By Pat Staley
Once upon a time in the land of Glitz and Glam, there lived a royal family whose wealth and fame were unparalleled. King Ima Chump, aka Man-Baby, ruled over this illusion. King Chump had two distinctive physical characteristics. One was his meringue-like mane of hair that changed colors like a mood ring, and the other were his teeny-tiny hands that could barely hold a Swarovski champagne flute. But his massive ego offset his miniature paws; it was yuuuuge and amazing. [Read more…]
Faced with increasingly bad polling news and chafing as he read pre-sanitized speeches on teleprompters, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has again revamped his campaign leadership.
After vacillating between being a traditional candidate and staying with the rabble-rousing style evidenced during the primaries, Trump looks to be going with a full-on angry white man approach.
The non-family inner circle for the New York billionaire now includes Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser and pollster already in the organization and Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News. Reports have also surfaced that Roger Ailes, the recently ousted head of Fox News, will begin to advise Trump as he prepares for the presidential debates. [Read more…]
A joint committee of the California Legislature has authorized an audit of the Commission on Judicial Performance, the only entity that can discipline or remove a state judge.
A coalition of two dozen groups reflecting a wide range of interests, led by the Center for Judicial Excellence wrote letters, made calls and sent emails to urge the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) to call for the audit.
“The Center for Public Integrity gave California an ‘F grade’ on its 2015 report card for judicial accountability, said Kathleen Russell, the executive director of the Center for Judicial Excellence in a press release. [Read more…]
In late July, I was at the American Federation of Teachers convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota watching Hillary Clinton address a hall of thousands of educators as a handful of #Black Lives Matters and assorted other protesters tried, unsuccessfully, to disrupt her speech, which inspired a few angry delegates to start yelling, “Get them out! Arrest them!” until a wiser soul chimed in with, “Aren’t we supposed to be different than Trump?”
For the most part, Clinton’s speech was a laundry list of interest group button-pushing, but I was pleased to see how far the primary seemed to have forced her to adopt Sanders-like positions and rhetoric on things like affordable higher education.
At least in that way, the left wing of the Democratic Party has had an impact on the campaign. But as the Democratic Convention later revealed, those gestures to the left are married to the usual triangulation with the right, complete with a safe, conservative Democratic running mate and homages to the military industrial complex worthy of a Republican affair. [Read more…]
The general election is still three months away and Republicans have already lost their first local down-ballot contest.
Republican candidate Ray Ellis has conceded the District One city council seat contest to Democrat Barbara Bry.
This council race was supposed to be the marquee local contest, with the winner’s party having the political balance of power. An up and coming Republican mayor in a big city could have paved the way to a political future for his party. [Read more…]
The presidential contest is looking increasingly bleak for the Grand Old Party, with even Karl Rove saying things are not looking good for the Donald.
The latest Economist/YouGov Poll finds nearly one in three Republicans expect a Clinton victory in November, nearly double the percentage who thought that a week ago. The same poll has 81% of Democrats agreeing with that assessment.
The question both parties are asking is whether or not voters will be willing to split ballots. Some Democrats are even dreaming of their party retaking the House of Representatives. [Read more…]
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has been subpoenaed and is expected to testify in federal district court on Monday at the trial of Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura.
Defense attorney Michael Wynne has been questioning witnesses about the DA’s direct knowledge of illegal campaign contributions and told freelance reporter JC Playford in an on-the-street video about the summons.
Although their initial support for her campaign is at the core of the government case against Azano and his co-conspirators, prosecutors have this far crafted a case that avoids avoiding linking her to any participation or awareness of illegal activities. [Read more…]
If You Don’t Want American Fascism, You Must Vote Democratic
In a great speech at the Democratic convention, President Obama made his case about why we need to elect Hillary Clinton the next President and that we should also elect Democrats “up and down the ticket.” That is very important because Obama himself only had a chance to get his agenda implemented when there was a Democratic filibuster-proof Congress.
Do you remember the high drama surrounding the supermajority that the Democrats supposedly had in 2008 after Obama was elected? Senator Ted Kennedy was ill with brain cancer. His vote was the much needed 60th vote for filibuster-proofness. But he was too sick to vote.
Eventually, Republican Scott Brown was elected to Kennedy’s seat, and Democratic control of Congress ceased because from then on, the Republicans filibustered literally everything. Obama was left to spin his wheels trying to get them to play nice and compromise. It didn’t work, and Obama wasted his time. [Read more…]
Republican Donald Trump gave a speech on economic policy before the Detroit Economic Club on Monday. The appearance was supposed to constitute a reboot of his flagging campaign, recently beset by blunders, bluster, and bullshit.
The candidate mostly stayed on script, reading on despite fourteen interruptions by protesters at pre-planned intervals. There was little actual news in the content of the address unless you want to call out revising his tax cuts to match the ones House Speaker Paul Ryan has been proposing.
Trumpian economics consists of triggering a trade war, drastically increasing the deficit and a massive transfer of wealth to the to already rich, while the rest of us wait for tax deductions we can’t use, along with the same old promises about deregulation/trickle-down as the road to prosperity.
“I want to jump-start America,” Trump said, “and it won’t even be that hard.” [Read more…]
Interview by Jeffrey Siniard / Bolts From The Blue
Bolts From The Blue blogger Jeffrey Siniard reached out to interview SDFP columnist/editor Brent Beltrán to discuss why Barrios Against Stadiums, which he is a part of, opposes a stadium in the East Village. We reprint the interview here in it’s entirety with photos added from a protest against the Chargers stadium held on July 15 in Barrio Logan. [Read more…]
By Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams
Bernie Sanders has again urged his supporters to back Hillary Clinton, writing Friday that “Donald Trump would be a disaster and an embarrassment for our country if he were elected president.”
In an op-ed published at the Los Angeles Times, Sanders contrasts the two leading candidates on everything from tax policy to climate change to healthcare, and says that the “immediate task” of his political revolution is to make sure the real estate mogul doesn’t end up in the White House. [Read more…]
Back in the days when tobacco use was an accepted norm in society, cigarette companies regularly created ad campaigns featuring physicians attesting to the quality of their products.
Opponents of Proposition 64, the California initiative to legalize recreational pot, are being accused of trying to pull a fast one on general election voters by including language in official ballot arguments suggesting that TV ads making marijuana attractive to children are part of the measure.
The Yes on Proposition 64 committee filed suit in Sacramento County Superior Court yesterday, asking a judge to change or delete arguments in opposition to the measure they say include false or misleading language. [Read more…]
