Van Drew...

A House freshman from New Jersey who was planning to break with his party and vote against impeaching President Donald Trump will become a Republican, a GOP official said Saturday.

Top House Republicans have been told of Rep. Jeff Van Drew's decision, according to a GOP official familiar with the conversations. 

Van Drew's decision underscores the pressures facing moderate Democrats from Trump-leaning districts as next week's impeachment vote approaches. Van Drew won his southern New Jersey district by 8 percentage points last year, but Trump carried it by 5 points in 2016 and Van Drew was considered one of the more vulnerable House Democrats going into next November's congressional elections.

Pro Growth...

The stock market has been unstoppable under the influence of President Trump.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 28,332.74 on Monday, meaning it has rallied 10,000 points, or more than 54 percent, since Trump’s election victory on November 8, 2016. The benchmark S&P 500 has gained more than 46 percent.

“The rally has been driven by pro-growth measures, de-escalation of trade tensions, huge liquidity injections by central banks and a FOMO approach by investors worried about missing out on a remarkable U.S. market outperformance that has set one record high after the other.” 

The gains show why U.S. markets have become the envy of the world under Trump, who has followed through on his promises of cutting taxes and regulations and rewriting global trade deals in America's favor.

Tessa...

“On Wednesday, December 11, 2019, at approximately 1736 hours, police responded to a 911 call for a female assaulted in the vicinity of West 116th Street and Morningside Drive.”  

The female was Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old Columbia-Barnard College student, who was found near a Columbia University security guard booth. “Upon arrival, officers discovered an unconscious and unresponsive 18-year old female with multiple stab wounds to her body,” says the NYPD.

“We lost a very special, very talented, and very well-loved young woman,” Tessa’s family said in a statement. “Tess shone bright in this world, and our hearts will never be the same.”  

The parents sent their child to a great school and that is the protection they provide?  Just a thought.

Malarkey...

All of the presidential candidates who qualified for next week’s Democratic debate are threatening to skip the event in response to a labor dispute taking place at the debate venue, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), businessman Andrew Yang, former vice president Joe Biden, billionaire activist Tom Steyer, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg said they would refuse to cross picket lines at the debate next in solidarity with Unite Here Local 11, which represents food service workers at the university who have been negotiating for a collective bargaining agreement.

Comment:
The candidates have been tearing each other apart and causing real damage. So the idea of ditching one fight is our new "New Deal" with the people of America.

Plan-B

A woman in Minnesota is suing two pharmacies, including CVS, for sex discrimination after she claims she was denied a morning-after pill.

Andrea Anderson, a 39-year-old mother of five, said she was first refused the pill at her local pharmacy, Thrifty White Pharmacy in McGregor, according to a lawsuit filed in Minnesota’s Ninth Judicial District on Tuesday.

Jess Braverman, the Legal Director at Gender Justice, the non-profit representing Anderson,

 hopes that the lawsuit will "ensure that health care providers uphold their legal and ethical responsibilities to care for their patients, regardless of the providers’ personal beliefs."

Damage...

 Defense secretary Mark Esper  denied news reports that he was considering sending up to 14,000 more troops to the Middle East, but he acknowledged to reporters that he is worried by instability in Iraq and Iran.

In his speech, Esper made only a passing reference to Iran, citing Tehran’s “efforts to destabilize” the region.

He focused instead on shifting the U.S. military’s focus toward China and Russia — “today’s revisionist powers.” He accused Moscow and Beijing of seeking “veto power” over the economic and security decisions of smaller nations.

 Esper said he realizes that it will be difficult to move resources out of the Middle East to increase the focus on China and Russia.

Comment: 
Please shift  away from theMiddle East. We have done a lot of damage to the minorities in this part of the world.

Against.....

Some of Biden’s biggest proposals from his immigration plan include reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program first created during the Obama Administration, working with Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, and reversing the Trump administration’s asylum policies that restrict the number of migrants seeking humanitarian refuge in the U.S.

The former vice president has faced scrutiny over his record on immigration as a member of the Obama administration, and the nearly 3 million people who were deported during their eight years in office.

Last month in South Carolina, Biden faced an extended protest during a town hall after he refused to commit to ending all deportations as president, instead pledging to prioritize deportations of those in the U.S. illegally who have committed felony crimes.

Speed...

 kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, and often carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides. 

The term may also apply to a court held by a legitimate judicial authority which intentionally disregards the court's legal or ethical obligations.

When asked about criticisms of  “the speed” of the House Democrats impeachment, Pelosi replied, “Speed? It’s been going on 22 months—two and a half years, actually.”

Gotcha...

Boris...

The United Kingdom has cleared the path to leave the European Union early next year after Boris Johnson's Conservative Party won a huge victory in the country's closely watched general election.

Britain went to the polls for the third time in five years to determine who the public wants to resolve the stalemate over Brexit.

While early polling suggested the Conservatives would win a narrow majority, in the end, the result was decisive.

The opposition Labour Party, meanwhile, only won 203 seats -- their worst electoral performance since 1935