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Tim Scott and Donald Trump

Not Joking! GOP Senator Praises Trump's Compliance With 'Ethics Standard'

Republican patsy Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) appeared on Fox Business to push the Digital Market Asset Clarity Act—a huge crypto deregulation bill that threatens to legally enshrine the weak oversight and poor consumer protections of cryptocurrency markets.

“Let’s remind ourselves President Trump has done something no other president in the history of our country said ‘yes’ to,” Scott said, “which is complying to the ethics strategy and standard for all elected officials. We’ve never had a president ever say ‘yes’ to that issue, that question, so it’s good news.”

The “ethics strategy and standard for all elected officials” Scott is referring to amounts to a paper-thin bit of oversight framework that Republicans have cooked up, placing enforcement of cryptocurrency conflicts-of-interest rules under the control of the president himself. It means that oversight would ultimately fall to the same Department of Justice that Trump has weaponized to target his political enemies while extending clemency and paying off political allies doing his bidding.

There are very few parts of Trump’s agenda that are not soaked in corruption. Cryptocurrency, however, has become one of the Trump family’s most lucrative ventures, generating billions of hard-to-trace dollars since jumping into the racket. The Clarity Act is set to clear the way for more money to flow into their biggest grift yet.

Trump Veep Favorites Once Called Him 'Noxious' And 'A Whack Job'

Trump Veep Favorites Once Called Him 'Noxious' And 'A Whack Job'

Many of the candidates now vying to be presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's 2024 running mate are now having their loyalty scrutinized, and may have to answer for past statements criticizing the ex-president.

According to NBC News, allies of the former president are reckoning with how to assess how committed top Republicans are to the former president now in spite of past disparaging comments. Between the past decade and the past year, nearly all of the potential vice presidential candidates rumored to be on Trump's shortlist have called him everything from "noxious" and "reprehensible," as Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) once said of the former president, to a "whack job," as Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) previously said.

"No one’s clean on this," an unnamed Republican close to Trump told NBC. A separate "longtime Trump ally" anonymously told the outlet that despite past criticism, Trump is willing to "look at this more holistically than ever."

“Everybody’s a sinner in some form or another," the source said. "The only question is whether something’s a mortal sin or not.”

Earlier this week, Axios' Mike Allen reported that Stefanik and Vance are finalists to be Trump's 2024 running mate, along with Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tim Scott (R-SC). Others who received vetting paperwork include Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum.

Among those, NBC reported that the favorites are Burgum, Rubio, Scott and Vance. However, a source told the outlet that the VP finalist list is "fluid." Trump's loyalty test is reportedly including criteria like "whether a contender stood by the former president after the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, whether they endorse his false claims of malfeasance involving the 2020 election and how vigorously they’ve defended him amid the four separate criminal cases he faces, particularly in hostile TV interviews."

In addition, Trump is considering how effective of a fundraiser a potential VP pick would be, and is also looking closely at their stances on abortion and how they would do in a televised debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Even among those favorites, criticism of Trump may hurt their efforts to become his running mate. In 2016, Vance once described himself as a "Never Trump guy" who "never liked him" in an interview with journalist Charlie Rose. After the deadly 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in which a white supremacist killed counter-protester Heather Heyer with his car and injured nearly two dozen others, Trump famously said there were "very fine people on both sides" of the fracas. Scott criticized Trump's remarks, saying there was “no question” Trump's “moral authority is compromised."

During a Republican debate last year, Scott notably praised then-Vice President Mike Pence for his actions on January 6, 2021, in which he didn't attempt to overturn the 2020 election while presiding over Congress' certification of Electoral College. In the wake of the insurrection, Stefanik called on the DOJ to prosecute January 6 participants, though she has since deleted that statement from her website.

Burgum has also come under scrutiny for past negative statements he made about Trump as recently as a year ago. During a 2023 interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, the billionaire North Dakota governor said he wouldn't go into business with Trump, saying "it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Poll: Most Americans Support Teachers Unions Despite Right-Wing Attacks

Poll: Most Americans Support Teachers Unions Despite Right-Wing Attacks

New polling data shows most Americans have favorable views toward teachers’ unions.

According to a survey of 1,000 registered voters released by Navigator Research on August 30, U.S. voters back teachers’ unions by a 30 percent margin, with 55 percent indicating support for the unions and just 25 percent indicating negative attitudes toward them.

