Some would say that needs no explanation. Some would say the Google Search Engine is correct to show information about Donald Trump when someone searches the word, “idiot.” But in Congress, Republicans think something smells, and they’re not talking about the stench in the White House!
On Tuesday, the search engine giant’s CEO Sundar Pichai had the task of explaining to members of Congress why that happens during a hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
Pichai refuted Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s (D-Calif.) tongue-in-cheek suggestion that it was down to “a little man sitting behind the curtain” who was skewing the results against conservatives — saying the company doesn’t “manually intervene” in searches.
“We provide search today for any time you type in a keyword. We, as Google, have gone out and crawled and stored copies of billions of their pages in our index, and we take the keyword and match it against the pages and rank them based on over 200 signals,” Pichai explained.
“Things like relevance, freshness, popularity, how other people are using it. And based on that, you know, at any given time, we try to find the best results for that query,” he added, during the hearing that also threw up several other self-owns for lawmakers.
Trump’s past lawyer, the man who said he would “take a bullet” for Donald Trump, implicated Trump in a crime… no… two crimes for campaign contribution violation.
According to Michael Cohen, Donald Trump instructed him to pay off a pornstar and a playboy bunny to keep them silent during the 2016 presidential election about affairs he had with Trump. This action, according to Robert Mueller and prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, is a clear campaign violation contribution laws.
But don’t tell that to Congressional Republicans. Presented with facts that Donald Trump is a criminal, a criminal in the Oval Office, Republicans have decided that being in lockstep with Trump is their only hope.
Take Utah Senator Orrin Hatch for example. Greeted with a microphone and a camera thrust in his face and asked for a response to Trump’s involvement in these crimes, Hatch replied, “I don’t care, all I can say is he’s doing a great job as president.”
And Hatch is not alone. Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell basically said he hasn’t thought about Trump’s crimes to have an opinion on the matter.
We have a criminal in the Oval Office and the folks tasked with constitutional oversight have buried their head in the sand.
I’m finally convinced that President Trump is absolutely correct when he tweets that Robert Mueller’s investigation into the alleged malfeasance of the Trump campaign and his possible obstruction of justice is, indeed, a witch hunt.
Because we’ve discovered that there are witches.
Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort have told demonstrable lies about their roles and the actions of others during their time as Trump servants. Manafort has made an art of his lying by first getting a deal on immunity, then breaking it by lying some more. This guy is a machine. Impressive. Cohen’s testimony, which implicates the president directly in authorizing payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in return for their silence about their affairs with him, is even more damaging because it essentially calls Trump a liar since he denies having affairs with either of them. The weight of the evidence is not in the president’s favor.
And if you thought the witches only came out in the Mueller investigation, then you haven’t been paying attention. The other witches were found in North Carolina engaged in…wait for it…voter fraud. The best part is that they’re Republicans. You know, the ones who enacted all of the voter ID and intimidation laws that have been suppressing minority voters for the past two national election cycles. The ones who claimed that illegal immigrants were voting in huge numbers against the president. The ones who said that Democrats were stealing elections.
Them.
Yes, they engaged in some fraudulent activities that blatantly affected the vote in a congressional race in North Carolina. And the even bester part is that the GOP contender is an evangelical preacher who says he has no idea that this was happening in his campaign. What a disgrace.
So there you have it, my friends. Real witches doing really witchful things.
The president is right. And it could turn out to haunt him. Eye of newt indeed.
The voters of Wisconsin spoke loud and clear in last midterms election, replacing Republicans with Democrats up and down the ballot. And in January, the newly elected officials will take control of the state, reflecting the wish of the people.
But Republicans are still in control, and they are jumping through hoops in an unbelievable power grab to suffocate Democrats before they take office.
Wisconsin’s lame-duck, Republican-controlled state Legislature passed on Wednesday a host of measures designed to kneecap Gov.-elect Tony Evers, other Democrats elected to statewide offices and hurt the Democratic Party in general, sending the legislation to the GOP governor Evers defeated ― Scott Walker ― for his signature.
