August 31, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
Top Democratic contenders all beat Donald Trump big in 2020
A new national Quinnipiac University poll was just released, and with the results Donald Trump couldn't win city dog catcher. His recent behavior almost seems like the Oval Office lunatic wants to go home to his beloved Trump Tower. It would suit most Americans--and many foreign countries--just fine. Here's where things stand today...
"former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all lead President Donald Trump by significant margins in potential 2020 matchups."
Here are some numbers...
"Biden is ahead of Trump by the most (16 points, 54% to 38%), while Buttigeg is up by the least (9 points, 49% to 40%)."
Quinnipiac University poll explained...
Now, in Biden's case, he has regularly led Trump, sometimes significantly like now, but Buttigeg is the shocker leading T-rump by 9 points. CNN Politics summarizes...
"Trump's worst poll against any of the top five Democrats at this point is 5 points worse than the worst poll for any incumbent since World War II against his eventual challenger. It's 12 points worse against his most likely challenger, Biden."
August 30, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES,,,Where Liberals Walk
Your official sites to boycott Donald Trump's reelection
CVS Pharmacy is one of Donald Trump's major donors to his 2020 reelection campaign. CVS is obviously one of the largest drug chains in America, one you can depend on in your neighborhood. Don't go there. Walgreen's is probably closer and cheaper anyway. The Out site is saying, "you may want to reconsider your next CVS visit"...
"The hashtag #BoycottCVS began trending on Thursday following news the company plans to cut reimbursements for women who receive birth control through the mail, which led to swift condemnations from groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America."
That's definitely enough but there's more...
"that might not be the only reason for CVS customers to join the campaign. CVS Health Corp. is allegedly one of the largest donors to the president’s reelection campaign. The report was originally published in the Wall Street Journal in February 2018, and the Federal Election Commission website shows they gave $35,000 to the Trump Victory PAC."
And that's not all. You might want to rethink your enlistment in the U.S. Army which gave Trump $37,272, or the U.S. Air Force, a $20,188 contributor, or the U.S. Navy, my alma mater, $25,474. When you fly, just remember that American Airlines donated $28,160. United Airlines $17,619, and if you do fly, stay away from all Boeing planes, $25,851. In doing your banking, you want to snub Wells Fargo who contributed $32,714.
But you would hope the U.S. Postal Service, always begging for money, would think better about giving T-rump $29,642. Can't go to United Parcel Service (UPS) because of their $17,932 contribution. Even the US Dept of Veterans Affairs, which is letting its patients die, kicked in $18,875. Go to Verizon if you are an AT&T customer who donated $25,317, and insurance carrier State Farm coughed up $20,605 to the Oval Office lunatic.
- Bang
- inn n out
- chick fil a
- Taco Bell
- McDonald’s
- Wendy’s
- KFC
- Pizza Hut
- Olive Garden
- Waffle House
- IHOP
- Carl’s Jr.
Depending on how serious you are about your political persuasion, there is a new company, Progressive Shopper, that provides political spending from hundreds of major brands. Here's the scenario...
"The site shows shoppers what percentage of a company’s political spending went to Democrats and Republicans in the 2018 and 2016 election cycles. If a company is deemed too far in the red, Progressive Shopper offers a list of competitors where you might also find that sweater or sofa, but from a more left-leaning brand. So far, co-founders Mark Hanis and Van Chappell have culled data from more than 500 companies -- from Walmart to T-Mobile to General Motors."
Just another way us Progressives can show our teeth and beat the scourge of Donald Trump in 2020.
August 30, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell: The epitome of corruption
uh oh...What will Donald Trump say?
Here's a monumental laugh: Mitch McConnell to Supreme Court: We won’t let Dems 'pack the court,' said, no doubt, with a straight face. This slimeball appears to be almost as out of touch with reality as Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell has done more to destroy the U.S. Congress than all of the other members combined. His mission is to block anything the left proposes, no matter the value or urgency. Election security bills and gun control legislation most recently.
Here's the scenario...
"McConnell blocked President Barack Obama from filling a vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, then confirmed President Donald Trump’s replacement Neil Gorsuch a year later after eliminating the filibuster for the Supreme Court nominees."
