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To: handyman who wrote (9115)9/28/2019 4:30:51 PM
From: Doren  Respond to of 11191
 
The worst thing that we do to ghettos is property tax funding of schools.

When I went to UCLA Brentwood High had better computers than UCLA... I interviewed for a job at a school in south central, their computers were completely obsolete.

Racism caused it not food stamps.



To: handyman who wrote (9115)9/28/2019 7:39:42 PM
From: sylvester80  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 11191
 
OOPS! Public opinion polls show dramatic shift toward impeaching Trump
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 09/28/19 05:55 AM EDT 13,735
thehill.com

Public opinion is shifting in favor of Democrats on impeachment, with new polls showing about half the nation supports a House inquiry into President Trump after revelations he pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

The latest NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist survey found 49 percent approval for impeachment, against 46 percent who said they disapprove. That’s a 10-point jump in favor of impeachment over the same survey from April, around the time former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia's election interference was released.

A Politico-Morning Consult survey found a similar bounce in a short period of time, with support for impeachment spiking 7 points in the week since the Ukrainian revelations came to light, although only 36 percent in that poll said they support impeachment, compared to 49 percent who said they oppose it.

The latest Hill-HarrisX survey found support for impeachment rising 12 points to 47 percent, against 42 percent who oppose it.

And a Harvard CAPS-Harris survey released Thursday shortly before the release of the whistleblower complaint confirmed the upward trend toward impeachment.

That survey found the public split at 50-50 on whether Trump should be impeached for “pressuring” the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden’s dealings in the country, including 52 percent of independents. The same poll conducted in July, around the time of Mueller’s testimony to Congress, found only 40 percent of voters overall and 24 percent of independents backing impeachment.

“The poll shows that the public has serious concern over the Trump actions,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris survey.

“These are generally higher numbers than during the Mueller investigation and most consider his actions inappropriate, even if not impeachable,” he said.

Still, there are some soft spots in the polling for Democrats, particularly among independents and voters in the suburbs, who have recently looked like a potential area of strength for the party.

The NPR survey found that 44 percent of independents support impeachment, against 50 percent who said they oppose it.

And suburban voters are evenly divided, with 48 percent saying they approve and 49 percent saying they disapprove.

Democrats have been hoping to pick up new House seats in suburban districts, where women appear to be turning against the president and fast-changing demographic trends have turned once reliably Republican districts a deeper shade of purple.

“The only poll that will really matter is after the House votes to impeach him. Only then will we know if independents in key states think he should be impeached,” said one Democratic operative. “If it’s a no, we lose. If it’s a yes, then we have a chance. I think if the election were tomorrow, the ‘witch hunt’ narrative is still stronger than the argument that he’s used his office for personal gain. We’ll see.”

At the moment, Republicans note that much of the swing in public opinion has been driven by Democrats, who were worried about the political fallout but have rallied behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she decided to go all in.

“There has been a shift in favor of impeachment in the latest polls, but a lot of that shift has come among Democrats,” said Chris Wilson, a veteran Republican pollster and CEO of WPA Intelligence. “Around 1 in 5 Democrats were opposed to impeachment, probably because they thought it would be bad politically, right up to the point where it became the official Democratic position. Now all of those Dems are falling in line.”

Democrats had been hesitant to launch an impeachment inquiry, largely because they worried about the electoral consequences of a dramatic showdown with the White House only 13 months out from Election Day.

There are 44 “front-line” Democrats in the House considered vulnerable in 2020, 25 of whom are up for reelection in districts that Trump carried in 2016. Democrats have a 37-seat advantage in the House.

Following the Ukraine revelations, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the chairman of the House campaign arm, predicted impeachment would cost Democrats their majority in the House.

But Democrats are bullish on the early returns they’ve seen from impeachment polling, believing that public opinion will follow them if they continue to make the case.

Democrats say the controversy in Ukraine is different from the Russia probe, believing it represents a clear-cut and simple case about how the president ordered an investigation into a political opponent and the White House sought to cover it up.

“It is a simpler story to tell. It’s also more egregious,” said Kelly Dietrich, a Democratic fundraiser and the CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee.

“He invited a foreign government to interfere in our elections to investigate a political rival. Couple that with the fact that — look, I think there’s also a little bit of just fatigue on the guy. His favorable numbers aren’t going anywhere. ... The narrative from the GOP is that Democrats are weak. Bullshit. We’re standing up now. We’re holding people accountable,” Dietrich added.

The whistleblower revelations have brought around some Democrats who were once impeachment skeptics, such as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), a White House contender who had previously warned that an impeachment inquiry would rip the country apart.

But Republicans insist that Democrats are overplaying their hand here, believing that the Ukraine issue is an easy one to muddy up.

The pro-Trump super PAC Great America is already putting six-figures behind an advertisement demanding Congress investigate Biden’s role in the firing of a Ukraine prosecutor, although there is no evidence of wrongdoing here.

GOP operatives interviewed by The Hill say the president and his campaign aren’t just grandstanding when they say they’ve been handed an electoral gift.

They believe the issue will supercharge Trump’s base, cause Democrats to abandon their focus on the economy and health care, and turn off the independents who have been gravitating away from the president.

And they say that Democrats can kiss their electoral hopes goodbye in places such as Texas, where only a few weeks ago they were talking about how the state was moving away from Republicans.

“Democrats are right to worry about the politics of impeachment,” Wilson said. “Even if they impeach the president, it seems clear right now that the Senate won't remove him. So they risk being seen by their voters as ineffective while firing up the Trump base by trying to overturn the 2016 election.”



