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healthcare | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/07/ills-healthcaregov-errors-in-obamacare-website-forms-spark-concerns/ | Ills of HealthCare.gov: Errors in ObamaCare website forms spark concerns | 2013-12-07 | healthcare | The Obama administration announced Friday that enrollment records for one in four Americans who selected health plans on HealthCare.gov in October and November could contain errors , raising concerns that consumers who think they have coverage wo n't actually be enrolled on Jan. 1 .
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman Julie Bataille said recent fixes to HealthCare.gov have brought the error rate on forms sent to insurance companies down to about one in 10 for files generated after Dec. 1 , The Wall Street Journal reported .
The electronic files , known as 834 forms , give insurance companies basic information about would-be customers , including their name , address , contact information and Social Security number . Insurance companies have reported issues with the files since the law 's rollout .
`` The new process put in place this week is making a difference . The enrollment files are getting better , but there is more work to do to ensure consumers are covered , '' Karen Ignani , the chief executive officer of insurance industry trade group , America β s Health Insurance Plans , said in a statement obtained by the New York Post on Friday .
CMS is reaching out to hundreds of thousands of consumers who have tried to enroll for health coverage but are n't enrolled , according to Bataille , who said consumers should be contacted by the insurance company for a payment after selecting a plan .
`` Our clear priority is fixing any remaining bugs causing problems and working to make sure every 834 form past and present is resolved , '' Bataille said , according to The Journal .
Ms. Bataille said errors with the enrollment forms include duplicate files , lack of a file altogether , or a file with mistaken data such as a child incorrectly being listed as a spouse .
AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach told FoxNews.com last week that insurance companies have received duplicative and inaccurate forms , and `` in some cases , plans are not getting the enrollment files at all . '' Getting that fixed , he said , is `` critical . ''
Though the administration has given people until the end of March to sign up for coverage if they want to avoid a fine , coverage for many is supposed to start on Jan. 1 . That leaves less than 30 days to fix the remaining glitches .
The administration announced last week it is working on a system to pay insurers its portion of premiums and cost-sharing payments . A temporary workaround has been proposed that would allow insurers to estimate how much they are owed , and submit the bill to the government . | trQk2UKRspIoFpTq | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78135.html | Ann Romney: Barack Obama wants to ΓΒ’Γ’βΒ¬ΓΕdestroyΓΒ’Γ’β¬ÒβΒ’ Mitt Romney | 2012-07-05 | elections | Ann Romney blasted the strategy she says the Democrats are using . Ann : Obama wants to 'destroy ' Mitt
Ann Romney charged on Thursday that President Barack Obama β s campaign wants to β destroy β her husband as she blasted the β kill Romney β strategy that she believes the Democrats are using to hold onto the White House in November .
β Well , I feel like all [ Obama is ] doing is saying , β Let β s kill this guy , β β Ann said in a taped interview with CBS β s β This Morning β on Wednesday .
β Not when I β m next to him you better not , β she quipped as her husband sat beside her for the joint interview .
β When you hear the president of the United States saying that a president needs compassion and that your husband doesn β t have it , do you listen to that ? β asked CBS correspondent Jan Crawford .
β No . 1 , they β re not correct . It makes you recognize that they are gon na do everything they can to destroy Mitt , β answered Ann Romney .
The β kill Romney β references date back to an August 2011 βββ story in which a prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House said , β Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments , he will have to kill Romney . β
Further , Ann Romney said she would β love β to have her husband pick a female running mate .
β Do you think he should nominate a woman ? β asked Crawford .
β We β ve been looking at that . And I β d love that option as well , β Ann responded . β There are a lot of people that Mitt is considering right now . β
Mitt Romney , who was giving his first interview since the controversial Supreme Court decision on the Obama-backed Affordable Act , suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts β s decision to change his mind and join the progressive wing of the court was a β political β move .
β It gives the impression that the decision was made not based upon constitutional foundation but instead a political consideration about the relationship between the branches of government , β Mitt Romney said . β But we won β t really know the answers to those things until the justice himself speaks out β maybe sometime in history . β
The Republican presidential candidate , asked whether he would nominate someone in the mold of Roberts , praised him for being a β very bright person β but also said β I certainly wouldn β t nominate someone who I knew was gon na come out with a decision I vehemently disagreed with . β | AD6mJy5j6BkecgiH | 0 | Presidential Elections | -0.3 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Newsmax (News) | http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/republican-house-control-2014/2013/08/12/id/519872 | Odds Strong on GOP Keeping House Control in 2014 | 2013-08-12 | US House, Politics | For all the reports of national Democrats drawing targets on enough Republican-held seats to recapture control of the House in 2014, the odds are strong that Republicans will hold onto their majority in the last mid-term election of the Obama administration.The arithmetic favors the Republicans in the upcoming campaign, in which voters decide the fate of all 435 House members.The current makeup of the House is 233 Republicans, 200 Democrats, and two vacancies. Upcoming special elections to fill the vacancies in Alabama and Massachusetts will almost give one seat to each party.Democratic strategists frequently speak of "the magic 17" βthe number of districts carried by President Barack Obama in 2012 in which voters also sent a Republican to the House. Victories in all 17 districts by Democratic candidates would mean a recapture of the Democratic majority in the House, with 218 seats to 217 for the Republicans.In a memo marked "Please Do Not Share This List With the Press" but obtained last week by Roll Call, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named the 17 Republican-held seats it is targeting. Among them were such narrow 2012 winners as Reps. Mike Coffman of Colorado, Lee Terry of Nebraska, and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.But this strategy depends on Democrats winning everything they target and Republicans picking up nothing. That means, as House editor David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report said, "There's basically no margin of error for House Democrats."On the other hand, Republicans will almost surely be targeting the nine districts that went for Mitt Romney for president but sent a Democrat to the House.These include the two closest races in the nation last year: North Carolina's 7th District and Arizona's 2nd, in which Republicans David Rouzer and Martha McSally will square off in rematches with Democratic Reps. Mike McIntyre and Ron Barbe, respectively.Widely considered the most vulnerable Democratic-held district in the nation is Florida's 18th District, where 30-year-old Democrat Patrick Murphy edged out swashbuckling conservative Allen West, by less than 2,000 votes. Already four Republicans have filed for the chance to oppose Murphy in 2014.Even though Murphy has voted "the right way" in conservative eyes by supporting delays in the Obamacare mandate for both businesses and individuals, his vote against repeal of Obamacare is expected to be a major issue for any Republican opponent.Although that Republican primary is likely to grow more crowded because of the perceived vulnerability of the incumbent, the early favorite is Carl Domino, former assistant state house GOP leader, successful investments adviser, and U.S. Navy veteran.For open seats, there always is greater competition and more "switcheroos" than attempting to dislodge incumbents. So far, there are 14 seats without incumbents β five Democratic-held seats and nine Republican-held seats.The West Virginia seat that Republican Shelley Moore Capito is leaving, to run for the Senate, could go Democratic, and the Iowa seat Democrat Bruce Braley is giving up for a Senate run could go the other way. For now, few of the other 12 are likely to flip.Former Secretary of State James Baker once said "overnight is an eternity in politics." Much can change between now and November of 2014. But at this time, the best prediction is the House remains Republican next year. Just do the math. | c210c5bddcadb5ee | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
coronavirus | Wired | https://www.wired.com/story/how-much-is-human-life-worth-in-dollars/ | How Much Is a Human Life Actually Worth? | 2020-05-11 | Life During Covid-19, Economic Policy, Healthcare, Public Health, Coronavirus, Domestic Policy, Role Of Government, Science | The numbers are staggering . On May 7 , 2,231 Americans died of the disease Covid-19 , bringing the total number of deaths in the United States to 75,662 , and more than 270,000 worldwide .
The economic effects have been nothing short of American carnage . At the end of April the US Congressional Budget Office hinted that the second quarter of 2020 would see the first drop in the US Gross Domestic Product in six years , and the worst since 2008 . Since March , 33.5 million people have filed for unemployment . Companies large and small are going to disappear , along with millions of jobs . Consumer spending , business investment , manufacturingβeverything is in freefall , and it β s not likely to get better until 2021 , even if the pandemic eases and doesn β t snap back with a second wave . ( Pandemics tend to snap back with second wavesβespecially when social distancing ends too soon . )
Put it that way , and the choice seems stark : Continue strict social distancing and shelter-in-place measures to minimize the spread of Covid-19 and save thousands of lives , or end the lightweight lockdownβopen all the shops , restart the factoriesβand save the economy . Sacrifices must be made for the common good . β We can β t keep our country closed . We have to open our country , β President Trump said while visiting a mask factory in Arizona Tuesday . β Will some people be badly affected ? Yes . β
Butβ¦really ? The point of social distancing was to β flatten the curve , β to slow the spread of the virus so that hospitals wouldn β t be overwhelmed and governments could take public health measuresβlike widespread testing and tracing the contacts of sick peopleβto keep people safe . All of those things would have rendered the dichotomy false ; the lockdown wouldn β t have to be total and the economic costs could be lessened . None of that happened .
Sacrifices have to be worth it . The good has to be greater . And there β s devilry in those details . New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made the point in stark terms : β How much is a human life worth ? That is the real discussion that no one is admitting , openly or freelyβthat we should , β Cuomo said in a briefing Tuesday . β To me , I say the cost of a human life , a human life is priceless . Period . β
As the Associated Press has reported , the federal government has largely abandoned its own standards for when states should lift their shelter-in-place orders . A researcher at the respected Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told Congress last week that no state looked epidemiologically ready to go back to normal .
And yet 31 states have decided to just go for it . Texas is letting restaurants and movie theaters reopen at 25 percent capacity , with barber shops to followβwhile the governor acknowledges privately that Covid-19 cases will certainly increase as a result . Georgia is lifting its stay-at-home order and allowing places from tattoo parlors to bowling alleys to unlock their doors . Even California , which battened down early , is opening some southern beaches .
Information about the virus is incomplete and sometimes contradictory . So is information about its impact on the national economy . So is information about what people will contribute to the economy even if states end official restrictions . Given that uncertainty , who is going to get on an airplane next week ? Or go to a crowded bar ? ( A minority , according to polls , but the perception of risk has declined in recent weeks , independent of the spread of disease . )
SIGN UP TODAY Get the Backchannel newsletter for the best features and investigations on βββ .
How much is a human life worth ? As a society we have historically been willing to incur costs to save lives and improve public welfare . Government forces carmakers to reduce air pollution to help people with asthma , and the price of cars goes up . Laws prevent factories from polluting to save fisheries , and goods cost more . But that kind of tradeoff clearly has limits . Few people suggest deactivating the country β s financial engines to fight opioid addiction deaths or flu or heart disease or traffic accidents . Why do it for this one very bad respiratory virus ? | 4382c56c2e46ba4d | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/19/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll/index.html | Poll: Hillary Clinton wins debate, Bernie Sanders rises | 2015-10-19 | Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Presidential Elections, Elections | Washington ( CNN ) With the first Democratic debate in the books , a new CNN/ORC poll finds most who watched think Hillary Clinton had the best performance of the night , but her strong showing has n't boosted her standing in the race for the party 's nomination .
Clinton stands at 45 % in the race for the Democratic nomination , with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders behind her at 29 % . Vice President Joe Biden , who is considering a run for presidency and did not participate in last week 's debate , follows at 18 % .
Behind the top three , former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb had 1 % support , while former Rhode Island Gov . Lincoln Chafee , Harvard professor Larry Lessig and former Maryland Gov . Martin O'Malley all held less than 1 % support .
Compared with pre-debate polling , Sanders ' support is up five points since mid-September , but no other candidate showed significant change .
As Biden mulls whether or not to get in the race , the poll suggests Democrats are becoming less enamored of a run from the vice president . In August , 53 % of registered Democrats said they wanted Biden to run , that 's down to 47 % in the new poll . Should Biden decide to sit out the race for the Democratic nomination , Clinton 's lead over Sanders climbs to 23 points : 56 % would back Clinton , 33 % Sanders .
Overall , 31 % of registered Democrats say they watched all or most of the CNN/Facebook debate , held October 13 in Las Vegas . More than 6-in-10 Democrats who watched say Clinton did the best job , almost doubling the 35 % who thought Sanders had the best performance . On the other side of the coin , 43 % of those who watched said Chafee had the worst night , 31 % thought Webb did , 12 % O'Malley .
Among those Democrats who watched the debate , both Sanders and Biden are viewed more favorably than they are among Democratic voters generally : Sanders ' favorability number bumps from 62 % among all Democratic voters to 84 % among debate viewers , while Biden climbs from 76 % to 89 % favorable . Clinton 's numbers are about the same in both groups .
Despite their positive feelings toward Biden , debate-watchers are more apt than others to say Biden should stay out of the contest ( 61 % think he should not run , compared with 43 % of those who did not watch ) and they are far more likely to be satisfied with the Democratic field generally ( 84 % compared with 64 % among those who did n't watch ) .
Assessing the lesser-known candidates , debate-watchers are more positive than other Democrats toward O'Malley , ( 44 % favorable compared with 20 % among Democratic voters generally ) . But Webb and Chafee are both viewed more negatively among those who watched ( For Chafee , 32 % unfavorable among debate-watchers vs. 18 % among all Democratic voters ; Webb is at 37 % unfavorable among debate-watchers , 20 % among all Democratic voters ) .
Following the debate , Clinton continues to dominate as the more trusted candidate across several top issues , with double-digit advantages over Sanders and Biden as the candidate who would best handle the economy , health care , foreign policy , race relations , climate change and gun policy . Clinton also now holds a small edge over Sanders as most trusted on income inequality ( 43 % Clinton , 38 % Sanders ) .
Debate-watchers are more likely than others to say they trust Sanders on top issues , though even among this more-friendly audience , he continues to trail Clinton on most issues . Exceptions are income inequality ( 50 % of debate-watchers trust Sanders vs. 36 % for Clinton ) and climate change ( 40 % each say Clinton and Sanders would be best able to handle that ) .
Sanders gained no ground , however , on foreign policy . On that question , Clinton 's strength grows among those who watched : 77 % in that group say they trust her most to handle foreign policy , up from 66 % among Democratic voters overall .
On two issues where the debate highlighted differences among the candidates , fissures within the Democratic electorate on who would best handle them emerge .
Income inequality appears to be the most divisive issue , with women , older voters , those without college degrees , moderates and those with lower incomes more apt to trust Clinton on the issue , while those with college degrees , liberals , and urbanites are more likely to favor Sanders .
And on gun policy , there 's a sharp gender divide . Women are far more likely to say they trust Clinton to handle it than men , 50 % to 37 % . Democratic gun owners are more evenly split on the question , with 35 % saying they trust Clinton most on gun policy , 27 % Sanders and 21 % Biden . Among those Democrats who do not own guns , it 's 48 % Clinton , 21 % Biden and 16 % Sanders .
Overall , Democrats are n't much more satisfied with their field now than they were in July before any debates had happened . While the share `` very satisfied '' has risen from 26 % to 33 % , the share saying they are at least fairly satisfied has held steady at about 7-in-10 . Women do report feeling more satisfied with the field than men , but younger Democrats , a key group for Barack Obama 's general election victories , are far less satisfied with this field of candidates than older Democrats . Only about one-quarter of those under age 50 say they are very satisfied , compared with 40 % of those age 50 or older .
When matched against the top candidates from the Republican field , Clinton , Sanders and Biden all top Donald Trump , who has been leading most polling on the Republican nomination contest since this summer . But Biden is the only one who holds a significant lead over Ben Carson , a more recent addition to the top of the Republican field . Trump trails Clinton by 5 , Sanders by 9 and Biden by 10 . But against Carson , both Clinton ( 47 % to Carson 's 48 % ) and Sanders ( 46 % to Carson 's 48 % ) run about evenly with the former neurosurgeon . Biden tops Carson by 8 points .
The CNN/ORC International Poll was conducted by telephone October 14-17 among a random national sample of 1,028 adult Americans . Results among the 425 registered voters who say they are Democrats or independents who lean toward the Democratic Party have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points . | 6d4eae8c9142ef68 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | InfoWars | http://www.infowars.com/coup-israeli-police-enter-netanyahus-home-over-corruption-allegations/ | Israeli Police Enter Netanyahu's Home Over Corruption Allegations | 2017-01-02 | Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, World | As the Obama administration shunned Israel last week , we warned that police were calling on Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to allow them to open a full criminal investigation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .
Today , as Channel 2 reports , Israeli police entered Bibi β s home for questioning . The prime minister was quick to react , blasting β don β t celebrate too soon over corruption probe . β
As we detailed last week , on Monday , December 26th , Israeli police announced that they are absolutely convinced that a criminal investigation will be opened in the next few days due to new documents that were recently received in a special inquiry that began about 9 months ago .
The offenses that Netanyahu allegedly will face will be bribery and aggravated-fraud . In June it was reported that police had recently started their secret investigation , with demand that no details be leaked to the media .
Attorney General Mandelblit also allegedly instructed employees in the state prosecutor β s office to investigate allegations that Netanyahu accepted 1 million euros ( about $ 1.1 million ) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran in 2009 .
Earlier in December , in an apparently unrelated case , there were calls for the Netanyahu to be investigated for his role in a Defense Ministry deal to purchase submarines from a German company that is partly owned by the Iranian government .
The affair overtook public debate in Israel last month , as accusations came about that the Israeli prime minister may have been financially swayed in the decision by his personal counsel David Shimron , who himself had ties with the submarines β builder , ThyssenKrupp . The purchase was opposed by sectors of the defense establishment , including former defense minister Moshe Ya β alon .
A spokesman for Netanyahu defended the Prime Minister by telling The Times of Israel , β This is absolutely false . There was nothing and there will be nothing . β
Benjamin Netanyahu , Israel β s prime minister , is being questioned by detectives on suspicion of illegally accepting valuable gifts from prominent businessmen in a scandal that is roiling Israeli politics .
Police officers came to the prime minister β s official residence in Jerusalem on Monday evening to question him about claims that he took designer suits and overseas trips his son from at least two businessmen .
Mr Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged but the criminal investigation into him is one of several probes swirling around him and his family . His wife , Sara , was questioned by police in a different case just weeks ago .
Police probes against politicians are common in Israel and Mr Netanyahu β s predecessor , Ehud Olmert , is in prison for corruption . Ariel Sharon was questioned by police over accusations he accepted bribes but the case was dropped and he was never charged . | 02d6f4f7fea7f3de | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
us_house | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/rebels-with-a-cause-115806.html?hp=t1_r | Rebels with a cause | 2015-03-06 | us_house | Sitting in a room on the fourth floor of the Cannon House Office Building , sipping soda and beer minutes after they helped defeat a three-week extension of Homeland Security funding , the roughly two dozen House conservatives who in January declared themselves the Freedom Caucus were looking to flex their muscles again .
They made the House Republican leaders an offer β a one-week funding bill , with the option for another two weeks if formal negotiations with the Senate were launched . After breaking for dinner , and scrolling through news on their iPhones and BlackBerrys , the group walked together back to the House floor to watch leadership β s machinations firsthand .
Ultimately , the House leaders rejected the offer from the Freedom Caucus and , in a further rebuke , eventually gave in to Democratic demands for a floor vote on a bill funding DHS through September . But that defeat looked almost like a victory to many members of the Freedom Caucus , who insist they have established themselves as a unified force . They didn β t try to oust Speaker John Boehner , as some in Boehner β s circle feared , but came away prepared to be a constant counterweight to the embattled speaker .
β While yesterday we might have lost a major battle , I think that tactically , our strength is growing very quickly , β Rep. Matt Salmon ( R-Ariz. ) said . β The number of people who want to join our ranks is increasing every day . β
Salmon and other members of the Freedom Caucus made clear that their purpose isn β t simply endless debate . For years , the nucleus of conservative thought in the House has been the Republican Study Committee , which holds meetings that are large and ideologically diverse . The group has been risk-averse , hardly ever unifying behind a legislative strategy .
The Freedom Caucus was a response to that , and in the midst of their first legislative battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security , they showed just how different they β d be . Since Republicans took the majority in 2011 , the far right wing of the House Republican Conference has been a disparate bunch , unable to clearly articulate a unified set of demands to the leadership .
Although they clearly lost the fight over DHS funding , the Freedom Caucus is beginning to show that it is a force that requires leadership β s attention . The group is showing legislative sophistication , defying the perception of a ragtag collection of demagogues as many in the Capitol had pegged it .
The group , along with Rep. Thomas Massie ( R-Ky. ) , were able to slow consideration of the Senate β s DHS bill using rarely employed floor tactics β a strategy born of consultations with parliamentary advisers that lasted more than a week , sources said . They successfully worked to whip up opposition to Republican leadership β s plans , dealing Boehner and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise ( R-La . ) an embarrassing defeat on the House floor .
With the backing of popular conservatives , they have changed the definition of what legislation meets conservative muster . Those new standards have grown the group β s reach beyond its approximately two dozen members . In the DHS fight , Republican leadership saw reliable allies siding with a different Ohioan than Boehner : Rep. Jim Jordan , who runs the Freedom Caucus .
Members also are threatening to stop giving money to the Republican party . After a nonprofit group aligned with Boehner aired attack ads against several of its members , some Freedom Caucus lawmakers say they will stop giving money to the National Republican Congressional Committee β a standard practice that House Republicans are expected to abide by .
β Why would we want to throw money out there when we β re going to have entities attacking our own , β Salmon said , referring to the ads run by the American Action Network . Boehner β s office has said the speaker did not support AAN airing the ads .
Still , the Freedom Caucus β newfound power is bound to run into limits . Senate Republicans are far more moderate , and GOP leaders say they β ll be much more willing to ignore what they consider to be the group β s self-defeating strategy in future debates . | qCrKz4lt194Bdpox | 0 | Arts And Entertainment | 0 | Entertainment | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
us_congress | Guest Writer - Right | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/restoring-congress-political-parties-solution/ | OPINION: Restoring Congress: The Parties Are a Solution | 2019-06-17 | us_congress | Politicians in safe districts can ignore the rest of the country . But in a strong party committed to a national agenda , leadership could rebuke the extremists .
In my column last week on restoring Congress , I argued that before we call for the legislature to reclaim its old power , we first have to reform it .
In his thoughtful essay in the New York Times β β What If Congress Were in Charge ? β β Yuval Levin offers a number of suggestions . One that I can certainly endorse is a reform of the budgeting process :
By eliminating the distinction between authorization and appropriation , Congress could set spending levels on programs when it defines those programs rather than leaving all budget decisions for one big up or down vote as a shutdown nears . Breaking up budgeting into smaller portions would create more opportunities for real legislative work .
I like this idea a lot . The budget process has clearly broken down and needs to be fixed . Similarly , a reform of the filibuster is advisable , but we should not get rid of it altogether .
But I have to break from Yuval β s larger suggestion . He reckons that Congress has become β too consolidated β and that decentralization , particularly by denuding the congressional parties , is the right strategy . I disagree .
As I argued last week , I think the problem is that Congress as a constitutional entity is too parochial to govern for the national interest . If this analysis is correct , then what we need to do is find ways to nationalize Congress . This does not mean getting rid of Congress altogether and replacing it with some national plebiscite . Local involvement in national affairs is essential to our political identity and brings a multitude of benefits . What we need , rather , is to find centripetal countermeasures to the centrifugal nature of our Congress .
This no doubt rankles those who prefer maximum localism and diversity within Congress . But we have to take the world as it is and not as we wish it to be . If we stipulate that we want public policies that work for the benefit of the whole nation , and that Congress can not produce these policies on its own , then these centripetal forces have to come from somewhere . Right now , they come from the executive branch . The president has taken on more and more power in part because , as a unitary agent , he can claim to speak for the national interest , whereas Congress is cacophonous in its pronunciations and irresponsible in its policies .
Demanding a decentralized Congress , a properly diminished presidency , and coherent public policy is like wanting your cake and eating it , too . It isn β t going to happen , and we have to find a better alternative than an imperial presidency .
I think a better solution lies in the political parties , a suggestion that I reckon many are prone to dismiss out of hand . The parties have a bad reputation , which they have worked hard to earn ! They have long been implicated in the many and various problems of American government . They facilitated political corruption in the 19th century , and today they seem to be the primary culprits in the legislative paralysis that has so frustrated many Americans about the Congress . And yet a careful examination of early party history reveals that the first parties were founded in part for the purpose of establishing popular control over government β and opens up the possibility that they could serve this purpose once again .
In this regard , I β d associate myself with the post-war movement known as β responsible party government β β scholars and politicians who called for a strengthening of the party system . I think that has been good for our politics over the last half-century , and I would go further still .
Edmund Burke , the great English philosopher-statesman of the 18th century , saw the salutary possibility behind parties , or alliances built around β leading general principles in government. β In the 1790s , Thomas Jefferson and James Madison founded what they called the β Republican β party as a way to rally public opinion against what they thought were the monarchical aspirations of Hamilton and his Federalist allies . ( This Republican party is distinct from the contemporary GOP and today is often called the Democratic-Republican party . ) Thirty years later , after this Republican party splintered , Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren breathed new life back into party politics , via what soon became known as the Democratic party , to overcome what they thought was the β Corrupt Bargain β of 1824 , whereby Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams supposedly conspired to prevent Jackson , the popular-vote winner , from taking the presidency .
The early history of the parties , then , was partially about securing popular sovereignty . Van Buren , the first unapologetic American party theorist , appreciated this role . In his Autobiography , he acknowledged that the excesses of parties can β produce many evils β ; however , the parties are the best way to check β the disposition to abuse power , so deeply planted in the human heart. β I think we can learn a lot from this way of thinking .
Imagine a congressional party structured by several basic qualities . First , prior to the election , it would develop a detailed legislative agenda , upon which it would campaign for office . Second , the party organization , rather than candidates or outside interest groups , would be the predominant agent for financing political campaigns . Third , upon victory , the party would strive earnestly to enact the agenda it campaigned on . Fourth , the party in government would reward or sanction its elected members according to whether they participated in this endeavor : Those who helped the party along would have opportunities for advancement in party ranks ; those who did not would suffer rebukes either in Congress ( e.g. , losing committee assignments ) or in the campaign ( e.g. , being denied the party β s renomination for the subsequent election ) .
A system like this could redirect the perspectives of legislators in a nationalist direction , increasing Congress β s capacity to govern for the general welfare , rather than parochial interests . It could do this in multiple ways . For starters , members would have a greater incentive to look beyond their own districts . Granted , the constitutional structure of Congress is such that , left to its own devices , it tends to deal with national issues from a parochial perspective . That is just an inevitable feature of legislative districts apportioned according to local geography . But a national party organization with real power to frame campaigns , nominate candidates , and reward or punish incumbents would counter this parochialism β as members of Congress would know that they had to satisfy not only their local constituencies but also the national leadership of the party , which in turn would be responsible to the entire national electorate .
Moreover , a party system that took greater control over the demands of financing politics could liberate individual politicians from having to fundraise ; this would reduce the insider advantages that well-heeled donors now enjoy . In fact , centralizing campaign finance within the party could give members of government an additional incentive to toe the party line . If they depend on the party to provide the resources necessary to carry on a campaign , they will be more responsive to the dictates of the party .
Additionally , it could work against our system β s status quo bias . The supermajority requirement to overcome a presidential veto , the two- to six-year staggering of elections to Congress , the need for bicameral unanimity on legislation , and other features make it relatively hard to pass major pieces of legislation . Nevertheless , robust parties could offer a countervailing pressure , pushing the government to get more things done . Members from safe districts often have no incentive to work for a collective effort , as their own electoral fortunes are rarely if ever at stake . But if they actually depended on the parties for their renomination , or if they expected a demotion within the partisan hierarchy for not helping out the team , they would have incentives to go along .
Greater congressional capacity to govern responsibly should yield a stronger congressional will to govern . In the current political landscape , the president is taken by the voters as the main agent who is responsible for the public interest . Members of Congress are usually judged only insofar as they are allied with or against him , giving them an incentive to shuffle authority off to the executive branch . But if voters expect a partisan majority to accomplish the national goals it promised during the campaign , and if they then intend to evaluate the party by judging whether its agenda improves the state of the union , members of Congress will have a motive to exercise power themselves , rather than delegate to the president . Their electoral fortunes will depend on their own public service , rather than on supporting or opposing the president .
If I am right , and a strengthened Congress would be a happy effect of a stronger party system , then we have to think about how to improve the parties . I will offer ideas on that next week . | kh2m6DeUUhCItewg | 2 | Politics | 0.3 | US Congress | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
federal_budget | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/15/dog-whistle-to-left/ | Opinion: A 'dog whistle' to the left: Geitner and Obama | 2014-05-15 | federal_budget | I am not a fan of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner . He presided over the politically conceived , patently unconstitutional and anti-free market taxpayer bailouts of banks , automakers and insurance companies in the latter part of the administration of former President George W. Bush , when he was the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York , and during the first term of President Obama , when he was the secretary of the Treasury .
In those years and still today he has argued that aggressive government intervention leads to a stronger financial system because the government will take risks with taxpayer money that the taxpayers themselves will not take with it . He believes in the use of government coercion , rather than the voluntary choices of consumers and investors .
Those of us who embrace the free market do so not only because it has produced more broad-based prosperity than any government has , but also because it offers the only moral system of financial exchanges for goods and services because in a truly free market every exchange is voluntary . Coercing money from taxpayers to pay for the failures of businesses is theft .
We also argue that the recession of 2008 was largely caused by the bursting of the housing bubble , and that bubble was induced by the government . The Federal Reserve , on whose board Geithner sat , commanded artificially low interest rates that encouraged wild speculative borrowing , and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , those federal government garbage cans , used taxpayer dollars to buy all the bad loans the imprudent lenders could sell them . This , too , encouraged wild and speculative loans to people who could not afford to repay them .
But I write today not to rehash old arguments . Regrettably , the government today -- the welfare and warfare states in which we Americans now live -- is comfortably in the hands of progressives . With the exception of the Goldwater and early Reagan years , the leadership of both major political parties has been dominated by progressives -- heavy progressives in the Democratic Party and light progressives in the Republican Party -- since World War II . These politicians are disciples of Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt , two presidents who turned the Constitution on its head .
James Madison stated that he wrote the Constitution conscious of the need to restrain the federal government -- to limit it to the specific areas of governmental authority set forth in the Constitution and to guarantee areas free from all government regulation . Wilson and TR viewed the Constitution as liberating the federal government to do whatever its leadership wished , except when the Constitution expressly prohibits the wished-for behavior .
When it comes to understanding the powers of the federal government , Geithner is in the Wilson and T.R . camp . Those of us who believe in maximum individual liberty are in the Madison camp . Yet , Geithner tipped his hand a bit earlier this week in a new memoir , and that tip caught the public β s attention .
The tip revealed that in 2009 , shortly before his first round of interviews as Treasury secretary on the Sunday morning television network talk shows , Geithner endured a prep session administered to him by Dan Pfeiffer , then the senior adviser to Obama . Pfeiffer instructed Geithner to suggest to the American public that Social Security is operating in the black and thus is not a contributing cause of the ballooning federal deficit . He stated that the president needed that message to go out to his base as a β dog whistle to the left β -- meaning a signal to the president β s political base , the truth be damned .
Did Pfeiffer ask Geithner to lie ? The secretary apparently thought so , even though the government β s fuzzy math can make red ink look black . Whatever the truth , Geithner β s version is that both he and Pfeiffer believed the ink was red , and when Pfeiffer asked him to deceive the public by claiming it was black , he declined .
This requested deception is telling . This is not spin . Spin is the artful use of words so that the speaker needn β t lie . Geithner believes he was being asked to tell a lie .
Can the government morally remain silent to preserve human freedom ? Of course it can . Can it deceive by lying to the public on a material matter ? If it does , it will shatter the social contract it has with the people , and the officials who lie risk becoming a law unto themselves , because after they are caught , no one will believe them .
The Geithner allegations bring to sharper focus the litany of Obama administration lies .
The president and his folks lied about ObamaCare ( β You can keep your doctor and your insurance , β the president proclaimed incessantly ) .
They lied about the NSA spying ( β No , sir , β Gen. James Clapper replied when asked before Congress whether the feds were engaged in massive government spying on innocent Americans ) .
They lied about Benghazi ( β It was a spontaneous eruption over an American film , β said former UN Ambassador Susan Rice ) . The president even lied about lying ( β Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency β ) .
Can government officials legally lie ? Regrettably , yes . The courts have ruled that the remedy for government lying is to vote it out of office , even when it prosecutes people for harmlessly doing what it has done to shatter its bonds with us . So , why were Roger Clemens and Martha Stewart prosecuted for petty lies about private matters that affected no one , and Clapper and Rice , who attempted to lull the country into a false sense of comfort , not prosecuted ?
Perhaps because the president needed some dog whistles to the left , and Clapper and Rice provided them . | 7fLKV8ZXohME55Sk | 2 | Economy And Jobs | 0.3 | Federal Budget | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | HuffPost | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/government-shutdown-congress_n_4022046.html | Congress Plunges Nation Into Chaos | 2013-10-01 | Federal Budget, Economy And Jobs | By ANDREW TAYLOR, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON β Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services. The shutdown, the first since the winter of 1995-96, closed national parks, museums along the Washington Mall and the U.S. Capitol visitors center. Agencies like NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency will be all but shuttered. People classified as essential government employees β such as air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and most food inspectors β will continue to work. The health care law itself was unaffected as enrollment opened Tuesday for millions of people shopping for medical insurance. The military will be paid under legislation freshly signed by Obama, but paychecks for other federal workers will be withheld until the impasse is broken. Federal workers were told to report to their jobs for a half-day but to perform only shutdown tasks like changing email greetings and closing down agencies' Internet sites. The self-funded Postal Service will continue to operate and the government will continue to pay Social Security benefits and Medicare and Medicaid fees to doctors on time. The Senate twice on Monday rejected House-passed bills that, first, conditioned keeping the government open to delaying key portions of the 2010 "Obamacare" law that take effect Tuesday, and then delayed for a year the law's requirement that millions of people buy medical insurance. The House passed the last version again early Tuesday; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the same fate awaits it when the Senate reconvenes Tuesday morning. "You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there's a law there that you don't like," Obama said Monday, delivering a similar message in private phone calls later to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers. Boehner said he didn't want a government shutdown, but added the health care law "is having a devastating impact. ... Something has to be done." It wasn't clear how long the standoff would last, but it appeared that Obama and Reid had the upper hand. "We can't win," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., adding that "sooner or later" the House would have to agree to Democrats' demands for a simple, straightforward funding bill reopening the government. The order directing federal agencies to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations" was issued by White House Budget Director Sylvia Burwell shortly before midnight Monday. Around the same time, Obama appeared in a video message assuring members of the military they'll be paid under a law he just signed and telling civilian Defense Department employees that "you and your families deserve better than the dysfunction we're seeing in Congress." Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday that Pentagon lawyers are trying to determine ways for some of the Defense Department's 400,000 furloughed civilians to continue working. He bemoaned the standoff, telling reporters traveling with him in South Korea, "It does have an effect on our relationships around the world and it cuts straight to the obvious question: Can you rely on the United States as a reliable partner to fulfill its commitments to its allies?" The underlying spending bill would fund the government through Nov. 15 if the Senate gets its way or until Dec. 15 if the House does. Until now, such bills have been routinely passed with bipartisan support, ever since a pair of shutdowns 17 years ago engineered by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich severely damaged Republican election prospects and revived then-President Bill Clinton's political standing. Boehner had sought to avoid the shutdown and engineer passage of a "clean" temporary spending bill for averting a government shutdown. This time tea party activists mobilized by freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mounted a campaign to seize the must-do measure in an effort to derail Obamacare. GOP leaders voiced reservations and many Republican lawmakers predicted it wouldn't work. Some even labeled it "stupid." But the success of Cruz and other tea party-endorsed conservatives who upset establishment GOP candidates in 2010 and 2012 primaries was a lesson learned for many Republican lawmakers going into next year's election. The next four years will change America forever. But HuffPost won't back down when it comes to providing free and impartial journalism. For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless newsroom. We hope you'll join us. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest β we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you. For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience. to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest β we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you. For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience. to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us. Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages. ___ Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. You have the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences. | 05c9b103e7d52e7f | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
federal_budget | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/19/politics/congress-passive-sequester/index.html?hpt=po_c1 | Congress passive as spending cuts near | 2013-02-19 | Federal Budget, Economy And Jobs | Story highlights Congress is unlikely to act before automatic spending cuts kick in March 1
The cuts will be phased in over time and can be changed later on
Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other instead of working on alternatives
If you 're expecting last minute action from Congress to avoid the March 1 spending cut deadline , think again .
Congress is n't even in session this week , and lawmakers and aides from both parties say they do n't expect anything to pass anytime soon .
The cuts can be phased in over time , and leaders on both sides of the aisle know they can act after March 1 to undo any reductions in the months to come . Also , some Democrats and Republicans are n't totally unhappy with many of the cuts , $ 85 billion of which will be split between Pentagon and non-defense programs this year .
JUST WATCHED John King explains : The sequester Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH John King explains : The sequester 01:35
JUST WATCHED What sequestration cuts would look like Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What sequestration cuts would look like 01:35
JUST WATCHED Barrasso : Sequester cuts will go through Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Barrasso : Sequester cuts will go through 07:19
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Many of the most popular domestic programs , including Medicare and Medicaid benefits , are off the table .
With no sharp , irreversible deadline in the offing , all you 're likely to get over the next 10 days is an extended version of the partisan blame game . True to form , President Barack Obama and GOP leaders ratcheted up their rhetoric on Tuesday .
`` Republicans in Congress face a simple choice , '' Obama said at a White House event with first responders . `` Are they willing to compromise , to protect vital investments in education and healthcare and national security and all the jobs that depend on them ? Or would they rather put hundreds of thousands of jobs and our entire economy at risk just to protect a few special interest tax loopholes that benefit only the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations ? ''
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nevada , urged Republicans to `` listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans and work with Democrats to forge a balanced approach '' to deficit reduction that includes new tax hikes on the wealthy .
House Speaker John Boehner , R-Ohio , responded to barbs from Democrats with a written statement placing the blame squarely on the president .
`` The House has twice passed legislation to replace it with commonsense cuts and reforms that wo n't threaten public safety , national security , or our economy , '' the speaker said , referring to measures passed by the GOP-controlled chamber last year .
`` But once again , the president ( has ) offered no credible plan that can pass Congress -- only more calls for higher taxes , '' Boehner said .
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Kentucky , said Obama `` prefers campaign events to common sense , bipartisan action . ''
Republicans argue they 've already ceded on higher taxes by allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans as part of the New Year 's Eve `` fiscal cliff '' deal .
GOP leaders insist that any package replacing this year 's planned $ 85 billion in cuts -- part of $ 1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years -- must be comprised entirely of alternative spending reductions , including entitlement reform .
`` Even though defense accounts for 17 ( or ) 18 % of our spending , they 've taken half of the savings out of the military , '' House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon , R-California , told CNN . `` The troops that are over there fighting to protect our freedoms around the world are being cut . The things that they need are being cut . ''
Senate Democrats and Republicans are expected to propose alternative bills next week to replace the automatic cuts .
Neither plan is likely to get the 60 votes necessary for approval in the 100-member chamber -- thereby setting the stage for more serious talks after March 1 .
`` There wo n't be any easy off-ramps on this one , '' McConnell said last week . `` The days of 11th hour negotiations are over . ''
Brown University political scientist Wendy Schiller , who studies presidential and congressional politics , noted that March 27 -- the date when the current government funding authority expires -- is an ideal point for Congress to alter its current spending plans .
`` The upside to the ( current package of planned cuts ) is that it gives both parties political cover to make a dent in federal spending , '' Schiller told CNN . `` The downside is that the cuts themselves are not directly targeted at inefficiency , fraud or waste , and will ultimately affect voters ' daily lives in some way . ''
Ultimately , she predicted , Congress will be `` the big loser . ... If history tells us anything about showdowns between Congress and the president , it tells us the president wins . And only one branch will face the voters again -- Congress . '' | 87dd5c7cad13405e | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
russia | ABC News | http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-intends-meet-special-counsel-oath-white-house/story?id=53658533 | Trump 'intends to' meet with special counsel under oath: White House spokesman | 2018-03-11 | Presidential Elections, Russia, Russia Probe, Robert Mueller, Elections | Trump 'intends to ' meet with special counsel under oath : White House spokesman The spokesman said Trump has 'no intention whatsoever ' to fire Mueller .
WH spokesman : If meeting with Trump does n't happen , 'it 's the North Koreans ' fault '
WH spokesman : If meeting with Trump does n't happen , 'it 's the North Koreans ' fault ' Evan Vucci/AP
The White House principal deputy press secretary said Sunday he believes that President Donald Trump still β intends to β meet with special counsel Robert Mueller under oath .
Trump spokesperson Raj Shah responded to a question by βββ Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl , who said Trump has told him twice that he plans to meet with the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation and will answer questions under oath .
Karl asked Shah on `` This Week '' Sunday if `` the president plans to keep his word . ''
Shah responded , `` I 'm sure he intends to , '' adding that the president 's `` attorneys are communicating with the special counsel on the specifics regarding that . ''
Karl also asked if there were any circumstances under which the president would seek to have Mueller fired . β For instance , β Karl said , β If Mueller were to begin to look into the Stormy Daniels payoff , would that be a red line ? Would the president fire him ? β
β I 'm not here to declare any red lines . There 's no intention whatsoever to fire Robert Mueller , the special counsel , right now , '' the deputy press secretary said . `` We 've been fully cooperative . We respect their process . We 're hoping it will come to a conclusion in the near future . β
Stormy Daniels , the stage name of the adult film actress , Stephanie Clifford , has claimed to have had an affair with Trump prior to his presidency . On Tuesday , she filed a lawsuit against the president alleging that a nondisclosure agreement ( NDA ) about the alleged affair which she signed 11 days before the 2016 election is not valid because Trump never signed it .
Trump β s personal lawyer , Michael Cohen , has said he used $ 130,000 of his own money to pay Clifford for signing the NDA .
Karl on Sunday asked Shah if the president approved of this payment .
Emails provided to βββ by Clifford 's lawyer , Michael Avenatti , seem to show Cohen used his Trump Organization email address to arrange the wire transfer of the payment , but Cohen says this is not proof that the president knew of the transaction , as Avenatti asserts .
Cohen also said in a previous statement to βββ that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign `` was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford , and neither reimbursed me for the payment , either directly or indirectly . The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful , and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone . β
Karl asked Shah on `` This Week '' if the president himself directly reimbursed Cohen for the payment .
β Not to my knowledge , β Shah responded . But he acknowledged , β I have n't asked the president about that question . β | 782cd0864f4ce6db | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/17/poll-americans-blame-trump-gop-shutdown-over-wall-dispute/2334326002/ | Americans' message to Washington on the looming shutdown: Don't | 2018-12-17 | politics | WASHINGTON β Americans have a clear message to Washington as the government hurtles toward a partial shutdown Friday : Do n't .
By a double-digit margin , 54 percent to 29 percent , those surveyed in a new βββ/Suffolk University Poll say they oppose the shutdown that President Donald Trump threatened if Congress does n't agree to his demand for $ 5 billion in funding for a border wall .
By nearly 2-1 , Americans would blame Trump and the Republicans , not congressional Democrats . Forty-three percent would blame the president and the GOP , while 24 percent would hold congressional Democrats responsible . Thirty percent would blame both sides equally .
`` Completely , it 's Donald Trump 's fault , '' says Dave Dobrin , 60 , a retired computer programmer from Orange County , California , who was among those surveyed . A political independent , he voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 . `` He has the emotional maturity of a 6-year-old , and he is going to have a tantrum if he does n't get his way . ''
Dwayne Pyle , 33 , a Republican who voted for Trump , says the need for a wall to secure the southern border is crucial , and he blames Democrats for refusing to cooperate with the president . `` We hired him to do a job , '' says Pyle of Redding , California , who works in sewer-line maintenance . `` We did n't hire him to make everybody happy or appease people . ''
More : Trump β s border wall pledge may cost US taxpayers billions of dollars
There is , unsurprisingly , a sharp partisan divide in attitudes toward the shutdown .
Democrats are almost all opposed to it , 83 percent to 6 percent . Independents are also overwhelmingly against the idea , 56 percent to 22 percent . Two-thirds of Republicans support a shutdown ; one in five oppose it .
Democrats ( 81 percent of them ) place the blame on Republicans . Republicans ( 58 percent of them ) place the blame on Democrats . Independents ( 43 percent of them ) place more blame on both parties equally than on either individually .
The nationwide survey of 1,000 registered voters , taken by landline and cellphone Tuesday through Sunday , has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points .
The partial shutdown , which would begin three days before Christmas , would be the third since Trump took office two years ago .
More : Another shutdown ? Congress has until Dec. 21 to pass a spending bill
More : Government shutdown ? You 'll still get mail and packages , be able to travel
There seems to be no clear plan to avoid the shutdown that looms at midnight Friday for the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies . Trump declared at a White House meeting with Democratic congressional leaders last week that he would be `` proud '' to take responsibility for shutting down the government if Congress refused to approve the funding he wants for a wall .
That proposal almost certainly ca n't command the 60 votes it would need to pass the Senate . Even approval in the Republican-controlled House is n't assured .
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer , D-N.Y. , called on Republicans to persuade Trump to back down . `` They just have to have the guts to tell President Trump he 's off the deep end here and all he is going to get with his temper tantrum is a shutdown , '' Schumer said Sunday on NBC 's `` Meet the Press . '' `` He will not get a wall . ''
Stephen Miller , a senior White House aide , showed no signs of compromise . `` We 're going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration , '' he said on CBS ' `` Face the Nation . '' Including a shutdown ? `` If it comes to it , absolutely . '' | AxrAO2TP2zSUEA8u | 1 | Immigration | -0.2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | Guest Writer - Right | https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/nra-sues-san-francisco-city-backs-down/ | NRA 1, San Francisco Board of Supervisors 0 | 2019-10-01 | gun_control_and_gun_rights | Clouds gather over the skyline of San Francisco , 2014 . ( Robert Galbraith/Reuters )
Remember last month when San Francisco β s Board of Supervisors passed a resolution declaring the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization and ordered city employees to β take every reasonable step to limit β business interactions with the NRA and its supporters ? The one that our David French labeled β a retaliatory public attack on constitutionally protected speech β ?
The NRA sued , and lo and behold , San Francisco is backing down , before the suit even went to court .
In a formal memo to city officials , San Francisco mayor London Breed declared that β no [ municipal ] department will take steps to restrict any contractor from doing business with the NRA or to restrict City contracting opportunities for any business that has any relationship with the NRA . β
The memo declares , β resolutions making policy statements do not impose duties on City departments , change any of the City β s existing laws or policies , or control City departments β exercise of discretion . β
β Through these actions and our public advocacy , we hope the message is now clear , β NRA CEO and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said in a released statement . β The NRA will always fight to protect our members and the constitutional freedoms in which they believe . β
β The memo serves as a clear concession and a well-deserved win for the First and Second Amendments of the United States Constitution , β says William A . Brewer III , partner at Brewer , Attorneys & Counselors and counsel for the NRA . β It is unfortunate that in today β s polarized times , some elected officials would rather silence opposing arguments than engage in good-faith debate . The NRA β America β s oldest civil rights organization β won β t stand for that . β
The NRA is challenging a similar law passed by the Los Angeles city council that requiring city contractors to disclose any ties they have to the gun-rights group . Back in August , a federal judge denied a request by the city to dismiss the suit . | HrAzfv3CrE2NYbpd | 2 | NRA | 1 | San Francisco | -0.3 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | 0 | null | null | null | null |
justice_department | Vox | http://www.vox.com/2015/5/26/8659965/cleveland-police-justice-department | Cleveland police are out of control, say the feds. Now they're making a deal to change. | 2015-05-26 | justice_department | Cleveland and the US Department of Justice have reached a sweeping agreement to reform the city 's police department , which federal investigators last year found was mired by unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force . These settlements are standard after Justice Department investigations into local police departments . Cleveland 's consent decree will require new guidelines , improved training , and stronger oversight for use-of-force incidents , and the city will be bound to federal oversight through an independent monitor until a federal judge agrees specific metrics have been reached .
Related Cleveland cops shot at 2 unarmed black people 137 times . No one is going to prison for it .
The agreement follows the contentious police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and the acquittal of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo , ( who took part in a 137-shot barrage that killed an unarmed black man and woman ) which inspired the Justice Department investigation into the local police department . The settlement also comes in the midst of ongoing nationwide protests over racial disparities in police use of force following the deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore , Eric Garner in New York City , and Michael Brown in Ferguson , Missouri .
The consent decree between Cleveland and the Justice Department emphasizes community policing , an approach that involves law enforcement closely working with the local community to guide best practices . In particular , the city vowed to establish a commission that will act as a link between the Cleveland police department and community groups . `` We will have community policing as part of our DNA , '' Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said .
The agreement also promises new guidelines , improved training , and more oversight for use of force . As part of these changes , the Cleveland police department will reform and strengthen existing watchdog agencies . The mayor will also appoint an inspector general that will watch over the police department , and a civilian will be in charge of the police force 's internal affairs unit .
Among the reforms , police officers will be required to stop pistol whipping people in the head , and document each time they unholster their guns .
An independent monitor will oversee all of these changes . The city will only be relieved of federal oversight once a federal judge agrees that the police department has met a specific set of standards for reform detailed in the agreement .
The Justice Department found a pattern of excessive use of force at the Cleveland police department
A brutal Justice Department report in December found Cleveland police officers used excessive deadly force , including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons ; unnecessary , excessive , and retaliatory force , including Tasers , chemical sprays , and their fists ; and excessive force against people with mental illness or in crisis , including one situation in which officers were called exclusively to check up on someone 's well-being .
In one case , a police officer shot at an unarmed man wearing only boxer shorts as he was fleeing from armed assailants :
An incident from 2013 in which a sergeant shot at a victim as he ran from a house where he was being held against his will is just one illustration of this problem . `` Anthony '' was being held against his will inside a house by armed assailants . When officers arrived on scene , they had information that two armed assailants were holding several people inside the home . After officers surrounded the house , Anthony escaped from his captors and ran from the house , wearing only boxer shorts . An officer ordered Anthony to stop , but Anthony continued to run toward the officers . One sergeant fired two shots at him , missing . According to the sergeant , when Anthony escaped from the house , the sergeant believed Anthony had a weapon because he elevated his arm and pointed his hand toward the sergeant . No other officers at the scene reported seeing Anthony point anything at the sergeant . The sergeant 's use of deadly force was unreasonable . It is only by fortune that he did not kill the crime victim in this incident . The sergeant had no reasonable belief that Anthony posed an immediate danger . The man fleeing the home was wearing only boxer shorts , making it extremely unlikely that he was one of the hostage takers . In a situation where people are being held against their will in a home , a reasonable police officer ought to expect that someone fleeing the home may be a victim . Police also ought to expect that a scared , fleeing victim may run towards the police and , in his confusion and fear , not immediately respond to officer commands . A reasonable officer in these circumstances should not have shot at Anthony .
This is just one of many examples of police officers using `` poor and dangerous tactics '' that often put them `` in situations where avoidable force becomes inevitable and places officers and civilians at unnecessary risk , '' according to the report .
The Justice Department attributed many of these problems to inadequate training and supervision . `` Supervisors tolerate this behavior and , in some cases , endorse it , '' the report said . `` Officers report that they receive little supervision , guidance , and support from the Division , essentially leaving them to determine for themselves how to perform their difficult and dangerous jobs . ''
Former US Attorney General Eric Holder , who headed the Justice Department at the time of the investigation , argued that fixing these issues is crucial for both the general public and police . `` Accountability and legitimacy are essential for communities to trust their police departments , and for there to be genuine collaboration between police and the citizens they serve , '' he said .
For Cleveland , settling with the Justice Department to reform its police force averts a costly court battle . But it also could help alleviate tensions with a community that has long seen its police department as overly aggressive and even abusive . | GJnq0BU1LDJSEI71 | 0 | Police | -0.9 | Cleveland | 0.6 | Justice Department | 0.5 | Justice | 0.5 | null | null |
elections | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/05/07/tara-reade-interviewed-megyn-kelly-joe-biden-gets-weinstein-accuser-lawyer/3090047001/ | Biden accuser Tara Reade tells Megyn Kelly she wishes he'd drop out of the presidential race | 2020-05-07 | elections | WASHINGTON β Tara Reade , the woman who has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s , told Megyn Kelly in her first on-camera interview since Biden publicly denied her claim that she wishes he would drop out of the race .
`` I wish he would ( withdraw from the race ) , '' Reade said . `` But he wo n't . But I wish he would . That 's how I feel emotionally . ''
Reade has also secured the services of a law firm that has represented women who accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault .
Reade sat down Thursday with Kelly , the former Fox News host , for an interview produced by Rich McHugh , who was Ronan Farrow 's producer at NBC News during his investigation into the assault claims that toppled Weinstein . Before leaving Fox News , Kelly was among a half dozen other women who accused founder and former CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment .
`` ( Reade ) gets very candid , very emotional , and handles many direct challenges to her account . She also has a message directly for the former vice president , '' Kelly told The Hill ahead of the interview 's release .
In a preview of the interview released on Twitter Thursday afternoon , Reade said she wishes the former vice president would drop out of the race but said it was `` a little late '' for an apology from him .
Reade told Kelly that she has had `` really horrible things '' said about her by Biden supporters on the Internet , and received a death threat over accusations she was a Russian agent due to old writing praising Vladimir Putin . Reade told the New York Times those writings were taken out of context .
`` I want to say , you and I were there , Joe Biden . Please step forward and be held accountable . You should not be running on character for the president of the United States , '' Reade said in the interview clip released Thursday .
Reade was asked about the comparison being made between her case and that of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford , who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during his Supreme Court confirmation in 2018 . Reade said she would `` absolutely '' be willing to go under oath and be cross examined .
As for a polygraph test , Reade questioned the standard it would set for sexual assault survivors if they were all asked to take polygraphs .
`` I 'm not a criminal . Joe Biden should take the polygraph , '' she said . `` I will take one if Joe Biden takes one. ``
Wigdor LLP , a firm that has also represented Weinstein accusers , will represent Reade . Douglas Wigdor , a founding partner of the firm , also was a vocal advocate for Blasey Ford in 2018 .
`` Our representation of # TaraReade has nothing to do with politics . We at Wigdor LLP firmly believe that every survivor of sexual assault has the right to competent legal counsel , and we will represent Ms. Reade zealously , just as we would any other victim of sexual violence , '' the firm said on Twitter on Thursday .
'This never happened ' : Joe Biden denies sexual assault allegation , calls on National Archives to release records
What we know : Former staffer Tara Reade says Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993
Reade accused Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked in his Senate office in 1993 . Biden denied the allegation in an MSNBC `` Morning Joe '' interview last week .
