Free Mafia 3 Demo Live For PS4, Xbox One, And PC

If you’ve been meaning to try out Mafia 3 which was released last year, you can now without having to put money down for the game. A new Mafia 3 demo is now available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The opening sequence which leads into the main story of the game can now be played for free. Mafia 3 has also gone on sale so those who are impressed by the demo will be able to pick it up at a discounted rate for a limited time.

The Mafia 3 demo enables players to experience the bank heist sequence which sets up the stage nicely for the entire story campaign.

The mission gives players a glimpse of Lincoln’s history with the mafia and the events that have caused him to seek revenge.

The demo is now available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. All of the progress will be carried over if the player decides to purchase the full game. Mafia 3 is available for 50 percent off from now until April 17th.

Mafia 3’s Faster, Baby! DLC is also available for download starting today. It brings some new content for the game at a price of $14.99, those who own a Season Pass will get the DLC for free.

Free Mafia 3 Demo Live For PS4, Xbox One, And PC , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Facebook Stories update: app basically becomes Snapchat

Slowly but surely, Facebook continues to become more like Snapchat. First it was the introduction of Instagram Stories, then My Day on Messenger, and now the company is introducing a new update for the main Facebook app that adds some Snapchat-like features. Those come in the form of new camera effects and new ways to share your photos and videos … Continue reading

Now Google Home can control your August Smart Lock

August’s Smart Lock has added Google Home support, allowing users to ask the Google Assistant to lock their doors. The functionality which rolls out from today, builds on the smart speaker’s growing range of Internet of Things abilities, which already include controlling lights among other things. However, in the name of security, August isn’t granting full key-holder privileges to the … Continue reading

Stretch Armstrong Takes On A Hydraulic Press And Meets His Match

Retro action figure Stretch Armstrong has made a comeback, but we don’t recommend that he take on opponents out of his league.

Like a hydraulic press, for instance.

Let’s just say that all the elasticity in the world isn’t going to help ol’ Stretch here.

Did he really think he could escape the same fate as a pumpkin or Christmas ornaments under the crushing auspices of factory owner Lauri Vuohensilta and the Hydraulic Press Channel?

Watch above for the full carnage. 

h/t Tastefully Offensive

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Moore, Padma Lakshmi and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU. Donate now and join us at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, March 31, on Facebook Live. #standforrights2017 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Trump Sits At Child-Sized Desk To Axe Children's Education Standards

function onPlayerReadyVidible(e){‘undefined’!=typeof HPTrack&&HPTrack.Vid.Vidible_track(e)}!function(e,i){if(e.vdb_Player){if(‘object’==typeof commercial_video){var a=”,o=’m.fwsitesection=’+commercial_video.site_and_category;if(a+=o,commercial_video[‘package’]){var c=’&m.fwkeyvalues=sponsorship%3D’+commercial_video[‘package’];a+=c}e.setAttribute(‘vdb_params’,a)}i(e.vdb_Player)}else{var t=arguments.callee;setTimeout(function(){t(e,i)},0)}}(document.getElementById(‘vidible_1’),onPlayerReadyVidible);

Donald Trump, the man who wants you to know he’s president and you’re not, signed a bill in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Monday. While sitting down, the President remarked that the desk was unusually small. 

Coincidentally, one of the decisions he made happened to repeal national education standards. So not only is he taking away our children’s guarantee to receive a quality education and qualified teachers , but he also appears to be taking at least one of their desks.

“This looks like a child’s desk! But that’s OK,” he said, while people in the room laughed. “This is the smallest desk I’ve ever seen.” 

Trump added, “Very, very glamorous, right?” 

He wasn’t wrong: 

It is very tiny: 

Of course, people on Twitter couldn’t handle the ridiculousness of the tiny desk: 

 

Many were quick to make jokes about the size of Trump’s hands: 

 

One person pointed out that the desk didn’t look so small when other people were sitting there: 

According to CNN, when a president normally signs a bill, it generally takes place at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. But if a bill is signed outside of the Oval Office, or Washington in general, the outlet says a portable desk must be used instead.  

Considering the Resolute Desk is 32 inches high, 6 feet wide and has a depth of 4 feet, it would make most other desks look small.

