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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
August 9, 2019
Ignoring Trump’s Racism Betrays Our Country’s Victims
August 9, 2019 at 10:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Ignoring Trump's Racism Betrays Our Country's Victims
https://politicalwire.com/2019/08/09/ignoring-trumps-racism-betrays-our-countrys-victims/Ignoring Trump’s Racism Betrays Our Country’s Victims
August 9, 2019 at 10:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Michael Gerson: “Racism is the fire that left our country horribly disfigured. It is the beast we try to keep locked in the basement. When the president of the United States plays with that fire or takes that beast out for a walk, it is not just another political event, not just a normal day in campaign 2020. It is a cause for shame.”
“It is the violation of martyrs’ graves. It is obscene graffiti on the Lincoln Memorial… And all of this is being done by an ignorant and arrogant narcissist reviving racist tropes for political gain, indifferent to the wreckage he is leaving, the wounds he is ripping open.”
“It is the violation of martyrs’ graves. It is obscene graffiti on the Lincoln Memorial… And all of this is being done by an ignorant and arrogant narcissist reviving racist tropes for political gain, indifferent to the wreckage he is leaving, the wounds he is ripping open.”
August 9, 2019
As He Plays President in El Paso and Dayton, We Know That the Real Donald Trump Is a Bad Man
Trump is indifferent to tragedy, deaf to the call to decency, and willfully ignorant of the role American presidents must play in times of national mourning and crisis.
Rick Wilson
Updated 08.08.19
5:46PM ET / Published 08.07.19 2:32PM ET
The first rule of Trump world is that everything Trump touches dies. Sorry, MAGAs. It’s just natural law.
The second rule is that there is no better version of Donald Trump. The truth is in the asides, the raging tweets, the blurted statements on the White House lawn. What you see in those moments is the real man. The dead-eyed, flat-toned voice of the creature reading pre-chewed Teleprompter cud isn’t the real Trump.
snip//
The real Trump’s cynical appeals to racial animus aren’t coincidental to his presidency; they’re definitional. The real Trump is the racist lout who praised alt-right lardfather Steve Bannon just 24 hours before the shooting and who still employs Stephen Miller as his Secretary of White Nationalism. The real Trump is the man who has spent two years ranting about invading caravans full of rapists, murderers, and MS-13 gang members and gleefully putting children in cages.
The real Trump spent two weeks prior gleefully attacking Members of Congress of color, demanding they return to their homelands and referring to America’s minority cities as “infested.” The real Trump is a man who had his aides brag to the press about how all of this racial arson was brilliant 2020 base politics strategy.
A president showed up in Dayton and El Paso today. It’s too bad it was just another character in a tragic reality TV show, when we could have used the real thing.
Rick Wilson:...We Know That the Real Donald Trump Is a Bad Man
https://www.thedailybeast.com/as-he-plays-president-in-el-paso-and-dayton-we-know-that-the-real-donald-trump-is-a-bad-man?ref=scrollAs He Plays President in El Paso and Dayton, We Know That the Real Donald Trump Is a Bad Man
Trump is indifferent to tragedy, deaf to the call to decency, and willfully ignorant of the role American presidents must play in times of national mourning and crisis.
Rick Wilson
Updated 08.08.19
5:46PM ET / Published 08.07.19 2:32PM ET
The first rule of Trump world is that everything Trump touches dies. Sorry, MAGAs. It’s just natural law.
The second rule is that there is no better version of Donald Trump. The truth is in the asides, the raging tweets, the blurted statements on the White House lawn. What you see in those moments is the real man. The dead-eyed, flat-toned voice of the creature reading pre-chewed Teleprompter cud isn’t the real Trump.
snip//
The real Trump’s cynical appeals to racial animus aren’t coincidental to his presidency; they’re definitional. The real Trump is the racist lout who praised alt-right lardfather Steve Bannon just 24 hours before the shooting and who still employs Stephen Miller as his Secretary of White Nationalism. The real Trump is the man who has spent two years ranting about invading caravans full of rapists, murderers, and MS-13 gang members and gleefully putting children in cages.
The real Trump spent two weeks prior gleefully attacking Members of Congress of color, demanding they return to their homelands and referring to America’s minority cities as “infested.” The real Trump is a man who had his aides brag to the press about how all of this racial arson was brilliant 2020 base politics strategy.
