bluewater
bluewater's JournalKamala Harris: HBCUs made me who I am today.
Kamala Harris: HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] made me who I am today.
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1147556131415498752
Warren attacks Gorsuch's Supreme Court decision
Elizabeth Warren goes on the attack against Neil Gorsuch’s first major decision
Neil Gorsuch’s first major opinion, after he gained control of a Supreme Court seat that Senate Republicans held open for a year until President Trump could fill it, was a decision allowing employers to force their workers to sign away their right to sue their employer.
Under Gorsuch’s decision, workers who refused to give up that right could be fired on the spot.
The decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis was 5-4, along partisan lines.
On Friday, senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released a plan that, among other things, would significantly mitigate the damage Epic Systems caused to American workers’ ability to assert their rights in court. Warren’s proposal relies on executive action, so it cannot correct the Supreme Court’s error in Epic Systems entirely — only an Act of Congress or a new Supreme Court majority may do that. But it could restore rights to numerous workers employed by federal contractors.
To explain, Epic Systems involves a practice known as “forced arbitration,” where companies require individuals to sign away their rights as a condition of doing business with the company. A typical forced arbitration agreement requires workers to give up their right to sue their employer, and instead requires those workers to go to a privatized arbitration system that favors corporate parties.
https://thinkprogress.org/elizabeth-warren-has-a-plan-to-save-american-workers-from-neil-gorsuch-722b24f3898b/
The post-debate rise of Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris
Who won the first round of Democratic debates?
A pair of female presidential candidates scored clear wins, but most (but not all) candidates who participated benefited, too. They became better-known and better-liked by Democratic primary voters. The debates also may have opened voters up to considering more candidates. In the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, only 22% of Democratic primary voters say they are considering supporting just one of the two dozen potential candidates, down from 29% last week, a drop of seven points.
The major gains in support come among those judged to have performed best in the debates. Nearly half (48%) of Democrats who saw all, part or video clips of the first debate said Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren did the best job – or won – that debate.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker finished a distant second and third behind Warren. California Senator Kamala Harris dominated among Democratic viewers of the second debate: 48% said she did the best job in that debate. Far fewer named either former Vice President Joe Biden or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
But the biggest changes came in the share of Democratic primary voters now considering each of the candidates. More are now considering Warren than are considering Biden; more are considering Harris than are considering Sanders (and she and Biden are being considered by about the same percentages of primary voters. Nearly as many are considering South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg as are now considering Sanders.
For Biden, this is a drop of six points from last week. Warren gained six percentage points and Harris 13 points.
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/07/05/post-debate-poll-elizabeth-warren-harris
Biden Now Says He Regrets Touting Work With Racist Senators
Joe Biden said Saturday that he regrets comments he made last month about his past work with segregationist senators—remarks that ignited scrutiny and criticism of his record on racial issues.
“Was I wrong a few weeks ago? Yes, I was, and I regret it,” the former vice president said Saturday at a speech in South Carolina.
He said it was a mistake to give the impression he was praising former Democratic Sens. James Eastland and Herman Talmadge—noted racists—while talking about the need for civility in politics.
“I’m sorry for any of the pain or misconception I may have caused anybody,” Biden said.
Biden’s references to Eastland and Talmadge brought criticism from his 2020 rivals that continued into the first Democratic debate, where Sen. Kamala Harris teed off on his opposition to federally mandated busing to desegregate schools.
Biden—who saw his lead in the polls shrink while Harris gained ground after the debate—said it was unfair to judge him on the basis of one gaffe.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-now-says-he-regrets-touting-work-with-racist-senators-eastland-and-talmadge
It's good to apologize, better late than never.
But wait, this is a narrow apology, correct? He is not apologizing for actually working with segregationist Senators to support anti-busing legislation in 1976 and 1977, right?
He is only apologizing for recently touting his working with those senators, for mentioning being civil to them.
“I’m sorry for any of the pain or misconception I may have caused anybody,” Biden
He's not talking about any pain or misconception he might have caused to people back in the 1970's, right?
Warren Refutes McConnell's Conclusion [Mueller Report]
Warren Refutes McConnell’s “Case Closed” Conclusion & Urges Congress to Uphold Constitutional Oath
Biden invoking Obama's picking to defend record
Biden invoking Obama's picking him for vice president to defend record
Joe Biden on Saturday will offer his most direct response yet to questions about his record in the Senate especially on issues of race, arguing that Barack Obama’s selection of him as his vice president is the ultimate validation of that record.
“I was vetted by him and selected by him. I will take his judgment of my record, my character, and my ability to handle the job over anyone else’s,” Biden will say at an afternoon event in Sumter, South Carolina, according to advance remarks provided by his campaign.
The campaign says Biden’s remarks will center on why he entered public service in the first place and that fighting for civil rights “galvanized him” first to become a public defender and to run for the county council in Delaware.
He will also push back on rivals who want to “weaponize” his decades-long service in the Senate and, in his view, distort the record — arguing that he long fought for change within the Senate.