The HuffPost Lifestyle newsletter will make you happier and healthier, one email at a time. Sign up here

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Donald Trump's SEC Pick Deleted His Wall Street Bio. Here's What It Said.

function onPlayerReadyVidible(e){‘undefined’!=typeof HPTrack&&HPTrack.Vid.Vidible_track(e)}!function(e,i){if(e.vdb_Player){if(‘object’==typeof commercial_video){var a=”,o=’m.fwsitesection=’+commercial_video.site_and_category;if(a+=o,commercial_video[‘package’]){var c=’&m.fwkeyvalues=sponsorship%3D’+commercial_video[‘package’];a+=c}e.setAttribute(‘vdb_params’,a)}i(e.vdb_Player)}else{var t=arguments.callee;setTimeout(function(){t(e,i)},0)}}(document.getElementById(‘vidible_1’),onPlayerReadyVidible);

For years, the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell touted the achievements of its partner Jay Clayton in a lengthy biography displayed on its website. Clayton, one of the most powerful attorneys on Wall Street, had worked on everything from the sale of the Atlanta Hawks to Goldman Sachs’ bailout to mortgage fraud settlements with several major financial institutions.

But then President Donald Trump nominated Clayton to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency tasked with policing Wall Street misconduct. Clayton’s bio all but disappeared from the Sullivan & Cromwell site ― trimmed from more than 800 words to less than 30.

It’s perfectly legal for a Wall Street lawyer to join the SEC. But Clayton’s relationship with the firm has raised questions about the agency’s ability to crack down on securities fraud. At his confirmation hearing last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted that government ethics rules would bar Clayton from participating in any enforcement activity against a company that he previously represented as a lawyer ― or any company that chose to be represented by Sullivan & Cromwell in a future dispute with the SEC. The restrictions would last for the first two years of Clayton’s term as SEC chairman.

When the agency’s career staffers have investigated misconduct, its leaders ― four commissioners and the chairman ― vote on whether to issue fines or penalties. The commissioners are split evenly between Democrats and Republicans and often vote along partisan lines, resulting in a 2-2 tie, which is broken by the chair.

If Clayton is forced to sit out an enforcement decision, the result could be a deadlock that allows fraud to go unpunished. This was a common problem at the agency during the tenure of Obama’s SEC chair, Mary Jo White, who, like Clayton, had previously worked as a prominent corporate attorney.

The Senate banking committee is expected to vote next week on whether to advance Clayton’s nomination to the Senate floor.

Here is the full text of Clayton’s Sullivan & Cromwell bio before it was all but deleted:

Jay Clayton’s practice involves public and private mergers and acquisitions transactions, capital markets offerings, regulatory and enforcement proceedings, and other matters where multidisciplinary advice and experience is valued. Mr. Clayton also advises several high-net-worth families regarding their public and private investments.

Representative Engagements

M&A/Private Equity

  • Castleton Commodities in its acquisition of Morgan Stanley’s global oil merchants business; and a consortium of investors in connection with the acquisition of Castleton from Louis Dreyfus and Highbridge
  • An ownership group for the Atlanta Hawks NBA franchise in connection with the purchase and later sale of the franchise
  • Ally Financial Inc. in the $4.2 billion sale of its operations in Europe and Latin America to General Motors (GM), as well as in the $4.1 billion sale of its Canadian auto finance business to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and in the sale of its Mexican insurance business (ABA Seguros) to ACE Group
  • TeliaSonera in connection with various transactions involving Turkcell and Megafon, including arrangements with Altimo and various other acquisitions and dispositions of telecom-related assets
  • British Airways in its merger with Iberia and the formation of International Airlines Group and various other transactions
  • Barclays Capital in connection with its purchase of assets of Lehman Brothers out of bankruptcy
  • Goldman Sachs in connection with the investment of $5 billion by Berkshire Hathaway and the U.S. Treasury’s TARP Investment
  • Bear Stearns in connection with the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase and related matters
  • Goldman Sachs and affiliated funds in connection with various acquisitions and investments in companies involved in financial services, banking, telecom and other industries
  • Capital Maritime in connection with the combination of Crude Carriers Corporation and Capital Product Partners L.P. and the formation of a container carrier joint venture with a private equity firm
  • Michael Krasny (founder) in the $7.2 billion sale of CDW
  • Altor Equity Partners in connection with various acquisitions and financing transactions

Capital Markets/Leveraged Finance

  • Initial public offering of $25 billion by Alibaba Group Holding Limited
  • Initial public offering of $190 million by Moelis & Company
  • Initial public offering of $2.375 billion by Ally Financial and private placements of $3 billion and $1.3 billion of common stock in Ally Financial
  • Initial public offering of $230 million by Blackhawk Network Holdings
  • Initial public offering and multiple public and private offerings of equity, preferred and debt securities of Capital Product Partners L.P.
  • Initial public offering of $380 million by Oaktree Capital Group
  • Initial public offering of $150 million by Higher One
  • Initial public offering of $260 million by Crude Carriers Corporation
  • Initial public offering of $1.2 billion by Och-Ziff and follow-on offerings and refinancing
  • $1 billion 144A equity offering by Oaktree Capital (the first issuer to use the GSTrUE/Portal Alliance trading procedures)
  • Public offering of $6.0 billion of common stock and mandatory convertible preferred stock by Lehman Brothers
  • Public and private offerings of $1.5 billion in equity and equity-linked securities of AMBAC