A president showed up in Dayton and El Paso today. It’s too bad it was just another character in a tragic reality TV show, when we could have used the real thing.
August 9, 2019
GOP Will Try to Divert Health, Education Funds for Wall
I predict this won't be too popular
https://politicalwire.com/2019/08/09/gop-will-try-to-divert-health-education-funds-for-wall/
GOP Will Try to Divert Health, Education Funds for Wall
August 9, 2019 at 6:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“Senate Republicans are looking to pay for President Trump’s border wall in part by putting about $5 billion less in the largest domestic spending bill,” Roll Call reports.
“That move signals a likely fight over wall funding, as well as over Trump’s ability to reprogram or transfer funds to the border, when the fiscal 2020 appropriations process resumes after Congress returns in September.”
“That move signals a likely fight over wall funding, as well as over Trump’s ability to reprogram or transfer funds to the border, when the fiscal 2020 appropriations process resumes after Congress returns in September.”
August 8, 2019
Posted on Thu, Aug 8th, 2019 by Jason Easley
Trump Fires Honest Deputy DNI As He Is Trying To Rig 2020
Sue Gordon, who was endorsed by members of the intel community and Congress to be the next DNI, is now leaving her position after a meeting with Trump.
Trump fires Deputy DNI Because She Tells The Truth
snip// (tweet I cannot copy for some reason)
Gordon had been endorsed by everyone from Rod Rosenstein to members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees as a competent public servant who was experienced and qualified to be the next Director of National Intelligence. After Trump’s efforts to nominate unqualified stooge Rep. John Ratcliffe to the position, failed some thought that he would back down and actually put someone competent in charge of overseeing national intelligence, but Donald Trump doesn’t do competence.
Trump is trying to weaken the intelligence community ahead of the 2020 election
It is almost like Donald Trump is trying to take out the cops before he can commit his next set of crimes. It is not a coincidence that Trump wants a loyalist overseeing national intelligence ahead of a reelection campaign where he has already publicly stated that he would take help from foreign governments.
Trump wants to make sure that there will be no investigations of his 2020 reelection activities.
Donald Trump isn’t brilliant or subtle. It is obvious what he is doing, and it is no accident that he is trying to break the intelligence community right before he runs for reelection.
Trump Fires Honest Deputy DNI As He Is Trying To Rig 2020
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/08/08/trump-fires-honest-deputy-dni-as-he-is-trying-to-rig-2020.htmlPosted on Thu, Aug 8th, 2019 by Jason Easley
Trump Fires Honest Deputy DNI As He Is Trying To Rig 2020
Sue Gordon, who was endorsed by members of the intel community and Congress to be the next DNI, is now leaving her position after a meeting with Trump.
Trump fires Deputy DNI Because She Tells The Truth
snip// (tweet I cannot copy for some reason)
Gordon had been endorsed by everyone from Rod Rosenstein to members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees as a competent public servant who was experienced and qualified to be the next Director of National Intelligence. After Trump’s efforts to nominate unqualified stooge Rep. John Ratcliffe to the position, failed some thought that he would back down and actually put someone competent in charge of overseeing national intelligence, but Donald Trump doesn’t do competence.
Trump is trying to weaken the intelligence community ahead of the 2020 election
It is almost like Donald Trump is trying to take out the cops before he can commit his next set of crimes. It is not a coincidence that Trump wants a loyalist overseeing national intelligence ahead of a reelection campaign where he has already publicly stated that he would take help from foreign governments.
Trump wants to make sure that there will be no investigations of his 2020 reelection activities.
Donald Trump isn’t brilliant or subtle. It is obvious what he is doing, and it is no accident that he is trying to break the intelligence community right before he runs for reelection.
August 8, 2019
A week after mass shootings, Republicans plan voter drive at South Florida gun shows
By Steve Contorno Tampa Bay Times
August 08, 2019 01:59 PM, Updated 2 hours 9 minutes ago
The Republican Party of Florida is planning to hold two voter registration drives at a South Florida gun show one week after two mass shootings ended with 31 people dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
The party’s regional field director emailed supporters Thursday asking for volunteers to help register voters at the Pembroke Pines gun show that will take place Saturday and Sunday.
