Warren on Monday took the first major step toward launching a widely anticipated campaign for the presidency. One day later, her plans to come to Iowa were quickly made known, and she will make two Siouxland stops, in Sioux City and Storm Lake, plus she will hold events in Des Moines and Council Bluffs.
Warren’s swing means the 2020 race, in which Republican President Donald Trump plans to seek re-election, starts with 2019 campaign activities within the very first week.
It would be interesting to hear this first quasi-declared candidate to oust Il Duce in 2020, as it will be interesting to hear all the candidates as they declare. And, unless and until we get a tight primary like 2008, Sioux City is probably the closest place for any South Dakotans so hear from Presidential candidates directly.
However, like big Democratic donors, I’m holding my fire until I see the full field. Removing the worst President ever is too important to leap at the first shiny object. We will need the sharpest tool in the drawer to fix all the damage done by the blunt object in the White House.
Although I like Warren, this won’t be successful. Trump is smiling as Warren is the best gift he could have this holiday season.
Amy Klobuchar – moderate Democrat from MN, would have a better chance.
jerry
800,000 layoffs from trump/republican shutdown. Including 300,000 that are eligible for unemployment benefits. How is today’s news anything but a fraud with 300,000 new hires for December?
Steve Pearson
Fraud Jerry? It is amazing how you lefties see the world. Scary more so than amazing.
TAG
The think I like most about Warren is her proposed Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act. Yes, the timing of it could be seen as a prelude to the campaign, but I much prefer having tangible proof that a candidate intends to actually tackle corruption with a finely detailed and explicit plan, to chants of “Drain the Swamp!”. Hopefully Warren also has some concrete plans in other areas, like health care.
Compare this with Noem’s plan for reducing corruption: she promised in her ad that her administration will be “open and transparent”. Wow! She really went out on a limb there! That’s all I need to hear. Why have an actual plan when you can just make nebulous campaign promises that have no substance.
Debbo
I like Warren, for several cabinet positions. For president my choice now is Harris/Klobuchar. That’s not set in stone yet. As Cory said, removing The Worst President Ever is Job #1, for the sake of a renewed and sovereign USA.
Jenny is right about the value of Klobuchar on a ticket. I put her in the VP slot because I want a more liberal president.
Both Harris and Klobuchar could raise a lot of money from different demos of the country and both are whip smart former prosecutors who remain cool under pressure. They would make an outstanding executive team. Exciting just to think about. 😀😀😀😀
John
Name anyone in the field of 15-some under 70-years old whom
PERSISTED.
The U.S. manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) hit a 15-month low in December.
The first survey of December’s economic data hit new lows on multiple fronts last month.
“Over two thirds of manufacturers reporting higher costs attributed the rise in prices to tariffs,” says Chris Williamson, IHS Markit’s chief business economist.
mike from iowa
“Donald Trump has now been in office for 23 full months — February 2017 through December 2018 — and in that time, the economy has created 4.57 million jobs. In the 23 full months preceding Trump’s presidency — March 2015 to January 2017 — the economy created 4.82 million jobs.
The White House has not yet offered an explanation for why job growth has slowed since Trump took office.”
RJ
I think we are looking at a broken governmental system. This is a system that allowed Donald Trump to become president and a system that hasn’t removed him from office. Kamala is the best candidate and Amy Klobuchar has a lot of integrity and intelligence. At some point the bottom line needs to be addressed: Decent people underestimated the level of bigotry and idiocy that keep people like Trump in power and elect every single GOP rep in this state. We have also underestimated how much lobbyists and “big money” corporations run the show.
Porter Lansing
Headline in The Globe op/ed this morning. “Is She Likeable? Do We Even Ask That Anymore?”
IMO … Trump has lowered the standard of Presidential decency so low that the answer is no.
Jason
Kamala Harris refused to prosecute Steve Mnuchin’s bank after the financial crash of 2008. No thanks. I would rather support a candidate that is credible as a check on banking malpractice.
If you are serious about challenging the plutocracy that governs this country, then you need to consider Warren as a legitimate candidate. She has a strong record of standing up to predatory banks and representing the interests of regular folks. If you want another bail out for the banks, then go ahead and vote for Harris.
jerry
“SALT LAKE CITY — Earlier this summer, Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren quietly held a fundraiser in an upscale Salt Lake City restaurant during what’s been described as a presidential campaign-style swing through the West.
Already seen as a potential front-runner for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination even though she has yet to declare she’s running, Warren has raised nearly $50,000 from Utah through the end of June.” Good thinking Ms. Warren, go to the white states first, the really white states and then onto California and Texas, where the populations are more in line with the rest of the populace!
jerry
We should all be clear, Clinton beat trump like a fat mule, with over 3,000,000 million votes. Putin put trump in office, not the voters. Warren could beat him if Butina and Putin stay out.
Roger Cornelius
We are still two years out from the 2020 presidential election, I make no predictions nor do I endorse any candidate at this early date.
