California Governor signs law requiring candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the ballot
Now that Robert Mueller’s testimony did not yield the results Democrats had hoped for most of them–Jerry Nadler excepted–have moved on to the next line of attack; trying to coerce Donald Trump into releasing his tax returns.
Today California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law which requires all Presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns in order to appear on their party’s primary ballot. Here is more:
California governor Gavin Newsom has signed a law into immediate effect that would require President Trump to disclose his tax returns in order to appear on the California Republican primary ballot.
The law, which was approved by the legislature along party lines earlier this month, requires all presidential and gubernatorial candidates to disclose the past five years’ worth of tax returns in order to appear on a primary ballot.
“As one of the largest economies in the world and home to one in nine Americans eligible to vote, California has a special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates,” Newsom said in a statement. “These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence. The disclosure required by this bill will shed light on conflicts of interest, self-dealing, or influence from domestic and foreign business interest.”
This is obviously targeting Donald Trump in an attempt to get him to release his taxes but the problem is that even if this law does hold up in court–and I am not sure it will not–this only affects the primaries so it seems kind of pointless to me. However, there is power in numbers and according to this story there are a total of 18 states considering similar legislation. We will have to wait and see now that the first domino has fallen if other states will start to follow suit. (Pardon the mixed metaphor.)
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, July 28th open thread: ‘She’s Lost Control’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
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Here is New Order performing the Joy Division classic “She’s Lost Control” live in 2002:
Elizabeth Warren campaign staffers claim she runs a deceptive and exploitative campaign
Bernie Sanders is facing some blow back for failing to pay his staffers a living wage–his staffers described it as “poverty wages”– although he advocates for a $15 an hour minimum wage, and his woes were compounded when some of his campaign staffers filed a Federal labor complaint against the candidate for being vindictive and threatening retribution against people working for his campaign.
It turns out Bernie Sanders is not the only candidate for President on the Democratic side of the aisle to have a little trouble with campaign staffers because according to this story Elizabeth Warren is being accused by former staffers of having a misleading and exploitative process for allowing entry into the campaign. Here is more from The Daily Beast, of all places:
the Massachusetts Democrat faces criticism from several of her own supporters who said the lowest tier of her campaign structure doesn’t match the image she projects.
Two early converts to Warren described the process for entry into her campaign’s volunteer fellowship program as deceptive and at times exploitative in interviews with The Daily Beast. They said they were pushed toward unpaid positions over paid ones, misled over the availability of financial assistance, and asked to sign highly restrictive nondisclosure agreements that worker advocacy groups concede are irregular. Both applicants verified their accounts with emails and text messages from the Warren campaign.
“What was sold to me was very different than it actually was,” said Jonathan Nendze, a rising senior at Seton Hall University who was offered a volunteer fellowship position on Warren’s campaign. “It was kind of a great scam of getting people to show up and work in the capacity of volunteer, but to function as a paid intern in the amount of work they’re doing,” he said.
Apparently she took a little different approach than Bernie Sanders by tricking people into volunteering instead of paying them altogether. It was extremely hypocritical for Bernie Sanders not to pay his campaign workers $15 an hour when he claims he will make this the minimum wage if he is elected and the hypocrisy of Elizabeth Warren was not lost on The Daily Beast:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has built much of her political career as a champion of workers and consumers against the deceptive and exploitative practices of corporations and employers.
The complaints from those offered unpaid fellowships could raise new questions for Warren as she seeks to put her lengthy history of advocating for consumer and worker rights at the center of her rising campaign.
It makes it hard to take these two candidates seriously when they claim they will be advocates for the working man when we hear how they actually treat the people who work for them when they think nobody is watching. This is just another classic example of politicians who do not believe they have to live under the same rules as the people they long to govern.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
While we were all distracted by Robert Mueller’s testimony and the Democrats’ talk of impeachment the Supreme Court handed the President a victory today which all but slipped under the radar.
Donald Trump’s plan to use $2.5 billion in defense money to build the wall on the Mexican border hit a snag when the ACLU challenged the President’s authority to do so and the lower courts put a freeze on the money, but earlier today the Supreme Court ruled that the President could indeed use this money to build the wall.
Here is more:
The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico.
The court’s five conservative justices gave the administration the greenlight to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defense Department money. Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts. The court’s four liberal justices wouldn’t have allowed construction to start.
