2018 Presidential Election

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lord caedus

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Wednesday, September 25th 2019

Senate Democrats agree to amendment removing "gender identity" from civil rights bill

Washington, D.C. — Senate Democrats have agreed to an amendment offered by Randall Thomas (R-MI) that would remove the "gender identity" provisions of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 2019 bill, focusing the bill on expanding federal civil rights protections to include sexual orientation. Senate Minority Leader Jimmy Fitzsimmons (D-MA) announced the agreement after meetings with several moderate Republican senators and a Senate Democratic caucus meeting to discuss the proposal. "I know that this news is disappointing to the transgender community, and it is something many in our caucus deeply regret," Fitzsimmons said, promising transgender Americans that "we have not forgotten about you," and said that the Senate Democrats remain focused on issues effecting the transgender community.

The amendment comes after Senate Republicans spent the August recess whipping their caucus and applying pressure to red-state Democrats who face tough reelection races next fall. With the legislation's sexual orientation provisions polling with majority support across the country (including in most states that do not perform same-sex marriages), Republican attacks have been focused on the "gender identity" portion, with Kentucky Governor Ed Barrie (R) promising to "fight tooth and nail in the courts" to prevent what he characterized as "an attempt to let a man who dresses up as a woman from preying on little girls in the women's locker room" at a campaign rally in Bowling Green.

Senator Michael Rojas (R-NM), one of the three Republicans who voted for the bill in the Judiciary Committee, said that the CRA will find a "much more friendly" reception from Republicans now that the gender identity provision has been removed. "While I personally would be fine with the bill being passed with [the gender identity provision], I know that I'm ahead of my party on this issue." Rojas commented. White House Director of Legislative Affairs Connie Tate said that the White House signed off on the change to ensure the bill's passage.

"If we had retained the gender identity provision, all of our whip counts indicated that the bill would fail," Tate said. "Our counts on a "no-gender identity" CRA indicated that the bill would likely pass, so the President agreed after a long discussion." Tate said that the administration "remains an ally of every part of the LGBT community", and would work with an eye to eventually adding such protections with a Democratic majority in the Senate.

On the Democratic Party's left, the reaction has been negative. "This is moral cowardice on the part of the Republican Party to leave one of the most vulnerable communities in our country without federal civil rights protections because of the bigotry of part of their base," Senator Alex Crossley (D-NJ) said, while Senator Andrew Howard (D-WA) tweeted it was "shameful...that a majority of Senators [sic] seem to believe that trans people do not deserve legal protections against the bigotry they face".

It remains legal in 30 states to deny transgender people housing on the basis of sexual orientation, and refuse to hire a transgender person based on their gender identity in 21 states. In those states, the exceptions are public housing and civilian federal employment and agencies with contracts for the federal government. As separate circuit courts have come to different conclusions on whether existing federal employment statues forbidding discrimination "on the basis of sex" apply to transgender people, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case (Toledano Grocery v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) to rule on the issue.
 

heatmaster

Arrowfan237 said:
Josh was so bored after being left out of the Seaborn administration that he took up the job as choir director in a small town.

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Josh would likely create more problems in any role he assumed in Seaborn administration, perhaps he should have been Sam’s own Leo, his ability to run a campaign was illustrated well during the Santos campaign! A better political skill set than CJ Cregg.
 
MountainDew17

MountainDew17

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Atlantis Cable News

Fitzsimmons talks CRA on 60 Minutes

Washington D.C.- Last Night on 60 Minutes, Senate Minority Leader Jimmy Fitzsimmons (D-MA) sat down for a candid conversation with CBS' Scott Pelley about the decision of Senate Democrats (with White House support) to "gut" the Civil Rights Act of 2019. "We didn't gut the bill," was Senator Fitzsimmons first response. "As written, the bill was completely DOA. It was so far to the left, that many of our own members were starting to waiver. What we have now is a comprehensive agreement that will see Same-Sex Marriage legalized in all 50 States and all territories, and it will end numerous homophobic practices, including the denial of housing (renting) and services." When asked if in order to get this bill passed, the Democrats had abandoned the Transgender Community, Fitzsimmons had this to say, "To our friends in the Transgender Community, I understand your pain and frustration. You're right, this isn't fair. But we also have to be practical. If we had pushed forward with the bill as it was originally written, it would have failed; plain and simple. What we have know is the best bill that we can possibly get, and you have my word that not one more word will be changed. Not a one. We will pass a clean bill, as is."