`` This , never , ever happened , '' he said . `` I do n't know what is motivating her . ... But it 's irrelevant . It never happened . It never happened . Period . ''
Reade said she complained about sexual harassment to her supervisors at the time , but they denied having such conversations in interviews with The New York Times . Reade has also said she filed a report with a Senate personnel office but does not have a copy of it . The Senate secretary has said any such report could not be disclosed to the public .
The Biden campaign did n't respond directly to Reade 's comments in the Kelly interview , but sent a statement to βββ that referred to `` inconsistencies '' in Reade 's story .
Kate Bedingfield , deputy campaign manager , cited reports from the Associated Press and Vox that include resurfaced interview comments from 2019 when Reade came forward as part of a group of women who said Biden inappropriately touched them . Vox reported that an anonymous friend now recounts Reade 's assault story but in 2019 said Biden `` never tried to kiss her directly . He never went for one of those touches . ''
AP published her older quote , which she said before she had come forward with her assault claim : `` I wasn β t scared of him , that he was going to take me in a room or anything . It wasn β t that kind of vibe . ''
Reade has said she did n't mention assault last year because she feared the potential backlash .
`` Every day , more and more inconsistencies arise . Women must receive the benefit of the doubt . They must be able to come forward and share their stories without fear of retribution or harm β and we all have a responsibility to ensure that , '' Bedingfield said . `` At the same time , we can never sacrifice the truth . And the truth is that these allegations are false and that the material that has been presented to back them up , under scrutiny , keeps proving their falsity . ''
Wigdor LLP said on Twitter it would be `` inevitable '' that people will attack the firm , noting Douglas Wigdor supported President Donald Trump in 2016 , but that the firm 's mission is to provide counsel to `` all legitimate victims . ''
`` Her harrowing account is credible and supported by numerous 'outcry ' witnesses from decades ago , '' Wigdor LLP said . | kgqHLfrtl5iRn5Tp | 1 | Sexual Misconduct | -0.9 | Tara Reade | -0.8 | Joe Biden | 0.2 | Presidential Elections | 0 | 2020 Election | 0 |
culture | Victor Hanson | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/donald-trump-wages-war-against-progressive-culture/ | Trumpβs Total Culture War | 2019-09-19 | culture | President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Greenville , N.C. , July 17 , 2019 . ( Kevin Lamarque/Reuters )
The real source of Trump derangement syndrome is his desire to wage a multi-front pushback against an elite , postmodern progressive world .
Donald Trump is waging a nonstop , all-encompassing war against progressive culture , in magnitude analogous to what 19th-century Germans once called a Kulturkampf .
As a result , not even former president George W. Bush has incurred the degree of hatred from the left that is now directed at Trump . For most of his time in office , Trump , his family , his friends , and his businesses have been investigated , probed , dissected , and constantly attacked .
In 2016 and early 2017 , Barack Obama appointees in the FBI , CIA , and Department of Justice tried to subvert the Trump campaign , interfere with his transition , and , ultimately , abort his presidency . Now , congressional Democrats promise impeachment before the 2020 election .
The usual reason for such hatred is said to be Trump β s unorthodox and combative take-no-prisoners style . Critics detest his crude and unfettered assertions , his lack of prior military or political experience , his attacks on the so-called bipartisan administrative state , and his intent to roll back the entire Obama-era effort of β fundamentally transforming β the country leftward .
Certainly , Trump β s agenda of closing the border , using tariffs to overturn a half-century of Chinese mercantilism , and pulling back from optional overseas military interventions variously offends both Democrats and establishment Republicans .
Trump periodically and mercurially fires his top officials . He apparently does not care whether the departed write damning memoirs or join his opposition . He will soon appoint his fourth national security adviser within just three years .
To make things worse for his critics , Trump β s economy is booming as never before in the 21st century : near-record-low unemployment , a record number of Americans working , increases in workers β wages and family incomes , low interest rates , low inflation , steady GDP growth , and a strong stock market .
Yet the real source of Trump derangement syndrome is his desire to wage a multi-front pushback β politically , socially , economically , and culturally β against what might be called the elite postmodern progressive world .
Contemporary elites increasingly see nationalism and patriotism as passΓ© . Borders are 19th-century holdovers .
The European Union , not the U.S. Constitution , is seen as the preferable model to run a nation . Transnational and global organizations are wiser on environmental and diplomatic matters than is the U.S. government .
The media can no longer afford to be nonpartisan and impartial in its effort to rid America of a reactionary such as Trump , given his danger to the progressive future .
America β s ancient sins can never really be forgiven . In a new spirit of iconoclasm , thousands of buildings , monuments , and statues dedicated to American sinners of the past must be destroyed , removed , or renamed .
A new America supposedly is marching forward under the banner of ending fossil fuels , curbing the Second Amendment , redistributing income , promoting identity politics and open borders , and providing free college , free health care , and abortion on demand .
An insomniac Trump fights all of the above nonstop and everywhere . In the past , Republican presidents sought to slow the progressive transformation of America but despaired of ever stopping it .
No slugfest is too off-topic or trivial for Trump . Sometimes that means calling out former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for persuading NFL stars to kneel during the national anthem . Huge , monopolistic Silicon Valley companies are special Trump targets . Sometimes Trump enters cul-de-sac Twitter wars with Hollywood has-beens who have attacked him and his policies .
Trump variously goes after Antifa , political correctness on campus , the NATO hierarchy , the radical green movement , Planned Parenthood , American universities , and , above all , the media β especially CNN , the Washington Post and the New York Times .
For all the acrimony and chaos β and prognostications of Trump β s certain failure β a bloodied Trump wins more than he loses . NATO members may hate Trump , but more are finally paying their promised defense contributions .
In retrospect , many Americans concede that the Iran deal was flawed and that the Paris climate accord was mere virtue-signaling . China was long due for a reckoning .
Special Counsel Robert Mueller β s investigation proved fruitless and was further diminished by Mueller β s bizarrely incoherent congressional testimony .
Some of the most prominent Trump haters β Michael Avenatti , James Comey , Andrew McCabe , Antony Scaramucci , and Representative Adam Schiff β either have been discredited or have become increasingly irrelevant .
Trump has so enraged his Democratic adversaries that the candidates to replace him have moved farther to the left than any primary field in memory . They loathe Trump , but in their abject hatred he has goaded the various Democratic candidates into revealing their support for the crazy Green New Deal , reparations for slavery , relaxed immigration policies , and trillions of dollars in new free stuff .
In a way , the left-wing Democratic presidential candidates understand Trump best . If he wins his one-man crusade to stop the progressive project , they are finished , and their own party will make the necessary adjustments and then sheepishly drift back toward the center . | rLbCAJykqKBU726h | 2 | Culture War | -0.3 | Donald Trump | -0.1 | Culture | -0.1 | null | null | null | null |
white_house | Washington Times | https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/21/trump-team-turns-over-written-answers-to-muellers-/ | Trump team turns over written answers to Mueller's questions | 2018-11-21 | white_house | WASHINGTON ( AP ) β President Donald Trump has provided the special counsel with written answers to questions about his knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election , his lawyers said Tuesday , avoiding at least for now a potentially risky sit-down with prosecutors . It β s the first time he has directly cooperated with the long investigation .
The step is a milestone in the negotiations between Trump β s attorneys and special counsel Robert Mueller β s team over whether and when the president might sit for an interview .
The compromise outcome , nearly a year in the making , offers some benefit to both sides . Trump at least temporarily averts the threat of an in-person interview , which his lawyers have long resisted , while Mueller secures on-the-record statements whose accuracy the president will be expected to stand by for the duration of the investigation .
The responses may also help stave off a potential subpoena fight over Trump β s testimony if Mueller deems them satisfactory . They represent the first time the president is known to have described to investigators his knowledge of key moments under scrutiny by prosecutors .
Mueller β s team months ago presented Trump β s legal team with dozens of questions they wanted to ask the president related to whether his campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to tip the 2016 election and whether he sought to obstruct the Russia probe by actions including the firing of former FBI Director James Comey . The investigators agreed to accept written responses to questions about potential Russian collusion and tabled , for the moment , obstruction-related inquiries .
Mueller left open the possibility that he would follow up with additional questions on obstruction , though Trump β s lawyers - who had long resisted any face-to-face interview - have been especially adamant that the Constitution shields him from having to answer any questions about actions he took as president .
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow offered no details on the current Q & A , saying merely that β the written questions submitted by the special counsel β s office β¦ dealt with issues regarding the Russia-related topics of the inquiry . The president responded in writing. β He said the legal team would not release copies of the questions and answers or discuss any correspondence it has had with the special counsel β s office .
Another of Trump β s lawyers , Rudy Giuliani , said the lawyers continue to believe that β much of what has been asked raised serious constitutional issues and was beyond the scope of a legitimate inquiry. β He said Mueller β s office had received β unprecedented cooperation from the White House , β including about 1.4 million pages of materials .
β It is time to bring this inquiry to a conclusion , β Giuliani said .
The president told reporters last week that he had prepared the responses himself .
Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday that he was unlikely to answer questions about obstruction , saying , β I think we β ve wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is , probably , we β re finished . β
Trump joins a list of recent presidents who have submitted to questioning as part of a criminal investigation .
In 2004 , President George W. Bush was interviewed by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald β s office during an investigation into the leaked identity of a covert CIA officer . In 1998 , President Bill Clinton testified before a federal grand jury in independent counsel Ken Starr β s Whitewater investigation .
β It β s very extraordinary if this were a regular case , but it β s not every day that you have an investigation that touches upon the White House , β Solomon Wisenberg , a Washington lawyer who was part of Starr β s team and conducted the grand jury questioning of Clinton , said of a prosecutor accepting written answers .
Mueller could theoretically still try to subpoena the president if he feels the answers are not satisfactory .
But Justice Department leaders , including acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker - who now oversees the investigation and has spoken pejoratively of it in the past - would have to sign off on such a move , and it β s far from clear that they would . It β s also not clear that Mueller β s team would prevail if a subpoena fight reached the Supreme Court .
β Mueller certainly could have forced the issue and issued a subpoena , but I think he wants to present a record of having bent over backwards to be fair , β Wisenberg said .
The Supreme Court has never directly ruled on whether a president can be subpoenaed to testify in a criminal case . Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before the Whitewater grand jury , but investigators withdrew the subpoena after he agreed to appear voluntarily .
Other cases involving Presidents Richard Nixon and Clinton have presented similar issues for the justices that could be instructive now .
In 1974 , for instance , the court ruled that Nixon could be ordered to turn over subpoenaed recordings , a decision that hastened his resignation . The court in 1997 said Clinton could be questioned under oath in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones . | D685vrhydHteVPex | 2 | White House | 0.1 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | National Review | https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/mike-bloomberg-hillary-clinton-zero-chance-he-would-pick-her-as-running-mate/ | Thereβs Zero Chance Bloomberg Would Pick Hillary | 2020-02-17 | elections | Hillary Clinton speaks at a panel for the Hulu documentary Hillary during the Winter TCA Press Tour in Pasadena , Calif. , January 17 , 2020 . ( Mario Anzuoni/Reuters )
Her long history of scandals and voters β doubts about her trustworthiness would make her a risky running mate .
There β s no better evidence that Mike Bloomberg β s chances of getting the Democratic nomination are on the rise than the fact that the opportunistic Hillary Clinton is already trying to grab a piece of the action .
The Drudge Report startled the political world on Saturday by noting that β sources close to Bloomberg campaign β are β considering Hillary as running mate , after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force . β
I have no doubt that Hillary wants back in , and her minions are pushing such rumors . I have no doubt that some of Bloomberg β s hundreds of staffers used to work on Hillary β s campaign and are pushing the idea internally . I also have no doubt that Mike Bloomberg is smart enough to never go for such a crazy and risky idea .
First , Mike Bloomberg needs β woke β progressives behind him and enthused enough to actually voted if he is to win a general election campaign . The last thing he should do is infuriate Bernie Sanders voters by sharing his ticket with the woman they blame for β rigging β the 2016 primaries against him . Recall that 12 percent of Sanders β s primary supporters voted for President Trump in the 2016 general election . That is according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study β a massive election survey of around 50,000 people .
Second , the Democratic ticket would be on the old side with a Bloomberg-Clinton ticket . The former New York mayor will be 78 years old at the time of the election this year , and he looks it . Hillary will be 73 years old , and she has a record of not being candid with her health issues . Should something happen to both of them , the next person in line for the presidency , should she remain House speaker , would be 80-year-old Nancy Pelosi .
While they would be running against a 74-year-old incumbent president , few would question that Trump projects a vigorous persona . The Democratic Party needs an injection of youth and vitality , not a ticket with two people who barely brush the Baby Boom generation .
Third , Hillary Clinton β s last job in government was an ethical disaster . Her email scandal , which clearly involved a coverup of just how much she compromised classified information , would have led to her indictment absent an extraordinary amount of political pull in her favor .
Then there is the Clinton Foundation . There is extensive evidence that special-interest donors to the foundation sought favors from a responsive State Department . We know from Peter Schweitzer β s book Clinton Cash that the State Department helped move along an infamous deal that granted the Russians control of more than 20 percent of the uranium production here in the United States . The company involved in acquiring the American uranium was a very large donor to β you guessed it β the Clinton Foundation .
President Obama had actually taken steps to ensure that none of this would happen . Hillary Clinton pledged that she would β avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest β in her work as secretary . β
How did she do ? The Associated Press reported that more than half of the nongovernmental figures who met with Secretary Clinton were Clinton Foundation donors . Huma Abedin , Clinton β s closest aide , agreed to help a Clinton Foundation aide get a diplomatic passport . Several key donations went unreported . Many of the emails stored on a private server that could have revealed more errant behavior were permanently destroyed using a program called β bleach bit . β
In December 2008 , the Clinton Foundation and the office of President-elect Obama signed an agreement . In it , the Foundation promised to disclose all of its donors and that foreign governments would not be allowed to contribute to it ; Bill Clinton also agreed that he would not personally solicit funds for the Foundation .
Many ethics experts scoff at the suggestion that Hillary followed either the letter or spirit of that agreement . Even the New York Times editorial board concluded in 2016 that β the emails and previous reporting suggest Mr. Trump has reason to say that while Mrs. Clinton was secretary , it was hard to tell where the foundation ended and the State Department began . β
Forget jokes that Mike Bloomberg , if president , would need a food taster if Hillary were his vice president . But could a President Bloomberg be confident that Hillary wouldn β t be scarf-deep in scandal and intrigue every day she was his vice president ? Could he rely on her word that she would avoid conflicts of interest and other ethical wrongs ?
Let β s not forget that Clinton β s shifty record led to a general perception that she was dishonest . A New York Times poll in August 2016 , found that 67 percent of registered voters had doubts about her trustworthiness . β It wasn β t just emails and the Clinton Foundation , β Michael Barone , co-author of the Almanac of American Politics , told me . β When she was First Lady , there was Health-Care Gate , FBI File-Gate , Travel Gate , and Billing Records Gate . β
Mike Bloomberg has been pressing the notion that scandals have plagued Donald Trump β s administration . Why would he want to surrender his claim to the moral high ground by making Hillary his running mate and exposing himself to accurate counterattacks over that by Trump ?
Michael Bloomberg built his business career and reputation as New York β s mayor by sizing up situations dispassionately and coldly . There is no way he is going to look at the prospect of Hillary Clinton joining his ticket as anything other than β risky business . β | R7HKBPaK5hais2U5 | 2 | Hillary Clinton | -0.9 | Michael Bloomberg | -0.2 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null |
defense | Townhall | https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2019/05/07/pompeo-and-dod-there-is-a-credible-threat-from-iran-we-are-watching-closely-n2545939 | Pompeo and DOD: There is a Credible Threat From Iran and the U.S. is Preparing Accordingly | 2019-05-07 | defense | Rovaniemi , FINLAND -- Speaking to reporters after a series of meetings with foreign leaders at the 11th Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council Monday night , Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned the United States is watching a credible threat from Iran and acting accordingly .
`` We have continued to see activity that leads us to believe escalation that may be taking place so we 're taking all the appropriate actions both from a security perspective as well our ability to make sure that the President has a wide range of options in the event that something should actually take place , '' Pompeo said . `` As Secretary of State I have a responsibility to keep the officers that work for me safe each and every day , all around the world . That includes Irbil and Baghdad , our facilities in Oman and all around the Middle East and so anytime we receive threat reporting , things that raise concerns , we do everthing we can both to do all that we can to make sure that those planned or contemplated attacks do n't take place and to make sure that we 've got the right security posture . The American people should know we 've done that . ''
Earlier in the day , Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan also discussed the threat and U.S. military assets have been moved to ensure the security of American interests .
1 of 2 : Last night 's announced deployment of the @ CVN_72 and a @ USAirForce bomber task force to the @ CENTCOM area of responsibility , which I approved yesterday , represents a prudent repositioning of assets in response to indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces . β Acting SecDef Pat Shanahan ( @ ActingSecDef ) May 6 , 2019
2 of 2 : We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocation . We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on US forces or our interests . β Acting SecDef Pat Shanahan ( @ ActingSecDef ) May 6 , 2019
Earlier this week , White House National Security Advisor John Bolton warned Iran against any provocation and the U.S. would meet an attack with `` unrelenting force . ''
Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of the U.S. pulling of the Iran Nuclear agreement . Many European countries are still in the deal , but have cut a number of business ties with the terrorist regime in order to avoid sanctioning from the U.S . | eBHJkZUeFpHdHqlT | 2 | Iran | -0.8 | Department Of Defense | 0.5 | Mike Pompeo | 0.4 | National Defense | 0 | Defense And Security | 0 |
economic_policy | Townhall | http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/07/24/obama-blames-five-years-of-a-bad-economy-on-phony-scandals-and-distractions-n1648117 | Obama Blames Five Years of a Bad Economy on "Phony Scandals" and "Distractions" | 2013-07-24 | economic_policy | President Obama did his best to shift his administration 's focus to the economy today during a speech at Illinois ' Knox College by blaming the anemic economy on Republicans and `` phony scandals . ''
As predicted , Obama gave America the same speech he 's been giving for five years , saying the country needs more infrastructure spending due to crumbling roads and bridges , that we must fight poverty , that CEOs are making too much money while the poor suffer etc . He even went so far as to tout `` saving the auto industry '' one week after Detroit filed for bankruptcy .
`` Today , five years after the start of that Great Recession , America has fought its way back . Together , we saved the auto industry , took on a broken health care system , and invested in new American technologies to reverse our addiction to foreign oil and double wind and solar power , '' Obama said . `` Together , we put in place tough new rules on big banks , and protections that cracked down on the worst practices of mortgage lenders and credit card companies . We changed a tax code too skewed in favor of the wealthiest at the expense of working families , locking in tax cuts for 98 % of Americans , and asking those at the top to pay a little more . ''
While Obama claims America is `` back , '' 50 million people are on food stamps and 23 million people are unemployed . The healthcare system is starting to collapse as doctors leave their practices and gas is on average $ 3.68 per gallon . It is n't just the rich Obama has asked to `` pay a little more . '' In January , he raised taxes on everyone . And finally , big banks are getting bigger .
After claiming the country was on the right track economically , Obama proceeded to blame Republicans for `` distractions '' and `` phony '' scandals coming out of Washington .
`` With an endless parade of distractions , political posturing and phony scandals , Washington has taken its eye off the ball . And I am here to say this needs to stop . Short-term thinking and stale debates are not what this moment requires . Our focus must be on the basic economic issues that the matter most to you β the people we represent , '' Obama said .
Funny , I 'm not sure the IRS targeting American citizens ( with the help of one of Obama 's political appointees ) for political purposes or four dead Americans killed in Benghazi count as `` phony '' but hey , `` what difference , at this point , does it make ? '' And speaking of distractions , apparently taking the time to personally call pro-abortion Wendy Davis , Sandra Fluke and the first openly gay NBA player Jason Collins while opining on local crime cases , playing golf and going on numerous vacations does n't count when it comes to deflecting attention away from anything but the disastrous and stagnant economy .
I 'll leave you with this from liberal Washigton Post blogger Ezra Klein : | 7MlHmsIIPsiQ4uCu | 2 | Barack Obama | -0.7 | Economy And Jobs | 0 | Economic Policy | 0 | null | null | null | null |
politics | Breitbart News | http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/29/again-anthony-weiner-deletes-twitter-after-embarrassing-clinton-campaign-with-more-racy-photos/ | Again?! Anthony Weiner Deletes Twitter After Embarrassing Clinton Campaign With More Racy Photos | 2016-08-29 | politics | Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner deleted his Twitter account this morning , after his racy online behavior was again splashed on the front pages of the New York tabloids .
This time Weiner was caught sending racy pictures to a woman while his son was in bed with him β a new low for the man married to Hillary Clinton β s top aide , Huma Abedin .
EXCLUSIVE : Anthony Weiner sexted a busty brunette while his son was in bed with him https : //t.co/amX1TJIFn7 pic.twitter.com/qlJ8O22UvO β New York Post ( @ nypost ) August 29 , 2016
EXCLUSIVE : Anthony Weiner sexted a busty brunette while his son was in bed with him https : //t.co/f2C7tn1yoy pic.twitter.com/JNmerTREKD β New York Post ( @ nypost ) August 29 , 2016
Weiner β s account was active early this morning before disappearing altogether , suggesting that there is an organized effort to stem the damage .
One of his last tweets featured Weiner joking that his behavior on Twitter caused the company to release a β quality filter β to filter out bad tweets .
Abedin , the focus of a recent Vanity Fair profile , can β t shake the ongoing scandalous behavior of her husband , despite several attempts to reboot her image .
She cited her Muslim faith giving her strength to move on , despite repeated embarrassing scandals .
β I tried to block out all the noise and move on with my life , β Abedin said citing her faith and a β a really supportive group of friends and colleagues . β
Weiner initially lied to Abedin after the photo was posted , claiming that he was hacked , before coming clean about his behavior . During his failed New York City mayoral run , Abedin again stood by Weiner in 2013 , as he admitted that his racy online behavior with other women continued .
β I love him . I have forgiven him . I believe in him . And , as we have said from the beginning , we are moving forward , β Abedin said at the time .
She also cited β therapy β for helping the couple stay together , and the future of their son .
β Our marriage like many others has had its ups and its downs , β she said . β It took a lot of work , and a whole lot of therapy , to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony . β
The Clinton campaign has been silent in response to the new photos . | 4YGKWconCsWwzxJn | 2 | Anthony Weiner | -0.1 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | HuffPost | https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/florida-felon-disenfranchisement-reform_us_5c33d3c6e4b01e2d51f5fb5f | Florida Officially Changes Jim Crow-Rooted Felon Disenfranchisement Policy | 2019-01-09 | Voting Rights And Voter Fraud, Elections | Reporter, HuffPost For a century and a half, Floridians have been bound by a policy rooted in the Jim Crow era that restricts who gets to vote. On Tuesday, the state will take a big step away from it and officially implement what advocates say is one of the most significant expansions of the right to vote in modern times. In November, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to do away with the stateβs longtime policy of permanently disenfranchising people with felony convictions. The amendment officially takes effect Tuesday. It automatically restores voting rights to people with felony convictions once they complete their sentences entirely, including probation and parole (those convicted of murder and sexual offenses are exempt). The measure β often referred to as Amendment 4 β could affect up to 1.4 million people in the state. βAmendment 4 is the single most significant reform in felony disenfranchisement in American history,β Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice nonprofit that has studied felon disenfranchisement across the country, wrote in an email. βNearly 1/4 of the entire disenfranchised population in the US has been affected by this measure,β Mauer wrote. βThe United States is still far out of line compared to comparable nations in this regard, but this measure is nonetheless a major step toward a robust democracy.β Since 1868, Floridaβs constitution has banned anyone convicted of a felony from voting. Until Tuesday, people who wanted to vote again had to ask the governor, who had the ultimate power of deciding who got their rights restored. It was one of the ways Florida lawmakers kept African-Americans from the polls once they legally gained the right to vote. Until Tuesday, Florida was one of just four states where people with felony convictions are permanently barred from voting unless the governor decides to restore their right to cast a ballot. More than 1 in 5 African-Americans couldnβt vote in the state because of the policy, according to a 2016 estimate by the Sentencing Project. Before Tuesday, Floridaβs governors had enormous discretion in how they restored voting rights to people. Former governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, for example, implemented rules while in office to streamline restoration. But when Rick Scott took office in 2011, he imposed new rules that required people with felony offenses to wait 5 to 7 years β depending on their offense β before they could begin to apply to have their rights restored. Scott and a panel of Cabinet officials who heard the requests only met four times a year in Tallahassee, and as of last September, there was a backlog of 10,000 people waiting to get a hearing (some people could have their voting rights restored without a hearing). At the hearing, Scott could choose to restore or deny voting rights to anyone and was not required to give an explanation for his decisions. The number of people who had their rights restored dropped significantly under Scott, and the long wait period, combined with the delay from the backlog, meant that Floridians were still being punished for crimes they committed decades ago. βItβs hard to overstate the significance of Amendment 4 β in Florida and in the national and international movement toward universal suffrage as well,β said Christopher Uggen, a professor at the University of Minnesota and co-author of Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. βThe referendum reflects a longstanding tension in the United States between the publicβs strong appetite for βlaw and orderβ and its deeply held desire to extend civil rights and liberties to all citizens. The voters spoke clearly on this issue, opting for civil rights over the βcivil deathβ of permanent disenfranchisement,β Uggen said. βItβs hard to overstate the significance of Amendment 4 β in Florida and in the national and international movement toward universal suffrage.β The effort to change the law was led by Desmond Meade, who couldnβt vote in Florida until Tuesday because of a felony conviction, and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. The group is encouraging former felons who believe they can now legally vote to register on Tuesday to raise awareness about the change in policy. Crist, who is now a Florida congressman, said Monday he would accompany former felons to the polls in St. Petersburg as they register for the first time. While up to 1.4 million people could be affected by the new measure, there are likely to be more challenges in implementing it. The amendment says voting rights are restored βupon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation,β but itβs not immediately clear what βall termsβ of a criminal sentence are. Former felons could be required to repay all fines and fees associated with their sentence, for example, which can total hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Local election officials say they havenβt gotten any guidance from state election officials, but many say they will register any voter who swears on their voter registration form that they are eligible to vote. Lying on a Florida voter registration form is a criminal offense punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. There is already a bubbling dispute over how much of a say, if any, lawmakers should get in deciding how the constitutional amendment gets implemented. Activists who supported the amendment say it is βself-executingβ and that neither lawmakers nor state officials get a say in how to implement it. Incoming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told The Palm Beach Post in December that the measure should be delayed until the state legislature, which doesnβt meet until March, can write legislation clarifying how it will work. Even once the kinks in the law get ironed out, activists face a big challenge in getting newly enfranchised Floridians to vote. Since 2007, of the people who went to prison for a felony offense and then got their voting rights restored, only 14 percent have registered to vote, according to an estimate from the Brennan Center for Justice (the estimate does not include people convicted of a felony and sentenced to parole or probation instead of prison). The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the group that pushed for the amendment, is planning a robust voter education effort to make sure that newly enfranchised Floridians exercise their right to vote. Now that Floridaβs new policy has gone into effect, the three remaining states that permanently disenfranchise people with felony convictions are Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia. The next four years will change America forever. But HuffPost won't back down when it comes to providing free and impartial journalism. For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless newsroom. We hope you'll join us. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest β we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you. For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience. to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest β we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you. For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience. to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us. Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages. Interested in voting rights? Then listen to βShut Out,β HuffPostβs new podcast about the fight to vote in America. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You have the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences. | 058cc259f176c679 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | BBC News | https://www.npr.org/2019/01/18/686532446/buzzfeed-trump-directed-cohen-to-lie-to-congress-about-a-trump-tower-in-moscow | Mueller's Office Disputes BuzzFeed Report That Trump Told Cohen To Lie To Congress | 2019-01-18 | white_house | Mueller 's Office Disputes BuzzFeed Report That Trump Told Cohen To Lie To Congress
The office of special counsel Robert Mueller made a rare statement on Friday night to dispute the report by BuzzFeed News that President Trump had instructed his former lawyer to lie to Congress .
The Justice Department announcement appeared not quite 24 hours after the explosive story from Thursday night . Although it did n't go into detail , the response suggested the story did n't correctly reflect the special counsel 's dealings with Trump 's ex-fixer .
`` BuzzFeed 's description of specific statements to the special counsel 's office , and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office , regarding Michael Cohen 's congressional testimony are not accurate , '' said spokesman Peter Carr .
The Thursday report cited two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the Trump Tower Moscow investigation . It triggered vows by Democratic chairmen of House committees to investigate and widespread discussion about the political implications of Trump 's reported instructions to Cohen .
`` These allegations may prove unfounded , but , if true , they would constitute both the subornation of perjury as well as obstruction of justice , '' California Rep. Adam Schiff , House intelligence committee chairman , said in a statement earlier Friday .
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith told All Things Considered on Friday night that his organization stands by its story .
Smith said he stands behind his reporters and noted that BuzzFeed broke another story about the Russia project : that the Trump Organization planned to offer President Vladimir Putin the penthouse in the projected hotel .
He said the reporters based their story on information from `` federal law enforcement officials involved in the investigation , and well-placed to know what 's going on inside it . '' He said the sources have `` a remarkable track record '' with these reporters .
Smith said BuzzFeed is eager to hear specifically what the special counsel disputes in the article . He said it 's hard to respond to the statement the special counsel released , which Smith described as `` not a full-throated denial . ''
Speaking to reporters on Saturday morning , Trump said he appreciated the special counsel 's statement .
`` I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country , it was a disgrace to journalism , '' Trump said , calling the story `` phony . ''
The back-and-forth heightened expectations for a hearing scheduled for Feb. 7 at which Cohen is set to appear before the House oversight committee .
Democrats are expected to try to draw him out about both his verified and alleged actions on behalf of Trump ; Republicans are expected to highlight the false statements Cohen has admitted to making , as part of a strategy to paint him as not believable .
Friday 's statement by the special counsel 's office , meanwhile , was highly unusual . Mueller , despite the high-profile position he accepted in the spring of 2017 and the political stakes of his investigation into whether any Americans collaborated with Russia 's attack on the 2016 presidential election , is famously silent .
Despite the avalanche of press reports about its activities , the special counsel 's office very seldom responds to news stories . In late 2017 , however , it discounted a report suggesting it had obtained evidence improperly .
Cohen was interviewed by the House intelligence committee in October 2017 , and also provided written statements to House and Senate intelligence committees . But he pleaded guilty in November to one count of lying to Congress about the timing of negotiations with Russians about building a Trump Tower in Moscow .
During the campaign , Trump repeatedly said he had no business in Russia . Cohen told Congress that those negotiations ended in January 2016 . He later admitted that those talks actually continued at least through June of that year β well into the presidential campaign .
Last month , Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for a number of political and finance crimes .
BuzzFeed 's story , published on Thursday night , was reported by Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier .
Their sources said that Cohen `` told the special counsel that after the election , the president personally instructed him to lie β by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did β in order to obscure Trump 's involvement , '' according to the report .
In an interview Friday morning with NPR 's Morning Edition , Cormier said their sources describe `` quite a bit of documentary evidence '' β in the form of emails , internal correspondence and witness interviews β that Trump told Cohen to lie .
Law enforcement officers had gathered this evidence before Cohen was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller , according to BuzzFeed 's sources .
`` And then Mr. Cohen , during his many interviews with the special counsel , confirmed that he was directed to lie to Congress , '' Cormier said .
Cormier told NPR that while he and Leopold have not seen the documentary evidence themselves , their sources have personally reviewed it . `` And we 've managed to find ways to verify these people 's stories off the record , through sourcing that we just were n't able to use in the story , '' he explained .
Those sources told BuzzFeed that the directive did not come through an intermediary : `` It 's our understanding that it was directly from the president of the United States , '' Cormier said .
NPR has not independently confirmed the allegations in the BuzzFeed report .
Lanny Davis , Cohen 's legal and communications adviser , told NPR : `` Out of respect for Mr. Mueller 's and the Office of Special Counsel 's investigation , Mr. Cohen declined to respond to the questions asked by the reporters and so do I . ''
The allegations leveled in the story are serious . `` This is a crime if it 's true , and our reporting suggests that it is , '' Cormier says .
Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to criticize the BuzzFeed report and the media coverage that followed its release .
In a tweet Friday morning , Trump accused Cohen of lying .
Kellyanne Conway , counselor to the president , told Fox Business Network on Friday : `` And also I 'm very very dismayed that the sourcing in this particular article are two law enforcement officials who are connected to the investigation . That should send a chill down everybody 's spine . People should not be leaking information from investigations . ''
Trump 's current personal attorney , Rudy Giuliani , had this response : `` Any suggestion β from any source β that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false . Michael Cohen is a convicted criminal and a liar . To quote the prosecutors , he has traded on ' a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time ' and for that 'he is going to pay a very , very serious price . ' ``
`` Today 's claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen 's malice and desperation , in an effort to reduce his sentence . ''
Cormier told NPR that Cohen is not the source for their story and that `` he is not the one who told us this . ''
`` We are reporting that it is not just Michael Cohen 's assertion to the special counsel β that this team of investigators has gathered other evidence to support the statements , '' Cormier said .
In his statement Friday morning , Schiff said the House intelligence committee would investigate what he called `` a counterintelligence concern of the greatest magnitude . ''
`` Given that these alleged efforts were intended to interfere with our investigation , our Committee is determined to get to the bottom of this and follow the evidence wherever it may lead , '' Schiff added .
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee , Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York , said his committee would investigate as well . | 5BrUcAdY8nAzNmq8 | 1 | White House | 0.2 | Donald Trump | 0.2 | Mueller | 0.1 | Politics | 0 | null | null |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/the-battle-for-the-new-virginia-95295.html?hp=t1_3 | The battle for the new Virginia | 2013-08-08 | elections | Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli have already made dozens of campaign stops . | AP Photos The battle for the new Virginia
During a recent campaign swing , the answer was a resounding β si , β as the former Democratic National Committee chairman swept through Todos Supermarket in Woodbridge , Va. , momentarily wielding a spatula behind the counter ( β If the governor thing doesn β t work out , I can do this ! β ) , vowing to pass a state-level DREAM Act , and repeatedly hailing the supermarket β s San Salvador-born owner , Carlos Castro , as an example of β the American dream . β
β We can β t grow our economy unless we ensure that Virginia is an open and welcoming state to everyone , β McAuliffe proclaimed , flanked by Democratic Del . Alfonso Lopez , the only Hispanic member of the state Legislature . β I β d love to see thousands of more Carloses by the end of my term as governor . We need to help the Carloses of the future grow and diversify this economy . β
The campaign stop was one of dozens that McAuliffe and his Republican opponent , state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli , have made in an intense effort to court Virginia β s rapidly diversifying electorate . Indeed , take the event locations off the schedules of the two candidates and you might think they were running for mayor of New York β a feature of the campaign that β s likely to be replicated in more and more elections , as demographic change transforms the American political landscape .
Conventional wisdom states that in an off-cycle election , the voting population will be whiter and more conservative than it was during last year β s presidential race . But neither party β s nominee is acting like it , and with good reason .
Any McAuliffe win would almost certainly depend on turning out a greater-than-usual proportion of the β New Virginia β voters who handed the state twice to President Barack Obama . That may seem like a truism after Obama β s 2012 success here , but most Virginia Democrats have feared to even attempt this path to victory in the past . In 2009 , the party hoped a rural state senator would win over enough conservative Virginians to put the governor β s race in play β and a few years before that , Democrat Jim Webb won an upset election to the U.S. Senate campaigning as a grizzled Scots-Irish veteran in the tradition of Andrew Jackson .
For Cuccinelli , on the other hand , making inroads with a more diverse electorate would be an important step toward leading the GOP to a statewide comeback in a battleground that hasn β t voted for a Republican senator or presidential candidate in nearly a decade .
So far this year , the former state senator from Fairfax has attended meetings with the Pakistan American Business Association and the Moroccan American Network , celebrated Filipino-American culture at festivals in Richmond and Virginia Beach , courted the Vietnamese community in Falls Church and given interviews to Indian , Korean , Moroccan and Vietnamese-oriented media , among other outreach events .
McAuliffe β s focus on outreach has been , if anything , more relentless . He has toasted the Lunar New Year with Korean , Chinese and Vietnamese groups in Northern Virginia , celebrated the Persian New Year holiday of Nowruz , addressed a meeting of the Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia and held a special campaign kickoff aimed at the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander communities . He , too , has joined Filipino-American festivals and in July , he put up a β Ramadan Kareem ! β message on Facebook to mark the Muslim holy month .
The political logic of these itineraries is straightforward : while Virginia has always had a sizable African-American population , the last 10 years have seen a sharp rise in other nonwhite voting groups . In the 2004 presidential race , Latino voters made up 3 percent of the Virginia electorate and Asians made up 2 percent , according to exit polls . By 2012 , those numbers were 5 percent for Latinos and 3 percent for Asians β a combined 60 percent increase in those two heterogeneous groups . In a low-turnout election , that shift could be all the more consequential .
If the national GOP has been caught off-guard by the scale of change under way in the electorate , few Republicans are less surprised by this state β s transformation than Cuccinelli , who won multiple state Senate elections in a Fairfax-based district , near the epicenter of Virginia β s demographic change .
β I β ve been in the biggest melting pot in Virginia . It β s just been kind of something I β ve grown up with . It doesn β t strike me as all that unusual , β he told βββ after a meeting in Richmond with Asian-American business leaders in late July . β One of the things that frustrates me about the Republican Party is , you know , all the hand-wringing and everything else after 2012 . β Oh , we β ve got to do this , we β ve got to do that. β I β ve been doing it . β
Recalling the razor-thin reelection margin in his 2007 legislative race , Cuccinelli said : β I can just get around and meet a lot of leaders in those communities and listen to their advice β¦ Without all that effort in the years before it , I probably would not have won that race . β
Cuccinelli β s outreach meeting in Richmond was a case study in both his strengths and limitations as an aspiring big-tent GOP leader , and the shadow the national conversation on immigration has cast over his campaign .
Speaking to a group of about 14 Asian-American Virginians , largely of South Asian descent , Cuccinelli emphasized his long ties to the state and his involvement in local institutions , contrasting that with McAuliffe β s upbringing in national politics . He said his top priority was making it easier for small businesses to create jobs β and while he β s no fan of β quotas , β Cuccinelli said internationally savvy constituencies should be better represented in the state β s overwhelmingly white economic development agencies and boards . | yKpSNyPQFFzEleO9 | 0 | Virginia | 0.2 | Elections | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Wall Street Journal - News | https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-press-for-defiant-virginia-governor-to-step-down-11549225271?mod=hp_lead_pos1 | Virginia Governor Rebuffs Fellow Democrats, Risks Undermining Party in 2020 | politics | Virginia Gov . Ralph Northam met with top aides Sunday night amid mounting calls from fellow Democrats to resign over a racist photograph , an episode that has pressured a party that has promoted a zero-tolerance policy against members who have been accused of bigotry and sexual misconduct .
No announcements were expected Sunday after the meeting , which included top administration officials of color , a Northam spokeswoman said .
In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election , Democrats have been laying the groundwork to draw a bright line between their party and President Trump on issues of racial injustice and sexual discrimination by purging any members accused of wrongdoing .
But after party leaders urged the governor over the weekend to step down after the photo surfaced from his 1984 medical-school yearbookβshowing one person in blackface and another wearing a white Ku Klux Klan uniformβhe refused , saying the depiction is horrible but that he isn β t in the photograph . He said earlier that he was in the photo .
Related Site Behind Northam Revelations Is Backed by GOP Operatives
An extended face-off over Mr. Northam β s status risks undercutting a key Democratic message as the 2020 race for the White House gets under way , party officials and advocates said .
β This creates a fissure in the party in how we see ourselves , what we stand for and what we believe in , β said Anton Gunn , a Democratic strategist who advised President Obama β s 2008 campaign in South Carolina . β This really does undermine the moral high ground of where the Democratic Party wants to put itself in the 2020 cycle , and it β s a shame that the governor of Virginia doesn β t understand that . β
Mr. Gunn , an African-American who grew up in southeastern Virginia , noted that Mr. Northam β s disclosures coincided with the launches of several 2020 Democratic presidential candidacies , including those of Sens . Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey , who are both black . The senators were among a large number of presidential contenders who urged Mr. Northam , a 59-year-old who was elected in 2017 and by law can serve one term , to resign .
β It β s a huge problem for Democrats β credibility if somebody like Northam is able to stay in office , β said Shaunna Thomas , co-founder of Ultraviolet , a women β s advocacy group which has confronted cases of sexual misconduct . β The fact that he hasn β t resigned suggests there must be people around him telling him it β s OK and helping to try to get him out of this , to try to weather this storm . β
On Sunday TV news shows , most Democrats called for Mr. Northam to resign . β The good news is there is zero tolerance , and people do understand that , β said Rep. Karen Bass ( D. , Calif. ) , chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus , on NBC .
Republicans also called for the Democratic governor to step down , with Virginia GOP Chairman Jack Wilson calling the yearbook photo β wholly inappropriate . β
Any political fallout may first be visible in November , when Democrats hope to gain in state legislature races . Strengthening support among African-Americans also is a priority for Democrats in 2020 after the party β s 2016 presidential nominee , Hillary Clinton , struggled to turn out black voters at the same rate that Mr. Obama did in minority districts in key states . With Mr. Trump β s past comments on immigrants and raceβincluding his 2017 remarks that β both sides β were to blame in deadly clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville , Va.βDemocrats see an opening to bolster that turnout .
African-Americans account for about 20 % of the electorate in Virginia and have been crucial to Democrats β recent success in the commonwealth , helping the party win the past three presidential elections , the past two gubernatorial campaigns and the past five U.S. Senate contests .
Over the weekend , Mr. Trump weighed in on the Virginia matter , writing on Twitter that Ed Gillespie , the GOP candidate whom Mr. Northam defeated handily in 2017 , must β be thinking Malpractice and Dereliction of Duty β about his opposition-research staff .
In late 2017 , many Democrats pushed then-Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota into retirement amid allegations of sexual misconduct , saying they had to take a hard line after criticizing Mr. Trump for his alleged mistreatment of women , which he has denied . That episode has been an issue in the 2020 presidential primary race , with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ( D. , N.Y. ) having had to defend her role in calling for his resignation .
Former Rep. Jim Moran , a Democrat who represented a Northern Virginia district for more than two decades , said Mr. Northam should have a β second chance β to redeem himself and help Virginians cope with the issue of race . β I think it is a rush to judgment before we know all of the facts and before we have considered all of the consequences , β Mr. Moran said on ABC .
While the Northam scandal could be long forgotten by the time 2020 primaries begin , elections will be held this November in Virginia for all 140 seats in the state general assembly . Republicans hold narrow advantages in both legislative chambers , and Democrats are seeking to win majorities ahead of 2020 redistricting that could determine the boundaries of several U.S. House districts . Mr. Northam could loom large in those races if he β s still in the governor β s mansion .
A photograph on a 1984 medical-school yearbook page of Virginia Gov . Ralph Northam showed one person dressed in blackface and another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe .
As state lawmakers continued their calls on Sunday for him to step down , they have limited pressure points beyond that . The state β s constitution allows for impeachment of the governor for β malfeasance in office , corruption , neglect of duty or other high crime or misdemeanor. β The photograph wasn β t taken while he was in office , and Republicans control the Legislature , which would have to launch such an effort .
Delegate Lamont Bagby , chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus , said in an interview that he didn β t β even want to start thinking about that β and that he hoped Mr. Northam would β gracefully resign . β
After initially apologizing , the governor said on Saturday that he was mistaken when he initially said he had appeared in the photograph . Mr. Northam acknowledged , however , that during his mid-20s he had placed some shoe polish on his face while portraying Michael Jackson in a 1984 dance contest in San Antonio . He said he regretted β that I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that . β
The news conference , and Mr. Northam β s inconsistent answers , fueled more calls for him to step down as senior Virginia Democrats , including Sens . Mark Warner and Tim Kaine , and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott , joined the chorus .
If Mr. Northam departs , his lieutenant governor , Justin Fairfax , would become the commonwealth β s second African-American governor . Mr. Fairfax has stopped short of demanding a resignation , saying in a statement that β we must make decisions in the best interest β of state residents .
Former Virginia Gov . Terry McAuliffe , a Democrat for whom Mr. Northam served as lieutenant governor , called for Mr. Northam β s resignation and said he expected one soon .
β Once that picture with the black face and the Klansman came out , there was no way you can continue to be governor of the commonwealth of Virginia , β said Mr. McAuliffe , a potential 2020 presidential candidate , in an interview with CNN β s β State of the Union β on Sunday .
Mr. McAuliffe said Mr. Northam β doesn β t have the ability β to work with the state legislature , pointing out that the state β s black caucus has pledged to remove him if he doesn β t step down .
Mr. Fairfax could run for a full term in 2021 even if he ascends to become governor in Mr. Northam β s place .
βYuka Hayashi and Reid J. Epstein contributed to this article . | ieEuK49vZTMesMVR | 1 | Virginia | 0 | Ralph Northam | 0 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null | |
us_house | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/22/opinions/ghitis-benghazi-hypocrisy/index.html | OPINION: What's really behind Clinton's Benghazi grilling? | 2015-10-22 | us_house | Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review and a former CNN producer and correspondent . Follow her @ FridaGhitis . The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers .
( CNN ) The unmistakable smell of hypocrisy permeating the latest congressional hearings on Benghazi is so pungent that few people believe the claims from the panel 's leaders that they are only searching for the truth . Almost three-quarters of Americans now believe the investigation is motivated by a quest for political gain rather than by a genuine wish to get at the facts .
It 's no wonder . Other national tragedies , other terrorist attacks , other major failings of U.S. operations overseas have received limited attention -- sometimes none at all -- from congressional investigators . A comparison of the way Congress responded to other U.S. security disasters that deserved close scrutiny strongly suggests all you need to know about the partisan , electoral politics at play in Washington today .
But that investigation already happened , over and over and over . What we see now is clearly political theater , a maneuver by the Republican majority aimed at eroding support for the likely Democratic presidential candidate , former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton . Vast majorities of Democrats and independents see it that way , and almost half of all Republicans agree .
While Benghazi has been the subject of seven congressional investigations , in addition to one by an accountability review board , there are countless cases where Congress spent little time and money examining what went wrong .
For example , Congress does not appear particularly interested in looking at what caused the disaster a few weeks ago , when the U.S. bombed a hospital operated by the charity Doctors Without Borders , in Kunduz , Afghanistan , even though the mistake cost nearly two dozen lives and harmed America 's efforts in the area .
If it is the security of Americans they worry about , congressional leaders have not spent much time investigating why some 30 Americans are being held hostage overseas today .
But that tempered interest is hardly a fluke . In fact , the enthusiasm with which Congress has jumped to investigate the Benghazi debacle is unprecedented .
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks , a Joint Inquiry in Congress looked at five previous major terrorist attacks or attempted attacks against the U.S. to see where intelligence had failed . The incidents included the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center , the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia , the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania , the 1999 `` Millennium '' plot , and the strike on the USS Cole in 2000 .
JUST WATCHED Hillary 's day in 3 minutes Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hillary 's day in 3 minutes 03:00
These were not minor or inconsequential terrorist operations . They were deadly and they foreshadowed what came later . The embassy bombings , two simultaneous explosions in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam , killed more than 200 people and left more than 4,000 injured .
Congress held a handful of hearings , but no formal investigation . The investigation was conducted by the FBI and ultimately resulted in the indictment of several men , including one Osama Bin Laden .
Not one of these five terrorist plots against the U.S. produced a level of congressional interest even remotely approaching what we see now on Benghazi and on Hillary Clinton . No investigation took as long . Even that joint congressional investigation was completed in 10 months .
If congressional leaders believe concern for the safety of diplomatic personnel warrants the magnitude and duration of their efforts , it 's curious that Congress spent so little time reviewing the Africa embassy bombings , or any of the many other attacks on American diplomats who have died in the line of duty over the years ; people like 33-year-old John Granville , a diplomat working for the U.S. Agency for International Development , shot to death in Khartoum , Sudan in 2008 , or David Foy , 51 , killed in a massive blast outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi , Pakistan in 2006 .
If the issue is the failures of security , of intelligence , or of judgment that have cost the lives of U.S. citizens on dangerous assignments , it 's curious that the events of an awful day in late 2009 at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan did not merit this kind of scrutiny . That was when seven Americans working for the CIA were killed when a man who was supposed to be an informant , invited by American agents to be the base , turned out to be a radical jihadi , a suicide bomber who blew himself up . The dead included Jennifer Matthews , 45 , one of the CIA 's top al Qaeda experts . That incident was investigated by the CIA , not Congress .
If it 's terrorism that justifies the obsessive attention to Benghazi , it 's interesting that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing , the worst terrorist attack before 9/11 , was not the target of a slew of congressional panels the way Benghazi is . The only report from Congress on the Oklahoma bombing was privately released by Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher , who was searching for an elusive `` foreign connection . '' The attack , which killed 168 people , was investigated by the FBI .
Yes , all of those happened years ago . But what about the Boston bombings of April 2013 ? They did warrant an investigation by the Homeland Security Committee , which produced a couple of reports . That 's a minuscule investigation compared with the Benghazi work by congressional committees including , the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform , the Senate Committee On Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs , the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence , the House Committee on Foreign Affairs , and others , each of which has already conducted its own investigation and issued its own report .
What happened in Benghazi back in 2012 was horrific and it is crucial that the U.S. learns from its mistakes . Investigating what exactly went wrong is an imperative . But what is unfolding in Washington is not about that . History proves it . That 's the whiff so many people detect . We know what it is . | vUuucmwHKJwxTMt7 | 0 | Benghazi | -1.3 | Politics | -1.2 | US House | -1.1 | Hillary Clinton | -0.3 | null | null |
elections | Townhall | http://townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2015/01/22/rubio-perhaps-nominating-a-governor-isnt-the-best-idea-n1946333 | Rubio: Nominating a Governor in 2016 Isn't the Best Idea | 2015-01-22 | elections | You might have noticed that Gov . Scott Walker ( R-WI ) has been sort of stumping for himself lately . That is to say , he has been very , very vocal that the next GOP presidential nominee β should be a governor β .
Here 's what he said recently on the Hugh Hewitt Show :
These are strong arguments for why voters should choose a governor , perhaps like Walker , in 2016 . Thus , in order for someone like Sen. Marco Rubio ( R-FL ) β or Sen. Ted Cruz ( R-TX ) or Sen. Rand Paul ( R-KY ) β to have a chance at winning the nomination , they β ll need to begin crafting persuasive arguments of their own for why giving candidates like Walker the nod would be a mistake . ( And let β s face it : Walker β s a candidate ) .
One way the Florida Senator has sought to do that , it seems , is by emphasizing one quality most governors almost uniformly lack ; namely , foreign policy experience . National Journal reports :
In a glimpse of the kind of presidential campaign he 'll wage should he run , Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday argued that whoever wins the presidency in 2016 will need to have a strong understanding of foreign policyβand that puts governors at a disadvantage . `` The next president of the United States needs to be someone that has a clear view of what 's happening in the world , a clear strategic vision of America 's role in it , and a clear tactical plan for how to engage America in global affairs , '' the Florida senator said to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington . `` And I think for governors , that 's going to be a challenge initially because they do n't deal with foreign policy on a daily basis . '' The country 's national security , he said , is the `` central obligation of the federal government . '' It was a subtle dig at his fellow establishment Republicans , two of whom happen to be former governors : former Massachusetts Gov . Mitt Romney and Rubio 's Florida colleague , former Gov . Jeb Bush , who are each openly considering a 2016 bid . And it set the tone for how Rubio will attempt to frame a presidential campaign .
In effect , Rubio is posing a question : Would you rather nominate someone who has only addressed and solved problems at the state level , or someone who understands , and can articulate , how to protect and defend America β s people and interests at home and abroad ? Since the latter , as Rubio says , is the β central obligation of the federal government β β i.e. , the president of the United States β he β s hoping voters will slowly come around to see his argument as the better one .
I suspect Rubio may have some difficulty with that one . Still , if he 's going to run ( and capture ) the nomination , it β s an argument he β s going to have to win . | ZVU94X8M1DlaM8W9 | 2 | Election2016 | 0 | Marco Rubio | 0 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 | null | null |
politics | Victor Hanson | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/strange-paradoxes-race-environmentalism-immigration-gulf-between-rhetoric-and-reality/ | OPINION: The Strange Paradoxes of Our Age | 2019-02-19 | politics | Protesters march against President Trump β s proposed border wall in El Paso , Texas , January 26 , 2019 . ( Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters )
From race , to environmentalism , to wealth , the gulf between ideological rhetoric and reality has rarely been wider .
Modern prophets often say one thing and do another . Worse , they often advocate in the abstract as a way of justifying their doing the opposite in the concrete .
The result is that contemporary culture abounds with the inexplicable β mostly because modern progressivism makes all sorts of race , class , and gender exceptions for politically incorrect felonies , an appeasement that ensures an absence of deterrence and thus even more transgressions .
Paradox No . 1 : Merchants of Hate . We are told that white , racist young men are preying on people of color , obsessed with skin color ( and gender ) , and emancipated by Donald Trump β s Klan-like MAGA army . In truth , the purveyors of such theories are themselves merchants of hate , who stereotype and demonize on the basis of skin color . And they do so , largely for anticipated career advantages , on the principle that supposed victims of white bigots can translate such ill treatment into publicity and , with it , attention and career enhancement . How did this epidemic of hate happen in 2019 America ?
Answer : a ) There are not enough racists left to fuel the current insatiable appetite of the anti-racism industry . So both victimizers and victims have to be invented β as we see with the Duke lacrosse lynching , the Virginia fraternity hoax , the Covington-kids invention , and the recent Jussie Smollett fraud . b ) There are few punishments for fraud , but lots of rewards for being victimized , and so deterrence is lost and the merchants of hate assume they are free to invent what they please . c ) Anything useful to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump is seen as a moral act , whether equating the Covington MAGA-hatted teenagers as veritable Klansmen or fitting out Smollett β s hired thugs with lynch rope and red hats .
Paradox No . 2 : Green Filth . Ecology and environmentalism are supposedly efforts to prevent the natural world around from being spoiled by man and his modern-day lifestyle . Nowhere is green power stronger than in urban California . And yet nowhere are major cities ( such as San Diego , Los Angeles , and San Francisco ) dirtier , more dangerous , and more festering as a result of human indifference β or public policy .
Medieval plagues such as typhus and tuberculosis ravage street people in California cities , so much so that Los Angeles City Hall had to be deloused to ensure that it did suffer the flea-borne epidemics akin to those of Constantinople in the sixth century a.d. Feces , trash , urine , discarded needles , and rotting food scraps stain downtown streets ; primeval carriers of disease such as rats and scavenging birds feast and defecate among the flotsam and jetsam .