The mistake that Trump supporters make is thinking that he is unbeatable when they have no idea what lies in his future or the country’s.
Today at a press conference Trump stated that he was fully prepared to keep the government from functioning for months or even years if he didn’t get his wall. Is this what we want in presidential leadership, will the country, both republicans and Democrats tolerate this cavalier attitude? When will republicans tire of Trump’s nonsense and start calling their republican senators and get our government open.
Trump can be beat, it just depends on whether it is a Democrat or republican.
The government shutdown is only a part Trump’s failure as president, wait until all the congressional investigations and Mueller’s report start to haunt this lunatic.
grudznick
Mr. C is righter than right, as he often is. Mr. Trump can be beaten by a sane Republican.
Roger Cornelius
jerry
re: Putin/Butina
The recent incarceration of American (spy?) Paul Whelan by Putin should concern us all. Not to be all conspiratorial, but I do wonder if Putin is doing Trump another favor by jailing Whelan and possibly trading him for Butina.
How convenient for Trump, get Butina out of the country, and possibly killed by Trump, and silenced forever.
Porter Lansing
Butina’s a red sparrow. She fully expects to die.
bearcreekbat
Pearson’s link to Weggman’s opinion piece is telling. Weggman suggests that Harris opposes all pardons because she opposed the pardon of Arpaio. Weggman claims that this means Harris opposed a pardon of an individual that Harris apparently has never expressed an opinion about.
He calls her a “monster” for opposing all pardons, and then suggests she is too stupid to know that a pardon forgives a conviction based on his interpretation of one tweet. But then later he states, “she might not oppose all pardons,” going on to assert Judge Kozinski once wrote that she should give up further appeals of a case.
This editorial is worth reading as it provides an excellent example of the type of shallowness of thought by Weggman short on any factual basis to support his conclusions. Granted, the piece may be a delight for anyone that enjoys mischaracterizations that spread negative propaganda about an indivdual, but persuasive it is not. This is written to entertain folks who already oppose Harris.
My guess is that there are real facts out there that could support a criticism of Harris. Weggman’s editorial, however, has not identified any such facts that I could find.
jerry
Roger, all the 70 percenter’s, that would be us that can see what the trump/republicans are doing to the country with this trump/republican shutdown. The 30’s are those poor wretched souls called trumpian Republicans that blather about border security while not paying the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard patrols and protects our borders around the continental United States as well as Hawaii, Guam Alaska, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, American Samoa and other places as well. Republicans could give a care about border protection when they don’t care about the sea lanes or our sea coasts. The Brownies can swim you know.
jerry
Wall Street Journal on this Whelan dude. “MOSCOW—A former U.S. Marine arrested on espionage charges in Russia was removed from the military for trying to steal more than $10,000 in government cash while deployed at a base in Iraq, according to details of Defense Department court records released Friday.” Man, you can’t make this stuff up and this is coming from a white ring (borrowed that from Cory) rag. Anything associated with Putin/trump has some stank on it for sure. I say keep the bum right where he is.
John
RJ: yes, our government system is broken in the way envisioned by farmer-backing Jefferson. Big money interests capitalize (buy) the senators, some representatives, and sometimes presidential officers. Senator Moynihan foresaw 24-years ago that the US had to address the mal-appropriation of the senate. WY has 1/67th the population of CA – yet both have 2 senators. The founders never could have foreseen such mal-appropriation of representation. It’s a wonder that California, Texas, Florida, and New York are not routinely carpet-bombing the courts to establish judicial protection of ‘one man, one vote’.
It’s long past the time to re-address the appropriation of senators. There is nothing in the US Constitution relegating 2 senators per state. Under the judicial doctrine of ‘one person, one vote’ the nation should either reform senator apportionment or, as the longest serving US Congressman, John Dingell observed – just abolish the senate. Senate reform or abolishing would go a long way to reform the Electoral College, too, by making it more accountable to the popular vote and liable to exercise restraint over questionable populist candidates.
BCB, you mentioned Judge Kozinski from that bogus article. I thought his name was familiar and Wikipedia filled in the blanks:
“Alex Kozinski is a former United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where he served from 1985 until announcing his retirement on December 18, 2017, after a growing number of allegations of improper sexual conduct and abusive practices toward law clerks.”
Debbo
John, I agree about the Senate and EC.
I’d like to see some states reduced to 1 Senator while others have up to 4.
The electoral college needs to be entirely abolished.
Bribes/campaign contributions must be forbidden.
All Congressional Districts must be drawn by a computer algorithm and there will be one, universal system of voter regulation with every citizen being automatically registered upon reaching age 16. (Yes, lower the voting age and reduce age limits for every office by 5 years.)
That’s my plan and US democracy will be much more democratic.
Curtis Price
At this point, I suggest focusing on the messaging and the ideas (and how they are accepted by prospective voters), not the candidates.
