Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

brooklynite

brooklynite's Journal
brooklynite's Journal
August 30, 2019

Tim Ryan's national organizing director joins Andrew Yang's campaign in same role

Des Moines Register

The Iowa-based staffer who worked as the national organizing director for Democrat Tim Ryan's presidential campaign has left to take the same role with Andrew Yang's campaign.

Yang's campaign spokeswoman Hilary Kinney said that Zach Fang joined their staff as national organizing director on Aug. 1.

Fang was one of two Iowa-based staffers working for Ryan, although much of his work focused on the national level. Ryan's state director, Chris Bowen, is the only Iowa staffer left.

When asked about Fang's departure, Brad Bauman, who runs Harta Communications, the Washington, D.C.-based firm that had been handling communications for Ryan, said Thursday that as of Aug. 23, his team was no longer with the campaign.
August 30, 2019

West Virginia Poll: If Manchin gets in, right now he would beat Justice

Source: West Virginia Metro News

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If Senator Joe Manchin were to enter the race for governor, right now he would beat incumbent Gov. Jim Justice, according to the latest version of the MetroNews Dominion Post West Virginia Poll.

In a theoretical head-to-head matchup, 49 percent of respondents said they would vote for Manchin while 39 percent said they would vote for Justice. The final 12 percent said they are not sure.

Manchin, a Democrat, has said he will announce after Labor Day whether he intends to run for a return to the Governor’s Office.

Manchin was a big supporter of Justice, who was elected as a Democrat before switching parties. But in recent months, Manchin has been publicly critical of Justice’s work habits as governor.

Read more: http://wvmetronews.com/2019/08/30/west-virginia-poll-if-manchin-gets-in-right-now-he-would-beat-justice/



If he runs for VW-GOV, that'll likely mean we'll need another Senate win elsewhere to take control.
August 30, 2019

Former British leader joins bid to derail shuttering of Parliament amid Brexit crisis

Source: Washington Post

LONDON — Former British Prime Minister John Major on Friday said he would try to join a legal bid to prevent a suspension of Britain’s parliament just weeks before Britain is due to crash out of the European Union.

The former Conservative leader announced he would take on his successor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who announced the controversial decision to shutter Parliament for over a month in the middle of one of Britain’s biggest political crises in generations.

It was an extraordinary intervention by a former leader who remains in Johnson’s Conservative party, akin to a former Republican president mounting a high-profile legal challenge against the decisions of a sitting one. Johnson’s suspending Parliament has triggered a number of legal challenges by those who claim the action is unlawful and unconstitutional.

Major said in a statement that he intended to ask the High Court in London if he could join a legal battle already initiated by the business executive Gina Miller.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/former-british-leader-joins-bid-to-derail-shuttering-of-parliament-amid-brexit-crisis/2019/08/30/8523495c-ca92-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html

August 30, 2019

Forecast tracks for Hurricane Dorian shift south...

Heading straight for West Palm Beach.

August 30, 2019

Fox News anchor rips into Trump: 'We don't work for you'

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON -- Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto chastised President Donald Trump on Thursday after the Trump tweeted that "Fox isn't working for us anymore" in a series of tweets in which he also said the network of "promoting the Democrats through their DNC Communications Director, spewing out whatever she wanted with zero pushback by anchor, @SandraSmithFox."

Over the past couple of weeks, Trump has increasingly blasted Fox News' coverage, being especially critical of anchor Shepard Smith and analyst Juan Williams, calling them “hopeless and clueless."

Cavuto began the segment by saying it’s “weird” that the president is getting “sick” of the network, because he believes Trump gets “pretty fair coverage at Fox.”

Cavuto curtly responded, “First of all, Mr. President, we don’t work for you. I don’t work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you, just report on you. Call balls and strikes on you. My job, Mr. President, our job here, is to keep the scores, not settle scores.”

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/29/fox-news-anchor-neil-cavuto-donald-trump-we-dont-work-you/2158343001/

August 30, 2019

Aides admit Trump was faking those "phone calls" with China

Source: Vanity Fair

At last week’s G7 summit in Biarritz, Donald Trump gave an entire network of world leaders whiplash when he declared, contrary to weeks of threats, that not only did the Chinese seem amenable to a trade deal, but that he’d actually heard from Beijing’s top officials that very week. “China called last night our top trade people and said, ‘Let’s get back to the table.’ So we will be getting back to the table and I think they want to do something,” the president told reporters. “They have been hurt very badly but they understand this is the right thing to do and I have great respect for it. This is a very positive development for the world. I think we are going to have a deal.”

At the time, China’s Foreign Ministry claimed to have no idea what Trump was talking about—the implication being that he’d fabricated the call to calm a panicked market. And on Thursday, CNN reported that this was basically the case:

Though Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin insisted there had been “communication,” aides privately conceded the phone calls Trump described didn’t happen they way he said they did.

Instead, two officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that might boost markets, and conflated comments from China’s vice premier with direct communication from the Chinese.


Read more: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/donald-trump-china-call-fake

August 29, 2019

Biden rejects report he flubbed details in anecdote about war heroes

Politico

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday rebuffed a news report that he has recently misrepresented an anecdote on the campaign trail about giving awards for valor to members of the military, possibly conflating three separate real life events.

Though Biden said he hadn’t seen the Washington Post article, he told a reporter for the The Post and Courier after a campaign event in South Carolina that he stood by his retellings of meeting with heroes of the Afghanistan war over the last decade.

According to The Post, Biden has told a shifting and increasingly dramatic account of a trip to Afghanistan while vice president to award a medal to a heroic soldier who initially resisted the honor out of guilt. The former vice president most recently told the story at a campaign event in New Hampshire last Friday.

But The Post found after conducting “interviews with more than a dozen U.S. troops, their commanders and Biden campaign officials, it appears as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened.”
August 29, 2019

Here's where Democrats will stand onstage at the next debate

Politico

Joe Biden is set to feel the squeeze by his progressive competitors.

The former vice president will be at the center of the stage during next month’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston, flanked by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the first time.

ABC News on Thursday revealed the order for the 10 candidates who met the polling and fundraising requirements set by the Democratic National Committee. The lineup was determined by polling averages based on the last 10 polls certified by the DNC.

From left to right, the candidates will be Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Sanders, Biden, Warren, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, businessman Andrew Yang, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.

August 29, 2019

Steyer tax returns show $146 million in 2017 income

The Hill

White House hopeful Tom Steyer on Thursday released his tax returns from 2009 to 2017, confirming the former hedge fund manager's significant income.

Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor, filing jointly, made $146.3 million in adjusted gross income in 2017 and paid total federal taxes of $32.5 million, easily making him the biggest earner among the crowded field of Democrats running for president.

The couple's adjusted gross income in 2017 was higher than it was the preceding year, when the two made $80.4 million.

In 2012, Steyer's final year as the head of investment firm Farallon Capital Management, he and his wife made $174.3 million.

Profile Information

Name: Chris Bastian
Gender: Male
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Home country: USA
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 94,502
Latest Discussions»brooklynite's Journal