June 30, 2016

Pressure Mounts Daily on Bernie Sanders To Stand Down As Warren Rallies Progressives For Clinton

June 30, 2016/ Anne Enke

Bernie Blew It by Jamelle Boule

Before Bernie Sanders, there was Elizabeth Warren. Consider that what we are witnessing is a total failure of Bernie to understand power and influence that goes beyond his adoring crowds. Consider that Elizabeth Warren has a natural understanding of how to get things done, in a way that Bernie doesn't.

Consider that being the progressive icon that she is, Elizabeth Warren is insuring that 1) Trump not win and 2) Hillary gets elected. Consider that after Hillary is elected. Warren will occupy a position of influence with Hillary that Bernie will never have. Whether she is a VP, a Senator or a Cabinet officer, Warren will be the go-to person that Bernie will never be, when progressives want to get something done.

Everything you hear about Hillary is that she never forgets what someone has done for her. Those relationships go back decades, and what we saw on stage yesterday in Ohio was pure magic. Elizabeth Warren really can loosen Hillary up and also embrace her with genuine enthusiasm because Warren knows that she may be uber-progressive, but Hillary isn't all that far behind her. And Warren is also a wonk. And wonks can work very well together.

Boule is right. So many of us are so over Bernie, so tired of his lectures. Elizabeth Warren shares most of his same beliefs and yet she inspires us, rather than judging us. Warren uplifts us while Bernie waves his finger in yet another sermon over our inadequacies, as if only he holds the moral high ground . . . the broken record. We get it, Bernie preacher man.

Between these two, I have no doubts over who will really hold progressive power in her hands. It won't be BS, because it takes a village . . . Hillary's wisdom never sunk into that cranky, belligerent Vermont skull. ~ Anne

Is Elizabeth Warren Really the Best Choice for Vice President? by Jamelle Boule Slate

Only if you think the symbolism of her nomination is bigger than the hole she’ll leave in the Senate.

Battleground bloodbath: Clinton leads Trump in 7 swing states Politico

Of the seven states polled by Ballotpedia, Clinton’s lead was smallest in Iowa, where registered voters polled preferred her by four pts. Hillaryf's largest lead came in Michigan, a traditionally Democratic-leaning state but one Trump says he will win with his anti-trade message. Clinton leads the charging-bull Manhattan billionaire in Michigan by 17 pts, 50% to 33%.

Clinton maintains double-digit leads in Florida (14 pts), Pennsylvania (14 pts) and North Carolina (10 pts) over Trump. Poll respondents said 'yes' to Hillary over Trump by nine pts in Ohio and seven pts in Virginia.

Clinton maintained her advantage with a third option for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was offered, although her leads shifted slightly. Clinton’s advantage dropped to three pts in Iowa and six pts in North Carolina. But Johnson’s introduction as a third-party option actually grew Clinton's lead to 15 pts and eight pts in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Study Sees Debt Jumping Under Trump, Staying Steady Under Clinton WSJ

Donald Trump’s tax and spending proposals would tremendously grow the national debt over the next 10 years, while Hillary Clinton’s strategy of new revenue and new spending would have a minimal effect on the country’s $14 trillion debt, according to a study by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. This organization is committed to bringing down the national debt. released Sunday.

Mr. Trump's plan as the presumptive Republican nominee would grow the national debt to 127% of the entire economy, up from 75% today, according to the analysis

Under current law, the debt is expected to grow to 86% of the economy, largely because of automatic spending increases for programs such as Social Security and Medicare driven by the aging population. Under Mrs. Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, the debt would grow slightly to 87% of the economy, the report found."

It's True. Analysts list Trump among top global threats PolitiFact

"The Economist Intelligence Unit -- an affiliate of The Economist", the London-based newsweekly -- is a research and analysis firm that supplies clients, including businesses, with information about opportunities and risks around the world.

The firm made headlines in March 2016 when it listed the possibility of a Trump presidency as one of the biggest threats to "companies’ capacity to operate at target profitability." The rankings are based on "qualitative" judgments of a how powerfully an event could affect the world and how likely it is to happen, the firm says.

In its March ratings, the firm rated the risks from a Trump presidency as 12 on a 25-point scale. That ranked Trump sixth among the 10-item list of biggest threats, tied with "the rising threat of jihadi terrorism destabilizing the global economy."

But the Trump threat level increased in the July 2016 rankings. A Trump presidency now ranks as the third-biggest global threat, with an increased score of 16 on the 25-point scale. In the meantime, the risk from jihadi terrorism has remained constant with a score of 12."

House Benghazi Report Finds No New Evidence of Wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton New York Times

I simply cannot believe that the House Benghazi committee refuses to draw any real conclusions from their 800-page report and have the audacity to stand at the microphone saying they will leave it up to the American people to draw their conclusions. They are actually suggesting that we have the time to read the report. As a high-ranking corporate executive, I would have been fired on the spot for pulling a stunt like that -- and not one that spent $7 million of my company's dollars. Our govt is in truly pitiful shape. And so, it's left to the media to digest what's in the report and how it impacts Hillary Clinton. ~ Anne

Lead paragraph at the NYT concludes:

"Ending one of the longest, costliest and most bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history, the House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on Tuesday, finding no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead."

