Maybe Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had the right idea after all. Maybe Republicans are willing to trigger a constitutional crisis over the Supreme Court.
Some conservatives certainly seem to be warming up to McCain’s controversial suggestion last week that Senate Republicans should dig in their heels and block any and all Supreme Court nominees put forth by a future President Hillary Clinton.
Who needs a fully functioning Supreme Court after all?
“As a matter of constitutional law, the Senate is fully within its powers to let the Supreme Court die out, literally,” wrote the Cato Institute’s Ilya Shapiro in a column Wednesday on The Federalist.
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Carlos Barria/Reuters
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could let the Supreme Court wither away while he waits for a Republican president.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the Pentagon on Wednesday to stop clawing-back the bonuses that thousands of soldiers got for reenlisting to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“There is no more important responsibility for the Department of Defense than keeping faith with our people,” Carter said in a statement. “That means treating them fairly and equitably, honoring their service and sacrifice, and keeping our word. Today, in keeping with that obligation, I am ordering a series of steps to ensure fair treatment for thousands of California National Guard soldiers who may have received incentive bonuses and tuition assistance improperly as a result of errors and in some cases criminal behavior by members of the California National Guard.”
Carter’s announcement was greeted with cheers in Kempner, Texas where Don and Susan Haley — both Iraq War veterans — had been struggling to pay back the bonuses they got when they reenlisted a decade ago in the California National Guard.
DonaldTrump sat down with a local television station in Florida at the weekend and turned to one of his favorite topics: lawsuits. And, particularly, how hard it is to win them against the press.
“In England, you have a good chance of winning,” the GOP presidential nominee said. “They have a system where you can actually sue if somebody says something wrong. Our press is allowed to say whatever they want and they can get away with it.”
The press are far from alone, though, on Trump’s list of lawsuit targets he finds out of reach. Lately, he’s taken to threatening every woman who comes forward with an allegation that he sexually assaulted them. Trump uses the threat of a lawsuit more than any other politician in recent history as a tactic against his opponents, or anyone else who he feels has wronged him, though he’s rarely followed through on it.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
As the 2016 election winds down, and the White House recedes ever further from his grasp, you might be wondering: “So, what’s the next zany scheme for ol’ Donald Trump?” Many observers suspect he’ll go on to a rewarding new career in election-delegitimizing and fabric-of-nation-corroding, perhaps from a perch at a brand-new media enterprise ― the better to keep wringing coin from his fans’ hands. But what about all the old Trump-branded luxury goods of yesteryear?
No one knows for sure, but it certainly looks like Trump’s namesake company is planning for a brand-damaged future. Bloomberg’s Hui-Yong Yu and James Nash report that “as the race approaches its conclusion amid a torrent of controversy, his company is launching a new brand that won’t carry his name.” Said brand will be known as Scion ― a word you may soon see affixed to a new “line of hotels that will target younger clients.” (”Scion,” of course, means “descendant of a notable family” ― more on that in a second.)
Whatever the plans for Scion, Trump himself is keeping uncharacteristically mum about it. Bloomberg notes that a quote from Donald was conspicuously missing from the organization’s press materials on launch. And let’s face it, that’s kind of weird, considering Trump’s only real skill is talking about how awesome he is.
Since declaring his candidacy for president last June, Donald Trump has used Twitter to lob insults at presidential candidates, journalists, news organizations, nations, a Neil Young song and even a lectern in the Oval Office. We know this because we’ve read, tagged and quoted them all. Below, a directory of sorts, with links to the original tweets. Insults within the last 60 days are highlighted. Related article
Recently insulted: Donna BrazileThe Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton FoundationThe 2016 electionThe electoral processNorth American Free Trade AgreementObamacareHillary ClintonThe mainstream media
Donald Trump used small donors’ money to buy nearly $300,000 worth of books from the publisher of his Art of the Deal last month, continuing a pattern of plowing campaign money back into his own businesses.
The Oct. 15 Federal Election Commission filing for Trump Make America Great Again Committee does not specify which books in particular were purchased, but the committee’s own website suggests it was Trump’s 1987 business bestseller.
“I’ve signed an out-of-print, hardcover copy of ‘The Art of the Deal’ just for you, because I want you on board with Team Trump!” Trump wrote in an Aug. 2 fundraising email, which went on to offer the book for a minimum donation of $184.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
A photograph of Donald Trump, Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks that the founder of Trump’s “diversity coalition” hailed as evidence the Republican nominee won an “NAACP medal” for “helping America’s inner cities” was actually taken at an awards ceremony organized by a business associate with an ethnic grievance.
William Fugazy, a politically well-connected businessman who later pleaded guilty to perjury, gave the awards to Trump and 79 other people, most of them white, to protest the awarding of “medals of liberty” to a group of 12 recent immigrants that included a Chinese-born architect, a Costa Rica-born astronaut, a leading expert on the psychology of race, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, but no “Irish, Italian, or Polish” people.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime attorney, adviser and campaign surrogate, posted the photo on Twitter earlier this week of Trump, Parks and Ali, “receiving NAACP medals for helping America’s inner cities. A man for ALL people!”
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Diana Walker via Getty Images
President Ronald Reagan stands with his wife Nancy during the Statue of Liberty’s centennial celebration July 4, 1986 in New York City. Bill Fugazy resented the fact that Reagan presented awards to 12 immigrants, none of whom were Italian, Irish or Polish.
President Barack Obama on Sunday campaigned in the battleground state of Nevada for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate he wants to succeed him in the White House – but he spent most of his time talking about the state’s Senate race.
Democrats badly want to get back control of the Republican-controlled Senate in the Nov. 8 election, and are sending Obama, Michelle Obama and Joe Biden to states where close races could tip the balance.
In Nevada, Obama reserved most of his firepower for mocking three-term Republican U.S. Representative Joe Heck, who had supported his party’s presidential candidate until earlier this month when Donald Trump’s campaign went into crisis mode by the release of a video in which he lewdly bragged about groping and kissing women.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
The former head of the Republican Party won’t be voting for Donald Trump in November, BuzzFeed reports.
Michael Steele, who chaired the party from 2009 to 2011, said at an event this week that he was “damn near puking during the debates,” according to the publication. Steele added that he also wouldn’t vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The former chairman is the latest high-profile conservative to disavow Trump. After giving the GOP nominee’s racist and sexist comments a pass for almost his entire campaign, a slew of Republican leaders abandoned ship this month amid growing accusations of sexual assault.
Among those disavowing Trump are 2008 GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.). Some, including GOP mega-fundraiser Meg Whitman and (reportedly) former President George H.W. Bush, are voting for Clinton instead.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in 2011. He reportedly has said he won’t vote for 2016 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is increasingly preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump may never concede the presidential election should she win, a development that could enormously complicate the crucial early weeks of her preparations to take office.
Aiming to undermine any argument the Republican nominee may make about a “rigged” election, she hopes to roll up a large electoral vote margin in next month’s election. That could repudiate the New York billionaire’s message and project a governing mandate after the bitter, divisive presidential race.
Clinton’s team is also keeping a close eye on statements by national Republican leaders, predicting they could play an important role in how Trump’s accusations of electoral fraud might be perceived. That’s according to several Clinton campaign aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal strategy.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives to board her campaign plane at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, to travel to Cleveland for a rally. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
James' World 2 