babylonsister
babylonsister's JournalMalcolm Nance Warns Mitch McConnell Is Trying To End Free And Fair Elections In America
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/07/27/nance-warns-mitch-mcconnell-free-fair-elections.htmlPosted on Sat, Jul 27th, 2019 by Sean Colarossi
Malcolm Nance Warns Mitch McConnell Is Trying To End Free And Fair Elections In America
When counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance speaks, the country should listen.
That was particularly true on Saturday as Nance sounded the alarm about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells latest effort to block a package of election security bills.
During a discussion with MSNBCs Joy Reid, Nance said that if Russia successfully attacks the 2020 election which McConnell is already helping make possible then it may be the last free and fair election in the United States.
You can actually see the political machinations, where one person is deciding whether American elections from now on and before will be free and fair, Nance said.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1155138714605166594
Nance said:
Mitch McConnell is the enemy of free and fair elections
Weve known for some time that it was Mitch McConnell, not Barack Obama, who refused to take a unified approach to fight Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
snip//
All of this is happening in plain view, and the consequences for American democracy have been and will continue to be disastrous.
CNN Anchor Victor Blackwell Breaks Down On Camera After Trump Attack On His Home District
CNN Anchor Victor Blackwell Breaks Down On Camera After Trump Attack On His Home District
July 27, 2019 8:49am
Video @ link~
CNN anchor Victor Blackwell grew emotional on camera today as he defended his hometown district from President Trumps characterization of it as a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess.
Blackwell took issue with the use of the word infested, saying the people in the district got up and went to work every morning, loved their children, and saluted the flag. He said Trumps use of the word infested to describe the district was a tactic he seems to use only when talking about black and brown people.
Blackwell said he lived in the district from the time he was brought home from the hospital until he left for college. There are challenges, no doubt. But people are proud of their community.
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https://deadline.com/2019/07/cnn-victor-blackwell-emotional-elijah-cummings-trump-attack-1202655456/?fbclid=IwAR2-n4qgqOVRCvsBBhGJeICcN22Qn28eaXOk8zL4UpEpT1cz1zu3XxHGGHM
Why We're Moving Forward With Impeachment
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/why-were-moving-forward-impeachment/594931/?fbclid=IwAR2LNv7LcJwsF0hNhRXD1lMGkk9f-nuePoASB_i62oiSbmkAdLnhVkQZLrUWhy Were Moving Forward With Impeachment
Our Constitution requires it. Our democracy depends on it.
Jul 26, 2019
Mary Gay Scanlon
Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee
David Cicilline
U.S. representative from Rhode Island
Pramila Jayapal
U.S. representative from Washington
Veronica Escobar
U.S. representative from Texas
During his press conference announcing the end of his investigation, Mueller pointed out that the Department of Justice believes the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal-justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. He was referring, without using the word, to impeachmenta process by which the U.S. House indicts, and the Senate convicts, a sitting president.
Congress has patiently tried to work within traditional means to get to the bottom of this extraordinary situation. Committees have called witnesses and requested evidence, only to be stonewalled by Trump and his associates. The presidents refusal to comply with the Constitution, statutes, and established congressional oversight defies the rule of law.
Muellers testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees was a watershed moment. At this point, it is up to Congress to act on the evidence of multiple counts of obstruction of justice committed by the president, and to continue our investigation into whether he has committed other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Despite assertions to the contrary by the president and his allies, the special counsels report and testimony are not the end of our investigations. We have now filed a petition in court to obtain the grand-jury documents referenced in the special counsels report. In that filing, we have made clear that we will utilize our Article I powers to obtain the additional underlying evidence, as well as enforce subpoenas for key witness testimony, and broaden our investigations to include conflicts of interest and financial misconduct.
While many people believe that beginning an impeachment investigation can begin only with a vote of the full House of Representatives, this is not true. Article I authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to begin this process.
As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we understand the gravity of this moment that we find ourselves in. We wake up every morning with the understanding of the oath that binds us as members of Congress, and the trust that our constituents placed in us to uphold that oath. We will move forward with the impeachment process. Our investigation will seriously examine all the evidence as we consider whether to bring articles of impeachment or other remedies under our Article I powers.
Our Constitution requires it. Our democracy depends on it.
Nadler challenger targets him on Trump impeachment
And whoosh! Down the drain goes Boylan's hopes and dreams.