The justices’ decision to lift the freeze on the money allows Trump to make progress on a major 2016 campaign promise heading into his race for a second term. Trump tweeted after the announcement: “Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!”
This is a big win for Donald Trump and construction of the wall should begin immediately. Slowly but surely Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promise to build a wall on the Southern border.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Judge blocks Donald Trump’s new asylum rule
Well, that did not take long! Yesterday a Federal judge refused to block Donald Trump’s new asylum rule from going into effect while the rule is challenged in the courts but today another Federal judge reversed that decision and blocked the rule.
Here is more:
A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new rule that aimed to bar almost all asylum applications at the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rule, which would require asylum-seekers to first pursue safe haven in a third country they had traveled through on their way to the United States.
The decision makes inconsequential a ruling by Washington D.C. District Judge Timothy Kelly earlier in the day that declined to block the rule in a different lawsuit brought by immigration advocacy groups, lawyers said.
And the beat goes on…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Jeffrey Epstein found ‘injured’ in jail cell
Accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was found “injured” in his jail cell in what is being called a possible suicide attempt. Here is more:
Accused pedophile and wealthy Manhattan financier Jeffrey Epstein was found injured and in a fetal position inside his cell at a New York City jail, according to sources close to the investigation.
Epstein, who is being held in Metropolitan Correctional Center during his trial for conspiracy and sex trafficking, was found semi-conscious with marks on his neck, two sources told News 4. Investigators are trying to piece together exactly what happened, saying details remain murky.
According to the article linked to above it is possible this was not a serious suicide attempt but rather an attempt at getting himself transferred, while an attack by another inmate has not been ruled out and somebody else has been interviewed about a possible attack. (The interviewed man is a former cop who is in jail for murder–I find that to be a little interesting…)
In general pedophiles do not do well in jail but when you are an accused pedophile who has the goods on dozens of politicians your odds of surviving prison go down exponentially. When you are a pedophile, have goods on dozens of politicians, and one of them is Bill Clinton suicide is always an option–if you get my meaning–and then when you remember Nancy Pelosi’s daughter admitted some of their “faves may be implicated” it is almost certain you are never going to make it to the trial.
The only thing that has me questioning whether or not this was a hit is the fact that Jeffrey Epstein is still alive, it seems just a little too sloppy.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Last week Donald Trump announced a new, tougher asylum rule which says that if a person seeking asylum from their country passes through another country on their way to America they must first apply for asylum in that country.
This new rule (and to be honest I thought this already was a rule anyway) was met with an immediate court challenge and a request for a temporary restraining order pending the outcome of the court case.
Today the request for a restraining order was denied and the new rule will remain in effect for the duration of the court hearings. Here is more:
A federal judge decided Wednesday to leave in place a Trump administration rule that imposes restrictions on individuals seeking asylum in the United States if they passed through a third country on their way to the border between the U.S. and Mexico, potentially leading to a sharp reduction in Central American migrants entering the country.
The rule, published in the Federal Register last week, requires people seeking asylum to first apply in one of the countries they pass through on their way to the U.S., with certain exceptions. The rule was quickly met with a legal challenge from advocacy groups, who moved for a temporary restraining order blocking the rule. After a hearing in Washington, D.C. federal court, District Judge Timothy J. Kelly denied the motion. The rule will remain in place for the duration of the case, unless the decision is successfully appealed.
We will have to wait and see if an appeal is made but Donald Trump has been quietly racking up some court victories lately and I have to wonder if this decision might be an indication of how the court is going to end up ruling on this new rule.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Bernie Sanders campaign hit with Federal labor complaint
Things are not going so well for the Sanders campaign lately; first he was accused by campaign staffers of paying “poverty wages” when he is promising to fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage and now, according to this story, he is facing a Federal labor complaint for the way he treats him employees. Here is more:
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign is facing a federal complaint made by an unnamed individual alleging violations of the National Labor Relations Act, including allegations of retaliation, repudiation, interrogation, discipline, and discharge, it was revealed Tuesday.
An unnamed individual filed the complaint to the National Labor Relations Board July 19, alleging five potential violations.
The NLRB is now looking into the complaint but if this turns out to be true it will be another example of his hypocrisy. As if it were not bad enough that he refuses to pay his employees what he thinks all employers should pay their employees, the man who thinks workers are treated unfairly by their employers in a capitalist system stands accused of the same.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Donald Trump reaches budget deal with the Democrats to increase spending and raise the debt ceiling
Apparently spending, the deficit, and the debt ceiling are issues that most Republicans no longer care about because it appears as if a budget deal has been reached which raises all three. According to this story this deal ends the sequester cuts, raises spending by $320 billion, and increases the deficit. The increased spending will allegedly be “offset” with $75 billion in cuts somewhere at some time.
