Warren fans will esp. appreciate this - from the NYT

I'm not the only one to see Biden as 'weak, fumbling'

"From a climate perspective, what’s worrying about Biden isn’t just his hodge-podge climate proposals and promise to return to an Obama-era status quo on decarbonization. It’s his consistently weak, fumbling performances that show how easy a target he’d be for Donald Trump to pick off in the general election. We should be grateful that other candidates went after Biden. Hopefully there’s more of that to come."

-Kate Aronoff: ‘Climate disaster Joe Biden failed to impress’

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/01/who-won-the-democrats-debate-our-panelists-verdict

After watching the 2 debates these are the candidates I think have a chance

(The others either don't have enough of a 'presence', or they don't know enough for the job, or some other problem.)

Amy Klobuchar

Bernie Sanders

Elizabeth Warren

Beto O'Rourke

Cory Booker

Kamala Harris

"No President Is Above the Law" From May 2019

When Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released on April 18, I sat down and read it. All 448 pages of it. I started reading it that afternoon, and I read all through the night and into the next morning. And when I got to page 448, three things were clear to me.

First, a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help candidate Donald Trump get elected. Second, candidate Donald Trump welcomed that help. Third, when the federal government tried to investigate, now-President Donald Trump did everything he could to delay, distract, and otherwise obstruct that investigation.

That’s a crime. If Donald Trump were anyone other than the President of the United States right now, he would be in handcuffs and indicted. Robert Mueller said as much in his report, and he said it again on Wednesday.

“The Special Counsel’s Office is part of the Department of Justice, and by regulation it was bound by that Department policy. Charging the President with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider.”

Mueller’s statement made clear what those of us who have read his report already knew: He’s referring President Trump for impeachment, and it’s up to Congress to act.

That’s why I came out in favor of impeachment after reading all 448 pages of Mueller’s report. This is not about politics — it’s our constitutional duty as members of Congress. It’s a matter of principle.....

"The 2020 Democratic Field, Minus Joe Biden, Embraces a Death Penalty Moratorium"

I Posted Biden in 1991 being proud about his 51 death penalty provisions - and he didn't care whether there was a racial provision or not. People objected to it being 28 years ago. So here we have this - up to date story about the same thing. It is good to consider people's change - or not - over time.

Democrats running for president in 2020 are rushing to cheer Governor Gavin Newsom, after the recently inaugurated California Democrat signed an executive order to halt further executions in his state.

The first two candidates to make public statements on Newsom’s order were California’s own Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), both of whom have focused their campaigns in part on criminal justice reform and the country’s incarceration of people of color.

...But there is one likely candidate who has previously taken a different path. As a U.S. senator, Joe Biden helped write the 1994 crime bill that expanded the application of the death penalty, saying at one point that “we have predators on our streets” who are “beyond the pale.” Sanders voted for it too, though he framed it as a compromise measure.

After one Republican had complained that an earlier crime bill coddled criminals, Biden replied, in support of the law, that "we do everything but hang people for jaywalking." A request for comment made to Biden’s spokesperson was not returned.

Biden's record - video from C-span - Anyone think this is a good thing?

[People] applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country (West Virginia)

KERMIT, W. Va. — It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president — some wearing MAGA stickers — nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren.

The sighting alone of a Democratic presidential candidate in this town of fewer than 400 people — in a county where more than four in five voters cast their ballot for Trump in 2016 — was unusual. Warren’s team was apprehensive about how she’d be received.

About 150 people gathered at the Kermit Fire & Rescue Headquarters Station to hear the Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor talk about what she wants to do to fight the opioid epidemic. Trump-supporting college students in baggy t-shirts, housewives in pearls, and the fire chief dressed in uniform joined liberal retirees wearing rainbow “Persist” shirts and teachers with six-figure student loan debt.

What if we started expecting our candidates to consider their planetary footprint?

What if we started choosing politicians who 'get it' enough to live in small-sized energy efficient homes. (And not multiple ones).

What if we considered the candidates' modes of transportation? Are they being as energy efficient as possible?

What if we considered the candidates' diets? Are they being good role models? (At least to the point of lowering meat consumption)

What if we considered the candidates' leisure activities and consumption habits in general? Are they thoughtful?

If not now, when? If not us - then who?

Snips from 'Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life':

“…The report paints a picture of a planet in which the human footprint is so large it leaves little space for anything else. Three-quarters of all land has been turned into farm fields, covered by concrete, swallowed up by dam reservoirs or otherwise significantly altered. Two-thirds of the marine environment has also been changed by fish farms, shipping routes, subsea mines and other projects. Three-quarters of rivers and lakes are used for crop or livestock cultivation. As a result, more than 500,000 species have insufficient habitats for long-term survival. Many are on course to disappear within decades….

Our species now extracts 60bn tons of resources each year, almost double the amount in 1980, though the world population has grown by only 66% in that time. The report notes how the discharges are overwhelming the Earth’s capacity to absorb them. More than 80% of wastewater is pumped into streams, lakes and oceans without treatment, along with 300m-400m tons of heavy metals, toxic slurry and other industrial discharges. Plastic waste has risen tenfold since 1980, affecting 86% of marine turtles, 44% of seabirds and 43% of marine mammals. Fertiliser run-off has created 400 “dead zones”, affecting an area the size of the UK….

Recommend Netflix' 'Knock Down the House' - streaming now

This is great! This could be good for Democrats.

It shows what grassroots progressive political campaigning is all about.

IMO a better title would be 'Build up the House' or 'Rebuild the House'.