DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalObama Approval Hits New High for Second Term
Source: Political Wire
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that American voters approve of the job President Obama is doing, 50% to 43%, his highest score since right after he won reelection four years ago.
Most interesting: “Obama’s policies have helped the nation’s economy, 44% of voters say, as 38% say his policies have hurt the economy and 16% say his policies haven’t made a difference. But only 21% of voters say Obama’s policies have helped their personal financial situation, as 33% say these policies have hurt them personally and 44% say they’ve made no difference.
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Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2016/11/28/obama-approval-hits-new-high-second-term/
Trump to Meet Petraeus as Secretary of State Fight Continues
Source: Bloomberg
November 28, 2016 — 9:29 AM EST Updated on November 28, 2016 — 11:58 AM EST
President-elect Donald Trump is considering retired General David Petraeus to be secretary of state and plans to meet with the former CIA director Monday in New York, according to a senior official with the transition.
The celebrated four-star general, who left government under a cloud for sharing classified documents during an extramarital affair, is sitting down with the president-elect amid infighting among Trump’s advisers about who to pick for the post. The possibility that Trump might instead tap former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is scheduled to meet with the president-elect again Tuesday, has fueled an extraordinary public lobbying campaign against him.
Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump’s campaign and is now a senior adviser to his transition, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she is “just astonished at the breathtaking volume and intensity of blowback that I see” against the possibility of Romney serving as the nation’s top diplomat.
“In the last four years, I mean, has he been around the globe doing something on behalf of the U.S. of which we’re unaware? Did he go and intervene in Syria where they’re having a massive humanitarian crisis?” she asked on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Has he been helpful to Mr. Netanyahu?” she asked, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-11-28/trump-to-meet-with-petraeus-as-contender-for-secretary-of-state
First flight in half century leaves Miami bound for Havana
Source: Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — Just three days after the death of Fidel Castro, the first regularly scheduled flight to Cuba’s capital in more than a half-century has left from Miami.
Several airlines began routes to other Cuban cities earlier this year; Monday morning’s flight was the first of the new Havana-bound service and the first of four daily flights American Airlines plans out of Miami International.
The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2gBNB3k ) reports Jet Blue will start twice-daily service from Orlando on Tuesday and Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. On Thursday, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines begin flying from Fort Lauderdale and Delta flights will take off from Miami, New York’s JFK airport and Atlanta. Southwest starts daily service from Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 12.
The flights were made possible under newly restored ties between Cuba and U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2016/11/28/first-flight-in-half-century-leaves-miami-bound-for-havana/
'I voted for Trump, so there': White shopper melts down after black workers ask her to pay for bag
‘I voted for Trump — so there’: White shopper melts down after black workers ask her to pay for bag
Top Trump strategist Bannon once told a colleague that suppressing black voters not a bad thing
Source: RawStory
President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist is now one of the most controversial figures in Washington — and that’s largely based on things his former colleagues have said about him.
In addition to scathing assessments of his character made by former employees at Breitbart News, the New York Times brings us word that the woman who collaborated with him to make a film about Ronald Reagan says that Bannon once told her it would not be a bad idea to limit African-Americans’ ability to vote.
Julia Jones, who co-wrote the Reagan documentary In the Face of Evil with Bannon, tells the Times that Bannon once mused on changing the laws so that only property owners would be allowed to vote in the United States. “I said, ‘That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,'” Jones tells the paper. “He said, ‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.’ I said, ‘But what about [Bannon’s black executive assistant] Wendy?’ He said, ‘She’s different. She’s family.'”
Additionally, Jones claims that Bannon used to occasionally talk about “genetic superiority” of some people, although it’s not clear from the reporting whether he believes this genetic superiority is based on race.
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/top-trump-strategist-bannon-once-told-a-colleague-that-suppressing-black-voters-not-a-bad-thing/
Cruz: GOPers Will Face 'Pitchforks' If They Renege On Promises
During a Sunday interview on ABC's "This Week," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that with Republicans controlling the executive and legislative branches in 2017, lawmakers must "deliver."
"We’ve got a lot of work to do. This election was a mandate for change," he told ABC's Martha Raddatz. "Republicans have been given the opportunity, we’ve been given control of the White House, of every executive branch, and both houses of Congress. We can’t blow it. We have got to deliver."
Raddatz noted to Cruz that Trump has signaled he may not fulfill certain campaign promises like fully repealing Obamacare and pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. She asked Cruz if Trump's change in tone concerned him. Cruz said that he will work with Trump before warning Republicans that they must bring change.
"If we’re given the White House and both houses of Congress and we don’t deliver, I think there will be pitchforks and torches in the streets,” he said. “And I think quite rightly. I think people are so fed up with Washington. This election was a mandate with change, and the most catastrophic thing Republicans could do is go back to business as usual.”
