If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
BREAKING: Pres. Trump rejects independent study that reports an estimated 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico in 5 months after Hurricane Maria; provides no evidence to discount the study; declares, without evidence, that the higher death toll is political ploy to make him look bad.
I guess they will find the money for that wall somewhere. Also Betsy Devos' concentration camps cost $700/night per kid, so we need to pay her for that.
How is Trump dealing with Florence and her aftermath thus far? I would have expected him to embrace the chance of a distraction but I'm not seeing much. If he screws the pooch isn't he risking a lot of votes in red states or are they just that safe?
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
It's even better because they make it sound like it destabilizes the election:
In an interview, FEC Chairwoman Caroline Hunter said that the names of certain contributors who give money to nonprofit groups to use in political campaigns beginning Wednesday will have to be publicly reported.
Hunter and other conservatives warned the decision could have a chilling effect just as the midterms are heating up.
“It’s unfortunate that citizens and groups who wish to advocate for their candidate will now have to deal with a lot of uncertainty less than two months before the election,” said Hunter, a Republican appointee.
Conservatives said the decision to throw out the FEC rule raises First Amendment concerns about donor privacy.
Excuse me, but if you donate to candidates your name is publicly available. Donor privacy for whom?
One week ago, two Republican campaign workers in Arizona visited the campaign office of a Democrat. They gave false names, and tried to make a donation from a supposed local Communist Party.
On Friday afternoon in Flagstaff, two men who called themselves Jose Rosales and Ahmahd Sadia walked into the campaign office of first-term Democrat Tom O’Halleran, with $39.68 and an urgent desire for the “Northern Arizona University Communist party” to be given a receipt for the donation.
Making campaign donations under false names is a crime. When O’Halleran's guy went to local Republican headquarters to return the money, one of the fakers promptly came out to accept the return. O’Halleran's Republican opponent denied any involvement.
In a statement sent to the Guardian on Thursday morning, a spokesman for O’Halleran’s Republican opponent, Wendy Rogers, said: “This is news to us. No one from our campaign was involved in this juvenile stunt."
Pastor Brunson prays for President Trump after returning from Turkey.
Lord God, I ask that you pour out your Holy Spirit on President Trump, that you give him supernatural wisdom to accomplish all of the plans you have for this country and for him. I ask that you give him wisdom in how to lead this country into righteousness. I ask that you give him perseverance and endurance and courage to stand for truth. I ask that you protect him: from slander, from enemies, from those who would undermine. I ask that you make him a great blessing to this country. Fill him with your wisdom and strength and perseverance. And we bless him. May he be a great blessing to our country. In Jesus’ name, we bless you. Amen.
“I want to pray that the spirit of the Lord would rest on the president, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. Amen,” Norine Brunson prayed.
Mr. Severino, while serving as the head of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, was among the conservatives who blanched at the Obama administration’s expansion of sex to include gender identity, which he called “radical gender ideology.”
In California, we have a Proposition on the ballot for the November vote. Prop 10 would give local governments the power to enact rent controls. The measure was placed on the ballot by the public, after years of soaring rents.
More than $60m has been donated for the Proposition 10 fight, with most of the money coming from landlords opposed to the measure.
So far, as expected. But wait a minute ...
Campaign finance records show entities controlled by the private equity giant Blackstone have been among the biggest sources of cash for opponents of the ballot measure. More than $5.6m has come from a Blackstone holding company and four of its investment funds.
But unlike typical corporate political donations, the Blackstone contributions didn’t come from the firm’s executives or corporate treasury. Instead, they came from pools of capital from investors, which include dozens of state and local pension systems, and public university endowments. The move has been described as the equivalent of mutual fund executives taking money out of customers’ accounts to make political contributions.
Apparently rental investment plans have wide latitude about where they can invest your money. Including giving it to political campaigns, with no financial return at all. I wonder if bribes would be a legal form of investment too.
“It is morally wrong that they are using our retirement money to fund a political campaign,” Barberini said. “It is also a slippery slope. Where does this stop? What if a money manager wants to take our retirement savings and give it to a candidate?
“Once you start taking money out of pensions to fund political campaigns, where do you draw the line?”
I recommend reading the entire article. If this stands, they've found a way to drain pension funds into political campaigns. Even campaigns the investors and pensioners oppose. Without risking a dime of their own money.
So far, it’s either a false flag (and, seriously, what isn’t a false flag event to these people anymore?) or, the targets brought it upon themselves, or it’s the press’ fault for reasons. They keep throwing crap at the wall, hoping something sticks.
Stacey Abrams has a real shot at winning governor and it speaks to how little Georgia has moved on since the Voting Rights Act that we're seeing them stoop this low and this obvious.
That isn't the instance that comes to mind... that looks like a person interrupting a statement and being disruptive. Not a reporter asking a question when they had the mike.
That isn't the instance that comes to mind... that looks like a person interrupting a statement and being disruptive. Not a reporter asking a question when they had the mike.
A Trump-appointed Federal judge ruled today that the White House must reinstate Jim Acosta's press credentials immediately. I'm eagerly awaiting Trump slagging the judge in the same manner he lambasted Sessions, because he didn't have Trump's back.
A Trump-appointed Federal judge ruled today that the White House must reinstate Jim Acosta's press credentials immediately. I'm eagerly awaiting Trump slagging the judge in the same manner he lambasted Sessions, because he didn't have Trump's back.
It was a temporary order, as the judge thought CNN was likely to prevail on the merits.
Judge Kelly, a Trump appointee, did not address the first amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and the press on Friday, but instead focused on a due process provision of the US constitution that provides for fair treatment through a judicial or administrative process.
“Whatever process occurred within the government is still so shrouded in mystery that the government at oral argument could not tell me who made the initial decision to revoke Mr Acosta’s press pass,” Kelly said in his verbal ruling.
As I read it, I think it was handled as a government "taking" without due process. White House press credentials are doubtless hard to come by, and precious to anyone who has one. Oh, and I could tell the judge who made the initial decision.
I heard an interesting take on the whole Acosta affair by a Fox contributor during 1A's friday news roundup. He posited that Trump knows which reporters are more difficult/combative and purposely calls on them so he can do his tough-guy/the-press-is-the-enemy-of-the-people shtick for the cameras (and his faithful followers) to see. It's theater.
He went on to say that the reporters know this is what he's doing and that they're being used as propaganda tools, but there really isn't anything they can do about it other than throw softballs or simply not attend Trump's press events.
He also posited that, given the judge's ruling was based on the 5th and due-process, the White House will now create a "due-process" system that will essentially be a very quick kangaroo court.