One part of the package would prohibit municipalities from allowing more than two weeks of early voting. That presumably would cut down on voter turnout, which generally helps Republicans.
Other provisions would give the Legislature full control of a state economic development agency, block the governor’s ability to write regulations and allow the Legislature to hire its own lawyers to file lawsuits on behalf of the state.
Walker, who narrowly lost to Evers, is expected to sign the package into law.
Democrats are already threatening to fight the measures in court.
“We will actively be looking at either to litigate or do whatever else in our power to make sure the people of Wisconsin are represented at the table,” Evers told reporters on Tuesday, according to The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
He and the other newly elected Democrats take office in early January.
One change Republicans had considered wasn’t included in the final package ― scheduling the state’s presidential primary for March instead of its current date in April. The GOP had hoped to separate it from a state Supreme Court election that is also on the April ballot. That likely would have resulted in a lower turnout for the April vote, presumably helping a conservative judge seeking re-election.
I didn’t really care for George H.W. Bush as president, but as history shows us, he certainly looks a great deal better in light of, shall we say, current realities.
At the time, Bush was seen as inheriting Ronald Reagan’s conservative mantle, but Bush was more moderate and came from the old blue blood wing of the Republican Party. You know, the wealthy, business-oriented, somewhat squishy on civil rights cadre that also nominated Richard Nixon. Bush had labeled Reagan’s economic policy as “voodoo economics,” which turned out not only to be prescient, but a fair warning to the conservatives who didn’t know how to balance a checkbook because, well, daddy would always clean up the mess.
Bush played daddy to the extent that he could, but he still gave in to the disgraceful instincts that were becoming part of campaigning in the modern era. The Willie Horton ad (I won’t even justify it with a link, though of course you could look it up) became part of the lexicon of scurrilous political advertisements because it played directly to the racist practices that were embedded in conservative circles. The ad was said to use dog whistle tactics, but that’s big fat lie. The ad screamed and generated sirens and flashing lights. And it worked.
Which of course made Bush’s appeal for a kinder, gentler America seem suspect to say the least, but he soon pivoted to his strengths, which were his close personal relationships in Washington and diplomatic circles, and his economic policies, which ultimately sunk him. During the 1988 campaign he said that the Democrats would need to read his lips; that he was not going to raise taxes. Then he did the responsible thing and raised taxes to put the economy on firmer footing and to close the budget deficit. For the conservatives, though, that was heresy. He lost in 1992 because conservatives didn’t come out for him and moderates thought he wasn’t engaged enough in domestic affairs.
But Bush did have some successes. He ordered invasions of Panama and Iraq to stop their leaders, Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, from expanding their roles as very bad guys. And he also navigated the country through the end of the Cold War from 1989 to 1991, and did so with a steady hand. Reagan gets credit for ending the conflict, but it was Bush who helped make it an orderly reality. Looking back, it’s amazing to remember that for all of the talk about the Cold War ending with a mushroom cloud, it really ended with hammers slamming away at the Berlin Wall. Bush’s support for Boris Yeltsin’s coup was a masterstroke of realpolitik. He could have stuck with Mikhail Gorbachev, but Bush saw that Yeltsin was the future. And he was right.
Bush also had a successful post-presidency, burying the hatchet with Bill Clinton and generally living the life of an elder statesman with restraint and credibility. He was, though, the last of the old conservative breed, and it was his son who led us into the political world we unfortunately inhabit now. I won’t recap. You know this.
And yet it says something about the disaster that sits in the White House today when he says he doesn’t understand what the thousand points of light was supposed to represent, or even what it meant. That’s because you need to look beyond yourself and see the country as an interconnected community of people who are willing to help each other through volunteerism and a shared vision of what it takes to continue to improve. George H.W. Bush, indeed, most every other president, understood what this meant and encouraged us to give back to the United States. His death leaves one less light shining. Let’s make sure the present occupant doesn’t shut them all off.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Democrats are expected to leverage their new majority to wield Congress’ oversight powers. They could demand Trump’s tax returns, subpoena his Cabinet members and investigate suspected ties to Russia. And they can block the president’s legislative priorities, whether it’s funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or curbing entitlement programs. That being said and done, the mid-term election was a historic one for people of color and the LGBTQ community, and female candidates spearheaded a significant amount of Democratic gains.