There's more...
"Last year, McConnell pushed through the controversial confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, who faced allegations of sexual assault. Kavanaugh is widely viewed as more conservative than his predecessor, Anthony Kennedy. McConnell has also said he would consider filling any vacancies ahead of the 2020 election as well, despite having blocked Obama’s pick in an election year."
Bernie Sanders Goes After Mitch McConnell on His Home Turf...
He has been called Moscow Mitch and a Russian asset, both of which are appropriate for someone who has made sure the 2020 election is wide open to Soviet hacking due to the lack of new protection laws that he opposed. With any luck at all, McConnell will lose his seat in Kentucky. We can then wipe this most dismal of experiences clean with a Democratic majority in the Senate and be rid of perhaps the most corrupt politician that has ever come to Washington.
"The Federal Election Commission (FEC) — intended to be a group of no more than three Democrats and no more than three Republicans overseeing the federal campaign finance system — has been operating with just a bare quorum of four for the past 18 months. With the resignation of Vice Chairman Matthew Petersen, at the end of the week, the commission will be virtually paralyzed."
The FEC has two important functions that are sorely needed, especially with Donald Trump in the White House: auditing campaign filings, and investigating corruption. With just three active members, it will be able to do none of that. Eleanor Clift of The Daily Beast said: "For the Sake of Our Democracy, We Must Ditch Mitch McConnell"...
What to do? All roads lead to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, who won’t allow debate on remedies for gun violence and refuses to take up gun-control legislation passed by the House to expand background checks.
Can Amy McGrath unseat Mitch McConnell...
He was heckled recently on home turf at a church picnic in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, where he was called, "Moscow Mitch," "Murder Turtle," and "Massacre Mitch." As with Donald Trump, the more the screws are turned, the more McConnell climbs the walls. Here's an example of Mitch McConnell supporters that seem to closely mirror those of Donald Trump...
"At Team Mitch, it's been business as usual. Just hours after the El Paso shooting, the campaign tweeted a photo of a single tombstone bearing the name of McConnell’s Democratic challenger. Another tweet shows seven grinning young white men in “Team Mitch” T-shirts pawing a cardboard cutout of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez with the caption, 'break me off a piece of that.'”
This prompts repeating, " The dregs of humanity: Mitch McConnell."
You can read several of my posts on McConnellhere.
August 29, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
How Donald Trump is suffering for 2020
Donald Trump's anti-black supporters
Anti-black voters were an important asset to the Donald Trump campaign in 2016, as he encouraged racism, something that has been centerpiece since winning the White House. Without these voters T-rump could be in trouble as a new wave sweeps the U.S. voting public...
"According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 82 percent of people who reject anti-black ideas said they were strongly interested in voting, up from 70 percent in 2016. In comparison, 75 percent of anti-black voters expressed a strong interest in voting in 2020."
Donald Trump is a confirmed racist, which is replayed weekly, sometime on a daily basis. Just recently he was criticized...
"for racist tweets he sent telling four lawmakers of color — Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — to 'go back' to the 'corrupt' countries they’re from. Shortly after, his supporters chanted 'send her back' as Trump attacked Omar during a rally in North Carolina."
The racism thing seemed to take a backseat during the Obama administration, but reared its ugly head with a roar when the Oval Office lunatic was elected. And it has made the left think about their vote and certain values for the upcoming election. I did two recent posts documenting the appalling incidents of racism occurring around this country you can see here and here. It is the blatant display of this racism since Trump came along that is so troublesome.
How farmers feel about Donald Trump...
There is another angle on Donald Trump's loss of followers for 2020, the farmers of the U.S. who solidly supported him in 2016, but who are now "reeling from plunging prices and unsold crops during what is now more than a year-long trade war with China." And then most recently T-rump made the decision to allow more oil refiners to skirt biofuel laws and use less corn-based ethanol. At recent campaign stops Joe Biden has said the trade war was “crushing” American farmers.
There's more...
"A round of more bad news for farmers last week, including extra tariffs Beijing announced on soybeans and other key U.S. agricultural exports, gave Democrats a fresh opening to attack Trump. He gave regulators the green light to grant exemptions to more than 30 small refineries so they can use less ethanol, Democratic candidates pounced on it as evidence Trump favors the oil industry."
