Last Call For Hurricane Donald

Donald Trump is such an unstable, insecure fool that he made sure NOAA was ordered not to contradict his tweet warning Alabama of Hurricane Dorian despite the fact current predictions had the path of the storm well away from the state.

Nearly a week before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly backed President Trump over its own scientists, a top NOAA official warned its staff against contradicting the president.

In an agencywide directive sent Sept. 1 to National Weather Service personnel, hours after Trump asserted, with no evidence, that Alabama “would most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated,” staff was told to “only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arise from some national level social media posts which hit the news this afternoon.”

They were also told not to “provide any opinion,” according to a copy of the email obtained by The Washington Post.

A NOAA meteorologist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution said the note, understood internally to be referring to Trump, came after the National Weather Service office in Birmingham contradicted Trump by tweeting Alabama would “NOT see any impacts from the hurricane.”

The Birmingham office sent the tweet after receiving a flurry of phone calls from concerned residents following Trump’s message.

The agency sent a similar message warning scientists and meteorologists not to speak out on Sept. 4, after Trump showed a hurricane map from Aug. 29 modified with a hand-drawn, half-circle in black Sharpie around Alabama.

“This is the first time I’ve felt pressure from above to not say what truly is the forecast,” the meteorologist said. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around. One of the things we train on is to dispel inaccurate rumors and ultimately that is what was occurring — ultimately what the Alabama office did is provide a forecast with their tweet, that is what they get paid to do.”
Late Friday afternoon, NOAA officials further angered scientists within and beyond the agency by releasing a statement, attributed to an unnamed agency spokesperson, supporting Trump’s claims on Alabama and chastising the agency’s Birmingham meteorologists for speaking in absolutes.

Pathetic.  Trump is such a pathetic man child that he can't take being corrected in public, that he has to spend a week whining like a toddler and ordering people to lie for him in order to assuage his bruised ego.  What a terrible mental and emotional infant.

We cannot be rid of him soon enough.

The Red Purge Meets The Blue Wave

Republicans are increasingly seeing the 2020 primary as the key to getting rid of some of their more troublesome racists, criminals, and crackpots...of course all while ignoring the largest of those problems in Donald Trump.  They're stuck with Donald, but Steve King and Duncan Hunter for example are both living on borrowed time.

While GOP leaders typically stay out of primary contests, these members are getting snubbed or facing outright opposition from the party establishment. At least one member of GOP leadership — retiring Rep. Paul Mitchell of Michigan — has decided to back a primary opponent to hard-line conservative Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who was kicked off his committees for making racist remarks earlier this year.

King’s comments “reflect negatively upon Republicans and, as a result, I will contribute to his primary opponent,” Mitchell, the sophomore class representative, said in a statement.

Mitchell’s stance underscores a broader feeling in the GOP conference, where many Republicans would be relieved to see fresh faces with less baggage emerge victorious in some of these primary races. Otherwise, the GOP will continue to take the reputational hit that comes with these lawmakers serving in office — or worse, the party could lose those seats in the general election.

“You have a lot of people who have been concerned for many, many months now about finding some way of getting rid of some of these guys,” said Liz Mair, a GOP strategist. “There is a sense that we either clean House, or Democrats take those seats.”

Freshman Rep. Steve Watkins of Kansas, who has recently faced rumors that he’s poised to resign amid scandal, became the latest Republican to draw a primary challenge this week. State Treasurer Jake LaTurner decided to jump into the race (and abandon his Senate bid) after receiving public encouragement from Republican former Gov. Jeff Colyer, a rare primary intervention that fueled buzz in GOP circles.

A pile of Republican candidates is also vying to take on King, who has continued to kick up controversy all year, as well as indicted Rep. Chris Collins of New York, who was arrested on insider trading charges in August 2018.

And last week, former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced he was exploring whether to challenge his old colleague Rep. Duncan Hunter, who will go to trial early next year for allegedly misusing $250,000 in campaign funds to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Outside groups are also itching to get involved, hoping to better position the party as Republicans try to claw their way back to power next year. The conservative Club for Growth is actively interviewing primary candidates for the Collins and Hunter races and keeping an eye on King’s district as well.