Ayanna Pressley became Massachusetts’ first black congresswoman. Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib became the first Muslim women elected to Congresss. Jared Polis was the first gay man to win a governor’s race. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress.
All this in the midst of Trump blathering on about a new concept he’s just heard of called “bi·par·ti·san·ship”, which he now implores the incoming House Democrats to partake in, in order to avoid his wrath. However, I’m happy to report that the #NewDem2019Crew have pretty much said, “FU Mr. President” (politically speaking, of course).
On their proposed agendas, — top being Trump’s impeachment, indictment, hopefully to be followed by an embarrassingly swift removal from office, despite what proposed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says — they’ve got plenty of bigger fish to fry, primarily damage control over the fires set by this Sad Satan after he’s removed from the whitehouse, if not in 2019 when the Dems take over the House and a large portion of the Senate, then by God in 2020!
Trump, trying hard to save face after the 2018 midterm elections, Nov 7, 2018.
CLEANING UP THE MESS. THE LAUNDRY LIST:
lower health care costs and prescription drug prices
increase pay through economic growth
campaign finance reform bill
infrastructure
gun control legislation
renewable, sustainable energy
On September 10, 2018, The House Committee on Appropriations — comprised of 30 Republicans and 22 Democrats – published a press release stating that the House was expected to consider the conference report on a three-bill “minibus” that includes the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills. This bill will still be on the table in Januaury and is expected to be pushed forward for ratification. The Democratic priorities include:
Rejection of The Trump Budget
The conference report rejects President Trump’s extreme budget cuts, restoring $8.1 billion in funding for important priorities that create jobs, strengthen our economy, and build a better future for all Americans.
Increase Funding for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
The conference report provides $2.38 billion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs in the Department of Energy to support the development of clean, renewable, and energy efficiency technologies across the country. The conference report reverses a House cut of $243 million and provides $57 million above the FY 2018 enacted level.
Support for Advanced Energy Technology Research and Development
The conference report provides $366 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which promotes and funds research and development of advanced energy technology. The conference report reverses a House cut of $28 million, rejects President Trump’s proposed elimination of the agency, and provides $12.7 million above the FY 2018 enacted level.
Improvement of VA Infrastructure
The conference report provides the second installment of $2 billion for VA infrastructure needs. The funding includes $800 million for Medical Facilities for non-recurring maintenance, $750 million for seismic improvements, $300 million for Major Construction, and $150 million for Minor Construction.
Expansion of Opioid Prevention and Treatment for Veterans
The conference report provides $348 million for opioid treatment and prevention programs and $52 million to continue to implement opioid safety initiatives outlined as part of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, as well as to develop programs aimed at ensuring that non-VA providers treating veterans through community care programs are informed and in compliance with all VA standards for opioid safety and prescription guidelines.
Creation of New Compensation for House Interns
The conference report provides $8.8 million in a new dedicated funding stream for Member’s offices to pay interns. Each Member’s office may use $20,000 of that money to pay interns over the course of the calendar year. Interns paid through this account do not count against the limit on paid employees. (“I suppose the thinking behind this proposal is to generate an incentive for youth to get more involved in politics.”) – The House Committee on Appropriations
And what this writer would also like to see is an agenda to reinstate country-wide police reform, that fired/resigned ex attorney general Jeff Sessions thought necessary to shelve as a parting gift just hours before he resigned/was fired. The action sharply curtailed the ability of the federal government’s civil rights attorneys to police the police in regards to unconstitutional acts against citizens. Also a reversal of the militarization of local and state police.
Then there’s also the Voting Rights Act section 5 and section 4b that must be restored, for obvious reasons. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court declared the two provisions unconstitutional, reasoning that they were no longer responsive to current conditions. Yeah, right.
I’m looking toward to the new Senate and Pelosi, if she’s to win SOTH, pushing back hard and keeping these important issues on the front burner for presidential candidates in 2020. I intend to make my concerns known to all the fresh, new lawmakers who make themselves available on social media. You should too!