The timing of the Pembroke Pines gun show has already drawn concerns from local residents, who have called the event insensitive to last weekend’s gun violence. City commissioners said they don’t want to host the gun show, but they already signed a contract to hold it at a city-owned venue, according to CBS4 in Miami.
more...
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article233663987.html?fbclid=IwAR3jXn6LnH_3H9kvREuVnxrh671joZXB9GmQJBI69SLSKJkuw5-7907nG6o
A week after mass shootings, Republicans plan voter drive at South Florida gun shows
A week after mass shootings, Republicans plan voter drive at South Florida gun shows
By Steve Contorno Tampa Bay Times
August 08, 2019 01:59 PM, Updated 2 hours 9 minutes ago
The Republican Party of Florida is planning to hold two voter registration drives at a South Florida gun show one week after two mass shootings ended with 31 people dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
The party’s regional field director emailed supporters Thursday asking for volunteers to help register voters at the Pembroke Pines gun show that will take place Saturday and Sunday.
“This is a great opportunity to engage the community and promote the values that make this country strong, prosperous, safe and great!” the email said.
The timing of the Pembroke Pines gun show has already drawn concerns from local residents, who have called the event insensitive to last weekend’s gun violence. City commissioners said they don’t want to host the gun show, but they already signed a contract to hold it at a city-owned venue, according to CBS4 in Miami.
more...
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article233663987.html?fbclid=IwAR3jXn6LnH_3H9kvREuVnxrh671joZXB9GmQJBI69SLSKJkuw5-7907nG6o
August 8, 2019
Harry Reid to Dems: Kill the Filibuster to Tackle the Climate Crisis
The former majority leader has some thoughts about what his party should do should it return to power.
Sam Stein
Politics Editor
Updated 08.08.19 7:57AM ET / Published 08.08.19 4:59AM ET
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- As the Democratic Party debates what to prioritize should it take power following the 2020 elections, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered his fellow members a stern directive and an ambitious proposal.
Tackle climate change legislation first, Reid said. And if it requires eliminating the filibuster to do it... well, so be it.
Reid’s admonition represents the most notable case of a party elder arguing that global warming needs to be the Democrats’ No. 1 agenda item. But it is also premised on three decidedly significant—and to varying degrees, unlikely—developments: that Democrats retake the White House, that they retake the Senate, and that 50 of those Senators decide they are comfortable changing the rules of their chamber to get rid of the filibuster.
It’s happened before, though with different stakes. In 2013, Reid and his fellow Senate Democrats scrapped the 60-vote threshold for most judicial appointments, saying that Republican opposition to Barack Obama’s nominees had left them with no other choice. In 2017, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), followed suit by scrapping the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees and cabinet officials, saying that Reid had laid the procedural and intellectual foundation for them to do so.
McConnell has resisted calls—including from President Donald Trump—to go even further and end the filibuster for actual legislation. But Reid said that the day will come for that as well.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/harry-reid-to-dems-kill-the-filibuster-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis?ref=home
Harry Reid to Dems: Kill the Filibuster to Tackle the Climate Crisis
Harry Reid to Dems: Kill the Filibuster to Tackle the Climate Crisis
The former majority leader has some thoughts about what his party should do should it return to power.
Sam Stein
Politics Editor
Updated 08.08.19 7:57AM ET / Published 08.08.19 4:59AM ET
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- As the Democratic Party debates what to prioritize should it take power following the 2020 elections, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered his fellow members a stern directive and an ambitious proposal.
Tackle climate change legislation first, Reid said. And if it requires eliminating the filibuster to do it... well, so be it.
“The answer is yes,” Reid said, when asked if he would scrap the Senate rule requiring 60 votes for legislation if it allowed the party to pass a bill addressing the climate crisis. “[T]he No. 1 priority is climate change. There’s nothing that affects my children, grandchildren, and their children, right now, more than climate.”
Reid’s admonition represents the most notable case of a party elder arguing that global warming needs to be the Democrats’ No. 1 agenda item. But it is also premised on three decidedly significant—and to varying degrees, unlikely—developments: that Democrats retake the White House, that they retake the Senate, and that 50 of those Senators decide they are comfortable changing the rules of their chamber to get rid of the filibuster.
