COREY BOOKER IS YET ANOTHER IGNORANT DEMOCRAT WHO THINKS THAT IF PEOPLE HAVE SKIN THAT IS NOT WHITE, THEY ARE SOME OTHER RACE THAN HUMAN ...
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Booker and Biden Exchange Jabs on Race Ahead of Next Democratic Debate"
Nick Corasaniti, Katie Glueck and Matt Stevens
26 JULY 2019
Joseph R. Biden Jr. entered the 2020 presidential campaign with wide support from black voters and a reservoir of good will stemming from his eight years as an unswervingly loyal vice president to Barack Obama — a huge head start in a primary where African-Americans will play a decisive role.
But as the next high-stakes televised debate rapidly approaches, the two leading black candidates in the Democratic contest, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, have mounted a direct challenge to Mr. Biden’s decades-long record on race in hopes of undermining his standing with black voters and ultimately derailing his candidacy.
The reckoning over Mr. Biden’s record has drawn him into the most direct confrontation of the campaign yet, as Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker try to make the case to black voters that they are better suited to promote their interests than Mr. Biden.
The two candidates have criticized Mr. Biden for reframing his own history, including his previous opposition to busing and his role in drafting the 1994 crime bill.
Early polling, both nationally and in some key early states, indicates that many black voters remain unmoved.
On Thursday, a Monmouth University poll from South Carolina, a key early voting state, found that 51 percent of black voters there supported Mr. Biden; 12 percent supported Ms. Harris, and just 2 percent supported Mr. Booker.
The searing fight over race, inequality and history has come to dominate the Democratic presidential contest, with Mr. Booker angling for an advantage against Mr. Biden after watching Ms. Harris draw attention for weeks over her criticism of the former vice president over busing.
This week, Mr. Booker has attacked Mr. Biden’s new criminal justice plan, highlighting his link to the controversial crime bill, which experts link to mass incarceration, and dubbing him “the proud architect of a failed system.”
Speaking at the National Urban League Annual Conference on Thursday, Mr. Booker sought to frame the discussion as a referendum on Mr. Biden’s past.
“It is easy to call Donald Trump a racist now, you get no badge of courage for that,” Mr. Booker said.
“The question is, what were you doing to address structural inequality and institutional racism throughout your life?"
"Don’t just tell us what you’re going to do."
"Tell us what you’ve already done."
"Don’t just tell us you’re going to be a champion for our communities when you become president, if you haven’t been a champion already.”
Mr. Biden and his campaign have increasingly criticized both Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris, forcefully defending Mr. Biden’s record and openly drawing contrasts on issues ranging from health care to policing.
Mr. Biden’s willingness to engage his rivals comes after his tepid response to Ms. Harris on the debate stage last month when she tore into his past opposition to busing initiatives, dealing him his most significant blow of the campaign to date.
Virtually everyone in Mr. Biden’s campaign, from the former vice president on down, subscribes to the idea that he can no longer seek to stay above the Democratic fray, a posture he tried to maintain in the early weeks of his campaign.
“I’m not going to be as polite this time,” Mr. Biden said at a fund-raiser in Detroit on Wednesday.
When an attendee told him that clashing with Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris now could make him a stronger general election candidate, Mr. Biden said: “If they want to argue about the past, I can do that."
"I got a past I’m proud of."
"They got a past that’s not quite so good.”
Ever since Mr. Booker dispensed with the primary’s early-stage niceties and demanded Mr. Biden apologize for his warm remarks about working with segregationists in the Senate, he and Ms. Harris have gone on the offensive, aggressively denouncing Mr. Biden’s record on race and seeking to portray him as having been on the wrong side of issues and developments affecting black Americans for decades.
Though Mr. Booker never mentioned Mr. Biden by name on Thursday, his speech amplified the critique, making the case that Mr. Biden’s record on issues like criminal justice could hamper his ability to energize African-American voters, whose turnout will be critical if the Democrats wish to defeat President Trump next year.
“I want to talk about what people often mean when they say or ask, ‘Is someone electable,’” Mr. Booker said.
“Because most of the time when somebody is asking about electability, they’re not asking about the African-American voters who make up the most reliable constituency of the Democratic Party."
"And that’s a problem.”
A day earlier, Mr. Biden swung back at Mr. Booker, criticizing his tenure as mayor of Newark.
“His police department was stopping and frisking people, mostly African-American men,” he said, highlighting the Newark Police Department’s record of conducting improper stops under Mr. Booker’s watch.
His campaign also sent a lengthy statement to reporters Wednesday afternoon responding to Mr. Booker. “It is Senator Booker, in fact, who has some hard questions to answer about his role in the criminal justice system,” the statement said.
The return volley from Mr. Biden’s campaign elevated Mr. Booker, a candidate who has struggled in the polls for months, as the back-and-forth created a drumbeat of media coverage.
And the aggressive response from Mr. Biden further freed Mr. Booker to take more direct aim at Mr. Biden in the debate next Wednesday, when he and Ms. Harris will be standing on either side of him.
The escalating conflict worried the Rev. Al Sharpton, a key leader in the civil rights community, who said that necessary, important and candid conversations about race and inequality should not be marred by politics.
“We cannot afford cannibalism in the middle of the race that would only accrue to Trump’s benefit,” Mr. Sharpton said in an interview.
“The question is whether or not both of them can concede that they’ve made mistakes, but then say this is where we need to go, rather than trading off attacks.”
Mr. Sharpton was also critical of Mr. Biden’s criminal justice platform, which he said did not address many issues that are central to the national conversation.
“I think he should have gone further,” Mr. Sharpton said.
“If you are running as Joe Biden, as part of the Obama legacy, stay right where we were taking it — consent decrees, the commission on policing — and say, this is the work that we must continue.”
Less than an hour after Mr. Booker made his comments about electability, Kate Bedingfield, the Biden campaign’s communications director, returned fire, sending a tweet with images of two polls that indicated Mr. Biden’s support among black voters far surpassed Mr. Booker’s.
While Ms. Harris also lags behind Mr. Biden in support among African-Americans, her performance in the June debate gave her a significant boost in recent polls, propelled in part by black voters.
Dot Scott, the president of the Charleston, S.C., branch of the N.A.A.C.P., sounded resigned when asked about the clashes between the candidates over race, and warned them not to go too far.
“The issues that they’re bringing up probably would never even be discussed if it wasn’t, everybody’s looking for the same job,” she said.
“It’s unfortunate because I want to make sure, being the Democrat that I am, that we don’t damage one another so bad that it hurts the efforts of the Democratic Party.”
