Light News

Trump Calls For Sotomayor And Ginsburg Recusal.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-sotomayor-ginsburg-recusals-step-toward-defying-supreme-court-decision-analyst-says-1488952

Bernie Sanders is well-suited for a street fight with Trump. He's vicious and nasty and lies about everything and is uncompromising to a fault with unrealistic plans. That makes him a good match in a brawl with Trump. Sanders' transgressive rage-infested oratory style combined with pie-in-the-sky policy promises and a "burn it all down" ethos are matched by only one other candidate: Trump. For all their bombast, voters see both as authentic, which is why they can sell policies that would sink other candidates.

Sanders doubles down on his defense of Castro’s “literacy programs.” @RosLehtinen tweets, "Fidel Castro was, from the 1st day he illegally took power, a ruthless murderer, a sadistic killer who stripped Cubans of all freedoms. Literacy programs were indoctrination. I lived it as a child."
https://twitter.com/RosLehtinen/status/1232145537023037440

I went to school in Cuba under Castro. Here’s what it’s like, Bernie Sanders
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article240425431.html

Trump administration cancels $8B health care grant for New York.
https://www.pix11.com/news/local-news/trump-administration-cancels-8b-health-care-grant-for-new-york-cuomo

Trump and his entourage refuse to eat State Dinner prepated for them
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/donald-trump-india-vegetarian-menu-samosa-broccoli-modi-gandhi-ashram-a9356666.html

“Why are we spotlighting the literacy programs of a brutal dictator, instead of being unambiguous in our condemnation about the way he has treated his own people?” - Pete Buttigieg on Sanders’ praise for Fidel Castro’s efforts to spread literacy in Cuba
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1232158509501997057

Julian Assange lawyer tells court: After pardon fell through, Trump administration resorted to ‘extortion’
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/julian-assange-lawyer-tells-court-after-pardon-fell-through-trump-administration-resorted-to-extortion/

Sanders Says He’ll Attract a Wave of New Voters. It Hasn’t Happened.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/us/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-voters.html.

In case anyone is wondering how Bernie’s interview is playing in FL, every local news outlet has been on it, every politician of BOTH parties from South FL & plenty from Central FL have put out comments and publicized their condemnation. He‘s tossed our party in the garbage here.
https://www.twitter.com/DaytimeDan/status/1232096327120670721

Manfred reported the Astros cheating continued into 2018: Prior to the 2018 season, and with MLB approval, the Astros relocated their replay review system to a video room located much closer to the dugout, as is the case in many ballparks throughout the league. The investigation uncovered no evidence that Astros players utilized the banging scheme in 2018. However, the Astros’ replay review room staff continued, at least for part of the 2018 season, to decode signs using the live center field camera feed, and to transmit the signs to the dugout through in-person communication. At some point during the 2018 season, the Astros stopped using the replay review room to decode signs because the players no longer believed it was effective. The investigation did not reveal any attempt by the Astros to utilize electronic equipment to decode and transmit signs in the 2018 Postseason.
https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/mlb/cglrhmlrwwbkacty27l7.pdf

Ben Mora, a regional field director for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, used a private Twitter account to attack other Democratic contenders—as well as their family members, surrogates, journalists, and celebrities—in deeply personal terms, with the full backing of Sanders. 5,000+ texts.
https://www.twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1232109285456404480
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-staffer-mocked-elizabeth-warrens-looks-pete-buttigiegs-sexuality-on-private-twitter-account

Bernie Sanders says the toxicity attributed to his supporters could be the work of Russian trolls. But some of his fans' targets say it's often led by senior people on his payroll, and folks in the know say Sanders "knows exactly what is happening."
https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1231969896650637313?s=09

Bernie Bro running for office attacks anti-gun activist who lost his daughter at the Parkland shooting for not backing Bernie
https://twitter.com/Tom4CongressNY6/status/1231929048579919872

On the CNN Town Hall, Bernie just said "can anyone deny that no country has pulled more people out of poverty than China?" He’s been saying this for awhile. Maybe next he can remind everyone how he thinks the Boston bomber should have the right to vote from death row.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/458976-sanders-china-had-done-more-to-address-extreme-poverty-than-any-country-in-the

Iran deputy health minister Harirchi tests positive for coronavirus
https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-deputy-health-minister-tests-positive-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-2

UK politicians 'turned a blind eye' to child sexual abuse for decades - A report into sexual abuse against children by British politicians says that Westminster "actively shielded" suspects from investigation. One of the alleged perpetrators was the private secretary to Margaret Thatcher.
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-politicians-turned-a-blind-eye-to-child-sexual-abuse-for-decades/a-52527161

This is how @JoeBiden often closes out his events; he tells the crowd that some things about campaigning haven’t changed since he first ran for Senate when he was 29, he goes on to recite his old pitch —including what’s said in the video below— before circling back.
https://twitter.com/natashakorecki/status/1232285377727213568

It's distressing to see our party over run with dishonest operators like this, you'd think we had enough of it from the trumpy campaign. Thank you for correcting the record btw. And now I'll be swarmed mores the pity, can't even talk with other dems anymore.
https://twitter.com/MBATurner/status/1232323877646348288

Obama (and Hillary) won't endorse anybody until somebody mathematically wins the nomination. He knows he isuniquely positioned to bring unity to the party once a nominee clinches the qualifying number of delegates. As much as I'm sure that Obama hates Sanders and "the left" and their "platform", it's more important for Obama to allow the nomination process to play out, then use his political capital to back the eventual winner.