Warren’s ideas are all winners, and her framing if adopted by the Democratic nominee, should be adopted by Democrats from the top to the bottom of the ticket.
bearcreekbat
debbo, I think Kozinski got himself in trouble by using email to circulate sexual and inappropriate humor among his law clerks and some others. After complaints about this behavior came out, he later was accused of other inappropriate personal interactions with clerks if I recall correctly. One of my favorite Slate writers, Dahlia Lithwick, wrote a piece last year about him during her clerkship for another judge on the 9th Circuit. It is a sad story.
Until Warren apologizes for misappropriating Native American heritage – while at Harvard and continuing to the present time – she will not get my vote. She doubled down on that lie just like Trump does.
o
Jason: “Trump is definitely not afraid of her or any other Democrat.”
I am sure that is true; the President has shown he is incapable of learning from mistakes, and the Democrats have shown they have learned from theirs (especially. the whole 2016 election). Soon even Trump supporters will have to realize that what President Trump says in intoxicating and make you all giddy, but the actions of the President are destroying YOUR job, YOUR farm, YOUR company, YOUR retirement account . . . and even constant watching of Fox News cannot change that.
Suka sapa
Sadly, the smartest person in an election rarely wins. But that person will still get my vote.
David Newquist
Some updating and correction on Warren’s Native American issue.
Ror, Warren has indigenous genes. A scientific genetic test proved that. She released her test results. She appropriated her genetic background. She had an indigenous relative 6-10 generations ago. Her genes make her between 3 to 0.5% indigenous. Yet the media, like the rightwing noise machine scarcely understand science or genetics.
You are entitled to your own prejudices, but not to your own facts.
Personally, I am not convinced Warren lied or used her Native heritage to her advantage, but claiming Drumpf has only doubled down on his lies is a whopper I must challenge.
Elizabeth Warren spent part of her early years in Indian country, Oklahoma. I worked in Oklahoma for a number of years in the 60’s and 70’s and can attest to the fact that any number of non-Indians there and elsewhere will claim Indian heritage without knowing the tribe.
In Indian country it is a common joke that everyone that says they are part Indian has a Cherokee grandma. After more than 70 years of my life I no longer question such claims.
If someone wanted to spend a whole bunch more money there is a DNA test that could probably identify Warren’s tribal identity.
What I resent is that a white piece of trash in the White House is pushing this narrative and like most if his lies, there are enough gullible people to believe him.
If Elizabeth Warren wants to be an Indian, I along with other Natives welcome her and her friendship.
mike from iowa
Roger Cornelius for Potus in 2020. You tell it the way it is.
Porter Lansing
Now that you mention it, Roger, the late Mrs. Lansing’s Grandmother told her that she had a Cherokee Grandmother. 😮 I hope she did, for my daughter’s heritage. We don’t dwell on it. ~ My German Grandmother told me that her Grandmother married a Russian Jew. 😮 I don’t dwell on it. BOBBEMYSEH ツ
Warren addressed her ancestry and its implication head on.
“I am not a person of color,” Warren responded. “I am not a citizen of a tribe. Tribal citizenship is very different from ancestry. Tribes ― and only tribes ― determine tribal citizenship, and I respect that difference.”
Many of us have a small amount of Neanderthal genes. That does not make us Neanderthal.
Comments from a Council Bluff participant noted that Warren is 69. That’s a concern. The red state orange prince and Raygun showed us the wisdom in capping the president position to age. We do not license commercial airline pilots over 60 for a reason. There is a good rationale for also capping the chief executives age. Yet, if Warren runs against the older, befuddled prince, she’s much better equipped to govern.
Any candidate enlisting Barack Obama as Veep will receive vast support. Obama cannot run as president. But he can run as VP and serve as president in succession.
This week younger Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator, NY, struggled finding funders for a presidential exploratory committee. The rationale often given: she was too eager purging Senator Al Franken. Gillibrand forfeited the support from executive business men and some women who separate comedy acts from real life. She over-reached and is paying. She’s doing great work. Yet gave herself a tall self-imposed obstacle. She may remain a powerful, viable candidate if able to convince enough folks she made an honest, albeit well-intentioned error. Yet, she’ll be challenged securing the older white guy vote.
Porter Lansing
Any candidate enlisting Barack Obama as Veep will receive vast support. Obama cannot run as president. But he can run as VP and serve as president in succession. TRue THat, John.
Robin Friday
Warren did what she had to do to prove that her and her family’s stories about a NA ancestor were true and she was brave enough to do that without knowing whether she was going to be proved right. She proved that her armchair detractors including the president didn’t know what they were talking about (although she didn’t put it that way) and that’s really all that needs to be said about it. She was right. They were wrong. If they had a lick of sense in their heads they’d let it go now, but they dont. Let’s go on from there.
And good for her.
