Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Help Out Doa'a! (Video)

Super Heroes, I hope that you all like the latest video that we’ve produced about our sweet lady from Palestine! And thanks for your continued support of our Doa’a. I really do appreciate it. And Doa’a and her family do as well! Until next time (and beyond), I remain… Super Heroically Yours, Joe Make a tax-deductible donation today to help Doa’a receive the medical care that she needs! To…

View On WordPress

Trump Shirt Make America Incredible Again Tee Shirt

The 2020 US presidential political race is prepared for Tuesday, November 3, 2020. it'll be the 59th quadrennial presidential political decision. Voters will pick presidential voters who during along these lines on December 14, 2020, will either pick another president and VP or reappoint the occupants.

Around the beginning of November, President Trump announced he would travel Tuscaloosa, Ala., to head out to the school of Alabama-Louisiana State School football coordinate. At The Donald Trump 2020 T shirts & Hats reason when Representative Bradley Byrne, a three-term congressman and US Senate candidate from Flexible, instructed of this course of action, he immediately called an Alabama supporter named Jim Wilson, who could be encouraging Trump in his indulgence box on the precarious edge of midfield at Bryant-Denny Field. Wilson, as fortune would have it, might be a faraway cherished one , buddy and cash related supporter of Byrne's, and Byrne thought possibly he could get him into the compartment.

I asked him: 'Ol' cuz, ol' mate, ol' pal, Byrne says. Be that since it might, Wilson uncovered to Byrne that he himself moved toward only three tickets, which had a zone with him, his companion and his kin; the rest of directly compelled by his V.I.P. guest. So Byrne considered the White House to put forward our safeguard that we'd need to be inside the holder with the president, he says.

Byrne, who came to Washington with a reputation for being an Office of Business Republican, wasn't commonly so on edge to be connected with Trump. In 2016, after the appearance of the entryway Hollywood tape where Trump may be heard talking in foul terms about women and boasting about assault, Byrne called Trump's comments shameful and stunning and fought that Trump wasn't fit be pioneer of the US. Be that since it might, when Trump was picked, Byrne, as most Republicans, fell in line. Since beginning his Senate selection, he had thrown a polling form with the president around 98 percent of the time.

In October, Byrne introduced an objectives moving toward three House sheets to investigate Tracker Biden's expert collaborations in Ukraine. That proportionate month, he was one among around 30 House Republicans who barged in on the House Information Chamber's arraignment assessment by seething the leading body of trustees' secured work environments; usually unassuming, he evidently yelled even with Adam Schiff, the warning gathering's overseer. the resultant 24 hours, according to a Byrne campaign official, were his most noteworthy day of web based assembling promises as a Senate up-and-comer.

Byrne utilized Andy Surabian a past Trump campaign and White House aide who is by and by Donald Trump Jr's. top political guide as a specialist. His most recent fight notice ambushes Specialist Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat, for corrupting 9/11 and Colin Kaepernick for slighting the standard. On the combat zone, he has said that Democrats don't believe in God. In his insufficient run agent in 2010, Byrne himself raised the temper of Christian conservatives when he said that he acknowledged there are bits of the Book of sacred texts that are proposed to be genuinely substantial and parts that are unquestionably not.

In a 20-minute campaign talk inside the North Alabama lake town Guntersville a month back, Byrne, wearing a gold-affixed blue jacket and enhanced dull hued loafers, used the words fight, contender and doing combating about numerous occasions as to his work for the upside of Trump. He said he contributed such huge amounts of vitality engaging on Authoritative lobby Incline that he was as often as possible constrained to skip lunch. Somebody expressed, 'Why you lost such huge amounts of weight?. he told the gathering. this is frequently in light of the fact that I don't locate a genuine pace!

In their encounters and conversations since Trump's political race at charge signings and White House events and presidential visits to Administrative focus Incline Byrne says that Trump has never raised the entryway Hollywood scene with him. There's a proof he's never conveyed it up with me, Byrne let me know. He basically couldn't mind less. He's inexorably fascinated by what we're doing now. At the reason once I asked Byrne what he'd state if Trump might do raise it, he addressed instantly: I tousled .

Since he was running for Senate, such regret included need. The Senate seat being referenced is starting at now required by Doug Jones, a Democrat who vanquished the past State Unique Court judge Roy Moore during a 2017 uncommon political race to displace Jeff, a great many sessionses wandered directly down to turn into Trump's first attorney general. Alabama is out and out Republican, and hence the state is normally seen in light of the fact that the absolute best the Republican Party must get a Senate seat in November. Possibly along these lines, since Byrne's passageway nine months sooner, the Republican fundamental had become a ponderously jam-pressed unlawful relationship. Click Here For More Details About Donald Trump 2020 T shirts.

