US House Of Representatives

78 “Swing” Districts In House Of Representatives, With A Minimum of 23 Switching Control In Midterm Elections Giving Democrats Control

Ronald 8 Comments

It is estimated by political experts that there are 78 “Swing” districts in the House of Representatives, which could go either way in November.

History tells us that with the exception of 1934, and 2002, the party NOT in the White House always gains seats, and often a large number of seats, and takes over the majority in Congress, as in 1946, 1954, 1994, 2006, and 2010.

Since the Democrats only need 23 seats to switch control of the lower house of Congress, it is hard to imagine that this will not occur.

There are plenty of seats that could change due to the Trump policies and programs, particularly in states such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and California, with selected seats in other states many of them “Red” for Trump.

More likely than just 23 seats is the possibility of a massive switch of seats, possibly as many as 40 or more seats going to the Democrats.

If such happens, which polls seem to show likely to occur, we will have the ability of the House of Representatives to fully investigate many scandals and controversies that have been pushed aside by the Republican majority.

And impeachment of Donald Trump would be likely in 2019, just as Robert Mueller comes to conclusions on his investigation of Trump for Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, abuse of the Emoluments Clause, and so much else.

Conviction would be difficult, nearly impossible, of Trump on impeachment charges, but his erratic behavior could lead to pressure for him to resign, and since Mike Pence wants to be President, do not be so sure he would not turn against his boss at some point, as hard as that is to imagine right now in late July 2018.

The Need For Top Advisers Around Trump To Resign, Or Lose Their Credibility

Ronald 6 Comments

It is now three days since Helsinki, and the President is totally off the wall in his view of the Russian involvement in the 2016 campaign, constantly changing his language, demonstrating total confusion and mental instability.

And we see his top advisers standing by smiling or having a poker face, and contradicting everything he says when not in his presence.

This includes his intelligence advisers, and his national security team.

Meanwhile, except for the few Republicans who are leaving Congress (Senator Bob Corker, Senator Jeff Flake, Congressman Mark Sanford), or Senator John McCain, who is in his last term even if he survives long term from his cancer battle, no one else is speaking out. There is the additional exception of John Kasich, who is leaving the Ohio Governorship, and also of Ben Sasse of Nebraska (who will face reelection in 2020 but has always spoken out), and Senate candidate Mitt Romney who is keeping his independence, knowing he will win the Utah Senate seat easily in November.

Everyone else is putting their career ahead of the country, absolutely despicable behavior.

As stated yesterday, US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman needs to resign in protest, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and others in the cabinet, including Defense Secretary James Mattis, all need to group together and go to the White House and demand Trump resign, or they will announce their joint resignation.

One might say this would create total chaos, but it would be a public statement by the entire group, showing patriotism over political loyalty, and Vice President Mike Pence might be forced to join with them to insist, that for the good of the country, it is time for Trump to go!

We need a Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott, as with Richard Nixon and Watergate in 1974, and the people named above have the ability to restore their integrity and reputation by doing the right thing, and soon!

What If Utah Senator Mike Lee Is Nominated For Supreme Court?

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Early speculation on who Donald Trump might select to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court centers on Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, an original Tea Party member, having served in the Senate, and promoting libertarian ideas since 2011.

Not always a supporter of Trump, and not backing him in 2016 due to the Access Hollywood tape, Lee would still be a prime choice for Trump.

Lee is only 47 and could be expected to serve on the Court until 2050 and beyond.

He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has to consider the Supreme Court nomination, and there are 11 Republicans to 10 Democrats on that committee.

To believe that any of his GOP colleagues on the committee, or even in the Senate, would vote against their party member, is hard to conceive.

And if all 50 Republicans stay united (minus John McCain, who is not likely to return to Washington DC anytime soon), at the worst, Vice President Mike Pence can vote if need be, but a 50-49 vote is a majority, and likely, a few Democrats, in red states facing election, would cross the aisle and vote for Lee, as they did for Neil Gorsuch a year ago.

Having a Senator on the Supreme Court is not unheard of, as it has happened 15 times in American history.

Most famously, there was Alabama Democratic Senator Hugo Black, who served on the Court for 34 years from 1937 to 1971, appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt. And President Harry Truman appointed two Senators—Sherman Minton of Indiana, who served from 1949-1956; and Harold Burton of Ohio who served from 1945-1958.

Also, there have been 17 Congressmen who served on the Supreme Court, including Warren G. Harding appointee George Sutherland of Utah who served from 1922-1938; and Chief Justice Fred Vinson of Kentucky, who served from 1946-1953, appointed by President Truman.

Finally, 6 Governors have been appointed to the Supreme Court, the last and most famous being California Governor Earl Warren, appointed Chief Justice by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 and serving to 1969; along with significant appointments by President Abraham Lincoln of Ohio Governor Salmon P Chase to be Chief Justice, serving from 1864-1873; former New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, first appointed to the Court by William Howard Taft from 1910 to 1916, and then returning to the Court as Chief Justice by appointment of President Herbert Hoover from 1930-1941; and Michigan Governor Frank Murphy, appointed by FDR and serving from 1940-1949.

