March 4, 2016

François Hollande’s Socialist revolution

French president takes big political risk by pushing a radical labor rules shake-up.
By NICHOLAS VINOCUR 2/26/16, 5:37 AM CET

PARIS — François Hollande is making a last-ditch bid for posterity — one that could see him booted out of office.

Fourteen months before the end of his term in power, the deeply unpopular French president is defying senior members of his Socialist party with a controversial plan to overhaul the country’s labor rules.

Unlike previous labor market reforms, this one is far-reaching: It covers working hours, overtime, redundancy pay and social rights, all areas French workers hold dear.

Economists and some of France’s closest partners are applauding a move they say follows in the footsteps of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s “Agenda 2010? reform program, albeit on a more modest scale.

(. . . .)
Aubry attacks

The real threat for Hollande is political. His labor reform bill deepens a longstanding split within the Socialist party between those who support the Hollande line and those who see their future outside the government.

On Wednesday, the mayor of the northern city of Lille, Martine Aubry, and several other Socialist bigwigs signed an open letter that condemned the labor bill and a separate, highly contested measure to strip convicted terrorists of their French nationality. “Enough is enough!” they wrote.

(. . . .)

Socialist Party chief Jean-Christophe Cambadelis last week threw his weight behind calls for the center-left to hold a party primary to pick its candidate — a significant change in a system where the incumbent runs for reelection unchallenged in their own camp.

The potential candidate that most eyes are on is Valls, who would be first in line if Hollande dropped out.

http://www.politico.eu/article/francois-hollande-schroder-moment-valls-france-elections-president/

March 4, 2016

WIll.i.am endorses Hillary Clinton

Hip-hop artist backed then Sen. Barack Obama over Clinton in 2008

Mar 03, 2016

(CNN) —Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am just can't get enough of Hillary Clinton.

The Grammy-winning hip-hop artist, who backed then Sen. Barack Obama over Clinton in 2008, is now backing the Democratic presidential front-runner's presidential bid.

"There's a lot of things that @BernieSanders stands for that I agree with... but @HillaryClinton is the one to get things done," will.i.am tweeted Thursday.

The singer also re-tweeted Clinton on Super Tuesday, writing "I'm not just standing...I'm walking, running, stomping, marching with this #strongLEADER...#womanPOWER."

will.i.am's reason for supporting Clinton echoes the argument that Clinton, herself, has repeatedly made to counter the Vermont senator's claims that she is not a true progressive.

"I'm a progressive who likes to get things done," Clinton told CNN's Anderson Cooper during CNN's Democratic town hall last month.

http://www.wmtw.com/politics/william-endorses-hillary-clinton/38319408

March 3, 2016

Did Hillary eat the VRWC's lunch yesterday?

As many pundits have noted this is the year of the mad-as-hell outsider who has no loyalty to party, wants to blow things up and start over, and speaks to the anger and frustration of the middle-class masses. Thus the rise of Trump who is giving the GOP establishment conniptions. But as we know the Tea Party is a creature of the VRWC, nurtured for the purpose of stirring up nativist resentment of Barack Obama and the party he leads.

Into that milieu steps Bernie Sanders who appeared to be everything Hillary isn't and constantly insinuates that she and Obama are corrupt by virtue of their Wall Steet connections. And we know that TurdBlossom and company are supporting the Sanders campaign with high-octane anti-Hillary messaging:

also:

http://www.americancrossroads.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/us/the-best-way-to-vilify-clinton-gop-spends-heavily-to-test-it.html?_r=0

So what happened? Did Hillary houdini her way out of the perfect Benghazi? The one that sent Jebster packing some weeks ago? Because if that's the case she pulled off a pretty amazing upset and appears to have a touch of Bill's comeback mojo after all. Or am I completely deluded?

March 2, 2016

Guardian: It's time for the haters to get behind Hillary Clinton

Tuesday 1 March 2016 12.32 EST
Rachel Sklar

But haters: the moment has come to start putting our differences aside. Hillary Clinton is a vetted, tested candidate. She and Bernie Sanders have had numerous debates filled with intelligent exchanges on policy and principle and their respective records and proposals and visions for the country. They have pushed each other to the left where it’s counted for progressives (Keystone pipeline, Hyde Amendment, gun control) and have both been united in their conviction that the clown show on the other side of the aisle must be defeated at all costs.

They have both emerged from the fracas a little bruised – it’s the primary after all – but as the dust has cleared it is evident that the Democrats have two strong, smart, principled and dedicated public servants running for the leadership of this country. That’s no small thing. (See: aforementioned Republican clown show.)

By the end of today, though, the writing will be on the wall. The Democrats will have a pretty good idea about which candidate their party prefers for the presidency and it seems fairly likely that person will be Hillary Clinton. This is not to suggest that Sanders should drop out of the race – that would be premature, and rude – but it does suggest that the time to come together as a party behind a strong, supported nominee is nigh.

(snip)

I’m not going to hammer you with article after article after article after article about how terrific and qualified Hillary Clinton is, or even about how she’s actually pretty nice, and even cool. (You can read them when you’re ready. Grief is complicated.) I’m just going to say, it’s time to stop hating on Hillary Clinton. Because she’s probably going to be the Democratic nominee.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/01/its-time-for-haters-get-behind-hillary-clinton-super-tuesday-vote

March 1, 2016

New Yorker: What Hillary Clintons's Huge Win in SC Means

FEBRUARY 28, 2016
What Hillary Clinton’s Huge Win in South Carolina Means
BY JOHN CASSIDY

But the sheer scale of Clinton’s victory in South Carolina suggests that Sanders is now facing a monumental task. Almost certainly, she will sweep six of the seven Southern states that are set to vote in the so-called “S.E.C. primary,” on Tuesday: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. She may also win Oklahoma, where Sanders has been campaigning hard. And there are also questions about whether Sanders will be able to carry states he has targeted further north, such as Massachusetts and Minnesota.

As he has done elsewhere, in South Carolina Sanders did much better among white voters than among minority voters. But he didn’t win that population segment either. According to the exit polls, Clinton got fifty-four per cent of the white vote, and Sanders got forty-eight per cent. If Clinton can replicate elsewhere this pattern of splitting the white vote and doing extremely well with minority voters, she will eventually get all of the delegates she needs to earn the nomination.

In terms of strategy, the South Carolina result was a vindication of Clinton’s decision to concentrate on core Democratic voters, and to try and re-create the Obama coalition that swept the Democrats to victory in 2008 and 2012. A key part of that coalition, obviously, is black voters. Even before she had made her candidacy official, Clinton was cultivating black leaders, visiting black churches, and embracing issues that matter to black voters, such as the police shooting of black youths and the Black Lives Matter movement. In her victory speech, Clinton saluted five mothers—including the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner—who had accompanied her around South Carolina in recent days. She also appeared to invoke Obama’s legacy, saying, “When we stand together there is no barrier too big to break.”

(snip)

Black churches and pastors, one of whom Clinton cited in her speech, were also part of the story. According to the exit polls, fifty-seven per cent of the South Carolina voters attend church weekly. Evidently, not many of them warmed up to Sanders, at least not sufficiently to abandon Clinton for a left-wing insurgent from Vermont. Despite the fact that South Carolina is a poor state, and particularly so in areas where black people tend to live, his message didn’t resonate as much there as it has elsewhere. Just twenty per cent of the voters said that inequality was the most important issue to them, versus forty-three per cent who said that the economy and jobs were.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/what-hillary-clintons-huge-win-in-south-carolina-means
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My word!