Turnout is good for Cedar Rapids mayoral election.

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is a finalist for TIMEs Person of the Year

2017 was a big year for Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, and director Patty Jenkins. TIME took notice and included Jenkins in a big list of people that fans were able to vote on for their 2017 Person of the Year. Now the results are in, and Jenkins has made it to the top 10.

Here’s a look at who Jenkins is up against for TIME’s award:

Jeff Bezos – Amazon CEO
The Dreamers – thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents when they were children
Kim Jong Un – North Korean leader
Colin Kaepernick – former San Francisco 49ers quarterback
The #MeToo movement – aims to shed light on the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault
Robert Mueller – appointed as special counsel following FBI Director James Comey’s firing
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – recently led a sweeping crackdown on businessmen and members of the royal family accused of corruptio
Donald Trump – President of the United States
Xi Jinping – President of China


https://batman-news.com/2017/12/04/patty-jenkins-time-person-of-the-year-shortlist/

Ex-GOP Chair on Trial for Voter Fraud

“Just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Steve Curtis told his radio listeners ‘Virtually every case of voter fraud, that I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats or do I not have the facts?’”

“Now Curtis, the chairman of Colorado’s Republican party in the late 1990’s and a former talk show host… is on trial… charged with forgery, a felony and election fraud, a misdemeanor.”


https://politicalwire.com/2017/12/04/ex-gop-chair-trial-voter-fraud/

Trump Mulls Creating Private Spy Network

“The Trump administration is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies,” The Intercept reports.

“The sources say the plans have been pitched to the White House as a means of countering ‘deep state’ enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Trump’s presidency.”

Said one former intelligence official: “Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,”


https://politicalwire.com/2017/12/04/trump-mulls-creating-private-spy-network/

Former U.S. Attorney's Experience With Trump's Lawyer.

“I have a lot of experience with John Dowd… in cases before my office, and he said then – as he’s saying now – a lot of incorrect, mistaken and on occasion ludicrous things. So I wouldn’t put a lot of stock into it.”

— Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, quoted NPR, on Donald Trump’s lawyer claiming the president cannot obstruct justice.


https://politicalwire.com/2017/12/04/bonus-quote-day-261/

FLYNNS COOPERATION IN RUSSIA INVESTIGATION FALSELY BLAMED ON JEWS BY FAR-RIGHT CONSPIRACISTS

Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has reportedly offered his cooperation in the special counsel’s Russia investigation. If ABC News is to be believed, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser is specifically prepared to testify that the president directed him to reach out to the Russians, “initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria.”

Well, this news is unsettling for some of Trump’s fans on the far-right end of the political spectrum. Some of them are currently storming through the Internet, looking for a scapegoat—any scapegoat at all, really—upon whom they can heap blame for this particular turn of events. Jewish people, who are among the primary targets of alt-right abuse on social media, have taken quite a bit of the heat so far, and Democrats, the media and Barack Obama have also been targeted with wrath.

One of these abusers is Jared Wyand, a Trump mega-fan who accumulated a huge following on Twitter during the election—only to be banned for calling Star Wars: Rogue One part of a Jewish conspiracy in December of last year (yes, really)—who posts into the void on Gab, a social media website that hosts large numbers of neo-fascist, Nazi, and white supremacist users. He let his followers know that he thought the Jews were not only responsible for this Star Wars-related plot, but also for the bad news about Flynn.

“Not that any of this is anywhere near criminal but here is Zionism at the center again,” Wyand mused on the alt-right’s favorite social media site. “I wonder (((who))) was pestering Trump admin for this information.” (Far-right social media users put triple parenthesis around words—“who,” in this case—to connote Jewishness.)



http://www.newsweek.com/flynn-cooperation-russia-investigation-falsely-blamed-jews-far-right-729011?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

Trump has given staffers assignments and told them not to tell Kelly

President Trump has reportedly given staffers direct assignments by calling them secretly to the residence in the evenings, in an attempt to circumvent chief of staff John Kelly.

Trump reportedly gives aides tasks and says they should not share them with Kelly, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing several people familiar with the matter.

Aides have in the past decided not to abide by the president's requests in order to not "run afoul" of Kelly, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that sometimes, friends of Trump will get a message to the president through first lady Melania Trump.

“If I don’t want to wait 24 hours for a call from the president, getting to Melania is much easier,” one person.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/362990-trump-has-given-staffers-assignments-and-told-them-not-to-tell-kelly

Dems plan ambitious campaign for red-state governorships

The man who will lead Democratic efforts to win back governorships in key states next year says his party is poised to capitalize on a political environment so favorable it will make the Republican wave of 1994 look small.

And he would know: That year, then-Rep. Jay Inslee (Wash.) was one of the victims of the Republican wave, losing his district to a GOP foe.

Now, Inslee is serving his second term as Washington's governor. He formally takes charge of the Democratic Governors Association on Monday, about a month after Democrats won the New Jersey governor's race and kept control in Virginia, where Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D) won by a surprisingly large margin.

Inslee said Northam benefitted from a deeply unpopular Republican president, something Democrats across the country will exploit next year.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this year because of the terrible price that the Trump effect will have on Republican candidates, like we saw in Virginia," Inslee said in an interview Friday. "There is just no escaping that shadow, that cloud. I experienced it myself in 1994."


http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/363047-dems-plan-ambitious-campaign-for-red-state-governorships

How you can make Chuck Grassley pay for his remarks

Here is what Chuck Grassley thinks about middle class taxpayers:

TRUMP MADE HOPE HICKS STEAM HIS PANTS WHILE HE WAS WEARING THEM

President Donald Trump reportedly made Hope Hicks, now his communications director, steam his pants while he was still wearing them and scolded her when she forgot the wrinkle-erasing device.

Hicks, who worked as his press secretary at the time, was in charge of making sure Trump’s pants and jacket were sharp when they flew on his private plane, according to excerpts in a Washington Post review of the new tell-all book by former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski titled Let Trump Be Trump. According to Lewandowski, Trump would shout out for Hicks to grab the steamer, which he apparently called “the machine” and she would then get to work while his clothes were still on him.

"'Get the machine!'” Trump would shout, according to the book. "And Hope would take out the steamer and start steaming Mr. Trump’s suit, while he was wearing it! She’d steam the jacket first and then sit in a chair in front of him and steam his pants."

Hicks, a former model who reportedly loves Trump “like a father” once faced the then-candidate’s wrath when she left behind the key to his perfectly pressed clothes.

"God damnit, Hope!" Trump yelled. "How the hell could you forget the machine?"


http://www.newsweek.com/trump-made-hope-hicks-steam-his-pants-while-he-was-wearing-them-729711?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social