60 Minutes also spoke with Senator Curtis Ryan (R-OR), the only Republican who had openly supported the original bill. "I'm from Oregon, and I have to represent the wishes of my constituents; that's my job. Same Sex Marriage is legal here, and we have laws that protect members of the LGBT Community from discrimination, and that includes gender-identity." When asked about the changes made to the bill, Ryan spoke in favor of them, adding, "Compromise means that not everyone gets what they want, it means that everyone has to give up something. That's how democracy works."

According to ACN's latest numbers, since the changes made to the bill, the Civil Rights Act seems to have garnered enough bipartisan support to pass.
 

lord caedus

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Monday, September 30th 2019

Tabor confirmed as first female CIA director

The Senate has confirmed Sharon Tabor as CIA director today, making her the first woman to hold the position. Tabor, who had served as acting Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) since the death of former director Robert Bennett in July, was confirmed in a 65-33 vote and sworn in as the 22nd person to hold the position in a ceremony earlier today at the bureau's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. She is also the second consecutive director with a political background, having worked as a political appointee in both the Bartlet and Santos administrations, rising to become national security adviser to both of Santos' vice presidents.

Tabor, who served as deputy director from May until her confirmation, was not the White House's first choice to head the nation's central intelligence apparatus. Director of National Clandestine Service Kelton Mansfield was chosen to replace Bennett during the transition period, but investigations into the National Clandestine Services and Mansfield's oversight thereof quickly derailed the nomination. Afterwords, Bennett asked to stay on to allow Tabor to get more experience running day-to-day operations before he was set to retire following the 2020 midterm elections, a plan that lasted until his sudden death in July.

Since her predecessor was one of the longest-serving DCIs in history, Tabor has inherited a top leadership that remained mostly unchanged for most of Bennett's tenure. Between several top-level officials (such as Mansfield) close to retirement age, and others who NBS has learned have private disagreements with the director's plans for the agency, there is likely to be a larger-than-normal shakeup in the top levels of American central intelligence as Tabor settles in.
 

lord caedus

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Wednesday, October 2nd 2019

Chinese 70th anniversary celebrations draws little praise from West

Beijing — The People's Republic of China (PRC) celebrated the 70th anniversary of its 1949 proclamation yesterday, to large fanfare domestically while Western nations largely remained silent or used the occasion to criticize the regime for its human rights violations. The festivities included a grand military parade overseen by President Qian Min, who addressed both the nation and overseas Chinese while reviewing the troops assembled on Beijing's Chang'an Avenue.

Standing on the same spot where Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic seventy years earlier, Qian proclaimed that "There is no force that can shake the status of this great nation. No force can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation forging ahead." Qian's speech was triumphal, basking in China's decades of economic growth and surpassing the lifespan of the Soviet Union (69 years, from its formal establishment in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991). It only lightly touched on the country's withdrawal from Qumar, praising veterans of the conflict as "the most recent in a long line of Chinese military heroes", and did not mention the troubles in the country's autonomous region of Hong Kong, where protests have been ongoing over the PRC's violation of the handover agreement that returned the city to it in 1997.

In contrast, Western leaders have highlighted Hong Kong and the Chinese government's lack of democracy and transparency. President Sam Seaborn used the occasion to urge Chinese leaders to respect Hong Kong's democratic system (entrenched by the "one country, two systems" agreement until 2047) and combine the post-Mao economic liberalization with "long overdue" political liberalization. French President Giselle Trenier drew attention to the widespread detention and humans rights abuses of the Uyghur minority in China's Xinjiang, calling for "reflection and reform", while other prominent national leaders, like British Prime Minister Richard Samuels, Russian President Natalya Romanova and German Chancellor Alex Baumann, did not comment on the anniversary.
 

lord caedus

OOC: I call this set "Two Vets, An AG and A Lady Spy"

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Cast (all previously established)
Channing Tatum as Declan Molloy
Robin Wright as Sharon Tabor
Dylan Baker as Alan Fisk
Jon Lindstrom as Walter Collins

  • "Operation Righteous" is the name for the military operations into Qumar during the Zoey Bartlet kidnapping crisis.

