Category: US Politics

Under Obama, a Disaster for the Democrats

The president’s policies have cost his party Congress, governorships, and nearly a thousand seats in state legislatures. Four faithless electors ditched Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College on Monday, double the number who dumped Donald J. Trump.

Bill to jumpstart research, speed up treatment options

A bill signed by President Barack Obama recently is looking to bring medical breakthroughs and tackle some of the largest health challenges facing Americans. Now a law, the 21st Century Cures Act will speed up the federal review process while reducing bureaucracy needed to approve new medical treatment options.

Trump tweets rattle markets, Mideast, nukes

President-elect Donald Trump long ago earned a reputation for being unpredictable in his statements, but he outdid himself on Thursday. In the span of just a few hours, Trump shook international relations by undercutting the Obama administration over a UN resolution on Israeli settlements, indicated he would ramp up nuclear competition with Russia and then jolted a major defense contractor — and its shareholders — by suggesting he would ask Boeing to replace a fighter jet being made by Lockheed Martin.

Hillary Still Losing Voters a ” Even After Election Day

A post-election poll finds that a tiny number of Trump voters have come to regret their vote, while a group four times larger now says they wish they hadn’t voted for Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton. The poll found that fully 99 percent of Trump’s voters would still pull the lever for him if the election were today instead of a month ago, meaning Trump has only lost one percent of support in the six weeks since Election Day, the New York Post reported this week.

Clinton wins popular vote by nearly 2.9 million

Hillary Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump, giving her the largest popular vote margin of any losing presidential candidate. Certified results in all 50 states and the District of Columbia show Clinton winning nearly 65,844,610 million votes – 48 percent – to Trump’s 62,979,636 million votes – 46 percent – according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

“President”Trump On Israel

During the past few years the Israel Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, has met with Republican leaders, interfered with the American conduct of policy in the Middle East on ground that he, and Prime Minister Netanyahu, believe President Obama hates Jews and hates Israel. Under the administration of Barack Obama the nation of Israel has been provided over SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS worth of military assistance, plus money to build a defensive shield against missiles.

Donna’s Signature Pina Coladas

This alluring corner hideaway is on Williamsburg’s south side, where expensive cocktail bars have replaced the dwindling Puerto Rican neighborhood’s once ubiquitous bodegas, barbershops, and social clubs. So it’s fitting, if somewhat tragic, that the clientele drinking Donna’s signature cocktail, a rum-heavy spin on the piA a colada, are more likely to associate it with spring break than with its status as the national drink of America’s largest territory.

The Don of Hardcore Steps Up Again

In a photo published in 1982 by the small zine Maniac!, Paul Hudson, known then as H.R., stood over a pile of bricks and soil in a scraggly garden, his legs spread apart and every inch of his shirtless upper body tightly flexed. He called it his “last official punk pose,” and in the accompanying interview he explained why he was stepping away from his band, Bad Brains, changing his name to Joseph I, and starting a new, Rastafarian-influenced reggae outfit, Zion Train.

Completing August Wilson’s Life Work

August Wilson’s life work was his “Century Cycle,” a ten-play portrait of black life in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, each set in a different decade. Until this month, only one had not played on Broadway: “Jitney,” about gypsy-cab drivers in the seventies.

“Enough Is Better Than a Feast”: Christmas Dinner in the Time of the Great Depression

Andrew Coe and Jane Ziegelman, a husband-and-wife team of authors and food historians, host their dinner parties in a broad Brooklyn Heights kitchen designed to resemble a nineteen-thirties schoolroom: red cupboards, wood counters that groan with the accumulated weight of cookbooks. Although Coe and Ziegelman once co-wrote a history of foie gras, their latest project is “A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression,” a thick volume that examines a complex decade in American dining.

Continuing battle with media, Trump avoids news conference

Less than a month from taking office, President-elect Donald Trump has yet to hold the traditional news conference that most incoming presidents have held within days of their victory. Trump, whose refusal to do news conference has been criticized by journalism groups and media watchdogs, has instead tried to convey his message directly to the American public, bypassing the media with pronouncements at his boisterous rallies and, of course, distributing his thoughts 140 characters at a time on his famed Twitter account.

Release of emails by Chicago mayor doesna t end dispute

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to release thousands of pages of private emails does not end a dispute in Illinois about public access to such emails from him and other officials when they deal with government business. Emanuel announced late Wednesday that he had settled a lawsuit by a government watchdog group over emails from his personal accounts, but it allows him and his personal lawyer to decide which emails are public records and which are not.

License issued for $1B Montana power storage project

A Montana company has been granted a license to build a $1 billion, 400-megawatt power storage project in the central part of the state that would supplement electricity from wind turbines and other sources, according to documents released Thursday by federal regulators. The 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows Absaroka Energy, of Bozeman, Montana, to construct and operate the project on a 177-acre site near the tiny town of Martinsdale, home to fewer than 100 people.

DC subway working on fare card holders with Trump’s image

Washington’s subway system is now working with President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee to produce a commemorative sleeve to hold Inauguration Day fare cards. Metro revealed on Wednesday that the special Inauguration Day passes won’t have Trump’s picture on them, the way the cards honoring President Barack Obama’s did.

North Carolina fails to repeal LGBT law as culture wars rage

Repealing North Carolina’s law limiting LGBT protections at the close of a bitter election year was supposed to heal blows to the economy and perhaps open a truce in the culture wars in at least one corner of the divided United States. The failure of state lawmakers to follow through instead shows how much faith each side has lost in the other, as Americans segregate themselves into communities of us and them, defined by legislative districts that make compromise unlikely.

