DECEMBER 26,
2019
NEWS AND VIEWS
THIS IS GOING
TO BE A BIG ONE. THIS REPUBLICAN TOOK $21,500 AND $4,000 IN SEPARATE CHECKS FOR
HIS CAMPAIGN AND NOW, MIRACULOUSLY, THE FAMILY’S SON HAS BEEN PARDONED ON A SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A NINE YEAR OLD GIRL.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/fbi-reportedly-interested-bevins-scandalous-pardons-kentucky
FBI reportedly
interested in Bevin’s scandalous pardons in Kentucky
12/26/19 08:40
AM—UPDATED 12/26/19 11:13 AM
By Steve Benen
PHOTOGRAPH -- Kentucky
Gov. Matt Bevin speaks during the Indiana Republican Party Spring Dinner, April
21, 2016, in Indianapolis. Photo by Darron Cummings/AP
After narrowly
losing his re-election bid last month, Kentucky’s then-governor, Republican Matt
Bevin, turned his attention to criminal-justice issues, issuing hundreds of
controversial pardons and commutations, benefiting a wide range of convicted
criminals, including murderers and a man convicted of raping a child.
A local
prosecutor called Bevin’s actions “an absolute atrocity of justice,” which put
Kentucky residents “in danger.”
But prosecutors
weren’t the only ones alarmed by the former governor’s intervention in so many
cases. It appears the FBI has also decided to take a closer look at Bevin’s
actions. The Courier Journal in Louisville reported this week:
The FBI is
asking questions about the pardons Matt Bevin issued during his last weeks as
Kentucky governor, The Courier Journal has learned.
State Rep.
Chris Harris, D-Forest Hills, told reporters that a criminal investigator
contacted him last week and asked what he knew about Bevin’s pardons…. Two
sources with knowledge of the inquiry told The Courier Journal on Monday that
an FBI agent had spoken with Harris.
The FBI is
asking questions about the pardons Matt Bevin issued during his last weeks as
Kentucky governor, The Courier Journal has learned.
State Rep.
Chris Harris, D-Forest Hills, told reporters that a criminal investigator
contacted him last week and asked what he knew about Bevin’s pardons…. Two
sources with knowledge of the inquiry told The Courier Journal on Monday
that an FBI agent had spoken with Harris.
Bevin did not
comment when asked about the FBI’s reported interest. The Kentucky
Republican last week, however, tried to defend some of his more scandalous
decisions, saying he commuted the sentence of a man convicted of raping a young
girl in part because the girl’s hymen was “intact.” (In a study published
in June in Reproductive Health journal, the authors wrote, “An examination
of the hymen is not an accurate or reliable test of a previous history of
sexual activity, including sexual assault. Clinicians tasked with
performing forensic sexual assault examinations should avoid descriptions
such as ‘intact hymen’ or ‘broken hymen’ in all cases.”)
As for which
case – or cases – might be of interest to the FBI, it’s difficult to say
without more information, though one pardon stood out as an example of
possible corruption. NBC News reported:
Bevin pardoned Patrick
Brian Baker, who was convicted of reckless homicide and other crimes in a
fatal 2014 home break-in in Knox County. Prosecutors say Baker and another
man posed as police officers to gain entry to Donald Mills’ home, and Mills
was shot in front of his wife.
Baker’s family
raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year for Bevin, and Baker’s
brother and sister-in-law also gave $4,000 to Bevin’s re-election campaign on
the day of the fundraiser, the Courier Journal reported.
The FBI
wouldn’t scrutinize a governor’s misguided judgment or even pardons that
threaten public safety. But possible corruption is another matter entirely.
YOU HAVE TO GO
TO THE WEBSITE TO APPRECIATE THIS.
Progressive
news site airs Yule log-style 'Trumpster Fire' for Christmas Eve
BY BROOKE
SEIPEL - 12/24/19 06:05 PM EST
SCREENSHOT –
TRUMPSTER FIRE Progressive news site
airs Yule log-style 'Trumpster Fire' for Christmas Eve
© Screenshot
NowThis
[SCROLL DOWN
FOR THE VIDEO.]
Progressive
news site NowThis aired a Facebook livestream on Tuesday of what it called a
"Trumpster Fire" — a video in the style of a Yule log showing a
dumpster on fire with "Trump" written on the side.
"TRUMPSTER
FIRE: Whether you're celebrating Chanukah, Christmas, or impeachment, come warm
yourself by the glow of this Trump dumpster fire. Share the joy with your
friends and family, and Happy Holidays to all, even the haters and
losers," NowThis wrote in its caption for the video.
Christmas music
can be heard playing in the background as the camera focuses on the burning
dumpster. The scene has been edited to include digital snow falling.
NowThis wrote
that the video was from Revolution Messaging, a digital agency that works with
political groups. The company first posted the video three years ago as part of
a fundraiser. That video has been viewed more than 10,000 times on YouTube.
Videos of Yule
logs burning in fireplaces are commonly shared during the holidays, often
featuring Christmas music or other festive elements.
As of 6 p.m. ET
on Christmas Eve, the NowThis video had been viewed hundreds of thousands of
times.
NOW THIS ARTICLE
REALLY TURNS ME ON.
Bannon on
Republican party: 'We've got to find our AOCs'
BY MARTY
JOHNSON - 12/17/19 12:48 PM EST
PHOTOGRAPH –
STEVE BANNON
Former chief
Trump strategist Stephen Bannon is urging the GOP to "find our AOCs,"
referring to liberal freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), to help
the party better serve working-class voters.
“We’ve turned
the Republican Party into a working-class party,” the former Breitbart News
executive chairman told The Guardian in a sit-down interview published Tuesday.
“Now,
interestingly, we don’t have any elected representatives who believe that, but
that’s a legacy issue. We’ll get over that," he added. "We’ve got to
find our AOCs.”
Ocasio-Cortez,
a 30-year-old former bartender from the Bronx, was elected to Congress in 2018
after running a strong grassroots campaign and defeating a powerful
establishment Democrat in the race's primary.
Bannon said
that Democrats had "better casting” in last year's midterms, leading to
the party regaining control in the House.
“They did an
amazing job in '18. I keep saying I admire AOC," he said.
