 06 November 19 Please Keep an Eye on the Progress Bar, It’s Not Moving Much
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06 November 19
Andy Borowitz | High Turnout of Smart Voters in Kentucky Terrifies Rand Paul
Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "Surprisingly high turnout among smart voters in Kentucky on Tuesday has left Senator Rand Paul 'terrified and shattered,' one of Paul's aides has revealed."
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Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Thursday, March 7, 2019. (photo: Nati Harnik/AP)
Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "Surprisingly high turnout among smart voters in Kentucky on Tuesday has left Senator Rand Paul 'terrified and shattered,' one of Paul's aides has revealed."
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Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Thursday, March 7, 2019. (photo: Nati Harnik/AP)
Sanders Team Accuses Media of Ignoring 'Surge' in Polls
Jonathan Easley and Max Greenwood, The Hill
Excerpt: "The Sanders campaign is fuming at the media, alleging the political press is playing favorites."
Jonathan Easley and Max Greenwood, The Hill
Excerpt: "The Sanders campaign is fuming at the media, alleging the political press is playing favorites."
Sanders has jumped in new surveys of New Hampshire, with the latest CNN–University of New Hampshire poll finding him with the lead in the Granite State, which he won with 60 percent of the vote in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Sanders has also seen a small bump in some national polls and surveys of Iowa, although he does not lead anywhere else.
The Sanders campaign is fuming at the media, alleging the political press is playing favorites, particularly with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), who for weeks have won headlines about how their campaigns are rising in the stretch run to Iowa.
Sanders’s speechwriter David Sirota, whose daily newsletter is a reflection of the campaign’s thinking, collected examples of alleged media bias and polling misrepresentations in his latest issue, underscored by a headline from the satirical news website The Onion about how Sanders had “plummeted 2 points up” in a new poll.
“In the last week, a wave of polls has emerged showing a genuine, full-on Bernie surge — but you might not know that if you tuned into cable TV or read the headlines from the national press corps,” Sirota wrote. “In fact, you might not even know Bernie is running for president.”
Sanders has had a strong few weeks on the campaign trail since a heart attack sidelined him early last month and raised questions about whether he could continue on in the race.
Since then, Sanders has locked down endorsements from three prominent progressive members of the House, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Sanders’s rallies in the home states of those three “squad” members have attracted thousands of supporters, replete with celebrity appearances, including rock star Jack White and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.
The Vermont senator has more cash on hand than any other candidate — a staggering $33.7 million at the end of the third fundraising quarter — positioning himself for the final run into Iowa, where his campaign believes it will have the advantage in volunteer support and organization.
In the past month, Warren has slid in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls off a high of 27 percent down to 20.6 percent currently, only 4 points ahead of Sanders, as she has faced tougher media scrutiny and questions about her “Medicare for All” plan.
Sanders has seized on the opening to draw contrasts between himself and Warren on health care.
“I think that [Warren’s plan] would probably have a very negative impact on creating those jobs, or providing wages, increased wages and benefits for those workers,” Sanders told ABC News over the weekend.
Still, the polls are largely a mixed bag for Sanders as he jockeys for position with Warren, Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden in Iowa, the first state to hold its nominating contest.
A USA Today–Suffolk poll from mid-October found Sanders sliding into third place, with only 9 percent support in Iowa. An Emerson College poll conducted in mid-October showed Sanders 10 points behind both Warren and Biden, who were tied at 23 percent.
Those polls have helped Warren establish herself as the front-runner in Iowa, while Buttigieg has gained about 10 points in the RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls to overtake Sanders in recent weeks.
But the latest two surveys of Iowa conducted by The New York Times–Siena College and Iowa State University put Sanders right back in the thick of things at 19 percent and 18 percent respectively, in second place and third place and ahead of Biden in both polls.
“I wouldn’t use the term ‘surging’ [for Sanders] but I’ve got a national poll coming out ... that suggests there could be a small bump,” said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray. “However, the overarching finding is uncertainty in the entire field, which is why all the polls have very different results right now.”
Part of the challenge for Sanders owes to Warren’s popularity among some of the same liberal voters that once saw him as their sole standard-bearer.
Warren has co-opted some of his signature policy proposals — Medicare for All, for instance — while breaking from Sanders over his democratic-socialist ideology, a distinction that some strategists say has helped Warren broaden her support among voters reluctant to back a self-described socialist.
At the same time, Buttigieg has seen his political stock in Iowa rise in recent weeks as he seeks to position himself as a younger centrist alternative to Biden.
The rise of Buttigieg and Warren has heightened doubts among some Democrats about whether Sanders has done enough to broaden his political base. His backing remains strong among the Democratic Party’s younger and more liberal voters, but there’s little evidence that he’s gaining traction beyond that, Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist said.
“Look, I know that his supporters have been very frustrated on Twitter and elsewhere — they’ve been airing some pretty serious resentments and grievances that they’re being counted out,” Reinish said. “I hear them, but I think that is because there’s an expansion strategy that’s not working.”
“Relevance and strength with your base doesn’t equal momentum and expansion,” he added.
Sanders supporters are pointing to the latest Times–Siena College survey that found he’s the only Democratic contender leading President Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, Sanders’s supporters passed around a quote from former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who said Sanders could be the strongest Democratic candidate in Wisconsin, which figures to be one of the hardest-fought battlegrounds in the 2020 election.
“I worry about him the most because I think a lot of voters, particularly in the bubble, forget it’s more about a gut check than a policy list,” Walker told reporters.
Sanders’s allies, meanwhile, say the media’s “Bernie blackout” is real and that their supporters feed off the notion that they’re being written off by the establishment and political press.