The Congress’ stances on Net Neutrality (Nov. 2017)

The following senators have stated their opposition to Ajit Pai’s repeal and/or support Net Neutrality:

Dianne Feinstein [D-CA] Kamala Harris [D-CA] Micheal Bennet [D-CO] Richard Blumenthal [D-CT] Chris Murphy [D-CT] Tom Carper [D-DE] Chris Coons [D-DE] Bill Nelson [D-FL] Brian Schatz [D-HI] Mazie Hirono [D-HI] Dirk Durbin* [D-IL] Tammy Duckworth [D-IL] Dave Loebsack [D-IA2] Susan Collins [R-ME] Angus King [I-ME] Ben Cardin [D-MD] Chris van Hollen [D-MD] Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] Ed Markey [D-MA] Debbie Stabenow [D-MI] Gary Peters** [D-MI] Amy Klobuchar [D-MN] Al Franken [D-MN] Jon Tester** [D-MT] Catherine Cortez Masto [D-NV] Jeanne Shaheen [D-NH] Maggie Hassan [D-NH] Cory Booker [D-NJ] Tom Udall [D-NM] Martin Heinrich [D-NM] Chuck Schumer [D-NY] Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY] Sherrod Brown [D-OH] Ron Wyden [D-OR] Jeff Merkley [D-OR] Bob Casey Jr. [D-PA] Jack Reed [D-RI] Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI] Patrick Leahy [D-VT] Bernie Sanders [I-VT] Mark Warner [D-VA] Tim Kaine [D-VA] Patty Murray [D-WA] Maria Cantwell [D-WA] Tammy Baldwin [D-WI]

The following house representatives have stated their opposition to Ajit Pai’s repeal and/or support Net Neutrality:

