"Okay, look, I totally misunderstood that clearly asked question."
"Okay, look, I totally misunderstood that clearly asked question."
Comedy on the campaign trail on Monday night. New Hampshire’s Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte actually said—not kidding here—that Donald Trump was a “role model” for children. No, really, she said that. In front of cameras.
During a debate against her Democratic opponent, Gov. Maggie Hassan, Ayotte was asked about role models for children: "Would you tell them to be like Donald Trump? Would you point to him as a role model?" And Ayotte stammered:
Uh, I, oh, uh, I think that, uh, certainly, uh, there are many role models that we have, and, uh, I, I believe he’s can serve as president, and so absolutely. I would do that.
It gets better. Shortly after the debate, apparently realizing that she “absolutely” called a bigoted, racist, misogynist—who posts late-night twitter rants directing Americans to watch non-existent sex tapes—a role model for children, Ayotte issued a statement:
I misspoke tonight. While I would hope all of our children would aspire to be president, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have set a good example and I wouldn’t hold up either of them as role models for my kids.
Uh huh. We believe you, Kelly. (And don’t forget, Ayotte “supports” Trump but doesn’t “endorse” him.)
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, the policy that severely limits the use of Medicaid to cover the cost of an abortion. Since Medicaid enrollees are predominantly low-income women, the Hyde Amendment has essentially turned abortion into a luxury item for women who can afford to pay for the procedure out-of-pocket.
Hyde is often siloed as a “women’s issue.” But when women cannot control their bodies and their reproductive futures, it is more difficult for them to advance economically. And since women make up more than half of the US population, it matters when something holds women back.
Because of the Hyde Amendment, women who receive health coverage through Medicaid face two sets of financial obstacles if they need an abortion. First, they must cover the direct costs of the procedure without insurance. A first-trimester abortion cost an average of $470 in 2009, which is already more money than many Americans would be able to come up with in the case of an emergency. Second, these women must also bear thepractical costs imposed by state restrictions, like multiple doctor’s office visits and unnecessary waiting periods. A low-income single mother who needs to pay for travel to the nearest clinic, a night at a hotel due to a mandatory waiting period, childcare, and lost earnings from work, could end up paying an additional $1,380.
Women who want an abortion but can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs inflicted by Hyde face major consequences over the course of their lifetimes. Studies show that women who wanted an abortion but were not able to obtain one faced worse economic outcomes, were more likely to live in poverty, and often carried unwanted pregnancies to term.
This isn’t just a burden on these individual women. When women do not have the power to choose the lives they want, it affects everyone. [...]
House Republicans are threatening to stay in session in order to pressure Senate Democrats to compromise on the Homeland Security bill. Dems are insisting on union protection for the proposed agency's employees, while the GOP hates unions.
However, if no bill ever passes, that would not be a bad thing. All the new agency does is shuffle a multitude of far-flung government agencies into a brand new bureaucracy. And, those agencies most tasked with "homeland security" issues -- the FBI and intelligence agencies -- are not even included.
The whole Homeland Security agency idea had its genesis in the post-9-11 hysteria, and was driven hard by Democrats eager to show their "security" bona fides. While balking at first, the White House caved in to deflect attention from the whole "Bush knew" frenzy. In both cases, support for the agency hasn't been borne of actual security concerns, but political opportunism. This whole idea stinks.
On today's Kagro in the Morning show, it’s a rerun of our 10/05/15 show. Greg Dworkin rounds up polling & headlines. More details of the OR shooting & a new alert. Gop fight over "leadership" elections continues, even over when to hold them. Will ideology talk louder than money?
The case of Spaulding vs. Zimmermanis used in a lot of law schools to teach legal ethics, and touches on some medical ones too. David Spaulding was a passenger in a car struck by another driver, leading to serious medical harm. Pursuant to a civil suit for damages, doctors for Spaulding’s and the defendant’s insurance companies performed examinations of David to see the extent of his injuries. The doctor hired by the defendant’s insurance company detected in the scans a potentially life-threatening aortic aneurysm in David’s chest—possibly caused by the accident—while David’s and his insurance company’s doctors had totally missed it. The question then becomes whether the defense has an obligation to disclose the medical condition, especially with a person’s life possibly in danger, or does a lawyer’s duty to their client’s interests supersede?