Why the progressive tolerance for such environmental desecration in the age of the Green New Deal ? Why would it be felonious to defecate on a Yosemite trail or leave a used hypo at a river bank in Yellowstone , while it β s condoned on Market Street in San Francisco where the potential for human injury is far greater ?
Answer : a ) Perhaps the primeval stink and disease are seen as organic and are therefore not a dreaded cause of global warming . b ) Wealthy , urban people can navigate around the homeless with private security and chauffeured transportations , and by doing business away from hoi polloi . c ) The ecological assault is the work of purported victims , not rich white males β a fact known to the homeless who know very well that they are exempt from the law that applies to the middle classes . d ) Cleaning up the cities , ensuring modern hygiene , and dealing with the homeless would require lawmakers to make conservative and traditional choices and judgments about human nature β taboo in our relativist society .
Paradox No . 3 : Hip Hate . Two of the great sins of the modern West are misogyny and racism . There is zero tolerance for both outrages . Even a sexist or racist word can destroy careers . Yet the most sexist and racist genres in the contemporary West are rap and hip-hop music . Rappers with a long history of racist , anti-Semitic , and misogynist lyrics ( and occasional behavior ) perform at the politically correct Super Bowl . Kendrick Lamar was for a while President Obama β s favorite singer and a guest at the White House , despite having made anti-police references and despite the abject racist imagery on a recent album cover . Yet rappers are rarely ostracized for objectifying women as β bitches and hos , β or police as pigs , or for railing against β the Jews. β How can a genre that is often pathological become so mainstream that it β s exempt from the rules of correct thought and language ?
Answer : a ) Contemporary dogma postulates that perceived victims can not be victimizers , so any untoward language from rappers is a cry of the heart from the oppressed . b ) Rap is a huge multibillion-dollar business whose icons can , with endorsements and advertising , ensure huge sales , often in markets in which particular consumers consider any criticism of rap as proof of racism . c ) There is a wink-and-nod exemption such that mostly black rappers assume the public understands their conventions . Despite being worth hundreds of millions of dollars and living in gated estates , rap β s elite still need to sound β authentic. β Racism , anti-Semitism , and misogyny , like obscenity , ensure street cred . But such bias is winked off as a career necessity β a sort of genre convention like iambic pentameter or an opera performed in Italian .
Paradox No . 4 . Bad Billions Are Good . Not since the late 19th century have we seen the emergence of such huge monopolies , trusts , and conglomerates , or the staggering fortunes made from them . By any standard progressive definition , Google , Facebook , Twitter , and an array of social-media and Internet companies ruthlessly warp their industries to gain monopolies ; they gobble up threatening start-ups ; they distort Internet searches ; they censor conservatives ; they dump product to ensure their market share ; they stifle all dissent and are vindictive in going after dissidents and critics . And the result is that the largest unfettered fortunes in the history of capitalism are found in Silicon Valley and its spin-off industries elsewhere . Why has there not been any serious talk of monitoring multi-trillion-dollar industries based on monopolies and trusts that are controlling large chunks of Americans β daily lives ?
Answer : a ) These are not 19th-century fortunes in oil , railroads , shipping , steel , or food production , whose buccaneer capitalists were for the most part supposedly odious conservative traditionalists . What Wall Street , communications , high-tech , and Internet zillionaires such as Jeff Bezos , Michael Bloomberg , Warren Buffett , Bill Gates , Mark Zuckerberg , and the Google team have in common is that they are left-wing and put their fortunes to good progressive use . b ) Conservatives still believe in unfettered free markets and therefore think it β s noble or at least permissible to allow their existential enemies on social media and the Internet to attack them with all the resources that cornering the market can bring . c ) The masters of the new universe are hip . They are cool and don β t wear the usual suit and tie of the corporate elite . How can someone in flip-flops and torn jeans at the knees really know about thousands of their employees sleeping in their cars , or tech teams scheming to massage searches to produce politically correct results ? Although Elizabeth Warren , Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , and Kamala Harris blast Big Tech money , we should not assume that they will turn away tech β s largesse or that they β re not beneficiaries of the biases of social media and the Internet .
Paradox No . 5 : Blinkered Enlightenment . Progressive universities have consistently raised their tuition and room and board above the rate of inflation . They do not fully apprise grant and loan recipients of what precisely their compound-interest indebtedness will be once they graduate , much less what the average job market and compensation might be for particular majors . Teaching loads have been reduced for tenured faculty , while an increasingly large percentage of course units is offered by exploited part-time instructors who lack the job protections and the benefit compensation of regular faculty . Part-timers are the new braceros of the university , brought in for cheap labor without much of a care where they go or how they live after class . Free-speech quads on campus are about the most unfree areas in America , where the wrong ideology can earn ostracism and threats of bodily harm . Liberalism gave us Martin Luther King Jr. β s reminders of a racially blind society . Liberal universities superseded that idealism with the cynical reality that the color of one β s skin , not the content of one β s character , largely determines everything from admissions to graduation rates . Higher education still insists on standardized admissions tests ( at least for some groups ) and resists furiously similar exit exams to ensure that $ 300,000 worth of investments in education can be quantified by improved reading , reasoning , and computation . So why is the loudest progressive institution so regressive ?
Answer : a ) All left-wing projects by nature are hierarchical , in the sense that β people power β serves as proper cover for the material and egocentric ambitions of an elite , as exemplified by the Soviet dacha , the Cuba compound , the Venezuelan offshore account β and the compensation of β diversity czars β and those who get a lot of money for rarely teaching or researching but monitoring and auditing those who do . b ) Higher education realizes that it will not be held accountable . It faces very little legal exposure for not educating its students , but a great deal of audit if it proves lax in terms of race , class , and gender activism . In other words , a university that turns out brilliant graduates is not as impressive as one that turns out woke grandees . c ) College degrees are like sneaker or purse brands . They have increasingly little to do with authenticating knowledge and lots to do with opening careerist doors , improving class cachet , and maximizing power and influence . How is that possible ? Largely because of admissions , not achievement . One is hired with a Harvard B.A . not because that four-year Cambridge stint proves he will excel as a writer , speaker , or thinker , but rather because it certifies that he once had excellent enough high-school grades and test scores ( with noted exceptions ) to get in . Ivy League admissions , not credentialing , is what employers look for β a fact known to cynical colleges and universities .
Paradox No . 6 : Moral Amoral Immigration . By any definition , illegal immigration is amoral . Open borders penalize legal immigrants β who wait years under audit for green cards β in favor of those who cut in line and rush the border . Illegal immigration renders federal law a joke . Sanctuary cities are a neo-Confederate idea of state and local nullification of federal law . Unlawful entry punishes the law-abiding citizen , in driving down wages , and in de facto exempting of crimes such as felonious identity theft that would ruin the career of a U.S. citizen . To the U.S. citizen returning from abroad who presents a passport at customs , and who is hounded about whether he has food on his person , or too much cash , or undeclared purchases , illegal immigration delivers a message : You are an utter fool , and if you had just broken the law , you could have entered the U.S. with no audit at all . It is racist , in that it privileges Spanish speakers south of the border and treats them in a fashion not accorded to Eastern European , Australian , Japanese , or South Korean would-be immigrants . And illegal immigration is an affront to the poorer and lower middle classes , whose schools , neighborhoods , and safety are often compromised by the influx of millions who have not been audited in terms of health , criminality , and skills β all while illegal immigration and open borders are pushed by the upper middle classes and elite who by their power and money are exempt from such concerns . How did something so abjectly amoral come to be passed off as moral ?
Answer : a ) Vested interests are multifarious across the political spectrum . Latino activists want more political power and careers as the self-appointed spokesmen for a permanent ( but revolving ) underclass of Spanish speakers . Leftists want more states to flip blue as well as more voters who will be dependent on generous redistributionist bromides . Employers want cheap labor . Elites like inexpensive domestic help . Mexico wants a steady relief valve of social tension in lieu of domestic reform , a psychological getting even with the Yanquis , and a constant revenue stream of $ 30 billion in remittances , often subsidized by generous U.S. entitlements and welfare . b ) So-called Third World poor are romanticized as noble β and useful . Were millions of middle-class conservative Poles , right-wing Chileans , or Taiwanese Reaganites swarming the border , we would build walls 30 feet high . c ) Radical progressives often enjoy flux if not chaos , in the sense of disruptions to staid and reactionary U.S. customs and traditions . When 60 million U.S. residents are not native-born , good things accrue from disregarding the perceived norms of the English language , Christianity , American history , and the Constitution .
The common thread to the paradoxes that we encounter daily is the inconsistency of progressivism itself β or rather its ad hoc adoption of any means necessary to be justified by an anointed end , which is the quest for power and control . Progressivism is not an empirical or coherent creed , but contrary both to human nature and the record of history β in its arrogance that an elite , if only provided with enough money , power , and good intentions , can create heaven on earth rather than hell .
Something to Consider If you enjoyed this article , we have a proposition for you : Join NRPLUS . Members get all of our content ( including the magazine ) , no paywalls or content meters , an advertising-minimal experience , and unique access to our writers and editors ( conference calls , social-media groups , etc. ) . And importantly , NRPLUS members help keep NR going . Consider it ? If you enjoyed this article , and were stimulated by its contents , we have a proposition for you : Join NRPLUS . LEARN MORE | WHiiZS2gB3cM4i6k | 2 | Politics | -0.8 | Political Correctness | -0.6 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
coronavirus | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/07/15/trump-administration-orders-hospitals-not-send-covid-19-data-cdc/5441730002/ | Trump administration orders hospitals to send coronavirus data to Washington, not the CDC | 2020-07-15 | coronavirus | The Trump administration ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all COVID-19 patient information to a central database in Washington , starting Wednesday , according to a Health and Human Services document updated July 10 .
The handoff had an immediate effect . Wednesday afternoon one of the important CDC pages that tracked changes over time in how many hospital beds in the nation are occupied by COVID-19 patients ceased working . The CDC confirmed the page 's disappearance was a consequence of the switch .
It was first noted by Charles Ornstein from the news non-profit ProPublica .
The data came from the National Healthcare Safety Network , the most widely used hospital infection tracking system in the United States . It is run by the CDC .
In a call with reporters Wednesday , CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said the agency has agreed to remove the NHSN from the collection process in order to streamline reporting .
The disappearance of the site takes away a useful metric of the pandemic for health care workers .
Changes in time of the number of hospital beds being occupied by COVID-19 patients tells public health officials how close to being unable to accept new patients a hospital or a region is , or if things are getting better .
Michael Caputo , HHS assistant secretary for public affairs , said in a statement earlier Wednesday the new coronavirus data collection system would be β faster , β and the CDC has a one-week lag in reporting hospital data .
β The President β s Coronavirus Task Force has urged improvements for months , but they can not keep up with this pandemic , β he said . β Today , the CDC still provides data from only 85 percent of hospitals ; the President β s COVID response requires 100 percent to report . β
Caputo added : `` The CDC , an operating division of HHS , will certainly participate in this streamlined all-of-government response . They will simply no longer control it . ''
Wednesday afternoon , Redfield described the data collection system as a way to streamline the process and make it easier for the nation 's hospitals to get information to state and federal authorities .
`` We at CDC know that the life blood of public health is data , '' he said . `` Collecting , disseminating data as rapidly as possible is our priority and the reason for the policy change we β re discussing today . ''
The CDC , along with many federal agencies , has long struggled to provide state-of-the-art data systems with lagging funding and sought to upgrade its systems .
Redfield indicated the change would not be detrimental , saying the new system would streamline the process , reduce duplication and the reporting burden on medical providers and `` enable us to distribute the scarce resources , using the best possible approach , '' he said .
`` We β ve merely streamlined data collection for hospitals on the front lines , '' he stressed . `` No one is taking access or data away from CDC . ''
Public health experts and infectious disease scientists sounded an alarm on the protocols , noting that further politicization of the pandemic will hurt health workers and patients .
β Placing medical data collection outside of the leadership of public health experts could severely weaken the quality and availability of data , add an additional burden to already overwhelmed hospitals and add a new challenge to the U.S. pandemic response , β Dr. Thomas File , president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America , said in a statement .
He said collecting and reporting public health data is a β core function of the CDC , β and bypassing the agency would β undermine our nation β s public health experts . β
β As infectious diseases physicians , front-line providers and scientists , we urge the administration to follow public health expertise in addressing this public health crisis , β File said .
Coronavirus updates : CDC chief says masks could halt outbreak in 4-6 weeks ; more relief checks possible ; vaccine candidate shows promise
A Tuesday Washington Post op-ed written by four former or acting CDC directors criticized President Donald Trump for β politicizing science . β
β These repeated efforts to subvert sound public health guidelines introduce chaos and uncertainty while unnecessarily putting lives at risk , β they wrote .
During a video meeting Wednesday with the βββ editorial board , one of the authors , former U.S . Surgeon General David Satcher , called the sidelining of the agency β very scary . β
β There is conflict right now between the CDC and the White House , β Satcher said . β Somehow we β ve got to get past the conflict in the interest of saving lives . β
As of Wednesday , the USA surpassed 3.4 million cases and 136,000 deaths , according to Johns Hopkins University . Globally , there have been 13.3 million cases and more than 579,000 deaths .
Health and patient safety coverage at βββ is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics , Innovation and Competition in Healthcare . The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input . | 40WIsjRfR0lCKcjf | 1 | Trump Administration | -2.2 | HHS | -0.5 | Coronavirus | -0.2 | CDC | -0.1 | Hospitals | 0 |
immigration | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/10/politics/bush-immigration-speech/index.html | Bush to speak on immigration but avoid politics | 2013-07-10 | immigration | Story highlights Bush made speech at a naturalization ceremony at his presidential library
Former president 's speech comes same day House GOP discuss immigration reform
In interview last week , Bush said bill should be passed because system is broken
Bush tried and failed to get reform passed in his second term in office
There was no impassioned plea to pass immigration reform . But the image was unmistakable .
The sight of former President George W. Bush welcoming newly sworn-in citizens at a naturalization ceremony at his library and museum in Dallas on Wednesday offered a sharp contrast to the hardening opposition to immigration legislation in Washington .
Speaking for only five minutes , Bush did weigh in on the immigration system he tried but failed to reform during his second term in office .
`` The laws governing the immigration system are n't working . The system is broken , '' Bush told the crowd .
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`` I do n't intend to get involved in the politics or the specifics of policy , but I do hope there is a positive resolution to the debate , '' Bush said in a soft endorsement of reform efforts on Capitol Hill . `` I hope during the debate that we keep a benevolent spirit in mind . We understand the contributions immigrants make to our country. ``
Twenty new citizens from 12 different countries , including two members of the Armed Forces , were sworn in at the naturalization ceremony conducted along with officials from U.S . Citizenship and Immigration Services .
`` It 's an honor to call you fellow Americans , '' Bush told the newcomers .
Following Bush 's remarks , each freshly sworn in citizen lined up to receive their naturalization certificate and a handshake from the former president .
Among the newly naturalized at the George W. Bush Center in Dallas , Danny Diaz admitted he illegally crossed the U.S.- Mexico border in 1994 in a long journey from his native Guatemala .
It took nearly a decade for Diaz to receive legal residency status and finally citizenship .
`` It 's a long wait . It 's a hard wait , too , '' he said . `` But if you work for it and you prove you know how to behave in this country , everything comes through . ''
`` There 's a lot of good people out there who do n't have papers , '' he said .
Lance Cpl . Antonio Miguel Villaceran , a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve , was unaware Bush would be in attendance . `` I love what George Bush is doing right now , '' he said .
Akshaya Bandaru , who immigrated to the U.S. from India , received a private meeting with Bush along with the other newcomers and their families .
`` I told him I was going into medical school and he said ' I hope it 's geriatrics , ' '' Bandaru said .
The former president has stayed out of domestic politics since leaving the White House in January 2009 , and the timing of Bush 's speech and a meeting of House Republicans to discuss the issue appears to be a coincidence .
Hannah Abney , spokeswoman for the Bush presidential center , told CNN that the Texas event had been planned for a couple of months .
The former Republican president tried but failed to pass immigration reform during his second term in the White House , due in part to opposition from Republican members of Congress .
In an interview with ABC News last week while in Africa , Bush noted the importance of fixing a `` broken system '' and he said immigration reform `` has a chance to pass . ''
`` It 's a very difficult bill to pass because there are a lot of moving parts and the legislative process can be ugly . But it looks like they are making some progress , '' Bush told ABC .
Asked if it will hurt the GOP if Republicans fail to pass the bill , Bush told ABC that `` the reason to pass immigration reform is not to bolster a Republican Party -- it 's to fix a system that 's broken . ''
The bill passed by the Senate late last month includes an eventual pathway to citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States . That provision is opposed by many House Republicans , who consider it `` amnesty . ''
Bush 's brother , former Florida Gov . Jeb Bush , last week urged the GOP-led House to pass the Senate 's comprehensive immigration reform package with a few additional requirements .
Jeb Bush , who is considering a 2016 bid for the White House , made his comments in a opinion piece he co-wrote in the Wall Street Journal .
The former president spoke about immigration reform at a conference last December .
`` America is a nation of immigrants . Immigrants have helped build the country that we have become , and immigrants can help build a dynamic tomorrow , '' he said .
`` As our nation debates the proper course of action relating to immigration , I hope we do so with a benevolent spirit and keep in mind the contribution of immigrants , '' he added . | 79Gh0CXA71VwMtmL | 0 | Immigration | -0.7 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
culture | Yahoo! The 360 | https://news.yahoo.com/are-masks-the-next-front-in-the-coronavirus-culture-war-182414248.html | Are masks the next front in the coronavirus culture war? | 2020-05-11 | culture | β The 360 β shows you diverse perspectives on the day β s top stories and debates .
Debates over masks and other face coverings have been at the center of discussion since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. For much of that time , the conversation focused largely on practical matters , like how effective masks are at stemming the spread of the virus and questions about shortages for health care workers .
The debate has shifted in recent weeks . There are no longer questions about whether masks prevent infection . Experts agree that even homemade ones help . The current conversation is more contentious . Those who refuse to wear masks have been accused of ignorance or selfishness while the mandates that they be worn outside or in shops have been painted as violations of civil liberties .
The discontent over masks has been strong enough to force some politicians to change their policies . Ohio Gov . Mike DeWine , who has been praised for his early and aggressive response to the virus , has lifted the state β s order requiring masks be worn inside stores , saying , β People were not going to accept the government telling them what to do. β The city of Stillwater , Okla. , rescinded its mask policy after employees at some stores faced threats of violence .
The disagreements over masks have even turned violent . In Michigan a security guard was killed after reportedly demanding a patron wear a mask .
How did the discussion of masks morph from a conversation about their medical merits to a clash over politics and liberty ?
One of the most obvious answers is the partisan divide over how best to respond to the pandemic . After facing criticism for his administration β s actions during the onset of the outbreak , President Trump has turned his focus to reopening the country and accused skeptics of his largely unpopular plan of playing politics . Declining to wear a mask could be , for many , a gesture of support for the president and his vision that it β s time to start returning to normal .
Trump may have solidified this view by refusing to wear a mask at recent public appearances despite the administration β s recommendations for U.S. residents .
Wearing a mask can be a symbol of trust in leaders and scientists who set health policies . Refusing to wear one suggests a rejection of that authority . The mishmash of laws from state to state combined with confusing messaging from medical authorities like the World Health Organization may be contributing to doubts about the importance of face coverings .
The intensity of the disagreement may have more emotional roots , some psychiatrists say . In times of difficulty , humans are wired to look for someone to blame for the challenges they face . Mask wearers may see the bare-faced as responsible for exacerbating the health risks of the outbreak . Non-wearers might believe that overzealous restrictions are causing severe economic pain . For these groups , masks can be a symbol of a disagreement that goes much deeper than whether someone has a piece of cloth over their face .
β The wearing of masks is morphing into an unnecessary and unhealthy political test in which your face is the bumper sticker. β β Jim Galloway , Atlanta Journal Constitution
β The way we do things is right . The way others do things is wrong . Usually the gulf between the two is a matter merely of frustration ; now it β s also a matter of fear . And for those of us who are told we β re not being careful enough when we β re convinced we β re being very careful indeed , it β s a matter of resentment tinged with guilt. β β Molly Roberts , Washington Post
Masks are symbolic of big government control to some people
β The decision not to wear a mask has , for some , become a rebellion against what they regard as an incursion on their personal liberties. β β Rick Rojas , New York Times
Trump β s strategy of reopening the country made masks a political statement
β Trump has apparently decided that the way out of the current crisis is to be bold about reopening as quickly as possible in as many places as possible . β¦ So we can expect to see the president out and about around the country , projecting confidence in the nation β s health and resilience . And that is what he is modeling by not wearing a mask. β β Ron Elving , NPR | JamAiwwyWMyJQ7FI | 1 | Polarization | -0.5 | Healthcare | 0.1 | Coronavirus | 0.1 | Public Health | 0.1 | Culture | 0 |
immigration | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/08/white-house-issues-list-hard-line-immigration-demands/744945001/ | White House issues list of hard-line immigration demands | 2017-10-08 | immigration | CLOSE The White House sent a list of immigration policy demands to Congress that President Trump says must be included in legislation addressing `` Dreamers . '' Video provided by Newsy Newslook
WASHINGTON β The White House sent a long list of demands for immigration legislation to Capitol Hill on Sunday , including building a border wall , hiring thousands of border guards and expanding the use of electronic employment verification systems .
President Trump said his list of proposals `` must be included '' as part of any legislation addressing the status of immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children , and whose deportations were deferred by the Obama administration .
`` Without these reforms , illegal immigration and chain migration , which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers , will continue without end , '' Trump said in a letter to lawmakers .
The proposal represented a return to the hard-line stance on immigration that Trump championed during last year 's presidential campaign , seemingly pulling back the olive branch he extended to Democratic leaders just three weeks ago . Then , Trump suggested he would be willing to extend legal protection to DREAMers first and `` the wall will come later . ''
More : Deal , no deal , back to deal : Trump says β fairly close β to agreement with Congress protecting DREAMers
Indeed , Democratic leaders rejected the demands Sunday , saying it shows the administration `` ca n't be serious about compromise . ''
β We told the president at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the DREAM Act , but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable , '' said a joint statement Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer , the House and Senate minority leaders .
β The list includes the wall , which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations . If the president was serious about protecting the DREAMers , his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so , '' they said .
The DREAM Act would give permanent legal status β and a path to citizenship β for people who arrived in the United States illegally as children .
Trump re-ignited the debate over DREAMers last month when he rescinded the Obama-era program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals , or DACA , which used executive action to give them quasi-legal status . DACA recipients who had renewed their status by last week would get a six-month grace period before deportation in order to give Congress time to work out a permanent fix .
More : Tens of thousands of immigrants may miss deadline for extending DACA protections
The White House plan contains 18 specific policy areas that Trump would like to see in a bill , but childhood arrivals were not part spelled out as one of them . `` We 're asking that these reforms be included in any legislation concerning the status of DACA recipients , '' said White House legislative director Marc Short , noting that some immigrants remaining in the United States under DACA are now as old as 36 .
Instead , the White House list includes longstanding demands of the Republican Party 's immigration hardliners , including expediting removals of unaccompanied children arriving at the border ; tightening standards for people allowed to seek asylum in the U.S. ; barring immigrants who have been convicted of a range of crimes , including drunk driving ; and barring federal grants to so-called `` sanctuary cities '' that do not turn over illegal immigrants to federal authorities .
Speaking to reporters in a conference call Sunday night , Trump administration officials insisted that the proposals came from officials at immigration enforcement agencies .
`` My experience tells me we will not stop illegal immigration unless we end the pull factors that drive it , '' said Tom Homan , the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement . If there are no consequences for entering the country illegally or overstaying a visa , he said , `` then there is no integrity in the system . ''
More : Tens of thousands of immigrants may miss deadline for extending DACA protections
More : Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley : Border enforcement must be enhanced , but ' I don β t mean a wall '
More : Trump , top Dems discuss future of DACA . Here 's what NJ Dreamers have to say | gi8pOnX1zHLix2s2 | 1 | Immigration | 0.5 | White House | 0.3 | DACA | 0 | null | null | null | null |
isis | Fox Online News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/02/us-announces-more-special-ops-forces-to-fight-isis-iraqi-pm-says-no-need.html?intcmp=hpbt1 | US announces more special ops forces to fight ISIS, Iraqi PM says 'no need' | 2015-12-02 | isis | The U.S. is sending more special operations forces to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling ISIS , as well as capture or kill senior leaders of the terror network in Iraq and Syria .
A U.S. official told Fox News that approximately 200 troops would be sent to Iraq within the next few weeks part of a `` specialized expeditionary targeting force '' announced by Defense Secretary Ash Carter in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday .
The official said the force 's remit would include targeted assassinations of senior ISIS if their specific mission requires . A second U.S. official told Fox News that capturing senior ISIS leaders would also be an important component of the new assault force β s mission to learn more about the group 's structure and any affiliates .
`` This intel gathering mission is just as important , if not more important , than killing bad guys , '' said the official , who added that the number of troops `` could grow '' beyond 200 .
The U.S. military conducted similar operations in Iraq to take out senior Al Qaeda leadership , such as the mission led by Gen. Stanley McChrystal which killed Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June 2006 .
More recently , U.S. special operations troops and Iraqi forces raided a compound in northern Iraq in October , freeing about 70 Iraqi prisoners who were facing execution . One U.S. service member was killed in the raid , the first American combat death in Iraq since the U.S. began its campaign against ISIS in August 2014 .
In May , a Delta Force raid in Syria killed ISIS financier Abu Sayyaf , yielding intelligence about the group 's structure and finances . His wife , held in Iraq , has been cooperating with interrogators .
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi reacted to Carter 's announcement with a statement saying in part , `` there is no need for foreign ground combat troops '' in Iraq .
Abadi 's statement did call for more weapons , training and support for Iraq 's military from Baghdad 's international partners . He also warned that any special operations against ISIS in Iraq `` can only be deployed subject to the approval of the Iraqi Government and in coordination with the Iraqi forces and with full respect to Iraqi sovereignty . ''
In Brussels Wednesday , Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Iraq 's government was briefed in advance of the U.S. announcement . He said Washington would work with Baghdad on what types of forces were deployed , where they would go and what types of missions they would conduct . He expressed `` full and total respect '' for al-Abadi 's leadership , and said plans would go forward `` in full consultation and with full consent of the Iraqi government . ''
`` The raids in Iraq will be done at the invitation of the Iraqi government and focused on defending its borders and building the Iraqi security force 's own capacity , '' Carter said in his testimony Tuesday . `` This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria . ''
`` This is an important capability because it takes advantage of what we 're good at , '' Carter added later . `` We 're good at intelligence , we 're good at mobility , we 're good at surprise . We have the long reach that no one else has . And it puts everybody on notice in Syria . You do n't know at night who 's going to be coming in the window . And that 's the sensation that we want all of ISIL 's leadership and followers to have . ''
A U.S. official familiar with the composition of special operations forces told Fox News that approximately 75 percent of the group bound for Iraq would provide support . The force includes intelligence personnel , aircraft pilots , and mechanics in addition to a quick reaction force . The official added that the group was separate from the 50 special operations forces that will be sent to Syria .
At the same hearing , Gen. Joseph Dunford , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , raised eyebrows when he said that ISIS had not been contained by the U.S.-led coalition , contrary to President Obama 's assessment earlier this month .
`` What is true is that from the start our goal has been first to contain , and we have contained them . They have not gained ground in Iraq . And in Syria , they 'll come in , they 'll leave , but you do n't see this systematic march by ISIL across the terrain , '' Obama said in an interview with ABC , using another acronym for the group .
The remarks were aired a day before ISIS militants carried out a series of coordinated attacks in Paris , killing 130 people and injuring more than 350 others .
`` We have not contained ISIL currently , '' Dunford said in response to a question from Rep. Randy Forbes , R-Va . | vc2qS9homb5XcwZK | 2 | ISIS | -1.4 | US Military | 0.7 | Iraq | 0.3 | Middle East | -0.1 | null | null |
facts_and_fact_checking | CNN Digital | https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/trump-allies-project-2025/index.html | Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved | 2024-07-12 | Facts And Fact Checking, 2024 Presidential Election, Donald Trump, Heritage Foundation | CNN βDonald Trump has lately made clear he wants little to do with Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that has attracted considerable blowback in his race for the White House.βI have no idea who is behind it,β the former president recently claimed on social media.Many people Trump knows quite well are behind it.Six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation. Four individuals Trump nominated as ambassadors were also involved, along with several enforcers of his controversial immigration crackdown. And about 20 pages are credited to his first deputy chief of staff.In fact, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to βMandate for Leadership,β the projectβs extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.Dozens more who staffed Trumpβs government hold positions with conservative groups advising Project 2025, including his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and longtime adviser Stephen Miller. These groups also include several lawyers deeply involved in Trumpβs attempts to remain in power, such as his impeachment attorney Jay Sekulow and two of the legal architects of his failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Cleta Mitchell and John Eastman.To quantify the scope of the involvement from Trumpβs orbit, CNN reviewed online biographies, LinkedIn profiles and news clippings for more than 1,000 people listed on published directories for the 110 organizations on Project 2025βs advisory board, as well as the 200-plus names credited with working on βMandate for Leadership.βOverall, CNN found nearly 240 people with ties to both Project 2025 and to Trump, covering nearly every aspect of his time in politics and the White House β from day-to-day foot soldiers in Washington to the highest levels of his government. The number is likely higher because many individualsβ online rΓ©sumΓ©s were not available.In addition to people who worked directly for Trump, others who participated in Project 2025 were appointed by the former president to independent positions. For instance, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr authored an entire chapter of proposed changes to his agency, and Lisa Correnti, an anti-abortion advocate Trump appointed as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, is among the contributors.Several people involved in Project 2025 didnβt serve in the Trump administration but were influential in shaping his first term. One example is former US Attorney Brett Tolman, a leading force behind the former presidentβs criminal justice reform law who later helped arrange a pardon for Charles Kushner, the father of Trumpβs son-in-law. Tolman is listed as a contributor to βMandate for Leadership.βThe extensive overlap between Project 2025 and Trumpβs universe of allies, advisers and former staff complicates his efforts to distance himself from the work. Trumpβs campaign has sought for months to make clear that Project 2025 doesnβt speak for them amid an intensifying push by President Joe Biden and Democrats to tie the Republican standard bearer to the playbookβs more controversial policies.In a statement to CNN, campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said Trump only endorses the Republican Party platform and the agenda posted on the former presidentβs website.βTeam Biden and the (Democratic National Committee) are lying and fear-mongering because they have nothing else to offer the American people,β Alvarez said.Heritage plan becomes a political headacheBehind Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation, a 51-year-old conservative organization that aligned itself with Trump not long after his 2016 victory. Heritage is led by Kevin Roberts, a Trump ally whom the former president praised as βdoing an unbelievable jobβ on a February night when they shared the same stage.Heritage conceived Project 2025 to begin planning so a Republican president could hit the ground running after the election. One of its priorities is creating a roadmap for the first 180 days of the new administration to quickly reorient every federal agency around its conservative vision. Described on its website as βa movement-wide effort guided by the conservative cause to address and reform the failings of big government and an undemocratic administrative state,β Project 2025 also aims to recruit and train thousands of people loyal to the conservative movement to fill federal government positions.One organization advising Project 2025, American Accountability Foundation, is also putting together a roster of current federal workers it suspects could impede Trumpβs plans for a second term. Heritage is paying the group $100,000 for its work.Many of Project 2025βs priorities are aligned with the former president, especially on immigration and purging the federal bureaucracies. Both Trump and Project 2025 have called for eliminating the Department of Education.But Project 2025 has lately become a lightning rod for other ideas Trump hasnβt explicitly backed. Within βMandate for Leadershipβ are plans to ban pornography, reverse federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, exclude the morning-after pill and menβs contraceptives from coverage mandated under the Affordable Care Act, make it harder for transgender adults to transition, and eliminate the federal agency that oversees the National Weather Service.Its voluminous and detailed plans also run counter to Trumpβs desire for a streamlined GOP platform absent any language that Democrats could wield against Republicans this cycle.Roberts recently faced backlash as well for saying in an interview that the country was βin the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.βThree days later, Trump posted to Truth Social: βI know nothing about Project 2025.ββI disagree with some of the things theyβre saying and some of the things theyβre saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,β he wrote.In response to Trumpβs social media post, a Project 2025 spokesperson told CNN in a statement it βdoes not speak for any candidate or campaign.ββIt is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to use,β the spokesperson said.Trumpβs campaign has repeatedly said in recent months that βreports about personnel and policies that are specific to a second Trump Administration are purely speculative and theoreticalβ and donβt represent the former presidentβs plans. Project 2025 and similar policy proposals coming from outside Trumpβs campaign are βmerely suggestions,β campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita wrote in a statement.Vast network of Trump alliesHowever, Trumpβs attempts to distance himself from Project 2025 have already encountered credibility challenges. The person overseeing Project 2025, Paul Dans, was a top official in Trumpβs White House who has previously said he hopes to work for his former boss again. Shortly after Trumpβs Truth Social post last week, Democrats noted a recruitment video for Project 2025 features a Trump campaign spokeswoman. On Tuesday, the Biden campaign posted dozens of examples of connections between Trump and Project 2025.CNNβs review of Project 2025βs contributors also demonstrated the breadth of Trumpβs reach through the upper ranks of the vast network of organizations working to move the country in a conservative direction β from womenβs groups and Christian colleges to conservative think tanks in Texas, Alabama and Mississippi.New organizations centered around Trumpβs political movement, his conspiracy theories around his electoral defeats and his first-term policies are deeply involved in Project 2025 as well. One of the advisory groups, America First Legal, was started by Miller, a key player in forming Trumpβs immigration agenda. Another is the Center for Renewing America, founded by Russ Vought, former acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, who wrote for Project 2025 a detailed blueprint for consolidating executive power.Vought recently oversaw the Republican Party committee that drafted the new platform heavily influenced by Trump.In addition to Vought, two other former Trump Cabinet secretaries wrote chapters for βMandate for Leadershipβ: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. Three more former department heads β National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, acting Transportation Secretary Steven Bradbury and acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella β are listed as contributors.Project 2025βs proposals for reforming the countryβs immigration laws appear heavily influenced by those who helped execute Trumpβs early enforcement measures. Former acting US Customs and Border Protection chief Mark Morgan and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Tom Homan β the faces of Trumpβs polarizing policies β contributed to the project, as did Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, one of the policy advisers pushing to end certain immigrant protections behind the scenes. The Project 2025 chapter on overhauling the Department of Homeland Security was written by Ken Cuccinelli, a top official at the department under Trump.Some of Trumpβs most contentious and high-profile hires are credited with working on βMandate for Leadership,β including some whose tenures ended under a cloud of controversy.Before Trump adviser Peter Navarro went to prison for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena as part of the House investigation into the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, he wrote a section defending the former presidentβs trade policies and advocating for punitive tariffs.Other contributors include: Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker who orchestrated a mass firing at the US Agency for Global Media after he was installed by Trump; Frank Wuco, a senior White House adviser who once promoted far-right conspiracies on his talk radio show, including lies about President Barack Obamaβs citizenship; former NOAA official David Legates, a notable climate change skeptic investigated for posting dubious research with the White House imprint; and Mari Stull, a wine blogger-turned-lobbyist who left the Trump administration amid accusations she was hunting for disloyal State Department employees.The culmination of their work, spread across 900 pages, touches every corner of the executive branch and would drastically change the federal government as well as everyday life for many Americans. In summarizing the undertaking, Roberts wrote in βMandate for Leadershipβ that Project 2025 represented βthe next conservative Presidentβs last opportunity to save our republic.ββConservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right,β Roberts said. βWith enemies at home and abroad, there is no margin for error. Time is running short. If we fail, the fight for the very idea of America may be lost.β | e81d1f908731b276 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
lgbtq_issues | Katrina vanden Heuvel | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/01/pride-month-begins-republicans-double-down-restricting-transgender-americans/ | As Pride Month begins, Republicans double down on restricting transgender Americans | 2021-06-01 | LGBTQ Issues, Pride Month, Human Rights, Joe Biden, Transgender Issues, Florida, Ron DeSantis | clockThis article was published more than 3 years ago Tuesday marks the beginning of Pride Month 2021 β a time of much-deserved celebration, especially after so many of last yearβs festivities were relegated to virtual spaces. And itβs also a time to further the movement for LGBTQ rights. This year, that work is particularly important β because weβre in the midst of an unprecedented effort from Republican-run state legislatures to subjugate the transgender community. | abe0405fba3a1975 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/09/politics/giffords-health/index.html | 'Stronger, better, tougher': Giffords improves, but she'll never be the same | 2013-04-09 | gun_control_and_gun_rights | Story highlights Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords says 'good guy with a gun ' does n't work
Paralyzed on her right side and partly blind after being shot , former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords defines a 'new normal '
Giffords and husband live in the same house , same state for the first time in their marriage
Even with moments of frustration , Giffords insists she is mostly optimistic and not resentful
What is most shocking about Gabby Giffords now is how much she looks like her old self . Her golden locks are back ; so is the sparkle in her eyes and her broad smile . Gone is the short hair and thin frame we saw at the beginning of her recovery .
`` Stronger . Stronger , better , tougher . Stronger , better , tougher . '' That 's how Giffords describes herself .
The former Arizona congresswoman makes that declaration with determination and gusto . But it still takes a considerable amount of energy and concentration to articulate that , or anything else .
Being with Giffords , who was shot in the head two years ago during an appearance in front of an Arizona supermarket , it is obvious that she understands and absorbs everything around her . She follows conversation , reacts , engages and offers unsolicited ideas -- usually in the form of a single word or gesture that makes clear what she means .
JUST WATCHED Two years later , Giffords ' targets shift Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Two years later , Giffords ' targets shift 06:39
JUST WATCHED Gabby Giffords appreciates guns Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gabby Giffords appreciates guns 02:50
JUST WATCHED Gabby Giffords vows to be 'tougher ' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gabby Giffords vows to be 'tougher ' 00:28
JUST WATCHED Giffords and Kelly talk with CNN Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Giffords and Kelly talk with CNN 00:12
But at times , even simple words are a struggle , like when she tries to explain how she spends her days .
Her husband , former astronaut Mark Kelly , patiently and quietly corrects her , saying `` yoga . ''
`` Yoga , yoga , '' Giffords repeats , offering a playful smile to signal she gets how funny it was that she said `` yogurt '' instead of `` yoga . ''
She has go-to phrases that indicate how she feels , often saying `` good stuff '' to express encouragement and `` whoa '' to show something excites her or makes her happy .
The right-handed Giffords still has no use of that hand and that arm is paralyzed . She generally wears a sling to keep it from flopping around .
Her right leg is also paralyzed . She wears a large brace and literally drags her right leg with her good , left leg to walk . Still , she walks remarkably well .
Giffords has a service dog -- Nelson , a golden lab -- with her at all times .
She is also still aided by nurses , who come to her home , and by speech therapists , who constantly work with her to help improve her ability to communicate .
`` Not great at all , '' is how she described her vision .
Giffords has limited sight in both eyes , no peripheral vision to the right .
Kelly jokes that when he wants to sneak up on her he will come around the right so she ca n't see him coming .
It is clear watching the couple interact that humor helps keep her spirits up and eases the pressure of their intense daily struggle .
For Kelly and Giffords , this is the new normal -- a life together that neither could have ever imagined when they first got together . She was a bright young political rising star and he was an astronaut .
Kelly said it is `` different in a lot of good ways . ''
The biggest difference ? For the first time , they actually live in the same house , in the same city , in the same state .
Before Giffords was shot , she jetted between her home in Tucson and work in Washington , while Kelly lived and worked in Texas , home of Johnson Space Center .
They had a commuter marriage , which did n't allow them much time together . Now , they are together all the time , living in a ranch-style home they bought last summer .
And since January , the two have worked together as well . They started Americans for Responsible Solutions , an organization and super PAC dedicated to pushing Giffords ' former colleagues in Congress to support new restrictions to help curb gun violence .
Giffords and Kelly own guns , and CNN filmed Kelly taking target practice with the same kind of gun Jared Loughner used to wound Giffords and kill six other people . Giffords says she would like to learn to shoot again , but it 's not a high priority .
When asked about the National Rifle Association 's argument that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun , '' Giffords becomes animated .
She says if she were still in Congress , she would have supported new gun-control legislation in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown , Connecticut .
Giffords ' work and her recovery are not unrelated . Those around her said she has noticeably made more progress with her speech and physical challenges over the past few months since she re-engaged in the world of politics and public policy .
Kelly said Giffords does have moments of frustration , but both insist she is mostly optimistic and not resentful . | 9UoNfZO8kngqdVps | 0 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | 0.3 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | The Gateway Pundit | https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/mike-johnson-lacks-support-stay-as-house-speaker/ | Mike Johnson Lacks Support to Stay as House Speaker, Rep. Chip Roy Warns of Leadership Shakeup | 2025-01-01 | Politics, Mike Johnson, US House Of Representatives, Congress, GOP, Chip Roy | Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has expressed serious doubts about Speaker Mike Johnsonβs (R-La.) ability to retain his gavel.Despite receiving the highly coveted endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump, Johnson faces a storm of skepticism from within his own party, just days ahead of a crucial floor vote.On Monday, President Trump made a surprising endorsement for House Speaker Mike Johnson to be reelected, as he faces challenges from other GOP lawmakers.Trump praised Johnson as a βgood, hardworking, religious manβ and the right choice to carry forward the America First agenda.Appearing on Varney & Co. on Fox Business, Roy did not mince words about Johnsonβs precarious position.Roy laid bare the chaos that unfolded in the final days of 2024. He detailed how Congress violated its own 72-hour ruleβnot once, but twiceβforcing lawmakers to vote on a 1,500-page spending bill without adequate time to review its contents.Even after whittling it down to a more digestible 100 pages with intervention from high-profile allies like Elon Musk and JD Vance, the bill still committed $110 billion in unfunded spending.Roy acknowledged Johnsonβs close ties to former President Trump but made it clear that loyalty alone is not enough.Roy also floated potential alternatives, such as Representatives Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), while emphasizing the need for a unified GOP strategy.Transcript:Ashley Webster:Is Mr. Johnson going to have the support to keep his role as Speaker? What do you think? Chip Roy:Well, good morning, Ashley, and Happy New Year to all the listeners and viewers out there. Look, Victoria is a good friend, and Thomas is a good friend, and they raise reasonable concerns. I remain concerned. I remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the Presidentβs agenda. I respect, like Thomas, that President Trump supports Mike. I like Mikeβheβs a good friend. But letβs consider what happened the week before Christmas. We violated the 72-hour rule twice, which means we didnβt have time to read a bill. We had to have Elon and the Beck and the President and JD come in to kill a 1,500-page monstrosity and cut it down to 100 pages. It still spent $110 billion unpaid for. My colleagues say, βOh, but thatβs all just discretionary spending.β We also passed $200 billion that is taking money out of Social Security to transfer it, which will hasten the bankruptcy of Social Security by six months. That was all the week before Christmas, Ashley. Thatβs a problem. Thatβs not how we should do business. We racked up $300 billion of additional deficit spending after the election. We spent $1.7 trillion last year with more Democrat votes than Republican votes. We gave another $61 billion to Ukraine. My friend Victoria, sheβs from Ukraineβshe has a heart for the Ukrainian peopleβbut she understands giving $61 billion to Ukraine after Mike Johnson promised to secure the border first is a problem. So we need to have a plan before January 3rd. The Speaker needs to speak to it if he wants to have all of our support. Ashley Webster:Yeah, and I have to follow up at this point, Congressman. Does he have that support or not? Chip Roy:Right now, I donβt believe that he has the votes on Friday, and I think we need to have the conference get together so that we can get united. People say, βWell, Chip, who would you choose otherwise?β Trending: WHOA: Tucker Carlson Reveals He βImmediatelyβ Sold His Truck After Spotting a βDisturbingβ Message on Vehicleβs Infotainment Screen (VIDEO) There are a lot of great members of Congress. Mikeβs a friend, and maybe he can answer the call and deliver an agenda and a plan. Byron Donalds is a good man and a good friend. I supported him. I nominated him two years ago. Jim Jordan is a good man and a good friend. There are other members of leadership in the conference who could do the job. But what we need to do is unite around a plan to deliver for the President. Right now, I do not believe the conference has that. The failure before Christmas, I cannot overstate, is a glimpse of whatβs to come if we donβt organize the conference to deliver for the American people. We are not going to be able to bend on the things that matter. We must cut spending if we want inflation to go down and for people to afford to live in this country. We have to secure the border. We canβt be going back and forth on that. We have to give the tools to Tom Homan, the President, and Steven Miller to secure the border, and weβve got to have the plans in place by Friday.WATCH: | c10733e3f1475c01 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
federal_budget | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/vulnerable-republicans-end-the-shutdown-97654.html | Vulnerable Republicans: End the shutdown | 2013-10-01 | federal_budget | Rigell and Meehan represent moderate districts likely have the most to lose . | AP Photos Vulnerable GOPers : End shutdown
Some House Republicans facing perilous paths to reelection in 2014 are beginning to budge on the government shutdown , calling for the party to compromise and move on from its fight over defunding Obamacare .
β Republicans fought the good fight . The fight continues but is not advanced by a government shutdown that damages our economy and harms our military , β Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell said in a statement . β The time has come to pass a clean CR to reopen the government . β
And Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Meehan said : β I came to Washington to fix government , not shut it down . At this point , I believe it β s time for the House to vote for a clean , short-term funding bill to bring the Senate to the table and negotiate a responsible compromise . β
New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan said : β Enough is enough . Put a clean ( continuing resolution ) on the floor and let β s gets on with the business we were sent to do . β
Lawmakers such as Rigell , Meehan , and Runyan who represent moderate districts likely have the most to lose if the American public sours on the House GOP β s role in the shutdown . Rigell β s military-heavy district encompassing the Hampton Roads area was narrowly carried by President Barack Obama in 2012 . Mitt Romney won Meehan β s suburban Philadelphia district by a slight margin . Obama carried Runyan β s south central New Jersey district by four percentage points .
Rigell , Meehan , and Runyan join two other Republicans from moderate districts β New York Rep. Peter King and Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent β who have been outspoken in trying to convince the House GOP to abandon its fight .
New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo , who represents an Atlantic City-area seat that Obama won by eight percentage points , has indicated that he β s unhappy with the House GOP β s course of action . The 10-term congressman was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer as saying : β At a certain point , if the strategy is not going to get us a result or a conclusion , I β m not going to go along with itβ¦I want to see a result . The bigger fight β s coming on the debt limit . β
Another endangered Republican , Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis , stopped short of calling on his party to throw in the towel but stressed that he wanted to reach an agreement .
β Like most of those I represent , I remain opposed to Obamacare , but a government shutdown is absolutely unacceptable , β Davis , a freshman incumbent who represents a district that is nearly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans , said in a Tuesday morning statement .
Davis β like the other endangered Republicans now expressing their desire to vote on a clean CR β previously voted in favor of budget resolutions that would defund the health care law .
A host of vulnerable GOP incumbents have come under fire from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , which on Tuesday launched an automated call campaign blasting them and 60 other Republicans over the shutdown .
β While you were sleeping , Congressman Rodney Davis shut down the government . You heard that right . But even worse β Congressman Davis is still getting paid β and he β s just not listening to our frustration , β said the call targeting Davis . β All because of his demand to take away your benefits and protect insurance company profits . β
On Tuesday afternoon , the DCCC sent out a press release deriding Davis as a member of the β Too Little , Too Late Caucus . β | UvsMG9vsQgniu5Rx | 0 | Government Shutdown | -0.6 | Federal Budget | 0 | Economy And Jobs | 0 | null | null | null | null |
defense_and_security | New York Times (News) | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/us/politics/dhs-immigration-trump.html | New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions | 2017-02-22 | DHS, Defense And Security | U.S. Immigration Advertisement Supported by By Michael D. Shear and Ron Nixon WASHINGTON β President Trump has directed his administration to enforce the nationβs immigration laws more aggressively, unleashing the full force of the federal government to find, arrest and deport those in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes. Documents released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the broad scope of the presidentβs ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants; strip such immigrants of privacy protections; enlist local police officers as enforcers; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations. The new enforcement policies put into practice language that Mr. Trump used on the campaign trail, vastly expanding the definition of βcriminal aliensβ and warning that such unauthorized immigrants βroutinely victimize Americans,β disregard the βrule of law and pose a threatβ to people in communities across the United States. Despite those assertions in the new documents, research shows lower levels of crime among immigrants than among native-born Americans. Advertisement The presidentβs new immigration policies are likely to be welcomed by some law enforcement officials around the country, who have called for a tougher crackdown on unauthorized immigrants, and by some Republicans in Congress who have argued that lax enforcement encourages a never-ending flow of unauthorized immigrants. But taken together, the new policies are a rejection of the sometimes more restrained efforts by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush and their predecessors, who sought to balance protecting the nationβs borders with fiscal, logistical and humanitarian limits on the exercise of laws passed by Congress. The Department of Homeland Security has issued two memorandums outlining how the agency intends to implement and enforce the Trump administration's immigration policies. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. Reporting was contributed by Liz Robbins, Vivian Yee and Caitlin Dickerson from New York; Kirk Semple from Mexico City; Fernanda Santos from Phoenix; and Linda Qiu from Washington. Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and in the Morning Briefing newsletter. Advertisement Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times. See subscription options | 2e4e260a7e5ad62d | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | Newsmax | http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/obama-obamacare-fixes-democrats/2013/11/14/id/536622 | President's Obamacare Fix: Delay Insurance Cancellations | 2013-11-14 | Healthcare, Barack Obama | Bowing to pressure , President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his healthcare law that would give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled .
The administrative changes are good for just one year , though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist . Obama announced the changes at the White House .
Obama has been under enormous pressure from congressional Democrats to give ground on the cancellation issue under the health care overhaul , a program likely to be at the center of next year 's midterm elections for control of the House and Senate .
It 's unclear what the impact of Thursday 's changes will be for the millions of people who have already had their plans canceled . While officials said insurance companies will now be able to offer those people the option to renew their old plans , companies are not required to take that step .
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Insurance companies will be required to inform consumers who want to keep canceled plans about the protections that are not included under those plans . Customers will also be notified that new options are available offering more coverage and in some cases , tax credits to cover higher premiums .
Under Obama 's plan , insurance companies would not be allowed to sell coverage deemed subpar under the law to new customers , marking a difference with legislation that House Republicans intend to put to a vote on Friday .
`` The bottom line is insurers can extend current plans that would otherwise be cancelled into 2014 , '' he explained .
`` And the American people -- those who got cancellation notices deserve and have received -- an apology from me , '' Obama said , acknowledging several times that `` that 's on me . ''
`` But they do n't want just words , '' he said . `` What they want is whether we can make sure that they are in a better place and that we meet that commitment . ''
While admitting that the online marketplace for consumers to find new health plans had had a `` rough start , '' Obama warned his political opponents not to try to overturn the entire law .
`` I will not accept proposals that are just another brazen attempt to undermine or repeal the overall law and drag us back into a broken system , '' he said .
House Speaker John Boehner , speaking in advance of the president 's announcement , insisted it was time to `` scrap this law once and for all . ''
`` You ca n't fix this government-run health care plan called Obamacare . ... It 's just not fix-able . ''
America 's Health Insurance Plans , an industry trade group , said on Thursday that the president 's fix for canceled health plans could `` destabilize '' the insurance market and lead to higher costs for consumers .
`` Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the ( Obamacare ) law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums , '' AHIP President Karen Ignagni said in a statement .
`` Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers , '' she said .
While the White House deals with the cancellation issue , the administration is also promising improvements in a federal website so balky that enrollments totaled fewer than 27,000 in October in 36 states combined . The administration had said in advance the enrollment numbers would fall far short of initial expectations . After weeks of highly publicized technical woes , they did .
The president acknowledged that `` we fumbled the rollout of this health care law '' and pledged to `` just keep on chipping away at this until the job is done . ''
He also promised to work to regain the trust of the American people .
`` I think it 's legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general , '' he said .
Adding in enrollment of more than 79,000 in the 14 states with their own websites , the nationwide number of 106,000 October sign-ups was barely one-fifth of what officials had projected β and a small fraction of the millions who have received private coverage cancellations as a result of the federal law .
The administration said an additional 1 million people have been found eligible to buy coverage in the markets , with about one-third qualifying for tax credits to reduce their premiums . Another 396,000 have been found eligible for Medicaid , which covers low-income people .
Administration officials and senior congressional Democrats expressed confidence in the program 's future . `` We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the next five months , '' said Sebelius , who is in charge of the program .
`` Even with the issues we 've had , the marketplace is working and people are enrolling , '' she added .
Despite the expressions , the White House worked to reassure anxious Democrats who are worried about the controversial program , which they voted into existence three years ago over Republican opposition as strong now as it was then .
Senate Democrats arranged a closed-door meeting for midday Thursday in the Capitol with White House officials , who held a similar session Wednesday with the House rank and file . Ahead of that meeting , Obama planned to speak from the White House about new efforts to help Americans receiving insurance cancellation notices .
So far , five Senate Democrats are on record in support of legislation by Sen. Mary Landrieu , D-La. , to make sure everyone can keep their present coverage if they want to . The bill would require insurance companies to continue offering existing policies , even if they fall short of minimum coverage requirements in the law .
The measure has little apparent chance at passage , given that it imposes a new mandate on the insurance industry that Republicans will be reluctant to accept .
Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama 's Job Performance ? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
At the same time , a vote would at least permit Democrats to say they have voted to repair some of the problems associated with the Affordable Care Act , as many appear eager to do .
In a statement , Landrieu said Sens . Jeff Merkley of Oregon , Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas were now supporting the legislation , as is Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California . All but Feinstein are on the ballot next year .
Across the Capitol , majority Republicans in the House set a vote for Friday on legislation to permit insurance companies to continue selling existing policies that have been ordered scrapped because they fall short of coverage standards in the law .
While House passage of the measure is assured , each Democrat will be forced to cast a vote on the future of a program that Republicans have vowed to place at the center of next year 's campaign .
Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania , who voted for the initial Obama health care bill , said Thursday that members of his caucus want an opportunity to go on the record in support of allowing people to keep the insurance they had .
Doyle told MSNBC in an interview that at a White House meeting Wednesday , House Democrats told Obama about `` the frustration level that many of us have '' with the health care roll-out .
Doyle said Democrats warned Obama that `` if you do n't give us something by Friday '' to fix the insurance cancellation problem , then many Democrats are likely to vote for the pending House bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan , which would accomplish that goal .
The promise of keeping coverage was Obama 's oft-stated pledge when the legislation was under consideration , a calling card since shredded by the millions of cancellations mailed out by insurers .
