Paterson on Hiram Monserrate’s Tenuous Senate Future: ‘I Don’t Want to Taint This Process’

2 mins ago

Today is the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

20 mins ago

Marco Rubio avoids the uncomfortable fact that he voted for massive tax cuts that (very predictably) exacerbated this problem

When corporation uses profits for stock buy back it’s deciding that returning capital to shareholders is better for business than investing in their products or workers. Tax code encourages this. No surprise we have work life that is unstable & low paying. https://t.co/yHV1qS0yLu

—@marcorubio

9:04 a.m.

Interesting Twitter thread pushing back on the idea that New Jersey Dems are engaged in a Wisconsin-style power grab

The Dem reform proposal has been widely reported as gerrymandering in disguise. But the reality is it would mandate partisan symmetry - equal # of seats more Dem and more GOP than the state average. If it produces a Dem map, that’s because it is a Dem state.

—@tbonier

8:38 a.m.

Look, Trump didn’t murder anyone, so who really cares?

“Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed… This was not a big crime. I think in two weeks they’ll start with parking tickets that haven’t been paid.”

—Rudy Giuliani, trying to downplay the latest Trump/Cohen revelations

8:19 a.m.

Another important quote from Michael Cohen’s interview this morning

This comment from Michael Cohen should concern the president: “There’s a substantial amount of information they (the prosecutors) possess that corroborates the fact that I am telling the truth.” via ABC News.

—@jimsciutto

8:08 a.m.

Michael Cohen continues to be a thorn in the president’s side

Michael Cohen to @gma on Trump’s denial that he directed Cohen to arrange hush-money payments: “I don’t think there is anybody that believes that. First of all, nothing at the Trump organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump.” https://t.co/g8PLz4Dfu7

—@rebeccaballhaus

7:22 a.m.

The recent batch of guilty pleas suggests Mueller’s nearly done. (Or not! Who really knows what he’s up to?)

Cooperators “usually go last,” said Robert Ray, a former independent counsel on the Whitewater investigation.

The sentencing of those Mueller defendants “suggests to me that whatever those individuals have done for the special counsel investigation, there is no further use for them,” Ray said. “If there were any contemplation of using them at trial, you would sentence them later. And the only conclusion I can draw from all that is that we are nearing the end.”

Ray said he expects Mueller to deliver a report on his findings in the first three months of 2019. Mueller may also be willing to proceed quickly to sentencing cooperators in part because he expects to present more information in a report than at any trials.

Mueller’s treatment of cooperating witnesses suggests end of Russia investigation may be near

—Washington Post

6:56 a.m.

Looks like fans of Warren and Sanders are going to have to make a choice

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders met Wednesday night at her condominium in Washington to discuss their political intentions but did not reach any accord about coordinating their dueling presidential ambitions, according to two Democrats briefed on their discussion.

Only the two senators were present and they stated what has become abundantly clear: that they are both seriously considering seeking the Democratic nomination in 2020. But neither Ms. Warren nor Mr. Sanders sought support from the other or tried to dissuade the other from running, said the officials familiar with the meeting.

Ms. Warren sought the sit-down and did so as a courtesy and because they have a longstanding friendship that is rooted in candor, according to one Democrat close to the Massachusetts senator. Her office declined to comment about the meeting.

Sanders and Warren Meet and Agree: They Both Are Probably Running

—NYT

1:47 a.m.

Judge quotes the Lorax in decision blocking pipeline

A fuzzy orange creature famous for standing on a stump played a role in a legal decision on a major natural gas pipeline this week.

A federal judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals quoted Dr. Seuss’ beloved environmental warrior in a decision calling for the U.S. Forest Service to revisit its approval for a natural gas pipeline on the East Coast to go forward.

“We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,’” Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote, quoting Dr. Seuss’$2 1971 book “The Lorax.”

Dr. Seuss' 'The Lorax' makes appearance in federal court ruling on Atlantic Coast Pipeline

—ABC News

12/13/2018

The California GOP can’t win

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has quietly given up her Republican registration and re-registered as a no-party-preference voter, saying Thursday she had become increasingly uncomfortable with the GOP’s direction nationally and in the state.

In a phone interview with CALmatters, Cantil-Sakauye—who was a prosecutor before becoming a judge 28 years ago and California Supreme Court chief justice in 2011—said she made the final decision to change her registration after watching the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“You can draw your own conclusions,” she said.

Chief justice of the California Supreme Court leaves the Republican Party, citing Kavanaugh

—CALMatters

12/13/2018

The Texas governor has a plan to fight the effects of climate change, even if he refuses to call it that

To protect itself from the next major hurricane, Texas will have to build storm-surge barriers, shore up wetlands, buy out residents who live in vulnerable areas, rethink development plans and raise the first floors of existing buildings, suggests a sweeping report prepared for Gov. Greg Abbott and released Thursday. …

While the report, “Eye of the Storm,” takes into account findings from climate scientists, including that sea levels are rising and storms are becoming more frequent and severe, nowhere does it explicitly mention climate change or its main underlying cause, the burning of fossil fuels.