“I’ve told Republican leaders: We reserve the right to be in primaries, including in challenger races,” David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, said in an interview. “There is a lot of tension. They don’t want us to do that.”

But, he added, “We also recognize that we need to make sure the Republican majority is sustained.”

Now, I know and you know that this is just replacing overtly awful racists and criminals who will support Trump 99% of the time with much better behaved monsters who will support Trump 99% of the time, so the practical upshot is that Dems need to make the GOP own these jerkbags and make it very clear that a personnel change needs to be from red to blue.

Kiev Caught In A Corner

We knew last month that Trump regime toady Rudy Giuliani went to the Ukraine to demand dirt on Joe Biden's son Hunter and his role while on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.  Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's new president, made it pretty clear he wasn't taking order from Rudy and had continued his fight against Putin and the Russians.  

Now the other shoe has dropped, as we find out Zelensky's resistance comes with a $250 million price tag in lost US military aid to fight Putin's annexation of the Crimea unless he comes up with a scandal of some sort implicating the Bidens.

UKRAINE’S NEOPHYTE president, Volodymyr Zelensky, took a big step this week toward proving that he will be, as he promised, the most pro-reform president in Ukraine’s history. On Monday, he laid out a breathtakingly ambitious five-year plan including virtually every measure the International Monetary Fund and Western governments have urged on Ukraine in recent years, from land reform to the privatization of state companies to a cleansing of the judiciary.

That ought to be cause for celebration in Washington, where successive Democratic and Republican administrations have tried to draw Ukraine away from Vladi­mir Putin’s Russia and into the ranks of Western democracies, only to be frustrated by the fecklessness and corruption of the country’s political leaders. Yet Mr. Zelensky has so far failed to win the backing of President Trump. Not only has Mr. Trump refused to grant the Ukrainian leader a White House visit, but also he has suspended the delivery of $250 million in U.S. military aid to a country still fighting Russian aggression in its eastern provinces.

Some suspect Mr. Trump is once again catering to Mr. Putin, who is dedicated to undermining Ukrainian democracy and independence. But we’re reliably told that the president has a second and more venal agenda: He is attempting to force Mr. Zelensky to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine’s help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. military aid the country desperately needs in an attempt to extort it.

The strong-arming of Mr. Zelensky was openly reported to the New York Times last month by Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, who said he had met in Madrid with a close associate of the Ukrainian leader and urged that the new government restart an investigation of Mr. Biden and his son. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, while Joe Biden, as vice president, urged the dismissal of Ukraine’s top prosecutor, who investigated the firm.

Mr. Giuliani also wants a probe of claims that revelations of payments by a Ukrainian political party to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, were part of a plot to wreck Mr. Trump’s candidacy. In other words, Trump associates want the Ukrainian government to prove that Ukraine improperly acted against Mr. Trump in the 2016 election; but they also want it to meddle in his favor for 2020.

Mr. Zelensky is incapable of delivering on either demand. The revelations about Mr. Manafort came from a Ukrainian legislator who was fighting for domestic reform, not Hillary Clinton. And the Biden case, which has already been investigated by Ukrainian authorities, is bogus on its face. The former vice president was one of a host of senior Western officials who pressed for the dismissal of the prosecutor, who was accused of blocking anti-corruption measures.

The Pentagon has looked into the mess and has cleared the Ukrainians for the quarter-billion in aid as well.  But Trump has put it on hold because he's a petty tyrant, and resisting him comes with an often bloody price.

Bob Cesca had this story pegged back in May and why it was garbage from the get-go, but that hasn't stopped Trump from getting Ukrainian officials to retract their findings and start blaming Joe Biden.  It didn't go anywhere then because the real story became "What was Rudy Giuliani doing in Ukraine anyway?"

In the bigger picture though, if any Democrat had extorted aid to foreign country in order to get non-existent oppo research on a political opponent, their resignation would forced by articles of impeachment before the end of the week.  Trump does it, gets flat out caught, and it will be forgotten by Tuesday.

That's just pathetic.  It should be the end of this regime.  Hell, it never should have been congealed into being.

But here we are.

Deportation Nation, Con't

As I've been telling you, the Trump regime's "Muslim ban" and cuts in refugee acceptance has been all a test case for ending the vast majority of immigration into the US, and we have now reached that point.

