January 30, 2019

We Need Howard Schultz to Run for President Like Starbucks Needs Cockroaches

https://prospect.org/article/we-need-howard-schultz-run-president-starbucks-needs-cockroaches

We Need Howard Schultz to Run for President Like Starbucks Needs Cockroaches
Robert Kuttner
January 28, 2019
The Democratic Party is finally willing to work for working people again. Schultz could really screw that up.

snip//

Politically, we have wall-to-wall Republican obstruction. And after three Democratic administrations that were far too Wall Street-afflicted, we are finally recovering a Democratic Party committed to working to benefit regular Americans.

Schultz could really screw that up. He is a social liberal who opposed Seattle’s $15 minimum wage—just what we don’t need. The political problem is that lots of suburban moderates, who defected to the Democrats in 2018 out of disgust with Trump, could vote for a guy like Schultz. And in a three-way, Trump could even get re-elected.

There is a long and depressing history of independents running as spoilers. The only time it broke to the advantage of the Democrats was in 1992, when the whacko H. Ross Perot took more votes from George H.W. Bush and helped Bill Clinton get elected with just 43 percent of the popular vote. In 2020, it would help Trump, because his hard-core 35 percent is not going to defect to support a Seattle latte billionaire.

There is already some chatter on social media about a Starbucks boycott. I’m not sure that would do the trick—he’s no longer CEO—but a billionaire centrist proposing to save America from Trump is the last thing America needs in 2020.

Starbucks has a history of creating demands for products that consumers didn't know they needed. They should gag on this one.

January 30, 2019

Trump Has Been Covering Up Don Jr's Crimes for Two Years: Morning Joe

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/01/30/trump-has-been-covering-up-don-jrs-crimes-for-two-years-morning-joe.html

Posted on Wed, Jan 30th, 2019 by Leo Vidal
Trump Has Been Covering Up Don Jr’s Crimes for Two Years: Morning Joe


MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said on his show Wednesday that Donald Trump and his allies have been lying for two years to cover up Donald Trump Jr.’s crimes related to Russia.

The comments came after the “Morning Joe” panel discussed the shocking new revelation that Trump had another private meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in November. Although everyone knew about his private meeting with Putin in Helsinki, the Buenos Aires meeting had not been previously disclosed. This shows that Trump’s deception about his Russia contacts is even greater than we realized.

Scarborough also pointed out that many commentators, including former MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin, had identified the president’s son Don Jr. as one of the most deeply implicated persons in the alleged election conspiracy.

Scarborough said:



On her show last night Rachel Maddow also pointed out that Roger Stone’s grand jury could be still working on more indictments, including some for the president’s son. She said:



Yesterday Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said that he also believes that Don Jr. is in legal peril for both lying to Congress and for his communications with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1090400296545779713
All signs are now pointing to Donald Trump Jr. as the next likely subject of a Bob Mueller indictment, and it is very likely that he will be charged with numerous crimes before the special counsel’s investigation is concluded.

January 30, 2019

'I'm Cold and I'm Afraid': Across Midwest, Homeless Await Deep Freeze

‘I’m Cold and I’m Afraid’: Across Midwest, Homeless Await Deep Freeze
By Julie Bosman and Monica Davey

Jan. 29, 2019

CHICAGO — As temperatures in Midwestern cities plunged to levels colder than parts of Antarctica and officials warned people not to step outside even for a few minutes, Tony Neeley stood on a downtown Chicago street corner Tuesday, wearing wet sneakers and clutching a hand warmer packet in each of his bare hands. He had already been there for hours.

“I’m cold and I’m afraid,” Mr. Neeley said, adding that he was trying to raise enough money from the bundled commuters rushing past to pay for a $45 motel room on a night that weather forecasters warned would send the Midwest into a deep freeze unlike anything even this region has seen in years.

What about the prospect of going to one of the scores of shelters officials in Chicago — and in cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Detroit — had urged homeless people to seek warmth in during the stretch of dangerous and extreme cold?

“You don’t understand,” Mr. Neeley said. “A lot of us don’t go to the shelters because of bedbugs, we don’t go because people steal from you, we don’t go because you can’t even really sleep in the shelter. But my feet are cold, and these clothes are all I’ve got.”

snip//

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless estimates that about 80,000 people are homeless in the Chicago area. Estimates vary widely about the homeless population throughout the Midwest.

more...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/us/homeless-midwest-polar-vortex.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR25_ia2sC4RgXFY0Jlxn-VOOqVavUsumuLs4NXPYv2Bg65gitWTODZyWLw