Obama apologized last week for the broken promise , but aides said at the time the White House was only considering administration changes , rather than new legislation . | 6b9fb60cf7fcd446 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
joe_biden | New York Post (News) | https://nypost.com/2021/08/20/biden-stumbles-with-afghan-questions-says-americans-can-reach-kabul/ | Biden contradicted by Pentagon on claims al Qaeda βgoneβ and Taliban letting Americans reach Kabul airport | 2021-08-20 | Joe Biden, Afghanistan, World, Taliban, US Military, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Defense Department, Kamala Harris | WASHINGTON β President Biden on Friday claimed that al Qaeda is βgoneβ from Afghanistan, allies arenβt upset about the chaotic US pullout and the Taliban is letting Americans reach Kabulβs airport, before Pentagon leaders quickly contradicted the commander in chief. Biden stumbled repeatedly when taking his first questions from reporters on Afghanistanβs fall to the Taliban in the White House East Room five days after the Islamic fundamentalist group swept into the Afghan capital, toppling US-backed leaders after 20 years of war.The president repeatedly spoke inaccurately about facts around the evacuation of US citizens from the airport β saying that US citizens can reach the airport before clarifying that the Taliban is allowing Americans to pass but crowds are impeding them. But the Pentagon said Friday afternoon itβs heard the Taliban is actually stopping Americans.Biden said in his remarks that 169 Americans βgot over the wall into the airport using military assets.β Reuters later reported that those US citizens were loaded onto three Chinook helicopters from the Baron Hotel, just 200 meters from the airport. They reportedly were unable to reach the airport gates, casting further doubt on Bidenβs claim that the airport was accessible.Journalists and Bidenβs own subordinates disputed his remarks on the situation in Afghanistan. Biden defended the US departure by stating, βWhat interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?β But a recent United Nations report said that the terror network is present in at least 15 of 34 Afghan provinces and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed Thursday afternoon that βwe know that al Qaeda is a presence, as well as ISIS, in Afghanistan and weβve talked about that for quite some time.β Attempting to put a positive spin on ongoing evacuations, Biden said in his remarks βwe know of no circumstance where American citizens are carrying an American passport and are trying to get through to the airport.β When an NPR reporter pointed out that was untrue, Biden changed his answer, saying that βto the best of our knowledge, the Taliban checkpoints, they are letting through people showing American passportsβ and that some Americans are struggling to reach the airport because of βthe mad rush of non-Americansβ crowding the area. Kirby also said following Bidenβs remarks that the Pentagon is aware of Taliban fighters impeding transit to the airport. βWeβre certainly mindful of these reports and theyβre deeply troubling and we have communicated to the Taliban that that is absolutely unacceptable and we want free passage through their checkpoints for documented Americans. And by and large, thatβs happening,β Kirby said at a press briefing. Kirby firmly contradicted Bidenβs claim that al Qaeda is βgoneβ from Afghanistan while arguing the terror networkβs power is diminished. βWe do not believe it is exorbitantly high, but we donβt have an exact figure for youβ¦ our intelligence gathering ability in Afghanistan isnβt what it used to be because we arenβt there with the same numbers that we used to be,β Kirby said. Kirby added, βwhat we believe is that there isnβt a presence that is significant enough to merit a threat to our homeland as there was back on 9/11 20 years ago.β Biden, speaking for only the second time about Afghanistan since the Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday, also said βI have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world.β The US departure, however, was condemned harshly during a UK parliament session. Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, called it βthe biggest debacle NATO has suffered since its founding.β Meanwhile, there are many press reports of Americans unable to reach the Kabul airport. One American, David Marshall Fox, told The Post on Thursday that he and his son unsuccessfully sought to enter the airport on Wednesday while presenting his US passport. βFor me to be 10 feet from US Marines with my 3-year-old son, with my US passport and not being able to get through β thatβs problematic,β Fox said, adding that he had given up hope of being evacuated. While taking reporter questions, Biden said that he believed expanding the US military perimeter at Kabulβs airport could βdraw an awful lot of unintended consequences.β About 5,200 American troops are assisting with the desperate airport evacuation ahead of Bidenβs Aug. 31 deadline to remove US troops from Afghanistan. βThe only country in the world capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision is the United States of America,β Biden said. βWeβve already evacuated more than 18,000 people since July and approximately 13,000 since our military airlift began on August 14. Thousands more have been evacuated on private charter flights facilitated by the US government.β On Thursday, Pentagon and State Department spokesmen admitted they didnβt know how many Americans still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan. Biden said βwe want to get a strong number as to exactly how many people are there, how many American citizens and where they are.β The president spoke for less than 30 minutes and abruptly cut off questions and left the room. Biden said βthere will be plenty of time to criticize and second guess when this operation is over.β Many top Biden administration officials have shied from public appearances this week amid the fall of Afghanistan. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who both have been conspicuously quiet, stood behind Biden on Friday but did not speak. Biden on Friday postponed a planned long weekend in Delaware as chaos continued in Kabul. His administration on Thursday abandoned plans to charge evacuees $2,000 or more for departure flights. Advertisement Unknown | 8802e7ff81db66af | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
banking_and_finance | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/opinion/thoma-dow-rising/index.html?hpt=op_t1 | What does the rising Dow mean? | 2013-03-07 | banking_and_finance | Story highlights Mark Thoma : The latest Dow number is not really a record when adjusted for inflation
Thoma : It 's good that the stock market is doing well , but it 's not a reliable predictor of economy
He says Federal Reserve 's policy of quantitative easing has contributed to Dow 's rise
Thoma : General optimism has also helped push the stock market up
After reaching a record high of 14,253.77 on Tuesday , the Dow Jones industrial average rose an additional 0.3 % on Wednesday to reach a new record high of 14,296.39 .
First off , the latest Dow number is not really a record . If we adjust it for inflation , the Dow still has a way to go .
But is the rising number a sign that the economy , which has been improving sluggishly , is about to improve dramatically ?
For example , the previous peak in the Dow in 2007 was just before the onset of the Great Recession , and remember what happened then ? Right , the economy crashed . People got scared . Hell broke loose . No -- not really , but there was plenty of fear going around .
Flash to present day . Some people are surprised that the stock market is doing so well , particularly in light of such high levels of unemployment . But maybe we should welcome the optimism since it can push along the economy .
The steady rise of the Dow since early 2009 has been driven mainly by two factors : the slow improvement in economic conditions and optimism since the recession ended , and the Federal Reserve 's attempt to stimulate the economy using quantitative easing policies .
Under the policies , the Federal Reserve has purchased large volumes of financial assets , and the increase in demand for these assets from the Fed has lowered long-term interest rates and put upward pressure on the prices of stocks and bonds .
As asset prices increase , people feel wealthier and more secure because of increased value of retirement funds , education savings , and so on , and the increase in wealth and security makes it more likely that consumers will spend money on goods and services . This boosts GDP and employment , and the improved outlook for the economy can increase stock prices even further .
A case in point -- my parents . They are retired and did a lot of traveling . But when the 2007 recession hit and wiped out their retirement savings and equity in their home , they stopped traveling and instead began trying to rebuild what had been lost . They hunkered down , waiting for the storm to pass so to speak .
Gradually , they started to spend a bit more as stock prices and the economy improved , but they are not yet back to where they were before the recession .
My parents are more optimistic now , and that spurs them to spend more , which helps businesses and the economy . There are many Americans who went through similar experiences . If we add all of them together , we can see why things seem better than before . More people feel like we 're on the right track . The high stock market prices reflect this sentiment .
But the real question remains : What does the Dow tells us about the future of the economy ?
There is some evidence that the stock market can predict economic prospects , but the correlation is unreliable . The improvement in the Dow is a good sign , but let 's not treat it as reading the tea leaves .
Just as no one can predict the stock market , no one can really predict the economy , even if the Dow is doing great . | mcosl2ewJ5ZOBpiK | 0 | Banking And Finance | -0.6 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
healthcare | Guest Writer - Right | https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/obamacare-republicans-cant-rely-on-courts-on-health-care/ | OPINION: Obamacare Needs an Out-of-Court Settlement | 2018-12-17 | healthcare | A woman reads a leaflet at a health insurance enrollment event in Cudahy , Calif. , in 2014 . ( Lucy Nicholson/Reuters )
Obamacare was a misbegotten law . It addressed real , if sometimes exaggerated , problems , but did so at an unnecessarily high cost . Some of that cost was economic : A large and arbitrary subset of the population has had to pay higher premiums , deductibles , and copayments , and enjoy reduced access to medical providers . Some of it was lost freedom , as Obamacare curtailed the space for voluntary transactions and expanded the field of required ones .
Congress should not have enacted the law over public opposition in 2010 ; the Supreme Court should have struck it down in 2012 ; the Court should have stopped the Obama administration from rewriting the law to give it a broader reach in 2015 ; and Congress should have replaced the law in 2017 .
A new district-court decision striking down the law appears to give Congress an opportunity to start over . Yet we can not applaud Judge Reed O β Connor β s decision . Indeed , we deplore it . It will not lead to the replacement of Obamacare , as much as we desire that outcome . It will instead give Republicans another opportunity to dodge their responsibility to advance legislation toward that end .
It will not lead to the replacement of Obamacare because it is very likely to be overturned on appeal ; and it is very likely to be overturned on appeal because it deserves to be .
The law Congress enacted in 2010 included a command that Americans buy health insurance , and not just any health insurance but insurance that met congressional specifications . At the time , there was a broad consensus among health-care experts that without this β individual mandate , β the rest of Obamacare would cause health markets to unravel .
In 2012 , the Supreme Court was asked to strike the law down because that command exceeded the legitimate powers of Congress . The Court instead split the difference . It said that the Congress could not issue that command . But it could , the Court said , tax people for not buying health insurance ; and so it said that the law should go forward as though Congress had done that .
By 2017 , however , the old consensus about the necessity of the mandate to buy insurance had weakened substantially . As part of its 2017 tax-reform law , the Republican Congress , which had failed to replace Obamacare as a whole , set the tax at zero .
That β s where Judge O β Connor comes in . His ruling holds that the individual mandate can no longer be constitutionally justified as a tax now that it is set at zero , and that since Congress considered the mandate central to Obamacare when it enacted that law in 2010 , the whole thing has to go . Neither half of this argument is valid .
There is , in the first place , no longer any individual mandate to justify . The Supreme Court in 2012 eliminated it as a legal requirement on individuals to buy insurance , and the Congress eliminated it as a tax in 2017 . The government is no longer taking any unconstitutional action via this spectral , zero-dollar tax .
The deliberate decision by Congress to eliminate the tax without eliminating the rest of Obamacare , meanwhile , shows that Congress in 2017 no longer considered it essential to the law . ( O β Connor claims that the Congress wanted to repeal Obamacare but could not reach the required supermajority in the Senate . That a majority of both chambers would have agreed on a way to repeal Obamacare is not at all clear , and not a proper subject for speculation by a court ; and in any case Congress knew that a very likely outcome of passing the tax-reform bill was that most of the law would stay , but the tax would go . )
The Supreme Court has preserved Obamacare , as it has been implemented , even against meritorious legal challenges . It seems highly likely to preserve it against a much weaker one . Republican politicians have repeatedly counted on the courts to deliver them from Obamacare without their having to take any heat for abolishing its popular elements , to come up with workable alternatives , or to accommodate the interests of people who rely on the law while pleasing those who oppose it . O β Connor β s decision is giving them a new dodge : As it winds its way through the courts , they can continue telling the opponents of the law that victory is at hand , continue telling those who benefit from the law that they will protect them whatever happens , and β continue not working on health care .
But the courts will almost certainly not , as they should not , deliver Republicans from their duties . | ohilE5FGT6AQHjIT | 2 | Obamacare | -1.1 | Healthcare | -1.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
environment | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/30/obama-seeks-global-climate-pact-in-paris-amid-resistance-at-home.html?intcmp=hpbt1 | Obama seeks global climate pact in Paris, amid resistance at home | 2015-11-30 | environment | President Obama set out Monday to help seal a global climate pact at the opening of a major summit in Paris , though he faces stiff opposition at home from congressional Republicans and states worried his proposals will cost thousands of jobs .
The president joined more than 150 world leaders for the two-week conference where countries are trying to negotiate an agreement aimed at slowing an increase in global temperatures . In opening remarks , Obama called the meeting a potential β turning point β for the effort .
β What should give us hope that this is a turning point , that this is the moment we finally determined we would save our planet , is the fact that our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge and a growing realization that it is within our power to do something about it , β he said .
With the summit getting under way in the wake of the devastating terror attacks in the same city , some Republicans have questioned whether Obama is focusing too much on global warming and not enough on security . But Obama on Monday called the negotiations an β act of defiance β toward the attackers .
β What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it ? β Obama said . The president said that , as the leader of the world β s largest economy and second-largest emitter ( after China ) , β we embrace our responsibility to do something about it . β
The president also met one-on-one Monday with leaders of other nations responsible for the largest carbon emissions , Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi . On the sidelines of the summit , Obama met as well with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss security matters .
But as Obama makes a personal press for a climate deal , he faces practical challenges back in Washington .
The president has pledged that the U.S. will cut its overall emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2030 , and a centerpiece of that is a push to reduce emissions from U.S. power plants . But half the states are suing to block the power plant rules , claiming Obama has abused his authority under the Clean Air Act .
Further , Republicans on Capitol Hill are threatening to block committing U.S. dollars to a U.N. Green Climate Fund designed to help poorer countries combat climate change .
In the days before the Paris summit , Republicans warned that any Paris deal with legally binding provisions must come before the Senate for a vote . And without that approval , they warned , lawmakers will not green-light the Green Climate Fund money .
β Without Senate approval , there will be no money β period , β Sen. John Barrasso , R-Wyo. , said at a recent hearing .
Barrasso and Sen. Jim Inhofe , R-Okla. , chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee , also sent a letter to Obama signed by more than three dozen senators likewise urging the president to have his special envoy relay to developing nations β representatives that Congress β will not be forthcoming β with the Green Climate Fund money absent a Senate vote .
The president wants to direct $ 3 billion β including $ 500 million in the near-term β for the U.N. Green Climate Fund .
The Paris conference is aimed at the most far-reaching deal ever to tackle global warming . The last major agreement , the 1997 Kyoto Protocol , required only rich countries to cut emissions , and the U.S. never signed on .
Among several sticking points is money -- how much rich countries should invest to help poor countries cope with climate change , how much should be invested in renewable energy , and how much traditional oil and gas producers stand to lose if countries agree to forever reduce emissions .
With that in mind , at least 19 governments and 28 leading world investors were announcing billions of dollars in investments to research and develop clean energy technology , with the goal of making it cheaper .
Backers include Obama , Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates , Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg , billionaires George Soros and Saudi Prince Alaweed bin Talal , and Jack Ma of China 's Alibaba .
Meanwhile , Obama met on the sidelines with Putin to discuss the civil war in Syria , as well as Turkey β s shoot-down of a Russian jet last week amid allegations it crossed into Turkish airspace .
According to a White House official , Obama β expressed his regret for the recent loss of a Russian pilot and crew member and reiterated the United States ' support for de-escalation between Russia and Turkey . β
Obama , though , also reiterated that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad must leave power as part of any political transition . | pA865KTdPbzpV0in | 2 | Climate Change | 0.1 | Environment | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
polarization | Politico | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/07/russian-bots-social-media-217242 | Weβre All Russian Bots Now | 2018-03-07 | polarization | Howard Axelrod is a lecturer in creative writing at Loyola University Chicago and the author of The Point of Vanishing : A Memoir of Two Years in Solitude .
We β re still debating whether Russian bots , fake news and inflammatory Facebook posts tipped the 2016 electionβbut there β s something much more fundamental at work here : America β s political culture is deeply sick and ripe for exploitation .
The reason so many Americans believed the vitriolic Russian posts is that they resembled vitriolic American posts . If the context of polarization and online hostility didn β t exist , the Russian posts would have stood out as conspicuous forgeries , even given our level of news illiteracy . You don β t impersonate someone by saying something he wouldn β t say . The voice the 13 Russian ventriloquistsβthe ones the special counsel indicted last monthβthrew was our own .
When such posts come from trolls and bots in Russia , they β re illegal , as they should be . But when they come from U.S. citizens , the damage is largely the same , even if there β s no chess master manipulating a focused attack . Granted , the Russians β intention was the opposite of the cable news outlets , the radio hatemongers , and most U.S. citizens . If democracy is a marriage , they wanted to lure us toward bitter divorce , or perhaps a murder-suicide , whereas those of us motivated not solely by likes or Nielsen ratings want to save the marriage by winning key arguments . But we β ve become like bitter spouses at a dinner party , insulting each other publicly , forgetting that we have to go home together , and that the tone of what we β ve said will linger far longer than the content .
The way to undermine a democracy , the Russians have reminded us , is to destabilize a common sense of reality and decency so that we can β t trust facts or each other , or use reason to debate issues based on those facts , which leaves us to trust only our own clans . And that leaves us with tribalism .
The Russians didn β t initiate this tribalism in our politics . The chants of β lock her up , β calling for Hillary Clinton β s incarceration , didn β t start with the Internet Research Agency allegedly paying a woman to dress up as Clinton in a prison uniform . They didn β t even start with Trump β s campaign threats , or with the β Clinton for Prison β merchandise available for sale on his campaign website . They started in the 1990s with PACs paying for ads that labeled Clinton a criminal for her involvement in Whitewater .
But here β s how times have changedβand how we inadvertently set the battlefield for the Russians . Attacks ads have now jumped from political campaigns to news outlets to our own posts on social media . For instance , when President Trump , after winning the election , told The New York Times he didn β t plan to pursue his campaign threat to have Clinton prosecuted , Breitbart News criticized Trump β s β broken promise β ( not recognizing that his flirtation with decency was only temporary ) . A Twitterstorm followed . Emboldened by our leaders and media outlets , and empowered by social media , we perpetuate attacks even after the political campaigns have dropped them .
If only politicians and media outlets were at fault , the Russians wouldn β t have succeeded . But angry , disillusioned , fed upβwho among us , on the left or the right , hasn β t posted or retweeted a snarky meme , or an article we didn β t particularly vet for reliability ? Who among us hasn β t joined in the incivility , the self-righteous grandstanding , or the polarizing name-calling of a dysfunctional relationship ? The more we feel attacked , the more we go on the attack , inadvertently perpetuating a cycle of verbal retribution . A tweet for a tweet leaves the whole world , or at least the whole country , polarized .
The pattern shouldn β t be news . In a 2013 study called β The Nasty Effect , β led by Ashley A. Anderson at the University of Wisconsin , researchers studied how online incivility leads to polarization . Subjects read a neutral blog post on nanotechnology : half the subjects read the post with civil comments appended below it ; half read the same post but with uncivil comments appended , such as , β If you don β t see the benefits of using nanotechnology in these products , you β re an idiot. β The blog post was neutral , and every subject read the same one . But those who read the uncivil comments dug in their heels on their beliefs . It didn β t matter which side of the debate they were on , or how much previous knowledge they had . It didn β t matter that the blog post made no argument in either direction . β When exposed to uncivil comments , those who have higher levels of support for nanotechnology were more likely to report lower levels of risk perception and those with low levels of support were more likely to report higher levels of risk perception. β In other words , some nonexpert anonymous commenter calls you an idiot , and you automatically cling more tightly to your view .
Replace a post on emerging technologies with a post on emerging fearsβe.g. , guns in schools , immigration , terrorismβfollowed by comments and epithets far nastier than β idiot , β and it β s easy to extrapolate how nasty the nasty effect can be , and how quickly it might become exponentially nastier if readers retaliate with nasty comments of their own .
Yet polarization , one might argue , is simply a natural bedfellow of democracy . Not so . As conservative scholar James Q. Wilson noted in 2005 , in response to Bush/Kerry hostilities ( which now seem quaint ) , not since the Civil War had the electorate been so polarized . That year , 2005 , a Gallup poll found that 65 percent of Americans perceived the country as greatly divided . This past November , the Gallup poll figure reached 77 percent , an all-time high .
To call us all unwitting pawns isn β t fair , of course , as there β s no grand conspiracy at work here . Just an ongoing degradation of public discourse , which poses an ongoing and deepening threat to democracy . But instead of being unwitting accomplices , perhaps we should turn the Internet Research Agency into an unwitting marriage counselor for democracy , one who has forced us to see a cautionary reflection of ourselves . | Xlmmi6OV63pq6DJk | 0 | Technology | -0.7 | Polarization | -0.2 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
polarization | MIT News | http://news.mit.edu/2016/3-questions-david-autor-globe-trade-political-polarization-0426 | 3 Questions: David Autor on global trade and political polarization | 2016-03-02 | Polarization, Political Polarization | In recent years economic studies have illuminated the extent to which global trade agreements , while benefitting many consumers , have also led to significant job losses in the U.S. β particularly due to jobs moving to China after 2001 . Now a new study co-authored by MIT economist David Autor ( along with non-MIT colleagues David Dorn , Gordon Hanson , and Kaveh Majlesi ) identifies a political effect from this economic process . From 2002 through 2010 , in U.S. congressional districts particularly affected by job losses due to trade , elected members of the House of Representatives becamemore ideologically extreme , with moderates consistently losing out in both parties . Autor spoke to βββ this week about the headline-grabbing results .
Q . Your new working paper establishes a strong relationship between job losses in the U.S. due to global trade , and political changes in the U.S. Congress β but the phenomenon at work is not what many people might guess . What did you find ?
A. There β s been a 30-year trend of rising polarization in the U.S. Congress . A lot of areas economically affected by rising trade exposure , especially in the South , have also been moving politically to the right . We wondered if these economic shocks might be contributing to the political factionalization . There are multiple ways this could work . One would be an anti-incumbent effect : It β s well established that politicians are punished for bad economic outcomes . But we don β t find that . Another possibility might be that the effects of trade shocks would just strongly favor one party over another . But the answer there is also no , not really .
However , if you look at ideology rather than party , you do see very sharp movements . But they β re movements across ideological space . So moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans are being voted out of office in trade-exposed areas and being replaced with much more ideologically ardent substitutes . A lot of these gains are on the right . But that β s not entirely the case . If you look at initially Democratic voting districts , you see a very sharp movement to the left β as well as , to some degree , gains for Republicans in some of those districts . So you see this polarization occurring where moderates of both parties are being removed in trade-affected areas , and are being replaced by candidates who win by smaller margins and have more ideological views .
Q . Is it fair to say this also corresponds to the ethnic composition of the voters in these congressional districts ? And what accounts for this subtle wrinkle in the findings , in which a few of these districts do flip from the Democrats to the Republicans ?
A . We haven β t done an overwhelming number of ethnic breakdowns , but the one we did that we thought was useful , was that we broke districts into those where the majority of the population was non-Hispanic white , and those where less than half of the population was non-Hispanic white . There are only 66 districts in the study [ out of 435 in Congress ] which are majority-minority . But in those cases you see very sharp movements to the left . By contrast , in the areas that are majority non-Hispanic white , all the movement is to the right : Moderate Democrats are removed from office , moderate Republicans are removed from office to a lesser extent , and conservative Republicans make enormous gains . And there are no gains for Democrats .
Q . In terms of voter beliefs , what is the mechanism here ? What explains how such similar types of job losses due to trade lead to such divergent political outcomes ?
A . Imagine you have two groups of people , liberals and conservatives , and they share the same objective : They want workers to be employed and protected from the shocks of globalization . And then you have a big [ trade ] shock , and a lot of people lose employment . You might think everyone should converge on what we should do about that . But you can have a setting where beliefs are sufficiently disjointed , such that the same information is interpreted in completely different ways by people observing it . Say I β m a liberal Democrat and I want workers to be protected . A trade shock might lead me to say , β This confirms what I suspected . We need a broader social safety net to make sure that workers aren β t too adversely affected. β Now suppose you β re a conservative Republican and you see the same thing . You might say , β This confirms what I suspected , that we need strong nationalistic policies [ such as tariffs ] to protect our workers. β People are responding in a schismatic sense to the same underlying phenomena .
The 2016 presidential election shows the parties are not able to maintain discipline and stop people from moving to populist solutions [ on trade ] that most politicians don β t like β they β ve lost control of that dialogue . But our paper makes clear that this process was well under way throughout the 2000s . And in some sense what we β re seeing now in the presidential primary isn β t as surprising in retrospect , because so much of it had already occurred , in congressional votes , along the economic fault lines of areas badly impacted by declining manufacturing . | 760f803ebfbd874e | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
immigration | New York Times - News | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/11/opinion/democrats-win-immigration.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region | OPINION: Democrats Can Win on Immigration | 2018-02-11 | immigration | Before the vote in Virginia , pundits on both the right and left were speculating that Mr. Gillespie β s anti-immigrant strategy was working . But in the end , election results and polling data in Virginia proved all that thinking was wrong . While each state has its own demographics and distinct politics , Virginia has voters who span demographic and economic spectrums . Majorities of voters of all races and ethnicities rejected anti-immigrant stereotypes as ugly and wrong .
According to an election eve survey of voters by Latino Decisions , Latino voters said that Mr. Gillespie β s MS-13 ads made them less enthusiastic about him , by a 45-point margin . But it wasn β t just Latino voters . By a 23-point margin ( 52 to 29 ) , whites in Virginia also said the MS-13 ads turned them away from Mr. Gillespie , as did African-American and Asian-American voters by larger margins .
Data speaks louder than punditry , and our regression analysis of survey data paints a clear picture . Exposure to Mr. Gillespie β s MS-13 ads actually helped drive white college-educated voters away from the Republicans . When we analyzed findings for white independents and Republicans , voters who were aware of the MS-13 ads were significantly more likely to vote for Mr. Gillespie β s Democratic opponent . What should be alarming for Republicans is that this effect wasn β t limited to the governor β s race . The Gillespie campaign had coattail effects , but of the wrong stripe . Across all racial groups , those who were aware of Mr. Gillespie β s MS-13 ads were significantly more likely to vote for Democratic candidates for Virginia β s House of Delegates .
This means that not only is it morally just for Democrats to position themselves as the party that stands against hatred and bigotry and in favor of inclusiveness and opportunity , but it is also a strategically sound position for winning votes . Simultaneously , it sends a clear , welcoming message to Latino , African-American and Asian-American voters , while also winning over enough of the white voters who also oppose immigrant bashing .
This phenomenon is particularly true of voters who will decide crucial House and Senate races in 2018 : people of color and white college-educated voters β also known as the Democratic base . Mr. Trump and his fellow Republicans are clearly gearing up for a similar anti-immigrant effort in 2018 . But now the mask has been pulled off . Voters get it . Democrats have an opportunity to speak out strongly against bigotry . And in doing so , they have a path to victory in 2018 and beyond . | hQD7TbG2MvN56HLz | 0 | Democratic Party | 0.7 | Immigration | 0.1 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null |
us_senate | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/ted-cruz-senate-rebuke-planned-parenthood-214183 | Cruz sternly rebuked by GOP | 2015-09-28 | us_senate | This was the second time that Ted Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that β s routinely granted to senators in both parties . | AP Photo Cruz sternly rebuked by GOP The Texas senator 's internal criticism of his leadership is what animates his presidential campaign , but his colleagues appear to be no longer listening .
Ted Cruz can β t even get a protest vote in the Senate anymore .
On Monday night , Cruz β s colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell β s efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood . In an unusual rebuke , even fellow Republicans denied him a β sufficient second β that would have allowed him a roll call vote .
Then , his Republican colleagues loudly bellowed β no β when Cruz sought a voice vote , a second repudiation that showed how little support Cruz has : Just one other GOP senator β Utah β s Mike Lee β joined with Cruz as he was overruled by McConnell and his deputies .
It was the second time that Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that β s routinely granted to senators in both parties . The first came after he called McConnell a liar last summer .
Cruz was incredulous on Monday , calling it an β unprecedented procedural trick . β
β What does denying a second mean ? Denying a recorded vote . Why is that important ? β Cruz said . β When you are breaking the commitment you β ve made to the men and women who elected you , the most painful thing in the world is accountability . β
Indeed , denying Cruz a vote prevents the Texas senator from dredging up the roll call in the future and using it to attack his colleagues .
Cruz said he would again try to force a vote on Tuesday when the Senate votes to pass a spending bill that does not defund Planned Parenthood . In an unusual request meant to draw attention to his ongoing battle with Republican leadership , the Texas senator implored voters to tune in and see where their senators stand on Tuesday when he again requests a β sufficient second . β
β One of the ways you avoid accountability is you somehow are somewhere else doing something really , really important instead of actually showing up to the battle , β Cruz said , accusing Republicans of joining with Democrats to β roll over any parliamentary trick you might use . β
Cruz β s speech was filled with familiar accusations that Republican leaders were capitulating , even as he praised Democrats for being more resolute than the GOP . But Cruz also personally lambasted McConnell and his deputies for denying a roll call vote that would have failed anyway , arguing that results are rigged in the Senate and that conservatives have no influence anymore .
β There are no mystical powers that allow you to roll over that . But in the House we still got 30 , 40 , 50 strong conservatives , β Cruz said .
In reality , it β s not Senate procedure that stymied Cruz on Monday night . Republicans have grown tired of Cruz pushing proposals that he knows McConnell and other Republicans will never back , like defunding Planned Parenthood in a spending bill , then criticizing McConnell for not taking up the plan even as he uses the fight to bolster his presidential campaign as Washington β s consummate outsider .
Cruz β s internal criticism of his party β s leadership is what animates his presidential campaign , but his colleagues appear to be no longer listening . Cruz was allowed to speak for onlyan hour on Monday night under Senate rules , and no one was itching to grant him an exception .
β The Democrats are objecting to my speaking further . And both the Democrats and Republican leadership are objecting to the American people speaking further . I yield the floor , β Cruz said quietly . | Z1DVBg8xCJQ6Uy6M | 0 | Ted Cruz | -0.1 | US Senate | -0.1 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null |
2024_presidential_election | Fortune | https://fortune.com/2024/10/30/joe-rogan-kamala-harris-donald-trump-jre-podcast/ | Joe Rogan says a Kamala Harris interview isnβt off the table even though he rejected her conditions, including traveling to meet her | 2024-10-30 | 2024 Presidential Election, Joe Rogan, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Politics, Podcast, Arts And Entertainment, Culture | Kamala Harris canβt get Joe Rogan out of his studio. Donald Trump recently sat down with Rogan for his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Spotifyβs baby and a coveted source of entertainment or even information for young men. Itβs a tight race, and young men seem to be leaning toward Trump, so you can imagine that Harris appearing on Roganβs podcast could be beneficial for her campaign, if it didnβt do more harm. On Tuesday, Rogan wrote on X: βAlso, for the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin. My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.β He seems to be suggesting a conversation with the vice president isnβt off the table, as long as itβs in his studio in Austin, and maybe longer than an hour. (Roganβs chat with Trump lasted three hours.) But with the presidential election a week away, itβs hard to see when that would occur, particularly given Harris delivered her closing argument, in prosecutorial style, on Tuesday night. Interestingly enough, Trumpβs running mate, JD Vance, will sit down for a conversation with Rogan in his studio on Wednesday. Roganβs post received a comment from none other than Trumpβs fiercest backer and the worldβs richest man: Elon Musk. After all, heβs given at least $132 million to elect Trump and other Republicans. βGood clarification. I would definitely watch that podcast,β he wrote, adding that the second hour would resemble the smiling, melting face emoji. Youβll have to decide for yourself what that means. During Trumpβs own appearance on Roganβs show, the former president said he hopes Harris does the podcast because βit would be a mess.β Rogan, on the other hand, said he thinks they βwould have a fine conversation.β Trumpβs conversation with Rogan, where they discussed supposed election fraud, Mars, taxes, and tariffs, among other topics, has more than 40 million views on YouTube alone. Whatever happens, Harris already appeared on Alex Cooperβs Call Her Daddy, Spotifyβs second baby, also a coveted source of entertainment with a blend of advice, if you will, and open discussion, for young women. Not to mention, Cooper went to Washington, D.C., to chat with Harris; their conversation touched on what Harris calls her modern family, her famed question to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, and her housing plan, among other things. Either way, in this podcast- and social-media-infused election, both Cooper and Rogan were hit with some backlash following their decisions to have politicians on their shows. It isnβt obvious which presidential candidateβs appearance, or appearances, made the difference, but at the moment, polls show Harris has the tiniest of leads on Trump. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information by using this toggle switch. We collect this data for analytics and to personalize your experience, allowing us to show you tailored offers, ads or content. Note that if you opt out, this may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences. You may still see ads, but they may not be personalized to you. Cookies of this category may be set on our website and are used to display personalized content to you that is believed to be in line with your interests. They are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. For example, these cookies help us to provide information to you that is especially relevant to you. | 32fdcbb5ae1f0e99 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
abortion | Vice | https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/939w73/michelle-williams-abortion-golden-globes-speech-women-voting-in-their-self-interest | Women Voting in Their 'Self-Interest' Got Us Trump | 2020-01-06 | abortion | Michelle Williams did something pretty courageous Sunday night . The pregnant actress stood in front of live TV cameras and used her Golden Globes acceptance speech for her performance in Fosse/Verdon to explain how having an abortion helped her decide when and with whom to have children and urged women to use their voting power to help reshape our government . It came just days after 207 Republican members of Congress asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in a case it will hear this year .
The speech was powerful and almost perfect , but fell short in telling women to vote in their own , personal self-interest . Many white women have been doing just that , and it 's why anti-abortion Donald Trump is president , and arguably why Williams was even moved to talk about her own abortion in the first place .
`` I 've tried my very best to live a life of my own making , and not just a series of events that happened to me , but one that I could stand back and look at and recognize my handwriting all over , sometimes messy and scrawling , sometimes careful and precise , but one that I had carved with my own hand . And I wouldn β t have been able to do this without employing a woman β s right to choose .
`` To choose when to have my children and with whom , when I felt supported and able to balance our lives , knowing as all mothers know that the scales must and will tip towards our children . Now , I know my choices might look different than yours , but thank God or whomever you pray to , that we live in a country founded on the principle that I am free to live by my faith , and you are free to live by yours . So women , 18 to 118 , when it is time to vote , please do so in your own self-interest . It β s what men have been doing for years , which is why the world looks so much like them , but don β t forget we are the largest voting body in this country . Let β s make it look more like us . Tommy and Matilda , I can β t wait to come home to you ! β
It 's an incredibly heartfelt and relevant messageβthat Williams is a mother to two children and is expecting another illustrates how people who choose to have abortions and people who parent are often the same people at different points in their lives . She also highlighted that religious freedom is supposed to mean freedom to practice your own faith , not impose it on anyone else .
But as many women of color were quick to point out , the majority of white women already do vote in their own self-interestβit just doesn β t always follow the typical pro-choice , feminist framework .
When people are incredulous that women could vote Republican because `` it 's against their own interests , '' they fail to recognize that these women , often white , are prioritizing not themselves or other women , but prioritizing their whiteness , or more narrowly , upholding the economic interests of their households .
Across the board , women make less money than men and , through marriage , their economic stability becomes tied to the earning power of their husbands . In a zero-sum vision of the economy , politicians who want to close the gender pay gap , provide paid parental leave , and support citizenship for the Dreamers means less money for you . As long as white men remain in power , their white wives enjoy some of that power , which means backing candidates who promise to uphold white male patriarchy . This is still happening post-2016 , as white women voted to elect Republican governors in Georgia and Florida in 2018 , though in smaller numbers than Trump β s win . ( It should be noted that if married women tend to vote with their families in mind , single women tend to vote with the fate of all women in mind . ) It 's not helpful to suggest that women voting in their self-interest will preserve abortion rights .
If 2016 was an election of self-interest , what we need now is empathy . Empathy for other people who might choose abortion even if you would n't . Empathy for people who live in one of the six states with only one abortion clinic leftβeven though abortion is still constitutionally protected . Empathy for people who want to support themselves and their children on their ownβeven if you would n't choose that , either .
A more apt conclusion for Williams 's speech on how abortion helps shape women 's economic futures would have been : When it is time to vote , please vote not in your own self-interest , but in the interests of all women and people who can get pregnant . | 0B0aa9pNSIsGAofK | 0 | Abortion | 0.4 | Pro-Choice | 0 | Pro-Life | 0 | Women's Issues | 0 | null | null |
privacy | American Spectator | https://spectator.org/your-data-may-be-safer-on-facebook-than-with-the-feds/ | Your Data May Be Safer on Facebook Than With the Feds | 2018-04-09 | Facebook, Federal Government, Privacy | Rep. Joseph Kennedy III has announced that he plans to exploit the Facebook privacy scandal in a thinly veiled attempt to establish government control over the internet : β When you see lapses like that , it opens the door for Congress to get involvedβ¦ and make sure people β s information is safeguarded. β You can bet that , once Kennedy and his Democratic accomplices are permitted to β get involved , β they won β t limit their meddling to social media . So , before putting federal apparatchiks in charge of protecting our internet information , it β s worth taking a look at their own cybersecurity record . It is predictably abysmal .
In one case , for example , a security breach at the Office of Personnel Management ( OPM ) compromised sensitive personal information on more than 22 million federal employees . An investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform resulted in a scathing report documenting that the breach was caused by the incompetence for which the federal bureaucracy is notorious . The report also concluded that it was exacerbated by the gross negligence of OPM β s leadership , who ignored repeated warnings over several years from the Inspector General concerning inadequate security :
The longstanding failure of OPM β s leadership to implement basic cyber hygieneβ¦ despite years of warnings from the Inspector General , represents a failure of culture and leadership , not technology . As OPM discovered in April 2015 , tools were available that could have prevented the breaches , but OPM failed to leverage those tools to mitigate the agency β s extensive vulnerabilities .
Was the OPM breach unique within the federal bureaucracy ? Nope . Nor was it a new phenomenon . The Veterans Health Administration experienced a breach in 2006 involving the medical records of no fewer than 26.5 million patients . That snafu cost the taxpayers $ 20 million pursuant to a class-action lawsuit filed by five veterans groups . The sad reality is that the government is no better at cyber security than it is at anything else . The Heritage Foundation reports , β In 2016 , government agencies reported 30,899 information-security incidents , 16 of which met the threshold of being a major incident . β
All of which raises the following question : Does Rep. Kennedy actually believe that giving federal bureaucrats oversight powers involving Facebook or any other internet entity will improve privacy or render your personal data more secure ? Even he isn β t that dumb . His agenda has nothing to do with making sure anyone β s information is β safeguarded. β It β s about self-promotion . He will use this week β s appearance by Mark Zuckerberg before the House Energy and Commerce Committee as a platform for enhancing his standing within the Democratic Party . As the Boston Herald nauseatingly phrases it :
Kennedy will take a key role in grilling Zuckerberg during the web wunderkind β s congressional apology tour next week , thrusting the Camelot heir again into the national spotlightβ¦ The hotly anticipated congressional hearing follows Kennedy β s national rebuttal to President Trump β s State of the Union in January and would boost his emergence as a rising Democratic star .
The β Camelot heir β will also use the hearings to burnish his lackluster public image by posing as a champion of the people . This will inevitably involve browbeating Zuckerberg about the mining of information on millions of Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica . But the reason Kennedy wants β Congress to get involved β has nothing to do with the privacy of these unwitting users . It is rather the use of their data by the Trump presidential campaign to target advertising . Never mind that it was the 2012 Obama campaign that pioneered the unauthorized exploitation of Facebook data . As Investors Business Daily reports :
In 2012 , the Obama campaign encouraged supporters to download an Obama 2012 Facebook app that , when activated , let the campaign collect Facebook data both on users and their friendsβ¦ more than a million people downloaded the app , which , given an average friend-list size of 190 , means that as many as 190 million had at least some of their Facebook data vacuumed up by the Obama campaign β without their knowledge or consent .
Oddly enough , that somehow failed to result in congressional hearings . Nor did it produce portentous rumblings in the β news β media about the need for regulatory control of social media . Indeed , as IBD goes on to point out , β In 2012 , Obama was wildly celebrated in news stories for his mastery of Big Data , and his genius at mining it to get out the vote. β But that was then and this is now . Because Donald Trump committed the twin social blunders of running for President as a Republican and winning , anyone associated with that victory β unwittingly or not β must prostrate themselves before the Tribunus plebis .
Predictably , Zuckerberg has preemptively bent the knee to our Beltway masters . He dutifully pledges support for β net neutrality , β an Orwellian euphemism for giving government control of the internet . Moreover , he is already succumbing to political pressure from the left to suppress the Facebook pages of conservatives and Trump supporters . The latest victims of that project are β Diamond and Silk , β a duo of African-American Trump supporters who discovered that their posts no longer appear on the feeds of people who have liked or followed them . After months of inquiries as to why , Facebook finally responded thus :
The Policy team has come to the conclusion that your content and your brand has been determined unsafe to the community.β¦ This decision is final and it is not appealable in any way .
And , if Beltway dynasts like Joseph Kennedy III have their way , this is a portent of worse things to come . Kennedy and his Democratic accomplices are frustrated by the loss of the ideological monopoly they once enjoyed in the media . They still own the legacy β news β outlets , of course , but the internet ( and talk radio ) prevents them from controlling all of the information the voters receive about the increasingly undemocratic agenda of the left . Facebook has provided them with a pretext β protecting the privacy of personal information β for debating the necessity of regulating the internet and social media .
But the only entity worse than Facebook at protecting your privacy is the federal government . Let β s hope that Mark Zuckerberg β s characteristic arrogance doesn β t cause him to say something so stupid during one or both of the congressional hearings he will attend this week that it provides the Democrats with an excuse for exerting government control over the remaining vehicles for free expression that we still enjoy . | 14a5b7ca9296060c | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
trade | CNN Digital | http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/politics/trump-nafta/index.html | Trump agrees 'not to terminate NAFTA at this time' | 2017-04-27 | Trade | Story highlights During the campaign, Trump made his disdain for NAFTA a central component of a populist message His approach has not softened since taking officeWashington CNN βPresident Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that he decided to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement rather than terminate the sweeping trade deal after speaking with the leaders from Canada and Mexico.The President told the leaders Wednesday he was not immediately planning to end the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact which he railed against as a candidate and as recently as last week declared was harmful to US workers.βI decided rather than terminating NAFTA, which would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system, we will renegotiate,β he told reporters before a meeting with the Argentinian President.Trump left himself some wiggle room on the trade deal, though, saying that if he is βunable to make a fair dealβ he will βterminate NAFTA.ββWeβre going to give renegotiation a good, strong shot,β Trump said.As he approaches his 100th day in office, Trump and his advisers are hurriedly working to check off promises made during the campaign, one of which was to renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA. Trump has already removed the US from another massive trade pact, the Trans Pacific Partnership, which was negotiated under President Barack Obama.Trumpβs decision to remain in NAFTA came the same day a senior administration official revealed the White House was considering an executive order to withdraw from the trade accord.In a description of Trumpβs phone calls to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Enrique PeΓ±a Nieto, the White House said Trump βagreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries.βThe White House said the phone conversations were βpleasant and productive.ββIt is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation,β Trump said in a written statement that accompanied the readout of his phone calls. βIt is an honor to deal with both President PeΓ±a Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, and I believe that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.βTrump reiterated those points Thursday morning, tweeting, βif we do not reach a fair deal for all, we will then terminate NAFTA.β He also claimed that the two leaders reached out to him.I received calls from the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than terminate. I agreed.. β Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017...subject to the fact that if we do not reach a fair deal for all, we will then terminate NAFTA. Relationships are good-deal very possible! β Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017During his run for office last year, Trump made his disdain for NAFTA a central component of a populist message designed to engender support among working class Americans. He consistently cast the agreement β which was negotiated by President Bill Clinton, the husband of Trumpβs presidential opponent Hillary Clinton β as a raw deal for the middle class.His approach has not softened since taking office, though some of his advisers have warned of grave economic consequences that could accompany withdrawing from the trade deal.Last week, Trump derided NAFTA during remarks in Wisconsin meant to highlight American manufacturing.βItβs been very, very bad for our companies and for our workers, and weβre going to make some very big changes, or we are going to get rid of NAFTA once and for all,β Trump said.By affirming his intention to reopen the agreement with Trudeau and PeΓ±a Nieto, Trump is able to fulfill a 100-day pledge to βannounce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA.β But the announcement offers less populist punch than withdrawing from the agreement outright, a move that could cause major disruptions to the economies in Canada, the US, and Mexico.Upon news earlier Wednesday that the Trump administration was considering a withdrawal from the agreement, some Republicans urged caution.βScrapping NAFTA would be a disastrously bad idea. It would hurt American families at the checkout, and it would cripple American producers in the field and the office,β said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, in a statement. βYes, there are places where our agreements could be modernized but hereβs the bottom line: trade lowers prices for American consumers and it expands markets for American goods. Risking trade wars is reckless, not wise.βAnd Sen. John McCain on Wednesday urged Trump not to pull the US from NAFTA.βIt will devastate the economy in my state,β McCain said. βI hope he doesnβt do that.βNonpartisan congressional research found in 2015 that NAFTA isnβt responsible for an exodus of jobs south of the border, nor for a big jobs boom in the US. Researchers concluded the deal has had a minor impact on the US economy.Still, about 14 million US jobs depend on trade with Mexico and Canada, according to the US Chamber of Commerce. | 1eaf3f8d5922e567 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
culture | City Journal | https://www.city-journal.org/nationalism | Americaβs Identity Crisis | 2019-08-08 | General News | This week , the troubled state of American democracy was on display in the reactions to the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio . To the establishment Left , led by the New York Times , the El Paso shooter operated as if he were a white nationalist acting on orders from Donald Trump . Some on the right , meantime , linked the Dayton shooter β s actions to Antifa . In a healthy political environment , Americans , regardless of political views , would consider these tragedies the heinous actions of disturbed people , motivated mostly by a dangerous combination of madness and ideology . But in our warped political climate , everyone assumes that their enemies want to kill them .
Our political polarization reflects a decline in the notion of American identity . Tribalism on the left has supplanted foundational ideals of citizenship . Representative Ayanna Pressley recently insisted that blacks , Hispanics , gays , and members of other minority groups must promote identity-first politics over any notion of the common good ; failure to do so , she suggested , is a betrayal of the group . In addition , progressive Democrats have effectively championed open borders , advocating the removal of criminal penalties for border-crossers , who also would get free health care not readily available to most American citizens . Such views represent the triumph of identity politics over the civic ideal of E Pluribus Unum .
The Left β s positions , according to Jeh Johnson , Homeland Security secretary under Barack Obama , are β unworkable , unwise , β and lack support of β a majority of American people or the Congress. β And yet our press , cultural institutions , and universitiesβall controlled by progressivesβamplify those views each day , shaping an angry younger generation with little use for citizenship , free speech , open dialogue , democracy , or capitalism . Some 40 percent of millennials , for example , favor limiting speech deemed offensive to minoritiesβwell above the 27 percent that prevails among Gen Xers , 24 percent among baby boomers , and just 12 percent among the oldest cohorts . Many millennials also dismiss basic constitutional civil rights and support socialism over free markets .
While progressives seek to impose their agenda , some populist conservatives are understandably resentful at being told by 1 percenters like Beto O β Rourke that they are beneficiaries of β white privilege β and are members of the β male patriarchy. β Most Republicans , according to Pew , worry that foreigners are remaking and undermining the country β s identity . Considering the country β s demographic trajectory , this politics has a limited shelf life . A return to 1950s America is no more likely than the mass expulsion of Trump β s white β deplorables . β
Fighting for a robust and inclusive American identity won β t be popular with our corporate elite . β Transnational class formation β βlong linked by various parts of the industrial and financial aristocracyβis becoming more pronounced . The late Peter Drucker , considered the father of management thinking , suggested that national citizenship may no longer be β meaningful β in a world connected by digital technology and global markets . Many top firms including Amazon , Apple , Chevron , and General Electric refuse even to identify as American companies . Like feudal lords loyal to the European Christianitas , not their locale , this corporate elite increasingly identifies with global markets and a cosmopolitan , post-national worldview . Since Trump β s election , many companies , including Google , have grown reluctant to work with the U.S. military , immigration agencies , and police departments , while assisting the surveillance agenda of authoritarian China .
Given their post-nationalist inclinations , it β s not surprising that many corporate powersβnotably in techβprefer unlimited immigration . This partly reflects the non-native share of the tech workforce , which has reached 24 percent nationwide , compared with 16 percent for the rest of labor force . In Silicon Valley , the foreign share is roughly 40 percent . Though they defend open borders , tech leaders express little concern for the native-born , largely white middle class . Immigrants , suggests Steve Case , former CEO of AOL , should replace our troubled , indigenous working class .
Such positions invite backlash from those who live outside the charmed circle . After all , if uneducated migrants want to enter the country , they won β t settle in Malibu , posh parts of San Francisco , or the Upper East Side , but instead in working- and middle-class neighborhoods . They β ll compete for housing and jobs in hardscrabble neighborhoods , but they won β t bid up the price of houses in exclusive enclaves or threaten well-paid jobs in the executive suite or at universities .
Our present trajectory is ruinous ; it will exacerbate political antagonism and likely produce even more politicized violence . The only solution to greater polarization lies in reestablishing the norms of a civic nationalism that transcends identity politics of all kinds .
Developing a renewed sense of American identity won β t be easy . As a lifelong Democrat , I saw nothing remotely unpatriotic in the rhetoric of George McGovernβa World War II heroβand certainly not from Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton . Yet today , according to Gallup , only 22 percent of Democrats today say that they are β proud to be Americans , β down from 65 percent in 2003 , when the widely disliked George W. Bush was in the White House . Modern progressives generally reject any thought of American exceptionalism , maintaining , in the words of Pete Buttigieg , that America was β never as great as advertised . β
It β s hard to build a positive agenda without some sense of national pride and shared culture . Fortunately , America β s founding principlesβrule of law , protection of minority rights , market-based capitalismβare not dependent on race and heritage . Unlike Europe , we don β t have one great historic tradition that we must embrace or lose . By contrast , America , based on ideas that transcend race , boasts a remarkable record of incorporating newcomers , first from Ireland and Germany , then Italy and Eastern Europe , and more recently from Latin America and Asia . These generations of new Americans constitute the secret sauce that makes this country work and could sustain it in the future .
This expansive civic nationalism also represents an economic imperative . Due to sharply lower birthrates , most of our prime competitorsβthe EU , Japan , and even Chinaβare on the verge of demographic collapse . Europeans may need immigrants , but their welfare states , slow growth , and lack of cultural cohesion will make absorbing these newcomers problematic at best . Most Asian countries have little interest in large-scale immigration .
America β s future will depend on believing in a shared mission . Calling progressives β Communists β or conservatives β fascists β gets us nowhere . Convincing young people , particularly young men , that they have no future won β t dissuade them from authoritarian viewsβor even violence . The road to sanity starts with a renewed embrace of a shared American identity that transcends all others . | 01e8e46194279566 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | Townhall | http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2013/08/28/colorados-grassroots-revolt-against-gungrabbers-n1677294 | Colorado's Grassroots Revolt Against Gun-Grabbers | 2013-08-28 | gun_control_and_gun_rights | While most Americans will be chillin ' out , maxin ' and relaxin ' this Labor Day weekend , dedicated patriots in Colorado are hard at work preparing for a groundbreaking special election day with nationwide repercussions . George Washington would be proud .
On September 10 , Democratic legislator and state Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs faces a citizen recall for his sellout to New York anti-gun special interests , for his betrayal of transparency and accountability to constituents , and for his destructive economic policies that are driving thousands of jobs away . Also up for recall : Democratic legislator Angela Giron of Pueblo .
In March , Democratic Gov . John Hickenlooper signed his left-wing colleagues ' sweeping package of gun- and ammo-control measures -- pushed not by Coloradans , but by gun-grabbing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , the anti-Second Amendment Brady bunch and the White House . Vice President Joe Biden inserted himself into my adopted home state 's legislative process , phoning up swing Democratic legislators to lobby for the bills personally .
These radically expanded background checks on every individual gun sale and ammunitions restrictions banning the purchase or transfer of magazines with more than 15 cartridges will do little to nothing to prevent the next Newtown or Aurora or Columbine . `` Moderate '' Hickenlooper publicly admitted their ineffectiveness before surrendering to the gun-control zealots .
Morse and Giron also posed as middle-of-the-roaders . But there 's nothing moderate about gun-control laws that demonize law-abiding gun owners . While Morse brags of his time as a police officer in Colorado Springs , his brethren in the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association have condemned him and support his recall . One of Morse 's extremist proposals , backed by Bloomberg and company , would have made firearms owners , sellers and manufacturers legally liable for any crimes committed with guns . He was forced to back down on that one .
There 's also nothing moderate about marginalizing tax-paying , job-creating gun and ammo manufacturers . The Morse-Hickenlooper-Bloomberg- Biden laws have already forced Colorado-based Magpul Industries and other manufacturers to abandon the state -- and take thousands of related jobs with them . As I reported earlier this year , Magpul alone fueled 600 jobs and an estimated $ 85 million in spending in the state . Overall , as the National Shooting Sports Foundation found , `` The firearms and ammunition industry was responsible for as much as $ 31.84 billion in total economic activity in the country ... ( and ) the industry and its employees pay over $ 2.07 billion in taxes including property , income and sales based levies . ''
At a local fundraiser in Colorado Springs ( which I supported and spoke at ) , Morse 's GOP challenger and Air Force veteran Bernie Herpin hammered the incumbent over his economic destruction and contempt for the will of the people . `` I 'm running to defend our Constitutional rights and promote an environment where small businesses are free to create jobs and improve our local community , '' Herpin says , while Morse 's agenda is `` doing the bidding of big-government interests in Denver and Washington . ''
And New York City . On Tuesday , insatiable control freak Bloomberg tossed in $ 350,000 to a pass-through committee established less than a month ago to fund the anti-gun Democratic recall targets .
Recall leader Rob Harris , a Colorado Springs resident in Morse 's Senate District 11 , explains that he was just an ordinary citizen `` fed up '' with the overlords in Denver . No outside groups contacted him . He had no ties to Republican groups or strategists . Harris was incensed that his representative refused to respond to his emails and to the concerns of his neighbors ( an arrogant move that Morse even bragged about on far-left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow 's show ) .
Through hard work and local activism , the grassroots campaign gathered 16,000 signatures in three months to qualify the recall for the ballot . Morse `` changed state Senate committee rules , which effectively silenced the voices of hundreds of Colorado citizens from testifying on legislation '' affecting them , Harris points out . While Democrats made room for out-of-state astronaut Mark Kelly , husband of former Arizona congresswoman and Tucson shooting survivor Gabby Giffords , to testify before the legislature , the majority Dems manipulated the process so that untold numbers of Colorado residents who support the Second Amendment were frozen out .
