IA's Steve King Erupts At Questions
Rep. Steve King erupts as his immigration views are compared to the Pittsburgh shooting suspect’s. WaPo: "Republican Rep. Steve King, who is frequently criticized as aligned with the themes of white nationalism, is in the midst of a surprisingly tense reelection race in Iowa. At least one poll has shown his Democratic challenger, J.D. Scholten, within striking distance, although FiveThirtyEight still gives King a nearly 83 percent chance of winning. And growing attention to King’s affiliation with far-right groups and figures, including a Nazi sympathizer, has culminated with the possible beginnings of a donor boycott. A handful of corporations, including Intel and the dairy company Land O’Lakes, have announced that they will no longer support King financially. Even the Republican Party issued a sharp rebuke of King that stopped just short of saying he promoted white supremacy. The scrutiny built toward a confrontation Thursday after King was harshly questioned about whether his racially tinged views on immigration shared any similarities with those of Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect who had said he was motivated by a fear of 'invaders' responsible for his 'people' being 'slaughtered.'"
Trump's Hard Line Benefits Billionaire Backers
Trump's racist fearmongering makes his billionaire backers richer by the day. Common Dreams: "As President Donald Trump threatens a small group of Central American asylum-seekers with gunfire and an illegal border blockade ahead of the midterm elections, right-wing candidates aren't the only people exploiting his racist fearmongering and obvious political "stunt. A new report by Yahoo News shows that Trump's wealthy backers have grown richer each time his administration implements a new hard-line policy—while simultaneously ensuring that demand for such actions will continue to grow among Trump's supporters. As investors in private prison operators including CoreCivic and GEO Group, the billionaire Mercer family—including hedge fund manager Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah—have directly benefited from Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy as both corporations have detained undocumented immigrants in recent months."
Trump Is A Ramblin' Anti-Immigrant
CNN aired Trump rambling about immigrants for 27 minutes. Vox: "President Donald Trump got cable news to carry him live and uninterrupted for nearly half an hour from the West Wing Thursday, where he gave what amounted to a fear-mongering stump speech in the final days before the midterm elections. During his rambling presentation, and in questions with reporters, Trump made many factually incorrect claims about immigrants, immigration policy and crime — including claims that asylum seekers never show up in court (two-thirds do), that Barack Obama had a harsher family separation policy than him (Trump’s was much harsher) and that he’s getting billions for his wall (he’s gotten none). He announced no new policy changes, despite a policy announcement being the premise that got cable networks to carry the speech live. But he did offer up claims ranging from ridiculous to racist. Trump was in the White House, but he might as well have been on the campaign trail. Cable news couldn’t spot the difference."
Suppression of Native Votes In ND
Judge voices 'great concern' over North Dakota voter ID law, but rejects tribe's lawsuit anyway. Common Dreams: "Despite declaring there is "great cause for concern" that thousands of Native Americans could be illegally barred from voting under North Dakota's strict and overtly discriminatory voter ID law, a federal judge on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by the Spirit Lake Tribe and six individual plaintiffs arguing that the law violates their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland argued that granting the tribe's request for an emergency restraining order to prevent the ID law from going into effect would cause confusion too close to the Nov. 6 midterm elections and declared that 'it is highly important to preserve the status quo when elections are fast approaching.' Stephen Wolf, a political analyst with Daily Kos, called this rationale for voter suppression 'ridiculous.' 'Letting Republican lawmakers abridge American citizens' fundamental right to vote simply because it's too close to an election is a ridiculous principle,' Wolf wrote on Twitter."
More from OurFuture.org:
Education Wave That Began in West Virginia Sweeps Nation. Jeff Bryant: "Whether Democrats take back the House in the midterm elections may come down to races like the one in West Virginia’s third Congressional District. 'Richard Ojeda has taken a district that Trump won by almost 50 points … and turned into a toss-up,' writes Bill Scher for Politico. The article includes Ojeda in a list of 15 candidates that will not only determine control of the House and Senate, but also signal “how the party tries to oust President Trump” in 2020. 'If Democrats want to reclaim white working-class Trump voters in West Virginia, Ojeda may be their best hope to do so,' writes Elia Nilsen for Vox, 'His… challenge is to persuade the Trump-loving voters of his district to send him to Congress as a Democrat.' But if races like the one in West Virginia’s third Congressional District determine the direction of politics in the country, the fight over education will have a lot to do with it."