Asked whether she was troubled by any aspects of Mr. Biden’s past, Ms. Scott, who has stayed neutral in the primary, said she was “not disturbed in the least.”
“The absence of a record doesn’t mean, had they had the same opportunity, that the other candidates wouldn’t have a record that people can find something wrong with,” she said.
Mr. Biden has said he felt blindsided by Ms. Harris’s questioning, a point he reiterated in a radio interview that aired Thursday morning on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show.”
“I thought we were friends,” he said.
“I hope we still will be.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... id=HPDHP17
KAMALA HARRIS
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
KAM HARRIS IS USING THE PROMISE OF PUBLIC MONIES TO PANDER FOR VOTES, WHICH IS VERY UNPRESIDENTIAL, INDEED, GIVEN THAT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IS IN CHARGE OF THE PURSE STRINGS …
REUTERS
"U.S. presidential hopeful Harris would spend $60 billion on historically black colleges"
By Sharon Bernstein
26 JULY 2019
(Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris will unveil a plan on Friday to invest $60 billion in historically black colleges and universities if elected, the latest effort by the U.S. senator from California to reach out to black voters.
She will also release a plan to spend $12 billion on entrepreneurship programs aimed at the black community, her campaign said.
Harris is one of two dozen Democrats in a field led by former Vice President Joe Biden seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.
She has consistently polled behind Biden among black voters, despite her mixed heritage as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India.
At the first Democratic nominating contest debate last month, Harris took on Biden, who is white, over issues of race, and was rewarded with a bump in the polls.
Harris' plan, to be released during a speech before the National Urban League conference in Indianapolis, is aimed at bolstering science and technology education for historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, as well as other minority-serving institutions.
It would create a $10 billion grant fund to build laboratories and other infrastructure, and $50 billion to fund scholarships, internships and curriculum for so-called STEM classes, involving science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Harris is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, one of the best-known U.S. historically black colleges and universities.
Citing data showing African-Americans are more likely to rely on credit cards than bank loans when starting businesses and are often offered smaller loans at higher interest rates than whites, Harris' plan would establish a grant program for black-owned startup businesses.
Her plan would also establish a student loan forgiveness program for entrepreneurs who operate in disadvantaged communities for three years.
“By taking these challenges on, we don’t just move Black America forward, we move all of America forward,” Harris' prepared remarks will say, according to her campaign.
On Tuesday, Biden unveiled a plan to overhaul the U.S. criminal justice system by lowering incarceration rates, ending the federal death penalty and eliminating racial disparities in how people are sentenced..
The former U.S. senator from Delaware has been criticized over his support for a 1994 crime bill that some say contributed to mass incarceration, especially of black men.
A Monmouth University poll released on Thursday showed Harris trailing far behind Biden among black voters in the early primary-election state of South Carolina, which has a large African-American electorate.
Just 12 percent of black respondents supported Harris, versus 51 percent for Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, America's first black president.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
REUTERS
"U.S. presidential hopeful Harris would spend $60 billion on historically black colleges"
By Sharon Bernstein
26 JULY 2019
(Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris will unveil a plan on Friday to invest $60 billion in historically black colleges and universities if elected, the latest effort by the U.S. senator from California to reach out to black voters.
She will also release a plan to spend $12 billion on entrepreneurship programs aimed at the black community, her campaign said.
Harris is one of two dozen Democrats in a field led by former Vice President Joe Biden seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.
She has consistently polled behind Biden among black voters, despite her mixed heritage as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India.
At the first Democratic nominating contest debate last month, Harris took on Biden, who is white, over issues of race, and was rewarded with a bump in the polls.
Harris' plan, to be released during a speech before the National Urban League conference in Indianapolis, is aimed at bolstering science and technology education for historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, as well as other minority-serving institutions.
It would create a $10 billion grant fund to build laboratories and other infrastructure, and $50 billion to fund scholarships, internships and curriculum for so-called STEM classes, involving science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Harris is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, one of the best-known U.S. historically black colleges and universities.
Citing data showing African-Americans are more likely to rely on credit cards than bank loans when starting businesses and are often offered smaller loans at higher interest rates than whites, Harris' plan would establish a grant program for black-owned startup businesses.
Her plan would also establish a student loan forgiveness program for entrepreneurs who operate in disadvantaged communities for three years.
“By taking these challenges on, we don’t just move Black America forward, we move all of America forward,” Harris' prepared remarks will say, according to her campaign.
On Tuesday, Biden unveiled a plan to overhaul the U.S. criminal justice system by lowering incarceration rates, ending the federal death penalty and eliminating racial disparities in how people are sentenced..
The former U.S. senator from Delaware has been criticized over his support for a 1994 crime bill that some say contributed to mass incarceration, especially of black men.
A Monmouth University poll released on Thursday showed Harris trailing far behind Biden among black voters in the early primary-election state of South Carolina, which has a large African-American electorate.
Just 12 percent of black respondents supported Harris, versus 51 percent for Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, America's first black president.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
WE HAVE PLENTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE HERE IN THE CORRUPT ****HOLE OF AOC'S NEW YORK STATE THANKS TO DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST GOVERNOR YOUNG ANDY CUOMO, SO ANYTHING AOC AND KAMALA HARRIS CAN DO TO REIN IN HIS INJUSTICES WOULD BE APPRECIATED ...THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR APRIL 12, 2019 AT 9:54 AM
So, what are we really looking at here, people, with the “Green New Deal?”
How about fundraising based on false pretenses, which makes this “Green New Deal” one of the slickest SCAMS to come down the pike in a long, long time, made possible by Al Gore’s invention of the internet as a potent and powerful fund-raising tool, as we are seeing in the case of this “Green New Deal,” which is being used to raise internet funds on several different but inter-connected websites, such as the Sunrise Movement and the Justice Democrats, to wit:
OF, BY, AND FOR THE PEOPLE
A Platform Democrats Can Fight For
Opinion polls in the United States demonstrate that these policy positions are overwhelmingly popular.
Indeed, throughout the industrialized world these ideas are considered moderate.
This is a movement about freedom and justice.
And it’s a movement of, by, and for working people.
If the Democrats refuse to embrace this platform, they’ll continue to lose, either to Republicans or to us.
Transform Our Economy
We need a bold economic vision that will both reclaim lost capital and put money back in the pockets of hard-working Americans, and create millions of new jobs for those who have been left out of the workforce.
GREEN NEW DEAL
Scientists are sounding the alarm on climate change.
Communities are fighting back.
It’s time to drastically and immediately move away from fossil fuels, develop the technologies of the future, and create prosperity for all of us — not just those on top.
The Green New Deal is a mass mobilization to dramatically expand existing renewable power sources and deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources.