Nadler challenger targets him on Trump impeachment
By ERIN DURKIN
07/23/2019 05:00 AM EDT
NEW YORK Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has done everything short of publicly calling for President Donald Trumps impeachment since Democrats unleashed their oversight arsenal on the president earlier this year.
But Lindsey Boylan, a former New York state official whos giving the liberal stalwart from Manhattans West Side one of his toughest primary fights in decades, says thats not enough.
While Nadler has pushed his party leadership behind the scenes to move on impeachment, Boylan is aiming squarely at Nadlers reluctance to publicly support an official House inquiry against Trump and shes using the issue to great effect. The 35-year-old candidate took in $264,657 in donations in the second quarter of this year, the most among the growing crop of primary challengers looking to unseat members of Congress around New York City.
The challenge to Nadler comes as many long-time members of Congress fend off attacks from their left a trend that began when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toppled Joe Crowley in his Queens-Bronx district last year, upending the dynamics of New York politics.
more...
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2019/07/23/nadler-challenger-looks-to-make-him-face-of-inaction-on-impeaching-trump-1114295
Top CBP Officer Testifies He's Unsure if 3-Year-Old Is "a Criminal or a National Security Threat"
Top CBP Officer Testifies Hes Unsure if 3-Year-Old Is a Criminal or a National Security Threat
It was one of a number of disturbing revelations.
By Jeremy Stahl
July 26, 2019
2:30 PM
One of the countrys top border officers cannot say whether a 3-year-old child might pose a criminal or national security threat. This was one of a number of astonishing takeaways from Thursdays latest hearing into family separation.
The 3-year-old in question was Sofi, a little girl who was separated from her grandmother after they arrived at a port of entry in El Paso, Texas, last June seeking asylum. She was separated from her family for 47 days, until the Trump administration was forced to reunite them by court order. Chief of Law Enforcement Operations for Customs and Border Protection Brian S. Hastings still isnt sure if she posed a threat, he told Rep. Ted Lieu during the Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.
Hastings: I dont know the background in this case, sir.
Ted Lieu: Do you know any 3-year-olds that are criminal or national security threats to the United States?
Hastings: No, I dont.
Ted Lieu: Sophies grandmother was not a national security or criminal threat to the United States, correct?
Hastings: I dont knowagain, I dont know the background of what her grandmother or relatives were.
more...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/cbp-chief-brian-hastings-family-separation-judiciary-hearing-not-mueller.html
Fueled by their donations, Mitch McConnell pushes special tax break for bourbon industry
Fueled by their donations, Mitch McConnell pushes special tax break for bourbon industry
The Senate Republican majority leader and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced the bill on Wednesday.
Josh Israel
Jul 25, 2019, 1:41 pm
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced a bill on Wednesday to provide special corporate tax advantages for liquor distillers.
A look at McConnells campaign finance history may offer a big clue as to why: hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from the alcoholic beverages sector.
The Advancing Growth in the Economy through Distilled Spirits Act would renew an expiring provision from President Donald Trumps 2017 tax cut bill that allows for the deduction of interest expenses related to bourbon inventory when the expenses are paid, rather then when the bourbon is bottled and sold. In a joint press release, Paul said the bill would preserve Kentuckys signature Bourbon industry by boosting job creation and maintaining a level playing field between Bourbon and whiskey producers at home and their competitors abroad.
But back in 2010, an examination by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity calculated the largest individual donors to McConnell over his decades-long tenure in Congress. Of the top five largest career donors, three had ties to the Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corporation. Brown-Formans products include Jack Daniels whiskey and Old Forester bourbon.
more...
https://thinkprogress.org/fueled-by-their-donations-mitch-mcconnell-pushes-special-tax-break-for-bourbon-industry-c8e29a2717b7/
Robert Mueller and the Tyranny of 'Optics'
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/mueller-testimony-congress-optics/594676/Robert Mueller and the Tyranny of Optics
The commentariats focus on performance over substance is the kryptonite of the modern media age.
Todd S. Purdum
Jul 25, 2019
snip//
Opticsthe kryptonite of the modern media age, the glimmering, crystalline material that can subsume substance at every treacherous turn. Or as the former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett rejoined to Todd on Twitter: When you say on optics, this was a disaster it is you saying so that helps make it true. The disaster of the optics is the elevation of optics and the claim by pundits that it was a disaster.