  • One thing I noticed doing Molloy's infobox is that there are way too many Medal of Honor winners entering politics. Between Molloy, President Lassiter, Donald Richter, Scott Van Damm, and Rob Kenny, that's five post-WWII CMOH recipients having won elected office compared to one* IOTL (Bob Kerrey, who Kenny is obviously based off of). Considering how like half of all CMOHs are given posthumously, that's way too many to happen into being politicians afterwards.

    *- James Stockdale was Ross Perot's running mate in 1992, but was obviously not elected.

  • Yes, I had to divvy up Tabor's time as National Security Advisor to the Vice President between Baker and Tripplehorn, since for a week in September 2009, there was no vice president she could advise.

    The "MIA" is a master's degree in international affairs.

  • Allain and Bratton are new establishments as having been governor prior to Hodder.

    Watts was previously established as lieutenant governor under Hodder-Shaw, but since Mississippi has separately-elected governors and lieutenant governors, I figured he very easily would have been reelected even when Fisk won in 2015. That means he (Watts) is term-limited this year, so there will be a different LG regardless of who wins the gubernatorial election.

  • Fisk's congressional time in office had to be retconned slightly since it conflicted with previously-established posts about Mississippi's congressional delegation. Previously, it had him win re-election in 2002 and then resign to become Bartlet's second-term AG. However, Inboden (a former committee chair and current administration official) had been established as having been in Congress since 1997 and held the district that Fisk would represent (the 4th) by 2010.

    So the retcon is that Inboden used to represent the 5th district (which got lost in the post-2000 redistricting) and Fisk retired to unsuccessfully challenge Dylan McNamara for one of Mississippi's Senate seats, meaning the 4th district was open for Inboden to move over to in 2003 and Fisk was free to take Bartlet up on his AG offer.

  • MD is probably going to be mad at me for establishing details about Collins like his middle name, wife and alma mater, but most especially for retconning Collins' military and political history a bit. Collins had previously been established as joining the military in 1985 and getting elected to the Oregon State in 1990 as a result of a draft by local organizers, while also having been a Gulf War vet and having served six years as an attack helicopter pilot. The problem is that it is illegal for active-duty military officers to hold elected office except for small non-partisan things like being on school boards and he would have been sworn into his first term as a state senator days before the US began its aerial campaign in the Gulf. It also leaves a two to three-year gap in his life between when he graduated college (1982/1983, since he was established as having been born in 1960) and joining the Army (1985) which seems unusual for someone who clearly liked military service enough that he spent decades in the reserves after leaving active duty.

    So I had him join the Army in 1983 after college instead, meaning he spent 8 years on active duty instead of 6, then delaying his swearing-in until he returned to the states and was shifted to the reserves. In the new version, he accepted his drafting by local organizers, and was planning on resigning his commission to campaign himself, but when Iraq invaded Kuwait, he decided to remain on active duty and allowed his campaign to run itself without his involvement, then was elected as an independent (to avoid breaching DoD rules about partisan activity). He, of course, would switch his party affiliation to Republican once he was in the Reserves and had taken his seat after returning from the Gulf.

    His military career also ended in 2016, since upon becoming governor, he became commander-in-chief of the Oregon National Guard and the Oregon State Defense Force. He left active duty as a captain (previously established) but I had him retire as a colonel since that seems to be an appropriate promotion rate looking at OTL politicians who spent a similar length of time in the reserves after leaving active duty.
 
