#Scott Mahaskey

[jobbys]

Twitter/Facebook Senate Hearings 2018 - Jack Dorsey, Alex Jones

Credit:Scott Mahaskey

Background to photo on Wired

[rjzimmerman]

I’m posting a link to this story from Politico because one my friends, Patrick (first photo below), is leading the effort to protect an endangered plant (Tiehm's buckwheat, second photo below), which grows in a particular spot in Nevada and nowhere else in the world, against the forces of the trump administration and the mining industry. As the mining company runs rough over the land, it’s not only destroying the endangered plant, but also anything else in the way of making a big buck, including joshua trees, shown in the third photo below. Based on their size, I’m guessing that these joshua trees could be up to a couple hundred years old.

Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director at the Center of Biological Diversity. | M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico

Tiehm's buckwheat, a rare wildflower not known to grow anywhere else in the world. | M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico

A stack of razed Joshua Trees near the open-pit Gemfield gold mine. | Adam Federman

Excerpt from this Politico story:

On a cold, windy day in late October, in one of the most remote and least populated regions of the state, a half-dozen workers prepared to drill another test hole in the arid volcanic rock. They were looking for deposits of lithium, a metal that has become indispensable to smartphones and electric-vehicle batteries, and which geologists estimate is so abundant here that mining companies from around the world are vying for a chance to make the next big discovery. The workers doing the drilling were contracted by Ioneer, an Australian company that has already invested millions in exploring what it believes could be one of the largest lithium producers in the world with an estimated net value of nearly $2 billion.

Like almost all of the surrounding territory, this land is owned by the federal government and overseen by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. I had come here because I had learned that the Rhyolite Ridge project was threatening a rare wildflower called Tiehm’s buckwheat that is not known to grow anywhere else in the world. Standing with me on the ridgeline overlooking the work site was Patrick Donnelly, the state director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group that over the past three years has established itself as one of the most determined—and successful—foes of the Trump administration’s efforts to accelerate mining and development on public lands. The Rhyolite Ridge project boundary sits atop the plant’s tiny 21-acre habitat and from what Donnelly could see, the work was already having a damaging impact. Donnelly pointed to newly graded roads on the site, including a path that cut through two of the main populations of the flower. Three weeks before, Donnelly had filed a petition with federal and state officials to have the plant listed as an endangered species. Now, on a holiday weekend, the mine was buzzing and Donnelly was livid. He had seen nothing like this level of activity on three visits over the summer.

[thenewsedge]

Del Ficke, an advocate of regenerative growing techniques shows off soil on his farm near Pleasant Dale, Nebraska. | M. Scott Mahaskey The meeting last June in a wood-beamed barn in Newburg, Md., an hour due south of Washington, had all the makings of a secret conclave. The guest list was confidential. No press accounts…

[bauzeitgeist]

The area around the Cleveland Clinic, from this article on the wealthy, world class, non-profit (non-tax paying) medical center and the devastated neighborhoods around it. Photo M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico.

[thisdaynews]

The 2020 Dem who may actually know how to fix health care

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-2020-dem-who-may-actually-know-how-to-fix-health-care/

The 2020 Dem who may actually know how to fix health care

Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law the nation’s first public option. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

Jay Inslee is running for president as the climate change candidate.

But the two-term Washington governor can credibly claim to have accomplished more than most of his peers on health care, a key issue in the 2020 campaign.

Story Continued Below

He created both the nation’s first public option and universal long-term care benefit — albeit a limited one — has run a successfulObamacare market, and expanded reproductive rights. His administration has also pushed forward a new plan for controlling drug costs, expanded Medicaid coverage to transgender patients and added programs for school children aimed at preventing chronic diseases later in life.

In another time, Inslee would be running on his health care record, his campaign said. But not now. Inslee, who is among the many Democratic presidential candidates in the crowded field struggling to crack 1 percent in the polls, said he doesn’t have any second thoughts about staking his long-shot bid on tackling climate change, even if that overshadows his health policy accomplishments.

“Those things … become relatively moot if the entire ecosystem collapses on which human life depends,” Inslee told POLITICO earlier this month. “This is a unique issue. It is unique because our survival literally depends upon it.”

