February 4, 2020

Should Caucuses be banned?

Good question- WHY do caucuses, when a primary ballot would work?

If you are looking for “who should be if your person isn’t viable?” , what about rank-choice-voting?

Surely an actual ballot would be better, in my mind, after seeing this fiasco.

What do YOU think?

Should caucuses be banned ?

February 4, 2020

Viewpoint: The Trump Administration Has Made the U.S. Less Ready for Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Viewpoint: The Trump Administration Has Made the U.S. Less Ready for Infectious Disease Outbreaks like Coronavirus

The Trump administration has cut funding for infectious disease research and reduced high-level staffing for global health security, leaving the nation less prepared for major outbreaks.

LINDA J. BILMES,THE CONVERSATION | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 01:00 PM ET


As coronavirus continues to spread, the Trump administration has declared a public health emergency and imposed quarantines and travel restrictions. However, over the past three years the administration has weakened the offices in charge of preparing for and preventing this kind of outbreak.

Two years ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that the world should be “preparing for a pandemic in the same serious way it prepares for war”. Gates, whose foundation has invested heavily in global health, suggested staging simulations, war games and preparedness exercises to simulate how diseases could spread and to identify the best response.

The Trump administration has done exactly the opposite: It has slashed funding for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its infectious disease research. For fiscal year 2020, Trump proposed cutting the CDC budget by US$1.3 billion, nearly 20% below the 2019 level.

In 2018, Trump tried to cut $65 million from this budget – a 10% reduction. In 2019, he sought a 19% reduction. For 2020, he proposed to cut federal spending on emerging infectious and zoonotic diseases by 20%. This would mean spending $100 million less in 2020 to study how such diseases infect humans than the U.S. did just two years ago.

More:
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/02/trump-administration-has-made-us-less-ready-infectious-disease-outbreaks-coronavirus/162822/


Republican budget priorities are going to kill us all.

February 2, 2020

Bernie passes Biden in new national poll

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by Hart Research Associates (D) and Public Opinion Strategies (R). Jan. 26-29, 2020. N=428 registered voters nationwide who say they would vote in the Democratic primary or caucus. Margin of error ± 4.7.


"Now, thinking specifically about the 2020 Democratic primary elections: I am going to read a list of twelve of the declared candidates running for the Democratic nomination for president. After I read the entire list, please tell me if a Democratic primary for president were being held today, which one of the following candidates would you favor? [See below.]" If unsure: "Well, which way do you lean?" Options rotated


1/26-29/20 12/14-17/19 10/27-30/19 9/13-16/19 7/7-9/19
% % % % %


Bernie Sanders

27 21 19 14 13

Joe Biden

26 28 27 31 26

Elizabeth Warren

15 18 23 25 19

Michael Bloomberg

9 4 n/a n/a n/a

Pete Buttigieg

7 9 6 7 7

Amy Klobuchar

5 5 5 2 1

Andrew Yang

4 3 3 4 2

Tom Steyer

2 1 - 1 n/a

Tulsi Gabbard

2 2 2 1 -

Deval Patrick

1 - n/a n/a n/a

Michael Bennet

- - 1 1 1

John Delaney

- - - 1 1

None (vol.)

- 1 1 1 2

Unsure

2 5 5 2 8

Cory Booker

n/a 2 2 2 1

Julian Castro

n/a 1 1 1 1

Marianne Williamson

n/a - - - 1

Kamala Harris

n/a n/a 4 5 13


Source:

https://pollingreport.com/2020wh_d.htm

January 30, 2020

Postal Workers Union Endorses Bernie Sanders

Labor group calls Sanders a champion of USPS employees who will fight to preserve the mailing agency.

ERIC KATZ, Govexec.com | JANUARY 30, 2020 01:58 PM

The second-largest union of U.S. Postal Service employees endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for president on Thursday, calling him a “true champion” of the mailing agency and its workforce.

The American Postal Workers Union threw its support behind Sanders for the second consecutive presidential cycle, endorsing the senator in late 2015 just weeks after he addressed the union’s national convention. The APWU executive board met with top candidates, except those “who oppose the public Postal Service”—a reference to President Trump’s government reorganization plan in which he floated the idea of privatizing the agency.

APWU President Mark Dimondstein said his nearly 200,000 members hold a diversity of views, but remaining silent when the Trump administration has threatened to sell off the Postal Service “would be a failure of our leadership.”

“Bernie Sanders has proven he is a fierce advocate on the side of postal workers,” Dimonstein said. “He has opposed the closures of postal facilities and reduced service standards.”


More:
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2020/01/postal-workers-union-endorses-bernie-sanders/162764/



Go Bernie!

January 28, 2020

State Department removes NPR reporter from Pompeo trip

Source: The Hill

The State Department has removed an NPR reporter from a group of journalists traveling this week to Europe and Central Asia with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, days after Pompeo publicly feuded with the news outlet following a tense interview.