Corporate Governance, Regulatory and Contested Matters

  • A large financial institution in connection with the settlement of mortgage related securities claims with the FHFA
  • A large financial institution in connection with the settlement of mortgage related claims with the DOJ, HUD and FHFA
  • A large financial institution in connection with a regulatory review of transactions in government securities
  • A hedge fund in connection with a regulatory review of various credit market transactions
  • A group of financial institutions in connection with their challenge to MBIA’s restructuring
  • Ally Financial in connection with the $25 billion mortgage origination and servicing settlement with the DOJ, HUD and state attorneys general
  • Eni and subsidiaries in connection with an FCPA investigation by the SEC and DOJ
  • A financial institution in connection with a civil investigation of its ECN currency facility by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
  • The group of 100 general counsels of leading UK companies in connection with establishing audit protocols with the PCAOB
  • A financial institution in connection with various issues arising from its employees’ membership on the boards of public and private companies

Recognitions

  • Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2008-2015)
  • Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2006-2015)
  • The Legal 500 United States (2009-2015)
  • IFLR1000 (2008-2017)
  • New York Super Lawyers (2008-2015)
  • The Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America (2006-2010)
  • The Best Lawyers in America (2014-2017)

Recent Publications

  • Co-Author “We Don’t Need a Crisis to Act Unitedly Against Cyber Threats” Knowledge@Wharton, June 2015
  • Chair of the Drafting Committee for “The FCPA and its Impact on International Business Transactions – Should Anything be Done to Minimize the Consequences of the U.S.’s Unique Position on Combating Offshore Corruption?” International Business Transactions Committee, New York City Bar Association, December 2011
  • Co-Author “USA 10-K: Why America Needs an Annual Report” Knowledge@Wharton, July 2012

Other Professional Activities

  • Lecturer in Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School (”M&A Through the Business Cycle,” 2009-2015)

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

NYPD Cop Who Fatally Shot Ramarley Graham Found Guilty Of Bad Judgment

function onPlayerReadyVidible(e){‘undefined’!=typeof HPTrack&&HPTrack.Vid.Vidible_track(e)}!function(e,i){if(e.vdb_Player){if(‘object’==typeof commercial_video){var a=”,o=’m.fwsitesection=’+commercial_video.site_and_category;if(a+=o,commercial_video[‘package’]){var c=’&m.fwkeyvalues=sponsorship%3D’+commercial_video[‘package’];a+=c}e.setAttribute(‘vdb_params’,a)}i(e.vdb_Player)}else{var t=arguments.callee;setTimeout(function(){t(e,i)},0)}}(document.getElementById(‘vidible_1’),onPlayerReadyVidible);

A white New York City police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in his Bronx apartment in 2012 has resigned, ending years of legal action and investigations, police and the former officer’s attorney said on Monday.

Richard Haste, 35, quit his job on Sunday, two days after an administrative judge found him guilty of demonstrating poor judgment in shooting 18-year-old Ramarley Graham and recommended the officer be terminated.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill, who would have been responsible for firing Haste, an eight-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, “fully concurred with the findings and recommendations” of the judge, police said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the ruling brought to a close a painful case for the Graham family and the city, which agreed in January 2015 to pay $3.9 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought over the killing.

“Nothing can take away the profound pain left after (Graham’s) loss, but I hope the conclusion of this difficult process brings some measure of justice to those who loved him,” de Blasio said in a statement.

But for Graham’s mother, Constance Malcolm, the officer’s resignation was just another disappointment in her struggle to hold Haste accountable for the death of her son.

“Richard Haste should have been in prison, but instead of even firing him, the de Blasio administration let him resign,” Malcolm said in a statement. “Every step of the way, the mayor and NYPD have dragged their heels and have refused to hold officers accountable” in killing Graham.

Haste was working on the police department’s narcotics detail on Feb. 2, 2012, when he and his partner followed Graham from a bodega to his apartment.

The officers kicked down the door and Haste shot Graham in his bathroom. The officer said he believed Graham was reaching for a gun when he fired at him.

Haste was indicted by a grand jury on manslaughter charges, but a county judge dismissed the indictment after finding that the grand jury had received improper instructions.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Will Suburban Activism Pave The Democratic Path To The House?

By Justin Miller

This story originally appeared in The American Prospect. 