To: handyman who wrote (9115)9/28/2019 7:42:38 PM
From: sylvester80  Respond to of 11191
 
OOPS! Republicans show signs of discomfort in defense of Trump
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 09/28/19 12:10 PM EDT 11,481
thehill.com
Republicans, even as they generally show support for President Trump, are showing signs of discomfort amid an impeachment fight that has engulfed the country.

The battle over Trump's actions toward Ukraine marks the biggest test to date for Republicans, who are juggling the president’s demand for loyalty with questions about his push for a foreign government to investigate a political rival.

While the party has largely rallied behind him against the Democrats' impeachment push, there are some signs of cracks just days into the scandal that is likely to dominate the rest of 2019.

The strongest criticism, unsurprisingly, is coming from a cohort of GOP pundits, 2020 rivals and Republican governors, who have less to lose than their congressional counterparts by going toe-to-toe with Trump.

Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, who is running against Trump for the GOP’s 2020 nomination, told CNN on Friday that it was “quite literally like he’s giving his middle finger to the American people.” Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, another GOP hopeful, said Trump’s actions on Ukraine were “grounds for removal from office.”

A slew of pundits — including The New York Times’s David Brooks and Bill Kristol, a prominent Trump critic — have admonished Trump. And two Republican governors — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker — have thrown their support behind an impeachment inquiry.

Baker called the allegations against Trump a “deeply disturbing situation” and said it was “the proper role and responsibility for Congress at this point is to investigate it.”

Trump and the White House can probably shrug off such criticisms, saying they are coming from opportunists, fringe candidates or Republicans representing blue states.

But some of the other more measured remarks about the unfolding Ukraine story that are coming from Republican lawmakers may be getting their attention.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters when asked about Trump pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to help dig up dirt on his potential 2020 opponent that he didn’t “like seeing that.”

“I just think the idea of a conversation like that,” he said. “I know this president operates in different ways ... but you know, obviously, like I said before, it's not something I would bring up. But at least the suggestion about what was proposed there … is still not some place I would go.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, called Trump’s actions "troubling," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the phone call was "very concerning," and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), after viewing the whistleblower complaint, warned Republicans against "rushing to circle the wagons to say there's no there there when there's obviously lots that's very troubling there."

In the House, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) on Friday became the first House Republican to support an impeachment inquiry, though he made it clear he does not back impeachment itself.

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) used a public hearing to knock the Democrats for moving forward with impeachment but also called out Trump during the wall-to-wall coverage.

“I want to say to the president this is not OK. That conversation is not OK. And I think it's disappointing to the American public when they read the transcript,” he said while acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.

After The Washington Post reported that Trump said the whistleblower was “close to a spy,” GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who has refrained from commenting on impeachment, pushed back on the president’s comments, calling them a “gross mischaracterization of whistleblowers.”

Even as Trump has dismissed the whistleblower complaint as a "witch hunt" and referred to his call with Zelensky as "perfect," the Senate unanimously passed a resolution asking for him to turn the complaint over, and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee has already started its own investigation.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership and the committee, said after briefings with Maguire and the intelligence community's inspector general that he was “not ready to make any conclusions.”

“We're committed to gather the information before we reach conclusions. Other people who don't have this responsibility can reach conclusions right away,” he said, adding that he wanted and expected the committee to meet with the whistleblower.

The signs of GOP wariness about aligning too closely with Trump come even as most Republicans have pivoted quickly to argue that House Democrats are overplaying their hand by starting the formal impeachment proceedings, questioned the validity of the whistleblower behind the complaint, or even floated investigating former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter Biden.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) called the partial transcript a “nothing burger,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) suggested the whistleblower complaint was “hearsay” and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) questioned if individuals who shared information with the whistleblower were leaking classified information.

But some Republicans have suggested members of their party are standing by Trump not because they support him but because they are afraid of a high-profile break with the president, who is known for relishing public feuds and lashing out at his critics.

Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who was one of Trump’s most vocal critics while in the Senate, said he personally wasn’t a fan of impeachment but predicted that 35 of his former GOP colleagues would vote to impeach Trump if they could do so as part of a secret vote.

“Anybody who has sat through two years, as I have, of Republican luncheons realizes that there's not a lot of love for the president,” Flake said during an interview with NPR’s “Here and Now.” “There's a lot of fear of what it means to go against the president, but most Republican senators would not like to be dealing with this for another year or another five years.”

Asked why he was one of the only Senate Republican criticizing Trump, Romney also appeared to suggest that some of his colleagues were making a political calculation.

“There's such enormous power associated with being the party in power, both in the White House as well as in the Senate and the House,” Romney said during the Atlantic Festival. “I think it’s very natural for people to look at circumstances and see them in the light that’s most amenable to their maintaining power and doing things to preserve that power.”



To: handyman who wrote (9115)9/29/2019 12:19:22 AM
From: sinclap1 Recommendation

Recommended By
Heywood40

  Respond to of 11191
 
Actually, your full of beans. The black communities have been red lined; deprived of investment, bank loans and capital to build wealth. Much of the prosperous dem run cities have lower crime rates than lax gun states.

Speaking of welfare, red states in the Deep South and the Appalachian states are heavily dependent on welfare. Over 40% of their respective state budget revenue dollars come from donor states like Cali, the rest of the west coast, MN and the New England states. They do the right thing, not so much in the rust belt states too. My county is full of the barely functional Caucasian, with many in broken homes that are food insecured and a world view that never exceeds the county line. Welfare and food banks keep em down, while the undocumented car pool to construction sites to work.