Speaking of billionaires, here’s some good back to back Sunday morning reading. Do billionaires have a singular redeeming function in our society? I’m really asking, I’ve been trying to come up with one that cannot be fulfilled by another group or class and it’s really hard. What do y’all think?
Richest 1% of Americans Close to Surpassing Wealth of Middle Class
Paired with some ideas.
Yet another one bites the dust.
Republican Rep. Peter King , the longest serving New York Republican in the House, won’t seek re-election next year.
This makes 21 Republicans not running in 2020.
The really good news here is that King’s district (NY-2) is now definitely in play.
In 2016 Trump won the district by 8.9 points and King won it by 24.2.
In 2018 King won by a much smaller margin of 6.2 points.
When you consider Trump’s huge drop in popularity after 2016 and take into account King’s massive loss of popularity during the same period, the prospects for a Republican win in this district have been greatly diminished.
This looks similar to what happened in my district (CA-49) leading up to 2016. The Republican incumbent, Darrell Issa, saw his popularity rapidly eroding. He had won in 2014 by a much smaller margin than his previous wins. He read the writing on the wall and decided not to run in 2016. This created an opportunity for Democrats – Mike Levin lead the charge and, sure enough, we flipped our district from red to blue. I believe Peter King has also read the writing on the wall. Now that he’s dropped out of the race, Democrats have an excellent chance of flipping this seat! 
While many jeer at Mark Sanford ending his primary run against Trump, I would like to point out that a major reason he had to is because Trump’s GOP outright obstructed, CANCELING PRIMARIES in many states, including Sanford’s home state of South Carolina.
That is NOT alright.
Michigan GOP attempting to have Trump be only Republican candidate on ballot
The Michigan Republican Party submitted a list of candidates Tuesday in which President Trump is the only GOP candidate set to appear on the primary ballot on March 10.
The Detroit Free Press reports the list containing only Trump may not be final, as Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) has a different list of potential GOP candidates.
Benson’s list of presidential primary candidates, released last week, consists of Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, and former Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.). Sanford announced on Tuesday that he was dropping out of the race.
The Michigan GOP, however, is asking Benson to take up their list, saying that Trump is the only “legitimate candidate” in the GOP field, according to the news outlet.
“If other candidates want to get on the ballot, they should do a show of strength and get their nominating petitions,” Tony Zammit, spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party, told the Free Press. “We’re recommending that [Benson] approve only Trump for the Republican ballot.”
The candidates who appeared on both Benson’s list and the Michigan Republican Party’s list qualify to appear on the GOP primary ballot in the state, so it is unlikely Trump will run uncontested, the news outlet notes.
Laura Cox, chairwoman of the Michigan GOP, said Trump’s campaign was the only among Republican candidates that contacted her office about appearing on the ballot.
Several other states have moved forward in having Trump be the only Republican candidate on their respective ballots. Candidates challenging Trump for the GOP nomination have decried state parties who they allege are subverting the democratic process by closing off access to the primary ballot.
Michigan is widely considered a swing state in the upcoming election after Trump bested Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by just over 10,000 votes in 2016.
This could backfire spectacularly for the GOP if Trump is impeached and removed, though it should be noted that the vote to remove is separate from the vote to ban from holding office.
Reuters Poll on DJT - week of 11/13/19
All Adults - total Disapprove 58%
- total Approve 49%
All Adults -should be impeached 45%
- should not be impeached 42%
Yes, that’s where all your big money (and efforts) should go Mayor Bloomberg…take on the Trump media blitz. That or buying Fox Network.
Thank you.
From https://currentstatus.io/
Michael R. Bloomberg still has not declared whether he is running for president in 2020. He is about to become the single biggest spender in the presidential race anyway.
Ahead of a potential campaign announcement, Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and former mayor of New York City, is beginning a $100 million digital campaign designed to attack and define President Trump in the top battleground states seen as likely to decide the 2020 election. The ads will go online on Friday in four states — Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and run through the end of the primary season, even if Mr. Bloomberg is not in the race.
Democrat Edwards defeats Trump endorsed Republican in Louisiana Governor’s race!
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will keep his job as the Deep South’s only Democratic governor, in a blow to President Donald Trump, who tried to boost the incumbent’s opponent.
On Saturday, voters narrowly reelected Edwards to a second term, snubbing Republican businessman Eddie Rispone deep in the heart of Trump country.
