Category: Politics

In three battleground states, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, there have been efforts to begin counting absentee ballots before the end of Election Day. Almost all states do not start counting absentee ballots until the polls close in their states. But with the expected increase of mail-in ballots, the odds of counting all of them in a single night are close to zero. There have been efforts to speed up the process by allowing officials to begin counting before Election Day. In Michigan, the Republican legislature decided to give election officials…

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If Democrats control Congress and the White House in 2021, will they pack the Supreme Court with additional progressive justices? Following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the efforts of the Senate GOP majority to fill the vacancy, it may be the most important question facing Democrats in 2020. It’s a question only a few Senate Democrats are willing to answer Massachusetts senator Ed Markey tweeted on September 21: “This Republican hypocrisy is shameful but not surprising. If they violate their own precedent, we must expand the Supreme…

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The close friendship between Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on the left, and Justice Antonin Scalia, on the right, was because they were reasoned even in their differences.  They would apply logic, law and constitutionality in a more objective manner than the politicians who see differences as a basis for conflict. This ability to reason together was evident in their discussions of legal briefs and opinions where they arrived at different conclusions.  They would actually share their written opinions before publishing them – enabling them to point out weaknesses or other…

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The number of Republicans speaking at the Democratic National Convention had progressives on edge. They shouldn’t have fretted. Even if a handful of estranged Republicans are along for the ride, the Left is steadily moving the Democratic Party in its direction. Would progressives prefer winning the optics at a virtual convention, or the substance over the longer term? The Democratic Convention was, for the most part, bereft of policy, focusing instead on President Donald Trump’s character failings — rehearsed at length — and Joe Biden’s personal decency. Together with all of…

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Democrats opened the most extraordinary presidential nominating convention in recent history on Monday night with a program that spanned the gamut from socialists to Republicans, from the relatives of George Floyd to family members of those killed by the coronavirus, in a two-hour event that was a striking departure from the traditional summer pageant of American democracy. Truncated and conducted virtually because of the coronavirus crisis, the presentation at times resembled an online awards show, and it offered a vivid illustration of how both the pandemic and widespread opposition to…

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Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing with Attorney General William Barr was really something to behold. Almost every Democrat played from the same playbook, starting with Chairman Jerry Nadler, who told Barr he should be ashamed of himself. One after the other, they heaped scorn on the attorney general in a build up to some question that they refused to allow Barr to answer. Here is a good mashup if you missed out on the fun for yourself. There is a serious giveaway in this tactic. When a member of…

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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said Monday that his former writer who posted racist comments online was wrong but criticized “ghouls now beating their chests in triumph” after his staffer’s resignation. “When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the gravest sin of all,” the Fox host said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Carlson, who said the online commentary by Blake Neff had no connection to his show, said he would be taking the rest of the week off to go trout fishing. Neff resigned Friday…

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On Saturday, just four months before the 2020 election, musician, provocateur and former ardent Donald Trump supporter Kanye West tweeted that he was launching his own bid to become president. “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION,” West wrote on Independence Day. His tweet was boosted by his wife, reality star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian, and was endorsed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Fellow artists like rapper 2Chainz griped that he’s upset…

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Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools. It does not mean counting cuts in overtime as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways. The fight to defund policing continues. If these reports are accurate, then these proposed ‘cuts’ to the NYPD budget are a disingenuous…

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President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton alleges in a new book that Mr. Trump pushed Chinese President Xi Jinping in trade negotiations to agree to purchase American agricultural products in order to boost Mr. Trump’s political standing with U.S. farmers and help him win reelection. In an excerpt of Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” published by The Wall Street Journal, Bolton condemns what he calls the “incoherence” of the president’s trade policy and his focus on winning a second term. The excerpt was published…

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