September 19, 2019

Working Families calls on Sanders Campaign to denounce racism, threats of violence.

"We refuse to concede to white terror from the Left as well as the Right."

Since endorsing Elizabeth Warren, Working Families leaders have been on the receiving end of extreme racial abuse, and threats of violence by self identified and well known supporters of Senator Sanders. They have drafted a letter addressed to the Sanders Campaign: We demand that the Sanders campaign unequivocally denounce the racism in its ranks, and issue a public statement separating themselves from these abhorrent attacks.

Excerpt.

This week, the Working Families Party (WFP) issued an endorsement of Presidential contender Elizabeth
Warren. ... And apparently, some folks aren't happy about it.

(WFP) leaders ... are being threatened on a daily basis, by self-identified Sanders supporters, with hateful, violent and racist threats ...These kinds of threats have no place in our movements, and are reminiscent of the threats Black people would receive when daring to vote even though the white supremacists would try and discourage
Black people from doing so.

The virulent, racist attacks on these leaders are unacceptable and dangerous. What do we do when
racism and sexism is present in progressive movements? What is the prospect of strengthening
democracy when old habits just won't die?

Many of us, the undersigned, are no stranger to these kinds of attacks—too many of us receive threats
like these ones every day because we dare to organize our people towards freedom. But if we hope to
take back this democracy. if we dare to struggle for electoral justice. if we really want a world where Black
Lives do in fact matter, all of us must take a stand against these real and persistent threats.

Online attacks, threats and smears against Black leaders are unacceptable — especially when there is so
much at stake for our movements. While we punch horizontally, those who have real power over our lives
take advantage of our disintegration and our disorganization. Bemie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and
perhaps a number of other candidates would be much better than what we've got now. And that is the
real fight ahead of us.

We refuse to concede to white terror from the Left as well as the Right. We can argue about the
differences between Sanders and Warren. but not if we can't be distinguished from our real opposition.

As Black leaders in this movement. we are calling on each other to keep reaching for each other. even
when it gets hard, even when we disagree, even when we're disappointed. We demand that the Sanders
campaign unequivocally denounce the racism in its ranks, and issue a public statement separating
themselves from these abhorrent attacks. And we call on our movement to recommit to the real fight
ahead of us....

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/d6hya2/workers_trash_party_sends_letter_about_bernie_bros/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

September 19, 2019

Obama's worst day as President.

The candidates can promise action, but without the Senate, we get nowhere.

September 19, 2019

Berners rejoice: Sanders' support is getting smaller and that's a good thing.

We stand to benefit greatly from ideological-purity - Reddit / Way Of The Bern

Thank you Elizabeth Warren, you're the reason Bernie's base is now majority-minority working class!

If many of you have noticed that your wealthier often whiter friends who supported Bernie in the 2016 primary now vehemetly support Warren, this is not an isolated phenomena. Warren's base is 70% white and consists largely of professional-class gentrifiers who hold a strong presence in the DNC establishment. Have no fear, Bernie's base is over an order of magnitude greater than this time in the '16 primary and consists of a diverse working class coalition not seen in US politics since the Great Depression. Warren's candidacy has hence functioned as an effective purge of petit-bourgeois "progressives" who have no place in Bernie's support base anyways! We're on average more left because of this shift, and stand to benefit greatly from the ideological purity that it affords. So thank you Elizabeth Warren, for ridding us of the liberals bottle-necking our new party's radical agenda!

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/d68j3w/thank_you_elizabeth_warren_youre_the_reason/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

There's nothing like a purge.

September 18, 2019

India is banning all e-cigarettes over fears about youth vaping

Source: CNN

(CNN) India on Wednesday announced a complete ban on the sale of all e-cigarettes, saying the devices posed a health risk, especially to young people.

"Unfortunately, e-cigarettes got promoted initially as a way in which people can get out of the habit of smoking cigarettes. It was to be a weaning process from using cigarettes," Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting.

"The Cabinet rightly thought it is time and we immediately took a decision so that the health of our citizens, of our young, is not thrown to a risk," she added.

Sitharaman said the deaths of seven people in the US following vaping-related sicknesses had added to local concerns about the impact of e-cigarettes on people's health. Hundreds of people are being treated for lung illness in 36 US states and researchers are investigating if those illnesses are related to the use of e-cigarettes.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/18/health/india-e-cigarette-ban-intl/index.html

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The ban covers the ban will cover e-cigarette production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement.

India is the second biggest market for cigarettes and tobacco products. From Wikipedia: There are approximately 120 million smokers in India. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers. More than 10 million die each year due to tobacco in India. According to a 2002 WHO estimate, 70% of adult males in India smoke.

September 17, 2019

U.S. official says drone and missile attack on Saudi Arabia was launched from Iran

Source: CBS News

The United States has identified the exact locations in Iran from which a combination of more than 20 drones and cruise missiles were launched against Saudi oil facilities over the weekend, a senior U.S. official told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin on Monday. The official said the locations are in southern Iran, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia's air defenses have been aimed south for months, to protect against missile attacks launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, so they were useless against the missiles and drones coming in from the north, the official told Martin.

One of the missiles flew through Kuwait's airspace and the U.S. is working with a number of other countries to analyze data on the attack, which could help make the case against Iran.

A U.S. team has been on the ground at the oil facilities and identified the specific types of drones and cruise missiles fired, Martin reported. The wreckage was moved to a facility outside the Saudi capital of Riyadh, where it will be used to make what one U.S. official called, "a very compelling forensic case" that Iran launched "a complex and coordinated attack" on Saudi Arabia.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-saudi-arabia-oil-attack-us-official-says-attack-launched-from-iranian-territory/

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Next Up: The exact location of King Solomon's mines, and Saddam's WMDs.

September 16, 2019

Can anyone imagine the Catagory 6 pain John Bolton is experiencing right now.

The Administration is 'locked and loaded' on Iran, and he's nowhere near the trigger.

September 13, 2019

We simply cannot ignore electability

We simply cannot ignore what happened to campaigns that bet the farm on electability


November 4, 2007.
http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1050a1ElectionYear-Out.pdf

September 13, 2019

September Debate Ratings: 14 million

Coming in strong in early metrics, the three-hour primetime Democratic scrimmage drew 14 million viewers in total. That’s about 12.9 million on the Disney-owned net and 1.1 million on the Spanish-speaking outlet.

While up from the last debate between Democratic heavyweights on CNN looking to see Donald Trump fired next November, Thursday’s gathering was down 23% from the viewership that the Biden-led second night of the first Dems debates had June 27 on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.

https://deadline.com/2019/09/joe-biden-julian-castro-democratic-debate-ratings-rise-abc-jorge-ramos-1202733652/

September 13, 2019

And the winner of the September debate was ...

Elizabeth Warren
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/democratic-debate-september-poll/

September 13, 2019

When Medicare for All came to Australia (1983)

Public Information Ad for enrollment in Medicare in Australia. The man behind the desk was the then Labor PM, Bob Hawke. Medicare was, and is, regarded as the greatest achievement of his government.