The Green New Deal will also provide all members of our society, across all regions and all communities, the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one and ensure a ‘just transition’ for all workers, low-income communities, communities of color, indigenous communities, rural and urban communities and the front-line communities most affected by climate change, pollution and other environmental harm including by ensuring that local implementation of the transition is led from the community level and by prioritizing solutions that end the harms faced by front-line communities from climate change and environmental pollution.
SECURE A LIVING WAGE AND TIE IT TO INFLATION
ENACT A FEDERAL JOBS GUARANTEE
REBUILD OUR CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE
BLOCK BAD TRADE DEALS
END TAX DODGING AND LOOPHOLES
END UNNECESSARY WARS AND NATION BUILDING
https://www.justicedemocrats.com/issues
end quotes
And up at the top of the page is that box that says “DONATE.”
Except what you are donating for, as AOC herself informed us on the MSNBC Town Hall with Chris Hayes on 03/29/19, is nothing at all, to wit:
OCASIO-CORTEZ: And first all of we wave a magic wand and we passed the Green New Deal resolution tomorrow, what happens?
Nothing because it’s a resolution.
end quotes
So why aren’t the people being asked to donate on these various websites touting and promoting the “Green New Deal” as the cure for everything that ails this country being told the truth that if the “Green New Deal” were to be passed this afternoon, nothing is going to happen and nothing is going to change?
And where is all that donation money going to?
And for what cause then?
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/g ... ent-140073
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"Harris announces 'landmark bill' with AOC to fight 'environmental injustice'"
John Gage
30 JULY 2019
Sen. Kamala Harris announced she was teaming up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to make sure the Green New Deal would lift up low-income communities, people of color, and indigenous communities.
"Too many communities in America face systemic environmental injustice — that must end," the California Democrat said Monday on Twitter.
"Today, I'm partnering with @AOC to announce a landmark bill to ensure that a Green New Deal leaves no one behind and lifts up low-income communities, people of color, and indigenous communities."
The bill, titled "Climate Equity Act of 2019," would require congressional climate and environmental bills to have an equity score and require additional review for "climate equity" in federal regulations.
The bill would additionally require all major federal climate and environmental investments to consider front-line groups, including low-income communities, indigenous communities, and communities of color.
The bill would create an office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability to handle new responsibilities created by the bill.
Harris is currently polling in fourth place at 11% in the Democratic presidential primary according to RealClearPolitics.
Ocasio-Cortez originally introduced the Green New Deal in February.
The bill seeks to shift large amounts of the U.S. economy to be directed at fighting climate change.
The non-binding resolution includes calls for the U.S. to deal with "a large racial wealth divide."
The resolution also claimed environmental issues "disproportionately" affect indigenous communities.
Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti claimed earlier this month about the Green New Deal that "it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all ... we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE HILL
"Biden holds two-to-one lead over Sanders in post-debate poll"
Jonathan Easley
2 AUGUST 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden has a 2-to-1 lead nationally over the next closest Democratic presidential contender after the second round of debates, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
The new survey finds Biden with 34 percent support among Democrats, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 17 percent.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is in third place with 9 percent support, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 8 percent, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 4 percent, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke at 3 percent and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) at 2 percent.
"Biden has been steady despite some rocky performances at the debates," said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
"The Democratic voters are far more in sync with Biden's views than any of the other candidates running."
"He maintains his front-runner status."
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll of 585 registered Democratic voters was conducted between July 31 and Aug. 1.
The first night of this week's Democratic debates took place on July 30 and the second night was July 31, so some of the respondents may not have viewed the second night of debate, when Biden appeared.
Biden's lead is down some from the previous survey conducted in late May, before the Democratic debates.
At the time, the poll showed Biden holding a 30-point lead over Sanders and registering 44 percent support among Democrats.
But the former vice president remains in a strong position, with 46 percent of Democrats viewing him as having the best chance to defeat President Trump.
Fifteen percent of Democrats said Sanders has the best shot at knocking off Trump, followed by Warren at 7 percent and Harris at 6 percent.
A plurality of Democrats, 47 percent, said they want to nominate a candidate with the strongest chance of winning.
Only 12 percent said their first preference is a candidate who shares their positions, while 36 percent said they value both traits equally.
Biden also leads when voters are asked to name the top three candidates that best share their values, with 46 percent saying Biden, followed by Sanders at 34 percent, Warren at 27 and Harris at 24.
Health care is by far the top issue for Democratic voters, with 45 percent calling it their top priority, followed by immigration at 29 percent and jobs and the economy at 20 percent.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll.
The Hill will be working with Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll throughout 2019.
Full poll results will be posted online later this week.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics.
As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Biden holds two-to-one lead over Sanders in post-debate poll"
Jonathan Easley
2 AUGUST 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden has a 2-to-1 lead nationally over the next closest Democratic presidential contender after the second round of debates, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
The new survey finds Biden with 34 percent support among Democrats, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 17 percent.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is in third place with 9 percent support, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 8 percent, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 4 percent, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke at 3 percent and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) at 2 percent.
"Biden has been steady despite some rocky performances at the debates," said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
"The Democratic voters are far more in sync with Biden's views than any of the other candidates running."
"He maintains his front-runner status."
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll of 585 registered Democratic voters was conducted between July 31 and Aug. 1.
The first night of this week's Democratic debates took place on July 30 and the second night was July 31, so some of the respondents may not have viewed the second night of debate, when Biden appeared.
Biden's lead is down some from the previous survey conducted in late May, before the Democratic debates.
At the time, the poll showed Biden holding a 30-point lead over Sanders and registering 44 percent support among Democrats.
But the former vice president remains in a strong position, with 46 percent of Democrats viewing him as having the best chance to defeat President Trump.
Fifteen percent of Democrats said Sanders has the best shot at knocking off Trump, followed by Warren at 7 percent and Harris at 6 percent.
A plurality of Democrats, 47 percent, said they want to nominate a candidate with the strongest chance of winning.
Only 12 percent said their first preference is a candidate who shares their positions, while 36 percent said they value both traits equally.
Biden also leads when voters are asked to name the top three candidates that best share their values, with 46 percent saying Biden, followed by Sanders at 34 percent, Warren at 27 and Harris at 24.
Health care is by far the top issue for Democratic voters, with 45 percent calling it their top priority, followed by immigration at 29 percent and jobs and the economy at 20 percent.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll.
The Hill will be working with Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll throughout 2019.
Full poll results will be posted online later this week.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics.
As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
USA TODAY
"'#ThanksObama': 2020 Democrats walk back Obama criticisms"
Rebecca Morin
3 AUGUST 2019
WASHINGTON – Some 2020 Democratic presidential candidates that took aim at former President Barack Obama during this week's primary debates are now trying to walk back their criticisms.
