Month: September 2016

Being a Senator Is Now a Part-Time Job

Buck Banks

110 days

“The U.S. Senate is on track to work the fewest number of days since 1956, a fact that Democrats seized on Wednesday to attack the chamber’s Republican leadership,” McClatchy reports. “Senators returned last week to Washington after a seven-week break. Another recess could come as early as the end of this week or next, freeing embattled senators to return to the campaign trail in their states.”

Ivanka Trump Gives Full-Throated Defense of Father’s Maternity Plan — NOT!

Buck Banks

Cosmopolitian: OK, I just wanted to make sure I understood. In 2004, Donald Trump said that pregnancy is an inconvenient thing for a business. It’s surprising to see this policy from him today. Can you talk a little bit about those comments, and perhaps what has changed?

Ivanka Trump: So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues. So I don’t know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you’re going to make a comment like that.

— Ivanka Trump, not talking to Cosmopolitan about her father’s new childcare and maternity leave policy.

Trump’s Business Could Present an Array of Security Challenges, Conflicts of Interest

Buck Banks

A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires.

U.S. Household Income Surges

Buck Banks

5.2%

Incomes in the U.S. surged in 2015, delivering the first increase for family households in eight years, the Wall Street Journal reports. “The median annual household income—the level at which half are above and half are below—rose 5.2% from a year earlier, or $2,800, after adjusting for inflation, to $56,500… The boost leaves household incomes around 1.6% below the 2007 level, before the last recession began.”

Is Clinton Not Getting or Not Taking Good Advice?

Buck Banks

It’s in­ter­est­ing to watch Hil­lary Clin­ton’s highly schizo­phren­ic cam­paign. On one level, in terms of strategy and tac­tics, or­gan­iz­a­tion­al abil­it­ies, use of tech­no­logy, and the like, it is a very im­press­ive ef­fort, a blend­ing of the best from her 2008 cam­paign with the cream of the 2008 and 2012 Obama pres­id­en­tial ef­forts. … But as the con­cent­ric circles get closer to the can­did­ate, the people oc­cupy­ing the in­ner circles are heav­ier on long­time Clin­ton loy­al­ists rather than polit­ic­al pros, the cam­paign be­comes more opaque, and the tac­tics get more baff­ling. Wheth­er it is pre-cam­paign de­cisions on hand­ling emails, go­ing eight months without a press con­fer­ence, or the bum­bling hand­ling of her health situ­ation in re­cent days, the ques­tion keeps re­cur­ring: Is Clin­ton not get­ting good ad­vice or just not tak­ing it? One won­ders wheth­er there are enough people will­ing to stand up to her and tell her what she needs to know but may not want to hear.

— Charlie Cook

Clinton Has Huge Lead Over Trump with Latinos in Four Key Swing States

Buck Banks

24 points

A new Univision poll of Latino voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Nevada shows Hillary Clinton trouncing Donald Trump among this critical voting bloc. In Florida, Trump trails Clinton by 24 percentage points — the closest margin out of the four states. Clinton leads Trump 68% to 18% in Arizona, 65% to 19% in Nevada and 62% to 17% in Colorado. Florida, Colorado and Nevada are three battleground states where Latinos are likely to make up more than 10% of the electorate this year.

Clinton’s ‘Basket of Deplorbles’ Remark Was Brilliant

Buck Banks

“Could there be a clunkier phrase than ‘basket of deplorables’? Hillary Clinton’s assertion … struck a lot of observers as not just an odd turn of phrase but politically unwise. You attack your opponent, the idea was, but you don’t attack the voters. … But now, a few days later, the brilliance of Clinton’s remark is becoming clearer. Yes, she got a few liberal commentators to take her side and defend the substance of it. But the far bigger benefit is that in the wake of her comment, some media figures decided to devise a ‘deplorables’ quiz for Trump supporters. Is Person X deplorable? How about Person Y? The effect was to pressure Trump supporters not only to agree with Clinton’s larger point but with her precise terminology.

— Byron York

Kentucky Knuckle-Dragger Threatens Bloodshed If Clinton Wins

Buck Banks

Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something, that we through our apathy and our indifference have given away.

— Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R), saying patriots might have to shed blood to “reclaim” America if Hillary Clinton is elected, reports Political Wire.

Your Might Be in the ‘Basket of Deplorables’ If …

Buck Banks

Few people embrace the “racist” label, so let’s help them. If you are “very enthusiastic” about a candidate who has based his campaign on scapegoating immigrants, Latinos and African Americans, talked of banning Muslims from the country, hesitated to disown the Ku Klux Klan and employed anti-Semitic imagery — well, you might be a racist. But if you are holding your nose and supporting Trump only because you think him better than Clinton, that doesn’t put you in the basket.

— The Washington Post