Nancy Pelosi [D-CA12] Steny Hoyer [D-MD5] Joseph Crowley [D-NY14] Ben Ray Lujan [D-NM3] Don Young [R-AK] Terri Sewell* [D-AL7] Raul Grijalva [D-AZ3] Kyrsten Sinema [D-AZ9] Jared Huffman [D-CA2] John Garamendi [D-CA3] Doris Matsui [D-CA6] Jerry McNerney [D-CA9] Barbara Lee [D-CA13] Jackie Speier [D-CA14] Eric Swalwell [D-CA15] Jim Costa [D-CA16] Ro Khanna [D-CA17] Anna Eshoo [D-CA18] Zoe Lofgren [D-CA19] Jimmy Panetta [D-CA20] Salud Carbajal [D-CA24] Judy Chu [D-CA27] Adam Schiff [D-CA28] Tony Cardenas [D-CA29] Brad Sherman [D-CA30] Grace Napolitano [D-CA32] Ted Lieu [D-CA33] Jimmy Gomez [D-CA34] Norma Torres [D-CA35] Raul Ruiz [D-CA36] Karen Bass [D-CA37] Mark Takano [D-CA41] Maxine Waters [D-CA43] Nanette Barragan [D-CA44] Alan Lowenthal [D-CA47] Juan Vargas [D-CA51] Scott Peters [D-CA52] Susan Davis [D-CA53] Diana DeGette [D-CO1] Jared Polis [D-CO2] Ed Perlmutter [D-CO7] John B. Larson [D-CT1] Joe Courtney [D-CT2] Rosa DeLauro [D-CT3] Jim Himes [D-CT4] Elizabeth Esty [D-CT5] Lisa Blunt Rochester [D-DE] Darren Soto [D-FL9] Charlie Crist [D-FL13] Kathy Castor [D-FL14] Ted Deutch [D-FL22] Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL23] Frederica Wilson*** [D-FL24] Hank Johnson [D-GA4] John Lewis [D-GA5] Colleen Hanabusa [D-HI1] Tulsi Gabbard [D-HI2] Luis Gutierrez [D-IL4] Mike Quigley [D-IL5] Danny K. Davis [D-IL7] Raja Krishnamoorthi [D-IL8] Jan Schakowsky [D-IL9] Bill Foster [D-IL11] Cheri Bustos [D-IL17] Pete Visclosky [D-IN1] Andre Carson [D-IN7] John Yarmuth [D-KY3] Chellie Pingree [D-ME1] Anthony G. Brown [D-MD4] Jamie Raskin [D-MD8] Jim McGovern [D-MA2] Niki Tsongas [D-MA3] Joe Kennedy [D-MA4] Katherine Clark [D-MA5] Seth Moulton [D-MA6] Michael Capuano [D-MA7] Stephen F. Lynch [D-MA8] Sander Levin [D-MI9] Debbie Dingell [D-MI12] John Conyers [D-MI13] Brenda Lawrence [D-MI14] Tim Walz [D-MN1] Betty McCollum [D-MN4] Keith Ellison [D-MN5] Rick Nolan [D-MN8] William ‘Lacy’ Clay [D-MO1] Jacky Rosen [D-NV3] Carol Shea-Porter [D-NH1] Ann McLane Kuster [D-NH2] Josh Gottheimer* [D-NJ5] Frank Pallone [D-NJ6] Donald Payne Jr. [D-NJ10] Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ12] Michelle Lujan Grisham [D-NM1] Grace Meng [D-NY6] Nydia Velazquez [D-NY7] Hakeem Jeffries [D-NY8] Yvette Clarke [D-NY9] Jerrold Nadler [D-NY10] Carolyn Maloney [D-NY12] Adriano Espaillat* [D-NY13] Jose Serrano [D-NY15] Eliot Engel [D-NY16] Nita Lowey [D-NY17] Sean Patrick Maloney [D-NY18] Paul Tonko [D-NY20] Louise Slaughter [D-NY25] Brian Higgins [D-NY26] G.K. Butterfield* [D-NC1] David Price [D-NC4] Alma Adams [D-NC12] Joyce Beatty [D-OH3] Warren Davidson* [R-OH8] Marcy Kaptur [D-OH9] Marcia Fudge [D-OH11] Tim Ryan [D-OH13] Suzanne Bonamici [D-OR1] Earl Blumenauer [D-OR3] Peter DeFazio [D-OR4] Kurt Schrader [D-OR5] Dwight Evans [D-PA2] Brendan Boyle [D-PA13] Michael Doyle [D-PA14] David Cicilline [D-RI1] Jim Langevin [D-RI2] Jim Cooper [D-TN5] Steve Cohen [D-TN9] Beto O’Rourke [D-TX16] Sheila Jackson Lee [D-TX18] Joaquin Castro [D-TX20] Lloyd Doggett [D-TX35] John Curtis [R-UT3] Peter Welch [D-VT] Robert Scott [D-VA3] Donald McEachin [D-VA4] Don Beyer [D-VA8] Suzan DelBene [D-WA1] Rick Larsen [D-WA2] Derek Kilmer [D-WA6] Pramila Jayapal [D-WA7] Dave Reichert [R-WA8] Adam Smith [D-WA9] Dennis Heck [D-WA10] Mark Pocan [D-WI2] Gwen Moore [D-WI4]

Eleanor Holmes Norton [D-DC]

* = Official statement from verified social media account or web source needed ** = Voted in favour of Pai’s re-nomination as FCC chairman in July, but has expressed opposition to his repeal plan since it was released; keep an eye on them *** = No official statement yet but has been sharing/retweeting posts opposing the FCC’s repeal

I will be keeping this list updated as I receive more information. Some information comes from the Battle for the Net website but needs a source. If you have a source stating your congressman’s opposition to the repeal (preferably as of November 21, 2017), feel free to reblog this post with the source or message me with it.

Takano, Tester Take VA to Task over Proposed Access Standards

Washington D.C. – Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Congressman Mark Takano and Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Senator Jon Tester today led a group of 55 members of Congress to voice their concerns about the VA’s proposed VA MISSION Act access standards that could trigger a massive shift of care from VA facilities to the private sector.

In a letter to the VA, the Members share their disappointments that the VA’s proposed access standards don’t live up to the goal of the VA MISSION Act to get rid of the arbitrary one-size-fits-all approach to veterans’ access to community care.

The Members are urging the Department not to hollow out the VA’s capacity to serve veterans by bypassing VA care for nearly-automatic eligibility for community care. They also criticize the VA’s unacceptable lack of transparency in developing access standards that would hold community providers to lower standards than VA doctors. The Members note that the VA does not know how many veterans will be affected by the proposed access standards and is unable to provide accurate data about how much it will cost taxpayers.

“Given our concerns, we would urge the Agency to re-evaluate the number and type of access standards the Secretary is designating under the VA MISSION Act,” the Members wrote. “We also strongly recommend the VA review its estimates of the budgetary impact of these standards. Finally, we believe that the Department should remain the primary coordinator of care for all veterans, instead of setting up a system where it’s possible that a subset of veterans will never see a VA doctor.”

