Hanukkah begins tomorrow - December 2nd to Dec. 8th

I need my glasses :-)

Omarosa reveals how Trump has been secretly plotting to take down CNN's Acosta for years

Raw Story 11/14/18 4:32 p.m.
By: Tana Ganeva
Link: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/omarosa-reveals-trump-secretly-plotting-take-cnns-acosta-years/



Omarosa Manigault Newman

Omarosa, the reality show contestant who served as an advisor during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and briefly in the White House, has revealed shocking news to TMZ.

The former aide claims that Trump spent years plotting how to revoke the press pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta. The President allegedly held “private meetings” about Jim Acosta as far back as when she worked at the White House.

Acosta went to a federal courthouse in D.C. on Wednesday to appeal the White House’s decision. More than a dozen media companies, including Fox News, are standing in solidarity with Acosta and CNN.

Pictogram of US Congressional Districts as of November 2018

This isn't a map per se - it's a pictogram showing by color breakouts the number of Democratic and Republican Congressional Districts throughout the US. I guess since a few are still being counted, there may be a change here or there.



What I love about this is the equal representation of blue across the entire country, not just on the coasts. It's a truer representation of how things really are in this country.

Pennsylvania sued over 'restrictive' deadline for absentee ballot returns

Link: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142201266

Just posted in Latest Breaking News

Pennsylvania sued over 'restrictive' deadline for absentee ballot returns

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Voting rights advocates on Tuesday sued Pennsylvania over its deadlines to cast absentee ballots in elections, asking the commonwealth to overturn what they call "one of the most restrictive" deadlines in the country and alleging it disenfranchises eligible voters.

The plaintiffs, nine of whom are residents who applied for absentee ballots on time but missed the state's deadline for returning them, are asking the court to rule the deadline unconstitutional — in violation of the state constitution's guarantee of "free and equal" elections and equal protections under the law.

Represented in part by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the plaintiffs have taken issue with what the ACLU calls the "unreasonably early deadline" for returning absentee ballots, according to an ACLU release.

According to the lawsuit, Pennsylvania has the earliest deadline in the nation for returning absentee ballots; they must be received by county election bureaus by 5 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day.

- more at link -

Joke: It's a case of Irish Alzheimer's

A CASE OF IRISH ALZHEIMER'S

Murphy showed up at Mass one Sunday and Father O'Malley almost fell down when he saw him. He'd never been to church in his life. After Mass, the priest caught up with him and said, "Murphy, I am so glad ya decided to come to Mass. What made ya come?"

Murphy said, "I got to be honest with you Father. A while back, I misplaced me hat and I really, really love that hat. I know that McGlynn had a hat just like mine and I knew he came to church every Sunday. I also knew that he had to take off his hat during Mass and figured he would leave it in the back of church. So, I was going to leave after Communion and steal McGlynn's hat."

The priest said, "Well, Murphy, I notice that ya didn't steal McGlynn's hat. What changed your mind?"

Murphy replied, "Well, after I heard your sermon on the Ten Commandments, I decided that I didn't need to steal McGlynn's hat after all."

With a tear in his eye Father O'Malley gave Murphy a big smile and said, "After I talked about 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' ya decided you would rather do without your hat than burn in Hell?"

Murphy slowly shook his head. "No, Father, after ya talked about 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' I remembered where I left me hat."

Joke: The Amish Lady Driver

An Amish lady driver is pulled over by a traffic cop.

"I'm not going to cite you," said the officer. "I just wanted to warn you that the reflector on the back of your buggy is broken and it could be dangerous."

"I thank thee," replied the Amish lady. "I shall have my husband repair it as soon as I return home."

"Also," said the officer, "I noticed one of your reins to your horse is wrapped around his testicles. Some people might consider this cruelty to animals so you should have your husband check that too."

"Again, I thank thee. I shall have my husband check this when I get home."

True to her word, when the Amish lady got home, she told her husband about the broken reflector. He said he would put a new one on immediately.

"Also," said the Amish woman, "the policeman said there was something wrong with the emergency brake..."

The Midwest just sent a bad omen to Trump about 2020

From: Vice News
Link: https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qvq4mm/the-midwest-just-sent-a-bad-omen-to-trump-about-2020
Author: Greg Walters
Posted date: Nov. 7, 2018

President Donald Trump loves to boast about his business acumen and the country’s strong economy under his watch. But one key region widely believed to have handed him the presidency in 2016 declared itself on Tuesday night to be less than impressed.

The Rust Belt, which played a crucial role in cementing Trump’s 2016 victory, went largely for Democrats in the midterms. And that’s a bad omen for Trump’s 2020 hopes, both Democratic and Republican operatives said. Voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania broadly rejected Republican candidates in statewide races and sent a raft of Democrats to the House of Representatives from the suburbs of Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee.

The result gives renewed hope for 2020 to Democrats still feeling stung by Trump's surprise wins in those crucial states.

“I think the Midwest is the big story,” Jennifer Palmieri, director of communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, told VICE News. “When you look at those Midwest wins, you can more than see a path for how a Democrat can win in 2020.”

- snip -

In a victory speech as he cruised to re-election Tuesday night, longtime Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown [photo above] called on his fellow Democrats to look to his region as a model for future victory.

“Let our country — our nation's citizens, our Democratic Party, my fellow elected officials all over the country — let them all cast their eyes toward the heartland, to the industrial Midwest," Brown said.

Trump shocked pundits in 2016 by cruising to victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — states once considered keystones in an impenetrable “Blue Wall.” But the 2018 results paint the midwest as a trouble spot for Trump’s re-election, said Michael Steel, a senior policy and communications advisor to Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential run.

- more at link -

Look for Seth Abramson's new book "Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America"

It's coming out next week!

For the first time, the full, explosive record of the unthinkable: how a US president compromised American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance.

Looking back at this moment, historians will ask if Americans knew they were living through the first case of criminal conspiracy between an American presidential candidate turned commander in chief and a geopolitical enemy. The answer might be: it was hard to see the whole picture. The stories coming in from across the globe have often seemed fantastical: clandestine meetings in foreign capitals, secret recordings in a Moscow hotel, Kremlin agents infiltrating the Trump inner circle…

Seth Abramson has tracked every one of these far-flung reports, and now in, Proof of Collusion, he finally gives us a record of the unthinkable—a president compromising American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance. The attorney, professor, and former criminal investigator has used his exacting legal mind and forensic acumen to compile, organize, and analyze every piece of the Trump-Russia story. His conclusion is clear: the case for collusion is staring us in the face. Drawing from American and European news outlets, he takes readers through the Trump-Russia scandal chronologically, putting the developments in context and showing how they connect. His extraordinary march through all the public evidence includes:

-How Trump worked for thirty years to expand his real estate empire into Russia even as he was rescued from bankruptcy by Putin’s oligarchs, Kremlin agents, and the Russian mafia.

-How Russian intelligence gathered compromising material on him over multiple trips.

-How Trump recruited Russian allies and business partners while running for president.

-How he surrounded himself with advisers who engaged in clandestine negotiations with Russia.

-How Trump aides and family members held secret meetings with foreign agents and lied about them.

By pulling every last thread of this complicated story together, Abramson argues that—even in the absence of a report from Special Counsel Mueller or a thorough Congressional investigation—the public record already confirms a quid pro quo between Trump and the Kremlin. The most extraordinary part of the case for collusion is that so much of it unfolded in plain sight.