Colorado Senate passes bill favoring popular vote over Electoral College

The Colorado Senate this week passed a bill that would award the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the nationwide popular vote.

The Senate passed the measure along party lines in a 19-16 vote Tuesday, sending the bill to the state House for consideration.

The bill, known as the the National Popular Vote Compact and sponsored by state Sen. Mike Foote (D), would require Colorado members of the Electoral College to cast their vote for the winner of the national popular vote.

The state’s nine electoral votes currently go toward the candidate who wins the majority of votes in Colorado.

The National Popular Vote Compact is an agreement among 11 states and the District of Columbia, but would only go into effect if there are enough electoral votes to influence the final Electoral College vote tally.

The states in the pact have 172 electoral votes — 98 short of the 270 needed to win the Electoral College.

“This really isn’t a red versus blue idea. This is about making sure that the President of the United States is elected by the entire nation, not just a handful of ‘battleground states’ that get to decide our Presidential elections under the current system,” Foote said in a statement. “All of Colorado’s voters should be heard, regardless of whether or not we are considered a battleground state.”

Colorado Senate Republicans argued that it was unconstitutional to tie Colorado votes to national popular opinion.

“It says your votes and your choices are no longer your own,” GOP state Sen. Owen Hill said. "We are going to tie your representation to what the other 49 states choose."

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/428015-colorado-senate-passes-bill-to-give-electoral-votes-to-presidential

USAID to stop sending money to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza

The U.S. government announced on Friday that USAID would be ending its assistance to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Here's what we know

Reuters reports that the eliminated funding will include $60 million that the U.S. was giving to the Palestinian security forces.

According to the Times of Israel, the funding for the Palestinian security forces will end at the request of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority was reportedly concerned that this funding would open up lawsuits under the United States Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA). The ATCA goes into effect on Friday, and gives Americans the authority to sue U.S. aid recipients who are complicit in "acts of war."

"The money will be cut off," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat told Agence France-Presse. "We don't want to receive any money if this will take us to court."

How much assistance are we talking about?

According to USAID's website, in 2017 the agency granted $267,536,349 to the West Bank and Gaza. Last year, $146,575,484 in grants were reported, but data for that year is still incomplete.

Looking at just disbursements, over the most recently recorded 10-year period (2008 - 2017) USAID reported grants of $3,797,822,285 to the West Bank and Gaza.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/ready-usaid-to-stop-sending-money-to-palestinians-in-the-west-bank-and-gaza

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1091362563202396165

>>4988417

Right, when I read it I was like, "can they even do that?"

>>4988332

This could be a very dangerous development for the US

>>4988616

KEK!

>>4988690

He would be our most senior member!!!

Two House Democrats press White House to revoke Kushner's security clearance 'immediately'

Two House Democrats are pushing acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to "immediately revoke" the security clearance of White House adviser Jared Kushner following an NBC News report that security specialists had originally denied his application.

Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Don Beyer of Virginia cited reporting from NBC last week alleging that Kushner's top-secret clearance had been rejected before the decision was overruled by a handpicked Trump appointee. The report said Kushner was just one of about 30 Trump officials who had originally failed to qualify for high-level clearances until Trump's pick, Carl Kline, intervened.

“The White House’s pattern of hiding the truth and devious behavior with regard to Mr. Kushner’s security clearance suggests that the Administration does not take information security seriously," Lieu and Beyer wrote to Mulvaney Thursday. “Members of Congress are now placed in the impossible position of wondering who these 30 officials are that received clearances despite being rejected by the career security officials, what the ‘unfavorable information’ was in their records, and why they still have ongoing access to sensitive national security information."

The two lawmakers recounted “five separate letters” in which the White House had ignored their requests for information on Kushner's clearance and said the continued negligence of Trump officials "increasingly seems like a coverup."

Now there's a word the White House has grown quite accustomed to.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1831336