So then: Donald Trump's nuclear proliferation ideas. Once a phrase I don't think any of us ever expected to have to use, it has suddenly become a bit urgent because he is very, very likely at this point to be the Republican nominee for the presidency. Which means he will be in charge of those things.
(As a side note: Yes, I am aware that many among us are quite tired of thinking about the short-fingered vulgarian currently scooping up the tattered remains of what used to be a national political party and stitching them back together into a grotesque near-parody of that old party's worst elements, but the collapse of one of the two main American political parties into, well, this is the defining political story of our time. This will be in future history books, kids, and which images are used to illustrate it are at this point entirely dependent on which side wins.)
Note that we said nuclear proliferation, not nuclear anti-proliferation, because Donald Trump's big national security idea is that more countries need to build nuclear weapons. You know, the good ones.
COOPER: Let’s talk about nuclear issues because you talked about this in a really interesting article in The New York Times.
TRUMP: One of the very, very big issues. I think maybe the biggest issue of our time.
First off, we see once again that everything Donald Trump sees or hears or thinks becomes, at that moment, "the biggest." It may never be talked about again, and never once talked about with any seriousness, but everything Donald Trump thinks about he thinks about the most, and everything he does he does the classiest, everything he cares about he cares about bigly. This man quite literally has the brain of a child, and not a very nice one at that. There is no evidence whatsoever that this man has the capability to walk from one end of the White House to the other without pilfering the candlesticks, much less run the nation, and it seems no matter how many television interviews the man gives a bigly chunk of the Republican base considers to be, somehow, impressed by it. This itself may be evidence that the American experiment has drawn to an untimely close.
Bank of America, which has its headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., announced late Tuesday on Twitter that its leadership was joining over 80 chief executives, including Timothy D. Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, in objecting to the new law. Earlier in the day, the chief executives published a letter, addressed to Mr. McCrory, on the Human Rights Campaign website, saying, “Such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business.”
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed an executive order banning all non-essential state travel to North Carolina. The order requires all New York State agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to the state of North Carolina, and bar any such publicly funded travel that is not essential to the enforcement of state law or public health and safety.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray are banning city officials from travel to North Carolina over the recently-passed HB2.
Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. More than 24,810 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
lowkell writes—NY AG Schneiderman, Former VP Al Gore, Other AGs Announce Effort to Combat Climate Change: “Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today joined Attorneys General from across the nation to announce an unprecedented coalition of top law enforcement officials committed to aggressively protecting and building upon the recent progress the United States has made in combatting climate change. Attorneys General Schneiderman, William Sorrell of Vermont, George Jepsen of Connecticut, Brian E. Frosh of Maryland, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Mark Herring of Virginia, and Claude Walker of the US Virgin Islands were joined by former Vice President Al Gore for the announcement in New York City. Today’s announcement took place during a one-day Attorneys General climate change conference, co-sponsored by Schneiderman and Sorrell. The participating states are exploring working together on key climate change-related initiatives, such as ongoing and potential investigations into whether fossil fuel companies misled investors and the public on the impact of climate change on their businesses. In 2015, New York State reached a historic settlement with Peabody Energy – the world’s largest publicly traded coal company – concerning the company’s misleading financial statements and disclosures. New York is also investigating ExxonMobil for similar alleged conduct.”
Ellinorianne writes—I Respectfully Disagree President Obama: “I was driving to work this week, or maybe it was home, when I heard the President speaking about terrorism in his Weekly Address. It’s on our minds this week with the horrific attacks in Brussels. Terrorism is a serious issue, it harms and disrupts many lives, Governments and more than just those that we often hear on the news like the one in Brussels. There are people who live in constant fear from terrorist attacks, war, rape and food insecurities. ‘I’ve got a lot of things on my plate, but my top priority is to defeat Isil and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that’s been taking place around the world,’ Obama, using an alternative acronym for the group, told reporters. “There’s no more important item on my agenda than going after them and defeating them. The issue is, how do we do it in an intelligent way?’ But, I sincerely believe that there should be another issue vying for his number one spot. Yeah, you know, that little issue that’s been missing from our Presidential debates? Climate change.”
Mary Anne Hitt writes—Taking the Struggle for Clean Air and Water to Washington, DC: “Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking before more than 30 Sierra Club Beyond Coal volunteers and staff who flew to Washington, DC, for training and in-person meetings with members of Congress. Participants joined from states critical to our effort to defend strong Environmental Protection Agency standards in Congress -- namely Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These amazing activists had some important goals while in our nation’s capital - ask members of Congress to 1) Oppose anti-environmental amendments and riders, 2) Oppose standalone legislative attacks on EPA standards, and 3) Support full funding for the EPA and for worker and community transition.”