But by declaring himself the climate change candidate, Inslee may be missing a chance to define himself on health care, an issue that’s divided the Democratic field. The front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, has promoted a government-run public option that would preserve the private insurance system, while Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan that would virtually abolish private insurance has animated progressives.

While the debate for now is about what could be done, Inslee can boast he actually got something done.

“I respect everybody’s goals and plans here, but we do have one candidate that’s actually advanced the ball,” Inslee said during the first 2020 primary debate last month.

In May, Inslee signed into law the nation’s first public option, set to go live next fall. Under the plan, the Inslee administration will contract with a private insurer to sell coverage on the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange. The state projects that premiums in the public plan will be 5 to 10 percent cheaper that alternatives because of capped payments to doctors and hospitals. That might not translate into a major enrollment boost, and it remains to be seen whether enough providers will participate in the plan.

Inslee also signed legislation making Washington the first state to add a guaranteed long-term care benefit, addressing a growing challenge for an aging population. The law, which in concept is similar to Social Security, creates a payroll tax to offer a $100-per-day allowance for nursing home care, in-home assistance or another community-based option. It’s not enough to fully fund nursing home care, which can top $100,000 per year, but it may ease some financial pressure on families.

“These two bills are models for the rest of the nation to consider,” Inslee said after signing the legislation.

Still, Inslee believes his focus on climate change will attract voters to his campaign, even though time is running out to break into the upper tier of candidates. It’s unclear, though, how much his run has shaped the primary debate about climate change. Polls show it was already among Democratic voters’ top priorities, and the candidates all agree with the scientific consensus that climate change is a man-made crisis demanding urgency.

What the governor does deserve credit for, environmental advocates said, is raising the bar for what constitutes an acceptable response to climate change. Inslee has proposed a comprehensive plan that is more detailed than the “Green New Deal,” the aggressive climate change-fighting blueprint from progressives that’s been vilified by Republicans. Inslee would move the United States to 100 percent clean energy by 2030, backed by a $3 trillion federal investment that would create millions of jobs.

“He gets credit for raising the level of policy ambition,” said John Noel, senior climate campaigner forGreenpeace. “If you look at the platforms of the other candidates running, the baseline for climate policy is much higher.”

Inslee’s campaign knows his health care record isn’t getting much attention, but it said that’s by design to highlight the urgency needed to address climate change. Inslee said he learned the importance of settingpresidential priorities while serving in the House during President Barack Obama’s first term. He said there was little chance for climate change legislation to pass during Obama’s first term — the House had approved legislation capping greenhouse gas emissions in 2009, but it died in the Senate — because the ACA, which became law in March 2010, sucked up all the oxygen in Washington.

“In any normal year, at any normal time, he would have run on the major progressive achievements he has achieved in Washington state,” said Jamal Raad, Inslee’s communications director. “But we are at a tipping point. The leadership of the next president matters in terms of the climate crisis.”

Should Inslee break through in the polls, though, his health care record could get a closer look. Inslee in the past few months has taken measures to address top concerns among voters, including high drug prices and health care costs.

In February, Washington became the second state to propose a new payment system to vastly expand access to pricey hepatitis C medications. Under the system, which proponents have likened to the Netflix subscription model, Washington state will pay drugmakers a lump sum for an unlimited supply of the treatment for patients covered by state health care programs. There are roughly 30,000 people living with hepatitis C who are covered by the state, according to the state Health Department.

Inslee signed legislation in May meant to protect patients from “surprise” medical bills, a bipartisan issue that other states have tried to address in recent years. It’s also one of the most pressing health care items on Congress’ agenda this year.

“There’s not a single thing Democrats are talking about nationally that we haven’t done in some form in Washington state,” said Democratic state Sen. David Frockt, who sponsored the public option bill.

Washington state Rep. Joe Schmick, the top Republican on the state House Health Care Committee, noted there’s been areas of bipartisan cooperation on health care, including on surprise bills and mental health. But he remains concerned that the public option — an idea opposed by the GOP — will push out competition from private insurers. He’s also worried that the state hasn’t done enough to increase access to doctors in rural areas, where health care costs are typically higher.

“Just because you have insurance doesn’t mean you are going to see providers,” he said.

