Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is dropping her presidential bid. She informed her staff on Tuesday.
Less viable candidates than Harris need to look in the mirror and do the right thing soon.Harris held a call with her team in Iowa on Tuesday, saying that she had made the decision because of financial struggles experienced by the campaign.
To my supporters, it is with deep regret—but also with deep gratitude—that I am suspending my campaign today.— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 3, 2019
But I want to be clear with you: I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the People. All the people.https://t.co/92Hk7DHHbR
A federal appeals court has sided with House Democrats seeking to obtain President Trump’s private financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One, stating that "the public interest favors denial of a preliminary injunction.”
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit came in the ongoing legal battle Trump has waged over access to his private business records -- including two cases that have already reached the Supreme Court.
The New York-based appeals court upheld Congress’s broad investigative authority and ordered the two banks to comply with the House subpoenas for the president’s financial information. The case pre-dates the public impeachment proceedings in the House. [snip]
The House Intelligence and Financial Services committees are seeking more than 10 years of financial records on Trump, his three oldest children – Eric, Don and Ivanka -- and Trump’s businesses. The committees, led by Reps. Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters, both California Democrats, say they need the records as part of broad investigations into Russian money laundering and potential foreign influence involving Trump.More than anything else, disclosure of Putin asset Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump's finances would potentially reveal the scope and depth of Russia's hold on him, including underwriting loans to prop up Trump businesses and money laundering through Trump properties, as well as fraud and tax evasion.
"The Russia investigation was opened after the FBI was told of statements made by a then Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, that the Russians possessed hacked Hillary Clinton emails. Papadopoulos’s alleged comments were key because they were made well before any public allegation that Russian intelligence operatives had hacked the Democratic National Committee." (our emphasis)In other words, they had every reason to investigate the links. Barr's contention that his own FBI acted improperly in opening the investigation supports one of Trump's conspiracy theories that the FBI and the "deep state" were out to damage him, when in fact his campaign was getting support from Russian military intelligence. In questioning the major element of the Inspector General's report, Barr is again undermining the FBI in the corrupt service of Trump, and by extension, the Kremlin.
BREAKING: In extended letter critical of process, White House says President Trump and his lawyers will not participate in House Judiciary Cmte.'s first impeachment hearing Wednesday. https://t.co/X8zGY0qjZW— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 2, 2019
“This process won’t let me participate in it and that’s so unfair that I refuse to participate in it” is an interesting stand to take.— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 2, 2019
among the chief Republican talking points was that the process was unfair because the White House could not participate and now, given the opportunity, the White House is choosing not to participate https://t.co/a2IMPwTtFF— Alex Thomas (@AlexThomasDC) December 2, 2019
It's almost like they don't have a credible defense his lawyers could present or a client who could defend himself in a way that wouldn't sound absurd or involve lying to Congress... https://t.co/xHKYWBo637— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 2, 2019
Defending the indefensible is just a waste of billable hours. https://t.co/IOrQIN8JDk— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 2, 2019
Wow, it’s almost like all those complaints about not being able to participate in the earlier sessions were made in bad faith. Almost. https://t.co/YkLvgqdtA6— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) December 2, 2019
"Some of the Trump agenda is standard for a Republican president. White-collar criminal prosecutions have hit a 33-year low. The Justice Department defends state laws that could kick thousands off the voting rolls. The National Labor Relations Board is now more sympathetic to employers than unions. And military spending is on track to reach the same levels as during the height of the Iraq War.There's also Trump's infamous, intentionally cruel attempt to stop immigration not only on our southern border, but across the board to stop racial and religious minorities from entering the U.S. The Red Cap Cult loves his "accomplishments" and wants more of the same. That's why the 2020 elections -- from local and state to Federal levels -- are going to determine who we are as a country and if we'll hold on to our democracy in the face of Trump's existential threat to it.
But he’s gone further. While the media, understandably, focuses on Trump’s many scandals, his administration has quietly enacted a far more aggressive agenda than his Republican predecessors. Big boosts to fossil fuel production have come at the expense of an unprecedented deterioration in air quality. Tens of thousands of people have lost health insurance by administrative fiat, and millions are in the process of losing their nutritional assistance through the same mechanism. He’s remade the judiciary, installing conservative judges at twice Obama’s pace, and he’s consolidated a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that may endure for decades."
“Having covered her for as long as I have, each thing she does has meaning to it, even the clothing she wears,” Bennett writes.
First there was the pink pussy-bow blouse Mrs. Trump wore to an October 2016 debate after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape where her husband bragged about grabbing women’s genitals. Then there was the white pantsuit at the 2018 State of the Union (Bennett writes, “I have a theory that when the Trumps are unhappy with each other, Melania wears menswear — because Trump notoriously likes to see women in tight, short, ubersexy and feminine dresses”) [snip]
But no single item of clothing has inspired more discussion than the $39 army-green Zara parka Mrs. Trump wore on a June 2018 trip to the border — the one with the words “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” printed on the back. There have been many takes, but Bennett’s is that it was directed at the president’s daughter, Ivanka. “I believed, and still do, that the jacket was a facetious jab at Ivanka and her near-constant attempts to attach herself for positive administration talking points,” Bennett writes. [snip]
Anytime Ivanka's in the presence of her lusting daddy, she's invading Melanie's turf. There's also the fact that the Trumps sleep in separate bedrooms -- on separate floors -- the rare sign that she has some modicum of sanity and self-respect at least not to share his soiled bed. "Free, Melania" should make an ideal Christmas gift for the Third Lady to convey her presumed private thoughts to her unhinged hubby, since they don't engage in pillow talk these days.Bennett writes that Ivanka’s international travel rankles her stepmother: “The trips were, according to a source, too close for comfort for Melania, who thought Ivanka was invading her turf.” (our emphasis)
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock ended his presidential campaign on Monday, the Democrat announced in a statement to CNN.
