"The Kids Are Marching" (2/24/18 Kingston NY) Lewis Black

Republicans Have an Ingenious Plan to Stop Losing Special Elections

Don’t hold them.


By John Nichols


Four days before the anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration, voters in western Wisconsin sent a devastating message to the president’s party. In a State Senate district that Trump won by a landslide in 2016, voters replaced a conservative Republican with a progressive Democrat. The district had been electing Republicans for the better part of two decades, and their nominee, Adam Jarchow, was a prominent member of the State House who had won previous elections in parts of the district. Republicans poured money into the contest. But in the end, it wasn’t even close. St. Croix County medical examiner Patty Schachtner won some 55 percent of the vote, swinging the district to the Democrats by almost 18 points.


It was a stunning setback for Governor Scott Walker and a state Republican Party that had been on a winning streak since the “GOP wave” election of 2010. So stunning, in fact, that Walker tweeted: “Senate District 10 special election win by a Democrat is a wake-up call for Republicans in Wisconsin.” With the “Trump factor” damaging the GOP brand across the country, and with Walker’s own reelection prospects looking increasingly uncertain, the last thing he needed was this bad news. If Democrats could win in such a seemingly red district, there was no telling where else they could triumph. Two other Republican-held legislative seats were open in Wisconsin; losing either of them would confirm that the Republicans were vulnerable and strengthen the hand of Democrats in the Legislature and on the fall campaign trail.


https://www.thenation.com/article/republicans-have-an-ingenious-plan-to-stop-losing-special-elections/


November 2018 cannot get here fast enough

People have died storming beaches or fighting in deserts, and in jungles so that people of a republic could be represented ---------------what Republicans are doing is fascism plain and simple......................

Democrats odds of taking back the House continue to improve

A Pennsylvania district that President Donald Trump won by 20 points in 2016 looks like a toss up Thursday, according to the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

With just days to go before the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th district, the Center for Politics’ Sabato’s Crystal Ball has moved their rating of the seat from “leans Republican” to a “toss-up.” That’s quite a shift from Trump’s landslide win there less than a year and a half ago. While many Democrats are rightly hesitant to predict that Democrats can take down Trump-styled candidates, Sabato’s managing editor Kyle Kondik wrote Thursday morning that there were a number of reasons they changed the PA-18 rating.

Firstly, Kondik wrote, Democrats have been consistently running on average 13 points ahead of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 margin, and Democratic candidate Conor Lamb has significantly out-raised his Republican rival, state Rep. Rick Saccone. As Kondik noted, Lamb has raised $3.9 million ahead of next week’s special election, while Saccone has only raised about $920,000, forcing outside Republican groups to pour more than $10 million in an effort to rescue their man.

https://thinkprogress.org/house-rating-changes-8d5e2cb02753/

Please get out and vote this March 13, 2018, if you live in this PA district.................

Another Legal Win For 21 Young People Suing Over Climate Change

BY JASON MARK | MAR 7 2018
The 21 young people who are suing the federal government for failing to take sufficient action to address climate change cleared another legal hurdle on Wednesday when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that their landmark case can move forward.

In an unanimous ruling, Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas denied the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss the case under a rarely used procedure called a writ of mandamus, in which a case essentially leapfrogs over the usual legal venues. Judge Thomas wrote that a “writ of mandamus is a drastic and extraordinary remedy reserved for really extraordinary cases,” and that the Trump administration’s motion failed to meet that standard. The issues raised by the case “are better addressed through the ordinary course of litigation,” the chief judge wrote, pointing out that the case hasn’t even reached the discovery stage yet.

“The Ninth Circuit just gave us the green light for trial,” Julia Olson, the chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, the organization spearheading the lawsuit, said in a statement. “We will ask the district court for a trial date in 2018 where we will put the federal government’s dangerous energy system and climate policies on trial for infringing the constitutional rights of young people.”

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/another-legal-win-for-our-childrens-trust-21-young-people-suing-over-climate-change




November 2018 cannot get here fast enough ..................

White House wont answer questions about the Stormy Daniels scandal, despite Sarah Sanders claims

The White House is trying to deflect questions about a blockbuster lawsuit filed by adult film actress Stormy Daniels by claiming they have already been asked and answered.

This is false and there are receipts.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday against the President of the United States in California Superior Court. The purpose of the lawsuit was to obtain a declaratory judgement invalidating an apparent agreement between Daniels, Trump, and a shell corporation set up by Trump’s longtime attorney, Michael Cohen. Daniels claims the agreement, which paid her $130,000 in exchange for her silence about her alleged affair with Trump, is invalid because Trump never signed it, among other reasons.

On Wednesday, a CNN reporter asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about Trump’s reaction to the case and the reported “hush money” agreement with Daniels. Sanders responded that the White House has already “addressed our feelings on that situation.”

https://thinkprogress.org/everything-white-house-has-said-about-stormy-daniels-e0adfa058077/

So is this part of charade for the lying US Attorney general to go out to California, to deflect the shit that this "team" is now in, and Sarah, yes Sarah, keeps helping this "team' to dig the hole deeper for criminality..................what an IDIOT............

