Tag: politics of the United States

The president’s advisers have concluded that a corruption investigation in New York presents a more imminent threat than the special counsel’s inquiry. Nearly a week after a deadly suspected chemical attack, the United States and its allies launched airstrikes on Syria. Additional reading Excerpts from James B. Comey’s memoir, which describes Mr. Trump as “untethered to truth,” were released. The president fired Mr. Comey in May. Additional reading Additional reading Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced he would not seek re-election, sending Republicans scrambling seven months before the midterm elections. As many as 50 House Republican seats are at risk in competitive races this year, and his departure makes it more difficult for the Republican Party to hold onto the House majority. Additional reading Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, testified before Congress for the first time. Mark Zuckerberg answered nearly 600 questions from skeptical lawmakers over two days after revelations that Facebook, the company that he repeatedly mentioned he started in his Harvard University dorm room, failed to protect the data of more than 87 million users from being harvested by a political consulting firm. Additional reading The Trump administration continued to seek trade deals — including one it left last year — but it remains unclear how those deals will unfold. In a sharp reversal, Mr. Trump said on Thursday that the United States was looking to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade agreement he pulled out of during the first few days of his administration.

Maile Pearl is Duckworth’s second child—she has another daughter named Abigail—and the first-ever child to be birthed by a serving senator. That’s a striking statistic. But only 51 of those senators have been women; no wonder the Senate hasn’t historically been a place for new moms. (Ten women have given birth while serving as House representatives, including Duckworth herself.) By itself, this says plenty about the kinds of barriers that women face when attempting to build a political career. Perhaps even more illuminating is the bind that Duckworth now finds herself in. There’s more: The Senate currently bars children from its floor, which means Duckworth won’t be allowed to breastfeed while sitting in session—an act that politicians elsewhere the world have been doing for a while now. (When it comes to women’s share of representation in parliament, the US ranks 104 out of over 190 countries.) As a new mother in the Senate, Duckworth’s experience is exposing a harsh truth: In 2018, the US political system is still designed without women in mind. And the consequences she may face if she takes time off to spend with her newborn perfectly exemplify the problems that millions of women in the US face because their jobs do not offer fair parental leave policies.

And according to a recent YouGov-Times poll, Corbyn’s Labour Party is one point behind the Conservatives in voting intention. There is no immediate election on the horizon in the United Kingdom. But there is little doubt that Corbyn’s forces have consolidated their hold on the Labour Party, that the party did better than expected in the 2017 election and that Corbyn is no longer unthinkable as a future prime minister. Corbyn supporters regard themselves as part of a people-powered social movement — dedicated to economic equality and environmental protection, opposed to militarism and in revolt against a compromised establishment. In the United States, this tendency on the left is reinforced by President Trump’s consolidation of power in the Republican Party. His vulnerability is taken not as an opportunity to build a broad political coalition against Trumpism — but as a chance to win without compromise. So this trend on the left is not found everywhere equally. We demand passion, not patience.” Some progressives talk of California — with its political argument between left and lefter — as a model for the nation. Describing our politics as a new civil war, they argue: “At some point, one side or the other must win — and win big. On the left, the same is increasingly true.

Beto O'Rourke and Will Hurd are Texas congressmen on opposite sides of the political divide who formed an unusual friendship a year ago during a road trip that was broadcast to millions. He is the Democratic nominee to run against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz for one of Texas' two US Senate seats. Instead, there's more talk about bringing the state together. Ted Cruz is not coming to Austin to listen to us or hear us." In 2016, Hurd was the first incumbent to win re-election in the 23rd Texas congressional district in 12 years. Hare and other Democrats in Hurd's district and across the US are motivated, and they plan to vote in November. At an election night party in San Antonio, Jones explained why she - like many other first-time Democratic candidates this year - was motivated by Donald Trump's election to enter politics. The thing about Washington-based party elders hand-picking candidates, however, is that sometimes voters, the progressive grass-roots and other candidates don't really appreciate it. "People have to make up their own minds and not do what other people tell them to do." "This country would be so much better if there were more bipartisan road trips," O'Rourke tells me.

Intrigue over election meddling, President Donald Trump's mysterious past ties to Moscow, the Kremlin's international belligerence and toxic diplomatic ties have Washington fixated on Russia as much it ever was during the Cold War. The White House made a significant turn by finally rolling out sanctions on Russian groups and individuals -- including one close to Putin -- to punish election interference by the Kremlin and signed up to a tough statement alongside Britain, France and Germany slamming Moscow over an alleged assassination bid on a former Russian spy using nerve agent in rural England. But consistent with the pattern of this presidency, the administration's narrative was quickly overshadowed by a new bombshell about Robert Mueller's probe, when it emerged the special counsel had subpoenaed Trump Organization documents, including some about Russia. Trump warned last year that Mueller would cross a "red line" if he began to probe his family finances not related to Russia, sparking speculation that he could fire the special counsel -- a step that could cause a constitutional crisis. But his White House finally did target Moscow on Thursday, unveiling its strongest sanctions yet against individuals and entities in an effective validation of assessments that election meddling did take place. "It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. It is hard to believe that any previous president since the end of World War II would have yet to deliver unequivocal warnings to Russia or clear reassurances to allies in Europe in the face of such Russian behavior. "To hear the President actually speak to camera or speak to the American people and denounce Putin, denounce the Russian government for the steps they are taking, would be, I think, be far more powerful," Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Thursday. That speculation intensified after it was revealed Thursday -- hours after the sanctions announcement -- that Mueller had subpoenaed documents from the Trump Organization including some to do with Russia. It also marked the first publicly known occasion on which Mueller has demanded documents related to Trump's business.