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MountainDew17

MountainDew17

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Atlantis Cable News

Collins dominates McColl in Gubernatorial Debate

Eugene, Oregon- During their only debate before next month's Gubernatorial Election, Governor Walter Collins (R) absolutely dominated the stage, outperforming his Democratic challenger at every turn. Secretary of State Candice McColl, once seen to be a viable challenger to Walter Collins, seems to have lost any momentum she once had, as she was unable to counter the flurry of attacks launched from Collins. Her main line of attack, the re-count from last year's Presidential election, fell flat after Collins' retort of "You've been saying the same thing for months now. Do you honestly have anything to offer, other than I acted within my Gubernatorial authority?" McColl's response left much to be desired and it was all down hill from there. But perhaps the final nail in the McColl Campaign's coffin came from Collins' closing remarks, "I realize that as Governor, I sometimes make decisions that not everyone agrees with. That's why we have a Democracy. But It's also important that our leaders actually have original thoughts, and more than just campaign rhetoric. Our leaders need to be able to act decisively when the chips are down, and they need to be able to stand by their decisions, be them good or bad. There is no passing the buck, no blaming some staff member. That's how I led my men into combat in the Army, and it's how I've acted as your Governor. If you believe that Secretary McColl and her one-trick pony show will be better at this job, then vote her. But if your serious about seeing our state continue to prosper, if your serious about having a Governor who knows how to make the tough calls, to do what's best for all Oregonians, not just those that vote for me, then you know who to vote for. Because my name is Walter Collins, and I am the Governor."

ACN's snap poll show's a massive win for Collins in the debate, and the overnight tracking poll has all but confirmed that this race is over. A high-level source within the McColl Campaign is telling ACN that the campaign was banking heavily on the recount argument and that with that now gone, the campaign may be effectively over. Only time will tell, but as of right now, Walter Collins looks to be cruising towards re-election.

ACN DEBATE POLL: Who Won?

Walter Collins (R)- 91%
Candice McColl (D)- 5%
Tie/Don't Know- 4%

ACN Gubernatorial Poll

Walter Collins (R)- 61%
Candice McColl (D)- 31%
Other/Undecided- 8%
 

lord caedus

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Friday, October 4th 2019

Former Second Lady Allison Bush dead at 87

Chilmark, MA — Allison Bush, wife of former vice president and acting president George P. Bush, passed away earlier today at the couple's home in Martha's Vineyard according to the Bush family. Mrs. Bush had been suffering from ill health for the past several years, and had been receiving home hospice care since mid-September.

Janice Bush, speaking for the Bush family said that the family was "saddened by the loss of our beloved mother, grandmother and wife Allison...but we are grateful has been reunited with her son George Junior in eternal peace," the eldest Bush child who died of a cocaine overdose while in college.

Mrs. Bush was born Allison Roosevelt in 1932, a distant relative of then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Her parents, however, were staunch Republicans, a trait they passed onto their daughter, who would publicly lament the association of her maiden name with liberal icon Franklin instead of action-oriented Theodore as an adult. Raised in affluence in New York, she met fellow blue-blood George Philippson Bush at Princeton University and fell in love. After a long courtship, delayed by Bush's insistence of not marrying until he had finished obtaining his MBA from Yale, the two married in 1958 and moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky so that Bush could manage part of his family's business empire. The couple would have three children, George Junior, Janice and Mark. Her husband began his political career in 1966 after winning a seat in the House of Representatives during the 1966 midterm wave against Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the rash of race riots that had begun to break out in America's cities.

As her husband's political career began to take off, Bush moved easily into the role of political spouse, although she often came across as tone-deaf when speaking to voters. The darkest period of her life came when her troubled son, George Jr., who had begun to heavily abuse drugs and alcohol while in high school, died of a cocaine overdose in his first month in college. Her husband briefly retired from politics while the family reeled with the tragedy, although friends of the family said that Bush never truly got over the death of her oldest child, blaming herself for his death. She briefly became First Lady of Kentucky after her husband was elected governor, then was elevated to Second Lady of the United States when her husband was elected vice president on Ronald Reagan's ticket.