On an unseasonably warm Friday evening in late February, more than 100 residents of Virginia’s Tenth Congressional District filled the gymnasium of a community center in Sterling, one of the sprawling towns of Loudoun County in the exurbs of Washington. Constituents had for weeks been trying to get Republican Representative Barbara Comstock to go beyond the controlled environs of a tele-town hall and face her constituents in person. They mounted daily call-in campaigns and protests outside her district offices, asking her to attend. In the end, she was a no-show, saying she had a long-scheduled event at the same time.

One by one, district residents went before the microphone, listed their hometown and ZIP code for the record (often with a pithy comment about not being a paid protester) before asking questions on a series of pressing issues—national security, President Trump’s conflicts of interest, immigration, education, environmental protections, and, most prominently, the future of the Affordable Care Act.

In response to each question, one of several volunteers would parse Comstock’s voting record and public comments to piece together her position. Oftentimes the resulting answer was incomplete or evasive. When there was a clear position—whether for rolling back environmental regulations or boosting school vouchers—it drew jeers from the crowd. One older woman repeatedly held up a sign that read, simply, “Boo!”

Toward the end of the evening, Janine Murphy-Neilson of Herndon stepped up to the microphone in a “Nevertheless, She Persisted” T-shirt and talked about her husband, who has chronic myeloid leukemia. “Prior to [the] ACA, I was frantically worried about his preexisting condition and the $8,000 a month that his prescription would cost without insurance,” she said. “I would like to know how much is it going to cost to repeal and replace, and how do you justify that expense when Republicans would do absolutely nothing to try to help make this a better-working [law] for the American people?”

One of the health-care policy volunteers referenced comments Comstock made during two of her recent tele-town halls about how to pay for the ACA replacement, which amounted to vague platitudes about the need for “small-business pooling,” making health care “patient-centered,” decreasing Washington bureaucracy, and promoting tort reform and wellness incentive programs. The crowd was not satisfied.

BARBARA COMSTOCK MAY BE PART of a newly endangered species. She was re-elected in an increasingly purple district that swung strongly for Hillary Clinton by 10 points in 2016 after going for Mitt Romney by just over one point in 2012. While she carefully casts herself as a moderate Republican, Comstock has voted with Trump 100 percent of the time thus far—which, according to a ranking by FiveThirtyEight, makes her the House member third-most out of line with the way their district voted.

With the Trump administration and the Republican Congress both off to the rockiest of starts, and with progressive and Democratic activists mobilized as never before, Democratic strategists hope, and increasingly believe, that Comstock and her peers—the 22 other Republican House members from districts that Clinton carried in November—can be defeated in the 2018 midterm elections. Longtime activists and first-timers are eager to target those who aid and abet Trump’s agenda. They’ve become newly attuned to every quote and vote of rank-and-file House Republicans.

But protest is one thing; strategic electoral activity is quite another. The question before Democrats is whether this surge of grassroots activism can evolve into a well-organized, effective political movement that can sustain itself till the midterms—and avoid devolving into cacophonous disarray of protest without politics.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, there’s been no shortage of activism on the left. The opening salvo was the Women’s March on Washington the day after Trump’s inauguration, drawing more than 500,000 to the nation’s capital and millions more around the country and the world. Since then, participants have organized more than 5,000 “huddles”—small, neighborhood-based meetings to plot the next steps of resistance.

Another cornerstone of the activist surge has been the Indivisible Guide, a document compiled by former congressional staffers offering suggestions on how best to engage and pressure your member of Congress. The team behind the guide sought to mirror the successful grassroots pressure of the Tea Party protests that in 2009 caught Democrats completely off-guard.

In the age of Trump, with people hungry for ways to engage, the relatively basic civics primer published by Indivisible’s founders has resonated as the guiding document of the resistance. It has been downloaded more than one million times and spurred the creation of several thousand local Indivisible chapters, with at least two in each of the nation’s 435 congressional districts, according to the organization. In turn, these local groups have organized massive call-in campaigns, actions outside representatives’ district offices, and public town halls.

In Lovettsville, Virginia, a small and affluent enclave in Comstock’s district, Kristen Swanson, who owns a pottery studio in town, reached out to five women in her life right after the election who, like her, were not very politically active, but were distraught by the results of the election. With no idea of what to do, they started brainstorming.

Midway through December, Swanson stumbled upon the Indivisible Guide, printed it out, read it about 20 times, and thought to herself, “This is it; this is what we do.” In early January, she organized the first meeting for the Lovettsville Indivisible—12 people showed up and, by virtue of doing so, became the steering committee. Soon after, she initiated contact with Comstock’s office and set up a meeting. In four days, she—along with other nearby Indivisible groups—rallied 58 people to discuss concerns about the Republicans’ plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They arranged for constituents to tell their stories to Comstock’s staffers and put together a packet detailing personal experiences and concerns about repeal.

