Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., are introducing a framework defining what they call a “Green New Deal” — what they foresee as a massive policy package that would remake the U.S. economy and, they hope, eliminate all U.S. carbon emissions. That’s a really big — potentially impossibly big — undertaking. It sets goals for some drastic measures … Read More
Trump’s Baffling SOTU
On the whole, it was Trump’s best performance, but that is a VERY VERY low bar. The speech was fine — a lot of babble about his successes (although many of them misleading). He didn’t stray from the teleprompter too much. It was delivered like all his teleprompter speeches — slowly (he’s not a good reader) and as if he … Read More
Document Dump: The Trump Moscow Tower Project
In chronological order, these are emails, texts, and other documents relating to Michael Cohen and others’ work relating to building a Trump Moscow Tower. Pages 1-90 Pages 91-180 Pages 181-284
A Trump Primary Challenge?
AP reports: Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld has changed his party registration from Libertarian back to Republican as he mulls a possible primary challenge against President Donald Trump. Weld served as a Republican governor from 1991 until 1997. He later became a Libertarian and ran for vice president on a ticket with former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson in the … Read More
SDNY Subpoenas The Trump Inauguration Committee
It looks like the Trump Administration, as we suspected, wasted no time in being corrupted, working from Day One on a clear pay-for-play scheme. That is now being investigated by the SDNY: Prosecutors in New York’s Southern District have reached out to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee and plan to subpoena the organization for documents, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC … Read More
SOTU STFU
Tonight Trump gives his second State Of The Union speech, coming just after three weeks of government shutdown, and the threat of another shutdown over his stupid and unpopular border wall. Trump claims to be looking forward to this, but behind-the-scenes, chaos is roiling the White House once again after a prolific leak to Axios on Sunday of Trump’s private schedule for the … Read More
President Executive Time
Axios got a scoop. A White House source has leaked nearly every day of President Trump’s private schedule for the past three months. This unusually voluminous leak gives us unprecedented visibility into how this president spends his days. The schedules, which cover nearly every working day since the midterms, show that Trump has spent around 60% of his scheduled time … Read More
Snopes Quits Facebook
I have been a big fan. follower, and occasional contributor to Snopes. And this is a pretty big fail on the part of Facebook. Snopes believes it has been ignored, and simply is there as window-dressing so that Facebook can say it attacks fake news. CNBC: Snopes, a fact-checking organization, announced on Friday its decision to end its partnership with Facebook, … Read More
Trump’s NYT Interview
A very interesting and Trumpian interview that Trump gave with the New York Times last night. Some highlights: Twice, Trump lies to Maggie Halberman of the NY Times, and she corrects him, and then he just admits he was wrong. This happens a lot: when he’s challenged, he just concedes. Trump makes a new claim about Trump Tower Moscow: he … Read More
Are Congressional Republicans Growing A Pair?
The Hill: Frustrated Republicans say it’s time for the Senate to reclaim more power over foreign policy and are planning to move a measure Thursday that would be a stunning rebuke to a president of their own party. GOP lawmakers are deeply concerned over President Trump’s reluctance to listen to his senior military and intelligence advisers, fearing it could erode national … Read More
Don Jr Didn’t Talk To Dad Before The Trump Tower Meeting
Breaking on CNN: Senate investigators have obtained new information showing Donald Trump Jr.’s mysterious phone calls ahead of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting were not with his father, three sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. Records provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee show the calls were between Trump Jr. and two of his business associates, the sources said, … Read More
Document Dump: The Dems Opening Offer In The Border Wall Negotiations
Some interesting tidbits: Democrats have offered $500 million “to address humanitarian concerns at the border, including medical care, more efficient transportation, food and other consumables, and to support at least one prototype temporary holding facility (72 hours or less) with better conditions and services for migrants.” (Trump doesn’t want this, but it’ll give a lie to his supposed concern if … Read More
Cost Of The Government Shutdown: $3 Billion
The U.S. economy will likely never recover $3 billion lost during the five-week partial government shutdown, according to a report released by the Congressional Budget Office on Monday. The 35-day shutdown ― the longest such closure in U.S. history ― reportedly reduced GDP in the fourth quarter of 2018 by $3 billion and an additional estimated $8 billion in the … Read More
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
I was going to write a post about how Trump learned (although – let’s face it – he probably didn’t learn) about the importance of having good information. But this guy beat me to it: One takeaway from the federal government shutdown is the importance of good information. American presidents are privy to the highest quality data on the planet. … Read More
Spoiler Alert: Will Howard Schultz Mean A Trump Re-Election?
Man, we really need to reform how elections are done. And stop having billionaires step in and think they can run America because they are billionaires. I am, of course, referring to Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks. Schultz initially contemplated entering the Democratic primary, correctly calculated that he stood no chance of success that way, and then incorrectly decided … Read More