Debbo
Roger, I know what you’re saying about the Cherokee grandma. It’s always Cherokee, never Crow or Samish or Inuit or Lakota. Cherokee is evidently the coolest. Our friend Mike is right up there in the Cherokee sweepstakes. You went to school there, right Mike?
My Indian claim to fame? Great-great-grandma fooled around with Tommy Fast Walker and some of her kids had beautiful black hair and eyes. Skin color? Oh, they were farmers so they spent all day in sun. (How they could be so dark in February I can’t imagine.) It’s the big, but hush hush family scandal. 🙄🙄🙄
Debbo
I like pretty much everything about Warren, except her age. I want the Democrats to nominate someone younger than a Boomer. It’s time for the next generation. Mine has had its run. There are really smart, able, energetic and good people who deserve their chance.
Roger Cornelius
Debbo
When someone would tell me that they had a Indian grandma, and yes it was usually Cherokee, I would usually respond by telling them I had a white grandpa from Onawa, Iowa (truth).
Robin Friday
I agree with Roger that it’s too early to endorse anyone, but Warren, at this point, has my full endorsement. Not one thing, including age, against her. A sharper brain than others twenty years younger. But we’ll see who else comes up. It’s too early. But you go, girl.
Robin Friday
If Al Franken comes in, for instance, I’ll have a hard time.
jerry
Ms. Warren did not go to the Democratic areas of Iowa, she went where trump won bigly and where he will lose biggly if he doesn’t get his fat arse impeached. Here is a very good article from Storm Lake, Iowa. Very good.
“Donald Trump has declared that immigration and a border wall will be the centerpiece of his 2020 re-election campaign, promising us nearly two years of misery.
He shut down the government over his demand for $5bn for the wall, although the billions already appropriated haven’t been spent. He has stepped up persecution of refugees properly seeking legal asylum at points of entry. When children die while in border patrol custody, the head of the Department of Homeland Security says they are bringing disease with them. Steve King, my north-west Iowa Republican congressman, referred to immigrants as dirt.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/05/trump-immigration-iowa-lose-bigly
leslie
Any woman taking on trump will have to bear intolerable slurs from him. Jenna Bendery, HuffPo writes Indians have largely been ignored as trump soils Pocahontas’ name over and over. Republicans from Hope Hicks to Rand Paul can’t get enough of this racism. Deplorable, what else. Chill Rohr
Debbo
Roger, that’s funny.
BTW, some of my best friends are Indians. 😊
Others are not.
Debbo
This is a FB post by the Surly Southern Liberal. It’s often really, really funny, but this one is not. It makes some excellent points about Sen. Warren.
_______________________________
Thanks for my surly friend, Tawnya B., for this link. Here’s her thoroughly cogent introduction: “Amid all the negative coverage of Elizabeth Warren lately, I just wanted to remind everyone that she was the one who refused to be silenced or mansplained by McConnell and other Republicans when she read a letter by Coretta Scott King at Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing.
McConnell held a vote to stop her from reading the letter, then said, “Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” She then proceeded to read the letter in its entirety outside the chamber door.
I also want to remind everyone that she was one of the first to stand up to Trump in a bold letter opposing his cabinet nominees, dated 11-15-2016. While many were still grieving and reeling from the election, she was fighting. She wrote, “…remove the lobbyists and financial bigwigs from your transition team and reinstate a group of advisors who will fight for the interests of all Americans,” and “Let me be clear. Should you refuse, I will oppose you, every step of the way, for the next four years.”
I have yet to decide whether or not I will support her in a presidential run, but I know one thing for sure: she deserves our respect.” http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2016-11-15-Trump_Letter.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0RInRn37SnTlvfCuY4tkNNrgu7isR1uFu9-lsx-yYmHdn5nhBo2OVpxAk
We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot by attacking the candidates before they ever get out of the gate! Don’t fall into the Russian troll-bots propaganda trap. We’re smarter than they are. Let’s prove it.
mike from iowa
Roger C, if memory serves, former Soo Falls TV beauty Joan Russell had(s) a sister living in Onawa.
I helped Bell Tell plow in telephone cable all around Onawa area back in the mid 70s. Small world.
ps I remember Joan Russell fondly. Yummy!. I know that makes me a chauvinist pig. I’ll fondly plead guilty as charged.
happy camper
Time for a moderate to bring this country back to the middle of its bell curve NOT another divisive figure.
Debbo
Nate Silver of 538 wrote a very interesting article on the Democratic Party. He breaks it into “5 Corners.” Really worth reading.
Trump is definitely not afraid of her or any other Democrat.
Manufacturing industry posts biggest annual job gain in 20 years
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/manufacturing-posts-best-calendar-year-for-job-gains-since-1997.html
Hispanic Unemployment Rate Hits Record Low in December
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/hispanic-unemployment-rate-hits-record-low-december
Although I like Warren, this won’t be successful. Trump is smiling as Warren is the best gift he could have this holiday season.
Amy Klobuchar – moderate Democrat from MN, would have a better chance.