Swanson’s story has its counterparts all across the nation—most importantly, in districts like hers that could swing Democratic in 2018. In the Republican Representative Ryan Costello’s suburban Philadelphia district—which, like Comstock’s, was carried by Clinton—Claire Witzleben, a stay-at-home parent with a master’s degree in health-care administration, has been organizing weekly protests since mid-January outside Costello’s district office in West Chester. One week the protest topic is Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, the next it’s the president’s deportation plans or the ACA repeal. Before the election, Witzleben admits, she didn’t know the name of her representative or even what district she lived in. Trump’s victory, she says, quickly woke her up. Now, Witzleben and Tammy Harkness, an engineer, are the lead organizers for one of the area’s local Indivisible affiliates, dubbed the Concerned Constituents Action Group, which organized a town hall meeting for Costello on the last Saturday of Congress’s President’s Day recess. For both women, this was their first time engaging in political organizing.

Costello’s Sixth District, as Democrats describe it, “looms like a dragon descending on Philadelphia from the west,” carving jaggedly through the towns of suburban Chester, Berks, Montgomery, and Lebanon counties. It’s a mostly white district that mashes up very wealthy suburbs with more rural pockets—and one that Republicans have held, despite consistent targeting by Democrats, since redistricting in 2000. Costello, a second-term member, wiped the floor with his Democratic challenger in 2016, winning by 14 points. However, Romney-voting Republicans ditched Trump en masse, giving Clinton a narrow victory in the district of just over one-half of one percentage point. If that didn’t put Costello on notice, he’s now feeling the heat from organized constituents as well.

Some 400 people filled the auditorium of the local high school in Phoenixville, a small borough of Chester County, on the weekend after President’s Day. Many of them lined up to direct questions to a photo of the absent Costello that had been taped to a podium on the stage. As in Sterling, a number voiced concerns about Trump’s alleged ties with Russia and spoke passionately about their personal experiences with Obamacare and fears about losing coverage for themselves or their families. About an hour into the town hall, after several dozen questions had been posed to Costello’s photo, a woman in a salmon-colored shirt and jeans walked up to the microphone and said, “I’ve been looking at your picture … and have been thinking to myself, you know, it’s really a possibility that this guy isn’t going to watch this tape; it’s a real possibility that he’s going to ignore all these people in this room and what they’re saying.”

“What I want to say to you very, very sincerely from my heart, is that this is a movement, and it’s not going to go away,” she declared, instantly drawing a standing ovation. If Costello wanted to be re-elected, she added, it would be wise to listen to what his constituents were saying.

Congress’s first recess of the year was also the first opportunity for anti-Trump activists to focus their indignation not just at Trump, but at representatives who will come before voters in 2018. With members of Congress headed back to their district, it was these groups’ first major chance to translate energy from Facebook pages into real life, and palpable electoral politics. Like Comstock and Costello, many Republican representatives avoided in-person interactions with angry constituents by holding tele-town halls or by announcing last-minute town halls in remote areas. Members who did show up often faced down crowds that were demanding answers. Videos of constituents dressing down their members of Congress quickly went viral; speculation over whether this was the first act in a Tea Party–style takeover quickly followed. “If it fizzled, if there was nothing to show for it during the recess, then it would have allowed Republicans in Congress and Trump to continue moving forward with their agenda,” Indivisible co-founder Angel Padilla says.

WITH 23 DEMOCRATIC SENATORS, many from red states, up for re-election, hopes of taking back the upper chamber in 2018 are slim, if not nonexistent. The likeliest chance of breaking Republicans’ unified control of the federal government lies in the House, where Democrats will need to pick up 24 seats to wrest control from Speaker Paul Ryan and the GOP. History tilts in Democrats’ favor. Since 1982, the president’s party has lost an average of 28 seats in first-term midterm elections. If Trump’s approval ratings remain in the gutter, he could drag down even more House Republicans. But midterm turnout generally skews older, whiter, and more conservative, and the GOP benefits from the heavily gerrymandered districts they drew for themselves in 2010.

“Looking at the House right now, it might seem like Republicans’ structural advantages are insurmountable,” says David Wasserman, House editor for The Cook Political Report. “If we look at what we saw in 2009, no one really thought Republicans had a chance—and they took back 23 more than they needed to.”

Democrats are already trying to tap into the early grassroots energy flowing from the Women’s March, Indivisible, and all the assorted activism. Less than two weeks after Trump’s inauguration, the party’s House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), recognizing the need to take advantage of the early grassroots energy, funneled money to state parties to hire full-time organizers in 20 of its top Republican district targets. Dubbed the “March into ’18” accountability project, organizers will recruit local volunteers and try to build a more formal coalition with groups already mobilizing in district. The DCCC also announced it added 635,000 supporters to its list in January alone—a 20 percent growth of its total base.