The White House is considering a plan that would keep most refugees who are fleeing war, persecution and famine out of the United States, significantly cutting back a decades-old program, according to current and former administration officials. 

One option that top officials are weighing would cut refugee admissions by half or more, to 10,000 to 15,000 people, but reserve most of those spots for people from a few countries or from groups with special status, such as Iraqis and Afghans who work alongside American troops, diplomats and intelligence operatives abroad. Another option, proposed by a top administration official, would reduce refugee admissions to zero, while leaving the president with the ability to admit some in an emergency. 

Both options would all but end the United States’ status as a leader in accepting refugees from around the world. 

The issue is expected to come to a head on Tuesday, when White House officials plan to convene a high-level meeting to discuss the annual number of refugee admissions for the coming year, as determined by President Trump.

At a time when the number of refugees is at the highest level in recorded history, the United States has abandoned world leadership in resettling vulnerable people in need of protection,” said Eric Schwartz, the president of Refugees International. “The result is a world that is less compassionate and less able to deal with future humanitarian challenges.” 

For two years, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s top immigration adviser, has used his considerable influence in the West Wing to reduce the refugee ceiling to its lowest levels in history, capping the program at 30,000 this year. That is a more than 70 percent cut from its level when President Barack Obama left office.

The move has been part of Mr. Trump’s broader effort to reduce the number of documented and undocumented immigrants entering the United States, including numerous restrictions on asylum seekers, who, like refugees, are fleeing persecution but cross into the United States over the border with Mexico or Canada. 

Now, Mr. Miller and allies from the White House whom he placed at the Departments of State and Homeland Security are pushing aggressively to shrink the program even further, according to one senior official involved in the discussions and several former officials briefed on them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private deliberations. 

White House officials did not respond to a request for comment. 

John Zadrozny, a top official at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, made the argument for simply lowering the ceiling to zero, a stance that was first reported by Politico. Others have suggested providing “carveouts” for certain countries or populations, such as the Iraqis and Afghans, whose work on behalf of the American government put both them and their families at risk, making them eligible for special status to come to the United States through the refugee program.

The article goes on to say that Trump's Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, might emerge as the voice of reason.  But former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was a major proponent of admitting refugees, and he's gone.  Stephen Miller is not.  I have little hope that Esper will raise a finger at this point.

The United States is shutting its doors to the world.  The next step will be mass removal of those Miller and his merry band of white supremacists want purged.

Last Call For Another Day In Gunmerica, Con't

Just to show you how badly Texas Republicans are about 2020, the state's GOP Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, is actually calling for new firearm background check legislation and the NRA is furious.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says he's "willing to take an arrow" and defy the National Rifle Association by pressing Texas to close one loophole in gun-purchaser background checks.

On Friday, Patrick said it's "common sense" to tighten background-check laws because in many instances, stranger-to-stranger sales now are exempt from the requirement that buyers be vetted through a federal database of people not eligible to purchase firearms.

Patrick wants to protect transfers among family members from triggering a check. He'd also continue to exempt friends, though he acknowledged that could be abused. Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, said he's willing to accede to the preferences of senators on whether to maintain that loophole — and if so, exactly how.

But he said Texas must strongly discourage selling guns to strangers without a background check.

"That gap of stranger to stranger we have to close, in my view," Patrick, a staunchly conservative Republican and avid gun-rights advocate, said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.

"When I talk to gun owners, NRA members and voters, people don't understand why we allow strangers to sell guns to total strangers when they have no idea if the person they're selling the gun to could be a felon, could be someone who's getting a gun to go commit a crime or could be a potential mass shooter or someone who has serious mental issues."

"Look, I'm a solid NRA guy," he said, "but not expanding the background check to eliminate the stranger to stranger sale makes no sense to me and ... most folks."

The NRA responded soon after, calling Patrick's proposals "political gambits" that would "resurrect the same broken, Bloomberg-funded failures that were attempted under the Obama administration."

"Criminalizing private firearm transfers would require a massive, governmental gun registration scheme. Instead of trampling the freedom of law-abiding Americans, the government should focus upon actual solutions: fixing our broken mental health system, prosecuting known criminals and enforcing the existing gun laws that require follow-up whenever a prohibited person tries to buy a firearm," the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, its lobbying arm, said in a statement.