Senate Dems press Trump’s wealthy picks for financial data

Top Senate Democrats are trying to put the brakes on President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, insisting on extensive financial information on some of the wealthiest Americans before moving forward on nominations. Frustrated by the slow response of billionaires and multimillionaires to their request, 16 Democrats delivered an ultimatum Thursday, saying no committee should vote on a nominee until the individual has cleared an FBI background check, provided a financial report and an ethics agreement with the Office of Government Ethics, and responded to “reasonable requests for additional information” such as tax returns.

States Won by Trump Have Highest ‘Obamacare’ Enrollment

Some 6.4 million people signed up by the mid-December deadline – 400,000 more enrollees than the same period last year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In a twist, the states with the most people selecting coverage all went for Trump in the presidential election: Florida, with just under 1.3 million selections; Texas, with about 776,000; North Carolina, with 369,077; Georgia, with 352,000; and Pennsylvania, with 290,950.

Trump: US must ‘greatly strengthen’ nuclear capability

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly called for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” until the rest of the world “comes to its senses” regarding nuclear weapons. His comments on Twitter came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said strengthening his country’s nuclear capabilities should be a chief military objective in the coming year.

Trump voters will be hurt the most with Obamacare repeal and Democrats have to remind them of that

Donald Trump has won the presidency after narrowly carrying a few states to put him above 270 electoral votes.But according… Senate Republicans refused to give President Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Scalia even the courtesy of a… Liberal bloggers aren’t the only ones sending a strong warning to Democrats about not helping Republicans one iota when it comes to dismantling Obamacare, or their bullshit efforts to “replace” it. Here’s Theda Skocpol , a professor of government and sociology at Harvard and the director of the Scholars Strategy Network: For the Democratic Party, the coming Republican assault on public health insurance represents a huge political opportunity.

Photo credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid defended the unsubstantiated charges he made about Mitt Romney’s tax liability as “necessary” during an interview on Nevada public radio Wednesday. Asked by a caller about the “brazen lie” of claiming the former Republican nominee for president hadn’t paid taxes for a decade, Reid took issue with the characterization and said he spoke the “truth”-though he referenced a separate criticism of Romney, that he didn’t release several years of tax returns, as proof.

Clinton wins popular vote by nearly 2.9 million

In this Dec. 8, 2016 file photo, Hillary Clinton attends a ceremony to unveil a portrait of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Capitol Hill in Washington. Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump, giving her the largest popular vote margin of any losing presidential candidate, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

Sherr named new Greenwich Board of Ed chairman

Board of Education member Peter Sherr, seen here at a 2013 candidates forum, is the new chairman of the school board after a Thursday morning vote by the Board of Selectmen. Board of Education member Peter Sherr, seen here at a 2013 candidates forum, is the new chairman of the school board after a Thursday morning vote by the Board of Selectmen.

Under Israeli pressure, UN vote on settlements postponed

Under heavy Israeli pressure, Egypt on Thursday indefinitely postponed a planned U.N. vote on a proposed Security Council resolution that sought to condemn Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, diplomats and Western officials said, just a few hours before the vote was set to take place. The vote would have been one of the last opportunities for President Barack Obama to take a stand against Israeli settlement building after years of failed peace efforts, but doing so could re-ignite a dispute with a close ally in the waning days of his tenure.

Trump: U.S. must ‘greatly strengthen’ nuclear capability

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly called for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” until the rest of the world “comes to its senses” regarding nuclear weapons. Trump made the statement on Twitter and did not expand on the actions he wants the U.S. to take or on the issues he sees around the world.

Another view: Trumping the environment

Another view: Trumping the environment Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump was elected, the environment is going to suffer. Check out this story on ldnews.com: http://ldne.ws/2ikiTeq President-elect Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to the crowd during a campaign rally on Aug. 31 in Phoenix.

Trump meets with one-time adversary David Koch at Mar-a-Lago

President-elect Donald Trump may be making peace with the Koch brothers, the influential Republican billionaires who frequently criticized him during the election campaign. Sources familiar with the impromptu meeting told the Washington Post that Mr. Trump had met with billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Koch at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

Capitol Report: Senate Dems say Wells Fargo not responding to fraud info requests

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, holds up copies of Wells Fargo earnings call transcripts as she questions John Stumpf, then chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo The bank’s management has so far failed to answer all the questions the committee members have put to it, the letter says, following its settlement with multiple regulatory authorities in September for multi-year fraudulent sales practices. The letter , jointly signed by nine Democrats including Ranking Member Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, again asked Wells Fargo’s board for a status report on its ongoing investigation of the fraud and a detailed timeline of when the board learned about the illegal practices and actions it took.

Trump after Berlin, Turkey attacks: ‘I’ve been proven to be right’

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called the attacks this week in Berlin and Ankara “terrible” on Dec. 21 and said he has been proven to be correct about his plans to impose curbs on Muslims immigrating to the United States. “What’s going on is terrible, terrible,” Trump told reporters, when asked about the truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin and the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey by a gunman in Ankara, Reuters reported.

Israeli leader urges US to veto UN settlement resolution

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the U.S. on Thursday to veto a draft United Nations resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank. The vote, expected Thursday, provides one of the last opportunities for President Barack Obama to take a stand against Israeli settlement building after years of failed peace efforts, but doing so could re-ignite a dispute with a close ally in the waning days of his tenure.

Morning Bits

Steven Mnuchin, left, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for treasury secretary, walks through the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 7. President-elect Donald Trump’s Achilles heel : “You’re seeing members like John McCain and Lindsey Graham kind of coming out guns blazing, even threatening the nomination of Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state, saying that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a butcher and a thug, and we can’t do business with him. The concern is that Trump has this kind of personal admiration for Putin that may blind him to Russia’s real goals and to what America’s strategic stake is in doing business with Russia.