The Members also note the absence of information on how veterans will be educated on their new health care options.

Additional signees include Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Representatives Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), Sanford Bishop Jr. (D-Ga.), Raul Grijalva D-Ariz.), Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), Denny Heck (D-Wash.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), David Trone (D-Md.), Susie Lee (D-Nev.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), Max Rose (D-N.Y.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Gregorio Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands), Michael San Nicolas (D-Guam), David Scott (D-Ga.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Terri Sewell (D-Ala.).

Their letter can be read in full HERE.

  ###

The post Takano, Tester Take VA to Task over Proposed Access Standards appeared first on Battlefield to Boardroom.

Takano, Tester Take VA to Task over Proposed Access Standards

Sorry, But Your Session Has Been Terminated

Can’t you just imagine a computer based therapy session for Jeff Sessions ending this way?

It’s been lovely chatting with you today but your session has ended.

But wait, wait, I have one more thing I need to say.

Sorry, but your session has terminated Mr. Sessions. For another session, please put your credit card number in.

But you never answered my question about whether or not I should feel guilty about taking children away from their parents?

Who was surprised that Jeff Sessions got the pink slip the day after the midterms? Frankly, the restraint The Don showed by not canning him before the midterms was impressive. Rumor has it that every day for months he would wake up and ask Hannity:

“Can I do it today?”

“No Mr. President, just hang in there. You have shown great patience, some of the greatest patience ever.”

“So I am the greatest at patience?”

“Absolutely.”

“Make sure you tell the country on your show tonight!”

“Good as done, Mr. President.”

Too bad Las Vegas wasn’t giving odds, taking bets on when it would happen, as I would have won a lot of money.

Stranger things have happened in Nevada. In the midterms, Dennis Hof, aka, “America’s Pimp,” “P.T. Barnum of Booty” and the “Trump of Pahrump,” was elected to the Nevada State Assembly (Nye County) a few weeks after he was found dead in a brothel he owned! In fact, rumor has it that Hof used The Don’s infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, where he decried his free reign on women’s pussies as part of his ad campaign.

“I’ve watched your Access Hollywood video over and over, and I tell my customers: If the president can do it so can you!“

After the brow beating Sessions took from The Don for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, he is going to need a lot more therapy sessions to process the abuse. But somehow I don’t think Sessions is the type for therapy. What he will probably do to heal is start a Senate campaign in Georgia to defeat Doug Jones, who seat comes up for reelection in 2020. Given that Jones only beat child molester Roy Moore by a slim margin, prospects are good for The Don’s immigration henchman. Is child abuse a prerequisite for running for Senate in Alabama?

The Don replaced Sessions with a man who is already on record invalidating Mueller’s investigation, despite the fact that Mueller hasn’t issued his findings. Perplexing for the most powerful lawman in the land to come to a conclusion about an investigation before the facts have been reported, don’t you think? Unless of course, the man that The Don insisted he never met, but of course met numerous times, is there to be the henchman of the investigation. (https://www.nbcnews.com/…/matthew-whitaker-has-tangled-history-mueller-probe-n9...)

In addition, Mat Whitaker, The Don’s new man of justice, served on the advisory board of a Florida company that a federal judge shut down last year and fined nearly $26 million after the government accused it of scamming customers.

The company, World Patent Marketing, “bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars” by promising inventors lucrative patent agreements, according to a complaint filed in Florida by the Federal Trade Commission. Its activities are being investigated by the F.B.I, which by the way, report to Whitaker. Conflict of interest?

So what we have in Mr. Whitaker is a scam artist who is disinterested in the truth. Sound like someone else you know? According to conservative legal scholars-one being Kelly Anne Conway’s husband (man, they must have great sex or maybe a passion for the great romantic poet, John Keats for them to be in the same house together!), Whitaker’s appointment is unconstitutional and he is an illegitimate Attorney General. Sounds like a president you know? Two peas in a pod!

But let’s go back to the midterms.

We have Steve King, the avowed White Supremacist, known for his unabashed support of white supremacy winning re-election in Iowa.* One thing is for sure, as Jew, I won’t be planning any vacations to Sioux city or Ames, Iowa. I advise blacks, Latinos and all other non-whites to take a pass, no matter what kind of deals Travelocity is offering. Imagine getting a promo that says: “Go to America’s heartland for an adventure of a life time. Go where White Supremacy lives!”

