Wisconsin gerrymandering case likely to end with GOP victory after Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court's gerrymandering ruling almost certainly will halt a Wisconsin lawsuit brought by Democrats that was to go to trial next month.

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First Democratic Debate Shows What the Party Stands For

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- If nominations are about defining the party to itself, the Democrats on Night One of the first round of debates made it pretty clear who they are. Demographically diverse. Pragmatic. Liberal. Programmatic. Group-oriented. Competent.Yes, Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that, but so do Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker. Some of the others, too, but those are the four who stood out to me. Yes, Klobuchar is relatively moderate, and Warren is relatively more progressive, and the other eight can probably be arrayed on an ideological spectrum based on their answers; still, however, they were very much of the same approach to politics. Take policy seriously. Show solidarity with various party-aligned organized groups and demographic groups: Moms Demand, unions, climate activists, women and more – and demonstrate it with concrete, specific policy solutions.What Democrats are really like was, I think, best demonstrated by the candidate who in my view had the worst night, Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Inslee is supposedly running on climate. In his closing statement, he tried to differentiate by arguing that he alone is pledging to make it his number one priority if he is elected. And yet Inslee utterly failed to do what a candidate with that kind of plan is supposed to do: Connect every question back to “his” issue to demonstrate that in fact he really would govern that way. Instead, he wound up talking about unions when he got an economy question, and immigrant communities when he got an immigration question – and then, most embarrassingly, he was not among the four candidates who volunteered climate as the nation’s biggest geopolitical threat. Inslee said “Trump,” which is a perfectly good Democratic answer. All his answers were perfectly fine Democratic answers. They just weren’t about climate, and so instead of standing out he faded in with the rest of the candidates who may not qualify for the September debates.In other words, Democrats aren’t really very good at running single-issue campaigns because they are trained, as Democratic politicians, to take policy seriously in all the areas in which Democratic groups want something.Whether this is good or bad, I suppose, depends on one’s sense of what politics is supposed to be about and what one wants from a president. I tend to think it’s very healthy for a party, and a very nice contrast to the bluster and ideological preening that tends to dominate Republican debates even when Donald Trump isn’t one of the candidates.But whether that’s correct or not, what was on display tonight is what the Democrats are.I counted six very plausible nominees going into the evening – Warren, Castro, Klobuchar, Booker, Inslee and Beto O’Rourke. Of those, I suspect that fans of all except Inslee and perhaps O’Rourke will believe their candidate did very well. None of the other four did anything to make me think that they are anything other than distant longshots. But that’s mostly guesswork. As several pre-debate pieces have emphasized, it’s what happens next that determines the winners – what the pundits say, which clips get used on TV news, and which clips go viral on social media. That may take a few days to sort out, especially with a second debate coming Thursday night.Hey, for all I know, the contentious argument between Tulsi Gabbard and Tim Ryan over war in Afghanistan could wind up getting plenty of attention and help one of them (or both) to move up in the polls a little. It was, for whatever it’s worth, one of only two real active arguments, along with Castro and O’Rourke debating immigration policy. It’s not always predictable what the media will do or which clips people will find appealing. What I would say is that neither Gabbard nor Ryan appears to have the support from party actors to take advantage of any surge. Castro and O’Rourke, and Klobuchar, Booker and Warren, are in much better position to leverage a small uptick into something more substantial.Other than that, I’ll stick by my initial sense that this Wednesday group is in fact at least as strong as the Thursday group, even though their polling numbers are far weaker at this point. As a group, they were reasonably impressive despite the difficult logistics of a 10-candidate debate, in which all of them have to fight for time and candidates tend to go missing for half an hour here or fifteen minutes there.And with that, on to the second night.(Corrects spelling of Senator Booker’s name in second paragraph. Corrects name of group in second paragraph.)To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Trump, without offering evidence, accuses Mueller of illegal activity

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, without offering evidence, that Special Counsel Robert Mueller "terminated" FBI communications in what he called an illegal move. "Mueller terminated them illegally. Mueller led an investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.

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Venezuela government says it thwarted 'coup' plot

Venezuela's socialist government said Wednesday it had derailed a coup bid, claiming the United States, Colombia and Chile colluded in a military plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro and install a general and former defense minister in his place. Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez earlier said the alleged coup involved active duty and retired military officers, and was to have been executed between Sunday and Monday this past weekend.

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No 'boots on the ground' in Iran dispute, Trump says; cites 'unlimited time' for new deal

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he was "not talking boots on the ground" should he take military action against Iran and that he had "unlimited time" to try to forge an agreement with Tehran. Iran suggested it was just one day from breaching a limit in the 2015 nuclear deal that restricted its stockpile of uranium, a move that would pressure European countries aiming to be neutral to pick sides. The fate of the multilateral nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions, has been at the heart of the U.S.-Iran dispute which took on a military dimension in recent weeks.

