Trump Reveals What He Believes Republicans Voting For Governor In Virginia Want To Hear
Why not? After all, there were a lot of “very fine people” who marched alongside Nazis in Charlottesville just a few months ago.
Republican candidate Ed Gillespie has made debate about confederate monuments a key component of his campaign, along with a Trump-like stance on immigration.
Virginia is one of only a few states that holds its Gubernatorial elections in “off” years when there are no federal elections. So that election’s coming up in early November.
Interestingly, the last time Trump Tweeted in support of Gillespie was almost 2 weeks ago. Shortly after, the Republican sagged a bit in the polls and Trump clammed up. Now that Gillespie’s regained momentum, Trump’s back on board.
Who’s This Ed Gillespie? Only One Of The Most Important Republican Operatives Ever…
Gillespie, who served as Chairman of The Republican National Committee under President George W. Bush, and later as Chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, set in motion a chain of political events that are largely responsible for Republicans’ position of power today.
First, he spearheaded an effort to move Republican party money from national races to local ones, in an attempt to capture State Legislatures and Governorships. These efforts paid off beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. Democrats now have majorities in State Legislatures in just 13 states, while Republicans control both chambers in 32 states. That’s the biggest disparity since the Civil War.
Then Gillespie launched Republicans’ REDMAP initiative, which used newfound state legislative power to gerrymander districts in order to get more Republicans elected to Congress. Again, a strategy that’s tremendously successful. For instance, in 2012, Democrats took 51% of the popular vote in Pennsylvania Congressional elections, yet won only 5 of 18 seats. That trend continued in 2016, based on the way districts were re-drawn.
In an interview with the Washington Post earlier this year, Gillespie spoke out against excessive gerrymandering, but made no apologies for the work he’s done, saying “there was no doubt in 2010 we put a focus on state legislatures that would have a significant impact in the redistricting process. I think it was a smart plan.” And it was. (Keep in mind too, Democrats had the same opportunity, and didn’t “get it”.)
So while some are questioning why Trump is championing someone who grew up smack dab in the middle of the Republican Party, and was mentored by many old school Republicans, it’s easy to see why Gillespie is anything but.
Budget Blueprint Narrowly Passes House, With 20 Republicans Joining All Democrats In Voting Against
The simplest way to look at it is Congress approved a big blank piece of paper with just one number on it: $1.5-trillion. That’s the amount by which Congress has officially decided it’s allowed to increase the federal deficit.
What’s going on that piece of paper next? Tax cuts, probably.
One Congressman we generally disagree with a lot, today we agree with 100%, because he sums it up perfectly:
And Then After The Tax Cut, Get Ready For A Big Gas Tax Hike
Trump’s top financial advisor Gary Cohn saying that’s under consideration to pay for the infrastructure bill the President wants. The Federal gas tax is now 18.4-cents a gallon, a number which (very much to our surprise) hasn’t been raised in nearly 15 years!
Trump Announces War On Opioids, But No Money To Fund It
President Trump spoke heart-breakingly about his older brother Fred, an airline pilot who struggled with alcoholism and died at the age of 43. “I learned because of Fred”, Trump said.
And he announced measures to make access to treatment easier. And a vision for a massive advertising campaign. And an increased focus on keeping illegal opioids out of the country (for instance, fentanyl smuggled from China).
The Washington Post put together some highlights from Trump’s announcement:
What was missing for us was a number. Give Congress something solid to work with. There are budget negotiations coming up. This is a crucially important issue and it’s a bipartisan issue, so it calls for more guidance from the President than we got today.
John Kelly: Not “The Savior Or The Hostage”
Now that John Kelly’s morphed from the “adult” in the Oval Office to just another Trumpster in the eyes of the mainstream media–all in a matter of a couple of days–we wonder if the “warning signs” weren’t there all along, and simply ignored in the hope of making the White House more understandable.
At the time of Kelly’s appointment as White House Chief of Staff, we discussed what attracted Trump to him in the first place: the zeal and fervor with which he executed raids on and deportation of undocumented immigrants as the Secretary of Homeland Security. In some cases expanding the DHS’s reach far beyond the President’s initial mandate of focusing on rounding up people with criminal records. We weren’t so sure that boded well, and were surprised when that aspect of his career was largely ignored in favor of tales of his effective leadership, discipline and efficiency.
Long time coming, but the New York Times now has an interesting story about how close Kelly’s priorities line up with the President’s.
Just How Much Is Trump Worth To Twitter?
Twitter shares are soaring after the once very-troubled tech giant, and Trump’s favorite method of communication, reported far better than expected earnings. Of course, Twitter credits strategic moves it’s made in the past year. And there’s no real tangible way of measuring how much life Trump breathed back into the company. But fact is: since the day Trump was elected, the company’s market value has surged $2.8-billion dollars, including a near 20% gain yesterday alone. Despite that, Twitter is still losing money and revenues are down.
CVS Wants To Buy Aetna
This merger would be completely unprecedented and completely a sign of our political times. The move, in which the nation’s biggest retail pharmacy would absorb the 3rd biggest health insurer, would oddly seem to protect the combine company against both less and more of a federal role in funding and administering health care. Reuters says the offer on the table right now amounts to $66-billion.
We Attempt To Make An Analogy Between The Trump Presidency And The 2017 World Series
We only started thinking about this because it was it was around this time last year, with the Cleveland Indians up 3 games to 1, that Nate Silver famously said the Chicago Cubs had about the same chance of winning the World Series than Trump winning the White House. (In case you’re not a baseball fan, the Cubs won. You already know about Trump).
Watching the rollicking 11-inning, home-run filled battle between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros, our mind drifted and started drawing parallels. No, not the obvious one: that the Dodgers represent West Coast Elites; the Astros: ascendent Conservatives. But that one team plays a “break the rules” style of ball, whereas the other plays more “slow and steady”.
And while the Dodgers’ frenetic style of play obviously served them well during the regular season, when they won more games than any team in baseball (and still could easily win the Series), for one night at least it created a chaos that cost them the game.
For one night at least, just going out and playing the game won over “shake ’em up”.