When Ronald Reagan was rendered comatose by a stroke in September 1985, George Bush became Acting President amidst an unprecedented constitutional crisis. With First Lady Nancy Reagan faithfully attending to her stricken husband, Allison Bush became de facto First Lady while her husband finished Reagan's abbreviated second term. A tense behind-the-scenes situation between Mmes. Bush and Reagan was largely kept from the public eye during Bush's acting presidency, only to be revealed in the years afterwards. "[Bush] handled the situation as well as one could," Lisa Mahaffey, author of The First Ladies, said in an interview with ACN, "but nothing took away the awkwardness of having the actual First Lady [Nancy Reagan] still in the White House, much less one whose belief in astrology was so strong that she would occasionally try to interfere with the acting president's schedule on the basis of her astrologer's predictions."

After her husband's retirement, Bush made news for opposing President Owen Lassiter's push for an increase in sentencing for drug offenses, breaking from her husband and pushing for a "kinder, more gentler nation...one that treats those sickened by drug and alcohol addiction with treatment and care instead of incarceration and scorn." She worked alongside former First Lady Betty Ford to expand the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California and worked closely with Ford on advocacy for substance abuse treatment until Ford's death in 2001.

White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum called Bush a "thoughtful, kind and dedicated woman who took personal tragedy and used it to help millions of Americans struggling with substance abuse and addiction." The White House released a directive from President Seaborn ordering flags lowered to half-mast until dusk tomorrow, a break in the tradition of lowering the flags to half-mast upon the deaths of former First Ladies but not the spouses of vice presidents. Tatum said that her husband's acting presidency justifies the break in tradition, and answering in the negative if the White House would consider a policy change to lower the flag to half-mast upon the death of vice presidential spouses whose partners did not become acting president.

A private service for Bush will be held in Martha's Vineyard on Tuesday, October 5th. In lieu of flowers, the Bush family has asked that donations be given to the Betty Ford Center and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
 

Marky Bunny

th

Saturday October 5th 2019

Coll to start Shadow Cabinet reshuffle over the weekend

Jack Coll will start the reshuffle of his front-bench team three weeks after his election as Labour leader.

He will need to fill the post of Shadow Home Secretary after Hannah Martin announced at the party conference she was standing down from the shadow cabinet and as an MP due to family reasons. Sources close to the Labour leader said that beaten leadership contender current Shadow Chancellor Oliver Kendrick will be standing in his current post and that the that both men had already confirmed this. Also understood to be staying in his post is Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Brazil who ran Kendrick's failed bid for the leadership after declining to run himself. Rachel Lilburn, the former Foreign Secretary is expected to return to the Shadow Cabinet after a three year gap, possibly as either Shadow Home Secretary or as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.
 
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Marky Bunny

Former Second Lady, Allison Bush seen here at a fundraiser for a drugs treatment centre in Louisville, Kentucky in 2000.
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(Photo by Tippi Hedren)
 

Marky Bunny

th

Monday October 7th 2019

Coll completes Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle

Labour Leader Jack Coll has completed his front bench team over the weekend. The biggest surprise was the appointment of Ryan Arnold as Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow First Secretary of State. Arnold lost his seat in Eltham at the 2013 General Election as a member of the Shadow Cabinet, he then served as Andrea Benn's Chief of Staff until returning to the House of Commons winning back his old seat at last year's General Election. He replaces the departing Hannah Martin at the Home Office.

Rachel Lilburn returns to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons as well as Shadow Deputy Prime Minister and also becomes Party Chairman. Lilburn was also confirmed as the Stand in at PMQ's when the Prime-Minister and the Leader of the Opposition don't take part. Labour Deputy Leader Bryan Atkinson remains in the Cabinet in that position but has lost his job of PMQ's stand-in. Shadow Chancellor and beaten leadership contender Oliver Kendrick retains his job also becomes the party's Campaign co-Ordinator as well. The other beaten Leadership contender Ruth Butler stays in her post as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary as does Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Brazil.

