Comment on House Finance Committee approves $9.2B state budget

By COLLEEN LONG and MATTHEW DALY WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration. CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.

By PHILIP MARCELO NEW YORK — New York City politicians are calling on Whoopi Goldberg to apologize for suggesting on air that a local bakery had declined to make “The View” co-host a batch of desserts for her birthday because of her political beliefs. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella was among the local leaders and supporters who joined Holtermann’s Bakery owner Jill Holtermann at a news conference Friday in front of the 145-year-old institution in the city borough of Staten Island. The Republican said the actor and comedian had “besmirched and defamed” the bakery by “making stuff up to suit their needs.” “Not everybody wakes up everyday thinking about politics,” he said.

By BILL BARROW and JOEY CAPPELLETTI ATLANTA — Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party’s prodigious fundraising operation raised more than $1 billion in her loss to Donald Trump, but the vice president is still pushing donors for more money after the election. Democrats are sending persistent appeals to Harris supporters without expressly asking them to cover any potential debts, enticing would-be donors instead with other matters: the Republican president-elect’s picks for his upcoming administration and a handful of pending congressional contests where ballots are still being tallied. “The Harris campaign certainly spent more than they raised and is now busy trying to fundraise,” said Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist from Michigan.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected Sen. John Thune of South Dakota—a former corporate lobbyist and close ally of Sen. Mitch McConnell—as the leader of their conference for the upcoming term, when the GOP will have a 53-seat majority. Republican lawmakers chose Thune over Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who was favored by allies of President-elect Donald Trump. "Senators have received angry phone calls from constituents demanding to know how their representatives plan to vote, following MAGA world's embrace of Scott," The Washington Postreported.

We may all be gnashing our teeth over The New York Times sanewashing Donald Trump. But as far the very thin-skinned felon and his band of First Amendment-hating legal toadies are concerned, the paper’s coverage as well as a Penguin Random House book written by two Times authors have defamed him to the tune of $10 billion. From Columbia Journalism Review: [The letter demanding $10 billion] singles out two stories coauthored by Buettner and Craig that related to their book on Trump and his financial dealings, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, released on September 17.

Pardoned felon Michael Flynn said he would work in the Trump administration if Tulsi Gabbard asked him to. Flynn spent his time with his evangelical extreme religious right group called ReAwaken America, spouting crap like Christianity should be at the center of American life and institutions. Frontline reports,"The tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party." Flynn joined Steven the traitor Bannon on his sedition podcast. BANNON: Would you be open to be her deputy or some sort of special assistant, at least for the first year, to make sure that she goes through the wilderness of mirrors? FLYNN: Yeah, because part of, you know, so the answer is yes, but the part of this too, and this is what I told Vivek, okay, just briefly, that these people, government, they know how to hide, right? Flynn then launched into a bizarre description of those working in the intelligence agencies. FLYNN: And I call them wall walkers because they keep their eyes against the wall because they don't want anybody to actually engage them.read more