In his new No . 1 New York Times bestseller , `` The Liberty Amendments , '' Mark Levin calls for citizen activists to use the tools and principles the Founding Fathers bestowed upon us to restore the balance of power back to `` we , the people . '' The spirit of George Washington animates the important battle here in Colorado . As Washington wrote to his nephew in 1787 :
`` The power under the Constitution will always be in the people . It is entrusted for certain defined purposes , and for a certain limited period , to representatives of their own choosing ; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest , or not agreeable to their wishes , their servants can , and undoubtedly will , be recalled . ''
The recalls are a historic David and anti-gun Goliath showdown -- and my fellow Colorado Springs citizens know the stakes are high . This is n't a `` single issue '' election about guns . It 's about electoral accountability , economic prosperity , personal security and self-government . The single issue encompassing them all : freedom . | 1lgaTHq91a67LtCO | 2 | Colorado | 0.4 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
democratic_party | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/politico-caucus-hillary-clinton-campaign-more-117981.html?hp=t1_r | Dems: Hillary Clinton must campaign more | 2015-05-15 | democratic_party | Four in 10 Democratic insiders in the early states warn that Hillary Clinton is not spending enough time on the campaign trail , making her vulnerable to possible challenges from the left and dampening the enthusiasm of progressives who are already committed to her .
The βββ Caucus β our weekly bipartisan pulse-taking of the most important activists , operatives and elected officials in Iowa and New Hampshire β also finds Democrats almost evenly divided over whether Clinton needs to take a firmer position on the trade battle that β s gripped Washington this week , but many approve of Bill Clinton β s efforts to be a more silent partner in his wife β s campaign .
Clinton will return to Iowa and New Hampshire next week , amidst an aggressive fundraising swing . Her campaign said Thursday that the events will again be small and relatively private .
But insiders are clamoring for the former secretary of state to do more events that allow more voters to see her in person . There β s a pervasive belief that her campaign stops need to feel more authentic and open in order to fire up the base .
β She needs to step it up dramatically , β said a pro-Clinton Iowa Democrat , who β like all 77 respondents β completed the questionnaire anonymously in order to speak candidly .
β We have this need to feel well-loved every four years , β said an uncommitted New Hampshire Democrat . β If other candidates begin to make inroads , Clinton β s absence will be noted . β
Several Democrats said she should headline a rally or give a major speech soon . One key Democrat in Iowa , where she finished third in 2008 , explained that β a big open-attendance event would go a long way because it would at least let people actually see her β in person .
To escape the media scrum , a New Hampshire Democrat suggested Clinton show up unannounced in the less populous North Country . β Drop in on breakfast at a couple local spots , and then let word trickle out , β the uncommitted activist said . β She can spend a few hours doing very normal , hassle-free retail campaigning and then hold some kind of press avail later in the day . β
On the other hand , a lot of Democrats joked that their friends will never be satisfied no matter how much time Hillary puts in on the ground . β There is more concern out there among Democrats than I would have thought , β said one in New Hampshire . β People feel freer to voice their concerns about the Big Crash that everyone thinks will happen to her campaign . β
Some establishment Democrats think there β s little upside to mixing it up at this stage , and they believe that the press is obsessed only with asking gotcha questions . β The less time she can spend on the campaign trail , the better , β said an uncommitted New Hampshire Democrat . β Events bring a lot of unwelcome attacks , β said another . β She β s on the money trail now , β said a pro-Clinton Democrat in Iowa . β There is time in the fall to wear out her shoes . β
Even some who want her on the trail more note a massive influx of field staff over the past month . β In Des Moines , I always see three or four of them meeting for coffee at the Smokey Row coffee house , β said a Democrat , referring to local hangout . β As a matter of fact , the O β Malley guy hangs out there too ! β
Seven in 10 Republicans said Clinton spends too little time campaigning . β But when she does , she is so horrible , dull , scripted and phony that the Hillary juggernaut should create plans to build a soundproof Rose Garden in Brooklyn , β said a Granite Stater .
β Just about every other day I run into a Democrat who says , β Jeez , your side is having all the fun , β β said an Iowan .
One-third of GOP insiders said she β s smart to limit her appearances .
β She has no credible opponents , β said a New Hampshire Republican . β She could hibernate for the next 10 months and be totally absent from the campaign trail . And still be fine . β
Here are eight other takeaways from this 14th edition of The βββ Caucus :
Jeb β s fumbling of questions about Iraq reminds insiders of Bush-name baggage .
It took until Thursday for Bush to clarify that , knowing now about intelligence failures in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq , authorized by his brother , he would not have gone to war there . Earlier this week , he dismissed that question as a β hypothetical β β a position that three-quarters of Republican insiders called problematic .
Several insiders think the kerfuffle will make it harder for Bush to distance himself from his brother , former President George W. Bush .
β Pretty bad given that he β s already battling the Bush fatigue and dynasty issue , β said one New Hampshire Republican .
An uncommitted Iowa Republican added , β This would not be a big deal if he had a different last name . But since his name is Bush , it β s another log on the β Bush Fatigue β fire . β
And a New Hampshire Republican aligned with a rival camp piled on : β It reminds everyone that he has been , is , and will be in his brother β s shadow , which not only raises policy concerns but also the specter of dynasty . β
The Iraq episode also raises questions about whether Jeb β s ready for primetime .
Many insiders from both parties expressed disbelief that Bush wasn β t better-prepared to answer questions about the war in Iraq .
β Take away whether you agree or disagree with his answer , hypothetical or not , the fact that he is so incredibly unprepared for the spotlight is very alarming , β said one Iowa Republican who supports another candidate . β As I answer this survey , he has changed his position for a third time . Hello ! ? β
An unaffiliated Granite State Republican noted that New Hampshire is not a particularly hawkish state , and that the unpopularity of the war in Iraq cost Republicans a lot of New Hampshire seats , in Congress and the statehouse , back in 2006 and 2008 .
β If there was one topic Jeb Bush needed to have a good answer on during this campaign , this was it , β the insider said . β More than anything , these answers from Jeb this week were a reminder for Republicans about what they disliked most about his brother . β
On the other side of the aisle , a New Hampshire Democrat aligned with Clinton sniped , β He has handled talking about Iraq about as well as his brother handled the actual war . Jeb Bush is the obvious frontrunner , and he is stumbling out of the gate . β
Most Republican insiders didn β t think Bush did himself any harm when he recently called his brother his top adviser on U.S.-Israel policy ( though Democrats overwhelmingly did ) . But he should keep the references to his brother to a minimum , they said , and the overwhelming answer to how the former president could be helpful was through fundraising , preferably behind closed doors .
β He β s a fool to use W for anything other than shaking money out of people , β said one Iowa Republican aligned with another candidate .
A New Hampshire Democrat noted gleefully , β Is this even a question on the Republican side ? As a Democrat , I heartily endorse the idea of George W. Bush coming to β¦ campaign frequently for Jeb ! β
But several respondents did note that the former president could be a helpful voice , in private , as his brother seeks to court pro-Israel and evangelical voters .
β Those voters who support Israel know that President Bush was a staunch , unequivocating ally of the nation , β said one unaligned New Hampshire Republican . β That Gov . Bush is taking his cues from him is a welcome development especially since so many Jewish people believe that President Obama is capitulating to anti-Israeli interests . For example , dispatching him to smooth things over with Sheldon Adelson was a smart move . β
As for Bill , many Democrats also want him to keep a low profile .
Most insiders see Bill Clinton as an excellent speaker who can rally the base and energize crowds . But for now , he should avoid overshadowing the actual candidate by sticking largely to fundraisers and lower-key events , they say .
β He needs to let Hillary get out more first and set the tone of her campaign , talk about her messages and connect with voters , β said a New Hampshire Democrat . β Once she establishes her campaign more widely , he should sweep in on the latter half and campaign for her . He is an asset β for sure β but people also want to hear about her and her ideas . β
Republicans , and some Democrats , noted that Bill Clinton has caused some problems for the Clinton campaign in the way he β s handled questions about donations to their family foundation . Staying out of the limelight for now , some said , would help .
β He needs to be supportive and in the background , β an Iowa Democrat said . β So far his comments have not helped , especially when questioned about the Clinton Foundation . β
Several noted his ability , for better and worse , to go off-script .
β He is a huge asset to Secretary Clinton . But at the same time , his likeability comes from his brilliance and ability to speak provocatively and not without a little thrilling unpredictability , β said one New Hampshire Democrat . β How do you solve a problem like Bill Clinton ? He must be putting quite few gray hairs on Robby Mook β s little head , β the insider continued , referring to Clinton β s 35-year-old campaign manager .
Another New Hampshire Democrat called for fewer speeches and more retail : β Put a loose leash on the Big Dog , but someone definitely needs to be holding the leash . β
Democrats are divided over whether Hillary needs to take a firmer position on trade .
About half of Democrats think Clinton must say outright whether she supports the 12-nation Pacific trade deal and giving President Barack Obama fast-track authority . She β s given nuanced answers that nod to both sides ; the White House has insisted that Clinton is on their side , and some opponents of the deal have said that her silence shows she β s with them .
As the issue blew up on Capitol Hill this week , there β s increasing pressure from both sides for Clinton to give a yes-or-no answer .
β Just days ago I would have said that most voters , even most base voters , didn β t have [ this ] on their radar at all , β said a New Hampshire Democrat . β Between media coverage , candidates scrambling to stake out policy positions , and even the President sending desperate-sounding emails to try to muster grassroots support , this issue is now on the front burner . β
β Democrats haven β t forgotten that her husband , who has been referred to as β Outsourcer-in-Chief , β is held largely responsible for NAFTA and the negative impacts of those trade agreements , β the Democrat added . β That puts Hillary in a difficult place . β
Clinton allies argue that it β s unfair to say she hasn β t taken a position ; it β s just that she β s very carefully threaded the needle . Asked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership recently in New Hampshire , for example , she said : β Well , any trade deal has to produce jobs , and raise wages , and increase prosperity and protect our security . And we have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and the skills to be competitive . β
β Nothing wrong with Hillary not cutting POTUS off at knees , while expressing deep reservations , β said a New Hampshire Democrat .
β In Iowa , her base is probably divided on the issue , β added an Iowa Democrat . β Rural communities tend to support trade deals , while organized labor tends to oppose them . β
Seven in 10 Republicans said she can not get away with not giving a more definitive answer .
Backing up Obama on trade would hurt Hillary ; the question is how badly .
There β s a sense among several leading Democratic activists in the early states that Clinton standing with Obama might encourage Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( D-Mass . ) to reconsider running .
β Base voters would not want her to align herself with Obama on such a conservative issue , β said an Iowa Democrat . β All trade bills have played into the hands of conservatives in the past , and this one won β t be any different . β
β She would lose a lot of support among the base , β said another Iowa Democrat who backs her . β This would become a litmus test for many Democratic activists , particularly organized labor . She needs to oppose it . β
β It would move a non-trivial amount of support to Bernie Sanders , β said a New Hampshire Democrat .
Clinton boosters argue that the damage would be limited because these are people who wouldn β t back her anyway .
β Progressives in Iowa that have already been reluctant to support her would use this as a rallying cry , β said an Iowa Democrat who backs her . β I think it wouldn β t lose her support but would make the opposition louder . β
β Anyone who would be pressing Hillary on this is likely already in the Sanders/O β Malley/anti-Hillary faction , and they feel very awkward because they were all primary supporters of President Obama over Hillary in 2008 , β added a New Hampshire Democrat .
Others pointed out that the last three Democratic governors of New Hampshire were pretty openly pro-free trade . β Labor doesn β t have a big footprint here , and the people who are ardently opposed to the president β s trade agenda are unlikely to be big Clinton supporters to begin with , β said a New Hampshire Democrat .
Despite the events of this week , the Republican base does not really care about the trade fight .
This is the first huge , public intra-party fight in a while for Democrats , but most Republican insiders said their base is not paying attention in the early states .
β C β mon , there isn β t one voter in 100 who knows enough about these trade deals to explain them to someone else , β said one in New Hampshire .
β It still feels like a D.C./Beltway/K Street issue , β said another .
β The isolationist , [ Pat ] Buchanan wing of the party is fervently dead-set against it , but they are far outnumbered by those who favor it or don β t care , β added an Iowa Republican .
Agricultural interests are big proponents of the measure , and Iowa exports over $ 15 billion a year . But an Iowa Republican noted that fights over trade seem abstract for many voters . β Maslow β s hierarchy of needs is on the low end with so many security-based concerns , β he said . β Trade is more self-actualization to voters . β
Paul should seize the spotlight in the Patriot Act brawl .
Sen. Rand Paul ( R-Ky. ) has pledged to filibuster the reauthorization of the Patriot Act as the Senate takes up the matter again β a good move for him , at least in the more libertarian Granite State , insiders say . Nearly three-quarters of both New Hampshire Republicans and Democrats say Paul β s plan would help in their state .
β This is New Hampshire . Live Free or Die ! Don β t tread on me , and leave my phone records alone , β said one Granite State Democrat who said the filibuster would be an asset .
Added an unaligned New Hampshire Republican : β It enhances his standing with a vocal minority in a field with 19 candidates . To win New Hampshire you only have to be able to count to 25 percent . β
Respondents from Iowa were more divided about whether the move would be useful : nearly as many Iowa Republicans said it would help as said a filibuster would hurt ( less than one in 10 New Hampshire Republicans said the same ) . On the other side of the aisle , nearly half of Iowa Democrats said it would help ; roughly one-tenth said it would hurt .
β He is supposed to already have the libertarian vote share his father got , β said one Iowa Republican who aligns with another candidate . β He needs to moderate his views on this so he can attract voters who are more worried about national security . β
These are the members of The βββ Caucus ( not all of whom participated this week ) :
Iowa : Tim Albrecht , Brad Anderson , Rob Barron , Jeff Boeyink , Bonnie Campbell , Dave Caris , Sam Clovis , Sara Craig , Jerry Crawford , John Davis , Steve Deace , John Deeth , Derek Eadon , Ed Failor Jr. , Karen Fesler , David Fischer , Doug Gross , Steve Grubbs , Tim Hagle , Bob Haus , Joe Henry , Drew Ivers , Jill June , Lori Jungling , Jeff Kaufmann , Brian Kennedy , Jake Ketzner , David Kochel , Chris Larimer , Chuck Larson , Jill Latham , Jeff Link , Dave Loebsack , Mark Lucas , Liz Mathis , Jan Michelson , Chad Olsen , David Oman , Matt Paul , Marlys Popma , Troy Price , Christopher Rants , Kim Reem , Craig Robinson , Sam Roecker , David Roederer , Nick Ryan , Tamara Scott , Joni Scotter , Karen Slifka , John Smith , AJ Spiker , Norm Sterzenbach , John Stineman , Matt Strawn , Phil Valenziano , Jessica Vanden Berg , Nate Willems , Eric Woolson , Grant Young
New Hampshire : Charlie Arlinghaus , Arnie Arnesen , Patrick Arnold , Rich Ashooh , Dean Barker , Juliana Bergeron , D.J . Bettencourt , Michael Biundo , Ray Buckley , Peter Burling , Jamie Burnett , Debby Butler , Dave Carney , Jackie Cilley , Catherine Corkery , Garth Corriveau , Fergus Cullen , Lou D β Allesandro , James Demers , Mike Dennehy , Sean Downey , Steve Duprey , JoAnn Fenton , Jennifer Frizzell , Martha Fuller Clark , Amanda Grady Sexton , Jack Heath , Gary Hirshberg , Jennifer Horn , Peter Kavanaugh , Joe Keefe , Rich Killion , Harrell Kirstein , Sylvia Larsen , Joel Maiola , Kate Malloy Corriveau , Maureen Manning , Steve Marchand , Tory Mazzola , Jim Merrill , Jayne Millerick , Claira Monier , Greg Moore , Matt Mowers , Terie Norelli , Chris Pappas , Liz Purdy , Tom Rath , Colin Reed , Jim Rubens , Andy Sanborn , Dante Scala , William Shaheen , Stefany Shaheen , Carol Shea-Porter , Terry Shumaker , Andy Smith , Craig Stevens , Kathy Sullivan , Chris Sununu , James Sununu , Jay Surdukowski , Donna Sytek , Kari Thurman , Colin Van Ostern , Deb Vanderbeek , Mike Vlacich , Ryan Williams | mf6mXi58Doa4PtFg | 0 | Democratic Party | -0.1 | Hillary Clinton | -0.1 | Politics | -0.1 | null | null | null | null |
us_house | CBN | https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2019/july/house-votes-to-condemn-trump-tweets | House Condemns Trump βRacistβ Tweets in Extraordinary Rebuke | 2019-07-16 | Donald Trump, Race And Racism, Twitter, US House, Politics | WASHINGTON ( AP ) β In a remarkable political repudiation , the Democratic-led House voted Tuesday night to condemn President Donald Trump β s β racist comments β against four congresswomen of color , despite protestations by Trump β s Republican congressional allies and his own insistence he hasn β t β a racist bone in my body . β
Two days after Trump tweeted that four Democratic freshmen should β go back β to their home countries β though all are citizens and three were born in the U.S.A. β Democrats muscled the resolution through the chamber by 240-187 over strong GOP opposition . The rebuke was an embarrassing one for Trump , and he had appealed to GOP lawmakers not to go along , but there were four Republican votes for the resolution .
The measure carries no legal repercussions for the president and the vote was highly partisan , unlikely to cost him with his die-hard conservative base .
Before the showdown roll call , Trump characteristically plunged forward with time-tested insults . He accused his four outspoken critics of β spewing some of the most vile , hateful and disgusting things ever said by a politician β and added , β If you hate our Country , or if you are not happy here , you can leave ! β β echoing taunts long unleashed against political dissidents rather than opposing parties β lawmakers .
The president was joined by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other top Republicans in trying to redirect the focus from Trump β s original tweets , which for three days have consumed Washington and drawn widespread condemnation . Instead , they tried playing offense by accusing the four congresswomen β among the Democrats β most left-leaning members and ardent Trump critics β of socialism , an accusation that β s already a central theme of the GOP β s 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns .
Even after two-and-a-half years of Trump β s turbulent governing style , the spectacle of a president futilely laboring to head off a House vote essentially proclaiming him to be a racist was extraordinary .
Underscoring the stakes , Republicans formally objected after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said during a floor speech that Trump β s tweets were β racist. β Led by Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia , Republicans moved to have her words stricken from the record , a rare procedural rebuke .
After a delay exceeding 90 minutes , No . 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland ruled that Pelosi had indeed violated a House rule against characterizing an action as racist . Hoyer was presiding after Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri stormed away from the presiding officer β s chair , lamenting , β We want to just fight , β which he apparently aimed at Republicans . Despite Hoyer β s ruling , Democrats flexed their muscle and the House voted afterward by party-line to leave Pelosi β s words intact in the record .
Some rank-and-file GOP lawmakers have agreed that Trump β s words were racist , but on Tuesday party leaders insisted they were not and accused Democrats of using the resulting tumult to score political points . Among the few voices of restraint , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump wasn β t racist , but he also called on leaders β from the president to the speaker to the freshman members of the House β to attack ideas , not the people who espouse them .
β There β s been a consensus that political rhetoric has gotten way , way heated across the political spectrum , β said the Republican leader from Kentucky , breaking his own two days of silence on Trump β s attacks .
Hours earlier , Trump tweeted , β Those Tweets were NOT Racist . I don β t have a Racist bone in my body ! β He wrote that House Republicans should β not show β weakness β β by agreeing to a resolution he labeled β a Democrat con game . β
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York , one of Trump β s four targets , returned his fire .
β You β re right , Mr. President - you don β t have a racist bone in your body . You have a racist mind in your head and a racist heart in your chest , β she tweeted .
The four-page Democratic resolution said the House β strongly condemns President Donald Trump β s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color. β It said Trump β s slights β do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America . β
All but goading Republicans , the resolution included a full page of remarks by President Ronald Reagan , who is revered by the GOP . Reagan said in 1989 that if the U.S. shut its doors to newcomers , β our leadership in the world would soon be lost . β
Republican leaders lobbied GOP lawmakers hard to oppose the resolution .
McCarthy called the measure β all politics , β and No . 3 House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming said the four Democrats β are wrong when they attempt to impose the fraud of socialism on the American people . β
The showdown came after years of Democrats bristling over anti-immigrant and racially incendiary pronouncements by Trump . Those include his kicking off his presidential campaign by proclaiming many Mexican migrants to be criminals and asserting there were β fine people β on both sides at a 2017 neo-Nazis rally in Charlottesville , Virginia , that turned deadly .
And the strong words in Washington come as actions are underway elsewhere : The administration has begun coast-to-coast raids targeting migrants in the U.S. illegally and has newly restricted access to the U.S. by asylum seekers .
Trump β s criticism was aimed at four freshman Democrats who have garnered attention since their arrival in January for their outspoken liberal views and thinly veiled distaste for Trump : Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota , Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan . All were born in the U.S. except for Omar , who came to the U.S. as a child after fleeing Somalia with her family .
The four have been in an increasingly personal clash with Democratic Speaker Pelosi , too , over how assertively the House should be in trying to restrain Trump β s ability to curb immigration . But if anything , Trump β s tweets have served to ease some of that tension , with Pelosi telling Democrats at a closed-door meeting Tuesday , β We are offended by what he said about our sisters , β according to an aide in the room who described the private meeting on condition of anonymity .
That β s not to say that all internal Democratic strains are resolved .
The four rebellious freshmen joined Rep. Steven Cohen of Tennessee and a handful of others who wanted the House to vote on a harsher censure of Trump β s tweets . And Rep. Al Green of Texas was trying to force a House vote soon on whether to impeach Trump β a move he β s tried in the past but lost , earning opposition from most Democrats .
At the Senate Republicans β weekly lunch Tuesday , Trump β s tweets came up and some lawmakers were finding the situation irksome , participants said . Many want the 2020 campaigns to focus on progressive Democrats β demands for government-provided health care , abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and other hard-left policies .
β Those ideas give us so much material to work with and it takes away from our time to talk about it , β Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said of the Trump tweets . | 2a44753f0c3dadc5 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/04/parkland-students-bus-tour-nra-guns/668914002/ | Parkland students' bus tour targets places where NRA 'bought and paid for politicians' | 2018-06-04 | gun_control_and_gun_rights | A group of students-turned-activists from Florida 's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will be hitting the road next week on a nationwide bus tour aimed at educating voters β and encouraging them to actually vote to end gun violence .
`` We β re going to places where the NRA has bought and paid for politicians who refuse to take simple steps to save our lives , '' the March for Our Lives leaders said in a statement . The group will visit communities affected by gun violence `` to meet fellow survivors and use our voices to amplify theirs . ''
The March for Our Lives Road to Change will launch June 12 in Illinois , where the group will join the Peace March led by students from Chicago 's St. Sabina Academy . Cameron Kasky , one of the Florida group 's leaders , said Monday the two-month tour will make at least 75 stops in more than 20 states .
A separate tour will make stops in each of Florida 's 27 congressional districts .
`` We can fix the political system , '' Kasky said. `` Our generation and the many generations that are helping us can change the game . ''
More : Scorned Parkland cop Scot Peterson : 'It was my job , and I did n't find him '
The March for Our Lives drew millions of people to rallies across the nation and around the world demanding responsible gun laws . Its leaders included Kasky and several other Stoneman Douglas students who rose to national prominence in the days after a Valentine 's Day shooting rampage at the school killed 17 students and staff .
The last midterm elections , in 2014 , drew the lowest turnout since World War II , Kasky said . He noted that 4 million teens will turn 18 this year .
`` We are encouraging people around the country to educate themselves on their vote , to get out there and turn voting into more of an act of patriotism than a chore , '' Kasky said .
The announcement came one day after graduation ceremonies honored the senior class , including four members slain in the attack β Nicholas Dworet , Joaquin Oliver , Meadow Pollack and Carmen Schentrup .
Surprise commencement speaker Jimmy Fallon urged graduates to move forward and β don β t let anything stop you . β | pUhXIDDlJvldlu9y | 1 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Fox News Digital | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/26/debt-limit-chaos-awaits-paul-ryan-as-seeks-house-speakership/?intcmp=hpbt1 | Debt limit chaos awaits Paul Ryan as he seeks House speakership | 2015-10-26 | US House, Politics | It seems you clicked on a bad link and stumbled upon our 404 page | 3574b71bd5ccf43e | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
polarization | National Review | http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454964/age-outrage | The Age of Outrage | 2017-12-29 | polarization | What the current political climate is doing to our country and our universities
What is happening to our country , and our universities ? It sometimes seems that everything is coming apart . To understand why , I have found it helpful to think about an idea from cosmology called β the fine-tuned universe. β There are around 20 fundamental constants in physics β things like the speed of light , Newton β s gravitational constant , and the charge of an electron . In the weird world of cosmology , these are constants throughout our universe , but it is thought that some of them could be set to different values in other universes . As physicists have begun to understand our universe , they have noticed that many of these physical constants seem to be set just right to allow matter to condense and life to get started .
For a few of these constants , if they were just 1 or 2 percent higher or lower , matter would have never condensed after the big bang . There would have been no stars , no planets , no life . As Stephen Hawking put it , β the remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life . β
Some have suggested that this fine-tuning might be evidence for the existence of God . This would be a deist conception of God , of the sort that Thomas Jefferson , James Madison , and most of the Founding Fathers believed in : a God who set up the universe like a giant clock , with exactly the right springs and gears , and then set it in motion . I myself am not taking fine-tuning as evidence of God . I β m simply using it as a way to open this lecture . I want to lift your attention up into the cosmos and put you into a mindset that is awestruck at our improbability . And if I have succeeded in doing that , then I β d like you to take that same mindset and apply it to the existence of our improbable country .
I β d like you to consider an idea that I β ll call β the fine-tuned liberal democracy. β It begins by looking backward a few million generations and tracing our ancestry , from tree-dwelling apes to land-dwelling apes , to upright-walking apes whose hands were freed up for tool use , to larger-brained hominids who made weapons as well as tools , and then finally to homo sapiens , who painted cave walls and painted their faces and danced around campfires and worshipped gods and murdered each other in large numbers .
When we look back at the ways our ancestors lived , there β s no getting around it : we are tribal primates . We are exquisitely designed and adapted by evolution for life in small societies with intense , animistic religion and violent intergroup conflict over territory . We love tribal living so much that we invented sports , fraternities , street gangs , fan clubs , and tattoos . Tribalism is in our hearts and minds . We β ll never stamp it out entirely , but we can minimize its effects because we are a behaviorally flexible species . We can live in many different ways , from egalitarian hunter-gatherer groups of 50 individuals to feudal hierarchies binding together millions . And in the last two centuries , a lot of us have lived in large , multi-ethnic secular liberal democracies . So clearly that is possible . But how much margin of error do we have in such societies ?
Here is the fine-tuned liberal democracy hypothesis : As tribal primates , human beings are unsuited for life in large , diverse secular democracies , unless you get certain settings finely adjusted to make possible the development of stable political life . This seems to be what the Founding Fathers believed . Jefferson , Madison , and the rest of those 18th-century deists clearly did think that designing a constitution was like designing a giant clock , a clock that might run forever if they chose the right springs and gears .
Thankfully , our Founders were good psychologists . They knew that we are not angels ; they knew that we are tribal creatures . As Madison wrote in Federalist 10 : β the latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man. β Our Founders were also good historians ; they were well aware of Plato β s belief that democracy is the second-worst form of government because it inevitably decays into tyranny . Madison wrote in Federalist 10 about pure or direct democracies , which he said are quickly consumed by the passions of the majority : β such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention . . . and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths . β
So what did the Founders do ? They built in safeguards against runaway factionalism , such as the division of powers among the three branches , and an elaborate series of checks and balances . But they also knew that they had to train future generations of clock mechanics . They were creating a new kind of republic , which would demand far more maturity from its citizens than was needed in nations ruled by a king or other Leviathan .
Here is the education expert E. D. Hirsch , on the founding of our nation ( from The Making of Americans ) :
The history of tribal and racial hatred is the history and prehistory of humankind . . . . The American experiment , which now seems so natural to us , is a thoroughly artificial device designed to counterbalance the natural impulses of group suspicions and hatreds . . . . This vast , artificial , trans-tribal construct is what our Founders aimed to achieve . And they understood that it can be achieved effectively only by intelligent schooling .
Thomas Jefferson wrote , in 1789 , that β wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government β ; he backed up that claim by founding the University of Virginia , about which he wrote , in 1820 : β This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind . For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead , nor to tolerate any error as long as reason is left free to combat it . β
So , how are we doing , as the inheritors of the clock ? Are we maintaining it well ? If Madison visited Washington , D.C. , today , he β d find that our government is divided into two all-consuming factions , which cut right down the middle of each of the three branches , uniting the three red half-branches against the three blue half-branches , with no branch serving the original function as he had envisioned .
And how are we doing at training clock mechanics ? What would Jefferson say if he were to take a tour of America β s most prestigious universities in 2017 ? What would he think about safe spaces , microaggressions , trigger warnings , bias response teams , and the climate of fearfulness , intimidation , and conflict that is now so prevalent on campus ? But first , let β s ask : How did we mess things up so badly ?
I β ve been studying political polarization since 2007 . Data from Gallup and Pew show steadily rising polarization since the 1990s , whether you ask people how much they dislike the other side , how much they think the other side is a threat to the country , or how upset they β d be if their child married someone from the other side .
Why do we hate and fear each other so much more than we used to as recently as the early 1990s ? The political scientist Sam Abrams and I wrote an essay in 2015 , listing ten causes . I won β t describe them all , but I β ll give you a unifying idea , another metaphor from physics : Keep your eye on the balance between centrifugal and centripetal forces . Imagine three kids making a human chain with their arms , and one kid has his free hand wrapped around a pole . The kids start running around in a circle , around the pole , faster and faster . The centrifugal force increases . That β s the force pulling outward as the human centrifuge speeds up . But at the same time , the kids strengthen their grip . That β s the centripetal force , pulling them inward along the chain of their arms . Eventually the centrifugal force exceeds the centripetal force and their hands slip . The chain breaks . This , I believe , is what is happening to our country . I β ll briefly mention five of the trends that Abrams and I identified , all of which can be seen as increasing centrifugal forces or weakening centripetal forces .
External enemies : Fighting and winning two world wars , followed by the Cold War , had an enormous unifying effect . The Vietnam War was different , but in general , war is the strongest known centripetal force . Since 1989 , we have had no unifying common enemy .
The media : Newspapers in the early days of the republic were partisan and often quite nasty . But with the advent of television in the mid 20th century , America experienced something unusual : The media was a gigantic centripetal force . Americans got much of their news from three television networks , which were regulated and required to show political balance . That couldn β t last , and it began to change in the 1980s with the advent of cable TV and narrowcasting , followed by the Internet in the 1990s and social media in the 2000s . Now we are drowning in outrage stories , very high-quality outrage stories , often supported by horrifying video clips . Social media is turning out to be a gigantic centrifugal force .
Immigration and diversity : This one is complicated and politically fraught . Let me be clear that I think immigration and diversity are good things , overall . The economists seem to agree that immigration brings large economic benefits . The complete dominance of America in Nobel prizes , music , and the arts , and now the technology sector , would not have happened if we had not been open to immigrants . But as a social psychologist , I must point out that immigration and diversity have many sociological effects , some of which are negative . The main one is that they reduce social capital β the bonds of trust that exist between individuals . The political scientist Robert Putnam found this in a paper titled β E Pluribus Unum , β in which he followed his data to a conclusion he clearly did not relish : β In the short run , immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital . New evidence from the US suggests that in ethnically diverse neighborhoods residents of all races tend to β hunker down. β Trust ( even of one β s own race ) is lower , altruism and community cooperation rarer , friends fewer . β
In short , despite its other benefits , diversity is a centrifugal force , something the Founders were well aware of . In Federalist 2 , John Jay wrote that we should count it as a blessing that America possessed β one united people β a people descended from the same ancestors , the same language , professing the same religion. β I repeat that diversity has many good effects too , and I am grateful that America took in my grandparents from Russia and Poland , and my wife β s parents from Korea . But Putnam β s findings make it clear that those who want more diversity should be even more attentive to strengthening centripetal forces .
The final two causes I will mention are likely to arouse the most disagreement , because these are the two where I blame specific parties , specific sides . They are : the Republicans in Washington , and the Left on campus . Both have strengthened the centrifugal forces that are now tearing us apart .
The more radical Republican Party : When the Democrats ran the House of Representatives for almost all of six decades , before 1995 , they did not treat the Republican minority particularly well . So I can understand Newt Gingrich β s desire for revenge when he took over as speaker of the House in 1995 . But many of the changes he made polarized the Congress , made bipartisan cooperation more difficult , and took us into a new era of outrage and conflict in Washington . One change stands out to me , speaking as a social psychologist : He changed the legislative calendar so that all business was done Tuesday through Thursday , and he encouraged his incoming freshmen not to move to the District . He did not want them to develop personal friendships with Democrats . He did not want their spouses to serve on the same charitable boards . But personal relationships among legislators and their families in Washington had long been a massive centripetal force . Gingrich deliberately weakened it .
And this all happened along with the rise of Fox News . Many political scientists have noted that Fox News and the right-wing media ecosystem had an effect on the Republican party that is unlike anything that happened on the left . It rewards more extreme statements , more grandstanding , more outrage . Many people will point out that the media leans left overall , and that the Democrats did some polarizing things , too . Fair enough . But it is clear that Gingrich set out to create a more partisan , zero-sum Congress , and he succeeded . This more combative culture then filtered up to the Senate , and out to the rest of the Republican party .
The new identity politics of the Left : Jonathan Rauch offers a simple definition of identity politics : a β political mobilization organized around group characteristics such as race , gender , and sexuality , as opposed to party , ideology , or pecuniary interest. β Rauch then adds : β In America , this sort of mobilization is not new , unusual , unAmerican , illegitimate , nefarious , or particularly leftwing. β This definition makes it easy for us to identify two kinds of identity politics : the good kind is that which , in the long run , is a centripetal force . The bad kind is that which , in the long run , is a centrifugal force .
Injustice is centrifugal . It destroys trust and causes righteous anger . Institutionalized racism bakes injustice into the system and plants the seeds of an eventual explosion . When slavery was written into the Constitution , it set us up for the greatest explosion of our history . It was a necessary explosion , but we didn β t manage the healing process well in the Reconstruction era . When Jim Crow was written into southern laws , it led to another period of necessary explosions , in the 1960s .
The civil-rights struggle was indeed identity politics , but it was an effort to fix a mistake , to make us better and stronger as a nation . Martin Luther King β s rhetoric made it clear that this was a campaign to create conditions that would allow national reconciliation . He drew on the moral resources of the American civil religion to activate our shared identity and values : β When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence , they were signing a promissory note. β And : β I still have a dream . It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream . I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed : β We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal . β β
Of course , some people saw the civil-rights movement as divisive , or centrifugal . But King β s speech is among the most famous in American history precisely because it framed our greatest moral failing as an opportunity for centripetal redemption .
This is what I β m calling the good kind of identity politics .
Let us contrast King β s identity politics with the version taught in universities today . There is a new variant that has swept through the academy in the last five years . It is called intersectionality . The term and concept were presented in a 1989 essay by KimberlΓ© Crenshaw , a law professor at UCLA , who made the very reasonable point that a black woman β s experience in America is not captured by the summation of the black experience and the female experience . She analyzed a legal case in which black women were victims of discrimination at General Motors , even when the company could show that it hired plenty of blacks ( in factory jobs dominated by men ) , and it hired plenty of women ( in clerical jobs dominated by whites ) . So even though GM was found not guilty of discriminating against blacks or women , it ended up hiring hardly any black women . This is an excellent argument . What academic could oppose the claim that when analyzing a complex system , we must look at interaction effects , not just main effects ?
But what happens when young people study intersectionality ? In some majors , it β s woven into many courses . Students memorize diagrams showing matrices of privilege and oppression . It β s not just white privilege causing black oppression , and male privilege causing female oppression ; its heterosexual vs. LGBTQ , able-bodied vs. disabled ; young vs. old , attractive vs. unattractive , even fertile vs. infertile . Anything that a group has that is good or valued is seen as a kind of privilege , which causes a kind of oppression in those who don β t have it . A funny thing happens when you take young human beings , whose minds evolved for tribal warfare and us/them thinking , and you fill those minds full of binary dimensions . You tell them that one side of each binary is good and the other is bad . You turn on their ancient tribal circuits , preparing them for battle . Many students find it thrilling ; it floods them with a sense of meaning and purpose .
And here β s the strategically brilliant move made by intersectionality : All of the binary dimensions of oppression are said to be interlocking and overlapping . America is said to be one giant matrix of oppression , and its victims can not fight their battles separately . They must all come together to fight their common enemy , the group that sits at the top of the pyramid of oppression : the straight , white , cis-gendered , able-bodied Christian or Jewish or possibly atheist male . This is why a perceived slight against one victim group calls forth protest from all victim groups . This is why so many campus groups now align against Israel . Intersectionality is like NATO for social-justice activists .
This means that on any campus where intersectionality thrives , conflict will be eternal , because no campus can eliminate all offense , all microaggressions , and all misunderstandings . This is why the use of shout-downs , intimidation , and even violence in response to words and ideas is most common at our most progressive universities , in the most progressive regions of the country . It β s schools such as Yale , Brown , and Middlebury in New England , and U.C . Berkeley , Evergreen , and Reed on the West Coast . Are those the places where oppression is worst , or are they the places where this new way of thinking is most widespread ?
Let me remind you of the educational vision of the Founders , by way of E. D. Hirsch : β The American experiment . . . is a thoroughly artificial device designed to counterbalance the natural impulses of group suspicions and hatreds . . . . This vast , artificial , trans-tribal construct is what our Founders aimed to achieve . β
Intersectionality aims for the exact opposite : an inflaming of tribal suspicions and hatreds , in order to stimulate anger and activism in students , in order to recruit them as fighters for the political mission of the professor . The identity politics taught on campus today is entirely different from that of Martin Luther King . It rejects America and American values . It does not speak of forgiveness or reconciliation . It is a massive centrifugal force , which is now seeping down into high schools , especially progressive private schools .
Today β s identity politics has another interesting feature : It teaches students to think in a way antithetical to what a liberal-arts education should do . When I was at Yale in the 1980s , I was given so many tools for understanding the world . By the time I graduated , I could think about things as a Utilitarian or a Kantian , as a Freudian or a behaviorist , as a computer scientist or a humanist . I was given many lenses to apply to any one situation . But nowadays , students who major in departments that prioritize social justice over the disinterested pursuit of truth are given just one lens β power β and told to apply it to all situations . Everything is about power . Every situation is to be analyzed in terms of the bad people acting to preserve their power and privilege over the good people . This is not an education . This is induction into a cult , a fundamentalist religion , a paranoid worldview that separates people from each other and sends them down the road to alienation , anxiety , and intellectual impotence .
Here is how one young queer activist described the cult . The essay is titled β β Everything is Problematic β : My journey into the center of a dark political world , and how I escaped. β The author identifies four features of the culture : dogmatism , groupthink , a crusader mentality , and anti-intellectualism . Of greatest relevance to our exploration of tribalism , he writes : β Thinking this way quickly divides the world into an ingroup and an outgroup β believers and heathens , the righteous and the wrong-teous . . . . Every minor heresy inches you further away from the group . When I was part of groups like this , everyone was on exactly the same page about a suspiciously large range of issues . Internal disagreement was rare . β
Can you imagine a culture that is more antithetical to the mission of a university ? Can you believe that many universities offer dozens of courses that promote this way of thinking ? Some are even requiring that all students take such a course .
Let us return to Jefferson β s vision : β For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead , nor to tolerate any error as long as reason is left free to combat it. β If Jefferson were to return today and tour our nation β s top universities , he would be shocked at the culture of fear , the prevalence of unchallenged error , and the shackles placed on reason .
Now that I have thoroughly depressed you , let me end with a few rays of hope and some thoughts about what can be done . I began this lecture with a discussion of the fine-tuned liberal democracy , which is the hypothesis that human beings are unsuited for life in large diverse secular democracies , unless we can get certain settings finely adjusted . I think this hypothesis is true , and I have tried to show that we have stumbled into some very bad settings . I am pessimistic about our future , but let me state clearly that I have low confidence in my pessimism . It has always been wrong to bet against America , and it is probably wrong to do so now . My libertarian friends constantly remind me that people are resourceful ; when problems get more severe , people get more inventive , and that might be happening to us right now . If you want hope , you need only put this quotation up on your bathroom mirror : β We can not absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point , that we have seen our best days . But so said all before us , and with just as much apparent reason . . . . On what principle is it that , when we see nothing but improvement behind us , we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us ? β
That was written by the British historian Thomas Babington Macauley in 1830 . It is probably still true today . And if you want more hope , let me tell you why I think things are going to start to improve on university campuses , beginning in the fall of 2018 : because as things get worse on campus , more people are beginning to stand up , and more people are searching for solutions . Some college presidents are starting to stand up . They all know they are sitting on a powder keg , and they want to defuse it . Also , they are generally liberal scholars , deeply opposed to illiberalism . Carol Christ , the new chancellor of U.C . Berkeley , is clearly mortified by what happened to her school β s reputation last spring , and she has taken a very strong and public stand , saying that U.C . Berkeley supports freedom of speech and will pay to protect speakers . Robert Zimmer , the president of the University of Chicago , has been consistently excellent . I have spoken with several other college presidents who would like to stand up publicly but still feel that the illiberal factions on their campuses are too strong . But if a few more presidents stand up , and if applications to schools like the University of Chicago surge this year , then I think we β ll see the floodgates open , possibly next fall .
Professors are starting to stand up , too . At Heterodox Academy , we started with 25 members two years ago ; now we have over 1,400 , evenly balanced between left and right . We got a big surge of members after the violence at Middlebury because that was a tipping point . Professors are overwhelmingly on the left , but they are mostly liberal Left , not illiberal . My field β social psychology β for example , is quite sane . I have been raising the alarm about political imbalance and orthodoxy since 2011 , and so far nothing bad has happened to me . I have not been ostracized . The problem on campus β the intense illiberalism β is concentrated in a few departments that are committed to political activism . When you look at who signs the petitions denouncing professors for what they β ve written , or demanding that journal articles be retracted , it is mostly professors from about seven departments in the humanities and identity studies . Few professors dared risk the ire of this illiberal Left back in 2015 , but with each new witch hunt , each aggressive shout-down , more members of the liberal Left are willing to stand up and say : enough is enough . This is contrary to my values .
And most importantly , some students are beginning to stand up . At Reed College , one of the most politically orthodox schools in the country , social-justice activists had been protesting and disrupting the first-year humanities course for more than a year . They called the course an act of white supremacy because it focused on dead white authors . They said the course was traumatizing to non-white students . They brought their signs and chants into the classroom every day , making it hard for professors to teach or for students to learn . Many Reed students and professors objected , but none dared to do so publicly , lest they be called racist themselves . Finally , this fall , several Asian students stood up , criticized the protesters , and asked them to stop interfering with their education . Once these students stood up , support for the protesters collapsed . Many people had been going along out of fear , rather than conviction .
At Heterodox Academy , we β re tracking these trends very closely , and we are putting out ideas and tools that help people stand up for viewpoint diversity and open inquiry . We β ve created a guide to colleges to steer applicants toward the schools that offer more viewpoint diversity . We β ve created an online survey that schools can use to assess the level of orthodoxy and fear on campus , or in any classroom . And most importantly , we β ve created the OpenMind app . It β s a self-guided app that teaches students about the value of viewpoint diversity and then trains them to engage with people who don β t share their values . We have many more initiatives planned for 2018 .
I also want to call your attention to someone else who is searching for a solution : Lenore Skenazy has been sounding the alarm about what happens to kids when we raise them like veal , protecting them from everything including emotional harm . Answer : They ask to be protected in college , too . They expect that college will be a giant safe space , and that there will always be a designated adult to resolve their conflicts . Lenore has so many ideas for how to restore childhood to children β to give them the unsupervised time they need to become autonomous , self-supervising adults . With seed money from Daniel Shuchman , she has started a nonprofit called LetGrow.org . I serve on the board , along with Peter Gray , from Boston College . One of the reasons LetGrow is so important , and the reason I mention it now , is that unsupervised free play turns out to be crucial for the development of democratic citizenship . I just want to read you a few sentences from one of Gray β s articles on the importance of unsupervised free play :
To play with another person , you must pay attention to the other person β s needs , not just your own , or the other person will quit . You must overcome narcissism . You must learn to negotiate in ways that respect the other person β s ideas , not just yours . [ Gray goes on to describe the way that kids learn about rules , when adults are not present . ] They learn in this way that rules are not fixed by heaven , but are human contrivances to make life more fun and fair . This is an important lesson ; it is a cornerstone of democracy .
So please do not despair . Be alarmed β the situation is truly alarming . But most Americans are decent , thoughtful people who don β t want to give up on their country or its universities . There are many things we can do to reduce tribalism , strengthen our kids , and repair our universities . We β the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who fill this room β we have made a mess of the clock . Left and Right , Republicans and Democrats . But we can make up for it if we can come together , admit that we messed up , and change what we are doing to kids , and to college students . We just might be able to raise a generation of kids who can care for the clock after all . | 60niLwjKBLxCobgS | 2 | Polarization | 0 | Higher Education | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
polarization | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/24/suspicious-devices-what-donald-trumps-message-maga-rally/1754177002/ | Trump tones down attacks, calls for civility after devices mailed to Democrats, CNN | 2018-10-24 | polarization | CLOSE President Donald Trump told a rally that the media should β stop the endless hostility β following suspicious packages being sent to CNN and Democratic leaders . βββ
WASHINGTON β President Donald Trump on Wednesday implored politicians to stop questioning the moral character of their opponents , using a rally in Wisconsin to call for a more civil politics hours after a series of suspicious packages were sent to high profile Democrats and CNN .
`` No nation can succeed that tolerates violence , '' Trump said , breaking script from his usually highly partisan rallies to discuss the packages . `` The language of moral condemnation and destructive routine , these are arguments and disagreements that have to stop . Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective . ''
But , Trump put some of the blame for the current political climate on the news media .
`` The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories , '' Trump told the audience . `` They 've got to stop . ''
CLOSE Packages with potentially explosive devices were sent to Hillary Clinton , Barack Obama and CNN 's Manhattan offices , as law enforcement officials monitored other locations for potential threats . βββ
The president 's remarks Wednesday night in Mosinee , Wisconsin , interrupted the usual , natural flow to every rally where he regularly criticizes the `` fake news '' media , the `` obstructionist '' Democrats and stays silent as supporters chant `` lock her up '' in reference to Hillary Clinton .
The toned-down remarks came after a series of devices discovered throughout the day Wednesday targeted several of the president 's favorite verbal punching bags .
The devices , which included pipe bombs , were sent to prominent Democrats and across the country and to CNN 's New York office . Former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton received threats . Packages were also sent to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz , liberal philanthropist George Soros and California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters .
All have drawn the ire of Trump and each has made their way into his speeches and Twitter feed over the years . The devices and heightened criticism of the president 's rhetoric turned all eyes to his speech in Wisconsin .
Trump veered away from naming the usual Democrat headliners in his speech , including Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters . While pointing the finger in part at the media for those divisions , the president neglected to use the words `` fake news . ''
CLOSE President Donald Trump vows that `` acts or threats of political violence have no place in the United States . '' He was speaking after multiple reports of suspicious devices being sent to Democrats , media companies and prominent individuals . ( Oct. 24 ) AP
`` We 're all behaving very well , '' the president joked toward the beginning of his rally . `` Hopefully we can keep it that way . ''
Trump kept the focus on immigration and the caravan of migrants heading toward the southern U.S. border , not mincing words when calling members of the group `` predators . '' He highlighted his work on the economy , trade deals , job creation and health care .
Some political experts say the president 's toned-down remarks would n't last long .
`` I hope that this is a wake-up call and changes the rhetoric , '' said Jacob Neiheisel , associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo . `` But I do n't know if it will . ''
Neiheisel said while it 's likely the person behind the attempted attacks was suffering from some type of mental illness , it 's not hard to link the divisions in the country , hear the president 's attacks on these individuals and take it as a call to action .
`` It does n't take much for someone to hear this rhetoric and take it too far , '' he said . `` This is a wake-up call for everyone . You do n't know who will hear your words and it as an invitation . ''
The president 's rhetoric has been inflammatory since he announced his candidacy for president .
Trump 's career as a conservative politician took off when he demanded Obama 's birth certificate and helped spread a conspiracy that the president was not born in America . He 's continued the attacks , blaming the country 's issues on the former president , including that Obama `` founded '' ISIS .
CNN has also been a frequent target of Trump β s β fake news β barbs . Last year the president retweeted a video of himself tackling a person with a CNN logo on their face . A β CNN sucks β chant also broke out at a Monday campaign rally .
`` Lock her up '' chants have been a constant at nearly every rally at the mention of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , who ran against Trump in the 2016 election .
Trump , before signing opioid abuse legislation during a ceremony at the White House , pledged to `` get to the bottom '' of who sent the packages and why . He also had a message of unity .
`` I just want to tell you that , in these times , we have to unify , '' Trump said . `` We have to come together and send one very clear , strong , unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America . ''
`` People have for years wondered whether the president would change or tone down his rhetoric as time went on but we 've seen that it is n't going to happen , '' said Gregory Shufeldt , a professor of political science at Butler University . `` We 're two years into the Trump presidency and that shows us nothing is going to change . ''
Shufeldt said if Trump does n't target Democrats or the media Wednesday , it would only be a temporary shift . He said this incident could replicate the response to the congressional baseball game in last summer where a lone attacker targeted Republican lawmakers . There were brief calls for unity that were drowned out with time .
`` This tour has been about rallying his base and the president knows the topics to hit on , '' Shufeldt said . `` The cynic in me says yes , maybe there 's a brief push for civility , but that will quickly come back to tribalism . ''
Some of the president 's critics were quick to connect Wednesday 's planned attacks with the president 's rhetoric and called for a change .
Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake said the president should stop labeling the media as the `` enemy '' or verbally castigating political opponents .
More : Suspicious packages : Donald Trump vows to 'get to the bottom ' of political threats sent to Obama , Clinton , CNN
Related : CNN office evacuates while live on air after 'explosive ' package intercepted at New York office
Also : Clinton , Trump family members join politicians in praising Secret Service
`` Words matter , '' Flake told CNN . `` If he were to take a more civil tone , it would help . β¦ We all need to watch the rhetoric that we use . People hear them and then follow it . ... Those of us in office need to keep that in mind . The stakes are too high right now . ''
He said he hoped the president would heed his own advice and unify the country .
CNN chief Jeff Zucker also criticized the White House for a β total and complete lack of understanding β of the seriousness of its attacks on the media , as his network β s New York bureau was evacuated for five hours Wednesday following the discovery of an explosive device sent there .
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson also called on the president to simmer the political divisions .
`` To be clear , these targeted attacks were acts of terrorism . We must work to counter these forces of terror and hate , no matter the source , '' the Mississippi Congressman said . `` Given the partisan nature of these attacks , it is time for the President to end his incessant political attacks and condoning of violence , including on the press . '' | gkAkLWtQUw6aNP4a | 1 | Donald Trump | -0.5 | Polarization | -0.2 | Civility | -0.2 | null | null | null | null |
europe | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/17/kremlin-says-putin-thanked-trump-cia-tip-bombings/959258001/ | Putin thanked Trump for CIA tip on bombings, Kremlin and White House say | 2017-12-17 | europe | WASHINGTON β Russia 's Vladimir Putin called President Trump Sunday to thank him for U.S. intelligence that helped thwart terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg , officials in both countries said . It was their second phone call in four days .
The Kremlin said the CIA provided Russia with key information about a plot to bomb Kazan Cathedral and other places in St. Petersburg , allowing Russian police to arrest a group of suspects in raids on Friday .
The Russian president expressed gratitude for the CIA cooperation and assured Trump that Russia would continue to provide the U.S. with similar information , the Kremlin said .
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the Russian account of the call .
Trump told Putin that he was pleased that the intelligence saved so many lives , and later called CIA Director Mike Pompeo `` to congratulate him , his very talented people , and the entire intelligence community on a job well done , '' the White House said .
The White House summary of the call also emphasized agreement that the intelligence cooperation was `` an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together . ''
Trump has argued that the United States and Russia should work together on issues like terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation , even as Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign illegally coordinated with Russian agents during last year 's presidential election .
On Thursday , it was Trump who called Putin , thanking the Russian president for his praise of Trump 's handling of the U.S. economy . They also talked about North Korea .
Earlier : Trump calls Putin to thank him for praise of U.S. economy
The Russian Federal Security Service , or FSB , said Friday that seven suspected followers of the Islamic State group had been arrested on charges they planned to carry out terror attacks in St. Petersburg this weekend . The FSB said a search of a St. Petersburg apartment found explosives , automatic weapons and extremist literature .
Russian television reports showed FSB operatives breaking down doors and raiding apartments , where operatives found a metal container that the suspects used as a laboratory for making explosives . The reports showed the FSB detaining a suspect , who was later shown confessing that he was told by the Islamic State to prepare homemade bombs rigged with shrapnel .
Last week , the FSB said it also arrested several suspects in Moscow , where they allegedly were plotting a series of suicide bombings over the New Year β s holiday .
In April , a suicide bombing in the St. Petersburg β s subway left 16 dead and wounded more than 50 . | SBxW0fYAgqi5Wg1W | 1 | Vladimir Putin | 1.7 | Terrorism | -0.9 | Russia | 0.6 | Donald Trump | 0.5 | Europe | 0.4 |
elections | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/08/romney-to-deliver-foreign-policy-speech-amid-big-questions-on-libya-global/ | Romney to deliver foreign policy speech amid big questions on Libya, global economy | 2012-10-08 | elections | Mitt Romney in a major speech Monday will call for a change of course in U.S. foreign policy -- saying the recent , deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya is part of a β profound upheaval β and that β hope is not a strategy . β
The speech will mark one of Romney β s final opportunities before Election Day to show his potential as a world leader -- amid political turmoil in the Middle East .
β The attacks on America last month should not be seen as random acts . They are expressions of a larger struggle that is playing out across the broader Middle East -- a region that is now in the midst of the most profound upheaval in a century , β Romney will say , according to speech excerpts provided by the Republican presidential nominee β s campaign .
β I know the president hopes for a safer , freer , and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States . I share this hope , β Romney continues . β But hope is not a strategy . We can not support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds . β
Romney is set to speak at Virginia Military Institute at 11:20 a.m . ET .
The Obama campaign tried to undercut Romney 's speech with a TV ad and lengthy memo Monday morning questioning whether the Republican candidate would move beyond `` swagger and slogans '' and talk specifics .
The campaign claimed Romney has `` repeatedly taken positions outside of the mainstream and often to the right of even George W. Bush '' and `` wants to take us back to the same with-us-or-against-us approach that got us into wars without getting us out of them . ''
Romney β s success on foreign policy has thus far had mixed reviews . He has drawn widespread praise from conservatives and fellow Republicans for his full support of Israel β s quest to stop Iran from achieving nuclear capability .