"Heck, if [Obama] was running for president for a third term, I wouldn't be running," Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey told CNN on Thursday.
Some of Obama's policies were discussed during Wednesday night's debate, including his trademark health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act -- or the eponymous "Obamacare."
Several Democratic 2020 hopefuls criticized Obamacare and have called for a more comprehensive approach to providing health insurance coverage through policies like Medicare for All.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, however, said he would protect and build on the ACA.
In a tweet Friday, Biden pushed back on the implication that Obama had not been bold enough in dealing with health care policy when the former president worked to have Obamacare passed.
"There is nothing moderate about what President Obama did with Obamacare."
"Nothing," Biden tweeted.
"Seven presidents tried to expand access to health care — the Obama-Biden Administration finally got it done."
Obama is rated as the best president by Americans during their lifetimes, according to a 2018 report from Pew Research Center.
And after Wednesday's debate, some political observers puzzled over the criticism of Obama's policies by his fellow Democrats.
"When did Barack Obama become a Republican?," John Avlon asked in an op-ed for CNN.com that went on to defend Obama and his policies and to caution against the current climate of overheated political rhetoric in both parties.
And Washington Post opinion writer Stephen Stromberg argued that the attacks on Obama's policies could serve the interests of President Donald Trump because they "provide talking points for a president determined to denigrate his predecessor and to diminish his legacy by any means possible."
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Thursday said she had "nothing but praise for President Obama."
"I think he did great work,” she told reporters Thursday.
“We talked about the health care system."
"Many presidents before him tried to reform America’s health care system."
"He actually got it done.”
During Wednesday night's debate, Harris was taken to task for her newly released health care plan, which would transition to a Medicare for All system over 10 years.
During the transition, the role for private insurers would be preserved.
Sen. Cory Booker during Wednesday night's debate slammed Biden for invoking Obama, saying: "You can’t have it both ways."
"You invoke President Obama more than anyone in this campaign."
"You can’t do it when it’s convenient and then duck it when it’s not.”
On Thursday, Booker maintained that although Obama is the Democrat's "statesman," he is not immune from criticism.
"He is our statesman," Booker said of Obama.
"He ain't perfect."
"Nobody's ever pulled that off."
"Nobody has ever pulled that off."
"I'm sure if Barack Obama was sitting here — and I hope he's sleeping this morning — he would tell you, 'I've made some mistakes,'" Booker continued.
The Obama administration's immigration record was also called out for criticism during Wednesday's debate.
Julián Castro, who was Housing and Urban Development secretary under Obama, called into question the high number of deportations that occurred under Obama's watch.
Biden told Castro during the debate that he hadn't heard that complaint from him at the time when they both worked for Obama.
"One of us has learned the lessons of the past and one hasn’t," Castro replied.
Later in the night, however, Castro thanked Obama for helping revive an economy that was in ire straits in 2009 when Obama took office.
In a tweet posted Thursday, Castro highlighted that moment in the debate.
"Donald Trump likes to take credit for the economy, but Americans know President @BarackObama turned our economy around and expanded opportunity for millions."
"#ThanksObama," Castro wrote in a tweet.
Biden has criticized his fellow 2020 Democrats for going after Obama.
“I must tell you I was a little surprised by how much incoming there was about Barack —about the president,” the former vice president said Thursday.
“I’m proud of having served with him."
"I’m proud of the job he did."
"I don’t think there is anything he has to apologize for …"
"It kind of surprised me, the degree of the criticism.”
Contributing: Aamer Madhani
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: '#ThanksObama': 2020 Democrats walk back Obama criticisms
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"'#ThanksObama': 2020 Democrats walk back Obama criticisms"
Rebecca Morin
3 AUGUST 2019
WASHINGTON – Some 2020 Democratic presidential candidates that took aim at former President Barack Obama during this week's primary debates are now trying to walk back their criticisms.
"Heck, if [Obama] was running for president for a third term, I wouldn't be running," Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey told CNN on Thursday.
Some of Obama's policies were discussed during Wednesday night's debate, including his trademark health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act -- or the eponymous "Obamacare."
Several Democratic 2020 hopefuls criticized Obamacare and have called for a more comprehensive approach to providing health insurance coverage through policies like Medicare for All.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, however, said he would protect and build on the ACA.
In a tweet Friday, Biden pushed back on the implication that Obama had not been bold enough in dealing with health care policy when the former president worked to have Obamacare passed.
"There is nothing moderate about what President Obama did with Obamacare."
"Nothing," Biden tweeted.
"Seven presidents tried to expand access to health care — the Obama-Biden Administration finally got it done."
Obama is rated as the best president by Americans during their lifetimes, according to a 2018 report from Pew Research Center.
And after Wednesday's debate, some political observers puzzled over the criticism of Obama's policies by his fellow Democrats.
"When did Barack Obama become a Republican?," John Avlon asked in an op-ed for CNN.com that went on to defend Obama and his policies and to caution against the current climate of overheated political rhetoric in both parties.
And Washington Post opinion writer Stephen Stromberg argued that the attacks on Obama's policies could serve the interests of President Donald Trump because they "provide talking points for a president determined to denigrate his predecessor and to diminish his legacy by any means possible."
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Thursday said she had "nothing but praise for President Obama."
"I think he did great work,” she told reporters Thursday.
“We talked about the health care system."
"Many presidents before him tried to reform America’s health care system."
"He actually got it done.”
During Wednesday night's debate, Harris was taken to task for her newly released health care plan, which would transition to a Medicare for All system over 10 years.
During the transition, the role for private insurers would be preserved.
Sen. Cory Booker during Wednesday night's debate slammed Biden for invoking Obama, saying: "You can’t have it both ways."
"You invoke President Obama more than anyone in this campaign."
"You can’t do it when it’s convenient and then duck it when it’s not.”
On Thursday, Booker maintained that although Obama is the Democrat's "statesman," he is not immune from criticism.
"He is our statesman," Booker said of Obama.
"He ain't perfect."
"Nobody's ever pulled that off."
"Nobody has ever pulled that off."
"I'm sure if Barack Obama was sitting here — and I hope he's sleeping this morning — he would tell you, 'I've made some mistakes,'" Booker continued.
The Obama administration's immigration record was also called out for criticism during Wednesday's debate.
Julián Castro, who was Housing and Urban Development secretary under Obama, called into question the high number of deportations that occurred under Obama's watch.
Biden told Castro during the debate that he hadn't heard that complaint from him at the time when they both worked for Obama.