Democrats say they are fighting for the people, in direct opposition to Republicans, who they state fight for the powerful. That’s sounds endearing enough, but an even more gratifying prospect would be to see the beginnings of a solid third party coming out of all this “new car smell” activity. You know, a sort of antithesis to the Tea Party that totally brexited the GOP back in 2009. A true Coffee Party perhaps? But that’s another post …
The federal government released a report based on the judgement of 13 agencies that unequivocally warned of the dangers, both economic and biological, of the comingpresent global warming crisis. The report was mandated by Congress and points out in stark detail why we need to address climate change, carbon dioxide, and everything else that is contributing to major changes in the United States and the world. It hands the Democrats a potent line of attack for the next election, and should make every American stand up and realize the danger we face.
Then, of course, there’s the guy in the White House. You know, the guy who says it’s all a Chinese hoax meant to destroy the US economy. The guy who has issued several executive orders that will enable the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries to pollute more, destroy sensitive ecosystems, and foul the air and water in the name of…jobs and a misplaced, OK, warped, sense of history.
Yes, it’s true that the United States grew wealthy on US Steel and Exxon and Dow Chemical, but those days are over and gone. And killing more people who mine and work around dangerous materials will not bring those days back.
Neither will the air and water, but that seems to be the policy of choice among Trump’s avid supporters, and those sycophants who worry about the latest tweet or the mercurial nature of the man who holds the future of the country in his small hands.
Yes, I am worried too.
At least with the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, we can have an honest debate about the role and influence of actual science, rather than some warped accounting of the world that has no basis in rational thought. The White House thought it could bury this report in the frenzy of the holiday shopping season. It cannot, nor can it hide the facts that undergird the research.
A president whose approval ratings have never seen the sunlight that shines above 50% will have a tremendously difficult time running on a platform of denial and pollution.
The disrespect is real folks. And if you’re on his… shitlist, Trump’s disrespect for you will be on a hole lower level. What else do you expect from someone with the mental development of a toad?
We already know how he feels about reporters and any media outlet doing their job and shedding light on Trumps many abuses of office. But White House reporter, April Ryan, has a special place deep in the dungeon of Trump’s hate.
Watch the disrespect this man exudes as Ryan asked Trump a question about whether his daughter should be investigated for using a personal email account to conduct government business in the White House.
Do you get the idea that Donald Trump started reading the United States Constitution, got to “We,” decided it didn’t apply to him, and never went back to it? Of course, that assumes that you are giving him the benefit of actually starting to read the document. Or read.
Appointing an Attorney General without the consent of the Senate seems to me to be outside the realm of the president’s duties. Never mind that the person he appointed, Matthew G. Whitaker, doesn’t understand the sometimes fragile system of checks and balances upon which our government rests, having said that the judiciary is supposed to be the weakest branch. He also doesn’t like it when the Supreme Court weighs in on the legality of laws. I suppose he thinks that’s his job.
Of course, the real reason Mr. Whitaker was chosen was to try and shut down the Robert Mueller investigation into whether the president obstructed justice when he fired James Comey as FBI Director. I know that the press and the president are fixated on Russian interference in the election and the extent to which the Trump campaign played along, or worse, but the real issue is the obstruction. And the president knows that, which I think is why he keeps focusing on collusion.
Then there’s the tale of Jim Acosta, the CNN reporter the president threw out of the press pool for asking too many difficult questions. Does anybody remember due process rights? (Does anybody remember laughter?) At least the hated federal judiciary is reading the constitution and ordered the White House to restore Mr. Acosta’s press credentials.
And the elections? Immediately reaching into his vocabulary bag and finding the phrase, “voter fraud,” (the only other words in that bag are witch, hunt, collusion, not, fair, I, me, I, me, and I) to describe the achingly close results in Florida and Georgia, demonstrates that the president has no real respect for the electoral system, nor can he even be respectful, call for a calm, judicious process, and work on a winning issue, such as repairing railroads and airports.