800,000 layoffs from trump/republican shutdown. Including 300,000 that are eligible for unemployment benefits. How is today’s news anything but a fraud with 300,000 new hires for December?
Fraud Jerry? It is amazing how you lefties see the world. Scary more so than amazing.
The think I like most about Warren is her proposed Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act. Yes, the timing of it could be seen as a prelude to the campaign, but I much prefer having tangible proof that a candidate intends to actually tackle corruption with a finely detailed and explicit plan, to chants of “Drain the Swamp!”. Hopefully Warren also has some concrete plans in other areas, like health care.
Compare this with Noem’s plan for reducing corruption: she promised in her ad that her administration will be “open and transparent”. Wow! She really went out on a limb there! That’s all I need to hear. Why have an actual plan when you can just make nebulous campaign promises that have no substance.
I like Warren, for several cabinet positions. For president my choice now is Harris/Klobuchar. That’s not set in stone yet. As Cory said, removing The Worst President Ever is Job #1, for the sake of a renewed and sovereign USA.
Jenny is right about the value of Klobuchar on a ticket. I put her in the VP slot because I want a more liberal president.
Both Harris and Klobuchar could raise a lot of money from different demos of the country and both are whip smart former prosecutors who remain cool under pressure. They would make an outstanding executive team. Exciting just to think about. 😀😀😀😀
Name anyone in the field of 15-some under 70-years old whom
PERSISTED.
Anyone, anyone, Buehler, Buehler? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA
(Nice bunt borrowing old retired Claire McCaskill’s put down of a fellow democrat – shiny object.)
Oh yes please….please please please let it be Warren or Harris. That is a dream to see crushed by ANY candidate, even Trump.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/kamala-harris-is-either-the-stupidest-or-the-cruelest-senator-in-america
Definitely one of my favorite Oped’s towards Harris. I look forward to things like this coming to the forefront in a Presidential Election.
Arpaio should rot in his own jail tent city for the rest of his natural life plus 30 years. And Drumpf right along side.
I’m not all in for Warren, but she would be a great contrast to Stupid. She’s actually for the middle class, not just conning them.
CNBC also had this to say- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/02/december-manufacturing-pmi-shows-economic-trouble.html?recirc=taboolainternal
Key Points
The U.S. manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) hit a 15-month low in December.
The first survey of December’s economic data hit new lows on multiple fronts last month.
“Over two thirds of manufacturers reporting higher costs attributed the rise in prices to tariffs,” says Chris Williamson, IHS Markit’s chief business economist.
“Donald Trump has now been in office for 23 full months — February 2017 through December 2018 — and in that time, the economy has created 4.57 million jobs. In the 23 full months preceding Trump’s presidency — March 2015 to January 2017 — the economy created 4.82 million jobs.
The White House has not yet offered an explanation for why job growth has slowed since Trump took office.”
I think we are looking at a broken governmental system. This is a system that allowed Donald Trump to become president and a system that hasn’t removed him from office. Kamala is the best candidate and Amy Klobuchar has a lot of integrity and intelligence. At some point the bottom line needs to be addressed: Decent people underestimated the level of bigotry and idiocy that keep people like Trump in power and elect every single GOP rep in this state. We have also underestimated how much lobbyists and “big money” corporations run the show.
Headline in The Globe op/ed this morning. “Is She Likeable? Do We Even Ask That Anymore?”
IMO … Trump has lowered the standard of Presidential decency so low that the answer is no.
Kamala Harris refused to prosecute Steve Mnuchin’s bank after the financial crash of 2008. No thanks. I would rather support a candidate that is credible as a check on banking malpractice.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/05/kamala-harris-fails-to-explain-why-she-didnt-prosecute-steven-mnuchins-bank/
I refuse to support any candidate that receives campaign financial support from corporate interests.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/25/dem-senator-received-donations-before-and-after-failing-to-prosecute-trump-nominees-bank/
If you are serious about challenging the plutocracy that governs this country, then you need to consider Warren as a legitimate candidate. She has a strong record of standing up to predatory banks and representing the interests of regular folks. If you want another bail out for the banks, then go ahead and vote for Harris.
“SALT LAKE CITY — Earlier this summer, Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren quietly held a fundraiser in an upscale Salt Lake City restaurant during what’s been described as a presidential campaign-style swing through the West.
Already seen as a potential front-runner for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination even though she has yet to declare she’s running, Warren has raised nearly $50,000 from Utah through the end of June.” Good thinking Ms. Warren, go to the white states first, the really white states and then onto California and Texas, where the populations are more in line with the rest of the populace!
We should all be clear, Clinton beat trump like a fat mule, with over 3,000,000 million votes. Putin put trump in office, not the voters. Warren could beat him if Butina and Putin stay out.
We are still two years out from the 2020 presidential election, I make no predictions nor do I endorse any candidate at this early date.