The Democrats’ path to a majority begins with the 23 seats—mostly well-educated and higher-income suburban districts—that voted for Hillary Clinton but elected Republican House members, including Comstock’s and Costello’s. These types of seats are seen as must-wins.

The 23 Clinton-Republican districts are marked by more diverse populations than the national average or a higher percentage of residents with college degrees than the national average—or both. Eighteen of the 23 have an above-average share of college-educated whites, and eight of those seats have a higher share of both minorities and white college grads. As The Atlantic has reported, such so-called “hi-hi” districts already form the core of the Democratic House caucus: Democrats hold 87 of the 103 districts that fit that profile.

Costello’s district, for instance, is far whiter than the national average; about 86 percent compared with around 77 percent nationally. However, 42.5 percent of the district’s adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with about 33 percent nationwide. Its median household income is $80,000, almost $30,000 more than the national average. Comstock’s Northern Virginia district has become notably more diverse over the years. In 2000, Loudoun County, where the district is centered, was 82 percent white. Now it’s about 70 percent white. The district is also one of the wealthiest and most well-educated in the country. More than 54 percent hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, and its median household income is nearly $115,000.

Half of the 23 Clinton-Republican districts are found in bluing Texas and California suburbs. If there’s one place that epitomizes the type of areas where Democrats need to start winning House races, it’s Orange County, California, long the epicenter of Republican politics in the Golden State. Four Orange County Republicans—including Darrell Issa, who might just be the most vulnerable member of the House, Ed Royce, Mimi Walters, and Dana Rohrabacher—are seen as beatable by Democrats. Their districts all voted for Clinton, as did Orange County as a whole—the first time the county had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 landslide victory.

Absent a dramatic change in the Democrats’ political messaging, House analysts think the well-educated and diversifying suburban seats that are moving toward Democrats will be better bets for a 2018 shift than the blue-collar and more rural seats that have been slipping away from the party. It remains to been seen, though, whether Romney Republicans’ distaste for Trump will trickle down to the House. “I’m not convinced that the Orange County Republican who voted against Trump is ready to throw out Mimi Walters or Ed Royce,” says Nathan Gonzales, the editor of the political analysis newsletter Inside Elections.

In total, the DCCC has cast an ambitiously wide net of 59 target districts to start from, including a second rung of ten flippable seats that Clinton narrowly lost by four points or less. “I don’t think it’s that realistic to be targeting districts that Trump won by more than 15 points,” says Wasserman. His rationale goes back to the 2010 Tea Party wave; Republicans picked up 66 seats, but not a single one that Obama had carried by more than 15. Wasserman says that the DCCC list of 59 includes about a dozen seats that Trump won by 15 points or more, which he says are not realistic targets. However, he points out, there are 92 Republican seats that Trump won by less than 15 points. Many of those are unwinnable, either because of local political dynamics or an incumbent’s high favorability. But there are also incumbents with unique weaknesses—whether it’s ethical or, perhaps, a particular proximity to the administration—whom Democrats hope to pick off from the herd.

Recruiting viable Democratic candidates not only in the top targeted districts but in as many races as possible will be critical. The party has often struggled with recruits, investing big money in promising candidates through the DCCC’s Jumpstart program—which provides early campaign support—only to come up short on important turf like the Philadelphia suburbs. In 2014, the DCCC made an early call to back Kevin Strouse, a then-34-year-old Army and CIA veteran, as one of its eight Jumpstart candidates to run against a top target, Mike Fitzpatrick of suburban Pennsylvania’s Eighth District. Despite the support, Strouse only narrowly beat another promising Democratic primary opponent, and then lost to the incumbent by more than 20 points. Of the 23 challengers Jumpstart backed that year, only two won.

In Comstock’s district, a long list of potential candidates are already lining up in the hope of challenging her. So far, Tenth Congressional District Democratic Chairwoman Patsy Brown has interviewed 11 interested people, while the DCCC and state progressives are reportedly courting Jennifer Wexton, a well-known Virginia state senator in the district, to run. “We have never, ever had this kind of outpouring of people,” Brown told a local newspaper. She’s been on the committee since 1992.

That said, it isn’t obvious that early support for one of several primary candidates by a national party organization would be welcomed by many local activists. The revelations that the Democratic National Committee tilted toward Clinton instead of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries will likely serve as a brake on such pre-primary support in a number of 2018 contests.

