riversedge
riversedge's JournalPelosi Hillary, others on House floor comments as they are about to pass #EqualityAct today, ....
Nancy Pelosi Verified account @SpeakerPelosi
19m19 minutes ago
For too long, conversations surrounding America’s LGBTQ community have focused on “tolerance.”
But tolerance is a condescending word.
As we pass the #EqualityAct today, we take pride in this community and all they have & will achieve.
https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1129411722031321088
https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1129412871274848256
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1129405238534901761
https://twitter.com/HRC/status/1129401146903343108
https://twitter.com/HRC/status/1129404039198855175
"It would be helpful to note in this tweet that the Republican messaging is not accurate."......
I do not know what the original tweet was but they must have gotten lots of feedback.
Replying to @nytpolitics
It would be helpful to note in this tweet that the Republican messaging is not accurate. The story mentions this 'misinformation' in the second paragraph.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1129140123143221248
NYT Politics
?Verified account @nytpolitics
3m3 minutes ago
We have deleted an earlier tweet to this story that did not clarify that some of the Republicans' claims on late-term abortions are false or misleading, context that is provided in the article.
https://twitter.com/nytpolitics/status/1129154485408980993
https://twitter.com/northeast_mama/status/1129155518629654533
Republicans’ Messaging on Abortion Puts Democrats on the Defensive
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/politics/abortion-republicans-democrats.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur
Abortion opponents protested outside of the capitol in Richmond, Va., last month.CreditSteve Helber/Associated Press
Image
Abortion opponents protested outside of the capitol in Richmond, Va., last month.CreditCreditSteve Helber/Associated Press
By Jeremy W. Peters
May 16, 2019
WASHINGTON — With grisly claims that Democrats promote “birth day abortions” and are “the party of death,” the Republican Party and its conservative allies have aggressively reset the terms of one of the country’s most divisive and emotionally fraught debates, forcing Democrats to reassess how they should respond to attacks and distortions that portray the entire party as extremist on abortion.
The unusually forceful, carefully coordinated campaign has created challenges that Democrats did not expect as they struggle to combat misinformation and thwart further efforts to undercut access to abortion. And advocates of abortion rights fear it is succeeding in pressuring lawmakers in more conservative states to pass severe new restrictions, as Alabama did this week by approving a bill that would essentially outlaw the procedure.
These new measures, combined with the likelihood that the Supreme Court will agree to take up at least one case in the coming months where Roe v. Wade will be tested, have stirred intense passions on both sides and elevated abortion into a prominent issue in the presidential race.
[Make sense of the people, issues and ideas shaping American politics with our newsletter.]
Much to the distress of abortion rights supporters, their own polling is showing that the right’s message is penetrating beyond the social conservatives who make up a large part of the Republican base. Surveys conducted for progressive groups in recent weeks found that more than half of Americans were aware of the “infanticide” claims that President Trump and his party have started making when describing abortions that occur later in pregnancy.
Initially, many Democrats and abortion rights groups believed the notion was so absurd that it was not worth responding to it. But they discovered that was a dangerous assumption to make in an information environment dominated by Mr. Trump.........................
Trump Wants Your Social Media Gripes -- And Zip Code, Email And Phone Number
Source: TPM
May 16, 2019 2:14 pm
The White House on Wednesday asked social media users to submit their tales of suspected political bias by platforms like Facebook, Twitter and others. It also asked for a lot of personal information, with little explanation of how it would be used.
“The Trump Administration is fighting for free speech online,” read a White House tweet Wednesday. “No matter your views, if you suspect political bias has caused you to be censored or silenced online, we want to hear about it!”
The survey landing page blared that “SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies.” If you suspect political discrimination, it said, “share your story with President Trump.”
In exchange for an opportunity to vent to the President, respondents have to submit their zip code and email address, even if they later opt-out of receiving “email newsletters” from the White House — which will be used “so we can update you without relying on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.”
