White House officials claim that chief of staff John Kelly presents himself as a savior and calls Trump an "idiot" behind his back.

What an idiot.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

White House chief of staff John Kelly has eroded morale in the West Wing in recent months with comments to aides that include insulting the president's intelligence and casting himself as the savior of the country, according to eight current and former White House officials. 

The officials said Kelly portrays himself to Trump administration aides as the lone bulwark against catastrophe, curbing the erratic urges of a president who has a questionable grasp on policy issues and the functions of government. He has referred to Trump as "an idiot" multiple times to underscore his point, according to four officials who say they've witnessed the comments.

Officials said Kelly's public image as a retired four-star general instilling discipline on a chaotic White House and an impulsive president belies what they describe as the undisciplined and indiscreet approach he's employed as chief of staff. The private manner aides describe may shed new light on why Kelly now finds himself — just nine months into the job — grappling with diminished influence and a drumbeat of questions about how long he'll remain at the White House. 

"He says stuff you can't believe," said one senior White House official. "He'll say it and you think, 'That is not what you should be saying.'"

Of course since this story broke earlier today Kelly has issued a statement pushing back on the allegations:  
“I am committed to our President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”

Yeah, okay.

This is not the first time that we have heard that there is tension between Trump and his chief of staff, and apparently Kelly has been greatly marginalized as of late.

And also according to NBC News Kelly's negative remarks about the president are not the only thing that puts his job in jeopardy:

Current and former White House officials said Kelly has at times made remarks that have rattled female staffers. Kelly has told aides multiple times that women are more emotional than men, including at least once in front of the president, four current and former officials said. 

And during a firestorm in February over accusations of domestic abuse against then-White House staff secretary Rob Porter, Kelly wondered aloud how much more Porter would have to endure before his honor could be restored, according to three officials who were present for the comments. He also questioned why Porter's ex-wives wouldn't just move on based on the information he said he had about his marriages, the officials said. 

Some current and former White House officials said they expect Kelly to leave by July, his one-year mark. But others say it's anyone's guess. What's clear is both Trump and Kelly seem to have tired of each other. 

Move over Rex Tillerson it looks like you are about to have a little company in the "We Just Got Shitcanned Hotel."

New poll shows that majority of Republicans have no interest in seeing a woman become President. Ever!

And this surprises you?

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Asked if they'd see a woman president in their lifetime, 20 percent of respondents said they "definitely will," while 43 percent said they "probably will." A total of 63 percent believed they would likely see a female president before they die. 

YouGov also asked, "Do you personally hope that the United States elects a woman president of the United States in your lifetime, or not?" Sixty-six percent of all respondents said yes, while 34 percent said no.

A comfortable majority of Republicans—59 percent—responded no, they don't hope to see a woman president in their lifetime, according to YouGov. In comparison, 89 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents responded that yes, they hoped to see a woman president before they died.

Well gee perhaps it wasn't Hillary's politics that made the Republicans hate her so much, but rather her lack of a penis.

Instead of having a Vajayjay running the country they looked for the very embodiment of a dick.

And that boys and girls is how you get this guy.

Top Republican official admits that they could not have won in Wisconsin without voter ID laws keeping thousands of eligible people from voting.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Election officials and Democrats in Wisconsin have repeatedly argued that the state’s strict voter ID law allowed Donald Trump to win the state in 2016 by keeping thousands of voters—predominantly in Democratic-leaning areas—from the polls. Now a top Republican official in the state is saying the same thing. 

“We battled to get voter ID on the ballot for the November ’16 election,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who defended the law in court, told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on April 12. “How many of your listeners really honestly are sure that Sen. [Ron] Johnson was going to win reelection or President Trump was going to win Wisconsin if we didn’t have voter ID to keep Wisconsin’s elections clean and honest and have integrity?” 