Asked about this at a news conference Thursday, Abbott responded that “what this report does is to make sure that Texas is prepared to deal with intense disasters of any nature.”

Hurricane Harvey report seeks to 'future-proof' Texas from climate change without saying so directly

—Dallas Morning News

12/13/2018

China’s ZTE is in search of Joementum

Chinese telecom giant ZTE is tapping a deeply connected Washington insider, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, as it tries to fend off ongoing concerns that it poses a threat to U.S. national security.

The company — the subject of a heated congressional battle earlier this year — has hired Lieberman (I-Conn.) to conduct an “independent” national security assessment of its products, the former senator told POLITICO.

China's ZTE taps Joe Lieberman for D.C. damage control

—Politico

12/13/2018

Christie to the rescue?

NEW: President Trump met with Chris Christie on Thursday evening to discuss the chief of staff job https://t.co/23jLozcSeX

—@jonathanvswan

12/13/2018

A departing Senator calls out her colleagues in farewell speech

Peter Morgan, an author, wrote that no family is complete without an embarrassing uncle. We have too many embarrassing uncles in the United States Senate. Lots of embarrassing stuff.

—Claire McCaskill

12/13/2018

The Republican behind North Carolina’s election fraud scandal knew exactly what he was doing

North Carolina congressional candidate Mark Harris (R) directed the hiring of a campaign aide now at the center of an election-fraud investigation, according to three individuals familiar with the campaign, despite warnings that the operative may have used questionable tactics to deliver votes.

Harris sought out the operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, after losing a 2016 election in which Dowless had helped one of Harris’s opponents win an overwhelming share of the mail-in vote in a key county.

N.C. congressional candidate sought out aide, despite warnings over tactics

—Washington Post

12/13/2018

Richard Branson put two men in space

Virgin Galactic LLC, Richard Branson’s space-tourism venture, reached the edge of space in a test flight Thursday, four years after a fatal accident set back the project, in a feat expected to accelerate commercial efforts to send tourists and small satellites aloft using low-cost rockets. …

After the flight, the closely held company said SpaceShip Two had climbed above 271,000 feet, or about 51.4 miles, reaching a maximum speed of 2.9 times the speed of sound.

The U.S. Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration consider 50 miles up to be the edge of space, though some scientists, space buffs and international record-keeping authorities say space starts even higher.

Richard Branson’s Space-Tourism Company Rockets Out of Atmosphere for First Time

—Wall Street Journal

12/13/2018

A 7-year-old migrant girl died of dehydration and exhaustion several hours after being taken into custody by Border Patrol

According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody at around 10 p.m. on Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, N.M., as part of a group of 163 people who approached U.S. agents to turn themselves in.

More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures at 6:25 a.m., CBP records show. Emergency responders who arrived soon after measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, and according to a statement from CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

After a helicopter flight to an El Paso hospital, the child went into cardiac arrest and “was revived,” according to the agency. “However, the child did not recover and died at the hospital less than 24 hours after being transported,” CBP said.

7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion

—The Washington Post

12/13/2018

The U.S. Olympic Committee repeated allowed coaches banned from sexual misconduct to return to coaching

[An investigation found that a half-dozen coaches banned for sexual misconduct] were still active in their sport. Three of them were working at events or facilities affiliated with the national sports governing bodies that are supposed to be enforcing the bans.

Was your child’s coach banned for sexual misconduct? Better check

—USA Today

12/13/2018

Zero hate crimes reported seems too good to be true, and maybe it is

This blindness to hate crimes is not an isolated occurrence. Year after year, the vast majority of police departments across the country report zero hate crimes to the FBI. After sifting through more than 2,400 police incident reports from 2016 obtained from 10 of the largest such departments, BuzzFeed News identified 15 assaults in which the cops’ own narratives suggested that the suspect may have been motivated by bias.

Each should at least have been flagged as a possible hate crime and subjected to further scrutiny, according to three independent experts who reviewed the documents.

The Cities Where The Cops See No Hate

—Buzzfeed

12/13/2018

New Jersey Democrats are unwisely acting like North Carolina Republicans

Legislative power brokers across the country have long designed district lines in back-room deals that entrenched their control for years, if not decades. But now, Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are carrying out a power grab in an unusually public fashion: They are seeking to make Republicans a permanent minority by essentially writing gerrymandering into the State Constitution.

The Democratic lawmakers’ proposal would amend the New Jersey Constitution, and New Jersey voters would need to approve it through a ballot measure.

It overhauls the makeup of a redistricting committee to give more power to legislative leaders. It also establishes a “fairness test” requiring district maps to reflect how major political parties perform in statewide elections for governor, senator and president.

Democrats in New Jersey Have a Firm Grip on Power. They Want Even More.

—The New York Times

12/13/2018

Trump might keep his chief of staff in the family

Having run through his first choices for his chief of staff vacancy without any luck, President Donald Trump is considering his own son-in-law for the job.

Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and already an official White House adviser, met with Trump Wednesday about the job, a top Republican close to the White House told HuffPost. He and two others close to Trump or the White House who confirmed Kushner’s interest in the position did so on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s staffing considerations freely.

