The January 17, 2018, morningtake announced that End Citizens United has developed a 15-second ad that will be running on social media.
You can view the post below:
Tag: GOP congress
Shutdown looms as Republicans seek short-term spending deal for government
The following article by Mike DeBonis, Ed O’Keefe and Sean Sullivan was posted on the Washington Post website January 16, 2018:
If Congress doesn’t reach agreement on crucial immigration issues and pass a spending bill, the costly consequence would be a government shutdown. (Video: Joyce Koh/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Chances of a government shutdown grew Monday as Republicans concluded that they would be unable to reach a long-term spending accord by the Friday deadline. GOP leaders are now turning to a short-term funding measure in hopes of keeping agencies open while talks continue, but Democratic leaders say they are unlikely to support any deal that does not protect young illegal immigrants.
Aides to key negotiators from both parties planned to meet Tuesday in an effort to rekindle budget talks, setting up a Wednesday meeting of the leaders themselves. If they cannot agree, the government would shut down at midnight Friday for the first time since 2013. Continue reading “Shutdown looms as Republicans seek short-term spending deal for government”
These senators stayed silent on Trump’s racism. Now they are ‘celebrating’ Martin Luther King Jr.
The following article by Josh Israel was posted on the ThinkProgress website January 15, 2018:
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right.”
On Monday, a large number of federal lawmakers took to Twitter to post Martin Luther King Day messages, praising the slain civil rights leader’s dream of equality and inclusion. But several of these same people have seemingly declined to actually stand up for those values.
Days after attendees from bothparties confirmed that President Trump used racist and vulgar language to describe immigrants from majority non-white countries, many Republican senators have remained silent or declined to disavow his latest blatant act of racism. According to a running list kept by the New York Times, many sidestepped the controversy, made no public statements at all, or defended the president. Continue reading “These senators stayed silent on Trump’s racism. Now they are ‘celebrating’ Martin Luther King Jr.”
Jeff Flake isn’t just comparing Trump to Stalin. He’s comparing Republicans to Stalin’s enablers.
The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website January 15, 2018:
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on Oct. 24 that he will not seek reelection in 2018. Here are the highlights from his speech. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
A sitting U.S. senator plans to give a speech this week comparing the president of his own party to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. That in itself is remarkable.
“It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) plans to say in a speech about President Trump classifying the news media as “the enemy of the people.” Continue reading “Jeff Flake isn’t just comparing Trump to Stalin. He’s comparing Republicans to Stalin’s enablers.”
The Real Reason for Walmart’s Wage Hike
The following article by Charles Fishman was posted on the Politico website January 12, 2018:
Was it really the tax cut? And should the motivation behind such good news even matter?
When Walmart announced that it was giving all employees raises, bonuses—or both—thanks to the new tax cut, it didn’t take long for the political spinning to start around the news. For Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump, it added up: This was the trickle-down effect that proponents of the law promised. Many conservative websites headlined Walmart’s explanation—“Walmart Sharing Tax Cut Savings Via Pay Boost, $1,000 Bonuses,” the Fox News story read; others went a step further, offering it as proof that the “Trump tax cut is working.” Some, though, were more skeptical. Tweeters were quick to jump on the fact that Walmart sibling Sam’s Club had also shuttered 63 stores that same day as evidence that these might not exactly be boom times for the retail giant. For these people, Walmart’s announcement was political spin from a famously stingy company eager to prove that only after Walmart got the tax law it wanted would it finally be able to give its employees a little more—and do Republicans a political favor in the process. Continue reading “The Real Reason for Walmart’s Wage Hike”
Speeding to the Right
The following article by Joseph P. Williams was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website January 12, 2018:
President Trump’s campaign to move the courts to the right is in full force, despite Democratic objections.
Howard Nielson Jr. is a former Justice Department lawyer in the Bush administration who helped lead an infamous purge of left-leaning job candidates at the Justice Department – a power move considered so heinous that an inspector general’s report recommended those involved should never work in government again.
Thomas Farr spent much of his early career as a campaign attorney for the late Sen. Jesse Helms, the legendary North Carolina Republican and villain to a generation of civil rights advocates. While he was largely behind the scenes, the activists say, Farr was one of the architects of Helms’ plots to suppress black turnout, allowing the senator and former segregationist DIxiecrat to maintain an iron grip on power for more than three decades. Continue reading “Speeding to the Right”
Ahead of FISA Vote, Trump Sows Confusion
The following article by John T. Bennet and Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website January 11, 2018:
President Donald Trump sent mixed signals Thursday morning about a controversial law used to collect intelligence on individuals suspected of spying on the United States just hours before the House is slated to vote on reauthorizing it. And a key privacy hawk in Congress contends the president is more in line with him than the White House lets on.
For nearly two hours, the commander in chief even broke with his own White House’s stance on whether the law should remain on the books. But in an apparent clean-up operation, Trump was forced to fire off a tweet declaring this of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: “We need it!” Continue reading “Ahead of FISA Vote, Trump Sows Confusion”
GOP may skip budget, kneecapping 2018 ambitions
The following article by Rachel Bade and Sarah Ferris was posted on the Politico website January 10, 2018:
Lacking the votes and fearing political blowback, Republicans are unlikely to deploy powerful budget procedures to enact their agenda.
Republican leaders are considering skipping passage of a GOP budget this year — a blow to the party’s weakened fiscal hawks that would squash all 2018 efforts to revamp entitlements or repeal Obamacare.
White House and Hill GOP leaders discussed the possibility of forgoing the painful budget process during last weekend’s Camp David legislative summit, according to four sources familiar with the talks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has argued that he cannot pass controversial deficit-reduction legislation using powerful budget procedures with his new 51-vote majority — and wasn’t even sure he could find the votes for a fiscal blueprint in the first place. Continue reading “GOP may skip budget, kneecapping 2018 ambitions”
‘It’s not a fabrication’: Six times the firm behind the infamous dossier contradicted Trump’s claims
The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website January 9, 2018:
It’s not made up. It wasn’t politically motivated. And it did not set out with the intention to smear Donald Trump.
That’s what the co-founder of a research firm, Fusion GPS, told Congress about a dossier his firm produced during the presidential campaign. Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for 10 hours in August about research that was originally started by a conservative news site, and that Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid for to continue. Ultimately, the dossier claimed that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, something Trump has vigorously denied but also something neither special counsel Robert S. Mueller III nor Congress has ruled out. Continue reading “‘It’s not a fabrication’: Six times the firm behind the infamous dossier contradicted Trump’s claims”
Five takeaways from the Fusion GPS testimony
The following article by Katie Bo WIlliams and Jonathan Easley was posted on the Hill website January 10, 2018:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday unilaterally released more than 300 pages documenting an interview the panel conducted in August with the founder of the opposition research firm that commissioned a controversial dossier on President Trump.
In that interview, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson said the dossier’s author, a former British intelligence officer named Christopher Steele, told him that the FBI already had “other intelligence” backing up claims in the dossier when he met with an agent in September. Continue reading “Five takeaways from the Fusion GPS testimony”