Hilary Clinton OK'd plan to link Trump to Russia
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New York Post
28 minutes ago
- New York Post
Blaming ‘the system,' Kamala Harris falls for the oldest temptation
August is usually downtime in Washington, DC: Congress is in recess, the heat and humidity contribute to the desire to escape town for cooler weather, the president is normally somewhere else and cable news is focused on shark attacks. Not this August. Cable news especially, along with some newspapers, seem to be fixated on the person Democrats will nominate for president in 2028. We are just eight months into President Donald Trump's second term — and we are being forced to listen and read speculation about an election a political lifetime away. Part of it can be blamed on former Vice President Kamala Harris, who received headlines for announcing she is not running for governor of California and will not seek the presidency again. Harris told Stephen Colbert on his soon-to-be canceled 'Late Show' the reason she will not run again: 'The system is broken,' she said Funny how Democrats claim the system is broken only when they lose. The larger part of the media's preoccupation with politics is that many 'can't stop thinking about tomorrow' instead of living in the present. For many, politics has become a false god. Like those ancient gods described in the Old Testament that could never deliver what the people claimed to want, the political 'gods' are worshiped no matter how many times they fail to keep their promises. If, as Harris claims, 'the system' is broken, much of the reason is that we have asked the government to do what it was never created to do. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! Even as Trump, however imperfectly, is trying to fix it, too many voters still put too much faith where it doesn't belong. It is here that CS Lewis offers valuable insight. In his classic work 'The Screwtape Letters,' a demon-in-training named Wormwood is assigned by his Uncle Screwtape (aka Satan) to distract his 'patient' (aka us) from the plans of 'the enemy' (aka God). Kamala Harris would do well to read this excerpt, since she blames a broken system for her loss, and her decision not to run again. 'Be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics,' Lewis' Screwtape advises. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters 'Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control. 'Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. 'Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is 'out there' in the 'broken system' rather than recognizing there is a problem with himself.' William Shakespeare had his own analysis of the human condition. Students may remember this comment by Cassius in 'Julius Caesar': 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.' It means that fate and destiny do not control us, but rather the good or bad choices we make are the result of our own actions, determined by the worldview to which we cling and in which we believe. Imagine if politicians began speaking like Lewis and the Bard, telling voters, 'I can't do more for you than you can do for yourselves.' With so many addicted to politics and 'the system,' voters might quickly drive the career politicians from office — and the ratings on cable news would drop like a stone. Cal Thomas is a veteran political commentator, columnist and author.
NBC News
29 minutes ago
- NBC News
Redistricting reprisals: From the Politics Desk
Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team's latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. Happy Monday, readers! In today's edition, NBC News reporters in Austin, Boston, Chicago and Washington bring you the latest from the redistricting standoff in Texas, after Democrats fled the state to deny Republicans a quorum to move forward with legislation. Then, our team in Washington digs into the fallout from President Donald Trump's dismissal of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. — Scott Bland Redistricting clash escalates in Texas after Democrats scatter, denying state House a quorum By Ben Kamisar, Natasha Korecki, Ryan Chandler and Adam Edelman The Texas state House briefly reconvened this afternoon amid a nationally watched clash over the GOP majority's plan to redraw the state's congressional lines, with Republican lawmakers voting to approve civil arrest warrants targeting the dozens of Democrats who fled the state, blocking Republicans from proceeding with the plan. The bulk of the 50-plus Democrats who left the state are in Illinois, where they've been welcomed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. Others are in Boston and in Albany, New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, in response to Texas, is pushing for a change in state law to allow redistricting in future years. There, beyond the reach of the state sergeant-at-arms and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the warrants may have little practical effect. But back home, the Democrats face mounting fines, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to boot the Democratic lawmakers from office or send law enforcement to force them to return to the state. Because House business requires a quorum, 51 out of the state's 62 Democratic House members can, by remaining out of state, prevent the Republican-led state House from moving forward with legislation. The absences deprived the House of its quorum, a reality confirmed quickly after legislators gaveled in this afternoon. Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows admonished the dozens of Democrats who fled the state as having 'abandoned their post and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent.' Democrats have decried Republicans' redistricting move as a power play and criticized them for moving on the redistricting bill before having responded legislatively to the devastating floods this summer that killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, outside San Antonio. Today, Burrows shot back by arguing that Democrats are delaying their ability to move on other legislative priorities, like addressing the floods. Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, speaking yesterday evening after she arrived at a news conference at a strip mall about 30 miles west of Chicago, said the redistricting bill is happening only because Trump is 'afraid of the electorate next November.' By Jonathan Allen, Katherine Doyle and Peter Nicholas White House officials began the week scrambling to find a permanent replacement after President Donald Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, following a weaker-than-expected July jobs report and drastic downward revisions of employment for the prior two months. Steve Bannon, a senior White House adviser in Trump's first term who is influential with the MAGA wing of the GOP, is pushing hard for E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Antoni, a contributor to the Project 2025 policy rubric, has been a longtime skeptic of BLS data. On Bannon's podcast last week, Antoni called for McEntarfer to be fired shortly before Trump pulled the trigger. In an interview with NBC News this afternoon, Antoni said he had not been contacted by anyone in the White House about the job. West Wing officials are 'still running traps' on candidates for the Senate-confirmed position, one White House aide said. The White House did not return a request for comment on whether Antoni is under consideration. Trump yesterday said that he plans to announce a pick in the next three or four days. 'It's going to have to be somebody that has tremendous credibility and experience,' said a senior White House official who noted that Trump would likely listen to the thoughts of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Stephen Miran, the chair of the National Economic Council. Hiring such a person could potentially be a challenge for Trump. In ousting McEntarfer, he baselessly claimed that jobs numbers are subject to political manipulation — 'RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,' he said — raising the specter that a new commissioner would not release numbers that made Trump look bad. 'I find it so hard to believe that your average person hears Trump fired someone because he claimed that they manipulated data and whoever he's replaced them with is going to produce trustworthy data,' Kathryn Anne Edwards, an independent economic consultant and host of a podcast called The Optimist, said.
NBC News
29 minutes ago
- NBC News
Texas Republicans threaten to arrest Democrats who left state to block redistricting bill
More than 50 Texas Democratic lawmakers headed to New York, Chicago and Boston to stall a Republican push to redraw congressional districts in their favor. Now, Republicans are issuing civil arrest warrants for those Democrats to try to force them to return to Texas. NBC News' Ryan Chandler reports.