"I think
her ideology’s all f----d up, but I want her. I want to recruit bartenders. I
don’t want to recruit any more lawyers. I want bartenders.”
Bannon also
credited now-Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg for the
Democrats' successful midterms after the former New York mayor put $110 million
into his political action committee and 21 out of 24 candidates that he
supported won their races.
In 2017, Bannon
left his post at the White House as one of the changes brought on by then-chief
of staff John Kelly. The former Breitbart News chief has remained a vocal
supporter of President Trump since leaving his administration.
IT INTERESTS ME
THAT SO MANY SEMI-POSITIVE ARTICLES ON SANDERS ARE POPPING UP IN THE LAST FEW
DAYS. IS IT BECAUSE BUTTIGIEG IS NOT TURNING OUT TO BE QUITE AS VIABLE A GIANT
KILLER AS THE POWERS THAT BE HAD HOPED? SAME QUESTION ABOUT WARREN. BIDEN IS
STILL VERY LIKELY TO BE THE NOMINEE, OF COURSE, BUT HE TOO HAS BEEN A LITTLE
BIT EMBARRASSING IN SEVERAL WAYS. EVEN SOME IN
THE INNER HEART OF THE PARTY ARE ACTUALLY SAYING THAT THEY COULD SUPPORT
BERNIE, IF HE IS NOMINATED.
YES, IF HE
VISIBLY BEATS THE PANTS OFF OF THEIR HANDPICKED CHOSEN ONE IN THE POLLS, THE
DNC WOULD PROBABLY HAVE TO NOMINATE HIM, OR FURTHER DIMINISH THE RESPECT THAT
THOSE OF US WHO HAVE BEEN ON THEIR SIDE FOR SO LONG HAVE LOYALLY HELD. I KNOW
I, FOR ONE, AM NOTICEABLY LESS LOYAL TO THE PARTY AT THIS POINT, AS I DON'T
EXPECT THEM TO REALLY CHANGE. I THOUGHT THEY STOOD FOR GOOD, BUT INSTEAD THEY
STAND FOR PERSONAL ENRICHMENT JUST LIKE THE REPUBLICANS, THOUGH NOT TO QUITE AS
EXTREME A DEGREE.
Democratic
insiders: Bernie could win the nomination
His resiliency
in the primary has caught the attention of the party establishment.
By HOLLY
OTTERBEIN and DAVID SIDERS
12/26/2019
05:04 AM EST
PHOTOGRAPH -- Sen.
Bernie Sanders.
Suddenly,
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is being taken seriously.
For months, the
Vermont senator was written off by Democratic Party insiders as a candidate
with a committed but narrow base who was too far left to win the primary.
Elizabeth Warren had skyrocketed in the polls and seemed to be leaving him
behind in the race to be progressive voters’ standard-bearer in 2020.
But in the past
few weeks, something has changed. In private conversations and on social media,
Democratic officials, political operatives and pundits are reconsidering
Sanders’ chances.
“It may have
been inevitable that eventually you would have two candidates representing each
side of the ideological divide in the party. A lot of smart people I’ve
talked to lately think there’s a very good chance those two end up being Biden
and Sanders,” said David Brock, a longtime Hillary Clinton ally who founded a
pro-Clinton super PAC in the 2016 campaign. “They’ve both proven to be very resilient.”
Democratic
insiders said they are rethinking Sanders’ bid for a few reasons: First, Warren
has recently fallen in national and early state surveys. Second, Sanders
has withstood the ups and downs of the primary, including a heart attack.
At the same time, other candidates with once-high expectations, such as Kamala
Harris, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke, have dropped out or languished in single
digits in the polls.
“I believe
people should take him very seriously. He has a very good shot of winning Iowa,
a very good shot of winning New Hampshire, and other than Joe Biden, the best
shot of winning Nevada,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who served as an adviser to
former President Barack Obama. “He could build a real head of steam
heading into South Carolina and Super Tuesday.”
The durability
of Sanders’ candidacy has come as a surprise even in some states where he
performed strongly in 2016 and where he is attempting to improve his standing
ahead of the 2020 election.
California
state Sen. Scott Wiener, who defeated a Sanders-backed Democrat for his
seat in the liberal-heavy San Francisco area in 2016, said Sanders has been
“more resilient than I anticipated.”
“But in
retrospect,” he added, “he has a very, very loyal following, and people have
really stuck with him.”
Sanders is in
second place in national polls, nearly 9 percentage points behind Biden,
according to the most recent RealClearPolitics average. He is second in Iowa
and first in New Hampshire. The latest CNN poll found he has the highest net
favorability rating of any Democratic presidential candidate.
While Sanders’
supporters complain relentlessly that he has received less attention from the
media than other candidates, he has also avoided sustained criticism that
some of his rivals have suffered. That could be helping him, especially
compared with Warren, who has recently come under fire from the left and center
for her health care plan.
“If you really
think about it, Bernie hasn’t been hit a lot with anything. It’s not like
he’s getting hit by other campaigns,” said Michael Ceraso, a former New
Hampshire director for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign who worked for Sanders in
2016.
“You sort of
take for granted that he, like Biden, are institutional figures for very
different reasons,” Ceraso said. “Early in the campaign, Bernie’s people said,
‘Look, this guy in these early states has a nice hold, and there’s a percentage
of supporters, a quarter of the electorate will potentially go for him.'”
He added, “It waned a little bit because people were looking at other options …
and now they’re saying, ‘Wait a minute, this guy has been the most
consistent of anyone.'”
At the
beginning of the year — another high point for Sanders’ campaign, before Warren
surged — some establishment Democrats talked about how to stop his momentum.
Brock, who has a close relationship with many Democratic donors, said he has
not heard anything like that in recent weeks: “That doesn’t mean it won’t
happen. This is more of an analysis in the political world than in the donor
world.”
Many moderate
Democrats still dismiss Sanders’ candidacy. They believe his so-called
ceiling remains intact and that Warren will depress any room for growth he
might otherwise have.
“He can’t win
the nomination,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group
Third Way, adding that Sanders’ uptick is simply him “bouncing around
between his ceiling and his floor a little bit more than people had thought he
would.”
On the other
hand, he acknowledged his staying power. “Not until the very end will people
say to Bernie Sanders, ‘When are you dropping out?’”