Two giants from DC duke it out! It’s the Battle of the Century, okay, it’s the battle of the news cycle, but it’s a big one. SuperHil, from Metropolis and Bernman from Gotham. SuperHil superpowers and superdelegates seem insurmountable, but Bernman has his secret weapon: outrage! And that bird.
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' name is not yet on the ballot in D.C. after the D.C. Democratic Party submitted registration paperwork a day late, News4 has learned.
The Sanders’ campaign as well as Hillary Clinton's campaign submitted registration fees of $2,500 on time earlier this month in advance of the June 14 Democratic primary.
By all indications, this will be fixed before the district’s primary, which is the last in the nation on June 14. Still, what kind of “minor administrative dispute” happened to omit one of only TWO (real) candidates on the ballot? Jeez. Assuming it gets fixed, this is a minor issue in a primary season full of major ones. But the last thing anyone needs in this already charged primary season is another thousand conspiracy theories (or internet flamewars) blooming.
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A Bernie ballot update: NBC4 is told dc board of elections may administratively fix this next week. If not, it may require council action.
It’s so sad, isn’t it, that Republican women in Congress sometimes have to answer for the ragingly sexist and misogynist positions taken by so many men in their party? Sometimes they even have to answer for their own votes against equality and women’s rights, if you can believe it!
“I found that our brand was so damaged that it was almost like they couldn’t even hear us,” said [Rep. Cathy] McMorris Rodgers, of Washington State, who juggles considerable responsibilities on Capitol Hill with three young children age 8 and under.
Who would have thought that you might lose credibility with women for making common cause with sexism? Terrible. But congressional Republican women have a plan! And that plan is human interest stories in women’s magazines. They set their media strategist to pitching stories to magazines, and they are reaping the rewards:
The story of how Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, struggled through a divorce and was raising three young children on her own before reconnecting with a Marine she first met at a high school dance was featured in January’s Good Housekeeping. The January issue of Elle contained a profile on Representative Martha McSally, a former fighter pilot from Arizona, and emphasized some of her practical political views under the headline: “Martha McSally is Not That Kind of Republican.”
The new issue of Elle includes Ms. McMorris Rodgers in a list of the “10 Most Compelling Women in Washington Now,” including her with the likes of Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. It points out that Ms. McMorris Rodgers is the champion of legislation that would provide more funding for the National Institutes of Health and ease approval of new drugs.
This looks on the up and up: Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk’s field director was passing out coffee and donuts to a group of African-American protesters at an event for Kirk’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Tammy Duckworth. A former Kirk staffer was also mingling with the protesters. According to the Kirk campaign, the field director was there as a tracker—a role usually given to lower-ranking staff—and why wouldn’t he be buttering up Duckworth protesters with coffee and donuts? Maybe so. But it all seems more than a little suspicious when you combine it with this:
One demonstrator asked a Chicago Tribune reporter “whether Duckworth is a Democrat or a Republican” and said he was being paid “by the man who sponsored” the protest. Before he could say more, other demonstrators nearby told him to stop talking. The group then refused to answer questions about why they were there or if they were supporters of Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), whom Duckworth is trying to unseat in November.
Blue Nation Review, a progressive blog, reported that an attendee at Duckworth’s event recognized some of the protesters as residents of a local homeless shelter. Demonstrators were also fine with accepting food from Duckworth’s campaign. The Chicago Sun-Times observed that staffers brought out bacon and eggs after the event ended, and protesters munched away.
Yeah. That doesn’t sound like an organic protest, now does it? Kirk is considered to be one of the most endangered Republican incumbents in the Senate, and the race between him and Duckworth appears close. Kirk’s campaign or his allies could easily have seen an advantage to getting Duckworth some bad publicity for having drawn protest … but if so, it doesn’t seem like it played out according to plan.
Former Sen. Russ Feingold leads in Wisconsin’s Senate race, but according to a new Marquette Law School poll, his lead over Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has shrunk since February:
In Wisconsin’s race for U.S. Senate, Russ Feingold is supported by 47 percent of registered voters, with Republican incumbent Ron Johnson receiving 42 percent. In February, Feingold was at 49 percent and Johnson was at 37 percent. Among those likely voters who say they are certain to vote in November’s election, Feingold receives 48 percent and Johnson 45 percent.
This is a must-win race between one of the worst Republicans in the Senate and a longtime progressive hero. We’re talking about a Republican who has admitted that, for all their posturing about not filling a Supreme Court vacancy in the final year of a president’s term because The People Should Have A Voice, Senate Republicans would be right on board with a Republican president’s nominee. (Not that we didn’t all know that, but Ron Johnson came out and said it.) And Russ Feingold? Well, we know Russ Feingold.
Most of all, it’s Supreme Court obstruction vs. a vote for a Supreme Court justice who will vote to overturn Citizens United, protect workers, uphold women’s rights, and more. And the path to winning back the Senate runs through Wisconsin. We want to bring those polling numbers back to a bigger Feingold lead, but there’s no question this race is winnable.