Since mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa, Patrick has talked of wanting to require background checks of private purchasers who are strangers. In multiple interviews with Fox News and in-state conservative talk radio hosts, he has said they account for as much of 10% of all gun sales — and are the likeliest method for criminals to obtain guns.

On Friday, he issued an emphatic warning to fellow Republicans: To survive and avert Democratic takeovers in Austin and Washington, they must act expeditiously on measures to reduce gun violence.
"Someone in the Republican Party has to take the lead on this," he said.

So, three observations:

One, again, Texas Republicans are shitting themselves over 2020.  I've said this multiple times, but anybody not named Donald Trump is going to have a really dismal time explaining to voters how they are defending Donald Trump.  Texas is one giant suburb at this point and the numbers are getting increasingly bad for the GOP there.

Two, closing the stranger-to-stranger background check loophole is literally the least Patrick and the GOP could do in the state.  If even he's admitting that criminals get guns this way and that Texas isn't doing anything about it, it's going to be a bloodbath next year and they know it.

Three, Patrick wants something to show off to try to block the blue wave.  I'm not sure how "Look, we have to give the soccer moms something or they'll revolt" is going to play out, but that's the route Patrick wants to go.

We'll see what happens.  But the fact this is even being mentioned is...something...outside of the status quo.

Automatic Against The People

The Trump regime has crossed a huge line in their war on California's environmental standards, declaring that automakers meeting the state's increased fuel efficiency standards are committing illegal collusion, and that the Justice Department is targeting Ford, Volkswagen, BWM and Honda over what it calls "antitrust violations."

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the decision of four automakers in July to reach a voluntary agreement with California to adopt state emissions standards violated antitrust law, people briefed on the matter said on Friday.

The antitrust division has sent a letter to the automakers indicating the Justice Department had opened a preliminary inquiry, the people said, and comes as the Trump administration has ramped up its opposition to automakers seeking to sidestep it on rolling back Obama-era fuel efficiency rules.

In July, Ford Motor Co (F.N), BMW AG (BMWG.DE), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) said they had reached a deal to adopt standards that were lower than Obama-era rules but higher than the Trump administration’s 2018 proposal.

In doing so, the automakers are defying the Trump administration’s effort to strip the state of the right to fight climate change by setting its own standards. Automakers fear years of legal battles and want to ensure certainty over the requirements they will face nationwide.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Ford said on Friday it had “received a letter from the Department of Justice and will cooperate with respect to any inquiry.” Honda said it was cooperating with the Justice Department. The probe is in its early stages, the people said.

On Friday, general counsels at the Environmental Protection Agency told California Air Resource Board Chair Mary Nichols in a letter that its actions in connection with the voluntary agreement “appear to be unlawful and invalid.”

The letter, copies of which were also sent to the automakers’ chief executives, warned that commitments made by the automakers “may result in legal consequences given the limits placed in federal law on California’s authority.”

Nichols did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the state “will continue its advance toward a cleaner future. We’re prepared to defend the standards that make that promise a reality.”

Public Citizen, an advocacy group, called the investigation “blatantly retaliatory” and suggested the Trump administration is “hell-bent on repealing the clean car standards.”

Of course it's retaliatory.  The entire Trump regime is built around being retaliatory. Nobody defies the Orange Emperor without paying the price, you see.

And let's not forget the Trump regime is slaughtering California's ability to enforce the Clear Air Act, too.

On Thursday, Reuters reported the administration was moving forward with plans to strip California of its waiver under the Clean Air Act to set its own vehicle emissions rules and requiring a rising number of zero emission vehicles.

Acting Office and Management Budget Director Russ Vought said in a statement “a handful of irresponsible auto makers are aiding California’s radical agenda that will hurt every one of us.”

The Obama-era rules called for a fleetwide fuel efficiency average of 46.7 miles (75.2 km) per gallon (mpg) by 2026, compared with 37 mpg (60 kpg) under the Trump administration’s preferred option. The final regulation will modestly boost fuel efficiency over the preferred option’s freeze of 2020 requirements but be far less than the Obama rules, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Trump wants it all gone.  He's probably going to get his way, too. I expect automakers will want to dissolve the agreement rather than face years of guaranteed DoJ harassment wrecking their stock prices.  You can already see the line of attack from the Trumpies, that automakers are "colluding" with "California's radical agenda" to hurt consumers.  That may not play well in the Rust Belt where the automakers are, but it will in the plains and the South.