5 top Democrats would beat Donald Trump today...
Donald dufus appears to be searching seriously for ways to lose the 2020 election with his bizarre actions that seem to be really pissing off American voters. And based on some recent figures, it definitely isn't the time to screw around with voters. Just recently AlterNet accused Trump of lying again about his approval numbers with Republicans. But his is how it really is...
"He says that he has 94 percent approval with them, and at one point, he actually did poll that well. But recent surveys from Monmouth, Zogby Analytics, AP-NORC, and Fox News all show him polling significantly lower than that. It appears that his support has been slipping and is now somewhere in the low-to-mid eighties."
There's more...
"The above might still sound impressive, but his approval with Democrats is in the low single digits, and he’s polling in the thirties-to-low forties with independents. He actually needs to be doing better with his base to compensate for this."
Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast comments...
"If Trump were telling the truth about having 94 percent support from the GOP base, he’d be in reasonable shape, although Romney lost pretty badly at 93 percent."
How many U.S. presidents have actually lied themselves through a reelection?
August 28, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
Has Alzheimer's raised its ugly head in the White House?
The 25th Amendment...
"allows for the removal of a president if the vice president and a majority of Cabinet secretaries agree in writing that the commander in chief is 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.'”
“I don't understand how elected public servants of the longest-standing Republican democracy in existing world history, a 243-year-old Republican democracy could have this sort of full-blown insanity on display and not act.”
Think what you might about Trump's former White House communications director, and George Conway, for that matter, but each is turning some very important screws into T-rump's hide that psychiatrists say could help bring about his meltdown. CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says...
“I’m not nearly smart enough to know what is going on inside of Anthony Scaramucci’s brain, but I do know he’s not an elected official, and what will matter is when Republican elected officials who are running for re-election start criticizing the president,” said Toobin. “Because that is going to indicate that they believe the Republican Party is moving away from him.”
Donald Trump is a lunatic...
“Jeff Flake and Bob Corker are senators who criticized the president. The only Republican running for re-election who has gone on record saying he opposes the president is Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan — and he became an independent last month. Paul Krugman regularly criticizes Donald Trump along with the Republican Party tweeting recently...
“it’s not clear whether Trump is getting any crazier. It’s just that events have stopped accommodating his madness.”
But that could end soon with the economy slipping prompting this Krugman comment...
"I mean, no recession yet, no major market plunge, just a modest slowdown (so far) — he’s disintegrating before our eyes. And the closest thing we have to a grownup on the scene is the Lego Batman guy [Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin].”
God help us if Mnuchin is it. Krugman continues...
“Again, not clear whether Trump is any crazier than he was; maybe he’s deteriorating, but is calling Powell an enemy notably worse than the stuff about crowd sizes at his inaugural and refusing to admit he lost the popular vote?”
Trump is now being compared with Ronald Reagan and his onset of Alzheimer's that was covered up by the White House. It was MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley who said...
"she is no doctor, but that there are signs of the president’s decline that reminded her of how Ronald Reagan’s White House hid his Alzheimer’s from the public."
One of our family went through a parent suffering with the disease and said that Trump's actions now are very similar to her mother. Tragic, but this must be addressed immediately.
August 28, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
Will Deutsche Bank finally impeach Donald Trump?
Maddow-Trump-O'Donnell...The Interview
Controversial MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell qualified right up front that his story re. Donald Trump's Deutsche Bank loans were co-signed by Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin had only one source and needed further confirmation. But additional information from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and tax expert David Cay Johnston sheds more light on a story that promises to be quite interesting, if not explosive. Here's the scenario...
O'Donnell, appearing on the network Tuesday night with host Rachel Maddow, said that "this single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump — Donald Trump's loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That's how he was able to obtain those loans. And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs."
O'Donnell added...
"If true, that would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin."
But what is more interesting is David Cay Johnston's take on the issue...
“If Deutsche Bank has Donald Trump’s tax returns, isn’t the only purpose for a bank to have tax returns is for loans?” O’Donnell asked. “Is there — I can’t think of any other reason why the bank would have his tax returns.”