However , critics argue Romney made some missteps during his overseas trip this summer . He questioned whether England had enough security in place for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London . Then in Israel , he declared Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state , which U.S. administrations have refused to accept for decades given Palestinian claims to the ancient city .
More recently , Romney was highly critical of the Obama administration in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Egypt and the ensuing Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya , in which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed .
Romney has continued his criticism and calls for more information from the administration about the facts surrounding the attacks , saying as recently as Thursday the Libya incident was a β tragic failure . β
Romney will deliver his speech Monday morning at the Virginia Military Institute , in Lexington , Va . The Romney campaign suggested last week that Romney will continue to tell Americans that if elected , he would make national defense a top priority and that he opposes the β devastating defense cuts β on which Obama has insisted .
β He will offer a stark contrast between his vision for a strong foreign policy and the failed record of President Obama , β the campaign said .
The speech also comes before the two remaining presidential debates that will focus in part on foreign policy . Obama has consistently outscored Romney in polls asking about national security leadership , but the administration is struggling to deal with the aftermath of the attack in Libya .
After originally saying it was a β spontaneous β assault sparked by outrage over an anti-Islamic video trailer , the administration later acknowledged the assault was a pre-planned terror attack .
β The attack on our consulate β¦ was likely the work of the same forces that attacked our homeland on Sept. 11 , 2001 , β Romney is expected to say Monday . β This latest assault can not be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam , despite the administration β s attempts to convince us of that for so long . β¦ These attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists who use violence to impose their dark ideology on others . β
The FBI is investigating and the State Department is conducting its own internal probe . Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said , β No one wants to determine what happened that night in Benghazi more than the president and I do . ''
But the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs is going ahead with its own investigation . The committee hearings are scheduled to begin Wednesday . βββ confirmed Saturday the committee has subpoenaed Utah Army National Guard Green Beret Lt. Col. Andy Wood , who led a 16-member Special Forces site security team responsible for protecting U.S. personnel at the consulate .
In addition to offering a plan to deal with Libya and reported terrorists in that country , Romney also is expected to outline his specific plans to deal with problems in Afghanistan , Egypt , Syria and Israel . β I believe that if America does not lead , others willβothers who do not share our interests and our valuesβand the world will grow darker , for our friends and for us , β he is expected to say . | AcOLCWbHBbxWtp5Z | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Ben Shapiro | https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/owning-liberals-feels-great-but-risks-backlash-at-polls/ | OPINION: The Perils of βOwningβ the Libs | 2018-07-25 | politics | President Trump speaks to supporters at a rally in Duluth , Minn. , June 20 , 2018 . ( Jonathan Ernst/Reuters )
Trolling can enrage the Left , which might feel great , but what if it drives Democrats to the polls ?
On Monday evening , U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke before Turning Point USA β s High School Leadership Summit . There , she explained to the students that the attraction of conservatism shouldn β t be β owning the libs , β in the popular parlance ; instead , conservatives should try to convince . She explained , β I know that it β s fun and that it can feel good , but step back and think about what you β re accomplishing when you do this β are you persuading anyone ? β
The blowback from the Trumpian right was swift . Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars tweeted , β Nikki Haley is incredibly stupid. β Breitbart headlined , β Nikki Haley Scolds Students . β
That same day , the Trump announced via his press secretary that he was considering whether to revoke the security clearances for a bevy of former Obama officials , some of whom had already lost their security clearances . Speaker of the House Paul Ryan ( R. , Wis. ) downplayed the threat , saying , β I think he β s just trolling people , honestly . β
All of which raises a question : Is owning the libs a worthwhile goal ?
Clearly , Republicans are enjoying the sensation , which probably boosts President Trump β s popularity . Here β s the process for how to own a lib , by the current logic : First , you say something that β triggers the libs β ; then , when they make clear that they β re triggered , you mock them ; then , by virtue of your mockery , you own them . What you choose to do with the libs you own is irrelevant ; mere pride of ownership is the important thing .
Victory over the Left isn β t enhanced by nasty behavior meant to elicit tears ; it β s enhanced only by defeating arguments while using the minimum necessary force .
There β s a feeling of turnabout as fair play that β s driving much of this . After decades of sneering from Hollywood and contempt from Democrats , Republicans feel a certain surge of primal joy at watching leftists get angry . We felt this way when Jon Stewart mocked us ; now we β ll mock them . That β s understandable . But the question isn β t whether to anger the Left β it β s how . Haley suggests that solid argumentation is the best way , since it promotes the possibility that the good-hearted liberal may change his or her mind , even if it angers hard-core leftists . A solid base of Trump supporters believes that good-hearted liberals are in short supply , and that we might as well have fun watching heads explode .
Now , I β m no stranger to the rhetoric of lib ownership ; my website , Daily Wire , offers β LEFTIST TEARS ( hot or cold ) β tumblers with an annual subscription . But I do fear that if the tumbler fills due solely to β triggering β behavior , actual aggregate ownership of libs will decline , not rise . Victory over the Left isn β t enhanced by nasty behavior meant to elicit tears ; it β s enhanced only by defeating arguments while using the minimum necessary force . That doesn β t mean running away from arguments β it means making them . β Triggering β requires little skill or knowledge . Argumentative victory requires both .
That β s why triggering and memery are so popular these days . They β re fun and easy ( and hell , I β d be a hypocrite not to note that I occasionally stray into this territory when I believe the extremism of the Left simply requires mockery ) . It β s a shortcut to watching the frustration of your enemies made manifest .
But there are two types of political frustration . The first earns ire and backlash ; the second earns apathy and backtracking . Only the second is worth earning . Jon Stewart , for all the groans of annoyance he caused among right-wingers , brought frustration of the first kind : He helped drive angry Republicans to the polls , where they won sweeping victories over Democrats in Congress and in the states and , finally , in a presidential election . Ronald Reagan brought frustration of the second type to Democrats : a feeling of resigned futility that led to massive electoral defeats for Democrats .
President Trump is closer to Stewart than Reagan . Democrats aren β t enervated . They β re excited . They β re enraged . And those who focus on Trump β s unending ability to β own the libs β might find , to their great regret , that he β s merely renting the libs β and that when the bill comes due , there will be a comeuppance . | 8chxgtAZvwzPfJUc | 2 | Liberals | -0.2 | Conservatives | 0.1 | Politics | 0 | null | null | null | null |
economy_and_jobs | NPR Online News | http://www.npr.org/2015/03/26/395421117/payday-loans-and-endless-cycles-of-debt-targeted-by-federal-watchdog | βPayday Loans β And Endless Cycles Of Debt β Targeted By Federal Watchdog | 2015-03-26 | economy_and_jobs | Payday Loans β And Endless Cycles Of Debt β Targeted By Federal Watchdog
For millions of cash-strapped consumers , short-term loans offer the means to cover purchases or pressing needs . But these deals , typically called payday loans , also pack triple-digit interest rates β and critics say that borrowers often end up trapped in a cycle of high-cost debt as a result .
Now , the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is preparing to unveil a framework of proposed rules to regulate payday lenders and other costly forms of credit . The federal watchdog agency is showcasing those proposals Thursday , the same day that President Obama spoke in Alabama , defending the agency and its work .
`` The idea is pretty common sense : If you lend out money , you have to first make sure that the borrower can afford to pay it back , '' Obama said . `` This is just one more way America 's new consumer watchdog is making sure more of your paycheck stays in your pocket . ''
The new rules would very likely affect consumers like Trudy Robideau , who borrowed money from a payday lender in California to help cover an $ 800 car repair . When she could n't repay the money right away , the lender offered to renew the loan for a fee .
`` Ka-ching , '' Robideau said . `` You 're hooked . You can feel the hook right in your mouth . And you do n't know it at the time , but it gets deeper and deeper . ''
Before long , Robideau was shuttling to other payday lenders , eventually shelling out thousands of dollars in fees .
`` I was having to get one to pay another , '' she said . `` It 's a real nightmare . ''
When Robideau first spoke to NPR back in 2001 , payday lending was a $ 14 billion industry . Since then , it has mushroomed into a $ 46 billion business . Lenders have also branched into other costly forms of credit , such as loans in which a car title is used as collateral .
`` What we want is for that credit to be able to help consumers , not harm them , '' said Richard Cordray , director of the CFPB . `` What we find is that consumers who get trapped in a debt cycle β where they 're having to pay again and again , fee after fee β is actually quite detrimental to consumers , and that 's what we 're concerned about . ''
Cordray suggests that one solution is to require lenders to make sure borrowers can repay a loan on time , along with their other monthly expenses .
That kind of review was a `` bedrock principle '' of traditional lending , Cordray said in remarks prepared for a Richmond , Va. , field hearing . But many payday lenders `` make loans based not on the consumer 's ability to repay but on the lender 's ability to collect . ''
New Report Cites Danger Of Payday Loans New Report Cites Danger Of Payday Loans Download Β· 4:05 4:05
Because payday lenders have automatic access to a borrower 's bank account , they can collect even when a borrower is stretched thin .
`` If you 're behind on existing bills , for any legitimate lender that 's a red flag , '' said Michael Calhoun , president of the Center for Responsible Lending , a consumer advocacy group . `` For the payday lenders , that 's often a mark of a vulnerable and profitable customer , because they will be stuck . ''
Payday lenders say they might be willing to live with an ability-to-pay test , so long as it 's not too costly or intrusive .
`` It only makes sense to lend if you 're getting your money back , '' said Dennis Shaul , CEO of the Community Financial Services Association of America , a payday industry trade group . `` Therefore the welfare of the customer is important . Now , so is repeat business . ''
In fact , repeat borrowers are the heart of the payday business . Government researchers found that 4 out of 5 payday borrowers had to renew their loans , typically before their next paycheck . And 1 in 5 renewed at least seven times , with the accumulated fees often exceeding the amount originally borrowed .
Regulators are also considering alternatives to the ability-to-pay standard , including limits on the number of loan renewals , as well as mandatory repayment plans . Other proposed rules would crack down on costly collection practices , requiring lenders to notify borrowers three days before taking money out of their bank accounts and limiting the number of withdrawal attempts .
Wynette Pleas of Oakland , Calif. , ended up with hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees after a payday lender repeatedly tried to collect from her account .
`` They make it seem like it 's so convenient , but when you ca n't pay it back , then that 's when all the hell breaks loose , '' Pleas said .
The proposed regulations are still at an early stage , and there will be plenty of pushback . The industry managed to evade earlier efforts at regulation , so Cordray says that he wants the rules to be free of loopholes .
`` We do n't want to go through all the effort of formulating rules and then find people are working their way around them , '' he said . | 7VgDOFVpvL2WAdcc | 1 | Economy And Jobs | -0.3 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
media_bias | USA TODAY | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/05/18/roger-ailes-former-fox-news-chairman-dead-77/101823530/ | Roger Ailes, former Fox News chairman, dead at 77 | 2017-05-18 | media_bias | CLOSE Roger Ailes may be remembered for founding Fox News and the sexual harassment allegations that later led to his ouster . But his 50-year career had many other milestones . βββ
Roger Ailes , the bombastic and controversial founder and CEO of Fox News ousted last year in a sexual harassment scandal , has died .
Ailes , who reshaped television news over five decades in the TV and entertainment industry , was 77 . His death was announced in a statement by his wife , Elizabeth Ailes , to The Drudge Report .
`` I am profoundly sad and heartbroken to report that my husband , Roger Ailes , passed away this morning , '' she said in the statement . She called him `` a loving husband '' and `` patriot . ''
Ailes , who recently purchased a $ 36 million mansion in Palm Beach , Fla. , apparently hit his head after falling in the bathroom of the residence on May 10 , according to a Palm Beach police event report .
The unidentified 911 caller told the dispatcher at 1:49 p.m. that the victim , identified only as a 77-year-old male , suffered `` serious bleeding β and that the fall was `` accidental . '' The report quotes the caller as saying that the victim was suffering `` serious bleeding '' and `` is not completely alert . ''
Few other details were immediately available , including whether the victim was taken to the hospital .
News of Ailes ' death prompted widespread expressions of shock and grief from numerous political , entertainment and media figures .
Former President George H. W. Bush tweeted : `` He was n't perfect , but Roger Ailes was my friend & I loved him . Not sure I would have been President w/o his great talent , loyal help . RIP . ''
Rupert Murdoch , executive chairman for 21st Century Fox , the parent company of Fox News , called Ailes a `` great patriot '' and said everyone at the news channel is `` shocked and grieved '' by his death .
`` A brilliant broadcaster , Roger played a huge role in shaping America β s media over the last thirty years , '' Murdoch said in a statement . `` He will be remembered by the many people on both sides of the camera that he discovered , nurtured and promoted . ''
In a series of messages , Fox News host Sean Hannity tweeted tributes to his onetime boss , saying he was `` like a second father . ''
`` Today , America lost one of its great patriotic warriors , '' Hannity said on Twitter . `` He has dramatically and forever changed the political and the media landscape , single-handedly for the better . ''
He has dramatically and forever changed the political and the media landscape singlehandedly for the better . https : //t.co/nZssNxFKAr β Sean Hannity ( @ seanhannity ) May 18 , 2017
Fox anchor Bill Hemmer , looking shaken , announced Ailes ' death to his audience , ending his brief report by saying , softly , `` Wow ! ''
Ailes , who ran the network with an iron hand , resigned July 21 following a storm over a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson . The suit triggered similar claims from other women and an in-house investigation at Fox .
Ailes strongly denied the claims , but stepped down with a $ 40 million severance package .
Gabriel Sherman , who wrote a biography on Ailes entitled The Loudest Voice in the Room , called his `` last chapter '' a tragic story , `` whatever you think of Roger Ailes . ''
`` It is a tragic , sad morning , '' Sherman told MSNBC on Thursday . `` After all he built in his career , he for all practical purposes died alone . ''
He was n't perfect , but Roger Ailes was my friend & I loved him . Not sure I would have been President w/o his great talent , loyal help . RIP . β George Bush ( @ GeorgeHWBush ) May 18 , 2017
Ailes , an Ohio native , began his television career in the early 1960s as a producer at The Mike Douglas Show in Cleveland , and went onto serve as media consultant for several Republican presidents , including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan .
In 1970 , as an aide to Nixon , he drew up a 300-page memo titled , `` A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News '' that spelled out how to harness a conservative media viewpoint on behalf of the party . While the idea was never taken up by the Republican president , it was the germination of a concept that eventually turned into the Fox News channel , a conservative powerhouse that debuted on Oct. 7 , 1996 .
With high-tech production values and cheeky slogans like `` Fair and Balanced '' and `` We Report , You Decide , '' Fox News quickly challenged what Ailes viewed as a liberal-leaning mainstream media .
The formula shook the American news industry and changed American politics . The network eventually unseated CNN as the highest-rated cable news network and became one of the most popular cable networks of all genres , reaching more than 90 million households .
Ailes molded the network to run like a political campaign operation , with primetime shows that were unabashedly conservative and hosts who openly espoused Republican talking points . He made Fox News a comfortable venue for Republican figures , offering up a soft , on-air landing place for out-of-office politicians like Newt Gingrich , Mike Huckabee , John Kasich , Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum .
In the 2016 presidential race , Ailes parlayed his friendship with Donald Trump into a role as informal adviser for the presidential hopeful , even sitting in on debate prep for the candidate in his face-offs with Hillary Clinton .
His crowning achievement at Fox News , however , was sullied in his final months by the charges of sexual misconduct . Twenty-First Century Fox noted in a recent quarterly report that it paid $ 45 million in settlements related to sexual harassment allegations against Ailes .
Carlson alleged at least six conditions in which Ailes referred to her body , intimidated her or used demeaning language . At least a half-dozen other women , including former Fox News star Megyn Kelly , came forward to accuse Ailes , who denied wrongdoing .
A miniseries about Ailes , titled Secure and Hold : The Last Days of Roger Ailes , was already in the works at Showtime , based in part of Sherman 's book . | 0CtnFbpB0a7wAFyR | 1 | Media Bias | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-administration-says-israels-west-bank-settlements-do-not-violate-international-law/2019/11/18/38cdbb96-0a39-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html | Trump administration says Israelβs West Bank settlements do not violate international law | 2019-11-18 | Foreign Policy, Middle East, Politics, Policy, Israel, World | clockThis article was published more than 5 years ago Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the Trump administration had determined that Israelβs West Bank settlements do not violate international law, a decision he said had βincreased the likelihoodβ of a Middle East peace settlement. Pompeo said the Trump administration, as it did with recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and Israelβs sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, had simply βrecognized the reality on the ground.β | 334e031bf8eef205 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
banking_and_finance | National Review | https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-relief-federal-reserve-lending-criteria-businesses-needs-fixing/ | By Lending More Broadly, the Fed Can Avoid Picking Winners and Losers | 2020-04-13 | banking_and_finance | The central bank ca n't lend to struggling businesses that do n't meet an arbitrary criterion . Congress can fix this .
The Coronavirus fiscal-relief package ( the CARES Act ) is clear on who will receive its much-needed payments , in the form of checks to individuals and expanded unemployment insurance plus relief for small businesses and certain industry sectors . But the rules governing the Federal Reserve Bank β s lending authority will severely limit the ability of some mid- and large-size businesses to obtain the financing they desperately need to get through the current economic shutdown .
On March 23rd , the Fed committed to β using its full range of authorities to provide powerful support for the flow of credit to American families and businesses. β The recently passed relief bill authorizes the Treasury secretary to provide a newly created Fed facility up to a total of $ 500 billion as collateral ( loss protection ) , which the Fed can leverage to make around $ 4 trillion in loans . These funds are meant to assist businesses that are stressed because of the shutdown but do not qualify for relief under the CARES Act β s small-business provisions .
On the fiscal-policy side , small businesses with less than 500 employees can access $ 350 billion worth ( likely to soon be expanded ) of contingent loans doled out by the Small Business Administration ( SBA ) . Those loans will be forgiven if the borrowing employer keeps people on the payroll . There are winners and losers in this package as well . Carve-outs in the CARES Act include SBA-forgivable loans for large restaurant and hotel companies ( with under 500 employees per location as opposed to in total ) . There is also a financing gap for some startups and small businesses backed by or affiliated with venture capital . Private equity still can not access the SBA-forgivable loans because of historical SBA rules .
The Fed also announced the details of its Main Street Business Lending Program to support lending to eligible small-and-medium sized businesses that β were in good financial standing before the crisis , β complementing efforts by the SBA to support businesses with up to 10,000 employees and less than $ 2.5 billion in revenue . But it β s unclear how β good financial understanding β is defined and how solvency requirements will be applied , which could lead to the Fed picking winners and losers , leaving some without access to funds .
Section 13 ( 3 ) of the Federal Reserve Act permits the Fed to make emergency loans to nonbank companies . However , after the unpopular financial bailouts , the then-Democratic-led Congress in 2010 amended the Dodd-Frank Act to prohibit the Fed from making loans to β borrowers that are insolvent β and β requiring that the Fed ensure β security for emergency loans is sufficient to protect taxpayers from loss . β β
The Fed then went a step further , subsequently issuing a regulation defining insolvency in a way that would further constrain its freedom to act . As a result , the regulations currently governing the Fed β s compliance with Section 13 ( 3 ) β s solvency requirement state that any borrower who is β generally not paying its undisputed debts as they become due during the 90 days preceding the date of borrowing β is considered insolvent . At a time when the government has essentially shut down the economy , that 90-day requirement will be increasingly difficult for many companies to meet .
This means that far larger corporations β corporations that previously were paying their bills on time before COVID-19 but now find themselves distressed β may face problems thanks to new arbitrary Fed-facility rules .
Only companies with publicly issued corporate bonds that , as of March 22 , carried investment grade credit ratings ( β BBB β and above ) can access the Fed β s new Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility and Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility . Companies that don β t currently have at least two β BB- β credit ratings from agencies are ineligible ; many companies are being downgraded well below β BB- β due to COVID-19 . As of February , about 50 percent of all investment-grade corporate bonds were rated β BBB , β one notch away from falling below investment-grade status . Since the shutdown , rating agencies have been fiercely downgrading companies below junk , making them potentially ineligible .
By these arbitrary criteria , the Fed will now buy Ford junk bonds , which were downgraded to junk after March 22 β but not AMC and Cinemark junk bonds , since their downgrades to junk happened on March 16 .
To expeditiously resolve these problems and expand crisis lending uniformly , the following actions should be taken .
First , Congress should amend Section 13 ( 3 ) of the Federal Reserve Act to clarify solvency requirements and grant the Fed more flexibility in administering its Main Street Business Lending Program . The Fed could also use the Administrative Procedures Act to eliminate the way it previously defined strict solvency requirements for 13 ( 3 ) emergency lending eligibility .
Second , Congress should pass legislation that waives SBA affiliation rules to allow companies with less than 500 employees backed by venture capital and private equity to access CARES Act SBA programs β conditional on not firing people . The Fed should also relax the lending requirements of its Main Street Business Lending Facility to cover loans below $ 1 million ( giving more access to smaller borrowers ) , purchase 100 percent of the loans ( rather than purchasing only 95 percent of each bank loan , leaving 5 percent with the bank ) and consider making terms more attractive to banks and borrowers .
Third , the Fed should expand its corporate bond-buying programs move to move its eligibility date from March 22 to some earlier time β perhaps in February before all COVID-19 ratings downgrades β and loosen current credit-rating requirements to uniformly help more corporations in distress due to COVID-19 . The Fed could also loosen the current AAA credit rating requirements for credit-card , auto-loan , and small-business-loan asset-backed securities that can be bought by its TALF program .
These measures may be controversial , inviting concerns over moral hazard . But the unprecedented and unique nature of a once in a century pandemic requires an unprecedented and unique response . The Federal Reserve should also want to avoid the mistake it made during the outset of the Great Depression when it contracted the money supply , prolonging the depression ( as Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz showed in their classic book , A Monetary History of the United States ) .
As each day passes , previously solvent businesses that were paying their bills before the shutdown and could survive the downturn are laying off or firing employees . They are unsure whether they will have access to credit sufficient to remain in business during this crisis . Many of those employers will need assistance to get through the shutdown without laying off or terminating those employees . That initial unemployment insurance claims over the past three weeks exceeded 15 million only heightens the urgency . | UlQcuSUynlGqOfWB | 2 | Economic Policy | 1.4 | Business | -1.2 | Coronavirus | 0.8 | Federal Reserve | 0.5 | Banking And Finance | 0.2 |
coronavirus | CNN (Web News) | https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html | More than half of states may be undercounting coronavirus cases by not following CDC guidelines | 2020-06-09 | coronavirus | ( CNN ) At least 28 states are not following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on reporting new Covid-19 cases -- half of which saw the trend of new cases increasing in the last week .
Those states are not reporting probable cases , according to the daily case count listed on the CDC 's website . Probable cases include those that show evidence of an infection without the confirmation of a lab test and cases where coronavirus was listed as a cause or contributing cause of death but are not confirmed with a lab test .
Some of the states with the largest populations -- like California , Florida , New York and Texas -- are among those listed as not reporting probable cases , despite CDC guidance that they should be included in the case count .
This comes as 26 states see an increased or steady rate of new cases . Accurate rates of new cases are among the metrics that help officials track how the disease is spreading in the US and make decisions about how to reopen and loosen restrictions put in place to mitigate its impact .
More than 1.9 million Americans have been infected , and more than 111,000 have died in just over four months , according to data from Johns Hopkins University .
Though coronavirus reporting guidelines are voluntary , states not reporting probable cases likely undercount the number of people infected and make it difficult for officials to get the true picture of where the nation stands in the midst of a pandemic that has rocked almost every aspect of life .
Schools have been especially upended , with students across the country not having been on campus in months .
While many local governments have expressed that the path forward for the fall is unclear , North Carolina and California have released guidelines for reopening schools .
Though California 's 1,000 school districts will make their own decision about how and when to resume in-classroom learning , the state 's Department of Education released a 62-page guidebook Monday to help them plan ahead of time .
The guide gives options for staggered schedules , ongoing distance learning , and models that combine both . It also directs educators to teach proper handwashing and limits the number of students allowed on buses to prevent the virus from breaking out in schools .
`` This guidance is only as good as what 's implemented , '' State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said in a news conference . `` We expect it will be adjusted as we go . ''
North Carolina Gov . Roy Cooper also released health guidance for reopening schools Monday , telling reporters that this school year will be unlike any other .
`` Students and staff will be screened for illness before they enter the school . Children will be asked to stay distant from classmates . They wo n't be sharing pencils or textbooks , and there will be a lot of cleaning , '' he said .
Openings will depend on health metrics , he said . But state Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mandy Cohen is concerned the state 's positive tests are among the highest in the nation , she said Monday .
`` These trends moving in the wrong direction is a signal we need to take very seriously , '' Cohen said during a news conference .
While North Carolina is seeing cases rise , California -- with trends holding steady -- is beginning to reopen some recreational sites .
Yosemite National Park , which has been off-limits to visitors since March 20 , will reopen to the public Thursday . It will aim to admit only half of its average visitor rate , beginning by allowing 1,700 vehicle passes each day , according a statement from park spokesman Jamie Richards .
`` There is no place like Yosemite , and we ca n't wait to welcome visitors back , '' said Acting Superintendent Cicely Muldoon . `` It 's going to be a different kind of summer , and we will continue to work hand in hand with our gateway communities to protect community health and restore access to Yosemite National Park . ''
As early as Friday , indoor California movie theaters may reopen , according to guidance the California Department of Public Health released on Monday .
Theaters are required to limit attendees to 25 % of capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees , whichever is lower .
Theaters will also need to reconfigure seats to ensure physical distancing between moviegoers , who must wear face coverings when not eating or drinking to mitigate virus spread , the guidance says .
As many of the hardest hit states begin to recover from the pandemic , cases have risen elsewhere .
Vermont , where new cases are increasing , had an outbreak reported Friday with at least 62 people infected near Winooski , Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said . Dozens of children were among those infected , and more than 1,000 people in the state went to get tested following the outbreak , Levine said .
Vermont State Epidemiologist Patsy Kelso said the outbreak was spread by friends and relatives , and through contact tracing it appears to be well-contained .
In Utah , state Rep. Suzanne Harrison called a recent spike of cases `` very concerning ( and ) approaching exponential . '' The positive test rate doubled from one day to the next to 18.5 % , she tweeted over the weekend .
`` When you 're away from home , please avoid close contact with others , and wear a mask when other social distancing measures are n't feasible , '' the Utah Department of Health tweeted .
In the last week , Texas and Arizona have seen spikes in cases , with both reporting more than 1,000 new cases in one day .
Several universities have also reported new cases within their athletic programs -- including Arkansas State University , Auburn University and Oklahoma State University . | okjl6d6WMAucfh22 | 0 | States | -1.6 | Public Health | -0.7 | Role Of Government | 0 | Federalism | 0 | Healthcare | 0 |
elections | Guest Writer - Left | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/31/donald-trumps-high-risk-low-reward-trip-to-mexico-is-sort-of-baffling/ | OPINION: Donald Trumpβs high-risk, low-reward trip to Mexico is sort of baffling | 2016-08-31 | Presidential Elections, Elections | clockThis article was published more than 8 years ago It is barely worth pointing out that Donald Trump's surprise visit to Mexico on Wednesday won't do President Enrique PeΓ±a Nieto much good. PeΓ±a Nieto is deeply unpopular in his home country, with a quarterly survey from the newspaper Reforma putting his favorability at 23 percent β a figure so low that it makes Trump himself, at 35 percent, seem positively embraced. | 29ce19a50275477e | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/03/politics/obama-europe-trip/index.html?hpt=po_c1 | Obama: Vision of peaceful Europe threatened by "Russia's aggression" | 2014-09-03 | World, Barack Obama, Russia | Story highlights `` We will defend our NATO allies , '' President Barack Obama says
Peaceful Europe `` threatened by Russia 's aggression against Ukraine , '' Obama says
Militant Islamists ' gains in Iraq and Syria also cause for concern for NATO members
Summit originally scheduled to address Afghanistan 's future when troops leave
As Air Force One landed in Estonia 's capital Wednesday , President Barack Obama 's message to Vladimir Putin -- only 500 miles away in Moscow -- was clear : Stay put .
Obama 's trip to the former Soviet state , ahead of this week 's NATO summit in Wales , is meant to reassure nervous Eastern Europe that Putin 's support for separatists in Ukraine does n't mean he has a free pass for territorial gains elsewhere .
In a speech in Tallinn , Obama said the vision of a Europe dedicated to peace and freedom is `` threatened by Russia 's aggression against Ukraine , '' but said NATO will not allow that aggression to go unchecked .
`` We will defend our NATO allies , and that means every ally , '' he said . `` We will be here for Estonia . ... You lost your independence once before . With NATO , you will never lose it again . ''
Added to the schedule only last month , the stop in Estonia supplements the message coming from NATO leaders gathering in Cardiff , Wales , who are set to announce the positioning of troops and equipment closer to Russia in Eastern Europe .
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In earlier comments alongside Estonia 's President , Obama recalled the `` deep ties '' between the two nations as he announced plans for additional U.S. Air Force units to be based in Estonia as part of a bolstering of NATO forces in the region .
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`` One of our goals at the summit over the next several days is to once again project unity across NATO on behalf of Ukraine 's efforts to maintain its sovereignty and territorial integrity , '' Obama said .
He added that Russia was `` paying a heavy price for its actions , '' in part through Western sanctions imposed over Ukraine , and that NATO is poised to do more to help Ukraine defend itself .
He said more European NATO members need to spend a full 2 % of their gross domestic product on defense to keep NATO strong .
The approaching NATO summit is an opportunity for these countries to pledge this , he said .
`` Estonia does it . Every ally must do it , '' he said .
The NATO leaders also must confront the separate threat of militant Islamists making gains in Syria and Iraq , and the brutal beheading of a second American by ISIS , also known as ISIL or the `` Islamic State . ''
Asked about his strategy on the extremist group , Obama said : `` The bottom line is this : Our objective is clear , and that is to degrade and destroy ISIL so it 's no longer a threat not just to Iraq , but also to the region and to the United States .
`` In order for us to accomplish that , the first phase has been to make sure we 've got an Iraqi government that 's in place , and that we are blunting the momentum that ISIL was carrying out .
`` And the airstrikes have done that . But now , what we need to do is make sure that we 've got the regional strategy in place that can support an ongoing effort , not just in the air , but on the ground , to move that forward . ''
The original reason for the summit was to determine how NATO 's mission will proceed in Afghanistan when combat troops depart at the end of the year .
But the global unrest , while causing political strife for Obama in the United States , could provide a new purpose for the 65-year-old NATO alliance , which is suffering an `` identity crisis , '' according to one analyst .
Putin 's actions in Russia have `` required NATO to really adapt and change fairly dramatically , '' said Heather Conley , who directs the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington .
`` In some ways , NATO should thank Vladimir Putin , because it was really searching for its purpose , '' Conley said .
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NATO members that border Russia , watching the once unthinkable breach of Ukraine 's borders , are looking to the military alliance to affirm its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty 's Article 5 , which provides for collective defense of states under attack .
Ukraine is n't a NATO member , though leaders did invite the country 's new President , Petro Poroshenko , to Wales this week . Other former Soviet states , like Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania , joined NATO in the past decade , hoping to bolster ties to the West while increasing their own security frameworks .
As reassurance to those countries , NATO leaders plan to approve the creation of a `` high-readiness '' force that places new equipment and thousands of troops in Eastern Europe .
White House officials say the move is meant to be defensive rather than a provocation for Russia , though initial reaction from the Kremlin -- which called the move an `` external threat '' -- foreshadowed a potential escalation of the crisis .
NATO and Russia have agreed since 1997 that no permanent NATO troops will be positioned in Eastern Europe , meaning member states will rotate forces through bases closest to Russia .
Charles Kupchan , Obama 's top adviser for European affairs , said leaders will describe the new effort as a `` persistent '' force in the easternmost countries , rather than `` permanent . ''
`` We will see persistent rotation , persistent exercises to ensure that Estonia and that other countries in Central and Eastern Europe are provided the reassurance from NATO and the presence of NATO needed to meet their security needs , '' he said .
Not on the official agenda in Wales , the ongoing spread of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria will nonetheless play a major role in Obama 's discussions in Wales .
The meeting comes after a video posted Tuesday that shows the beheading of a second American , Steven Sotloff .
The killing of Sotloff follows a threat made by ISIS last month during the videotaped beheading of American journalist James Foley . The latest video threatens the life of another man , a British citizen .
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Obama has said he wants to form a coalition of governments willing to take on the group , which has taken over huge swaths of territory and terrorized ethnic minorities . Officials say that could include a role for NATO , though in what capacity is so far unclear -- after all , Obama himself has n't yet decided whether to undertake airstrikes against ISIS in Syria .
Western European leaders must also confront the growing threat of `` homegrown terrorism '' -- citizens leaving to fight with militant groups in Syria and Iraq , and potentially returning to stage a terror attack at home .
The host of the NATO summit , British Prime Minister David Cameron , already announced new measures to combat that threat after a London-accented militant was filmed beheading journalist James Foley .
`` There will have to be an acknowledgment that individual European countries , and certainly the United States , are taking action , actively working militarily on issues relating to Iraq and then potentially Syria , '' said Kathleen Hicks , the director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies .
Just as the United States is anxiously watching the final outcome of Afghanistan 's recent election , NATO member states are wondering what their role will be there after this year ends .
Both candidates in the contested vote have said they 'll sign an agreement allowing U.S. troops to remain there past 2014 . But without a winner , the Bilateral Security Agreement remains unsigned .
Hanging over the decision is the security situation in Iraq , which completely unraveled after U.S. troops ' withdrawal . Neither Obama nor his NATO counterparts want the same thing to happen in Afghanistan .
`` We 're moving into a world in which NATO will be less salient in Afghanistan , but in which we want to capitalize on the lessons that we 've learned , the partnerships that we 've built , '' Kupchan said .
NATO last admitted new members in 2009 , but leaders are quick to note this year 's summit is n't about expansion .
The appetite for letting countries like Bosnia and Macedonia -- labeled `` aspirant countries '' -- into the club has waned . It 's hard enough to get the 28 current members to agree on things , officials say .
Case in point : NATO is having a tough time convincing its members to spend more on their militaries , a requirement for membership . The United States spends about 4.4 % of its gross domestic product on defense , according to NATO figures ; the European average is 1.6 % .
NATO 's guidelines encourage countries to spend at least 2 % of their GDP on defense .
`` Part of the reason I think this NATO meeting is going to be so important is to refocus attention on the critical function that NATO plays to make sure that every country is contributing in order to deliver on the promise of our Article 5 assurances , '' Obama said at a news conference last week .
But analysts say that as long as economic conditions in Europe remain bleak , countries will remain hesitant to ramp up their military spending , even as external threats grow .
`` The Ukraine crisis has been a wake-up call , '' said Conley , the Europe program director at CSIS . `` Now , whether the Europeans will hit the snooze button or not , again , I do n't know , but it has certainly shaken them , that they have allowed their military defense spending to atrophy to a point where they are now vulnerable . '' | 7efdd7921f9fa4f7 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | Daily Kos | https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/21/1743395/-A-generation-of-Parkside-students-are-coming-for-GOP-lawmakers-and-they-re-already-on-the-run | A generation of Parkland students is coming for Republican lawmakers | 2018-02-21 | gun_control_and_gun_rights | The findings in that poll are buttressed by exit polling from Virginia elections last year in which voters picked guns as their No . 2 issue ( behind health care ) and , importantly , just as many Democratic voters said their vote was motivated by it as did Republican votersβ49 percent . Pundits are not catching on to this shift yet and continue to spout the conventional wisdom that pro-gun advocates are more passionate about the issue than pro-safety advocates .
But guess what ? Even Republicans are sensing a movement is afoot , and it 's not heading in their direction . With no apparent pre-planning , the White House suddenly announced on Tuesday a directive on restricting bump stocks ( which will likely amount to nothing ) and GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has now decided the time is right to re-introduce a bill to expand background checks .
Perhaps that 's because the March 24 `` March For Our Lives '' inspired by the Stoneman Douglas students is taking flight before our very eyes .
x George and Amal , I couldnΓΒ’ΓΒΓΒt agree with you more . I am joining forces with you and will match your $ 500,000 donation to ΓΒ’ΓΒΓΒMarch For Our Lives.ΓΒ’ΓΒΓΒ These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said weΓΒ’ΓΒΓΒve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard . β Oprah Winfrey ( @ Oprah ) February 20 , 2018
Now for the cherry : the NRA 's currently in a bit of a pickle . As Huffington Post 's Mike Signorile writes of the group :
The engine of conservative politics in America has still failed to adequately respond to last month β s explosive story from McClatchy quoting two sources that confirmed the FBI is investigating whether Russia funneled money to the NRA specifically to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election . NRA spokespeople refused to respond to various media outlets , only telling National Public Radio that the group has β not been contacted β by the FBI . [ ... ] Per last month β s McClatchy investigation , the NRA may even be intricately woven into the story of Russia β s attack on American democracy . At the very least , the NRA , from what we know so far , has connected with prominent Russians close to Vladimir Putin , an adversary of this country and of human rights , for years . The New York Times dropped a bombshell in December , reporting that NRA member and conservative activist Paul Erickson was trying to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin .
Right . Shorter : the NRA 's playing defense just as the brave student activists from Parkland are discovering their collective strength .
Believe it or not , political miracles happen . When marriage equality activists rebounded from a couple dozen anti-gay marriage amendments in the mid-aughts to achieving full marital rights a decade later , that was a political miracle . Pollsters marveled . But what they could n't measure was a generational shift coming of age and maturing in kitchen-table conversations across the country . Eventually , nearly everyone knew someone .
That is quite possibly what we are witnessing here : A generation of kids who grew up watching horrific carnage and quietly fearing for their lives in what should be the safest of spacesβschools .
The NRA has been living on borrowed time for many years . Wholly owned by gun manufacturers now , the organization 's at-any-cost gun-pushing agenda is so perverted that it 's unrecognizable to even a large swath of gun owners .
The NRA bought those borrowed years by funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican lawmakers , who in turn became totally disconnected from actual voters on gun safety . GOP lawmakers have voted at the direction of the NRA for so long without consequence that they probably can not see the generational hammer that 's getting ready to drop on them . But you ca n't defy the will of the voters indefinitely . At some point , living on borrowed time catches up with you and the Parkland students are the first indication that the NRA 's decades-long rein is coming to an abrupt end .
As one Iowa student told ABC : β Not all of us can vote β¦ not all of us do have that say , but we will eventually . β | 3q4Y20NNLyH0DCaq | 0 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | -1.9 | Florida School Shooting | 1.4 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Salon | https://www.salon.com/2020/08/26/unprecedented-and-wrong-mike-pompeo-slammed-for-address-to-gop-convention-from-jerusalem_partner/ | "Unprecedented and wrong": Mike Pompeo slammed for address to GOP convention from Jerusalem | 2020-08-26 | US House, Democratic Party, Republican Party, Mike Pompeo, Secretary Of State, Elections, 2020 Election, Politics | This article originally appeared at Common Dreams. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely. President Donald Trump's reelection campaign announced Sunday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will address this week's Republican National Conventionβnews that sparked swift criticism both because it's unprecedented for the nation's top diplomat to participate in this type of political event and because he will reportedlyspeak from "an undisclosed location" in Jerusalem while he's there on official travel. Before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, Pompeoβa former congressman from Kansas who previously served as CIA director under Trumpβwrote Sunday on his personal Twitter account: "Looking forward to sharing with you how my family is more SAFE and more SECURE because of President Trump. See you all on Tuesday night!" The State Department told an Associated Press correspondent that "Secretary Pompeo will address the convention in his personal capacity. No State Department resources will be used. Staff are not involved in preparing the remarks or in the arrangements for Secretary Pompeo's appearance. The State Department will not bear any costs in conjunction with this appearance." Citing two unnamed sources "close to the secretary," McClatchy reported Sunday that "Pompeo's decision to deliver a speech to the Republican National Convention while on official travel to the Middle East was cleared by" his personal attorney as well as lawyers for the State Department, RNC, and White House. Wendy Sherman, who served as undersecretary of state for political affairs in former President Barack Obama's administration and led the negotiations for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, told McClatchy that Pompeo's decision was a "shameful" attempt to appeal to evangelical voters who supported Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocating the U.S. Embassy. "Pompeo speaking from Jerusalem breaks multiple traditions and norms," Sherman said. "Secretaries of state, as far as I can find, have never appeared at a political convention. They, like the secretary of defense, have been above politics because they stand for America in the world." "At a time when peace and security in the Middle East is so tough, this political appearance is more than shameful," she added. "Jerusalem should not be a prop in the Republican convention. Pompeo should not tarnish his office by this unprecedented action." The Times of Israel detailed on Monday how Pompeo's decision constrasts with his predecessors from at least the past couple decades: Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry, for instance, sat out the 2016 Democratic convention. And when Obama was officially nominated for a second term in 2012, Hillary Clinton was literally half a world away, traveling to the Cook Islands, Indonesia, China, East Timor, Brunei, and far eastern Russia. It's not just Democrats. When Republicans nominated John McCain in 2008, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on a trip to Portugal, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Former U.S. President George W. Bush's first secretary of state, Colin Powell, likewise did not speak to the 2004 Republican National Convention. During a campaign event in Wisconsin last week, Trump said that "we moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem," referring to his 2017 decision to relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv. "That's for the evangelicals," the president added. Sherman was far from alone in accusing Trump and Pompeo of exploiting religion and using the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as a prop for political gain: Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) suggested that Pompeo's speech could violate the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees from participating in certain political activities: Noting on Sunday that "it's very unusual for a diplomat to get involved in domestic politics" and that "this starts to look like using taxpayer-funded federal resources for a campaign," Margaret Brennan, moderator of CBS News' "Face the Nation," askedRepublican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel whether taxpayers will be reimbursed for Pompeo's trip. The chair did not provide a direct answer. "I can only tell you, Margaret, that the events that we've put forward from the RNC and the campaign are going to be paid for by the convention from... the RNC and the campaign," McDaniel responded. "You know, everything that we've put together has changed because of Covid. The president rightly said we're going to leave Jacksonville because we don't want to have resources taken away from a city that's dealing with a pandemic. And he brought it back to the White House, which is his residence." "And it's being paid for by the Republican National Committee and the campaign, not the taxpayers," McDaniel added. After Brennan asked whether she was confirming that Pompeo's trip will be reimbursed by the campaign, the chair said that "I'm not confirming anything having to do with Secretary Pompeo's trip. I am just saying the programming, the staging, everything that we're doing will be paid for by the Republican National Committee and the campaign." Jessica Corbett is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow her on Twitter: @corbett_jessica. We won't sell or share your personal information to inform the ads you see. You may still see interest-based ads if your information is sold or shared by other companies or was sold or shared previously. 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economy_and_jobs | Politico | http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/economy-100772.html?hp=t1_3 | Improving economy defies Washington, for now - Ben White and Darren Samuelsohn | 2013-12-06 | economy_and_jobs | Wall Street economists still rate government dysfunction as the leading risk factor . | AP Photos Improving economy defies D.C .
Washington has tried very hard this year to crush the economy with debt ceiling fights , clumsy budget cuts , a government shutdown and complete legislative gridlock . It does not appear to be working .
Nearly every recent report shows an economy picking up at least a little speed heading into 2014 : The jobless rate is falling , house prices are rising , the stock market is soaring and overall economic growth just handily beat expectations . Friday β s employment report showed a gain of 203,000 jobs in November and a big drop in the jobless rate to 7 percent , suggesting the economy has shrugged off the most recent Beltway blows .
The numbers themselves may not be quite as good as they appear . And there are still several ways Washington could make them even worse next year , from more poorly designed spending cuts and bitter fighting over Obamacare to a potentially botched effort by the Federal Reserve to tap the brakes on its unprecedented stimulus efforts .
A fresh round of fiscal brinksmanship leading to a shutdown or debt limit scare next year seems unlikely . But it can not be ruled out . In fact , while most Wall Street economists expect growth to pick up in 2014 , they still rate government dysfunction as the leading risk factor .
β The economy is improving right now because the headwinds from Washington are getting much smaller , β said Jan Hatzius , chief economist at Goldman Sachs . β If you look at the broad range of indicators there is more good news than bad news . And everyone assumes a deal gets made on the sequester and the budget . But that β s not a certainty , and so Washington remains a risk . β
There is also widespread agreement that the current run of good economic data β including Thursday β s surprisingly strong 3.6 percent read on gross domestic product growth β is coming despite Washington β s dismal state . And much of the fallout may in fact show up in the fourth quarter when , according to Obama administration figures , the 16-day shutdown that featured 850,000 furloughed workers will take a quarter point bite out of GDP growth .
It β s also easy to overstate the strength of recent data .
The big third-quarter GDP number got a hefty boost from companies stocking up on inventory expecting an uptick in demand . That inventory building will not recur in subsequent quarters , meaning even without the shutdown impact , fourth quarter growth is likely be closer to 1 percent than 3 percent . Consumer spending rose just 1.4 percent in the third quarter .
The November jobs report , however , was uniformly good news , with the unemployment rate falling to its lowest level in five years because more people found jobs , not because they left the labor force as in some previous months . Total employment measured by the household survey increased by 818,000 , the biggest jump in three decades , partially driven by furloughed workers returning to the job after the government shutdown .
Still , not everyone is sold on the rosy thesis coming out of Wall Street that 2014 should see significantly stronger growth leading to even faster job creation .
β I β m not so sure that 2014 prospects are all that much better than 2013 given that the underlying drivers of growth including consumption , business investment and exports continue to be very weak , β said Catherine L. Mann , professor of economics at Brandeis University . β And there is still going to be an awful lot of noise and partisanship and Washington basically being a burr under the saddle of the economy for all of next year . β
One hope for 2014 that underlies much of the Wall Street bullishness is that congressional negotiations led by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray can make a deal to reduce the immediate impact of the 2014 sequester spending cuts on the economy . βββ reported Thursday that they are only a few billion dollars in budgetary savings away from an agreement . Their official deadline is next Friday .
Sequestration β s economic hit so far is significant even if it can be hard to illustrate beyond anecdotes . The Congressional Budget Office in July calculated that canceling the second year of the Budget Control Act β s spending cuts would increase real GDP by 0.7 percent and add 900,000 jobs in the third quarter of this year . | F52D9Hh6cxE0rEe6 | 0 | Economy And Jobs | 0.5 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
impeachment | Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-impeachment/trump-says-lead-impeachment-democrat-schiff-has-not-paid-price-yet-idUSKBN1ZP0K6 | Trump says lead impeachment Democrat Schiff has not paid 'price, yet' | 2020-01-27 | US Senate, Donald Trump, Adam Schiff, Ukraine, Impeachment, Politics | WASHINGTON ( βββ ) - U.S. President Donald Trump told a then-top aide in August he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats , including former Vice President Joe Biden , the New York Times reported on Sunday .
Trump β s statement was described in an unpublished manuscript by former White House national security adviser John Bolton , the
Times said in a report that could raise pressure on Republicans to call Bolton as a witness in Trump β s Senate impeachment trial .
The report , which did not quote the manuscript but cited multiple people describing Bolton β s account , may undercut a key element of Trump β s defense : that there was no quid pro quo when he asked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden in a July phone call .
Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to oppose Trump in the Nov. 3 election . His son worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while Biden was vice president .
In a statement , an attorney for Bolton suggested that the Times β account was accurate and said he had submitted Bolton β s book manuscript to the National Security Council on Dec. 30 , a standard security review for classified information .
β It is clear , regrettably , from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript , β the attorney , Charles Cooper , said .
The report drew Democratic demands that the Republican-led Senate , which is conducting a trial on whether to remove Trump from office after his Dec. 18 impeachment by the Democratic-led House of Representatives , call Bolton as a witness .
Democrats need to win over at least four Senate Republicans to approve the calling of witnesses . Bolton said this month he was willing to testify in the trial if a Senate subpoena was issued .
Lawyers for Trump are scheduled on Monday to resume their defense in the impeachment trial stemming from his dealings with Ukraine . A showdown vote on calling witnesses could loom later in the week .
Trump has denied wrongdoing and calls the impeachment process a sham .
β I never told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats , including the Bidens , β Trump said in a Twitter post . β In fact , he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination . If John Bolton said this , it was only to sell a book . β
The White House , which with Senate Republican leaders has resisted calling witnesses , did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the New York Times report , nor did Jay Sekulow , who is helping lead the Republican president β s defense .
β There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the President β s defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump , β the seven Democratic House β managers β prosecuting the case against Trump in the Senate said in a statement .
β There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published , when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision Senators must now make β whether to convict the President of impeachable offenses , β it added .
Democrats have said they are eager to hear testimony by Bolton , who was involved , as his own lawyer previously said , in β many relevant meetings and conversations β involving issues at the heart of Trump β s impeachment .
Bolton left his post in September after disagreements with the president . Trump said he fired him . Bolton said he quit .
β It β s clearly damaging , β Jonathan Turley , a professor at George Washington University Law School , who was the only witness called by Republicans in the House impeachment proceedings , said of the Times report . β It will fuel demands to hear from Bolton and other witnesses . β
But he said the timing β just before the first full day of argument by the White House team β fueled suspicion it was part of an organized effort and that the senators may not react as the leakers intended .
While the Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office , he is seeking to limit political damage to his re-election bid .
The House impeached Trump on charges of abusing the powers of his office by asking Ukraine to investigate Biden and of obstructing a congressional inquiry into his conduct .
Trump β s defense argued neither impeachment charge constituted a crime or impeachable offense , that he was within his rights as president to make decisions about foreign policy and what information to give Congress , and that the House pursued a flawed and one-sided process before impeaching him .
According to the New York Times , Bolton spoke to Trump in August and raised the $ 391 million in congressionally approved aid to Ukraine for its war in the country β s east against Russian-backed separatists .
Officials had frozen the aid , and a deadline was looming to begin sending it , Bolton noted , according to the newspaper .
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses U.S mayors in the East Room of the White House in Washington , U.S. , January 24 , 2020 . βββ/Jonathan Ernst
Trump had previously rebuffed senior U.S. officials who had called for the aid to be restored , the newspaper said , airing his long-standing grievances about Ukraine , which mixed legitimate efforts by some Ukrainians to back his Democratic 2016 opponent , Hillary Clinton , with unsupported accusations and outright conspiracy theories about the country .
The newspaper reported that the president β s lawyer , Rudy Giuliani , had also spent months stoking the president β s paranoia about the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine at the time , Marie Yovanovitch , alleging that she was openly anti-Trump and should be dismissed .
In his August 2019 discussion with Bolton , the newspaper said Trump appeared focused on the theories Giuliani had shared with him and had replied to Bolton β s question that he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the investigation that related to Biden and supporters of Clinton in Ukraine . | 3006794f0d4e821f | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
violence_in_america | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/sep/21/charlotte-police-insist-protesters-have-wrong-stor/ | Violence rocks Charlotte as police insist protesters have wrong story on shooting | 2016-09-21 | violence_in_america | After a night of violent protests and looting , police in Charlotte tried to assuage outrage over Tuesday β s fatal shooting of a black man by an officer , calling for calm Wednesday and saying that the version of events leading up to the shooting being cited by members of the public was based on incorrect information .
Neighbors and a relative said that Keith Lamont Scott was reading a book in his car while he waited for his son to get off a school bus , but police said the 43-year-old father had a gun that he repeatedly refused to drop when ordered by officers and which was recovered at the scene of the shooting .
β It β s time to change the narrative , because I can tell you from the facts that the story β s a little bit different as to how it β s been portrayed so far , especially through social media , β Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Wednesday during a news conference .
Tuesday β s police shooting of Mr. Scott and Friday β s fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer in Tulsa , Oklahoma , stoked racial tensions locally and nationally , drawing comments from the presidential nominees and the attention of the Justice Department .
Protests had been peaceful in Tulsa but became destructive overnight Tuesday in Charlotte . Sixteen police officers were injured and businesses damaged and looted when protests turned violent .
Violent protests began again after sundown in downtown Charlotte as demonstrators rushed police in riot gear at a downtown hotel , forcing officers to fire multiple tear gas rounds at several sites . Protesters threw some of the canisters back at the police , along with bottles and other debris .
SEE ALSO : No racial bias in police shootings , study by Harvard professor shows
CNN reporter Ed Lavandera was tackled by a rioter while doing a live feed and interview with host Anderson Cooper ; Mr. Lavandera later shrugged it off by disparaging his attacker β s football skills .
The city of Charlotte said one person had been shot in the head during the protests and is on life support . But officials said the shooting was civilian-on-civilian and did not involve the police .
At least one nearby store was looted , CNN β s live footage showed .
Videos of the fatal shooting of Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa have provided fodder for his family to publicly contest the version of events described by police , who quickly released footage of the event and do not dispute the fact that Mr. Crutcher was unarmed .
But it β s unclear whether videos of Tuesday β s shooting of Mr. Scott in Charlotte will soon become public . The black police officer who opened fire on Mr. Scott was not wearing a body camera , as Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers are required , but video from other officers β body-worn or dashboard-mounted cameras may have captured the shooting .
The North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is calling for the immediate release of the footage , stressing that a new law that will make it more difficult to release body camera footage is set to take effect in less than two weeks .
β As we β ve seen elsewhere , video footage of police shootings can provide crucial evidence of what took place β especially when there are conflicting accounts from police and community members , β said Karen Anderson , executive director of North Carolina β s ACLU . β Charlotte should set an example for North Carolina by releasing footage of the shooting promptly before the obstacles imposed by the new state law take effect . β
Police are reviewing multiple recordings from the scene . It β s unclear whether there is video that captured the entire incident , which began as officers responded to an apartment complex to serve a warrant on a resident .
There officers encountered Mr. Scott , who officials said exited a vehicle with a handgun and refused multiple commands to drop the weapon before Officer Brently Vinson opened fire .
Chief Putney said Wednesday that the police department does not intend to release video of the shooting until its investigation is complete .
β Right now , we can β t release it , β the chief said , citing state law . β It would have a negative impact on the integrity of the case , and that β s not something we are going to do . β
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts , appearing on CNN Wednesday afternoon , said she hopes the video can be released β as quickly as possible . β
A woman claiming to be Mr. Scott β s daughter said in a video that was posted to Facebook and widely shared that her father was not armed and was holding a book , not a gun , when he was shot .
Civil rights activist John Barnett said Wednesday that he has spoken with a witness who said Mr. Scott did not make any threatening moves toward police before he was shot .
Mr. Barnett warned that , with different accounts of the events emerging , release of police videos might be necessary to restore calm .
β Just telling us this is still under investigation is not good enough for the windows of the Wal-Mart , β he said , referring to the retail store that was looted when protests turned violent overnight .