Yet another reason we have to take the White House back in 2020.

The Never Trump Trap

The media is starting to smell blood around the Never Trump primary challengers, or at least an exploitable story to annoy Trump with.

The Republicans mounting primary challenges to Donald Trump are not exactly the Never Trump movement’s top draft picks. With little hope of defeating an incumbent president dependably popular inside his party, country-club Republicans of the more-in-sorrow-than-anger variety—Jeff Flake, Larry Hogan, Ben Sasse—politely declined recruiting pleas from anti-Trump intellectuals, operatives, and donors. Hogan, the governor of Maryland, called it a “kamikaze mission.” 

What remains is a trio of gadflies. Bill Weld, a patrician former Massachusetts governor and perma-candidate who was a running mate on the Libertarian ticket in 2016, was the first in the primary pool. He was followed last month by Joe Walsh, a loudmouth ex-radio host who briefly served in Congress and is best known for his racist tweets about Barack Obama. Former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford is also looking at the race, promising to focus his campaign on fiscal responsibility, a plank of pre-Trump Republican orthodoxy that’s been left by the wayside in the era of big tax cuts and trade wars. 

They’ve each been dismissed by the pundit class and, predictably, the Republican establishment, which is doing everything in its power to box out even a whiff of a sedition. These Never Trumpers are scoffed at for two main reasons. First, it’s impossible to win the primary. And second, none of these Trump challengers have the kind of star power or message that might result in a serious weakening of Trump’s standing among Republicans. The first point is not in question: Trump’s approval rating among Republicans is anywhere from 79 to 88%, depending on the poll, and the last Republican president to lose a primary was Chester Arthur in 1884. 

But the second assumption deserves more scrutiny. Weld has been in the race since April, to little effect in the media. But according to an Emerson poll from August, Weld is still somehow pulling 16% of the Republican vote against a sitting Republican president, a number that would give any White House political director pause. (Imagine how much media attention would be given to an Obama primary challenger running in double digits at this point in 2011.) The Republican and independent voters who will have a say in the primary, especially in a mercurial state like New Hampshire, are still only dimly aware of these upstart campaigns. Press attention is largely focused on the Democrats. Walsh and Sanford have not yet prosecuted their cases. 

Despite our compulsive need to handicap every political twist and tweet—to write obituaries before any ballots are cast—presidential campaigns remain impossible to evaluate ahead of time. The addition of Weld, Walsh, and Sanford simply adds a quirky layer of unpredictability to an already-uncertain political moment. With the economic outlook looking bumpy and Trump, who can possibly say that these guys will just fade into the background without laying a finger on the president? Polls show only about half of Republicans and Democrats are paying “close attention” to the presidential campaign. 

“The whole race is just completely unformed,” said Stuart Stevens, the longtime Republican strategist who is backing Weld’s bid. “There is only one constant out there, and that is Trump’s favorables, which are below 50%. Having been through this before with George W. Bush in New Hampshire in 2000, the only thing I can tell you is that when things happen, they happen late.” In that primary, over the course of just four months, John McCain vaulted from a long-shot curiosity to thumping Bush by almost 20 points. 

But even if beating Trump is just a pipe dream for frustrated Weekly Standard fanboys, the Republican primary might be about more than just softening up Trump, or dealing him some kind of mortal blow in New Hampshire. If Trump’s fitness for office becomes a viable conversation piece among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, for even just a few weeks next January or during the primaries in February, they will have accomplished something that nobody in politics has even bothered to attempt this campaign year: talking to center-right swing voters who are uncomfortable with the man in the White House.

I suppose, but it won't last.  Weld, Sanford, Walsh and anyone else will be crucified by Trump personally, and it'll be game over the second one of them drops out of the race after the pressure kicks in.

The press badly wants some sort of primary drama heading into next summer, but the reality is both nominees will be completely decided by Super Tuesday next March 3rd.  It's six months away, anything else between now and then is noise.

