All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

GOP ignores scandals, advances controversial judicial nominee

Steven Menashi, one of Donald Trump’s far-right lawyers, has become one of the year’s most controversial judicial nominees for good reason. The New York conservative, nominated for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, has a tough-to-defend record of radicalism that includes an argument about democratic countries working better when everyone is of the same ethnicity. Demand Justice’s Brian Fallon described Menashi as “a perfect storm of awful.”

His confirmation hearing did not go well. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) chided Menashi for not being more forthcoming, as did Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).

This morning, however, Graham, Kennedy, and every other Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Menashi’s nomination to the floor, where he’ll almost certainly be confirmed.

That’s not too surprising – GOP senators nearly always serve as a rubber stamp for Trump’s far-right picks for the federal judiciary – but the vote came on the heels of this New York Times report, published yesterday, which common sense suggests should’ve at least given the Judiciary Committee pause.

A judicial nominee slated for a key Senate committee vote on Thursday helped devise an illegal Education Department effort to use private Social Security data to deny debt relief to thousands of students cheated by their for-profit colleges, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.

The plan, outlined by Steven J. Menashi when he was acting general counsel under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, was ruled by a federal judge to violate federal privacy laws. She ordered the department to stop the practice.

[Tami]

UPDATE: Trump campaign contest to win a meal with Trump was a fraud

A heavily-promoted contest to win breakfast with President Trump in New York City on September 26 was a fraud. The purported winner of the contest, Joanna Kamis, did not have breakfast with Trump. Instead, she was invited to a breakfast at a New York City restaurant that Trump did not attend. Kamis was later permitted to take a photo with Trump.

The promise of breakfast with Trump was used in hundreds of Facebook ads to entice supporters to donate money. The ads were clear that donors would be entered into a contest to share a meal with Trump. "This is your LAST CHANCE to meet me this quarter, and I really want to discuss our Campaign Strategy for the rest of the year with you over breakfast," Trump said in a Facebook ad in September.

The revelation of the fraudulent contest comes two days after Popular Information released the results of an investigation of 15 contests the Trump campaign has held to win meals with Trump. While other campaigns enthusiastically promote photos of candidates dining with low-dollar donors, Popular Information could not find evidence that anyone actually won a meal with Trump.

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for information about contest winners from Popular Information or a reporter from the Washington Post. But when Vanity Fair picked up the story on Monday, Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted that "people win the contests each time." Murtaugh, however, did not provide any proof to substantiate his claim.

The controversy continued to gain steam. Richard Painter, a former associate counsel in the Bush White House, told Newsweek that the failure to deliver on the promised meals with Trump could be criminal. "You're raising campaign cash, you're lying to people. If you obtain money from people through false pretenses that's a violation of federal mail fraud and wire fraud statutes," Painter said.

[Tami]

Michael Bloomberg Is Expected to File for the Alabama 2020 Presidential Primary

Michael R. Bloomberg is actively preparing to enter the Democratic presidential primary and is expected to file paperwork this week designating himself as a candidate in at least one state with an early filing deadline, people briefed on Mr. Bloomberg’s plans said.

Mr. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman, has been privately weighing a bid for the White House for weeks and has not yet made a final decision on whether to run, an adviser said. But in the first sign that he is seriously moving toward a campaign, Mr. Bloomberg has dispatched staffers to Alabama to gather signatures to qualify for the primary there. Though Alabama does not hold an early primary, it has a Friday deadline for candidates to formally enter the race.

Should Mr. Bloomberg proceed with a campaign, it could represent a seismic disruption in the Democratic race. With his immense personal wealth, centrist views and close ties to the political establishment, he would present a grave and instantaneous threat to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has been struggling to raise money and assemble a ideologically moderate coalition.

[Theleviathan]

Maybe, but moderate white women are not a particularly low hanging fruit, because while they might agree with the left when it comes to women's issues, on just about everything else their views are basically in lockstep with those of moderate white men, so trying to pander to them would require making a ton of concessions to the detriment of many far more loyal Democratic voters.

Which more loyal democratic voters would we risk losing and on what issues?

[PwrdOn]

Which more loyal democratic voters would we risk losing and on what issues?

Trying to reach for the moderate white vote again would mean abandoning most progressive reforms and committing to a vague platform of national unity, which would leave most working class and minority voters out in the cold. This of course is distressingly on brand for the Democratic party, and while it won't push marginalized groups to vote Republican it will breed disillusionment and depress turnout. What does it matter if Trump is gone if we can't fix the tax code or the immigration system or at the very least restore Obamacare to what it was before? Going after the Becky vote will necessarily mean abandoning these reforms among many others, and that will be a great betrayal to the voters that have supported the Democrats for decades.

