Politico: California Republicans have now hit rock bottom

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Mod: Some new numbers are out, and they show that the once-proud California state party that gave America two presidents not all that long ago, has now been relegated to an ignominious third-party status. 

California Republicans hit rock bottom (Politicolink): The state that spawned the "Reagan Revolution’’ and Richard M. Nixon just experienced a watershed moment — the California Republican Party was officially relegated to third-party status.

In the culmination of the withered state GOP’s long slide toward near-political irrelevance here, new voter registration data released this week show the once-robust party trails behind both Democrats and “no party preference” in the nation's most populous state. The California Republican Party is now outnumbered by independent voters by 73,000, according to Political Data Inc., which tabulates voter file data from county registrars.

The new figures come as the state looms large in the national battle for the House, with a handful of Republican-held seats poised to play a pivotal role in November. Among California’s 19 million registered voters, the latest statistics — as of 15 days before the June 5 primary — show that Democrats now make up 8.4 million or 44.6 percent of the electorate.

That compares with 4,844,803 no-party-preference voters, or 25.5 percent of the state’s voters and 4,771,984 Republicans, who both make up about 25.1 percent. The California Secretary of State’s office is expected to release its own official count later this week.

Here is hope: There is still one Californian making a difference in Washington


Kim Kardashian meets with Trump to discuss prison reform (New York Postlink): It was the commander and cheeks! Kim Kardashian strutted into the Oval Office on Wednesday for a sit-down with President Donald Trump to discuss criminal justice issues — including an imprisoned drug offender she discovered on Twitter.

The reality queen donned high heels and an all-black ensemble for the highly anticipated White House meeting.

Kardashian was spotted entering the West Wing around 4:45 p.m. and leaving about an hour later. She spoke with both Trump and Jared Kushner, whom she met through Ivanka Trump, according to sources.

The mother-of-three requested the White House meeting after hearing about the plight of Alice Marie Johnson on social media late last year. “This is so unfair,” Kardashian tweeted in October 2017, along with a link to an interview Johnson, 63, did on Mic.com.

Sources told The Post that Kardashian argued that Johnson— a Memphis great-grandmother convicted of a drug conspiracy — had paid her debt to society after 21 years behind bars and deserves clemency.

The meeting went “well,” sources said, and now the decision is in Trump’s hands. After the meeting, Kardashian headed to Ivanka and Jared’s DC home for a private dinner.

Mod: Think about it. A Reality TV Star with no knowledge of public policy had an hour with the President of the United States in the Oval Office yesterday. Then there is this.

Drugmaker to Roseanne Barr: 'Racism is not a known side effect' of Ambien (Politicolink): Roseanne Barr blamed sleeping pills for the racist tweet that got her ABC show canned. But after the drugmaker fired back with a snarky reply Wednesday, the comic may soon be looking to treat a burn.

A day after the network pulled the plug on the hit “Roseanne” reboot in response to her tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a longtime adviser and close friend of former President Barack Obama, the comedian tweeted Wednesday that her initial remark was “unforgivable” and “egregious.” Barr said it was the result of “ambien tweeting,” a reference to the common sleep-aid medication.

Sanofi, the company that makes Ambien, rebutted the assertion Wednesday on Twitter.

“People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world,” the drugmaker’s social media account tweeted. “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”

Barr had sparked outrage on Tuesday by suggested that Jarrett, who was born in Iran and is African-American, was the product of the "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes" having "a baby."

The remarks prompted immediate calls for boycotts of the show. On Tuesday afternoon, ABC announced the cancellation of the program.

Mod: It is hard to believe that trash culture America has placed one of its own in the White House. Well, OK. I've reconsidered. Maybe it's not. And yes, it really is all about the Donald. Who wouldn't want to jump in on this one?

Trump accuses ABC of double standard on 'Roseanne' cancellation (The Hilllink): President Trump on Wednesday accused ABC of a double standard in its decision to cancel the hit sitcom “Roseanne,” whose star Roseanne Barr is a vocal Trump supporter and has come under fire for a racist tweet she sent earlier in the week.

“Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?” Trump tweeted.

The tweet is Trump's first response to the show’s cancellation, in which he chose to focus on Iger rather than the substance of Barr’s comments.

Barr sent a tweet on Tuesday likening Jarrett, a black former adviser to President Obama, to an ape. Jarrett revealed later in the day that Iger called her before announcing “Roseanne” had been nixed.

Say "Howdy!" to Gowdy

Republicans distance themselves from Trump’s ‘Spygate’ conspiracy theory (Los Angeles Timeslink): The air seems to be going out of “Spygate.” While President Trump still touts the unfounded claim that the Obama administration improperly spied on his 2016 campaign, senior Republican lawmakers have steered clear of the conspiracy theory since they received classified briefings last week on the role of an FBI confidential informant in an investigation aimed at unmasking Russian interference in the election.

That silence broke when Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), one of the few who got the Justice Department briefing, said he believes the FBI acted appropriately when the informant, a retired American academic living in England, met with three of Trump’s campaign aides.

"When the FBI comes into contact with information about what a foreign government may be doing in our election cycle, I think they have an obligation to run it out,"Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said Wednesday on CBS News.

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