Chief Putney rebutted the claims that Mr. Scott was carrying a book , not a gun , saying that officers did not recover a book from the scene but had found a weapon .
Video of police shootings has proven key to investigations of use of force in the past . A South Carolina police officer was indicted earlier this year on federal charges after bystander video showed him shooting an unarmed black man in the back as he ran away after a traffic stop .
Tulsa police were quick to release video capturing Friday β s fatal shooting of Mr. Crutcher .
Videos from a dashboard camera and a helicopter showing the fatal shooting of the unarmed black man were released just three days after he was killed . The videos show Mr. Crutcher walking back to his vehicle with his hands above his head just before he is shot .
A lawyer for the white police officer who opened fire , Betty Shelby , said she fired because she believed Mr. Crutcher was reaching back into his vehicle for a weapon . A vial of PCP was later recovered from Mr. Crutcher β s car but no weapon , police said .
Lawyers for Mr. Crutcher β s family have used police videos that captured the incident to point out what they claim is a flaw in the officer β s account . Attorney Benjamin Crump said the images show that the vehicle β s window is closed and smeared with blood .
β He is not threatening to anyone , β Mr. Crump said . β How can he be reaching into the car if the window is up and there is blood on the glass ? β
The Tulsa video has elicited reaction from the presidential nominees .
β People that choke , people that do that , maybe they can β t be doing what they β re doing , β said Republican nominee Donald Trump , referring to the officer who opened fire .
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton called the contents of the video β unbearable . β
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Mr. Crutcher β s death in Tulsa , and it is β assessing β Mr. Scott β s death , said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch .
β These tragic incidents have once again left Americans with feelings of sorrow , anger and uncertainty , β she said Wednesday . β They have once again highlighted β in the most vivid and painful terms β the real divisions that still persist in this nation between law enforcement and communities of color . β
Ms. Lynch and other leaders urged those angered by the deaths to remain calm as the incidents are investigated . | mtibQjofi1QAtJwv | 2 | Violence In America | -0.3 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
violence_in_america | BBC News | http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43474309 | US school shooting: Gunman dies after being shot in Maryland | 2018-03-20 | Violence In America, Gun Control And Gun Rights | A gunman who shot and injured two teenage students at a high school in the US state of Maryland was shot dead after a gunfight with a police officer .
Austin Wyatt Rollins , 17 , shot a 16-year-old girl , who is in a critical condition , and a 14-year-old boy .
The attack happened on Tuesday morning before lessons at Great Mills High School in St Mary 's County , 65 miles ( 104km ) south-east of Washington DC .
Rollins had a prior relationship with the girl , Sheriff Tim Cameron said .
The school shooting comes a month after a high school shooter killed 17 in Parkland , Florida .
St Mary 's County Sheriff 's Deputy Blaine Gaskill , who was assigned to the school as a resource officer , exchanged gunfire with the attacker but it is unclear if the gunman was hit by the guard 's gunfire or shot himself .
Mr Cameron said the shooting began in a hallway at the school .
The gunman fired at a female and then a male student , hitting them both , he said .
`` Our school resource officer who was stationed inside the school was alerted , '' he told reporters .
`` He pursued the shooter , engaged the shooter . During that engagement he fired a round at the shooter .
`` Simultaneously , the shooter fired a round as well , '' he said .
Mr Gaskill was not hurt , Mr Cameron said , adding that the gunman 's cause of death was still under investigation .
The female student is in a critical condition in hospital .
Some 1,600 students attend the school in the community of Great Mills near the Chesapeake Bay and were evacuated to a nearby school after the event .
Federal agents from the FBI , and the bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco , Firearms and Explosives - as well as local police - are at the school investigating the incident .
One Twitter user , who appears to be a student at the school , posted about the shootings .
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has also expressed concern , saying `` prayers are not enough '' .
`` Today 's horrible events should not be an excuse to pause our conversation about school safety , '' he said in a statement .
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the attack serves as `` another tragic and exasperating reminder of the enduring threat of gun violence '' , and called upon `` our so-called leaders in Washington '' to take action to stem gun attacks .
The shooting comes four days before the March for Our Lives rally for student safety inspired by the 14 February massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in southern Florida . | 0e4691a64119145a | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
coronavirus | Breitbart News | https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/23/pelosi-coronavirus-plan-nationwide-ballot-harvesting-for-2020-election/ | Pelosi Coronavirus Plan: Nationwide Ballot Harvesting for 2020 Election | 2020-03-23 | Coronavirus, Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi, US Congress, Elections | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi β s ( D-CA ) plan to fight the coronavirus includes a national mandate for ballot harvesting , same-day voter registration , and federally-mandated early voting provisions just in time for the 2020 presidential election .
As part of Pelosi β s coronavirus plan , House Democrats slipped in multiple measures from their H.R . 1 legislation that would implement nationwide ballot harvesting for federal elections β effectively allowing political operatives to collect and deliver an endless number of absentee ballots from voters .
Pelosi β s coronavirus plan allows β any person to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot β to a designated election office or post office and does not limit the number of absentee ballots that any one person can collect .
California is the only state in the United States to legalize ballot harvesting , though the practice occurs in other states as well . Pelosi β s coronavirus plan would legalize California-style ballot harvesting in every state for federal elections .
Pelosi β s coronavirus plan also mandates nationwide same-day voter registration , where eligible voters are allowed to register to vote on the same day as the 2020 presidential election and every federal election after that . Pelosi would also ban states from requiring voter registration applicants to provide more than the last four digits of their Social Security Numbers when applying to vote .
Early voting in every state for 15 consecutive days , open for at least 10 hours a day
Pelosi β s coronavirus plan uses the pandemic to cram provisions of the House Democrats β H.R . 1 legislation into federal law . That legislation went even further in its efforts to create loopholes for voter fraud , allowing convicted felons to vote in federal elections .
House Democrats on Monday blocked the passage of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act , which would have provided direct relief to American workers , citizens , and small businesses impacted by the coronavirus crisis .
John Binder is a reporter for βββ . Follow him on Twitter at @ JxhnBinder . | 1180119854a0218d | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
polarization | The Week - News | http://theweek.com/articles/662063/how-identity-politics-blew-democrats-faces | How identity politics blew up in Democrats' faces | 2016-11-21 | Polarization | What's the matter with America?That seems to be the burning question on the tongues of many liberals in the wake of Donald Trump's stunning upset victory over Hillary Clinton. And in a way, that question is a mash-up response to two popular theories on America's political landscape, the first laid out in Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas?, and the second in The Emerging Democratic Majority by John Judis and Ruy Teixera. These books offer a clear window into how liberals understand not only the broad political landscape, but themselves and their actions within it.In the latter book, Judis and Teixera claim that America's "shifting demographics were giving rise to a strong new Democratic-voting population base," an "alliance between minorities, working and single women, the college educated, and skilled professionals," as the authors put it in a 2012 article crowing about Barack Obama's re-election victory. They called this majority "McGovern's Revenge," since the 1972 Democratic nominee bet on precisely such a coalition and got walloped.Subscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Sign upIf 2012 was McGovern's Revenge, then 2016 was Nixon's Revenge. To put it bluntly, it turns out that whites are still a majority in America, and that if you polarize the electorate along racial lines, the majority group will be the winning coalition. It's arithmetic.But do Americans really vote along racial lines? In some ways, that's what Frank argued in 2005's What's the Matter with Kansas. In his view, Republicans had essentially conned working-class whites into voting against their economic interests by agitating them with racial and social conservative appeals. It seemed unfathomable to Frank and plenty of other liberals that poor and working-class white people in states like Kansas could back Republicans when Democratic economic policies were (supposedly) so much better for these voters.Now, there is a perfectly good argument that many conservative policies β like, say, the earned income tax credit, or broken windows policing β are good for the economic interests of working-class Americans (of all races, by the way). This is a point that conservatives have been arguing for decades, often going blue in the face. But let's set that aside for a moment. What of the idea that Americans should or do vote with their economic self-interest as their primary concern? A sincerely pro-life voter might vote for the pro-life party even against her own economic self-interest if abortion is her top priority. This is not only not deranged, it's admirable.But okay β let's just assume that economic self-interest is indeed the most important concern for most voters. And in 2016, according to exit polls, that was indeed the case: The economy was top of mind for voters.So who tried to be the candidate of the working class? Well, Donald Trump claimed he'd offer strong economic stimulus, in particular for the working class. He promised a huge infrastructure spending plan, across-the-board tax cuts (for the rich too, yes), low interest rates (he's a builder, after all), protecting and possibly even expanding entitlements, amazing health care for all, and protectionist industrial policy, all while twisting the arms of big businesses in various ways. Oh, and fewer foreign wars, which do end up being mostly fought by the children of the working class. (Can we count "not dying for a feckless adventure" as in their interests?)Against that, what did Hillary Clinton offer America's working class? Well, she offered continuity with existing policy, with just a smattering of populist-lite items like a hike to the minimum wage. But if there's one thing that has been apparent over the past few years, it's that many Americans, particularly downscale Americans, aren't fans of the current political consensus, what with double-digit increases to ObamaCare premiums and 7 million American men out of work. Not great. And between her ultimate political insider status and her shady foundation fundraising, she came across as the virtual incarnation of America's moneyed, self-dealing elite.What did she focus on instead? An avalanche of appeals to identity politics. Most of her political ads were aimed at bashing Trump for his bigotry toward minorities and women. Don't get me wrong β those attacks were well-deserved. But Clinton's campaign made a conscious choice to win by portraying Trump as the enemy of minorities, rather than by making a case for their candidate as the champion of downscale Americans. That the Clinton campaign's strategy rested on mobilizing voters along racial lines isn't some dirty secret: It's something they bragged about at multiple stages of the campaign.With the benefit of hindsight, is it any wonder Trump roared to victory on a wave of working-class voters β and not just whites, but Latinos and blacks, too?That Trump is a grotesque and immoral character whose naked appeals to white supremacism are also grotesque and immoral is something we can and should all acknowledge. But we should simultaneously note that in this election cycle, both political coalitions have worked very, very hard at keeping the electorate polarized along racial lines. And if we buy Frank's premises, we have to contemplate the possibility that it is now the Democrats, the party of money and privilege, who are hard at work getting working-class voters to vote against their interests for the benefit of the aristocracy. | 8710325ce685d2ed | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Daily Kos | http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/23/1623943/-After-the-march-the-real-organizing-starts | After The March, The Real Organizing Starts | 2017-01-23 | politics | It β s possible that Saturday was the single largest day of protest ever in the United States , with march after march across the country exceeding all expectations . The fact that the marches were so organic , with organizers scrambling to keep up with popular demand rather than working to mobilize people to show up , was one of the beautiful things about Saturday , but it β s also a challenge . How many of those millions of people will stay active ? How can organizers ensure that this is a moment of movement-building and not of collective venting that leaves participants thinking they β ve done their part and can relax now ?
Donald Trump and the Republican Congress may be the best organizers of all , but march organizers and progressive groups are ready to do their part :
Within minutes after the march in Washington ended at sundown on Saturday , its leaders convened a four-hour pep rally and networking session called β Where Do We Go From Here ? β On Sunday , Planned Parenthood held a training session for 2,000 organizers on turning mobilization into political action , with health care atop its priority list . David Brock , the Democratic activist , assembled a group of about 120 leading liberal donors in Aventura , Fla. , to hear plans for lawsuits and other challenges to Mr. Trump . [ ... ] Todd Gitlin , a former president of Students for a Democratic Society and a scholar of political movements , noted that the civil rights and antiwar movements succeeded because of the organized networks that preceded and followed any single mass protest . β The march on Washington in 1963 was the culmination of years of local activism , including civil disobedience , registering voters , protecting civil rights workers and voter education movements , β he said . β Organizations need to be ready to receive the protesters when they β re ready to take the next step . You need to be a full-service movement. β That effort , the organizers say , is already underway . At the panel Saturday night , representatives from the partner groups made 90-second pitches to the marchers , urging them to sign up for any of the organizations that appealed to them . The key , Ms. Poo said , was to build a continuous relationship with voters and volunteers so that they are not only approached before elections .
Elections are important . ( So important ! ) But they β re not the only thing . We have at least two years during which we need to fight tooth and nail to keep Republicans from completely shredding the safety net , redistributing wealth upward , and gutting President Obama β s legacy . We need people showing up to hold their Republican representatives accountable . People flooding lawmakers β offices with calls over bad legislationβand not just federal officeholders , but state and local ones , too . Voter registration drives . Union and other worker organizing . Signature collecting and door-knocking for the next round of progressive ballot measures , from minimum wage to paid leave to taxing the rich .
On Saturday , the people overwhelmed the organization . Now organizers are scrambling to turn marchers into activists in an ongoing way . But if you marched , you can also organize yourselfβchoose a cause , choose a group , make sure that marching was just your first step and that we β re building power for the future . | FX0t5JdPI192eVlZ | 0 | Women's March | 0.2 | Politics | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
voting_rights_and_voter_fraud | CBN | http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2019/february/an-army-of-youth | OPINION: The Left's Political Fountain of Youth | 2019-02-04 | Voting Rights And Voter Fraud, Elections | The relentless culture warriors on the left have come up with a new recruitment tool : a constitutional amendment that would allow teens as young as 16 to vote . First proposed in Congress last August by Rep. Grace Meng , D-N.Y. , this movement has since appeared in other places , imitating the popular arcade game , Whac-A-Mole .
It surfaced again in October in Nebraska , where a state senator proposed a state constitutional amendment to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local and state elections . Soon after , city council members in Washington , D.C. , proposed allowing youngsters to cast ballots in presidential elections . Fortunately , two sponsors of the legislation changed their minds , and it was tabled in mid-November .
Do n't be deceived , though . Several smaller cities in Maryland allow minors to vote in local elections . You can rest assured other municipalities and states will imitate this rush to foolishness .
Aside from their preposterous arguments , sponsors of such bills are engaging in `` feel good '' politics . After all , a study released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that 18- to-24-year-olds consistently lag other age groups in voting turnouts . Go back to 1976 , one of the first elections when 18-year-olds were eligible to vote . Their demographic represented 18 percent of all eligible voters , but only 13 percent actually voted . Can we expect those even younger to appreciate this privilege ?
However , there is a method to this madness . Add impressionable young people to the leftist culture warriors ' army of illegal immigrants and how can they lose ? The only thing they have left to do is hope ill-informed voters will embrace their destructive ideological plans for America .
I have nothing against the younger generation ; after all , they are the future of American business and government . I do , however , have a problem with the public educational system in effect coercing young people into voting a particular way and instilling in them a distorted , twisted and slanted worldviewβnamely , one that favors a governmental system that will only provide more social control and more power to a particular party .
What this means is we could have a voting bloc that will never have an opportunity to learn and ponder the historical values of our cherished freedoms . I am referring to positive achievements like capitalism , the opportunity to worship freely , the blessings of living with the advantages of free markets and competition , and the opportunities for prosperity and success that go along with those things .
Meanwhile , the left seeks to indoctrinate young people in the loony idea that we should abolish any kind of moral compass or absolute truths as found in the Bible ( funny how much they like free speech until someone publicly quotes Scripture ) . Of course , such a move will also mean the destruction of the Judeo-Christian values that helped establish this America . I fear following such a course would render our Constitution of little value and lead to a very different America than that intended by our founding fathers .
It pains me to think that this could be a part of any political party agenda and platform . Still , it is difficult to see anything emerging from this but a fundamental reorganization of a party 's ideology to fit an agenda aimed at gaining power , longevity and political dominance . The worst part isβlike most politicians in Washington , D.C.βsuch advocates have a unique inability to comprehend the unintended consequences of their utopian fantasies . Nor can they perceive the catastrophic events that would lie ahead for America through the destruction of our foundations and the Constitution that has served us so well for more than 240 years .
Dan Celia is president and CEO of Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries , Inc. , and host of the nationally syndicated radio and television program `` Financial Issues , '' heard daily on more than 650 stations across the country and reaching millions of households on several TV networks . Visit www.financialissues.org . | 3f2e4da810f3de66 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
violence_in_america | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/26/us/maryland-mall-shooting/index.html?iref=allsearch | Police: Gunman in deadly mall attack identified as Darion Marcus Aguilar | 2014-01-26 | violence_in_america | Story highlights Shooting victim is remembered as an amazing artist and mother
Still no known relationship between the shooter and his victims
Gunman killed the 2 employees inside a skate shop in the mall
Police say the man arrived at a busy mall in Columbia , Maryland , in a cab , about an hour before he walked into a small shop and fired a shotgun at least half a dozen times , killing two people who worked there .
Why Darion Marcus Aguilar shot two people to death and then killed himself is still a mystery to police . They 're investigating who the 19-year-old man was and whether he even knew the people he shot Saturday .
`` I know there 's a lot of interest in the motive for this , and I have as much interest in that as anybody , '' Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon told reporters Sunday .
He said there was still no known relationship between the shooter and his victims , though he did not rule out the possibility that there was one .
Police said that Aguilar showed up at The Mall in Columbia in a taxi and stayed in a `` generally confined area '' before going to Zumiez , a shop that caters to skaters , on the second floor .
Police released this photo of shooting suspect Darion Marcus Aguilar .
There he fired six to nine shots , killing 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson before turning the shotgun on himself .
The shootings , which left five other people injured , ended a violent week which saw shootings or gun scares at American schools or shopping centers -- ordinary places where people once felt safe .
McMahon identified Aguilar as the shooter at a Sunday morning update for reporters .
Aguilar purchased the 12-gauge shotgun , made by Mossberg , in December , the chief said .
JUST WATCHED Police identify Maryland mall shooter Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Police identify Maryland mall shooter 01:29
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He added that police served a search and seizure warrant at the shooter 's house and retrieved documents , computers and other potential evidence , including a journal .
In that journal , Aguilar `` does express some general unhappiness with his life , but I really do n't have any other information about that now , '' the chief said .
On Saturday , a federal official briefed on the shooting told CNN that preliminary information suggested the shooter aimed only at the two victims , perhaps indicating it was a domestic situation and not a wider shooting spree .
Benlolo was an assistant manager at the store and had worked there since November 2012 , according to her Facebook page .
Evelyn McDonald , her close friend , called the shooting shocking and a `` complete tragedy . ''
`` She was just full of energy . She was so nice and just an amazing artist and just an amazing person inside and out , '' McDonald told CNN .
`` She loved her son . She loved being a mother , '' McDonald said .
Johnson had worked at the store for about three months , according to his Facebook page .
Aguilar had a backpack that contained two homemade bombs , police said . Both were disabled .
The first 911 call about the shooting came at about 11:15 a.m. , and officers were in the mall within two minutes , police said .
Investigators said there were thousands of people in the mall at the time , with many hiding in fear behind store counters , in restrooms or in fitting rooms for hours after the shooting stopped .
`` Think about this , on a Saturday afternoon at the mall , how many people may be in there , '' McMahon said Saturday . `` Something like this happens and people run in many directions , and they also do what we train them to do -- to shelter in place . ''
Five people were transported to Howard County General Hospital , a hospital spokeswoman said in a statement . All were treated and later released .
Four of them suffered injuries related to the chaotic scene after the shots rang out , including one with a seizure and at least one with a sprained ankle , according to McMahon .
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The other injured victim suffered a gunshot wound to the foot . Police said the woman was n't in Zumiez ; rather she was on the first floor when she was struck .
The gunfire sent shoppers and workers running for cover , witnesses told CNN .
`` It 's a mall shooting , '' one mall worker , identified only as K.T. , told CNN . `` No one knows what 's going on . In today 's world , you hear gunshots and you run . ''
The staccato of gunfire was followed by the cries and screams of children and adults running or ducking for cover , the employee said .
`` A lot of kids were crying , and mothers were holding onto them , '' K.T . said . `` I was n't worried about me . I was just making sure everybody was OK . ''
Once the shooting stopped , SWAT team members moved from store to store .
`` It was just crazy , '' said K.T. , who snapped a picture of a shot-riddled wall near the shooting scene . `` It 's one of those things you see on TV but never expect you 'll go through . ''
Police said Sunday that 20 K-9 units checked the mall and found no more devices .
The mall is expected to reopen Monday at 1 p.m . ET .
`` We are deeply saddened by the violence that has occurred this morning within our store in Maryland at The Mall in Columbia , '' Zumiez CEO Rick Brooks said . `` We 're making arrangements for counseling to be made available to Zumiez employees in the area . ''
The mall shooting was the latest instance last week of gun violence or threats of it in ordinary places across the country .
A student was shot dead Friday afternoon at South Carolina State University , prompting a manhunt for several suspects that extended beyond the school 's Orangeburg campus .
On Wednesday , the University of Oklahoma in Norman briefly shut down after a report of a possible shooting that apparently turned out to be a false alarm , the university 's president said .
On Tuesday , a gunman shot and killed another student inside Purdue University 's electrical engineering building . Police said Cody Cousins , 23 , an engineering student , killed Andrew Boldt , 21 , of West Bend , Wisconsin . Cousins was charged with murder .
On Monday , a student was shot and critically injured near a gym at Widener University near Philadelphia . Police were looking for a suspect . | 9JuQK2f9PgqQKcYM | 0 | Violence In America | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
world | Washington Times | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/19/abdelhamid-abaaoud-mastermind-paris-attacks-confir/ | Abdelhamid Abaaoud, mastermind of Paris attacks, confirmed dead in police raid | 2015-11-19 | world | PARIS ( AP ) β The Belgian extremist suspected of masterminding the deadly attacks in Paris died a day ago along with his female cousin in a police raid on a suburban apartment building , French officials said Thursday , adding it was still not clear exactly how he died .
The body of Abdelhamid Abaaoud , 27 , was found in the building targeted Wednesday in the chaotic , bloody raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis and was identified based on skin samples , the Paris prosecutor β s office said Thursday .
Abaaoud ended up near Paris after reportedly being in Syria but officials have not said how he managed to travel across so many borders en route to the French capital . In addition , authorities have not detailed his exact whereabouts or actions during the deadly rampage that killed 129 people last week in Paris .
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France did not know before last week β s deadly attacks that Abaaoud was in Europe , but said he was believed to be behind four of six attacks thwarted since spring by French authorities .
Three police officials have told The Associated Press that a woman who died in the police raid was Abaaoud β s cousin . One said the woman , Hasna Aitboulahcen , is believed to have detonated a suicide vest Wednesday in the building after a brief conversation with police officers .
The official confirmed an audio recording , punctuated by gunshots , in which an officer asks : β Where is your boyfriend ? β and she responds angrily : β He β s not my boyfriend ! β Then loud bangs are heard .
The bodies recovered in the raid were badly mangled , with part of Aitboulahcen β s spine landing on a police car , slowing down the identification process , according to one of the officials .
The three all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to divulge details of the investigation .
French police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls , surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that Abaaoud was holed up in the apartment . Eight people were arrested in the raid .
In Belgium , authorities launched six raids in the Brussels region Thursday linked to Bilal Hadfi , one of the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France .
An official in the Belgian federal prosecutor β s office told The Associated Press the raids were taking place in the suburb of Molenbeek and other areas of Brussels . The official , who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing , said the actions were focusing on Hadfi β s β entourage . β
With France still reeling from the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 129 and wounded hundreds , France β s lower house of parliament , the National Assembly , voted Thursday to extend a state of emergency for three months . The measure now goes to the Senate , where it likely will be approved .
The state of emergency expands police powers to carry out arrests and searches , and allows authorities to forbid the movement of people and vehicles at specific times and places .
Prime Minister Manuel Valls had pressed for the state of emergency extension , warning that Islamic extremists might at use chemical or biological weapons .
β Terrorism hit France not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria β¦ but for what it is , β Valls told lawmakers . β We know that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons . β
Valls did not say there was a specific threat against France involving such weapons , however .
Elsewhere in Europe , jittery leaders and law enforcement moved to protect their citizens as Rob Wainwright , director of the European Union β s police coordination agency Europol , warned of β a very serious escalation β of the terror threat in Europe .
βIn Italy , Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said law enforcement was searching for five people flagged by the FBI in response to a U.S. warning about potential targets following the Paris attacks . The State Department issued a warning Wednesday that St. Peter β s Basilica in Rome , Milan β s cathedral and La Scala opera house , as well as churches , synagogues , restaurants , theaters and hotels had been identified as β potential targets . β
β Danish and Norwegian police were asked to be on the lookout for a man who Swedish authorities said is wanted in connection with an investigation into β preparing for a terrorist offense. β Sweden β s Security Service , known as SAPO , said the request was not linked to the Paris attacks .
β In Belgium , where many of the Paris attackers lived , Prime Minister Charles Michel announced a package of additional anti-terror measures , and said 400 million euros ( $ 427 million ) would be earmarked to expand the fight .
Michel told lawmakers that security personnel will be increased and special attention will be paid to eradicating messages of hate . He also called for more international cooperation , and said he wants to amend the Belgian constitution to extend the length of time terror suspects can be held by police without charge .
β All democratic forces have to work together to strengthen our security , β Michel said .
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged the international community to do more to eradicate the Islamic State group , which has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks on a rock concert , Parisian cafes and the national stadium .
Fabius , speaking on France-Inter radio , said the group β is a monster . But if all the countries in the world aren β t capable of fighting against 30,000 people ( IS members ) , it β s incomprehensible . β
France has stepped up its airstrikes against extremists in Syria , and French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said Thursday that French forces have destroyed 35 Islamic State targets in Syria since the attacks on Paris .
French President Francois Hollande is going to Washington and Moscow next week to push for a stronger international coalition against IS . Speaking after the seven-hour siege in Saint-Denis , Hollande said that France was β at war β with the Islamic State group .
In its English-language magazine , Islamic State said it will continue its violence and β retaliate with fire and bloodshed β for insults against the Prophet Muhammad and β the multitudes killed and injured in crusader airstrikes . β
Francois Molins , the Paris prosecutor , said Wednesday that investigators found a cellphone in a garbage can outside the Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris where 89 attack victims died . It contained a text message sent about 20 minutes after the massacre began . β We β re off , it β s started , β it read .
Molins said investigators were still trying to identify the recipient of the message .
Seven of the Paris attackers died on the same night as the attacks . French authorities have said most of the attackers β five have been identified so far β were unknown to them . But two U.S. officials said that many , though not all , of those identified were on the U.S. no-fly list . The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren β t authorized to discuss the issue publicly .
A Spanish security official said French authorities had sent a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam , whose brother , Brahim , was among the attackers who blew themselves up .
French authorities declared a state of emergency after the attacks , and security forces have conducted 414 raids , making 60 arrests and seizing 75 weapons , including 11 military-style firearms .
Casert reported from Brussels . John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels and Lori Hinnant in Paris also contributed . | bAGVXfUXN2JbTttn | 2 | World | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
joe_biden | National Review (News) | https://www.nationalreview.com/news/comer-invites-joe-biden-to-testify-on-yawning-gap-between-public-denials-and-evidence-of-influence-peddling/ | Comer Invites Joe Biden to Testify on βYawning Gapβ between Public Denials and Evidence of Influence Peddling | 2024-03-28 | Joe Biden, James Comer, US House, Impeachment, Hunter Biden, Corruption, Politics, Polarization | National Review U.S. Catholic Bishops Condemn Trumpβs Push to Make IVF Cheaper, More Accessible L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Claims She Wasnβt βAwareβ of Wildfire Warnings When She Left the Country Senate Confirms Kash Patel as FBI Director Trump Pushes for Federal Takeover of D.C. as GOP Bill Remains in Limbo Mitch McConnell Announces He Wonβt Seek Reelection Next Year House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) is officially inviting President Joe Biden to answer questions about his familyβs foreign business dealings. Comer wrote a letter to President Biden Thursday afternoon asking Biden to testify so he can explain the role he appears to have played in his familyβs alleged influence-peddling schemes, the main focus of the House GOPβs impeachment inquiry into the president. βThe Committee has accounted for over $24 million that has flowed from foreign sources to you, your family, and their business associates. The Committee has identified no legitimate services to merit such lucrative payments,β Comerβs letter begins. βYou have repeatedly denied playing any role in your familyβs business activities, but the Committee has amassed evidenceβincluding bank records and witness testimonyβthat wholly contradicts your position on these matters,β the letter continues. βIn light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the Committee, as well as the White Houseβs obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer questions from Members of Congress directly, and I hereby invite you to do so.β The letter summarizes the impeachment inquiry to date and the findings surrounding the Biden family business dealings based on suspicious activity reports, Biden family bank records, and witness testimony. Joe Bidenβs apparent meetings with his sonβs Ukrainian, Russian and Chinese business associates are highlighted by Comerβs letter. Comer asks the president in the letter to answer in writing ten specific questions about his involvement in the family business dealings. βThe public is left with two irreconcilable narratives. The first β asserted by you β is that you did not engage in influence peddling in exchange for payments to your family,β Comer wrote. βThe second β asserted by witnesses and a body of evidence β¦ is that you were indeed involved in these pay-for-influence schemes and that you have been repeatedly untruthful regarding a matter relevant to national security and your own fitness to serve as President of the United States.β Last week, Comer announced his upcoming request to Biden at a hearing with his sonβs former business partners Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis. The ex-business associates recalled Hunter Biden using his father during negotiations with foreign business partners over lucrative deals. White House spokesman Ian Sams dismissed Comerβs announcement last week for being a βstuntβ meant to conclude a βdead impeachment.β Sams shared a meme on X Thursday afternoon mocking the official request. In particular, Bobulinski recalled meeting Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and brother James to discuss a joint venture proposal with Chinese infrastructure conglomerate CEFC, a deal Hunter and James Biden worked on soon after Joeβs vice presidency concluded. Hunter Biden and former business partner Devon Archer, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry, declined to show up to the hearing. Archer testified last year and described how the Biden family βbrandβ helped protect Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings from scrutiny. Importantly, Archer said Joe Biden spoke to his sonβs business partners on speakerphone roughly 20 times and met them at two high-end dinners. Burisma brought Hunter Biden and Archer onto its board in spring 2014 and each made roughly $1 million a year initially, bank records show. Once Joe Biden left office, the firm dramatically reduced Hunter Bidenβs salary, the tax indictment against Hunter indicates. Last month, Hunter Biden testified and corroborated central aspects of Archer and Bobulinskiβs stories. Joe Biden met Burisma executive Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev and Chinese business partner Jonathan Li, Hunter confirmed. The younger Biden also confirmed Pozharskyiβs presence at one of the dinners Archer mentioned. An email from Hunter Bidenβs abandoned laptop archive indicates Pozharskyi and Joe Biden met in April 2015, the New York Post first reported ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Comerβs letter focuses on Joe Bidenβs role leading the Obama administrationβs Ukraine policy as well as his sonβs foreign business dealings with Burisma. The specific action Comer highlights is Joe Bidenβs pressure on Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin and whether doing so helped Burisma evade legal punishment. In addition, Hunter Biden said his father met Bobulinski in California when Joe was set to speak at the Milken Institute conference. However, James Biden denied ever shaking hands with Bobulinski, despite being shown exhibits indicating otherwise. The Bidens have disparaged Bobulinski as a disgruntled former business partner who was angry that the CEFC deal fell through. Instead, Hunter and James created a joint venture with CEFC called Hudson West III to explore U.S. liquid-natural-gas deals. The Bidens hauled in millions from the venture despite failing to secure any deals, according to bank records, witness testimony, and Hunter Bidenβs tax indictment. During the negotiations, Hunter Biden sent a Chinese business associate a threatening text in July 2017 invoking his fatherβs presence, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley first disclosed last year. Hunter Biden said he regretted the text and was so high on drugs he sent it to the wrong Chinese business partner. Months earlier, in March 2017, CEFC wired $3 million to Hunter Bidenβs business partner Rob Walker, shortly after Joe Bidenβs vice presidency concluded. Walker sent $1 million of the funds to Hunter Biden and his family members, bank records show. Around the time of the payment, Joe Biden met CEFC officials including chairman Ye Jianming, Walker testified. NR Daily is delivered right to you every afternoon. No charge. At the start of the hearing, Bobulinski accused Hunter and James Biden of lying under oath about the CEFC dealings and noted their contradictory testimony on their relationship with him. Notably, Bobulinski voiced support for impeaching Joe Biden and claimed he committed various crimes through his role in the Biden family business enterprise. Similarly, Galanis claimed Hunter Biden promised access to Joe Biden, what Galanis called the βBiden lift,β and called up his father to help close potential deals. In one instance, Galanis alleges Hunter Biden called his father and put him on speakerphone to talk to Russian oligarch Elena Baturina to secure an investment for a client. Devon Archer recalled Baturina meeting Joe Biden at a spring 2014 dinner in Washington, D.C., but Hunter could not definitively recall Baturinaβs presence at the dinner. Galanis testified remotely because he is serving a lengthy prison sentence for defrauding a native American tribe by selling fake bonds. Archer awaits a year and a day in prison for participating in the bond scheme. Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any involvement in his sonβs foreign business dealings, despite the evidence indicating otherwise. Send a tip to the news team at NR. Acting ICE director Caleb Vitello is being removed from his post and reassigned. We should be wary of throwing tax dollars at an industry that commodifies babies and bodies and is rife with risk. Trump reiterated his threat to withhold federal funding from Maine over its defiance of his executive order barring men from womenβs sports. The men successfully changed voter registration information for about three dozen people in Delaware County in 2021. The suit claims that SpaceX violated federal law by requiring applicants to be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Senate Republicans are likely to be more on defense than offense in 2026, but the field will be small unless and until the environment deteriorates. Β© 2025 National Review Newsletters Β© 2025 National Review | 2a43f95786f1ccb4 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
immigration | The Hill | http://thehill.com/latino/388106-koch-brothers-fund-political-ads-praising-dems-on-immigration | Koch brothers fund political ads praising Dems on immigration | 2018-05-17 | immigration | The Koch Network is using its LIBRE Initiative to thank a number of Democrats that are working to find a permanent legal solution for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ) recipients .
The mega-donor brothers are known for their regular backing of conservative causes , donating millions of dollars to back GOP candidates , but NPR reports that the LIBRE Initiative is putting money behind praising Democrats who have shown a willingness to work on finding a legislative fix for DACA while also backing stronger border security initiatives .
LIBRE is an outreach of the Koch network that focuses on a number of issues for the Hispanic community .
`` This stands out . People when they talk about the Koch network ... they point at areas like tax reform , where we 've worked very closely with Republican members , '' Wadi Gaitan , a spokesman for LIBRE , told NPR .
`` Here on this issue , we have Democrats where we want to make sure that their constituents are aware that they are working on a permanent solution for Dreamers and on border security , '' he added . `` So it certainly is a unique effort . ''
One mailer funded by the Koch Network offers praise for Delaware Sen. Christopher Coons Christopher ( Chris ) Andrew Coons Democrats seize on whistleblower report to push for election security Senate committee approves 0 million for state election security efforts Media and candidates should be ashamed that they do n't talk about obesity MORE ( D ) , noting that `` more than 90 % of Americans want protection for the Dreamers . ''
`` Thank you Sen. Coons for supporting a permanent solution for Dreamers , '' it adds .
Not all the ads are directed at Democrats . Six GOP House lawmakers and three Republican senators will receive praise from the group , NPR reports .
The LIBRE network told NPR that the project was part of a `` seven-figure '' spending effort by the Koch Network aimed at finding a permanent fix for the `` Dreamer '' issue . According to Gaitan , ads will target TV and digital audiences while the group also branches out into congressional advocacy , including working with more Democrats .
`` In order to get this through the House and Senate , it is important for Democrats to be at the table ... for us , it 's how do we achieve the goal ? '' Gaitan said . `` And what we said is we 're willing to work with whoever to make sure that we 're getting good policy through Congress . ''
The Trump administration announced last year that it would end the Obama-era DACA program that granted protected status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children , sometimes called Dreamers .
Congress originally hoped to pass a permanent legislative fix for the nearly 2 million immigrants affected by the decision before March 5 , when the first protections began to end , but were unable to come to an agreement .
Since the decision last year , several federal courts have ruled that the Trump administration must maintain the Obama-era program , and this week a California-based federal appeals court appeared unlikely to toss out a lower court ruling forcing the program to be maintained .
In March , the Supreme Court rejected a request from the Trump administration to take up the case , leaving the ruling for a lower court .
Updated at 8:02 a.m. Friday to clarify that LIBRE is praising Democrats for their stance on DACA | zfLRBzzfqGiUbvmS | 1 | DACA | 0.3 | Immigration | 0.2 | Koch Brothers | 0.2 | null | null | null | null |
politics | Business Insider | https://www.businessinsider.com/cory-mills-vote-israel-aid-impeach-biden-rafah-2024-5?op=1 | Republican who voted twice against Israel aid wants to impeach Biden for threatening to hold it back | 2024-05-10 | Politics, Republican Party, Joe Biden, Articles Of Impeachment, Israel Hamas Violence, Israel, Foreign Policy | Rep. Cory Mills of Florida voted against aid to Israel. Now he wants to impeach Biden for threatening to withhold some of it.Rep. Cory Mills of Florida voted against aid to Israel. Now he wants to impeach Biden for threatening to withhold some of it. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesThis story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Rep. Cory Mills wants to impeach President Joe Biden for withholding military aid to Israel that the Florida Republican voted against β twice.While stressing that he would continue to supply defensive weapons to Israel, Biden said in a CNN interview earlier this week that the US would not supply further offensive weapons β including bombs and artillery shells β to the Jewish state if it proceeds with a full-scale invasion of Rafah, which could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. The US has already paused the transfer of thousands of other bombs.Mills, a freshman lawmaker and former arms dealer, argued that Biden's move amounted to a quid pro quo. "Joe Biden is pressuring Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East, by pausing their funding that has already been approved in the House, if they don't stop all operations with Hamas," Mills told Fox News. "It's a very clear message, 'this for that.'"Yet when the House voted to approve that very aid last month, Mills was among the 21 Republicans who voted against it, leading the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to halt fundraising to the Florida congressman.Mills was among the 14 Republicans who voted against a clean standalone Israel aid bill in February. While otherwise staunchly pro-Israel, Mills has said that he is only supportive of a version of the Israel aid package that included billions in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service β a complete non-starter for Democrats, who control the Senate and White House.He has also expressed opposition to providing aid to Gaza, and April's package included more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid.I have been a strong advocate of Israelβs right to defend their citizens and eliminate terrorist organizations such as Hamas. I have personally gone to Israel right after the horrific Oct 7th attacks and helped evacuate/ rescue 255 Americans. I supported the $14B in additionalβ¦ β Cory Mills (@CoryMillsFL) February 4, 2024Like other Republicans, the Florida congressman is likening Biden's moves to former President Donald Trump's leveraging of military aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating Hunter Biden, which spurred Trump's first impeachment.Related stories Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to knowBut the two cases are quite different.Trump was impeached in part for engaging in a corrupt scheme to benefit himself politically, while Biden is withholding the aid out of concern about Israel's conduct β something that President Ronald Reagan did in 1983.Additionally, the Trump administration was found to have broken the law with his delay of Ukraine aid. Biden could find himself in the same position if he withholds the aid indefinitely, but as one expert told Business Insider, Biden isn't required to send the aid immediately. | f9c3ea1d08cd79a8 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
education | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/10/chicago-teachers-to-go-on-strike-after-talks-with-district-fail/#ixzz262AzWlVG | Chicago teachers strike for first time in 25 years after contract talks fail | 2012-09-10 | education | Thousands of teachers walked off the job Monday in Chicago , the third-largest U.S. school district , as city officials prepared to look after thousands of students who could end up wandering unsafe streets .
Some 26,000 teachers and support staff were expected to join the picket after union leaders announced they were far from resolving a contract dispute with school district officials . City officials acknowledged that children left unsupervised -- especially in neighborhoods with a history of gang violence -- might be at risk , but vowed to protect the nearly 400,000 students ' safety .
The walkout posed a tricky test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel , who said he would work to end the strike quickly .
`` This is not a strike I wanted , '' Emanuel said Sunday night , not long after the union announced the action . `` It was a strike of choice ... it 's unnecessary , it 's avoidable and it 's wrong . ''
Contract negotiations between Chicago Public School officials and union leaders that stretched through the weekend were resuming Monday .
Among teachers protesting Monday morning outside Benjamin Banneker Elementary School on Chicago 's South Side , eighth-grade teacher Michael Williams said he wanted a quick contract resolution .
`` We hoped that it would n't happen . We all want to get back to teaching , '' Williams said , adding that wages and classroom conditions need to be improved .
Officials said some 140 schools would be open between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. so the children who rely on free meals provided by the school district can eat breakfast and lunch , school district officials said .
`` We will make sure our kids are safe , we will see our way through these issues and our kids will be back in the classroom where they belong , '' Emanuel said .
The school district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students , and a number of churches , libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities .
Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he would take officers off desk duty and deploy them to deal with any teachers ' protests as well as the thousands of students who could be roaming the streets .
Union leaders and district officials were not far apart in their negotiations on compensation , Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said . But other issues -- including potential changes to health benefits and a new teacher evaluation system based partly on students ' standardized test scores -- remained unresolved , she said .
`` This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided , '' Lewis said . `` We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve . ''
Emanuel and the union officials have much at stake . Unions and collective bargaining by public employees have recently come under criticism in many parts of the country , and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute .
The timing also may be inopportune for Emanuel , a former White House chief of staff whose city administration is wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods and who just agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for President Barack Obama 's re-election campaign .
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Chicago teachers are turning their backs on thousands of students and Obama is siding with the striking teachers .
Romney , in a statement released Monday hours before he was set to land in Chicago for fundraisers , said he is disappointed by the Chicago teachers ' decision to walk out of negotiations . Romney , who has been critical of public employee unions , said he sides with parents and students over unionized teachers .
As the strike deadline approached , parents spent Sunday worrying about how much their children 's education might suffer and where their kids will go while they 're at work .
The school board was offering a fair and responsible contract that would most of the union 's demands after `` extraordinarily difficult '' talks , board president David Vitale said . Emanuel said the district offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years , doubling an earlier offer .
Lewis said among the issues of concern was a new evaluation that she said would be unfair to teachers because it relied too heavily on students ' standardized test scores and does not take into account external factors that affect performance , including poverty , violence and homelessness .
She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years . City officials disagreed and said the union has not explained how it reached that conclusion .
Emanuel said the evaluation would not count in the first year , as teachers and administrators worked out any kinks . Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said the evaluation `` was not developed to be a hammer , '' but to help teachers improve . | vaMB3mpxyzXxZlm7 | 2 | Chicago Teachers Strike | -0.6 | Education | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | CBN | http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2015/September/What-Walkers-Departure-Means-for-GOP-Field/ | What Walker's Departure Means for GOP Field | 2015-09-22 | elections | Wisconsin Gov . Scott Walker , a once rising star of the GOP presidential pack , has dropped out of the race . Now the field is scrambling to re-align .
Just this summer , Walker led the Republican field in Iowa . But on Monday , he called it quits and suggested that someone could emerge from a smaller pool of candidates with a clear conservative alternative to the current frontrunner , Donald Trump .
`` Today , I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field . With that in mind , I will suspend my campaign immediately , '' he said .
But will others drop out so that support can build around an alternative to Trump ? None are expected to do so anytime soon . In fact , they 're all vying for the Walker campaign assets .
Some believe that Sen. Marco Rubio , R-Fla. , will benefit the most from Walker 's departure . They 're both considered `` fresh faces '' with next generation appeal .
Late Monday , Rubio was already welcoming Walker staff to his team , as was Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas .
The latest CNN poll shows political outsiders Trump , former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina , and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson leading the presidential pack , with Rubio and former Florida Gov . Jeb Bush in fourth and fifth place respectively .
Meanwhile , on the Democratic side , Hillary Clinton is battling off an unexpectedly strong challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt. She 's also waiting to see if Vice President Joe Biden decides to enter the race .
In her latest campaign move , the former secretary of state is promising not only to protect Obamacare from GOP plans to repeal it Β but to improve it .
`` As the latest census numbers show , the number of uninsured continues to fall and Americans are now seeing , hearing , and feeling the full benefits of the Affordable Care Act , '' a Clinton campaign official said Saturday .
It 's already a presidential campaign year that no one could have predicted , and voters have never had so many candidates to consider .
But whether any of them will follow Walker 's advice to lead by falling back is unlikely for now . | mEJuF1PFFERWcwHO | 2 | Presidential Elections | -0.2 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
politics | Jonathan Turley | https://nypost.com/2023/12/13/opinion/dont-believe-democrats-myths-theres-clear-evidence-for-impeaching-president-biden/ | Donβt believe Democratsβ myths: Thereβs clear evidence for investigating President Biden | 2023-12-14 | Politics, Joe Biden, Impeachment, US House, US Congress, Hunter Biden | Wednesdayβs vote on the House impeachment inquiry is likely to remain a strictly partisan matter.Despite overwhelming evidence of a corrupt Biden family influence-peddling operation worth millions of dollars, not a single Democratic member is expected to vote for an inquiry into the allegations.Nearly 70% of voters (and 40% of Democrats) believe Biden has acted unlawfully or unethically or both.Yet every Democrat will vote to stop any further inquiry.Even in our blindly partisan times, that is no easy rationalization.Thatβs why members are repeating three myths like a mantra on the Hill.Theyβll likely continue as the House moves to compel testimony of key parties.When I testified at the first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing months ago, I said the threshold for an inquiry was obviously satisfied by the evidence of these massive payments and the contradictions of the presidentβs past claims.Indeed, at least four articles of impeachment could be established if the House confirms critical facts.That is the point of an inquiry: to compel not impeachment but answers. Thatβs why I encouraged the House to hold this formal vote.Three myths, however, will have to be set aside.Joe Biden did not benefit from the influence peddlingAfter years of suppressing this scandal, the media and even some Democrats now admit Hunter Biden and his uncles have long been involved in influence peddling.The United States has led global efforts to criminalize and deter this common form of corruption for years.Recent testimony from Biden associates confirmed they were selling βthe Biden Brandβ and Joe Biden regularly called into meetings and met with business associates.The last line of defense has been to argue that while millions may have been sent to Biden family members in raw influence peddling, there is no evidence Joe actually benefited from the money as opposed to his children, brothers and grandchildren.This false narrative is being repeated despite the fact courts have rejected this claim in actual criminal cases.Not only have payments to children and other family members been viewed as benefits to a defendant, but the same is true in impeachments.I served as lead counsel in the last judicial impeachment tried before the Senate.My client, Judge G. Thomas Porteous, had been impeached by the House for, among other things, benefits received by his children, including gifts related to a wedding.Itβs about Hunter Bidenβs addictions, not actionsDemocrats are again insisting that a complex, multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation was simply the product of Hunter being a blacked-out drug addict for years.The argument obviously cuts both ways.Even if Hunter was some addict thinking only about his next fix, it only highlights that these foreign figures were giving millions for access to his father, not the advice or expertise of his son.But Hunterβs own counsel has undermined this claim by arguing in Hunterβs gun case that he had emerged from his addiction just in time to sign the allegedly false gun form.Much of the misconduct occurred when Hunter was, by his own lawyersβ account, suddenly clear and responsible.The evidence belies claims that Hunter was not responsible for these transactions or the underlying influence peddling.It shows a knowing, organized effort with the involvement of his uncles and, in some cases, his father.The effort to portray Hunter as some purse-snatching junkie does not fit the evidence as he flies around the world to meet with corrupt figures and secure millions.Itβs all about Hunterβs truckThe latest myth is particularly maddening.The House Oversight Committee released new evidence showing payments to the president out of Hunterβs business accounts.The committee used the payments to show these business accounts were being used for personal payments and there was an intermingling of funds.Democrats and the media immediately latched onto payments where Hunter was allegedly paying back loans to help pay for his truck.Members told the Ways and Means Committee this was merely βa fatherβs loveβ and not anything impeachable.Itβs a cynical effort to focus on a few thousand dollars while ignoring the millions the committees detailed in months of investigation.Democratic members make it sound like the impeachment inquiry is based on a couple alleged truck payments. It is not.The truck payments are a handful among dozens of transfers found from these accounts to Hunter or his family members.The point is the proceeds of influence peddling may have been used to pay back the president, who was supporting his family members.Dollars are fungible. The money in these accounts were intermingled with personal expenses, including payments to Hunterβs father.Once again, President Biden would be viewed as benefiting from the millions of dollars going to his family even without direct payments.The question is his knowledge and involvement β not those benefits.That not a single Democrat is demanding answers about this corruption is disappointing but hardly surprising.But Biden is now facing an impeachment inquiry that will finally demand answers, not myths, on the Biden familyβs influence-peddling operation.Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School. | fa8763a29a62814b | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
elections | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/21/trump-clinton-battle-for-israel-vote-vow-support-in-major-washington-speeches.html | Trump, Clinton battle for Israel vote, vow support in major Washington speeches | 2016-03-21 | elections | Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday pledged his firm support for Israel -- vowing that if elected the country would no longer be treated like a β second-class citizen β and calling Democratic rival Hillary Clinton a β total disaster β for America β s closest Middle East ally .
β When I become president , the days of treating Israel as a second-class citizen are over , β Trump said in his speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee , the country β s most influential pro-Israel group .
β Hillary Clinton β¦ and President Obama have treated Israel very , very badly . β
The front-running Trump β s speech followed one by Clinton , Obama 's onetime secretary of state , in which she challenged Trump β s commitment to the U.S.-Israel alliance , particularly his recent call to be β neutral β in peace talks involving Israel .
β We need steady hands -- not a president who says he β s neutral on Monday , pro-Israel on Tuesday and who knows what on Wednesday , because everything β s negotiable , β the Democratic front-runner said . β Israel β s security is non-negotiable . β
Trump said in February that he 'd be `` sort of a neutral guy '' on peace talks between Israel and Palestinians . But on Monday , he pledged his full support .
β I β m a newcomer to politics but not in backing the Jewish state , β he said .
Like many Republicans , Trump bashed Obama β s recent deal with Israel 's rival Iran , in which the rogue Middle East nation agreed to curtail its development of a nuclear weapon in exchange for the lifting of billions in economic sanctions .
β My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran , β Trump said to applause . β It β s a bad deal . β
In a largely measured speech , Trump also argued that Iran is a β problem across the Middle East , β supplying weapons to an array of terror-related groups including Hezbollah , which he intends to eliminate .
β We will totally dismantle Iran β s global terror network , β Trump said . β Believe me . β
A planned walkout by some rabbis during Trump β s speech did not appear to happen .
Trump also said he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem , β the eternal capital of the Jewish people . β
He drew boos last year from the Republican Jewish Coalition when he refused to take a stance on the embassy location .
Josh Block , a former AIPAC official who now heads The Israel Project , said before Trump β s speech that Trump has said a lot of things about Israel over the years -- β most of it favorable , but some of it more ambiguous . '' And he suggested that Trump β s speech would be a good opportunity for him to β address the ambiguity before a serious foreign policy audience . ''
Fellow GOP presidential candidates Ohio Gov . John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also spoke at the conference , delivering similar remarks in which they pledged their support for Israel , criticized the Iran nuclear deal and vowed to stop terrorism across the Middle East .
The only 2016 White House hopeful who did not attend the event was Democratic candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders , who remained on the campaign trail .
Like his fellow presidential candidates , Kasich tried to make a personal connection with the thousands in attendance , recalling a trip to Israel during the holiday season in which he called home to his mother .
β I remain unwavering in my support for the Jewish state and the partnership between the United States and Israel , β he said .
Kaisch said his support for Israel has been a constant during his 30 years as a lawmaker . And he promised , if elected , to defeat terror groups including the Taliban , Al Qaeda and the Islamic State .
Kasich says he would like to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem but that it β s not a priority .
He also said he would suspend the nuclear deal because Iran has already invalidated it with recent ballistic missile tests .
AIPAC bills itself as nonpartisan and has never endorsed a candidate .
Yet the organization has delved into highly partisan political debates over issues of interest to Israel , most recently and notably the nuclear deal , which it vehemently opposed .
Cruz said he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem , a perennial Republican campaign promise .
β America will stand with Israel and defeat terror , β he added . β We need a president who will stand with Israel . β
Clinton , as secretary of state , oversaw the Obama administration 's first attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal .
Her stance against Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians has been criticized by some in the pro-Israel community , but she has been received warmly by pro-Israel groups in the past . | hIzLWmsoE0CGLqrt | 2 | Donald Trump | -0.2 | Hillary Clinton | -0.2 | Presidential Elections | -0.1 | Elections | -0.1 | null | null |
gun_control_and_gun_rights | CBS News | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cory-booker-2020-booker-unveils-bold-plan-to-curb-gun-violence/ | Cory Booker unveils "bold" plan to curb gun violence | gun_control_and_gun_rights | Democratic presidential candidate and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced a sweeping gun violence prevention plan . If elected , the campaign announced Monday that on day one of his presidency , Booker will use executive action to close gun sales loopholes and to make investments in communities affected by gun violence .
The plan , which is the most extensive gun violence prevention proposal put forth by a presidential candidate to date , prioritizes a gun licensing program whereby gun owners would be required to obtain a gun permit and pass an FBI background check . Under the proposal , the gun permit would be valid for up to five years .
`` My plan to address gun violence is simple - we will make it harder for people who should not have a gun to get one , '' Booker said in a statement . `` I am sick and tired of hearing thoughts and prayers for the communities that have been shattered by gun violence - it is time for bold action . ''
The Democratic presidential hopeful 's proposal also includes banning assault weapons , high-capacity magazines and bump stocks and closing multiple gun loopholes , including one known as the `` Boyfriend Loophole . '' According to the Giffords Law Center , federal law currently offers some protection to spouses of domestic abusers , banning those who have been convicted of domestic abuse or who are subject to domestic violence court orders from owning guns . But those protections do n't extend to partners who are not spouses .
Booker proposes extending the ban to any dating partner or former dating partner who is convicted of a misdemeanor abuse crime .
The Democrat told `` CBS This Morning '' on Monday that the issue is a personal one for him , having witnessed the impacts of gun violence firsthand in his own community of Newark , New Jersey . He said the plan was n't just policy , but an `` everyday experience for me and people in my community . ''
`` This is a bigger issue in America where we 're not approaching it or taking it on in proportion to the gravity of the consequences of our inaction , '' said Booker .
He added , `` We form governments to protect for the common defense and here we have in my lifetime more people being killed by gun violence in every single war in our country 's history from the Revolutionary War to now combined . We must step up and deal with something that 's crushing communities , destroying lives and really just tearing a part families . ''
Peter Ambler , the Executive Director of Giffords , which is a gun violence prevention advocacy group , said Booker 's plan is not an `` off the shelf plan , '' but is `` bold , smart and thoughtful . ''
`` This is , you know , workable , and I think it would lead to a real effect on our gun violence epidemic in this country , '' Ambler said .
Ambler added that this plan highlights Booker 's courage and commitment to running on gun violence prevention reforms to address the gun violence epidemic , while also attracting primary and general election voters with this policy .