[Theleviathan]

Trying to reach for the moderate white vote again would mean abandoning most progressive reforms and committing to a vague platform of national unity, which would leave most working class and minority voters out in the cold. This of course is distressingly on brand for the Democratic party, and while it won't push marginalized groups to vote Republican it will breed disillusionment and depress turnout. What does it matter if Trump is gone if we can't fix the tax code or the immigration system or at the very least restore Obamacare to what it was before? Going after the Becky vote will necessarily mean abandoning these reforms among many others, and that will be a great betrayal to the voters that have supported the Democrats for decades.

I think there are a few mistakes in how you connect these things. For one, I don't think the assumption that Clinton's moderation lost her the election has much merit. Her noted unfavorables across many voting groups is a more likely culprit. (More on that) I'm also not sure why moderate whites would be somehow opposed to "working class". Many moderate whites are working class.

And I think 2018 proved most of what you say as misguided, that moderates will drive voters away. Quite the opposite happened despite a field of Democrat winners that were quite moderate - more people turned out. If your assumption about Clinton was true, we'd see that bear out in 2018 but the opposite happened. Those Democrat winners talked about healthcare, fairness, medicare, and social security. They didn't run on a left-wing message in pretty much all of the seats they flipped. They ran on a moderate, "We're not the ones taking your healthcare, we got your pre-existing conditions covered" tag that was wildly successful.

The data from 2018 shows that the minority and youth vote are there (and frankly, the messages above hit close to home for everyone. That's what makes it a good message), but doing just a bit to tweak messages so that they don't alienate people is sound electoral strategy. If the Dems continue the success of 2018 and talk kitchen table interests, heavily centered on protecting people through healthcare - they can win plenty of moderates. And keep their base. And be genuinely talking to both.

When I hear people say the middle is somehow the enemy of the fringe, I try to suggest you might have to come back from the brink a bit. The things that effect everyone can also motivate everyone to vote Democrat. It's all about how you package it and less about pandering or other such misnomers.

[Mister Mets]

Trying to reach for the moderate white vote again would mean abandoning most progressive reforms and committing to a vague platform of national unity, which would leave most working class and minority voters out in the cold. This of course is distressingly on brand for the Democratic party, and while it won't push marginalized groups to vote Republican it will breed disillusionment and depress turnout. What does it matter if Trump is gone if we can't fix the tax code or the immigration system or at the very least restore Obamacare to what it was before? Going after the Becky vote will necessarily mean abandoning these reforms among many others, and that will be a great betrayal to the voters that have supported the Democrats for decades.

The major change in the Democratic party has been that white liberals have gone more to the left, so the question isn't whether Democrats should abandon important allies who have been with them for decades, but the extent to which they should change.

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/182598...ing-trump-2020

[numberthirty]

Sessions is back in the mix, and it looks like Bloomberg could wind up in the mix.

A drag, at the very least.

[worstblogever]

Trump Ordered To Pay $2 Million In Charity Ethics Lawsuit

I don't think he has the cash.

Probably can't get a loan from a Russian on the D/L now, either.

[Malvolio]

Sessions is back in the mix, and it looks like Bloomberg could wind up in the mix.

A drag, at the very least.

I don't mind so much Bloomberg entering the Democratic primary, but I really don't want him running as an Independent if he loses the Democratic nomination.

[numberthirty]

I don't mind so much Bloomberg entering the Democratic primary, but I really don't want him running as an Independent if he loses the Democratic nomination.

Setting aside my own feelings about Bloomberg as a politician...

If he is going to get in, just cut the nonsense and do it.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Loy Mauch, who was elected during the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and shortly thereafter, people in Arkansas discovered the revelation that they had elected a member of the Neo-Confederate group known as the League of the South who considered the Ol' Stars & Bars to be "a symbol of Jesus Christ and biblical government", and compares the founder of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln, to Marxists and Nazis. He also believes the 14th Amendment of the Constitution is unconstitutional, that the Civil War was not fought over slavery, and even if it was, he thinks "slavery isn't that bad because Jesus never spoke out against it." Needless to say, being that overpoweringly racist was enough to get him the boot from voters when they discovered what ugly opinions he had, even by red state standards.

It was on this date in 2015 we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Cindy Gamrat, a former member of the Michigan House of Representatives who served less than one term in office before being expelled from office by a vote of 91-12 by her colleagues. How? Well, Gamrat was a passionate Christian "defender of the sanctity of marriage", who also just so happened to be carrying on an affair with fellow anti-gay legislator Todd Courser. After rumors of the affair began to be noticed, the two plotted a scheme to bury the lead about them burying the bone by planting a story in the news media that Courser had been accused of having gay sex behind a nightclub in Lansing. One of Courser's top aides realized how insane both Gamrat and Courser were, and blew the whistle that both were planning on using government e-mail to perpetuate they cover story, a grievous enough misuse of resources to get both tossed from office. Gamrat had the unmitigated, fanatical gall to make an attempt at trying to win back her state in the special electon for it, but lost in the GOP Primary. She was lucky enough to have the criminal charges against her tossed out, and currently is suing her former colleagues with Todd Courser for "ruining their careers" (she did a fine enough job of that herself). In the meantime she has also filed for divorce, and now hosts what is likely an insane conservative radio show with Courser.