The law, which went into effect in 2016, required specific forms of government-issued photo identification to vote. In a cover story last year, Mother Jones reported that the law kept tens of thousands of eligible voters from the polls and likely tipped the state to Trump. A federal court found in 2014 that 9 percent of registered voters in Wisconsin did not possess the identification necessary to vote. In a University of Wisconsin study published in September 2017, 1 in 10 registered voters in Milwaukee County and Madison’s Dane County who did not cast a ballot in 2016 cited the voter ID law as a reason why. That meant that up to 23,000 voters in the two heavily Democratic counties—and as many as 45,000 voters statewide—didn’t vote because of the voter ID law. Trump won the state by 22,000 votes.

Just another reminder that without cheating, unnecessary voter ID laws, gerrymandering, Russian meddling, Republicans cannot actually win.

For me it is not so much the winning, but rather the good that you can do once you win.

I guess that is why I'm a Democrat.

This almost got lost in all of the recent news lately, but yet another Republican is jumping ship.

After discussions with my family & careful reflection, I have decided to leave Congress in the coming weeks. Serving the people of #PA15 has been a tremendous responsibility & the privilege of a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/p8mik6s8ix

— Rep. Charlie Dent (@RepCharlieDent) April 17, 2018

Charlie Dent was actually one of the least odious Republicans, I think they called him a moderate or something like that.

Which I think in conservative circles means he was not one who masturbated with his gun while staring at a picture of Ronald Reagan. 

However he was a Republican so he has gotta go.

And now there is one more opportunity for Dems to pick up yet another House seat.

Looking good for 2018 my friends. 

A former GOP donor is using his tax cut money to fund Democrats.

Seth Klarman

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

A major GOP donor is jumping ship and now he’s contributing to Democratic candidates in hopes of flipping the House of Representatives and/or the Senate in this year’s midterm elections. 

Seth Klarman, the billionaire CEO of the Baupost Group who the Economist once dubbed “The Oracle of Boston,” called out Republicans for failing to keep President Donald Trump in check. 

“The Republicans in Congress have failed to hold the president accountable and have abandoned their historic beliefs and values,” Klarman told the Boston Globe. “For the good of the country, the Democrats must take back one or both houses of Congress.” 

Klarman, an independent who donated more than $7 million to GOP candidates during the presidency of Barack Obama, has now cut checks to Democrats in 56 House races and 22 Senate elections, the newspaper reported. 

“I received a tax cut I neither need nor want. I’m choosing to invest it to fight the administration’s flawed policies and to elect Democrats to the Senate and House of Representatives,” Klarman said. 

Klarman also donated $2 million to nonprofits backing core Democratic issues, including gun control and the environment, the Globe reported.

Boy Donald Trump really IS good at fundraising.

Just look how much he is raising for the Democrats.

When people talk about Donald Trump's legacy, I am hoping that his number one achievement will be the total destruction of the Republican party as we know it today.

Paul Ryan is reportedly tapping out.

Courtesy of CNN: 

House Speaker Paul Ryan is not seeking re-election and will retire from Congress after this year, his office announced Wednesday. 

"This morning Speaker Ryan shared with his colleagues that this will be his last year as a member of the House," Ryan aide Brendan Buck said in a statement. "He will serve out his full term, run through the tape, and then retire in January. After nearly twenty years in the House, the speaker is proud of all that has been accomplished and is ready to devote more of his time to being a husband and a father." 

According to two sources with direct knowledge, in calls this morning with his leadership team, Ryan made clear much of this decision was about spending time with his family, but also noted that he planned to leave after this Congress and didn't think it was fair to his district or the GOP conference to run for re-election only to leave right after. 

A source familiar told CNN that Ryan called House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy about his retirement before the news broke. 

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, has been in Congress since 1999 and became House speaker in 2015.

This...is...huge...news.

Ryan did not want to be Speaker in the first place, but he clearly enjoyed being in politics and using his position to screw over poor people at every opportunity.

If he is throwing in the towel it is likely because he realizes that the Democrats will almost certainly be the majority in Congress after the midterms, and that his days as Speaker are over anyhow.