And how about the two Republican Congressman, Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, who are facing indictments for unsavory shenanigans getting reelected. Can you vote on bills that come before the House from prison? Do your constituents have to lodge their complaints through a glass window through a phone?

“So what are you going to do about the potholes on my street?”

Just about right now, I need to go on line and have a therapy session.

Ok, my session terminated I’m back. My avatar said that I should not be so negative, that I should be hopeful.

I must say I found the avatar patronizing.

Despite the fact that the Democratic Senate candidates received 44 million votes overall to the republican candidates 32 million, the Republican gained seats. It’s not fair! It’s not fair! It’s not fair! Yes, I m stamping my feet and having a temper tantrum. Time for another session? Be right back.

My avatar said I should look for the positive and not focus on the negative. Find the silver linings. Actually, when I think about it there were many silver linings and reasons for hope.

The Democrats as of the writing of this piece are poised to win more than 40 seats. Finally there will be a way of holding The Don accountable! The group of Democrats elected will represent the most diversified ever. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a new wave of diversity that will lead our country in to a future where all people, not just white males have voice in our democracy. So here’s to diversity and the American dream.

Ayanna Pressley: Massachusetts’ first black woman in Congress

Jahana Hayes: Connecticut’s first black woman in Congress

Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids: America’s first Native American women in Congress

Veronica Escobar/Sylvia Garcia: Texas’ first Latinas in Congress

Rashida Tlaib/Ilhan Omar: America’s first Muslim women in Congress

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: America’s youngest woman ever elected to Congress

Sharice Davids, a lesbian Native American elected to Congress in Kansas.

Also, a shout out to Beto, Stacy Abrams and Andrew Gillum who may have lost (though a recount in Florida and perhaps Georgia may yet bring victory) for showing us how with more grass organizing a left leaning candidate can win in states  The Don carried in 2016.

I think I’ll trash the avatar and just repeat their names when despair descends.

  *A few of Steve King’s greatest hits:

“One of the great things about America is we’ve been unified by a common language. That common language, of course, is English. Our language is getting subdivided by some forces of the federal government. It is time to speak with a common voice. The argument that diversity is our strength has really never been backed up by logic. It’s unity is where our strength is. Our Founding Fathers understood that. Modern-day multiculturalists are defying that.”

“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that — they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” King said. “Those people would be legalized with the same [DREAM] act.”

            from WordPress https://ift.tt/2PqS9OE via IFTTT

NEW YORK  | A New York Republican ex-con fights to return to Congress

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/NNrl6C

NEW YORK  | A New York Republican ex-con fights to return to Congress

NEW YORK  — Michael Grimm doesn’t want to talk about his time in prison. He just wants your vote.

The former Republican congressman from New York City’s Staten Island is fighting his party, his president and the stigma of a felony conviction in a no-holds-barred primary June 26.

Just two years out of prison, the amateur boxer with a fiery temper wants his old job back. And he has a legitimate chance to seize the nomination from the incumbent, Dan Donovan.

Just don’t ask Grimm about his time behind bars for tax fraud.

“I’m done talking about it,” Grimm said in a recent Associated Press interview, blaming his seven-month stay in a federal prison on a politically motivated Justice Department under the Obama administration. “It’s a closed chapter in my life. I’m looking to the future.”

President Donald Trump spotlighted the race this past week with a Twitter endorsement of Donovan, warning that a Grimm primary victory would risk losing the GOP’s only U.S. House seat in the city.

“Remember Alabama,” Trump wrote, likening Grimm to Republican Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate who was nominated even despite being accused of molesting teenage girls and who lost the general election to a Democrat in the GOP stronghold.

Trump’s decision to step into New York’s turbulent GOP primary tests the strength of his influence in his hometown’s only conservative pocket. The 11th Congressional District covers the quiet streets of Staten Island as well as a slice of southern Brooklyn.

It is truly the heart of New York’s Trump country, and is home to many white working-class voters — police officers, firefighters and hairdressers — who have sent a Republican to Washington for most of the past decade.

Donovan, a 61-year-old former public prosecutor, isn’t shy about highlighting Grimm’s criminal history.

“Once you betray the community you don’t get a second chance,” Donovan told the AP as he toured the district this past week. “This race comes down to integrity: Who can the public trust?”

Grimm, 48, is a former Marine and FBI agent who represented the area from 2011 to 2015.