As the Trump administration has sought to curtail access to abortion, Inslee in March signed legislation making Washington state one of the few to require insurers to cover abortion alongside maternity care.

Bob Crittenden, who was a senior health policy adviser to Inslee, said Inslee has the credentials to tout his health care accomplishments as models for the nation.

“If I were running his communications, I would have done it differently,” Crittenden said.

Read More

[greetingsfromcleveland]

John Boyd, whose family has lived in the neighborhood since 1923, shows the contrast between the neighborhood’s worn-down homes and, one block away, the Clinic’s campus. (M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico)

[christywhitley]

The Landmine that Just Got Laid for Elizabeth Warren

The Landmine that Just Got Laid for Elizabeth Warren

M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

2020

It passed almost unnoticed, but history suggests we just saw a potent political weapon get pointed at two top candidates, Warren and Bernie Sanders.

On several occasions in Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, the NBC moderators invited candidates to take a shot at Senator…

[whittlebaggett8]

Bulletproof panels, private jets, and rumored secret passages: Here’s what it costs to protect the world’s richest tech moguls, Defence Online

caption

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

source

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Silicon Valley executives are among the richest people on the planet.

They are also among the most famous, and can become a lightning rod for public anger.

They spend millions on security measures: hiring armed bodyguards, installing bulletproof panels in their offices, and installing rumored escape passages.

Scroll on to see how much the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos spend on security.

Visit Defence Online’s homepage for more stories.

Silicon Valley contains a high concentration of the world’s richest tech billionaires, many of whom spend huge amounts on personal security measures.

Public filings can give us some insight into how much tech moguls spend on security, as their companies shell out millions to keep their executives safe, sometimes by buying them commodities like private planes.

Read more: These are the eccentric eating, sleeping, wellness, and workout regimes of the world’s top tech billionaires

Public records are just the tip of the iceberg, as Silicon Valley’s richest can supplement their security costs out of their own (considerably deep) pockets.

Here, in ascending order, is how much tech’s C-suite stars spend on security.

Jack Dorsey: $68,500 at last count.

caption

Jack Dorsey was accosted by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones earlier after giving evidence to Congress.

source

Scott Mahaskey

Jack Dorsey’s security costs were last revealed in 2016 in an SEC filing that showed Twitter paid him $68,506 for “residential security and protective detail.”

Otherwise, Dorsey declined all compensation, a practice which he has more or less continued – his 2018 salary amounted to $1.40.

See more: Twitter paid CEO Jack Dorsey just $1.40 as his salary in 2018 – and that was a pay raise

Eric Schmidt: $296,353

source

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Schmidt stepped down as Google chairman in 2018, and the previous year the company spent just under $300,000 on Schmidt’s personal security. Forbes currently puts Schmidt’s net worth at $13.2 billion.

Source: Forbes

Tim Cook: $310,000

source

Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla

Apple spent $310,000 on CEO Tim Cook in 2018, according to a proxy statement filed in January of this year. By Silicon Valley standards, this is a very humble expenditure – especially considering Apple regularly dips in and out of being the world’s most valuable company.

Source: Wired

Sundar Pichai: $1.2 million.

source

Agencja Gazeta/Maciej Jazwiecki via REUTERS

Google spent $1.2 million on security CEO Sundar Pichai in 2018, almost double the previous year when he was handed $680,000 for personal protection.

Source: Defence Online

The sudden uptick in Pichai’s security expenditure came months after an active shooter entered YouTube’s San Bruno campus, injuring three employees.

caption

Nasim Najafi Aghdam, the YouTube shooter.

source

San Bruno Police Department/Handout via REUTERS

Pichai’s new “overall security program” was approved in July 2018, three months after Nasim Najafi Aghdam shot three people and then herself at YouTube HQ in San Bruno. Following the attack, YouTube announced that it was stepping up its security in general.

A Google spokesperson told Defence Online’s Nick Bastone that stepping up Pichai’s security was part of a more general trend – Pichai’s security cost also doubled between 2016 and 2017.

Source: Defence Online

Jeff Bezos: $1.6 million.

source

REUTERS/Demetrius Freeman

The world’s richest man doesn’t spend the most on security – at least not publicly. Forbes reports that the amount Amazon shells out for Bezos’ security hasn’t changed since 2012 despite the billionaire’s wealth growing by approximately $113 billion. An Amazon spokesperson said Bezos pays separately for his personal security.