Booker 's plan also calls for increased oversight on gun manufacturers by allowing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue safety warnings and recalls for firearms . The plan would allocate funds to research gun violence as a public health issue and require handgun microstamping , which is aimed at helping law enforcement identify guns and their bullets in crimes .
`` This is not a plan that any law-abiding gun owner should be concerned about , the people that should be concerned about it are two groups ; people who want to break the law , gun runners and criminals , and the gun manufacturers who have been working with in an ungodly way to undermine the safety and security of this nation , '' Booker told CBS .
The New Jersey senator supports the bill passed by the House that aims to eliminate the so-called `` Charleston loophole . '' The loophole in the background check system enabled Emanuel Baptist shooter Dylann Roof to buy a gun even though he had a prior drug conviction . Current law requires three days to perform a background check on gun purchases from licensed sellers . Because of an error , the FBI took longer than three days , thereby enabling Roof to purchase the gun .
The House bill , one of two gun control bills passed by the Democratic-controlled House early this year , would extend the three-day background check period to 10 days . The other bill would effectively make background checks universal by requiring private parties to sell or transfer guns only through licensed gun dealers who are required to conduct background checks .
On the campaign trail , Booker has said repeatedly that if elected president , he will `` bring the fight to the NRA . '' Booker feels a personal connection to gun control , often mentioning Shahad Smith , who was killed in a shooting in Booker 's neighborhood in Newark last year .
In the wake of the National Rifle Association 's internal turmoil , Booker also called on the Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ) to investigate the NRA 's taxes . In April , the New York Times reported that the New York attorney general opened an investigation into the NRA 's tax-exempt status .
Booker is n't the first Democratic presidential candidate to propose a gun violence prevention plan , as fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris , of California , too , committed in April to use executive actions to implement gun control policy . California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell , promised to make gun control reform a focal point of his presidential campaign when he announced his bid in April . | yL930cGhb26nVCMW | 0 | Cory Booker | 1 | Gun Control And Gun Rights | -0.3 | Presidential Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null | |
immigration | Newsmax | http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/illegal-immigrants-anti-deportation/2017/03/12/id/778251/ | Fearful Immigrants Are Offered Anti-Deportation Training | 2017-03-12 | Immigration | Do n't open the front door if immigration officials knock . If you are taken into custody , tell them your name and nothing else . Definitely do n't sign anything .
That is some of the advice being given in New York City and around the country at training sessions , put on by advocacy organizations , aimed at helping immigrants living in the country illegally get in as little trouble as possible if they encounter U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials .
Called `` know your rights '' training , the sessions have been pushed by some groups as a way to prepare for a possible crackdown on illegal immigration under President Donald Trump . Similar trainings are scheduled in New Mexico and El Paso .
The idea , organizers said , is to give immigrants guidance on how to legitimately push back against attempts to detain them , mostly using tactics designed to keep agents from learning anything they do n't already know . The government ca n't deport someone unless they can prove they are in the U.S. illegally .
At a training session Tuesday in Queens , a little more than two dozen people sat in a room listening to Yaritza Mendez , an outreach coordinator at the pro-immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York . She spoke about various ways ICE agents can find a person , and what to do if they come knocking .
Even people in the country illegally have constitutional rights , Mendez said , such as not being subjected to unreasonable searches and seizures , not answering questions and not signing any documents without speaking with an attorney .
Volunteers took part in a role-playing exercise . The audience broke into laughter when a woman wearing a vest with `` ICE '' taped on it burst into the room after knocking loudly on a door .
`` I try to make it interactive because it 's long and very sad , in a way , '' Mendez said .
A lady sitting at the back had a question . If immigration officials knocked on her door , what if she opened it a crack but kept the chain on ?
No , Mendez said . Not even a crack . That 's guidance that closely mirrors something criminal defense attorneys have long been telling clients . Letting a law enforcement agent peek inside could give them the probable cause they need to enter without a warrant .
Other advice dispensed during the session : Make sure any warrants presented have the right name and addresses and are signed by a judge . Do not volunteer information . Do not show the agents any fake documents , since doing so is a crime that could land them in much deeper trouble .
Plan ahead for the worst . For example , she said , parents in danger of being detained should have paperwork in place to have someone look after their children , instead of scrambling to find someone in an emergency .
Most of the people in the audience were immigrants in the country illegally .
But they were also people like Pascalina Chirinos , 63 , a legal permanent resident from Venezuela who has been in the U.S. for about five years .
She said she attended so she could share the information with friends and neighbors , but also to know her own rights if she were ever caught up even in passing in immigration enforcement efforts .
`` In reality , all of us are afraid , '' Chirinos said in Spanish , through an interpreter . `` The air that we breathe is very tense . ''
In Los Angeles , Pablo Alvarado , executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network , said his organization is trying to train more people to conduct know-your-rights presentations at schools and churches to keep up with rising community demand .
`` We 're training the trainers , '' he said . `` People do n't have to be lawyers to share what the constitutional rights of people are . ''
Mendez said Make the Road has been getting calls from churches and other institutions like a local hospital to come and give the trainings in those places for their staffs and clients .
The atmosphere is `` fearful , '' she said . `` You do n't know what is going to happen the next day . '' | 7c4eb9c00eec2cc9 | 2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
homeland_security | Townhall | https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/06/18/oh-my-thousands-of-illegal-aliens-arrested-for-violent-crimes-were-granted-daca-n2491688 | Oh My: Thousands Of Illegal Aliens Arrested For Violent Crimes Were Granted DACA Protections | 2018-06-18 | homeland_security | Well , we β re back to this issue again : Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals . DACA drama is back . The constitutionally questionable program initiated by the Obama White House is the reason immigration became a primary action item . The Trump administration announced last year that they were going to wind down the program , citing White House lawyers β inability to defend the shaky program . Also , the White House was facing a lawsuit from a group of GOP state attorneys general if they allowed DACA to continue . A six-month enforcement delay was instituted , affording Congress enough time to pass a DACA fix . There was only one problem : The Democratic Party . They β re not going to play ball with the GOP on much , especially with their base in resistance mode . Nevertheless , that doesn β t mean DACA just goes away . So , before we get into how many violent criminal illegals were granted protections , let β s break down this program ( via LA Times ) :
On June 15 , 2012 , the Obama administration implemented DACA . Under the program , people who came to the United States as children and met several key guidelines would not face deportation for two years , and could then apply to renew their status as a DACA recipient . Immigrants who were approved would also be eligible for work authorization . Nearly 800,000 DACA recipients have received approval to go to school and work legally in the United States . [ β¦ ] When DACA became a reality in 2012 , it gave a specific group of people protections against deportation . To receive those protections an individual had to have come to the United States prior to turning 16 , but be younger than 31 years old . The individual also had to be in or have completed school , and could not have a criminal record .
It also requires the applicant to provide sensitive information , including evidence that they β re here illegally , in order to obtain DACA protections . This is why the immigration activist wing of America is edgy ; the government knows where all these people are mostly .
Right now , as both sides debate that will be pretty much amnestied with the two bills being voted on this week , let β s not forget that not every single one of these DACA recipients is an angel . There are some bad people who have obtained protectionsβand it β s not just misdemeanor antics . We β re taking assault , rape , DUIs , and even a couple cases of child pornography . All of these people were granted DACA protections , despite prior arrests . All told , over 53,792 illegal aliens were granted protections despite some serious run-ins with law enforcement . The figures about these applicants who enrolled into the DACA program this morning are from the years 2012-2018 .
When you just account for the worst of the worst , like assault , battery , weapons-related , rape , contributing to the delinquency of a minor , murder , and other forms of sexual abuse ( including statutory rape ) , that figure is still unacceptably high at 5,861 . Yeah , some illegal aliens arrested for murder were granted protections . If that β s not insanity , or signs of a very , very bad immigration policy , I don β t know what to tell you , folks . Here β s the full list . These figures were provided by DHS :
Now , this isn β t new . There have been stories of DACA recipients losing protections due to criminal activity . Yet , the tricky thing here is that arrests alone don β t bar someone from being enrolled in the program , only convictions . Yet , you β d think that someone arrested for murder , child porn , assault , battery , or rape wouldn β t get green lit by the system . Apparently , even on those vicious crimes , it β s possible for illegals to be shielded from deportation .
Right now , every House Democrat , including a sizable portion of moderate Republicans , are starting this discharge petition business that would have allowed them to vote on immigration without going through the GOP leadership . It would have required 218 signatories . They were a few shy , which led to this deal this week , allowing votes to be held on two bills that don β t have much of a shot of passing . Oh , and did I mention that they β re both pretty much awful pieces of legislation , though the Trump White House has said they back both bills . Now , in the meantime , a secondary legal protocol has been set in effect , as the Trump administration filed a legal challenge against DACA in Texas , stating DACA violates the enforcement of federal immigration law , according to NBC News . The motion was filed last Friday . If a Texas federal judge rules in favor of the Trump White House , it would be in conflict with two other lower court rulings , prompting a quick motion for argument before the Supreme Court , as the federal government would argue it would be violating the law no matter what it did , according to the news organization . The Trump White House would ask for a hold on the lower court ruling , allowing the administration to end DACA immediately . Let β s see what happens . | YDZ6TMM2AsyPwCXs | 2 | Immigration | -0.2 | DACA | -0.1 | DHS | 0 | Defense And Security | 0 | null | null |
environment | Guest Writer - Right | https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/03/11/what-is-the-green-new-deal/ | OPINION: What Is the Green New Deal? | 2019-03-11 | environment | Democrats β big new idea is the Green New Deal . Coined by Tom Friedman in 2007 , the term has reemerged courtesy of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , the charismatic freshman congresswoman from the Bronx .
The exact composition of the Green New Deal is a matter of debate , after early descriptions of it appeared to inΒclude calls for the eventual elimination of cows ( a source of methane ) and subsidies for those β unwilling β to work ( why not ) . To judge from the congressional resolution introduced by Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey ( D. , Mass . ) , the Green New Deal promulgated through official channels is hardly less ambitious . It would meet β 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean , renewable , and zero-emissions energy sources β and would upgrade β all existing buildings β with state-of-the-art energy-efficiency technology . All this β should be accomplished through a 10-year national mobilization. β That number is perhaps missing a zero .
The energy industry already makes enormous investments just to keep the lights on and vehicles fueled . ProΒducers , refiners , and marketers of oil and gas spent an estimated $ 184 billion in new capital investment just last year . ReguΒlated energy utilities spent $ 131 billion . These hundreds of billions of dollars are only the incremental capital spending for a single year , and they also do not include the costs of operating the system , such as labor . By comparison , the stimulus package that followed the 2008 recession included just under $ 50 billion for energy programs . ( It was this tranche of spending that , infamously , granted $ 535 million to the failed solar venture Solyndra . ) Any Green New Deal that attempts to reorder the state of American energy production and delivery must have a monumental scale .
Thus does the Green New Deal include β guaranteeing a job β to β all people of the United States. β It calls for direct public funding and ownership of green projects through public banks . To this it adds assurances of β economic security β and β high-quality health care. β And a large helping of social justice : A Green New Deal must β promote justice and equity by stopping current , preventing future , and repairing historic oppression of indigenous communities , communities of color , migrant communities , deindustrialized communities . . . β β well , you get the idea . The body of the Green New Deal is direct government investment in renewables ; its appendages are virtually all other progressive policies dreamt up over the past five decades .
Or as the editors of the Brooklynite progressive magazine n+1 put it , the first thing to do is β Manhattan-Project the implementation of clean energy sources and immediately stop burning fossil fuels. β Then , in the next sentence : β We also need to ditch the patriarchal models of wealth and status reproduction that have been constitutive of nearly all expansionist , war-making , and resource-depleting societies of the past ten thousand years. β Oh , is that all ?
This Green New Deal is outlandish , but it has a vocal cheer squad . About 600 environmental organizations , most of them local grassroots outfits , have signed on to this program , although hefty national players β the Natural Resources Defense Council , the Sierra Club , and the Environmental Defense Fund β have sat it out while emitting blandishments about the passion of the youth . Activists working under the title β Sunrise Movement β have made sure that supporters are there to put House leadership and Democratic presidential aspirants on the spot .
But of course pols are slippery . After Sunrise Movement crashed her announcement rally with a banner demanding her support for the Green New Deal , Kamala Harris the next week had a telling exchange in a CNN town hall . An Iowa voter asked , β Will you fully endorse the Green New Deal tonight ? β The California senator replied , β I support a Green New Deal β β a careful use of the indefinite article . In recent weeks , a bevy of Democrats eyeing the 2020 primaries have fallen over one another either to mouth the words β Green New Deal β or to invent synonyms therefor . Kirsten Gillibrand said America needed a β moonshot β effort . Elizabeth Warren , Cory Booker , and JuliΓ‘n Castro have all signed up . Bernie Sanders and Washington governor Jay Inslee have long treated climate change as among their foremost issues . None has pledged anything close to what the Green New Deal activist set are championing . But they will have to deliver something .
We have seen this movie before , with the intra-Democratic health-care debate . Progressives championed the expansion of direct government funding on health care in the form of a single-payer system . The policy was moderated β or bastardized , call it what you like β to expand Medicaid and other government insurance programs and to ordain coverage mandates but otherwise to rely on big pharma and insurance firms to provide service , and obtain the rents , from the newly ordered health-care economy .
More even than the health-care industry , the energy marketplace consists mostly of local monopolies and other very large companies . They await any policy proposal , not scared of the prospect of new programs and regulations so much as they are eager to co-opt them . Utilities in particular fit this mold . They have captive customers , so they have no great reason to worry about the price effect of government policies . Indeed , many of the most lucrative utilities have seen miniβGreen New Deals emerge in states where they operate . The play is at this point quite common . A green coalition emerges demanding more clean energy and less coal- and natural-gas-fired electricity generation . Politicians endorse it . The bumper-sticker message β e.g. , β 80 percent renewables by 2040 β β polls well enough that the utilities think it will pass . And then the utilities swing into action . They bargain with environmentalist groups to present a legislative package to retire fossil-fuel assets and embark on a renewables spending bonanza , usually financed by surcharges on customer bills . This core bargain then becomes a platform for all comers to insert their asks : labor unions , electric-vehicle advocates , technology-development firms looking for a carve-out , and local governments that want investments earmarked to them . The price tag grows , and all of the costs end up flowing through the rates that government regulators permit utilities to charge their customers .
To give but one example of the phenomenon : Last year the Virginia assembly passed a law that included a carve-out for offshore wind development . The eventual no-bid project , to be owned by the monopoly Dominion Energy , clocked in at $ 300 million for twelve megawatts . An onshore project of the same size would cost one-quarter of that price or less . But when you multiply Dominion β s shareholder investment by the standard 9.4 percent return that Virginia β s regulators have authorized for it , you see that it pays to spend more on less efficient projects .
If government commandeers the energy industry for a Green New Deal , that sector stands to profit enormously under a business model that rewards uneconomic investments . These state miniβGreen New Deals are not so much a transition to least-cost sources of clean energy . They are vehicles to deliver favors with a green gloss . This type of bargain has passed legislatures or been approved at the ballot box in about a dozen states .
If Republicans do not come up with a persuasive policy response to such dealmaking , it portends to be the eventual model for a federal Green New Deal β not the one progressives want but , as with health care , the one they β ll have to live with after the sausage-making is done . Republicans have often supinely capitulated to state-level energy-policy logrolling because too many of them view the utility as a trustworthy example of private business rather than as an instrumentality for perverse incentives . The GOP includes a skeptical camp , too . But all too often it traffics in an explicitly anti-clean-energy message , raving about climate science , the shadow flicker of wind farms , and the electromagnetic field of smart meters . The atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has not been higher since the dawn of human civilization than it is today . No debate about the niceties of climate science can eclipse this basic fact . It is prudent to encourage the development of power plants that emit no greenhouse gases , or less of them .
Fortunately , there is a more persuasive and elegant response to the Green New Dealers than what many Republicans have been pitching . Democrats have said that consumers are demanding clean energy . They then have demanded massive government programs to invest in it β or to co-opt monopolies to do it for them . Why not instead , if consumers are demanding clean energy , adopt policies that would make it easier for them to get it through their own choices ?
What the United States needs is not a Green New Deal . It needs a Customer Empowerment Act . Only 13 states allow all customers a choice of electricity supplier . About a dozen more offer limited options , mostly for large customers , to exit a utility β s supply monopoly . There is today no technical reason utilities should not simply act as poles-and-wires companies , their network a marketplace for power generators and retailers to sell to customers who are free to select the product that works best for them .
A Customer Empowerment Act would include an option to select clean energy . Virtually every big tech company , and corporations such as Anheuser-Busch and even ExxonMobil , have directly contracted with renewable generators . But this bypass of the utility monopoly remains closed to smaller and midsized customers in most states .
Progressives will complain that customers β own choices will not move the dial quickly enough on climate . Yet if all one may realistically expect from a Green New Deal is low-boil , inefficient rent-seeking , then customer choice is a better route even for those to whom decarbonization is paramount . This is because the cost of certain renewables is indeed falling . Lazard , the investment-analysis firm , publishes an annual β Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis. β In 2018 , it finds , the unsubsidized cost of a new onshore wind farm ranges from $ 29 to $ 56 per megawatt-hour . This compares with a midpoint of $ 36 per megawatt-hour for operating fully depreciated , existing coal plants . Simply put , in certain places , renewables are least-cost β a stunning reversal from a decade ago , when those technologies were a boutique product . In such circumstances , government should get out of the way of consumers , not interject itself in the middle of things .
Of course , renewables do not have a low price in all locations , and a Green New Deal that focused on regional or racial equality would not provide an efficient allocation to the most affordable set of renewable resources . A marketplace would . Where renewables are a higher-cost alternative , consumers who are less price-sensitive could buy clean energy at a premium to earn some green cred . Unlike a utility-regulatory model , the marketplace would mean that those costs were borne by those customers and not by others . In any case , a marketplace where a sufficient number of customers want clean energy but also demand inexpensive prices will deliver an appropriate balance of both .
New Deal interventions by government have a bad track record when it comes to energy . Germany has increased , not decreased , its carbon emissions as its government has mandated the purchase of high-cost renewables even while shutting down nuclear generation . China β s command energy economy has inevitably been used to achieve economic , not climate , goals . And , finally , our country β s own New Deal , version 1.0 , offers a telling history : Its environmental component was intended to promote small-time farmers , especially in the American West , but it was quickly captured by special interests that to this day enjoy special privileges over the region β s scarce water resources . The West is a drier , less ecologically diverse place because of it . Green is not a color that befits most New Deals , unless you β re referring to their pecuniary aspect .
Something to Consider If you enjoyed this article , we have a proposition for you : Join NRPLUS . Members get all of our content ( including the magazine ) , no paywalls or content meters , an advertising-minimal experience , and unique access to our writers and editors ( conference calls , social-media groups , etc. ) . And importantly , NRPLUS members help keep NR going . Consider it ? If you enjoyed this article , and were stimulated by its contents , we have a proposition for you : Join NRPLUS . LEARN MORE | owv7DTWUF9Av0Ddn | 2 | Environment | -0.3 | Green New Deal | -0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null |
criminal_justice | Mother Jones | http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/12/south-carolina-cop-who-gunned-down-a-fleeing-unarmed-man-sentenced-20-years-in-prison-3/ | South Carolina Cop Who Gunned Down a Fleeing, Unarmed Man Is Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison | criminal_justice | A federal judge ruled today that Michael Slagerβthe former South Carolina police officer who in May pleaded guilty to using excessive force and violating the civil rights of the late Walter Scottβcommitted second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Scott . Federal sentencing guidelines called for 19 to 24 years in prison , and US District Court Judge David Norton β s settled on a 20-year sentence . Slager has 14 days to appeal the sentence .
In a sentencing mini-trial that commenced on Monday , federal prosecutors and Slager β s defense attorneys presented evidence to sway Norton β s views about Slager β s culpability on the day he shot and killed 50-year-old Scott during a traffic stop gone bad . Prosecutors had argued that Slager committed second-degree murder , while the defense claimed his offense was , at most , voluntary manslaughter .
After the judge ruled that Slager would face a murder penalty , members of Scott β s family addressed the court . According to ABC News 4 reporter Bill Burr , who has been live-tweeting the proceedings , the victim β s mother , Judy Scott , told the court β I forgive Michael Slager. β She then looked directly at him . β I forgive you , β she said . But mainly the family just talked about Walter .
Judy Scott , mother of # WalterScott , speaks . β I thank God for the 50 years he was here. β β The last two family reunions he missed them. β She chokes up , her husband consoles her . @ ABCNews4 # chsnews # MichaelSlager β Bill Burr ( @ BBonTV ) December 7 , 2017
State prosecutors had tried Slager for murder last fall , but the judge declared a mistrial after a mostly white jury failed to reach a unanimous verdictβeither on the charge of murder or a lesser manslaughter charge .
βββ covered that trial and the events that led up to it in a feature story that included a visit to the academy where Slager was trained . Scott had fled his vehicle after Slager pulled him over for a broken taillight on the morning of April 4 , 2015 . There was a tasering and a tussle , and when the unarmed Scott managed to run away , Slager fired eight shots from behind , killing him . A bystander β s cellphone video of the fatal chase went viral , and Slager was charged with murder in a case that became a rallying point for the Black Lives Matter movement .
At this week β s hearing , attorneys for Slager and the state called expert witnesses to the stand to bolster rival interpretations of the video and audio , which included some dash-cam footage from Slager β s car . At issue was Slager β s state of mind and the facts of the physical altercation that preceded the shootingβincluding whether Scott had handled Slager β s Taser and what was said between the men . The defense argued for a lenient sentence , claiming that Scott had resisted and grabbed the Taser and that Slager had feared for his life . ( In a presentencing memo , Slager β s lawyers even cited Attorney General Jeff Sessions β memory lapses while under oath to justify discrepancies in Slager β s accounts . ) Prosecutors , meanwhile , argued that Slager β s misleading statements and his choice to shoot a fleeing man in the back showed malicious intent and warranted a punishment of life in prison .
Judge Norton , according to Burr , said that no matter what sentence he handed down , the Scott family and Slager family wouldn β t like it . But there were no complaints from the Scotts about the findings from Norton , who also determined that Slager made false and misleading statements .
Scott β s older brother , Anthony , told the court he β d become depressed after the shooting and that he was probably the last in his family to be able to forgive Slager . β It took me a long time . β
β I miss my brother . Our family has changed . We will never be the same again , β said Anthony Scott , brother of # WalterScott . He stands before Judge Norton . @ ABCNews4 # chsnews # MichaelSlager β Bill Burr ( @ BBonTV ) December 7 , 2017
The 2015 killing of Scott kick-started efforts to reform local police practices . In 2016 , the city of North Charleston agreed to undergo a voluntary review of its department β s polices and practices by the Department of Justice . But under Sessions , a vocal opponent of police reform , the DOJ has refused to release its resulting report to the public and has ended the police review program altogether . In October , North Charleston β s city council voted to move forward with a less-stringent reform agreement negotiated with the Sessions DOJ .
This story has been updated to reflect the specific sentence Slager received . | zNcXtkG3KkFPoEIC | 0 | Criminal Justice | -0.6 | Justice | 0.1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | |
elections | Politico | http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82739.html?hp=t1_3 | 2012: The battle for 7 states | 2012-10-23 | elections | Mitt Romney and President Obama have narrowed the battleground . | REUTERS 2012 : The battle for 7 states
BOCA RATON , Fla. β The two presidential campaigns are sounding sharply different notes about how they can get to 270 electoral votes , but beneath the post-debate bravado from both sides there is a rough consensus about the shape of the race in its final two weeks .
Top strategists for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney flooded the media center following the third and final presidential debate here Monday night , and made clear they will be primarily fighting over seven states and will spend most of their time and money in them between now and Nov. 6 .
The main battlegrounds : Ohio , Iowa , Colorado , Virginia , New Hampshire , Florida and Wisconsin . The late inclusion of Wisconsin on this list reflects a bet by Romney β buoyed by some polls showing an opportunity for him there β that he can turn a state that has not voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1984 .
Romney officials , eyeing steady gains in the polls , have not ruled out attempting to broaden the map in other states β claims met with disparagement by Obama aides , who say they remain confident their electoral college firewall is intact even amid a tightening national race and signs that three swing states in the South are looking more favorable for the GOP nominee .
Republicans are genuinely intrigued by the prospect of a strike in Pennsylvania and , βββ has learned , are considering going up on TV there outside the expensive Philadelphia market . But what Romney officials worry about , both in Pennsylvania and Michigan , is that if they put some cash down or use precious hours to send their candidate there Obama will respond by crushing their offensive with a big ad buy of his own .
So while Boston is open to the idea of going into such traditional Democratic strongholds , it is still mostly playing within the same map the two candidates have been locked in for months . And , increasingly , it is narrowing its focus as prospects improve in North Carolina , Florida and Virginia .
β That states that we β re playing in are the states we need to win , β noted Romney strategist Russ Schriefer . β We β ll see what happens in the next two weeks . We β re going to concentrate on Ohio and Colorado and Iowa and New Hampshire . β
β We β ll be in Ohio a lot , β added Romney strategist Stuart Stevens .
The Romney campaign is already airing TV ads in Wisconsin . The former Massachusetts governor has not been to the state since he tapped Paul Ryan as his running mate in August but is headed back soon .
β We β ll be back in Wisconsin , β said Eric Fehrnstrom . β Wisconsin is definitely in play . β
Obama officials , meanwhile , are convinced that they have a lead in Ohio , Wisconsin , Iowa , New Hampshire and Nevada β and aren β t yet willing to write off Colorado , Florida and Virginia .
But senior Democrats increasingly recognize that their path to 270 electoral votes is not in the latter three but in the Midwest .
β Iowa , Wisconsin and Ohio are crucial β if we win those three states , the president is reelected , β said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin ( D-Ill. ) , a close Obama ally .
Obama adviser Robert Gibbs put it another way , saying Romney β s fate would depend on whether he can sweep the trio of Big 10 states .
β We intend to go out and win each of the three of those states , β said Gibbs .
And Pennsylvania and Michigan ? They β re not worried and aren β t likely to send Obama there .
β Probably not , no , β said Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter when asked if the president would rally supporters in the two traditionally Democratic electoral troves . β We have significant resources there . We are invested in those states at a much higher level than Gov . Romney is . β | Qx72WdFEVWzDcEHI | 0 | Election2012 | 0.5 | Presidential Elections | 0.5 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null |
elections | Fox News | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/21/fox-news-poll-trump-tops-clinton-in-battlegrounds-nevada-n-carolina-ohio.html | Fox News Poll: Trump tops Clinton in battlegrounds Nevada, N. Carolina, Ohio | 2016-09-21 | elections | Donald Trump narrowly leads Hillary Clinton in the battleground states of Nevada , North Carolina , and Ohio .
That β s according to βββ statewide likely voter polls conducted Sunday through Tuesday evenings .
Trump is helped by strong support from working-class white voters , while Clinton is hurt by a lackluster performance among younger voters and women .
In each state , Trump β s advantage is within the margin of sampling error . Here β s how the numbers breakdown state-by-state :
Trump has a three-point advantage over Clinton among likely voters in the Silver State ( 43-40 percent ) . Libertarian Gary Johnson receives eight percent . Nevada voters also can cast a ballot for β none of these , β and that option takes four percent . Green Party candidate Jill Stein is not on the ballot in Nevada .
Independents back Trump ( 42 percent ) over Clinton ( 23 percent ) and Johnson ( 21 percent ) .
The Democrat is trailing expectations among women and younger voters .
Those under age 45 are almost equally likely to back Clinton ( 42 percent ) as they are to back Trump ( 39 percent ) -- and Johnson garners double-digit support ( 11 percent ) .
Women in Nevada backed Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 16-point margin in 2012 , according to the βββ Exit Poll . Clinton β s up by just six points .
Both Clinton and Trump supporters have a high degree of vote certainty ( 93 percent each ) .
β There is a huge geographic disparity in Nevada , β notes Democratic pollster Chris Anderson , who conducts the βββ Poll with Republican Daron Shaw . β Clinton is ahead in Vegas and urban areas , while Trump leads outside Vegas and in rural areas -- this is an obvious advantage for Clinton in get-out-the-vote efforts . β
The race is mostly unchanged in a head-to-head matchup without Johnson : Trump 46 vs. Clinton 42 percent .
Views of President Obama β s job performance are divided : 49 percent approve , while 48 percent disapprove . He won Nevada in both 2012 ( by 6.7 points ) and 2008 ( by 12.5 points ) .
In North Carolina , Trump is up by five points among likely voters . He receives 45 percent to Clinton β s 40 percent , and 6 percent favor Johnson . Stein is not on the ballot .
Whites back Trump by a 31-point margin ( 58-27 percent ) , while blacks support Clinton by 82 points ( 85-3 percent ) .
Independents favor Trump ( 41 percent ) over Clinton ( 24 percent ) and Johnson ( 14 percent ) .
And while voters under age 45 prefer Clinton by 46-32 , Johnson gets 11 percent of them .
Ninety-five percent of Trump supporters and 90 percent of Clinton backers feel certain of their vote choice .
In the two-way ballot , Trump β s also up five ( 47-42 percent ) .
North Carolina was red in 2012 ( Romney by two points ) and blue in 2008 ( Obama by less than one point ) . By a 50-46 percent margin , more voters disapprove than approve of Obama today .
The Buckeye State is another must-win for Trump , and the poll finds him up by five points among likely voters : 42-37 percent . Johnson receives six percent and Stein gets two percent .
Trump β s edge over Clinton comes mainly from independents ( +20 points ) and working-class whites ( +26 ) . Clinton β s up by just three points among women . Obama won them by 11 in 2012 .
Most of Clinton β s ( 89 percent ) and Trump β s supporters ( 88 percent ) are certain they will back their candidate .
β Clinton β s mistakes on the campaign trail have driven many disaffected Republicans into Trump β s camp , β says Shaw . β Just as consequential is the fact Trump is ahead of Clinton among independents by 17-20 points in these states . If that holds , he might actually pull this off . β
Meanwhile , by a 58-30 percent margin , voters approve of the job Republican John Kasich is doing as governor . Among those who approve , 45 percent support Trump , 33 percent back Clinton , and 7 percent Johnson .
Without third-party candidates in the mix , it β s Trump over Clinton by 45-40 percent .
Currently , 47 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing , while 48 percent disapprove . He won Ohio in both 2012 ( by three points ) and 2008 ( by almost five points ) .
β Trump has been much more disciplined in his comments recently and is almost certainly benefiting from keeping his attacks focused on Clinton as opposed to other Republicans or Gold Star families , β says Anderson .
Meanwhile , Clinton trails Trump by two points among voters living in union households . That voting bloc went for Obama over Romney by 23 points in 2012 .
The polls , released Wednesday , also ask about the senate races in these key states , and find the races within the margin of error in Nevada and North Carolina , while Republican Rob Portman holds a double-digit lead in Ohio . In each state , the GOP senate candidate fares slightly better than Trump .
There β s good news for Republicans in Nevada , where they hope to pick up the seat of the retiring Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid . Joe Heck leads his Democratic opponent Catherine Cortez Masto by seven points : 43-36 percent . Independent American Party candidate Tom Jones trails with 6 percent and β none of these β gets 5 percent .
In North Carolina , incumbent Sen. Richard Burr bests Democratic challenger Deborah Ross by 43-37 percent , with Libertarian Sean Haugh at 6 percent .
Ohio Sen . Rob Portman holds a 14-point lead over Democrat Ted Strickland : 51-37 percent . The incumbent senator tops the former governor by 28 points among independents . Portman also garners the support of most Republicans ( 88 percent ) , as well as 15 percent of Democrats . He won the seat in 2010 with 57 percent of the vote .
β Winning the four-to-five seats needed to regain control of the senate becomes a tricky proposition for the Democrats if the GOP gains the Reid seat and Burr holds on , β notes Shaw . β The Democrats have to win their tight races in Pennsylvania and Indiana , and even that might not be enough . β
There β s also a gubernatorial race in North Carolina . Republican incumbent Pat McCrory tops Democrat Roy Cooper by 46-43 percent . Libertarian Lon Cecil receives 3 percent .
The βββ Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research ( D ) and Shaw & Company Research ( R ) . The polls were conducted September 18-20 , 2016 , by telephone ( landline and cellphone ) with live interviewers among a sample of likely voters selected from statewide voter files in Nevada ( 704 ) , North Carolina ( 734 ) , and Ohio ( 737 ) . Bilingual interviewers were used in Nevada . In all three states the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the total sample of likely voters . | o0p7BO3b70YcgIxJ | 2 | Polls | 0.2 | Presidential Elections | 0 | Elections | 0 | null | null | null | null |
elections | CNN (Web News) | http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/10/politics/democratic-debate-analysis/index.html | 5 takeaways from the Democratic debate | 2016-03-10 | Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Debates, Presidential Elections, Elections | Miami ( CNN ) There were few softballs Wednesday night for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders .
Clinton was asked whether she lied about Benghazi , whether she might be indicted over her emails and why she 's seen as so untrustworthy . Sanders was pressed on comments he made in the mid-1980s about Fidel Castro and pushed to defend his 2007 vote against an immigration reform bill .
One day after Sanders ' stunning win in Michigan , both candidates were on their game in their only debate before next Tuesday 's critical votes in Florida , Ohio , Illinois and North Carolina .
Here are five takeaways from Wednesday night 's debate , hosted by Univision and The Washington Post :
Clinton and Sanders both broke with the Obama White House and pledged to halt the deportations of undocumented immigrants who do n't have criminal records .
`` I do not want to see them deported . I want to see them on a path to citizenship . That is exactly what I will do , '' Clinton said .
JUST WATCHED Clinton , Sanders weigh on Donald Trump 's border wall Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clinton , Sanders weigh on Donald Trump 's border wall 01:12
And both candidates dismissed Donald Trump 's proposal to build a `` big , beautiful wall '' along the U.S.-Mexico border as bluster .
`` As I understand him , he 's talking about a very tall wall -- a beautiful tall wall , better than the Great Wall of China , '' Clinton said . `` It 's just fantasy . ''
It exposed a huge divide between the two parties : The Republican front-runner wants mass deportations . The Democratic contenders want no deportations at all . There 's no middle ground anymore .
The evaporation of any sort of common ground on the issue of immigration helps explain the political plight of Republican candidates who have supported comprehensive reform measures , like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and the departed South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Florida Gov . Jeb Bush .
It also underscores why 2016 's election is so much about motivating each party 's base , rather than appealing to voters in the middle . The center did n't hold .
It was just days ago that Clinton , riding a wave of Super Tuesday victories , was dropping her attacks on Sanders , looking for ways to appeal to his supporters and casting her eyes on Republicans -- particularly Donald Trump .
If she 'd pivoted into general election mode , she went right back to the primary on Wednesday night .
On the heels of her loss in Michigan , Clinton was set on attacking Sanders on every question -- and most of the time , Sanders gave her the clash she wanted .
Clinton cast Sanders as an enemy of liberal icon Ted Kennedy , noting that he 'd voted `` against Ted Kennedy 's immigration reform which he 'd been working on for years before you ever arrived . ''
She hit him for opposing the auto bailout , even though fact-checkers had already pointed out that attack amounted to cherry-picking one item out of a much larger bank bailout bill -- using that issue to frame Sanders as someone so rigid in his ideology that he ca n't get things done .
`` I 'll tell you , it was a hard vote . A lot of the votes you make are hard votes , '' Clinton said . `` But the fact is the money that rescued the auto industry was in that bill . ''
It was all a reminder that the Democratic presidential contest might not be anywhere near its end . Next Tuesday -- when Florida , North Carolina , Ohio , Illinois and Missouri vote -- was the day Clinton hoped to knock Sanders out . Now , Sanders poses a serious threat across the Midwest .
Sure , both candidates took their shots at Trump . Clinton called him `` un-American '' and Sanders called him someone who `` insults Mexicans , who insults Muslims , who insults women , who insults African-Americans . ''
Clinton made an unusually frank admission when she was pressed on why so many Americans find her untrustworthy .
`` I am not a natural politician , in case you have n't noticed , like my husband and President Obama . So I have a view that I have to do the best I can , '' Clinton said , adding that she hopes `` people will see I am fighting for them . ''
It was an effective moment -- an introspective acknowledgment from a politician who has struggled to project authenticity .
And it came right on the heels of a touching moment between Clinton and a woman who had discussed her hardships after her undocumented husband was deported .
`` Please know how brave I think you are , coming here with your children to tell your story . This is an incredible act of courage that I 'm not sure many people really understand . And I want you to know that , '' Clinton said .
It was n't Bill Clinton personalizing the national debt in a 1992 debate by talking about the people he knows who have lost jobs . But Hillary Clinton does n't necessarily need that knack for making the audience feel a struggling American 's pain the way her husband did . She just has to make sure her economic message connects .
When Clinton attacks , she lays out a detailed , point-by-point case on why Sanders was wrong -- as if she were delivering the audience a PowerPoint presentation .
The simplicity of his overall message , and the skillfulness with which he deploys it when he 's under attack , makes it difficult to land an effective blow on the Vermont senator .
For the second straight Democratic debate , Clinton tried to hit Sanders for opposing the Export-Import Bank -- noting that he 'd broken from Democrats and joined with hardline conservatives and Koch brothers-backed groups in voting to abolish it .
His rebuttal ? `` It is corporate welfare , and yes , I oppose corporate welfare . ''
She attacked his support for a Medicare-for-all health insurance system , arguing that Sanders ' idea is too pie-in-the-sky and that Democrats just won a hard-fought battle for Obamacare .
`` What Secretary Clinton is saying is that the United States should continue to be the only major country on earth that does n't guarantee health care to all of its people , '' Sanders shot back , getting the crowd roaring with a rant about prescription drug companies ' hold on Capitol Hill .
JUST WATCHED Clinton , Sanders asked about climate change deniers Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clinton , Sanders asked about climate change deniers 01:51
It 's not just a stylistic difference . Sanders ' policy positions are uncompromising and Clinton 's are n't .
Sanders showed what an asset that can be on the debate stage for most of the night -- and then what a liability it can be , if not among Democrats then in the general election , in the closing minutes .
He was shown a video of himself in the 1980s and asked about the differences between socialism and communism . Sanders answered that he was opposing U.S. intervention in Latin America .
The episode opened the door for an attack from Clinton 's campaign over Sanders ' refusal to disavow the Castros -- whom he had praised decades earlier -- and served as a reminder that his activist past is fertile ground for attacks .
It was the most tedious unloading of opposition research on a presidential debate stage yet this year .
The candidates even seemed to sense it -- tip-toeing into their attacks initially before throwing their best punches .
Clinton hit Sanders for his vote against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill .
`` Just think -- imagine where we would be today if we had achieved comprehensive immigration reform nine years ago . Imagine how much more secure families would be in our country no longer fearing the deportation of a loved one , no longer fearing that they would be found out , '' she said .
Sanders responded by blasting that 2007 measure 's guest worker provisions , saying that workers were abused `` and if they stood up for their rights , they would be thrown out of the country . Of course that type of effort leads to a race to the bottom for all of our people . ''
He also hit Clinton for opposing driver 's licenses for undocumented immigrants , and Clinton hit Sanders for voting in 2006 to protect a vigilante border group , the `` Minutemen . ''
JUST WATCHED Hillary Clinton , Bernie Sanders clash over voting records Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hillary Clinton , Bernie Sanders clash over voting records 01:23
It felt like New Jersey Gov . Chris Christie -- famous for bashing his Senate colleagues ' tussles over the exact details of bills and amendments on the Republican debate stage -- might have been about to dart onto stage to shout them both down .
Their debates about old bills were all beside the point when it comes to where the candidates stand in 2016 . They largely agree on immigration-related issues . In fact , their real target within the Democratic Party is Obama , who 's been much more aggressive about deporting undocumented immigrants than Sanders and Clinton say they 'd be . | 477f92ee16bab159 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
white_house | Vox | http://www.vox.com/2017/2/19/14650180/trump-anti-semitism-jews-america-religion | Amidst rising anti-Semitism, Trumpβs lackluster response has Jewish groups concerned | 2017-02-19 | white_house | On Monday , 11 Jewish community centers across the country were targeted with bomb threats . Outside St. Louis , a Jewish cemetery was desecrated : More than 100 tombstones were overturned and damaged .
β Enough already , β Karen Aroesty , an Anti-Defamation League local leader , told a Fox news affiliate . β This is where your loved ones come to be safe in perpetuity , and the level of tension in the Jewish community is pretty high . β
NBC News asked the White House for a statement on the uptick in anti-Semitic activities and the terrorizing of JCCs nationally , as the newest round of threatening calls brings the total number of bomb scares to 67 since the beginning of January . The White House press office issued a statement :
Hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind have no place in a country founded on the promise of individual freedom . The President has made it abundantly clear that these actions are unacceptable .
America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance . We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers . # JCC β Ivanka Trump ( @ IvankaTrump ) February 20 , 2017
Both comments were among the most specific statements the White House , or its surrogates , has made to address the rise in anti-Semitic acts , statements , and sentiment that has percolated since the middle of the election .
The silence was so profound , ADL β s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt put out a statement , earlier Monday , underscoring the notable absence of leadership . β We look to our political leaders at all levels to speak out against such threats directed against Jewish institutions , to make it clear that such actions are unacceptable , and to pledge that they will work with law enforcement officials to ensure that those responsible will be apprehended and punished to the full extent of the law , β he said .
The White House press office comment may miss that test , even now , in failing to use the words β Jewish , β β Jewish Community Center , β or β anti-Semitism . β
Indeed , President Donald Trump has been minimally vocal about his positions on the matter . Just last week , he had the chance to use his bully pulpit to reassure Jews who are fearful of rising anti-Semitism in America . He took two chances for targeted messaging to talk , instead , about himself .
At two press conferences last week , reporters raised sober questions about Jewish safety in America and the rise of anti-Semitism over the course of the election and beyond . Both were opportunities for a statement of firm condemnation against acts of violence and a moment of empathy : a presidential reassuring hand and an outstretched arm . Both times the questions were deflected , and rerouted , leaving the Jewish community reeling .
Last Wednesday morning , at a press conference held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , Israeli journalist Moav Vardi stood up and asked , β Since your election campaign , and even since your victory , we have seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the United States and I wonder what you have say to the Jewish community of the United States and Israel , and maybe around the world , and ... to those who feel your administration is maybe playing with xenophobia and maybe racist tones ? β
Trump β s response was surreal . First , he crowed about his electoral victory β β Well , I just want to say that we are , you know , very honored by the victory that we had I just want to say that we are very honored by the victory we had β 316 Electoral College votes . We were not supposed to crack 220 . You know that , right ? β ( It was so incongruous that a New York Times editorial noted : β It was as if his brain had short-circuited or someone had hit some internal replay button in his brain . β )
I will say that we are going to have peace in this country . We are going to stop crime in this country . We are going to do everything within our power to stop long-simmering racism and every other thing that 's going on . There 's a lot of bad things that have been taking place over a long period of time . ... As far as people , Jewish people , so many friends ; a daughter who happens to be here right now ; a son-in-law , and three beautiful grandchildren . I think that you 're going to see a lot different United States of America over the next three , four , or eight years . I think a lot of good things are happening . And you 're going to see a lot of love . You 're going to see a lot of love .
He did not say , On behalf of my Jewish grandchildren , this White House will stand against anti-Semitism . He did not say , even more simply , No children should live in fear . He merely noted the existence of his Jewish relatives , as though their very presence spoke sufficiently to both of those points .
The following day , Trump had a second chance to address the issue .
During a 77-minute meandering press conference on Thursday , Jake Turx , a journalist from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish publication Ami Magazine , stood up and asked a question . After first promising that he wasn β t accusing Trump himself of being anti-Semitic ( knowing he was a zayde , a grandfather , to Jewish kids ) he then asked :
What we are concerned about and what we haven β t really heard being addressed is an uptick in anti-Semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it . There β s been a report out that 48 bomb threats have been made against Jewish centers all across the country in the last couple of weeks . There are people committing anti-Semitic acts or threatening to β
But Turx never got to finish his question . Trump cut him off , and told him to sit down . β See , he said he was going to ask a very simple , easy question , and it 's not , '' the president said , brusquely .
Not a simple question . Not a fair question . Okay , sit down . I understand the rest of your question . ... So here 's the story , folks . number one : I am the least anti-Semitic person that you 've ever seen in your entire life .
The reporter immediately tried to elaborate . The president stopped him again saying :
Quiet , quiet , quiet . See he lied about β he was going to get up and ask a very straight , simple question . So , you know , welcome to the world of the media .
This is startling . Instead of taking an easy opportunity to reassure concerned American Jews that their president has their back , Trump roughly pushed back at an Orthodox Jewish reporter whose questions weren β t about what the administration , or the president , was doing negatively , but what it might be doing proactively to address those who are attacking the community .
For many Jews , the moment brought home a concern that has rankled for many months . By halfway through 2016 , there was a persistent , palpable , even terrifying , sense within the community that we had suddenly entered into a new era of popular anti-Semitic permissiveness , one where what was once fringe thought and speech had been mainstreamed and magnified by social media .
There were tweets that brought in anti-Semitic imagery during the campaign ( a six-pointed Jewish star , superimposed upon a pile of money that was later sworn to be a β sheriff β s star β ; surrogates who tweeted images of Pepe the frog , a favorite of the self-described alt-right ) .
There was , as well , worrisome messaging from the campaign itself , including a final advertisement that used anti-Semitic dog whistles about money , power , and β global special interests. β And there was deep concern about the stories published by Breitbart news , former news home of Steve Bannon , a leading campaign adviser turned White House right-hand man , which didn β t shy away from speaking negatively about Jews .
Midway through the campaign , those who disliked journalists β work on Trump and his campaign began to target Jewish journalists on Twitter . Direct requests to the Republican candidate to condemn the demonization of Jewish journalists yielded nothing .
Once in office , it was hardly reassuring that the president β s message on Holocaust Remembrance Day failed to mention Jewish victims . To many , it felt premeditated .
Added together with an uptick in physical threats to Jewish institutions around the country , these two press conference moments were a chance to let Jewish citizens know support from the White House would be robust , and that hate would not be tolerated .
The choice to ignore that moment , or miss it , sent a different message entirely .
β What will it take for Donald Trump to condemn Anti-Semitism , β began an op-ed in the Jewish daily Forward by Kenneth Stern , executive director of the Justus and Karin Rosenberg Foundation , an organization that fights anti-Semitism and hate crimes . He called the president a β serial enabler β of anti-Semitism and white supremacists , and noted the incredible lack of empathy conveyed over the past 48 hours .
β If the President can β t empathize with , or even imagine , what it feels like to be a Jewish child rushing out of a [ Jewish community center ] in fear of a bomb , or the Jewish child from Montana whose picture neo-Nazis posted online , maybe he should think about the increasingly hostile environment confronting his beautiful Jewish grandchildren , β wrote Stern . β History teaches that hatred of all types β perhaps anti-Semitism especially β grows in a culture where it is tolerated , and not reflexively condemned , by leaders . β
In a statement posted to Twitter , American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris plaintively said , β Mr . President , anti-Semitism around the world is on the rise . ... We need the help of the government to combat this cancer . That β s why questions are being asked at press conferences . ... But if every such question elicits either no substantive response or , mistakenly , is taken personally , then what are people of good will supposed to conclude ? β
Writing for the Jewish parenting site Kveller , Jordana Horn noted all the president needed to say was , β β I deplore and condemn anti-Semitism in all forms . Perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. β β She then offered several reasons for why the statements he did make were β woefully inadequate β and why their inadequacy should profoundly trouble Americans β Jewish and otherwise . β
β The presence of Jews in one β s administration does not give one carte blanche to ignore anti-Semitism , β she said . The rest of her statement is worth reading in full :
We are here , President Trump . We are Jewish Americans . We are not going anywhere . Some of us agree with your policies , others do not . But surely all of us , regardless of our politics , agree that our children should not be targeted for violence because they are Jewish . That our synagogues should not be vandalized with swastikas and broken windows . That Jewish homeowners should not receive threatening letters . That people who say , β Jews should burn in ovens , β are disgusting and should be loudly acknowledged as such . That bomb threats to JCCs are crimes and should be investigated and prosecuted , with the perpetrators brought to justice . Do you agree , Mr. President ? If you do , you need to explicitly say so . You feel free to express your opinions on Twitter about everything from Saturday Night Live to Nordstrom to Meryl Streep . So why , sir , do you stubbornly refuse to say anything condemning anti-Semitic attacks in our country ? Because if you say nothing , I would argue that your silence speaks volumes .
In a private Facebook message to me ( reprinted with permission ) , Horn wrote , β I couldn β t not write . I am the Jewish-American mother of six children : I have an investment in our future as well as our present . β
Statements ranging from bewildered to angry came as well from Rabbi Jack Moline , president of the Interfaith Alliance , Rabbi Rick Jacobs , of the Union for Reform Judaism , Rabbi Jill Jacobs , of the rabbinical association T β ruah , and Stosh Cotler , CEO of Bend the Arc .
β Presidents are supposed to show empathy for their anxious constituents . But when it comes to anti-Semitism , the only person Trump shows empathy for is himself , β wrote columnist Peter Beinart at the Atlantic .
In conversation with me , Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League ( ADL ) said , simply , β Words have consequences . β
β Even a simple statement would speak volumes to calm the anxiety . This has become a test , β Greenblatt said . β It β s not political ... to say prejudice should be stamped out of public square . It is not left and right , only right and wrong . β
The reason so many Jews are asking questions about anti-Semitism is that , following the increasingly worrisome rhetoric , associations , and bedfellows of the campaign , there has been a rise in terrifying anti-Semitic incidents since the year began .
In January , 60 bomb threats were called in to some 48 Jewish community centers ( JCCs ) across North America . `` I 've been in the business for 20-plus years , and this is unprecedented , '' Paul Goldenberg , national director of the Secure Community Network , told CNN . `` It 's more methodical than meets the eye . ''
JCCs , it should be noted , are not simply places of gathering or gyms for Zumba classes β though , of course , none of those should be targeted either . They are also often preschools during the day . That means children under 5 are the ones being evacuated each time a bomb threat is called in .
And the bomb threats are only one piece of the problem .
An entire community in Montana has been threatened by actual neo-Nazis , terrifying the Jewish population and putting its rabbi under a microscope . A neo-Nazi march was originally planned for the town of Whitefish , Montana , on Martin Luther King Jr. Day , home to a handful of Jews β and to the leader of the so-called alt-right Richard Spencer . It was later scuttled .
And during the presidential election , there was a dramatic rise in online harassment of Jewish journalists and Jewish public figures . Says Greenblatt of the ADL , β You had a white supremacist trope winding itself into public dialogue that the campaign did not tamp down when it could have. β He notes that the ADL was dismissed as being β political β for complaining . But what he was seeing was β a tsunami of slander on social media β photoshopped images and grotesque threats β all these things were metastasizing . β
Indeed , the problem grew so large that the ADL issued a report on the matter in October . β At least 800 journalists received anti-Semitic tweets with an estimated reach of 45 million impressions , β the report explained . β There was a significant uptick in anti-Semitic tweets in the second half ( January-July 2016 ) of [ the report β s ] study period . This correlates to intensifying coverage of the presidential campaign , the candidates and their positions on a range of issues . β
Vandalism , too , has increased , both on public property , and private , Greenblatt notes . And this week a man in Myrtle Beach , South Carolina , was arrested for trying to buy a gun . According to the FBI , he had hoped to carry out a β Dylann Roof β style attack on a synagogue to kill Jews . Roof murdered nine worshipers at the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston , South Carolina , in 2016 .
β I think , empirically β not opinion , not anecdote , not politics β something is going on , β says Greenblatt . β There is an uptick in incidents . That is why people are concerned . β
Trump , though , seems far more concerned with bragging about his electoral victory . | F0NHCeYfTffmFUmD | 0 | Antisemitism | -1.3 | Politics | -0.1 | White House | 0 | null | null | null | null |
elections | Reason | http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/26/gary-johnson-avoids-typical-third-party | Gary Johnson Avoids Typical Third-Party Fade; Best Polling Since Perot in β92 | 2016-08-27 | Presidential Elections, Elections | Gary Johnson Matt Welch | 8.26.2016 1:22 PM A couple of weeks ago in this space I pushed back against assertions by FiveThirtyEight number-cruncher Harry Enten that Gary Johnson's polls have been "trending downwards," indicating that "voters may be moving away from third-party options." Well, today Enten is back with an interesting piece headlined "Gary Johnson Isn't Fading." While noting what we have been warning you about here for yearsβthird-party candidates typically see their crest of polling support halved by Election Day, according to GallupβEnten explains that Johnson's numbers have so far not followed this pattern. In fact, the Libertarian may have already weathered the most difficult part of the calendar: "Most third-party candidates didn't lose that much support between late summer and Election Day," Enten writes. "Besides John Anderson in 1980, no candidate ended up finishing more than 3 percentage points below where they were polling in late August. The average drop-off is about 2 percentage points." So how does Johnson's 9 percent stack up at this point in the campaign against other third-party candidates since World War II? According to numbers compiled by Enten here, fourth place, behind Ross Perot in 1992 (20 percent then, finished at 19), George Wallace in '68 (17/14), and Anderson in '80 (14/7). He's just a tick above Perot in '96 (8/8), behind which nobody comes close (sorry, Libertarians!). Because of his staying power, FiveThirtyEight has adjusted its predictions for Johnson's final vote upward, to 7.1 percent. But what about the debates, I hear you ask. Well, while #TeamGov and its supporters are touting this new Qunnipiac poll showing 62 percent of Americans think the Libertarian should be in next month's televised showdown, that and a glass of water will get you a drink. As Enten notes, Johnson may not be fading, but he's also not particularly rising, either, and there's a whole lotta real estate between 9 and the required 15 percent. The L.P. ticket did reach a new high this week in the Quinnipiac poll (10 percent, up from 8 percent in June), and tied previous highs in polls by NBC News/Survey Monkey (11 percent), Rasmussen Reports (9 percent), and Reuters/Ipsos (7 percent), but at this advanced date, ties go to the loser. Looking for a glimmer of hope? Here's one intriguing gap in the numerical record. Of the Commission on Presidential Debates' determinative Big Five polls, in which Johnson has been averaging 10 percent instead of 9, none of them have produced results in the last three weeks. Beginning any minute now, we should have a much clearer idea whether the Libertarians are rising in the polls that actually matter. Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup. Ξ NEXT: TImely Theater Recommendation: Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson Matt Welch is an editor at large at Reason. Show Comments (41) Katherine Mangu-Ward | From the March 2025 issue Charles Oliver | 2.21.2025 4:00 AM Jacob Sullum | 2.20.2025 5:10 PM Robby Soave | 2.20.2025 4:20 PM Jack Nicastro | 2.20.2025 4:02 PM Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon. Ξ This modal will close in 10 Just $25 per year Notifications | 855ac725195be3a1 | 1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
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