Potential New Faces On The National Scene After The Midterm Elections Of 2018

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The upcoming midterm elections of 2018 may bring on the political scene some new Democrats who could become major players in the future of the party.

We have Democrats having a chance to become Governors of major states, and potentially playing a role in the 2020 Presidential election.

For instance, we have Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom of California as the odds on favorite to become the successor to Jerry Brown as Governor of the largest state, which means he will not be someone who can be ignored on the national scene.

We have former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, who is Jewish, and who seems to be the front runner for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Florida, and has a reasonable chance to become the leader of the third largest state.

We have Richard Cordray, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and former Ohio State Treasurer and Attorney General, as the Democratic nominee for Ohio Governor.

We also have J.B Pritzker, a venture capitalist and part of the family that owns the Hyatt Hotel chain, and happens to be Jewish, who is the Democratic nominee for Illinois Governor.

Finally, we have Stacey Abrams, the first African American woman nominated for Governor in American history, the Minority Leader of the Georgia State Assembly, nominated by the Democrats.

Also, for the US Senate, we have Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2013, challenging Senator Ted Cruz for his Senate seat, with Cruz being the most widely derided and hated member of the Senate, even by his own Republican colleagues.

A leading priority should be to retire Ted Cruz, who this blogger thought was actually more dangerous than Donald Trump, among 2016 Republican Presidential contenders, although more recent developments have shown even Cruz not willing to be as disgraceful as Donald Trump has become, although still a despicable human being!

The Surrender Of The Republican Party To The Cult Of Donald Trump Seems Complete

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H W Bush, Gerald Ford, and even Ronald Reagan is gone.

So is the party of Robert LaFollette, Sr., George Norris, Nelson Rockefeller, Mark Hatfield, Clifford Case, William Scranton, and innumerable others who served as Governors or US Senators.

The Republican Party of 2018 has sold its soul to the idea of maintaining office at all costs, and all principles, morals, and ethics have totally disappeared.

No one, literally no one, who is running for election now or in the near future, is willing to gamble losing his or her position of power.

Only those who are dying, as John McCain–or not running for reelection, such as Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona—or not in office or those who have journalistic integrity despite their Republican or conservative credentials in the past—have the willingness to speak up. Or the most recent example of South Carolina Congressman and former Governor Mark Sanford, a strong conservative Republican, who lost his party’s primary despite his conservative credentials, because he had the “nerve” to criticize Donald Trump!

The only way to purge the party future is for all officeholders, or most of them, who are facing election and staying silent, to be forced out of office by the voters in the midterm Congressional and state elections in November 2018.

This is, and it is not meant to sound dramatic, but this is the only hope for American democracy, that the Democrats have a massive, overwhelming victory.

If not, we are living in a period where the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being destroyed before our eyes, with most Americans not caring, or complicit by silence and lack of interest and participation in voting, in the downfall of the American experiment as the great constitutional democracy America was meant to be!

We are living in a time of a cult, a mass worship of a very flawed, evil human being, who has no concern for the future, but only for his own material wealth and stroking of his ego.

We have a very sick, mentally deranged individual who has the capability of destroying the planet, or caving in to the whims of other totalitarian leaders who he wises to emulate.

If there is a history to be written in the future, however, Donald Trump will be condemned as the most despicable, evil leader we have ever manufactured!

Trump’s “Spygate” Claim: Repudiated By Trey Gowdy, Andrew Napolitano, Shepard Smith, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, And Other “Allies” Of Trump

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Donald Trump promoting a “Spygate” claim, that his Presidential campaign was illegally spied upon, and his continued charge of a “witch hunt” going on with his administration being illegally investigated, is all preposterous and just in his sick head.

Even Republicans, conservatives, and Fox News Channel personalities are dismissing such crazy talk.

Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Fox News Channel’s well known conservative attorney Andrew Napolitano and talk show host Shepard Smith, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have all rejected such accusations.

Donald Trump is showing more maniacal and conspiratorial behavior by the day, and yet, no real move against the dangers of his mental instability are evident within his party or his cabinet and advisers.

So the danger to the nation and the world grows exponentially, and it is time to end this nightmare, but no sign of any such action coming, a very depressing situation!

California Has Larger Economy Now Than The United Kingdom (Great Britain), Fifth Largest In World

Ronald 6 Comments

As of last month, the state of California officially is the world’s fifth largest economy.

The Golden State just passed the United Kingdom (Great Britain), and is now only surpassed by four nations: The United States, China, Japan, and Germany.

Who would ever have thought when the US fought Mexico in the late 1840s, gained control of California in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, and saw the Gold Rush begin, starting the development of California population so rapidly, that California became a state by 1850, that this mega state would develop an economy larger than all but four nations?

California today has 40 million people, one out of every eight Americans, and has a technology sector in Silicon Valley, and is the world’s entertainment capital in Hollywood.

California is also the nation’s major agricultural sector in the Central Valley agricultural heartland.

It also has become a major positive in the economy after the collapse during the Great Recession. Financial services, real estate, manufacturing, and the information economy are all major pluses in the California economy.