The mistake that Trump supporters make is thinking that he is unbeatable when they have no idea what lies in his future or the country’s.
Today at a press conference Trump stated that he was fully prepared to keep the government from functioning for months or even years if he didn’t get his wall. Is this what we want in presidential leadership, will the country, both republicans and Democrats tolerate this cavalier attitude? When will republicans tire of Trump’s nonsense and start calling their republican senators and get our government open.
Trump can be beat, it just depends on whether it is a Democrat or republican.
The government shutdown is only a part Trump’s failure as president, wait until all the congressional investigations and Mueller’s report start to haunt this lunatic.
Mr. C is righter than right, as he often is. Mr. Trump can be beaten by a sane Republican.
jerry
re: Putin/Butina
The recent incarceration of American (spy?) Paul Whelan by Putin should concern us all. Not to be all conspiratorial, but I do wonder if Putin is doing Trump another favor by jailing Whelan and possibly trading him for Butina.
How convenient for Trump, get Butina out of the country, and possibly killed by Trump, and silenced forever.
Butina’s a red sparrow. She fully expects to die.
Pearson’s link to Weggman’s opinion piece is telling. Weggman suggests that Harris opposes all pardons because she opposed the pardon of Arpaio. Weggman claims that this means Harris opposed a pardon of an individual that Harris apparently has never expressed an opinion about.
He calls her a “monster” for opposing all pardons, and then suggests she is too stupid to know that a pardon forgives a conviction based on his interpretation of one tweet. But then later he states, “she might not oppose all pardons,” going on to assert Judge Kozinski once wrote that she should give up further appeals of a case.
This editorial is worth reading as it provides an excellent example of the type of shallowness of thought by Weggman short on any factual basis to support his conclusions. Granted, the piece may be a delight for anyone that enjoys mischaracterizations that spread negative propaganda about an indivdual, but persuasive it is not. This is written to entertain folks who already oppose Harris.
My guess is that there are real facts out there that could support a criticism of Harris. Weggman’s editorial, however, has not identified any such facts that I could find.
Roger, all the 70 percenter’s, that would be us that can see what the trump/republicans are doing to the country with this trump/republican shutdown. The 30’s are those poor wretched souls called trumpian Republicans that blather about border security while not paying the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard patrols and protects our borders around the continental United States as well as Hawaii, Guam Alaska, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, American Samoa and other places as well. Republicans could give a care about border protection when they don’t care about the sea lanes or our sea coasts. The Brownies can swim you know.
Wall Street Journal on this Whelan dude. “MOSCOW—A former U.S. Marine arrested on espionage charges in Russia was removed from the military for trying to steal more than $10,000 in government cash while deployed at a base in Iraq, according to details of Defense Department court records released Friday.” Man, you can’t make this stuff up and this is coming from a white ring (borrowed that from Cory) rag. Anything associated with Putin/trump has some stank on it for sure. I say keep the bum right where he is.
RJ: yes, our government system is broken in the way envisioned by farmer-backing Jefferson. Big money interests capitalize (buy) the senators, some representatives, and sometimes presidential officers. Senator Moynihan foresaw 24-years ago that the US had to address the mal-appropriation of the senate. WY has 1/67th the population of CA – yet both have 2 senators. The founders never could have foreseen such mal-appropriation of representation. It’s a wonder that California, Texas, Florida, and New York are not routinely carpet-bombing the courts to establish judicial protection of ‘one man, one vote’.
It’s long past the time to re-address the appropriation of senators. There is nothing in the US Constitution relegating 2 senators per state. Under the judicial doctrine of ‘one person, one vote’ the nation should either reform senator apportionment or, as the longest serving US Congressman, John Dingell observed – just abolish the senate. Senate reform or abolishing would go a long way to reform the Electoral College, too, by making it more accountable to the popular vote and liable to exercise restraint over questionable populist candidates.
Lots to digest here. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/heres-how-fix-senate/579172/
BCB, you mentioned Judge Kozinski from that bogus article. I thought his name was familiar and Wikipedia filled in the blanks:
“Alex Kozinski is a former United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where he served from 1985 until announcing his retirement on December 18, 2017, after a growing number of allegations of improper sexual conduct and abusive practices toward law clerks.”
John, I agree about the Senate and EC.
I’d like to see some states reduced to 1 Senator while others have up to 4.
The electoral college needs to be entirely abolished.
Bribes/campaign contributions must be forbidden.
All Congressional Districts must be drawn by a computer algorithm and there will be one, universal system of voter regulation with every citizen being automatically registered upon reaching age 16. (Yes, lower the voting age and reduce age limits for every office by 5 years.)
That’s my plan and US democracy will be much more democratic.
At this point, I suggest focusing on the messaging and the ideas (and how they are accepted by prospective voters), not the candidates.
