marriage equality Jan. 18, 2012

GOP State Senators Who Cast the Deciding Votes in Favor of Gay Marriage Are Dealing With the Consequences

By Noreen Malone

Namely, how will they find enough time to spend the massive influx of campaign contributions from grateful constituents and gay activists? Of course, the four state senators whose votes put the legalization over the edge are now facing retribution from within their own party and challenges to their seats from the left, but we’ll ignore that for the moment and just say: We never before thought anything involving the words money and politics in tandem could be so heartwarming.

Sources

NYT

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Senators Who Voted for Gay Marriage Get Donations

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THE FEED

8 mins ago

health care

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By Ed Kilgore

The latest in a series of breathtaking presidential lies denies his entire first-term health-care policy record.

12 mins ago

the national interest

Why Trump Is So Confused About His Own Iran Policy

By Jonathan Chait

It’s either an intricate diplomatic plan to confound Iran with an array of ever-shifting demands, or the work of a confused Fox News viewer.

12:00 p.m.

As we wait for a SCOTUS census ruling, a federal judge sounds convinced on the discriminatory intent of adding a citizenship question

A federal judge in Maryland on Monday explained why he wanted another look at potential racial animus behind the Trump administration’s census citizenship question, with an opinion that said it “is becoming difficult to avoid seeing that which is increasingly clear.”

U.S. District Judge George Hazel moved last week to have an appeals court send the case back to him, after new evidence put forward by the challengers suggested a discriminatory intent in adding the citizenship question to the census.

“As more puzzle pieces are placed on the mat, a disturbing picture of the decisionmakers’ motives takes shape,” Hazel said in his opinion Monday.

The challengers in the case asked that he take another look at the issue after they found relevant evidence in the files of a now-deceased GOP redistricting consultant, Thomas Hofeller.

Judge: New Census Case Evidence Paints ‘Disturbing Picture’ Of Discriminatory Motives

—Talking Points Memo

Most Popular

11:28 a.m.

Now the trade war is personal

The pressure cooker that flew off shelves last Black Friday is getting pulled into the trade war.

The price of the popular Instant Pot would increase nearly $38 to $187.44 if the latest proposed 25% tariff on Chinese imports goes into effect, parent company Corelle Brands LLC said in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative.

The company said the higher prices were “an unfair consequence” of the trade tensions because targeting electric multi-cookers “will in no way assist the USTR in its policy goals against China.”

Instant Pot Could Get a $38 Price Hike Due to China Tariffs

—Bloomberg

11:04 a.m.

Labrie’s case became a national story in 2015

The prep school student who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old classmate was released from jail for good behavior.

Owen Labrie’s attorney confirmed to ABC News that he was released from Merrimack County’s jail Monday morning after nearly six months. He was serving the remaining 10 months of his sentence, The Associated Press reported.

Labrie, who is now 23 years old, was a student at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire when he was accused of sexually assaulting a younger student.

The case raised questions about sex culture on campus in light of accusations that the alleged incident was part of a so-called “Senior Salute,” where seniors allegedly target younger students.

Former prep school student Owen Labrie released from jail over good behavior in sex assault case

—ABC News

10:37 a.m.

SCOTUS sides with FUCT

NEW: in the case involving FUCT, a clothing brand, SCOTUS rules that a federal ban on immoral & scandalous trademarks is unconstitutional. It’s a Kagan 9-0 with partial dissents from Roberts, Sotomayor and Breyer. https://t.co/t32jVFUdyb

—@stevenmazie

10:17 a.m.

How much would you pay in Beto O’Rourke’s proposed “war tax”?

What would @BetoORourke’s “war tax” be?

For households making less than…
- $30,000 — $25
- $40,000 — $57
- $50,000 — $98
- $75,000 — $164
- $100,000 — $270
- $200,000 — $485
- More than $200,000 — $1,000

It’d go into trust funds for vets created at the start of each new war. https://t.co/Kkt8KFEh2V

—@ericbradner

9:36 a.m.

Poll: Most people aren’t paying attention

Only 22% of Democrats registered to vote say they know a lot about the candidates’ positions, while 62% say they know a little. And only 35% say they’re paying close attention to the campaign, with almost two-thirds saying they’re paying some or no attention.

AP-NORC Poll: Democratic voters not fully tuned in to 2020

—AP

9:01 a.m.

It was a rough weekend for Mayor Pete

As he soared from obscurity to top-tier presidential candidate this year, Mayor Pete Buttigieg rooted his unlikely campaign in an argument he hoped would fit both the moment and his relatively thin resume: that what a nation fed up with big government truly needs is to “get Washington to look more like our best-run cities and towns.”