The lawyers for the defense, as well as the defense’s examining physician, chose not to disclose the information to either David, his parents, the court or the opposing attorneys, and the case was settled, with the aneurysm ultimately detected years later when Spaulding was in the military. When the case and the circumstances were reviewed by later courts, while the settlement was vacated and renegotiated, the opinions found the defense had acted ethically and legally. And if there was any fault, it was with Spaulding’s own lawyers and doctors for not doing their own due diligence.
There are many issues and aspects to the case, which ethicists read into the situation, but one interpretation is the idea that as a society we can rationalize the value of a life down based on competing interests. Whether those interests are for what’s deemed a greater principle, the need for order in respecting institutional process, or the love of money, there are times where the value of an individual’s life loses in the equation. And this is not only something lawyers and doctors confront, but the average person makes these choices every day in how they live their lives. Whether it’s a shirt from H&M, a bra from Victoria’s Secret, or a new iPhone made on the other side of the planet in some factory with not so nice conditions, there’s a certain amount of suffering that goes into it. And a large majority of the population, either through ignorance or indifference, values their luxuries more than the lives of the people who make those luxuries possible.
Loosely adapted from the 1973 movie of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton, HBO’s Westworld confronts these ideas of value and what it means to be human and alive, and moreover what gives those words meaning.
Have you been getting bombarded with TV ads for Senate races lately? A new report from the Wesleyan Media Project tells us just how intense the onslaught has been. From Aug. 19 to Sept. 15, Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania topped the list of battleground Senate races where candidates and their allies have run the most commercials. Democratic-aligned groups have a decisive edge in just four states, as shown on the map above: Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Andy Barr continues to run from Nancy Jo Kemper, refusing to debate her. Why? Andy Barr (R-Wall Street) is the incumbent Congressperson from Kentucky’s sixth district. Reverend Nancy Jo Kemper is the Dem challenger for the seat. For the past few months, a number of groups have attempted to set up at least one debate between Barr and Kemper. The results have gone from expected (incumbents never like to debate), to puzzling (not even ONE debate?), to downright bizarre.
Last night I went to one of our local watering holes to support Democrat Barbarann Keffer, who lives less than a mile from my house. She’s one of our town councilwomen and is running against the incumbent (R) Jamie Santora for the state house’s 163rd district seat.
Sunday 9/25 through Saturday 10/1
Stories: (51) Senate: (12) posts, (7) states House: (17) posts, (11) states, (15) districts State and more: (16) General: (4) Tools: (2)
Guess who gets a big payday from the U.S. Treasury if the tax rate on all businesses drops to 15 percent?
Guess who gets a big payday from the U.S. Treasury if the tax rate on all businesses drops to 15 percent?
The revelation that Donald Trump may have paid no federal income taxes over the past two decades is a dagger aimed at the heart of his presidential candidacy. For starters, his reported $915 million loss in 1995--his second billion-dollar implosion in five years--makes a mockery of Trump's repeated boasts that he is a "tremendously successful" businessman. Worse still, his past and planned future windfalls at the expense of the United States Treasury show The Donald is a "big-league" beneficiary of the rigged system pretends to protest. As the parasite posing as a populist put it in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland:
A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation's most powerful special interests. That is because these interests have rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit. [Emphasis mine.]
As Matthew Yglesias explained in Vox, "You don't need 'genius' to pull off Trump's tax avoidance -- you just need to be rich." Rich, that is, and in the real estate business. The key, as tax expert David Cay Johnston documented Monday, is the manipulation of "net operating losses" (NOLs) on top of the "already liberal tax breaks Congress gives big real-estate owners."
Trump dumped the real costs of all this on investors who saw gold in his brand name, but who lost everything even as he was paid tens of millions of tax-free dollars...
NOLs are incredibly valuable. These tax losses can be used to offset salaries, business profits, and income from, say, a television show or making neckties in China. Thanks to his $916 million of NOLs, Trump could earn much over 18 years in salaries, profits, and interest, but pay no income taxes.
Without Donald Trump's tax returns, there is still much we do not know about the shell game that enabled the reality TV star to stiff Uncle Sam. Still, the most grotesque aspect of Trump's schemes may be that most of them are probably perfectly legal. (Most, but not all. Trump's use of the unlicensed charitable Trump Foundation to pay off legal costs generated by his for-profit businesses almost certainly violate laws on "self-dealing." And Trump apparently used his Foundation to skirt taxes on his appearance and speaker fees by having payments made directly to his "charity.")