StupidiNews!

• Former Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe has died at age 95, he had ruled the country for over three decades before being deposed in a coup in 2017.
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than delay any Brexit deal past October 31, but he may not have much of a choice as his government keeps losing votes.
• Warning signs for the US economy continue to flash red as farm loan delinquencies in Wisconsin are up sharply as Donald Trump's trade war with China continues to hurt agriculture markets.
• Ivanka Trump is visiting Argentina and bringing millions for new road projects with her as the White House wants to shore up allies in South America.
• Energy Secretary Rick Perry is trashing Obama-era lightbulb efficiency standards completely, a move that will almost certainly be challenged in federal court.

Last Call For The Return Of House Of Pain

The Trump regime is about to finish off the economy by starting another housing crisis through turning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages over to the big mortgage banks, and that will blow a hole in the side of the housing market almost overnight.

The Trump administration released a sweeping plan Thursday that could remake the U.S. housing market, starting with ending more than a decade of government control of two massive companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that back half of the nation’s mortgages. 

The long-awaited plan from the Treasury Department features nearly 50 proposals, including many technical changes to financial regulations, and is aimed at shrinking the government’s role in the housing market. The cornerstone of the plan would resolve the fates of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which 11 years ago this week were put into government conservatorship during the global financial crisis.

The proposals will “protect taxpayers and help Americans who want to buy a home,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “An effective and efficient federal housing finance system will also meaningfully contribute to the continued economic growth under this administration.” 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a critical part in the housing market, buying mortgages from lenders, then packaging them into securities to sell to investors. The government seized control of both companies in 2008 as the housing market unraveled and the firms’ losses piled up.

The housing giants back half of the United States’ mortgages, and housing experts have warned that allowing them too much freedom again could lead to higher mortgage costs for consumers while enriching Wall Street investors.

“President Trump’s housing plan will make mortgages more expensive and harder to get. I’m urging the president: Make it easier for working people to buy or rent their homes, not harder,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.

Eventually the two companies do have to come out of conservatorship.  But if you think the Trump regime is going to correctly unwind Fannie and Freddie without causing another housing crisis, I don't know what to do.

Buckle up, folks.  If this doesn't get stopped, the economy is 100% sunk.

Another Day In Gunmerica, Con't

In a move that will, well, give ammunition to the right for months, San Francisco has declared the NRA to be a domestic terrorist organization.

The city’s board of supervisors passed the resolution on Tuesday, accusing the NRA of inciting gun violence and arming people who commit acts of terror across the U.S.

“All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence,” the resolution reads in part. “Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco intends to declare the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization.”

The board also cited gun violence statistics in its decision.

“The United States is plagued by an epidemic of gun violence, including over 36,000 deaths, and 100,000 injuries each year,” the document notes. “Every day approximately 100 Americans are killed with guns and ... there has been more than one mass shooting per day in the United States in 2019.”

The NRA ― which is facing collapse amid financial mismanagement and legal fees ― dismissed the resolution, calling it “ludicrous.”

“This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime,” NRA spokesperson Amy Hunter told KQED.

The resolution calls on other cities and states, as well as the federal government, to join San Francisco in designating the group a domestic terrorist organization.

I'm not exactly sure what this will accomplish other than being a terrible punchline to Ted Cruz or Mike Huckabee tweets, but if there was some sort of banking or city contract sanction on those who partner with the NRA, that would have far more bite.  Maybe the resolution is a step towards this, but if it's not, it's just another talking point on FOX News to go DURR STOOPID LIBRULS.

It's morally right, I just don't how much it will matter.  But hey, if it's the tipping point that puts the NRA out of business, great.

The Blue Wave Returns, Con't

Five Texas Republicans heading for the exits, now Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, who's been in the House since I learned to walk, is leaving Congress.

Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, the second longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives, will not run for a 22nd term, he said Wednesday.

Sensenbrenner made his first public announcement Wednesday on The Mark Belling Show on WISN-AM (1130).

In a separate interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he said, “I think the time has come to basically turn over the page in the 5th District.”

The 76-year-old congressman has long represented the GOP’s geographic base in Wisconsin — the suburban, exurban and rural communities north and west of Milwaukee County that historically turn out in droves for Republican candidates and provide a large share of the party’s activists and political leaders.

