All posts in February 2020

This is a big change to state law, which had allowed local governments to add new war monuments, but not to remove, alter, or move existing ones. They can’t add placards describing them, explaining why they were erected, or putting them in the context of Virginia’s history. New legislation in the House would give latitude to…

Donald Trump has already demonstrated an extraordinary willingness to use his pardon powers to excuse his allies of any wrongdoing. He has pardoned racist former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for charges of contempt of court. He dipped back into a former round of Republican wrongdoing to pardon Scooter Libby on multiple counts of perjury. He pardoned far-right propagandist…

Daily Kos Staff Tuesday February 11, 2020 · 5:53 AM PST 2020/02/11 · 05:53 After the Iowa fiasco, everyone in New Hampshire who cares about politics even a little is rubbing their hands in glee, ready to seize the moment when their state shoots past Iowa in the race to be the small white rural state…

Lipinski beat Newman 51-49 in 2018, but he doesn’t enjoy anything like the financial advantage he had two years ago. Lipinski held an $868,000 to $628,000 cash-on-hand lead at the end of 2019, which is considerably smaller than his $1.6 million to $237,000 edge at the close of 2017. Unlike last cycle, though, there’s another…

The government has established several categories to gauge the unemployment rate. The one most media focus 90% of their attention on is labeled U3. This counts as unemployed those jobless people who have looked for work sometime during the past four weeks without getting hired. The rate in January was 3.6%. U6 covers both unemployment, underemployment, and discouraged…

Bloomberg reports that Vindman would likely be rotated to the Department of Defense, ending his time at the White House several months early, and says, “The White House intends to portray any house-cleaning as part of a downsizing of the NSC staff,” according to two sources “familiar with the matter.” There’s no word on what will happen…

Campaign Action Suffolk County Director of Health Education Nancy Hemendinger announced Wednesday that she would run despite failing to get the endorsement of the county party chairs the previous day. Hemendinger has worked in the department for 36 years, and this appears to be her first run for office. Assemblyman Mike LiPetri also said the…

Preexisting conditions: One of Trump’s biggest, most important outright lies during the SOTU was that “We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions.” It cannot be emphasized enough what a flaming lie this is. The Trump administration is backing a court case that would completely overturn the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for people with…

Pelosi sought to shift attention from Trump’s reality TV State of the Union to his real governing priorities: his budget, which will show “the stark reality of his agenda.”  “A federal budget should be a statement of our national values, and the President has sadly shown that he does not value the good health of…

Remember what a disaster America was under Barack Obama? You know, when the economy was growing faster, millions more people had health care, the environment was protected, and the deficit was a trillion dollars smaller? Yeah, that hellscape.   But just as the tea party movement sprang into existence on a raft of instant amnesia over George…