Respondents must also agree to the conditions of the White House’s user agreement, giving the government an irrevocable license to use the data in any way “in perpetuity, throughout the world, and in all forms of media.”.....................................
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/donald-trump-white-house-social-media-discrimination-survey
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/1129087782322868224
Report shows states that voted for Trump are worst to live in, using 70 different metrics
Report shows states that voted for Trump are worst to live in, using 70 different metrics
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/15/1857923/-Report-says-states-that-voted-for-Trump-are-worst-to-live-in-LGBT-friendly-ones-the-best#comment_73885196
Wednesday May 15, 2019 · 5:35 PM CDT
Ever sit back and wonder about how your quality of life compares to what you could experience somewhere else in the U.S.? A new report released by U.S. News and World Report has plenty of data that might help you figure that out.
Their report ranks 50 states using 70 different metrics. Their goal is to show which states are “best,” and the focus is on big-issue stuff like education, infrastructure, health care, and public safety, to name a few. After all, many things come down to personal taste; someone’s “best” life might be someone else’s nightmare. And that’s okay!
One thing that’s really interesting, however, is the finding that many of the “worst” states went for Donald Trump in 2016. On the flip side, many of the states at the top went blue. Coincidence? Hmm.
And to be clear: This ranking isn’t discussing the people. It’s not intended to be a judgment on whether people in the state are the “best” or “worst,” but rather the quality of life you can have based on the study’s parameters.
Let’s start with some of the good. As highlighted over at LGBTQNation, states that are particularly solid for LGBTQ protections are among the top “best” places to live. In their analysis, they used the HRC Annual State Equal Index Ratings for reference, but you can use whatever comparison you’d like. Because, for example, a state that ranks high for second-parent adoption rights but is weak on trans employment protections might strongly impact whether it’s actually “best” for you.
Overall, the top 10 is filled with states that voted for Hillary in Clinton in the 2016 election. Among them are Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, and Minnesota. It’s not 100% blue, though, as Utah is among the top five.
On the other hand, strong Trump states at the bottom of the list include Oklahoma, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. .......................
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President Donald Trump speaks as he welcomes the 2019 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball National Champions, Baylor Lady Bears in the State Dining Room of the White House on April 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Oliver Contreras/SIPA USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
'census choices are weaponized to skew political power -- like prison gerrymandering.'.....
I had no idea this was going on. Very informative article
All eyes are on the new citizenship question. But there are other ways that census choices are weaponized to skew political power — like prison gerrymandering. I wrote with @vgullap on how we count, & efforts to reform prison gerrymandering:
https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1125461470341263365
How We Count People Skews Political Power
https://www.appealpolitics.org/2019/how-we-count-people-skews-political-power/
May 6, 2019 by appealpolitics, posted in prison gerrymandering, Washington State
The new citizenship question and the longstanding practice of prison gerrymandering weaponize the census to change the racial geography of power.
Vaidya Gullapalli and Daniel Nichanian
This article is a joint production of the Daily Appeal and the Appeal: Political Report.
In late April, the Supreme Court heard arguments in one of the most consequential cases of the term. Department of Commerce v. New York deals with the Trump administration’s decision to add a question asking about citizenship to the 2020 census. In the current political climate, when the federal government has prioritized deportations, adding such a question is expected to lead many noncitizens and their family members to not respond to the census. One study released by researchers at Harvard University projects an undercount of 4.2 million Latinx residents; other research projects significant undercounts as well. This will undermine the basic function of the census: an accurate count. That enumeration is, as Adam Liptak put it on a recent episode of the podcast The Daily, “the very cornerstone and foundation of our political system.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross testified about the 2020 census and the citizenship question before a House committee on March 14, 201. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The undercount would be significant enough that states with larger immigrant populations could end up with fewer seats in the House of Representatives than they should have. This dynamic will also play out within each state when the time comes to redraw political districts. An undercount will increase the number of districts in areas that do not have a major immigrant population, while also funneling more state and federal funding toward those districts.