Source: Forbes

Bezos recently had bulletproof panels installed in his office.

source

JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images

A Seattle city planning permit, spotted by the Daily Beast, showed that Amazon applied to install bulletproof panels in Bezos’ office in November 2018, and was granted permission in January. The panels cost $180,000 to install and can withstand multiple shots from a military assault rifle.

Source: The Daily Beast

Bezos’ personal protection bills aren’t available to scrutinize, but this year his security chief said the billionaire wrote him a blank check to launch a private investigation.

After Jeff Bezos’ intimate texts to former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez were leaked to The National Enquirer, Bezos hired his personal security chief Gavin de Becker to investigate the source of the leak.

Writing in The Daily Beast in March, de Becker said Bezos told him to “spend whatever is needed” to get to the root of how his texts were obtained by The Enquirer.

De Becker’s investigation concluded, “with high confidence” that Saudi Arabia was behind the leak, due to Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post and the paper’s coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Source: The Daily Beast

Larry Ellison: $1.6 million

source

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Oracle pays the annual costs of protecting CTO and cofounder Larry Ellison’s “primary residence,” which Forbes speculated is likely to be his Japanese-architecture-inspired Woodside estate in California, although the company declined to comment.

Source: Wired and Forbes

Dara Khosrowshahi: $2 million.

caption

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.

source

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Uber’s recent IPO filing revealed that CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s compensation included $2 million for “security costs,” roughly equivalent to his bonus.

Sheryl Sandberg: $2.9 million.

source

Allison Shelley/Getty Images

Sandberg’s security costs climbed by $200,000 in 2018, and Facebook spent $1 million on private aircraft travel for the COO.

Source: Defence Online

Mark Zuckerberg: $20 million.

caption

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

source

Reuters

Zuckerberg’s security costs skyrocketed in tandem with the company’s disastrous 2018.

Facebook spent $10 million on personal protection for Zuckerberg last year, up $2.5 million from the year before. He was also given a “pre-tax allowance” of $10 million for “additional costs” to do with keeping both himself and his family safe.

In an SEC filing, the company said that public rage directed towards Facebook was part of the reason for Zuckerberg’s high security spend.

“He is synonymous with Facebook, and as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” Facebook said.

Source: Defence Online

Zuckerberg’s security detail includes 24/7 protection.

Defence Online’s Rob Price published a 5,000-word investigation into Facebook’s security operations, and discovered that Zuckerberg is constantly protected by armed executive protection officers who stand guard outside his Bay Area homes – at least one of which is equipped with a panic room.

Source: Defence Online

The Facebook CEO is even rumored to have an escape passage under his conference room.

caption

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg toboggans down the Great Wall of China.

source

Facebook

Price discovered a popular rumor among Facebook employees is that Zuckerberg has a “panic chute” in case him and his team need to evacuate the offices. One source told Price they had been briefed on the passageway’s existence. Facebook declined to comment.

Source: Defence Online

Elon Musk: Unclear.

source

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

One of the most bombastic and divisive personalities to dominate Silicon Valley, Elon Musk’s security costs are not readily available.

Tesla declined to comment when contacted by Defence Online.

In November 2018, the Tesla CEO tweeted that one of his other ventures, The Boring Company, was looking for someone to guard a Monty Python-inspired watchtower.

source

YouTube via Python Pictures

Specifically, Musk said that he needed, “a knight to yell insults at people in a French accent.”

Source: Defence Online

Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin haven’t revealed their security costs in many years.

caption

Google founders Larry Page (left) Sergey Brin.

source

Getty/Justin Sullivan

The last time Google disclosed security costs for its cofounders was in 2006, when it gave Larry Page $33,195 for transportation, logistics, and personal security. Page is now CEO at Google’s parent company Alphabet, which also hasn’t disclosed security expenditure for him.