He survived a political firestorm in 2014 after his violent threat against a reporter on Capitol Hill was caught on video. A year later, Grimm was forced to resign after pleading guilty to felony tax fraud involving a restaurant he partially owned before going to Congress.

In an interview, Grimm suggested that Donovan dangled the possibility of a presidential pardon should he abandon his primary challenge. A Donovan spokeswoman denied the claim.

A spokeswoman for Trump, who pardoned one conservative supporter this past week and is contemplating other pardons, did not respond to questions about a possible pardon for Grimm, who insists his harsh sentence was politically motivated.

Does Grimm want a pardon?

“Of course! I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t, especially in my circumstances,” Grimm told the AP.

While Grimm’s criminal history is a central issue in the race, so is Trump.

As in other Republican primary contests this year, the New York candidates have sparred over the strength of their loyalty to the Republican president.

Donovan, who has been active in New York City politics for decades, notes that Trump has endorsed him six times over his political career. Yet Donovan has had to explain voting against Trump’s tax overhaul and plan to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law.

“I vote with Trump 90 percent of the time,” Donovan said. “I vote with my constituents 100 percent of the time.”

Grimm’s campaign released a new TV ad on Friday that says: “Every time it mattered, Dan Donovan voted against President Trump.”

“Look, if they want a guy like Dan Donovan, who’s about as exciting as a wet noodle, to represent them, they already have that,” Grimm said in the interview. “I’m a Marine. Guys like me don’t charge into combat because we don’t have an aggressive personality.”

He added: “I’m a fighter in every way.”

On Staten Island, voters have strong opinions about Grimm’s personality and his baggage.

Outside Tony’s Brick Oven pizzeria on Bay Street, 61-year-old Victor Aasen said he’s definitely voting for Donovan.

“The other guy is just full of drama,” Aasen said, citing Grimm’s threat against the reporter in Washington. “He’s a hot head.”

Later, Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Officers Association, railed against Grimm’s background after endorsing Donovan.

“I think it’s a disgrace for someone who’s a convicted felon to run for office,” Quirk said. “He should be ashamed of himself.”

Yet evidence of Grimm’s appeal across the district is easy to find.

His red, white and blue campaign signs are plastered along businesses and homes up and down Staten Island’s main streets. Constituents talk openly about his dedication to the district after Superstorm Sandy, which caused damage that’s still being repaired in some cases.

Grimm is an aggressive campaigner who insists he can win simply by outworking his opponent.

At Andrew’s Diner, he hugged a boy in a wheelchair and promised to write a letter of recommendation for another who hoped to go to West Point.

“I really feel that he was railroaded,” 81-year-old Bob Demarest said of Grimm as he waited for his pancakes. “I want him back.”

It’s unlikely that the president will visit the district on Donovan’s behalf. With far more consequential races across the country this fall, Trump is expected to focus his time and energy attacking vulnerable Democratic Senate candidates in Republican-leaning states.

Grimm, who says he maintains connections in the White House, recommends that Trump stay out of Staten Island.

“If I was legitimately advising the president, which I’m not, but if I was, I would say, ‘Stay out of a race like this because I don’t see how it would benefit him to get into such a contentious race,'” Grimm said. “By going into the race, he puts himself in a situation where he’s going to lose.”

__

By STEVE PEOPLES, By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (Z.S)

___

Wold: Cordray defeats kucinich in Ohio, blankenship loses in West Virginia

WASHINGTON — Republicans narrowly averted political disaster in the West Virginia Senate primary Tuesday with the defeat of former coal executive Don Blankenship while mainstream Democrats fended off a liberal insurgent in the Ohio governor’s race, bringing relief to the establishment of both parties on a day of elections in four states.

But Washington Republicans were handed a stinging defeat in North Carolina, where Rep. Robert Pittenger was defeated by Mark Harris, a pastor who made his name denouncing same-sex marriage. The unexpected setback is likely to jolt congressional Republicans yet again and underscore that their fragile House majority is the party’s most vulnerable front in 2018.

In the West Virginia Senate primary, Blankenship came in a distant third after an eleventh-hour intervention by President Donald Trump coordinated by Senate Republicans. They saw Blankenship as unelectable and unworthy of the Senate, given that he served a year in prison in connection with a mining disaster in 2010 that killed 29 men, and made racially offensive comments during the campaign.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey won the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin III, one of the most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election this year.

Blankenship, speaking to reporters Tuesday night, said he believed a hostile tweet by Trump may have cost him 10 percentage points or more in the race. After the May 1 debate, he maintained, all three candidates’ internal surveys showed him surging into the lead.