A series of TV
segments around last week’s Democratic debate illustrate the shift
in how Sanders is being perceived. “We never talk about Bernie Sanders. He
is actually doing pretty well in this polling,” former senior Obama adviser
David Axelrod said on CNN after the event. “He’s actually picked up. And the
fact is Bernie Sanders is as consistent as consistent can be.”
The same day on
MSNBC, national political correspondent Steve Kornacki said, “Democratic
voters like him, and if he starts winning, there could be a bandwagon effect.”
GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who conducted a California focus group that found
most participants thought Sanders had won the debate, said on CNBC, “I think
you’re going to see continued movement. Sanders has been gaining in California over
the past two months.”
Larry Cohen,
chairman of the pro-Sanders group Our Revolution, said Warren’s
candidacy is not a problem for Sanders if both of them can — together — amass a
plurality of delegates heading into the convention.
“The math is
that if you think of the voters for Warren and the voters for Sanders as two
circles, yes, there is overlap, [but] most of the circles are separate,”
Cohen said. “I think between them, we can get to a majority.”
Matt Wuerker
cartoon
Matt Wuerker
Cartoons Year in Review
BY MATT WUERKER
If Sanders’
candidacy continues to be taken seriously, he will eventually be subjected
to the scrutiny that Warren and Biden have faced for prolonged stretches. That
includes an examination of his electability. “That conversation has never
worked well for anyone,” Pfeiffer said.
Former
California Gov. Gray Davis stopped short of saying firm support for
"Medicare for All" would be an impediment for Democrats in the
primary but suggested the risk for the nominee is significant.
“Californians
and Americans, in general, like options — not mandates,” he said.
Faiz Shakir,
Sanders’ campaign manager, said political insiders and pundits are rethinking
his chances “not out of the goodness of their heart,” but because “it is harder
and harder to ignore him when he’s rising in every average that you see.” And
he welcomes a conversation about Sanders’ electability, he said.
“We want that,”
he said. “I’d love to be able to argue why he stands a better chance to beat
Donald Trump than Joe Biden.”
Christopher
Cadelago contributed to this report.
THE LAST TIME I
READ A SYDNEY EMBER ARTICLE, SHE SAVAGED BERNIE. NOT SO, THIS TIME. STILL, SHE DOESN’T
ENDORSE HIM. THE HORSE RACE GOES ON.
Why Bernie Sanders
Is Tough to Beat
His supporters
are loyal, and in Iowa they don’t really have eyes for anyone else.
By Sydney Ember
Dec. 26, 2019
Updated 1:45
p.m. ET
PHOTOGRAPH -- Senator
Bernie Sanders remains near the top of polls in Iowa and other early states. Credit...Jordan
Gale for The New York Times
GARNER, Iowa — Dawn
Smallfoot put up a Bernie Sanders sign in her yard after hearing him speak in
spring 2015. It’s been there ever since.
“Why take it
down?” she said on a recent Monday evening, during a break from making calls to
potential Sanders supporters. “I was waiting for his return.”
His campaign is
counting on that kind of devotion.
With less than
six weeks until voting begins, the loyalty Mr. Sanders commands has turned him
into a formidable contender in the 2020 race. Despite having a heart attack in
October that threatened to derail his second quest for the Democratic
nomination, he remains at or near the top of polls in Iowa and other early
states, lifted by his near ubiquitous name recognition and an enviable bank
account.
His
anti-establishment message hasn’t changed for 50 years, and it resonates with
working-class voters and young people who agree the system is corrupt and it will
take a revolution to fix it.
The scenario
seemed unlikely just months earlier. As Mr. Sanders, 78, lay recovering in a
hospital in Las Vegas, two new stents in one of his arteries, some of his
staff members were unsure if he would continue his campaign. With Mr.
Sanders, Vermont’s junior senator, already slumping in the polls, even some
allies thought he should drop out and throw his support behind Senator
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a fellow progressive who was surging.
But then he
secured the coveted endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat
of New York, giving his campaign a much-needed shot of energy. In the debates,
he was steady, loose and largely unscathed. On the trail, he began to display a
newfound joy and humor. And Ms. Warren slipped from the top of the field,
reopening the progressive lane for him.
Image -- Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a rally for Mr. Sanders in Las Vegas on
Sunday.Credit...Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times
Mr. Sanders’s
revival has reshuffled the Democratic primary race, providing a counterweight
to the shift toward centrism in recent months that has elevated Mayor
Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and kept former Vice President Joseph R.
Biden Jr. atop the national polls. And if it lasts, it would add to the likelihood
of an extended primary battle, with Mr. Sanders splitting delegates in the
early states with several other candidates.
He still faces
a difficult path to the nomination. Ms. Warren has siphoned off some of his
support, and his entire campaign rests on the conviction that he can pull in
voters who might otherwise not show up at the ballot box.
In addition, he
has a strained relationship with the Democratic establishment, which remains
bitter over the division he and his supporters sowed after the 2016
primaries, and chafes at his refusal to engage with the traditional party
apparatus.
Yet in Iowa,
and elsewhere, the tension with the party has served only to re-energize Mr.
Sanders and his loyalists, who are faithful to him in a way that no other
candidates’ supporters are: While backers of other Democrats often list
three or four contenders when asked to name their top choice, Mr. Sanders’s
fans are unwavering.
A recent poll
from The Des Moines Register showed that, among likely Democratic
caucusgoers who said Mr. Sanders was their top choice, 57 percent said their
minds were made up; according to The Register, no other candidate registered
above 30 percent.
Those figures
alone could portend a strong showing for Mr. Sanders at the caucuses, where
candidates must receive at least 15 percent support at a caucus site to collect
that site’s share of state delegates.
“Bernie Sanders
is definitely being underestimated in Iowa,” said John Grennan, the Democratic
chairman in Poweshiek County, Iowa.
“Part of his
durability is that he has 15 to 20 percent of the caucus who are absolutely
committed to voting for him no matter what,” he said. “In a field that’s
split between at least 10 major candidates, that 15 to 20 percent counts for a
whole heck of a lot.”
There are other
factors that have helped Mr. Sanders in Iowa. Because his backers are so loyal,
opponents have been unable to penetrate his base, if they have tried to at
all. Part of the reason is that Mr. Sanders’s strategy revolves around engaging
people who typically don’t participate in the political process, a highly
difficult group to target; even the Sanders campaign acknowledges it is a
risky strategy. Another factor is sheer resignation: His rivals just don’t
see the point in trying to pick off supporters who probably won’t budge.
