Daily News Dump – August 15

AIPAC splits with Trump

“The prominent pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee suggested Thursday it opposed a move by Israel — and supported by President Donald Trump — to bar Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country.

AIPAC, which advocates for a staunch alliance between the US and Israel, has frequently sided with Trump administration policies that have supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, making its opposition especially notable.

“We disagree with Reps. Omar and Tlaib’s support for the anti-Israel and anti-peace BDS movement, along with Rep. Tlaib’s calls for a one-state solution. We also believe every member of Congress should be able to visit and experience our democratic ally Israel firsthand,” AIPAC tweeted early Thursday afternoon.” via CNN

I won’t say the MOST, but calling for Israel to ban Tlaib and Omar from the country was one of the more disgusting things Trump has done as President. It’s also a move that feels a lot more like autocracy than democracy.

Fox News poll said WHAT?

“As political Washington mulls what — if anything — to do legislatively to address the latest in a long line of mass murders committed with guns, a new Fox News poll has a number in it that is an absolute stunner.

That number is 67%, which reflects respondents who told pollsters that they support a ban on assault weapons. For you non-math majors out there, that’s two-thirds of the American public!” via CNN

This is a pretty surprising, but also a very encouraging poll.

A little background on me:

Most of you know by now that I’m a gun owner, but I support commonsense legislation to help remedy this epidemic. I still shoot competitively sometimes, and I’ve trained with and/or carried firearms for the majority of my adult life. That’s not relevant anymore. The Second Amendment was one of my issues, so I never thought I’d be at this point, but here we are.

If the shooting in Philadelphia yesterday taught us nothing else, it’s that the “good guy with a gun” is no longer a persuasive argument, and it probably never was, to be honest. (Sidebar: This is a big step for me; carrying a gun most-likely kept me alive a several years ago. Being purposefully vague: I didn’t fire a shot, but I did draw my concealed pistol in a self-defense situation and diffused something that was about to go really bad for a bunch of people.)

Thirty (30) police officers discharged their weapons yesterday, and didn’t take down a single gunman. 6 police officers were also shot during the hours-long standoff.

It’s imperative that we elect a Democrat in 2020, not just to fix all the stuff Trump has broken, but we *need* significant action on gun control, and we need it now.

Inauguration Subpoenas

“The former adviser to first lady Melania Trump, who has come under fire for the cost of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, was among the event planners who raised concerns about excessive spending in the weeks before the events, according to documents obtained by CNN.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend of Melania Trump, has emerged as a witness for investigators and received a subpoena last month by Washington DC’s attorney general.

The 10-page subpoena, which has been seen by CNN, asks Wolkoff to hand over a variety of information, including any evidence of inaugural-related expenditures that were “wasteful, mismanaged, and/or improperly provided private benefit.”

It asks for communications between the inaugural committee and several business entities connected to President Trump or his family, as well as communications between Wolkoff and a number of Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.” via CNN

There are about five different ongoing investigations that are related to Trump’s inauguration and the exorbitant amount of money that was spent on it. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

In other inauguration news:

Prosecutors are examining “tens of thousands of documents”

“Federal prosecutors in New York are scrutinizing tens of thousands of documents relating to Donald Trump’s inauguration in a sign that the investigation into the committee’s finances is advancing.

The President’s Inaugural Committee handed over the cache of documents over the course of several weeks in response to a wide-ranging subpoena seeking documents, records, and communications concerning the inaugural’s finances, vendors, and donors sent in February by the US attorney’s office with the Southern District of New York. The last set of documents was produced within the last month, people familiar with the matter said.

The end of the document production indicates the investigation is moving into the next stage. Authorities are investigating whether any of the record $107 million in donations for the inaugural was misspent, used to improperly benefit certain individuals, or came from foreign donors in violation of campaign finance laws that prohibit foreign money in US elections, people familiar with the inquiry said.” via CNN

Warren leapfrogs Bernie in the polls

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren has leapfrogged Sen. Bernie Sanders for second place nationally in the Democratic presidential primary, according to a new poll out Thursday.

The new Fox News poll of registered voters who say they plan to participate in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state shows that although Warren still trails former Vice President Joe Biden, pulling in 20 percentage points to his 31, she posted an 8-point gain over the previous survey conducted last month. Sanders dropped 5 points in the poll, good for third place with 10 percent support.

The poll shows remarkable growth for Warren over the last five months — she has gained 16 points since March — while Biden has remained somewhat steady over the same period.

Sanders’ second-place lead has diminished steadily over the same period, with Thursday’s survey the first in which he dropped into third place. He has dropped 13 points since May. Sen. Kamala Harris is not far behind him in fourth place, with 8 percent.” via Politico

This is some of the best news I’ve seen all week. If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know I’m not a Bernie fan. I’ll vote for him if he gets the nod, but he’s not even in my top 5, and I’m a big fan of Warren.

GAO: Trump’s first 4 trips to Mar-a-Lago cost taxpayers $13.6 Milllion

“President Donald Trump’s first four visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort after Inauguration Day cost American taxpayers $13.6 million, according to a report released Tuesday by the US Government Accountability Office.

According to the report, some $10.6 million was spent between February and March 2017 on “operating costs of government aircraft and boats” and $3 million went toward “temporary duty costs of government personnel supporting the President’s travel, including transportation, lodging, and meals and incidental expenses.” Some $60,000 of that was paid directly to Trump’s Florida club.” via CNN

Most of this money came from the military and

Trump accuses media of trying to crash the economy

“President Donald Trump on Thursday baselessly accused the press of trying to tank the American economy, shrugging off any blame for a prospective economic slowdown and possible recession heading into his reelection next year.

“The Fake News Media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election,” he said in a tweet. “The problem they have is that the economy is way too strong and we will soon be winning big on Trade, and everyone knows that, including China!” via Politico

This is absolutely asinine, and I feel kind of bad for whatever reporter actually had to refute that garbage. Something tells me that blaming the media for his awful economic policies probably isn’t a winning strategy.

Periodic reminder that there’s no bottom

“The mayor of El Paso said after he corrected President Trump about crime statistics in his city, the president called him a “RINO,” a pejorative nickname that means “Republican in Name Only.”

Mayor Dee Margo told PBS’s “Frontline” in an interview published Wednesday that Trump made those comments in a private conversation they had while the president was in El Paso last week to pay respects after a mass shooting that killed 22 people and injured dozens more.

“He said, ‘You’re a RINO,’ and I said, ‘No sir, I’m not a RINO, I simply corrected the misinformation you were given by our attorney general, and that’s all I did’,” Margo recounted.

Earlier this year, Margo, who was elected El Paso’s mayor in 2017 after winning a runoff against another Republican, pushed back against claims made by Trump to justify his border wall demands. Trump, during the State of the Union in February, said El Paso had one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country but that after construction of border fencing it was now one of the safest.” via The Washington Post

These “no bottom” reminders are starting to feel more constant than periodic.

Trump takes credit for another Obama accomplishment

“In a speech on Tuesday at Royal Dutch ethane cracker plant northwest of Pittsburgh, President Donald Trump claimed he was the sole president responsible for the plant’s existence.

“It was the Trump administration that made it possible. No one else. Without us, you would never have been able to do this,” he said.

Trump was taking far too much credit.

Facts First: Shell made its final decision to build the plant in June 2016, during Barack Obama’s presidency. A federal regulatory commission chaired by a Trump appointee did approve a pipeline that will feed ethane to the plant.” via CNN

Most of his accomplishments can – and should – be credited to Obama, so this is no surprise, really.