Matt Gaetz’s law school classmates want him to resign — and reveal details of his college years

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In interviews with Business Insider, former classmates of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R -FL) when he was attending William & Mary Law School, expressed dismay at continuing reports of his sex scandals and want him to resign immediately.

Along the way, they recalled his hard-partying ways when they were in school with him, with one adding of his recent exploits that have him under federal investigation, “Am I surprised he’s partying with people or doing that kind of stuff? No.”

According to the report, “In interviews, many of Gaetz’s former friends and acquaintances from William & Mary Law School’s class of 2007 said they were embarrassed by the constant headlines about the GOP congressman’s scandals. Insider spoke with 14 of Gaetz’s former classmates. Most of them spoke on condition of anonymity to protect personal and professional relationships,” with Insider adding, “One former law-school classmate regularly trolls Gaetz on Twitter by welcoming the congressman’s critics to the ‘Matt Haetz Society.'” Continue reading.

Rep. Samantha Vang (HD40B) Update: June 14, 2021


Dear Neighbors,

Our regular session came to an end last month, however, our work for the year is far from over as we approach a special session set for next week. House and Senate leaders and Governor Walz have reached a budget agreement that we are using as guidelines in our conference committee negotiations. We have reached agreements on our Energy/Commerce, Taxes, Higher Ed, Agriculture, and Legacy Finance budgets. Some of the more contentious bills like E-12 Education and Public Safety still have a ways to go however. Details on the overall budget agreement and what the special session will look like can be found here.

Eviction Off-Ramp

It is critical that we prevent a massive housing crisis as we begin to return to normal. The House DFL proposed a common sense plan to give everyone the time they need to catch up on their rent and mortgage. Watch our press conference to learn more about our plan. It was announced today that we have reached a final agreement. Under the agreement, Governor Walz’s executive order on an eviction moratorium will be replaced by a stepped-down off-ramp that will conclude 105 days after enactment. Landlords will be required to send a notice to renters with outstanding rent 15 days prior to eviction. In addition, renters with an outstanding rental assistance claim cannot be evicted and will have that protection until June 1, 2022.  If you are behind on housing payments, apply for aid here.

Continue reading “Rep. Samantha Vang (HD40B) Update: June 14, 2021”

Rep. Steve Elkins (HD49B) Update: June 14, 2021

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Dear Neighbors,

Our regular session came to an end last month, however, our work for the year is far from over as we approach a special session set for next week. House and Senate leaders and Governor Walz have reached a budget agreement that we are using as guidelines in our conference committee negotiations. We have reached agreements on our Energy/Commerce, Taxes, Higher Ed, Agriculture, and Legacy Finance budgets. Some of the more contentious bills like E-12 Education and Public Safety still have a ways to go however. Details on the overall budget agreement and what the special session will look like can be found here.

Eviction Off-Ramp

It is critical that we prevent a massive housing crisis as we begin to return to normal. The House DFL proposed a common sense plan to give everyone the time they need to catch up on their rent and mortgage. Watch our press conference to learn more about our plan. It was announced today that we have reached a final agreement. Under the agreement, Governor Walz’s executive order on an eviction moratorium will be replaced by a stepped-down off-ramp that will conclude 105 days after enactment. Landlords will be required to send a notice to renters with outstanding rent 15 days prior to eviction. In addition, renters with an outstanding rental assistance claim cannot be evicted and will have that protection until June 1, 2022.  If you are behind on housing payments, apply for aid here.

Continue reading “Rep. Steve Elkins (HD49B) Update: June 14, 2021”

How Joe Manchin Can Fix the Filibuster

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It’s easy to sympathize with the liberal desire to bury the Senate filibuster forever. The 60-vote threshold for Senate legislation is a choke point in a political system defined by gridlock, sclerosis and futility. It provides an excuse for policy abdication, encouraging the legislative branch to cede authority to the presidency and the courts, and the Republican Party to decline to have a policy agenda at all. Its history is checkered, its pervasive use is a novelty of polarization, and its eventual disappearance seems inevitable — so why not adapt now?

At the same time, it’s also easy to see why Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator from a conservative state, might have some doubts about his party’s confident filibuster-busting ambitions.

Listen to Manchin’s fellow Democrats talk about their political position and the constitutional structures impeding them, and you would be forgiven for thinking that they have been winning commanding majorities for years, of the sort enjoyed by Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson, while being thwarted again and again by a much smaller reactionary faction. Continue reading.