Now that South Bend is in the throes of a crisis over race, policing and city leadership, that rationale is running headlong into the inconvenient reality that when things go sour, mayors can be held immediately and directly responsible in a way that senators and congressman are not.

The recent unrest in South Bend — triggered by the fatal shooting of Eric Logan, a black man, by a white police officer a week ago — has become the most profound hurdle for Buttigieg’s candidacy to date. It has also tested his readiness to confront an issue that seems to call for a visceral, emotional response, rather than the cerebral, levelheaded comportment that has made the 37-year-old mayor seem so unflappable on the campaign trail.

Buttigieg learns the hazards of campaigning for president as a mayor

—NBC News

8:18 a.m.

One of these blockbusters, or both, could finally come down this morning

The Supreme Court is set to decide both partisan gerrymandering and census cases this week. Stay tuned…

—@marceelias

7:22 a.m.

Biden wants to make it clear that he’s focused on Trump, not fighting with his Democratic primary rivals

Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized President Trump’s “racist invective” and called for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and a new foreign policy direction in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of his presidential campaign’s first glimpse of his immigration policy.

Biden’s announcement, which appeared Monday in a Miami Herald op-ed, was as much a broad outline of his immigration and foreign policy ideas as it was a critique of Trump administration policies.

“Under Trump, there have been horrifying scenes at the border of kids being kept in cages, tear gassing asylum seekers, ripping children from their mothers’ arms — actions that subvert our American values and erode our ability to lead on the global stage,” according to Biden’s op-ed, which ran in the Miami Herald’s Spanish-language publication, El Nuevo Herald, as well.

“At a time when the challenges we face demand a united, regional response, Trump repeatedly invokes racist invective to describe anyone south of the Rio Grande, including calling migrants ‘animals’,” Biden wrote.

Biden blasts Trump’s ‘racist invective’ in immigration plan roll-out

—Politico

7:03 a.m.

There was no U.S. strike on Iran over the weekend but tensions haven’t cooled

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Saudi Arabia on Monday in a hastily arranged visit amid mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran as Iran’s navy chief warned Iranian forces wouldn’t hesitate to shoot down more U.S. surveillance drones from their skies.

The downing of the drone, valued at more than $100 million, saw the United States pull back from the brink of a military strike on Iran after President Donald Trump last week called off strikes in retaliation.

Iran’s naval commander, Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi, threatened Washington, saying that Tehran is capable of shooting down other American spy drones that violate Iranian airspace.

“We confidently say that the crushing response can always be repeated, and the enemy knows it,” Khanzadi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency during a meeting with a group of defense officials.

Pompeo in Saudi Arabia, Iran threatens more US drone attacks

—AP

6:00 a.m.

encounter

Marianne Williamson Makes a Case for a Recovery Presidency

By Amy Larocca

Sixty-eight minutes with the self-help guru – and 2020 dark horse – who sees “both sides” on vaccines.

6:00 a.m.

feature

How Cindy Yang Learned to Throw a Party at Mar-a-Lago

By Andrew Rice

She was just a massage-parlor tycoon turned GOP bundler until Robert Kraft got arrested and the FBI started paying attention.

2:08 a.m.

politics

Even the Trump Transition Team Knew Some Appointees Were Bad Hires: Report

By Matt Stieb

In newly obtained documents, the Trump transition team flagged some candidates as worrisome for the exact reason they were eventually let go.

1:12 a.m.

A major policy step on the week of the first debates

NEW: @BernieSanders will on Monday propose canceling the *entire* $1.6 trillion in U.S. student loan debt, escalating Democratic policy battle

Key coauthors: @IlhanMN and @RepJayapal

Paid for by Wall Street transaction tax, paired w/ free college billhttps://t.co/LUyARIN7Ec

—@JStein_WaPo

12:10 a.m.

migrant crisis

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Some migrant children detained in Texas are reportedly being forced to sleep on the cement as punishment, while Trump delays a massive ICE action.

6/23/2019

Even the Trump transition team knew his staffing choices were trouble

Nearly 100 internal Trump transition vetting documents leaked to “Axios on HBO” identify a host of “red flags” about officials who went on to get some of the most powerful jobs in the U.S. government.

Scott Pruitt, who ultimately lost his job as EPA Administrator because of serial ethical abuses and clubbiness with lobbyists, had a section in his vetting form titled “allegations of coziness with big energy companies.”

Mick Mulvaney, who became Trump’s Budget Director and is now his acting chief of staff, has a striking assortment of “red flags,” including his assessment that Trump “is not a very good person.”