Image -- A
crowd awaited Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in Council Bluffs, Iowa, last
month. Credit...Amy Kontras for The New York Times
Mr. Sanders has
also mostly escaped aggressive attacks from his rivals. Other candidates have
focused more on trying to stop Ms. Warren, whom they viewed as a bigger threat.
On the airwaves, Mr. Buttigieg, another front-runner, has run television ads
that attack Mr. Sanders’s proposals like “Medicare for all” and tuition-free
public college but do not name him directly.
Ms. Warren
herself has rarely criticized Mr. Sanders. Asked at a recent stop in the
blue-collar town of Ottumwa what made her a “better candidate” than Mr.
Sanders, she responded tepidly that they had been “friends for a long, long
time.”
And though Mr.
Sanders’s detractors see a numbing repetition in his message, his
supporters see his constancy as one of his biggest assets: Mr. Sanders, for
instance, has absorbed much less criticism on Medicare for all because he has
championed it for decades. Ms. Warren’s evolving position on how to pay
for it has hurt her with some voters.
During a recent
rally in Burlington, a town along the Mississippi River in southeastern Iowa, Mr.
Sanders played his greatest hits. Standing behind a podium, he railed against
income inequality. He trumpeted health care as a human right.
“What this
campaign is about is trying to talk about issues, and bring about ideas that
address the pain of working families in this country,” he said. The audience
nodded along. Many had heard it before. Many had come to hear it again.
“I do like that
he has fought for people the same his entire Senate career and even before,” said
Angel Edwards, 41, of Burlington. “It makes you hopeful that he won’t
flip-flop while in office.”
Since his heart
attack, Mr. Sanders has often seemed lighter and more relaxed, a change from
the gruff intensity that for years marked his public appearances. His
campaign frequently posts videos of him shooting hoops, and he recently took a
few pitches of batting practice at an event at an indoor sports facility in
Burlington.
At the same
time, there is little indication, in Iowa and elsewhere, that Mr. Sanders is
attracting more supporters beyond those who backed him in 2016 and young people
who were not old enough to vote then. In interviews with dozens of people at
his campaign events in recent months, nearly all said their support dated to
his first presidential run, or earlier; at events for other candidates, hardly
anyone mentions Mr. Sanders as a top choice.
“From my
conversations, it appears that people are not ambivalent about Sanders,” said
Jeff Fager, the Democratic chairman in Henry County, where Mr.
Sanders battled Hillary Clinton to a tie in 2016. “They are either behind him,
or he is not on their list of potential candidates.”
Image -- Mr.
Sanders continues to gain unwavering support from a young
audience.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York Times
That steady
support could be enough in Iowa, whose complex caucus system favors
on-the-ground enthusiasm, especially if excitement for other candidates wavers.
The challenge, however, is that Mr. Sanders is effectively gambling that
those who do not usually vote will now show up on a cold Monday night in
February to participate in what could be an hourslong, sometimes disorganized
process.
Kurt Meyer, the
Democratic chairman in Mitchell County, in northern Iowa, said he saw signs
that Mr. Sanders’s organization might have trouble turning out potential caucus
attendees in his rural region.
“The Sanders organization
in the predominantly rural counties I am most familiar with is not particularly
strong,” he said. While he suggested that it might be easy to underestimate
the totality of Mr. Sanders’s support, he also said it was far from clear
that the voters Mr. Sanders was counting on would show up on caucus day.
Aides to Mr.
Sanders provide few details on how they are wooing supporters, but they express
confidence that their strategy is working. The campaign said in late October
that it already had more commit-to-caucus cards, a loose measure of support,
than it did in January 2016.
Just as it did
that year, Mr. Sanders’s team is trying to connect with people in new ways.
His campaign canvasses at farmers’ markets and outside drugstores. One field
organizer, Conrad Bascom, has started holding phone banks at a Casey’s General
Store in rural Garner largely because the location was a convenient meeting
place and the Wi-Fi was reliable.
“It happened
pretty organically,” Mr. Bascom said, during one such phone-bank event in early
December. “It very quickly became a habit.”
More on the
2020 Race
The ‘But I
Would Vote for Joe Biden’ RepublicansDec. 25, 2019
How Bernie
Sanders Learned to Love Campaigning in CaliforniaDec. 24, 2019
Elizabeth
Warren Returns to Oklahoma, Stressing Working-Class RootsDec. 23, 2019
Sydney Ember is
a political reporter based in New York. She was previously a business reporter
covering print and digital media. @melbournecoal
THIS IS AN
INTERESTING ARTICLE TO ME, PARTLY BECAUSE IT GIVES TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON HOW
TO CAMPAIGN AND WHERE. MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT IS NOT FULL OF UNEXPLAINED JARGON. I
DON’T LIKE HAVING TO GO TO THE GOOGLE “URBAN DICTIONARY,” TO DECIPHER AN
ARTICLE. FINALLY, IT’S LONG BUT NOT DRY, AND IT ISN’T FULL OF DIGS AGAINST
BERNIE. IN FACT, IT SHOWS A DEFINITE RESPECT.
How Bernie
Sanders Learned to Love Campaigning in California
California is
the linchpin of Mr. Sanders’s 2020 strategy, a state he hopes will turbocharge
his campaign on Super Tuesday — or revive his candidacy if he underperforms in
the early states.
By Reid J.
Epstein
Dec. 24, 2019
PHOTOGRAPH -- Bernie
Sanders made five public appearances in California last week, including a rally
in Venice Beach.Credit...September Dawn Bottoms for The New York Times
Reid J. Epstein
LOS ANGELES —
Four years ago, Marlene MacAulay experienced her political awakening
during Senator Bernie Sanders’s first presidential campaign.
“Last time it
was underground,” said Ms. MacAulay, a 68-year-old bookkeeper from Simi
Valley, Calif., who is so committed to Mr. Sanders that she named her schnauzer
Bernie. In 2016, she said, she joined ad hoc groups of local Sanders
supporters that formed on Facebook.
It’s not
underground anymore.