He might also fear the "Iron Stache," and realize that he is going to be humiliated in this next election cycle and wants to get out while the getting is good.

Can you say "Blue Wave?"

Republicans were a no show at gun control town halls around the country organized by the Parkland students.

.@BarbaraComstock refused her invitation, so gun violence prevention group (and anti-Comstockers) @GaysXGunsDC showed up in her place.

“Smile and say ‘NRA!’” pic.twitter.com/HrBNLTIiM3

— Kara Voght (@karavoght) April 7, 2018

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

The organizers of last month’s March for Our Lives have taken their movement to town halls across the country and invited congressional lawmakers—who have returned to their districts for a two-week recess—to discuss action on gun control. According to the Town Hall Project, more than 130 of these meetings are taking place, with most of the events happening on Saturday. 

Though invited, no Republicans appeared at any town halls, and many of the forums featured empty chairs to symbolize their absences. 

Mother Jones‘ Kara Voght attended the town hall at Virginia’s 10th congressional district, where every Democratic candidate seeking to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock showed up to discuss gun legislation. Comstock, unsurprisingly, refused to attend.

In town hall after town hall the Democratic candidates showed up in force, while nary a Republican was spotted anywhere. 

Thank you @SenWarren @RepKClark @RepDavidLinsky for talking to students today about #GunContolNow #THFOL #TownHallForOurLives #mapoli pic.twitter.com/XO9nj8F5J2

— doylemama (@doylemama) April 7, 2018

This is an empty chair.
If @RepChrisCollins had made time to listen to his constituents, he could have sat here and explained his positions on gun violence. Instead, he ignored the student organizers, and called them names. #TownHallForOurLives #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/UeQcxYGx3t

— Amy Ludwig VanDerwater (@amylvpoemfarm) April 7, 2018

Thank you Congresswomen @NydiaVelazquez and @RepMaloney for hosting the#NYC #TownHallForOurLives. It was an honor to join the other panelists and represent @MomsDemand at this student moderated event to say #EnoughIsEnough pic.twitter.com/6NgTSEVBdx

— @Solluna (@Solluna36541375) April 7, 2018

I know that the Republicans are praying that this is a passing fad and that gun control will not figure prominently in the next election cycle, but I do not think they have been listening to the young people for whom school safety and gun control are taking center stage.

This should help to keep things straight.

A little simplistic, but accurate overall.

Ted Cruz's Democratic opponent raises more than 6 million in first quarter.

Got to meet someone who supposedly represents me today. Not for much longer, though! #BetoForTexas @SenTedCruz @BetoORourke pic.twitter.com/7S4yVR5uAj

— Rebecca (@LazyyMillennial) March 23, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) reportedly brought in more than $6 million during the first quarter of the year in his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). 

The Texas Tribune reported that O'Rourke raised $6.7 million in the first three months of 2018. 

O'Rourke's fundraising haul was far higher than the amount he had raised during previous quarters, according to the Tribune, when he raised between $1.7 million and $2.4 million. 

His campaign told the newspaper that his fundraising haul was higher than that of any Democratic Senate candidate across the country. 

"Campaigning in a grassroots fashion while raising more than $6.7 million from 141,000 contributions, we are the story of a campaign powered by people who are standing up to special interests, proving that we are more than a match and making it clear that Texans are willing to do exactly what our state and country need of us at this critical time," O'Rourke said in a statement. 

The Cruz campaign has yet to release its first quarter report, but in past quarters the O'Rourke campaign had consistently out raised the Cruz campaign.

By a lot.

Which does not bode well for the Republican incumbent.

Dammit! I did not even get a chance to make fun of her yet.

By my count, that’s 2 races.
https://t.co/Vy6nYW6QxV

— amber ruffin (@ambermruffin) March 30, 2018

Courtesy of CNN:

"Clueless" star and former Fox News commentator Stacey Dash is withdrawing her congressional bid, a representative for the actress confirmed to CNN Friday. 