Warren’s ideas are all winners, and her framing if adopted by the Democratic nominee, should be adopted by Democrats from the top to the bottom of the ticket.
debbo, I think Kozinski got himself in trouble by using email to circulate sexual and inappropriate humor among his law clerks and some others. After complaints about this behavior came out, he later was accused of other inappropriate personal interactions with clerks if I recall correctly. One of my favorite Slate writers, Dahlia Lithwick, wrote a piece last year about him during her clerkship for another judge on the 9th Circuit. It is a sad story.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/12/judge-alex-kozinski-made-us-all-victims-and-accomplices.html
Until Warren apologizes for misappropriating Native American heritage – while at Harvard and continuing to the present time – she will not get my vote. She doubled down on that lie just like Trump does.
Jason: “Trump is definitely not afraid of her or any other Democrat.”
I am sure that is true; the President has shown he is incapable of learning from mistakes, and the Democrats have shown they have learned from theirs (especially. the whole 2016 election). Soon even Trump supporters will have to realize that what President Trump says in intoxicating and make you all giddy, but the actions of the President are destroying YOUR job, YOUR farm, YOUR company, YOUR retirement account . . . and even constant watching of Fox News cannot change that.
Sadly, the smartest person in an election rarely wins. But that person will still get my vote.
Some updating and correction on Warren’s Native American issue.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-dna-test-native-american_us_5c19550fe4b0432554c512bb
Ror, Warren has indigenous genes. A scientific genetic test proved that. She released her test results. She appropriated her genetic background. She had an indigenous relative 6-10 generations ago. Her genes make her between 3 to 0.5% indigenous. Yet the media, like the rightwing noise machine scarcely understand science or genetics.
You are entitled to your own prejudices, but not to your own facts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/18/just-about-everything-youve-read-warren-dna-test-is-wrong/?utm_term=.3f3dd23189a3
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elizabeth-warren-dna-test-fact-check-native-american-ancestry-boston-globe-journalists-trump-a8595001.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/politics/elizabeth-warren-iowa-campaign-native-american/index.html
And she explains the ……..
Personally, I am not convinced Warren lied or used her Native heritage to her advantage, but claiming Drumpf has only doubled down on his lies is a whopper I must challenge.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/424021-new-dem-lawmaker-slams-gaetz-for-using-the-term-sacagawea-to-attack-warren
and the beat goes on….
Elizabeth Warren spent part of her early years in Indian country, Oklahoma. I worked in Oklahoma for a number of years in the 60’s and 70’s and can attest to the fact that any number of non-Indians there and elsewhere will claim Indian heritage without knowing the tribe.
In Indian country it is a common joke that everyone that says they are part Indian has a Cherokee grandma. After more than 70 years of my life I no longer question such claims.
If someone wanted to spend a whole bunch more money there is a DNA test that could probably identify Warren’s tribal identity.
What I resent is that a white piece of trash in the White House is pushing this narrative and like most if his lies, there are enough gullible people to believe him.
If Elizabeth Warren wants to be an Indian, I along with other Natives welcome her and her friendship.
Roger Cornelius for Potus in 2020. You tell it the way it is.
Now that you mention it, Roger, the late Mrs. Lansing’s Grandmother told her that she had a Cherokee Grandmother. 😮 I hope she did, for my daughter’s heritage. We don’t dwell on it. ~ My German Grandmother told me that her Grandmother married a Russian Jew. 😮 I don’t dwell on it. BOBBEMYSEH ツ
Very favorable receptions of Warren in Iowa. Hope blooms in winter.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-iowa-populist_us_5c312414e4b07335283361ca
Warren addressed her ancestry and its implication head on.
“I am not a person of color,” Warren responded. “I am not a citizen of a tribe. Tribal citizenship is very different from ancestry. Tribes ― and only tribes ― determine tribal citizenship, and I respect that difference.”
Many of us have a small amount of Neanderthal genes. That does not make us Neanderthal.
Comments from a Council Bluff participant noted that Warren is 69. That’s a concern. The red state orange prince and Raygun showed us the wisdom in capping the president position to age. We do not license commercial airline pilots over 60 for a reason. There is a good rationale for also capping the chief executives age. Yet, if Warren runs against the older, befuddled prince, she’s much better equipped to govern.
Any candidate enlisting Barack Obama as Veep will receive vast support. Obama cannot run as president. But he can run as VP and serve as president in succession.
This week younger Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator, NY, struggled finding funders for a presidential exploratory committee. The rationale often given: she was too eager purging Senator Al Franken. Gillibrand forfeited the support from executive business men and some women who separate comedy acts from real life. She over-reached and is paying. She’s doing great work. Yet gave herself a tall self-imposed obstacle. She may remain a powerful, viable candidate if able to convince enough folks she made an honest, albeit well-intentioned error. Yet, she’ll be challenged securing the older white guy vote.
Any candidate enlisting Barack Obama as Veep will receive vast support. Obama cannot run as president. But he can run as VP and serve as president in succession. TRue THat, John.