The only group the poll showed to view teachers’ unions negatively was Republicans who identify as being “very conservative,” with only 22 percent of that group supporting the unions, compared to 62 percent who said they view them unfavorably.

Meanwhile, the polling data showed 45 percent of both independent voters and Republicans who do not identify as being “very conservative” as having favorable views toward teachers’ unions, with 34 percent and 23 percent indicating unfavorable views, respectively. Some 74 percent of Democrats back teachers’ unions, with just nine percent viewing them negatively.

The survey, which covered voters’ priorities toward education, was conducted online between Augiust 17 and August 21.

Republican political candidates continue to staunchly oppose teachers’ unions.

On the Republican presidential primary debate stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott called for an end to unions’ influence.

“The only way we change education in this nation is to break the backs of the teachers’ unions,” Scott said. “They are standing in the doorhouse of our kids, locking them in failing schools, and locking them out of the greatest future they can have.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also called teachers’ unions “the biggest threat to our country.”

Republican presidential candidates aren’t the only ones still taking shots at teachers’ unions.

Dave McCormick, who’s running to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat for Pennsylvania currently held by Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., said in March that he would like to “break the back of our teachers’ unions.” In those remarks, McCormick also accused teachers of introducing “sexualization” in elementary schools.

The Navigator Research poll also shows voters are more concerned about gun violence in schools and getting kids the education they need to be successful than they are about accusations that teachers are instructing students on gender and sexuality.

More than half of voters surveyed, or 58 percent, said keeping kids “safe from gun violence and mass shootings in schools and other public places” is an issue to focus on, compared to 28 percent who expressed concern about students “being exposed to woke ideas about race and gender in school.”.

Another recent poll released by the National Education Association similarly showed that voters are much more worried about school shootings and teacher pay than they are about social justice issues being taught in schools.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Tim Scott

Is Bachelor Tim Scott Gay? Big Republican Donors Want To Know

In their desperate quest to find a 2024 alternative to former President Donald Trump, GOP donors have stumbled upon an elephant in the room: Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is single.

That fact, long known among casual political observers, has suddenly sparked “curiosity” and a round of pearl-clutching among the GOP's well-heeled donors, some of whom spoke to Axios anonymously given the "sensitivity of the issue." As Axios notes, the country has not put a bachelor in the White House since Grover Cleveland in 1884.

Scott, a Bible-thumper with a sunny disposition and an inspirational personal story, has some upsides in Iowa, where the evangelical vote can ignite a GOP candidacy. But any legitimate Trump alternative also has to persuade donors they can go the distance against a man who will say basically anything to tear down a legitimate threat to his frontrunner status. Scott hasn't reached that point yet, but it's not hard to imagine Trump taking a swipe at Solo Scott.

Never been married, folks, at 57, Trump might say. I don't know, I don't know. Something weird going on there.

The not-so-subtle implication would be that Scott is gay—gasp!—which is exactly what Republican donors are freaking out about. Axios writes:

Top GOP donors and their allies privately are pushing Sen. Tim Scott's team for more detail about his bachelor status before deciding how much to support him in the presidential campaign, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

It's perfectly on brand for a party weirdly obsessed with what people do in their bedrooms and bathrooms.

Scott doesn't often bring up the topic of his own accord, but he did address it with Axios reporter Sophia Cai in a May interview. After Cai dared to broach the subject, Scott said he did have a girlfriend but didn't disclose her name and then remarked that someone's marital status has no bearing on their ability to be president.

"The fact that half of America's adult population is single for the first time, to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you're a good president or not—it sounds like we're living in 1963 and not 2023," Scott said. Amen, brother. Just don't tell the Republicans you're unhitched.

In fact, Scott suggested, not being married was a real plus for a position so demanding. "I probably have more time, more energy, and more latitude to do the job," Scott said. "My girlfriend wants to see me when I come home, but at the end of the day, the truth is that I am so thankful to be who I am, where I am." Sounds like an unbreakable bond.

One source told Axios some donors aren't super concerned about it, observing, "I'm surprised it doesn't come up more."

Oh, it will. If Scott gets serious traction, it will.

But as of right now, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Scott's fellow South Carolinian and 2024 rival, upstaged him at last week's debate. At the same time, Scott has the advantage of being boosted by billionaire backer Larry Ellison, who has showered a pro-Scott super PAC with tens of millions of dollars.

Regardless, this should get interesting. Scott reportedly plans to start addressing the issue of his bachelordom more in the weeks ahead. What could go wrong?

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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