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ted-cruz-republican-mandate
McCrory: I May Drop Statewide Recount If State Allows Durham County Recount
Source: Talking Points Memo
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's (R) campaign on Saturday evening announced that if the state Elections Board approves a recount of about 90,000 early votes in Durham County, the governor may drop his statewide recount request.
Trailing Democratic state Attorney General Roy Cooper in the governor's race by more than 7,000 votes as of Sunday, McCrory has claimed that the 2016 election was fraught with fraud, promoting dozens of ballot protests filed by Republicans alleging that votes were cast by people who were dead, who had already voted, or who were convicted felons. The campaign has also claimed that progressive groups may have improperly filled out absentee ballots.
McCrory has refused to concede until the protests have been addressed and filed a request for a recount last week, before all counties in the state finished certifying their vote totals.
After several county election boards rejected protests alleging voter fraud, the McCrory campaign on Saturday focused on about 94,000 early vote ballots in Durham County that were counted late on election night by hand due to a machine malfunction. The Durham County election board rejected a protest filed by a lawyer for state Republicans, Thomas Stark, ruling that there was not enough evidence of "malfeasance," as Stark had claimed, to warrant a recount.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mccrory-durham-recount-appeal
Infowars Pushed Undocumented Voters Myth Trump Is Embracing
Source: Talking Points Memo
Donald Trump’s campaign has yet to provide any evidence for the President-elect’s new claim that “millions” of votes cast by undocumented immigrants cost him the popular vote.
While elections officials and fact-checking websites have adamantly denied that any such widespread voter fraud occurred, one national news site has pushed this myth: conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars.
A widely-shared November 14 article from the site that alleged that “Trump may have won the popular vote” claims that “more than three million” votes were cast by non-citizens. As PolitiFact documented, the story is based off tweets from Gregg Phillips, a GOP operative who claims to be the founder of VoteStand.org, a voter fraud reporting app. It also cites a report from VoteFraud.org, though no such report exists.
Phillips told PolitiFact he was still analyzing and verifying data and refused to offer any additional information about how he arrived at the three million figure.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-false-claim-millions-voted-illegally-infowars-conspiracy-theory
NO EXPERIENCE? NO PROBLEM! Ben Carson, Trump's HUD Pick, Once Called Fair Housing Communism
The famed retired neurosurgeon turned Trump adviser has little direct experience with fair housing issues, but that didn’t stop him from once likening the discrimination laws to communism.
GIDEON RESNICK
11.28.16 1:05 AM ET
Ben Carson spent the weekend thinking about his offer to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Donald Trump’s administration, and if he accepts, the retired neurosurgeon could complicate progress made on anti-housing discrimination laws during the Obama administration.
While it is somewhat unclear as to what Carson’s goals would be in the position, he has criticized a recent HUD fair housing rule, which requires local communities to assess patterns of income and racial discrimination in housing. He has referred to the rule, known as “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,” as a “mandated social-engineering scheme,” and in one instance said it was indicative of policy in a “communist” country.
The rule was meant to correct a stipulation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act which both banned discrimination in the housing market and required local communities to actively pursue fair housing. Should Carson be confirmed for the position, he would have authority over the way in which the new HUD provision is rolled out. And it would appear, that he’s no fan of it.
Carson argued in a 2015 column for The Washington Times “It is true that the Fair Housing Act and other laws have greatly reduced explicit discrimination in housing, but significant disparities in housing availability and quality persist,” he wrote. “To address them, The Obama administration’s new agency rules rely on a tortured reading of the Fair Housing laws to empower the Department of Housing and Urban Development to “affirmatively promote” fair housing, even in the absence of explicit discrimination.”
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/28/ben-carson-trump-s-hud-pick-once-called-fair-housing-communism.html
Delta Apologizes for Not Removing Disruptive Pro-Trump Passenger
Delta Airlines has apologized for not removing a passenger who was shouting obscenities at Hillary Clinton supporters on one of its flights. The apology comes following the release of a video posted to Facebook that shows the pro-Trump passenger yelling at passengers at the back of the plane, calling them “Hillary bitches” and declaring his support for the president-elect. “Our responsibility for ensuring all customers feel safe and comfortable with Delta includes requiring civil behavior from everyone,” Delta said in a statement. “The behavior we see in this video does not square with our training or culture and followup will continue so we can better ensure our employees will know they will be fully supported to make the right decisions when these issues arise.” The flight originated in Atlanta and landed in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
READ IT AT DELTA AIRLINES
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/27/delta-apologizes-for-not-removing-disruptive-pro-trump-passenger.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
Home country: United States
Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
Number of posts: 60,536