But the self-proclaimed "blue-collar billionaire" supposedly devoted to "the forgotten Americans" isn't content to rest with the gains--ill-gotten and otherwise--he has withheld from the IRS. Donald Trump has promised that as President, he would implement a new set of windfalls for himself and his children.
With Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson continuing to trail Democrat Russ Feingold in the polls, national Republicans have just decided to wash their hands of this contest almost completely. The NRSC has canceled their entire $1.1 million TV reservation. The NRSC says they’ll still go ahead with their coordinated ad buy with Johnson, but that’s not going to matter much: Under federal law, groups like the NRSC can spend no more than $430,400.
Democrats still have some TV reservations here, but that may not be true for much longer. Last week, the DSCC axed their planned ad buy for the first week of October. And hours after the NRSC news broke on Monday, Politico reported that the DSCC has decided to cancel their buy for the week of Oct. 17 as well.
With the NRSC leaving the Badger State, it looks unlikely that other powerful conservative groups will come to Johnson’s rescue. While the Senate Leadership Fund, an organization that is close to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, recently announced $21 million in new spending in six states, they are continuing to avoid Wisconsin. And while the Koch brothers group Freedom Partners spent $1 million on a TV buy two months ago, they haven’t returned to the airwaves.
Johnson still has one thing going for him: his net worth of $17 million. And while he’s sounded reluctant to self-fund this time, he still can. But while Johnson has the option to gamble his own moolah on this race, his allies have evidently decided just to fold now.
The new Republican mantra: This is still fine. Everything is still fine.
The new Republican mantra: This is still fine. Everything is still fine.
Welcome back to our daily summary of the Chernobyl of presidential candidacies. So much happened over the weekend that we simply can't cover it all—there's not enough oxygen left in our tanks—and so we've put a separate roundup here that covers all of that. Here, we'll just give the summary of the summary.
The summary of the summary is that Donald Trump's charitable foundation has had to cease fundraising operations after it was discovered that they weren't even properly licensed to do that, and Donald Trump is still not backing down from his three-in-the-morning demand for America to look at a political detractor's "sex tape", nor is he backing down from claiming that maybe Hillary Clinton has been cheating on her husband, based on nothing but Trump's own fury, and Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie and the rest of members of Trump's Island of the Damned are very close to stripping their gears in their attempts to justify all of this.
Aside from that? Just another day in the worst major party candidacy in modern American history. Any candidate capable of feeling shame would have bowed out at this point, but the Republican Party didn't nominate any candidate capable of feeling shame. They nominated Donald Trump.
From left: President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
From left: President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
When President Barack Obama came into office, his assumption was that because of the state of the nation Republicans would feel obligated to work with him in an effort to dig the country out of the hole they’d helped dig. That hole, the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, saw housing prices drop 30 percent and the unemployment rate rise from 5 percent in December 2007 to 10 percent by December 2010.
But like so much else during the next eight years, Republicans in the Senate and the House cut off those efforts even before they began. In a wide-ranging interview with New York magazine, Obama talks about that day and four others that shaped his administration.
Probably the moment in which I realized that the Republican leadership intended to take a different tack was actually as we were shaping the stimulus bill, and I vividly remember having prepared a basic proposal that had a variety of components. We had tax cuts; we had funding for the states so that teachers wouldn’t be laid off and firefighters and so forth; we had an infrastructure component. We felt, I think, that as an opening proposal, it was ambitious but needed and that we would begin negotiations with the Republicans and they would show us things that they thought also needed to happen.
On the drive up to Capitol Hill to meet with the House Republican Caucus, John Boehner released a press statement saying that they were opposed to the stimulus. At that point we didn’t even actually have a stimulus bill drawn up, and we hadn’t meant to talk about it.
(The other events that he believes will prove historically significant in his administration include the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the administration’s handling of the BP oil spill, opening relations with Cuba, and the use of drones in the war against terror.)
Obama says It became clear, then, that regardless of the policy he proposed or the action he took, Republicans in Congress would not cooperate with him unless it was entirely on their terms.
In mid-October 2014, longtime Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young drew some deservedly awful headlines after he appeared at an assembly at Wasilla High School and made some incredibly offensive comments about a local student’s recent suicide. Young first suggested that suicide was the result of a lack of support from friends and family. And as school principal, Amy Spargo and teacher Carla Swick recounted to the Alaska Dispatch News, Young’s comments only got worse:
Both Spargo and Swick say a friend of the victim, moved by emotion, shouted at Young, "He had friends. He had support."