Sensenbrenner’s departure after 2020 is likely to draw huge interest from within a district packed with aspiring GOP politicians.

It also makes him the latest of several big-name Republicans to leave the Wisconsin stage: former House Speaker Paul Ryan (who retired after 2018), former Gov. Scott Walker (who was defeated in 2018) and current congressman Sean Duffy, who announced he would step down this month to focus on the health problems of the baby he and his wife are expecting.   

Sensenbrenner said he is not retiring for health reasons or because he is worried about a re-election challenge. He is at least the 15th GOP member of the U.S. House to announce retirement this year, a group that includes Duffy.

Sensenbrenner said his decision was also unrelated to serving in the minority, where he has spent virtually half his congressional career, and unrelated to the turbulence of Donald Trump’s presidency.

He plans to serve out his current term and said he will back “the Republican ticket from top to bottom” in 2020.

“I’ve said all along I’d know when the right time came and I’ve come to the conclusion it has,” he said. “There is nobody running against me. Nobody can say they’ve pushed me out. I am doing this on my terms.”

Said Sensenbrenner:

“You can see the end of the line sometime. Being able to do this on my timetable rather than after a redistricting in 2022 will allow me to go out on a high note … This is just me feeling the time would be coming in the next few years, and I think this is the best time for me personally, and for both the Republican Party and for me politically.”

Maybe he is actually leaving on his own terms...but he's still leaving.  The most powerful Republican in Wisconsin is calling it quits in a year where more than a dozen other GOP incumbents are throwing in the towel, and I expect a lot more Republicans to join him.

Deep down, they all know the damage Trump has done to the GOP for any Republican not named Trump is lethal.

StupidiNews!

• The death toll in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian has risen to at least 20 and officials expect the total to go much higher as search teams are reaching areas that were flooded out over the weekend.
• French lawmakers are holding hearings on so-called "gay conversion therapy" with the National Assembly drafting legislation to outlaw the practice.
• House Democrats are investigating last month's revelation that Donald Trump supposedly offered subpoenas to immigration officials in exchange for getting Trump's southern border wall built.
• UK PM Boris Johnson's call for snap elections after his government lost a crucial Brexit vote has also been blocked, leaving Johnson with fewer and fewer options.
• Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden says Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg should face prison for in his view, Zuckerberg's repeated lying about privacy concerns to Congress.

Last Call For An Indefensible Decision

Donald Trump is more than happy to make America suffer as much as possible until he gets his border wall with Mexico, and if that means diverting billions in funding (illegally by the way) from existing Pentagon base repair, construction, refit and maintenance project to his silly wall, then so be it.

The Pentagon's announcement that it will divert $3.6 billion in military construction funds to help fund President Donald Trump's border wall has sparked bipartisan anger from lawmakers who learned Wednesday that their states will be impacted by the decision. 

Domestically, just under $1.8 billion is being shifted away from projects in 23 states and three US territories. 

Additionally, the Pentagon will defer more than $1.8 billion in military construction projects overseas to free up over $3.6 billion in funds for 11 wall projects on the southern border with Mexico, according to a complete list obtained by CNN Wednesday. 

In total, 127 domestic and overseas projects are being put on hold to help fund the wall that Trump initially promised would be paid for by Mexico. 

Among the sites affected are facilities used to store hazardous waste, repair Navy ships and conduct cyber operations, that had been identified as being in need of repair or additional construction. 

Puerto Rico was among the hardest hit of all US states and territories as it will see more than $400 million in funding for planned military construction projects diverted to the wall under the Pentagon's plan. 

Trump has consistently sparred with Puerto Rican officials while he's been in office following 2017's Hurricane Maria. 

"Most of the projects in Puerto Rico were a result of Hurricane Maria," a senior US defense official told CNN. 

"We've got a rebuild effort that we have ongoing here and I mentioned these projects aren't scheduled to award for more than a year. These are projects that we have on the list something we can use now and backfill, we've got time to do that." 

Overseas, $771 million in projects at various locations in Europe will be impacted. These projects, including airfield upgrades and staging areas in Eastern Europe, are meant to improve the defense of US allies from Russian threats. 

