, he has worked his way up through military service and law school to become a successful businessman, a bestselling author and US senator.

That sells well. As does his “age” - if you can call it that at 39. And that he comes from the Rust Belt. And, of course, that he owes his success to America and the Almighty God. His political views are arch-conservative. Migration? No. Abortion rights? No. Ukraine support? No. Climate protection? No. Understanding of democracy? No. Welfare state? No. Creepy. Where Trump is vague, Vance is clear. He doesn't just play the tough guy, but seems to really believe in his wet reactionary dreams.

And he knows how to sell his political ideas eloquently. Presumably even to those for whom Trump's populism is too crude. And he also knows how to coherently explain his original blanket rejection of his current idol (“Never-Trumper”). After all, he has proven in office that he was and will be the best president of all time.

We will probably only find out in his memoirs whether Vance donned the Make America Great Again cap out of a calculation for power or out of real conviction. Either way, he will be able to score points with the electorate, which is clearly not immune to racism, sexism, homophobia, protectionism, conspiracy theories, exclusion, predatory capitalism or xenophobia and seems to have a second planet in the trunk.

Good News of the Week

I've been waiting all weekend for the breaking news. Finally it went “pling” and I read: Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia wins the Tour de France for the third time. And I said to myself that it was probably due to the coronavirus isolation at the beach house in Delaware that Joe Biden still hasn't realized that he's up against the wall in the presidential election. Or the announced visit by Benjamin Netanyahu, to whom he does not want to show any weakness. And then came the long-awaited news on Sunday evening Central European Time: Joe Biden is withdrawing his candidacy for re-election.

Unfortunately, contrary to general expectations, Biden has failed to put in place a solid succession plan during his term of office. Now, due to a lack of alternatives, he is also making an automatic case for his Vice President Kamal Harris. Her nomination before the 2020 election was “the best decision of his life”. There are disadvantages associated with the probable nomination of Harris: her approval ratings are hardly any better than those of Joe Biden recently. She lacks a profile of her own. Her track record as Vice President is rather poor.

On the other hand, Harris also has her (marketable) advantages: She is only 59 years “young”. She is known nationwide. She should be able to reach the female electorate and those with a (relatively recent) migration background. As the running mate so far, she probably has direct access to the donated campaign funds (war chest) and structures. She's already been vetted - and I don't mean the mandatory security checks for White House positions, but the search for “dirt” by Republicans.

With Harris' endorsement and initial support from notable Democrats, the likelihood of an open contest by the convention in late August has diminished significantly - even if that would have been the more democratic way to go. Biden's withdrawal comes late, but hopefully not too late. The US electorate can still be told that there is an alternative to Donald Trump that may even be more than just the lesser of two evils. Harris just needs to credibly step out of Biden's shadow. And sell her achievements better than Biden, whose political performance is not at all reflected in his approval ratings.

Personal happy moment of the week

There are people who have obviously done everything right in their lives. After a solid working life, they take a well-paid early retirement and celebrate this change with lots of friends at a nice party in their own garden. We were allowed to be there and enjoyed draught beer and a sumptuous buffet. And I ate a lamb skewer from the grill for the first time. Thank you very much, Stefan!

I couldn't care less...

...that Friday saw the biggest IT outage in history, with worldwide repercussions for air travel, retail, critical infrastructure such as hospitals, public administration and countless companies and private individuals. The error triggered by Crowdstrike paralyzed Windows. This may be by far the most widely used operating system globally, but in our household it reaches exactly 0.0%.

It's fine with me...

...that Ursula von der Leyen was elected by the European Parliament for a second term as President of the EU Commission. She has already successfully managed to keep the reins in her hands, even though the 27 heads of government of the member states like to run in different directions. With a strengthened right-wing, fairly reactionary conservatives, the migration issue condemned to eternal insolubility and a host of vested interests, it will not be easy to keep central projects such as the Green Deal on track. But Von der Leyen can be trusted to do so. Good luck.

As I write this...

...I'm listening to a brand new album by Deep Purple. The musicians are well into their 70s, but they still let it rip. The songs sound almost like leftovers from 50 years ago that a sound engineer found while sweeping up a well-known studio in Montreux. Nice.

Post Scriptum

We Germans know what it's like to (have to) be a divided country. And we were very lucky to be able to leave this behind us. Unfortunately, other peoples, such as the Koreans, cannot claim this for themselves. And there is still a divided country in Europe too: Cyprus.

The small island in the easternmost part of the Mediterranean has been suffering from an ethnic conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots for 50 years now. The conflict has a belligerent character, which the two protecting powers Greece and Türkiye - both of which are members of NATO - are virtually cheering on. The demarcation line with a buffer zone that divides the island is still monitored by UN blue helmets. Sad.