A self-help book tells us that “buying or purchasing items can be understood as a metaphor for accepting uplifting beliefs about the self or circumstances ... consider ‘buying into’ thoughts and ideas to improve yourself, [such as] ‘I buy into the principle that abundant finances are good for me.’” A government official told The New York Times that the only way to make political change is to first gauge “the public buy-in” for reforms. If a fundamental belief in American goodness and effectiveness and power—the belief inherent in Marco Rubio’s “number one” answer to Kasky’s question, the enduring usability of the Constitution—could no longer be sustained, what could take its place? A belief in the market! Politically, we seem to have no real way, now, of asserting the value of a proposition—to defend it to the hilt—except for noting that it’s popular. Of course, we know, deep down, that just because lots of people support an idea doesn’t mean it’s right. And just because lots of people support an idea doesn’t mean, as Adam Smith noted, that they are doing what’s most reasonable, nor even that their personal reasons are clear-cut. After the town hall, Rubio defended himself further on Twitter: “Banning all semi-auto weapons may have been popular with the audience at #CNNTownHall, but it is a position well outside the mainstream,” he insisted. That would make the world, to the left, comprehensible, instead of peopled by a whole bunch of voters whose consumer choices on the political marketplace appear not only incomprehensible, but, more importantly, reprehensible. The entire town hall exchange was heartbreaking. I’d ask whether Rubio’s would have been, too.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he’s disappointed by how the United States’ political system is “eating itself up” but revealed that President Trump has not let him down, a report on Wednesday said. ? Calling Trump a great communicator, Putin said, “I have no disappointment at all. Moreover, on a personal level, he made a very good impression on me.” He described Trump, whom he met with last year on the sidelines of summits in Germany and Vietnam, a “balanced” man who grasps the issues and is a good listener. “It’s possible to negotiate with him, to search for compromises,” Putin said during an interview with Russian state television, the Associated Press reported. Last month, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals on charges they used a troll factory in St. Petersburg to carry out a disinformation campaign to sow discord during the election. Talking about how he spent time talking to First Lady Melania Trump when he sat next to her during a dinner at July’s G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, he said he may have exaggerated a bit. He said he told her and the wife of the Italian prime minister “about Siberia and Kamchatka, about fishing … about bears on Kamchatka and tigers in the Far East.” “I made some exaggerations,” he said. “When you talk about fishing, you can’t help exaggerating.” Did he try to recruit the women? the interviewer asked the former KGB spy. “No, I stopped dealing with that a long time ago,” he said, adding with a smile: “But I liked doing that, it was my job for many years.”

This is not, of course, the official Democratic position. And there are only three Democratic senators — Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin III and Pennsylvania’s Robert P. Casey Jr. — who have less than a 100 percent lifetime score from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. In some places, surely. But Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report points out two complicating factors: First, the heterodoxies of local candidates seem to matter less and less in the way Americans make political choices. Increasingly, Walter says, “all politics is national.” Voters believe that support for any Democrat — even a more conservative Democrat — is actually support for the Nancy Pelosi-Chuck Schumer team. “Somewhere along the way,” argues Walter, “the idea that each district is different went by the wayside.” She calls this the “Starbucksization” of American politics. “No matter how you feel personally” on abortion, she says, “you have to vote to support the Democratic Party values.” Think on that a moment. Second, Walter points out that the political battlegrounds in American politics have shifted. The Democratic targets of opportunity in the 2018 midterms are generally not, for example, in the rural House districts of Georgia; they are in the upscale suburbs of Atlanta. This trend also narrows the ideological range of American politics.

Washington (CNN)Yahoo correspondent Michael Isikoff said on CNN's "New Day" Monday that Russians who worked for a St. Petersburg "troll factory" were required to watch Netflix's "House of Cards" to help them write messages that would influence Americans against their own government. They were also required to post about guns and gays, while mentioning religion. They were never to mention Russia or Putin and they were instructed to use VPNs, or virtual private networks, to disguise their Russian origin. "Every comma was reviewed by (Maksim's) bosses to make sure it was in the right place so it sounded like an American posting by Americans," Isikoff told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "Primarily what he was doing was placing comments on the websites of major news organizations, The Washington Post, The New York Times and others." Maksim said he worked for the troll factory during 2015, when they were already posting negative comments about Clinton. "At first, we were forced to watch the 'House of Cards' in English," Maksim said in the interview, according to Yahoo. Tax problems, the problem of gays, sexual minorities, weapons." It's a show that has always operated on the fringes of absurdity, where murder and blackmail are among the Underwoods' tools of persuasion.

From Ex-Googlers’ Job Tips To U.S. Politics: This Week’s Top Leadership Stories. This week we learned what recruiters are really thinking when their hands are tied from explaining why they passed on a certain candidate, how former Google employees first landed their positions, and which phrases to avoid on job interviews. Some got it the old-fashioned way, through connections. Others played up aspects of their resumes or came to their interviews armed with knowledge of Google’s lesser-known products. As Brown sees it, our common tendency to deny how lonely we may feel makes us turn to fear and suspicion, which only exacerbates the us-versus-them mentality that seems to dominate American politics today. These 13 Phrases Can Make Or Break Your Job Prospects At a job interview, there are certain things you say that seem innocent, but can make or break your chances of being hired. While recruiters like to see passion from the people they’re interviewing, they probably don’t want someone who sounds desperate. Here’s What Happened To My To-Do List When I Embraced Procrastination Most of us see procrastination as a bad thing–a terrible, lazy, and unproductive habit. Here’s how Sterf claims he made that happen himself.