Louisiana’s only Democratic statewide elected official withstood an onslaught of national Republican opposition and hung on to the seat by focusing on state-specific issues and his record of bipartisanship.
…
Rispone had never sought public office and had little name recognition. The wealthy industrial contractor poured millions of his own money into the campaign and wrapped himself in his support for Trump, trying to nationalize the race.
Well, guess what? Trump and Rispone did nationalize the race. As a result, support poured in from all over America for his Democratic opponent, John Bel Edwards, and while Louisiana Democrats stood strong and walked tall, the Blue wave washed over the state! 
DEM GOV WINS
EDWARDS 51.3% RISPONE 48.7%
Drudge headlines tonight…
Links to this article
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards will win a second term as Louisiana governor, defeating his Republican opponent Eddie Rispone, WWL is projecting tonight.
Analysts had predicted the race would come down to who got their supporters to the polls.
Urban ministers, organized labor and African-American politicians worked for the 53-year-old Edwards, who is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.
Iowa Poll: Pete Buttigieg rockets to the top of the 2020 field as a clear front-runner
Pete Buttigieg has rocketed to the top of the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll in the latest reshuffling of the top tier of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
Since September, Buttigieg has risen 16 percentage points among Iowa’s likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25% now saying he is their first choice for president. For the first time in the Register’s Iowa Poll, he bests rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place and about 10 percentage points behind the South Bend, Indiana, mayor.
Trump Rallies in Louisiana Governor’s Race likely caused Republican loss by increasing Democratic turn out. Is this the death knell for Trump endorsements? ETTD is trending.
The Sting song “Don’t Stand Too Close to Me” comes to mind. As we ramp up to the 2020 elections, Republican candidates may begin scrambling for ways to keep Trump out of their state. It’s becoming apparent that standing next to Trump on a dais may hurt more than help a candidate’s chances. Yes, it might energize Trump’s base, but it will also galvanize Democrats to send a message in the voting booth that they despise Trump and, by association, any candidate he endorses. Trump’s rallies now appear to be spurring more Democrats than Republicans to the polls.
Another significant trend: In the past, if a Trump-endorsed candidate lost, Republicans still claimed that Trump had a huge positive impact – just not enough to drag a flawed candidate over the finish line. This time, they didn’t put out that spin, in fact, Trump, the Republican National Committee, and just about every other Republican pundit tried to pretend the whole thing never happened: radio silence. That reaction is telling – it will be interesting to see if that same silence reigns when it comes time for Republican 2020 candidates to invite Trump to their rallies.
The Right is waking up to what the Left always knew: Trump is toxic. 
When Kentucky’s Republican governor lost his bid for reelection two weeks ago despite President Trump’s active endorsement, the president and his allies brushed it off by declaring that Trump had nearly dragged an unpopular incumbent across the finish line.
On Sunday, a day after another Trump-backed GOP gubernatorial candidate fell in Louisiana, the president and his surrogates barely mounted a defense.
In a barrage of 40 tweets and retweets by Sunday evening, Trump didn’t mention Eddie Rispone’s loss to incumbent Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), even though the president had held two campaign rallies in the state in the 10 days before the election aimed at boosting his chances.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel — who had publicly praised Trump after the Kentucky elections in which the GOP won five other statewide races — also was mum on Louisiana.
…
For Trump, however, the back-to-back losses of GOP gubernatorial candidates in red Southern states is more than just a bad look. It’s a warning sign that the president’s strategy of focusing strictly on maintaining the strong support of his conservative base might not be enough to help fellow Republicans or even himself in 2020 amid the House Democrats’ impeachment probe that has imperiled his presidency.
…
“What Trump did in Louisiana was increase voter participation. While he increased the pro-Trump turnout, he also increased the anti-Trump turnout. That’s kind of the lesson here,” said Ron Faucheux, a nonpartisan political polling analyst based in New Orleans.
…
Referring to Bevin’s loss in Kentucky, Trump complained that the media pinned the defeat on him.“So you’ve got to give me a big win, please,” he told the crowd.
…
“Where’s the good news for Republicans?” said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a liberal think tank. “In 2018 and 2019, Trump had two worst-case or near-worst elections in a row; his numbers today are below where they were on Election Day 2018; incumbents are retiring in droves, making 2020 even more challenging; and Trump’s not just trailing 2020 Democrats nationally by a significant margin — he’s not clearly ahead in any important battleground state.”
https://twitter.com/bradbainum/status/1197629792335495168