Source: Forbes

The post Bulletproof panels, private jets, and rumored secret passages: Here’s what it costs to protect the world’s richest tech moguls, Defence Online appeared first on Defence Online.

from WordPress https://defenceonline.com/2019/05/25/bulletproof-panels-private-jets-and-rumored-secret-passages-heres-what-it-costs-to-protect-the-worlds-richest-tech-moguls-defence-online/

[instatrack]

The third Women's March returned to Washington on Saturday — this time on Day 29 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. 🔸 The original march in 2017, the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration, is generally regarded as the largest protest in the nation’s capital since the Vietnam era. But this year was a more modest affair. An estimated 100,000 protesters packed several blocks around Freedom Plaza, just east of the White House, holding a daylong rally. 🔸 The original plan was to gather on the National Mall. But with the forecast calling for snow and freezing rain and the National Park Service no longer plowing snow because of the shutdown, organizers on Thursday changed the march's location and route. Preparations for this year's march were also roiled by an intense ideological debate among the movement's leadership, including accusations of anti-Semitism. Link in bio for the full story. 📷 M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO http://bit.ly/2sD0xg6

[instapicsil2]

The third Women's March returned to Washington on Saturday — this time on Day 29 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. 🔸 The original march in 2017, the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration, is generally regarded as the largest protest in the nation’s capital since the Vietnam era. But this year was a more modest affair. An estimated 100,000 protesters packed several blocks around Freedom Plaza, just east of the White House, holding a daylong rally. 🔸 The original plan was to gather on the National Mall. But with the forecast calling for snow and freezing rain and the National Park Service no longer plowing snow because of the shutdown, organizers on Thursday changed the march's location and route. Preparations for this year's march were also roiled by an intense ideological debate among the movement's leadership, including accusations of anti-Semitism. Link in bio for the full story. 📷 M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO http://bit.ly/2sD0xg6

[badgop]

Energy Department climate office bans use of phrase ‘climate change’

Energy Department climate office bans use of phrase ‘climate change’

A supervisor at the Energy Department’s international climate office told staff this week not to use the phrases “climate change,” “emissions reduction” or “Paris Agreement” in written memos, briefings or other written communication, sources have told POLITICO. Employees of DOE’s Office of International Climate and Clean Energy learned of the ban at a meeting Tuesday, the same day President…

[chinawapz]

Republicans embrace Don Jr.’s ‘trolling’ on the campaign trail

Republicans embrace Don Jr.’s ‘trolling’ on the campaign trail

Donald Trump Jr. interacts with the crowd at a rally for his father in Ohio. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

2020 elections

Trump Jr.’s ties to MAGA world makes him a sought-after substitute for his father.

For Republican candidates who can’t get President Donald Trump, there’s always the next best thing: Junior. Donald Trump Jr. will hold a series of…

[usacurrentnews-blog]

POLITICO Playbook: The national day of mourning

POLITICO Playbook: The national day of mourning

Former President George H.W. Bush lies in state at the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, Dec. 3. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

TODAY is a national day of mourning for GEORGE H.W. BUSH, and much of the government is closed. Luckily for investors, the NYSE and Nasdaq are closed today.

THE STATE FUNERAL … SPEAKERS:Former President George W. Bush,…

[thisdaynews]

'He doesn’t have any new ideas': John Delaney bashes Biden

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/he-doesnt-have-any-new-ideas-john-delaney-bashes-biden/

'He doesn’t have any new ideas': John Delaney bashes Biden

Democratic candidate John Delaney said he was forced to “wedge” himself into discussions in June’s debate in Miami because “it was pretty obvious I wasn’t going to get any questions.” | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

2020 Candidate Forum

“I have a bunch of new ideas that can allow us to reimagine our future,” Delaney said in a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO reporters and editors.

Joe Biden has the fundraising muscle, the lead in the polls and the cachet with voters from his years as Barack Obama’s No. 2.

But John Delaney says he’s got something to offer that the former vice president does not.

Story Continued Below

“He doesn’t have any new ideas, and he’s effectively just running an old playbook,” Delaney, a former lawmaker from Maryland, said of Biden in a wide-ranging interview Thursday with POLITICO reporters and editors. “On all these issues, I have a bunch of new ideas that can allow us to reimagine our future, and I think people get that I can do that.”

Delaney, like Biden, is running as a relative moderate in the Democratic field who says he could work with Republicans to get things done if he defeats President Donald Trump in 2020.