“That might have been the Trump impact,” he said of his loss. “When you’re 84 percent positive like he is, it can be big.”

In a hard-fought battle in Ohio between two liberal Democrats, Richard Cordray, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, won the party’s nomination in the governor’s race over the former congressman and presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich.

The victory by Cordray, who was endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and drew strong labor support, came as a relief to many Democrats who saw Kucinich as likely to lose in the fall, given his sharply left-wing views and ties to a group sympathetic to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Cordray will compete against Mike DeWine, the state attorney general, who claimed the Republican nomination after an aggressive challenge from Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.

“This victory happened for a reason,” Cordray told supporters at a hotel in downtown Columbus, as they cheered and waved campaign signs. “You demanded change and we heard you and we want the same.”

Echoing a campaign message that focused largely on helping the little guy, he promised to continue fighting for “kitchen-table issues that people across Ohio told us were on their minds,” including access to affordable health care and spreading out economic opportunity.

Another Ohio contest, however, was more on the minds of Washington Republicans: the nomination battle for the Columbus-area seat vacated by former Rep. Pat Tiberi. State Sen. Troy Balderson, who enjoyed support from Tiberi, narrowly defeated business executive Melanie Leneghan, a conservative with backing from members of the House Freedom Caucus, in a contest that became a proxy war between party factions.

National Republicans were considering not competing in the special election had Leneghan won, but now they will likely aggressively target Franklin County Recorder Danny O’Connor, the Democratic nominee, in what has been a conservative-leaning district. A special election will be held in August.

In the race for the House seat left open by Rep. James Renacci of Ohio, a Republican who easily won the nomination to face Sen. Sherrod Brown, former NFL wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez defeated state Rep. Christina Hagan in a contest where establishment-aligned Republicans also grew nervous and poured money in to lift Gonzalez.

Indiana Republicans settled a bloody Senate primary among three largely indistinguishable candidates, selecting Mike Braun, a wealthy former state legislator and business executive, to challenge Sen. Joe Donnelly, a first-term Democrat. Braun campaigned successfully as a political outsider, though his business record is likely to face closer scrutiny in the general election. Donnelly is another vulnerable Democrat in the Senate this year, and Trump is scheduled to campaign against him on Thursday.

“We seem to be in the era of the outsider, said John Hammond, a lawyer and member of the Republican National Committee from Indiana. “That message along with it being extremely well funded, he outspent the other campaigns 2-1.”

And in a low-profile election distinguished only by a famous last name, Greg Pence, the vice president’s brother, claimed the Republican nomination in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District. Pence, who vacuumed up campaign funds from national donors close to his brother, is the strong favorite to win what was his brother’s old seat.

North Carolina did not have any major statewide elections, but voters there delivered the biggest upset of the night: Pittenger, a third-term Republican, was defeated by Harris, a pastor who nearly unseated the congressman in the 2016 primary there.

The first incumbent to lose renomination this year, Pittenger sought to repel Harris by enthusiastically embracing Trump. But he found little support in return from the administration.

Republicans were already concerned about holding the Charlotte-to-Fayetteville-area seat — Democratic nominee Dan McCready was outraising Pittenger — and now must decide how aggressively to support Harris. McCready had over $1.2 million in the bank as of last month while Harris had just $70,000.

In Ohio, Cordray’s victory in the Democratic primary marks an important initial success in his return to electoral politics after serving for most of a decade in the Obama administration.

His success also demonstrated a show of strength for Warren and unions against the more far-left elements of the party, including some of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ allies who had endorsed Kucinich. (Sanders, I-Vt. did not make an endorsement in the race.) Should Cordray win this November, it will give Democrats a foothold back in a battleground state that has been drifting to the right in recent years.

A former Ohio attorney general who was defeated for re-election in 2010, Cordray faced stiff opposition in his political homecoming, most notably from Kucinich, a flamboyant 71-year-old former congressman and Cleveland mayor who is aligned with the far left.

Despite collecting endorsements from powerful labor unions and campaigning alongside Warren — a hero to liberals — Cordray struggled at times to inspire enthusiasm from rank and file Democratic voters.

And after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February, Cordray agonized over having taken conservative stances on gun control in the past; he had even earned the endorsement of the National Rifle Association in 2010.

Yet Cordray ultimately had far broader appeal than Kucinich, who also flailed in the final weeks of the race to explain his past praise of Trump and his decision to accept $20,000 from a group supportive of Assad. (After attempting to dismiss questions about the fee, he eventually returned the money.)