Hillary Clinton Headlines June 30, 2016

Nate Silver: 79 percent chance Clinton wins Politico

Women vote at higher rates than men. That might help Clinton in November The Washington Post

How Obama will campaign for Hillary Politico

Progressives Should Be Thrilled About Clinton (and Warren) New York Magazine

Clinton Widens Lead Over Trump in NBC Poll NBC News

Clinton Leads Trump in Trust to Handle Terrorism, Poll Finds ABC News

Trey Gowdy defends two-year Benghazi probe, which was riddled with partisan conflict The Washington Post

Chris Stevens's Family: Don't Blame Hillary Clinton For Benghazi The New Yorker

Trump's secret data reversal Politico

June 10, 2016

Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren Leads Hillary Clinton Fiery Anti-Trump Firewall

June 10, 2016/ Anne Enke

Warren to meet with Clinton this morning, fueling VP speculation Washington Post

Given that the press got EVERYTHING WRONG in their early morning speculations about what would happen yesterday, we wouldn't read too much into this headline.

There is no doubt that Warren and Clinton will be coordinating their strategies. Imagine this possibility:

Warren and Clinton coordinate a group of 10 high-profile women -- because The Donald loves women -- and they launch a relentless and epic Twitter and social media campaign against him. Because she is so good at it, Warren is chief social media in chief coordinating the daily talking points for the women. The assault is relentless and informed and Warren is the general. Maybe the Clinton campaign gives Warren a small staff and they take their strategic marching orders from her. And a group of women do it - which adds to his macho humiliation.

Just sayin' there are many reasons for Warren to meet with Clinton. Besides, the women need to form a more personal bond. ~ Anne

Many of the factors that helped Hillary beat Bernie will let her crush Trump VOX

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is heading into a general election battle against Donald Trump, reality-show kingpin and probably the most controversial and entertaining presidential candidate in a very long time. As usual, Hillary's attack plan is boring, by media standards.

Reality is that Hillary Clinton's boring strategy worked well against Bernie Sanders and many strategists believe it will work even better against Donald Trump. Hillary and Bernie truly do share many of the same progressive values. Trump is her ideological opposite, relying like Bernie on slogans, mega rallies, and aggressive white male supporters.

Compared with the Sanders's campaign, Hillary Clinton's focused on policy details, consultations with a wide array of stakeholders, data, and elite endorsements. Journalistically, the media had no interest in policy details or educating voters about nuanced differences between the two candidates.

While Sanders created the more interesting American narrative, drawing enormous crowds, he lost the election. Pundits and pollsters, be damned, because voters got the message. Clinton beat Sanders with the same strategy she will use against Trump. With Trump having no political expertise and an ego larger than Texas, he's probably thinner-skinned than Sanders, who is also noted for taking offense easily. Trump simply can't handle the pressure of being belittled, and the Hillary Clinton campaign will do everything possible to portray him as being volatile, unstable and unfit to be president.

This Is How Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump Are the Same Person by Jonathan Capehart Washington Post

In this delicate period for Bernie Sanders and his supporters, we will post provocative essays like this one from the highly-regarded pundit Jonathan Capehart. Our current position is not to go out of our way to criticize Bernie but we won't depress our coverage of other people's positions, so as not to anger Sanders supporters.

By next week our post goals will be 40% Hillary, 40% Trump and 20% Bernie -- unless all hell breaks lose. Now to Capehart.

Two stories in the past 48 hours cement my view that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the vanquished Democratic candidate for president, and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, share the same DNA. These two stubborn outsiders believe they are their campaign’s best political mind. And the damage that outsized and misplaced view of their capabilities has done on their respective quests for the White House is plainly apparent.

The lead of the Politico story on the “bitter last days of Bernie’s revolution” says it all.

There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders.

{ . . . }

Trump and Sanders ran populist presidential campaigns from opposite ends of the political spectrum. That’s why it was no surprise to me early in the primary season to hear that voters were trying to decide between wanting to “feel the Bern” and “make America great again.” That’s why it was no surprise that Trump started using Sanders’s arguments against Clinton to bolster his “Crooked Hillary” nickname for her once he cleared the field en route to becoming the presumptive Republican nominee.

In the battle of the outsider egos storming the political establishment, Trump succeeded where Sanders failed. But the chaos unleashed by Trump’s victory could spell doom for the GOP all over the ballot in November. Pardon me while I dab that single tear trickling down my cheek. "

Anarchists for Donald Trump -- Let the Empire Burn The Daily Beast

What’s needed now in American politics is consternation, confusion, dissension, disorder, chaos — and crisis, with possible resolution — and a Trump presidency is the best chance for this true progress. This is a politics of arson. I’d rather see the empire burn to the ground under Trump, opening up at least the possibility of radical change, than cruise on autopilot under Clinton.

I’m not alone here. Travelling across the country, I keep meeting people who voted for Sanders in the primaries but mutter under cover of night and a few drinks that they’ll vote for Trump in November. Friends out in the wildlands of the intermountain West, hard gun-toting anarchist redneck Amy Goodman progressives, say so. Big-city journalists, too. I suspect that the left-contrarian, anti-Hillary, pro-Trump arsonist crowd is larger and wider-spread than the cubicled creatures in the Clinton campaign have accounted for.

Trump arsonist-progressives are mostly embarrassed to go on the record. An editor of a major progressive website tells me in an email that if I outed him/her as a Trump supporter, “We’d probably lose the last funders that we have!!!”