Category: Politics

Wealthy Republican donors

More on wealthy Republican donors:

Sheldon Adelson contributed $30 million to prevent Democrats from taking over the House.

9/24/18 update on Adelson:

The law prevents Paul Ryan from directly soliciting this large a donation so Ryan stepped out of the room when someone else asked for and received the money.  How sleazy can you get?  And yes, the Democrats would do it too.

Groups affiliated with the Koch brothers are spending $20 million on a campaign to sell the Republican tax cuts to voters.

Ryan gave them credit for supporting the law.

Democrats are questioning the influence of the Koch brothers.

An opinion column by Senator Whitehouse about the influence of billionaires on Trump.

The EPA granted a hardship waiver to Icahn, a former Trump adviser.

The Mercers helped fund Project Veritas

Mercers update 12/29/18:

Richard Uihlein, a relatively unknown donor

update on Uihlein

Another article on Uihlein and his wife

Uline, "a company owned by two of Donald Trump’s top mega-donors, has routinely brought dozens of its workers from Mexico to staff its warehouses in Wisconsin and other locations even though they do not appear to have permission to work in the US, according to a Guardian investigation."

— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) 2024-12-20T14:51:37.615Z

Don’t tell me about George Soros funding liberal causes.  Look what these people are doing.  We need the Supreme Court to get big money out of politics by reversing the Citizens United decision but that won’t happen anytime soon.

Sad!

John McCain

The “joke” about John McCain made by a White House staffer was disgraceful.  The White House reaction is even worse – the employee is still working there.    Trump’s attitude encourages this behavior.  Remember how he said McCain was not a war hero,

This is an excellent column by Chris Cillizza.  It also covers Hatch’s comment (which he later apologized for) that Trump should be invited to McCain’s funeral and a remark by a former general who called McCain “Songbird” with no basis.

The only Republican, as far as I know, who has criticized the joke and White House reaction was Lindsay Graham.

Remember that some conservatives attributed McCain’s vote against Obamacare repeal to his brain cancer.

An opinion column: How many more funerals will Trump have to skip?

I don’t agree with John McCain on many issues but I have enormous respect for him as a person.  The way he has been treated by many in his own party is disgraceful.

Sad!

Update: Kelly Sadler, the White House staffer, told Meghan McCain she would apologize publically but she hasn’t

The White House is treating this as a leak scandal.

It gets worse:

The White House still won’t make a public apology.

Trump is campaigning using tax dollars

Trump turns almost every speech into a campaign rally.  He did it again in Cleveland yesterday.

From this article: “Though billed as an official White House event, and therefore funded with taxpayer money, Trump was overtly political in his remarks ahead of Tuesday’s primary election. He celebrated his own poll numbers, repeatedly attacked Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and urged Ohioans to elect Rep. James B. Renacci (R-Ohio), who is running against Brown.”

This is obviously wrong.  Trump needs to separate campaign events from presidential ones.  Taxpayers should not be paying for his campaign.

Any network that covered the campaign part of his speech should give equal time to the Democrats.

Be cautious about impeachment

This opinion column by Representative Schiff states:

“During the course of our investigation in the House Intelligence Committee, we have found troubling evidence of both collusion and obstruction of justice. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has no doubt seen even more than we have, but his investigation is not complete, and our efforts continue as well. There is much more work to do before any of us can say whether the evidence rises to the level that we should consider a remedy beyond the one that voters will render at the ballot box.”

Democrats should let the Mueller investigation play out and concentrate on issues such as the economy, gun safety, racism and health care.

Trump voters who had voted for Obama

The New York Times interviewed 38 voters in 14 states who voted for Trump and had previously voted for Obama.  They found that many did not like Trump personally but were satisfied with his policies.

This type of reporting is much better than having panel discussions on TV that only take place in New York and Washington.  Let’s hear from the voters, not just the “experts”.