‘There will be no loyalty — except loyalty to the Party’: Historian suggests the GOP has reached Peak Orwell

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The phrase “the loyal opposition” was coined by John Hobhouse in a debate in the English Parliament in 1826. Less than a hundred years later, A. Lawrence Lowell, a political scientist (and later president of Harvard University) proclaimed the loyal opposition “the greatest contribution of the nineteenth century to the art of government.”

Designed to make space for the political party out of power to dissent and hold the majority party accountable without facing accusations of treason, the concept of a loyal opposition depends on the deference of non-governing parties to the authority of democratic institutions and the normative framework in which they operate.

The saving assumption of the loyal opposition, Michael Ignatieff, former leader of the Liberal Party in Canada and President of the Central European University, has written, is that “in the house of democracy, there are no enemies.” When politicians treat each other as enemies, “legislatures replace relevance with pure partisanship. Party discipline reigns supreme… negotiation and compromise are rarely practiced, and debate within the chamber becomes as venomously personal as it is politically meaningless.” Continue reading.

Republicans open new line of attack on IRS

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The IRS is back in Republicans’ crosshairs following a ProPublica report based on the confidential tax records of the wealthiest Americans.

Republicans have long disliked the tax-collection agency, and have been critical of President Biden’s proposal to give the IRS significantly more resources. Now, GOP lawmakers are amplifying their attacks on the IRS in light of an unauthorized disclosure of tax data to ProPublica, arguing that it undermines taxpayers’ ability to have confidence in the agency.

“This is an astonishing breach of trust that should make taxpayers very concerned,” Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas), the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters Friday. Continue reading.

‘Exploited the crazies’: How the GOP used Trump’s election lies to hide the fact that they’re losing power

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According to a report from the Guardian’s Sam Levine, Republicans who have always dabbled in playing to the red meat crowd are now ramping up their efforts to use that voting bloc to remain in power by disrupting and questioning election results.

Faced with changing demographics and states — – notably Arizona and Georgia — that were once reliably Republican but are now sending Democrats to Congress, Republicans are looking for ways to stop the bleeding as their power melts away.

According to Levine, Donald Trump just gave them the roadmap by blatantly saying the election was stolen from him — which has been well-received by more than just conservative extremists. Continue reading.

600,000 dead: With normal life in reach, covid’s late-stage victims lament what could have been

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They came so close. Philip Sardelis already had his vaccine appointment in hand. Cinnamon Jamila Key had just received her first shot. Charles Pryor tried but couldn’t get the coronavirus vaccine in time. Alexey Aguilar had been reluctant to commit to such a new medicine but was coming around to the idea.

And then covid-19 took them. On top of the grief and sorrow, their families now also must deal with the unfairness, the eternal mystery of what might have been.

The Americans who have died of covid-19 in recent days and weeks — the people whose deaths have pushed the total U.S. loss from the pandemic to nearly 600,000 — passed away even as their families, friends and neighbors emerged from 15 months of isolation and fear. The juxtaposition is cruel: Here, masks off; workplaces, shops and schools reopening. There, people struggling to breathe, separated from loved ones, silenced by ventilators. Continue reading.

How Trump kids’ futures are in full decline now that he’s out of office

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In a biting column for the Daily Beast, Molly Jong-Fast notes that talk of a Trump family political dynasty has all but disappeared since Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and his children are sliding into increasing irrelevance.

As Jong-Fast notes, it wasn’t that long ago when Ivanka Trump was going to use the family name and her father’s popularity with a rabid right-wing base to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for his U.S. Senate seat, Lara Trump — wife of Trump son Eric — was looking at an open North Carolina Senate seat and Don Jr. was going to run for office — somewhere.

Six months after the brutal Trump re-election loss none of those races are happening as Trump’s star has fallen and he has taken his kids down with him. Continue reading.

Sessions joins Barr in pleading ignorance about Trump DOJ spying – is Rosenstein the guy or are they setting him up?

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Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday afternoon announced that he too, just like former Attorney General Bill Barr, had no idea the Dept. of Justice was spying on at least two top House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. The scandal has shaken both the DOJ and the general public so broadly the Inspector General – less than 24 hours after The New York Times bombshell dropped – announced a wide-ranging internal investigation.

The track records of both Barr and Sessions when it comes to telling the truth – even under oath – are questionable at best and subject to interpretation.

Are they setting former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein up to take the fall? Or was it Rosenstein all along? Or both – were they all in on spying on Democrats? Continue reading.