It’s happened before, though with different stakes. In 2013, Reid and his fellow Senate Democrats scrapped the 60-vote threshold for most judicial appointments, saying that Republican opposition to Barack Obama’s nominees had left them with no other choice. In 2017, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), followed suit by scrapping the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees and cabinet officials, saying that Reid had laid the procedural and intellectual foundation for them to do so.
McConnell has resisted calls—including from President Donald Trump—to go even further and end the filibuster for actual legislation. But Reid said that the day will come for that as well.
“It is not a question of if,” he told The Daily Beast in an interview from his office at the University of Las Vegas. “It is a question of when we get rid of the filibuster. It’s gone. It’s gone.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/harry-reid-to-dems-kill-the-filibuster-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis?ref=home
August 8, 2019
Banks Give Documents on Russians Linked to Trump
August 8, 2019 at 7:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Banks Give Documents on Russians Linked to Trump
https://politicalwire.com/2019/08/08/banks-give-documents-on-russians-linked-to-trump/Banks Give Documents on Russians Linked to Trump
August 8, 2019 at 7:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“Major Wall Street banks have given congressional committees investigating President Trump thousands of pages of documents related to Russians who may have had dealings with Mr. Trump, his family or his business,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Some banks are also giving documents related to Mr. Trump’s business, the Trump Organization, to New York state investigators.”
“Some banks are also giving documents related to Mr. Trump’s business, the Trump Organization, to New York state investigators.”
August 8, 2019
This came after ice agents raided several food processing plants in Mississippi arresting 680 people believed to be in the country illegally.
more...
https://www.wjtv.com/news/children-of-undocumented-immigrants-arrested-in-mississippi-rely-on-strangers-for-food-and-shelter/?fbclid=IwAR1n2TOT5APbmldQgQ3FLi8QyShAy8QVeLRPN5LhjNGVFuzWzXmF6UuwiVE
Children of undocumented immigrants arrested in Mississippi rely on strangers for food and shelter
Children of undocumented immigrants arrested in Mississippi rely on strangers for food and shelter
News
Posted: Aug 7, 2019 / 10:52 PM UTC / Updated: Aug 7, 2019 / 10:52 PM UTC
Following this massive illegal immigration enforcement many children of those arrested across the state are now left homeless with nowhere to go.
12 News Alex Love went out to Forest, Mississippi where community leaders are coming together to put them up for the night in a gym.
These children who some are as young as toddlers were relying on neighbors and even strangers to pick them up outside their homes after school and drive them to a community fitness center where people tried to keep them calm. But many kids could not stop crying for mom and dad.
Fighting back tears 11 year old Magdalena Gomez Gregorio expressed to us her devastation being alone without her dad.
“Government please show some heart,” Gregoria cried. “Let my parent be free and everyone else please don’t leave the child with cryness and everything.
”
This came after ice agents raided several food processing plants in Mississippi arresting 680 people believed to be in the country illegally.
more...
https://www.wjtv.com/news/children-of-undocumented-immigrants-arrested-in-mississippi-rely-on-strangers-for-food-and-shelter/?fbclid=IwAR1n2TOT5APbmldQgQ3FLi8QyShAy8QVeLRPN5LhjNGVFuzWzXmF6UuwiVE
August 8, 2019
Twitter suspends McConnell campaign account after posting video of protester shouting threats, profanities
By Justin Wise - 08/07/19 08:52 PM EDT
Twitter has suspended the account for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign after the account shared a video of a protester's profanity-laced rant outside the senator's home.
A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill that the @Team_Mitch account was locked because a tweet "violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety.”
McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told The Hill that the account was locked Wednesday morning "for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell."
snip//
An aide to the McConnell campaign said the account was still suspended as of Wednesday evening and that Twitter had said it would remain that way until the post was deleted. The aide added that Twitter had taken the video down, but that the campaign was still being asked to delete the tweet officially.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/456646-twitter-suspends-mcconnell-campaign-for-posting-video-of-protesters-profanity
Twitter suspends McConnell campaign account after posting video of protester shouting threats...
