20 September 19
Paul Krugman | Trump Declares War on California
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "I'm on a number of right-wing mailing lists, and I try to at least skim what they're going on about in any given week; this often gives me advance warning about the next wave of manufactured outrage. Lately I've been seeing dire warnings that if Democrats win next year they'll try to turn America into California, which the writers portray as a socialist hellhole."
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "I'm on a number of right-wing mailing lists, and I try to at least skim what they're going on about in any given week; this often gives me advance warning about the next wave of manufactured outrage. Lately I've been seeing dire warnings that if Democrats win next year they'll try to turn America into California, which the writers portray as a socialist hellhole."
EXCERPTS:
But in many other dimensions California does very well. It has a booming economy, which has been creating jobs at a much faster pace than the nation as a whole.
It has the nation’s second-highest life expectancy, comparable to that in European nations with much higher life expectancy than America as a whole. This is, by the way, a relatively new development: Back in 1990, life expectancy in California was only average.
At the same time, California, having enthusiastically implemented Obamacare and tried to make it work, has seen a sharp drop in the number of residents without health insurance. And crime, although it has ticked up slightly in the past few years, remains near a historic low.
What should you take away from Trump’s war on California?
First, it’s yet another illustration of the intellectual imperviousness of the modern right, which never, ever lets awkward facts disturb its preconceptions.
More ominously, the apparent weaponization of the Environmental Protection Agency is more evidence that Trump — whose party fundamentally doesn’t believe in democracy — is following the modern authoritarian playbook, in which every institution is corrupted, every function of government is perverted into a tool for rewarding friends and punishing enemies.
It’s an ugly story, and it’s scary, too.
Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Scott Eisen/Getty)
Bernie Sanders Becomes First Candidate to Reach 1 Million Individual Donors
Holly Otterbein, Politico
Otterbein writes: "One million people have donated to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, his campaign said Thursday. He is the first candidate to announce reaching that milestone."
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Holly Otterbein, Politico
Otterbein writes: "One million people have donated to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, his campaign said Thursday. He is the first candidate to announce reaching that milestone."
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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. (photo: Getty)
Academic Censorship: Trump Administration Tells UNC and Duke to Portray Islam Less Positively or Risk Losing Funding
Justine Coleman, The Hill
Coleman writes: "The Trump administration is pressuring the University of North Carolina and Duke University to revise their joint Middle East studies program or risk federal funding."
Justine Coleman, The Hill
Coleman writes: "The Trump administration is pressuring the University of North Carolina and Duke University to revise their joint Middle East studies program or risk federal funding."
EXCERPT:
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's investigation into the consortium began after Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) sent her a letter condemning the program for holding a conference with "severe anti-Israel bias and anti-Semitic rhetoric."
DeVos said she was "troubled" by the letter and would look into the consortium, The Associated Press reported.
Holding told the AP that the Education Department has a right to ensure funding is being used properly.
“This has fallen through the cracks, and this could be going on at other educational institutions,” he said. “If the department’s providing the money and giving guidance on how the money is to be used, I think they can be as in the weeds as they need to be.”
Bernie Sanders is heading to Iowa for the event on Saturday. (photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP)
Iowa: Progressives to the Fore as Sanders and Warren Attend 'People's Forum'
Oliver Laughland, Guardian UK
Laughland writes: "A collective of grassroots organizers in Iowa will hold their first 'people's forum' on Saturday, hosting prominent Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, in a bid to push progressive issues further into the 2020 race."
Oliver Laughland, Guardian UK
Laughland writes: "A collective of grassroots organizers in Iowa will hold their first 'people's forum' on Saturday, hosting prominent Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, in a bid to push progressive issues further into the 2020 race."
EXCERPT:
Democrats will face an uphill battle to reclaim the state in 2020, although polls from earlier in the year indicate Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, are ahead of Trump in the state.
Biden, whose centrist campaign has seen him consistently poll ahead of other rivals in Iowa, has begun to slip in recent weeks.
He will not attend Saturday’s “people’s forum” and failed to complete a questionnaire earlier in the year that Iowa CCI Action presented to all the candidates, which probed their positions on an array of topics.
The responses saw Castro, Sanders, Warren, Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson say they backed a ban on new factory farms for the first time.
“Biden is hiding from the voters of Iowa and the voters of the country,” said Shawn Sebastian, Movement Politics Organizer of Iowa CCI Action. “He’s hiding his record and he’s hiding what his plans are for the future.”
Biden, along with all the other 2020 candidates, will be appearing at a traditional canvassing event on the same day in Iowa, the Polk County steak fry. In contrast to the “people’s forum” candidates are expected to deliver routine speeches throughout the day.
AR-15 rifles at a gun show. (photo: Getty)
Colt Will Stop Manufacturing AR-15 Assault Rifle for Consumer Market
Mark Osborne, ABC News
Osborne writes: "Gun manufacturer Colt says it will stop producing the AR-15, among other rifles, for the consumer market in the wake of many recent mass shootings in which suspects used the weapon."
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Mark Osborne, ABC News
Osborne writes: "Gun manufacturer Colt says it will stop producing the AR-15, among other rifles, for the consumer market in the wake of many recent mass shootings in which suspects used the weapon."
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Migrant camp in Mexico. (photo: Veronica G. Cardenas/AP)
Honduran Mother and Child Drown Crossing the Rio Grande After Stress From 'Remain in Mexico' Policy
Caitlin Cruz, Splinter
Cruz writes: "After desperate weeks waiting for an immigration court hearing, a Honduran mother and her child drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande into Texas. Idalia Yamileth Herrera Hernandez and her son, Gael Cordova Herrera, had entered the U.S. to seek asylum for herself and her 21-month-old toddler, but were sent to Matamoros, Mexico as a part of the 'Remain in Mexico' policy."
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Caitlin Cruz, Splinter
Cruz writes: "After desperate weeks waiting for an immigration court hearing, a Honduran mother and her child drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande into Texas. Idalia Yamileth Herrera Hernandez and her son, Gael Cordova Herrera, had entered the U.S. to seek asylum for herself and her 21-month-old toddler, but were sent to Matamoros, Mexico as a part of the 'Remain in Mexico' policy."
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Climate protesters demonstrate in London, Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. (photo: Frank Augstein/AP)
Millions Take to the Streets as Climate Strike Protests Hit Cities Across Asia, Europe
Linda Givetash, David Ingram and Farah Otero-Amad, NBC News
Excerpt: "Crowds of children flooded the streets of major cities in a global show of force Friday to demand action on climate change, with many young people skipping school in protest and sharing a unified message aimed at world leaders."
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Linda Givetash, David Ingram and Farah Otero-Amad, NBC News
Excerpt: "Crowds of children flooded the streets of major cities in a global show of force Friday to demand action on climate change, with many young people skipping school in protest and sharing a unified message aimed at world leaders."
READ MORE
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