"One of us has learned the lessons of the past and one hasn’t," Castro replied.
Later in the night, however, Castro thanked Obama for helping revive an economy that was in ire straits in 2009 when Obama took office.
In a tweet posted Thursday, Castro highlighted that moment in the debate.
"Donald Trump likes to take credit for the economy, but Americans know President @BarackObama turned our economy around and expanded opportunity for millions."
"#ThanksObama," Castro wrote in a tweet.
Biden has criticized his fellow 2020 Democrats for going after Obama.
“I must tell you I was a little surprised by how much incoming there was about Barack —about the president,” the former vice president said Thursday.
“I’m proud of having served with him."
"I’m proud of the job he did."
"I don’t think there is anything he has to apologize for …"
"It kind of surprised me, the degree of the criticism.”
Contributing: Aamer Madhani
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: '#ThanksObama': 2020 Democrats walk back Obama criticisms
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
MARKETWATCH
"Chicago Has Its Worst Weekend of Gun Violence in 2019 as 7 Are Killed"
By Julie Bosman
Aug. 5, 2019
CHICAGO — While much of the nation’s attention was focused on the gun massacres in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, last weekend, Chicago was convulsed by its own burst of violence — the worst weekend the city has seen so far in 2019.
It was an extreme example of the routine but devastating gun violence, often related to gang conflicts, that cities like Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis experience on a regular basis.
The police said seven people were killed and 52 wounded by gunfire throughout Chicago from Friday evening to Sunday, including a 5-year-old boy who was shot in the leg while sitting in a car.
Early Sunday, 17 people were shot in a period of two hours in a small pocket on the city’s West Side, turning residential blocks into chaotic scenes of ambulances, grieving family members and cars pockmarked with bullets.
There were 32 separate shooting incidents throughout the weekend, the police said.
Gun violence in Chicago tends to peak during the summer months, when school is out, the temperature is high and residents spend more time outside at social gatherings, which can be a magnet for conflict.
Shootings and homicides have decreased in 2019, but there have been at least 300 homicides this year and 1,600 people shot, according to The Chicago Tribune.
On Monday morning, Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, tweeted a nearly minute-long audio recording of rapid gunfire from a shooting on the West Side on Sunday.
“Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders,” he wrote.
“Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th & Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against.”
The Chicago police have frequently criticized the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for issuing what they see as light sentences and bonds for gun offenders.
Illinois has among the strictest gun laws in the country, requiring most residents to acquire a license, or Firearm Owner’s Identification card, before legally owning a firearm or ammunition.
Last year, lawmakers passed a measure requiring a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases and a so-called red flag law, which President Trump endorsed in a speech on Monday and that allows relatives and law enforcement officials to ask courts to confiscate firearms from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
But many of the illegal weapons seized in Chicago come from across the state line in Indiana, where gun laws are less restrictive.
In one shooting last weekend, suspects fired into a large group of people who had gathered for a block party.
“Three cars pulled up and they just started shooting everybody,” Keith Flowers, the father of one of the victims, told reporters.
His son, Demetrius Flowers, 33, was shot in the chest and did not survive.
Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago was so overwhelmed that its emergency department temporarily stopped accepting patients with gunshot wounds in the early morning hours of Sunday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has vowed to find solutions to the city’s problems with gun violence, which vexed her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel.
“Spent much of the weekend in West Side where the City and community orgs are working closely together to provide support to areas devastated by drugs and violence,” she wrote on Twitter on Monday.
“I am absolutely determined to do everything possible help our communities heal.”
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 6, 2019, Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: 7 Killed in Chicago’s Worst Weekend of Violence in 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/c ... -guns.html
"Chicago Has Its Worst Weekend of Gun Violence in 2019 as 7 Are Killed"
By Julie Bosman
Aug. 5, 2019
CHICAGO — While much of the nation’s attention was focused on the gun massacres in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, last weekend, Chicago was convulsed by its own burst of violence — the worst weekend the city has seen so far in 2019.
It was an extreme example of the routine but devastating gun violence, often related to gang conflicts, that cities like Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis experience on a regular basis.
The police said seven people were killed and 52 wounded by gunfire throughout Chicago from Friday evening to Sunday, including a 5-year-old boy who was shot in the leg while sitting in a car.
Early Sunday, 17 people were shot in a period of two hours in a small pocket on the city’s West Side, turning residential blocks into chaotic scenes of ambulances, grieving family members and cars pockmarked with bullets.
There were 32 separate shooting incidents throughout the weekend, the police said.
Gun violence in Chicago tends to peak during the summer months, when school is out, the temperature is high and residents spend more time outside at social gatherings, which can be a magnet for conflict.
Shootings and homicides have decreased in 2019, but there have been at least 300 homicides this year and 1,600 people shot, according to The Chicago Tribune.
On Monday morning, Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, tweeted a nearly minute-long audio recording of rapid gunfire from a shooting on the West Side on Sunday.
“Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders,” he wrote.
“Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th & Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against.”
The Chicago police have frequently criticized the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for issuing what they see as light sentences and bonds for gun offenders.
Illinois has among the strictest gun laws in the country, requiring most residents to acquire a license, or Firearm Owner’s Identification card, before legally owning a firearm or ammunition.
Last year, lawmakers passed a measure requiring a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases and a so-called red flag law, which President Trump endorsed in a speech on Monday and that allows relatives and law enforcement officials to ask courts to confiscate firearms from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
But many of the illegal weapons seized in Chicago come from across the state line in Indiana, where gun laws are less restrictive.
In one shooting last weekend, suspects fired into a large group of people who had gathered for a block party.
“Three cars pulled up and they just started shooting everybody,” Keith Flowers, the father of one of the victims, told reporters.
His son, Demetrius Flowers, 33, was shot in the chest and did not survive.
Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago was so overwhelmed that its emergency department temporarily stopped accepting patients with gunshot wounds in the early morning hours of Sunday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has vowed to find solutions to the city’s problems with gun violence, which vexed her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel.
“Spent much of the weekend in West Side where the City and community orgs are working closely together to provide support to areas devastated by drugs and violence,” she wrote on Twitter on Monday.
“I am absolutely determined to do everything possible help our communities heal.”
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 6, 2019, Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: 7 Killed in Chicago’s Worst Weekend of Violence in 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/c ... -guns.html
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
USA TODAYThere's a killer on the road
His brain is squirming like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride, sweet family will die
Killer on the road, yeah
"Dayton shooting: What we know about the gunman's politics"
Keith BieryGolick and Cameron Knight, Cincinnati Enquirer
Published 2:23 p.m. ET Aug. 7, 2019
CINCINNATI, Ohio – Before President Donald Trump visited Dayton, where a 24-year-old shot and killed nine people on Sunday, the president tweeted about the shooter's politics.