Twitter suspends McConnell campaign account after posting video of protester shouting threats, profanities
By Justin Wise - 08/07/19 08:52 PM EDT
Twitter has suspended the account for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign after the account shared a video of a protester's profanity-laced rant outside the senator's home.
A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill that the @Team_Mitch account was locked because a tweet "violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety.”
McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told The Hill that the account was locked Wednesday morning "for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell."
snip//
"This is a problem with the speech police in America today," Golden said in response to the account's suspension. "Twitter will allow the words of 'Massacre Mitch; to trend nationally on their platform, but locks our account for posting actual threats against us. We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video."
An aide to the McConnell campaign said the account was still suspended as of Wednesday evening and that Twitter had said it would remain that way until the post was deleted. The aide added that Twitter had taken the video down, but that the campaign was still being asked to delete the tweet officially.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/456646-twitter-suspends-mcconnell-campaign-for-posting-video-of-protesters-profanity
August 8, 2019
Senate Republican calls out Trump’s DOJ for not responding to his domestic terrorism questions
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Fox News that both the Justice Department and FBI have failed to address white supremacist extremism.
Josh Israel
Aug 7, 2019, 2:05 pm
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, is typically a loyal ally of President Donald Trump and his administration. But on Wednesday, he went on Fox News and scolded Trump’s Justice Department and FBI for failing to provide even basic information about a major domestic terrorism threat.
In early May, Johnson and the committee’s top Democrat — Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) — authored bipartisan letters that were sent to Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General William Barr, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. These letters asked for information about domestic terrorism and how each is addressing it. DHS responded, but four months later, the Justice Department and the FBI — which operates within the DOJ — have not.
In a new letter on Monday, Johnson and Peters noted that there have been several domestic terrorism attacks since their first letter. “Since the date of our request, there have been numerous mass attacks, including Virginia Beach, VA; Gilroy, CA; El, Paso, TX; and Dayton, OH… These continued mass attacks make it clear that the federal government has more work to do in preventing domestic terrorism.”
On Tuesday, Johnson took the issue directly to the Trump administration — by raising it on Fox News.
more...
https://thinkprogress.org/republican-senate-chairman-slams-trumps-doj-over-domestic-terrorism-non-response-b903f3de5f75/
Senate Republican calls out Trump's DOJ for not responding to his domestic terrorism questions
Senate Republican calls out Trump’s DOJ for not responding to his domestic terrorism questions
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Fox News that both the Justice Department and FBI have failed to address white supremacist extremism.
Josh Israel
Aug 7, 2019, 2:05 pm
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, is typically a loyal ally of President Donald Trump and his administration. But on Wednesday, he went on Fox News and scolded Trump’s Justice Department and FBI for failing to provide even basic information about a major domestic terrorism threat.
In early May, Johnson and the committee’s top Democrat — Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) — authored bipartisan letters that were sent to Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General William Barr, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. These letters asked for information about domestic terrorism and how each is addressing it. DHS responded, but four months later, the Justice Department and the FBI — which operates within the DOJ — have not.
In a new letter on Monday, Johnson and Peters noted that there have been several domestic terrorism attacks since their first letter. “Since the date of our request, there have been numerous mass attacks, including Virginia Beach, VA; Gilroy, CA; El, Paso, TX; and Dayton, OH… These continued mass attacks make it clear that the federal government has more work to do in preventing domestic terrorism.”
On Tuesday, Johnson took the issue directly to the Trump administration — by raising it on Fox News.
“On May 8th, ranking member Sen. Peters and I sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the FBI, asking them how do they keep track of these domestic terrorist attacks? What kind of resources do they have and what are they devoting to different aspects of this? We got a response from DHS. We haven’t got a response from the FBI or attorney general,” he complained.
“Monday, we asked them to respond. I’m not sure you’ll ever have enough resources in terms of what people will be requesting. This is a serious issue, though. We expect answers out of the FBI director and the attorney general.”
“Monday, we asked them to respond. I’m not sure you’ll ever have enough resources in terms of what people will be requesting. This is a serious issue, though. We expect answers out of the FBI director and the attorney general.”
more...
https://thinkprogress.org/republican-senate-chairman-slams-trumps-doj-over-domestic-terrorism-non-response-b903f3de5f75/
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Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
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