Here is more:
“I am pleased to announce that a deal has been struck with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – on a two-year Budget and Debt Ceiling,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Here is even more:
White House and congressional negotiators reached accord on a two-year budget on Monday that would raise spending by $320 billion over existing caps and allow the government to keep borrowing, most likely averting a fiscal crisis but splashing still more red ink on an already surging deficit.
If passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, the deal would stop a potential debt default this fall and avoid automatic spending cuts next year. The agreement would also bring clarity about government spending over the rest of Mr. Trump’s term, though Congress must still fill in the details, program by program.
The President called this a compromise deal which I suppose means there will be an increase in military spending, although I have read nothing about wall funding other than this:
The deal also means Democrats will not try to block Trump from transferring federal funding to help build the wall on the Southern border
I have only seen that in the Breitbart article so I do not know where it comes from but even if it is true does anybody think the Democrats are going to honor this, especially when there are already lawsuits making their way through the system?
Not everybody is happy with this deal:
“It’s pretty clear that both houses of Congress and both parties have become big spenders, and Congress is no longer concerned about the extent of the budget deficits or the debt they add,” said David M. McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, a conservative group that advocates free enterprise.
And this is what Ted Cruz had to say:
“The budget deal reached by administration negotiators and congressional leadership is yet another missed opportunity to rein in excessive government spending. This deal irresponsibly jacks up spending by $320 billion without real offsets, and suspends the debt limit into 2021. Instead of finally dealing with our nearly $1 trillion deficit and $22 trillion debt, this deal just kicks the can down the road again. Three years ago, the American people voted to move away from the big-government spending of the Obama era. We should work to restore fiscal sanity, rather than perpetuating Democrats’ big government programs. I urge administration negotiators to go back to the bargaining table and fight for the president’s priorities.”
I could not agree with Ted Cruz any more: whatever happened to the promise to reign in Federal Government spending and the Republican promise to bring fiscal responsibility back to Washington? The truth is neither party is fiscally responsible, they both just want to be the party in control of the spending. At least the Republicans are not trying to hide it anymore.
The only upside to this deal that I see is that for the first time in something like 10 years we actually have a real budget deal and will no longer be running the government through continuing resolutions every couple of months.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Inspector General report to show James Comey was spying on Donald Trump and had an agent in the White House
The Inspector General report we had expected to be released sometime in May was mysteriously delayed indefinitely but now it is being reported it will be released sometime in September.
If we actually see the report at all, and if this story is true, the report is going to show that James Comey misled Donald Trump, was spying on him covertly and without warrant “incidentally”, and had an agent in the White House. Here is more:
According to investigative reporter Paul Sperry, Comey was running a “counterintelligence assessment” on Trump on the sly. Comey didn’t even need to keep files or get surveillance warrants on Trump, he may just have covertly made Trump the subject of investigation by spying on him incidentally. Comey of course denies he did this in book ‘A Higher Loyalty.’
Comey had an agent inside the White House reporting back to the FBI about Trump and his aides, sources tell Paul Sperry.
Sources tell RealClearInvestigations that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will soon file a report with evidence indicating that Comey was misleading the president. Even as he repeatedly assured Trump that he was not a target, the former director was secretly trying to build a conspiracy case against the president, while at times acting as an investigative agent.
Two U.S. officials briefed on the inspector general’s investigation of possible FBI misconduct said Comey was essentially “running a covert operation against” the president, starting with a private “defensive briefing” he gave Trump just weeks before his inauguration. They said Horowitz has examined high-level FBI text messages and other communications indicating Comey was actually conducting a “counterintelligence assessment” of Trump during that January 2017 meeting in New York.
In addition to adding notes of his meetings and phone calls with Trump to the official FBI case file, Comey had an agent inside the White House who reported back to FBI headquarters about Trump and his aides, according to other officials familiar with the matter.
I am still not expecting to see this report but I am holding out hope that eventually the truth will be known and we will get to the bottom of the Russia hoax. Until then all the focus this week is going to be on Robert Mueller and what he has to say in front of the Congress. Hopefully Michael Horowitz will get his time to shine as well.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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