California,
perhaps more than anywhere else, shows how the Sanders campaign has evolved
from a movement of true believers into a strategic machine built to win a
presidential nomination. As Mr. Sanders and his advisers look beyond the
four early-voting states and toward Super Tuesday on March 3, they are
making a big play to accrue as many delegates as possible from California, the
biggest prize on the map.
It’s a striking
change from what Jeff Weaver, a top Sanders aide, called the “run and
gun” operation of 2016. That year, Mr. Sanders hoped to make a last stand
against Hillary Clinton in California’s June primary, but took only 46 percent
of the vote. His team wasn’t sophisticated enough to focus its efforts where
it could claim a disproportionate number of delegates — he carried just eight
of California’s 53 congressional districts — allowing Mrs. Clinton to increase
her delegate lead and clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
Now Mr.
Sanders, of Vermont, has the most robust California organization in the 2020
field. He has 80 campaign staff members in the state, more than any other
candidate. He has spent time wooing the sorts of local officials whom he once
derisively cast as part of the dreaded political establishment. And no 2020
candidate has held more public events in California than Mr. Sanders, according
to a count maintained by The Sacramento Bee.
California’s
decision to move its primary from its 2016 slot, at the end of the nominating
calendar, to March 3, three days after South Carolina completes the quartet of
early-state nominating contests, means that the Golden State will have more
influence than ever in picking a presidential nominee.
Just as South
Carolina, with a majority-black Democratic electorate largely loyal to
Joseph R. Biden Jr., is a firewall for the former vice president, Mr.
Sanders is banking on California — either to resurrect his campaign if he
underperforms in the early states or to turbocharge it if he reaches March with
momentum.
Editors’ Picks
Democrats
Sparred Over a Wine Cave Fund-Raiser. Its Billionaire Owner Isn’t Pleased.
Follow Every
Step of a Major Midcentury Modern Renovation
Eddie Murphy
Returns to ‘Saturday Night Live’
IMAGE -- A
Sanders crowd at a rally in Moreno Valley, Calif., on Friday. Credit...Alex
Welsh for The New York Times
For now, Mr.
Sanders is poised to win a large share of California’s delegates. He has
placed first or second in five of six public polls of the state dating back to
mid-October. People close to the campaign predict he will come in first or
second — and more critically, above the 15 percent threshold needed to
accrue delegates — in every congressional district.
“We do believe
that if we do well in California, which we are primed to do, that the
delegate breakout from California can be the moment that you walk toward the
nomination,” said Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager.
The contrast
between Mr. Sanders’s approach to California and that of his top opponents was
stark in the days surrounding last week’s presidential debate at Loyola Marymount
University in Los Angeles. Mr. Sanders made the most of his week in the
state, appearing at five public events. Senator Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts, Mr. Sanders’s leading left-wing rival, didn’t make any public
stops outside of the debate.
Mr. Biden hosted
two fund-raisers, posed for photos with striking McDonald’s workers and had
lunch with a handful of voters at a Mexican restaurant. And Mayor Pete
Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., appeared at six fund-raisers and a Democratic
National Committee gathering in the state before holding a pair of public
events on Friday.
One of Mr.
Buttigieg’s fund-raisers, at a wine cave in Napa Valley, was mocked by Ms.
Warren during the debate and by top Sanders aides, who paraded past
reporters in the spin room at Loyola Marymount wearing shirts reading
“peteswinecave.com.”
RELATED
Who’s Running
for President in 2020?
Who’s in, who’s
out and who’s still thinking.
Mr. Buttigieg
spoke to roughly five times more people at the fund-raisers than he did at the
public events, according to crowd estimates from pool reporters. (Reporters
were not allowed to attend the wine cave event.)
The public
events for Mr. Buttigieg were designed to show him being introduced to Latino
voters and listening to their concerns. In Walnut, east of Los Angeles, Mr.
Buttigieg received a warm introduction from the city’s 26-year-old mayor,
Andrew Rodriguez. But Mr. Rodriguez clarified afterward that he hasn’t
endorsed Mr. Buttigieg — he’s still thinking about Mr. Biden, too.
“I just relate to
Pete because he’s a young mayor,” Mr. Rodriguez said.
Mr. Sanders,
who polls show has a clear advantage with Latino voters in the state, stopped
at the Mexican border on Friday night before holding a rally on Saturday with
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York that drew 14,000 people to
Venice Beach.
“For most
candidates, California is a piggy bank,” Mr. Weaver said as crews cleaned up
after the rally. Mr. Sanders, he said, “doesn’t just come here and go to the
wine cave — sorry, I had to — and then fly out to Iowa. He actually comes here
and talks to voters.”
Mr. Sanders and
his campaign are also doing the sort of spadework his 2016 campaign didn’t. He
has opened offices in heavily Latino regions of the state and is doing the sort
of outreach to local elected officials he resisted last time.
Nick Carter, the national
political outreach director for the 2016 Sanders campaign, said it was
“challenging” to get Mr. Sanders on board back then. “He was giving his time to
voters and not just currying favor with politicians,” Mr. Carter said.
One of the
officials Mr. Sanders courted this year was Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a state
assemblyman from South Los Angeles. Mr. Jones-Sawyer had been an
enthusiastic supporter of Mrs. Clinton in 2016 — a Little Rock native, he has
deep roots with the Clintons — and had in May endorsed Senator Kamala Harris of
California for the 2020 presidential nomination.
In November Mr.
Jones-Sawyer took a meeting with Mr. Sanders on the sidelines of the California
Democratic Party State Convention. Ms. Harris was still in the race, but
struggling. Mr. Sanders made the pitch, and Mr. Jones-Sawyer told Mr. Sanders
he was his second choice.
“Before she
dropped out, Bernie Sanders was smart enough to come to me, talk to me personally,”
Mr. Jones-Sawyer said at the Venice Beach rally, where he delivered one of the
warm-up speeches for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Sanders. “Then, all of a sudden,
it happened. She wasn’t in. And then, I reread his criminal justice plan and
realized, for my district, South L.A., it works great.”
Javier Gonzalez, a Californian
who was Mr. Sanders’s deputy field director for Western states in 2016, said
the 2020 operation is far more professional. Four years ago the staff members
were a combination of operatives the Clinton campaign didn’t want and true
believers who had never been involved in politics before, he said.
