In bipartisan show of support, Democrats plan to host fundraiser for Curbelo. He's also got Rubio...

Source: Miami Herald

A group of well-known local Democrats will collect campaign cash later this month -- for a Republican.

Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo will attend an Aug. 23 fundraising reception hosted by nine Democrats, including former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter and Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace, according to an invitation to the event.

Curbelo drew his first Democratic opponent with national party backing, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, on Wednesday.

The sophomore congressman has campaigned as a moderate -- an image that can only be bolstered with Democratic financial support. Among the Democrats co-hosting the fundraiser are Ira Leesfield, a major Hillary Clinton donor, and attorney Roland Sanchez-Medina. Last year, Sanchez-Medina served as campaign treasurer for Curbelo's Democratic rival, Joe Garcia.

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2017/08/in-bipartisan-show-of-support-democrats-plan-to-host-fundraiser-for-curbelo-hes-also-got-rubio-lined.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

New Fox Harassment Allegations: A Contributorship... Was Contingent Upon Sex

Source: Mother Jones



A former frequent on-air guest at Fox News says that a Fox consultant and top lieutenant to Roger Ailes, the network’s late founder and longtime CEO, sexually harassed her repeatedly for more than a year, including dangling the possibility of a paid job at Fox if she would have sex with him.

The allegation appears in a written declaration by Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College who made numerous guest appearances on Fox starting in 2008. The Fox consultant, Woody Fraser, is a veteran television producer who helped create shows such as Good Morning America and Nightline and worked closely with Ailes at Fox for nearly a decade. Fraser’s relationship with Ailes dated back to the 1960s, when he hired a young Ailes to work on The Mike Douglas Show. “It was the best hire I’ve ever made,” Fraser told an Ailes biographer.

Heldman wrote in her declaration—signed under penalty of perjury and prepared as part of a potential lawsuit involving separate Fraser accusers—that Fraser “used coded language (an ‘arrangement’) on three different occasions, once in New York and twice in Los Angeles, that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with me.” Heldman says she repeatedly rejected his advances. She goes on to note: “Mr. Fraser insinuated on several occasions that a contributorship at Fox was contingent upon me having a sexual relationship with him. Even though I was a popular guest with numerous appearances and high ratings (according to Mr. Fraser), I was not offered a contributorship because I rebuffed Mr. Fraser’s sexual advances.”

Heldman spoke on the record with Mother Jones about Fraser’s alleged harassment and her interactions with other Fox personalities, including Bill O’Reilly. She says that Fraser’s “quid pro quo” comments and the worst of his sexual harassment occurred in person. But her declaration quotes from multiple email exchanges in which Fraser makes inappropriate comments to Heldman. “Hi. You are amazingly beautiful and so very intelligent,” Fraser wrote to her on July 29, 2010. “Good thing im [sic] married and you r [sic] taken.” In another exchange, on August 19, 2010, he wrote, “too bad u don’t like older guys anymore.” Heldman provided those emails and several others to Mother Jones.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/08/fox-news-sexual-harassment-heldman-fraser-ailes/

Trump urged Mexican president to end his public defiance on border wall, transcript reveals

Source: The Washington Post

These 21 facts explain exactly who Stephen Miller is and why the Trump mouthpiece does what he doe

Source: Raw Story

Even among the right-wing ideologues doing the actual presidenting in this administration, Stephen Miller stands out for the copious amounts of Kool-Aid he mainlines. Speaking to the New York Times, a Trump team colleague described Miller as “fiercely loyal” to the president, “a true believer in every sense of the word.” Though he joined the campaign in its early days, penning many of the apocalyptic speeches that won fear-drunk Republican hearts and minds, Miller recently got a lot more visibility after a string of television appearances in defense of the Muslim ban. At each stop, Miller showed a flair for the dramatic: he lied, he dodged, he put on his best tyrant’s voice and proclaimed the executive branch above the law. It seemed contrived and forced, like a politically precocious, weasley teenager’s idea of how to command a crowd. According to those who know Miller’s history, that’s not so far off the mark.

Dating back to junior high school, Miller has been the unwavering right-winger now before us. Though the internet, and some of his family members, were quick to compare him to Joseph Goebbels, this reporter saw a resemblance to Roy Cohn—a Trump mentor—down to the sartorial details. Miller wears retro skinny suits, only recently ditched a chain-smoking habit and has the kind of cockiness that reads as unexamined, unsympathetic self-hatred. His barked orders and put-on baritone are all part of the package, and can strike an observer as funny. At least until you remember this guy is trying to turn the country into an all-white gated community.

The Trump administration is the natural place for Miller to end up. He’s been writing racist, anti-immigrant rants for half his life and he’s only 31. He’s worked for some of the most deplorable U.S. politicians out there, only to become the voice for the worst of all. By all accounts, he is as terrible—and dangerous—as he seems, which is why he’s no laughing matter. And in that way, he is exactly like his boss. As one of his high school classmates told the Daily Beast, “People laughed at [Miller] because he was a buffoon, he was a performer, he thrived on spectacle. I’m very conscious now, looking back, that he was treated the same way that Trump was—he wasn’t taken seriously.”

Here are 21 facts that explain who Stephen Miller is.

Democrats slam GOP for China-made Trump softball

Source: The Hill

A Look Inside the First Family's Residence

Speaker Ryan releases awkward music video ad to promote border wall funding

Source: Think Progress

On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) released a 30-second ad to promote a bill that would fully fund the Trump administration’s request to build a wall. It was no ordinary ad.

In several shots set to highly synthesized, electronic dance music, Ryan can be seen touring the border with a thumbs up sign on a helicopter, traveling on a boat, and riding a horse alongside members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency.

“I had the opportunity to travel down to Texas to go to the Rio Grande Valley and spend time with our Border Patrol,” Ryan said in the video, against the bizarre backdrop of upbeat techno music. “When you see what they’re up against, it really gives you even greater respect for what they do. They clearly need more tools and more support to do their jobs effectively. That’s why we’re going to get this done this week.”

Kushner On Middle East Peace: "What Do We Offer That's Unique? I Don't Know."

Source: Wired

On Monday, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner spoke to a group of congressional interns as part of an ongoing, off-the-record summer lecture series. During the question-and-answer portion of the event, Kushner may have inadvertently offered some insight into the negotiating tactics he is using in the Middle East.

Prior to Kushner's talk, Katie Patru, the deputy staff director for Member Services, Outreach & Communications, told the assembled interns, "To record today’s session would be such a breach of trust, from my opinion. This town is full of leakers and everyone knows who they are, and no one trusts them. In this business your reputation is everything, I’ve been on the hill for 15 years. I’ve sat in countless meetings with members of congress where important decisions were being made. During all those years in all those meetings, I never once leaked to a reporter. …. If someone in your office has asked you to break our protocol and give you a recording so they can leak it, as a manager, that bothers me at my core."

WIRED has obtained a recording of Kushner's talk, which lasted for just under an hour in total.

...

Finally, Kushner closed with the following statement of reassurance: "So, what do we offer that's unique? I don’t know… I’m sure everyone that’s tried this has been unique in some ways, but again we’re trying to follow very logically. We're thinking about what the right end state is. And we’re trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there's a solution. And there may be no solution, but it’s one of the problem sets that the president asked us to focus on. So we’re going to focus on it and try to come to the right conclusion in the near future."

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/jared-kushner-middle-east