If Bernie is “consistent,” shouldn’t his past be more relevant and debated?

I remember back when Fred Guttenberg was just an informed voter tweeting out that he preferred a different candidate to Bernie and that resulted in the Sandernistas attacking him so relentlessly that now you can feel the palpable disgust Fred has for Bernie in every one of his tweets. That is the effect The Sanders Revolution has on people.

I could probably ignore the essays if they were written while he was in high school or even college. But they weren't, he was a fully grown and (mostly) functional adult. Hell, he was my fucking age. His cult is always claiming he's been right on the issues for eighty years, well he sure as fuck was wrong in his essays whether it was five or fifty years ago. To put it in context, Bernie was 31 years old when he wrote "A man goes home...". Pete Buttigieg was inaugurated mayor a hair before his 30th birthday. If he had written this a year into his term as mayor, he'd have been crucified. And rightfully fucking so. To put it in a bit more context, this is the op-ed Pete Buttigieg co-wrote at age 26 in the New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31iht-edmyers.1.14914273.html

Democrats are adding the rapidly diversifying Southern states to the list of places they're focusing on, in addition to battleground states like Wisconsin.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/dnc-adds-red-states-georgia-texas-list-2020-targets-n1142341?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

Trump is ending his trip to India without striking a long desired trade deal to ease tariffs. But that won’t stop him from selling it as a victory
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/25/in-india-trump-hails-no-trade-deal-as-a-win-117306

Single biggest question isn't who wins any given state, but how many top 15% in jurisdictions. e.g.: if Sanders pulls off being only candidate above 15% in VT, that's bigger delegate-wise than losing or winning VA by a few points. Let alone whether 2 or 3 ppl cross in CA or TX.
https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1232425543976419329

Acting DHS Sec. Wolf tells Sen. Kennedy that the mortality rate for the coronavirus is "right around" the same percentage as the flu. As of Feb. 19, the coronavirus mortality rate within China is 2.3%, WHO says. Flu mortality rate in America is 0.1%, according to CDC.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1232429428954759168

Syria’s once-teeming prison cells being emptied by mass murder | Assad’s government is doubling down on the killing of political prisoners as the civil war heads toward its conclusion.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/syria-bodies/

House Democrats ask the Secret Service for a full accounting of payments to @realdonaldtrump's companies. Follows our report that Trump Org has quietly charged the Secret Service as much as $650/night for hotel rooms and $17K/month for a cottage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-democrats-ask-secret-service-for-details-about-its-payments-to-trumps-company/2020/02/12/33b4a13e-4db3-11ea-bf44-f5043eb3918a_story.html

Get ready for the coronavirus primaries, it’s already affecting Democrats Abroad
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/coronavirus-2020-election-primaries

If you care about how justice is meted out in this country, you should read this—particularly the opening, about how Stu Gerson, as a young AUSA during the Nixon administration, witnessed the DOJ’s independence first-hand. An excellent piece by our own Stuart Gerson, former Acting Attorney General: "many citizens both inside and outside Dept of Justice are asking whether DOJ stands for the rule of law or for the rule of an authoritarian administration."
https://www.justsecurity.org/68803/let-the-rule-of-law-rule-law-enforcement-reflections-on-the-current-attorney-generals-tenure/

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-buttigieg-barack-obama-plagiarism-tweet-speech-2020-election-us-a9356466.html

Tokyo is "looking at a cancellation" if coronavirus not contained by late May
https://www.axios.com/olympic-official-tokyo-cancellation-coronavirus-contained-4ca69a5a-b573-4ec5-8714-959d04ae8592.html

Whoopi Goldberg is correct. Sanders comments about Castro are similar to Trump's "both sides in charlottesville" comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEtTs63nM8

Why is it that Bernie's essays from the 70s don't count but his five-minute foray into civil rights in the 60s does?

