DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalMitch McConnell performs emergency surgery on a 213-year-old patient
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/04/mitch-mcconnell-performs-emergency-surgery-year-old-patient/?utm_term=.57ec9e8f7b5e&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
House Democrats explain why it's taken 3 months to authorize subpoenas into Trump
Americans want House Democrats to investigate Trump and his administration. Here’s why House Democrats aren’t rushing to it.
By Tara Golshan Apr 4, 2019, 2:50pm EDT
House Democrats finally authorized subpoenas this week to get the full Mueller report. They got serious about requesting Trump’s tax returns. They issued four subpoenas related to the White House security clearance process and the administration’s effort to put a citizenship question on the census. But this all comes three months into Democratic control of the House of Representatives. For many liberals watching, it’s about damn time.
This was exacerbated by House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) telling ABC News that while he will issue subpoenas, he doesn’t “want to be issuing” them. His comments weren’t well received by those critical of the Trump administration.
For two years, Democrats watched Republicans skirt oversight responsibilities and campaigned on holding Trump and his administration accountable. After all, the biggest difference between a House minority and a House majority is subpoena power.
https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1113165436516995072
House Democrats insist this seemingly slow walk to subpoena territory is all part of the strategy. They say they want to give the White House a chance to comply with their requests voluntarily. But the Trump administration has clearly been reluctant to turn over anything — whether officials for testimony, or key documents — something Democrats are calling a clear attempt to stonewall major investigations into the president, his administration, his businesses, and his family.
more
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/4/18293880/house-democrats-subpoenas-trump-slow
Nearly 70 percent of Americans are okay with a gay president
By Eugene Scott
April 4 at 2:52 PM
-snip-
According to a recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, nearly 70 percent of Americans said they would be either enthusiastic or comfortable with a candidate who is gay or lesbian. To put that in perspective, less than half — 45 percent — of Americans hope that the United States would elect a female president in their lifetime, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey.
Elliot Imse, spokesman for the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a group that helps elect gay people to office, told The Fix that Americans’ views on LGBTQ people in politics have changed with other cultural shifts.
“It’s extremely exciting to see Americans become more supportive of LGBTQ candidates in the same way they’re becoming more supportive of LGBTQ rights generally,” Imse said. “I think the two are very much trending in line with each other. As acceptance of LGBTQ people has grown, LGBTQ candidates can be open and honest about their lives from the beginning, allowing them to control the narrative and focus on the issues they want to talk about.”
Millennials are the largest voting bloc in the country, and it’s easy to attribute the attitudinal change primarily to these younger voters, who generally have more liberal positions on social issues. But that doesn’t totally explain the pivot. According to NBC, “While seniors are more likely to voice reservations about gay candidates, a majority (56 percent) now say they have no objections. That’s up from just 31 percent in 2006.”
To those who have fought for equal rights for the LGBT community for decades — this year is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, largely viewed as the beginning of the gay rights movement — this change in the public’s support is considered progress. But others argue that it should not be interpreted as a place of arrival.
Drew Goins, an opinion writer for The Washington Post, wrote that gay candidates seeking high offices still face very real challenges:
“The idea that it’s not hard to be gay in America is ludicrous. The United States is still new to marriage equality. A majority of states have no LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws. There’s been only one openly gay man elected governor and no such senators (Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is the chamber’s lone lesbian, and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema is bisexual), let alone president. The gains have been hard-won, and they’re still tenuous. Support for LGBTQ rights is dropping among Republicans — and the Supreme Court is being reshaped in ways that could make future victories harder to come by and past progress harder to maintain.”
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/04/nearly-percent-americans-are-okay-with-gay-president/
House committee passes bills to strengthen Obamacare and lower drug prices
Source: CNN
By Tami Luhby, CNN
Updated 2:58 PM ET, Thu April 4, 2019
(CNN) - House Democrats are taking their first steps to fulfill their promises to strengthen Obamacare and lower drug prices, as the fate of the Affordable Care Act promises to be a major 2020 election issue.
After a marathon session Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a dozen bills aimed at undoing several of the Trump administration's efforts to weaken Obamacare and at bringing generic drugs to the market faster.
"We were able to move forward in a bipartisan way on bills that will help bring generic drugs to market faster, which will make medications more affordable," said Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey.
The vote comes after a topsy-turvy two weeks for the landmark health care law. The Trump administration said early last week that it agrees with the ruling of a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the law. President Donald Trump then briefly renewed his quest to repeal and replace Obamacare, before being shut down by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and declaring there would be a GOP health care effort after the 2020 election.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/04/politics/house-obamacare-drug-prices/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29
Giuliani Dismisses Reports Of Inadequate Barr Review: Just 'Unethical Leakers'
https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/status/1113777808973684742FBI Director Wray: 'I Have Not' Read The Mueller Report
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1113810302871666688Nadler: Tensions Between Special Counsel Office & DOJ Raise Questions; Mueller Testimony Inevitable
Jerrold Nadler: Tensions Between Special Counsel Office and DOJ Raise Questions; Mueller Testimony Inevitable
by Ken Meyer | Apr 4th, 2019, 1:48 pm
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said on Thursday that Robert Mueller will probably have to testify before him someday, given the special counsel’s reported disagreements with the Department of Justice.