“I would
imagine Bernie had a lot more high-level applicants this time,” Mr. Gonzalez
said.
Mr. Weaver, who was Mr.
Sanders’s campaign manager in 2016, said the team learned many lessons that
year that it is leaning on in this race.
“Having done
this before really does matter, right?” Mr. Weaver said. “And there’s mistakes
we made last time — I won’t delineate here — that we won’t make again.”
California,
with 40 million people, has long been considered impossible to win through
campaign organization and tactical spending alone. It’s too big and, with 15
media markets, too expensive to saturate with television advertising — though
the billionaire candidates Tom Steyer and Michael R. Bloomberg seem poised to
test that proposition this year.
Californians
can vote by mail as soon as the day after Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucuses, meaning
voters here might be influenced more by the results in the first four states
than by any contact they receive from a campaign organizer or ads they see on
TV.
That’s why senior
California Democrats, who acknowledge Mr. Sanders has the premier presidential
team in the state, scoff at the idea that his organization can save him if he
performs poorly in the early states.
Image -- Volunteers
gathered for training at a Sanders field office in East Los Angeles. Credit...Rozette
Rago for The New York Times
“All that
momentum that comes out of Iowa and New Hampshire, I think, still is so
determinative,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “Let me tell you, as someone
who’s run multiple times statewide, there’s still no substitute for momentum,
still no substitute for generating energy on the nightly news.”
But Mr. Sanders’s
investment in California appears to be paying some dividends.
Ms. MacAulay, who is
volunteering to knock on doors and make phone calls for Mr. Sanders, said
she got several text messages inviting her to attend the Venice Beach rally.
“Last time not as many people knew about Bernie,” she said. “It’s more
organized now. He taught us how to do it.”
Interviews at
the rally revealed that while die-hard fans populated the grassy knolls
surrounding the stage, the seating sections up close had a number of people
who were new supporters.
Mamak Khadem, a
58-year-old trance music singer from nearby Santa Monica, said she
had never voted since becoming a United States citizen three decades ago. But
after seeing Mr. Sanders at an event in July, she joined a group of local
Iranian-Americans supporting his campaign.
“I never felt
connected to any of the candidates running before,” she said. “But everywhere
Bernie has been, he’s been so accessible.”
THIS STORY IS
ABOUT THE WINNOWING PROCESS AMONG THE DEMOCRATIC HOPEFULS, AS SOME RISE AND
OTHERS DROP OUT. SOME OF THEM WERE JUST TOO UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME TO HAVE REGISTERED
MUCH ON THE NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS; BETO O’ROURKE MADE TOO MANY MISTAKES. I
THINK, TOO, THE PUBLIC IS GRADUALLY COMING TO THEIR PERSONAL CONCLUSIONS AND
SHOWING LESS INTEREST IN THE REST OF THE CONTENDERS. AS SEVERAL RECENT ARTICLES
HAVE SAID, BERNIE’S SUPPORTERS ARE MOSTLY FIRMLY DECIDED ABOUT WHERE THEY
STAND.
Bernie Sanders
shows staying power
By William
Goldschlag
william.goldschlag@newsday.com
December 26,
2019 7:07 PM
PHOTOGRAPH -- Bernie
Sanders at his campaign rally Saturday in Venice, Calif. Credit: EPA/Christian
Monterrosa
The last
progressive standing?
With Elizabeth
Warren's slide, Bernie Sanders chances of going the distance in the battle for
the Democrats' 2020 presidential nomination are being taken more seriously, Politico
writes.
In part, it's
because Warren has taken the heaviest flak for her progressive agenda while
self-described socialist Sanders has stayed slightly under the radar. Yet
Sanders is in second place in national polls, 9 points behind Joe Biden,
according to the most recent RealClearPolitics average.
"If you
really think about it, Bernie hasn’t been hit a lot with anything. It’s not
like he’s getting hit by other campaigns,” said Michael Ceraso, a 2016
Sanders campaign veteran and more recently a former New Hampshire director for
Pete Buttigieg.
But that will
come when the field narrows and if he's still a part of it. A critical
question for Democrats desperate to defeat President Donald Trump is electability.
“That
conversation has never worked well for anyone,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who
was an adviser to former President Barack Obama. But Faiz Shakir, Sanders’
campaign manager, said he welcomes it. "I’d love to be able to argue why
he stands a better chance to beat Donald Trump than Joe Biden," Shakir
said.
The biggest
losers
Ten Democratic
2020 candidates didn't last until the end of 2019. Some could still have a
bright future, become part of a presidential administration if a Democrat wins,
or using their moment of semi-fame to help land a cable gig. But others left
the race looking the worse for wear, Politico writes.
Topping that
list are Beto O'Rourke. His declaration that "Man, I’m just born to be in
it” seemed to some a statement of entitlement. His quirky moves like
livestreaming his dental work didn't sell. Hard-line positions he took near the
end on guns (“Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15") and pledging to
revoke the tax-exempt status of religious institutions that oppose same-sex marriage
look like they'll take him out of the running in Texas.
Right behind
O'Rourke is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose has
long fancied himself a national leader of the progressive movement, convincing
hardly anyone to follow him. He has come back to his full-time job even less
popular than when he started his four months of barnstorming to noncrowds in
primary states.
HERE IS AN
ARTICLE FROM OCTOBER SHORTLY AFTER SANDERS’ HEART ATTACK AND REEMERGENCE INTO
THE CONTEST. THERE IS A VIDEO ABOUT SEVEN MINUTES LONG EMBEDDED, CALLED “HISTORY
IS ON OUR SIDE IN THIS STRUGGLE,” OF BERNIE SPEAKING CLEARLY AND SINCERELY ON
THINGS LIKE WHAT HE THOUGHT ABOUT ON THE HOSPITAL BED AFTER HIS HEART ATTACK.
HE CERTAINLY HAS OPENED UP QUITE A BIT PERSONALLY SINCE HIS FIRST RUN IN 2016,
AND IT IS BETTER THAN ANY ACT HE COULD PUT ON TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO TRUST HIM
FOR A POTENTIAL PRESIDENCY.
Bernie Sanders
After Heart Attack: "I Have One Life To Live, What Role Do I Want To
Play?"