“When you say you want abortion to be illegal, does that mean you think women and doctors should be made into criminals?” That’s a question most opponents of abortion really don’t want to answer—usually because the answer is yes, but “I would make it a crime for women to control their bodies” would not exactly win you a lot of friends. Donald Trump, who has come only recently (and very conveniently) to his anti-abortion stance, doesn’t seem to have gotten that memo.
Matthews then pressed Trump on whether he believes there should be punishment for abortion if it were illegal
“There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said. “For the woman?” Matthews asked. “Yeah,” Trump said, nodding.
Trump said the punishment would “have to be determined.”
Punishment to be determined. Fines? Prison time? Time in the stocks to be erected in the town square under a Trump presidency?
It’s easy to say oh, it’s Donald Trump, he doesn’t really mean it, he’s just posturing for the Republican base. But that’s the thing: He’s saying this for a reason. And he’s saying something other Republicans believe more sincerely than he does, even if they know better than to admit it publicly. So this should be the beginning of this particular discussion. What does Ted Cruz think? What about John Kasich, running as a moderate but with a long record of attacks on reproductive rights? For that matter, what does every “pro-life” Republican Senate candidate think about this issue? Voters deserve to know.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both speak for me on this one.
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Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Horrific and telling. -H https://t.co/Qi8TutsOw9
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a "religious freedom" bill Wednesday.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a "religious freedom" bill Wednesday.
Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is really in a class by himself now in terms of spearheading 2016’s southern anti-LGBT effort. His neighboring governors in Virginia and Georgia—one a Democrat and one a Republican—have both vetoed laws that would have explicitly protected the right to discriminate against LGBT Americans.
Virginia's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, vetoed a "religious freedom" bill Wednesday, reports Brad Kutner.
“Although couched as a 'religious freedom' bill, this legislation is nothing more than an attempt to stigmatize,” said McAuliffe in a statement sent out following a live veto on the DC News radio station WTOP. [...]
“Any legitimate protections afforded by Senate Bill 41 are duplicative of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States;” wrote McAuliffe, who also pointed to Virginia’s long-held Religious Freedoms Act [...] “Any additional protections are styled in a manner that prefers one religious viewpoint—that marriage can only validly exist between a man and a woman—over all other viewpoints,” he said.
President Barack Obama commuted the prison sentences of 61 drug offenders on Wednesday including more than a third serving life sentences, working to give new energy to calls for overhauling the U.S. criminal justice system.
All of the inmates are serving time for drug possession, intent to sell or related crimes. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. Obama's commutation shortens their sentences, with most of the inmates set to be released on July 28.
Well, this is exciting (oops, meant to say stupid):
A bill that would make the Holy Bible the official book of Tennessee was given approval in a legislative committee on Tuesday.
With a 7-1 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown. [...]
After being asked about concerns over the bill’s constitutionality, Southerland cited a 2005 Supreme Court case related to a display of the Ten Commandments on government facilities. With a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that the display was constitutional.
“What we’re doing is using the Supreme Court case as the guideline to make sure it’s historical and not religious,” Southerland explained.
Many relatives and friends providing financial support or care to people with dementia have dipped into their retirement savings, cut back on spending and sold assets to pay for expenses tied to the disease, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Alzheimer's Association.
About one in five go hungry because they don’t have enough money.
Reports are coming in that a number of amateur astronomers have spotted an asteroid or comet slamming into Jupiter. If confirmed, this would be one of only a handful of recorded impacts ever on the gas giant.
Details are few and far between at the moment. What we know so far, from videos published online, is that there was a rapid brightening on the limb of Jupiter, which likely came from an impact.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin says Trump aides say the man never seriously meant for any of this to work. Joan McCarter hits all the hottest dumpster fires: Trump, SCOTUS, Grassley, ID Gov. Butch Otter’s epic fatalism, basic understanding of & access to contraception, etc.
The Republican establishment appears close to throwing up its hands, admitting that Donald Trump will be the party’s presidential nominee, and working to save control of the Senate by separating themselves from Trump. But that’s not a position that sits well with many grassroots and outsider Republicans of the type who’ve propelled Trump (and, to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz) to success:
“We’ve endured eight years of the Obama regime. The last thing we need is to give up the White House,” said Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, which claims to have 100,000 members. [...]
“That kind of talk creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that will enable their very demise. They aren’t really as interested in defeating Democrats as they are in saving their own hides,” said Steve Deace, a conservative radio host based in Iowa who backs Cruz.
I believe this is called reaping what you have sown—for both the Trump-hating establishment and the Trump/Cruz crowd. Have fun with it, guys. The rest of us would be making popcorn if we weren’t so sad and scared about what your party is doing to our country.
.jpg?1459356007 "Tammy Duckworth, 2012 DNC")