A day before that, FBI officials announced they were taking over the case.
The FBI said the gunman, Connor Betts, demonstrated an interest in "violent ideologies" before the mass shooting.
Betts' family has not commented publicly about the shooting at Dayton's Oregon District that also claimed the life of their daughter, Megan, other than a statement saying they were "shocked and devastated" by what happened.
Dozens were injured in the shooting that occurred less than a day after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
Here's what we know about the gunman's politics:
He was a registered Democrat.
Trump said the gunman had supported Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and antifa, a militant group that protests far-right ideology.
Betts once showed video of a mass shooting to a woman on their first date, according to NBC News.
The Dayton Daily News reported he attended a May 25 Ku Klux Klan rally in Dayton as an armed counter-protester.
Twitter posts point to far-left political leanings
A suspended Twitter account features references to growing up in Dayton and selfies of Betts and his family.
Neither officials nor family members have confirmed it belonged to him.
The account, created in 2013, was suspended late Sunday night.
Before it was suspended, the account's Twitter bio said: "he/him / anime fan / metalhead / leftist / i'm going to hell and i'm not coming back."
A few days before the shooting, the Twitter user was concerned about the Equifax data breach.
He retweeted this: "Losing your personal information in a massive data breach is just a thing that happens now, like 110 degree days and regular mass shootings."
The last message posted to the account was a retweet: “Millennials have a message for the Joe Biden generation: hurry up and die.”
Photos of people beating up white supremacists and klansmen were retweeted from the account.
After Trump visited Cincinnati last week and blasted "left-wing extremists," the account retweeted an account mocking a Trump supporter who claimed he had $1,500 stolen from him.
"Stealing from right wingers is praxis," or common practice, the tweet said.
Gunman talked politics and guns
In the days following the shooting, former classmates spoke about violent incidents in Betts' past.
But they also spoke about his love of politics.
In high school, he was known to talk about politics and would frequently trash Republicans, according to the Washington Post.
Dayton resident True Hoffman, who attended Sinclair Community College at the same time as Betts, said: "He had always talked about guns."
"He said he wanted to make a change with guns."
Follow Keith BieryGolick and Cameron Knight on Twitter: @KBieryGolick and @ckpj99.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/201 ... 943289001/
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE RUSSIAN MEDDLING EXPOSED THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AS OUR ACHILLES HEEL …
AND THIS IS THE MOST DISJOINTED AND FRANKLY BIZARRE ARGUMENT I HAVE EVER HEARD SINCE RACE WAS NEVER A FACTOR IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION …
IT SOUNDS LIKE THE STRESS OF RUNNING A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HAS OVERTAXED THE MENTAL CAPABILITIES OF KAM HARRIS …
SHE SHOULD DO HERSELF A FAVOR BEFORE EMBARRASSING HERSELF FURTHER AND DROP OUT OF THE RACE FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION …
And so ...
THE NEW YORK POST
"Kamala Harris says Russia’s election meddling exposed race as America’s ‘Achilles heel’"
By Mark Moore
August 11, 2019 | 10:32am
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris said Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election revealed race as America’s “Achilles heel” and it must be dealt with as a national security issue.
“They decide to attack what is the strongest pillar of a democracy, which is free and open elections."
"So let’s get Americans going after each other."
"What’s going to get heat?"
"And they tried out a bunch of different things."
"And you know what caught heat?"
"The issue of race."
"So Russia exposed America’s Achilles heel,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.
She said by focusing on the deep divisions surrounding racial politics in the US, Russia allowed those who “want to marginalize the conversation about race” to say: “Oh, well, that’s identity politics or that’s this, or that’s that.”
”Now it is also a national security issue."
"And we need to deal with it."
"And we need to deal with it,” the former attorney general of California said.
She also said that “racism is real in this country” and that it was around long before President Trump entered the White House.
”The reality is that these are forms of hate that are not new to our country, which have, in the history of our country, taken lethal proportion."
"And still today take on lethal proportion,” she said on NBC.
“And so I believe that the conversation has to be about how we are going to speak truth about the history, and then address it.”
She referred to the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, last week in which the gunman targeted “Mexicans” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Mississippi that rounded up 680 workers at chicken plants as evidence.
“When I look at what’s happening now … just most recently, with the announcement of the raids from months ago, much less what happened in El Paso, to the most recent raids, where hundreds of people were picked up,” she said.
“Many were released because they probably shouldn’t have been picked up in the first place."
"People are afraid in our country.”
https://nypost.com/2019/08/11/kamala-ha ... lles-heel/
AND THIS IS THE MOST DISJOINTED AND FRANKLY BIZARRE ARGUMENT I HAVE EVER HEARD SINCE RACE WAS NEVER A FACTOR IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION …
IT SOUNDS LIKE THE STRESS OF RUNNING A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HAS OVERTAXED THE MENTAL CAPABILITIES OF KAM HARRIS …
SHE SHOULD DO HERSELF A FAVOR BEFORE EMBARRASSING HERSELF FURTHER AND DROP OUT OF THE RACE FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION …
And so ...
THE NEW YORK POST
"Kamala Harris says Russia’s election meddling exposed race as America’s ‘Achilles heel’"
By Mark Moore
August 11, 2019 | 10:32am
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris said Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election revealed race as America’s “Achilles heel” and it must be dealt with as a national security issue.
“They decide to attack what is the strongest pillar of a democracy, which is free and open elections."
"So let’s get Americans going after each other."
"What’s going to get heat?"
"And they tried out a bunch of different things."
"And you know what caught heat?"
"The issue of race."
"So Russia exposed America’s Achilles heel,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.
She said by focusing on the deep divisions surrounding racial politics in the US, Russia allowed those who “want to marginalize the conversation about race” to say: “Oh, well, that’s identity politics or that’s this, or that’s that.”
”Now it is also a national security issue."
"And we need to deal with it."
"And we need to deal with it,” the former attorney general of California said.
She also said that “racism is real in this country” and that it was around long before President Trump entered the White House.
”The reality is that these are forms of hate that are not new to our country, which have, in the history of our country, taken lethal proportion."
"And still today take on lethal proportion,” she said on NBC.
“And so I believe that the conversation has to be about how we are going to speak truth about the history, and then address it.”
She referred to the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, last week in which the gunman targeted “Mexicans” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Mississippi that rounded up 680 workers at chicken plants as evidence.
“When I look at what’s happening now … just most recently, with the announcement of the raids from months ago, much less what happened in El Paso, to the most recent raids, where hundreds of people were picked up,” she said.