November 2018 cannot get here fast enough

Fair housing activists decry Senate bill they say allows banks to racially discriminate

A complex banking bill currently making its way through the Senate is praised by proponents as a common sense revision of Dodd-Frank era banking regulations, that would help small banks and lenders thrive. But activists for fair housing practices are increasingly sounding alarms warning the bill opens the door for many financial institutions to hide racially discriminatory practices in mortgage lending.

Amid provisions to roll back many of the Dodd-Frank banking rules implemented in response to the 2008 economic crisis, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S.2155) — which has been nicknamed the “Bank Lobbyist Act” by its opponents — contains language that would exempt roughly 85 percent of the nation’s banks and credit unions from soon-to-be-enacted obligations to report mortgage lending data. Compliance with these expanded reporting regulations were a part of the Obama-era changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), a decades-old law intended to monitor and compel equitable lending to qualified borrowers.

“I’m flabbergasted,” exclaimed Greg D. Squires, a professor of sociology and public policy and public administration at George Washington University. “HMDA has been has been used effectively by the banking industry, regulators, academics, journalists and fair housing advocacy groups to document instances of housing discrimination. This [if passed into law] dramatically weakens efforts to combat discriminatory lending that may be occurring in the housing market.”

https://thinkprogress.org/fair-housing-activists-decry-senate-bill-they-say-allows-banks-to-racially-discriminate-f1391ae6d79c/

Stormy Daniels goes nuclear on Trump, reveals all in new lawsuit

Stormy Daniels is not going away quietly.

In a new lawsuit filed in a California court, the adult film star, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, claims her agreement with Donald Trump to keep their alleged affair secret is not binding because Trump never signed it. The lawsuit provides embarrassing new details about the nature of her relationship with Trump and the elaborate effort to keep it under wraps.

Attached to Daniels’ new lawsuit is the full “Hush Agreement” between Daniels, Trump, and a shell company created by Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. The agreement refers to Daniels and Trump by special pseudonyms — Trump goes by David Dennison and Daniels by Peggy Peterson. Daniels also attached the “Side Letter Agreement” between the parties to the lawsuit, which discloses the true identities of the pseudonyms.

Daniels is not seeking any money, but declaratory relief from efforts by Cohen to force the dispute into a secret arbitration process.

https://thinkprogress.org/stormy-daniels-goes-nuclear-on-trump-in-new-lawsuit-0642869a4b4a/


Hey sexual predator, do you fully realize, that this action by your "attorney" and you is a crime pretty much spelled out in the Constitution.........................you are toast...................and so is your 'attorney"................do both of you understand what the word "blackmail" is all about....................




November 2018 cannot get here fast enough

Rick Perry: The world can either commit to fossil fuels or go back to the mid-1800s

To the Trump administration, the world is facing two choices when it comes to the future of energy: more coal and fossil fuels, or a return to the 1800s, when people lit their homes with lanterns and got around via horse and buggy.

At the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas on Wednesday, reporter Lisa Friedman asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry about certain countries’ plans to stop using coal. Mocking the decision, Perry responded, “I think it’s a fool’s errand to stand up and say ‘by 2030 we’re going to be done with fossil fuels’ … and what? Go back to living like we were living in the mid-1800s?”

Perry seemed to ignore the fact that he runs a department that oversees many of the federal government’s renewable energy programs. Experts in Perry’s own department have made clear that, not only are coal and nuclear uneconomical, but renewable energy keeps getting cheaper and more reliable.

https://thinkprogress.org/perry-fossil-fuels-or-1800s-9d28416bdedc/


Let me preference this by saying that this asshole is a IDIOT, and needs to go back under a fucking rock, because once he is out of office, he is going to write a book.....................and other IDIOTS are going to buy it, hell he might even go on PragerU and become a spokesperson to spew his shit..................


November 2018 cannot get here fast enough

Experts have identified substance in suspected poisoning, Rudd suggests

Experts have identified the substance involved in the suspected poisoning of the former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on Sunday, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, has suggested.

Speaking after chairing a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee to discuss the incident, Rudd said: “We do know more about the substance and the police will be making a further statement this afternoon in order to share some of that.”

In a pooled TV interview, she added: “I would like to reassure the public that we have the ability and the wherewithal and the knowledge to keep them completely safe.”

Rudd also cautioned against speculation over the case. “We need to make sure that the police and the other services have the space to continue that investigation. We need to keep a cool head and make sure that we collect all the evidence we can.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/07/russian-spy-police-appeal-for-witnesses-as-cobra-meeting-takes-place

A 250 mile protest run: the fight to save Navajo land and US national parks

When an eclectic group of ultra-runners and members of the Navajo Nation were faced with Donald Trump’s plans to destroy their natural playground, they protested in the only way they could – they ran.

If you asked the average runner what they enjoy most about their weekend runs they would probably all say something slightly different. But when you delve far enough under the surface, it all boils down to the same elusive concept: freedom. And nothing symbolises the liberating thrill of connecting to nature more than running through the panoramic expanses of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments.

So, when Donald Trump announced plans to sweep all of this away in the largest elimination of public land in US history, the obvious thing for runners and film-makers Johnie Gall, Andy Cochrane and Greg Balkin to do was to bring everyone together and run across it in six mile relays – all 250 miles of it – in a single weekend. The result is one of the most inspirational and unique environmental protest films you’re likely to see.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2018/mar/07/a-250-mile-protest-run-the-fight-to-save-navajo-land-and-us-national-parks