DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalTrumps Midwest swing today is the unofficial kickoff of his 2020 reelection campaign
By James Hohmann December 1 at 7:21 AM
THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump is coming back to the Midwest today for the first time since the election to take a victory lap in the region that gave him the presidency. The billionaire businessman quipped throughout the campaign that America is going to win so much when he’s president that people are going to get tired of winning. This morning he flies to Indiana to tout the first such win, a deal he cut with Carrier to keep 1,000 jobs in the U.S. that were otherwise going to Mexico. (He’ll tour a plant that will no longer be closing.) From there, he flies to Cincinnati for a blowout rally at U.S. Bank Arena, the first stop of a “Thank You Tour” that will also take him to Iowa and Michigan in the coming days.
-- Like so many issues throughout 2016, from Trump’s support for waterboarding to his proposed Muslim ban, there is a wide chasm between elite skepticism of the Carrier deal and the unadulterated excitement of Trump’s base.
Intellectuals, conservative economists and good-government experts have many substantive concerns about the agreement and the secretive process in which it was negotiated. The real reason that the jobs are staying appears to be that United Technologies, which owns Carrier, is one of the largest defense contractors and worries about losing billions a year in high-margin business with the federal government if it doesn’t placate the incoming president. While Carrier publicly attributes its reversal to an aid package offered by Indiana, a state economic development official said yesterday that the company rejected similar terms before the election.
You know who doesn’t care that Trump might have shaken down a federal contractor to score an early political victory? People who live in the Rust Belt and want good-paying jobs. The non-college-educated, blue-collar workers who voted for Trump, who feel that free trade is bad for them and who believe government has been working for others – not them. More fundamentally, the vast majority of Americans will see nothing more than the headline that just says Trump saved 1,000 jobs. For the president-elect, that is mission accomplished.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/12/01/daily-202-trump-s-midwest-swing-today-is-the-unofficial-kickoff-of-his-2020-reelection-campaign/583f082be9b69b7e58e45f23/?utm_term=.5041528c4b79&wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1
President Obama: Michelle will never run for office
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has tamped down any speculation that first lady Michelle Obama may one day run for office herself.
In an interview with Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner conducted the day after the presidential election earlier this month, Obama said, “Michelle will never run for office.”
He added, “She is as talented a person as I know. You can see the incredible resonance she has with the American people. But I joke that she’s too sensible to want to be in politics.”
Obama also said in the interview published online Monday that once he leaves office in January, he and his wife will “continue to be very active” on their belief that “when you work with people on the ground at a grassroots level, change happens.”
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2016/11/30/president-obama-michelle-will-never-run-for-office/
Operation Rescue activist who plotted to bomb an abortion clinic rages at being called a terrorist
BRAD REED
30 NOV 2016 AT 12:46 ET
An activist from the notorious Operation Rescue anti-abortion group is bristling at assertions that she is a terrorist — despite the fact that she was convicted of plotting to bomb an abortion clinic back in the ’80s.
As Jezebel notes, Operation Rescue activist Cheryl Sullenger is very angry at Warren Hern, a Colorado doctor who performs late-term abortions, because he paid for an ad in the Denver Post that slams the Republican Party for being “allied with a violent terrorist movement that threatens the lives of women, their families and healthcare workers.”
In a blog post at Operation Rescue’s website, Sullenger rails against Hern’s ad, and claims that he was engaging in “conspiracy theories” that bore no resemblance to reality.
“Hern’s warped perception of the work of a peaceful pro-life movement that sacrifices to aid pregnant women and provide loving alternatives to abortion – acts that he considers ‘terrorism’ — reveals how much Hern is deceived by his own fears and prejudices,” she writes. Sullenger is probably not the best person to talk about the peaceful pro-life movement — in 1988, she was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in conspiring to bomb an abortion clinic in San Diego.
Additionally, Jezebel writes that abortion doctor George Tiller “was assassinated by a man who claimed to have met with Sullenger, and said she helped him track Tiller’s earlier court dates.”
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http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/operation-rescue-activist-who-plotted-to-bomb-an-abortion-critic-rages-at-being-called-a-terrorist/
Judges Order New North Carolina Legislative Maps, Special Election
Source: Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal judges have told the North Carolina legislature to redraw its own districts by mid-March to replace ones the court struck down and to hold a special election under redrawn maps in November 2017.
The ruling Tuesday means those elected to the state House and Senate a few weeks ago and who see their districts changed would serve just one year, not two.
The same three-judge panel last summer said nearly 30 legislative districts were illegal racial gerrymanders but decided it was too late to hold elections under new maps.
Attorneys representing legislative mapmakers wanted more time to redraw and the next election in 2018. Those lawmakers now say they'll appeal Tuesday's decision. A lawyer who successfully sued over the districts says a special election is best to protect the rights of North Carolina residents.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/judge-new-nc-legislative-map
Trump's Treasury Pick: There Will Be No Absolute Tax Cut For The Upper Class
Source: Talking Points Memo
By MATT SHUHAM Published NOVEMBER 30, 2016, 10:35 AM EDT
Steve Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s newly-minted pick for treasury secretary, said Wednesday that any upper-income tax cuts enacted by Trump would be offset by eliminating tax deductions.
“Any reductions we have in upper income taxes would be offset by less deductions so there would be no absolute tax cut for the upper class,” Mnuchin said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Mnuchin argued it was “not the case at all” that most of Trump’s proposed tax cuts would benefit the upper class.