“Many were released because they probably shouldn’t have been picked up in the first place."
"People are afraid in our country.”
https://nypost.com/2019/08/11/kamala-ha ... lles-heel/
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE NEW YORK POST
"Democrats have demonized every Trump voter as a ‘deplorable’"
By Miranda Devine
August 11, 2019 | 10:17pm | Updated
Universal Studios has canceled the release of its violent new R-rated massacre movie, “The Hunt,” for now, but the fact it even was made shows we’ve reached a dangerous new point in our political culture.
You have to wonder what twisted minds would dream up this liberal fantasy of jet-setting elites hunting down conservatives like vermin.
“They’re not human beings,” the Hillary Swank character says at one point, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“The Hunt,” originally titled “Red State vs. Blue State,” is a sign of where irrational Trump hatred has taken us.
It’s what the left is doing in real life.
They’re dehumanizing their opponents and trying to incite violence against them.
The president’s detractors have tried for almost three years to break him.
Russia didn’t work, Stormy didn’t work.
Impeachment won’t work.
They’ve smeared his wife, his kids.
They call him a fat slob, a psychopath and a Russian agent.
They’ve used the most violent rhetoric imaginable, from Madonna thinking about blowing up the White House to Kathy Griffin posing with a severed fake Trump head to Robert De Niro wanting to punch Trump in the face.
But nothing works.
The more they abuse him, the more he relishes baiting them.
He is impervious to their attacks, and his approval ratings haven’t budged.
So they have gone berserk.
First, they projected their own murderous thoughts onto Trump, blaming him for the recent El Paso and Dayton massacres.
And in the next breath, they issued death threats against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Just stab the motherf–ker in the heart,” said one charming protester on the lawn outside his house last weekend.
For Trump haters, the means justify the ends, and everyone knows that removing the president from public life is the only end worth pursuing, no matter how foul the means.
The real coarsening of American life comes not from a president who tweets low barbs at his enemies 24/7, it comes from his opponents, who have broken every rule of truth and fair play in politics and journalism.
So unscrupulous are they in their blinkered hunt for Trump’s scalp that they don’t care if the lies they tell endanger people and deepen the divisions in the country, even while they lament the coarsening of the political debate.
Now, having failed in their pursuit of Trump, they’re coming after anyone who supports him.
It’s demonization by association.
When Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro published a hit list of 44 Trump donors on Twitter last week, he knew exactly what he was doing.
With the approval of his brother, 2020 Democratic candidate Julián Castro, he knew that the outcome would be a Twitter mob intimidating and abusing those innocent people, bombarding them with hateful phone calls, boycotting their businesses and potentially committing violence against them.
In a country where guns are plentiful and emotions are high, why would you risk that unless you regarded your political opponents as vermin?
This is the new normal for Democrats: If you disagree with their agenda, you are a deplorable, a bigot, a racist, a white supremacist — and any retaliation is acceptable.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s true.
Truth is whatever version of reality best suits your purpose.
Almost 63 million Americans voted for Trump, in part because they reject the leftist project to remake their history and their culture.
It is not rational or healthy to imagine you can intimidate them into not voting for him in 2020.
But that is all the Democrats have.
All too zany but Delaney
The one Democratic candidate who cut through at the Iowa State Fair was John Delaney.
He looked vital and energetic on the political soapbox.
He calls himself a “common sense, problem-solving Democrat” who wants to bring the county together.
“I’m a different kind of Democrat."
"I believe in getting stuff done.”
He talked about building infrastructure and practical environmental measures.
He refused to demonize Trump as a white supremacist, despite the best efforts of reporters, although he was tough on the rhetoric.
“We’re divided,” he said.
“It’s a disease."
"Trump is a symptom of the disease.”
But Trump is not the disease.
Delaney is a can-do businessman who’s made a lot of money and says he is called to service.
He’s admits to being Catholic, has been married for 29 years and even signed off with a “God bless you all.”
The rest of the candidates were hopeless.
Joe Biden was foggy, Cory Booker was shouty, Kamala Harris was fake, Bill de Blasio was his usual putzy self, Elizabeth Warren was dogmatic, Marianne Williamson was flaky, though stylish, Amy Klobuchar was whiny, Beto O’Rourke wasn’t even there and he was annoying.
Just a very unimpressive mob.
But Delaney wouldn’t repel conservatives, which probably means he’s doomed.
https://nypost.com/2019/08/11/democrats ... eplorable/
"Democrats have demonized every Trump voter as a ‘deplorable’"
By Miranda Devine
August 11, 2019 | 10:17pm | Updated
Universal Studios has canceled the release of its violent new R-rated massacre movie, “The Hunt,” for now, but the fact it even was made shows we’ve reached a dangerous new point in our political culture.
You have to wonder what twisted minds would dream up this liberal fantasy of jet-setting elites hunting down conservatives like vermin.
“They’re not human beings,” the Hillary Swank character says at one point, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“The Hunt,” originally titled “Red State vs. Blue State,” is a sign of where irrational Trump hatred has taken us.
It’s what the left is doing in real life.
They’re dehumanizing their opponents and trying to incite violence against them.
The president’s detractors have tried for almost three years to break him.
Russia didn’t work, Stormy didn’t work.
Impeachment won’t work.
They’ve smeared his wife, his kids.
They call him a fat slob, a psychopath and a Russian agent.
They’ve used the most violent rhetoric imaginable, from Madonna thinking about blowing up the White House to Kathy Griffin posing with a severed fake Trump head to Robert De Niro wanting to punch Trump in the face.
But nothing works.
The more they abuse him, the more he relishes baiting them.
He is impervious to their attacks, and his approval ratings haven’t budged.
So they have gone berserk.
First, they projected their own murderous thoughts onto Trump, blaming him for the recent El Paso and Dayton massacres.
And in the next breath, they issued death threats against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Just stab the motherf–ker in the heart,” said one charming protester on the lawn outside his house last weekend.
For Trump haters, the means justify the ends, and everyone knows that removing the president from public life is the only end worth pursuing, no matter how foul the means.
The real coarsening of American life comes not from a president who tweets low barbs at his enemies 24/7, it comes from his opponents, who have broken every rule of truth and fair play in politics and journalism.
So unscrupulous are they in their blinkered hunt for Trump’s scalp that they don’t care if the lies they tell endanger people and deepen the divisions in the country, even while they lament the coarsening of the political debate.
Now, having failed in their pursuit of Trump, they’re coming after anyone who supports him.
It’s demonization by association.
When Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro published a hit list of 44 Trump donors on Twitter last week, he knew exactly what he was doing.