Deutsche Bank wants to turn over Trump tax returns to House...
O'Donnell spars back and forth with Johnson on Trump's investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives, which is seeking information from Deutsche Bank in a Russian money-laundering investigation. O'Donnell followed...
“If those loan documents show co-signers, let’s just go to that, your understanding of Donald Trump’s finances by the time he’s trying to get loans from Deutsche Bank after every other bank has turned him down. Would it make sense that he needs co-signers at that point?”
Johnson replied, "Oh, absolutely."
O'Donnell then wants to know why Trump would pursue a loan with Russian co-signers?...
“Well, it would be the best place for him to go and it fits with the family’s own public statements — that they’ve tried to walk back since — about getting lots of assets from Russia.”
But, as the TV commercials say, 'Wait, there's more'...
"Donald may well have other backers. The next places to look would be the Saudis, the Emiratis and perhaps some people in Turkey, given Michael Flynn, his National Security Adviser, having been on the payroll illegally of Turkish interests when he was in the White House.”
Lawrence O'Donnell's statement on Trump Russian-backed loans...
Donald Trump's obsession with money seems endless, and with no ethical parameters whatsoever. Bob Brigham of RawStory reports...
"Fast-tracked impeachment hearings will occur this fall if the bombshell report is true that President Donald Trump had loans with Deutsche Bank co-signed by Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin."
Does anyone else agree that now we have come full circle with the Mueller Report detailing investigations of Russian interference with the 2016 elections? Stemming from those hearings were other accusations of Trump family improprieties with Russia featuring Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. However, although the source for Lawrence O'Donnell is close to Deutsche Bank, nothing is final in this story until additional sources come forward. We can only hope.
August 28, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk
Republicans shirk gun control, thus, killing innocent people
NRA/Gun worshippers
A vacuum is defined as a space in which there is no matter, and that is where the gun control movement stands today...in a vacuum. And we can thank Republicans for leading the battle against responsible gun laws. Innocent lives don't matter to these gun nuts, their weapons are sacrosanct over the killing of innocent Americans. Max Boot of The Washington Post asks, "What the hell is wrong with us?" He expounds...
"Less than a month after a white supremacist allegedly killed 51 people in Christchurch on March 15, New Zealand’s Parliament voted, 119 to 1, to make the possession of assault weapons illegal. Gun owners have until the end of September to turn in their weapons as part of a buyback program or face five years in prison. More than 10,000 firearms have already been turned in."
Let's do some math. New Zealand's population is 4,885,300, the U.S. 329 million, 66 times larger. If 10,000 guns were turned in in New Zealand, might we expect to get 660,000 guns off the streets of the U.S. And that's only a drop in the bucket of the 393 million guns spread out over this country. Not even sure if it would help and am very skeptical over America's gun huggers turning over their cherished weaponry. Max Boot continues...
"By contrast, at least 59 people have been killed in mass shootings this year (and more than 9,000 in other shootings, not counting suicides) and yet we are no closer to banning assault-style weapons. These were the weapons of choice of mass murderers in Newtown, Conn.; Aurora, Colo.; San Bernardino, Calif.; Sutherland Springs, Tex.; Las Vegas; Parkland, Fla.; Pittsburgh; Poway, Calif.; El Paso; and Dayton, Ohio."
Trump pulls the trigger in gun violence...
Although 70% of voters and 54 percent of Republicans support banning these weapons of war, T-rump claims there is no “political appetite” for such action. He wouldn't because the NRA's head gun nut wouldn't let him. But not all Republicans are for gun rights. "Suburban women in some swing House districts overwhelmingly want tighter gun laws," says Ella Nilsen of Vox. And the cry for background checks comes from 90% of U.S. citizens.
"Fox News host Steve Hilton is blasting National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre, calling him "an odious little grifter" who needs to be shown the door," reports The Hill. Three board members and three top attorneys have recently resigned from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). Not too long ago, Dick's Sporting Goods removed guns from all their stores and reports now their sales are climbing. Guns do kill and as we slowly get rid of them, the U.S, will be a better place to live in.