"After much prayer, introspection and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my candidacy for California's 44th Congressional District," Dash said in an email statement to CNN. 

The news comes one month after the actress and outspoken Republican filed paperwork to run in California's 44th district, which is currently represented by Democrat Nanette Barragán. 

Her campaign slogan was "Dash to D.C."

Look. There is a lot going on right no, so I would appreciate it if these conservatives morons trying to run for office during what will likely be one of the largest progressive turnovers in American history, would stay in the race long enough for me to get around to mocking them BEFORE they come to their senses and run back to the safety of their Right Wing bubble.

I mean I am only one man here.

And there is SO MUCH to mock right now.

Barack Obama wants to create "a million Barack Obamas."

Courtesy of the Washington Examiner:  

Former President Barack Obama talked about his future plans for his post-presidency life at a conference Sunday in Japan, addressing how he might shape "a million" new, young leaders in his mold. 

The wide-ranging discussion repeatedly touched on the Obama Foundation's efforts to engage the digital space to help young people in the U.S. and across the world get connected. 

"If I could do that effectively, then -- you know -- I would create a hundred or a thousand or a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas," Obama said. "Or, the next group of people who could take that baton in that relay race that is human progress."

Speaking of a million if you go and open your window right now that is how many Republican heads you can hear exploding.

Could you imagine if Obama combined forces with this group of Parkland students?

He already reached out to them once.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s the letter @BarackObama and @MichelleObama wrote to the #ParklandShooting survivors. In it, the former president and first lady tell the teens that they’ve “inspired” them, and commend them on “awakening the conscience of our nation.” https://t.co/FOQYVguNFw pic.twitter.com/xEPHE6iUL2

— Mic (@mic) March 21, 2018

And THAT sound you are hearing is a million more Republican heads exploding.

Thousands register to vote at March For Our Lives rallies.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

At least 4,000 people registered to vote on Saturday at "March for Our Lives" protests across the United States, Reuters reports. 

According to Reuters, at least 4,000 people had registered to vote by 8:30 p.m., with the number of those who signed up growing as more cities concluded their sister marches and reported registration totals. 

Survivors of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have made voter turnout a primary focus of their calls to action. 

"March for Our Lives" rallies across the country aimed to honor the memory of the 17 people who were killed in last month's shooting and show lawmakers the widespread support for gun control. Many speakers called on people to vote in their local and national elections to support candidates who will address gun violence.

My guess is that this 4,000 number is only the very beginning.

This is why these marches have panicked the conservatives so much.

It is not only that it is dramatically changing the gun law debate, it is that they are also recruiting new voters for the 2018/2020 elections. 

And how many of these new voters do we really think are planning to vote Republican?

Cambridge Analytica is under siege. And that's good news.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

British investigators on Friday night searched the London offices of Cambridge Analytica, the data-analytics company that harvested data from 50 million Facebook users to develop psychological profiles on behalf of political campaigns, including that of President Trump. 

About 20 investigators from Britain’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, descended on the company’s offices on New Oxford Street after obtaining a search warrant from the High Court. 

“We are pleased with the decision of the judge, and the warrant is now being executed,” the office of the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said in a statement. “This is just one part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data and analytics for political purposes. As you will expect, we will now need to collect, assess and consider the evidence before coming to any conclusions.” 

Last Saturday, the same day The New York Times and The Observer of London published a detailed look at the company’s use of Facebook data, Ms. Denham’s office announced an investigation into “the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used.”

What is that passage in the Bible about reaping what you sow again?

If that were not enough bad news for Cambridge Analytica, they are also on Robert Mueller's radar.

Courtesy of the AP:

Special counsel Robert Mueller is scrutinizing the connections between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which has come under fierce criticism over reports that it swiped the data of more than 50 million Facebook users to sway elections. 

Mueller’s investigators have asked former campaign officials about the Trump campaign’s data operations, particularly about how it collected and utilized voter data in battleground states, according to a person with direct knowledge of the line of inquiry but not authorized to discuss it publicly. 