“All these questions would be answered by releasing the report,” Nadler said to CNN’s Manu Raju. “I think it’s inevitable that Mueller is going to testify at some point, but the first thing we need is the release of the report and the documents.”
When Raju double-checked to see if Nadler thinks Mueller’s testimony is inevitable, the congressman answered with “at some point, yeah.”
Nadler is referring to the reports from New York Times and Washington Post saying Mueller’s colleagues are unsatisfied with Attorney General Bill Barr‘s abridged summary of their findings. Investigators reportedly say that Barr didn’t convey the full weight of what they’ve said about President Donald Trump, plus they expected him to use the summary information to describe their key findings with minimal redactions.
video via CNN
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jerrold-nadler-tensions-between-special-counsel-office-and-doj-raise-questions-mueller-testimony-inevitable/
Ken Dilanian Reports That Members of Mueller's Team Think Evidence of Collusion is 'Very Compelling'
NBC’s Ken Dilanian Reports That Members of Mueller’s Team Think Evidence of Collusion is ‘Very Compelling’by Aidan McLaughlin | Apr 4th, 2019, 2:08 pm
-snip-
NBC confirmed reporting from the New York Times and Washington Post that special counsel investigators were taking issue with Barr’s characterization of their findings on obstruction, but their reporting had more details about those frustrations.
“I think we’ve taken it a little further,” Dilanian said of his reporting, during an appearance on MSNBC. “There are members of Mueller’s team who are frustrated that William Barr stepped in and cleared the president on obstruction when Robert Mueller didn’t do that.”
“The intent was to allow Congress and the public to make their own decision about the evidence,” Dilanian said.
Dilanian also revealed new reporting that some on the special counsel’s team are frustrated by how evidence of collusion was represented.
“We’re hearing from a separate U.S. official that some members of the Mueller team say that the evidence on collusion, while not establishing a criminal conspiracy, is actually very compelling.
“Some of it may be classified, but to the extent we get to see it, Mueller’s report talks about those contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, and raises the issue as to whether the Trump campaign was manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation,” Dilanian added. “We need to see the report. The Barr summary, by many accounts, did not quite do it justice.”
full article + video from MSNBC
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/nbcs-ken-dilanian-reports-that-members-of-muellers-team-think-evidence-of-collusion-is-very-compelling/
Trump Posts Insane Video of Biden Getting Touched Inappropriately By Biden: 'WELCOME BACK JOE!'
by Colby Hall | Apr 4th, 2019, 2:00 pm
President Donald Trump tweeted another comedy video clip Thursday afternoon, this one taking a shot at former Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden has come under criticism for what several women have labeled inappropriate touchiness and feeliness that didn’t rise to the claim of harassment but nonetheless made each feel uncomfortable. Biden posted a non-apology apology video on Wednesday — that received a tepid response from some progressive provinces — and that provided source material for the satirical video Trump tweeted below:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113862077842640898
According to AP’s Zeke Miller, it appears that the satirical video was first posted by White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino:
https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1113862974157012992
The video was originally posted by Twitter user and — self-described “Eternally Sarcastic MemeSmith” — @CarpeDonktum, and an apparent favorite at the White House, since he was the individual behind the “Everybody Hurts” State of the Union video that eventually had to be edited with a different music bed after R.E.M. called out copyright ownership for the song.
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https://www.mediaite.com/donald-trump/trump-posts-insane-video-of-biden-getting-touched-inappropriately-by-biden-welcome-back-joe/
Jeff Bezos, in divorce settlement, retains 75 percent of the Amazon stock he held with his now ex...
Jeff Bezos, in divorce settlement, retains 75 percent of the Amazon stock he held with his now ex-wife MacKenzieBy Craig Timberg April 4 at 1:34 PM
Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, announced Thursday a divorce settlement that will leave him with 75 percent of their Amazon stock and all of their joint holdings in The Washington Post and a space-exploration company, Blue Origin. He will retain voting power over all of the Amazon voting shares the couple once owned together.
The announcement from the Bezos’s -- coming in a tweet from MacKenzie that was retweeted by Jeffrey -- settled a closely watched matter of corporate governance affecting one of the world’s richest companies, with a market capitalization of $890 billion.
The divorce settlement is likely to remove uncertainty over the extent of Jeffrey Bezos’s continued control over a company he founded in 1994 and for which he remains chief executive and its largest shareholder. Their marriage lasted 25 years and produced four children.
MacKenzie Bezos, a novelist, spoke first through Twitter, writing, “Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support of each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness, and looking forward to the next phase as co-parents and friends.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/04/jeff-bezos-divorce-settlement-retains-percent-amazon-stock-he-held-with-his-now-ex-wife-mackenzie/
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
Home country: United States
Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
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