RandySF
RandySF's JournalCanada’s new prime minister Justin Trudeau promised to legalize marijuana ‘right away
While on the campaign trail, Justin Trudeau said he would get to work “right away” on a policy to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana sales in Canada. With Trudeau’s election as prime minister Tuesday, the big questions now are when and how will Canada legalize pot?
"We don't yet know exactly [at] what rate we're going to be taxing it, how we're going to control it, or whether it will happen in the first months, within the first year, or whether it's going to take a year or two to kick in," Trudeau said while campaigning in British Columbia Oct. 1, the CBC reported.
Despite the lack of a comprehensive plan or timeline, shares in marijuana companies, including Canopy Growth and Mettrum, rose Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. “I think what you’ll see perhaps, after this election … is a recognition that there is an opportunity to collect taxes on something that is already being sold into the market illegally or illicitly,” said Bruce Linton, the chief executive of Canopy Growth, speaking with the Guardian.
If Trudeau follows through on his campaign promise, it would make Canada the first developed nation to legally implement the legalization of marijuana.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/canadas-new-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-promised-to-legalize-marijuana-right-away/
Hillary leads Sanders by 34 points in Massachusetts
In the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton leads Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders 59% to 25%, with all other Democrats under 5%. In a sign of trouble for Clinton, 47% of Independents said her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State made them less likely to vote for her, compared to 24% of Democrats who said the same. A majority of Independents (56%) believe her doing so harmed U.S. foreign policy. Independents make up roughly half the state electorate.
http://media.wix.com/ugd/3bebb2_82a741918bee4d2aa3685dddc0aebff1.pdf
Clinton fundraisers report hearing from new donors after Biden bows out
Top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton said on a weekly conference call that they had already started hearing from new donors in the hours after Vice President Joe Biden announced he would not run in 2016, according to one person who was on the line.
The call, led by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, came hours before the candidate’s Thursday congressional testimony on Benghazi, but it also touched on Biden. Abedin noted that Clinton had given Biden time and space to make his decision, and that they had spoken shortly after the vice president — her 2008 opponent and her former Senate colleague — delivered his announcement. Clinton for months refused to engage with reporters’ questions about Biden’s political plans, even when her campaign chairman John Podesta suggested after last week’s debate that time was running out for the vice president.
Abedin, the vice chair of Clinton’s campaign and a longtime aide to the former secretary of state, also alluded to the Democratic front-runner’s testimony, without giving away much of her plan. “I am sure you all have read the criticism of the committee,” Abedin told the fundraisers, according to the person on the line, in reference to accusations that the Republican-led panel is more geared at discrediting Clinton than getting to the bottom of the 2012 Benghazi attacks.
Both the Clinton campaign and its top supportive super PAC, Priorities USA Action, have released ads about the political nature of the committee, which has become the center of much tension in Washington ever since House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared to attribute a drop in Clinton’s poll numbers to the panel’s work.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/hillary-clinton-fundraising-donors-biden-215038#ixzz3pGCOlf5x
Hassan, Ayotte Still Neck and Neck; Dems Lead Presidential Matches in NH
PPP's newest New Hampshire poll once again finds a one point race for the US Senate. Maggie Hassan has the slight advantage this month with 44% to 43% for Kelly Ayotte thanks to a slightly more unified party- 83% of Democrats support her to 81% of Republicans who support Ayotte. Despite the tightness we do find poll after poll that voters like Hassan (50/39 approval) better than they do Ayotte (40/42 approval). But a fair amount of the approval discrepancy owes to conservatives being suspicious of Ayotte- she has only a 45/44 approval with 'very conservative' voters- and that's a bit of a moot point since those folks will still vote for Ayotte before they'll vote for a Democrat whether they love her or not.
The consistently super tight polling in the New Hampshire Senate race is reminiscent of the early polling in 2 races in the 2012 cycle- the Virginia Senate contest between Tim Kaine and George Allen, and the Montana Senate contest between Jon Tester and Denny Rehberg. Those contests opened up a little more towards the end because it was a good year for Democrats, and it seems likely the national climate will end up determining who wins the New Hampshire race as well.
The Presidential numbers bode well for Hassan on that front. Hillary Clinton leads 8 out of 9 Republicans in hypothetical general election contests in the state. The exception is John Kasich- he achieves a tie with Clinton at 44%. Chris Christie comes close to Clinton as well, trailing 45/44. But beyond that Clinton leads the rest of the GOP throng by anywhere from 4 to 16 points. She's up 4 on Jeb Bush (45/41) and Carly Fiorina (46/42), 6 on Ben Carson (48/42), Marco Rubio (48/42 also), and Donald Trump (47/41), 13 on Ted Cruz (50/37), and 16 on Mike Huckabee (51/35).
We also tested Bernie Sanders against the trio of Carson, Rubio, and Trump and he actually fares slightly better than she does against that group of candidates. Where Clinton leads them by an average of 6 points, Sanders' average lead is 7 points. Sanders leads Trump 49/40, Carson 47/39, and Rubio 45/41.
Right now it looks like Democrats are ahead in New Hampshire by about 5 points, similar to Barack Obama's margin of victory in the state in 2012. The Senate race is tight but if those Presidential numbers hold it's hard to imagine a world where a popular Governor like Hassan runs 5 points or more behind the top of the ticket.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/10/hassan-ayotte-still-neck-and-neck-dems-lead-presidential-matches-in-nh.html
With Biden Out, Clinton Likely To Get A Bump In The Polls
Hillary Clinton, already seeing an uptick from her strong performance in the first Democratic primary debate, is likely to get another boost following Vice President Joe Biden's announcement on Wednesday that he won't run for president.
Recent polling tells a consistent story: With Biden out of the race, his supporters will disperse -- and that's generally to Clinton's benefit.
