Delaware Rethugs Finally Find Someone Willing To Run For AG. No, he’s not an attorney, and his work history?:
A previous candidate for Attorney General and Governor of Delaware is on the general election ballot to run for AG as a Republican.
Although the filing deadline was in July, state Republican Party leaders under election law were still able to fill a vacancy on the ballot. Dave Graham is the only declared Republican candidate for Attorney General, and therefore does not face a challenge in the September 15th primary.
That work history:
Graham has more than two decades in state government and public finance and senior executive management experience in private industry. He is a retired Delaware-licensed CPA. Currently, Graham works as a regional CDL-A truck driver for Perdue Transportation of Georgetown.
Oh. Far be it for me to judge (he lied), but you ‘retire’ as a CPA to drive a chicken truck? Gotta admit, being AG probably pays better. Still, wonder why he ‘retired’ as a CPA…
What If They Held A Shit-Show, And Nobody Came? Could happen–or, have you forgotten about Trump’s ‘mid-term convention?:
“President Trump announced last month that Republicans would hold the first-ever midterm convention in September, promising ‘lots of Great Entertainment’ and ‘a RALLY like none other,’” reported Puck News in their email newsletter:
“Yet, it’s turned into a ‘shit show,’ said one G.O.P. campaign strategist, and few lawmakers want to go. For starters, the National Republican Campaign Committee is asking House members to cough up $25,000 for themselves and a guest to attend the two-day convention in Dallas, according to three people who have reviewed the invitation. And that’s the cheap rate, with the highest tier asking for $100,000 from lawmakers.”
“[W]ith no party business being conducted (as would be typical at a presidential nominating convention) and poor planning (invitations were sent in the last several weeks, way after lawmakers had already committed to other events), campaign strategists are seething that it’s little more than a fundraiser for an unnecessary Trump production, at a time when some swing-district lawmakers aren’t exactly clamoring to be associated with the president,” Puck further noted. “‘It’s yet another opportunity to shake down corporate America,’ said one Republican strategist. Added the campaign strategist: ‘Nobody understands why we’re doing a midterm convention. It’s just another show that Trump is going to put on to remind the voters that he is sitting there, and maybe they don’t want to be reminded of that.’”
‘The Worst Attack On Free Speech Since The McCarthy Era’:
The White House directed federal law enforcement last year to pursue the opposition in broad strokes: if a person is “anti-fascist,” if they support “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity,” then that indicates a potential for domestic terrorism. The next step, the White House said, was to investigate and prosecute.
The directive was contained in National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, issued in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Since then, the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security have operationalized the memo’s requirements. They’ve charged opposition protestors across the country with material support for terrorism, notching a run of decades-long sentences in one closely followed Texas case. In Minneapolis, DHS cited NSPM-7 to use authorities typically reserved for drug or international money laundering cases to monitor activist groups, permitting officers to break the law and go undercover as part of a wide-ranging campaign of surveillance.
Those latest revelations came out of the federal government’s case against a group of Minneapolis protestors that prosecutors have dubbed an “Antifa” conspiracy. Attorney Kevin Riach, who represents defendant Isaac Sant, has filed dozens of exhibits in the case revealing how DOJ and DHS have operationalized NSPM-7. Riach wants the court to order the government to disclose more, including potential communications between the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s Office and officials at DOJ headquarters.
Several groups filed an amicus in the case on Tuesday to support Riach in that. Protect Democracy, the good government group, filed the brief, which was signed by the Cato Institute, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and the Society for the Rule of Law.
The brief describes NSPM-7 as a key part of a broader assault that the Trump administration is staging on free speech, an attack of the sort unseen since the McCarthy Era. Both it and a December memo issued by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi set the stage for federal law enforcement to treat “political ideology as indicia of a proclivity towards violence,” staging wide-ranging investigations of beliefs, and not crimes, the groups argued.
“Under the rubric of preventing ‘domestic terrorism’ and ‘political violence,’ the administration uses disfavored ideologies to justify criminal investigations into activities that otherwise could not be targeted by law enforcement,” the groups argued.
Hmmm, wonder whether Hakim Jeffries brought this up during his meeting with Jared Kushner. I’m thinking, no.
Could Trump’s Stoopid Trade War With Canada Cost Rethugs The Senate?:
President Donald Trump’s rapidly escalating trade war with Canada could be a political disaster for Republican Senate candidates in a quartet of states bordering the country, a region particularly vulnerable to trade disruptions with the neighboring nation and one where undecided voters are more likely to blame the GOP for the economic pain.
The U.S. slapped a 50% levy on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports over the weekend as trade talks fell apart, and Canada announced Tuesday it would respond with tariffs on $20 billion worth of American products in a dollar-for-dollar retaliation. Tariffs are taxes paid by companies that import goods, with the companies often increasing consumer prices to make up for the money taken by the government.
The president’s aggressive stance is only making life harder for four Senate Republican candidates who are in competitive races in states that border Canada, a top trading partner to each of their states: Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio and former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan.
Consider Trump’s Monday threat of another 50% tariff on Canadian automobiles, car parts and steel. This would be devastating for Michigan, which brings in as much as $40 billion annually in cross-border auto trade, and for Ohio, which brings in $14 billion annually.
In Alaska and Maine, natural resources and fisheries are crucial to the bottom lines of businesses and farms, to the tune of $300 million annually in agricultural exports to Canada from Maine and $100 million annually in fish exports to Canada from Alaska.
“With tariffs on plywood, threats of even higher tariffs on autos, steel, and aluminum, and Canadian retaliatory tariffs on like items, it’s a prime recipe for declining border state GDPs, job loss, and domestic political discontent,” Ross Burkhart, a political scientist at Boise State who specializes in trade policy, told HuffPost. “Economic decline is historically toxic for the electoral fortunes of the incumbent party in Washington.”
The Inside Poop On Rising TP Prices:
Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.
After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September.
Paper products are among the hardest-hit sectors, with Canada threatening to put tariffs of between 25% and 50% on “toilet paper or face tissue stock” from 8 September in retaliation for a 50% hike from Washington DC.
Though American toilet paper and tissues are often made domestically, they heavily rely on lumber-rich Canada for raw materials. Procter & Gamble, the owner of Charmin toilet paper, said last year that it would have to increase prices amid tariffs that were in place at the time.
I am generally loathe to repeat the same term in the same Open Thread, but what else am I to call this other than a Shit-Show?
What do you want to shoot the shit about?