The decision comes after the moderate Democrat failed to convince the party's base that the best way to defeat President Donald Trump was by nominating someone who can win in a red state.
Former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak on Sunday ended his long-shot 2020 presidential bid after failing to gain traction in the race for the Democratic Party's nomination. [snip]
Sestak, who mounted unsuccessful bids for US Senate in 2010 and 2016, entered an already-crowded Democratic primary field in June hoping to leverage his career in the US Navy into a successful campaign, but did not qualify for any of the major Democratic presidential debates.For now, unfortunately, Bullock is declining to run in a race he has a chance to win -- for the U.S. Senate seat held by Trumper Steve Daines.
The political commentator Rod Dreher blogs for the American Conservative, where he offers a running catalog of moral affronts and liberal provocations. He doesn’t simply see a society that has become secular and sexualized, but a progressive regime that insists Christians accept and even participate in the degeneracy or fall afoul of nondiscrimination laws and anti-bigotry norms. [snip]
In 2017 Dreher published The Benedict Option, arguing that Christians should retreat into monastic communities where they can live their faith in peace and wait for a decadent culture to consume itself. “We in the modern West are living under barbarism, though we do not recognize it,” he writes. “Our scientists, our judges, our princes, our scholars, and our scribes—they are at work demolishing the faith, the family, gender, even what it means to be human. Our barbarians have exchanged the animal pelts and spears of the past for designer suits and smartphones.” (our emphasis)When scientists, judges, scholars, etc., are defined as the "barbarians" and the hypocritical, reactionary, intolerant, violent American Taliban are defined as the defenders of civilization, you have encapsulated right there the reason why we occupy a different, never- to- be- reconciled universe. It goes a long way in explaining why they see similarly besieged Donald "Beelzebub" Trump as their "Chosen One," their "last, best hope" to save their power and privilege.
A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.
This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.
The move comes amid a wave of increasingly severe anti-abortion bills introduced across much of the country as conservative Republican politicians seek to ban abortion and force a legal showdown on abortion with the supreme court.
Ohio’s move on ectopic pregnancies – where an embryo implants on the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus rendering the pregnancy unviable – is one of the most extreme bills to date. (our emphasis)State and local elections, people.
Meanwhile, the impeachment inquiry moves ahead this week, while Trump bumbles off to London for the NATO meeting, where everyone will be trying to avoid him:
As leaders of NATO member states prepare for yet another summit in London next week, a familiar theme is emerging: how to keep President Donald Trump from disrupting proceedings.
Trump has succeeded in alienating virtually every traditional ally of the US as president, and much of this is linked to his obsession with NATO funding and defense spending more generally. But it's also because of his willingness to insert himself into the domestic politics of other countries and say whatever is on his mind.Our national disgrace on a world stage again. With NATO, as with everything else Trumpian, all roads lead to Putin.
We are, in the best of circumstances, a nation of restless, fleeting attentions. And that is all the more true in this era where news bombards us and crises — constitutional, existential — have become routine. So who can be surprised if the images that dominated hearts and headlines just a few months ago — people jammed in pens, families torn apart, a little girl and her father face down in the Rio Grande — have largely receded from the forefront of our thoughts?
We have moved on. But the fact that refugees and immigrants are no longer in the news doesn’t mean they have gone away. It just means we no longer see them. Their plight has become wallpaper.
If you find that unconscionable, especially in this country and especially in this season, there may be consolation in knowing that there are dozens of organizations fighting for them and that many could use your help. Here’s a random sampling:
Border Angels provides immigrants with legal assistance and English lessons. Its volunteers drive and hike into the rugged desert along the southern border to leave life-saving water for immigrants. Donate at borderangels.org. You can also volunteer through the website, or by emailing volunteer@borderangels.org.
The Justice Department (!) has compiled a directory (www.justice.gov/eoir/probono/states.htm) of lawyers willing to do pro bono work for immigrants. If you are an attorney who’d like to be in it, call 703-756-8020 or sent an email to: ProBono.List.Admin@usdoj.gov;
The Immigrant Rights Project of the ACLU educates immigrants on their legal protections and fights for those rights in court. You can donate by phone at 888-567-ACLU or online at aclu.org.There's more at the link.
"One is not born a failson. Nor does one simply inherit the status of failson. No—failson status is earned through a display of equal parts incompetence, stupidity, and arrogance. And until his book, no person in America—or maybe even the world, so bursting at the seams with louche heirs and dissolute royals with no throne to sit their pampered arses on—illustrated all the facets of a failson better than Junior." (our emphasis)Greasy Don Jr. initially bragged about his book sales topping the New York Times' best seller list, until the bulk sales angle was exposed:
"So this means that junior is actually still a failson. In fact, one might say there is no greater expression of failson-ness than needing Daddy’s party’s political arm to bulk-buy your book."It's not just Greasy Don Jr. that earns the designation of "failson," it extends to in-laws, too. Jack-of-All-Trades, young master-of-none Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner is another failson who's flitted from one failed project to another that Daddy-in-law assigned to him, with nothing to show. Now he's assigned to supervise the border wall construction (that Mexico was supposed to pay for), something that should make opponents of the wall happy.