“Generally speaking, media folks don’t bother to read and don’t care or understand policy, so you then have talking heads on cable news blathering on about nonsense,” said Jonathan Tasini, a progressive strategist and Sanders supporter.
“That ignorance then feeds a bias against truly revolutionary ideas because, as an example, most college-educated media folks took an Economics 101 class which told them how wonderful the ‘free market’ and ‘free trade’ are, so they are hard-wired to oppose Bernie’s basic philosophy,” he said.
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Democrat Andy Beshear and Gov. Matt Bevin during the final Kentucky gubernatorial debate on October 29, 2019. (photo: Albert Cesare/AP)
Tara Golshan, Vox
Golshan writes: "Democrat Andy Beshear has won the Kentucky governor's race, ousting sitting Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, and giving Democrats a big win in a conservative state."
At the end of the day, in the eyes of Kentuckians, Bevin remained an extremely unpopular governor. He threatened to cut Medicaid expansion in the state, which would have likely pushed about 400,000 people off their health insurance.
And his time in office was met with statewide protests by Kentucky teachers, after he pushed to cut pensions. Bevin called teachers “ignorant” and “selfish,” and said kids were likely exposed to sexual assault because teachers were protesting instead of staying in the classrooms. He eventually apologized for the comment, but not without saying teachers were acting like “thugs.”
Beshear won on a campaign focused on statewide issues around health care and education. He promised teachers raises and new funding streams for the pension system. He has said he is pro-choice, will protect Medicaid, pushing back against Bevin’s proposed Medicaid work requirements.
Bevin’s defenders say he became a political casualty after attempting to take on some of Kentucky’s most pressing and politically difficult issues, like the pension system that has accumulated $43 billion in debt since 2000. But the reality is many Kentuckians instead saw a leader attacking some of the most vulnerable in the state. And Bevin’s effort to make the race about Trump — who remains in Kentuckians’ good graces — could not mask years of controversial conservative policies.
An increasing number of medical professionals see it as their duty to denounce the conditions inside ICE detention facilities. (photo: Getty)
Cheree Franco, VICE
Franco writes: "Many medical professionals see denouncing the conditions inside ICE facilities as an extension of the Hippocratic Oath."
In 2016, before Donald Trump took office, ICE released 75 percent of eligible asylum seekers in the Deep South, but today ICE keeps the vast majority in detention while their cases are processed. Rather than being released to his wife, a legal Florida resident, Leal remained in ICE custody for 11 months after making his asylum claim. According to the advocacy group Congreso de Jornaleros, he was moved from the Mexican border to Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama. (New Orleans-based ICE spokesperson Bryan Cox said Leal was held the first five months to await trial, which is standard procedure.) In February, he received an order of deportation and, per Cox, would have been viewed by the agency as a flight risk—even though in detention his legs grew so swollen from gout, a condition that he had previously been able to manage, that he couldn't walk and other detainees had to help him to the cafeteria and showers.
Rodney Reed listens during a hearing at the Bastrop County Criminal Justice Center in 2014. (photo: Jay Janner/AP)
Is Texas About to Execute an Innocent Man? Rodney Reed's Family Demands Retrial Amid New Evidence
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "The state of Texas is facing growing calls to halt the execution of Rodney Reed, an African-American man who spent over 20 years in prison for a rape and murder he says he did not commit."
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Demonstrators clash with riot police during protests against the government economic policies, in the surroundings of La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile on Oct. 29, 2019. (photo: Pedro Ugarte/Getty)
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "The state of Texas is facing growing calls to halt the execution of Rodney Reed, an African-American man who spent over 20 years in prison for a rape and murder he says he did not commit."
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Demonstrators clash with riot police during protests against the government economic policies, in the surroundings of La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile on Oct. 29, 2019. (photo: Pedro Ugarte/Getty)
Chile's Piñera Increases Minimum Wage, Protests Continue
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Amid massive protests and unrest calling for the government's resignation and a total overhaul of the political and economic system, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera signed Wednesday a bill that establishes a minimum income for workers."
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teleSUR
Excerpt: "Amid massive protests and unrest calling for the government's resignation and a total overhaul of the political and economic system, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera signed Wednesday a bill that establishes a minimum income for workers."
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Washington's Mount Rainier National Park. (photo: Philip Kramer/Getty)
Emily Holden, Guardian UK
Holden writes: "A team of Trump administration advisers - consisting mostly of appointees from the private industry - are urging 'modernization' of national park campgrounds, with a vision of food trucks, wifi and even Amazon deliveries."
National park campgrounds are just one of many government resources that Trump has sought to privatize, including the US Postal Service and infrastructure like airports and freeways.
The White House wants to reduce spending on the National Park Service by 15%, or $481m, even as the service has said it is facing a more than $11bn maintenance backlog.
Crandall is counselor for the National Park Hospitality Association, which represents businesses that provide food, retail and other services in parks. Other committee members include executives from Aramark and Delaware North, which both have contracts to operate concessions at national parks, according to the Washington Post, as well as the founder of Bass Pro Shops and the CEOs of Choice Hotels International and Kampgrounds of America.
The committee said there is “broad consensus” that the campground system operated by federal employees has “inadequate and outmoded visitor infrastructure” and needs more funding.
“Overall capacity has not kept up with growth and changes in camping demand, and the infrastructure that does exist, with few exceptions, fails to meet expectations of the contemporary camping market,” the group said, calling US national campgrounds an “underperforming asset”.
“Evidence suggests that occupancy rates at many campgrounds could grow and additional services, from wifi to utilities, equipment rentals and camp stores, food and extended family sites are desired and would substantially boost net agency revenues, especially when operational costs are transferred to private sector partners,” the committee added.
The committee would also prohibit seniors from using 50% discounts on campsites during “peak season periods”, like Fourth of July.
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