"The kid said, 'It's depression -- you know, a mental illness,' " Spargo recalled. As she remembers, Young replied, " 'Well, what, do you just go to the doctor and get diagnosed with suicide?' "
At some point during the exchange, several school staffers say, the congressman also used either the words "---hole" or "smartass."
Young went on to win re-election a few weeks later, but by only 51-41. Two years before, in a much worse year for Republicans nationally, Young triumphed 64-29. While the story almost certainly cost the incumbent plenty of votes, Young’s 2014 Democratic opponent didn’t have the time or money to run ads on Young’s awful comments.
Luckily, Democrat Steve Lindbeck has the resources to make sure voters don’t forget about this incident. Lindbeck is out with a commercial starring Zach Grier, who was one of the students who challenged Young at the assembly in 2014. You can watch the ad below.
There is so, so much here to unpack about Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
WASHINGTON — The top two Republicans in Congress are divided when it comes to divided government.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan says he has had it with Republicans and Democrats sharing power, complaining that it breeds dysfunction and prevents major accomplishments.
In contrast, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, says those periods when the parties split control of Congress and the White House are the ideal time to get big things done.
Where to start? McConnell, with "his belief that a divided government can spur politically risky deals that neither party would attempt alone." As long as one of the parties isn't the nation's first black president, with whom you make no deals risky or not. "My greatest disappointment with President Obama," he says in regards to not making deals, "is that we had numerous discussions on all of those issues […] And he was not willing to move to the political center, which obviously would have been necessary since he hasn’t had control of Congress for six years, in order to achieve that." Because all Obama had to do when McConnell took his numerous hostages was "move to the political center," which is McConnell's euphemism for total capitulation. Mitch McConnell has no big governing philosophy beyond winning.
Then there's Ryan: "We're just at loggerheads," he said. "We’ve gotten some good things done. But the big things — poverty, the debt crisis, the economy, health care — these things are stuck in divided government, and that's why we think a unified Republican government's the way to go." Achieve a unified Republican conference, Mr. Ryan, then maybe we can talk about a whole unified Republican government. Good lord, where has he been for the last eight years?
Activists have been calling on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to fire LAPD Chief Charlie Beck for about a year now. They say Beck presides over the country's most murderous police force.
Activists have been calling on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to fire LAPD Chief Charlie Beck for about a year now. They say Beck presides over the country's most murderous police force.
Los Angeles police shot two people within a 28-hour time period over Saturday and Sunday, triggering sustained protests similar to those in Charlotte, North Carolina, and El Cajon, a city near San Diego. The person killed in Los Angeles on Saturday, in the area of 108th Street and Western Avenue, was identified as 18-year-old Carnell Snell, Jr., known as “CJ.” Snell was Black.
Around 1 p.m. Saturday, officers tried to pull over a car with paper license plates, LAPD said. Officers suspected the vehicle, which had at least two people inside, was stolen.
But the car didn't stop, and officers gave chase, police said.
When the car finally did stop, two men ran away in different directions, the LAPD said. Two officers chased one of the suspects, following him to the back of a nearby home.
An officer fatally shot the man, less than two blocks away from where the foot pursuit started. Paramedics declared the man dead at the scene of the shooting. The officer's name has not been released.
The next day, a Latino man was killed in the area of 48th Street and Ascot Avenue.
House Speaker Paul Ryan is taking his 33 percent favorable rating on the road in the next few weeks to stump for House and Senate candidates. Clearly, they can't have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—Mr. 16.5 percent Popularity—do it, and they have to have some face out there besides Trump's, so it's all on Ryan.
The Wisconsin Republican will hit 17 states and 42 cities from several corners of the nation, from Texas to Florida to New York, while raising money and stumping for more than a dozen House and Senate candidates, according to his political advisers.
Unlike most of the speaker’s previous political travel — which focused on closed-door fundraisers — Ryan’s appearances will include many public events with Republicans who are facing difficult reelection prospects.
And Ryan is pretty much all they've got:
Ryan’s political prowess has come in part from being his party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, introducing him to a vast array of wealthy conservative donors with strong ties to Mitt Romney and the Bush family. In addition, he’s benefited from many of those big donors abstaining from financially supporting Trump this year and instead focusing on protecting the House as well as the Senate majority.
Ryan's prowess: a place on the last losing Republican presidential ticket and "leadership" of fractured and warring caucus, a faction of which is planning his political downfall on a daily basis. This makes Ryan less of a political star for the Republicans than the only port they've got in this horrendous storm.