Posted By Tim
Hains
On Date October
10, 2019
In a video
posted Thursday on Instagram, Sen. Bernie Sanders said he is recovering well
from a minor heart attack last week and promised that he would return to the
campaign trail "as soon as possible."
“I am feeling
great,” Sanders said. “I’m getting my endurance back and I look forward to
getting back on the campaign trail as soon as possible.”
“I am feeling
really good and getting stronger every day,” he added. “We’re going to be out
there on the campaign trail, we’re gonna be in the debate in Columbus, Ohio
next week.
"What
happens if somebody had no health insurance who felt a pain in his or her chest
or felt really sick and said to themselves, 'Do I really want to go to the doctor
or the hospital because I don't have ten thousand dollars to pay for the
medical bills I’ll incur?' How many people are in that position? How many
people have died because they don’t get to the doctor, the hospital when they
should?” Sanders asked.
"It made
me feel even more strongly the need to continue our efforts to end this
dysfunctional and cruel health care system which leaves so many people
uninsured, causes bankruptcy, lowers credit scores," he continued.
"It is an insane, wasteful, bureaucratic system based on the greed of the
health care industry. So I gotta tell you, that even as I lay down in that
hospital bed in Las Vegas, this struggle that we are engaged in just, you know,
permeated my mind."
"I know
it’s not easy because this campaign, we’re taking on everybody,” Sanders said.
“We’re not only taking on Trump and the Republican establishment, we’re not
only taking on the Democratic establishment, We’re not only taking on Wall
Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry,
the military-industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, the corporate
media that so often refuses to deal with the real issues facing this country,
that’s what we’re taking on. But at the end of the day, if you’re gonna look at
yourself in the mirror, you’re gonna say, look, I go around once, I have one
life to live. What role do I want to play?"
COMMENTS
berniesanders's
profile picture
berniesanders
Verified
At the end of
the day, we have one life to live, and you ask yourself:
What role do I
want to play? That role must go deeper than defeating Trump. We must create
a country where people are working to take care of each other.
11w
davesmom's
profile picture
davesmom
💯 thank you
Bernie! 🙌💪💕
10wReply
swystm's
profile picture
swystm
God bless YOU
10wReply
jennifaaaxxo's
profile picture
jennifaaaxxo
Thank you
Bernie!!!❤️❤️🙌🙌🙌
10wReply
yeyita_68's
profile picture
yeyita_68
We need you
Bernie 🤗🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
10wReply
hellokittyfan4real's
profile picture
hellokittyfan4real
Love you
Bernie!!❤️❤️❤️
10wReply
tuberose26's
profile picture
tuberose26
We love you
,support and you have our overseas votes from China! 💫
10wReply
adamrandall2549's
profile picture
adamrandall2549
🖖🏼✨✅
10wReply
louellenvernonwhite's
profile picture
louellenvernonwhite
Thank you for
thinking of others at a time when it would be only natural to be self absorbed.
Wishing you all the very best in your recovery. Best wishes to your family.🌿🇺🇸🐝
10wReply
PSYCHIATRIST DR.
LANCE DODES SLICES AND DICES PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IN AN MSNBC INTERVIEW.
HE IS ONE OF 27 PSYCHIATRISTS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO A BOOK CALLED “THE DANGEROUS
CASE OF DONALD TRUMP,” ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 3, 2017.” ANOTHER
RELATED BOOK FROM ALMOST THE SAME DATE, SEPTEMBER 5, 2017, IS “TWILIGHT OF
AMERICAN SANITY: A PSYCHIATRIST ANALYZES THE AGE OF TRUMP,” BY ALLEN
FRANCES (Author). IT IS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON. SEE THE DESCRIPTION BELOW.
THE LAST WORD
Psychiatrist:
Trump's projection on Chairman Schiff is ‘primitive’
SHARE THIS - COPIED
Psychiatrist
Lance Dodes joins Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss Donald Trump’s behavior abroad
as the impeachment investigation advances at home. Dr. Dodes says President
Trump is "running a really simple program" with "limited
capacity" and exemplifying "early emotional development."
Dec. 3, 2019
DURATION 5:53
ON THE BOOK
The Dangerous
Case of Donald Trump
Should mental
health professionals get involved with diagnosing the president?
Posted Jan 05,
2018
Ilene A. Serlin
Ph.D.
Make Your Life
a Blessing
The issue is
not really about diagnosis; it is about the professional’s ethical duty to
warn. It is about a developed expertise in assessing danger to self and
other. I highly recommend this courageous new book edited by Dr. Bandy
Lee called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump that compiles chapters
written by prominent and articulate psychiatrists and mental health
professionals.
PHOTOGRAPH –
BOOK COVER, Source: public property
When George W.
Bush came into office, I felt a strong sense of dread. I feared that his lack
of thoughtfulness and his motivation to war, driven partly by his father
issues, pointed to a dangerous situation—as, in fact, the wars in Iraq and
Afganistan have turned out to be. I wrote letters to the editor raising the
question of danger to self or others, but none were published.
Authors in The
Dangerous Case of Donald Trump elaborate on the question of dangerousness by
strongly asserting that it is, in fact, an ethical matter of duty to warn. Respecting
the Goldwater Rule, or Section 73 of the APA code of ethics, citing the
dangers of a malignant society becoming “normalized,” Robert J. Lifton
issues a call to action; it is urgent that voices of those who assess danger to
self or other must speak up.
Speaking up is,
according to Lifton, itself an ethical course of action. He calls this course
of action “advocacy research,” that is “combining a disciplined professional
approach with the ethical requirements of committed witness, combining scholarship
with activism” (Lifton, xviii), what he calls the “activist witnessing
professional” (xix). As activist witnessing professionals, we can “bring our
experience and knowledge to bear on what threatens and what might renew us.” He
makes the point that the public has trust in its mental health professionals
they will warn in the case of clear and present danger. And if there are
mistakes to be made, they should err on the side of safety.
Herman and Lee
take the ethical charge further, asking whether we, as health professionals,
are acting in collusion with the state in issues of power, or acting in
resistance to them. Herman and Lee consider the duty to warn as a professional
responsibility to educate the public. In fact, they know, as professionals,
that the situation will become worse as sociopathic and paranoid traits can
become amplified over time.