With the approval of his brother, 2020 Democratic candidate Julián Castro, he knew that the outcome would be a Twitter mob intimidating and abusing those innocent people, bombarding them with hateful phone calls, boycotting their businesses and potentially committing violence against them.
In a country where guns are plentiful and emotions are high, why would you risk that unless you regarded your political opponents as vermin?
This is the new normal for Democrats: If you disagree with their agenda, you are a deplorable, a bigot, a racist, a white supremacist — and any retaliation is acceptable.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s true.
Truth is whatever version of reality best suits your purpose.
Almost 63 million Americans voted for Trump, in part because they reject the leftist project to remake their history and their culture.
It is not rational or healthy to imagine you can intimidate them into not voting for him in 2020.
But that is all the Democrats have.
All too zany but Delaney
The one Democratic candidate who cut through at the Iowa State Fair was John Delaney.
He looked vital and energetic on the political soapbox.
He calls himself a “common sense, problem-solving Democrat” who wants to bring the county together.
“I’m a different kind of Democrat."
"I believe in getting stuff done.”
He talked about building infrastructure and practical environmental measures.
He refused to demonize Trump as a white supremacist, despite the best efforts of reporters, although he was tough on the rhetoric.
“We’re divided,” he said.
“It’s a disease."
"Trump is a symptom of the disease.”
But Trump is not the disease.
Delaney is a can-do businessman who’s made a lot of money and says he is called to service.
He’s admits to being Catholic, has been married for 29 years and even signed off with a “God bless you all.”
The rest of the candidates were hopeless.
Joe Biden was foggy, Cory Booker was shouty, Kamala Harris was fake, Bill de Blasio was his usual putzy self, Elizabeth Warren was dogmatic, Marianne Williamson was flaky, though stylish, Amy Klobuchar was whiny, Beto O’Rourke wasn’t even there and he was annoying.
Just a very unimpressive mob.
But Delaney wouldn’t repel conservatives, which probably means he’s doomed.
https://nypost.com/2019/08/11/democrats ... eplorable/
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
FOX NEWS
"Senate Dems deliver stunning warning to Supreme Court: 'Heal' or face restructuring"
Ronn Blitzer
13 AUGUST 2019
Several high-profile Senate Democrats warned the Supreme Court in pointed terms this week that it could face a fundamental restructuring if justices do not take steps to "heal" the court in the near future.
The ominous and unusual warning was delivered as part of a brief filed Monday in a case related to a New York City gun law.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., referenced rulings by the court's conservative majority in claiming it is suffering from some sort of affliction that must be remedied.
"The Supreme Court is not well."
"And the people know it," the brief said.
"Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.'"
The last part was quoting language from a Quinnipiac University poll, in which 51 percent favored such restructuring.
In the same poll, 55 percent believed the Supreme Court was "motivated by politics" more than by the law.
Dramatic changes to the Supreme Court have been proposed by several Democrats vying for their party's 2020 presidential nomination, with "court-packing" being a common — though highly controversial — suggestion.
Increasing the number of justices on the court would allow the president to shift the balance on the bench by loading up justices of his or her preference.
Democratic candidates including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, and Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, and Gillibrand, all have signaled an openness to expanding the number of judges on the court should they reach the White House.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg has also supported expanding the court, proposing a plan to have some justices appointed by the president and others selected by the other justices in order to "depoliticize" the court.
He's admitted that the only way he can think of to make this work would be to increase the size of the court from nine justices to 15, while stressing that simply "adding more justices onto the court who agree with you" would be a bad idea.
Yet other candidates such as former Vice President Joe Biden has come out against court-packing, as has Bernie Sanders, though the Vermont senator has suggested rotating judges to other courts.
Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has also spoken out against court-packing, telling NPR in July, "Nine seems to be a good number."
The Democratic senators' brief was filed in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, which dealt with legal limitations on where gun owners could transport their licensed, locked, and unloaded firearms.
They are urging the court to stay out of the case brought by the NRA-backed group, claiming that because the city recently changed the law to ease restrictions, the push to the Supreme Court is part of an "industrial-strength influence campaign" to get the conservative majority to rule in favor of gun owners.
If the court still decides to hear the case, a ruling against New York City could prevent other cities and states from passing similar gun control laws.
Conservatives currently outnumber liberals on the Supreme Court 5-4, but the past year featured a multitude of cases where conservatives — including President Trump's picks Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — sided with the liberal bloc.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Senate Dems deliver stunning warning to Supreme Court: 'Heal' or face restructuring"
Ronn Blitzer
13 AUGUST 2019
Several high-profile Senate Democrats warned the Supreme Court in pointed terms this week that it could face a fundamental restructuring if justices do not take steps to "heal" the court in the near future.
The ominous and unusual warning was delivered as part of a brief filed Monday in a case related to a New York City gun law.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., referenced rulings by the court's conservative majority in claiming it is suffering from some sort of affliction that must be remedied.
"The Supreme Court is not well."
"And the people know it," the brief said.
"Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.'"
The last part was quoting language from a Quinnipiac University poll, in which 51 percent favored such restructuring.
In the same poll, 55 percent believed the Supreme Court was "motivated by politics" more than by the law.
Dramatic changes to the Supreme Court have been proposed by several Democrats vying for their party's 2020 presidential nomination, with "court-packing" being a common — though highly controversial — suggestion.
Increasing the number of justices on the court would allow the president to shift the balance on the bench by loading up justices of his or her preference.
Democratic candidates including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, and Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, and Gillibrand, all have signaled an openness to expanding the number of judges on the court should they reach the White House.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg has also supported expanding the court, proposing a plan to have some justices appointed by the president and others selected by the other justices in order to "depoliticize" the court.
He's admitted that the only way he can think of to make this work would be to increase the size of the court from nine justices to 15, while stressing that simply "adding more justices onto the court who agree with you" would be a bad idea.
Yet other candidates such as former Vice President Joe Biden has come out against court-packing, as has Bernie Sanders, though the Vermont senator has suggested rotating judges to other courts.
Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has also spoken out against court-packing, telling NPR in July, "Nine seems to be a good number."
The Democratic senators' brief was filed in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, which dealt with legal limitations on where gun owners could transport their licensed, locked, and unloaded firearms.
They are urging the court to stay out of the case brought by the NRA-backed group, claiming that because the city recently changed the law to ease restrictions, the push to the Supreme Court is part of an "industrial-strength influence campaign" to get the conservative majority to rule in favor of gun owners.
If the court still decides to hear the case, a ruling against New York City could prevent other cities and states from passing similar gun control laws.
Conservatives currently outnumber liberals on the Supreme Court 5-4, but the past year featured a multitude of cases where conservatives — including President Trump's picks Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — sided with the liberal bloc.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2