In the most recent Economist/YouGov survey, which was conducted earlier this month, one-fifth of Democratic voters named Biden as their preferred candidate. Among that group, 51 percent said Clinton would be their second choice, while just 30 percent named Sanders and the rest were mostly unsure.
Across six October surveys that reported results with and without Biden, Clinton led Sanders by an average of 23 points when Biden was included, and by 29 points when he was not.
With Biden in the mix, Clinton's share of the vote fell as low as 45 percent; without him, she took a majority of the vote in each case. That's substantially higher than she was polling even during her time as the front-runner in the fall of 2007, leading up to the 2008 Democratic primary.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/biden-supporters-hillary-clinton_5627d7ace4b0bce34703a0ea
Clinton Consolidates Support Among Democrats
With Mr. Biden out, Mrs. Clinton is positioned to consolidate a key combination of elite support and moderate voters. The evidence of Mrs. Clinton’s gains could start to trickle in almost immediately, since she was the second choice of nearly all of Mr. Biden’s voters in public opinion polls over the last month.
A united coalition of moderate, nonwhite and older voters represents a clear majority of the Democratic primary electorate. Mrs. Clinton took a commanding lead of 57 percent to 31 percent over Mr. Sanders in an average of seven September surveys that removed Mr. Biden from the equation. Similarly, an Upshot model from earlier this year suggested that Mrs. Clinton would have defeated Mr. Obama, 62 to 38 percent, in 2008 if black voters had voted like demographically similar nonblack voters (like Hispanic voters).
Mr. Sanders can still claim the support of one of the party’s largest and most influential wings: the party’s predominantly Northern, white progressive base. That will be enough to compete in the key early contests of New Hampshire and Iowa and in some other states, but not in more diverse or conservative states like South Carolina. A recent CNN poll there showed Mrs. Clinton leading by a 70-to-20 margin if Mr. Biden stayed out of the race.
Mrs. Clinton’s strength in the polls is underpinned by just about all of the factors that predict primary strength. Her policy views are right in the middle of the Democratic Party, denying Mr. Sanders much room to challenge her on strictly ideological grounds. Her support from party elites has bestowed substantial financial, organizational and public resources that will give her the ability to remain competitive on the air and on the ground.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/upshot/joe-bidens-decision-and-hillary-clintons-victory.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Nevada Brothel owner helps workers pay off student loans
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) —The women who work at Moonlite Bunny Ranch Brothel may have unconventional jobs, but in one sense they're just like the rest of America's young adults: They've got student loans to pay off.
Owner Dennis Hof has more than 500 women working for him at his (legal) brothels in Nevada -- Bunny Ranch is just one of them. And he estimates that about 18% of them have college debt.
He said student loans come up "every day in the interview process," and he's seen more and more college students applying to work for him.
So Hof said he'd start matching payments the prostitutes make toward their student loans over the next two months. He's already helped a few workers he employs pay down their debt.
http://www.wyff4.com/money/this-pimp-helps-prostitutes-pay-off-student-debt/35745772
Trevor Noah smacks down Bernie Sanders’ fans: “Online doesn’t count”
“Daily Show” host Trevor Noah had a chuckle over the media and the internet’s disagreement over who won the Democratic debate.
He pointed out that, according to CNN’s first poll since the debate, Hillary Clinton was declared to be the “clear winner,” and “ruled the stage” by 62 percent. Simultaneously, numerous other CNN talk show hosts claimed that Bernie Sanders had won “hands down” online.
Apparently Sanders was the most Tweeted, Facebooked, and Google-searched Democratic candidate of the night, proving particularly popular with millennials.
But as Noah saliently pointed out: “The Internet is saying that Bernie Sanders won the debate and the media is saying, ‘sorry, the Internet doesn’t apply here.’ It’s sort of the same reason your geeky cousin is still a virgin: online doesn’t count.”
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/20/trevor_noah_smacks_down_bernie_sanders_fans_online_doesnt_count/
Canada: Far Left Take Heavy Losses As Liberals Take Majority Government
MONTREAL — The so-called "orange wave'' created in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada by former NDP Leader Jack Layton went down the drain Monday night, taking much of the left-leaning party's political strength with it.
A visibly deflated Tom Mulcair, who prevailed in a long, difficult fight for his own riding of Outremont, delivered a subdued but gracious concession speech to a few hundred supporters at Montreal's Palais de Congres.
"With this election, Canadians have asked us all to work for them. We will not let them down,'' the NDP leader said, hinting that the party will, at least during a majority Liberal government, resume its role as the conscience of Parliament.
"We will be unwavering in our pursuit of better health care for Canadians. We will stand strong in our fight against climate change and to protect our land, air and water. We will be resolute in our efforts to build a true nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples.
"It's on these priorities and many more that New Democrats will make real and lasting progress.''
The party, which had taken such pride in being elevated to Official Opposition status four years ago, saw its seat count reduced to 44 from 95 with just under 20 per cent of the popular vote.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/19/ndp-election-results_n_8333720.html
Hillary Clinton is regaining control of the Democratic race after her strong debate performance
A new batch of polls has started to show Hillary Clinton reversing a summer-long slide in the polls.
A slate of new surveys found that the former US secretary of state has seen a solid bounce following her performance at the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas, where pundits said she was more polished and prepared than her rivals.
A new Public Policy Polling poll released Tuesday, for one, found Clinton regaining her lead in New Hampshire, a state US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has been dominating in recent months.
Among Democratic voters in the state, Clinton's support jumped to 41%, while Sanders' dropped to 33%. The poll also included Vice President Joe Biden, who had 11% support as he continues to mull a late entry into the race.
http://www.businessinsider.com/polls-hillary-clinton-lead-expands-2015-10
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