Its economy is one seventh of the entire nation’s economy, and the job growth from 2012-2017 is one sixth of the entire improvement of the country.

The major areas of economic growth are in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Its Congressional delegation, by far the largest, consists of 53 House Members and 2 Senators, and a substantial number of them—16 in the House—play a major role in Congress.

The outgoing Governor, Jerry Brown, is seen by many as possibly the greatest Governor in the nation right now, having presided over the revival of the California economy in the past eight years.

California has also led the fight against Donald Trump on such issues as immigration and sanctuary cities; gay rights and gay marriage; and climate change and global warming.

And Nancy Pelosi. the former Speaker of the House from 2007-2011, and Minority Leader since then; and Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Leader now angling to be the next Speaker of the House if the Republicans retain the majority, are both from California.

So California is, in so many ways, a nation onto itself, and could sustain itself if need be, but at the same time, the future could be three Californias, as the state initiative process has led to a possible ballot question in November, that would set up three states instead of one–Northern California; Southern California; and California, which would consist of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Each state would have about one third of the population of 40 million.

Whether this occurs or not, California will continue to be a major part of the world economy and the American political system.

The Constitutional Crisis Has Arrived: Trump’s Direct Interference With Mueller Investigation, Justice Department, And FBI

Ronald 1 Comment

Here we are on May 21, 2018, Day 486 of the Trump Presidency, and Donald Trump has gone off the deep end, with his challenge to interfere directly with the Robert Mueller investigation, and the role of the Justice Department and the FBI in that controversy.

Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Head Christopher Wray are now presented with a crisis that requires total courage, principle, and dedication to the rule of law.

And Republicans in Congress, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and the members of the Senate who are involved in the Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee, as well as those in the House of Representatives committees, have a reckoning with history.

if they choose to bend to Donald Trump’s will, they will be condemned forever in history, and there is no more room for concessions.

It is time for Congress to join the responsible news media and demand the resignation of Donald Trump, or a rapid move toward impeachment.

No person matters more than the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and Donald Trump must be brought down to avoid a potential move toward an authoritarian government that could lead to the end of the American nation as we know it.

There is no room now for weak, unprincipled people in our government, but rather a time for all principled people to come forward and say to Donald Trump: YOU ARE FIRED!

One Year Of Robert Mueller, And Future Of Worst Corruption Investigation Of Presidency In American History

Ronald 1 Comment

Today, it has been one year since Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the investigation has moved forward with the gaining of massive evidence of corruption, including Russian Collusion, Obstruction of Justice, Abuse of Power, Violation of the Emoluments Clause, and much more.

The investigation has also led to five guilty pleas and 17 indictments so far.

We have seen how massive a conspiracy the Donald Trump campaign and election and Presidency has engaged in, and it is inevitable that the Trump time in office is limited, as the case is much stronger than it was under Richard Nixon 45 years ago.

The question that arises is whether Vice President Mike Pence will be one of the people going down, and even the issue of whether Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, and others are also involved.

The fact that there has been refusal of most Congressional Republicans to speak out and act against the outrages of Donald Trump and his Presidency is going to have a long range effect on the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and the two Bush Presidents, and also reputable Republicans in Congressional history.

This author had written on History News Network (and it had gone viral) that he thought Trump would leave office by this month of May, now reaching the third shortest Presidency, that of Zachary Taylor, but this clearly will not happen.

However, in another HNN article recently, this author set up the likelihood that the fourth shortest Presidency, that of Warren G. Harding, which will be reached on June 20, 2019, 13 months from now, is still a good measure of when Trump will have been forced out of the Presidency by some means, likely ultimate resignation to avoid prosecution of Trump’s son, daughter, and son in law.

Certainly, the nation would be well served to see a man who clearly won the Presidency by corruption, stealth, and collusion, pushed out of office by a nation which gave his opponent, Hillary Clinton, a nearly three million popular vote victory.

A reminder, that all articles published by this blogger on History News Network, are available on the right side of the blog, and total 83 so far since January 2016.

The Death Of The Republican Party In California Since The Anti Immigration Push By Pete Wilson 25 Years Ago

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One would think that the Republican Party would learn from history and its own mistakes.

A generation ago, California was Republican, and then passed legislation (Proposition 187) to crack down on illegal immigration, denying any health, education, and other benefits to such people, heavily Hispanic, but also Asian, and since then, the Republican Party has died out in much of California, and has not win a state wide race in the past decade. The ballot initiative was declared unconstitutional in 1999, and is no longer enforced since then.

The likelihood is that California will have many election contests in 2018 and beyond without Republicans competing, as the Golden State has a system that allows the top two candidates in votes in primaries, even if of same party, to be on the ballot in November.

So except for a minority of House of Representatives seats in the rural interior and other limited areas of California, and a minority of state legislative seats, California has become extremely dominated by Democrats in state wide races, and in the vast majority of legislative seats, both state and national,

Former Republican Governor Pete Wilson is the culprit in this nativist approach, which has led to this disaster.

If the GOP does not watch itself, this could happen in other states, and destroy the Republican future, and Donald Trump could become the national example of Pete Wilson.

The fear instilled in California has backfired totally on the reputation of the Republican Party.