UK bill to give Hong Kong residents the right to live in the UK passes first Commons vote.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/25/boris-johnson-brexit-news-latest-france-us-trade-deal/

EU demands UK keeps chlorinated chicken ban to get trade deal
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/25/keep-chlorinated-chicken-ban-to-win-trade-deal-eu-tells-uk

Humanity poised to set record for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — again: "We've done in a little more than 50 years what the Earth naturally took 10,000 years to do,” one scientist said
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/humanity-poised-set-new-record-carbon-dioxide-atmosphere-again-n1142201

'Astonishing' rise in blue whale numbers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51570515

Canadian airliner Air Canada cancels all flights to China until April
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/travel-coronavirus-champagne-advisories-1.5475003

These poor creatures, they will all be killed because YOU REFUSE TO GO VEGAN: Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry: Peacocks, porcupines and pangolins among species bred on 20,000 farms closed in wake of virus
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/25/coronavirus-closures-reveal-vast-scale-of-chinas-secretive-wildlife-farm-industry

The so-called “doomsday” vault in Norway is taking in its biggest deposit of seeds since vital upgrades in 2019. The deposit will feature over 60,000 seed samples from 36 different groups — the most to send their seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault at one time.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/24/21151298/doomsday-svalbard-vault-seed-deposit-cherokee-nation

Canadian mining giant withdraws plans for C$20bn tar sands project | Teck Resources’ surprise decision drew outrage from politicians in oil-rich Alberta and cheers from environmental groups
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/24/canadian-mine-giant-teck-resources-withdraws-plans-tar-sands-project
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/24/business/canada-oil-sands-project-scrapped/index.html

Xi Warns China Can’t Stay On Pause For Much Longer
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/02/24/xi-warns-china-cant-stay-on-pause-for-much-longer/

We will 'fight to the death' to save the Amazon
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51489961

U.S. begins first coronavirus clinical trial testing Gilead's experimental drug
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-usa-nih/u-s-begins-first-coronavirus-clinical-trial-testing-gileads-experimental-drug-idUSKBN20J264

The worst desert locust infestation in 70 years is ravaging East Africa, as FAO calls the situation “extremely alarming"
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/plague-of-locusts-threatens-east-african-economies-as-un-sounds-alarm.html

The H5N8 bird flu virus is spreading in eastern Europe: Bird flu has broken out in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Huge numbers of poultry have been culled. The EU requires culling instead of vaccination
https://www.dw.com/en/the-h5n8-bird-flu-virus-is-spreading-in-eastern-europe/av-52497532

US biotech company Moderna claims its coronavirus vaccine ready for initial tests: human clinical trial "could start by May, results becoming available in July or August."
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/25/business/moderna-coronavirus-vaccine/index.html

If Bernie cannot even work with his closest ally Warren, why should anyone expect Bernie to build a strong coalition for the general election?

Warren repeats story implying she was fired for being pregnant, which isn't true, pivots to accusing Bloomberg of telling pregnant female employee "Kill it", which never happened
https://twitter.com/rkylesmith/status/1232475980515569664

Biden hits Sanders on gun votes and Obama primary consideration “Let’s talk about progressive: Progressive is getting things done, and that’s what we got done -- we got a lot done,” Biden said.
https://twitter.com/merica/status/1232476018067345408

She has not forgotten him donating to Scott Brown in 2012...: Calling Bloomberg the riskiest Democrat on stage, Warren points to him spending against her in a 2012 Senate race. "The core of the Democratic Party will never trust him. He has not earned their trust. I will. ... Means that he is the riskiest candidate standing on this stage."
https://twitter.com/ericbradner/status/1232475785996300288

The White House has hired a college senior to be one of the top officials in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office, three administration officials familiar with the matter told me. His name is James Bacon, 23, and is a GW senior.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/25/college-senior-white-house-personnel-office-117493

"Let's talk about math!" @AndrewYang, I think they're paging you to the stage. #DemDebate

If this were a Republican debate and Bloomberg was running as a Republican, this "kill it" (which never happened....) might have stung. But this is the pro-abortion "kill it in all trimesters, get that parasite out of her body, it's killing her!" Democratic party seriously and currently pushing a hard pro-abortion agenda that goes far beyond the boundaries Roe v Wade set.

That those who earnestly respect the stated rules of these debates, raising their hands politely and waiting for the moderators to call on them, generally get the least speaking time, is a perfect encapsulation of the present state of American politics.

Sanders and Biden both like to quote how well they do in head to head polls against Trump. The differences of how any of the candidates do against Trump is no more than a few points, and all of them within the margin of error of losing to Trump.

Bernie Booed: Bernie just got big pushback in the room from his Bloomberg crack, and he was visibly stunned. He's unaccustomed to that. Sanders joined Warren in getting heckled and booed by some in the crowd for jabbing Bloomberg.

Klobuchar: “If we spend the next four months tearing our party apart, we’re going to watch Donald Trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart."

Mike Bloomberg deserves MAJOR THANKS FROM DEMOCRATS for his national effort on guns and flipping seats all over America blue in 2018, and flipping Virginia State Legislature blue in 2019, and flipping PA seats blue in 2019.

Bernie Sanders fires a blank by hitting Joe Biden on trade when the question was about his own record on guns.

We can't afford a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950’s and Bernie Sanders with his nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960’s
https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1232495945155141632