Finally, they
uphold as the highest ethical standard: Do no harm. “Therefore, it would be
accurate to state that, while we respect the rule, we deem it subordinate to
the single most important principle that guides our professional conduct: that
we hold our responsibility to human life and well-being as paramount” (p. 12).
They warn:
“Collectively with our co-authors, we warn that anyone as mentally unstable as
Mr. Trump simply should not be entrusted with the life-and-death powers of the
presidency” (p. 8).
The issue of
dangerousness
Dangerousness can be
assessed without using formal diagnostic categories. Tansey points to Trump’s “attraction
to brutal tyrants and also the prospect of nuclear war” (p. 16). Sheehy
notes the “pit of fragile self-esteem” that leads to bullying and
grandiosity (p. 16). Other terms include these used by Zimbardo and Sword:
“condescension, gross exaggeration (lying), jealousy, lack of compassion,
and viewing the world through an “us-vs.-them” lens” (p. 26), “childlike need
for constant attention” (p. 31). Trump’s delusions and his alternate
reality demonstrate a crucial impairment of sanity.
Dangerousness
also shows up in our clinical settings, as clients may get triggered by
Trump’s resemblance to their abusive fathers, or by his posing existential
threats to their ethnic community. Finally, dangerousness can be assessed
by the toxic impact on a society: “Trump amplifies and exacerbates a
national “symptom” of bigotry and division in ways that are dangerous to
the nation’s core principles (p. 18). Mika warns us against the inevitable
“downfall” from the “oppression, dehumanization, and violence” of the
“toxic triangle” of the “tyrant,” the “his supporters,” and “the society” (p.
19). Zimbardo and Sword describe “the Trump Effect” as the shown by an
increase in bullying behaviors, in the schools and between racial and religious
groups. In fact, today’s New York Times (17 December 2017), contains an
article with a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center showing an increase
in events with swastikas, Nazi salutes, and Confederate flags. Given
Trump’s access to nuclear power and the power of the United States, Zimbardo
and Sword say clearly: "We believe that Donald Trump is the most
dangerous man in the world” (p. 47).
And they very
reasonably inquire: If the doctrine of Tarasoff v. Regents of the University
of California 17 Cal. 3d 425 (1976) mandates that we warn potential
targets of a threat or potential threat toward them, why shouldn’t we have
a duty to warn our fellow citizens in the case of Donald Trump?
If people want
to get involved, the best person to contact is John Gartner who heads up the
Duty to Warn organization. Here is a direct link to John's online petition.
References
Lee, B. (Ed.)
(2017). The dangerous case of Donald Trump. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
THIS BOOK IS
ABOUT THE THING WHICH HAS ALWAYS BOTHERED ME ABOUT MASS HATRED, WHERE IT COMES
FROM.
Twilight of
American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump Hardcover – September
5, 2017
by Allen
Frances (Author)
“Unravel[s] the
national psyche that brought our politics to this moment.” — Evan Osnos, The
New Yorker
A landmark
book, from “one of the world’s most prominent psychiatrists” (The Atlantic):
Allen Frances analyzes the nation, viewing the rise of Donald J. Trump as darkly
symptomatic of a deeper societal distress that must be understood if we are to
move forward. Equally challenging and profound, Twilight of American Sanity
“joins a small shelf of essential titles—Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in
Their Own Land is another—that help explain why and how the Trump
presidency happened” (Kirkus).
It is
comforting to see President Donald Trump as a crazy man, a one-off, an
exception—not a reflection on us or our democracy. But in ways I never
anticipated, his rise was absolutely predictable and a mirror on our soul.
… What does it say about us, that we elected someone so manifestly unfit and
unprepared to determine mankind’s future? Trump is a symptom of a world in
distress, not its sole cause. Blaming him for all our troubles misses the
deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent.
Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our
society—if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves.
Simply put: Trump isn’t crazy, but our society is. —from TWILIGHT OF
AMERICAN SANITY
More than three
years in the making: the world's leading expert on psychiatric diagnosis,
past leader of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM (“the bible of
psychology”), and author of the influential international bestseller on the
medicalization of ordinary life, Saving Normal, draws upon his vast
experience to deliver a powerful critique of modern American society’s collective
slide away from sanity and offers an urgently needed prescription for
reclaiming our bearings. Widely cited in recent months as the man who quite
literally wrote the diagnostic criteria for narcissism, Allen Frances, M.D.,
has been at the center of the debate surrounding President Trump’s mental
state—quoted in Evan Osnos’s May 2017 New Yorker article (“How Trump Could
Get Fired”) and publishing a much-shared opinion letter in the New York
Times (“An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump’s Mental State”). Frances
argues that Trump is "bad, not mad"--and that the real question to
wrestle with is how we as a country could have chosen him as our leader.
Twilight of American Sanity is an essential work for understanding our
national crisis.
A LIGHT SIDE TO
POLITICS IS ALWAYS WELCOME. SOMETIMES AFTER DOING SERIOUS NEWS I GO TO STEPHEN
COLBERT, AND IT’S A WELCOME BIT OF HOPE. I DIDN’T KNOW WUERKER’S CARTOONS, BUT
I RECOGNIZE THE ARTIST’S STYLE. GO TO THE WEBSITE AND TAKE A LOOK.
Wuerker
Cartoons Year in Review
We look back on
a year full of political drama, brouhahas, kerfuffles and malarkey with the
best of Matt Wuerker's 2019 cartoons.
By MATT WUERKER
12/23/2019 11:47 AM EST
VIDEOS
NRA collapsing
under scandal, criminal investigation
SHARE THIS - COPIED
Rachel Maddow
looks at how the once politically powerful NRA is falling apart amid
humiliating scandal and infighting and could face being shut down as New
York Attorney General Letitia James investigates their finances.
Dec. 24, 2019
DURATION 10:50
Trump's wildest
lines of 2019
Regardless of
your politics, there's no denying that President Donald Trump is uniquely
quotable. In his third year in office, the list of extraordinary things the
President has said, or tweeted continued to grow. As 2019 comes to an end,
Chris Cillizza breaks down Trump's 25 wildest, most head-scratching lines of
the year.
Source: CNN
**** ****
**** ****
TESTING COMMENT FUNCTION TESTING TESTING TESTING
ReplyDelete