The fact that he started two businesses and became the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange, he said, gives him credibility with voters “around getting new things done and building new things, which always comes out at all the meet-and-greets I have.”

“People come up and say: ‘Oh, I really like your ideas. They’re new. They’re different,’” he recalled in the interview, which is part of a POLITICO series with 2020 candidates. “And I just think, at the end of the day, the vice president is effectively running on a bunch of President Obama’s — the policies of that administration, many of which I support.”

Delaney expressed support for Biden’s health care plan, saying his administration would also prioritize making changes to Obama’s Affordable Care Act within its first 100 days “because we have to do that.”

“But then there’s not another chapter. There’s not another page to turn with his health-care plan,” he said. “Like, he doesn’t have a plan as to how we actually get to universal health care, which I think most Americans intuitively want and think we deserve.” Delaney’s own plan would extend a new health insurance plan that covers basic medical services to everyone under 65.

Delaney similarly said he agrees with Biden’s pledge to recommit the U.S. to the Paris climate accord. “But there’s got to be the next reimagination,” he said. “There’s got to be Paris 2.0.” Delaney has proposed a carbon “cap and dividend” plan that would impose fees on every ton of carbon dioxide emitted.

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

Delaney will have an opportunity to address the former vice president’s ideas on the debate stage at the end of the month. He said he was forced to “wedge” himself into discussions in June’s debate in Miami because “it was pretty obvious I wasn’t going to get any questions.” But he is more optimistic about how CNN will conduct its debates.

He said candidates will each get one minute to deliver opening and closing statements, noting NBC allotted only 45 seconds for a closing statement at the previous debate. He also said CNN would enforce a rule that bars interruptions by penalizing candidates who speak out of turn.

“So, if someone were to interrupt and say something for 20 seconds, you lose 20 seconds, including on your closing. And I think that’s great,” he said. “I’m all for rules. I just want them to be applied fairly.”

Delaney said he’s “working hard” to meet the criteria for another set of debates in the fall, which require candidates to hit 2 percent in four approved polls and have 130,000 individual donors. But he said it would be fine if he didn’t hit that bar in time for the September debate.

“You could potentially miss the third and make the fourth, and I think that’s actually fine. In some ways, that’s good,” he said. “It gives you extra time … and suddenly, you’ve kind of had a little bit of comeback.”

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Delaney loaned his campaign nearly $8 million last quarter, and it wasn’t the first time he’s put his own cash toward his 2020 bid.

“I put $11 million in at the end of the first quarter and then I took it out the next day,” he said. “My team said it’ll look good if we have a lot of money on hand, so I said, ‘Well, I can fix that problem.’”

He said he’d spent about $7 million of his own cash, which he called “still a lot of money.”

Delaney insists he has plenty of money to sustain his campaign through the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses and hasn’t prioritized courting donors.

“I haven’t spent a lot of time fundraising,” he said. “It’s not that I can’t raise money. I could sit in a room, make calls 30 hours a week and raise $4 [million] or $5 million. I just didn’t think it was worth my time to do that, to be honest with you.”

Delaney, who has pledged to campaign until Iowans caucus next year and who has already been to all 99 counties in the Hawkeye state, said he and his wife asked themselves three questions before they decided he should run for president, including whether there was a path for him to be a viable candidate.

“The minute the answer to those questions starts becoming something other than yes, then you start thinking differently about it,” he said. “If I don’t do well in the Iowa caucus, then obviously the answer to one of those questions becomes no. Because I’ve spent a lot of time there, and if that doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work.”

What doing well looks like, though, is still unclear to the campaign. “Depends on how many people are in it,” Delaney said. “If there’s five people in it and you come in fifth, that’s not so great. But if there’s actually 18 people in the Iowa caucus and three of them, four of them, are dominant favorites and you come in fifth, that’s actually something you all would care about.”

Read More

[christywhitley]

Trump says Shanahan is withdrawing from Defense secretary consideration

Trump says Shanahan is withdrawing from Defense secretary consideration

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is leaving his post, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Tuesday. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

President Donald Trump pulled the plug Tuesday on acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan’s long-stalled nomination to lead his Pentagon — culminating a period of limbo that included questions about Shanahan’s fitness for…