2014 beaten leadership contender Dominic Eames and the 2018 beaten London Mayoral candidate turned down the chance to return to the front-bench, fuelling speculation that he was now almost certain to run for City Hall for a second time in 2022.
 

lord caedus

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Liberals win majority in Quebec
Pledge that 'division and the threat of separatism are over'

October 7, 2019

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Supporters of the Quebec Liberal Party celebrate as results are announced.

The Quebec Liberal Party has won a majority government in the provincial election tonight, ending eight years of Parti Québécois government. With counting complete in the province's 125 ridings, the Liberals have taken in 71 seats, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) 28, Parti Québécois (PQ) 22, and Alliance Québec (AQ) four.

After eight years out of power, the Liberals entered the campaign in a tight race for first place, with questions still lingering over how seriously leader Thomas Rougeau had pursued cleaning the party up following his election in 2016. But the pledge by Poirier that she would introduce legislation for a third referendum on whether Quebec should leave Canada to become an independent country shattered both parties' expectations of the fall campaign and exposed fault lines within the péquiste coalition that had been papered-over when the issue of sovereigntism had been downplayed. Voters who had listed pursuing independence as a low priority, first-generation immigrants and especially voters aged 18 to 34 quickly turned away from the government, especially after the PQ announced its "Charter of Values" that many inside and outside Quebec saw as using secularist language to discriminate against Muslims and Sikhs who choose to wear religious apparel such as turbans or hijabs.

Exit polling has projected that the PQ lost roughly half of their vote share from 2015, with a majority of those voters switching either to a federalist (Liberal) or autonomist (CAQ) party that would keep Quebec in Canada. The Alliance Québec is sovereigntist, but most voters who switched from supporting them from the BQ primarily listed their support for the AQ's left-wing economic policies as the reason.

Poirier, who lost her own Vachon riding, announced her resignation as premier and leader of the Parti Québécois in a tearful concession speech in front of supporters.

Premier-designate Thomas Rougeau declared that the province's "division and threat of separatism are over" in a victory speech to supporters in Montreal. Rougeau campaigned strongly on vrais affaires ("real issues") such as jobs and the economy, while also emphasizing that Quebec was "a land for all."

CAQ leader Jean-François Lincourt was also reelected, while AQ co-spokeswoman Geneviève Lafontaine won a seat in Sainte-Marie—Sainte-Jacques. Lincourt, whose party won the second-most seats and will form the Official Opposition in the next legislature, said that he was proud of the work that his party had done, but hoped that more Quebecers would "join this new alternative to the tired old parties [the PQ and the Liberals] who have been running Quebec for the past fifty years"

Federal leaders react

New federal Liberal leader Kate Sansellfort issued a statement that emphasized that the results were due to Quebecers' concerns outside of sovereignty: "Today, Quebecers voted for a better, fairer economy, instead of a third referendum, by electing Thomas Rougeau as their new premier and giving the Quebec Liberal Party a strong mandate to address real issues in the province," Sansellfort said.

Prime Minister Leslie Van Merhalls and NDP leader Stephen Addison similarly congratulated Rougeau and the Liberals, while Bloc Québécois leader Jean-Marc Beaumont characterized the results as "devastating for the dream of a free Quebec."

Ontario Premier Karen McLean tweeted out her congratulations as well, saying she looked forward to working with the incoming government.
 
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Marky Bunny

th

Wednesday October 9th 2019

Andrea Benn resigns as an MP to become UK Ambassador to the City State of Jerusalem

In a surprise development former Labour Leader Andrea Benn has been confirmed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the UK's next Ambassador to the City State of Jerusalem. She will take up her post effective on January 1st 2020 when the current Ambassador Sir Charles Robson retires.

Benn who despite domestic political differences with Prime-Minister Richard Samuels was always a staunch supporter of his government's Foreign Policy. The offer was made after Samuels and the Foreign Secretary Fiona Wallace spoke to the new Labour leader Jack Coll over the weekend.

This means that Labour will now have to face three by-elections in the coming few weeks in Manchester Central, Hackney South & Shoreditch, and now Darlington. At the General Election last September, Benn won the seat with a majority of 12,439 (48.24% of the vote) with the Conservatives in second place and the NPP just behind them in third place.


 
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