The investigators have also asked some of Trump’s data team, which included analysts at the Republican National Committee, about its relationship with Cambridge Analytica, according to two former campaign officials. The campaign paid the firm just under $6 million for its work in 2016, according to federal records.

And there is plenty to go after here, as this company had connections not just to the Trump campaign, but also past and current members of the Trump Administration.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

In an interview with the New York Times, Wylie says that Bolton’s PAC was alarmed by polling trends showing that more and more Americans viewed war unfavorably — and it wanted to construct an advertising campaign aimed at reversing those views. 

“The Bolton PAC was obsessed with how America was becoming limp wristed and spineless and it wanted research and messaging for national security issues,” said Wylie, a data expert who was a key figure in the founding of Cambridge Analytica. “That really meant making people more militaristic in their worldview. That’s what they said they wanted, anyway.” 

Bolton’s PAC hired Cambridge Analytica months after it was founded in 2014, and the firm’s work with Bolton’s group became an example that it used to pitch potential clients about the value of its data harvesting model. 

Emails viewed by the Times suggest that former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon had some role in setting up contacts between Bolton and Cambridge Analytica, as an email from a Cambridge Analytica employee sent to Bolton specifically mentioned Bannon in its subject header.

 I am guessing that Cambridge is out of the data analysis business for the time being at least.

And this is a warning shot to any others who may want to adopt their business model. 

Recently fired deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, writes op-ed for the Washington Post.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

I have been accused of “lack of candor.” That is not true. I did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators. When asked about contacts with a reporter that were fully within my power to authorize as deputy director, and amid the chaos that surrounded me, I answered questions as completely and accurately as I could. And when I realized that some of my answers were not fully accurate or may have been misunderstood, I took the initiative to correct them. At worst, I was not clear in my responses, and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted — and for that I take full responsibility. But that is not a lack of candor. And under no circumstances could it ever serve as the basis for the very public and extended humiliation of my family and me that the administration, and the president personally, have engaged in over the past year. 

Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way. 

The next day I woke to find the president of the United States celebrating my punishment: “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI — A great day for Democracy.” I was sad, but not surprised, to see that such unhinged public attacks on me would continue into my life after my service to the FBI. President Trump’s cruelty reminded me of the days immediately following the firing of James B. Comey, as the White House desperately tried to push the falsehood that people in the FBI were celebrating the loss of our director. The president’s comments about me were equally hurtful and false, which shows that he has no idea how FBI people feel about their leaders.

Towards the end of the 2016 election cycle The Guardian reported that the FBI was essentially "Trumpland," and that Hillary was seen as "the antichrist personified" to a large swath of FBI agents.

That was seen as part of the reason why the FBI's investigation into Trump's ties with Russia were kept on the down low while Clinton's email kerfuffle was featured on the front pages virtually every single day.

One has to wonder now if the FBI is happy with their performance, and in some cases lack of performance, during the 2016 elections?

I am not at all sure what they thought they would gain having Donald Trump as president, but if it was to be attacked on an almost weekly basis, have their top people humiliated and fired, and to have their entire agency undermined, well I guess they certainly got that, didn't they? 

Cambridge Analytica boss caught on camera offering to hire sex workers and offer bribes to compromise politicians.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

The boss of Cambridge Analytica, the analytics firm at the centre of an international storm over the misuse of Facebook user data, has been caught on camera bragging about how the company could blackmail political candidates with sex workers, and telling a prospective client that it has been secretly operating around the world to campaign in elections. 

In an undercover operation by Britain's Channel 4 News, CEO Alexander Nix and two other high-ranking Cambridge Analytica staff took meetings with a reporter posing as a fixer who wanted the data firm's help getting candidates elected in Sri Lanka. 

