By Savanah Hernandez
Kounalakis says any Democrat will do a better job than President Trump and hopes that someone like Kamala Harris will bring some California style policies to the national stage.
Democrats have a supermajority in the state legislature, but cannot approve a bill that would impose carbon caps in the name of combating climate change without at least the presence of Republican lawmakers. After days of heated debate, the GOP chose to boycott the vote, prompting Governor Brown to authorize Oregon State Police to round up the senators and force them to participate.
Oregon Republican Senator Brian Boquist was having none of it, telling a reporter in response to the governor’s threat that he would not be a political prisoner, and said the state troopers should prepare for a shootout.
Boquist previously warned the governor that “hell is coming to visit you personally” if she issued the order to police. Some Republican lawmakers have reportedly left the state altogether.
Governor Brown released a statement on Thursday denouncing the GOP walkout and explained her decision to compel a quorum, or the minimum number of senators required for votes to go forward in the Oregon State Capitol.
“The Senate Democrats have requested the assistance of the Oregon State Police to bring back their colleagues to finish the work they committed to push forward” Brown said. “As the executive of the agency, I am authorizing the State Police to fulfill the Senate Democrats’ request.”
Brown added it was “absolutely unacceptable” that the lawmakers would “turn their backs on their constituents.”
The bill, which remains stalled due to the Republican walkout, would have implemented a cap and trade program to limit carbon emissions in the state, and allow companies to exchange emission “allowances.”
Oregon GOP Representative Carl Wilson said the bill would “punish” Oregon’s workers for the “reckless” environmental policies of other countries, while Republican Senate Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. argued it would only represent “Portland and the environmental community, not rural Oregonians.”
Tensions between the coastal and inland communities are not new in Oregon. Back in 2016, land rights activists occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in protest at the federal government’s mistreatment of landowners. Nevada ranchers Ammon and Ryan Bundy led the group that took over the refuge, kicking off a 40-day standoff with Oregon and federal police.
That incident culminated in the arrest of dozens of activists, some charged with federal crimes, as well as the death of activist Robert ‘LaVoy’ Finicum, who was shot at an Oregon State Police roadblock.
By Shane Trejo
Carlson mentioned that the Koch Bros are “libertarian ideologues” whose policy platform has little in common with conservatives at all, noting that their advocacy of open borders even makes socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) look conservative by comparison.
The Koch Bros and their functionaries have been lobbying relentlessly to make sure that Trump’s ‘America First’ immigration policies are undermined for the benefit of their corporate profit margins. Carlson pointed out that their efforts have sadly been very effective as the borders are “more porous than ever.”
Carlson noted that the Kochs’ lobbying has also resulted in more criminals being let back onto the streets.
He also pointed out that the Kochs lobby to cut entitlements, keep prescription drug prices higher for consumers, slash taxes for the richest one percent, and protect usurious banking practices.
The Kochs recently announced that their network will not be giving a dime to President Trump’s re-election efforts in 2020, instead opting to support Democrats and issue-based groups opposing Trump’s core agenda.
“We expect policymakers to unite people and build coalitions. We’re committed to forging a new way forward with political discourse,” said Emily Seidel, CEO of the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity. “We’re excited for how this new approach will help policymakers work together.”
Without having the courage to mention Trump by name, Seidel made it clear that her astroturfed grassroots organization is focusing on opposing the President and all that he stands for.
“If candidates engage in personal, ad hominem attacks and other divisive tactics during their election, it makes it difficult for them to work productively with others after the election,” Seidel wrote in a recent memo to AFP staff and activists.
“One of the biggest challenges to this approach is that those who work to lead nonpartisan coalitions are threatened by people in both parties who prize partisanship over policy outcomes. This makes it difficult for policymakers who want to do what’s best for the country to stick their necks out,” she added.
President Trump is onto the Koch Bros and their subversive agenda to prevent MAGA:
And thanks to Carlson’s blistering report, more people will be onto the sinister machinations of the Kochs than ever before.
By Charlie Spiering
“Let’s be clear: President Trump inherited a growing economy from the Obama-Biden administration,” Joe Biden wrote on Twitter. “And now, he’s in the process of squandering it.”
(Biden’s message on Twitter was likely composed by staff as Biden was attending a New York City fundraiser with Wall Street donors at the time of Trump’s rally)
During the rally, Trump boasted of the economic boom under his presidency.
“Our economy is the envy of the world and perhaps the greatest economy we’ve had in the history of our country,” he wrote, touting the success of his deregulatory agenda and tax cuts. “The American dream is back, it’s bigger, better, stronger than ever before.”
Trump noted that 16,000 manufacturing jobs a month were coming back to the United States.
He ridiculed Obama for telling voters that Trump would need a “magic wand” to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States.
“Well, we will tell Sleepy Joe that we found the magic wand,” Trump said as the crowd cheered.
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