Clearly, the non-stop confrontational attitude is wearing thin as the other results of the election prove. The Democrats are poised to win more than 40 seats that Republicans held in the House, and it’s possible that the Senate will be just as close as it was before. The president and his advisers will now need to answer for their actions in front of less friendly legislators. They’ll put up a fight, but they’ll also show how disdainful they are about the law.
In any event, the next two years will be difficult ones for the president unless he decides that he needs to get something done and works with the Democrats. If not, he will have a difficult time convincing people that he needs a Republican majority in order to succeed.
CNN reports that Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema will win Arizona’s US Senate race, defeating Republican Rep. Martha McSally and flipping a seat that had been in GOP hands for 24 years.
McSally conceded the hard-fought race on Monday night — six days after the election — as county-by-county tallies of mailed-in ballots continued to increase Sinema’s lead.
“I just called Kyrsten Sinema and congratulated her on becoming Arizona’s first female senator after a hard-fought battle. I wish her all success as she represents Arizona in the Senate,” McSally said in a video posted on Twitter Monday night.
The win comes despite President Donald Trump and Republicans pushing false conspiracy theories about why ballots in Arizona were taking so long to count.
Not bad. Could have been a little better, and will be if Florida and/or Georgia recounts change those races, but overall, a good result on Tuesday.
And yet, when all is counted, it looks like maybe 48% of eligible voters went to the polls. That’s terrible. Here we are, the world’s greatest democracy and we can’t even muster a majority of voters exercising their precious right. I honestly have no patience for people who complain or say they want to make this country better, or are seriously upset at the people who are already serving in office, yet do not bother to register, vote and make their voices heard. It’s our duty and our responsibility as citizens.
Moving on.
Democrats garnered more overall votes for both the House and Senate races nationally, which is good news for the party and the country. Midterm elections have traditionally been excuses for the left to be ignorant and stay home while the angry right takes over the Congress and statehouses. I hope this happens no more. And I also hope that, especially in New Jersey, these same voters come out next year when we elect the state legislature and senate, offices that have far more power over our day-to-day existence than federal representatives and senators. Traditionally, only about 25% of voters turn out for those elections. Then they have the temerity to complain about property taxes, school funding, the state of the beaches, and transportation. Again; no patience.
There was a great deal of discussion about what this past election means. There were a number of Democratic Socialists and other far left candidates who won elections, but the real story is that the party is (and must) moving towards the center. This is how the process usually works. The American people are not ready to support Medicare for all or free college tuition or a more liberal immigration policy.
Yet.
These ideas will eventually become part of mainstream discussion in the same way that far right policies that seemed fringe 30 years ago have now become mainstream, such as anti-environmental and pro-business deregulation, and tax cuts that funneled billion of dollars to those who were already wealthy.
But for now, Democrats have to return to the issues that they have traditionally championed; a fairer tax system, being more responsive to the middle and working classes, affordable health care and housing, protecting the rights of all people to vote, to gain a livable wage, and to protect children from exploitation and poverty, not to mention a fairer immigration system. If the Democrats focus on these issues, which most exit polls said were voters’ key concerns, then the party can regain voters who defected to the Republicans in 2016 and build a base of support for future national and state elections.
The party also needs to stay away from talk of impeachment or appearing to be burying the administration under a blizzard of subpoenas in order to satisfy the far left flank that sees the president as illegitimate. Make sure that any actions are defensible, reasonable, pointed, and specific. Fight fire with fire, not a flamethrower. Present an argument for people who should be voting for Democrats to do so. Getting caught up in the minute-to-minute rantings of the president will not show the broader population that it is a party that will get things they want done.
Even with Congressional majorities and the White House, the Republicans were still only able to pass one major piece of legislation, which was a tax cut that didn’t help them a bit on election day, and neither did an economy that continues to create jobs. That’s extraordinary and it demonstrates the extent to which the president’s rantings have muddied, diluted, and just plain blocked what should have been a winning issue. Democrats can build a better tax cut and an economic program that helps the majority of Americans who earn a paycheck but are still struggling.
Let’s rebuild the trust with the American people, fight the groups that espouse hatred and bile, and show that we can truly be a model for the rest of the world.
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