For Democrats to win in these districts, they need to dramatically expand turnout among non-voters and low-propensity voters who will choose Democrats if they actually get to the polls. They also need to attract some Republicans. Sam Wang, an elections statistician and neuroscientist at Princeton, estimates that Democratic congressional candidates would need to win the national vote by 7 to 12 percentage points to wrest control from Republicans. Democrats pulled off those margins in 2008, but that was in a presidential election year with a popular candidate at the top of the ticket. That was also before the Republican gerrymandering that followed the 2010 census.

Analysts say it would require a massive political event for the Democrats to overcome such a stacked deck. One of those ground-shifting events could be health care. If the GOP succeeds in repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with Paul Ryan’s American Health Care Act, the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cause about 24 million people to lose coverage over the next ten years—14 million in the first year alone. It doesn’t take a political genius to see how this would endanger Republican incumbents across the board. In the hours after the CBO released its ominous scoring of repeal-and-replace, the DCCC sent out a rash of press blasts condemning Republican members on their target list—including Comstock, Walters, Minnesota’s Erik Paulsen, Colorado’s Mike Coffman, and New Jersey’s Leonard Lance—who have voiced support for repeal.

“When something is about to be taken away, it’s more salient. That’s an enormous opportunity,” says Theda Skocpol, a Harvard University professor who studied the rise of the Tea Party movement on the right. “If [Republicans] proceed with repeal, it’ll be important to dramatize what the costs are going to be for actual human beings in each district.”

Analysts have already begun crunching those numbers—and they don’t look good for Republican prospects. According to a Daily Kos analysis, there are 51 congressional districts where the estimated number of people expected to lose coverage with the repeal of the ACA outnumber the Republican incumbent’s 2016 margin of victory, including a number of districts that Clinton carried. In Darrell Issa’s district, which he carried by fewer than 2,000 votes, there are more than 60,000 people who are projected to lose coverage.

In Comstock’s district, which she won by about 22,000 votes, 30,000 constituents are projected to lose health insurance. In Costello’s district, where he had a landslide victory, there are nearly 40,000 people who are primed to lose coverage as well.

The hardest-hit districts would be in cities and white working-class, pro-Trump areas, while many of the more upscale Clinton-GOP districts, where far fewer people benefited from Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies, would be relatively less affected. In fact, the Ryan replacement plan would disproportionately benefit people in those districts, as it is designed to deliver tax credits to people at the high end of the middle class who are currently phased out of Obamacare subsidies, and would also deliver major tax cuts to earners in the top tax brackets who were subsidizing the costs of the ACA.

The 2018 elections, then, could likely turn not just on how effectively the Democrats can turn out their base but also on whether the Republican crusade on Obamacare—combined with a mish-mash of other Trump-related issues—will be enough for Republican Trump defectors, or reluctant Trump voters who’ve become fed up, to vote Democratic.

That will require a lot of effort from Democratic and progressive activists—and not just in swing districts.

 

INDIVISIBLE IS NOT THE ONLY GROUP that materialized out of the post-election ether to facilitate strategic activism. A trio of friends with no formal background in politics or organizing launched Swing Left, a project that aims to match liberals concentrated in deep-blue districts with their nearest swing district and coordinate in-district volunteer campaigns. “We obviously hit some kind of a nerve,” Ethan Todras-Whitehill, a writer and tutor from Western Massachusetts who came up with the idea of Swing Left, told volunteers during a February call.

So far, about 300,000 people have signed up to get involved in Swing Left, and 15,000 have volunteered for district leadership positions—including in each of the 52 districts Swing Left has targeted to keep or flip to the Democrats. “We want to get people invested in their local swing districts. We want you guys to know your local swing district representative better than you know your own representative,” Todras-Whitehill said. About 6,000 people volunteered to do research and compile in-depth dossiers on each swing district.

Wearing jeans and a red and black half-zip, Dan Schramm stood up on a chair in the corner of his living room and introduced himself to the dozens of people who were milling about, sipping drinks, munching on snacks, and talking politics. It was the first Saturday of March, and Swing Left had asked volunteers to host house parties for people interested in the organization, talk about the swing district they have targeted, and get volunteers lined up for upcoming canvassing trips. Schramm and his wife, Amanda, had decided to host one in their neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., a city that had given 91 percent of its vote to Clinton. The attendees were targeting Comstock’s Tenth District seat, the far outskirts of which just barely touch the District’s western boundaries several miles from Schramm’s house.

That weekend, there dozens of Swing Left house parties in the District and throughout Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland. Across the country, there were more than 600 house parties scheduled, with more than 11,000 total RSVPs.