So we have two of Trump's favorite targets to harm: Puerto Rico and NATO.  We're coming up on two years since Hurricane Maria savaged Puerto Rico, and Trump is still doing everything in his power to cut them off.

Meanwhile, US bases in Eastern Europe are getting short changed just as Russia's ramping up nuclear weapon production as the IMF treaty between Washington and Moscow is dead.

Trump's pettiness is now the chief driver of both foreign and domestic policy.

The Blue Wave Returns, Con't

The rush of Texas Republicans heading for the exits is now a deluge.

Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection in 2020, making him the fifth Texas Republican to do so.

“Serving my country as the Representative of the hardworking Texas families in the 17th Congressional District has been an honor and one of the greatest privileges of my life,” he said in a statement. “When I originally announced that I was running for Congress in 2009, I was firm in my commitment that I would run for six or fewer terms. After much prayer over the past few days and following conversations with my wife, Gina, during that time, I have decided that my current term will be my last.” 

According to the Cook Political Report, Flores’ district, the 17th, leans Republican and voted for President Donald Trump with about 55 percent of the vote. 

Flores follows in the footsteps of his fellow Texans GOP Reps. Kenny Marchant, Will Hurd, Pete Olson and K. Michael Conaway.

This is now pants-wetting panic time for the Texas GOP.  Flores easily won in 2018 by 16 points.  There's no way his seat is in any real trouble.  Flores could have stayed as long as he wanted.  But he's gotten a taste now of the future, a House GOP with 269 pounds of ugly orange fat choking it, and increasingly a permanent position in the House minority.

If there are safe Texas GOP seats heading for the lifeboats, then 2020 is going to be a tsunami.

And everyone knows it.

The Gerrymandering Battle Rages On

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts may have removed federal courts from having any role in gerrymandering fights back in June, but all that means is that by leaving these battles to the states that the state courts can now play for keeps, as the NC GOP just found out the hard way.

North Carolina’s political maps for the state legislature are unconstitutional and must be redrawn before the 2020 elections, a court has decided. 

A panel of judges struck down the maps Tuesday, in a 357-page ruling that focused on the level of political partisanship used to draw them. The maps were drawn in 2017 to replace previous maps, drawn in 2011, that had also been ruled unconstitutional. Both sets of maps were drawn by North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature. 

The judges found that “The North Carolina Supreme Court has long and consistently held that ‘our government is founded on the will of the people,’ that ‘their will is expressed by the ballot.’” 

And that fact helped the judges conclude that the maps violated the state constitution because “it is the carefully crafted maps, and not the will of the voters, that dictate the election outcomes in a significant number of legislative districts and, ultimately, the majority control of the General Assembly.” 

Tuesday’s decision may be the final word in this legal battle, since at least one top Republican lawmaker said he doesn’t plan to appeal the ruling. 

“This is a historic victory for the people of North Carolina,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, one of the groups that sued to overturn the maps. “The court has made clear that partisan gerrymandering violates our state’s constitution and is unacceptable. Thanks to the court’s landmark decision, politicians in Raleigh will no longer be able to rig our elections through partisan gerrymandering.” 

The three-judge panel was unanimous in its ruling. The panel consisted of two Democrats — Paul Ridgeway of Wake County and Alma Hinton of Halifax County — and one Republican, Joseph Crosswhite of Iredell County. 

“The conclusions of this Court today reflect the unanimous and best efforts of the undersigned trial judges — each hailing from different geographic regions and each with differing ideological and political outlooks — to apply core constitutional principles to this complex and divisive topic,” they wrote.

Of course, the battle in NC is far from over, as Republicans overwhelmingly have control of the state House and Senate to redraw the maps, but thanks to the Roberts Court, NC Republicans can't cry foul.  The entire reason this ruling came about was that the GOP won in June, forcing the federal ruling against NC's gerrymandered districts to go back to state court. 

And hey, given that the federal and state judges found massively, overwhelming evidence of gerrymandering so egregious that it violated North Carolina's state constitution, it was a no-brainer (although not a given) that the state court this time would find the same thing.

Redrawing Pennsylvania's districts made a huge difference a few years ago.  Now it seems North Carolina will get a turn at fairness.