The stakes are high: If this change to the decennial census is allowed it will translate into the dilution of political representation for diverse, immigrant-rich population centers and their inhabitants. And making a citizen count available could enable conservative states to distribute political representation based not on the number of people, but on the number of citizens. This, too, would lead to a shift in political power within states, away from more diverse areas.
The Supreme Court will decide whether to allow the change. In the meantime, though, the census already counts people in a way that dilutes the power of communities of color, and of urban areas, while inflating that of white and rural communities.
Despite longtime pleas from advocates, the Census Bureau will, for the 2020 census, continue to count people in prisons where they are incarcerated, and not at the home addresses where they lived before incarceration and where they will most likely return upon release. (The census adopted changes to treat some deployed military personnel and children in juvenile treatment facilities differently, and count them at their last home addresses.) Most states use this data to draw their districts, a practice known as prison gerrymandering. The result, given the concentration of prisons in rural districts, and the disproportionate imprisonment of people from urban areas and from communities of color, is “a systematic transfer of population and political clout from urban to rural areas,” writes the Prison Policy Initiative, as well as toward predominantly white ones.
Prison gerrymandering is just one of a set of practices that leaves the communities most targeted by the policies of mass incarceration with the least power to effect change at the ballot box. Large swaths of people are arrested and forcibly moved from predominantly nonwhite areas to predominantly white ones whose population totals, political representation, and funding they inflate. Simultaneously, since people incarcerated over felony convictions are barred from voting in all but Maine and Vermont, these people are denied any voice in the communities gaining power from their presence. They are “ghost constituents.” This policy “deflates the weight of votes in areas targeted for criminal justice enforcement … exacerbating the cycle of democratic exclusion,” wrote Julie Ebenstein, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, in a 2018 law review article. ...............................
Attorney General Bill Barr asked Pelosi if she 'brought her handcuffs' to gathering
Source: raw story
15 May 2019 at 15:28 ET
Barr was ordered to appear in the U.S. House of Representatives to testify about his interactions with special counsel Robert Mueller and why the two disagreed on the summary that came out of the attorney general’s office. When he informed Congress he refused to appear and wouldn’t follow a subpoena, the Judiciary Committee moved to hold Barr in contempt.
That contempt vote now moves to the full House for a vote.
When Barr encountered Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Wednesday at a law enforcement ceremony, he asked her if she “brought your handcuffs.”
According to New York Times Congressional reporter Nicholas Fandos’ interview with a bystander, Pelosi smiled and told Barr that the Sergeant at Arms was there should an arrest be needed. Barr laughed and walked away.
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/attorney-general-bill-barr-asked-pelosi-if-she-brought-her-handcuffs-to-gathering/
I really want to smack his smarty pants mouth!!
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1128744290287595521
The Humgarian Dictator is visting Trump in the WH............
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1127939808645529602
The Atlantic
?Verified account @TheAtlantic
The Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán has systematically undermined the institutions that might challenge his authority. One, however, has stood defiant: a university founded by George Soros. @FranklinFoer reports:
Viktor Orbán’s War on Intellect
As the Hungarian prime minister systematically undermined his own country’s education system, one institution stood defiant: a university in the heart of Budapest, founded by George Soros.
Illustration by Paul Spella; Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty; Jorge Silva; Bernadett Szabo / Reuters; Shutterstock
Franklin Foer June 2019 Issue Politics
On a relentlessly gray Budapest morning, Michael Ignatieff took me to the rooftop of Central European University’s main building. The newly erected edifice is all glass, sharp angles, exposed steel, and polished wood. Its roof had been landscaped with billowing grasses and fitted with iron benches, as if a section of New York City’s High Line had been transported to Hungary. “This is probably my favorite place on the campus,” Ignatieff told me. He wore a newsboy cap in the winter chill; his reading glasses, which he’d absentmindedly neglected to remove, were wedged on the very end of his nose. The broad Danube and the architectural remnants of the city’s imperial past were splayed out in front of us.