Warren did what she had to do to prove that her and her family’s stories about a NA ancestor were true and she was brave enough to do that without knowing whether she was going to be proved right. She proved that her armchair detractors including the president didn’t know what they were talking about (although she didn’t put it that way) and that’s really all that needs to be said about it. She was right. They were wrong. If they had a lick of sense in their heads they’d let it go now, but they dont. Let’s go on from there.
And good for her.
Roger, I know what you’re saying about the Cherokee grandma. It’s always Cherokee, never Crow or Samish or Inuit or Lakota. Cherokee is evidently the coolest. Our friend Mike is right up there in the Cherokee sweepstakes. You went to school there, right Mike?
My Indian claim to fame? Great-great-grandma fooled around with Tommy Fast Walker and some of her kids had beautiful black hair and eyes. Skin color? Oh, they were farmers so they spent all day in sun. (How they could be so dark in February I can’t imagine.) It’s the big, but hush hush family scandal. 🙄🙄🙄
I like pretty much everything about Warren, except her age. I want the Democrats to nominate someone younger than a Boomer. It’s time for the next generation. Mine has had its run. There are really smart, able, energetic and good people who deserve their chance.
Debbo
When someone would tell me that they had a Indian grandma, and yes it was usually Cherokee, I would usually respond by telling them I had a white grandpa from Onawa, Iowa (truth).
I agree with Roger that it’s too early to endorse anyone, but Warren, at this point, has my full endorsement. Not one thing, including age, against her. A sharper brain than others twenty years younger. But we’ll see who else comes up. It’s too early. But you go, girl.
If Al Franken comes in, for instance, I’ll have a hard time.
Ms. Warren did not go to the Democratic areas of Iowa, she went where trump won bigly and where he will lose biggly if he doesn’t get his fat arse impeached. Here is a very good article from Storm Lake, Iowa. Very good.
“Donald Trump has declared that immigration and a border wall will be the centerpiece of his 2020 re-election campaign, promising us nearly two years of misery.
He shut down the government over his demand for $5bn for the wall, although the billions already appropriated haven’t been spent. He has stepped up persecution of refugees properly seeking legal asylum at points of entry. When children die while in border patrol custody, the head of the Department of Homeland Security says they are bringing disease with them. Steve King, my north-west Iowa Republican congressman, referred to immigrants as dirt.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/05/trump-immigration-iowa-lose-bigly
Any woman taking on trump will have to bear intolerable slurs from him. Jenna Bendery, HuffPo writes Indians have largely been ignored as trump soils Pocahontas’ name over and over. Republicans from Hope Hicks to Rand Paul can’t get enough of this racism. Deplorable, what else. Chill Rohr
Roger, that’s funny.
BTW, some of my best friends are Indians. 😊
Others are not.
This is a FB post by the Surly Southern Liberal. It’s often really, really funny, but this one is not. It makes some excellent points about Sen. Warren.
_______________________________
Thanks for my surly friend, Tawnya B., for this link. Here’s her thoroughly cogent introduction: “Amid all the negative coverage of Elizabeth Warren lately, I just wanted to remind everyone that she was the one who refused to be silenced or mansplained by McConnell and other Republicans when she read a letter by Coretta Scott King at Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing.
McConnell held a vote to stop her from reading the letter, then said, “Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” She then proceeded to read the letter in its entirety outside the chamber door.
I also want to remind everyone that she was one of the first to stand up to Trump in a bold letter opposing his cabinet nominees, dated 11-15-2016. While many were still grieving and reeling from the election, she was fighting. She wrote, “…remove the lobbyists and financial bigwigs from your transition team and reinstate a group of advisors who will fight for the interests of all Americans,” and “Let me be clear. Should you refuse, I will oppose you, every step of the way, for the next four years.”
I have yet to decide whether or not I will support her in a presidential run, but I know one thing for sure: she deserves our respect.” http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2016-11-15-Trump_Letter.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0RInRn37SnTlvfCuY4tkNNrgu7isR1uFu9-lsx-yYmHdn5nhBo2OVpxAk
We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot by attacking the candidates before they ever get out of the gate! Don’t fall into the Russian troll-bots propaganda trap. We’re smarter than they are. Let’s prove it.
Roger C, if memory serves, former Soo Falls TV beauty Joan Russell had(s) a sister living in Onawa.
I helped Bell Tell plow in telephone cable all around Onawa area back in the mid 70s. Small world.
ps I remember Joan Russell fondly. Yummy!. I know that makes me a chauvinist pig. I’ll fondly plead guilty as charged.
Time for a moderate to bring this country back to the middle of its bell curve NOT another divisive figure.
Nate Silver of 538 wrote a very interesting article on the Democratic Party. He breaks it into “5 Corners.” Really worth reading.
https://goo.gl/xkouqi
This opinion piece by NY mayor Bill De Blasio urges Democrats to Be Bold! His reasoning is sound.
I couldn’t agree more.
https://goo.gl/tzL8oC