Cordray will confront a tougher and more conventional opponent in DeWine. A longtime political hand in Ohio and Washington, DeWine is a powerful fundraiser with a record of running toward the center in difficult elections. DeWine is likely to benefit, somewhat paradoxically, from both Trump’s strength in the state and the popularity of the outgoing governor, John Kasich, a Republican who ran against Trump in 2016 and is one of the president’s most insistent critics.

The burden will be on Cordray to show that his populist message and soft-spoken persona can resonate in a state where Republicans have held the governorship for all but four years since the early 1990s.

But the most closely watched race — and, for Republicans, the most anxiety-inducing one — was in West Virginia, where Blankenship threatened to again torpedo the party’s chances for success in a red-state Senate seat.

Claiming victory Tuesday night, Morrisey quickly turned to what is likely to be the centerpiece of his campaign: driving a wedge between Manchin and Trump.

“When President Trump needed Joe Manchin’s help on so many issues, Sen. Manchin said no,” Morrisey said.

In his own statement, Manchin vowed that the campaign would be “about bringing people together who care about making life better for Americans who work hard for a paycheck.”

Trump had remained quiet about the primary race even as Blankenship began attacking Republican leaders, such as referring to the family of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell, as the majority leader’s “China family” and calling McConnell himself “Cocaine Mitch.”

But after a telephone call Sunday with McConnell, and on the advice of his own aides, Trump finally waded into the race with a tweet Monday morning aimed at West Virginians.

“Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can’t win the General Election in your State…No way!” Trump wrote, before encouraging voters to support either of Blankenship’s opponents.

Trump also invoked the last time Republicans gave away a Senate seat by nominating a flawed candidate, an event that he suggested would live in political infamy. “Remember Alabama,” he wrote, alluding to the party’s nomination of former state judge Roy S. Moore, who lost a special election after a series of women emerged to accuse him of making sexual advances on them when they were teenagers.

Blankenship faced a series of attacks from Republican groups aligned with McConnell for his role in the explosion and was also criticized for keeping his official residence in Las Vegas and refusing to fully disclose his extensive financial holdings.

But while Morrisey and another candidate, Rep. Evan Jenkins, attacked one another, and a Democratic super PAC assailed Jenkins, Blankenship’s poll numbers crept back up.

By last weekend, when it became clear that he was a threat to win and imperil the party’s one-seat Senate majority, Republican officials determined the moment had come for Trump to step in.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS © 2018 The New York Times

from pulse.ng – Nigeria’s entertainment & lifestyle platform online https://ift.tt/2FXGLAh via IFTTT

The post Wold: Cordray defeats kucinich in Ohio, blankenship loses in West Virginia appeared first on Ibprosoft.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2IpDHSM via IFTTT

The Kate and Clint Adventures- Adventure 2: The Plaza (Video)

View On WordPress

Donate to Doa'a and Receive a Special Thank You Gift!

Super Heroes, I’m pleased to announce that whenever you make a tax-deductible donation thru the PayPal Giving Fund to help out our Doa’a, you will be able to receive some thank you gifts as a small token of our appreciation for your generosity. For a generous tax-deductible donation of $30, you can receive a copy of “Songs for Doa’a”- a book of songs that I’ve written over the years that I put…

View On WordPress

The Kate and Clint Adventures- Adventure 1: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Video)

View On WordPress

Origin of "The Kate and Clint Adventures" (Video)

View On WordPress

Wish Doa'a a Happy Birthday on Sunday, July 23!

Super Heroes, I’m pleased as punch to announce that we are going to be throwing a birthday party for our sweet Doa’a on Sunday July 23. And I really hope that you all can come join in the fun! Come down to the Sylvester Powell Community Center (6200 Martway Mission, KS 66202) between 12 and 4 pm on Sunday July 23 and help send birthday greetings to our Doa’a! (Note: Doa’a’s actual birthday is…

View On WordPress

Meet Doa’a Al-Dalou! (Updated)

Where do you live? Palestine – Gaza When is Your Birthday? July 27 What are the names of your mom and dad? My papa is Emad, and my mama is Intisar. What are the names of your brothers and sisters? My brothers are Shadi and Mohammed. And my sister is Nida. Featured in this photo are from left to right: Mohammed, Shadi, Doa’a, Emad, Intisar, and Nida Do you have any aunts and uncles, cousins,…

View On WordPress

May 17th Edition of Wednesday Updates

View On WordPress

Announcing the Vote Marvel Campaign!

View On WordPress