Kushner has been pushing his own candidacy with Trump, citing his work on a criminal justice reform package and a claimed ability to work with Democrats, one person said. “I don’t know why he thinks that, when the Democrats are mainly going to be coming after Trump,” the source said.

Trump Considering Son-In-Law Jared Kushner For Next Chief Of Staff

—HuffPost

12/13/2018

Can Trump draw another inside straight in 2020?

Benjamin Hart 3:10 PM

Ed, you wrote today that president trump is heading into the (endless) 2020 election cycle with a few strikes against him: he’s never been popular, he’s not popular even amid a relatively strong economic cycle, and he may not face a nominee almost as unpopular as him, which he did in 2016. it’s hard to imagine people don’t have a strong opinion about the guy one way or another by now; is there any plausible way for him to really improve his standing with american voters over the next two years?

Ed Kilgore 3:11 PM

You never know for sure, but Trump’s approval ratings have been very stable over two very unstable years of his presidency.

Margaret Hartmann 3:11 PM

He could try more good old fashioned fear-mongering

Ed Kilgore 3:12 PM

Sure, an international crisis could help him or hurt him, depending on all sorts of variables.

Benjamin Hart 3:12 PM

I find it difficult to imagine him ever going over 50 percent. the people who don’t like him REALLY don’t like him.

Margaret Hartmann 3:12 PM

I think he showed with the caravan that he’s capable of conjuring the crisis himself

but yeah, I don’t know if a fake border invasion gets you over 50 percent

Ed Kilgore 3:13 PM

Yeah, in the midterm exits 46% strongly disapproved of him.

Margaret Hartmann 3:13 PM

how does that work in the electoral college, though?

more than 50 percent of the country voted against Trump last time

Benjamin Hart 3:14 PM

true, and the midterms showed that ohio and florida are still uphill climbs for democrats, making things less smooth than they may appear

Ed Kilgore 3:14 PM

Well, that leads to my own hypothesis, which was that Trump plans again to get within shouting distance of a popular vote win and then draw another electoral college inside straight.

If you think Trump wouldn’t have carried those three “Blue Wall” states (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) had Clinton paid more attention to them, it’s a pretty good bet it won’t happen twice. But his strategy, best as I can tell, consists of mobilizing his base and then demonizing his opponent with an incredible intensity.

Benjamin Hart 3:17 PM

same as it ever was. you mean he’s not “pivoting”?

Margaret Hartmann 3:17 PM

you said in the piece: “I argued earlier this year that Democrats should look for an unbreakable nominee — one with no obvious vulnerabilities in age, background, ideology or character that an absolutely unprincipled Trump campaign might exploit to drag her or him down to his level of unpopularity.” I’m wondering if anyone on that list of 26 candidates could possibly fit the bill. it seems too high a bar — you can demonize any candidate, especially if you’re not dealing in facts

Ed Kilgore 3:19 PM

I was speaking relatively. You could argue that none of the 26 candidates have HRC’s vulnerabilities after literally decades and billions of dollars of conservative investment in demonizing her–with considerable help from the MSM.

That, the fact that Democratic voters won’t be over-confident, and the aforementioned unlikelihood of Democrats paying no attention to key states, are why just re-running 2016 probably won’t work for Trump.

Benjamin Hart 3:22 PM

you also wrote about the trump camp’s overarching confidence. might they learn all the wrong lessons from 2016 and underestimate how hard it is to pull off that inside straight again?

Ed Kilgore 3:23 PM

Yes, you have to figure that Trump believes at least some of his own spin about 2016 and 2018 and his popularity generally.

Margaret Hartmann 3:24 PM

I find it hard to believe he actually has a 2020 plan

Benjamin Hart 3:24 PM

me too – he never actually has a plan for anything

Margaret Hartmann 3:24 PM

I think he enjoys doing rallies but is otherwise flying by the seat of his pants

Ed Kilgore 3:25 PM

Well, the “strategy” I’ve described requires nothing from him other than doing what he always does. So it’s consistent with having no strategy at all.

The “caravan” was a new tactic based on his perennial strategy. As I noted at the time, it was like a reenactment of the racist novel “The Camp of the Saints,” a favorite of Steve Bannon’s and of other Trumpites.

Benjamin Hart 3:27 PM

As we know, he’s supremely talented at a) dividing america on racial issues and b) hammering home one point over and over

so we can expect to see a lot more of both

Ed Kilgore 3:28 PM

Yeah, he has to completely scorch the earth between the two parties to minimize defections and then just hope for a turnout advantage based on superior hate-rage.

It’s pretty damn depressing.

Benjamin Hart 3:28 PM

A hopeful note to end with.

12/13/2018

Things continue to go great for the president

BREAKING: Trump inauguration spending under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors; probe partly arises out of materials seized in investigation of Michael Cohen - Dow Joneshttps://t.co/vkI6jV6Gvm

—@CNBCnow

Search

Search

Tags:

Most Viewed Stories

Most Viewed Stories

Promoted links by Taboola

Most Popular