“America in 2019 is a very different place than the America of the 1970s. And that’s a good thing,” Biden will say. “I’ve witnessed an incredible amount of change in this nation and I’ve worked to make that change happen. And yes — I’ve changed also.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-invoking-obama-s-picking-him-vice-president-defend-record-n1027096
So... it all comes down to the Obama Halo effect?
Warren Will Deny Federal Contracts to Companies With Poor Diversity and Equal Pay Policies
Elizabeth Warren Will Deny Federal Contracts to Companies With Poor Diversity and Equal Pay Policies
Senator Elizabeth Warren has announced a plan to lower the wage gap, particularly for women of color. What Is In The Plan? As part of her initiative, Warren would deny government contracts to companies with a history of unequal pay or not prioritizing diversity and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, among other changes.
Why Is This Important? Activist shareholders have been highlighting the issue of gender wage inequality for years. Earlier this year, Natasha Lamb, a managing partner at Arjuna Capital, examined the difference between the “equal pay gap” which is what women are paid versus their male peers, and “median pay gap,” which is the income chasm that results from women not having as many high-paying leadership positions compared to the men in their respective fields.
Many major companies have a wide median gap. What Can Shareholders Do About This? As Lamb pointed out, the best first step is for companies to admit they have a problem. Arjuna Capital urged 22 companies, including Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, "to publish their gender pay gaps on an equal-pay basis."
Cool. Problem solved, right? Er, not exactly. As is the case for all shareholder proposals, Arjuna Capital’s call for action is a “suggestion.” In addition to most of the major banks, she filed proposals with Amazon—who is currently vying with Microsoft for a $10B contract with the Pentagon—Intel, Facebook, Google and Mastercard to also disclose pay gaps. None of the companies passed the resolutions at their 2019 meetings, though Citigroup volunteered the gap information and vowed to narrow it.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elizabeth-warren-deny-federal-contracts-222241531.html
Biden's mastery of backlash politics takes center stage
Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware didn't need to hear any more from the legion of critics lined up against his bill limiting federal courts' power to desegregate schools by busing students.
It was July 1977, there wasn't much time before such an order was to take effect in Wilmington — the largest city in Biden's home state — and he was eager to move the bill he had written with Delaware's senior senator, Republican William Roth, through the Judiciary Committee and to the Senate floor.
One of his aides, Gerry Doherty, had just told Ken Dixon, a staff member for liberal Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., that the panel wouldn't hold more hearings to gather testimony from civil rights and labor groups opposed to the legislation when Biden walked up to the pair, according to a memo Dixon wrote at the time.
"You can put as many people in the hearing record as you want," Biden said, according to the memo, which has been preserved in the Birch Bayh Senatorial Papers section of the Modern Political Papers collection at Indiana University. "But you know it and I know it that if I don't get a bill out by September it won't do me any good."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-s-mastery-backlash-politics-takes-center-stage-n1025931
Is it too late for Hillary Clinton to run in 2020 ?
If Hillary Clinton changed her mind and decided to enter the 2020 primaries she would be a formidable candidate.
Would a hypothetical Clinton campaign have time to get a ground organization going at this point?
Elizabeth Warren returns to her alma mater in Texas
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren was back on familiar turf Friday night for a town hall at her alma mater, the University of Houston.
The U.S. senator from Massachusetts attended the University of Houston — paying $50 per semester in tuition — and graduated with a degree in speech pathology in 1970. After teaching special education and earning a law degree, she returned to the university to teach law, before teaching law at the University of Texas.
“I fell in love” with the University of Houston, Warren told the crowd of roughly 2,000 people packed into a university ballroom and a nearby overflow room. With the Texas flag hanging behind her, she emphasized her connection to the state while weaving together nuggets of policy with tidbits of her life story. Her father suffered a heart attack when she was 12, which temporarily prevented him from working, and her mother had to work a minimum wage job to support the family.
Warren, who rushed onto the stage with an introduction by state Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, largely stuck to her campaign policy staples as she blasted the influence of money in politics. “Whatever issue brought you here today, if there are decisions to be made in Washington, I guarantee they’ve been influenced by money,” Warren said over the hisses and boos of the lively crowd. “Money, money, money has infected the decision making in Washington.”
She highlighted her plan to increase taxes on individuals making more than $50 million, joking with the crowd that “the first $50 million, you’re good,” and running through a laundry list of things the revenue from the tax could pay for: universal child care for children under 5; universal pre-K; an increase in wages for preschool teachers and child care workers; free tuition for technical, community and four-year colleges; funding for historically black colleges and universities and student loan forgiveness.
The senator also railed against politicians’ inaction on climate change, the so-called revolving door between Wall Street and Washington and corrupt lobbying practices.
https://www.statesman.com/news/20190705/elizabeth-warren-returns-to-her-alma-mater-in-texas
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Jun 7, 2019, 03:43 PMNumber of posts: 5,376