On Monday evening, Channel 4 broadcast undercover footage from four meetings across three months, with Nix telling the reporter that one of the services of Cambridge Analytica could be to “send some girls around to the candidate’s house”, adding that Ukrainian girls “are very beautiful, I find that works very well”. 

Nix also told the undercover reporter: “We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land, for instance. We’ll have the whole thing recorded. We’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the internet.”

Representatives of the company also offered to spread fake news about political opponents in order to help sway the elections.

Well gee, no wonder the Trump campaign wanted to work with these guys, they were singing the same tune.

This is what the whistle blower who outed the company's Facebook data mining operation said about this video:   

Wiley couldn’t speak as to how this relates to the firm’s work for the Trump campaign, but he went on to say “there is a perverse company culture inside of Cambridge Analytica, and as the undercover shows, they’re willing to go to extreme lengths to service their clients, and they’ll do anything that helps, whether it’s legal or not.”

Do we really believe that the Trump campaign did not utilize that skills set?

We also learned yesterday that before they started using their possibly illegal tactics to help Donald Trump, that Cambridge Analytica worked for Ted Cruz.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Before they ran shady data operations for Donald Trump’s campaign, Cambridge Analytica worked for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during his presidential bid. Now, the Texas Republican is under fire for hiring the group amid reports that they improperly used Facebook data. 

The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that the Cruz campaign kept Cambridge Analytica on retainer six months after initial reports of the firm using illicitly-sourced Facebook data surfaced in 2015 — a fact the Texas Democratic Party touted in a news release published on Monday. 

“Ted Cruz will stop at nothing to weasel his way into power, even if it means weaponizing stolen information to manipulate people to like him,” Manny Garcia, the deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a press release. “Cruz’s campaign exploited personal information to create psychological profiles on millions of Americans. All to keep lining the pockets of Cruz’s billionaire super PAC donors — like Robert Mercer, who funded this propaganda machine.”

Color me unsurprised that Cruz would resort to tactics like this, nice to see that it might end up biting him in the ass and costing him this election.

Oh, one more thing.

I appears that Cambridge Anaylytica currently has a contract with our State Department: 

Strategic Communications Laboratories, best known for its work with its offshoot and collaborator Cambridge Analytica, appears to have an open contract with the State Department. DefenseOne first noted the contract on a government contracts database, where it is listed as still open.

Well, I ma going to have to take a really hot shower after this post to get the sleaze off. 

Trump Administration decides to address school shootings by arming teachers and appointing Betsy DeVos to head up commission. Following the NRA's blueprint to a "T."

Courtesy of Politico: 

The White House on Sunday night announced backing for a new Justice Department program that would aid states that seek to train teachers and other school personnel to carry firearms, as part of a package of steps to curb school violence. 

In addition, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will chair a government commission exploring steps to prevent school violence, following the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month that left 17 dead, the Trump administration said. 

“We are committed to working quickly because there’s no time to waste,” DeVos said on a conference call with reporters. “No student, no family, no teacher and no school should have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook or Columbine again.” 

DeVos said the commission would include teachers. A senior administration official on the call said that it was expected the work would be completed within a year. The official said existing Justice Department funds would be used to assist states and local law enforcement groups that want to bolster their armed school personnel programs.

Trump also backtracked on his call to raise the age limit to buy certain firearms after his meeting with the NRA. (Remember how Trump mocked the Republican politicians for being scared of the NRA? Yeah well he better check the mirror.)

Let me save you all the trouble of waiting and tell you exactly what this commission will decide to do to effe3ctrively combat school shootings. Not a goddamn thing.

Sure they will have a few metal detectors installed, put in some safety glass, and of course suggest that several teachers start packing heat, but it will not protect a single child from gun violence.

And of course this will do NOTHING to address the shootings in shopping malls, movie theaters, or churches. 

Putting DeVos in charge of this commission is essentially a giant "fuck you" to the Parkland students who are the driving force behind gun control legislation, and they certainly recognize it as such.