The Trump transition team was so worried about Rudy Giuliani, in line for Secretary of State, that they created a separate 25-page document titled “Rudy Giuliani Business Ties Research Dossier” with copious accounting of his “foreign entanglements.”

Exclusive: Leaked Trump vetting docs

—Axios

6/23/2019

politics

Democratic Presidential Candidates Respond to New Rape Allegation Against Trump

By Olivia Nuzzi

They were asked to respond to E. Jean Carroll’s accusation and weigh in on whether Congress should get involved.

6/23/2019

roundups

How Readers, Pundits, and Trump Have Responded to E. Jean Carroll’s Allegations

By Chas Danner

Carroll’s revelation has prompted praise, heartbreak, anger, and questions — here’s what’s been happening since she came forward.

6/23/2019

the economy

America’s Top Economists Needlessly Undermined Growth, Study Confirms

By Eric Levitz

A new analysis confirms that for years, central bankers and top economists underestimated America’s true unemployment rate.

6/22/2019

More horrifying claims about the care of migrant children in U.S. custody

Four toddlers were so severely ill and neglected at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, that lawyers forced the government to hospitalize them last week.

The children, all under age 3 with teenage mothers or guardians, were feverish, coughing, vomiting and had diarrhea, immigration attorneys told HuffPost on Friday. Some of the toddlers and infants were refusing to eat or drink. One 2-year-old’s eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was “completely unresponsive” and limp, according to Toby Gialluca, a Florida-based attorney.

She described seeing terror in the children’s eyes.

“It’s just a cold, fearful look that you should never see in a child of that age,” Gialluca said. “You look at them and you think, ‘What have you seen?’”

4 Severely Ill Migrant Toddlers Hospitalized After Lawyers Visit Border Patrol Facility

—Huff Post

6/22/2019

vision 2020

Why Did Obama Pick Biden As His Veep in the First Place?

By Ed Kilgore

Biden’s “baggage” may not have mattered so much to Team Obama because they considered him too old to be an heir apparent.

6/22/2019

early and often

‘That’s Hell’: Democrats’ Debate Prep Gets Real

By Gabriel Debenedetti

Everyone expects Biden to come under serious fire. He’s getting ready for it.

6/21/2019

supreme court

Another SCOTUS Precedent Falls. Could Roe Be Next?

By Ed Kilgore

For the second time this term, the court’s conservative majority has reversed a major Supreme Court precedent. Could Roe v. Wade be far behind?

6/21/2019

the national interest

Manafort Promised Sean Hannity He Wouldn’t Flip on Trump

By Jonathan Chait

Probably because they were all totally innocent.

6/21/2019

Conservative Wisconsin judges say “sure” to blatant Republican power grab

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday upheld a last-ditch Republican move late last year to curb the powers of incoming Democratic Governor Tony Evers, ruling that passing such measures in lame-duck sessions is constitutionally permissible.

The 4-3 decision overturned a lower court ruling in March that had blocked the legislation, criticized by Democrats as a power-grab. Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niesshad found that the state legislature’s use of an “extraordinary session” was unlawful.

“We hold that the extraordinary sessions do not violate the Wisconsin constitution because the text of our constitution directs the legislature to meet at times as ‘provided by law,’” Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley wrote for the majority.

Wisconsin high court upholds curb on powers of Democratic governor

—Reuters

6/21/2019

Trump denies veracity of New York’s cover story – which features a photo of him and E. Jean Carroll

NEW: President Trump responds to sexual assault allegations by E. Jean Carroll, saying `I’ve never met this person in my life’ pic.twitter.com/qAyFStIYzq

—@LauraLitvan

6/21/2019

Earlier today, the Supreme Court tossed a death sentence that had drawn national attention thanks to the “In the Dark” podcast

The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the death sentence of a Mississippi man convicted at his sixth trial for the same murders after the prosecutor repeatedly excluded black people from the jury.

The justices, voting 7-2, said the prosecutor violated the constitutional rights of Curtis Flowers, a black man accused of killing four people in 1996. Prosecutors will now have to decide whether to try him for a seventh time.

Three of Flowers’s six trials ended in convictions that were thrown out on appeal, once because the prosecutor, District Attorney Doug Evans, excluded blacks from the jury. Two other prosecutions ended with mistrials.

Supreme Court Throws Out Curtis Flowers Death Sentence, Citing Jury Selection Bias

—Bloomberg

6/21/2019

the top line

Here’s Who Trump Should Have Made Fed Chairman

By Josh Barro

Neel Kashkari, like Trump, thinks the Fed should cut interest rates. The problem is that those beliefs stem from principle, not politics.