It was on this date in 2016 “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Jon Girodes, who wanted to serve the district where Harlem is, which would be hard already given his party's demonizing of "inner cities", or their policies that impact African Americans negatively from education standardization to voting rights, to civil rights, to... you get the idea. But how could Jon Girodes find a way to be even MORE abhorrent to African American voters in Harlem, by not just being a Republican? Well, Girodes gave himself the October surprise of sending out an e-mail promising “Kool-Aid, KFC and watermelons” to people who attended a Harlem campaign rally. And when people immediately went, "HOLY F***, THAT IS RACIST AS ALL F***ING GET-OUT!", Girodes, inexplicably DOUBLED DOWN, saying, “What I think is anyone who gives free food to people is doing them a favor. Get a bunch of people who say it’s offensive and let me go into their neighborhood and give it out for free and see if they take it.” Residents of Harlem admirably responded to Girodes' offer by offering "to donate various foots to his ass". Now, if it weren't enough that Girodes was a Republican who apparently took his candidacy as an excuse to be a racist troll towards African Americans... he wasn't done with scandals in October. Within eight days of the news breaking about Girodes' racist food giveaway, he was back in the news again for being arrested on grand larceny charges in a rental scheme where he would collect deposit money from potential tenants and then still leave them without a place to live. He collected deposits from twelve people on one apartment, and left them unable to reside there, and responded with various lies to most of them, threats for others. Perhaps the most outrageous is that he threatened to rape a disabled prospective tenant in a phone call who he had swindled not just out of the deposit, but several months of advanced rent. And it’s that scheme that got Girodes a three-to-six year prison sentence back in September of 2017, so don’t look for him to be in office any time soon, if ever.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about former Florida State Senator Greg Evers, who served in that body from 2010-2016 after previously having served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000-2010. Evers was considered a favorite to potentially win office in Florida’s 1st Congressional District to replace the retiring GOP Congressman from there, Jeff Miller in 2016, and had a long record of being radically anti-choice, pro-gun, and supporting conservative policies like instituting prayer in schools or drug testing welfare recipients that the Constitution sort of frowns upon. But when we say he was pro-gun, that included not just votes for things like “Stand Your Ground” laws in Florida that would lead to deaths like those of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman… but he actually would go on quixotic missions to stifle criticism of firearms, including submitting legislation to forbid a doctor from asking his patients if they own a gun (which might be something you would want to determine if your patient is being treated for suicidal thoughts), as well as his “Pop Tart bill”, which was inspired by a news story about a student in Maryland who chewed a pop tart into the shape of a gun which he used to threaten another student, and that got the kid suspended from school. Well, Greg Evers would rather teachers not be able to make their own decisions about what sorts of things kids did in the classroom, and pushed for a bill to limit teachers’ ability to punish students for making threats of firearms. Only one week after Omar Matteen murdered 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Miami, Evers thought it would be a great time to further demonstrate his commitment to the 2nd Amendment by announcing the “Homeland Defender Giveaway”, where you could win an AR-15. Needless to say, even in his conservative district, people were rather annoyed by the tacky and tactless attempt to garner support, and Facebook actually pulled his post, claiming it violated their user terms for “promoting violence”. Evers’ aspirations in 2016 to head to Washington, D.C. and making it inexplicably even easier to get a gun in this country were cut short mostly because of the outrage over his AR-15 auction at the worst possible time, and cost him in a wide-open GOP primary. We would like to tell you that Greg Evers is currently enjoying his retirement as a legislator and back just enjoying strawberry farming, but he was tragically killed in a car accident back in August of 2017, when he crashed into a creek and was partially ejected through the windshield, apparently getting stuck and drowning. We can thus rule out a political comeback.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be talking about former Minnesota House of Representatives member Jim Knoblach, who served as a state legislator from 1995-2007, and then after a six year break from politics, returned to office with a win in the 2014 elections to serve two more terms in office. While Minnesota’s state legislature has trended left just slightly over the past few years, Knoblach still was staunchly anti-choice, and voting for stricter Voter ID requirement to suppress the vote. Perhaps his most heinous act of legislative obstruction, though, was his unilateral move to prevent a hate crimes law from going on the books in Minnesota back in 2016, without any explanation.But we digress. The real reason that we are profiling Jim Knoblach is because he made headlines when four months after he announced his campaign to run for a ninth non-consecutive term representing Minnesota’s District 14B, in September of 2018, Knoblach’s 23-year old daughter reported to the media that she had been molested and sexually abused by her father from the ages of 9 until she was 21. Knoblach denies any of the behavior described, and described his daughter as “estranged” from the family (gee, wonder why, Jim). Local police did not pursue charges, with investigators assessing that what behavior was done by Knoblach was “inappropriate but not criminal”, which might be a polite way of saying doing things like sliding into bed with your underage daughter and licking her neck or biting her ear in the middle of the night is “creepy as f***”. In any event, Jim Knoblach withdrew from the ballot, and looks to be on his way out of office, hopefully this time permanently. As he is no longer in office, we will his profile at this time, and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 797-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Rob Bishop