Like many liberals, Schramm had thought Clinton had the presidential election in the bag. “I didn’t do much,” he told me, saying that, like many, he wondered, “Who could possibly vote for Trump?” He now hopes, though, that Trump’s election is propelling people who previously weren’t all that engaged in politics to get involved, and turn out to vote in the midterms.

That’s Swing Left’s top priority. In Schramm’s living room, people signed up to volunteer to lead monthly voter registration and canvassing trips to Comstock’s district, in coordination with volunteers and progressive groups that reside there.

The group will stay out of Democratic primary contests. “Conceptually, we see ourselves as the campaigns-in-waiting for the eventual nominees. Our goal is to have busloads of volunteers ready to work for them,” says Swing Left organizing director Matt Ewing.

If the path to Democrats winning back the House starts anywhere, it just might be in those Swing Left living rooms and at those Indivisible town halls.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Comic Sans Creator Speaks Out About The World’s Most Hated Font

Unanimous opinions are hard to come by, but there are a few value judgements that come close: puppies are good, toothaches are bad, and Comic Sans is the worst font ever. Worse even than Curlz and Papyrus.

Bubbly and childlike, it was originally created to imitate the text of comic books, in an attempt to make computers appealing to kids. At least that’s Vincent Connare’s explanation. A typographer who worked for Microsoft in the ‘90s, he’s the man behind Comic Sans. Today, in The Guardian, he discussed the making of the font.

Connare explains:

One program was called Microsoft Bob, which was designed to make computers more accessible to children. I booted it up and out walked this cartoon dog, talking with a speech bubble in Times New Roman. Dogs don’t talk in Times New Roman! Conceptually, it made no sense.

So, he started flipping through comic books like “Watchmen” and “The Dark Night Returns” for inspiration. He tried to capture the spirit of their lettering, and found that he enjoyed ignoring the conventions of font-making. The resulting typeface caught on in the Microsoft office, mostly used for fun contexts like birthday parties.

Soon after Comic Sans was inducted into Microsoft Word’s font suite, a band of decriers approached Connare about starting a group devoted to banning the typeface. Connare ― who says he’s only used Comic Sans once, and believes the font fulfills its purpose of appealing to young typers ― gave them the go-ahead, describing the backlash as simultaneously “silly.”

“Type should do exactly what it’s intended to do,” he added The Guardian. “That’s why I’m proud of Comic Sans.” 

(Microsoft program manager Tom Stevens had his own take in The Guardian piece: “The level of hatred, was just amazing ― and quite frankly funny. I couldn’t believe people could be so worked up over something as simple as a font. It’s almost an anti-technology typeface: very casual, very welcoming.”)

The font’s creator isn’t its only defender; last month The Establishment reported that hating Comic Sans is ableist. For some readers with dyslexia, its unique characters make differentiating between letters easier, and in fact, Comic Sans is among a handful of fonts recommended by a number of dyslexia organizations.

So, before you write it off completely, remember there’s no one-font-fits-all solution. For some, the jaunty angles of Comic Sans are an aid, and for others, it’s simply a playful alternative.

function onPlayerReadyVidible(e){‘undefined’!=typeof HPTrack&&HPTrack.Vid.Vidible_track(e)}!function(e,i){if(e.vdb_Player){if(‘object’==typeof commercial_video){var a=”,o=’m.fwsitesection=’+commercial_video.site_and_category;if(a+=o,commercial_video[‘package’]){var c=’&m.fwkeyvalues=sponsorship%3D’+commercial_video[‘package’];a+=c}e.setAttribute(‘vdb_params’,a)}i(e.vdb_Player)}else{var t=arguments.callee;setTimeout(function(){t(e,i)},0)}}(document.getElementById(‘vidible_1’),onPlayerReadyVidible);

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Sarah Silverman's 'I Love You, America' Picked Up By Hulu

Hulu has picked up a 10-episode order of Sarah Silverman’s new show, called “I Love You, America.”

The project promises to “discuss the current political/emotional landscape of the country,” according to Deadline. So even though it’s no secret that Silverman is a devout liberal, viewers can expect the comedian to grapple with opposing viewpoints and engage with people she may not agree with.

Thirty-minute episodes will air weekly on the streaming service. Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Amy Zvi are signed on to executive produce.

Hulu confirmed the news via Twitter:

Not the sort to keep her opinions secret, Silverman has been critical of President Donald Trump. The comedian recently walked back suggestions of a military coup against the president, explaining in a tweet that “FEAR can motivate even peacenik snowflakes 2 incite violence.”

Silverman was an outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter during the 2016 Democratic primaries, but eventually called for party unity behind Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Moore, Padma Lakshmi and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU. Donate now and join us at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, March 31, on Facebook Live. #standforrights2017 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.