"Betsey DeVos basically paid for her position...I think she's not the right person for this," says Florida shooting survivor David Hogg after WH unveils plan to establish a school safety commission chaired by the US Education Secretary https://t.co/eTBqSkJnS0 pic.twitter.com/e4btWpov5Y

— CNN International (@cnni) March 12, 2018

Clearly these kids see through the bullshit, which means they are only going to become more determined to advocate for real change in this country's gun laws.

The next school shooting, and yes we know there will be one, is going to be a public relations nightmare for the Trump Administration and only empower these students even more than they have been already. 

This is far from over. 

In wake of Parkland school shooting Oregon Governor signs new gun control legislation into law. Minnesota state representative also introduces legislation, gets death threats.

Kate Brown

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed new gun safety legislation into law on Monday, making the state the first to tighten its firearm regulations since last month’s mass shooting at a high school in Florida. 

The bill expands an existing law to prevent intimate partners who have a domestic violence or stalking conviction from buying and keeping guns. Until now, the state’s law only applied to married partners, and the new measure closes what was termed the “boyfriend loophole.” 

“I’m proud to sign this bill, making Oregon the first state to take action to prevent senseless gun violence since the tragedy in Parkland, Florida,” Brown said in a statement. “Today marks an important milestone, but we know we have more to do. It’s long past time we hold the White House and Congress accountable. Now’s the time to enact real change and federal gun safety legislation.” 

The bill was introduced in January, but the governor called it “historic” because state legislators decided to advance the measure in response to the Parkland shooting.

Well this is good news, and I am guessing that this is only the beginning.

Especially if those amazing Parkland students have anything to say about it.

"To every spokeswoman with an hourglass who uses free speech to alter and undermine what our flag represents...Your Time is running out. The clock starts now."
-@sarahchad_ #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/k29FB2vHPI

— Sarah Chadwick// #NEVERAGAIN (@sarahchad_) March 6, 2018

However a state representative in Minnesota also wanted to introduce legislation to deal with gun violence, things did not go well.

Courtesy of Fox 9: 

Over the last week, Democrat State Representative Linda Slocum has received thousands of emails since introducing one of the most expansive gun control bills in Minnesota. 

Most have been critical, some have been downright nasty. She's been cussed out, compared to Hitler, called a whale and other sexually lewd comments, but one message stood out from the rest. 

“He threatened to kill me,” said Slocum. 

The Richfield representative was startled when she listened to the man's voicemail and then a follow-up email. She does not want to identify him because of safety concerns, but described part of his message to Fox 9.

“I have my gun and I’m ready to come and get you and it was very threatening,” said Slocum. 

As a former teacher and a long-time politician, Slocum says she's used to being called every name in the book, but this was different. She contacted the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office who is now investigating the threat. 

“I will file charges if I hear from him again,” she said.

So when somebody threatens to take away their little metal penis extenders, the knee jerk reaction is to threaten them with said metal penis extender?

In my opinion that right there is reason enough to lose access to those metal penis extenders.

I'm just saying.

The Russians also infiltrated Reddit, one of the most popular websites on the internet.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Reddit admitted it has “found and removed a few hundred accounts” associated with Russian propaganda, one week after The Daily Beast confirmed the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency, or Troll Farm, used the platform during the 2016 presidential campaign. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman, writing under the username Spez, outlined both direct propaganda, such as troll accounts using the platform, and indirect propaganda, like subreddits such as r/The_Donald repeatedly linking to Russian Twitter troll account @TEN_GOP. “Given the recent news, we’d like to share some of what we’ve learned,” he wrote. 

If you are a frequent visitor to Reddit this is not really news, since this was being called out during the election, but nothing was ever really done about it.

Like Facebook the moderators of Reddit seemed to ignore the problem altogether.

And that has really pissed off a number of Reddit users: 

Reddit users rebelled en masse against the site’s CEO for concealing Russian troll activity the site now admits it knew about, and for not working fast enough to ban dangerous and extremist communities. 

Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman admitted the site has been targeted by at least “a few hundred” troll accounts in an announcement to Reddit users on Monday, four days after a Daily Beast investigation confirmed for the first time that Russia’s troll farm used the platform. 

Reddit has not responded to repeated requests by The Daily Beast for comment about The Daily Beast’s investigation, which showed Russia’s Internet Research Agency used American proxies to access the site. 

Based on that reporting, Senate investigators are looking into opening up probes on the troll farm’s use of Reddit and Tumblr, according to The Washington Post.

I only visited that r/The Donald subreddit a few times, but the stuff that was posted on there was outrageous, misleading, and consistently pro-Donald Trump.

Many of the talking points that you may have seen defending Trump during the election, or minimizing news stories about him, originated on these subreddits and then spread far and wide on Facebook, Twitter, and various other social media outlets.

By the way as of this post r/The Donald is still up and has over half a million subscribers.

So Mike Pence predicts that legal abortion will end in our lifetime. I'm sorry, what?

No abortion for you, no abortion for you, nobody gets an abortion.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Vice President Pence predicted Tuesday that legal abortion would end in the U.S. "in our time." 

"I know in my heart of hearts this will be the generation that restores life in America," Pence said at a luncheon in Nashville, Tenn., hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List & Life Institute, an anti-abortion organization. 

"If all of us do all we can, we can once again, in our time, restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law." 

Pence has long championed anti-abortion policies, as a congressman, as the governor of Indiana and as vice president. 

He told the crowd he has seen more progress in the Trump administration's first year in office than he has in his entire life. 

Okay, well this seems bad.

Perhaps Mike Pence does not realize this, but the Supreme Court decided that access to legal abortions in this country is a woman's right.

It was a little case called Roe vs Wade. You may have heard of it, it was in all the papers.

So the vice president can do nothing to erase that, nor can he do it once he replaces an impeached Donald Trump as our new president.

But the fact that he is so determined to try is extremely troubling, and just one more reason that in the 2018 election cycle we need to elect as many Democrats as possible and send them to Washington.

An editorial from the The Atlantic that we should ALL read.

Courtesy of The Atlantic:  

The Republican Party, as an institution, has become a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy. The problem is not just Donald Trump; it’s the larger political apparatus that made a conscious decision to enable him. In a two-party system, nonpartisanship works only if both parties are consistent democratic actors. If one of them is not predictably so, the space for nonpartisans evaporates. We’re thus driven to believe that the best hope of defending the country from Trump’s Republican enablers, and of saving the Republican Party from itself, is to do as Toren Beasley did: vote mindlessly and mechanically against Republicans at every opportunity, until the party either rights itself or implodes (very preferably the former). 

Of course, lots of people vote a straight ticket. Some do so because they are partisan. Others do so because of a particular policy position: Many pro-lifers, for example, will not vote for Democrats, even pro-life Democrats, because they see the Democratic Party as institutionally committed to the slaughter of babies.

We’re proposing something different. We’re suggesting that in today’s situation, people should vote a straight Democratic ticket even if they are not partisan, and despite their policy views. They should vote against Republicans in a spirit that is, if you will, prepartisan and prepolitical. Their attitude should be: The rule of law is a threshold value in American politics, and a party that endangers this value disqualifies itself, period. In other words, under certain peculiar and deeply regrettable circumstances, sophisticated, independent-minded voters need to act as if they were dumb-ass partisans.

The title of this article is "Boycott the Republican party."

And that is exactly what the article is advocating.

For very good reason in fact.

As you can see from the article below, the Republican party is now the party of Donald Trump, and therefore also the party of Vladimir Putin.

This is NOT the Red Scare of the 1950's for which Joseph McCarthy was justifiably vilified.

Unlike that case there is overwhelming evidence that we are under constant attack from a foreign entity determined to turn us against each other, and to undermine our democracy.

If the Republican party is unable to recognize that, or protect us from that, they have no right to represent us in Washington, or even in local state offices.