An organization representing correspondents covering the State Department made the announcement in a statement on Monday. The group says it believes the removal of Michele Kelemen from the press pool was a response to the flare-up between Pompeo and her NPR colleague Mary Louise Kelly.

"We can only conclude that the State Department is retaliating against National Public Radio as a result of this exchange," Shaun Tandon, president of the State Department Correspondents' Association, said in the statement.



Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/international/480188-state-department-removes-npr-reporter-from-pompeo-trip

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Only tin-pot dictators and Banana Republic fascists give retribution against a free and fair press. First Amendment be dammed- these people hate the Constitution.

January 15, 2020

Michigan Poll - Epic MRA find SANDERS/BIDEN both leading

SANDERS Beating Trump by more than 5 points
Sanders 50%, Trump 45%

BIDEN in a statistical deat heat
Biden 50%, Trump 44%

, and even Michael BLOOMBERG beating Trump in Michigan by 7 points!
Bloomberg 49%, Trump 42%

More to the poll results here:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/01/15/mike-bloomberg-other-democrats-lead-donald-trump-michigan-poll/4469175002/

January 8, 2020

Sanders reaction to killing of Solemani. (NPR Interview- 6 minutes)

Bernie talks about the killing of Soleimani, and the effect on the region.

https://www.npr.org/player/embed/794461272/794461273

<iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/794461272/794461273" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"></iframe>

January 5, 2020

Major Logging Outage Disrupts Thousands of Drivers and Carriers

Source: Transportation Nation Network

Minnetonka, MN – Thousands of drivers and carriers are once again being disrupted by a major electronic logging devices (ELD) outage.

PeopleNet’s on-board ELD devices operating on its g3 system began experiencing “rebooting” issues as the clock struck midnight on January 1 GMT (which is December 31, 2019 at approximately 7 p.m. EDT), according to a Trimble Transportation company spokesperson.

Truckers quickly began reporting the problems such as slow log-ins and other malfunctions, which has led to customer support wait times as high as four hours.
A company representative explained the problems were caused by a “discrepancy between the GPS satellite time and the g3’s internal clock.”

The outage is being described as a “repeat of Y2K.”

Essentially, the devices had an operating range between 2007 and 2019. When the calendar rolled into 2020, the servers could no longer recognize the date of the affected ELDs. Diagnostic notification messages began appearing on the devices’ displays which read, “This device is not functioning as an ELD. Paper logs may be required as back up. Check manual for instructions.”

As of Sunday morning, a recorded message from the company says a “fix” has been identified, but “customer action is required to completely resolve the issue.” A company representative says an email has been sent to customers containing the “resolution steps.”

Read more: https://transportationnation.com/breaking-major-eld-outage-disrupts-thousands-of-drivers-and-carriers/

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Interesting.

How do we know this is a faulty log, and not a major cyber attack by Iran? Or Russia?

Affects much of the Trucking system nation wide.

January 3, 2020

Sanders delivers blowout fundraising number

Bernie's bringing in boatloads of support- The Vermont senator's campaign disclosed a $34.5 million haul for final quarter of 2019.

By HOLLY OTTERBEIN

01/02/2020 05:59 AM EST

Bernie Sanders raised more than $34.5 million in the final three months of 2019, a substantial sum that exceeds the two other Democratic presidential candidates who have announced their hauls so far in that period.

The Vermont senator, who disclosed the amount Thursday morning, brought in a total of about $96 million last year from more than 5 million contributions. The campaign’s average donation was $18.

Sanders’ strong fundraising finish — the strongest quarter any Democratic presidential candidate announced thus far for 2019 — will give his candidacy a boost of good publicity in the weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses, as well as the cash to power him through the primary. It also makes him a top, and perhaps the best, fundraiser of the field last year.

Former South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he brought in $24.7 million in the final three months of 2019, while former Vice President Joe Biden raised $22.7 million. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has not yet announced her donations, but lowered expectations when she revealed a goal of bringing in $20 million, which is less than the amount she pulled in during the previous quarter.

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said she raised $3.4 million in that period.

Sanders’ team is seizing on his haul in order to argue that he is the strongest candidate to take on President Donald Trump.

“He is proving each and every day that working-class Americans are ready and willing to fully fund a campaign that stands up for them and takes on the biggest corporations and the wealthy,” said campaign manager Faiz Shakir in a statement. “You build a grassroots movement to beat Donald Trump and create a political revolution one $18 donation at a time, and that’s exactly why Bernie is going to win.”

The Sanders campaign said it received contributions from 40,000 new donors on the last day of the year. Its best month was December, when it reaped more than $18 million from 900,000-plus contributions.

More:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/bernie-sanders-fundraising-millions-092446