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Ignatieff, an intellectual who made an unsuccessful bid to become prime minister of Canada, has spent much of his career studying the fragility of human rights and the irresistible impulse toward nationalism. When he became CEU’s rector in 2016, however, he didn’t believe the job would catapult him to the front lines of the fight for liberalism. He imagined it would be more like a pleasant homecoming. Hungary is the native land of his wife, Zsuzsanna; he had come to know the place intimately on regular visits to her family. “I’m of a certain age,” he said. “I thought, That’s a nice way to top it off.”
He pointed to nearby government buildings. In one of them, the authoritarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had, less than a year after Ignatieff’s arrival, devised a plan to evict CEU from Hungary. The university is widely considered the country’s most prestigious graduate school—it’s been a training ground for presidents, diplomats, and even members of Orbán’s own inner circle. But that inner circle had turned against the institution that had nurtured it and now sought to chase the school from the country’s borders. As Ignatieff explained this to me, he shook his head. “This was not supposed to happen here,” he said.
Read: A 2014 interview with CEU’s president about international education
Hungary once had some of the best universities in postcommunist Europe. But Orbán’s government has systematically crushed them. His functionaries have descended on public universities, controlling them tightly. Research funding, once determined by an independent body of academics, is now primarily dispensed by an Orbán loyalist. When I arrived in Budapest, a pro-government website had just called on students to submit the names of professors who espoused “unasked-for left-wing political opinions.” A regime-friendly weekly published an “enemies list” that included the names of dozens of academics, “mercenaries” purportedly working on behalf of a foreign cabal.........................................
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1128021706969374721
Ukraine Prosecutor Made Up Biden Allegation, Kiev Lawmaker Says
Source: Bloomberg.com
May 13, 2019, 2:45 PM CDT
An alleged bid to curry favor with Trump and Giuliani
Prosecutor’s spokeswoman denies the letter came from him
A Ukrainian lawmaker accused his country’s top prosecutor of manufacturing a “conspiracy” about U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, adding to a political intrigue playing out from Kiev to Washington.
The lawmaker, Serhiy Leshchenko, said he had been given parts of a letter written by the prosecutor with the intent of currying favor with the Trump administration. The letter was sent by the prosecutor through unofficial channels to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the lawmaker told journalists on Monday in Kiev as he distributed copies of two pages.
The letter, purportedly written by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, said that Biden, while U.S. vice president, personally received income from a Ukrainian natural gas company in exchange for “lobbying activities and political support.”
The lawmaker said those allegations were false.
As Leshchenko explained it, the prosecutor was trying to hold onto his job in a new administration. The incoming Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, campaigned on a vow to fight corruption and has said he would name a new prosecutor general.
“I can assume that Lutsenko’s plan is simple” -- that is, to build intrigue around Biden to show U.S. authorities that the prosecutor can be a useful partner, Leshchenko told reporters.
Larysa Sargan, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor general, denied that Lutsenko or anyone in his circle had written such a letter. The pages, which were reviewed by Bloomberg News, didn’t include dates or information about the sender or addressee, and their authenticity couldn’t be verified.
Giuliani didn’t respond to requests for comment.
.....................................
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-13/ukraine-prosecutor-made-up-biden-allegation-kiev-lawmaker-says
Donald Trump’s Rudy-Ukraine scandal just got even uglier for him
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/rudy-ukraine-trump-uglier-scandal/17959/
Bill Palmer | 4:29 pm EDT May 13, 2019
The new president of Ukraine had already reportedly said he would refuse to meet with Rudy Giuliani, even before Giuliani canceled his trip. But now another politician in Ukraine says he’s obtained a letter which proves that the whole thing really was manufactured by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko in an effort at gaining favor with Donald Trump, according to Bloomberg. While it’s far from clear how this scandal will play out for Ukraine, what is clear is that it’s going precisely nowhere for Team Trump.