In an age in which performance art is what passes for politics, pundits and politicos assumed the role of drama critic as they rushed to review the Mueller showand in the weeks most overworked metaphor, routinely referred to his testimony as the movie version of his 448-page book. But whose optics, exactly, were these critics reflecting? Whose eyes were they looking through?
snip//
If Muellers testimony frustrated Democratsand delighted the Trump White Houseits because he repeatedly refused to be drawn into either partisan talking points or legal and constitutional hypotheticals. His staff had warned the committees that he would not so much as read aloud from his own report if asked, and at one moment, he pointedly declined even to utter the word impeachment as a remedy for presidential misconduct. Again and again, Mueller passed up the chance to utter anything that might approach a riveting sound bite, much less a bold headline.
None of this is to say that Muellers testimony lacked moral authority or intellectual force. On the contrary, if his answers had only been read on paperand not seen and heard on live television in an age of instant gratification and minuscule attention spansthe most important replies were crisp and clear enough: Yes, a president can be charged with obstruction after leaving office. No, his investigation was not a witch hunt. No, Russian interference wasnt a hoax. Over and over, Mueller affirmed findings that many Americans would find deeply troubling.
Yet all along, the substantive punch of Muellers report has been muted by public and media focus on performance and opticson how Muellers work is perceived, not on what it actually says: first, when Attorney General William Barr preempted the reports official release with his own skewed and selective summary of its findings; again when Mueller felt moved to read his own statement to the public summarizing it; and finally during his testimony this week.
more...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/mueller-testimony-congress-optics/594676/
'Moscow Mitch'
https://politicalwire.com/2019/07/26/moscow-mitch/Moscow Mitch
July 26, 2019 at 8:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
The Morning Joe host then suggested that McConnell may be benefiting from a Russian oligarchs investment in his home state: I understand that theres an oligarch that I have read is going to be setting up a big aluminum plant in Moscow Mitchs home state.
He added: I dont know if thats it. But how can Moscow Mitch so willingly turn a blind eye not only this year to what his Republican chairman of the Intel committee is saying, to what Robert Mueller is saying what the FBI director is saying what the DNI is saying, to what the CIA is saying, to what the United States military Intel community is saying. How can Moscow Mitch keep denying that Vladimir Putin continues to try to subvert American democracy?
Buttigieg hits big tech over worker rights in new economic proposal
Buttigieg hits big tech over worker rights in new economic proposal
By Marina Pitofsky - 07/26/19 07:57 AM EDT
White House hopeful and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) unveiled a new economic policy, prioritizing worker rights and calling out tech giants over worker pay and benefits.
Buttigiegs plan, called The New Rising Tide: Empowering Workers in a Changing Economy, argues that, although the American GDP is up and overall productivity has increased, our paychecks didnt show it, according to the proposal.
Buttigiegs plan calls for tech companies like Google, Lyft and Uber to recognize the consequences of an economic reality where workers are eviscerated. He slams companies for labeling workers independent contractors, which can limit benefits, and for outsourcing workers.
The plan calls for a guarantee for all workers to join a union, including independent contractors, like Lyft and Uber drivers. His plan also proposes collective bargaining between the companies that control hours and working conditions and workers in addition to codifying the ABC test, a more strict definition of independent contractor that would label more workers employees.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/454849-buttigieg-hits-big-tech-over-worker-rights-in-new-economic-proposal
Rachel Maddow Says The Media Narrative Following Mueller's Testimony Was All Wrong
Posted on Thu, Jul 25th, 2019 by Sean Colarossi
Rachel Maddow Says The Media Narrative Following Muellers Testimony Was All Wrong
On her program Thursday, Rachel Maddow shredded the media narrative following Robert Muellers testimony, saying that the initial headlines about the hearing got it all wrong.
Despite the pundits claiming that Muellers hearing will doom any impeachment efforts, the MSNBC host pointed out that just the opposite seems to be true a day later.
As of this afternoon, oh, look, there is five new members of the House who have just come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry, including Katherine Clark who is in the Democratic House leadership, Maddow pointed out.
She added, The facts on the ground do seem to be shifting much faster than that kind of tut-tutting analysis has been able to keep up with even just over the course of today.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1154567255306493952
Maddow said:
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/07/25/maddow-narrative-mueller-testimony-wrong-media.html
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