Welcome to what is the 797th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be taking a look at the sitting U.S. House Representative from Utah’s 1st Congressional District, Rob Bishop, who has held office since 2003, and he was a member of the Utah House of Representatives from 1979-1994. We find him to be a little over-the-top in terms of his missions in government over the past few years, as well as his rhetoric. As if it wasn’t enough that he’s tried undoing the entire legacy of President Theodore Roosevelt by selling off protected lands, wants to invalidate the Endangered Species Act, and he’s taken to referring to Democratic ideas as modest as the Green New Deal as “tantamount to genocide”. Because that’s not hyperbole. Bizarrely, when asked to explain HOW the Green New Deal was like genocide, Bishop responded:

”I’m an ethnic. I’m a westerner.”

”If you actually implement everything they want to. Killing would be positive if you implement everything the Green New Deal actually wants to. That’s why the Green New Deal is not ready for prime time." ”

Rob Bishop’s record as a legislator is sad not just for how often he’s absent and doesn’t vote to represent his constituents (7% of the time, which the average member of Congress misses more like 2%), but how extremely conservative that voting record has been:

• July 18th, 2006: Bishop votes for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
• December 6th, 2006: Rep. Bishop votes for the "Abortion Pain Bill", which would create an unconstitutional ban on abortion at 20 weeks.
• July 31st, 2007: Rob Bishop votes against the Equal Pay Bill.
• November 7th, 2007: Rob Bishop votes against ENDA, allowing the continued discrimination of LGBTQ citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace.
• January 9th, 2009: Bishop votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
• April 29th, 2009: Rob Bishop votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBTQ citizens.
• June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, which Rob Bishop voted against.
• July 30th, 2010: Months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a bill comes to the floor to better regulate off-shore drilling. Bishop is apparently alright with ecological disasters continuing in the future, as he votes against it.
• December 8th, 2010: Rep. Bishop votes against the DREAM Act.
• December 15th, 2010: Bishop votes against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Bishop votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for almost every attempt to do so since.
• On February 18th, 2011, Rob Bishop votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Bishop votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Bishop votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Bishop votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Rob Bishop votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Bishop votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Rob Bishop votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Bishop votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Bishop voted to keep it closed.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Rob Bishop goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Bishop votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Rob Bishop votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Bishop votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Bishop votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Bishop votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Bishop votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Bishop votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Rob Bishop votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).

[worstblogever]

• February 16th, 2017: Bishop votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Rob Bishop votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• May 4th, 2017: Bishop votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Bishop would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Rob Bishop votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Bishop votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Rob Bishop votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Bishop and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Bishop voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Bishop votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Bishop votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Rob Bishop is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Bishop votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Bishop votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Rob Bishop votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.

With Rob Bishop getting more and more irrational over time, he’s opting to retire from Congress at the end of this term at the age of 69, and not run for re-election in 2020. We would like to go ahead and wish him our finest “good riddance” greetings now, and hope he doesn’t attempt to do anymore permanent damage to the country in the next year.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Memo to Bloomberg: Democratic Voters Don’t Want More Candidates

The billionaire might find a lane in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but it’s hard to see where. Now it's the Democrats who have the crowded clown car, and it's just as ridiculous now as when the GOP did it in 2016.

**********

More Details Emerge From Tell-All Book By Anonymous White House Official

The author of “A Warning” claims that senior Trump officials once considered resigning en masse in defiance of the president, The Washington Post reports. Makes me wonder why they didn't. What did they have to lose from walking away from that dumpster fire?

**********

How A Gang Of Angry Teachers Beat Kentucky’s Donald Trump

Frustrated educators “always believed we could shock the world” by ousting Gov. Matt Bevin. But “it was still kind of shocking when we did it.” Quite a remarkable thing indeed.

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Pete Buttigieg Pitches Himself As The Obama Of 2020

The South Bend, Indiana, mayor is rising in Iowa. Can he replicate the 44th president’s magic? I have no idea, I doubt anyone does, but, I guess we'll all find out, one way or another.

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Alex Jones Can’t Stop Losing Court Battles Against Sandy Hook Parents

Judges have ruled against the Infowars host multiple times over the last three months and he’s on his seventh lawyer. This warms the very cockles of my heart.