In fact, now that this whole thing has blown up in Donald Trump’s face, it could end up growing legs as a Trump scandal. Rudy Giuliani, a Trump attorney and informal Trump 2020 campaign adviser, has been caught red handed conspiring with a foreign government to try to dishonestly alter the outcome of the 2020 election. This is so uniquely treasonous, no one has thought to even write specific laws against it. But it blows Trump’s “no collusion” mantra to bits, and it opens the door for House Democrats to subpoena Giuliani to publicly testify about his traitorous antics.
Biden camp responds after Giuliani's canceled trip to Ukraine
Biden camp responds after Giuliani's canceled trip to Ukraine
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/11/politics/biden-response-giuliani-ukraine/index.html?utm_content=2019-05-12T15%3A15%3A02&utm_term=image&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNNp
Updated 9:49 PM ET, Sat May 11, 2019
President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday there was nothing illegal about Trump campaign advisers meeting with a Russian lawyer purportedly offering dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
(CNN)Joe Biden's campaign has offered its first response after President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said he would make a now-canceled trip to Ukraine to urge the country to investigate the Democratic presidential candidate.
"It's great to see all these strong progressive voices stand up to this attempt at a blatantly political smear which in and of itself reflects the urgent need for change and to restore the soul of the country," a Biden campaign official told CNN.
Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke were among the 2020 Democratic contenders to express concern about Giuliani's efforts.
"I just think it is highly unethical for the President's personal lawyer to go meet with officials from foreign government to see if they can influence somehow the upcoming presidential election," Warren said in Kermit, West Virginia. "We've had enough of that and Rudy Giuliani should just back off."
In New Hampshire, O'Rourke said Giuliani's proposed trip to Ukraine was "so very troubling, very disappointing, and and yet not a total surprise, given this President's behavior and the pattern that he'd already set."
Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill also chimed in with criticism of the proposed trip.
"It's stunning that the Trump administration is going down the same tragic path they did in 2016. Here you have the President's lawyer seeking help from a foreign government again to influence a presidential election. It's just appalling," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Friday.
"And his defense that he's not seeking a foreign government's help in the election, just an investigation -- yes, it's an investigation designed to affect one of the candidates they fear the most. I think it's reprehensible."
Sen. Chris Murphy, who called for a Senate query on Giuliani's proposed trip to Ukraine before it was canceled, tweeted, "I know we've become numb to the corruption of this Administration, but this story should be the total focus of the political class today. The President is openly asking a foreign government to investigate his political rival. This is next level."
Giuliani revealed his intention to travel to Ukraine on behalf of his client in a Thursday interview with The New York Times, but by Friday night, that plan was canceled.....................................................
White House decries investigations by House Democrats, says they are not following 'rules and norms
Source: CNN
Updated 6:27 PM ET, Sun May 12, 2019
Bob Woodward: I think we have a governing crisis
Washington (CNN)The White House on Sunday decried Democratic-led congressional investigations, saying Democrats are refusing to abide by "rules and norms" that govern oversight authority as they issue subpoenas for documents the Trump administration refuses to hand over.
"There are rules and norms governing congressional oversight of the executive branch, and the Democrats simply refuse to abide by them,"
White House deputy press secretary Steve Groves said in a statement. "Democrats are demanding documents they know they have no legal right to see -- including confidential communications between the President and foreign leaders and grand jury information that cannot be disclosed under the law."
The White House, Groves said, "will not and cannot comply" with what he called "unlawful demands made by increasingly unhinged and politically-motivated Democrats."
President Donald Trump responded later Sunday to Democrats' accusations of a constitutional crisis..........................
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/12/politics/adam-schiff-trump-white-house-congressional-investigations/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_term=image&utm_content=2019-05-12T21%3A45%3A06&utm_source=twCNNp
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127688823264169984
https://twitter.com/NCmtnsB/status/1127693025650651137
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1127691194924982272
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