“There will be a big tax cut for the middle class, but any tax cuts we have for the upper class would be offset by less deductions that pay for it," he said.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-mnuchin-trump-tax-policy
Dems Pile On Trump's Treasury Pick: 'The Forrest Gump Of The Financial Crisis'
Source: Talking Points Memo
By MATT SHUHAM Published NOVEMBER 30, 2016, 12:00 PM EDT
Some Senate Democrats were harshly critical of Donald Trump’s pick for treasury secretary, the latest in a line of financial elites tapped for his cabinet who they say betrays the President-elect's promise to “drain the swamp” of insiders.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called Steve Mnuchin “the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis” in a statement Tuesday, referencing Munchin’s two-decade-long tenure at Goldman Sachs, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“His selection as Treasury secretary should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard by the financial crisis, and is the latest sign that Donald Trump has no intention of draining the swamp and every intention of running Washington to benefit himself and his rich buddies," she said, as quoted by the newspaper.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) also took aim at Mnuchin’s time leading the bank OneWest, known for its aggressive foreclosure practices. “Given Mr. Mnuchin’s history of profiting off the victims of predatory lending, I look forward to asking him how his Treasury Department would work for Americans who are still waiting for the economic recovery to show up in their communities," he said in a statement.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/senate-democrats-criticize-mnuchin-treasury
Trump flag-burning tweet leads activists to burn some flags in New York
By Shannon Stapleton | NEW YORK
A small group of hard-left activists burned foot-long U.S. flags outside the Trump International Hotel in New York on Tuesday, in an angry response to a tweet by President-elect Donald Trump that flag-burners should face legal consequences.
Social media was itself ablaze on Tuesday in response to Trump's tweet, which suggested that burning the U.S. flag should be punishable by a year in jail or a revocation of citizenship.
Trump's provocative tweets on flag-burning and other topics, including efforts to recount the Nov. 8 presidential vote, came as the Republican worked to fill his Cabinet in advance of his inauguration in January.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag-burning was not a crime but rather a form of protest protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. The high court has also ruled more than once that citizenship cannot be revoked.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-flag-idUSKBN13P06L?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
Women in draft, religious exemptions dropped from final version of defense policy bill
By Karoun Demirjian November 29 at 6:08 PM
The most controversial measures in a defense policy bill forcing women to register for the draft and allowing federal contractors to make religious-based hiring decisions have been dropped from the compromise version negotiated by lawmakers.
But lawmakers did approve plans to slash by half the National Security Council to no more than 200 staff positions – a backlash inspired by former defense secretaries’ complaints the NSC is too controlling of foreign policy and military decision-making.
Lawmakers from the House and Senate Armed Service committees agreed on those and other terms as part of a behemoth $618.7 defense bill to fund Pentagon programs and overseas wars, according to committee staff, striking the compromise only after months of wrangling over each chamber’s bills, both of which the White House threatened to veto.
The House plans to vote on the compromise measure this Friday and the Senate will do so next week.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/29/women-in-draft-religious-exemptions-dropped-from-final-version-of-defense-policy-poll/?utm_term=.066cc9bb69ea&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
Levin to resign as top Democrat on House tax writing panel
By Kelsey Snell November 29 at 8:05 PM
Rep. Sander M. Levin of Michigan will step down as the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee at the end of this year, opening a position atop one of the most powerful committees in Congress as Democrats seek to combat the agenda advanced by President-elect Trump and congressional Republicans.
Levin, who has been the top Democrat on the committee since 2010, informed colleagues of his plans on Tuesday in a letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. His decision to not seek reelection adds a new opportunity for a fresh face to join House Democrats’ top ranks amid frustration over the party’s disappointing election showing.
“It is imperative that we support younger Members as they seek to fully assume the mantle of leadership in the four years ahead, as we also continue to tap the experience of those who have led so many of these battles,” Levin wrote.
Levin’s vacancy sets up a showdown between Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) over who will be the panel’s top Democrat. Becerra, a close confidant of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, will leave his position as chairman of the House Democratic Conference at the end of this year. Neal, who challenged Levin for the ranking member slot in 2010, is a well-liked more moderate member with close relationships with many of the younger House Democrats.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/29/levin-to-resign-as-top-democrat-on-house-tax-writing-panel/?utm_term=.2653b938cd1f&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
In an abrupt about-face, Romney emerges from dinner with Trump full of frog legs and high praise
By Abby Phillip November 29 at 10:30 PM
They talked for more than two hours, they laughed, they munched on carefully prepared frog legs, and afterward, Mitt Romney, once one of Donald Trump's harshest critics, emerged a changed man.
"I had a wonderful evening with President-elect Trump," the former Massachusetts governor declared to the press after a final course of chocolate cake. "We had another discussion about affairs throughout the world, and these discussions I've had with him have been enlightening, and interesting and engaging."
"What I've seen through these discussions I've had with President-elect Trump, as well as what we've seen in his speech the night of his victory, as well as the people he's selected as part of his transition, all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future," he added.
It was almost as if Romney had not been one of Trump's leading detractors, calling him a "con man," a "fake" and a "phony" who was unprepared for the presidency.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/29/in-an-abrupt-about-face-romney-emerges-from-dinner-with-trump-full-of-frog-legs-and-praise/?utm_term=.a93f331f26c8&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
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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
