brooklynite
brooklynite's JournalQuiz Time: what does the internet promoting drugs and trafficking have to do with the shootings?
Answer: Nothing, but it lets him bring up his anti-Mexico tropes to push for an immigration law to keep his fans happy.
Kenny Marchant becomes fourth Texas congressman to retire as GOP exodus grows
Source: Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON -- Eight-term Rep. Kenny Marchant, who narrowly won reelection last November, is now the fourth Texas Republican congressman in recent days to pick retirement over an uphill fight for political survival next year.
The growing exodus -- or "Texodus," as Democrats have gleefully characterized the parade of departures -- both reflects and accelerates the GOP's fading grip on Texas. Three of the retirements come in highly competitive districts that Democrats have a good shot of flipping.
Marchant, R-Coppell, hung onto his seat with just 50.6% of the vote last fall. So his exit, made official on Monday, likely makes it harder for Republicans to regain control of the House next year, after getting clobbered in last year's midterm elections.
The Republican, who will serve out the remainder of his term, said he was looking forward to spending more time with family after a four-decade career in public office that's seen him serve as a Carrollton mayor and city councilman, a state representative and a member of Congress.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/08/05/kenny-marchant-becomes-fourth-texas-congressman-retire-gop-exodus-grows
Axios: How the Trump White House works...
First, months ago, Trump hears from conservative friends that Ratcliffe is a loyal guy on Team Trump.
Then Trump is blown away by Ratcliffes TV performance as he hammered Robert Mueller during his House hearings.
Trump is eager to replace a man he doesn't like or trust Dan Coats and starts telling staff he wants Ratcliffe.
Nobody was ready to announce him last Sunday. But aides said that when Axios and then the N.Y. Times reported that Trump was seriously considering Ratcliffe, the president decided to move.
He went ahead and tweeted, a couple hours after Swan's story, that Ratcliffe was the pick.
A number of senior officials were skeptical about Ratcliffe. But as far as we can tell, nobody put up much of a fight to Trump before he announced Ratcliffe.
The White House appears to have done no vetting of Ratcliffe's résumé assuming, perhaps, that if he'd been elected to Congress, hed been vetted.
Between the lines: Per a source involved, it was only after Trump announced Ratcliffe that aides really scrambled to do a vulnerability assessment on their DNI candidate.
The media did it quicker, discovering that Ratcliffe "had exaggerated his role in terrorism and immigration enforcement cases when he served as a federal prosecutor in Texas." (WashPost)
Two people close to Ratcliffe told Swan that Ratcliffe made the decision to withdraw:
He didn't anticipate the intensity of the blowback against his potential nomination and his deceptive résumé.
A friend of Ratcliffe's said he decided not to put his family through the ordeal, given it was far from clear that at the end of it all, hed have enough Republican votes to be confirmed.
The end ... Trump finished Ratcliffe off on Twitter, blaming the media instead of the congressman's inflation of his own biography
https://www.axios.com/how-trump-white-house-works-93f2cdc3-324d-4636-a6c5-9e283bb9dfc1.html
Trump blames...the media for shootings
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1158340095608610816The shooter in Dayton had 100 rounds of Ammo
He was stopped immediately only because a Police patrol came upon him while shooting.
Dayton Daily News
Rick Santorum (CNN): We can't limit access to guns because there are too many guns...
Meanwhile, in the Ohio Statehouse..
Bill allowing concealed-carry without a permit advances in Ohio House
A House committee on Wednesday voted mostly along party lines to refer for passage House Bill 178, which would allow anyone 21 and older to carry any concealed deadly weapon as long as theyre not legally barred from owning a gun.
The bill is now expected to head to a different committee for further review, something thats unlikely to happen before the legislature breaks for its summer recess.
Ohios existing concealed-carry system, under which one can only conceal handguns, and only after going through a permitting process that involves mandatory training and a background check, has been in place since 2004, signed into law by then-Gov. Bob Taft following a years-long lobbying campaign by the National Rifle Association. That bill was backed by House Speaker Larry Householder, who also leads the House today.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Proposed Ohio ballot issue requiring background checks for most gun sales shoots ahead
Cleveland Plain DealerCOLUMBUS, OhioBackers of a proposed citizen-initiated law to require background checks for most gun sales in Ohio have gotten the green light to start collecting petition signatures to, ultimately, place the measure on the statewide ballot.
The bipartisan Ohio Ballot Board unanimously voted Monday that the proposal, titled An Act to Close Loopholes in Background Checks on Gun Sales, doesnt contain more than a single subject. That certification means that Ohioans For Gun Safety, the group behind the proposal, can now start to gather the required 132,887 signatures from registered voters in at least 44 of Ohios 88 counties.
If they do, state lawmakers would have four months to act on the proposed law, which would make Ohio the 12th state (as well as the District of Columbia) to require universal background checks for firearms sales. Federal law already requires licensed dealers to conduct background checks before selling firearms.
The proposal, however, would allow a number of exemptions, such as gifts of firearms between family members, sales of antique guns, and temporarily giving someone a gun to use for hunting or at a shooting range.
CNN: All GOP Senators/Governors from TX/OH, White House refuse to come on air to discuss shootings
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...
Movie Producer Jason Blum is moving in on my block. He produces horror films like Paranormal and The Purge.
Ironically, hes moving into a house where the owner recently committed suicide...
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