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Quiz of the Week: Which Pink song induced childbirth?

Have you been paying attention to what's been going on over the past seven days?

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The Latest: Envoy says Iran could soon exceed uranium limits

Majid Takht Ravanchi told a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday that the three European countries and the United States, which pulled out of the deal, will have to "accept the full responsibility for any possible consequences" if serious steps aren't taken. Iran said on June 17 that it would surpass the deal's 300-kilogram (600-pound) limit on low-enriched uranium by Thursday, and has recently quadrupled its production.

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Police: 3 dead in shooting at California Ford dealership

Three people are dead after a man who was fired from his job at a Ford dealership in the San Francisco Bay Area fatally shot two employees.

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Australian student feared detained in North Korea

Australia said it was "urgently seeking clarification" Thursday on the fate of a 29-year-old tour guide and student feared detained in North Korea. Alek Sigley -- who speaks fluent Korean and is one of only a handful of Western students living in Pyongyang -- is believed to have been detained sometime in the last three days. In a statement, Sigley's family said there was no confirmation yet that he had been arrested.

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NRA shuts down production at TV channel amid leadership coup attempt and legal troubles

The National Rifle Association has shut down production at NRA TV.The NRA on Tuesday also severed all business with its estranged advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, which operates NRA TV, the NRA’s live broadcasting media arm, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.While NRA TV may continue to air past content, its live broadcasting will end and its on-air personalities – Ackerman employees who included Dana Loesch — will no longer be the public faces of the NRA.It remained unclear whether the NRA might try to hire some of those employees, but there was no indication it was negotiating to do so.The move comes amid a flurry of lawsuits between the NRA and Ackerman, and increasing acrimony that surfaced after two prominent NRA board members first criticised NRA TV in an article in The Times in March. The separation had become inevitable: The two sides said last month that they were ending their three-decade-plus partnership.“Many members expressed concern about the messaging on NRA TV becoming too far removed from our core mission: defending the Second Amendment,” Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s longtime chief executive, wrote in a message to members that was expected to be sent out by Wednesday.“So, after careful consideration, I am announcing that starting today, we are undergoing a significant change in our communications strategy. We are no longer airing ‘live TV’ programming.”In a notice to Ackerman’s chief executive, Revan McQueen, sent on Tuesday night, the NRA said it “regrets that a long-standing, formerly productive relationship comes to an end in this fashion.”Ackerman, in its own statement, said it was “not surprised that the NRA is unwilling to honour its agreement to end our contract and our long-standing relationship in an orderly and amicable manner.”“When given the opportunity to do the right thing, the NRA once again has taken action that we believe is intended to harm our company even at the expense of the NRA itself,” the company added.It said it “will continue to fight against the NRA’s repeated violations of its agreement with our company with every legal remedy available to us.”The development is the latest in what has been a tumultuous year for the NRA. It has struggled to right its finances; faced investigations in Congress and by Letitia James, the New York attorney general; and witnessed a leadership struggle that pitted Oliver North, the NRA’s former president, against Mr LaPierre.Last week, The Times reported that the NRA had suspended Christopher W Cox, its longtime second-in-command, after a legal filing by the NRA implicated him in a failed plot to oust Mr LaPierre. Mr Cox has strongly rejected such allegations.NRA officials had grown leery of the cost of creating so much live content for NRA TV, which was started in 2016, and wondered whether it was worth the return on its investment. The site’s web traffic was minuscule, with 49,000 unique visitors in January, according to a report provided by comScore.Some NRA board members and officials were also unnerved by the breadth of its content, which strayed far beyond gun rights and encompassed several right-wing talking points, including criticism of immigration and broadsides against the FBI. A show hosted by Ms Loesch that put Ku Klux Klan hoods on talking trains from the popular children’s programme Thomas & Friends drew outrage from some within the organisation.But the dispute between the NRA and Ackerman goes deeper than NRA TV. It has its origins in threats by Ms James last summer to investigate the NRA’s tax-exempt status. The NRA began an audit of its contractors, and has said that Ackerman, which was paid roughly $40m (£31.5m) annually by the NRA, refused to comply. Ackerman has disputed that allegation.Ackerman has assailed the role of the NRA’s outside attorney, William A Brewer III, over the size of his legal fees, and has seen him as its chief antagonist. The contention has a bitter family twist because Mr Brewer is the brother-in-law of Mr McQueen, Ackerman’s chief executive.The schism between the organisations has been shocking. They had a closely intertwined partnership going back to the “I’m the NRA” campaign in the 1980s, and Ackerman came to be known as the voice of the NRA.But by Tuesday night, splitting up was seen as inevitable.“This is just an affirmation of what we’ve known is going to happen,” said Joel Friedman, an NRA board member.The New York Times

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